Ralos watched his sister disappear into the eye that now watched over the Heart of Gaia. She was but a puff of smoke at that distance, easily mistaken as a stray cloud if the day wasn’t as clear as it was that morning. He heard a shout and he looked back down to see that Verne and Rask had gone ahead of him on the row of roofs.
The shout was Rask urging him to hurry up. Ral hurried to close the distance between them, eyeing the gathering throngs of Unseeing four stories below.
“The buildings get a lot shorter that way,” Rask said.
“Safer to take the taller buildings. Aris just got in, so we have time,” Ral said.
“Sun curse it, there’s more of them,” Rask muttered. Ral looked down and saw a fresh deluge of monsters with unnaturally white flesh and blood red mouths pour from around the corner. They ‘looked’ up at the three of them on the roofs and bayed with their disharmonious voices as if taunting them.
Ral peered up at the giant Gate in the sky that opened wider as a dark eye. Now that Aris was gone, the white iris that had previously watched her smoke form was now locked on to him. If he watched the edges of the eye, he could see the dark edges expand out. Soon, all of the Heart will have this darkness stretched over it, the dark eye with the white iris hanging in the sky like some twisted moon.
“That building there still looks to be the best spot,” Ral said, pointing at the tallest looking structure jutting out amongst the roofs. It had a spike about a story taller than the surrounding buildings. If they could attach the ladder to the spike and somehow find a way for Verne and Rask to pull it down for the needed tension to catapult him up, they would be able to target a huge area.
The pit of Ral’s stomach churned. They didn’t exactly know where the solute would show up. They had to be prepared for anything.
The three of them leaped across the roofs accompanied by the growing screeches of Unseeing underneath. It was easy until they reached a large intersection and there was no easy way across the stretch of two buildings. A single statue of the emperor (completely made to be overly flattering, rumor had it) stood in the middle.
“You young ones go first,” Rask said.
Ral easily propelled himself from the edge of the building onto the top of the statue, but the force of stopping himself damaged the stone head. It was also shorter in height than the buildings they were safely on top of - this meant the hoards of Unseeing snapped to attention at his presence and tried to scramble up the statue to get at him. One managed to get up to the chest of the statue: Ral unfurled the Freerunner staff and stabbed it back viciously before propelling himself up to the building on the other side with a burst of speed.
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Verne muttered something that sounded like a Sekrelli curse and followed suit. The impact of him landing on the statue made the head visibly crack at the neck. Verne didn’t wait for the Unseeing to have a chance to swipe at him. He moved as far back on the shoulder of the statue as he could, then gave himself as much of a running start as he could, launching off the other shoulder to make a flying leap to the other building. Ral was ready with the staff, the metal retracted so it wouldn’t hurt Verne. He landed heavily against the side of the building, one hand scrabbling at the window sill he was aiming at, the other grasping the staff held down by Ral. Together, Verne was able to make it up.
Rask watched all this with growing dismay on his weathered face. But the Freerunner didn’t hesitate when it was his turn. He did the exact same thing, this time the landing on the statue caused the head to teeter off its stone neck. Rask grabbed it before it fell off and hurled it at an Unseeing that was clawing its way up to get to him. He then took off the bundle of ‘ladder’ sections from his back and threw it at Verne, who caught it and safely put it on the roof behind him.
“Ready,” Ral said, staff at hand. Rask also had his staff out, the metal bit a long sharp spike and positioned like it was ready to stab. Ral understood immediately what his mentor was going to do.
Rask took a running leap as much as he could as well. It stopped short of where Verne landed, but it was enough for him to stab at the side of the building walls. Unfortunately, the mortared stone walls didn’t yield well and Rask scrambled to find another handhold. He slipped further down the building, dangerously close to where a pool of Unseeing gathered to hungrily wait for him.
Verne drew his sword, ready to jump down in case he fell. Rask managed to find a single handhold at a building’s ledge and tried again to jam his staff into the side of the building. At the same time, an Unseeing leaped up and latched onto his back.
“Come up,” Ral shouted. It was no position to fight in. Rask grunted and hauled himself upward with the monster on his back, viciously biting into his neck. Without thinking, Ral grabbed a roof tile and hurled it hard at the Unseeing. It dazed it for a few moments, in which Rask climbed up using the handhold he made with his staff, unstuck it from the wall and made another by stabbing it again on the wall further up.
Ral leaned down as far as he dared to grab his mentor by the arm and shouted at Verne, who was already lunging forward to attack the Unseeing. The stark white body reluctantly fell from Rask after two slashes. The Freerunner’s hands shook as Ral pulled him to safety.
“That was not fun,” Rask muttered.
“But you made it, you’re not quite old yet,” Ral said.
Rask shot him a dirty look but Ral could see the twinkle in his eye. “Shut up.”