A terrifying few seconds of freefall followed by a crunch as our feet dug into the loose gravel, then we leapt again, scraping down the mountain. I kicked at the rocks as I descended, searching for footing, finding one briefly before it crumbled under my weight. My hand shot out, gripping a sharp outcrop. It held firm, and I swung my legs to balance on a jagged ledge below.
The other three followed with varying grace — Alator’s massive frame sent bursts of shale each time he landed, but almost bulldozed a path; Lenya’s smaller steps were nimble but tense, relying on her elven nature and perfect balance; Akishen’s speed and surefootedness betrayed a barely concealed panic as at points she was ahead of us all and had to catch herself more than once, yelping, to avoid falling to her death.
Above us, the Gravelbacks moved with an eerie patience; in threes, their claws scraped softly across the stone, sending loose pebbles as tiny avalanches all around us. Despite their bulk, they clung to the cliff with a predator’s ease, and their rock-armoured backs blended so perfectly with the mountain that only the occasional shift betrayed their presence
“Faster,” I urged, voice low and forceful.
We leapt down to another shelf, but landed uneven on ground slick with fresh rain. Through a cravasse at our back, the wind howled through, whipping at us and, happily, throwing our bodies tight against the cliff face. Alator landed last, and a boulder gave way beneath his bare foot, loosed as if by a sling and spinning out, tumbling with a deafening crash into the jagged abyss below. He caught himself effortlessly with a hand behind him, fingernails cracking as the rock cracked and he created a hand-hold himself. In front of us was another cliff, and away from the vista ahead and far horizon, the light dimmed.
The crunch of stone again echoed from above, louder this time. Glancing up, I saw a group of three of the Gravelbacks stop, flat snouts twitching as if sniffing the air. Their bodies lowered to the ground in unison, coiling with energy, tails flicking nervously, eyes focused. Then more movement caught my eye — on the far wall, three others clung like grotesques, claws sunk deep into the vertical.
“By Jove,” I hissed.
Akishen’s voice was a yell of alarm. “There are more!”
I followed her gaze, strained my eyes in the moment I gave myself, and saw others — creeping sideways across the wall to our left. Another tail flicked, snouts pressed against the rock, and a grey tongue lashed out as if it tasted our panic.
Realisation hit me like a punch in the liver: we were surrounded.
“Only way is further down!” I barked. It was near a sheer drop — far from ideal — but staying wasn’t an option.
I led the jump, pushing off into the void for a moment. The wind howled louder here, past our bodies downwards, pushing us towards the sharp ground below. The cliff seemed a mile away until it suddenly rushed up and I landed on a narrow outcrop. Knees buckling, I pumped [Vigour] to stay upright just in time to see Lenya falling just too far ahead. I shot out both hands and grabbed her tight under her arms, like catching a cheerleader, and pulled her close to my body before spinning and setting her feet down. Akishen made the leap scraping down the rocks, her chest and arms red raw and grazed bleeding. Alator came down hard again, sending cracks through the stone beneath him.
The ground below was still in utter darkness — unknown. Above, the Gravelbacks didn’t have any need for pause, and heads bobbing, began their slow, steady decline. Stalkers, I thought.
“They’ll follow us all the way down,” Lenya breathed worry into my chest.
“Let them,” growled Alator, fists bunched, muscles and tendons ridging.
“Only when we have a battlefield to fight on!” I yelled at him. With Lenya still clutched to me, I remembered like a flash her promise in Ith-Korr. “We’ve got to leap all the way down. You can break our fall!”
She looked up at me with mad eyes, tears welling. There was a stammer that started the word, “Impossible,” but she shook her head, stepped away from me, gripped her mother’s staff, and nodded.
Greater than any I’d felt before, the warm air picked up and soared towards her as she began an incantation. Loose snow drifted from around us and came towards her and starting circling around her staff and body, and gravel skitted and rolled over the ground to her feet.
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From above, the first group of Gravelbacks reached us, claws scraping, light lines in its rock armour glinting wet. It leapt towards us, its head ducked under its massive back and it tucked its short limbs in as it fell like a meteor.
Both Alator and myself moved to protect Lenya, but he got there first: with both hands up he stopped to fall and redirected it, smashing it against the ground, shattering a portion of the ledge to fall into the black below. Roaring, he then took hold of the connection between the first scale on its back and its neck, put one foot on its head, pressed it into the ground, and pulled. The head came off with a pull and snap, dark tendons broke like guitar strings and blood sprayed and pooled, and he threw it into the ravine.
Two others were following and landed either side of us. I moved.
“Quickly!” I shouted, and sprang forwards. With [Weapon Mastery : Precision Strike] ready, my spear went through its open, hissing mouth, the spearhead and six inches of the haft disappearing into a red, wet mess, before I pulled it back out and kicked it off the side.
The last hesitated for long enough for Akishen to draw her knives and move to it. One struck out wildly and glanced off its armour as it twisted, but the other sunk deep into a thigh, hobbling it. I ran four paces and leapt to reach it, and brought my spear down as I did, lungs full of [Vigour]’s fire, any the bronze spearhead crunched through its back at an angle from behind, displacing a handful of scales. The beast howled and backed away, and scurried a little up the wall in frantic terror.
Bursting with energy, meaning to LEAVE MY MARK, I followed and grabbed at its tail as it fled. My fingers gripped like steel onto the grey leather and with a grunt, pulled it back down off the cliff and onto the floor, onto its back. Flipping my spear, I caught it point-down and sent it through its neck and twisted until, gurgling, it was still.
// SYS : You gained 26 XP for defeating Gravelback H, and 13 for defeating Gravelback I. You now have 147 and need 144 total for the next Level. //
STRENGTH.
// SYS : Congratulations and welcome to Level 12. Your Strength Stat is now 14. You have 3 XP remaining and need 152 total for the next Level. //
Probably not my best decision, but it felt right in the moment and my thews throbbed with new energy as I turned towards my companions and saw another two troops of Gravelbacks encroach from above and along the sheer side of the mountain.
“Lenya?” I yelled.
“Not yet!”
“Do it in the air!”
As I shouted, I lunged forwards, caught her in my free arm, and with another step, launched us both off the cliff. I heard the scrapes of metallic claws above as the giant rock lizards leapt off the wall towards the ledge, but before they reached, Akishen and Alator followed.
Sailing through the air, wind awful pressure on our backs, Lenya caught her breath and continued her incantation as a scream. The arcane energy surged over my body as we both dropped like stones, and I twisted my body around so I was beneath her, holding her at arm’s length as we fell.
I saw the ground approach through Akishen’s reaction, as she began to swivel her head in mad mortal panic for anything to grab ahold of. One of her knives was dropped as she shot out a hand to the wall, only to have a jut of shale splinter, and a jagged rock knock her off balance in the air, sending her tumbling head over arse, and the side of her head caught a few inches of stone on the side of the mountain, knocking her senseless, and her body soared down limp.
“Lenya!” I roared.
Another moment of emptiness. The Gravelbacks disappeared into the haze high above us. Alator was at my side as we fell, legs braced, eyes flashing aflame yellow, the gold veins from his fingertips up his arms sparking.
Then Lenya’s staff pulsed purple and pink, as transparent shimmer at first, then outwards like a beating heart.
“[Power : Balance]!”
Our descent was slowed then stopped in nearly no time at all, a massive force pressed on every limb like being smothered by rough pillows. Then my back touched the floor, with just enough speed to hurt and graze my bare thighs on the jagged rocks.
Alator landed on his feet and leapt over to where Akishen fell, unconscious, and plucked her from the air.
I lifted Lenya up and jumped to my feet, then punched the air and hooted.
“Incredible! Well done, Lenya!”
She had a massive smile on her face, and pure exasperated relief.
“I wasn’t sure — it’s for steadying yourself — I wasn’t sure it would work to steady you vertically as well.”
“Genius!”
She blushed and beamed on.
Then the moment was cut short with a sinking chill as I heard clattering rocks from above and knew, somewhere in the blackness, the Gravelbacks still descended the wall.
