Fate Online: Shadow

"Now then, let\'s see if there will be students who are dumb enough and try to take a shortcut through the forest behind me" Mr. Santos said, followed by a maniacal laugh.

"Hahaha!"

Meanwhile, a group of four people had already gone far ahead than the rest, and lagging a little behind them is Chad and his group of friends, followed by one of the men who are assigned to monitor their progress.

"You girls go ahead, I\'ll run with Brandon" Michael said to the girls when he noticed that Brandon is already having a hard time running alongside them.

"Okay, make sure to catch up" Lisa said as she and Maine immediately increased their pace, showing how physically fit they are as they had already covered a lot of distance from where they started, even with their feet digging into the sand.

"You don\'t look so good, just tell me if you can\'t keep going," Michael said as he ran beside Brandon, whose chest was already heaving from the lack of oxygen intake of his body.

Brandon slowly came to a stop as he leaned on his knees and started heaving for more air, with Michael who was also forced to stop because of him.

"I don\'t…think I can…run anymore Boss" Brandon replied in between breaths.

And soon after, Chad and the others had slowly caught up to them and started jeering at Brandon as they ran past them.

"Oh no! It seems you got baggage to carry with you Michael! Hahaha!"

"I don\'t think your little group would be coming first or second place later! Those two would certainly not like it, little Brandy!"

"You gotta do more than that if you want Lisa to like you, nerd!"

Chad and the others came running past them while throwing jeers at Brandon, whose face had turned red from either fatigue or from their words.

Brandon feels really ashamed inside as he can\'t even lift his head up, knowing that this race would determine who would get to sleep inside the dorm.

He wouldn\'t mind if it was just him having to sleep outside, but there\'s also the girls to worry about.

"It\'s fine"

"Wh-what are you doing?!"

Brandon yelped in surprise when Michael crouched down and suddenly carried him into a fireman\'s carry over his shoulders, making the former panicked as he wasn\'t expecting that from Michael!

"Shut up, and stop moving around. Make yourself light as possible" Michael grunted as he slowly stepped forward, then another, until he was already lightly running with Brandon over his shoulders, and made it look so easy!

"B-boss, y-you-"

"Shut your mouth"

Brandon wanted to say something, but Michael cut him off before he could finish, as he even pinched his thigh to make him shut up.

"Amazing, that kid…did that student of yours train in the army or something similar before?"

A man standing beside Mr. Santos couldn\'t help but let out an amazement seeing how Michael is slowly catching up to Chad\'s group even when he\'s carrying another person on his back.

"I don\'t know, but I heard from the other kids that he seems to be very athletic. I just didn\'t expect he\'s that strong though, but wouldn\'t he just tire himself out before he could even come back here while carrying another person on his back?"

The man beside the professor just laughed and said, "Well, we can only watch and see how it goes"

"Huff* Huff* Huff*"

"So tired, just why..do we have to run on the beach?"

"F*ck, save your breath and…stop talking, and how come those girls are still able to have the energy to run that…f*cking fast?"

"They\'re…marathon runners"

"Huff* Huff* Huff*!"

When all of them descended into silence and with the only noise of their feet digging into the sand and the waves hitting the shore.

That\'s when they heard a very distinct sound of heavy breath coming from behind them, and all of them couldn\'t help slightly turn their bodies around and saw a shocking sight!

"Damn! Is this dude even human?!"

"How can he still run that fast while carrying a person?!"

All of their eyes bulged out in shock! Even Chad, who is the most fit and proud of his physique, couldn\'t help but have a surge of respect for Michael for doing something almost impossible!

After all, anyone already knows how hard it is to run on the sandy beach, much less while carrying another person on your back!

"He\'s mad! He\'d be long exhausted before he could even make a lap around the island!"

Even the instructor who was running along with them was startled when he saw Michael carrying Brandon on his back, and he couldn\'t help but praise the young man inside.

And not long after, Michael with Brandon on his back was already running side by side with Chad and the rest, and like a zoo animal, all of them are looking at Michael like he is some kind of a monster.

And there\'s Brandon, who\'s leisurely getting carried made faces at the guys, who in turn just ignored him because they couldn\'t be bothered by the likes of him!

"You\'re crazy" Chad said to Michael who was running beside him.

Michael looked at him and just smiled, and slowly increased his pace until he was already running ahead of them.

"What the f*ck?!"

"How is he doing that?!"

They couldn\'t understand how Michael still had the energy to run so fast while carrying another person!

"Run! This is a humiliation! How could we lose to someone carrying baggage with him?!" Chad looked at his friends and yelled at them, trying to raise their morale.

"Chad is right! Right until you collapse! Until you have no energy left!"

"UOHHH!!!"

The guys slowly realized the situation they were in, especially with some of their classmates running behind them and saw everything!

How could they, the jocks, lose to some pretty face?!