The Ranch

Tih: The Mascot, The Leader (3)

"-urchin!" Kai finished as the timer elapses.

It takes a second for Simon D to regain himself"...let's announce the final decisions."

"We volunteer our captain, Instructor Rohan."

"We'll put forth our captain as well."

Two cameras land on the individual's faces.

"Then the last and final round will be a fight between captains! You two, please follow the staff."

The team gets in their last bits of information before a staff member ushers Tih to follow.

While the stage is being set up, Simon D goes into another round of advertisements.

Rohan and Tih follow the staff into the colosseum. Rohan looks down at the small child.

The man has lived on the island for over fifteen years. He's seen many newbie prodigies like Tih. None have had a good end. Overconfidence and jealousy are a cause to a very bad effect. The effect usually being death.

But that's not his problem. Right now, the child is his enemy. He can't afford pity towards an enemy, not that he can anyways.

He takes notice of Tih's body structure. About a fifty inch wingspan. Legs proportional to a child's. Thin. Very thin. Weak looking, almost sickly, with...a deathly aura? He can't tell exactly what that feeling is. Calm. He doesn't seem to be fazed by Rohan's presence or stare.

Rohan guesses that he's a weak, strategic type. He probably has a plan worked out that will obtain him more rings. Rohan doesn't know what the plan is, but he doesn't think it'll work. He knows the child is a newbie and probably doesn't have a lot of experience in strategizing yet.

Satisfied by his analysis, Rohan turns his eyes away. He follows the staff to a marble door. The three wait in silence for a few minutes before the marble door roughly slides up, grating against the walls.

Sunlight streams in, blinding Rohan for a moment. Looking outside, the arena is filled with a bunch of obstacles. There's low obstacles on the ground, but also many tall obstacles, creating a miniature jungle of metal. It's almost as if someone crammed a bunch of playground jungle gyms together along with those indoor ones in WacDonalds.

It's a huge, couple story-high, cluster of swinging bars, climbing walls, monkey bars, tight ropes, ziplines, smooth inclines and declines, fire, a spike pit, swinging logs, shooting darts, electric walls, half buried land mines, a sweeper, trampolines, cargo nets, ropes for climbing, and more.

There's obstacles to climb over, under, up, down. There's balance beams and obstacles that test strength. Much of the course is in the air. The course itself is incredibly tall. Falling from half its height will most likely break a couple of bones. If you do fall, you can only hope you fall on the less important bones, like the limbs.

"Oh they've upgraded it?" The audience mourners in excitement.

"It's freakin huge!!"

"Oh, I guess that's what the flying cameras are for." Someone from the stands guesses.

"Welcome contestants! This will be your challenge. There are a total of thirty-five palm sized, glowing rings spread around the course. You'll have five minutes to grab as many as you can. Fighting is allowed. On your marks, get set...GO!" A large beep sounds through the colosseum as a countdown is displayed in a small corner of the holographic screen.

Rohan dashes into the fray He's already made eye contact with three rings and have made a path to grab each along the way.

Tih looks at Rohan's back. He glances at his team on the balcony to see frantic hands. He recalls what they told him just prior. He looks around the jungle of metal and wood. Immediately, he spots ten rings. The far away rings are floating and glowing ever so slightly.

Tih walks towards the closest one before he remembers he's supposed to run. But he's noticed there's different kinds of run, and like previous times, copies whoever's closest to him. He matches speed with Rohan.

Tih makes a long jump over a spike pit, jumps from one wooden pole to another. The poles get thinner the taller they are. Tih balances the tip of his shoe of the pencil-sized pole as it wobbles this way and that. He jumps off.

Five feet below, he grabs a bar and swings forward. He lands gracefully on a rock wall, his fingers grip the stone. He maneuvers across the wall in jumps. On the third jump, he lets himself fall two feet.

His hands touch the rock and gravity continues pulling him down, but his grip keeps him from plummeting twenty feet. There's a hole in the rock wall. Inside contains a ring.

Tih reaches his hand inside and touches the ring. The ring's glow changes from white to blue.

"And that's one point for Poseidon!" A scoreboard appears in the right hand corner of the screen.

The ring floats away and in front of Poseidon's balcony space. It's lined parallel to the marble railing.

Rohan runs up a sixty-five degree incline, his boots thumbing heavily on the slick wood. At the top of the incline, the wooden platform drops straight down, creating a right triangle. Rohan jumps off the platform and grabs a rope. He moves his legs to the front to create more momentum while climbing higher.

Timing it right, he grips the underside of a cargo net. He completely let's go of the rope and hands from the net. Blood rushes to his head as he climbs along the net, towards the middle. He stretches his hand into the net and grabs the ring above him. The white glow turns red and the ring floats over to his team's side. He releases the net and his body drops down. He lands ten feet below, bending his legs to cushion the impact before bursting forward into a sprint.

Basile: I like WacDonalds.

Sherlock: Meh, too salty for my liking.

Theodore: What are you guys talking about? It's called McD-*gets cut off as Victor covers his mouth with his hand and is dragged offstage*