Celestial Speed: Legacy-Chapter 40: Run

Henry was first shocked, then annoyed. He looked at Alicia menacingly and was about to do something rash when the messages continued

[Substance have been analyzed. Effects are not harmful to host]

[Host has temporarily received: +30 Agility]

[Speed Rate: 530+Km/hr]

"Huh? What does this mean," Henry was elated with the agility boost, but didn’t understand what the speed rate meant. But he didn’t have to, Alicia had already solved the puzzle

"Hmm, my algorithm tells me, your speed is the same, but will begin to increase as you run," she stated, before taking out a small notepad out

She typed down some things and muttered to herself, before facing Henry who just stared at her with expectation

"Wow! I’m really just an experiment. Ain’t i?" he said

Alicia smiled "Sorry, i had to write a few things down, but the first step was a success. Your agility improved, so now let’s get down to business."

"She could tell of my increase in agility as well. Wait does her ability work like my inspect skill?" Henry was surprised and confused, but Alicia snapped him out of his thoughts

"Hey! Get on the field, you are going to run around it with your full speed. I will be monitoring your increase in speed from here, but let your starting acceleration be swift." she stated

Henry nodded and they both left the shed to the open field, Henry went over to a suitable starting point while Alicia stood meters away from the supposedly tracks

"I can communicate with you through the visor, so just go all out!" she voiced out with a thumbs up

Henry nodded, he was excited about this. Who won’t be excited about the fact that the more they ran, the more speed they gain. And to top it all, his speed never took a toll on his stamina, atleast Miley had said he had some other drawbacks but he didn’t care about that right now

He took a running stance and waited for Alicia’s signal, she was busy speaking into a recorder

"Ookay, subject current speed; 530Km/hr. Now let’s see how much speed he can attain before hitting the limit," she spoke into the device and paused the recording

"Alright, ready!"

Henry nodded and took a deep breath, he had never ran at full speed before, when fighting the Colossal worm, he hadn’t fully exerted his actual velocity, plus he had help from the Winged boots

"Go!" Alicia gave the signal, and almost immediately, Henry disappeared from the spot with unbelievable speed, even faster than Alicia could see

SWOOOSHHH!

Henry was now halfway across the field in only a second, he had activated dash when he took the first step, giving his starting acceleration a massive boost. He was moving swiftly across the field, his arms and legs rhyming with each step

He navigated the twists and turns of the field very easily with the help of the visor and his perception skill which he would put into use when approaching a corner. Plus the visor would notify him of any obstacle and would also calculate the distance he had between a spot and another, making the entire running session flawless and smooth.

"Wow! This is really incredible," he voiced out as the wind brushed past his face, along with everything in the vicinity

Alicia on the other hand was watching in awe, she noted Henry’s current speed which was to shocking

"He attained 600Km/hr in two seconds," she muttered with excitement

Henry just kept running, he had run 15 times across the field already and was still going. He was now moving in a visible circular motion through the field. He was enjoying the feeling he got while running, he didn’t want to stop and was even motivated when the system appeared with a message

[Speed Rate: 750+km/hr]

"Huh?" Is this what she meant by increasing as i run? Alright let’s dance!" Henry muttered, before accelerating even more. His body now moving across the field like a blur, he was starting to leave after images

Alicia was smiling widely "This is incredible, at this rate he just might reach sonic... no even more than sonic speed." She stated as she inputed the value of speed Henry had reached

[Speed Rate: 950km/hr]

Henry saw this and began to move even faster than before, his stamina didn’t seem to be decreasing at all which only pushed him further

"I can do this, i can attain supersonic speed. Haha! i feel so alive!" he exclaimed loudly, his arms and legs now moving with great speed, resembling that of an helicopter blade when spinning

[Speed Rate: 1100km/hr]

Henry didn’t even see the notification this time, he was too immersed in the swiftness his body was currently experiencing. He just kept running without a care in the world, his surroundings didn’t even feel real anymore. It was like he had surpassed the law of motion

Then it happened, he finally attained the first level of speed he was aiming for

[Speed Rate: 1240km/hr {Mach 1}]

[Congratulations host, you have attained Mach 1(Temporarily)]

*Hidden Quest complete

[Reach Sonic speed by any means]

*Reward: One giftbox

Henry was overjoyed, not only had he managed to reach mach 1, even if it was only temporary, it felt exhilarating. He had gotten a reward for it

Alicia had noticed this as well, she held the notepad in excitement

"He did it! Yes, experiment was a success. Can’t wait to see the look on Allyson’s face when i tell her about this."

Henry was now running at sonic speed, but he wanted to surpass that, he wanted to go further. The feeling he got from the speed was godlike, he was running fast and yet everything around him was now super slow. He felt invincible. But no one can surpass the law of motion

Henry was lost in the euphoria of running at sonic speed, it was like he was in a trance. He even thought about leaving the field and running across the city. But they he heard a ripping sound come from his body, snapping him out of his trance

"Huh?" he was confused, the track suit jacket he wore had been ripped by the sides, but that wasn’t all. He began to feel a sudden heat all over his body

But he kept running anyways, bearing the heat while the jacket got completely ripped apart leaving the inner shirt he wore.

"Uh, Alicia! What’s happening?" he asked through the visor comms

Alicia heard him and looked in his direction, he was still moving fast but her brain was able to keep track of his movements

"I’m not sure, but i think it’s air resistance. Objects that travel through air begin to excise friction when they reach a particular speed," She replied

"Let me guess, sonic speed." Henry stated

"Correct, as you know, friction opposes motion. An item that moves at about 1000km/hr and higher begins to feel it,"

"But I’m feeling this sudden heat around me, why?" he asked

Alicia paused for a moment, she looked at Henry’s figure, who was still moving round the field. She squinted her eye a bit and swore in her mind that she saw a spark

"Oh dear, Henry you need to stop now!" she voiced out

"What! Why?"

"I totally forgot, reaching sonic speed cause air resistance to increase, which also decreases your temperature making you vulnerable to heat friction." she explained

Henry didn’t even understand what she said but he knew that it couldn’t be a good thing

"So what does that mean?" he asked

"Well, if you keep running at your current speed then you just might become... flammable,"

"Wait! What do you mean flammable?" Henry asked in panic, but before Alicia could reply, he started to feel a slight pain on his chest and back

Henry stared in horror at his body, that was now on fire, his shirt had completely burnt off, with his pants already following suite

"Shit! Crap! Fuck! Damn It!" Henry yelled as he tried putting the fire out with his hands, while still running

"My bad, i didn’t think you won’t be immune against heat friction, but you have to stop, or else you might just get burnt alive," Alicia warned, staring at Henry, while now looked like a moving ball of flames

"Yeah, that might be a problem, i don’t know how!" Henry exclaimed, panic visible on his face. He was too fast that his brain had adjusted to the movement speed as well, and to top it all, his mind was now in a state of panic too, so suddenly stopping was an issue.

He just kept running around and around, his body still burning

Alicia quickly acted, she brought out a large black gauntlet from her storage ring and wore it

"Well, guess I’m the one who has to save your sorry ass," she sighed before stretching her hands towards Henry, she waited and calculated his moving distance before predicting his next location

"Got it," she muttered and shot out a small plate of iron from the gauntlet, it began expanding as it traveled across the field and latched unto Henry with precision

Then she began shooting more of the metal objects towards still moving Henry, they latched on Henry and kept expanding, increasing in length, mass and weight. Soon they completely covered Henry’s body from head to toe, blocking his eye view as well

Henry who was now covered in heavy metal began to slow down, until he finally stopped and fell on the ground like a lump of rock. He couldn’t even move as the metal suit container was incredibly heavy

Alicia walked up to him and retracted the metals, they began to detach from Henry’s body while also shrinking in size and attaching back on the gauntlet’s body, leaving Henry, surprised and naked

He stood up with a pouting look, the metal had already put the fire out, but he wasn’t annoyed with Alicia, instead he was mad at Miley

"So this must be the drawback she was talking about, she could have just told me earlier for fuck sake," he muttered to himself

He turned to look at Alicia standing beside him, a wide smile drawn on her face "What the hell is she happy about?" he thought, but suddenly felt a cold breeze pass through him, and that’s when it hit him

Henry’s pants had completely burnt off, exposing his entire body and revealing his... glory

He quickly turned away from Alicia who had seen it all, she burst into laughter, while holding her ribs. It was just too hilarious

"Hahaha. You look so embarrassed right now, this is officially the best day of my life, wait till I tell mom and Emily about this,"

"Yes yes, laugh all you want, I bet you’re having fun right now," Henry muttered with a frown

But Alicia just kept laughing "Infact I am," she said, before taking out a pair of clothes and handing it over to Henry

Henry snatched it from her hands and swore to always carry a pair of clothes with him every time. He is about to put on the clothes when he paused, he looked at Alicia who was now laughing even more than before

She had given him a pink crop top and pink tight-fitted pants

"Hahaha, God i wish I had a camera right now, the look on your face is so golden,"

"I’m not wearing this," Henry said

"Well there’s nothing else to wear, my dear big black. But don’t worry, it’s new." she said with a wink

"Don’t call me that," Henry pouted before putting on the clothes, causing Alicia to once again burst into laughter at his current appearance. She even fell on the floor due to the magnitude of the laughter, while Henry just stood there, embarrassed and angry

"Hah! Okay that’s enough, let’s review the test," she said, standing up and wiping off the little tear of laughter that had accumulated in her eye

They went back to the shed and talked some more before Henry return back to the hotel.

Henry was now lying on the bed in his room, thinking deeply about the day’s events

"I can’t believe this is my limitation, honestly I think I’d prefer my stamina being drain than having to get caught up on fire every i run at sonic speed or higher," he sighed, having experienced a taste of what running with godlike speed felt like. He was a bit addicted already

"But i keep wondering if I had put on Talaria, i would definitely have been a lot faster, at least Alicia’s says the gap between mach 1 and mach 2 is exponentially high."

"But atleast i can still run at my full speed for now," Henry pondered, with the velocity serum effect worn out, his speed had returned to its previous rate

[Speed Rate: 530km/hr]

"I hope Alicia and her aunt make more of that serum, i think i might be addicted already." he sighed

"But she mentioned something about a suit that can keep the air resistance in check. I think I’ve seen something similar to that in the shop." he pondered

"But first, open giftbox," Henry ordered with anticipation, for some reason he always got excited anytime he was opening a giftbox

[You have received 50 exp]

[Exp: 70/180]

[+50km/hr boost]

[Speed Rate: 580km/hr]

"I knew the system’s reward will never cease to amaze me." he smirked.