Dakota stood in front of the crystal wall. Beads of sweat ran down his back. This was about to hurt. Jesus trotted around in the upper room, content to watch him sweat. He got the distinct impression the lamb thought his anxiety was funny.

“Stupid lamb, I could dump you outside and then what would you do?”

“Bahh.”

He slammed his hand onto a circle and “pushed”, he had to get home. Time to put the work in to make that goal a reality.

He appeared on the other side as the floor tiles shifted. The configuration of the room was slightly different from last time. Bouncing in place, he waited for the countdown. It was showtime.

“BEGIN.”

He sprinted toward the nearest tower, ducking behind a low wall to avoid an orb. A ring bobbed on top of the tower. It faded into sparks as his hand touched it.

Taking a deep breath, he jumped off of the tower, caught a rope, and descended. He spotted another ring close to the base. He landed and immediately pressed himself against the side of the tower as an orb zipped around the corner.

Sweat poured down his face. He couldn’t afford to get hit. The pain…

Three more rings joined the first in quick succession. Maybe this wasn’t as hard as he’d thought. He paused beside a bridge of tiles, analyzing the orbs. They didn’t appear to have a pattern and nearly ran into each other a couple of times. That made his job harder. A preset route would be easier to predict.

As he watched the constructs, he noticed round mirrors placed around the room. He sidled next to one and cautiously poked it with a finger.

He edged his face in front and froze.

He…looked different. Gone were the soft edges. Shaggy, tangled hair framed a face that had seen better days. His beard, always thin, had filled out and contained twigs and dirt. His shoulders poked through his shirt, bonier than he remembered them. He looked…sinewy.

Dakota jerked, recalling where he was. No time for self-reflection.

He slipped away, pausing beside a pit. A ring hovered at the bottom, fifteen feet below him. A rope hung to one side. Grabbing it, he slid to the base and collected the ring. Gripping the rope, he pulled himself up, hand over hand. Just as he was climbing out, an orb flew around the corner. He dropped, clinging to the edge of the pit.

The orb, normally constantly moving…paused. He scrunched his fingers as sweat made the tile slick [fix]. The orb moved, coming closer to his hanging body. It paused right above him. He didn’t breathe. He didn’t flinch. Eating an incineration beam to the face was not his idea of a good time.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The orb flicked away. Dakota hauled himself out of the pit with trembling arms. Let’s get this over with. He moved toward another ring when a whooshing sound reached him. He turned, just in time for a beam to bounce off of a mirror and blast him through the chest.

Pain flared for a moment, then disappeared as he blinked. Jesus “bahh’ed” behind him.

“So that’s what the mirrors do

He took a short break after that, digging up a carrot to snack on. Jesus snuffled his leg, seeming aware of his unstable condition. He didn’t know whether he could handle subjecting himself to that much pain every time he wanted to train. At the same time, it wasn’t like he could find better training. None of the wounds carried over from the crystal room and the threat of the orbs did make him more serious about doing well. He probably wouldn’t find an environment that replicated the feeling of a life-and-death situation so well without any of the permanent consequences.

Dakota had to get home.

Shaking himself, he reentered the tunnel and placed his hand on the crystal wall.

This time he waited on the side and counted. At sixty-three seconds, the three statues on the sides of the room shot beams. Each beam lanced into the center where they impacted mirrors. The mirrors reflected the beams into other mirrors which, in turn, reflected them into other mirrors. The result was a crisscrossing maze of death.

Dakota noticed the beams moved fast, but not that fast. They weren’t the speed of light. Probably closer to the speed of an arrow which meant he could dodge it if need be.

The beams lasted for a few seconds before winking out. So he had around a minute in between shots. He could manage that.

He ducked into the middle of the room, counting in his head as he went. He cleared a low wall and had collected his first ring when he heard the whooshing sound.

“Wait! It’s only been fifteen seconds. You’re supposed to pau…”

He was cut off as a beam bounced off of a mirror and bisected him.

Stupid messed up training facility.

Dakota scurried to the side of the room again. He waited until the statues shot their beams then stayed put. Fifteen seconds later, the statues shot again. Fifteen seconds after that, they shot again. A ball of worry wormed its way into his gut. This might be harder than he thought it was going to be.

Dakota slid past an orb, tapping a ring on his way. That was fourteen. He dodged left, then right as two beams of incineration blasted by. All three constructs were on his tail. He leapt over a wall, grabbed a rope, and swung around the third orb as it fired. The beam scorched his back but thankfully mostly missed. Only six more rings. Only six more rings.

He finished the swing with a roll, dodging another beam. This was getting too hot. The constructs appeared to get more frantic the longer he was in the room. He leaned, watching a beam cut through where his head had been. That had been the same construct. At the beginning of the session, they had something like a fifteen-second cool-down on their beams. Now, it was closer to five seconds. He darted around a corner and spotted another ring. Almost…there…

*Whoosh

Blinking, he looked at the crystal wall.