Free Web NovelChapter 25: Chapter 25: Almost fell
Riven drove one dagger into a crack in the cliff, then hauled himself upward before embedding the second blade higher. He repeated this process and continued climbing.
As he climbed, a strong gust of desert wind collided with his body, making him sway left to right, then right to left. He barely maintained his balance.
He couldn’t screw this up not even once...
If he did... the only consequence was death.
Riven’s gaze lingered to his right — Ayala was beside him. Her body was trembling as it constantly shifted between a blue glow and no glow at all.
He looked at her in worry and asked loud enough for her to hear.
"Are you okay?"
Ayala didn’t say a word instead she kept climbing and gritted her teeth even harder.
Riven sighed. What kind of question was he even asking? It was obvious that she wasn’t okay and that was not abnormal considering that she was fighting too much at once.
The danger of falling and the danger of her sense of self being wiped by his very own mana and there was nothing he could do to help her.
Because the only way to either get down or climb the desert was using his mana manifestation skill and it didn’t help that he couldn’t prevent his mana entering her body.
Suddenly while climbing... a large section of the place where one of his daggers was embedded cracked. The crack grew larger by the second.
And before he could react, the section broke and fell into the abyss below almost taking him down with it. However, he didn’t fall because he let go of the daggers lodged between that section.
Now he hung on the wall barely with only one dagger remaining. He could fall any second.
So in an instant, another mana dagger manifested in his right palm. He drove it into the cracks of the wall and his entire body stabilized, barely saving himself from falling into the abyss below.
Riven felt a chill run down his spine. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and mumbled.
"That was close... way too close."
Despite all this, he continued climbing upwards since stopping meant death. As he climbed higher and higher, the walls became harder and harder making it more difficult for him to drive his dagger into the walls.
But using all his might, he drove his daggers deep into the hard surface of the towering walls of the mesa and continued climbing.
Sometime later, Riven suddenly stopped. His eyes narrowed as he looked ahead of him. There was another opening in the surface of the walls similar to the entrance of the cave where they had taken shelter from the sandstorm.
"It might be a cave."
He wasn’t sure of it but he needed to be cautious since who knew what kind of horror might have made their nest inside this cave?
A moment later his suspicion was proven right. A head covered in brown feathers peeked out of the hole. It was another eagle, looking around its surroundings but a heartbeat later, it went inside.
Thankfully, the eagle didn’t see them. Otherwise, the chances of it trying to eat them were very high and he wasn’t in a condition to fight.
He glared at Ayala and said.
"We will have to go around it."
Ayala didn’t say a word , instead, she nodded her head. Seeing this the worry in his heart became stronger. She wasn’t like this.
Ever since he had met Ayala a few days ago, she very rarely ignored her questions like this, especially not so many trivial questions.
That could only mean one thing... it was becoming more and more difficult for her to maintain her sense of self. They had to hurry to reach the top.
Riven’s gaze lingered on Ayala and he said.
"Follow me."
Ayala nodded and didn’t even speak a word. Riven shifted sideways along the cliff, carefully moving one dagger at a time and Ayala followed him.
When they were very far away from the cave which was probably the nest of that eagle, they started to climb upwards.
A few minutes later, the top of the mesa was clearly visible from where they were. They were very close, in just a minute or two they would finally arrive at the top.
Before Riven could get any closer, he saw from the corner of his eye Ayala’s grip around his mana daggers loosening. This wasn’t all, her face had become pale, breathing rough and body trembling.
It was the signs of one thing... her mana reserves dwindling.
Riven’s expression darkened as he mumbled.
"Not now."
Ayala’s exhausted voice resounded through her ears.
"I can’t do this anymore."
Her hands around the daggers came undone but before she could fall... He released one hand from the daggers lodged into the walls and caught the falling climber by the forearm.
The sudden weight wrenched his shoulder and his arm screamed in pain, fingers slipping against the dagger’s hilt, but he refused to let go
Instead, he stared at Ayala whose eyes were tightly shut. From the looks of it, her mana reserves had dropped to a dangerous level
But she had to wake up if they were to survive. He shouted.
"Come on! Wake up, Ayala!"
Not a single response.
"Damn it! Wake up! I can’t hold on much longer!"
Still not a single response.
He shook her body violently and shouted very loudly right in front of her ears.
"WAKE UP! DAMN IT!"
Her eyes finally fluttered open, she looked at him and her surroundings in confusion. She asked.
"What happened... Why am I hanging?"
Riven ignored her words and said.
"Wrap your entire body around my body! We don’t have much time."
Sensing the urgency in his voice, she didn’t question him, instead, she hugged him with only her left hand. After making sure that she wouldn’t fall, Riven let go of her right hand.
Immediately, her weight acting on his body increased tremendously. Riven shouted.
"Hurry!"
Ayala didn’t resist, instead hugging him very tightly using both of her hands.
Afterwards, Riven reached out for the dagger lodged between the walls of the mesa. He pulled it out and drove it into a crack in the cliff, then hauled himself upward before embedding the second blade higher all while carrying Ayala.
He continued climbing.
A heartbeat later, the top of the mesa was just an arm’s length away.
