So, he looked at the ReflectionLawn when it generated itself before him, measured the distance between the glass walls.
Finally, breathing until he was calm, he took a step forward.
The ball had hit the wall behind him, come before him, went left, then right before hitting the ground and then bouncing off it to hit the ceiling in a diagonal direction
Tumunomi Escaver had ducked, side stepped as he stood up bent backwards until his hands met the ground, then stood back up as he twirled his upper body and jumped respectively in accurate response.
1 minute
2 minutes
3 minutes…
After 5 minutes, he noticed that the room got smaller.
And when he kicked of the wall – from the bouncing ball that never seemed to stop ricocheting – he could tell that it was either glass that could somehow retain its elastic property of bouncing or plastic.
Either ways, between the workouts, Derek mock fights with him and Derek surprise ambushes, he was good.
However, after 10 minutes the room got bigger.
So, he had intended to kick off it and roll on getting up but he slammed into it.
Luckily, the balls passed above his head and he could do a sideways roll on the floor before pushing himself back up.
In 20 minutes, the tennis balls began all moving horizontally and dodging was all to easy.
Derek could have done this while make poses at the 20 speeding balls.
30 and the balls began moving horizontal.
He sidestepped accurately and timed each evasion well.
And if he let his memories of what Derek had taken him through cloud his concentration, he would have lost.
But, not yet.
40 and there was a slight delay, as if each ball gave the other a 0.5 second gap.
50 and the gaps became a second between each one so that the balls made a wave pattern as they sought to hit him.
Im 60 minutes Tumunomi Escaver now faced the bouncing tennis balls moving horizontal and vertical like a net.
But this time there was ample space between each one so that he could dive and jump through their gaps, which he did.
Forward dive!
Back leap, Side twist, Duck and roll!
Jump twist!
Mrs.
Rose Marilyn was smiling to the extent of her lips could allow and when Finim Barboach wanted to tell her that this kid was already top tier, he flinched when he saw her expression.
That expression was when she had found raw graphite or when she was angry or when she was planning on playing with things.
And graphite as in precious stone that was pressurized into becoming diamond.
Tumunomi Escaver might suffer after this, and that alleviated his past grievances.
But even at that, he could not even bring himself to hate the boy anymore.
The strong had a right to quirks.
Not that the weak did not, they just had to be…
louder.
Finim Barboach shivered and remembered some dark things.
He then snapped his head back to the ReflectionLawn later and saw that 10 minutes later the balls trajectory had changed once more.
Now diagonally poised, additional tennis balls ad joined the fray.
All of them still managed to keep themselves equidistant from each other.
So, Tumunomi Escaver just had to stay calm, like Derek had told him, when he was in a serious situation.
And Derek’s surprises and extents to which he took his play fights sometimes scared even Tumunomi Escaver.
Not that he would ever tell Derek that.
When…
we met again.*
The next 10 minutes the balls would begin vertical, go diagonal then horizontal.
The positions switched like infinite permutations and even Tumunomi Escaver was wondering why he was not hit.
Maybe he was moving on muscle memory now.
He had read something about that which he did not remember but he pushes it to the side.
And on the 1 hour and 21st minute, the tennis balls all broke into random motion.
Here, he was eventually caught and he now lay on the floor as the tennis balls froze before returning to their pipes and the room dissipated, leaving the pipes behind.
He stood up from the ground and opened his eyes to meet Mrs.
Rose Marilyn.
He saw her manic expression but his grin did not back down.
When he reached the PressureMill the staff, friends, winners, losers and spectators all paused before they allowed themselves to breath after a full minute of pin drop.
Tumunomi Escaver actually did some warmup exercises before he started out but even an idiot could see that he had already passed his tests at this point.
So they did not mind waiting for however long.
“Could he be cheating?”
Mrs.
Rose Marilyn’s smile dropped and she eyed Finim Barboach.
“Potential, when groomed from a young age can become explosive later on.
Like how there is a difference of one who starts from a young age and one who starts at a latter one.”
“You think,” Finim Barboach squeezed his face in thought.
“You think that even though he cannot begin cultivating Ko-jin the particles all around him is responding to his hard work.”
“Yes, he did not start working out yesterday, you know.”
Finim Barboach looked at her
“He started when he was 6.”