Part 12


Serge was carried out of the arena on a stretcher by two Chansey while a Blissey followed beside him. Atikus and the others watched them leave the room and were left with nothing to do but wait.

“How long till we know that Serge is okay?” wondered Adam.

“So long as we don’t get informed that he’s dead, you should just assume that he is going to make a full recovery,” Inque replied. His answer didn’t give anyone any comfort.

“What he means is that no news is good news,” Zynna said trying to rephrase his words in a kinder way. “And looks like the next member of the Legendary Six is about to come out. That means that Serge is in stable condition and likely just resting now.”

“Then can we see him?” asked Edge.

“You guys don’t listen very well,” Inque told him. “The fact that you get to see what you are seeing is already more than we normally allow anyone to witness. Don’t assume we are allowing you any more access than this.”

“Well, what if we need to use the bathroom?” Genji argued just for the sake of arguing.

“It’s down the hall to the left,” Inque answered. “And may I assume you have evolved beyond using leaves and a shovel?”

“Easy now,” Atikus warned Genji. “You know he could kill you if you let him provoke you.”

“It’s working,” strained the Machop really wanting to attack that rude Malamar, but Atikus managed to talk some sense into him.

“Who is that coming in now?” asked Adam turning everyone’s focus to the yellow, anthro dog entering the arena. She had a white t-shirt and blue shorts. At her sides she had some daggers. She moved calmly and gracefully towards the center of the room then tilted her head back to take in a deep breath and smiled serenely.

“That’s Flash the Jolteon,” Zynna answered. “Easily one of the faster Pokemon you’ll ever see… that is if you can actually see her moving.”

“I can see her moving just fine,” Edge replied. “But aren’t Jolteon supposed to have spiky bodies?”

“Only when they’re charged with electricity,” Zynna explained. “Which is most of the time, but Flash prefers to do so only when necessary.”

“Why’s that?” wondered Adam who quickly got an answer as Flash suddenly surged with electricity and her clothes quickly got torn to pieces in the process. Seeing that, Adam, Atikus, and Edge couldn’t help but stare in awe. Genji did his best to keep from looking, but the look on his face made it clear he sorely wanted to.

“I hope you boys aren’t thinking any dirty thoughts now,” Zynna stated as she glared at them.

“Never,” replied Atikus.

“This only gives me thoughts on what sort of dress code my guild will need,” Adam explained scribbling something down in his notebook.

“My mind is too disciplined for me to be led astray by the fairer sex,” declared Genji. The way his eyes were open a crack and how his neck was ever so slowly turning showed he desperately wanted a peek no matter how small.

“Please can we meet her later,” begged Edge saying what the others were too ashamed to say.

“No,” Inque answered simply. “Now if you are all done oogling at her, the test is about to begin.”

“Subject: Flash,” spoke the computer once more. “Challenge: Speed. Difficult: Five Stars. Time Limit: Sixty Seconds. Countdown t-minus 10… 9… 8…”

“She’s got even less time than Serge did,” noted Atikus. “Just what do you have in mind for her?”

“See those balls?” asked Zynna. Looking into the arena, everyone was barely able to make them out, but they could see a number of red dots appearing as the countdown continued.

“Yeah,” nodded Adam. “Don’t tell me she’s got to grab them all in only a minute.”

“And bring them back to the center,” explained Zynna. “Each one weighs ten pounds and in total there are two hundred of them.”

“In total that’s a ton,” calculated Edge. “No way she can move that quickly while carrying so much weight. She’d have to take multiple trips.”

“Two hundred trips to be exact,” Inque added. “Flash is very quick, but in terms of physical strength she’s way below average. Ten pounds is her limit and she is only able to keep her speed up for no longer than a minute. To Flash, if she cannot accomplish her goal in the first move than it is impossible for her to win.”

“That sounds terrible,” admitted Genji. “To have to risk on only one move, I cannot imagine how she could be one of the Legendary Six with such a huge limitation.”

“It is hardly a limitation,” scoffed Inque. “Being limited to one move just simply means she does not require much thought beyond achieving her goal. She can push aside all hesitation and simply act.”

“So, how will that help her out here?” wondered Atikus watching the clock finish counting down.

“2… 1… Begin!”

The timer started to tick down. Looking at Flash, she was there and then gone. Atikus and the others rubbed their eyes in confusion. “Where’d she go?” asked Adam. “I didn’t even blink.”

“She’s got only a minute,” Inque told them. “She doesn’t have the luxury to waste time.”

“Look,” pointed out Edge. There’s already a few balls in the container in the center of the arena. The counter says three. Now fo- no, now five.”

“It’s like they are just disappearing and reappearing,” observed Atikus. “Just how fast is she going?”

“Too fast for anything to be able to track her,” Zynna explained. “Her speed is so overwhelming that to her, we must seem frozen in time.”

“It hasn’t even been five seconds and she’s already got twenty of the balls,” announced Edge. “She’s doing incredible.”

“But things are going to get more difficult like they have with Serge, aren’t they?” assumed Atikus.

“Yeah,” answered Inque. “About now.”

As Flash continued to speed through her challenge faster than any of them could see, tiles started to light up on the arena creating a path that they could. Then the first tile to light up had flames burst out of it. Then from the next tile to light up, another flame came forth as well followed by another flame on a tile connected to this one and more flames kept erupting forth in a similar manner. When a sixth flame appeared the first fire went out and when a seventh flame appeared the second flame got extinguished. To the spectators watching this happen so quickly, it appeared more like a serpent of fire was moving across the arena.

“What in the world is that?” asked Adam gazing at the flame quite nervously. “Some kind of fire snake?”

“It could be considered something like that,” explained Inque. “After twenty balls have been retrieved this obstacle is activated. It will pursue Flash on the exact same path she takes, preventing her from retracing her steps or even stopping as she continues the challenge. What’s more, the length of the snake will increase every twenty balls she retrieves from this point on by double it’s current count.”

“It’ll keep doubling,” replied Genji. “Flash still has to collect one hundred and eighty balls. Not counting the last set at the end, that’s eight more times it can double. So that means… five… ten… twenty…”

“One thousand two hundred eighty flames in total,” answered Inque before Genji could do the math himself. “And just so you know, there are only one thousand two hundred ninety six tiles on the field below.”

“Then when she reaches the last twenty balls the fire will keep following her with only sixteen tiles available to her in the end,” realized Edge. “If she isn’t careful there won’t be a way for her to get all the balls without running through those flames.”

“If she does,” commented Zynna. “She’ll be done for. As mentioned before, she only has speed to rely on.”

“She could attempted to control the path of the fire by focusing on the outside of the arena and working in.”

“That’d take too long,” noted Inque. Every second is vital. As for what Flash will do, from the second she started she already made up her mind how she would go about it. She was completely unaware of her challenge till she began it and in that instant she made up her mind how she would handle it. Even with this fire added in, she will not change how she is to go about it. She believes in her speed without fail, no matter what happens.”

“It certainly looks that way,” commented Atikus. “She’s at sixty balls now after only about twelve seconds. The flame snake is up to twenty now and it doesn’t look like she’s hesitated even once.

“I think she’s moving even faster too,” noted Edge still unable to see her, but could see the trail of fire moving along quicker to try and keep up with her.

“There’s another twenty,” Genji said feeling exhausted just imaging how anyone could be so fast. “The snake is up to forty.”

“Eighty now,” Adam continued a few seconds later. “The heat is so intense I can feel it from here. It must be like an oven for Flash in there.”

“The temperature should be about three hundred degrees in there now,” Zynna told them. “And it’ll only get hotter as more flames are added. Normally such heat would be too much for a non-Fire Type to handle and start to drain away their stamina.”

“And Flash has very little to begin with,” recalled Edge. “So, how can she still be moving?”

“Fear of death can be a great motivator,” commented Inque, his words making them worry all the more.

Flash continued to run, the minute she was given feeling more like an eternity to those watching every second with such intensity. The closer she got to her goal, the more flames were filling up the room and the hotter it was getting. At over one hundred sixty, the heat was so intense it distorted the air making it hard to see the arena. It was getting too hot for any of them to even stand close to the window without risking heat stroke.

“How hot is it in there now?” wondered Atikus, sweat dripping off his armor.

“Over one thousand degrees,” Zynna reported.

“That’s insane!” cried Genji. “She should be melting if its that hot in there!”

“And yet she’s still going,” Inque pointed out as the score reached over one hundred eighty with fifteen seconds still remaining.

“The last few balls are pretty spread out, but she’s made it this far so she can handle it… right?” asked Adam attempting to venture to the window to get a better look, but the heat was so intense it was like a barrier was put up to keep them at a distance.

“Doesn’t look good,” admitted Atikus. “There are so many flames I can barely see any space she has left to move. Just her going to the center to drop the balls off one at a time is going to quickly use up what space she has left. The way I see it, she has to finish this before all the flames cut her off completely.”

“So far so good,” noticed Edge. “She’s got another five… now six. She just has to keep it up a little longer.”

“But I think she’s starting to slow down!” cried Genji. “I- I can actually see her now. Her speed is decreasing and the flames are catching up to her.”

“With more than ten seconds remaining,” commented Inque. “If she’s running out of strength now then she won’t make it. Perhaps we overestimated her for this challenge.”

“Don’t say that when she’s done amazing so far!” snapped Genji.

“If she no longer is suitable to be one of the Legendary Six we simply need to find a new candidate,” he answered coldly. “Even you could be considered if you can put at least another hundred years of training under your belt.”

“I don’t care if you can kill me!” snapped Genji. “I can’t stand your mouth any longer!”

“Idiot,” scoffed Inque as Genji ran at him and he readied to strike.

“Enough!” shouted Atikus loudly and swung his huge sword at Inque and stopped it inches from slicing him in two. “I’m plenty fed up with you as well. So shut up. This is MY final warning.”

“Impressive,” admitted Inque. “Perhaps you could be a candidate for the Legendary Six.”

“But Flash isn’t done yet,” Edge called to everyone. “Sure she slowed down a bit, but she isn’t stopping either. She’s down two the last two!”

“Almost done,” Flash panted to herself, sweat soaking every inch of her body making her spiked fur shine. She dropped the one hundred ninety ninth ball into the basket and then immediately ran for the last one. The fire raced right behind her only a few steps behind. To her sides, flames were already blocking her path so the only way she could go was forward.

“She’s headed for the last one,” announced Adam excitedly. “She’s got it and all she’s got to do is make it back to the center.”

“But the path she’s running on is about to end,” pointed out Zynna worried. “The closest it’ll allow her is to get three tiles away.”

“Maybe she knows they’ll go out before she gets to them,” suggested Genji.

“No,” Zynna replied. “They are not. Once she reaches them, there will be no way out.”

“Then we must see what she’ll do with what little time and energy she has left,” Inque said. “She is the best at doing the most with the least, after all.”

Flash continued running down the last remaining strip of tiles available to her. Her speed was barely enough to keep her one tail away from being caught in the blast, though her tail looked like it had gotten scorched at its end. “Three tiles left,” she panted. “Need to make this count.”

“She vanished again,” Edge said as Flash reached the three last tiles.

“It looks like she had a bit more strength than we thought,” admitted Atikus.

“But what can she do with nowhere to run to?” asked Zynna.

The flame burst forth from the next tile and then the one after it till only the single tile remained for Flash to stand upon. Everyone saw her as she stopped running and crouched down. They could see the flames starting to emerge around him, about to swallow her whole, but as they were, she leapt up as high as she could using her forward momentum to keep her going forward. She narrowly escaped being burnt alive in the fire and attempted to leap over the three tiles of flames between her and the goal. She cleared the first and the second, reaching the peak of her jump. She began to descend over the third tile, just barely above touching the flames. It was close, but just barely she managed to clear it and drop the ball into the basket. Time timer sounded right after announcing the end of the trial and Flash’s victory.

Atikus and the others went wild as they cheered for her success along with Zynna. “Looks like we might not need that position filled after all,” said Inque. “Saves us a lot of trouble.”

“That was great, but will Flash be alright?” asked Edge. “She’s gotta be exhausted after that.”

“She’ll go to recover along with Serge,” explained Zynna. “Meanwhile, the next one should be coming out shortly.”

“Who is up next?” asked Edge.

“That’ll be Mune,” she answered.

“He’s awesome,” Edge stated eagerly. “I know he can handle anything you throw at him.”

“That is what we intend to do,” replied Inque.

“Uh, do you mind if I go to the bathroom before it starts?” asked Edge. “What with all the excitement and all…”

“It’s down the hall on the left,” instructed Zynna. “You shouldn’t have any trouble finding it.”

“The next test will start soon so if you wanna see it you’d best be quick about it,” warned Inque. “And I would recommend not to go wandering around. If you do, then you pretty much forfeit your life.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” answered Edge hurrying out the door and to the bathroom. Finishing his business quickly, he peeked out of the restroom to make certain nobody else was there. “They didn’t say I couldn’t risk my life,” he said to himself with a childish grin on his face. “Now to find Serge.”

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What now?
A. See Mune’s test.
B. Follow Edge.
C. Let’s check in on Glaive and Pen.

Beginning