Then they watched soverick rest for a while before he started the third choke point. They watched him do nothing while the sky rats called for reinforcements. Then he failed at stepping on the pillars and he fell down.
“I’ll enjoy this short moment of pleasure for now. I bet he won’t make the same mistake again.” The will clone said.
Shaston shook her head. “I bet he will pass this choke point before or during the third run.”
“That’s impossible, right? The choke point might not be flashy or anything but the pillars are tricky. He will have to step on them lightly while being chased by the sky rats. And you’re saying he will get the hang of it in a single run. Then he will also resolve the attacks by the third run and finish the choke point.”
“I meant, he might do all that in the second run and at most the third run.”
“If you’re right, then we are in trouble.”
“How so?”
“We won’t have any chance for more humiliating videos.”
“It will never work anyways. So why bother.”
“He is about to start the second run. Let’s watch.”
Soverick immediately took off as soon as he left the safe zone. His feet were creating shockwaves as they touched the ground. The rock surface cracked due to the force he is intently dispersing into them. Then he leaped when he reached the edge of the cliff. This was where he failed the last time.
His foot touched the pillar and shattered it with a shock wave. He seemed to use the shockwave as a support to make the next leap. Then his other foot did the same with the next pillar. It was smooth sailing from there for him. The pillars shattered under his foot instead of crumbling on their own and the shockwave propelled him forward.
“Sky rats do your thing.” The Will clone muttered hopefully. Shaston just shook her head. She didn’t think her will clone will get what she was hoping for.
Soverick’s smooth sailing got interrupted by the sky rats. They were too far away to reach him so they tried range attacks. They were throwing stones at him. He was the one throwing stones at them earlier, but now, became the target of stones. The tables have turned. It forced him to change his movement pattern and to pay attention to the stones aimed at him. As if the shoddy pillars aren’t enough for him, now he has to split his attention backward while he tries to move forward.
Still, he managed. The most difficult thing for him was changing his direction from simply going straight ahead, to right and left to dodge the stones. It required him to make very difficult foot maneuvres on unreliable support. Splitting his attention was a piece of cake for him. And so he finished the third choke point on his second run.
The Will clone threw its arms up. “Did you see that? Not a single mistake. How is that possible?”
Shaston was similarly shocked. The third run was relatively simple. Move to the end of the choke point or the sky rats will catch up to you. That means they have to go forward in a straight line to make good time. Then the sky rats will start to throw stones at you to distract you and throw you off your game. That means you have to move sideways to dodge. If you move sideways too much, the sky rats will catch up.
All these have to be done on precarious pillars. If you stumble or mess up your steps, then you will fall down and start again. So you have to move forward while you dodge and not make a single mistake along the way. It is a simple choke point, with simple rules and it takes weeks to make the stepping process a habit just to overcome these simple rules. Soverick finished it in less than 30 minutes. She of all people understands how remarkable it is because she has a very vivid memory of how much she struggled during these challenges.
The Will clone rounded up on Shaston. “You didn’t really think he would finish this quick did you?”
“I must admit that I didn’t expect this. I was going out on a limb when I made that bet. I mean, it wouldn’t have mattered if I lost. I just wanted to prepare myself mentally in case he actually does pass it quickly like the last choke point. Everything we’ve seen about him indicates that challenges of adaptation are piecemeal to him. Pressuring him won’t also work. Only challenges of pure physical exertion can give him a pause, something like the first choke point. But it will only give him pause. That’s even because he is supposed to beat the titan frog’s attacks. He has the stamina to spare and high enough reaction to take advantage of it.” Shaston answered.
The Will clone sat down dejected and sighed. “Then the remaining choke points will not even give him pause.”
Shaston agreed. “Probably not. The next choke point is the eye of the sea.”
“I bet that he will finish it in at most 3 runs.” The Will clone said and smirked. Shaston just shook her head at her clone’s antics. She wasn’t willing to bet with her clone. She would rather watch how Soverick will fare in the next run. The eye of the sea is pretty simple too but she wasn’t sure how easy it was going to be for Soverick. One thing she is sure of is that it will give him a certain level of difficulty enough for him to fail his first run.
The area around the fourth safe zone was being shown on their screen.
Soverick has successfully crossed the canyon of death and its dangerous pillars. At the other end of the canyon is another cliff. The safe zone is some distance away from the edge of this cliff. Outside the safe zone, the rocky ground has given way to sand. The ground is so sandy that his legs sink into it. It made walking on it difficult and exerting without activating his fleet foot technique, the same one he used to scale the pillars.
Only when he treats the surface of the ground as unstable support, like mud, water, or rickety pillars, is Soverick able to run in it. And he dearly needs to run because the sky rats are still chasing him.
Their number has increased to more than 200 and there are no stones he could throw at them, only fine sand. So there is no chance of getting rid of them. Even if he had stones, his attempts to hit them will end in him becoming a better target for their own stones. He doesn’t have stones but somehow they do.
He doesn’t know where they keep getting them but they haven’t stopped throwing stones at him. So he ran and quickly reached the edge of a body of water. Then he began running on its surface with ease. The transition between running on the ground to running on the water was as easy as breathing to him.
The Will clone muttered at the sight. “No hope whatsoever.”
The chase continued as if nothing changed. The sky rats remained in the air and pelted Soverick with stones. He dodged remarkably well and was able to keep his balance.
The difficulty of the choke point began to increase gradually. The water surface became turbulent, wind speed picked up and some daring fishes began to attack him from below.
Soverick’s astounding perception helped him to keep track of all the distracting elements and his reaction made him avoid them easily. Things became more difficult as he ventured deep into the sea until he was stopped by the eye of the sea.
The eye of the sea is a giant whirlpool that is pulling everything within its area of influence into itself. Soverick will have to detour around the eye of the sea but will have to face the tornadoes circling around the eye of the sea instead.
Of course, he won’t face the tornadoes directly, of which there are six of them moving around the vortex. He will have to stay between two of them while maintaining a healthy distance between them so as not to be pulled off course into the whirlpool.
Meanwhile the thunder and lightning of the raging sea storm will do their best to make him unable to maintain the healthy distance that he desperately needs. It is a choreographed dance of a deadly whirlpool, dangerous tornadoes, and a heavy sea storm. A dance with very strict moves and high danger, to test for stability and spatial positioning.
The storm and the raging water will obscure sight so he has to be able to sense his position relative to the tornadoes and maintain it. The good news is that the sky rats can’t continue their chase. The bad news is that monstrous sea monsters from beneath the sea will try to drag him into the water. It’s like he traded an old outdated enemy for an upgraded and better-suited enemy.