Megan exited the last tent ready for anything confidently walking and following the instructions on her new HUD that had her first head into the large building to the right of the main entrance she had entered the yard to begin with and led her through a reception area and some big double doors which swung open on a large space filled with long tables and benches to sit at called a cafeteria which catered to new recruits.
Megan was lost in the euphoria of being able to identify any object she saw with just a thought when she was pulled from her contemplations by a friendly feminine voice calling her, "Megan! Are you listening? Get over here girl and sit with us!"
Megan looked up and found all the AI constructs sitting at a large, long table with the boys on one side and the girls on the other. Jia-xin, the one to call out, was waving at her frantically and patting the bench next to her to invite Megan to sit.
Megan smiled at being included and sat down next to Jia-xin to talk to the AIs with the hope that even if artificial there would still be some clues on how to interact with other humans when she found some in the future.
At first, Megan was excited, actual humans to interact with, even if they were artificial. Surely this was her chance to learn how real humans conversed and built relationships, maybe she would even make a friend or two with these AIs, even if it was only temporary.
Her hopes and dreams soon came crashing down with a hefty dose of reality. These AI constructs were not real. They only spoke when spoken to, they had no original ideas. They were also extremely biased and completely devoted to the Dauntless Empire. No, devoted was not strong enough a word to describe the fanatic one-sided worship these AIs had for their 'Empire'. There was no criticism they would let stand, the 'Empire' was infallible and altruistic, generous, kind to children and only wanted the best for humanity in these dark times where the Enemy lurks in waiting, ready to strike and disrupt the perfect balance the Dauntless Empire maintained.
Megan was not stupid, she had been taught to ask questions, trust but verify was the ethos that was instilled in her early in her brief education at the Sandlewood Inn by Professor Ayn'welk. This whole scenario just screamed 'propaganda' to her educated ears. Did people really fall for this stuff? Megan wondered.
Eventually there impromptu gathering in the cafeteria ended with the appearance of Drill Sergeant Atkinson who then led them out of the cafeteria into the now cleared courtyard and then the big and imposing central building. They were led through a reception area and winding corridors until reaching the back of the building. The Drill Sergeant brought them through a large staging area and then through a fenced off checkpoint and into a massive open area surrounded by thick impenetrable forest which had multiple training fields branching of a central road which looked sturdy enough for heavy vehicles as well as foot traffic. The pathways and roads were well maintained and covered with directions for pedestrians and vehicles. Megan was beginning to realise that the Dauntless Empire loved to label and give directions as if all of its citizens had the intellect of small children, or maybe it was just the Punisher she was in.
These training fields appeared to all be for different obstacle courses ranging from climbing walls, ropes, jumping platforms, mud pits covered with barbed wire, vehicle tires and half-built buildings all strategically placed to produce maximum effort to navigate. Drill Sergeant Atkinson led them past all of these courses, and they all ended up standing before an imposing black metal gate with a sign that read 'Authorised Personnel Only'.
The Drill Sergeant held his hand up to a palm-print reader beside the door and then put his eye to a small retinal scanner. A loud beeping sounded and locks could be heard disengaging before the big metal gate opened slowly with dramatic bursts of steam and clicking hydraulic noises as the thick metal of the gate was revealed as it ponderously swung to the side. Behind the gate was short and dark corridor that sloped up just enough to not show what was there until one walked inside. The gate closed behind them with a decisive CLANG as locks re-engaged and secured again.
The area they had been led too turned out to be an absolute monstrosity of an obstacle course. Think of a normal looking boot camp obstacle course, such as the ones they passed before arriving here. Wooden climbing walls, swinging ropes attached to A-frames over mud pits and all the other standard obstacles were installed in all the other courses. This course was on an entirely different level. Trying to compare the obstacle course in front of them with a standard one would be like trying to compare a hand-built outhouse made out of sticks tied together with string and hope and a modern skyscraper building built from solid reliable materials and spiritual energy reinforcement.
The Drill Sargeant had them stand in a line at attention before he began to explain, "Okay recruits, what you see before you is an experimental obstacle course aptly named, The Punishers Cane and today we will be taking you through this course until you fail. Even if you manage to complete the course the intensity and difficulty will be increased until you cannot continue. This may sound harsh, but to determine your baseline exhaustion threshold this step is necessary to put you on the right path of development. If we cannot figure out at what point you fail how can we tell you have gotten stronger?"
The Drill Sargeant raised a meaty fist to the sky and shouted, "The rules of this obstacle course are simple and anyone caught breaking them will be disqualified and their training ends here. There are three rules, rule number one is, no spiritual energy is to be used outside of your body, which means spiritual energy Augmentation only, no Abilities or Spellcrafts allowed. Rule two, everyone finishes or else everyone fails, so use of teamwork is not only allowed, but also greatly encouraged."
The very air around Megan appeared to still in anticipation as Megan followed instructions on her HUD on wear to stand and to brace her limbs in position to create greatest thrust to her acceleration as the nine AI recruits did the same around her. A very tangible pressure descended to join the building anticipation as the AI constructs and Megan stared intently at the Drill Sergeant's arm, willing it to fall immediately. A rhythmic beating began to pulse in Megan's mind as she concentrated and a few beats later an actual real beat began to throb throughout the course before them, slowly building to a crescendo, the beat getting faster and faster until finally, the Drill Sargeant's arm fell with the finality of a gallows blade dropping and a whistle sounded from all directions as the pulse of drum rhythm settled into a steady pulsing noise interspersed with bass that you felt in your soul more than heard with your ears and simple melody threading through each drumbeat and thumping bass tones like it was now a soundtrack to Megan's experience.
The AI's and Megan quickly pounded down the simple one hundred metre sprint track which began the obstacle course then onto a ramp that inclined exponentially until becoming completely vertical before ending in a thin platform just large enough to stand on. Beyond and above this platform three sets of monkey-bars spanned a rather large and deep pit that appeared to be filled with a disgusting mud pit that smelled like excrement and failure. Anyone falling into this mud was definitely going to regret it.
Megan saw all of this on the few seconds it took for her to leap ahead of everyone on the sprint and getting to the bottom of the ramp she crouched slightly, pouring core energy into her legs and joints, and then springing forward to leap right over the ramp to land effortlessly on the platform, then another smaller leap and she landed on top of the monkey-bars and quickly ran across them instead of hanging down to traverse the gap. On the platform after the monkey-bars there were two flying bar obstacles where you had to grab a horizontal bar in a set of cradles then swing, release and raise the horizontal bar to a higher set of cradles and repeat until reaching an even higher platform. Megan managed to reach the platform at a time where the AIs behind her had barely started climbing the ramp leading to the monkey-bars.
Megan turned, grabbed the horizontal bar from the lowest cradle, crouched down and launched herself up using augmenting energies and managed to slam the bar down on the fourth cradle from the bottom. Then, swinging her legs forward then back in perfect form she was able to speed up the flying bars by launching up two cradles at a time until she reached the top.
Another platform at the top of the flying bars held a diving board that was positioned high above a deep diving pool so the recruits would need to dive deep, then travel through an underwater tunnel and surface at the right place in order to swim down a zig zagging pool that resembled a flowing river.
At the end of this swimming section Megan stepped up onto a running track consisting of fine loose sand that was extremely hot to touch which also doubled as a way to dry out quickly. The constantly shifting sand made progress very difficult despite drying out quickly the sand which had stuck to Megan's wet body was now hardening into restrictive mud and eventually a hard crumbling stone-like substance which was very uncomfortable and made movements much harder to perform.
The sand track ended suddenly and then descended into an open pit where the only exits were five identical tunnels that led into a shallow trench dug into the bare dirt. The trenches had barely enough room to crawl through and were topped with overlapping barbed wire that would occasionally dip down low enough that a recruit had to choose which limb would be scratched and damaged as they passed it.
Popping up from these trenches Megan was now presented with a large entirely smooth and imposing wall that had four flimsy looking ropes dangling down from a platform on top of the wall at least twenty metres above her. Taking one of the ropes in her hands and realised that the thin fabric was strong enough to hold her weight but being so thin and slightly elastic climbing these ropes was going to be both difficult and painful. Of course, Megan was no stranger to pain, so she gritted her teeth and started to climb. Megan would stretch up, grab rope, release her other hand then pull her whole body up just to start the whole process again, over and over Megan climbed to the top platform where she found two flying fox ziplines attached to sturdy metal ropes. Below the ziplines another stinking mud pit could be seen waiting for recruits to fail, fall and be humiliated.
Megan grabbed both handles hanging down from the zipline and with a running jump, leapt from the platform with such speed that smoke billowed from behind her as she descended to the ground. Leaping from the zipline Megan hit the ground running as the zipline reversed and returned to the platform she had just come from.
Megan ran down a narrow corridor while dodging high speed projectiles in the form of sharp darts that would emerge from small holes on the walls and arrows that would fire down the corridor directly at her unless she evaded behind strategic barriers that appeared as equal distances down the corridor.
After the corridor of deadly projectiles, the path on her HUD directed her straight ahead to a compact two-storey building with boarded up windows and a closed door. Heading through this door Megan found herself in a small antechamber with a closed door straight ahead and a door on either side of her to the right and left. Everything was completely uniform in colour and design which meant there were no clues at all about which direction to take.
Megan had already decided to just go all out forward on this first run through the Punishers Cane obstacle course so without hesitation she ran forward and threw open the door straight ahead and flung herself through. This turned out to be a mistake as a huge hammer wrapped in rubber swung round from behind the door and *WHACK* smashed into her stomach, pushing all the air out of her lungs as she fell to the ground faster than a dropped hot potato.
Megan gasped and struggled to pull air into her lungs as she instinctually realised that another object was now heading towards her face!
Thinking quickly Megan blindly grabbed and as luck would have it managed to take hold of something that held her weight as she pulled herself out of the way of another speeding arrow while still trying to catch her breath and after almost twenty more seconds finally drew in enough air that she no longer felt about to pass out. Looking up, Megan found she had taken hold of the retreating rubber hammer, and it had assisted her in dodging which was a plus.
Megan now knew what she was facing so she jumped up, twisted in the air to allow an arrow to pass underneath her then lightly landed in a slight crouch as she evaluated the trapped hallway before her. The music intensified and synced to the movements of her body as she dashed forward, pivoting on her heels and swaying to the beat which assisted her to evade arrows. She disregarded the noise around her as she took a hit to an elbow when the ambient music intentionally missed a beat and focussed on her own internal rhythms, her heart pumping her blood through her body, her muscles contracting and expanding, the wind billowing and fluctuating, mechanical noises clicking and clacking. The melody, beat and rhythm of combat roared in her mind and made Megan's soul soar with joy and contentment as she skirted the edge of disaster again and again. Unable to stop it Megan began to laugh and whoop as the obstacles before her tried their very best to stop her. Nothing could come close.
Megan burst through the door at the end of hallway full of traps and immediately evaded a fast-moving projectile as she took a moment to take in her surroundings which turned out to be a large semi-circular auditorium sloping down from where she had entered from the top-left corner ending in a raised stage with curtains currently closed, hiding the rest of the stage behind. Soft comfortable looking seating was arranged in neat lines separated into three sections by two gently sloping pathways so that there were seat sections to the left, right and down the centre of the room. Above where Megan stood there was a balcony which obscured the ceiling above her and spanned down to where the front row seats were, Megan could even see a second balcony above that one, but it looked like it was separated into box seats for more private spaces for important people to sit.
A puff of smoke and 'pop' sounded from one of those box seat positions set high in the balconies lining the large room and Megan barely dodged another projectile that turned out to be a small dart as it smashed into a seat behind her. The curtains obscuring the stage silently parted and were being pulled to either side and multiple 'pops' could be heard as Megan dashed forward, side-stepping fast moving darts as what she was starting to call her 'Combat Jazz' continued in her ears, the pitch changing with the different environment from the previous trapped hallway. Each beat pulled her to evade a dart, the melody positioned her feet for optimal movement and the underlaying bass tones were giving her an almost intuitive sense of her surroundings in real time, acting as an almost echolocation sense.
The curtains on the stage had lifted enough to show what the stage held which turned out to be a large humanoid robot with a round head which sported six camera lenses equally spaced for maximum sight coverage in all directions. The head was attached to a boxy torso by a metal rod and two sets articulated arms on either side, two of these arms held large round shields and the other arms had massive hammers. Behind this robot monstrosity a large doorway could be seen with a big bright green neon sign with white writing showing the word 'EXIT'.
Megan had to give credit to the imagination of the creators of the Punishers Cane obstacle course. But even as intimidating the final obstacle was, in the end she didn't really need to engage in combat with it, just evade and get past it in the quickest and most efficient way available.
So that is what Megan set out to do. With her Combat Jazz blasting in her ears Megan dodged to the left, a dart zipping past her head so close her hair was dragged up in a puff of air resistance, she grabbed a corner of a seat and flipped up cartwheeling past two more darts as her feet light touched down on the backrest of the next seat which she then used to spring forward, dodging and evading every dart coming at her from multiple directions and various speeds as she ran forward on the backs of the seating angling down toward the stage. As she ran Megan experimented with force constructs, not to shield her completely but to subtly redirect darts in different directions so to make evading them easier.
Reaching the stage, Megan leapt up and brought a force construct blade down to test the durability. Megan was not surprised that the construct was unable to even leave a scratch as she pivoted in the air, dodging a heavy hammer blow directed at her hip with a platform assisted dodge. The robot was fast, faster than anything Megan had faced before. It did not make it easier that those hammers didn't seem to suffer from any air resistance as the robot waved them around like they weighed as light as feathers.
Megan clenched her jaw, tightened her focus and concentrated on the Combat Jazz which was still blasting away in her head. Turn, pivot, reach, contract, extend and push. Megan's movements were efficient and effective, every motion an economy momentum and inertia, every physical locomotion wasted less energy, reduced fatigue and preventing injury. Evading with only millimetres clearance, twisting her body in directions a normal baseline human couldn't possibly imagine.
Megan's problem was not her technique or combat awareness. The problem was that this robot was gaining strength to match her at every level. Match and then exceed, Megan found the hammers more often than not positioned in a way that would obstruct and obscure movements which were only performed when she was unable to see them. Eventually, a hammer found its mark and she took a massive hit to her side and Megan's ribs could be heard cracking as she was flung back landing on the reinforced stage. Looking up, winded and unable to move in time as the robot dashed forward, hammer raised above its head ready to bring it down on Megan's face!
Megan braced with the thought, this was going to hurt.