51st of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle

  “We climb together,” Maelstrom said plainly. “We help each other with obstacles we encounter along the way, assuming we are able. Also, we alternate who’s first by a fraction of a second. You can go first, then me, then back to you, and so on until we give up. As for climbing over the edge and gathering bonus rewards, we each collect one, but remain within shouting distance and pay attention to each other’s movement.”

  The offer sounded reasonable. Maelstrom was not Newt’s competition, not really. Tidebreaker Abyss and Explorer’s Gate were playing in different leagues. Newt was aiming to help his sect remain in the top ten, Maelstrom wanted to help hers win the tournament.

  That said, Newt noticed a glaring problem.

  “What’s in it for me?”

  “You get to help a breathtaking, intelligent, and modest young woman.” Maelstrom grinned at him and fluttered her eyelashes, her face a mix of smug and charm.

  Newt rolled his eyes.

  “I can offer you nothing of value here, but we can discuss the terms afterwards, once the tournament is over. You have nothing to worry about, we have thousands of witnesses, I won’t go back on my word.”

  Newt shook his head, Maelstrom had misunderstood his frown.

  “I’m not a mercenary. I’ll do you a favor, and you don’t have to pay me. Let’s go.”

  Maelstrom opened her mouth to say something, then closed it.

  “What?” Newt asked. “Feel free to say anything on your mind.”

  He thought she would insist on a reward or question his motives, but Maelstrom had different thoughts. “Why are you lagging? You should be leading the frontmost group, not keeping to its rear.”

  “I collect the nests twice. Pick one up, then hop down and find a different one.”

  Maelstrom furrowed her brows in confusion, then laughed.

  “That can only work because you don’t have to fear stealing points from your own team.” With that she headed for the cliff, found a path to a nest with nobody around, and started climbing.

  Newt watched the eccentric girl for a moment before picking a nearby path for himself and stretched his hand upwards to reach the first handhold.

  The pressure had already grown to the point where Newt could no longer shrug it off easily, and the long stretches when he could rest and relax while climbing had passed some five cliffs ago.

  With a smaller number of participants sharing the burden, the ascend had grown exponentially more difficult. The fact that pressure steadily increased the further up they went did not help.

  Newt had already concluded that the traps were bait rather than the real impediments; once they were high enough, the disciples needed nothing more than the ambient pressure to make things difficult. What traps did was make the overly cautious focus on the wrong thing, enduring the extra pressure while carefully scouting their handholds.

  Newt guessed most such climbers had already fallen off, especially since the wall he was climbing had no traps for the first two hundred yards. Even the full nest was more of a trap than the traps themselves, since it forced you to waste time, enduring pressure for a longer period of time, and making your life more difficult.

  Newt concluded all of that because he had seen people fall from traps and get right back and start climbing again. Those brought down by the realm’s pressure stayed down.

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  While his arms and legs moved, devouring vertical distance, Newt considered his conclusion. The realm was supposed to mimic real life, or at least teach them something. So, what was the venerable trying to teach them?

  That there existed things in life which seem dangerous, but were in fact mere distractions, and being distracted was more dangerous than facing the actual danger? Maybe that one should brave danger to come out ahead in life? Or perhaps that overly considering things came with a price which was not immediately visible?

  Or maybe she’s just trying to bring us down. After all, the venerables who had established the Sage’s realm were prisoners facing death sentences. Was there a reason they would work for the benefit of the future generations, which were unlikely to be their descendants or disciples?

  Newt realized the whole topic was way too complex for his mind to puzzle out quickly even at the best of times, let alone while exhausted, with the darkness of the mines bleeding into the edge of his vision.

  Newt reached the top before Maelstrom. He pulled his body over and saw a group of eight people waiting seventy yards to his left, right where she should appear. Three of their number were even peering over the edge.

  What’s this? Are they going to try to knock her down?

  It certainly seemed that way, but it seemed way too cowardly for what was a group of grand sect disciples. Newt ran for the next cliff before anyone took notice of him. Then, halfway there, well behind their backs, Newt turned. He armored himself and in two nearly instantaneous firebursts slammed into the unsuspecting ambushers with his arms spread wide.

  Six men and women flew over the edge, screaming in pain, their eyes wide with surprise. Newt used the confusion to kick another ambusher square into the chest to throw her off the ledge. The last man standing, the imposing, bald hulk from the Thunder Titans snapped around to face Newt, his massive fist already crackling towards Newt’s face as lightning jumped all over the goliath’s muscular body.

  Off-balance, Newt took the blow with his chin and flew a dozen yards back, Granite Crust’s two outer layers shattering from the impact. Newt’s world wobbled from the force of the blow as his brain danced inside his skull.

  A moment later, his vision cleared, and he realized he was down on his back. He kipped up to his feet, ready for a fight, but Hardstone Thunder Titan was already engaged with Maelstrom. Arcs of lightning surged towards the young woman, but slim tendrils of water grabbed and rooted it into the bone soil. Showers of sparks flew as lightning jumped around the white ground before dying an instant later.

  Newt stood where he was, confused. On one hand, he wanted to help Maelstrom, since she had joined his fight for him. On the other, it was a fair fight between two grand sects’ disciples. And not any disciples, but the members of the most influential families of those sects.

  A second later, he realized the man fighting Maelstrom was a part of an eight person group waiting to beat her up and throw her off a cliff not ten seconds ago. That thought seared Newt’s doubts like sun dissipated the mist, and he charged forward, a bolt of flame flying ahead of him.

  The colossus smashed the bolt apart with an electrical-blue fist, and blocked Newt’s attack, but a foot glazed in ice meteored into his midsection.

  “Fight me like a man,” he grunted, and Maelstrom slipped under his fist, kicking his knee with her ice-encased foot.

  “Never a gentleman,” she said as the joint popped and the giant grit his teeth.

  Maelstrom bent back, her outstretched legs making a splint in the air, before her other foot smacked the Thunder Titan’s jaw. Like Newt’s, his eyes lost focus after his skull received the jarring hit, and Newt took advantage of the moment to hurl him off the ledge.

  Newt looked over, watching the man regain his consciousness, then crash onto the ground so forcefully, he well expected a crater, or at least some spider-web of cracks to form beneath him.

  “Come on.” Maelstrom tugged at his sleeve.

  “We’re moving forward just the two of us?”

  “No, it would tire us out too quickly. We just have to sprint sideways so they don’t find us when they come back here.”

  Maelstrom did not wait for Newt’s response and instead just ran to the left at her top speed. Newt followed behind her, thinking of the fight just now.

  “How was he so strong?”

  “How are you so strong?” Maelstrom asked back, and Newt shut up. They were at the top of their realm, and each of those disciples had secrets of their own. In fact, his were certainly more fascinating, since nobody expected Explorer’s Gate to have someone like him.

  “This is far enough.” Maelstrom said after they covered more than two miles in less than a minute.

  “Thank you for your help over there.” She offered another pearly smile to Newt, but he was not going to fall for it.

  “You’re welcome. We’re allies, and it’s only natural that I help my ally. But why didn’t we stay behind to kick them down a couple more times?”

  “It’s too risky, besides, the rest of our sects’ disciples are arriving, and the chaos would go out of control, people would die, and then the climb would become more difficult. Basically, it’s not worth it, no matter how satisfying.”

  Newt nodded. “How long do you think we’ll have to wait?”

  “Not too long, any second now.”