What The Luck!?

Chapter 377 - 377. Pitch Black

The aggressive movements of Cara were too much for everyone to watch. They had known that she had been holding back when they trained, but not how much she held back. It was insane. Her speed was the same but the variety of moves she used was much higher. 

"Bro, is that really Cara? Or some crazed battle goddess trying to destroy every dummy possible?" Art was looking on in wonder and slight fear. He was regretting every teasing comment he had ever made in her presence. He had no idea just how many different ways Cara could have kicked him across the room. 

"All of them are in response. I wonder how she would change the way she used the movies…" This was a much better thought process than Garnet and coach Winters expected from Sammy. She was opening up her imagination to how moves would be used and when. This was another important lesson. 

"You should always wonder how a move will be used. If you are in an awkward position you should have five moves you can use at a given second to counter and change the situation. Your mind should always be able to think of five solutions. If you can't do that, then you are still too far behind a hero." The lesson was simple but made too much sense. Having a back up plan was always a good idea.

"It's easier to think about it like chess. I know all of you learned to play it or at least understand the process. The one who wins the match is not the player thinking about the move they are making. The player that thinks of all the possible moves they can make ahead of their first move is the one that wins. It's planning as they move. There isn't any hesitation." Coach Winters finished Garnets' thought. They two didn't glare at each other like they usually would. Instead, they were acting almost in sync making the group feel as if they were secretly best friends. 

"Difficulty to level two!" Garnet shouted out and the dummies speed instantly increased. Cara was facing the fourth level the same that Asher had and was doing well. This was the end of that though. She was completely beaten. The large dummy lost the sluggish movements and the smaller dummies seemed to get smarter. They anticipated her moves and she was unable to counter any longer. It was as if they had been set to just a hairs breath away from her level of skill. 

Just as Cara was about to be knocked flat, the dummies stopped and she stumbled down from the platform. "That was dirty." Her snarl of annoyance was completely annoyed as she moved to stretch her aching arms and legs. The group had managed to see her limits and the reason why she pushed them to train harder so often. Cara wanted the group to catch up to her more than they wanted to actually catch up to her. 

"I couldn't even hold a candle to her on the first difficulty. We were on easy mode and still struggled." The realization was hitting Louis a little different than it was the others. He couldn't help but feel the immense gap between the group and Cara. She was nearly good enough to beat the whole next level of the training where they were well behind. 

Garnet and coach Winters didn't allow the thought to continue. They pushed Laura to go on next then soon finished the rotation with the rest of the group. They were pushing things along so that everyone had the chance to analyze the battles and have the experience. By the time they had all taken their turn, everyone felt that they had been through a harder trail than ever before. 

"Come on, get up. We are done with the warm ups. We have hours left still." The serious tone that Garnet took made all of them feel as if this was no longer a choice. They may have reached out to the two for assistance but this was getting brutal. "The next exercise is simple. Last an hour without being captured." The lights went out in the gym. Everything was dark and silent. 

That was until the floors started shifting, the dummies started moving, and the group started to try and shout for each other in the dark. The strange part was that their voices were getting further away. "The floors are moving us!" Asher caught on to the situation but felt that he could do nothing. 

The sudden stop of everything put all of them in great distress. "What's trying to, gah! What the- Get off!" A large gust of wind sent what sounded to be a dummy flying in the air and to the ground. Sammy had been the one that was discovered by a dummy first and barely managed to escape its' grip. 

"They said not to get captured. Just stay silent and the dummies might not be able to find you. They shouldn't have night vision!" Cara had heard of this kind of training. There were sensors that would attract the training dummies toward them. Sensors that picked up sound. Therefore, she was the best at beating this training. She could throw her voice to one side of the gym and the dummies would all head that way leaving the group safe. 

"Oh, I forgot that we set something up to counter your super power and attempted communication. We prefer you to learn in chaos. During an attack on a city, there will be explosions, shouting, and maybe worse that eats away at a heroes' senses. So, play max volume heavy metal loop!" The brutal drums and electric guitar started up nearly forcing everyone to become deaf. The sound was strong enough to shake the entire gym and make everyone feel off balanced. 

Cara was the one that was the most shocked. She had not expected her super power to be blocked so brutally. She was completely left with only the sense of touch left. She would need to react to whatever she felt touch her instantly. This was also a problem for their entire group. They had no way to know if it was a dummy or a group member trying to take them down. 

As they realized this one by one, Laura was the only group member to figure out the heavy weakness they faced. But for Laura, it was less so a weakness. She had to train her body very carefully so that she could properly use it as she wanted. Due to this, Laura had developed a very sensitive ability to feel things. This proved useful when the harder dummy hand made contact with her. She knew it wasn't a flesh and blood hand so her reaction was instantaneous. She pulled it and flipped it over her shoulder before dashing a few steps away. 

Sammy was having a very similar experience. After the first dummy had tried to capture her, she had been pushed to high alert. Her senses were heightened and she was coursing with adrenaline. She had always felt the air around her. The wind was constant even when most people would think it wasn't moving at all. For her, the wind always moved and shifted but she had gotten too used to it. 

In a situation where her body was on edge, she was able to sense the changes in the wind more accurately. When someone breathed out she was able to tell what direction they were in even though the music was distracting her. When a dummy moved toward her it did not release a breath that changed the wind. Therefore, Sammy moved away from it. 

Using her Adrenalin to its' best, Sammy managed to feel that someone was nearby. She slowly approached before she felt a shift with her outstretched hand. Asher was about to lash out at the feeling of his shit being grabbed before the thought occurred to him. The dummies wouldn't just grab his shirt. They would try to capture and pin him down since that was their main goal. 

He reached out and found the hand that held his shit was definitely one of his group members. He couldn't tell who it was but he held it to keep together. Both he and Sammy had another idea. Their goal was not to get captured over the next hour, but they also could get together and try to beat all the training dummies. 

The moment this thought came to their minds, they saw a flash of light nearby. It was lightning in the dark. Louis had run in to the large dummy. His jerk reaction had caused a small bolt of lightning to light up the area he was in and show everyone where he was. The entire group saw the beacon and began to move toward it. Unfortunately, it made things too easy. Garnet and Coach Winters pulled out a small phone and pressed a few buttons.. The dummies were put at a higher speed of movement.