The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 59: Elsewhere. (Part 1)

Chapter 59: Elsewhere.

Ardent Friend:

For a brief moment of time, I was weightless. No, that was lie. I wasn't weightless. My body was under immense pressure. I was flinging myself forward at speeds I had barely reached before. Worse was the part where I had to land the mark. To launch yourself was one thing, to try stop yourself was another and applying that to your body was far from weightless, it was the opposite in fact.

I slammed into the dirt as I broke out of my sudden leap and snatched the white ribbon hanging from the nearby tree branch. An explosion of sound followed. My muscles were screaming, but I forced myself to turn and face the timer. 0.5 seconds.

"Whoo!" I cheered for myself. "300m in 0.5 seconds. Let's go!"

The Old Coot simply nodded at my success, though a twitch of a smile could be seen, "After an entire month of training, you should be able to do that much." He walked over only to slap my legs with his stick, causing me to fall to my arse. Though I had become used to it, only having one arm was still difficult to balance. "But your muscles are weak now and it took you a dozen seconds to even prepare for the leap."

I huffed tiredly from the ground, already used to his nagging, "But I still did it. Going that fast, that quickly, is insane."

"It's not enough," the Old Coot grumbled. "500m, 0.3 seconds and no preparation time. You need to act as soon as you land, be prepared for anything."

I frowned at him, "500m, 0.3 seconds. You always bring that up as your milestone, can you even do it?"

The grip on stick tightened, "No I cannot, but I will achieve it someday."

"Is it that important to go that fast?" I asked, wondering if it had a special meaning.

The Old Coot sighed and sat on the spot, "I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you. It was my greatest failure. I was once the Captain of the Efrin Knights a long time ago.... Have you heard of the fires of Efrin?"

"No," I shook my head.

"It was a coup held by the 3rd prince and resulted in not just the death of the reigning monarch but more than half the royal family. I watched my wife and daughter beheaded. 500m away. 0.3 seconds. My greatest regret at not being fast enough to react, not fast enough to reach them."

"I-I'm sorry," I didn't know what to say as the Old Man suddenly became serious. His eyes were drawn back, recalling a memory that had clearly burned into his psyche.

He sighed and laughed to the sky, "All for greed. Efrin was a decent place with common problems. Some people just wanted more...."

I paused, not sure if I should ask, "And what happened with the coup, did it succeed?"

"Yes," the Old Man's grip tightened. "But on the day of his enthronement, I cut the bastard's head clean off. No one even saw me coming. It didn't bring back my wife. It didn't bring back my daughter. When his head fell to the floor, do you know what I felt?"

I looked at him to continue.

"I felt nothing. I expected relief. I expected to feel the cold void of a goal finished or the burning passion of success. Instead, I felt nothing. It was then that I thought to end my life." He looked at me, "Your mother stopped me. She showed me that I had more to do."

"More to do?" I raised my brow at him.

"Yeah," he smacked his stick down beside me, "training lazy little gremlins like you! Now get up and leap again! Your form is still rigid. You need to fly, release, shoot like an-,"