If You Can Dodge A Wrench

The next fifteen minutes seemed to be some of the longest of these kids lives, either waiting and watching people live the lives that they had dreamed of or people hoping to god that by some divine stroke of luck they would be able to pass the test by some long shot.

Unfortunately, a long shot was an understatement; in this case, this was a test designed to be unpassable without knowing the answer after all. Those that gave their best efforts weren't always rewarded though.

Some of those who had decided to sit out the test were notified that they had passed, although this confused a lot of them at first it seemed that as they hadn't given up but rather realised their own inability to answer the question they were seen as having a mindset worth cultivating. If they were able to recognise their limits, with help, they would be able to break through them.

Unfortunately for those that had given up, they weren't seen as worth raising as they wouldn't be able to keep up with the demanding regime of the Academy. They had been labelled as quitters.

While the results were being taken into account there was a large amount of commotion; it seemed that there was another group that had been able to pass the test. James looked towards the direction of the other group and saw a youth staring at him with fire in his eyes.

'Seriously, I bet you this kid thinks I stole his limelight or something. I suppose I technically did, but if he tries to do anything about it, I'm not afraid I guess. At most he's going to try to bully me or something.'

James had set his resolve never to be walked over, and if he even thought for a moment about not standing up to the competition of a 12/13-year-old youth, he might as well cut his second life short as it wasn't worth living.

"Okay everyone, time is up. Those of you that have been notified of passing please come to me and the rest of you can head back to the entrance, and for anyone who thinks that their families influence is going to be able to let them pass is sorely mistaken. We've never changed our minds at the end of a test; all decisions are final."

The old man heavily stressed the last part, evidently, in previous years there had been a lot of people trying to threaten the academy.

After everyone had cleared out, and those who remained crying were swept out the old man turned to the crowd of happy youths and gave them a warm smile.

"Congratulations to everyone who has passed the first round of exams, next up we will have a test of your physical abilities."

'So first they test mental faculties, now it's physical abilities. Are they trying to rank us by natural abilities?'

James couldn't help but feel that this form of testing wasn't necessary but having no other option he got prepared for the group activity.

"The game we will be playing will require two teams to face each other; each team will stand on a line facing each other. We will then place a line of balls in between you, you will need to run towards them and without crossing the line in the middle run back to your original line."

The old man then proceeded to give an explanation that drew a lot of parallels to dodgeball, the youths around James all seemed riled up and ready for battle, but he couldn't help but remember mandatory physical education lessons and getting pelted with balls the whole time.

'Time to get some payback I suppose, it's the small victories that feel the best after all.'

"Alright let's begin with our two front runners shall we, can both teams that answered the question earlier line up on each of these lines."

It seemed they wanted to run one game first so everyone got an idea of how it should be played and the best way to make sure the students were interested was to use the two competing teams for first place in the rankings.

Noone had explained how the academy was quantifying the points, but James could only assume that it had a predetermined set of criteria that they would compare each team to.

"Once you hear the bang you can begin."

One of the current students of the academy then lifted a large hammer and then swung it down onto a metal plate that was laid out on a raised platform.

The second the hammer made contact with the plate James dashed out at his top speed. He was incomparably faster than the other students, the people on his team watched as he blurred forwards and before anyone could react started knocking the balls towards his teammates, not a single other person had reached the line yet, but the balls were all gone.

"No-one throw yet!"

James had seen his teammates run towards the back line preparing to throw the balls.

"We have all the balls, we control the pace of the game now so don't rush, take your time. And if you can, get the ball to bounce back to our side."

Everyone on James' team took a deep breath calming themselves from the excitement that had taken over leading to them almost losing their perfect advantage.

There was only one problem that James hadn't thought of; these were all pre-pubescent kids, they couldn't put nearly enough force behind the ball to make it difficult to catch or bounce back to them.

'Damn, at this rate they're just going to turn the tables on us, I suppose it's not all bad though.'

The game field wasn't that large, so James was more than capable of catching balls thrown back by the opposition, there was only one thing he wasn't having difficulty with, and that was a tall skinny youth that seemed to move like water and could easily dodge the balls that James threw.

It didn't seem he would be capable of catching them, but he was just damn near impossible to hit.

"Everyone stop throwing and keep the balls, try to catch for now."

The second James said this no one thought twice and began trying to catch the balls coming towards them. It seemed that he was now able to control the pace of his team completely; this was a remarkable feat considering the number of hard-headed youths in his side.

"Form a semicircle from me towards the opposition, if someone gets hit by a ball make sure you catch it from the rebound."

James was beginning to form a plan to deal with the kid that could dodge the balls no matter how fast he threw them or how hard he tried to predict his movement.

The enemy teams numbers had dwindled to a measly 3 in this time while James' team had six left in the game, it was time for him to finish this game.

"Everyone put the balls on the floor; we're going to be passing this ball back and forth, try to pass it as fast as you can."

James then decided an ordering system for who gets passed to, the only twist he placed on this is the order would change every time in a pattern that would take too long for the opposing team to figure out. The only kid who may have been able to see through this pattern was the one who had stared daggers at James before, but he had been swiftly taken care of by James and was still at the side with yet to dry tears in his eyes. He was all brains but no brawn.

James' team then began passing the ball back and forth, at first it was slow and unorganised with people almost dropping the ball multiple times, but it gradually got faster and faster until they weren't even catching the ball anymore and just pushing it straight to the next person.

After a while of the ball following that strange rhythm, James suddenly dashed to the front right of the semicircle and punched the ball that was perfectly placed for him.

It shot off like a small meteor and after looking like he had missed it began to move after the youth like it was chasing him.

'You think I wouldn't notice you could only dodge sidewards in a straight line, dumbass.'

When James had hit the ball he put as much spin on it as he could, at the speed the ball was moving it wasn't that noticeable, it meant that when he hit the ball and the youth dodged it gradually curved towards him and was able to catch him before the ball slammed to the ground.