Novels2Search
Unhinged Fury - (LitRPG, Reincarnation)
Chapter 49.1 – Short Tempers

Chapter 49.1 – Short Tempers

The bat cave run might have been a success, but Tom’s body felt otherwise. He knew he was being more irritable than usual, not to mention snappy, grumpy, and just generally unpleasant to be around. He had even caught Bir making faces at Kang over it.

Not that it mattered to him. With his lack of sleep, he couldn’t bring himself to care about the consequences of his actions.

It was their free session before dinner and they went to the obstacle course gymnasium to practice. Today, they had collectively decided that, rather than pushing to complete one of the harder courses, they would aim to get more out of the easier one. They were attempting to push themselves in a non-traditional manner. Instead of crossing the stepping stones in the way they were intended to be navigated, they would skip every second. For the tightrope, they attempted to forgo using the chest-high guide rope, there to stabilise their balance.

It was incredibly challenging.

“Fuck mum, what does she know?” Tom heard someone curse from the entrance of the room.

Ahead of him, both Kang and Bir tensed. With a sinking feeling, Tom recognised the voice. He knew they liked the obstacle courses, but this particular time slot was usually free.

“Fuck her, that dumb bitch.”

Tom abandoned the no hands rule and, using his hands on the guiding ropes to help his own balance, he as good as sprinted across the rope. The moment he was on the firm ground, his fears were confirmed. All three boys were in the room, and they were heading straight at them. There was going to be no escape.

Boreas, the one who had been swearing, was leading the charge. His face was dark with anger, and his expression was cruel.

Kang jumped down to the floor in an instant. Bir trailed on Kang’s heels while desperately not looking at the approaching teenagers. Tom knew that Kang was trying to avoid attention, but it was too late. Boreas was focused on them, and no amount of bowing and scraping would remove the target that angry gaze had stamped on their backs. It might have been futile, but he followed the others. His gut screamed that this was going to end poorly, and Bir felt the same as she released a burst of fate, presumably in an attempt to protect them.

Tom frowned at that. The proactive use was sensible, but not against people. Their own fate would cancel her efforts out, and he was worried that the coming confrontation might result in her learning the wrong lessons.

“How dare she say I’m wasting my life? What the hell would she know? It’s not like she’s ever around. Always too busy adventuring to spend time with me.”

None of the boys responded to the rhetorical questions. Kang headed straight for the side wall, intending to clear the course and hopefully deny them an easy excuse for bullying.

“Well?” Boreas demanded. Pausing momentarily to glare at his friends, to make it clear that he wanted a response from them.

“She was out of line,” Arnali agreed. “She doesn’t see how hard you work.”

“True right. You there!” Boreas bellowed, now talking to them.

“Keep walking.” Kang hissed at them. His head was down and he reached the wall and turned, but it was too late.

With all the extra grace and speed that a twelve-year-old possessed, Boreas intercepted them. “Where are you three slinking off too?”

“To get food. I’m hungry,” Kang said.

The other boy smiled cruelly and stood deliberately in Kang’s route. “Are you sure? You’re not lying to me, are you?”

Tom could see his friend’s face and, while it looked deferential, he recognised the fury in the tight line of the other reincarnator’s mouth. Despite the provocation, Kang said nothing.

Bir had her head down as well, and Tom knew there was no way she would make a scene. Hopefully, if they played meek and mild, they would be able to wait this out.

“What’s this? Silence? Are you really going to not say anything? Are you truly not tempted to ask if I can move so you can go eat?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Silence greeted him.

Boreas’ face became redder. “Don’t you ignore me. Don’t you know it’s rude not to answer questions.”

Tom forced himself to look away. Even sneaking glances at the older boy was dangerous.

“I’m happy to wait.” Kang said, in a neutral submissive tone while staring at his feet the entire time.

“Listen, I’ll get out of your way if you do one thing. Let us watch you do an obstacle course and then you can go.”

Kang maintained the determined silence.

“I promise. One run.” Boreas reached out and seized Kang’s arm and then glared at his two companions. “If the others don’t follow, bring them.” Then he dragged Kang along, and, even though the reincarnator was big for his age, there was nothing the boy could do. Instead, he was forced to run to keep up with the older boy’s quick walk. Before the other two could get involved, Tom grabbed Bir’s hand and, at a trot, while almost dragging her, he followed them.

Boreas, unsurprisingly, was making a beeline straight for the hardest course. “I just need to see one attempt, and then you can go. All of you. I promise.”

“Not that one,” Arnali insisted. “It’s too hard. They won’t get past the first obstacle. It’ll be boring, boring.” He grabbed Tom’s shoulder and Tom was stunned to feel the spark of electricity between them. Instinctively, from his core he reached out to the boy holding him, and there was a small chime.

His capturer hesitated, glanced at him strangely, and then dragged him over to the fifth-rated obstacle course. It was still way too complicated for kids their age, and they were going to fail for sure, but it was not as intimidating as the first course. “This level will be more entertaining.”

Boreas froze, his expression that of indecision.

Arnali pushed him forward, but didn’t release the grip on Tom’s shoulder. “This one’s better. More fun for us.” Then he leant down aggressively: “Go show us something good,” he hissed, then lowered his voice so only Tom could hear. “Get his attention. This one has safety features. You’ll probably be fine on the top course, but we don’t want the other two kids to be forced to do it.”

That was enough for Tom. He had already assessed the course he was facing, and getting totalled on the fourth level, which was the highest in the first third of the course, would be the optimal outcome.

Tom spent five fate, and, when he entered the obstacle course he didn’t touch his dampening ring, knowing that he couldn’t afford the handicap. He was going to require all the coordination he could eke out of this body just to reach the second obstacle.

The climbing wall was not quite as difficult as he had feared. He was even confident enough to deliberately miss a step when he was halfway up and then to hang there yelling in terror for a moment before recovery. It was good to entertain them when he had the capacity to do so.

The older boys laughed and jeered as he went. The next obstacle consisted of a series of rising platforms. Most of the times you could leap from one to the other. Occasionally, he had to twist around the pillars, holding on by the tip of his fingernails; then the distance he had to cover with his jumps got larger. Sometimes it was so wide Tom doubted he could physically make the leap, but he tried anyway.

The moment he was airborne, he knew he had misjudged the effort. He wasn’t going to make it. Midair, he changed from attempting a normal landing to committing to crashing into it, in order to give himself a chance of not falling. His abdomen collided with the edge. His breath was blown from his lungs, but he grasped the platform desperately. His feet dangled, kicking uselessly in the air. He slipped slightly, then forced himself to still. He spread his arms, then laboriously drew himself back up and onto the platform.

For a moment he lay there, panting, then he got up. He needed to be entertaining. He went back to jumping, and only missed one more leap. The second miss was more controlled, and took only a momentary scramble to right himself.

The third obstacle was a rope climb, which, compared to the first two, was ridiculously easy, as he had long since mastered the required technique. He monkeyed up it effortlessly.

Finally, he reached the challenge he was after, and it reminded him of the ninja television shows. There was a bridge to cross, with a spinning shaft with four-padded boom arms coming out. It spun fast, with one of the limbs sweeping over the bridge every couple of seconds. To cross, you had to leap over some and duck under others.

He attempted sprinting across the bridge, ready to be hurt to protect the others. To the observers, he was a dumb kid who had been lucky in getting this far. There was no need to delude them of that opinion. A padded arm swept toward him. He made no effort to jump over it, as he leant into the little kid with no spatial awareness stereotype.

The arm smacked into him. The force of the collision lifting him off the ground. He flipped. On the way over the edge, his head slapped against the slightly spongy surface of the bridge before he slid right off and began falling. For a moment, fear locked him up and he prayed that Arnali hadn’t been lying about the protections, and that the community’s fate would be strong enough to shield him. The fall was over five metres high, and the floor would not be cushioned sufficiently for him to weather landing head-first without injuries.

He plunged down and struck a rope of another course hard, but magic wrapped around him and safeguarded him. The collision must have looked like a horrific one to outside observers, but the protective magic meant it didn’t damage him in any significant way. The enchantment had even reinforced his spine to avoid whiplash. Then he slammed into the ground, but, once more, the magic cushioned the fall slightly. Not completely, no – it still felt like he had fallen from a decent height. But that height felt as though it were only a metre and a half, as opposed to five.