NOVEL NEXT Chapter 10: Uplifting Shortcut
Krista started to lose her breath as she and Reiner completed around sixty percent of the hundered kilometer trail with 15 minutes left on the timer.
Although,she wanted to take a break for a minute or two due to the fact that she was sweating so much that compared to her daily training that she had to do back at home,this was hell.She had to tie her jean jacket around her waist to prevent her arms from boiling inside the sleeves of her jacket and her pink shirt getting darker with all the sweat soaking in the fabric.
When she checked the amount of remaining spots available,there were only 40 spots left and she did see a couple of the other examinees ahead of them,forcing her to decide whether to risk some spots for a minute break or overexert herself to keep her spot.
She shook her head. She trained almost every day for 5 years for this exam, training her body, her mind and her skill for this. A hundred kilometres should be nothing to her since she used to run 20 kilometres as part of her training schedule and in the adventurer program in junior high, she and her classmates had to run 30 kilometres so this should be nothing, but she never ran twice as much so this could be a problem, perhaps a much bigger one if she does not take a breather this instant.
"Reiner, let's take a breather, I'm getting exhausted, "Krista had to admit.
Reiner nodded in agreement with litres of sweat drenching him as well. The two blondes sat by the trail before Krista looked to see if anyone was nearby and fortunately, she didn't see anyone nearby so the best time is probably now.
"Why did Jean betray us?"Reiner asked, breathing a bit heavy. "I thought that we were on the same team."
"As I said before, people will abandon each other to satisfy their benefit and he probably thought that working with them would be easier for him," Krista stretched her arms.
"But, Eren and Jean working together? I never thought that would happen. Back in school, they had to be forced to work together," Reiner chuckled. "How could he stoop so low to work with them?"
"Why does it matter now?" Krista asked. "My arrows ruined their plans and most likely completely lost in the forest now."
'Serves him right for doubting my reasoning for being here.'
Krista looked up to see the amount of remaining spots and there were still 37 spots remaining with 13 and a half minutes left.
Krista stood up and swept any dirt off her jacket in case there was any dirt on it. "Anyways, it's best that we continue this instant."
Reiner stood up, raring to go. "Okay, l wasn't that tired anyway."
The two blondes continued on the path to finish up the rest of the trail and pass the exam.
'Reiner has impressive endurance. That was the only break that we took but he's not as exhausted as I thought he would be,' Krista thought but it made sense to her because of the fact that his power heavily relies on stamina and endurance.
In the span of seven minutes, they were now five kilometres away from the finish line with six and half minutes remaining and twenty-five spots left open. Krista smiled at the thought that now they were almost done and she completed such a feat without using the aid of her power. The power that was passed down from parent to child, slowly getting stronger by each generation.
However, the longer she thought about it, the number of ideas would be increased in her mind but they would've failed, however, there was one that she had in her mind.
"Reiner, stop."
The tall blonde stopped at her command. "What's the matter?"
"I have an idea to get there faster but the issue is that it will be nearly impossible to change directions. Care to hear it?"
Reiner smiled at her."I'm all ears."
"I was thinking of launching us using one of these trees as a catapult to launch us to the finish line. However, I highly doubt that any trees are flexible enough to resist the amount of tension that's needed to lift us properly," Krista explained.
She looked at the nearby trees that surrounded her. For her plan to succeed, she would need a tree that's extremely tall with a very strong trunk but not a very wide one because it will take much more effort to pull it down.
Krista walked around to see which tree matched her conditions. The first tree that she saw had a strong trunk but the tree was too short so if she tried it, she would've hit against the trunks of the other trees. The second one was tall but the trunk was so thin that it would would break before it bent at the angle she needed to. The third one was tall but the trunk was too wide so it would've been harder to pull the tip of the tree down.
"Krista, we should just start running again. There's 20 spots left and-"
"Quiet," she said, annoyed.
'If I remember correctly, pine trees are flexible enough to lift me there but how am I going to get it down enough?'
Krista glanced at Reiner. 'I have him to help me pull the tip of the tree down enough to launch both of us.'
Krista looked at the tree that the burly teen was leaning on. It was a pine tree about twenty metres tall with a trunk that was not too thick nor too thin.
"Perfect," Krista muttered as she walked towards Reiner. "Get off of the tree, I'm going to climb to the top."
"Are you sure? I mean, I can climb it for you."Reiner said with confidence.
"No, I'll be fine," Krista said. 'Plus if you were to climb, you might break the branches and delay my plan.'
Krista did a quick few stretches before she bent her knees and hopped onto the nearest branch.
She looked at the two branches closest to her. One branch was too slender for her to properly stand on, so she jumped on the thicker one that was beside her. She carefully hopped from one branch to the other until she was at the top.
When Krista looked around, she was quite amazed at the higher view. From this height, she could still see the trail. She took a deep breath and summoned her arsenal with a variety of translucent weapons surrounding her and summoned her whip. The whip had a handle long enough for two hands with black leather wrap around it for better grip. Unlike many whips, hers or to be more precise her ancestors' retractable whip had a silver crossguard on it. The thong of the whip was normally 3 metres long and could extend to nearly thrice its length made out of thick, black leather as well except it had small silver spikes all over for better damage with a small silver blade at the end.
"Whip of the Doubtful," Krista said.
The Whip of the Doubtful belonged to Alica Fritz, her ancestor from 750 years ago who was a "slave" master and used it to threaten her slaves although from what was recorded from the history books, she never actually hit anyone with it. But from the looks of it, it looked more like a whip for battle rather than for hurting slaves.
'That might change,' Krista thought as she cracked her whip to test it out, hearing the cracking of the whip echo in the forest making birds fly out from nearby trees.
"Reiner! Can you hear me?"
"Yeah,"
"I'm going to need your help. I'm not heavy enough to bring down the tip of the tree. Perhaps, with your weight combined with your ability, it should be much easier."
"Got it. Tell me when to jump."
Krista wrapped the end of her whip on the tip of the tree before she looked to make sure that they were going forward towards the end. She looked up to see that there was 5 minutes left remaining with 17 spots left.
"Get ready!"She shouted before she jumped down, making the tip of the tree bend down. As the momentum grew, the whip stretched twice as long. That was when Reiner jumped and hopped on a couple of thick branches before extending his arm out.
"Grab the handle and use your power, "Krista demanded.
Reiner grabbed the handle as he turned into steel and Krista grabbed on his back. She heard a cracking sound coming from the trunk.
"Turn back now!"
Reiner turned off his steel mode, launching the two high in the air before he spread out his arms and legs as Krista retracted her whip.
"Uh, where will we land?"
"Closer to the finish line, "Krista said. "I highly recommend that you turn back your steel mode to reduce your fall damage."
Krista felt the rushing wind flowing through her hair. She felt a bird gliding through the air and she almost let out a chuckle but she noticed the finish line.
"I see it! We're almost there!" Reiner announced.
"Good but it seems to be we're going too much to the left, turn right."
Reiner turned slightly to the right with them now heading directly into the finish area. They were above the timer so it was backwards but she was able to read it seeing that there were now 15 spots left.
The duo was still in the air with Reiner accidentally hitting against a bird, making the older teen spit out a couple of feathers out of his mouth.
"Dive down!"Krista said.
Reiner nodded before he leaned and pushed his legs. Krista leaned as well, ready to summon her shield as they were closer and closer to the ground.
"Brace for impact!"She shouted, summoning her massive shield before they crashed into the finishing spot with Reiner slamming into the ground and Krista sat on top of her shield, sliding on the grass gracefully. Krista looked up to see that they made it time with 4 minutes left to spare and now 13 spots remaining.
"Examinee number 359 and Examinee number 477 have passed!" The AI announcer said.
When she looked around, she didn't see any of 'them' here.
'Heh.Four minutes left and they're nowhere in sight. I'll admit that was a good idea from them, but unfortunately, luck wasn't on their side,' Krista retracted her shield back in her arsenal.