Brock

I fell through the air, wind whipping my hair and screaming in my ears, deafening me.

I tucked in my arms and straightened my legs, making sure that I wouldn’t accidentally clip the wall and hurt myself. At this speed a simple touch of the wall had the potential to rip my arm off, or at least that's how it would be if I were normal.

With my body as it was… I wasn’t what would happen, it was even likely that I wouldn’t even get hurt. Even so I wasn’t willing to test that. For all I knew, it would kill me, and I wasn’t willing to risk that chance.

I looked down and saw a distant prick of light.

Oh no, I was falling a couple hundred feet straight into the ground, this wouldn’t be good.

The light rapidly grew and I could see a white marble floor.

I just hoped that it wouldn’t be red soon.

I braced myself as best I could in the air, bending my knees slightly and leaning forward ever so carefully, as to not hit my head on the walls of the pit.

Was it even a pit if there was a room below it?

A question for another time.

I hit the ground and rolled forward as quickly as I could, ending up on my feet and with my entire body throbbing in pain. I had felt something in my chest crack and my legs felt strained.

At least I hadn’t snapped my legs.

I looked around and realized something.

The rest of my team might not survive a fall like this.

I hurriedly got under the hole and looked up seeing Emily only a couple dozen feet above me.

Oh crap.

I jumped upward, grabbing Emily with both hands and using the momentum I had gained to cancel out her falling speed.

Mid-air I realized a tiny detail.

There were still people above me and I couldn’t catch them like this. So I did the only smart thing to do in this situation.

I dropped Emily. She fell with a scream of terror before landing on the ground and bouncing up a little.

The ground was bouncy? Then why hadn’t I bounced up?

Oh wait, I was probably a LOT heavier than Emily.

I hit the ground and instantly jumped back up, grabbing Kent this time and instantly dropping him once he was no longer in free fall.

I repeated the same action, catching Layton, Drake, and Plikt (who didn’t even really need my help) but Minya never showed up.

“Guys, have you seen Minya?” I asked them all, wondering if I had missed her somehow.

Plikt looked at me and frowned. “Plikt was the only one up there with her, she said she would go right after Plikt but…” he looked around quickly and leaned in closer, speaking in only a whisper. “Plikt thinks that Minya is afraid.” He said carefully, looking around to make sure no one heard him.

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I didn’t understand why he was being so secretive. “She is afraid of heights?” I asked him in a normal tone.

Plikt just sighed, running a hand through his wispy white hair.”Yes, that is what Plikt thinks, someone might have to go get her.” he told me, also in a normal tone, I think he had given up.

I looked straight up and cupped my hands around my mouth. “MINYA! GET YOUR SAD SELF DOWN HERE I WILL COME UP THERE AND PUSH YOU DOWN!” I yelled, tired of having to do everything around here. That was not an idle threat, if she didn’t come I would find a way up there and push her in, hopefully Minya knew that too.

There were a couple of tense seconds to see if there was any response and sure enough one came.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” She was coming down, but not quietly at all.

I sighed, crouching down and waiting to see Minya’s shape appear above me.

What I saw was not at all what I expected.

Minya was flying down, wings of air on her back and a cloud under her and she was still screaming herself hoarse.

She was going about ⅓ of the speed we had all fallen at.

I sighed, this was ridiculous, she was so slow and yet she was so terrified. How was someone who could fly afraid of heights?

She landed softly on the ground not even having to bend her knees.

She blushed at all of our looks and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. “Why are you all looking at me like that?” She asked us all, trying to avoid our dumbfounded looks.

I decided to just ask her bluntly. “You're afraid of heights? You can literally fly, why the heck are you so scared of them?” I asked, trying to be nice but mostly just confused and slightly worried about our team.

Her face turned an even deeper shade of red. “N-No,” She said, stuttering, “I am just afraid of dark pits, I am perfectly fine with heights as long as I can see the bottom.” She told us, swallowing hard.

Ah, that made far more sense than just being afraid of heights. This was a weakness we would have to help her with, but that could wait for later.

“Okay, let's see what our next challenge is.” I said, cracking my knuckles and making Layton wince. I just looked at her and grinned savagely.

I glanced around the room. It was cylindrical with a jail door at the wall, which was surprisingly unlocked though.

I walked over and peered out.

It was a complex maze of all sorts of weapons, traps, swinging logs, platforms and other deadly things moving endlessly.

I gulped. We had to go through that?!?

Minya walked up next to me. “Oh.” Was all she said.

I nodded, still staring listlessly at the impossible barrier in front of us. “Oh indeed.” I said, slumping down and sitting on the ground. “How the heck are we supposed to get through that?!?” I growled, grabbing fistfulls of my long hair. It had grown more than I liked it throughout the tutorial, even though it had only been a short time. I think that the giant blood in me created more hair than usual, I had more hair on my chest than I thought possible.

Kent just grunted, eyes searching for any sort of pattern between all of the chaos outside of the door. Eventually he slumped, sitting on the ground next to me. “It’s hopeless, there is no pattern, you would have to react to everything out there instead of planning it all out, no one here has that fast of a reaction time, even with all of our new abilities.” He told us, head in his hands.

Minya glared at him. “How can you say that?! We are leagues above what any human should be capable of, and we are still growing in power, all we have to do is grow more.” She said, sitting down and starting to meditate.

I looked at her with sympathy. “Minya, it’s okay, we don’t have to do the impossible every time something new comes up. There is a limit to our abilities, you know.” I said consolingly.

Minya stood up and smacked me. Hard. My head jerked to the side and my face throbbed, reaching up and I looked at her in confusion. “What was that for?” I asked, hurt that she would attack me for no apparent reason.

She leaned down and yelled in my face. “GET A GRIP BROCK! Since when have we ever backed down from a challenge without even trying to beat it? HUH? WHEN?” She screamed in my face and I recoiled, holding my hands to my ears and wincing.

She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, it’s just that…” She trailed off, looking around at everyone and scoffing. “Never mind, it doesn’t really matter. Let’s just beat this trial and move on.” she said casually.

I looked at her, shocked. How could she be so indifferent about the impossible task that lay in front of us? Who could even hope to get through that torture chamber?

Minya looked me dead in the eyes. “I will.” Was all she said, before she walked over to the door and peered out.

I blinked. Had I spoken out loud by accident?

Minya popped her knuckles, wincing and shaking out her hand before going serious again. “Let’s do this.” She said, opening the door and stepping out.