Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Master of the Horizontal Plane

"Would it not be hilarious if these fine people went out of their way to save us and we just slipped and died?" Phoenix looked to his right, where Gold was psyching himself up. He kept walking and mini jumping, micro-practicing the motions he'd be making in a moment.

"We won't." He bent his knees and pushed off his feet into a leap, clearing the space between the platform he was on and the first pillar. "Just get good, beta."

Phoenix puffed and made the first jump in a swift, agile step, and even swung his momentum into a second yeet that placed him one pillar ahead. "You never tire of calling me that, and yet I'm one pillar ahead of you."

"Bait. Food to feed to the wolves," Gold boomed, "now less talking, more jumping." He made a double-footed hop to the next column at the same time that his comrade bounced effortlessly to the next one, landing on the tips of his toes.

Others were filtering through the doorway. Nikola kept a close eye on their hands; if any of them began to aim at her new party members, she would strike decisively. Her cleaver hand was itching for another kill, as if it had a mind of its own.

Luke propped up the wall by the opposite side of the door, his deep blues scanning the equipment and numbers of the other parties. Indeed, nobody's armour was further along than the Golden Armour GigaGold and PhoenixRisen were donning, and there were even fewer impressive Weapons.

He let out a trapped breath when the pair got to the other side unscathed. GigaGold found his eyes and gave one him one nod of recognition, urging him to follow. Phoenix pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow in the direction of the crowd.

"Don't worry, fair citizens," Phoenix shouted, "I won't shoot if you don't give me a reason to."

"Let's go, Nikola," Luke urged as he pulled himself away from the wall, "I'll watch your back."

He glanced over the crowd amassing on the ledge and while many were holding on to their weapons, few were brandishing them. Good, he thought, they're going next, so they best not.

Nikola peeled herself from the vertical plane she was pressed against, stepping up to the edge of the ledge with one knee bent and the other planted firmly on the porous, rocky floor behind her.

GigaGold and Phoenix had gotten across by taking the pillars one at a time and keeping a close eye on one another. She saw no reason not to copy a successful strategy.

"I will go first," she decided and pounced, landing on the first pillar in a feline-like fashion, keeping her hands on the surface as well as her feet. Her butt was popped in the air and facing the opportunistic onlookers; not ideal, and she probably looked silly, but silly was preferable to dead.

Luke tried not to stare at the game-made ass pointed at him, planed as smooth as the marble they were jumping on. He remembered all the times he had gotten to the spicier part of the World of Wills when he had still played, back when it was a free-to-play experience, back before it was picked up by the Liberation Games. Oh, he had definitely gone through the Butcher's marriage plot line.

"Bro, get going. We need to go next," someone grunted from somewhere over his shoulder.

"Right," he sputtered and hopped to the circular surface, the grips on his boots engaging and keeping him from wiping out. But gravity had wanted him to, the bottoms of his feet slipping easily across the glass-like material.

Nikola rose and bounced off to the second pillar, then the third, skittering around to face Luke.

She turned to see him just in time to catch sight of the face of the person who started to yell in his direction. "You're not even level 4, are you? You'd have better equipment than that if you were. I bet your DEX is shit."

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Their eyes were lime green and so was their hair, standing out against the plain stone of the wall. "I don't think he can make it. What do you guys think?"

One of the Players grouped around the lime-haired speaker grinned in recognition. "Absolutely not. Look at those shitty boots; is that the beginner gear you get from the tutorial quest in The Copper Citadel? He's going to wipe out, no doubt about it."

There were nods all around him, and the effect on his confidence was immediate and sickly. His stomach dropped to his toes and the next pillar in the line looked further away than ever, drifting away from them with their agreement.

"Do not even try," Nikola growled from her crouched position, "he is a level 100 jumper. He is extremely proficient. I have seen him jump across a chasm the size of a city. You will not be successful in this defamation."

"You can't get above a Level 20 in any skill in the World of Wills, princess."

Luke's legs stabilized. He took the moment of stability as a sign and took a chance, leaping to the 2nd platform, and then the 3rd so he was in line with his party member. His cape swayed in a half-moon as he spun around.

"You must not have known that I was a master of the horizontal plane. I can conquer any plane: vertical, nautical, you name it. I may have low DEX, but I make up for it in sheer ability. My real-world parkour skills made jaws drop so hard they went through the earth's crust." Riding his wave of verbal confidence, he bounded across to the next pillar top, and the next.

Nikola cleared her next jumps like a wild animal, holding on to the edges of the perch with the tips of her fingers and leather-clad toes.

"I will say that his legs looked quite spry to me," Phoenix shot across the room like an arrow, his arm still taut and ready like the string at the end of it.

Gold nodded along in an offer of silent support.

"Whatever, you have lies and I have eyes. I can see how close you are to falling. Fall!" The spiky-haired lime head raised his hand above his head to drive his point home.

As he did, the strong sound of a pluck rang out and a bolt grazed the top of the outstretched limb just as others were raising theirs to join in. An immediate stream of blood poured forth, trickling down and painting one of their hair tips with red.

"Consider that a warning!" The elf was already seating another arrow, training his deadly gaze across the room. "Continue to speak ill of him and the next one will go through your heart."

"There's more of us than there are of you, pretty boy," he returned with a sharp laugh.

Everything about him was sharp, angular. Wooden stakes stuck out of the shoulder pads on his armour, ever so slightly camouflaging the quiver hanging on his back.

"Have I been merciful enough to satisfy your request?" Nikola hissed out in the blue-haired Warrior's direction, straightening. She scanned the room for anything at all she could use to her advantage, and just as several people back on the ledge were readying their weapons, she found something that just might work.

Bats. Hundreds of them.

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