Fate Online: Shadow

"Logout!"

Michael yelled, as a flashed appeared and what he saw next was darkness.

Then light slowly appeared in his vision, "Ahh, I’m feeling quite hungry"

Michael said as he took off his helmet and got out of his bed and put it over onto a nearby desk.

Michael then went over to his bathroom and took a quick bath, then changed himself into black and red tracksuit, put on his shoes and took a key from inside a drawer on his desk before leaving his apartment.

He then went down through the flight of stairs, and then looked at his watch and saw that there’s still over an hour before six pm.

Michael then jogged over towards a nearby children’s park, where there are a lot of monkey bars of different heights, with the smallest only around one meter from the ground up, and the following monkey bars would only increase by three inches.

He arrived at the now deserted park, and strode over towards the lined up monkey bars.

Michael then started stretching his limbs, and jumped a couple of times.

"Let’s hope my body can keep up" Michael muttered under his breath, standing beside the smallest monkey, as he then made a fist on both of his hands and put his two fists just below his nose like a boxer would.

Whoosh~!

Michael dashed forward, as he bent his back deep forward, as he moved passed under the first monkey bar, then towards the second, the third, and then...

Bang!

Michael made a mistake on his timing, as the top of his head slammed on the monkey bar!

"Ouch!" Michael held the top of his head as he yelped in pain, while crouching over.

"Damn, my body still can’t keep up with my mind" Michael cursed, he then slowly stood up and went for another round, then another, then another..

He at least failed around ten times, or maybe even more.

Almost an hour had already passed by since he arrived at the park, but he’s still not successful on his purpose for coming here.

"Haa..Haa..this would already be seventy seventh time" Michael said between breaths, and even though he already feels tired, but he still feels that his body is still full of energy and could still do this for another hundred rounds!

"I need to finish this here...or I’ll be late for dinner" Michael said, as he wiped his nose with his thumb.

Michael dashed forward, as he once again bent his back forward, as he successfully moved passed his first obstacle.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Second bar, passed!

Third bar, passed!

Fourth bar, passed!

...

Michael had already successfully passed the sixth bar, and already on his way for seventh, and also the last bar, and with the increase in height of every monkey bars that he had passed through, then this last one would have been easier, right?

But no, this next one actually had the same measurement as the first hurdle, and Michael would always suffer failure from here because of the sudden change in measurement, where he would need to bend his body again while keeping his speed, which is still extremely difficult for his body!

Michael’s eyes narrowed into a dot, every fiber on his body were taut, as he screamed in his mind...

’Move!’

’Move!’

Swoosh!

"Ahhh!" Michael screamed in pain as he could feel the muscles on his legs and back screaming in pain!

Even then he still managed to successfully bent over, but it wasn’t over yet as it seems this round would end up as a failure again as his back is already on the verge of colliding against the metal bar.

"Ahhh! F*ck this motherf*cker! I’m already hungry!"

But then suddenly, Michael started screaming in anger! As his back just barely passed through under the metallic bar because of it... before finally arriving at the other side!

"Damn...finally" Michael smiled to himself as he laid down on the ground, as his legs and back are all aching in pain, like someone is poking him with nails.

But there isn’t even a change from his expression unlike earlier where he literally screamed like mad, trying to push his body to its limits!

Then Michael raised his right arm and looked at his digital watch, and he saw that the current time is now exactly six o’clock in the evening.

"I should go" Michael slowly stood up, his body soaked in sweat.

He slowly walked forward..but then his eyes suddenly narrowed as he immediately glanced at the corner where he noticed a figure of someone hiding within the shadows of the trees.

But Michael just continued on as he didn’t feel anything malicious coming from whoever it was.

*****

When Michael finally walked far away, the figure slowly moved out of the shadows, slowly revealing who it was.

"Was he training? It seems he lives around here" Amanda said, while wearing a white sports bra and a black tight leggings as she looked towards the direction of where Michael disappeared from.

After that, she just put the matter at the back of her mind and started jogging away.

But just after a few moments away that she left, a shadow of a man revealed himself from a corner and looked towards the direction of where Amanda disappeared from.

"It was actually Amanda. I didn’t know she lives around here" Michael was actually surprised earlier when he saw who the person was, and at the same time, he didn’t expect that she actually lives around this neighborhood.

"Maybe next time, we’ll bump with each other on the road, and maybe I could invite her for a coffee then?" Michael muttered with a smile on his face.

"But for now, I should head back, I’m famished and need to replenish myself by eating a lot of food"

Michael said as he slowly jogged forward, as he headed back towards his apartment, passing by some people who are out for a walk, a jog or just walking their dogs around.