"Oh my gosh." She exclaimed, and Leon, who stood beside her, scoffed at her, then moved towards Damien, who was watching everyone in the training grounds.
"General, should they begin?" he asked, and Damien nodded at him. "Yes, I am curious to see how many will die this time," he smirked as he replied and glanced at Layah, who was looking his way.
He dangerously narrowed his eyes at her and, confused by such a stare, Layah's brows furrowed and she uncomfortably averted her gaze.
"All right. All of you line up in a neat line now!" Leon, who had rushed to the middle of the training ground, yelled, and all the slaves, including Layah and Mishak, rushed off to stand in sets of neat straight lines.
He nodded his head in satisfaction on seeing this and turned around to look at something that looked like training obstacles a bit further away. "Do you all see that?" he asked, and they nodded their heads.
"Those are your training obstacles. Today, your first training begins, and this is not just any training. You fall, you die! So you all better buckle up and do what you can to win." He said to them with an evil smirk on his lips, and the slaves, who were not just scared by the evil grin on his lips, but by the dangerous obstacle course, shivered in fear.
"Oh Lord, please keep me safe." One of the slaves, who looked the age of twenty-five muttered and Layah who stood beside her turned to look at her. She thought of speaking to her to calm her down, but refrained from doing so, as the woman continued to mutter endlessly.
"Hang the flag!!" Leon's voice suddenly reverberated in their ears, and they raised their eyes to see the soldier at the far end of the obstacle course, raising a flag that was attached to a long piece of wood.
"Whoever passes all the courses and gets the flag will get to have a special chamber of his or her own. Not just that, he or she will receive special treatments and food, unlike the rest." he said to them, and as though this enacted newfound energy within them, they all became agitated.
Layah glanced at Mishak and smiled on seeing that he was no longer looking pale and weak. "Mishak, take care, alright." She whispered to him and he turned to look at her with a slight smile evident on his face. "You too."
"Alright. On your mark, ready, set, GO!" Leon shouted, and the ground shook as the slaves began to race toward the obstacle course. Dust swooped everywhere and Damien, who was watching, fixed his intent gaze on Leia, who was one of the people in the front.
He smirked and pulled a chair for himself, then sat down and folded his arms to enjoy the show.
The slaves arrived at the vast obstacle course, and Layah hurriedly climbed up onto the slim wood plank, just like the other slaves did.
They all halted when their eyes fell on the first obstacle course which was none other than the Pendulum.
This obstacle was just a set of wooden poles that one would say were quite tall. It had a wooden pendulum with metal spikes on its body, which swung around, indicating that they must avoid it while walking on the pole, else it could hit them and seriously injure them. If you were lucky, you would get injured in a not-so-dangerous area of your body.
Layah breathed heavily, and just like the other slaves, she felt nervous and scared. She glimpsed Mishak, and Mishak smiled at her in the hope of giving her some courage.
'You can do this, Layah! It's not your time to die.' She encouraged herself and carefully hurried forward, then jumped and successfully landed on the first pole with one leg down and the other up.
She took a deep breath and brought the leg down, then watched the spikey pendulum swing from left to right.
She monitored its timing from when it went from the left to the right and prepared to jump onto the next pole.
She swallowed hard and her heart skipped a bit when she heard the shrill cry of those that had already been knocked off the pole by the pendulum.
Her chest tightened, and with all the courage she could muster up, she jumped and successfully avoided the pendulum onto the next pole, but as unfortunate as she was, she fell forward, and on trying to catch herself, the pendulum mercilessly knocked her off, slashing her arm in the process.
She fell to the sandy ground, and a deep groan of pain exited her throat. "Arghhhh!!"
She pulled herself up from the ground and breathed heavily as she moved her trembling hand to touch the wound. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" She cursed and turned to glare at Damien, who was gazing at her with disdain in his eyes.
"Pathetic," Damien muttered behind the half mask he wore on his face, and as though Layah heard it, she sent him a hateful glare and struggled to her feet. She gazed intently at the obstacle course and decided to try again.