The pedestal dropped, and a light push of air forced all three of the girls away, even Aife who looked dumbstruck, that such a small amount of air could actually move her. Once they were away, Sui could feel something wrapping around her hand. Looking down, Sui saw a black substance inching its way across her fingers. Sui tried to reach out to it with her powers and received no information back for her troubles.

The black substance in question, was completely smooth and with the slightest sheen that differentiated it from the box. As it stretched to cover all of Sui’s fingers, she flexed them and was surprised to find her movements unimpeded despite the tightness of the fabric and the fact that it didn’t seem to stretch.

Very strange. If I could make proper gloves with such a material it would be a joy. They don’t impede my movements at all and likely provide at least a token amount of protection for my hands. Perhaps it would be safer if they were slightly loose, but at least they are unlikely to catch on anything. The only concern, is they don’t react to my control at all, meaning it likely isn’t thread. A true shame.

While Sui was admiring the glove, she noticed it wasn’t quite done. Feeling a light tingling on her palm, the blob started to stretch out and form itself into a close approximation of a Glock, with some notable personalisation. Both sides of the Glock’s slide, had what looked like an embossed silver needle, with spider webs on it, and the grip looked like it was knitted together with purple thread. The trigger looked to be a single piece of thread just hanging there, in a bright red colouring.

Sui felt herself gripping the gun and found it was smooth. The design didn’t affect the grip in the slightest. She twisted it around in her hand, and also tried reaching out with her power, to little effect. Sui tried to move the gun to her other hand and found it refused to leave her grip, staying firmly attached to her hand that was holding it.

Shrugging, Sui looked to see what had happened to her companions, and found they had acquired similar weapons, but with their own unique designs. Trina’s gun, looked like a few books put together with a bookmark as the trigger, and Aife’s looked completely normal. Well, that’s disappointing. I was expecting an intriguing design like myself and Trina, however I suppose that she has used paint guns before and technically that is a sporting activity. Perhaps it had nothing more suitable to change it to.

Raising her gaze, Sui prepared herself to take in every detail of the obstacle course she was sure to see, but she was denied that. The black wall stood strong. She waited just a moment, but Trina and Aife turned their gazes to it as well and the wall fell. It broke down starting from the top and cascaded down, more like an avalanche held in place then a crumbling wall as the broken pieces gathered and fell in greater and greater numbers.

When the field was finally revealed Sui was in shock. High up in the sky, the first thing to be revealed was three massive zeroes with a name above them, Sui, Aife, Trina, designating the contestants for this and… really nothing else. Even as the wall fell to reveal the entire playing field the only thing that Sui could see was a plain white floor, and a far-off wall at the very edge of her vision, that also seemed to be completely white.

Um… is that it? That’s everything? Just… isn’t there supposed to be- “Isn’t there supposed to be an obstacle course?!” said Trina taking the words right out of Sui’s mouth… er… thoughts.

“Yeah…” said Aife letting her voice trail off as she stroked her chin. “This certainly isn’t what I’d consider much on an obstacle and I can’t see any targets anywhere…”

Sui shrugged. “Well, we might as well start. I don’t see a timer anywhere but I imagine there is one, even if it’s the full twelve hours, we likely need to make the best of it.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Trina grimaced at that, with Aife frowning and nodding along. “I suppose so” said Aife. “Well, I already said it so let’s just get started”

Stepping forward, Aife beckoned the other two to follow behind. They each took steps forward with varying degrees of confidence. Aife strode, fully in control. Weapon hanging loosely at her side but ready to be drawn when necessary. Sui followed slightly behind, with Trina to her side. Sui had her weapon drawn, and was walking with a steady and careful pace, waiting for a target to appear. Trina was holding her gun like she wanted to strangle it. Knuckles white and hands shaking, she tried to look as confident as the other two and failed for the most part. Still her footsteps were even and her eyes were roaming the field.

As soon as Trina, the last of the group, stepped onto the platform, the three started to spread out, but before they got far, a target appeared in each of their faces. Sui, having had her weapon at the ready simply tilted her weapon slightly to line it up and fired. Aife, reacted fluidly bringing her weapon to bear and firing one handed at the target while looking out for others.

Trina, already somewhat unnerved, by the strange clinic whiteness, that was the vast expanse of the playing field let out a short shout and jumped backwards away from the target. Still, with shaking hands she fired, perhaps on instinct, or perhaps in fright, when tightening her already choking hold… but it was enough to strike her target anyway.

Aife, hearing her shout of fright, turned, to see another target popping up. It shot from the ground slightly further away then Trina’s first target, but this one continued to fly up. Aife didn’t let it go far, shooting it as soon as it peaked over her girlfriend’s head, before apologising. “Woops, didn’t mean to take your target there”

“Th-that’s ok” said Trina trying to put her fear into a nice little box and shut it tightly so it wouldn’t bother her in these tasks. She’d fought real, honest to goodness monsters for crying out loud, a target appearing so close should not have been that scary.

Sui, still paying attention, managed to catch her second target the moment it appeared before her eyes. She waited calmly for it to appear and simply pulled the trigger as soon as it passed her gun’s muzzle. This time though, she did note something. It seems these have no recoil. And… now that I consider it, likely also infinite ammo. Or at least something more than a clip. They didn’t provide any spare ammo I don’t think, so let’s ignore that. For now, the fact it has no recoil is more important.

Sui heard the Aife make another shot, and likely hit another target, but it wasn’t relevant. “Trina, did you notice if your gun has recoil? Aife is probably strong enough to ignore it, but I shouldn’t be. And yet, no recoil for me” asked Sui.

Trina licked her lips, eyes looking for another target. “Maybe, I wasn’t… exactly paying attention”

“Understandable” said Sui, turning her gaze back to the field. They each took a few more steps forward looking for anything, when Sui noticed something above her. Craning her neck, Sui noticed it was a rapidly falling target. Giving the shout of “UP!” she aimed, best she could and fired.

Now, let it not be said that Sui had anything less than perfect vision. She’d lined the shot up perfectly, and even though she wasn’t used to firearms, had done an exceptional job. The only issue… was that she hadn’t accounted for the paintballs themselves. Sui watched as the target, falling much slower than she thought, was drastically undershot by the paintball which had stalled out around two thirds of the way to it’s mark, and was now heading straight for her. “Paintball’s DROP!” shouted Aife, clearly making the same realisation Sui did, if just a slight bit earlier.

Sui dashed to the side but kept her eye on the target. The first ball splattered on the ground throwing bright red paint over the white floor but leaving her unharmed. The target was still falling after all, and managed to line it up well enough, watching it sink further until she decided it was in range. Releasing another shot and finding a bullseye, Sui turned to see how the others were doing.

Trina had managed the dodge well, also dodging her paintball and landing a target. Aife… well, it seemed that she thought she was a bit smarter than her friends. She’d managed to dodge the paintball coming back for her with the smallest movements possible, perhaps to show off. What had actually happened, was there was now bright orange paint on the bottom half of her pants. At least she got the target.