Luna did not waste time, grabbing his hand. Instead of flinging her like he had flung Bella, Nero slowly lowered her down, before grabbing the edge of the wall with his free hand and lowering himself until her feet were touching the mud. Finally, he dropped her right before jumping down as well.
This time, Luna was ready. Instead of being flung over his shoulder, which made it awkward for him to move, she climbed onto his back so that he could keep on running. Considering all the additional weight Nero was carrying, the fact that his speed didn’t slow down in even the slightest made Luna extremely curious about how strong he really was, but she didn’t distract him with pointless questions.
Everyone observing from afar, as it happened, were wondering the same thing!
"He’s maintaining the same speed with the additional weight as he did in his first go. He doesn’t even look worn out or anything. Anyone care to elaborate on what the hell is going on ?"
"You can ask him yourself when this is over. What’s the point in bothering us?"
"He’s not even breathing hard!"
Iris grinned as she watched. She had an idea of how strong he had become, and could even guess his thought process. The reason he was going at a fixed rate was because he had measured how quickly he could recover from physical fatigue! He was expending energy just as fast as he could recover it, maintaining a fixed pace to maintain constant energy levels.
This way, he could go longer, and expend all his energy at the end when he needed it. It wasn’t that Nero had infinite strength or energy - he was just incredibly clever about how he used it. Such a meticulous mind... perfect for her research subject!
Nero did not slow down. When the short walls came up, he did not ask Luna to get off. Instead he simply leaped till he could grab the top, and then quickly climbed over, using the top as a foothold to jump ahead. A couple of times, he even gave boosts to some cadets who were on the walls just to speed them up, including Bella!
No matter what obstacle they faced, Nero overcame it calmly and efficiently, without so much as a single display of exhaustion. In the end, he didn’t drop Luna at the finish line. No, he only brought her until the final slope, and set her down above where the mud reached.
"You think you can do this from here?" he asked
Luna nodded, and opened her mouth, yet in the last moment said nothing. She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t weak! She wanted to tell him that if her aether reserves hadn’t been so low due to her recent synchronisation, she could have done this course on her own. Yet it didn’t seem right.
She could not waste precious seconds of his time in this course just to preserve her ego. In the end, she just watched as he ran backwards, once more aiming to help someone.
She turned around and, with gritted teeth, forced herself to climb the slope. Her body was exhausted, but she had received enough rest so that she could force herself to the top.
By the time she reached the finish line, nearly fifty minutes had gone by since the course started. Two other cadets from other battalions had already finished the course, and no one from Enlil besides her had finished just yet. But it wasn’t about which individual finished first. It was about which battalion did!
Partly motivated by watching Enlil work together, and partly motivated by their desire to win, the other battalions had also started working together to help each other. Yet that was only a few of them, while a majority of Enlil were working together!
Yet as the time passed, and a trend seemed to be set, very few actually thought Enlil could win. Demeter still had the lead in terms of number of cadets in the middle and final stages of the course, and while Enlil was making steady progress, Nero was still focusing on helping those cadets who were dead last in his own battalion.
Many laughed at him, at his futile efforts. As the hours passed by, Enlil’s loss became almost certain. By the second hour, 30% of Demeter had finished the course and a majority had reached the final half.
By the fourth hour, nearly 70% of Demeter had finished the course, yet those watching were no longer laughing or jeering at Nero. No, now they were watching with solemn gazes at the cadet who had not once paused for four hours. More importantly, they were beginning to realise that despite having a majority of its members clear the course, Demeter would not win.
That was because they still had five cadets who were still struggling at the short walls. The other battalions, too, had a few cadets far behind others, unable to seek help and unable to cover the distance on their own.
Enlil on the other hand... had no stragglers. While most of their cadets were in the mid to late stages of the course, they did not have a single one who was left alone in the back. Each and every one of those... had been rescued by Nero.
"Is it just me... or is his smile starting to look a little scary?" one of the senior cadets whispered, looking at Nero. What was supposed to be a fun game for them had turned into a stage for Nero to show off.
Many others agreed with him, though many disagreed as well. The Enlil cadets did not know each other yet. They did not know each other’s name, each or each other’s stories, yet at the finish line they all laughed and chatted like best friends. They compared how far Nero had flung them, as if they were not people but mere rocks tossed into the mud, and bragged about how much or how little they had taken his help.
Compared to everyone else, their mood was great - and why wouldn’t it be? It was obvious that tonight, they would be eating steak!