It would all come down to whether or not my Agility ability was high enough. That’s all there was to it. I sucked in a deep breath and focused on my Enhanced Shadow Eye skill, scanning the walls around me for anything that might make my plan unnecessary. A few small silver sparkles danced high above me, too high for me to reach from all the way down here. If I managed to get up there then they may become helpful. Until then, it was up to how good I was at combining skills; something I had never done before. No time like the present for giving it a shot.
“Get ready up there,” I bellowed, hoping my clan members were still gathered by the edge of the pit. “I’m coming up.”
“Hurry up,” Nora called back.
“Easy for you to say,” I mumbled under my breath.
Seriously, I would have expected just a smidge more gratitude to warm her words given I’d saved her ass only a few minutes earlier.
“Frank, I hope you’re ready for this. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
I balanced across the metal bars that made up the grate beneath my feet until I had wedged myself between the snake's corpse and the corner of the pit. The muscles in my legs tensed as I lowered into a crouch, keeping my eyes focused on the blue glow high overhead. My sword was still up there somewhere so instead I tugged out two oh my bolts, hoping the wooden shafts would be strong enough. I gripped them in my fists and jumped.
My foot hit the hard thick body of the snake as I brought my arm down in a wide arch, focusing on my Shadow Pulse skill. The blast of power exploded from me, striking the rattler and when it failed to push the thick rope-like beast down through the grate the momentum rushed back at me, propelling me upward.
I don’t care if it made sense or not. I didn’t need it to make sense, I only needed it to work.
When the lift was beginning to dissipate I planted one foot onto the wall and propelled myself even higher. I twisted in the air, kicking off the adjacent wall and spinning again to kick off the other. This is why I’d been so careful to do this in the corner of the room. It was the only place where two walls were close enough together to bounce off of. Sure, it would have been better if the walls ran parallel to each other and not perpendicular, but you work with what you’ve got.
Each time I thought I was coming close to falling before I’d managed to perform the proper kick I stabbed the bolts in my hands at the wall. They never penetrated the concrete but the friction of the strike bought me those few extra milliseconds I needed to complete my move.
I rubbed at my stinging eyes as my face flooded from the exertion. I couldn’t use my Shadow Pulse again now because all it would do was push me out into the open air. I wasn’t like Gabby, I couldn’t survive a drop like that. Instead, I kept my Shadow Eye active and used Blink to help me perform the motions more effectively.
Kick, twist, kick, twist, stab, kick.
I kept going even when my lungs began to scream and my muscles started aching. Frank was flapping around me, his persistent squawking an endless echo so loud I couldn’t hear the running water anymore.
The angle the walls collided at was beginning to widen, making it harder to push myself in the right direction. Not too far away a cluster of silver sparkles was gathered on the wall, marking a hiding spot I couldn’t see. A clump of slime caught my boot on my next round, making it slide instead of spring. I swore and floundered, trying to grip the wall with the bolts in my hands but the wood of the shafts shattered from the strike.
“Shut the hell up!”
Frank dove from the darkness, positioning himself under my foot as I fell. It would appear the bird was made of something akin to steel because he managed to hover long enough for me to propel myself upwards again.
My finger hit the silver sparkles and I clutched the ledge they found there, pulling myself up on shaking arms. Thankfully, the ridge was wide enough for me to fit my entire ass on even if it left my legs dangling.
I sat there for much too long, eyeing the slow replenishment of my fatigue bar. I was too tired to even acknowledge Frank's weight as he settled on my shoulder. This was harder than I’d expected. It had seemed so clever down below, a trick I’d used in many a game before the Crocs came. I don’t know why I thought being a thief would magically make me some sort of wall-climbing ninja but come on, it made sense, right? I’d done a backflip on a flimsy wooden board over this damn drop. If I could do that at my age and with my not-so-great athleticism then I should be able to do this.
“Joe, is everything alright?” Nora asked.
I leaned over the edge, inspecting the blueish glow to see if it was any closer. It certainly looked brighter but I still couldn’t make out the ledge up above.
“I’m fine… Just need to catch my breath.”
“Why aren’t you just riding the shadows up like you did for me?”
I ground my teeth, glaring up even though she couldn’t see me. “If I could, I would.”
“Alright, no need to snap.”
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I muttered and cursed, turning my face to eye Frank even though I couldn’t see the black raven in the darkness of the pit. “Got any ideas on how to get us up there faster?”
“Frank!”
“Not helpful.” The shadow glob shifted on my wrist almost making me jump. I’d forgotten it was even there. “What about you, got any ideas?”
The shadow glob, like all shadow globs, remained silent. I was sure they did that just to piss me off. I bet the Shadow Goddess could speak to them with ease.
Gingerly I got my feet under me, keeping my hands against the wall to steady my rise so I didn’t just stupidly fall to my doom. The walls around me were starting to brighten, a little like the soft glow that happened before sunrise, when you can kind of see but not well. I frowned and looked up. A gasp escaped my lips.
A ball of blue was hurtling down the side of the wall directly at me. I shrieked and reached out, barely catching Boopzy as he tumbled by me. I wobbled in place on my little ledge, breathing deeply at the fact that I’d just about toppled headfirst into what could only be certain death.
“Boopzy, what the hell was that?” I yelled.
The Tentarat lifted himself up in my hand, flinging out eight tentacles until he looked like a blue sunburst. His big, wet eyes twinkled in the light he was casting, illuminating the little smile that seemed to curve his furry lips.
Screee!
“You have a death wish, little guy.”
The dampness in my eyes had nothing to do with the fact that the little creature had come down here to help me out and everything to do with his glow stinging my eyes. I swear it.
With the Tantarat’s help, the rest of the climb became a piece of cake. He wasn’t strong enough to simply carry my heavy ass up the sheer wall but the fact the walls were connected at a wide angle was not a problem for his limbre tentacles.
Kick, twist, sucker, swing, kick, twist, sucker, swing.
It was a longer process but felt much safer and was far quicker than before. Whenever I needed a little extra boost between wall kicks Frank always appeared, allowing me to propel myself off of him for whatever reason. In the back of my mind, I noted that he was sure to seek retribution for all the kicking someday. Something I was far from looking forward to.
Whenever I found a patch of silver sparkles we paused there to suck in desperate breaths and refill some of my fatigue. I’d never used it this much before. It was always just sort of there, useful when I needed to make a mad dash but otherwise unimportant. Well, now it was showing its true power. I didn’t have as much of the stuff as a warrior would have, in the same way, I didn’t have as much magicka as a mage did. I was that character type that was somewhere in the middle. A little of this, and a little of that. A warrior and a magical mischief maker. A jack of all trades. I’d been salty about that in the beginning, believing myself to have been denied my true calling as a warrior, but now I was grateful. It afforded me more opportunities than I could have dreamed possible.
Finally, with one last wild swing, I made it to the top, grabbing Nora’s outstretched hand with a desperate fervor. She yanked me the rest of the way up like I weighed little more than a feather. Perhaps with her outrageously high Strength ability that was a more accurate statement than I had meant it to be.
“About time, we have to move. Gabby and Jacob need us, remember?” She said, turning and rushing down the tunnel the snake had come from. Each rapid step she took made her heavy armor rattle.
I bent to scoop up my fallen sword before snapping back in a high-pitched facsimile of her voice, “Thanks so much for saving me, Joe. I’d be lost without you.”
Nora snorted and shouted over her shoulder. “You’ve got a few more saves to go before you and I can call it even, bucko. Me and my axe have saved your neck time and time again.”
I grunted, refusing to actually admit just how true that was. She didn’t need to have her head inflated any more than it already was. Stella was running along beside me, despite the fact that with her speed she could have been miles ahead of us. She was content to be with me, her tongue lolling from the side of her mouth making her look all goofy in the dim light cast by Boopzy.
We weaved and turned through the tunnels. I had long since gotten lost but Nora seemed to know the way. Sometimes I forgot that she had lived down here for a time while I was trapped in the Shadow Realm. It’s like my brain had trouble reconciling the fact that all of my clan members had continued living their lives after I had disappeared. It’s not like I wanted them to sit around pining for me and doing nothing but to know they could move on so quickly was a little hurtful. Who was I to judge though? It’s not like they had the luxury of being able to mourn in peace while the Crocs were steadily chewing through the remaining players. They had to move on to survive. So why couldn’t my brain fully accept that?
“Stupid,” I grumbled to myself.
Nora skidded to a stop just before another bend and looked back at me. “What was that?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry.”
Her brows dipped but she didn’t press for more information. I liked that about Nora. She rarely pried unless she thought it absolutely necessary.
“Are you ready?” She asked. “The hideout is just around this corner.”
I rolled my shoulders and gripped my sword tighter, making sure it and the bolt loaded in my Crossbow of Umbra were poisoned. I dug into my bum bag and handed a couple of precious bottles to Nora. My stocks were running low again, something I would have to fix the moment we had some free time.
I would have given some to Frank and Stella as well but considering they mainly attacked with their mouths I didn’t think a coating of poison would be a very good idea. I kind of wanted them both to live, you get me?
As ready as I could be I marched around the corner with everyone on my heels. Boopzy was sitting on Nora’s shoulder, his tentacles wrapped around her neck and the glow of Sob’s magic radiating from him. It lit up the familiar iron door that had once protected the Outsiders.
Now it hung on a single hinge, open and dragging awkwardly on the ground. I could still remember seeing Theo standing in front of that door in his jet-black armor and with that new scar marring the full length of his face. That had been moments before he’d tried to kill me with his weird-looking sword.
Pushing away the not-so-nice memory I focused on the door again. A dim golden glow came from within, beckoning us to come closer. There was only one way to find out whether it was a trap or a warm welcome.
I moved silently forward on soft booted feet, flinching every time Nora’s heavy boots scraped along the wet concrete floor beneath us. Gingerly, I wrapped my fingers around the heavy door and squeezed through the gap into a room I remembered well, only it was nothing like it had been before.