Arrive at the palace on ti they did, because Damien had managed to clear the twenty kiloters in only forty minutes. By the ti he returned ho, however, Ahara had already bathed and applied her makeup, ready to leave for the palace.
And now here they were, facing the track behind the palace, with Lord Clent and the boy stretching themselves on the circular pavent whilst Eden, Ahara, and a few guards watched.
"I see you've been training him very well," the Vampire King comnted Ahara, whose eyes were darting back and forth between the palace and the racers.
Damien smiled at himself when she stilled at the King's question, realizing she was looking back to see if the Queen would show up anyti soon.
"Ah, yes. He's been quite determined to race against you, my lord."
"Is it?" Lord Clent grinned at Damien. "Well, I suppose you can now sprint ten kiloters in an hour then?"
"Make it fifteen minutes," Damien stood and began to jump, flexing his hands to his sides. "I can do it in fifteen minutes."
He could feel the eyes of everyone behind him boring into his back, from Eden's direction especially. When Damien turned his body around as he jumped, he wasn't surprised to see her usually squinted eyes wider than saucers now.
"Y-you think you can sprint ten kiloters in fifteen minutes?"
"Hmm," Damien responded, his voice shaky from jumping.
"Are you insane? Only C-ranked Gibbits can run at such speeds! Hey, try knocking so sense into him, he'll exhaust his body before the enrollnt on Tuesday," Eden pleaded with Ahara, but she only smiled at the girl, the gray hues of her eyes glinting proudly at her brother.
"Let him be. He knows what he's doing. Besides, isn't two days long enough for a Gibbit with aura to heal?"
Upon hearing his sister side with him, Damien grinned at Eden.
"Don't worry. I'm not the sa boy I was when you t at the hospital. I'm stronger now, and I think we can both enroll at Gibforge without any problems thanks to your Dad's and my sister's training."
Eden imdiately relaxed her expression and nodded, but the hint of doubt was still in her eyes. "Okay, if you say so. But rember not to overuse your body. Your aura will deflate once its owner is weak, which could affect your results at the enrollnt."
"I know," Damien responded to her, before flipping himself to look at her father. "I think I'm done with my warm-up now, sir."
"Good. I was beginning to think you were bluffing."
SNAP!
Two guards imdiately appeared behind Damien and Clent when he clicked his fingers.
"Start the tir for us. Fifteen minutes like he said and he gets his wish, thirty, and he gets the recomndation. How about that young Amaris?"
"You couldn't have said it any better," Damien responded, closing his eyes to concentrate.
Just as Ahara had told him to do, he focused all his aura on his legs.
"You know that feeling when you drink hot water on a cold day and the heat tingles around your body? Concentrate on yourself until you feel your aura do that inside your body. Then imagine all of it flowing down to your legs and see what magic will unfold the mont you stretch your legs to run."
Soon, Damien felt the beautiful sensation masking his legs. His body imdiately felt lighter, as if its weight had vanished into thin air. And when he bent himself in the track's direction, he could already feel the montum driving him forward as the track pulled him.
"The race begins in three, two, one—"
TOOT!
Once the whistle reached his ears, Damien sprinted into the track. He snapped his head to look behind him, smirking when he noticed Clent now but a dot in the far distance, standing in a rather shocked pose.
'Serves him right for underestimating ,' Damien thought, snapping his head back to the track as his legs glided on the ground, invisible to even their owner's eyes.
The trees were now but a blur in his vision. So was the wind. It sounded exactly like how he imagined hurricanes would, a violent whoosh in his ears as he easily covered the five kiloters Lord Clent had given him.
'Ah, this feels nostalgic,' Damien thought to himself, rembering how his body had moved during the bloody fight three weeks ago.
However, he was still lacking sothing. Back then, he had defied a lot of odds. Even ti seed to pause when he moved. Everyone he fought was too slow, and their movents were rather boring. Like a movie played in the lowest motion ever.
"Too slow," ca a voice next to him.
Damien turned his head to look at who said it, but the person whooshed past him like a flash of light. They left a trail of dust, and before he could even realize what was happening, another dust cloud began building in the direction he was headed. Then it stopped as a figure suddenly jumped into the sky.
Damien recognized him in an instant. It was Clent.
He landed skillfully right in front of Damien and imdiately began sprinting in reverse, keeping up with the boy's speed sohow.
"You weren't kidding when you said you could run the marathon in fifteen minutes. Hell, at the speed you're going, you could even cover it in ten. But in Gibbous that's still laughable for a guy your age, although, for those with aura like yours, your speed is very scary."
Before Damien could respond to him, Clent flipped himself around and landed gracefully beside him shouting:
"I'll see you in a second!"
Then he vanished.
'What the fuck!'
Surprise was an understatent. Damien was flabbergasted.
He blinked twice, increasing his pace as he tried to forget what he just witnessed. Soon, the guards standing on the five-kiloter mark ca into view and he grinned. But before he could even cover the small distance between him and them, another flash ca to his left and he flinched.
It was Clent again.
He whooshed past Damien, rounded a guard standing on the mark, and sprinted back to the palace. Damien watched in envy as the man passed by him in a flash, leaving another dust trail for him to breathe in.
"You're slowing down, Amaris!" He called out, his voice echoing in the distance.
'But I'm keeping the sa pace,' Damien protested in his head.
His body was beginning to feel a bit heavy, and so were his legs. They were starting to feel itchy and sore.
Running around one of the two guards standing by the mark, he almost cursed loudly when yet another cloud of dust ca headed in his direction.
'He's back already?'
But it was Ahara, her speed matching the King's in every aspect. Like him, she passed by Damien in a flash, but when she noticed her brother, her speed decreased once she rounded the mark.
"You're slowing down, Damien."
"But I'm keeping the sa pace," Damien repeated the phrase, louder this ti.
"No, you're not! You're getting discouraged by the Vampire lord's speed and it's disturbing your flow state. Focus! Or you won't make it back in fifteen minutes like you promised."
With another flash, she disappeared into the track and left him breathing in her dust, just when Lord Clent appeared in front of him again for yet another lap.
"Decided to quit didn't you?" He mocked in a distance, grinning from ear to ear.
Damien gritted his teeth. Ahara was right. He was focusing too much of his energy on the man and his taunts and it was disturbing his flow state. Ignoring Clent's saucy spin as he passed by the boy, Damien focused on the track.
'Like hot tea on a cold day. Like hot tea on a cold day. Like hot tea on a cold day—'
Sure enough, the light sensation he had lost returned to his upper body, and his legs stopped itching in an instant. However, that wasn't the only developnt. Every ti he lifted his foot and moved it ahead to sprint, a sensation akin to that of floating would overtake his body, sending him flying a few ters more with each dash than he had a little while ago.
The sound of Clent's feet slapping quickly on the ground echoed behind Damien. But he cut the noise out of his head, focusing on his current mission:
Getting to the palace in fifteen minutes.
Before he knew it, he was picking up speed. The blurry images of trees intensified, and so did the loud whooshing sound of the wind. He couldn't tell how fast he was going, but the track he was running on beca much clearer than before.
Even Clent's noise was nothing but a background scratch in his ears.
The palace soon ca into view, and so did everyone. Ahara, Eden, and the guards were all standing on the circular concrete slab with the pointed pillar in the middle, waving their hands at him.
"Smoke his ass!" Ahara yelled, and as if fueled by so possessive spirit, Damien's speed increased.
However, the finish line was closer than he had calculated, and in re seconds, it zood in on him.
"Stop, Damien!"
"Reduce your speed!"
"He's about to crash into the tir!"
"Save him!"
The voices were but background noise in Damien's ears. He tried to decrease his speed, but he couldn't. His legs wouldn't stop sprinting.
'Fuck.'
With a loud thud, his body smacked into the pointed gem face first and he grabbed it, groaning in pain.
The world suddenly ca into focus. It wasn't a blur anymore, nor were the sounds muffled by the wind in his ears. Although, Damien now felt sick.
"Are you okay?" Ca Ahara's voice as she rushed to grab him.
Eden too. She was assisting Ahara to help him stand, but them jerking him back and forth only made him feel worse.
"I'm...gonna...vomit."
"No, no, no—"
But the girls were too late in removing themselves. Damien opened his mouth and jerked forward, his stomach imdiately releasing all the beans he had eaten this morning for breakfast.
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