Aceso was only a few strides above him. He was moving faster than she was but if he wanted to catch her was going to have to up his game. He attacked his turn into the building and forced his body into a higher arc between the buildings. The higher the arc the more strength and speed he needed. If he aimed too high he would miss the opposite building and fall, maybe all the way to the ground, he had learned that lesson the hard way too.
He was chasing Aceso’s trail but with each leap he was closing the vertical distance between the two of them. Katherine and Nicholas were lost to him all that mattered was his alpha and the top of the first two Towers.
Aceso leaped out into open space. William was sure that she had to jump one more time to clear the roof of the building. But instead of rolling and pushing off, she grabbed at the lip of the roof of the building and pulled herself up and out of his sight. William was a little shocked, so shocked that he almost missed his turn and scraped his head and ears on the building for his lapse in focus. He stumbled and had to redouble his focus just to recover from his botched turn. He lost a good half leap because of that. It took him two more leaps into space before he was able to clear the opposite building from where Aceso had disappeared. He didn’t have time to stop. Stumbling a little on the smooth roof of the building he pushed himself into a run. He steadied himself as best he could. He sped up as he neared to edge of the building and jumped toward the third and final Tower.
The third and last building was situated in space between the other two, so that the three Towers formed a triangle. This last part was going down, making a “V” pattern between the three buildings touching the last Tower every other leap. One might think that getting down would be the easiest part of this. Again, William had learned the hard way that physics did have some unbendable rules that even in werewolf form he could not break, no matter how hard he tried.
Aceso had a good lead on him and was already several floors lower than he was. He wasn’t going to just let her get away with winning, though. He allowed himself to dive bomb downward. He cleared a full two storied with one leap. The jump back off was rough and he barely made it to the third building on the rebound jump but, if he could do it just a few more times…He leaped down and let gravity take him. He pushed past two more storied before he flip turned off the wall. The recovery leap was slowing him down and Aceso only had to clear a few more stories. He cast caution to the wind and jumped straight down to the bottom floor of the building.
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He immediately regretted it.
He felt gravity rip at him as he gained speed. He passed Aceso but he knew that his claws would never find any purchase on the opposite building. He weighed his options, risk breaking an arm or a leg trying to flip and push off of the building or roll into a ball, accept his stupidity, and crash. There were worse things that could happen to him. Besides, Efraim was usually forgiving of injuries as long as he was giving it all that he had. It was when he was holding back that the Krav Maga instructor came down on him. At least his Alpha wouldn’t beat him and that was all that mattered right now.
Saying a silent prayer to the gods he closed his eyes and rolled his body over. The crushing impact with the wall came seconds later and he bounced to the ground in a heap of tan fur and a broken limb or two.
Efraim was running over to see him even before Aceso landed with just as much grace as she had when she flew through the air. She stood up slowly on her hind legs and turned around. William watched as she glanced up to see Katherine a few leaps behind them and Nicholas still out of sight.
She walked over to him, in no hurry at all. William was in pain but he knew that it had been his own fault. Still, that was no reason for Aceso to play the disappointed mother bit again. She sidestepped as Katherine came down to land roughly next to her Alpha. Aceso helped steady her as she glared over at William’s heaped and partially broken form.
William twisted his head painfully to the side to look up and watch as Nicolas made his awkward descent from the top of the Towers. It was almost embarrassing watching him flop from building to building, like a fish. He hadn’t gotten any better at this obstacle but he hadn’t given up either. One thing that Nicolas was really good at was not giving up, even when he probably should have.
Aceso stood with Katherine as the two females watched the sandy blond form descend slowly between the buildings. William knew that he must be exhausted. He was falling more and more with every leap. He would still make it to the ground though, and he would be in a lot better shape than William was. Nicolas made his last rebounding leap but, in his exhaustion, he let his body counter balance too much and instead of hitting the ground with his legs, the ground met his arms that were outstretched over his head.
Seeing Nicolas crash down reminded William of the way an albatross landed. Nicolas’ arms crumpled under his weight and fatigue. His head crunched down onto the ground and his whole body flipped over several times into a comedic roll that ended with his whole body splayed out on the ground ‘spread eagle’.
Aceso rushed over with Katherine close behind to help the blond werewolf to his feet. Nicolas was dazed and it took several moments for him to regain his balance. He leaned heavily on Katherine as he took a step forward, shaking his head and rubbing his neck with his free claw. He took his arm away from Katherine’s shoulder and shakily walked forward a few steps on his own.