Travis's Journey Through the Apocalypse

Chapter 18

Bulling inanimate objects, yeah!

This was way harder, fuck me. Identifying and following the patterns was much more difficult while traversing an obstacle than watching from the sidelines. I was actually getting knocked off the circuit sooner than before I learned my new trick, but I was close, so fucking close. I had run the circuit four times, trying to get my new idea to work, but I kept losing it about halfway through the sixth obstacle. I was starting to get frustrated.

On my fifth run, I got so frustrated that, at one point, I actually unconsciously pushed Mana out of my body in a burst. It just happened, but as it did, I didn’t see the pattern of the next few moves so much as I felt them through my Mana Manipulation ability. Sensing the next few attacks, I dodged each with swift ease. I was so shocked that I froze and was punished with fists punching into my face and body, sending me flying out of the circuit’s boundaries.

I lay there on the ground slack-jawed and shocked at what had just happened, what I had just done. I couldn’t believe it. I had to try that again, and now. I sat up so fast I almost blacked out, but I didn't care. I was back on my feet and running towards the starting line with a ridiculous grin. Janet, who had been running over to see if I was okay, stared at me like what the fuck when I ran past her.

“Hey, are you okay, Travis…Wait, what the fuck? Hello? Travis, Travis, asshole!”

“Sorry, Janet, but I think I figured something out.” I shouted back at her as I kept heading back to the start.”

“Hey, It’s my turn. You know that right!” Janet yelled after me. I waved her off and shouted back.

“You can go next.”

“You ass and I were coming to check if you were okay. Last time I did that!” When I didn’t slow down one bit, I heard Janet.

“Dman it.” Honestly, Janet could wait. This might have been the breakthrough I needed. Was this what Eikman wanted us to figure out from the beginning? But then why didn’t he just tell us to try looking for the patterns? Ahh, I was confused, but none of that mattered right now. There was training to do.

The attack was? There, and I dodged. I was on my fifth obstacle, and I had been trying to figure out how to release a small amount of Mana through my pores, hopefully forming an invisible mist of Mana around my body. I had been somewhat successful, but I was struggling with control. The problem was that I had to release a small amount of Mana all over my body all at once. It was like multitasking to the extreme, and I felt like if I kept it up for too long, I would develop a severe headache, but it was working.

As the strikes flew at me, I could almost immediately tell which direction they were coming from, what angle, and at what speed. It was like I was that superhero guy who was blind but saw with vibrations from sounds. It was a trip, devilish even, but I didn’t have the technique down yet, so when I messed up, I would feel the pain of my mistake with a blow landing somewhere on my body.

I was on the eleventh obstacle now, and I was really moving through the training circuit. It was exhilarating. My adrenaline was pumping, and I had found my groove. It really did feel like a dance between me and each obstacle. I couldn't keep the smile off my face. By the time I was at the fifteenth obstacle, I could hear Janet whooping from the sideline. A distant part of my brain heard the sound of her cheers, but it barely registered. I was more focused than I had ever been in my life.

On the sixteenth, I could barely hang on, and my head was starting to really hurt. My eyes were watering, and I could feel myself losing steam. I just couldn’t keep going. I consistently sat at one percent Mana with the suppression array active. I don't think the amount of Mana I was using on my new technique was actually more than my Mana regeneration rate, so Mana wasn’t the issue. My Mana bar never really moved, but I was still mentally exhausted.

The Mana suppression array was just that, a suppressant. It wasn’t a nullification array, so you were able to access small amounts of Mana. It just wouldn’t be enough to use any abilities. At the level of fatigue I was currently feel, that didn’t matter one bit, and before I knew it, I was clobbered and sent flying.

When I came to from being knocked unconscious during my exodus from the training circuit, Janet was there offering me a hand. I took it and was pulled to my feet. I took a few wobbly steps, with Janet steadying me the entire time before I got my feet set, and Janet felt she could let me stand on my own.

“That was fucking crazy, Travis! It was like you were possessed. That was so cool! I wish you could have seen it. I mean, I know you lived it, but fuck, you should have seen it from my perspective. You fucking killed that shit!” I heard Janet's words, but they were echoing in my brain, and I was still a little dizzy. I was starting to feel better, but Janet's excited ramblings weren’t helping.

“Janet, Janet! Hey, can you give me one second? My head is killing me. I feel like I was up drinking all night and have the hangover of the century right now.” Janet stopped talking but looked confused. She waited as I pulled some healing smoothie from a bag of holding and then drank some water. When I was done drinking, I poured some over my head and then shook it.

“Okay, I feel better now.”

“What’s going on? Why did you get such a bad headache? What did you do?” Janet just stood there, hands on hips, waiting for an explanation. I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly, thinking of how best to explain to Janet what I had done.

“Um, I guess I did figure something out, but I wanted to test it and make sure it was worked before I told you about it.” Janet's expressions shited from confusion to one of astonishment as I revealed to her what I had learned. Janet, of course, wanted to try it right away, so I showed her my technique. Janet asked about using the small amount of Mana under the suppression array, and I told her it should leave enough to us even in the area of the effect of the suppression array.

We practiced the technique for about an hour, and by the time Janet had it mostly down, it was around four o’clock. Eikman had always called it a day and ended training around six. So I figured we each could fit in at most two runs before then if we moved fast. Janet started her first run using the Mana senseing technique—that's what we were calling it for now, for lack of a better word. Janet was moving well, far better than I had the first time I attempted a run trying to use Mana sense. She had made it all the way to the twelfth obstacle before. A falter in her Mana control caused her to take a few good blows, and it was over.

Janet had been disappointed with the results initially, but I was eager to see her get the hang of it, so I told her she could go again before me if she wanted. Janet declined, however. She said the headache part of the technique was no joke and that she needed a minute to recover. I totally understood what she was talking about, so I decided to give it another go while Janet rested.

I was halfway through the circuit, and I was fucking flying. Maybe it was the hour I spent training Janet to use the technique, but my headache wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been by this point in my run last time. Before I knew it, I was on the sixteenth obstacle, right at the place I was kicked off last time. I was focused but not like before. It didn’t hurt. I was just really concentrating. I had to because I was approaching my limit again.

I had passed the sixteenth and was finally on the seventeenth for the first time. I was so close to finishing the whole circuit, and it was making me a little gitty. The seventeenth obstacle had rings you had to carry with you. You would then use the rings to hang and swing from pegs placed throughout the obstacle. Under heavy assault the entire way, just like every obstacle that had come before.

The blows were coming at me faster and more erratically than ever now. I was barely hanging on. My whole body was sore. After all my attempts on the circuit today, my injuries were adding up. Even if all my wounds had long physically closed and healed, my body was aching, and I was mentally going to be done for the day soon. I could feel it.

Right now, none of that mattered. I was so close to the finish line I could taste it. It was calling my name, and then it was literally calling my name. Well, not the finish line, but Janet, who was standing there cheering me on, and I knew I could do this. I had to do this, and with a burst of energy, I completed the seventeenth. Before I knew it, I was breathing heavily as Janet screamed with excitement. Then I was in the air. Janet had tossed me about ten feet in the air by herself, then did it again and again. I couldn’t help but laugh.

When Janet was finished celebrating, I was still buzzing with adrenaline. I had done it. I had made it all the way through the training circuit. I had really done it. I was still struggling to comprehend what I had done. All that struggle, all that pain had actually been worth it. Of course, Janet had to make it to the end now, and the look of determination that had come over her when she started talking about her next run left me with no doubt that she would accomplish her goal before the day was done. I wasn’t wrong, and on Janet's next run, she pushed hard and made it to the end.

Janet was lying in the mud. No fucks given about the filth at that point, a smile plastered across her face as she took deep breaths with her eyes closed. She almost looked to be in a state of pure bliss, and I could understand. That feeling of giving something, everything you had, and accomplishing what you thought was impossible when you started was intoxicating. I let her have that moment for a bit, then let her know I was there.

“Damn Janet, you really fucking did that, shit. You want a hand. If you lay there much longer, you might fuze with the mud, and I'll never be able to free you.” Janet smiled, and with eyes still closed, she held out a hand for me to take. I smiled and took it. Eikman and Howsmer had been napping on Eikmans porch for the past four hours. When we walked over to the pair at six o’clock, Janet shouted and woke both men up.

“Hey, guys, wake the fuck up!” We both laughed as the two flailed and sputtered. Eikman even fell right out of his chair and landed on his ass. The whole ordeal lasted about thirty seconds, but it was a beautiful symphony of confusion. Howsmer was the first to say anything.

“Ha ha, yes, very funny. You two are fucking comedians. So why did you wake us up? Are you giving up? Which obstacle got ya? I bet Eikman you wouldn’t make it past the twelfth. So come on.” I looked at Janet, and she gestured for me to go ahead. I cleared my throat.

“We both finished the entire circuit. Guess you lost your bet.” I tried my best to keep the smirk off my face, but I was fucking failing. Howsmer, who had just taken a sip of water, did a full-on spit take. Hitting Eikman with a full mouth of water right in the ear. Eikman freaked out and slapped Howsmer, but that didn’t last long. They both were too distracted by what I had just said.

“How?” That was all Howsmer said. Eikman was a little more blunt.

“there's no fucking way you two fucking talentless fools made it all the way through this training circuit. I call bullshit, bullshit!” Then, instead of waiting for our response, Eikman stood up and promptly walked over to one of the array discs. He then knelt down and touched a few specific parts in a particular sequence. Eikman then stood back up, and a window floating in mid-air appeared in front of him.

Howsmer, understanding what Eikman was doing, jogged over to the man to see for himself. Janet looked at me, and I shrugged before we headed over to join the two. Eikman had brought up a history of every run we had attempted. It even knew if Janet or I had made the run. Eikman was still srolling down. There was a lot of info on each run we had done. Probably there for our trainers to better assist us in our growth, fucking Eikman.

He finally made it to the runs, where Janet and I had completed the course, and Eikman stood there silently, staring at the screen. We watched Eikman just look at the screen for the better part of a minute before he turned to us and asked us one question,

“How?” Howsmer couldn’t help chiming in as well.

“Yeah, I want to know that too. This is a level twenty-five to level fifty training circuit. You should, at best, make it to the fifteenth obstacle, but to finish the entire circuit at your level would be almost unheard of.” I explained what I had done and that after I had figured out what I did, I had shared it with Janet. Eikman thought about what I said for a minute. While Howsmer just kept looking back and forth between Eikman, Janet, and myself, clearly confused.

Finally, Eikman looked like he was going to say something, and then he just started laughing. That only left Howsmer looking even more confused. He never ended up explaining anything, and that day of training ended with Janet and I each buying a recovery pill from Howsmer. We said our goodbyes and told Eikman and Howsmer when and where our fight would be, and the two said they would attend. Then, the two of us headed back off to the inn to get a good night's sleep and prepare for tomorrow.

“Eikman, now that the children are gone, what was the trick with the Mana they were doing? Would it actually work in a fight?” Howsmer asked Eikman as they walked down the city's busy street and headed toward Eikman's favorite tavern.

“Ha, ha, no, that will never work in any other situation than the one they were just in. Because of the suppression array, the ambient Mana was suppressed just as Travis and Janet were. If there was no suppression array, what Travis and Janet were doing would have been much harder. In a fight where they’re not only dealing with the fluctuations of the ambient Mana but the Mana of their opponent and the fluctuations on ambient Mana that activating abilities creates. There’s no way his little trick will actually work. There will just be too much interference.”

“Why didn’t you tell him that? What if he tries using it in his fight tomorrow, thinking he's got a secret technique in his back pocket?” Howsmer asked.

“Because can you imagine the look on his face when he tries it, and it fails, and he gets his ass kicked? Haha. Oh my god, I can see it now. I almost can't wait, haha.”

“Haha, you’re a sick man, Eikman.”

“I know, haha.” The two men laughed and continued on towards the tavern, eager for the cold beers that awaited them.