The chase was on.

  No one had thought that this is how the events of their first encounter, and then second, would evolve. There was no disagreement, though. As far from normal circumstances go, this is better than him being inside his house, cooped up in there, for how long it'll take. Him. Having him out. That's another problem. Because how can you talk to him when he is currently running away from you?

  "Heyyyyyy!" yelled Alice. "Slow down, will you!"

  As much as she wanted to try and persuade him to stop his track, there was no chance he wanted to.

  And yet—like the unrelenting animals they are—they ran in the forest, below the canopy. No stopping. No latency. Alice still had it in her, her adrenaline pushing her.

  The chase spilled into a clearing. Of fallen trees and crafted wood. The armored man, or let's call him Blackie (because his armor was fully black), started from one and jumped with agility to another shaved body of a tree and to another and to another...

  Alice, who saw this, went around the body of tree trunks. She arrived at the end and was still able to catch up with Blackie.

  Blackie glanced at his rear. "You're quite the persistent brat, are you?" he said. "Try this for a turn." He came to a blockade made out entirely of wood and slid under it, grabbed a rope hidden in the grass, and came to a stop; he stood on his knee and leg. With a tight grip on the rope, he pulled with one hand.

  Alice saw him. 'What is he doing?' She asked herself.

  When she took her next steps, the ground before her suddenly collapsed and she fell into a pit. She was a little disoriented. Her surroundings were nothing but compact mud walls. "The hell!" She screamed.

  "Try getting out of that." Blackie stood up, and he began to run again. Away from them.

  But Ben was not one to give up. He jumped over the pit to the outside.

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  "Go get him, Ben!"

  It was a chase between two fairly comparable individuals: one who was trained at a young age and went through possibly the most difficult challenges and routine known to man; and the second, who is still a mystery, maybe on the same level as Ben—the specialist of ARCC.

  "What?!" Shot an eye at his back. He was surprised to see that person still tagging him along, or was it her? It was a male this time.

  "You're not going to break, huh? Then I'll step up my game!'

  It was now or never as Blackie increased his speed. His legs on the double. He was running close to a nearby cliff but ultimately sped up and, with precision, leaped into the air, which caused him to be sent distances away from the current position. He wasn't suicidal. He was being strategic. He grabbed the closest rope, tugged deep, and swung into a tree branch (both big and steady) that could support his landing.

  Ben didn't realize it when the man suddenly jumped. And that's where he made the mistake trying to compete as he sped faster. He didn't think he could pull that jump. He ran and jumped—but was sent flying in a straight line before descending below and below—and did a dive roll after touchdown in order to disperse the momentum he gained. And thankfully he made out alive.

  Practically running still, a huge problem arose while Ben ran below the treetops. That the target was on the trees. Sprinting and hopping from one branch to another as if he were Tarzan (and he was, but did just better).

  From there, he almost lost the target, unable to see him properly within the overwhelming and overlapping trees. He only saw because he had landed early on the ground. But that was a far distance from him. Fifty meters apart.

  Out of sight, Blackie made it out of the forest and was in another clearing, only this clearing was a plain at the edge of a cliff at the end. The light was bright from the sun, and the grass was green. He thought he had lost them, but the rustling of bush shrubs echoed still; before long, he arrived. Ben made it out as well.

  Without other choices, Blackie needed to lose them forever, and so he made a desperate decision. He ran towards the cliff edge and jumped again. The fall was very deep, and what was down there was forest that stretched for miles and miles. He disappeared into the forest.

  Ben was too late. He had lost the target. Even he wouldn't think of doing the unthinkable. A death wish of a lifetime from a daredevil's perspective. No. Not at all.

  Four minutes. It took four minutes for Alice to find out for herself that Ben wasn't able to capture the target. "What happened?..." she said, panting, exhausted. It was like she was back to running up the mountain road. This one is just half that.

  "He jumped."

  "He jumped?"

  Ben pointed towards the cliff edge.

  "That's unthinkable!" Alice was impressed and flabbergasted. "No one can survive that, right!"

  No sane person can. If you jumped for yourself, you're singlehandedly inviting death to come and pick up from where you were splattered into a million pieces.