A group of 10 Speporans of all sizes begin running beside each other eager to win Spetra Academy’s 24th annual Holomakus memorial race. A few of the competitors are Brutantus, Racitus, Relity, Sprantus, and Pacentus. They stare as they run forwards at their first two obstacles: hurdles and a 10ft wall. Other obstacles include three competitive holograms, a round boulder, a water run, and a track to the finish line. The whole track was packed with other Speporans spectating the race such as Pacentus’ parents, Ascentus and Sylority. A majority of the Speporans changed for either Brutantus or Relity to win the race.
Once the race began, I had an early lead due to my speed. I jumped over all seven hurdles with ease, but not every Speporan cleared the hurdles perfectly. Momentus jumped over the first two hurdles, but was caught by the third and fell to the ground. Racitus didn’t jump over a single hurdle since he decided to run through them.
After clearing the hurdles, I ran towards the 10ft wall. I was still ahead of my classmates, but began to have a little bit of trouble due to my smaller size. I ran up the wall with two steps and slipped. Fortunately I landed on my feet. I thought to myself about how I could overcome this humongous wall.
Pacentus: “I need more speed,” I said outloud to myself.
Relity with help from her boyfriend, Brutantus, cleared the wall via him tossing her up to the ledge.
Exentus: “Helping classmates is against rules and will result in disqualification if you help Relity again, Brutantus,” our coach said from a digital television hovering above.
Brutantus: “Like I care,” he responded before he took two steps on the wall and grabbed the ledge.
Brutantus pulled himself up and cleared the wall by hopping down the other side. Racitus would take his normal approach and run right through the wall, thus causing it to collapse. I was now behind these three as the five other Speporans tried clearing the wall, while Momentus still struggled with the hurdles.
Meanwhile, I backed away from the wall and ran in a circle at least three times before I was able to take four steps up the wall and grab the ledge. I began pulling myself up as the five other Speporans still struggled with the wall. Momentus reached his last hurdle at this time.
Relity and Brutantus fight three generic holograms each, while Racitus body checks all three of his holograms on his unstoppable path to his next obstacle. Relity elbows her first hologram’s face, spins around and kicks the second hologram’s face, and catches the third hologram’s first. The first two holograms collapse behind her.
Relity: “You’re going to hit a girl?” she asked, knowing she wouldn’t get a response back. She would sweep the holograms legs and stomp on its face right after it crashed into the ground.
Brutantus: “That’s my girl!” he shouted, resting his hand over the first hologram as it tried punching him. Sadly that hologram was unable to punching him and took a single punch from Brutantus to collapse onto the ground. “Haha, weak!” he exclaimed.
Once I pulled myself onto the ledge, I stood up and looked at my three hologram opponents. Then I looked towards the next obstacle and watched as Racitus and Relity approached the giant boulders. All ten of the boulders were brown and round with weapons such as shields, hammers, and staffs, scattered beside each boulder.
Brutantus: “Hey weakling!” my tormentor yelled, I looked down at him to see his third hologram flying towards me. He obviously threw his third hologram at me to knock me down. His first two laid on the ground.
I quickly dove forward to avoid being hit by the flying hologram.
Exentus: “Brutantus,” he sternly said through the television above our heads.
Brutantus: “Screw you,” he exclaimed as he ran to the giant boulders.
SMASH!
My first hologram was slammed into ground after my hands landed against its waist and pushed him down to the ground. I handspringed off him and landed between my second and third hologram. They both came after me, ready to punch my head off my body. I ducked before they could punch me, causing them to punch each other. Then I sprinted towards my giant boulder, making up for extra time I spent on the wall.
Behind me, Sprantus and another Speporan climbed over the wall. They began fighting their holograms. Meanwhile, Racitus would ram into his boulder and slowly push it towards the water. Relity would pick up a large hammer from her choices of weapons and swing it at the boulder, but her swing would prove to be ineffective. Brutantus picked up his large hammer and walked towards Relity, but would turn around after seeing me reach my boulder.
Staring at this boulder’s surface, I knew I was facing my toughest task. Those holograms were crazy, but power was never my strength. Although I knew I couldn’t lift the hammer up, I tried picking it up. The hammer was 5 feet in length. I barely got the hammer a centimeter off the ground.
Brutantus: “Relity, look at Pace!” he screamed before laughing at me.
Relity: Dropping her hammer as she could barely lift it up herself, “Funny,” was all she said to her boyfriend.
Brutantus: “Pace,” he said with his hammer over his shoulder, “you weakling!”
I let the hammer go to a thud.
Brutantus: “What? You want to fight me?!” he screamed at me.
I bent down and picked up a gray shield. It wasn’t as heavy as the hammer, but it still had weight to it. I held the shield’s handle with my left hand.
Brutantus: “That’s what I thought!”
I walked away from my boulder and looked towards the holograms. There were now four Speporans fighting their holograms. Three were getting destroyed by their holograms, while Sprantus was holding his own against them. I stopped walking, turned around, and faced my boulder.
Brutantus: “Babe, watch this.”
Relity: “I’m watching.”
I stood still for a moment as a way to give Racitus more time to push his boulder.
Brutantus: “Come on, hurry up. I don’t have all day, Pace. It’s not like I want to watch you, you weak midget anyways.”
I ran forward with all my speed like a rocket shooting to space, jumping before impact and hitting the boulder’s center. The boulder began to roll towards the water due to the force of my impact and the gust I created blowing into it. However, my gray shield shattered into pieces upon impact.
When I fell to my feet, I tried getting feeling into my left arm for a short moment. The almost complete silence around the whole field and up to the sky was awkward. I expected Brutantus to say something to put me down, but he kept shouting explicit language instead.
When I looked up at Racitus, he was looking over at me and not pushing his boulder. He winked at me and shrugged his head to the risers. When I looked at the risers I saw Speporans standing up. I slowly turned to the walls and holograms where Momentus was slouched over the top of his wall, Sprantus back-kicking his final hologram behind him, and the other four staring at me as their holograms held them grounded and punched them. Sprantus gave me a thumbs up. Next I slowly turned towards Relity and Brutantus. Relity clapped for me behind Brutantus’ back, while Brutantus walked like a crazy maniac, spewing explicit language still and swinging his hammer anywhere he could. It was nice to things not go Brutantus’ way, but it was awesome to look up in the sky at my parents.
My parents were next to my class’ coach, Exentus, who had a flying, sphere-like camera in front of his face. They all flapped their wings with grace, making me wish I had my own wings so much more. My parents, Ascentus and Sylority, clapped for me, while Speporans on the risers began clapping and chanting “Pace” over and over. To be honest, I didn’t care if I win this race. I’d like to in honor of the great Holomakus, who went missing twenty-five years ago, but I stole the race already. It truly doesn’t matter because win or lose the moment I made will be remembered more than the winner.
BANG!
Brutantus swung his hammer at his boulder; the sounds of clapping and chanting died. Brutantus’ boulder rolled past the distance Racitus covered in just one swing of his hammer. The whole race resumed.
Racitus changed his positioning to help him maximize his strength. He began to push his boulder faster than he had before. Racitus quickly covered the distance Brutantus made.
Since I couldn’t use my hammer and my shield shattered, I picked up my staff off the ground. During this time, Sprantus sprinted up beside me.
Sprantus: “Congratulations, Pace, you just stole this race. I knew there was something extraordinary about you when I first met you,” he said. I think he enjoyed seeing Brutantus angry as much as I did.
“Thank you, Sprantus. I really appreciate it,” I responded before continuing, “Hey, do you think I could vault jump to the top of the boulder?”
Sprantus: “Well, considering you went faster than any Speporan I’ve seen, I know you can.”
BANG!
Brutantus swung his hammer into his boulder again, causing his boulder to roll past Racitus.
Sprantus: “Listen, I don’t want to hold you up. Brutantus looks like he’s getting close to knocking his boulder into the water,” he commented.
I started digging a small dash on the sandy ground, “Alright,” I replied before Sprantus picked up his hammer. He ran forward and struck his boulder to a quieter “bang.” Meanwhile unknowing to me, Relity began copying my strategy. She, however, finished digging her dash-like hole first.
BANG!
Brutantus hit his boulder again, but his boulder stopped moving by the edge of land left.
SPLASH!
Racitus shoved his boulder into the water, causing water to erupt out of the lake. Thankfully, Racitus was far enough away from my boulder, that the water never touched my boulder. I’d rather not slip and get squashed into a bloody imprint. Racitus ran off the land and onto the water.
BANG!
Sprantus hit his boulder again, making it slightly move past mine. We looked over at each other. He swung at his hammer again, slightly pushing it forwards.
“Alright,” I muttered as I backed away from the hole I dug. Relity looked over and backed away like me.
BANG, SPLASH!
Brutantus swung his hammer for the final time, pushing his boulder into the water and causing water to erupt out of the lake once again. None of the water splashed onto my boulder again, but I expected water to have splashed onto Relity’s boulder. A wave moved past Racitus, causing him to fall into the water. Brutantus dropped his hammer and began running above water.
I stood still for a brief moment to hear Speporans starting to chant my name again. Then I ran forwards towards the boulder. When I was able to, I placed my staff into the hole, jumped, and used the my speed and the staff to increase my maximum height. Relity did the same as me. I landed close to the top of the boulder, pushing the boulder further. When the boulder stopped moving, I was at the top of the boulder. Relity, however, landed on top of the boulder by adding a front flip to her jump.
BANG!
Sprantus smashed his hammer into the boulder, pushing his boulder closer to the water. He still had at least three more hammer strikes until the boulder enters the water.
Brutantus passes Racitus by running on the water. Racitus continues to swim, unable to run on water since he was taken off balance by a wave.
I began to run on top of the boulder, progressing the boulder towards the water. Relity also ran on the boulder, but much slower than me. Her boulder also progressed.
Speporans were split between Brutantus, Racitus, Relity, and me in their chants. Brutantus’ muscular friends and a few popular girls chanted for him, other popular girls chanted for Relity, the soldiers of Spepora chanted for Racitus, and those who were bullied by Brutantus chanted for me.
BANG!
Sprantus smashed his hammer into his brown boulder; his boulder got closer to the water.
I increased my speed, causing the boulder to roll faster. Then Relity increased her speed.
BANG!
Sprantus hit his boulder once again, leaving only one more strike until his boulder falls into the water.
Another Speporan begins to run towards his boulder after beating his holograms. He picks up his hammer and continues running towards the boulder.
Relity and I increase our speed again as we quickly reached the water. I was closer to the water than her, but she was starting catching up.
BAAAAANG!
The unknown Speporan smashes his hammer into his boulder, moving it pretty close to the edge. Unfortunately, his hammer’s pole snaps in-half. He runs forward and begins to push the boulder with both his hands.
SPLASH!
My boulder falls into the water with me jumping off it to make as much distance as I can. Water erupts into the air and a wave of water quickly reaches Racitus and Brutantus. When the wave reaches Racitus, Racitus is pushed forward. Brutantus, however, suffered a loss of balance and fell into the water. This allows Racitus to swim past Brutantus. I fall into the water.
SPLASH!
Sprantus smashes his boulder for the last time causing water to erupt as it falls in and creates a wave that pushes Brutantus, Racitus, and me forward. Racitus makes it close to land to finish the Spetra Academy’s 24th annual Holomakus memorial race by running the track.
My head surfaces above water after the wave gets by me. I watch as Sprantus runs on the water. Then all of the sudden, Relity let’s out a scream. Brutantus looks back for a quick moment, but then tries swimming even faster to shore to beat Racitus and Sparntus. Unfortunately for him, Racitus makes it to shore first and Sparntus and him make it to shore around the same time. The impressive Speporan continues to push his boulder towards the water, but then I look at Relity’s boulder. In fact, I notice that Relity hasn’t surfaced yet. Then I noticed her boulder was about to fall at any moment. I swim underwater to spot Relity stuck in the muddy sand, in perfect position for her boulder to kill her. What do I do? Do I save Relity from dying or do I attempt to win Spetra Academy’s 24th Annual Holomakus Memorial Race?
Have any thoughts about any of the characters or episode itself? Comment below and I'll respond when I can.