Chapter 450: Secon dTime

Alex’s skin prickled. The breath grew heavier in his lungs from the one step he’d taken toward the mountain. He felt the air grow denser and press against him, as if he were underwater. He paused for a second and simply let himself acclimate to the increased resistance.

It was actually even less than he’d expected. This amount of pressure was nothing compared to what he’d faced in the Forsaken grounds. But that really didn’t mean much. He’d basically expected as much. This was only the first step, after all. Every single one he took would definitely increase the difficulty… and he had a whole mountain ahead of him.

Murmurs rolled through the crowd behind him. More than a few sounded amused, as if they’d expected him to freeze after his very first step. Alex didn’t bother listening to what any of them said. They didn’t matter.

There was only him and the mountain.

He took another step forward.

It didn’t come much harder than the first. A small grin split his lips. The pressure didn’t scale too quickly, then. That was good. There was no reason for him to wait any longer. He took another step. Then another.

He accelerated, going from a slow walk to a brisk stride.

Then he broke into a jog.

If the crowd said anything else, Alex didn’t hear them. He didn’t care. All that mattered was getting as far along this mountain as he could. And judging by the very gradual increase in pressure thus far, he was going to be able to make a pretty good run at that.

Alex continued at a steady pace up the mountain path. He was mildly surprised to find that there was no sign of the stone-skinned woman that had headed up before him. She definitely hadn’t been moving all that fast when they’d lost sight of her.

Either she broke into a run right after she was out of sight, or the mountain is somehow isolating everyone on it. Maybe its a magic path to make sure nobody can interfere with a different person’s climb.

Alex didn’t have the faintest idea. He supposed it really didn’t matter all that much either way. The only thing he was concerned with was getting as much reward out of this whole thing as possible. His gaze lifted to the city in the distance.

Damn. That’s even farther than I thought. It’s going to be at least a few hours of climbing before I get anywhere near, isn’t it?

At least… it would be at his current speed. Alex lowered his gaze back to the dirt path before him. It wasn’t particularly precarious. Just a winding path running up along the side of the steep mountain. There wasn’t anywhere for something to jump out and ambush him — and even if he had run into someone on it, there was just barely enough room to pass anybody by.

Alex shrugged to himself. Then he accelerated. The pressure still wasn’t anywhere near enough to slow him down. There was no point taking it slow now. After all, there was always a chance that the mountain would take the speed he climbed it into account when handing the reward out.

***

It was thirty minutes or so later that the path widened out. The path stretched into a wide road in the few minutes that led up to a small camp that had been erected partway up the mountain. There were half a dozen stone houses erected around a small, unlit fire pit. Ten or so people stood around in the camp, eating and speaking.

Alex also couldn’t help but notice that the path leading out of the town was still wide. There were also a few people in the distance, fading as they ascended the mountain. It seemed the solo climb was coming to an end.

The pressure faded as he drew up to the camp. Alex slowed his jog to a walk as he passed through it. Everyone around him looked pretty tired. Many of them were soaked with sweat and fighting to catch their breath.

It wasn’t the most inspiring of sights. Nobody even glanced up at him as he passed them. They were all too focused on catching their breath. Alex couldn’t see any reason to slow down. If this was just an area to recover…

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He didn’t need it.

Alex just kept jogging, accelerating slightly as he drew up to the path on the other side of the town. Pressure met him immediately. He missed a step, slowing for a moment as a band of pressure wound around his chest.

Then his eyes narrowed. He steadied his pace. The next step he took came normally, and he was jogging once again. There was no doubt that the pressure beyond the rest point was at least twice what it had been before… but compared to the Forsaken Grounds, it was genuinely barely even worth noting.

“On your left,” Alex called as he passed a man plodding up the path. He only caught a quick glance of the man’s disbelieving expression as he easily jogged past him.

Always wanted to do that.

Alex didn’t risk a glance back. He still wasn’t sure if the mountain would have counted that as somehow heading in the wrong direction. The only thing that mattered was climbing. And the higher he got up the mountain, the more confident he became that he could go farther still.

What a weird trial. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it all the way up to that city, but I’m sure I can get at least halfway up the mountain. Really, though. I wonder why it’s so easy. I’ll have to ask Blade about this when I get back to Mirrorwane. Maybe he knows something about this.

***

Aaron rolled a coin across his knuckles as he stared into the roiling clouds in the skies of the Mirrorlands. There was a buzz in the air, and he couldn’t tell if it was from the Riftwarped Qi emanating from the moat at their backs or the nervousness pumping through his veins.

A number of other townsfolk stood all around him. Everyone’s gazes were locked on the sky above, where the System’s countdown to the next wave was rapidly approaching zero. There was only a minute left.

“This is the worst part,” May said from beside him. She shifted from foot to foot impatiently, practically twitching in eagerness. “I just want to kill stuff already!”

“Handful, isn’t she?” Wess, who stood to Aaron’s other side, chuckled as he examined his enormous gun. “Becoming a real little hellion. I’d feel bad for whatever poor sap is about to show up here and find a bloodthirsty goblin trying to blow them to shreds if I weren’t so excited to see it happen.”

“I’m not a goblin,” May said, her gaze not even flicking from the countdown overhead.

“My apologies,” Wess said in an impressively straight tone. For once, he didn’t actually seem sarcastic. “Don’t add me to your kill list. That’s not a battle I want to find myself in.”

“Can I have your gun?” May asked. “I’ll forgive you if I can.”

“No,” Wess said, but he hesitated for a moment before the response. “I need this one. But you can take it shooting some time. Maybe when we aren’t about to get attacked by a giant horde of something or another.”

“You are not letting my sister shoot that thing,” Aaron said flatly.

“Why not?” Wess asked. “You think it’s any more dangerous than what she does now?”

Aaron paused for a moment. Then he narrowed his eyes. “It’s about the principle of things. I am not letting May shoot a gun twice her height.”

“It’s safer than a small one,” Wess said. “If it’s that long, that means the explodey-bit is going to be farther away from her face. Hard to look down the barrel to check why it’s not shooting and accidentally redecorate the wall behind you. The trigger is too far down.”

Aaron couldn’t keep the laugh from bursting out of his mouth. He shook his head, letting out a defeated sigh. “You’re an idiot, Wess.”

“Thank you,” Wess replied. “Does that mean she’s allowed to shoot it?”

“Please?” May asked, staring up at Aaron with a pleading expression.

“Maybe sometime later,” Aaron said. “Let’s focus on surviving this thing first, yeah?”

“Bah,” Wess said. He shook his head, then clapped Aaron on the shoulder. “I learned something in my days, kid. Let me give you an important lesson. If you always live for tomorrow, you’ll never enjoy today. Who knows when you’ll get killed. Best to just do what you want or you might never get a chance to do it at all. Life is a gamble.”

Aaron was silent for a moment. His eyes lingered on the numbers in the air far above. In less than five seconds, the second wave would be upon them.

Strangely enough… Aaron found the buzzing in his chest start to slow. The worst part was over. He didn’t have to wait anymore. And some part of him had been looking forward to this. A bigger part than he’d realized.

Alex and Claire aren’t here. Orchid is trusting me, May, Wess, and Alyssa to make sure that the Mirrorlands side of our town doesn’t fall. We’ve got reinforcements from the rest of the townsfolk, but they’re going to be focused on holding down the walls, not taking out key threats.

But Aaron’s nervousness had absolutely nothing to do with that at all. He wasn’t scared about failing to hold the town. That wasn’t even an option. They would succeed. Everyone was capable of incredible things. He’d seen it. But it was about time he showed them what he was capable of. He had to set an example for May, after all.

“I’m not sure I agree,” Aaron said. He did have to set an example… but nobody said it had to be a good one.

“Huh?” Wess asked.

“About life.” A grin crossed Aaron’s lips. “It’s only a gamble if you’re playing fair.”

The countdown hit zero. Gold shimmered as the System’s words shifted into a new line.

[Trial Assigned: Second Time’s the Trial]

Objective: Variable. The wave has begun.