Adam stomped his foot, ice erupting from the ground and stabbed upwards ten yards in each direction. He stomped again, pushing twice the energy into the skill than he had before but the number and size of the spikes tripled. Finn touched one with his foot, his leg immediately taking on a blue hue as he yelped in surprise.
“Why are you considering me an enemy right now.” Finn yelled. “I feel like my foot is frozen solid.” He conjured some fire, his ruby rings flashing brightly as he sent a torrent of flames to engulf his leg.
Adam chuckled. “Well, I had to check the function somehow. Wait, stand there for a minute and let me stomp with you in range.” Adam lifted his foot and went to stomp again, pushing Primordial Energy into his new skill, [Fenwrath’s Embrace].
Finn yelped again and jumped, a web of purple encased him as he manipulated gravity and he leapt far higher than he normally would. Spikes of ice erupted from the ground just beneath from where he had stood a moment before.
“You know I’m a lot more fragile than you.” Finn said as he landed a safe twenty yards away.
“It’s an interesting ability.” Caius said. He tapped one of the spikes of ice with a sword and then let the sword puff to smoke as the blades surface began to ice over. “Extremely potent. This will really help you lock up a battlefield.”
“What did you say the name of it was again?” Ava asked.
Adam felt a heat rise in his cheeks. They knew he had experienced another vision, there was no hiding that especially with Finn’s insistence on studying dimensional fluctuations around the use of skill crystals. That and the blank stare he had on his face for twenty minutes had been dead give aways. But he just couldn’t tell them about the wolf. For one, he still wasn’t sure it wasn’t an Eldari, and he had no idea if it was a sign he had been tainted or corrupted somehow.
He just needed to learn more about this new world before he came clean. He had made some subtle inquiries about beasts and Eldari and whether or not there could be human Eldari, but they looked at him like he was stupid.
He promised himself he would loop them in eventually. He just needed to get a handle on things first. Besides, the wolf had even said there was no way a few words would be meaningful to a squire. He doubted Caius or the others would be able to help. It would only lead to a larger distraction and that definitely wasn’t something they could afford right now. They still didn’t know what they were even doing here.
Adam pulled up his skill screen and read out the description for them once again.
Leg: [Fenwrath’s Embrace]: Many fled at the sight of the godkiller, but how could they flee with their very existence frozen in place.
Stomp your foot on the ground causing waves of ice to erupt around all enemies within ten yards of you. Effect of the ice is dependent on the strength of the enemy, ranging from slowing their movement to completely freezing them solid.
Ava looked to Finn and Caius. “Have you two ever heard of Fenwrath before?” She asked. They both shook their heads.
“Godkiller. Must have been a formidable figure to get such a name.” Caius said. “Regardless, that’s two inherited abilities for Adam. This could even be another Primordial’s skill for all we know. Who knows what secrets there are to unlock.”
Finn nodded. “Just as long we’re not trying to find those secrets by using me as a Guinea Pig, I’m all for it.”
“And all you saw was a frozen wasteland?” Ava asked.
Adam nodded.
“Hmm. Well, it’s not like any of us have experience with people having visions with their skill crystals or any being named Fenwrath. I’m sure there will be records of them back on Allaris. If we ever get back that is.”
“If we can ever figure out what we’re doing here.” Finn said. “I mean, by all accounts, there was at least some directive given to the trial takers. There has to be something we’re missing.”
“I’d say the slow start has been beneficial. If we were immediately thrown into a war we’d have been screwed. Now Adam can hold his own.” Caius said. He touched an ice spike that showed no sign of melting and shivered. “Better even than holding his own. There’s no way to know how strong the other teams here will be, but we’re well rounded.”
“A little direction would still be nice.” Ava said, her voice whiney. “This place is massive…”
She was cut off as the dome above them rippled, a shockwave shooting over the ground. A crashing sound like a waterfall suffused the air. Over the cornfields away from the city, birds rose into the air, some small as doves and others as large as helicopters took flight.
“Umm. What is happening.” Adam asked.
“Ava, can you take a look?” Caius said.
She nodded as two glowing wings appeared on her back. She flared them, the black lining beat slowly as she lifted into the air. She was able to fly short burst but said it put high drain on her Primordial Energy to do more than glide. Still, they needed to see what was happening and the tradeoff was worth it.
Stolen story; please report.
Ava ascended one hundred feet into the air before folding her wings in and dropping to the ground. She flared her wings when she was only thirty feet up and glided to a running landing.
“It looks like the dome or barrier or whatever were in, is shrinking.” She said. “The ground is being swallowed at a rapid rate and there’s thousands of creatures heading our way. Most of them are probably nothing, but there’s a few Knight tiered beasts in there for sure.”
They had been slowly making their way back toward the main city where Adam had woken on that first day, but they were still well into the outskirts - only passing the occasional barn or little stone building. They still hadn’t run into another team, and Adam was a little nervous at what would happen when they did. Fighting monstrous rodents and ants was one thing, fighting a team of capable scions would be another entirely. It seemed the trial wasn’t going to give them much more time to figure things out as a team.
“Soooo. Time to run?” Adam asked.
Something that looked like a gorilla with four wings and a long flowing tail zipped by, trailed by three more just like it. Even the cornstalks started to shrivel and sink back into the ground, leaving a skeleton of a corn field running through the rolling hills. Behind them, the shrinking dome came into view as it crested a hill.
They spotted a team of humans near the barrier, running like mad for their lives. The dome closed in on them, swallowing the slowest two without the slightest hint of slowing. They were just… gone. One of the others had stopped and screamed, looking back one last time. It was a fatal mistake as she was swallowed only a second later. The final remaining team member had some sort of movement skill and burst ahead, an explosion left behind from where she had just been as she appeared nearly one hundred yards ahead.
“YES, RUN” Caius yelled.
It was like the starting gun to a race. Adam sprinted toward the city. The corn retreating into the ground had helped clear the path. A few miles in front of them stood a wall that looked to be hundreds of feet high. Funny that he had never noticed it before.
He sprinted as hard as he could, pushing his legs and his lungs to the limit. He had always been a good runner, and with the introduction of Primordial Energy that had improved, but this was a multi-mile sprint, and he could feel his legs growing heavy and his lungs burn. He didn’t think he could make it all the way to the wall, much less over it.
Ava glided overhead, her wings releasing a faint green mist that fell over him, Caius, and Finn as they ran. He felt his body relax. The stinging in his lungs dissipated and his legs growing stronger with each step. He said a silent word of thanks toward Ava, knowing that there was no way of making it to the wall unless she had done this. She was no doubt drawing on her Primordial Energy at an extremely high rate to maintain her flight and this ability.
“To the left.” Caius yelled. “We need to get up that hill.”
The dome was closing in rapidly, only a few hundred yards behind them now. Finn had a web of purple around him and glided ten yards with every bound. A clearly practiced run that allowed him to move much faster with less energy by manipulating the gravitational forces around him. He landed on the hilltop first as Ava flew over.
“We just need a bridge.” Caius said. Adam could hear the forced calmness in his words. He tried to display confidence in Finn, but the situation was dire.
Finn nodded. He put his hands to the ground, arms trebling as a mound of rock pushed out the hill and toward the wall. It was a hundred-yard gap between the hilltop and wall, and Adam had never seen Finn raise anything larger than a thirty-foot wall. This was going to be a stretch.
The rock slowly made its way toward the wall. It felt like it took an eternity with the dome closing in behind them. Finn screamed, pushing more and more energy into his rings as the green rubies pulsed until they maintained a bright green glow. Sweat poured from his brow and his entire body trembled. The rock looked like a spear extending from the hilltop toward the wall, growing more and more narrow as it went.
Caius looked behind them and Adam couldn’t help but glance back as well. The shrinking dome swallowed the hill just behind them, unceasing in its all-encompassing consumption of the land or anything else in its path. They weren’t going to make it at this rate.
“We’ve got to jump.” Caius said. “Adam you first, then Finn, then me.” He looked to Finn. “Think you can give Adam a good boost?” He asked.
Finn looked nervous, his eyes wide.
“You got this.” Caius said, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “We trust you.”
Finn nodded and turned to Adam, the purple gemstones on his hands lighting up as the familiar web of purple enveloped Adam. He felt weightless.
“Go” Finn yelled.
Adam didn’t need to be told twice and sprinted along the narrow stone spire shooting toward the top of the wall. The stone spanned fifty yards, but there was still a fifty-yard gap and at least twenty high that he needed to clear. He felt like he was aiming for the bushes as he ran toward the edge and leapt.
The stone cracked beneath his feet as he pushed with all the force he could muster, soaring high into the air. Birds flew beside him, rushing toward the interior of the city. One even squawked at him and veered out of the way, clearly confused at seeing a human this high up.
Adam began to fall though, and realized he wasn’t going to make it. At the last second, a gust of wind pushed him forward, the purple webbing dissipating around his body as he slammed into the edge of the wall, his top half falling over as his legs hit the wall squarely. He started to slide back and desperately scrambled to grab onto something. He couldn’t summon his armor for another ten hours and there was no way he would survive that fall.
Ava’s hand grabbed onto him a moment later and pulled him up. Adam looked behind him to see Finn jump, purple webbing encasing him as he did. Ava didn’t hesitate and leapt from the building, catching hold of Finn’s hand mid-flight and pulling him toward the wall.
Caius had summoned his swords and was slashing them on the ground repeatedly. Blue arcs of lightning danced over his body, increasing with every strike of his sword. He began to run, looking like he had been encased entirely in lightning as the dome bore down on him. Every step left lingering lightning arcing over the ground that was consumed by the collapsing dome.
Adam held his breath as Caius reached the edge of the makeshift stone walkway and slammed his swords into the ground. He exploded forward, the stone shattering behind him from the explosive impact that hurdled him forward. Caius flew through the air trailing whisp of lightning. He slammed into the wall directly in front of Adam, his sords shattering as he tried to dig them into the stone. Adam reached out a hand and tried to grab him but was too late and Caius’s fingers just barely slipped out of his grasp.
Caius began to fall. It was as if time came to a stop as Adam watched the first hints of true fear appear in Caius’s eyes. He heard a scream from behind him as Finn slapped the ground.
The wall shuttered, and then a slab of stone pushed out from the wall just enough for Caius to get a hold of. The dome continued to close in as Caius heaved himself up using the tiny handhold, somersaulting his way over the edge of the wall and landing beside Finn. Blessedly, the dome stopped closing in right at the edge of the wall.
Finn had begun to shake, his arms pulsing back and forth in a rhythmic manner as blood poured from his nose.
“He’s massively overdrawn himself.” Ava said as she dropped to his side and began to push continuous waves of healing into Finn.
Finn’s body calmed a few moments later as they all sat atop the wall, chests heaving over the exertion. A silence had enveloped the eerie city once more after the explosion of life. Adam looked over the edge of the wall, seeing the ancient stone city far below them nestled in a valley with the wall looming all the way around. From end to end, the city had to be more than fifty miles wide, with that imposing white pyramid in the center of it all.
Surrounding the pyramid stood seven tall and twisting stone spires, towering over the remaining city. Each with a faint blue light at the top. They almost had a holy appearance to them, only amplified by the shining white pyramid in the center.
Now that Adam had the chance to look at the city from such a high vantage, he found it was split into three identical sections, all meeting in the center at the massive twisting spires. Between each section stood a wall that connected to the outer wall Adam and his team stood on and again to another wall the spanned between the spires.
Adam could just make out a few other signs of life across the walls of the city. Likely groups similar to theirs who had stayed to the outskirts for the beginning of the trial while they figured things out.
“I don’t remember this wall being here before.” Adam said. “That first night, Caius and I ran straight out. There were some walls inside the city, but these were nowhere to be seen.”
“It must have sprung up when the dome started to close in.” Caius said as he inspected the stone. “This is incredibly sturdy, wherever it came from. My swords didn’t even leave a scratch and ended up just shattering. I’ve never seen anything get anywhere close to that level of resistance to my swords.”
Ava still knelt by Finn, her own face nearly as pale as his. She had pushed herself hard over that final stretch. “It seems the trial doesn’t want us hanging out toward the edges anymore.” She said. “My guess is the dome will shrink every so often to push all the teams together. We can’t afford to be as conservative as we have been.”
“Oops.” Adam heard in a crackling whisper from behind him where Finn was laying. “I did it again.”