Mako, Erin, and Leon were really getting competitive as they raced. All three of them were neck a neck as there was no decisive winner. Mako could only use Dash to boost his agility as Sprint cost a lot more energy and he was running quite low in that department at the moment.
Erin was also getting tired as she was struggling to keep up because her eyes were getting dimmer and dimmer as she used the last bit of power stored in her mutant ice gene; however, despite the weakness, Erin didn't show any signs of giving up from the outside as she was determined to win as well.
Leon was quite surprised that even after the boost he received from his new armor and his speed ability, both of them were still able to catch up to him.
The ground was becoming more flat as they raced onwards. They were nearing the clearing around the lake at the top of the mountain and after running a little further, they could see the outline of their shelter.
All three of them kicked their gears into overdrive as they sprinted at their top speed once again to complete the race's final stretch. All three of them were completely exhausted, but one of them was still in a much better condition than the other two.
As they sprinted forward, taking strong and heavy steps, Leon's Blue Cheetah Leg armor started to emit blue sparks after every step.
Looking down, Mako and Erin could see that the cheetah spots on the leg armor were glowing blue and were responsible for the blue sparks being emitted as they couldn't hold any more kinetic energy and were releasing it in the form of sparks.
A smile appeared on Leon's face as he activated his trump card to win the race.
"Blue Dash!" He screamed the ability out loud as he directed his mana to activate the active skill.
Both Mako and Erin watched with widened eyes as the hide on the armor started to glow blue completely. The energy was being poured straight into Leon's legs, and he could feel them getting stronger and stronger as he ran.
All of sudden, Leon realized that he could run a lot faster now, and without any hesitation, he planted his right foot forward onto the ground concentrating all his energy on the foot. The pressure was too much for the ground to handle as it cracked up and molded around his foot as if Leon was running on Jell-O.
After concentrating all of that energy, Leon finally released all of it in a single pulse and accelerated forward, reaching his new true top speed in under 3 seconds. The acceleration was so strong that it created powerful gusts of wind that blew Mako and Erin off balance.
As Leon ran, he was accompanied by a blue streak that trailed behind him displaying his line of path; an effect created by the leg armor. Leon was running so fast, his vision was getting distorted as he ran because his mind couldn't process what he was seeing fast enough, but he didn't slow down even for a second because he knew he was up against monsters as well who could still find ways to catch up to him like when Mako displayed that intense level of speed during their fight earlier.
Leon didn't realize this but since they were almost at the shelter and they were knocked off balance due to the gust of wind. Mako and Erin had already forfeited the match and watched Leon sprint using his leg armor's active skill.
Leon was just so happy at beating Mako at something that he totally forgot about his surroundings and just continue to run straight on ahead.
"LEON! STOP! You're running into a..." Mako shouted a warning at Leon but it was too late.
*THUD!*
"...wall..." Mako finished his sentence.
Leon was running so absent-mindedly that he didn't sense the wall of the shelter in front of him and he ran straight into it at top speed, creating an indent of his whole body on the side of the wall.
Leon was stuck to the wall because of the force by which he had crashed into the wall in the first place. Erin and Mako quickly reached Leon and slowly and carefully pulled him out of the wall.
Leon's face was a complete mess. He had broken several teeth. His nose was broken and he had several cuts on his face that were bleeding profusely. However, despite all that, Leon still had a smile on his face as he continue to chant, "I win! I win!"
Seeing Leon's behavior Mako couldn't help but giggle as he decided to play along. "You have won the fight, but at what cost?" Mako exclaimed in one of his deepest and cheesiest tones.
The lame joke was enough to get a laugh out of both Erin and Leon.
Mako quickly took out three High-tier healing pills and popped them into Leon's mouth. Normally, a single High-tier healing pill would be sufficient but it would take a lot of time to completely heal the body and since they were still in a test where they could potentially be ambushed at any time it was a good thing to heal up as fast as possible.
The broken teeth would take the longest time to regrow and that was also another reason why Mako gave him three pills.
"Where's Iris? She can help speed up this process so much," Erin said as she looked around to see any sign of her.
"Yeah... where is she?? ...and where is Bill?" Mako asked as well.
All three of them were so focused on winning the race that they had totally forgotten about their friends who didn't have an advantage in speed.
"We really didn't hold back at all, did we? I guess we just left them too far behind. I hope they catch up soon." Erin said as she deduced the most likely scenario.
"Hmm... I guess you are right," Mako said.
Mako's mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario and started to think of the various kinds of bad situations that the two of them could potentially be in. It never even crossed his mind that they were just lagging a bit behind them due to the difference in their abilities.
Mako had always experienced the worst-case scenarios in his entire life and even on this island, there was one bad experience to the next and so Mako's optimism was starting to die out as he now anticipated the worst-case scenarios from the very start and not be optimistic at all.
Mako calculated the rough amount of time that would take for Bill to get reach the top of the mountain where their shelter was. He made a mental note that he would head back and start searching for them if they didn't make it back in that time frame.
Right now all three of them were excited and Mako suggested that they eat the self-heating MREs in order to satisfy their hunger a bit and recover some energy while they waited for them to also reach the shelter. Once they were all there, they could catch some fish from the lake and throw the feast.
All three of them agreed on Mako's decision and they quickly brought out a couple of bags and began heating them as instructed on the packaging and soon all three of them were munching on some hot steamy food. It wasn't the best quality nor was it fresh but it still did its job and filled their stomachs.
Leon was having some trouble chewing with his broken teeth but he was still able to manage it. Mako's metabolism had kicked instantly and he was already starting to recover energy points.
***************
[Meanwhile]
"Really? I can't believe he has grown so much. That description doesn't fit him at all now," Iris said.
The two of them had now been casually walking up the path toward the top of the mountain while exchanging stories with one another.
Overall, they were both having a fun time and they had completely forgotten the fact that they were participating in a recruitment test.
However, they would soon get a reminder about just how important it is to keep their guard up at all times and to remain vigilant because unknown to them they were being followed by another group of cadets.
Unbeknownst to Iris and Bill, a group of cadets had been trailing them for the past hour. The group consisted of 3 girls and 2 boys and they were one of the first groups to reach the west mountain since Mako's duel and were looking for those loot crates when all of sudden they spotted Bill and Iris.
At first, they thought that they were lost and would be easy targets for them but before they could make a move, the leader of the group heard the word "Mako" come out from Iris' mouth.
The leader instantly stopped her friends from engaging as she was now curious. Did these two people actually know the whereabouts of Mako Grey, the person who just defeated Mikhail Fedorov in a duel?
The leader wanted to see if her intuition was right and so she just told her friends to keep their distance and follow them. If they could find out where their shelter was, they could easily storm in and attack, and since Mako would be weakened from his duel, he wouldn't be able to stop them and they could gather all that juicy loot.
As Iris and her Bill approached a narrow section of the path, the group of cadets made their move as well; however, one of the girls from their group accidentally stepped on a couple of dry branches that let out loud crunching sounds alerting Iris and Bill of their presence.
"Who's there?" Bill demanded as he carefully scanned the surroundings to see where the sound came from and what made that sound in the first place.
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