Instructor Adyss made her way inside the small arena, approaching her pupils. "Well, today we're going to focus on something more challenging. Now you're going to learn to use real psychic moves."

Lainym could hear the group of Espeon behind her whispering to themselves excitedly.

"Do you think we'll be learning the certain-death moves?" Caidea whispered beside her.

A chuckle could be heard from behind them. Lainym turned around and spotted Monnar walking towards them. "No, I don't think they teach that here. Psychic moves tend to have more defensive stances than an offensive ones. For example, moves like Amnesia and Barrier raise defense and-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt your lesson Monnar, unless you'd like to be the instructor." Instructor Adyss said loudly.

Monnar dropped his ears behind his head and looked up at instructor Adyss, muttering an apology. The older espeon nodded, continuing the lesson.

"Very well. Today, I asked some of the maintenance team to set up some obstacles around the arena. Your task is quite simple." Instructor Adyss walked closer to the group of young espeon, looking at each of them in the eye. "You are to get through the obstacle course before any of your friends. So yes, it is a race."

Some of the males were grinning and muttering to themselves excitedly. Lainym looked to her left, only to find an frustrated-looking Caidea.

"I hate races..." She muttered bitterly.

Monnar seemed excited, but paused as he asked a question. "Wait, what does this have to do with learning psychic moves?" he tilted his head.

Instructor Adyss's eyes shone. "Yes Monnar, you have asked the question I was waiting for. What does this have to do with Psychic moves?" Her violet eyes transcended an expression of excitement, but she was still as calm and collected as always. "Well, in reality, it's not so much the race, but rather, the drawback."

The females started whispering to themselves once more. Lainym decided to speak this time. "A... drawback?"

Instructor Adyss smiled. "Yes. The drawback is also quite simple. You must get through the obstacle course. The drawback itself is right in front of you."

Some females gasped. Lainym, Caidea and Monnar looked around at the course. It was long. And filled with tall wooden training hurdles, small, slippery ice walls and climbing nets that didn't even touch the ground. There was even a puddle of water beneath the ropes that hung from the nets, and they were very spread out. Jumping to grab one without falling into the water seemed near impossible.

One of the males stepped forward. "This is crazy! How are we supposed to get through this thing?"

Lainym thought for a moment. How to get through?

"With our psychic abilities.", said a voice to her right. It was, of course, Monnar.

Instructor Adyss smiled. "Precisely, Monnar. You must combine your psychic moves with your physical capacity, and only then will you be able to get through the course and win the race."

The same male who had spoken before turned to Instructor Adyss again. "What? But we don't know any!"

Instructor Adyss chuckled. "Oh, you don't? Maybe you are wondering why I haven't taught you any actual psychic moves yet. Well, psychic abilities come deep from the mind. The mind of every espeon is different, so the learning of their own abilities is also different. We've decided that, in order to not waste time going through every learning style, we let our acolytes find out their abilities for themselves."

The males groaned in annoyance, and even Caidea joined in.

Lainym stared at the obstacle course with unease. "Oh well, I just have to hope I survive."

Instructor Adyss smiled. "That's the spirit, Lainym. So, which of you will volunteer as the first six espeon to race?"

Almost the whole group stepped back, except Lainym and Monnar. Lainym turned around to glare at her best friend. Caidea shook her head.

"Nuh-uh. You have fun with Monnar."

Caidea thought she could actually get out of this one, but Lainym kept glaring at her. She knew the future leader had those looks that could convince anyone, but this was ridiculous. Some of the espeon were staring at the both of them now. Caidea sighed and slowly walked over to her friend.

"Fine... but you owe me one."

Lainym grinned. "Thanks, Caidea."

Miss Adyss looked around. "Well? We only have three participants. We need six to get started."

The group of about 20 espeon still made no motion to move anywhere. Instructor Adyss started to shift into a more serious tone.

"We could stay here all day. It's not like I have anything to do this afternoon." She casually sat down and eyed the group of nervous espeon.

Finally, after a long and awkward silence between the espeon, one of the males stepped forward. "Whatever. It's just a stupid race."

Another male stepped forward, followed by a female. Instructor Adyss smiled with satisfaction.

"That's better. Now come line up at the start."

The group of six espeon followed their instructor to a roughly marked white line on the floor. Beyond it was the first obstacle, the tall wooden hurdles. As Lainym took a closer look, she gulped. How could she get through that? There weren't even any holes underneath for her to sneak through. And going around them wasn't allowed, as the first law of common sense.

"How are we going to get through this? I have no idea how to use any psychic abilities!" She whispered to Monnar.

Monnar seemed to show way less signs of fear or nervousness. "Remember what Instructor Adyss said. Psychic powers come from within our minds, so I think the first thing we need to do is concentrate and do something along the line of telling the object what to do. We're espeon, this should come naturally to us."

As much as Lainym was nervous, she had to admit he was right. She was an espeon. She was supposed to live and breathe psychic energy. It would come to her. What was there to be afraid of? ... At least, that's what she wanted to make herself believe, but the sinking feeling in her stomach said otherwise.

"Are you all ready?" Instructor Adyss positioned herself beside the right end of the marked line, her tail up in the air.

Caidea was shaking slightly if you focused on her movements, while the two males that volunteered as well as the female seemed indifferent, probably assuming there was no point in trying since they would loose anyway. Monnar was trying hard to concentrate as he got into a pouncing position. Lainym decided to do the same.

"Ready... Set... Start!" Instructor Adyss swished her tail quickly towards the floor, signaling the beginning of the race.

Lainym felt a surge of power on her hind legs, and when she pushed them, she felt herself spring and glide through the air before hitting the ground almost three feet away from the starting point. She still hadn't gotten used to her longer and stronger legs. She kept running, but all the while, it felt more like flying.

She looked behind her and saw Monnar almost catching up to her, with Caidea behind him. Soon, Lainym and Monnar reached the hurdles together. Lainym was forced to stop before she crashed into them. She turned around once more and saw the other three espeon getting nearer. If she didn't figure out a way to get through those hurdles, they would catch up! There was no space to run below them either. Lainym focused on the hurdle in front of her, remembering what Monnar told her about focusing and telling the object what to do. I want it to move... I want it to fall!

Lainym kept concentrating, but as far as she could see, the hurdle hadn't moved an inch. This wouldn't do. Caidea and the other espeon were already at the hurdles, and Monnar seemed to be staring at the one in front of him in deep thought. Lainym concentrated harder, but to no avail. Why wasn't it working?

After getting too frustrated with her psychic abilities, Lainym stepped back and got into a pouncing position. Well, if you won't move with psychic abilities, you'll move with force! Lainym felt that surge of power in her hind legs once again as she prepared her move. Quick Attack!

She ran in a quick zigzag approaching the hurdle. At the last moment, she jumped as high as she could toward the middle section of the hurdle. She felt the impact on her head, but a sound of wood breaking was the most audible thing.

She landed on the ground, instantly lifting up dust. Coughing, she looked up eagerly. The hurdle was still there. Seemingly intact, except for a small dent in its center.

Lainym growled in frustration. She intended to break that thing in half, or at least make it topple over. Was she really that weak?

Before she could prepare to hit it with another Quick Attack, Monnar called out to her.

"Lainym! I got it! You have to mentally push it!"

Lainym stared at him. He had already gotten through the first hurdle! It couldn't be, those things must weigh a ton if even her quick attack couldn't topple it! Wait, what did he say?

Monnar nodded at her, which in his language meant he wanted her to watch. The young male espeon turned his attention back to the hurdle in front of him. After a few seconds, his eyes sparkled menacingly. The hurdle wobbled a bit, then fell over by itself!

Her eyes widened in shock. "H-How-"

Monnar quickly turned toward her. "Look, you have to imagine that your psychic abilities are just like another paw or limb. You have to pretend you're just using another paw to do things!" He frowned, as if he was thinking. He turned his attention back to the path ahead. "Just think: If you were doing this physically, what would you need to do to get through it?"

Without another word, he was already sprinting to the next hurdle. Lainym had no choice but to focus on her hurdle again.

So, what did he say again? If she was doing this physically, what would she need to do to get through the obstacles? Lainym looked up at the hurdle. What would she need to do physically...? Well, of course, she had to push it. That's it! That must be what Monnar meant by 'mentally pushing it'!

Lainym looked up to the top part of the big hurdle. If she was going to push it over, she would need to push it at the top. She focused hard on the top of the hurdle. Imagine pushing...

The world around suddenly started to waver, all leading to the topmost part of the hurdle. Right there!

Suddenly, the hurdle started to wobble. Lainym 'pushed' harder, and soon, the hurdle fell over!

Lainym stared at the fallen hurdle in disbelief. She had done it! She instantly looked behind her to tell Caidea, only to find a knocked-over hurdle.

"You're late, Nym!", a voice said to her ahead.

Lainym looked up to see Caidea smiling at her cockily and knocking over another hurdle. Monnar was almost to the second obstacle. She realized she had to get a move on, but she was very far behind. But, she thought, if she could push these hurdles with ease one by one, why not try a domino effect?

Lainym pounced, jumping over the fallen hurdle and running up to the next one. This time, she didn't stop. She imagined a big pillar, lying down horizontally, flying toward the hurdle. Lainym kept it flying with her and prepared for impact.

BOOM! CRACK!

To her surprise, the result was much more impressive than she thought. Once the psychic pillar made contact with the hurdle, it broke in half! To the naked eye, it would seem that Lainym was running toward the hurdle and it randomly snapped apart. But Lainym wasn't done.

She kept up the pillar, ramming through the other hurdles with ease. She had lost count of how many she had broken, when suddenly, expecting the sound of wood breaking, she heard a slightly different sound.

It sounded... like glass cracking and breaking.

She snapped out of her psychic state and took a look at the obstacle in front of her.

Well, it was an ice wall. But considering there were broken pieces of cracked ice all over the ground, Lainym assumed it wasn't really a wall anymore. She heard a chuckle and turned to her right.

Instructor Adyss stood at near the center of the small arena, but Lainym could still hear her. "Well, not quite how I expected, but good work nonetheless."

Lainym nodded at her instructor, then ran forward to face the next obstacle.

There were climbing nets. Simple enough, except they weren't touching the ground. There were two tall wooden poles, and looped around them was a net that led halfway to the ground. The rest of the net ended in two thin ropes, each stuck in the ground. The net itself was too narrow and steep, so climbing up the thin ropes was a no-go.

"Lainym! Fancy seeing you here."

Lainym turned to her right, spotting Monnar near another net. He grinned.

"You got through the hurdles and the ice wall really quickly."

Lainym turned her attention back to the net. Then, she had an idea. She wasn't sure if it would work, but she had to try. "Thanks Monnar, but I'll still beat you to this!"

She focused on the bottom of the climbable net. Almost instinctively, she imagined a hook motion going around the rope and pulling it down. The net seemed to stretch slightly.

Come on! Pull!

Lainym 'pulled' harder. The further she pulled the net down, the more difficult it was to keep it down, just as if she was doing it physically. Finally, she managed to pull the next down toward her, enough so she could touch grab it with her paws, but still maintaining her psychic strength on it so it wouldn't spring back and pull her with it. However, she had a thought. If she just climbed the rest of the net, Monnar would catch on and do it faster. She could see him already starting to pull his net down like she did. She had to get through this faster than him, but the only way she could do that was... letting the net launch her over it.

The idea seemed crazy, but her long tail suggested otherwise. Didn't she read once that espeon always landed on their feet?

Wrapping her front paws around the bottom of the net, she realized that she was getting tired from holding that net in place for that long. There was only one thing to do. She took a deep breath, and let go of the imaginary hook.

The net sprung upwards, and Lainym couldn't even process what was going on, until she noticed she was in the air. She had already let go of the net without realizing it. She started to see the ground approaching soon, and she began panicking. She had to find a way to get her body upright again, but she was somersaulting through the air.

Suddenly, her tail twitched, and she changed position entirely. Lainym then started to play around with her tail, changing it ever so slightly to that her body and spine adjusted.

Before she knew it, she was on the ground, standing on all fours. Her feet hurt a little, but she kept going when she saw Monnar approaching her.

"Nice one, Lainym." The male smiled at her before dashing past her, since he could run faster than her.

They both reached the final obstacle together. The infamous long puddle of water with ropes hanging over it, very spread apart. Jumping and grabbing them would be impossible.

Lainym smirked at Monnar, and focused on the first rope. Imagining the hook again, she wrapped it around the rope and nearly effortlessly brought it to her. Having secured both her paws around the rope, she decided the best way to get through this was to do it the aipom way.

Walking back on her two hind legs, she swung herself over to the next rope. She thought she would be able to jump and reach the next one. She thought wrong.

As the rope stopped going forward, Lainym realized she was still too far from the next rope. She had no choice. She would have to try to bring the ropes to her while she was moving at the same time.

Using her body weight to increase the rope's swing, she focused on the second rope ahead. The hook started pulling the rope to her, but her grip on her rope loosened and she almost fell, breaking her concentration. Lainym gripped the rope again tightly and turned her attention back to the next rope.

Focus, Lainym. You can do this.

She again pictured the hook and brought the rope to her, while still maintaining a strong grip on her current rope. Finally, she managed to hold the second rope in the air and jump towards it, letting go of her current one, similar to what she did on the net. She could hear a few of a the espeon muttering a 'wow' in the distance.

"Nice move Lainym, but I'm winning!"

Lainym turned to her side to see Monnar swinging on his rope, getting closer to her. Lainym decided to speed things up.

She kept swinging across the ropes, without stopping. But she had to admit, controlling the next rope while swinging on another was really taking a toll on her. There were so many ropes... Wait, she could see the finish line in the distance. That increased her motivation, even with Monnar being toe-to-toe with her.

She finally saw the last rope, and jumped towards it, swinging on it, jumping over the last bit of the puddle and landing painfully on the ground, along with Monnar. She was starting to see stars, similar to when Instructor Adyss used Swift...

"You two! Get up! The finish line is straight ahead!"

Lainym shook her head to get rid of the dirt. Who was that? They said the finish line was right ahead. Oh! The finish line!

Monnar was already starting to get up, but Lainym was fully up now. She dashed towards the marked line, using Quick Attack every so often to boost her speed, but Monnar was always tied next to her.

The finish line was just a few feet from her...

Just a bit further...

Finally, she jumped on her long legs, gliding through the air and jumping over the finish line. That was something Monnar didn't expect, as he stopped running as soon as he crossed the finish line to avoid running into her.

Both were panting furiously now, and only realized Instructor Adyss was there too when she spoke to Lainym.

"That was exemplary. Well done, Lainym! And you too, Monnar."

Even between his panting, Monnar smiled at her. "Good work."

Lainym smiled back. "Thanks."

The instructor stared at what was left of the snapped wooden hurdles, shattered ice wall. "Although next time, we'd appreciate if you refrained from irreparably damaging the equipment." she deadpanned.