Chapter 41: Thirty Nine – 039

They skidded to a stop along a paved hillock, the buildings around them a bit more worn down by the wind. All of them were breathing hard, even Felix, though Harn and Magda seemed fresh enough. After a few dicey interchanges they hadn't heard the sound of pursuit for a few minutes now, and Felix was starting to hope they'd lost them. They took quick shelter in shadows cast by a jumble of fallen porticoes.

"We can't stop, those hounds have our scent." Harn hitched the giant rucksack further up his back and moved to get a clear view ahead.

"Wait...w-wait..." Atar huffed, olive skin slick with sweat and his normally carefully done hair in disarray. "I can't go much longer."

"We stop at this point and it won't be one pack that surrounds us. It'll be dozens. Hoarhounds are a menace for a reason, Sparky." Harn started walking.

"You need...to focus...on your Endurance more," gulped Evie, resting against her knees. "Or get that...Running Skill up higher."

"Shut...up...flippy...ass."

Pit pushed against Felix's legs, also eager to move onward despite his heaving sides and panting tongue. After sneaking into the cellar, tunneling out, and running away from the Hoarhounds Felix was feeling it too, but he had to trust Harn's judgement. The man was no-nonsense and frighteningly capable. Harn pointed off in the distance, where Felix could see a handful of looming stone towers, some of the highest buildings he had seen so far. Apparently they were so big the others could see them even through the haze.

"We go there. Gain the high ground and watch out for ice patches."

He started off. With a groan, everyone followed.

Going downhill was easier, but it looked like a mile at least until the towers. Harn in the front and Magda in the back kept every on pace, and it wasn't one meant to coddle them. To keep his mind off his body, Felix toggled his dismissed notifications.

Pit's Frost Spear is level 2!

Pit's Wingblade is level 6!

Nice to see Pit moving along. He glanced down at his friend who was keeping pace at his side. The tenku's wings were tucked tight to his body, perhaps to decrease wind resistance as they were getting quite big. He shook his head, wiping sweat that poured from his forehead. Despite Felix's high Endurance and Running Skill, this constant pace was getting to him. The Running Skill decreased the usage of his Stamina during the activity, but it didn't do anything yet for the build up of soreness and fatigue he felt damn near everywhere. Idly, Felix wondered what Apprentice Tier would make of the Running Skill; he had 7 more Skill Levels before he found out.

AWWOOOOOO!

"Shit," Magda swore. Felix turned slightly to see her behind him; she was looking off to the right and Felix followed her gaze. Beyond a tangle of cored-out-but-still-standing homes, he could see the flash of blue-white fur. "It sounds like there's at least five now."

Felix tried counting as he ran, not quite able to; instead he took a mental picture and checked it over. He counted at least ten.

"More than that," he panted. "At least double."

Magda shot him a look, but quickly glanced away. "Harn we gotta get outta here!"

"I know!" Harn hollered back, no longer worried about silence. "Here!"

All of them took a tight turn into a fire-gutted shopfront. Felix wouldn't have guessed it was a shopfront, but his Analyze hadn't been wrong yet.

Name: Ruined Commercial Structure

Type: Structure

Lore: Anything could have been sold in such a place before whatever calamity befell this place occurred. The inside has been almost utterly destroyed by a recent fire.

Calamity? What did happen to this place?

Felix wasn't allowed much time to muse. The sound of paws and claws came closer and closer, and the seven of them hustled up a set of stairs in the back of the shop. Ash and charred wood stirred and cracked beneath them, a number of small saplings having been torched to charcoal. The stairs were stone, thankfully, but they creaked ominously beneath their hurried feet.

Once up top, they heard barking that sounded much closer. The hounds were coming, fast.

"Come," whispered Harn, gesturing toward an open window much like the rest, glass and shutters all long gone. It faced onto a flat roof leading toward another building, this one with three levels above the shop's second floor. "Climb out onto the roof. Evie, you first."

The Tin Ranks and Felix did so quickly, filing out the window as quietly as they could, while Harn and Magda hung back. Soon they were all on the flat roof, and Harn made a series of gestures at Evie who nodded and then ran toward the edge. There was a small alley separating the shop from the five story ruin next to it, but it wasn't any more than five feet; an easy jump for any of them. 

Evie sailed over the gap, slipping through a gaping hole in the wall before coming neatly to her feet. Vessilia went next, followed by Felix and Pit. Atar, still visibly winded, made his best effort at the jump but fell short. Felix barely had time to react, but needn't have bothered. At the last second the mage threw his arm forward and a small metal rod expanded and pierced the stone.

DANG!

The sound was like a gunshot in the air. Magda and Harn went stock still, and Felix reached down and yanked the mage up by the front of his robes. Just in time, as they all heard loud sniffing abruptly coming from below. Felix was locked in a crouch, his arms holding Atar so close that he could smell the floral fragrance he was wearing.

Guh, that's cloying. Probably better than I smell though. Haven't had a bath in...four, five days? Suddenly Felix felt bad for holding Atar so close. He was probably rank.

Ice started creeping up the side of both of their buildings, and Harn began making wide sweeping gestures in their direction. Unable to understand, Felix looked to the ladies. Both Evie and Vessilia watched Harn a moment longer before nodding and padding quietly toward the stairs leading up. Felix helped the mage to his feet and disengaged, careful to not rustle their clothes or kick any loose stones. 

Atar followed after, his face pale and bloodless, still holding the strange expanding rod in his left hand. The rod was maybe the width of Felix's thumb, but was easily six feet long and tapered to a point on one end. Had he had it this whole time?

They picked their way up the stairs. Everything was coated in a fine gritty dust, as if, in the absence of wind and rain, the stone had been reduced to powder by the weight of time itself. Felix was still amazed at how may of these places were still standing at all, considering that the were easily hundreds of years old. If not more, considering magic.

As they neared the fifth and final floor, Felix heard the sound of metal crashing and sudden howling in the near distance. Too far away to be an immediate threat, but too close to not be important. He strained his senses, but his Perception picked up nothing else. The others didn't stop, though, so Felix kept on. Shortly after that, they made the roof.

"What are we doing?" Felix whispered. The others turned to him, finger on their lips. Vessilia made a couple of complicated hand signs, but when Felix's blank stare registered she tilted her head in confusion. Instead, she silently waved him to come with her. All of them moved to the center of the roof, as far away from any edges, and she made four signs toward Atar. With a roll of his eyes and almost pained grunt, his hands flashed with bright yellow Mana that swelled and covered the five of them. Sound ward in place, Vessilia spoke up.

"You cannot read handsign?" Vessilia asked.

"No, definitely not," Felix said, shrugging. "I've just been following you guys and working off context clues."

"Huh. Well, Harn had us head to the roof. Said he and Maggie would join us soon," Evie clenched her jaw, clearly upset. Vessilia put her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"They'll be fine." Evie nodded, jaw still tight.

Felix cleared his throat, a little uncomfortable. "So do we continue onward?" He nodded toward the towers Harn had in mind. They were a little less than a quarter mile away, if he was judging the distance right. "We should be able to do it if we stick to the roofs."

Evie grunted softly. "Yeah. That's the plan. We go ahead, get to the nearest tower and get in."

Felix made an impressed face. "That's a lot to say in a few gestures."

"Handsign is pretty compact," agreed Vessilia. "I can..uh, I can teach it to you sometime, if you would like."

"Oh sure. That'd be fantastic," Felix said, already thinking about how easy languages might prove with perfect memory. "Ok, then let's get moving."

With a gasp, Atar released the silencing spell and Felix watched the colorful Mana vapor dissipate into the air. He turned and saw the mage regarding him with his usual annoyed expression.

"What are you doing?" Atar's expression fairly screamed. Felix only replied by putting a finger to his lips and making a series of complicated nonsense gestures. Then he walked away.

Magda huddled close to the edge, watching the Hoarhounds prowl the streets below. There were at least fifteen of them now, all spread around the area as they hunted for their group. Harn caught her eye.

<<How many?>>

<<Fifteen. Three packs. Any more Risi?>>

Harn hesitated, his face hidden but Magda knew he had an expression of extreme concentration.

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Harn's hands flashed. <<Only four. More perhaps, further out.>>

Madga nodded. The fighter's Brawler's Physique Skill granted him some distinct advantages, and his Body Tempering had enhanced his senses well beyond what Magda could perceive. But even his powerful senses were defeated by the distorting veil of the Foglands' magic.

<<Any sign of the Sworn?>>

<<None.>>

They both knew that meant little. Magda was tempted to believe the boy had lied, but that knife was impossible to fake. Giving herself a little shake, she focused on the problems she could solve.

<<Time's up. Distraction, now.>>

The Tin Ranks would have gotten far enough by then. Time to do their part.

The day wore on as Felix and the others navigated across over thirteen rooftops and passed-through structures barely strong enough to hold them. While it astounded Felix that much of this was still standing, it still meant that nearly everything was on the brink of collapse. Most of the time, it seemed hope and probably magic was all that kept the worst of them together.

Regardless, they had made it.

"So this is it, huh?" Felix stared upward at the tower, an impressive construction that rose at least fifteen stories and was utterly covered in complicated statuary. A number of flying buttresses supported the lower levels of the tower, adding width to the base of the building. Felix eyeballed the distance between their three story ruin and the nearest bit of the tower, estimating perhaps twenty feet or so separated them. Whoever had once inhabited these structures had obviously been important, too much of a big shot to be rubbing shoulders with common folk. "Think we can make it?" he whispered.

Atar scoffed, but Vessilia simply smiled, her teeth bright and perfectly straight. Felix felt his pulse pick up as his thoughts turned.

How do they have such nice teeth? Do dentists exist here?

Vessilia backed up without a word, then took a running leap off of the edge.

WHOA!

With a powerful rush of air, the spearwoman leaped nearly twenty-five feet, easily clearing the distance and landing amid the crowded statues. Felix gaped.

"Dragoons, ya know?" Evie remarked, pushing up his hanging jaw. "Me next."

"Wait," Felix said, riffling through his satchel until he pulled out his brightweave coil. He unraveled it and handed Evie an end. "Here, take this."

"Sure," Evie shrugged, smiling herself. "Always happy to help the less capable." She held onto one end of the rope with one arm as she unwound her spiked chain with the other. After taking a run up herself, Evie threw her chain out, the end of it moving faster than Felix could track. With a metallic clank, the links struck and wrapped around a weather-worn oblong statue. A simple tug, and somehow Evie sailed through the air, propelled by some force directly onto a ledge above.

"How did she...?"

"She's cheating, sort of," whispered Atar. He had long ago collapsed his metal rod and was looking after Evie with something close to envy. "Her Born Trait has to do with altering the weight of herself and her chain."

That's seriously cool.

"Do you mind if I...?" Atar gestured to the rope in Felix's hands.

"Oh! Sure, yeah, not a problem. You go first." Felix handed the brightweave coil to the mage, looking up to see that Evie had tied it off around another statue. It was elevated now, the rope reaching back at an angle to their roof. "It's an enchanted rope, so you--"

The coil suddenly knotted every five feet or so, creating an easily climbable surface. Atar's hands flared with orange Mana as he fed power into the rope.

"Oh yeah. Of course you know to use it."

With Felix steadying the rope from behind, Atar was able to cross the distance relatively easily. While the mage might have low values in most physical stats, he apparently had more than enough to climb the rope.

Pit glided across the distance, jumping first to gain some more height, and climbing up the outside of the tower until he reached the Tin Ranks' level. Last to go, Felix gripped the rope and sent a pulse of Mana through it. The rope began to coil up, and once the slack was gone, Felix took a breath and jumped off the side of the building.

Swinging, Felix fairly flew toward the lower tower walls, and braced himself to hit. With a thump he landed feet first against the tower wall, low enough that he was below any statuary. The magically coiling rope yanked him up the wall, like a slow moving grappling gun. Unwilling to just hang and wait, Felix complemented the magic rope by climbing with his free hand and legs the rest of the way.

Sadly, his Free Climbing didn't bump up at all.

Felix retrieved his coil, directed it to unknot and loop around his shoulder, and climbed the last few feet up into what appeared to be the fourth floor window. It was dark in here, the afternoon sunlight fighting to penetrate much farther than a few feet, though Felix could make out a large room supported by several round columns. The others were waiting around, though Atar and Vessilia were busy inspecting the far wall, eyes bright in the darkness.

"Took ya long enough," Evie jibed, her voice still not much more than a whisper. Felix grinned and dusted his hands.

"Not all of us have magic weight powers to give us a boost," he joked. Evie grinned even wider, green eyes flashing. Then she looked down. At Pit, who was on his haunches at Felix's feet.

Felix read the nervousness in her body language. He wondered what freaked them out so much about Pit. Was it just that chimeras usually attack them, like they said? Felix reached down and skritched the tenku's neck, causing his back leg to twitch uncontrollably.

"Don't worry. He's a good boy."

Evie's eyes flashed back up to his, then looked away. He wasn't sure if she was embarrassed or what, but she quickly diverted her attention.

"Hey you! Quit gawking at rocks and let's get going!"

"There are murals here. They are exquisitely detailed!" Vessilia's smile was wide as she turned back to them. "They've hardly been weathered at all!"

Intrigued, Felix made his way over despite Evie's groan. Vessilia excitedly gestured at the walls where Atar was busy fixedly staring. In keeping with the architecture of this city, the carvings were everywhere. The spots where the ceiling and floors met the walls were the most heavily detailed, and Felix could see repeated patterns of greenery and small four legged forms among the friezes. The center of the walls featured a sort of scrolling scene, moving across lush natural vistas like mountains and rivers and forests. Felix stepped up to one and ran his hands across the surface, feeling the very slight bas-relief detail worked into the stone.

Wow. This is incredible.

In fact, the designs and markings reminded Felix heavily of the underground dungeon where he had been imprisoned. He glanced at the floor beneath him, scuffing dirt and dust aside to see the neatly made edges of pentagonal tiles. He looked back up at the main sculptures, the sprawling depictions of nature and picked out a few small figures dotting the landscapes.

Just like under the mountains. Same tiles. Even similar small figures. Did the same people build both? They're pretty close to each other, so that would make sense.

Yet everything in this city and even under the mountain had been made for people much larger than the small figures depicted. Why?

"Ahem, I like uh, rocks as much as the next gal, but we need to get some distance from the ground," Evie said, starting to walk toward a shadowed alcove. Pit was right behind her, and she gave him a wary glance. "Harn said the Hoarhounds are powerful trackers and I really don't want to wake up to find an ice wolf chewing on one of ya."

The three of them reluctantly followed Evie, discovering that the alcove was actually a series of winding stairs. In fact, it was two series of stairs built into one: the main set of stairs was made for a human (or human-like) stride, while a path along the center was made for much smaller legs. It was two steps for every one.

"Fascinating," Atar murmured.

It was very dark in the stairwell, and Felix had to flare his Manasight to see. The stone all pulsed with a dusty brown laced with flashes silvery gray. That's metal, same as the bits of armor I've seen. So iron, probably? He wasn't a metallurgist, so it could have been titanium for all he knew. Analyze told him nothing, only that it was "quarried stone." Light carvings decorated the outer wall of the stairwell, scrolling vines and leaves twisting and knotting together in an intricate design, and his Manasight could pick out other flashes of metal and stones in the dusty brown earth Mana. He could Analyze those, though: bits of green copper, blue lapis lazuli, and even a smattering of actual silver. The colors swirled and shimmered within the earth Mana, dimming and brightening in turns like a distant night sky.

It's even more beautiful in Manasight than my normal vision. Felix looked around, enjoying the shift and flare of Mana as it flowed through literally everything in this world. It's like I'm standing on empty air filled with colored light.

"Oof!"

Felix ran right into Atar's back, who tilted into Vessilia. The spearwoman was braced, though, and kept everyone on their feet.

"What's in Avet's name is going on?" Atar whispered, furiously.

Felix could see that Evie was holding up a closed fist. She made several quick gestures and Felix could feel the other two change their stances. Atar looked back at him, eyes wide, and mouthed two words.

"Someone's here."

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