Chapter 68

It wasn't great. I was on level three out of ten, and I was already almost broken. The others were gliding up the side of the tower, energy beams lancing between them. Occasional clashes revealed where two had come close enough to lock swords. Their arms were strong, they had two hands to grasp when not fighting.

I let myself feel my body. My left wrist, much as I tried to avoid using it, had absorbed the recoil of a level 2 BEAM discharge. There had been times where, out of distraction or necessity, I had used that hand to help me climb. It throbbed now, the suit pressing against where it swelled. I touched my shoulder where Lance had hit me with his BEAM. There was a small patch of shredded suit there—not severe, but the skin beneath it hurt with the hot searing pain of a burn. Still, if the damage was only flesh and not structural, then I should be able to use it, even if that came with the distraction of pain.

I looked around. I could hear the clash of swords above, the sound of BEAM, but it sounded further off than I expected. Was I the only one left on level 3 already? That wouldn't serve my purposes poorly; I still wanted to linger back, to flex AGILITY.

I looked around, inspecting the new level to discover what fresh torture the designers had brought. The walls of this level ran straight up. They were polished and smooth. There was absolutely no possibility of scaling these walls, there was zero purchase available. But, as I looked around, a shelf slid from the seemingly smooth surface. It swiftly glided out, creating a small step. As it began to recede back into the wall, another started to emerge, further away and higher up. As I watched I could see there were more, emerging and withdrawing at random points.

I stopped for a moment to think. I was alone here. None of the others were near me to pressure or engage me. I had time. Bounding up the moving steps would be so easy using AGILITY.

I could feel my mental exhaustion. I would be better served resting that attribute. The suit enhanced all of my physical attributes passively. I was stronger and faster in the suit than out of it. A six-foot vertical leap was very comfortable in the suit. As much as I had a dreadful sense of anticipation at the thought of negotiating these moving platforms, I felt that it was very achievable to simply jump from one to another, being observant, careful. However, once I started, there would be no pausing. Each platform only extended quite briefly.

I looked back down to the level below. The ape fiend was climbing back and forth on the netting below me like a caged lion pacing a cage, its chain tethering it from continuing up to this level. The light line was about a third of the way up the level below me. "Two hours is 120 minutes, 10 levels means 12 minutes a level, if it's a third of the way up then it will take 8 minutes to reach where I'm standing. With nobody here to attack me, I can ascend those platforms faster than the light moves, so I could theoretically just stand here and flex attributes for 8 minutes, leaving the others to get further away from me. But that gives me no margin for error. I'll wait 6ish minutes, then start moving."

The voice said, "Alright, I'll remind you to move in 6 minutes."

I was startled; I had been talking to myself. I said, "You can do that?"

The voice said, "Of all the things I can do, a six-minute timer is not very challenging."

I hesitated. I would be trusting myself to the voice a little bit, but it seemed certain, and I was already exhausted.

I focused on flexing AGILITY and POWER. Agility failed to elevate, but to my, and the suit's, delight, POWER rose to 0.2. The voice then announced, "Time to move."

This would have been a possible task for a suit wearer. It would have been difficult, and extremely perilous, but it could have been done. When I looked down at the fall that awaited a single mistake I decided that this was a worthwhile investment of AGILITY.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I moved, letting AGILITY lead the way. The suit seemed determined to make every leap a spectacle. Under agility, the suit seemed nearly unable to simply hop from shelf to shelf. Each bound was a backflip, or a spinning display. My heart rushed at the thrill of it, at the fear of it. But we moved flawlessly from shelf to shelf, utterly and completely sure-footed.

With each leap, my confidence grew. The suit and I were in sync, moving as one. The final platform extended, and I jumped, landing solidly. I pulled myself up onto the ledge of level 4, almost confused by how simple that had been.

The floor of this ledge was composed of grating, like in a shower. Thirty feet above me, jets of water created a curtain of falling water that covered the surface of the stretch of tower above me. The surface of the tower had been fabricated to resemble the face of a cliff, oddly shaped crags and tiny ledges scattered about.

I looked down; again, I had time, but this ascent seemed less certain than the last, and I felt I should give myself more margin. The light line had barely begun to ascend the level below me; it was at least ten minutes away. I said, "Give me five minutes to flex before I move again."

The voice said, "Done."

I took a deep breath and focused on flexing my attributes. The minutes ticked by as I poured my energy into AGILITY and POWER. The effort was exhausting, my body and mind straining to push past my limits. Finally, I felt a shift. AGILITY crept up to 1.5. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

It was hard to imagine how I was going to get AGILITY to level 2 before the end of the day's contest. If I could, I could only imagine the advantage it would give me. My current level of AGILITY, when I had the energy to employ it, made all of these obstacles a doddle.

The voice said, "It's time."

I took a deep breath. This would be very difficult with only one good hand. I sheathed my sword; my left hand would have to come into play to some extent. If necessary, I could activate AGILITY, but while I had the relative peace of a wall to myself, not having to contend with the others, I hoped to conserve my AGILITY for a time when I would really need it.

I leapt, reaching for the first handhold. Immediately, my fingers slipped from it, and I fell. The moment was terrifying, space opening below me, hurtling down. Somehow, I managed to catch a ledge with my left hand. A spike of pain shot through my wrist, but I had to hold on. Swinging myself around, I got my right arm onto the ledge and heaved myself back up. Panting, my left wrist now screamed at me.

I held back a tear of frustration. Why did it have to be like this, so hard? I had grown so much; I should be the easy favorite now, but at every turn, the Choosing was arranged against me, giving Lance time to train his attributes ahead of me. This contest was practically designed to exacerbate my weakness. There was nothing for it, though. I needed to ascend. The handholds would be slippery; I should have known that. I was too preoccupied with flexing attributes and gaining advantage.

I climbed again, having to use my aching left wrist as well. It got worse with each foot of ascent. Suddenly, two-thirds of the way up the wet wall, I heard a crashing sound above me. I looked up and saw Katya falling from several levels up, hurtling towards me. She must have taken a terrible blow from one of the others because she was several feet from the face of the tower and couldn't reach any handhold as she hurtled down.

Internal conflict surged within me. Should I leave her to fall? She was competition. But I couldn’t do that. I went against that shameful urge to compete at all costs, an urge that would truly shame me later. I held to the face of the wall with one hand and both feet, reaching out with my right arm. As she streaked down, she saw what I offered and reached out, grabbing the offered hand. I tried to brace the impact through my feet and legs, but my poor screaming left wrist had to anchor me. The pain was momentary but excruciating.

I didn't need to lift her or bear her weight; I just needed to direct her momentum. She swung on my arm, bringing the arc of her descent towards the wall of the tower. She hit hard slightly below me and to my right. For a moment, I thought she wouldn't be able to find purchase, that the impact was too severe. But having two good hands changed the equation. While one of her hands slid off a crag as though it was coated in butter, the other found purchase, and just like that, she was perched securely alongside me.

It was then I realized what I had done. Katya was a strange soul, her notions of morality and honor were very well developed, but focused through a Southern lens that was very different from ours. If she so chose, she could easily attack me now, send me from the tower like a missile. If she had made an allegiance with Lauren to try and eliminate all others so that they could contest the suit just against each other, she might feel duty-bound to end my challenge in that moment. Considering how my left wrist was getting worse and worse, that half the tower still soared above me, I wondered if maybe that would be best. It seemed impossible for me to continue at this pace.