Chapter 566: The Finish Line is Just the Start
Chapter 566: The Finish Line is Just the Start
The crowd exploded. Fifty bodies launched forward simultaneously. Elbows flying. Shoulders colliding. The immediate chaos of competition.
I moved through the pack like water through stones. Smaller than most. Faster than all. The first climbing wall approached at terrifying speed. Fifteen feet of artificial rock face designed to separate the strong from the weak.
Reyna reached it first. Her hands found holds with the ease of long practice. She pulled herself upward in smooth motions that made climbing look effortless.
I hit the wall two seconds behind her. My fingers dug into the textured surface. Arms burning. Legs pushing. The System couldn’t help me here. No stats to boost. No abilities to activate. Just muscle and bone and the kind of stubborn refusal to lose that defined my entire existence.
The top of the wall arrived faster than expected. I vaulted over and dropped to the platform on the other side. Reyna landed beside me at nearly the same instant.
"Not bad for a C-Rank."
"Stop flirting. We’re racing."
Her laugh chased me toward the next obstacle. Balance beams stretched over a pool of murky water that probably contained something unpleasant. Natalia would have frozen the entire pool and walked across ice. Without Aspects, I had to rely on actual coordination.
The beam was narrow. Maybe four inches wide. I ran across it at full speed while other competitors behind me took careful, measured steps. Caution lost races. Recklessness won them.
Reyna matched my pace on the parallel beam. Her feet barely touched the surface. Her balance was inhuman for someone who supposedly couldn’t use Aspects. Professional training or natural talent. Maybe both.
We reached the end of the beams simultaneously. The next obstacle was a cargo net suspended between two towers. Climbing up one side. Sliding down the other. Simple in concept. Brutal in execution.
My hands burned on the rope. The fibers cut into my palms with every grip. Behind me, the sounds of splashing indicated that not everyone had made it across the balance beams.
"You’re faster than your file says."
Reyna climbed beside me. Close enough to touch. Her broken arm didn’t seem to slow her at all.
"My file says a lot of things."
"Most of them are lies."
"All the interesting parts."
We crested the net together. The descent was a controlled fall. Hands and feet finding holds automatically while gravity did most of the work.
The tunnel came next. Dark. Tight. Filled with obstacles I couldn’t see until I hit them. I dropped to my stomach and crawled forward at maximum speed. Elbows digging into packed earth. Knees scraping against hidden roots.
Something grabbed my ankle. I kicked backward instinctively. Heard a satisfying grunt of pain. Someone had tried to slow me down. Someone was going to regret that decision later.
Light appeared ahead. The tunnel exit. I burst through into open air and found Reyna already standing on the other side. Waiting. Her chest heaved with exertion. Sweat plastered her crimson hair to her forehead.
"Took you long enough."
"Sixty seconds."
"Felt like sixty years."
The final stretch lay before us. A straight sprint across open ground to the finish line. No obstacles. No tricks. Just pure speed over two hundred meters of arena floor.
Reyna moved first. Her legs drove into the ground with explosive power. I followed half a heartbeat later.
The crowd noise faded to white static. My world narrowed to the track beneath my feet and the woman running beside me. Everything else disappeared. The camera drones. The screaming spectators. The VIP section where my mother sat next to Seraphina Vance. All of it vanished into the singular focus of competition.
We ran side by side for one hundred meters. Neither gaining. Neither falling behind. Our footsteps matched in a rhythm that felt almost choreographed.
Then I pushed harder.
My lungs screamed. My legs burned. Every muscle in my body protested the demand for more speed. But the System had been strengthening this body for months. Training it beyond normal human limits. Even without active abilities, the foundation remained.
I pulled ahead. One meter. Two. Three.
Reyna’s breath came in sharp gasps behind me. Her regeneration sleeve whined with increased power output. She was pushing her injured arm to keep up.
The finish line approached. Fifty meters. Forty. Thirty.
I crossed first.
The crowd erupted. Maximus Hype’s voice nearly shattered the speakers.
"UNBELIEVABLE! SATORI NAKANO HAS WON THE OBSTACLE COURSE! THE STRAY DOG CONTINUES HIS DOMINANCE OF THE TOURNAMENT!"
I bent over with hands on knees. Breathing hurt. Existing hurt. Everything hurt.
Reyna finished three seconds later. She collapsed to her hands and knees beside me. Her crimson hair hung around her face like a curtain of flame.
"Three seconds."
"What?"
"You beat me by three seconds." She looked up. Her emerald eyes burned with something I couldn’t name. "Nobody beats me by three seconds."
"First time for everything."
"That’s twice now. Simulation and obstacle course."
"I’m keeping count."
She stood. Extended her good hand. I took it. She pulled me upright with surprising strength.
"One-on-one duels are next," she said. "No hiding behind environmental advantages. No team support. Just you and me."
"Can’t wait."
"Neither can I."
She walked away. Her hips swayed with that motion again. I watched because I was a man and she was beautiful and pretending otherwise would have been a lie.
"The Stray Dog finishes first." Natalia’s voice came from directly behind me. Cold enough to form ice crystals in the air. "And immediately watches another woman’s ass."
"I was assessing her gait for injury weakness."
"Her gait is in her legs. You were looking at her ass."
"Her ass is connected to her legs."
"You’re sleeping on the floor tonight."
"Fair."
She grabbed my hand. Pulled me toward the competitor’s exit. Her grip was tight enough to restrict blood flow.
"You won."
"I did."
"You won by three seconds."
"I did."
"Against someone who’s been training for this event since childhood."
"Apparently."
"How?"