Chapter 28

The giant bird slowed, pausing a moment at the apex of its final flight. Time stood still as the Gryphus’ body shivered, tensed up for a long moment and then fully relaxed. It rattled out a putrid final breath and then slowly descended into a death spiral, increasing in speed and rotation as it fell towards the ground far below.

Wrenching the spear free, Oskar pushed himself away from the dying bird, and went into a free fall. He pinwheeled his arms in momentary panic before he finally spread out and slowed his descent enough to get his bearings. As he calmed, the swirls of color reappeared and he could again feel Sora enveloping him. He saw the Gryphus Vulture directly below him, still heading straight down. Unlike Oskar, it wasn’t affected by the massive winds that were now pushing Oskar further and further away, possibly due to its speed and size.

Doesn't matter now, I've got my own problems.

He was so high in the air, he could barely see the valley below him, and the thin air made breathing difficult. He took a long deep breath and he looked around instead. The sky was red and vast before him, and as the winds carried him, he watched the traces of color in the magic below him come and go as he lost altitude.

With the increasing wind speed, he suddenly realized he was moving as fast forward as he was falling.

That's worse. I don't think a combat roll is gonna get me out of this one. If I don't figure something out fast, I'm going to hit the ground with far more force than necessary to end my brief career as a Doomed Druid Dragoon Dirt Dude or Druidgoon or whatever the hell the PUB called me.

The PUB didn't correct him, maybe because it didn't want to distract him, but the fact remained that he was likely falling to his death.

Oskar's life had been on a razor’s edge for over a year now with things completely slipping out of his attempts to control it.

Here, though, things were simple. Not easy, but straightforward… and it was freeing. A simple problem with two solutions. Gravity wanted to smash him face first into the ground, and if he did nothing, it would do exactly that. Uncaring. Unfeeling. The universe would expand, this huge dying world would continue to turn and burn, and nothing would change.

Or… or I could do something about it. I’m not gonna just wait to die.

Of course, he never planned on giving up, but the situation seemed impossible, and so he'd found himself in the problem loop instead of the solution loop. And it was impossible, at least by earth rules. This world wasn’t like his world, though. There were people who fought in the skies. Surely people whose classes specialized in air combat had some way to slow their descent. There had to be something he could do related to his growing mastery over the wind that could help him survive this.

The view was incredible, and as he finally let go... as he finally truly stopped fighting the wind... something changed. Colors exploded around him. Instead of flickers and flashes of colors, the wind below him now looked like lines of shifting flowing air, almost liquid. Purple and red fingers of light burst through the rare wisps of clouds around him as he fell.

All this kinetic energy has to go somewhere. I’ve just gotta find a way to send it there.

He closed his eyes to the distracting colors and just let himself feel Sora around him as he breathed deeply in the cooler air. Oskar fell through and tore apart a wispy final cloud and was surprised at how at peace he felt, despite the circumstances.

Exhaling, he opened his eyes, wishing he could stay up here forever, and not because he was potentially falling to his death. As the thought occurred to him, the spear hummed in his hand. He had a sneaking suspicion it was his Bracer instead of the spear itself, but the little hint hopefully confirmed his theory.

Oskar took in everything around him, more confident now. He belonged here. Not just the wind… the air, the sky. This place just felt right. Unfortunately, as happy as he was up here, he was still falling to his death.

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Maybe tomorrow, but today, gravity’s getting the middle finger.

Something feral, something reckless inside him he'd forgotten even to himself, beat his heart along a new beat. A grin spread across his face. He didn’t even feel the least bit silly as he enthusiastically raised the middle finger of his right hand and thrust his hand at the ground below with a grin.

Erik would laugh his ass off at that.

Choice made, he readjusted his spear in both hands, and watched the ground rush towards him. Timing was key.

One shot, one opportunity. Mom’s spaghetti. All or nothing.

God—he felt alive.

His PUB offered him both a “Meters till Impact” and “Estimated Time of Death,” but he ignored them both. He took the PUB's snark as confirmation he was correct, and the tiniest flicker of blue around the edges of his vision acted like a nod.

Thanks, pal.

A few feet before impact, at the very last second, he thrust his spear downward with everything he had. Oskar felt his speed plummet without the usual vertigo of suddenly slowing down, and he felt energy roll through his body like a shiver and out through his hands.

All the momentum of his fall transferred into the thrust of the spear, striking the ground with a thunderous crash he could not hear due to the stupid bird’s piercing cry. Oskar felt the impact reverberate in his chest, though, as the ground parted with the force of his strike, yelling for all he was worth.

Not today, baby! Probably tomorrow, but not today.

Gasping for air, his chest aching, he stood frozen for a moment, dazed and waiting for the dust and sand to settle.

Still grinning, he pulled himself upright and looked around at the sand sloping upward around him in every direction. He was in a deep pit that was slowly filling back up with sand. Carefully, he scrambled out of the hole he had made, feeling the rough, hot sand against his palms. As he inspected his prosthetic and raised his spear to examine for any signs of damage, a series of notifications began flooding in.

He stood at the edge of his crater.

Gravity zero, Oskar one.

And now he had a crater. He wasn’t sure what one did with a crater, but he had one. Oskar pulled up the first of his notifications.

// Gambit Failed: Get Eaten by a Huge Bird.

You gotta admit, it would have made a funny story. //

You know I didn’t accept that Gambit.

Oskar couldn’t stop a sigh after the comment, even though he’d not spoken out loud.

// Well, I didn’t accept you not accepting it. I figured if you died, you’d at least have completed a Gambit before dying. All joking aside, that was freaking epic. Well done. //

Oskar looked around, trying to gather his bearings in relation to his team, but the ringing in his ears was disorienting. The adrenaline and elation he felt shadowed the danger of being alone, though. It was hard to feel in danger after finding out you can survive a fall from space.

The physics of this world made no sense to him logically, but some part of him was coming around to it. He was sore from the impact, but probably more from the reverberation than from the impact itself. He couldn’t help but wonder at the limits of the ability to absorb- or rather transfer kinetic energy.

Looking down at the undamaged spear in his hands, he assumed much of the limitation was on the durability of the weapon all that kinetic energy transferred to, which in his case was a basically indestructible divine quality spear, and probably mana. Or capacity, rather. Another thing Oskar had in spades due to his class.

Oskar wasn’t always going to have a huge dying bird to give him that kind of height, though, so hopefully he’d be able to find a different way get back up into the sky to really test the spear, his growing skill, and his body’s durability. It was nice to know he had some room to grow without wondering if his spear could hold up.

The spear was great, but as he worked through it in his head, it seemed likely the real reason it all worked so well was his capacity. Since his class required him to create his own spells and abilities, it gave him mana based off his Spirit and his Mind Rank instead of one or the other. He didn’t know exactly how much mana he had, but he guessed it was likely most wouldn’t have the capacity for much spell creation.

His druid class also gave him the ability to regenerate at least some capacity without having to rely completely on Wayspring water. In a world where Wayspring water was scarcer than ever, his capacity mixed with his regeneration was going to be his strongest asset. Oskar planned on leaning into that heavily as his style and power developed.

Oskar’s tendency towards physical combat felt natural to him. Humans were more vulnerable than Crocs or Drakon, or virtually any other desert born species, though, so he couldn't focus only on attacks.

Using the wind for movement in combat came easier as a concept than using the wind as a weapon itself, although he was sure he could eventually learn to use both. He was certain he could find a way to use all the elements in combat, even water if it weren't so scarce.

I need defense. Movement is great, but I need to be able to take a hit. I should probably find out where I landed, too.

Oskar reached down to a waterskin, hoping that the healing properties of the water, and swallowing in general, might bring back some of his hearing. Standing beside his crater, he looked around for his friends.