A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 280: Physical Tests

Chapter 280: Physical Tests

"Three!" The person who was counting us down was a red scaled futa Lamia, not that it mattered, just an observation. She was holding her arm straight up as she counted down

"Two!" The person that I was racing, was a male Cheeta-Kin, who seemed to be a fellow Platinum ranked adventurer.

"One!" Both of us leaned down as we prepared to race at full speed, the moment that arm came down and the Lamia yelled go.

There was a few seconds of silence as the Lamia let the tension rise.

"GO!" Her hand came down and the race started.

Bot me and the Cheeta-Kin darted away from the start line with a thunderous burst of power, creating a shockwave that ruptured our surroundings.

The initial burst from out start allowed the Cheeta-Kin to get a head start, but that didn’t deter me at all as I slowly caught up to him and even surpassed him at around two thirds the way round.

Once that lead was established, it was basically a set conclusion as my lead became greater and greater with each lap.

I was even almost able to overtake him once more, but I crossed the finish line before I could.

When he came over to congratulate me, he was out of breath, saying that he had never seen someone like me run so fast, and that it motivated him to train more, since he prided himself on his speed.

Still, he took the loss rather well, and was happy since he knew that there was still a long way to go. And I encouraged him that with enough hard work, anyone could do anything.

He thanked me and went to hang out with the rest of the gathered crowd who were all staring at me in awe and admiration for my feat.

Before he left though, I was given a time on how fast I completed that race, which was five minutes and thirty-four seconds. Which I thought was pretty good.

Next up was Agility, and they went all out for this one, which shocked the onlookers.

They made an obstacle course using earth magic and some random equipment that they had lying around.

It wasn’t a simple obstacle course though, as it required me to make several successive jumps repeatedly alongside many twists and turns.

They basically just made it as complicated as possible to truly test my limits.

The beginning of the course looked easy enough, but the as it got longer, it looked event harder to do.

In the end it took them nearly an hour to finish, and the crowd had grown a lot larger too.

Even Ba’arhim was here, though he seemed to be hiding off to one side where none of the main group of adventurers could see him.

He nodded to me and I nodded back in courtesy and respect.

Even though he’s probably the on that told them to give me the toughest of challenges. Not that I minded since this is kind of what I wanted.

When it was ready they let me have a quick test run to get myself familiar with the course but I refused, which shocked them.

When they asked why, I said, "The point of this test is to examine my Agility. If I’m more familiar with the course, that degrades the value of my abilities. Not to mention, depending on the scenario, I might not have the leisure to think about such things because I’m being chased by a monster or something."

They all looked at each other and shrugged, getting ready to examine my run of their makeshift course.

And with a much shorter countdown than the one from the race, I began.

The course started off with a little bit of weaving between some posts before having me jump up and across some short platforms before making me take a sudden one eighty degree turn around a wall and through a hole in a pillar that seemed to be for a platform for later.

Upon reaching the ground on the platform on the other side of the hole, I rolled on my side and immediately pushed myself up to continue, even though my tail hadn’t fully landed yet.

But that didn’t stop me as I kept on slithering through this course as bends got tighter, gaps got smaller and spaces got wider.

Eventually, I reached the hardest part of the course.

The first part required me to get up a completely vertical wall, so I coiled my tail up beneath my upper body and used my strength to push myself up like a spring, grabbing onto the edge of the surface up above, and smartly using [Tail Whip] to whip my lower half up into the air above me.

Using that leverage, I pulled myself up onto the top of the wall for the tip of the trial.

I had to dive down through a hole diagonally and twist my body in rather awkward ways to avoid some spikes that jutted out from the surface of this hole, which was more like a tunnel.

After which I had to then immediately turn around and race up a ramp, where I then had to jump across the largest gap so far.

I hastily coiled my tail, and just as I finished, I had a brainwave. That brainwave being to use [Tail Whip] once more as is.

And it worked a little too well as I was sprung far too high into the sky that I had to use some [Pyromancy] to somewhat course correct myself to land on the finishing platform.

Which I landed on with a thud. And just up ahead, was the finish line.

Before even a second could pass, I got back up and sped over the line and skidded to a stop.

As soon as I did that, the course started to crumble, not because it was unstable or anything, but mainly because they were taking it down with their magic.

Once it was all gone, which they did faster than they did when making it, they gave me my time which was ten minutes and eleven seconds.

This was the fastest time that they had ever seen on a makeshift course with incredible difficulty.

Everyone watching was once more looking at me with awe and admiration. But this time, some of them even looked at me with disbelief, which is understandable.

But I had no time to pay attention to them as they set up the arena for my durability test.

In front of me was a Minotaur. No not Garrick, but someone else who just so happened to be a Minotaur also.

He looked a lot bigger and beefier than Garrick anyways. Where Garrick looked like your typical buff Minotaur, this guy looked like he was some sort of berserker.

And I was proven right when he looked up at me with eyes that crackled with a semi-sinister red energy that made his muscles bulge with a mystical power.

He was basically going to punch me at a tenth of his maximum strength and increase the power of his subsequent strikes after.

I took a deep breath and got ready to receive him and motioned with him to come forth with my hand.

He charged at me with enough force to create a huge crater in even the dune seas.

*Bang*

When he struck me, I crossed my arms and flexed my own muscles to become much more rigid and sturdy. The result was that I was every so slightly pushed back, but my tail prevented me from very far because it was in a wavy position.

But I didn’t have time to think about that as the Minotaur raised his fists once more and stuck it down upon me with a fifth of his strength.

*BANG*

This time, I felt myself sink into the ground ever so slightly as my arms trembled from the impact.

I was perfectly fine and could still take a couple of punches.

Then he hammered down on me with half his strength.

*BOOM*

This one actually felt painful and pushed me further back into the ground, creating a clear groove in the ground I was laying on.

I grit my teeth as I saw him raise his fist once more, with what looked like seventy-five percent of his strength.

*BOOM!!!*

The moment it fell on me, I could feel my entire body shaking from the impact and nearly fell over.

I think even the bones in my arms were almost broken from that.

And as the Minotaur raised his fist for the last time, before it fell, I yelled, "I YIELD!"

The pressure that the Minotaur emitted ceased and the crackling red energy from his eyes faded.

I took in a deep breath and sighed in relief. If he’d punched me at full strength, then I feel like more than just my arms would be broken right now.

"So, how did that last punch feel?" He asked, not in a demeaning tone, but more so just to gauge my limits based on what I said, his voice deep yet soft somehow.

I lowered my arms slowly which felt like they were going to suddenly shatter from the amount of pain I was feeling, but I answered honestly anyways, "I felt like my arms were about to break."

"Mmm." With that, he walked off to write down his assessment.

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