The Obstacle Course II
The Obstacle Course was built in such a way that everyone could see what was going on inside. So that meant all the students could see their four peers stand in front of the entrance to the first area, which was constructed in such a way that there were numerous iron poles with small platforms barely big enough for a single person to stand on. There was a meter gap between each platform, and 5 meters below was just the floor.
There was a ladder at the beginning in case one fell, so it seemed that falling didn't automatically consider one to be eliminated, and just wasting time would do so.
At the end of this was a wall that had numerous imperfections that allowed one to climb, but it was difficult to see a good path that wouldn't lead to a part of the wall where finding something to pull yourself up became difficult.
For the first area, it seemed 'tame' enough.
"Get ready." Mrs Jane said and took out a stopwatch.
The four students went to their respective test areas and got ready, but they all seemed extremely nervous, which wasn't surprising. Ana seemed to be the most concerned as she wondered if she could even succeed with her size.
"Start." Mrs Jane said and started the timer, and immediately, the four of them went forward.
Unfortunately, none of them made it more than a few platforms before they lost their footing and fell.
The students watching expected them to sustain varying injuries when they hit the ground. But to their surprise, the metal somehow absorbed all the force of their fall like it was foam.
Osho was surprised, but then when he thought about it, it made sense.
'She is capable of creating metal dummies with muscular structures like humans. They wouldn't be able to move if she wasn't capable of making the metal in their bodies fit certain criteria. So, the chances are that she knows how to change the properties of the metal she creates, making it change from its rigid nature to something flexible.' He thought and nodded to himself.
The four students took time climbing the ladder, and they took even more time climbing them with their beasts.
Once they were at the top again, they tried once more, but they didn't do much better. On one hand, if they took it slow, they wouldn't meet the time. But if they went too fast, they were likely to lose their footing and fall.
Adam made the most progress, getting about a quarter of the way before losing his footing again and falling. Through this time, their beasts didn't seem even the least bit bothered by the hardship their masters were facing.
Osho shifted his gaze to Mrs Jane and saw her watching all of this intently, but he could spot the faintest bits of disappointment in her eyes.
'Hmm.' He hummed as he finally counted five minutes in his mind, and Mrs Jane spoke.
"Alright, that's enough. All of you step out." She said with no room for argument.
The four students came out covered in sweat, and Mrs Jane stared at all of them impassively.
"All of you made a vital mistake throughout this exercise, but I won't tell you what that mistake was. So, while you figure it out, all of you give me 50 push-ups." The four of them were about to protest, but a single look from her made them suck it up and do as she said.
'I can't help but marvel at how disciplined she has us.' Osho couldn't help but think. Most of the students here came from well-to-do families and should have all experienced some form of spoiling, yet from the moment they joined this class, Mrs Jane had effectively rooted out whatever pride any of them could have and made them disciplined. It's also for this reason, Osho assumed, that he didn't face much bullying.
'Whether it's on earth or here, she's still the same.' He thought his lip curling upward ever so slightly.
While the first four were doing their push-ups, Mrs Jane called the next batch and had them go through the course. Needless to say, they didn't fare much better.
It couldn't be helped. Most of them didn't feel like their beasts would be useful in situations like this, and few of them actually trained their bodies, so they weren't athletic enough to go through the course anyway.
It kept going like this until it was eventually Ellie's turn.
"Ellie, Eric, Esther, Elizabeth, you guys are up." She said, and the four went up.
While the two girls and boy looked nervous, Ellie looked focused. Upon reaching the entrance, she commanded Sugil to move from her neck to wrap around her arm as she tied her hair into a ponytail.
"Get ready." Jane spoke as the students got ready. But unlike the others, Ellie looked like she was going purely for speed as she mapped out the path she would take.
"Go." The timer started, but Osho ignored the other students as he focused solely on Ellie, and indeed, she didn't disappoint.
Previously, students would go to the edge of where the platforms started before hopping on them one by one. Some people tried to be different and get a running start, but they didn't know how to use their momentum and usually just ended up falling.
But Ellie was different. She ran, but not with her full speed as she reached the edge and jumped. She stretched out one leg and braced her body as she landed on the first platform, the shock being absorbed.
Then she leaned forward and pressed against the platform with the foot she used to land, her momentum not stopping.
Osho nodded as he saw this. This was how it was meant to be. Hesitating too much would make you doubt yourself, but being too hasty was just a recipe for disaster.
Ellie was moving smartly. Not going too fast and leaping with adequate force.
However, with the number of platforms, it was difficult to keep up that tempo and not get tired. If she kept moving at that pace, she was bound to slip up due to getting tired.
Indeed. At some point, Ellie lost her footing, and Osho heard a number of gasps from his classmates. It seemed like they were rooting for her.
Her foot just barely missed the platform as she hadn't pushed off the last one with enough force. But just when it seemed she was going to fall, a platform made of purple crystal appeared beneath the foot that missed.
Without hesitation, Ellie pushed off it and continued her advance.
From the corner of his eye, Osho saw Mrs Jane give an approving nod. Indeed, this was what she wanted to see.
Ellie continued moving. Whenever she lost her footing, Sugil would create a platform beneath her feet to help her recover. In the end, she managed to reach the wall.
She immediately started climbing, but as mentioned before, it was hard to find a proper path to the top as many of the imperfections that allowed one to climb let to spots where the next imperfection was too high to reach. So, in such a situation, one would need to go down so they could find a spot that was feasible to climb up.
Ellie reached one of these points soon. But instead of stopping, she simply sent Sugil a command, and the snake created a long crystal hook, which was long enough for Ellie to use and slip the hook into the crevice above.
She climbed the hook and had Sugil cancel it as she continued climbing.
Everyone watched with amazement as Ellie made quick work of the obstacle course that all of them saw as a death trap.
Eventually, she reached the top, and Osho nodded.
'4:11 seconds.' He thought as Ellie went down the ladder to the next area.
As for the other students that were participating in the course, they weren't anywhere near her and just kept failing. So eventually, their five minutes ended.
As for Ellie, she was in the next Obstacle, and the difficulty ramped up considerably.
It was a rotating tightrope that seemed to be extremely slippery, and off to the side was a wall that kept shooting out blunt spikes at an alarming speed.
It seemed that Ellie had met her match this time. No matter what she did, she couldn't keep herself rooted to the tightrope, and the spikes kept ruining her efforts. So she eventually fell.
She wasn't deterred, though, as she climbed up, but she didn't immediately proceed as she observed the obstacle. She didn't seem to care about the passage of time as she just stared at the obstacle intently which confused everyone, but Osho felt a sense of pride as he watched her.
'Rushing in this situation isn't going to change the result. So she's taking what she learned from the previous failure and coming up with a solution.' He noted. Indeed. When she had burned through three minutes of her new five, she suddenly stepped back as much as possible until her back touched the wall behind her.
She then had Sugil create a curved bar of crystals with handles at the two ends, then she ran forward full speed.
'She's gonna have to be quick about that.' Osho thought as he saw through what she wanted to do.
Ellie reached the end of the ground before the tightrope, but oddly enough, she was just off to the side of it, as if she didn't intend to jump on it, which she didn't.
Instead, she jumped by its side, her momentum carrying her forward, but not for long. However, just as she was about to fall past the tightrope, she whipped her arm around the tightrope with the curved bar and just barely managed to use her other hand to grab the other end.
Her body was jolted as her body pulled down against it, but she managed to hold on. And the result of this stunt? She started using the tightrope as a Zipline!