Standing within the clouds atop his flying sword, Vince stood composed, relaxed even as he stared at the floating ball in the sky with a distanced gaze. How long had it been since he had been in a similar trial? Years? He hadn’t trained like this since the slaughter.

His ears twitched at the sound of two high-speed objects flying in his direction, of course, these two ‘objects’ were his younger sisters, Nena and Len. They steadied themselves and moved next to their brother with smiles on their faces.

Nena's arms shook with excitement as she called out to her brother, “Did you see big brother? I made it through the second trial ground!”

With a smile that looked fierce thanks to the scar under his left eye, Vince pat her head, “Good job, little sis! You’re a natural at this! And you're not too bad yourself, Len. You got past the first floor in record time.”

Nena didn’t shy away from Vince’s frightening smile as she knew he couldn’t help it, while Len was dishearteningly hanging her head in defeat, “I’m... the older sister… How could... I lose…?”

With a loud laugh, Vince tried to cheer her up, “Now, now, Sister. You beat the first level faster than most people could hope to, according to the captain.”

Despite the hair covering her face, Vince could see that Len wasn't bothered by losing to Nena. Even so, Len pouted and turned to her big brother to tug on his sleeve as she pointed at the huge floating ball in the sky, “Big brother… Beat Nena’s for me…”

‘What a child! Aren't you supposed to be older sister!?’ Vince almost fell off his flying sword in shock, but thankfully regained his balance. Looks like that year of training wasn't for nothing.

Nena didn’t seem to notice Len’s childish remarks, her eyes shining too brightly for Vince to gaze into, “Big Brother’s going to fly!”

Vince ran his hand through his hair with a sigh, unable to believe how carefree these two were, “Alright, alright. I came to see what you guys were doing here, not to fly. The twins will be serving dinner soon and we have to be on time!”

Saddened at Vince’s response, Nena wore a downcast expression that made his heart ache. Yet the final nail in the coffin was Len's soft mutter, “Brother… Cruel…”

Feeling horrible with how he responded to his sisters, Vince sighed, “Fine… I’ll do one run if it’ll make you guys happy.”

“Yey!” Joy overflowed from Nena’s movements as she smiled brightly with her small hands raised to the sky.

“Just watch, you’ll learn a thing or two from me,” Vince said with a wink as he immediately fell into a freefall atop his sword, cutting through the air at high speeds and quickly reaching terminal velocity. When he grew close to the testing grounds, he slowed his descent by doing an elongated downwards spiral that expanded most of his built up speed.

By the time he reached the thin yellow membrane entrance, Vince had already completely stopped his falling momentum. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Vince gathered himself and charged wide-eyed into the doorway. As he expected, the membrane gave way like a zipper, allowing him entrance.

“Hmmm... so it's this type of puzzle?” Vince lazily scanned the field with half opened eyes. Lasers littered the flight path, shooting between moving blocks whenever they got close enough to each other. Mine traps littered the air and if a person came near, they would explode violently. And that wasn't all. Spiked laser balls floated randomly throughout the field, bouncing off of the walls and floor, constantly changing the pathway to the goal.

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To pass the trail, one had to make it to the goal without touching any of the lasers littering the 2 km room.

If it was just that, it wouldn't be hard to pass the first trial. However if the individual didn’t account for the hidden ‘Spitters' placed into the walls waiting to blast holes into trial takers, hundreds if not thousands of shot’s would descend upon them with all their might.

Naturally, Vince didn't head straight into the puzzle, instead of studying how the traps floated through the room.

In the air above the training grounds, Nena and Len watched their big brother on a large real-time screen. As time passed Nena sat on her sword, swinging her legs with her head tilted, “Why hasn't big brother gone yet? Why is he waiting, he could have gone dozens of times by now!”

Len nodded. She’d seen six different ways to reach the goal by now. But dozens? Her little sister must be exaggerating...

Back on Vince's side, minutes passed by as he carefully watched the flying spike balls slowly float by, the lasers move like winding snakes and the mines stay stable in their spots until he saw the opening, '3..2..1...GO!’

Vince shot forward in a flash, reaching the center within 20 seconds. In that time the turrets fired, bombs exploded, lasers whipped like serpents slashing out in all directions, and spiked balls flew in all directions at high speeds, changing the trial grounds constantly.

Chaos rained around Vince as the red lasers mixed in with the gray wall, and he swiftly dodged the spiked balls, breaking the speed of sound as bullets came mere inches from his body. He moved without hesitation, turning left as a laser flashed an inch from his face. He turned right in a flash, crouching as dozens of balls came flying overhead before launching himself straight into the sky as a horde of bullets smashed into his previous spot.

Eyes shining auric outlined in gray, Vince stretched the limits of his mind and body to see the path forward, always on edge as he pushed himself onto the most dangerous paths without regard.

Finally, as he neared the goal, a sense of crisis filled his mind. It seemed he miscalculated his movement in that instant as laser whips, spiked balls and bullets had cut off all escape routes except a single route that held a mine.

Gritting his teeth, Vince held the tip of his sword  and made his body small as possible as he dove down, straight towards the mine, roaring without care, “Let’s go!”

A wall of red smashed around his body, missing him by a few inches, no, by mere millimeters! The path constricting around him, and the mine grew ever closer, slowly shining with a bright light.

The mine was about to blow, but with a mad, devilish grin, Vince pulled up away from the death trap, escaping through a small gap between lasers. The mine exploded moments later, blowing all the junk behind him away.

Vince didn’t gaze back as he dashed straight towards the finish line at high speeds, passing through the silvery stone gate with a grin, “Goal.”