Freedom Jumper-Chapter 147: Grueling Day Ahead

An exhausting night brought Elijah to his current state of mind: Tired and sore with the need for a relaxing day.

Unfortunately, from the loud banging sounds echoing off the tall barrack buildings, he knew he was not going to be getting that.

The soreness was quickly able to disappear thanks to healing water magic, and even some of the tiredness.

But still....

When Elijah grabbed onto the roof-ledge from the window that pivoted open, his mood was worsened by the group of boys staring him down like a hawk.

The goal was to get a better look at the happenings, but he had forgotten other people had powers just like his flight ability — that allowed him to slightly make up for the lack of strength necessary to pull himself to the slightly slanted roof.

While ignoring the obvious negative banter being traded between the group of five kids, Elijah stared into the courtyard at the sight of a massive obstacle course being built. Stone, wood, and even metal with the true difference being it was done all by hand — besides the few earth mages binding everything together for safety purposes.

Two men were standing in the very center of a stone pedestal, which was also in the center of a mound likely meant for a game called King of the Hill. However, this was nothing but a small part of the course.

Monkey bars, balancing beams, long jumps, thorn crawling, swimming, the balancing pinwheel that was teetering from one side to the other, and of course the parkour course that was scattered in between. All of which were able to hold 200 to 300 people at one time!

Dink!

Suddenly, while Elijah was calmly staring into the distance, a small circular rock was thrown into the back of his head, and later bounced on the stone roof — cracking into many pieces.

"Ah! What the hell?!"

Elijah's feet stuttered with him almost falling over the edge while clutching the back of his head.

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He knew what had happened moments after the impact, but not who.

Behind him, were five people, two of which he knew from last night's ordeal.

Jace Chevalier, the spider boy.

And Curtis Lostent, the man with a temper who wields the wild power of gravity.

Elijah held his hand up to his head with water coalescing around it, which sultered their faces. "If I were to guess which one of you did it, would you tell me if I am correct?"

"Haha! Why not..." Curtis said while taking a moment to look at his companions.

Elijah thought hard about this considering it was most likely a power. The girl seemed eerily familiar, so he decided to avoid her on the idea that he would've remembered her power. Of course, Curtis and Jace were out, which left the black hair and green-eyed boy and the blonde-haired and blue-eyed boy.

"You."

"Wrong." Said the Curtis with a wicked smile.

Because of this simple yet weird reaction, Elijah had begun to believe that Curtis' flaw might have something to do with the way he presents himself. Emotions?

"Okay, well I had a fifty-fifty chance anyway..." Elijah walked away completely unperturbed by their confused statements. Thankfully, the one who had actually done the deed had the brain to not argue, which made Elijah's suspicions even more true despite not knowing anything about his power.

A power that created perfectly smooth small stones...

Only a couple seconds later, a loud voice began to resonate through the surrounding area.

"Good morning future Paladin's. My name is Zack Trisdom, one of the physical combat professors that will likely be soon beating on you young ones. As a lot of you may have noticed, there is an obstacle course designed to test your strength and mobility within the courtyard."

"This is by no means a test, but a way to keep you busy while me and the other professor's and assistants test your physical combat prowess, or your combat strategy! You can do both if you want, but you would be taking up other people's time as it really does not mean much... I will be hosting the physical combat test outside the western wall, and the combat strategy test will be hosted by this fellow right next to me, outside the eastern wall..."

"...damn kids..."

"Woah! I think everyone just heard that, Konrad!" Zack said while patting the smaller man's back.

Clearly, not everyone liked their job, or maybe just grew bored of it...

Zack Trisdom was a very outgoing individual that used lots of hand motions in a grand manner whilst speaking. His clothes were simple and the color of black. However, something was off with his eyes. Even while standing far away and up high, Elijah could easily tell there was something abnormal about him.

Konrad, being a professor of a combat strategy class, was obviously picked on by his peers. With a mind that produced battle compositions and a body that was feeble, this much didn't affect him.

'Twas the natural balance of the world.

Despite Elijah's current mood and knowing he his avoiding his feelings through adrenaline, he still decided to go with the physical combat test — a test that would rely on the rusted skill Elijah possessed.

So far, Elijah had survived with his punches and dive bombs only because of the power he produced. It had been well over four decades since he focused on physical combat, and even then, he was far from the best...

Since he knew he would not be using any mana within the test that would most definitely involve sparring of some kind, he hoped the kick in the ass would at least help him...

After quickly returning to his room by using small amounts of his flight ability, he returned to see Niko already gone.

"Do you guys know why Niko left so quickly?" Elijah asked the twins while knowing he was only on the roof for fifteen minutes.

"No clue."

"..."

"I can feel your hate towards me, I suggest you be careful with your words."

Elijah's response bore a hole through their imaginary invincibility. While they at least had a heart to not go all out, it still pissed him off that they didn't tell the truth of their feelings.

Hopefully these twins aren't part of the posse... Elijah thought.

Following multiple slices of biltong that were thoroughly chewed inside his mouth, he nonchalantly walked down the steps while throwing an orange into the air — spinning it in different directions each time.

Already, the enormous obstacle course was already packed with annoyed chatter relating to keeping space amongst each other. Elijah saw so many problems with this, which he also thought would be a test with regards to communication. Being so, he calmly walked out the gate. Realizing the only choice was to try it later, he sat on a small grassy mound chomping away at his orange.

Every gust of wind blew the orange scraps through the tall grass, and also brought the scents of the natural earth into his nostrils. The last thing he wanted to look at was the towering barracks, and instead looked towards the infinite horizon knowing it would lower his stress...