Shawn instantly regretted his decision as he rifled through his bag, looking for anything could help. At the same time, he saw Garrett poking his head out far above him, and waving to him distantly.

  "So, this is a little bit of a climb," Shawn commented. “Garrett, this breeze could knock me clear away from the tectonic mass, and I’m worried there’s other spots of gravity shifts. Got enough rope to lower down?”

  Garrett motioned distantly, presumably to hit his Arcom device. “I have maybe fifty meters of rope, up here. This is over twice that distance. More like a hundred and…twenty. Got any more friends following you?”

  Shawn looked around behind him and shook his head. “No, I managed to wall off those damn rats. But, there are other connecting tunnels that I have not explored yet. I could just risk it and fly, but I'm also worried about the fact that the atmosphere can get pretty wonky when you're right at the tectonic edge.”

  “Especially when you go over the side. That's why we tell nobody to try this. My advice Shawn? I think you'll have to have to climb this by hand,” Garrett reasoned. Shawn gnced at the tectonic mass. It was beautiful. Also, a great vista to die looking upon, should he fall.

  “Wonderful.” He let out a sigh of resignation. He knew this was a possibility they might have to do some scaling. He looked at his fingers and realized that maybe, he was decently suited for this task, given his cwed hands and feet. He had done climbing before, so this wasn't exactly a new task for him. The difference was the sheer scale. Not to mention the fact that he had no safety harness, whatsoever. Except, for maybe his wings, but even then, he still needed teral movement to make use of them.

  “So, how much warning will I have if the atmosphere thins out?" He found a short length of rope he could use for a shifting loop, and a few pitons to wedge into the rock gaps. He thought he’d be going down mine shafts, not pying on the edge of the world.

  Garrett let out a soft sigh over the arcom device. "Well usually, if you stay within about a hundred meters of the surface, you should be fine. That said, think about that gravitational ore is pying havoc with this pce. I don't think we want to chance it."

  A distant shattering sound got his attention, and he turned back, his eyes widening. The rats must have finally gotten past his ice barrier and were more than likely on their way for chicken dinner. “Oh, rats,” he uttered. “Literally. Garrett, drop the rope, fast!”

  “On it!”

  Shawn took a quick survey and chose what equipment he could absolutely live without right now. To make haste, he left the ore samples on the floor, to hopefully collect them ter. Other than that, he had packed pretty lightly. He tightened the straps and ensured his wings were not inhibited in their motions, and his rifle tacked to the bag. A few test fps ter, he had his answer: He was as ready as he would be.

  "Garrett, lower as much rope as you can because I'm coming up in a hurry." He tested his grip walked around the opening, and walked out to the narrow ledge. The cliff face was not as impassable as he once believed, with roots, stubborn trees wedged into the crevices, and enough footholds for him to shimmy up carefully. He slowly made his way up the cliff face, inching his way forward, and taking a break when necessary.

  Within less than a minute, numerous ravenous rats had skidded to the opening, and a few of them had tumbled to their deaths to the world below. He had no idea how they’d not gotten crushed from the other gravity flip–maybe enough of them had fallen, that the fall of the ones at the back had been cushioned.

  It made for a darkly funny thought, and Shawn couldn't help but ugh a little anxiously. These rats were dumb, if not dangerous. But, his ughter got their attention, and they all hissed and snarled at him. “Buncha freaking lemmings! Take that!” he goaded them.

  That’s when he realized he’d made a tacit error, and they started eyeballing the cliff, and started climbing up. With each one falling, they became more organized hopping up the narrow climb points.

  “Uh oh.”

  A few rats started closing the gap, and his eyes widened in fear. The rats, cking a sense of self-preservation, were slowly advancing behind him, and they were actually quite good at it. Seeing one lose their footing and fall, screaming down to the yer below, didn’t bring him much relief. He hastened his pace, realizing he should not have tempted fate on this one.

  He was lucky that his fingers and cws found easy purchase in the angled rocks, and he dug deep into the crevices of the cliff face where he could. It did not help matters, that he was being chased by ravenous rats. He wedged himself into a crevice; with his free hand, channeled energy from his core down his arm, focusing on that mental projection of super chilled energy. “Alright you mangy sons of bitches, let’s up the difficulty for getting chicken dinner!”

  He felt that refreshing surge of ice bst down to his extremities, and he bsted a frosty burst onto the ledges below him. He swept the narrow ice stream along the cliff face, creating a barrier between him, and the rats. Hopefully, that would force them to stay back for a while, and a few more slipped off, tumbling and their shrill screams becoming distant. He didn't know how long this ice sted, or how durable it was. The st couple of times he used it, it seemed to dissipate or melt after several minutes. It wasn't like Regia's ability, where the water stayed put afterward.

  He needed to jot down some theories of the limits of his powers so that he wouldn't make a miscalcution ter. Preferably, in the safety of the town, with controlled experimentation. He let out a screech of triumph, when the first rats scrambled across the ice, slipped, and then a few more tumbled down to the world below, screeching incoherently. "No easy meals for you!"

  Would you stop tempting the Fates, please?!

  Halsey’s rather angry outburst wasn’t exactly unexpected. He needed to get off this chasms-damned cliff and into safety. He clung to the surface, working his way around ledges while keeping his wings pressed tight. The gusty wind blowing along the tectonic ledge made him just a little nervous. The st thing he wanted to become was a feathery kite. Each clenching motion of his hands and legs brought him closer to safety and he could feel the burn of fatigue building, his hands slowly cramping. He chose a small recess where he could rex his fingers, the digits trembling softly.

  “You alright down there?!” Garrett called down. He aimed his rifle at the rats, and Shawn heard the crack of one round flying down, and smacking a rat right in the head. It tumbled downward and took two more with it, screeching in terror, with crumbles of that tawny brown rock cttering to the world below. “Hey, one shot, three kills!” he called out proudly.

  “And no achievement pop-up, either,” Shawn ughed in a moment of bck humor.

  Ding! Oh wait, sorry, I missed the moment.

  What had been a soft ugh turned into a fitful one, and he grasped the ledge while letting out a much-needed tension reliever for a while. “Garrett, just keep them off my back for a bit, I’ll be up in a second!” He spotted Garrett shaking his head and chuckling softly. The rope was closer than ever, but swaying with the wind; as if the difficulty could be amped up more than before.

  "Shawn, if there's any gravitational anomalies, the rope should pick it up! Stick to the path, keep shooting your ice to ensure the gravity doesn't change direction!”

  He grumbled something rude about the fact that gravity was not a constant in this world. When he had a chance, he wanted to know how he could fully utilize this gravitational ore. Dropping a gravity bomb on top of Revarik didn't sound like such an insane idea, after all.

  Especially, given the trouble they had just gone through, for getting a few measly samples out of a defunct mine. The determined rats hissed and snarled beneath him, frustrated that their advance had been blocked. They must have learned their lesson when they saw a few of their brethren tumble to their deaths, and were attempting to find other footholds on the rock face. He didn't pay much mind to them, since they were quite distant now. Up above him, Garrett had put out the maximum length of rope. It was still too distant for his liking, and it kept swaying in the wind.

  “Well, the good news, no more gravity shifts!” Garrett yelled down, as he swung the rope back and forth slowly. Shawn attempted a short jump over a gap, but the rock crumbled beneath his feet. He scrabbled for a foothold, fpping his wings frantically. He managed to wedge his fingers, and he cursed obscenely.

  “This pnet is a death trap!” he procimed after he dragged his body upward to safety, with Garrett shouting down a startled cry at first. Shawn put a hand to his chest, heaving softly. That had been too close. “I’m almost there, Garrett!”

  “Hey, if we keep this up, we might be home in time for dinner! Hang on, one sec.” Garrett loosed another alchemical round and pinged another rat in the chest, where its corpse tumbled and knocked a few more rats downward. By this point most of them had given up. Instead, they were now growling and snapping at each other. “Okay, you’re good! Just take your time, I see an easy path up and to your right!”

  An ear-piercing screech filled the air, and he groaned. Was there a bird of prey out here that he wasn't aware of? An even bigger predator they were not aware of?

  No, that roar was disturbingly familiar. “I killed it, damn it! It turned to dust!” he roared in outrage. His problems were about to get a whole lot worse, and he accelerated his climb after seeing the ledge that hid a narrow path, just out of his vision range. He had to grab and swing his body to get enough momentum, and used his wings to edge past the corner. He managed to get prone on a small ledge, panting from exertion. He just so happened to be looking down when he saw the next challenger.

  He heard the crunch of stone, and a familiar shaped profile come out the entryway he had just come from, down below. It was another one of the ursinas, but this one was slightly smaller, and more limber than the previous one. It leered upwards at him, And it roared in outrage.

  If he had to hazard a guess, this was the mate of the bear that he had just killed not that long ago, and was likely very off-put by the remains of their dead partner. He gnced down at his clothes and noted he had a little bit of its blood on him staying on his leggings, and a cold chill ran down his spine. This thing had tracked him by the barest of scents, which meant, this confrontation was now happening at the worst time possible.

  Worse, still, was that the beast mantled up the cliff face with disturbing efficiency, gnashing and growling. It barged past the rats and swiped a few of them off the cliff. Shawn quickly increased his rate of climb. His level of firepower was not going to cut it against this thing. “What the shit, Remaria? Bears don’t climb cliffs!”

  “This one does!” Garrett called out, rifle in hand. The gun report cracked overhead while Garrett slung lead downrange at the ursina. The rounds were as equally ineffective as before.

  Shawn looked down, and saw the creatures spines were already going on end. He was about to be turned into a feathery pincushion.

  Shawn, bears seem very bad! We should do something about this one!

  If he somehow managed to get out of this one, he was turning this damn bear into a rug, or his next set of armor.