“I’m going to fucking kill those bastards who set us up.”

Andric coughed. “I believe we already killed them.”

“Yeah, but someone obviously hired them. Like we were hired.”

Zoe did her best to block out the other two as the trio began their ascent up the hole. The chains were heavy, cold, and unwieldy, but she was incredibly thankful that they were there at all. She didn’t know if she would be able to scale the sheer rock face otherwise.

With her feet braced against the wall, Zoe hoisted herself up hand over hand. It was a feat of strength that would have been completely impossible for her ordinarily, but the abilities she had learned since arriving in this new world made it reasonably manageable.

At first, she had used {Kinetic Enhancement}, but she switched over to {Physical Enhancement} almost immediately. The former made it much easier, but it drained mana about one and a half times as quickly.

She would keep it as a back up in case they had to start going faster.

Andric took the other chain, the one to her right. He didn’t seem to be struggling much, despite how unmuscular he looked. Then again, he was thin — thinner than her, actually — and he had displayed incredible agility during the fight minutes ago.

She was now certain that the alchemist also had a second path.

As for Lily…

Well, the elemental summoner wasn’t using a chain at all. Instead, she was working her way up the rock face to Zoe’s left by conjuring hand and footholds of ice. It made her wall look reminiscent of one of those fake rock climbing walls back on Earth.

She wasn’t happy though.

“I swear to the heavens, if I die here by fucking falling I am going to be very, very pissed.”

“You won’t be able to be angry if you’re dead,” Andric said rather unhelpfully. “Just don’t look down and you’ll be fine.”

Lily scoffed. “Wow, no shit idiot. Thanks a lot, I’ve sure never heard that one before.”

Zoe groaned as she hoisted herself up again. Her shoulders were starting to burn and the conversation seemed completely unnecessary. At least it made for a decent distraction from the threat of imminent death at the hands of ten thousand vermin.

The scratchings were getting louder and clearer, and she risked looking down.

It was a pretty disorienting view from her position, and a wave of vertigo washed over her. But more alarmingly, she saw tens of slick, furry bodies scampering up the rock walls towards them.

“I think we have a problem,” she warned the others.”

Andric looked down and cursed. “We’ll need to move faster.” He glanced over at the two women. “Zoe, how much faster can you go?”

Thinking about it, Zoe decided to reactivate {Kinetic Enhancement}. Putting as much of her physical strength into it as well, she stopped even putting her feet against the rock and started shimmying up the chain.

“Like this?”

Andric gave her a quick nod and then changed his attention to Lily. Zoe kept going, but she kept glancing back down every few seconds.

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“I’m already going as fast as I can go,” she heard Lily say, her voice wavering.

“You don’t have enough mana for your sword.”

“No shit I don’t have nearly enough mana left for that! I used most of it keeping them shut — ah FUCK something bit me!”

Zoe watched in concern as the young woman kicked her legs and a small body went tumbling down into the darkness. As she returned her attention to the way ahead, she caught sight of another one about to pass her on the way up.

It looked pretty much like a normal rat, only its spine was spiked with a layer of smooth, polished rock. Its claws dug divots into the rock face as it scurried past.

Grimacing, Zoe grabbed it.

“Hasta luego, motherfucker,” she said as she bit its head off.

{+13 Mana}

Dropping the headless rodent corpse, Zoe stared back down at her two companions. Andric was fending off more rats while Lily continued painstakingly climbing up handhold by handhold.

“Is there any way for us to share mana? I have…”

{Mana: 399}

“Almost four hundred.”

Andric stared. “By the heavens, how do you have so — ah never mind. Here, catch.”

Withdrawing what Zoe now recognized as a mana crystal out of thin air, he tossed it up to her. Grasping at it with her left hand, Zoe nearly fumbled the catch but latched onto it at the last second.

“How much?”

“As much as you can spare.”

Frowning, Zoe dumped two hundred mana into the crystal. It instantly took on a deep, crimson glow, and a burning she hadn’t realized she was even experiencing faded away from her body. I’m getting too used to being overloaded with mana.

She dropped it back down, and Andric caught it before handing it to Lily.

More rats scampered past, a few attempting to nibble at Zoe as they did. Those ones got pulped.

{+14 Mana}

{+11 Mana}

Andric continued to defend as well, and then a flash of pale blue light lit up the darkness — revealing at least hundreds of beady eyes staring up at them from below. And then the tide surged forward.

Zoe gulped. That was a lot more rats than they had been dealing with up until now.

“I think we have another problem,” she managed to squeak out, but then Andric and Lily were suddenly rising up towards her at an astonishing speed.

Disoriented, Zoe half wondered if she were falling, but then Lily was pulling her on and the trio sped up the hole together.

The rock raced by faster and faster as their acceleration continued. Looking down, Zoe realized they were standing on an almost comically large sword made of shining, crystallin ice. It looked completely unpractical as a weapon, both due to its size and the ornate, jagged shape of it, but it seemed to work well enough as some kind of hoverboard.

Veins of crimson and black pulsed through it, giving a sinister, corrupted look to the otherwise bright, gleaming weapon. That must be my mana, Zoe thought. Looking closer, she saw that it all went back to the mana crystal, now lodged in the center of the crossguard and hilt.

Finally, they cleared the hole. Zoe was almost thrown off as they changed direction to fly sideways out of the cave, but Lily tightened her grip and she was able to cling on. Streaking out into the night, she watched in wonder as the little town zoomed by beneath them.

And then they began to slow to a halt.

“Right, what now?” Lily asked.

“Zoe, you have {Mana Manipulation}, right? What about {Meditation}?”

“Yeah, and also {Introspection}.”

Nodding, Andric tightened his grip on Lily as well. “Looks like we won’t be waiting for the ferry, then. Do you still have enough for us to make it up to the mana streams?”

“Just barely,” Lily shouted back. “If that’s the plan, we should get moving, then.”

Zoe looked down. A tide of black was just beginning to stream out of the cave, seeping down the mountainside like spilled ink. With a small amount of relief, she saw that most of it wasn’t headed in the direction of the town.

“They’ll be fine,” Andric assured her, seeming to read her mind. “Most of them are going the other way, and they should have enough time to prepare and even evacuate.”

Zoe nodded, and then they took off. Rising higher and higher, they continued to pick up speed, and Zoe was once again clinging on to Lily for dear life. The wind and the snow bit at her eyes, forcing her to squint.

“Hey Zoe,” Lily called back, “how do you feel about the cold?”

Pressing her body even closer, Zoe tried to tighten her poorly fitting clothing around herself. “I hate it!”

Lily cackled. Higher and higher they climbed, until the first mountain peaks were below them and the town was just a distant spot. She could barely hear anything over the wind. She looked up. They we’re headed for the clouds.

“Well you’re in for an adventure, that’s for sure!” She thought she heard Lily say.

Zoe shut her eyes. Do I really need another adventure?