Chapter 103: Dangling a carrot [BONUS]
While effortlessly dodging the first drone, Adyr was already tracking the others, mapping their trajectories through his sharpened senses. When all five closed in, equidistant from his body and moving in perfect sync, he made his move.
Without warning, he twisted his upper body and kicked off the ground, lifting into the air with fluid precision. His body spun mid-air, limbs tucked in with the control of a seasoned acrobat. He passed through the narrow gap between the five drones—an opening so tight it seemed impossible to slip through.
The drones, suddenly deprived of their target, failed to react in time. Their emergency halt systems didn’t even activate before they crashed into each other mid-flight. A chain of sharp metallic collisions erupted as their sleek black shells smashed together, spraying fragments and sparks in every direction.
One slammed into the ground, trailing smoke. Another bounced off a wall and spun wildly before crashing beside it. Within seconds, the room fell silent again, save for the faint hiss of burning circuits.
"What did we just watch?" One of the researchers asked, rising from his seat, eyes wide as he stared at the screen.
"Play the replay. Slow it down. I want to see it again," another researcher said loudly, his voice cutting through the stunned silence. The others nodded without a word. Everything had happened too fast. None of them had fully grasped what they’d witnessed.
In real-time, it was a blur. One moment, Adyr was standing still, seemingly about to be overwhelmed by five incoming drones. Next, there was a violent crash, shards of metal scattering in every direction, and Adyr, calm and composed, was standing at the center of the wreckage as if the chaos had never touched him at all.
"Uh... Mr. Adyr, there was a technical issue, so we’ll need to delay the next phase for a bit. Apologies for the inconvenience," Corven’s tense, startled voice echoed from the speakers.
"It’s okay. Take your time," Adyr replied with an amused chuckle.
In the observation room, every researcher had gathered, replaying the footage in slow motion over and over again.
"This is insane. How can someone track the movement of drones at that speed and calculate the perfect moment for them to collide? I’m not even getting into the evasion itself. What kind of body and instinct lets someone slip through a five-drone formation with only millimeters to spare?" one of the researchers blurted out, barely able to keep up with his own thoughts.