Mindless Beasts

Heavy panting.

Khaldun ruffled Sly’s sweaty hair then tossed a small towel to him, he hadn’t even done the speed test and he was already sweating profusely.

Sly knew instinctively that what he had accomplished so far was nothing in comparison to Khaldun’s achievements.

Gymmaster Betton handed Sly a bottle of water and rested for a few minutes while they configured the speed machine to perform the next test.

It was a standard edition model that showed signs of wear and tear from all the spirit fighters that passed through the spirit gym on a regular basis.

Aptly named ’Gramps Survival Run’ which was written on the machine in bold, this also had a unique escalator like appearance since it was elongated.

The type of moving walkway or travelator, that a shopper would see at fancy malls where tired shoppers hopped on then hopped off at their next store of choice.

Similar layout to the lane of a bowling alley and at the end of the lane was a giant screen.

The difference was that Sly was handed a body suit to put on.

It fit him like a second skin and Sly felt weird after putting it on but after the special suit adjusted to his body, it felt normal.

Khaldun said, "put on this virtual reality mask now."

Then Mr. Betton hands Sly something similar to a plastic shaped baseball bat with no further explanation.

Sly, "..."

Once the machine lit up like a christmas tree that was Sly’s cue to get on and start running.

He took a deep breath, exhaled then synchronized his breathing as his body slowly adjusted to feel of the surface of the track which nearly 80 meters long

Sly felt like he had been transported to another world once he put on the mask.

Instructions appeared in his mind, this speed test was built like a 5D endless runner virtual reality game.

It starts with Sly as a runaway Grandpa waking up in a senior citizen’s home surrounded by brain-eating zombies in the middle of the apocalypse.

After the Grandpa manages to escape the place with a baseball bat by outrunning the zombies the actual speed test starts.

Sly was expected to run through busy city streets, dodging wacky obstacles and bashing zombies while collecting spirit points.

It was like he exploded onto the busy streets, his body propelled like a bullet heading straight for the bull’s eye.

Sly had a purpose, an intended target, just like a bullet his body hurtled through the street whizzing past objects, people and places like a tumultuous gust of wind.

Out of nowhere a meteorite comes crashing towards it instinctively Sly jumps over it and his body hits a glowing apple.

A voice at the back of his mind screams, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, you’ve earned a speed boost.

Sly’s body is propelled forward and the test finally begins.

Whoosh!

Filled with adrenaline Sly tackles the busy streets, heart pounding, feet pounding the pavement.

As he gets more into the spirit of the test levels rapidly escalate and Sly can feel the strain on his muscles but he keeps ultimately pushing his endurance.

No doubt, within the blink of an eye Sly Foxx found that his body had accelerated to almost its maximum speed.

As he jumped over hurdles and dodged obstacles his speed did not slow down; instead thanks to the body suit his hamstrings were taught with strength.

Sly crosses paths with a group of long distance runners and he keeps pace with them.

His body was like a sleek and fast moving cheetah, the more he pushed past his limits the more his sprinting power rapidly increased.

Then they all run into a trap!

Forced to enter an underground tunnel, Sly doesn’t realize until it’s too late that he can’t outrun this trap.

He can’t stop running forward nor can he turn around and retrace his steps.

Laser beams light up the dark tunnel Sly watches as other runners before him face butchery.

The underground tunnel forces out deadly horizontal laser beams that incinerate upon contact.

Also, while running Sly has to be using the baseball bat to bash zombies and collect more spirit points from the kills.

Even the music in the background becomes more dramatic, heightening the suspense and the tension in the air.

Sly finds himself dodging these horizontal laser beams with jumps and crouches.

Then they start coming in his direction much faster than before.

With every avoided strike Sly realizes that the margin for error rapidly deteriorates before his eyes.

Sly realized too late that the end is near when the speed test suddenly throws a solid wall of light.

The heat radiates from it, a geometric pattern too dense to dodge.

He can only keep running forward while the deadly psychedelic grid advances with a terrifying low, creepy hum.

There are no speed boosts, no buffs, nothing but plenty of zombies heading his way.

In the underground tunnel there are no safe corners left, no more room to dodge or bend.

Sly faces the deadly grid head on and the light brushes through his body seamlessly and Sly is surprised to find himself still running.

For a split second nothing happens, he exhales with relief, perhaps it’s a glitch.

Sly feels joy, he’s still alive.

He thought wrong.

Before he can celebrate further clean, cauterized lines give way, and limbs and torso slide apart like a collapsing Jenga game.

TEST OVER!

After that the travelator-like machine slows down and as with any cooldown Sly also naturally slows down, it comes to a crawl then a complete stop.

Before Sly can ask what happened Khaldun is already there laughing as he walks toward the defeated Sly standing on the machine.

"Why so glum? Sly you were like a cockroach that wouldn’t die. You have quite the endurance, your potential for growth is insane judging by the test scores." Khaldun waved a sheet of paper excitedly with a look of astonishment, "Come look at the results for yourself."

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