Mira Arvaith
We began our dash across the prison yard—the tick of the timer thundering with each passing second.
Sora positioned us in a wacky formation. Nerena held the mattress horizontally with her freaky tentacles.
I hated those things. While Sora and Jace were running to the left and right of her, shooting out small and precise bolts of lightning. They couldn't manage stronger bursts due to the cosmic energy drain we experienced.
Voen, Cyrus, and I brought up the rear, waiting for the signal to throw dog food at the approaching hounds.
With my father being the head of the Twilight Obsidian guild, I saw my fair share of astral behemoth corpses and other weird creatures that were brought back from the astral realm.
But I had never seen hounds this size before. The proctor must have taken some liberties with this in the code.
These hounds stood four feet tall and were about as wide as a car.
"You think this is really gonna work?" Voen asked, his voice choppy in between heaves of breath, trying to keep up with Sora and Jace.
"Wouldn't be my first choice at all. But the princess made the call," I said, throwing a handful of dog food to the left.
Surprisingly, the dog food worked better than I thought. They tanked the twins' lightning, but food was their real weakness.
They almost stopped when I waved it in front of them.
But it didn't stop them for long.
I looked to my left, and Cyrus didn't seem to be doing too well. His astral form was flickering more and more by the second.
"Sora, how much further do we have until we get to the other side?"
She didn't respond right away; instead, she shot another small bolt of lightning at an enlarged dog, then turned and gave a frantic look.
"Duck!!"
A whistle of wind shot an inch above my head, causing a small divot in the ground behind me. Nerena raised the mattress slightly, still leaving a small sightline for us.
Now the barrage began.
Multiple bullets pierced the mattress and grazed my astral form. A sizzling pain radiated from my thigh. Can these bullets damage my soul?
My vision doubled, and my sprinting speed dropped. I had never experienced anything like this before; it felt as if a small part of my essence was being erased.
"Voen, I think we have the answer. Our astral forms are not bulletproof. At least in this test."
He gave a slow and frightened nod as he ducked from a bullet himself.
"Can someone reinforce the mattress with cosmic energy? We are getting torn apart back here."
"Brace yourself," Sora said, ignoring my request. Then a massive force slammed into the mattress. Three large hounds knocked us over, trampling us with their massive paws.
"Throw all the food behind us!" Sora yelled out.
The hounds were strong, their paws pressing my body into the compact dirt. It took a few seconds to get the hounds off me, but when I did, I threw a handful of dog food as far as I could down the prison yard.
Cyrus was recovering slowly, so I grabbed the dog food that spilled next to him and threw it in the same direction as mine. Voen did the same.
"Duck," Voen yelled out.
Bullets and hounds jumped and shot over our heads.
On the ground, I grabbed Jace, "Spark Plug, you have the most cosmic energy. Reinforce the mattress."
"I don't take orders from anyone, especially you."
8 seconds, 7 seconds.
You gotta be kidding me.
I picked the mattress up myself and imbued it with cosmic energy, charging blindly forward. I had never realized how much I depended on my seismic sense until now.
This virtual world took away all my advantages and made me feel helpless—something I so drastically didn't want to be.
Pushing forward, I felt the powerful impacts of the bullets; I didn't care as long as none of them punctured my reinforced shield.
Voen came and helped reinforce it.
3 seconds. 2 seconds.
I felt a sharp jolt in my back, and all of a sudden, my drive to push harder increased, helping my legs push just a little bit harder.
1 sec.
"Zone 3 is cleared." The proctor's voice bellowed throughout the prison yard.
I tossed the mattress aside and saw that all of my teammates except Jace were breathing heavily.
Our cluster looked like it was reaching its limit, as I watched our astral forms begin to flicker. But I had it with these royal kids.
"Hey, spark plug, what was that about? You could have helped us a lot back there if you had taken the initiative."
"You guys had it covered."
My fist clenched at my side.
"For Pantheon's sake, you are really pathetic."
"You asking for help is," sparkplug said, walking away from me.
I jogged back up to him, "Do all you royals act like this? Entitled and full of yourself. Do you think it's beneath you to help someone from a different class? The world would be better if you actually did."
His eyebrows curled, but he kept walking away.
"I have reasons for not liking Nerena, but I've learned that she has good points sometimes. In all honesty, she seems to be the only person to understand this test."
"Good for you. Want a cookie?
I wanted to crush his little smug face, but something took hold of my shoulder, distracting me from the idea.
It was Sora. She gave me a look as if she were apologizing for her brother.
"We can't waste time on him. Thirty seconds have already passed." Cyrus said, barely able to keep himself upright.
Screwhead was right; I needed to focus. I looked at our surroundings; there was a long road stretching far east and west.
Then five new items appeared for the last time: motorcycle keys, a folded map, one bus ticke