Jul patted his arm and Nar halted next to her. He waited in silence, while she sensed whatever it was that had called out to her.

After a couple of minutes, she leaned towards his ear and he leaned down.

“I’m sure,” she said, whispering.

Nar held a gasp.

“Okay. Let’s go back and tell the others,” he whispered.

Slowly, and as silently as possible, they crept back through the darkness, towards the rest of the party.

Following his bridge crossing gains, Nar was now capable of seeing more or less in the pitch darkness, his vision switching to a world of white lines and outlines in the pitch black.

He couldn’t see very far, perhaps only about 50-feet around him. It was nowhere as good as Jul’s [Sight], but it did the job.

About ten minutes later, Nar saw the light of the path, and soon, they stepped into the larger main corridor where the others had been waiting for them.

“So?” Kur asked, looking between the two of them.

“They’re there,” Nar said.

“Crystal…” Cen and Tuk both murmured.

“And you’re sure they’re alive?” Gad asked.

“I didn’t see them,” Jul said. “But I heard them. And I smelled them. They’re alive”

“You have [Smell] too?” Mul asked.

Jul nodded.

“How many?” Kur asked, before anyone could make any further remarks on that.

“Three Climbers. Around fifteen cannibals. Could be more, could be less. It was hard to tell. They were very… Close to each other.”

“Lovely,” Mul said, twisting his lips. “Fucking cannibals. I hoped we’d seen the last of them.”

“Guess not,” Kur said. “Question now is, what do we do about this?”

“About them, you mean,” Gad said.

Kur nodded, not avoiding her penetrating gaze.

“You want us to go save them?” Tuk asked her.

“Of course!” Gad said. “How could we just leave them in their hands? You know exactly what they are going to do to them. What they probably already did, if there are only three Climbers left.”

“I’m sure we’d manage,” Mul said. “Besides, we’ve been doing nothing but avoiding Climbers. Just last week, we sneaked past that other party, remember? They were fighting, maybe they needed help.”

“That’s… That was different!” Gad said, outraged.

“Was it?” the brawler asked her.

“Mul, do you really mean it?” Cen asked. “They are going to be eaten alive!”

“All I’m saying is, let's not rush into this based on feelings. Let’s use our heads!”

“Says the brawler,” Tuk said with a snigger.

“One day soon, this brawler’s fists will be coated with [Aura],” Mul said. “I’m sure I’ll be faster then, too.”

“My rings will always be faster. I’m already up to four too. Can slice you up before you take a step…”

“Guys, really?” Kur asked.

“Sorry!” Tuk said. Mul just grunted.

Nar was only vaguely aware of the duo’s bickering. He found himself in the past, looking up from behind his father’s legs, at the mob that blocked the street in front of them.

“You can’t be serious!” his father had shouted. “There are children here!”

“It is the will of the Crystal!” a voice replied. “Go back to your homes!”

“We have no food!”

“We’ve done nothing wrong!”

But there had been more of them. Many more. And they had been armed.

Nar remembered his father scooping him up into his arms. Something warm and liquid dripped down his father’s face and onto his.

As they ran, his father had adjusted him on his arms, and Nar had looked back. They were beating people with scraps from the pile. They shouted and screamed, but for some reason, to Nar, they looked more afraid than their victims. As if they couldn’t believe what they were doing.

A few weeks later, that sentiment was gone. They had done those beatings plenty of times by then, and it didn’t bother them anymore. If anything, they now knew they were justified in their actions…

“We’re going,” Nar said.

His voice and tone cut through the argument.

“We’re going to save them. End of discussion.”

He looked at each and every one of them.

“Today, it will be hard. We won’t sleep, thinking about what’s going to happen to those Climbers. But tomorrow, we’ll go on. Next time, it will be a little bit easier. After all, they’re not us. Or something like that. The justifications will come easier and easier to us. By the time we get out, we won’t be us anymore,” he said, his tone flat. “Don’t take me wrong. I want out. I need to get out. But not like this. Who will we be if we get out like this? How easily will we abandon others when we're up there? Or even each other, eventually? And we will always remember it. And there will be no turning back.”

His eyes met Cen’s.

“Don’t take me wrong. I know I’m doing this Climb off the backs and sacrifices of others. My reason doesn’t matter. There is no justification worth speaking. But this? No. I prefer to die than to become that kind of person. And I'll go alone if I have to.”

In the silence that followed, Mul’s tired sigh sounded like a tide of guardians rushing towards them.

“Fine, Crystal damn it! We’ll go save them,” Mul muttered. “Can’t ever take the easy way up, can we?”

Nar could’ve sworn he caught the hints of a smile on Mul’s sour face. In the end, he doubted the brawler would leave those Climbers behind either…

Tuk came over and slapped Nar on the back. “Good stuff, man! Couldn’t agree more!”

“Seems like we’re all agreed then?” Kur said.

“Yeah, yeah. Just tell us the plan,” Mul said. “Not like we weren’t going to do it anyways.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Alright,” Kur said. “Since Nar feels so passionate about saving these people, he’s the one who’s going to take all the risk. Oh, Tuk and Jul too.”

“Yay!” Tuk said.

I regret this already, Nar thought.

********

The man was reaching his limit.

As if the moans and grunts weren’t enough, she had the audacity to hold on to his ankle, digging her nails into his flesh.

He could barely think straight anymore.

The only thing that kept him from joining in on the fun, was the fact that he was standing watch.

Still, if he kept really still and quiet, maybe he could at least relieve himself without them noticing. Or with minimal reprimands.

That was the cannibal’s last thought, before something went through his throat, and his limp body dropped on top of the enthusiastic couple.

“What the fuck!” the woman screamed.

“You’re on watch!” the guy hissed, pushing the dead guy away from him.

“What’s all this stuff? Did he… Wait. Is this blood?”

Just then, someone ran at them, shouting at the top of their lungs.

“Climbers!” the guy said, getting up. “Wake up!”

In the throngs of lust, he had dropped his weapon somewhere and now he couldn’t find it.

He was still looking for it when the sword went through his side, dropping him on top of the woman.

She screeched and tried to untangle herself from the two dead men. By then, all the cannibals had come to, groggy and barely coherent, all they knew was that they were under attack.

“There’s too many of them,” a voice said. “Run!”

Run?

No one was going to let fresh meat walk away. Especially not after it had embarrassed them like that.

“After them!” one of the cannibals shouted.

They whooped and whistled after their prey, letting out their joy in anticipation of the fun times that awaited them.

In the distance, they saw the yellow light of a Climber party and celebrated even louder. There was nowhere for the Climbers to run. What were they going to do? Abandon their path?

The first cannibal came into the light and straight into Gad’s shield. The blow knocked teeth and broke his nose, and her mace came down once, and he knew no more.

“Kill them all!” Kur shouted.

The party didn’t need to be told twice, and unleashed their wrath on the cannibals.

After the initial surprise though, the cannibals turned on them with a viciousness and strength that they had not anticipated.

The cannibal that Nar faced actually managed to trade a few, good, solid blows with him, using her dagger, before he eventually increased his [Speed], cut her hand and then her throat.

Gad was doing her best to keep them from rushing them, but either her taunts didn’t work or the cannibals could not be taunted. To be fair, they had never really stopped to think and talk about how to fight and kill other sentients.

Viy had recoiled and shrunk behind Kur, and together with Jul, the three of them weren’t much help in the fight. Mul managed to bring one down, and pummel his face in. But the next two simply jumped on him, and he went down in a ball of snarling and spitting, fists, teeth and nails thrown wildly about.

Cen was too close to use her [Aura Projectile], and Nar was already occupied by the next cannibal.

In the end, it was Tuk that put an end to it.

Four, bright rings flew out in dazzling circles. In seconds, the cannibals were dead, or dying, on the floor.

There was only one cannibal left. He had arrived late to fight, and he was now slowly backing up into the dark.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Tuk said, his voice low and cold.

An arrow pierced the cannibal's throat before Tuk could kill him.

The cannibal, a human, dropped to his knees, holding his throat. He gurgled words nobody understood, staring into the darkness he had come from, and then, he fell, choking on his own blood.

A Climber came screaming from the darkness. She jumped on the cannibal, howling like she had lost her mind, and stabbed him with an arrow.

She stabbed and stabbed. Blood sprayed her face, coating her already blood-stained clothes. The cannibal was already dead, but she kept going.

Until eventually, she collapsed next to him, sobbing.

Nar stared at her, stunned.

Her face was carved with deep wrinkles. Or were they scars? Or burns?

Her hair was an emaciated dark of some kind, thin, and showing her scalp. And two pale pointy ears peaked from her straight short hair.

What is she? Nar found himself wondering.

She was a new race! A new kind of sentient!

From the darkness, two more Climbers walked towards them. They were both male. The one on the left, was a human with short dark brown hair, carrying the archer’s bow and a spear that must be his actual weapon. The one on the right, was red.

What in the pile…

His skin was completely red. It was a dull, pale sort of red, but it was red nonetheless. He was also bald, like a lengos, and his eyes were pitch black and had no retina, like Gad’s.

He held a small buckler and a scepter. He was a party leader.

“Climbers!” he said. “Thank the Crystal!”

Then he collapsed to his knees and he too, wept.

********

They were a sorry looking bunch.

Never mind whatever had happened to their archer, they all looked worse for wear.

Their clothes were stained with blood, either that of others, seeing as they were not wounded, or from injuries that had already healed.

More than that though, was the way they jumped whenever someone talked to them, or moved too fast out of the corner of their eyes. They had a fearful, haunted look to them, and even after they had been given food, they didn’t do much more than just hold it in their hands.

“Thank you, thank you so much!” their party leader said.

He was making a show of being hungry and chewing.

Nar winced at the display.

With only three of them left, it wasn’t hard to imagine what had happened to the rest of their party. Nar didn’t want to even imagine the horrors they had seen happen to their party members, or the ones they had themselves suffered at the hands of the cannibals…

His anger simmered, below the surface, and Nar kept having to unclench his jaw and fists. He didn’t want to scare the traumatized Climbers. He wanted them to know that they were safe with them. That he would die before he let anything happen to them! But he couldn’t help feeling so angry.

With a sigh, he forced his jaw loose and his fists open again.

How could the Crystal allow such a thing? Such horror. Such suffering. And from Climbers themselves, who had failed the Climb... It was disgusting. It was cruel beyond words.

“Please, it’s okay,” Kur said. “It was our pleasure. We couldn’t leave you there. And we’re happy to have you here, with us.”

The archer started crying again, silently. She hadn’t touched her cracker or jell-o at all. Cen hovered nearby her. Not too close and not touching, but making sure that the archer knew she was there and that she was available and ready to help with whatever the archer might need.

“Thank you,” their leader whispered. “We’ve been with them for a week. They took us by surprise. They were much stronger than the ones we’ve fought before.”

Kur nodded.

“That surprised us too… And they looked more organized as well. They actually knew how to fight.”

“Fucking shits,” Mul muttered.

One of his eyes was darker than the other, and his lip was split and oozing, though it was slowly healing. He also clutched his right side, and grimaced every time he moved. However, he had not needed Tuk’s help. He had killed those two cannibals by himself. He had choked one to death and the other, he had battered until it had stopped moving.

He had both shocked and earned respect points from Nar for that.

“They came during the night,” the other leader said, staring at the floor.

He seemed intent on telling his story, and nobody would stop him. People healed and coped in different ways, and talking about things was one of the most common ones.

“Rel’s the scout in the party, and I had told her to sleep,” he said, briefly glancing at the archer. “Our tank and myself took the first watch. Neither of us have… Have any sense attributes. The cannibals sneaked up on us, and by the time we realized it, it was too late.”

Rel, the archer scout, had stopped crying, but if anything, her eyes looked even emptier now. Lifeless.

“They killed Jat, our tank. Three of them. Fell on him, stabbing without mercy. Jat’s blood…”

He made a half-gesture, half-twitch, meant to point at his clothes.

“After that, it’s a blur. I think there were maybe fifty of them.”

“Fifty? By the Crystal!” Cen murmured.

“Yeah... All I remember was blood. Blood everywhere. At some point I got swarmed. They beat me until I passed out. By the time I came too, they had us tied up and gagged. I don’t even know why. Who was around to hear us? I think they just liked it. They also loved telling us how it was made from the skin of…”

Tuk gagged.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t be burdening you guys with this,” the guy said.

“No. By all means, we’re listening,” Kur said.

The red man nodded.

“Thank you. There isn’t much left to the story anyways. They dragged us around, always beating us, so we’d never get enough stamina to fight back. So we would always be stuck healing,” he said, with a haunted look. “And more than that, they did… Things. Before they… Ate my people. I couldn’t do anything. Only watch.”

His eyes shone in the low light of the path, gone into memories of darkness and horror. Tears fell down his cheeks. The spearman just stared off into the dark. He hadn’t said a word.

“In the end, only we survived. And only because you saved us. They had just finished our…” he breathed, shakily. “Anyway, they would have been hungry again, soon. So, thank you. You saved us.”

Kur nodded. What can someone say to something like that?

“Thank you,” the red leader said again. “Don’t think I don’t know what you guys risked to save us. Your own Climb. Your own lives. I’ll never forget this. I’ll find a way to repay you, if I ever get out.”

“You will!” Kur said. “Get out I mean! You don’t have to repay us, and I know that I speak for all my party when I say that you are welcome to join us, and Climb with us the rest of the way!”

The red leader hid his face in his hands.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I-I…”

Kur approached him and squeezed his shoulder. He flinched, but the gesture, meant in consoling and friendliness, broke him down, and he sobbed, hard and true.

We did a good thing today, Nar thought.

He had risked his life and his goal. But the thought of leaving these people behind with the cannibals was a haunting one. And it would have haunted him forever.

It would have been a forever piece of shame and guilt, lodged, pierced, into his soul, that he would never be able to erase. He would’ve been a true sinner then…

Yes, he had done the right thing.