The trio picked up their pace. Though Pauline had been expecting the black worms neither of the other two had been. Nate adjusted to the change fairly quickly and soon he and Pauline were discussing the lasted village gossip, clearly fairly unperturbed by the development. A topic that seemingly was never ending as they both interacted with very different people. Beth meanwhile was unnerved, very unnerved. The small black lines seemed to have permanently encroached wherever she looked. Even rocks that weren’t connected to the mountain directly and them running through and the plants that had once been a brilliant white were now showing black specks both externally and internally.

Glancing up at the sky offered no respite as there seemed to be cracks wiggling in the sky as though the whole world she found herself in was breaking. She picked up the pace even further finding herself moving to the front of the group. Her weapon was out and she was extremely alert. Her eyes scanned the horizon and spotting no concrete dangers scanned it again and again. She was sure something was coming. Something big, something she would have to beat. She just didn't know where it would come from. The others were clearly no help they had dropped their conversation to a whisper. Beth was no longer able to easily discern the words they were saying beyond the occasional laugh that burst from the pair. They would be too distracted to keep their eyes out for any dangers. She sighed a little at the situation she found herself in. She didn't have time to be babysitting, particularly babysitting a pair of children who seemed determined to travel as slow as possible. In fact they were travelling extremely slow, as though intentionally trying to slow her down. Looking at the pair she wouldn't put it past them to be trying to slow her down. Nate didn't seem to like her and Pauline didn't seem to care.

Yes, watching them whisper now she was sure they were trying to sabotage her attempts. They didn't have a time limit after all, why would they care about hers. Her eyes darted around taking in the surroundings. An attack would come soon she could feel it. She spotted the figure again. Closer than it had been before, it was catching up. Beth knew she couldn't let it reach the peak before she did. She didn't know why she couldn't let it happen but she knew it couldn't. A battle was coming and by getting there first she would be able to set herself up ready to face the creature. If she needed to fight the thing alone, which she was sure she would have to, then she needed every possible advantage she could have. She sped up further, if the other two were going to be distracted they would only slow her down anyway and she couldn't allow that.

Nate and Pauline, seeing Beth pull ahead attempted to shout after her but she didn't care. They were a distraction, trying to slow her down. She needed to pass this Trial and if that meant leaving them behind so be it. If they couldn't keep up they weren't the kind of allies she needed anyway. Her pace continued to increase and soon she was pushing her skill to the max. Crossing huge chunks of path in a single bound as she made the final bit of the climb. Sometimes it got too steep and she needed to used her hands to help her pull herself up but she minimised any time spent doing so and always had her weapon gripped in her hand ready for if an attack was to happen. Before long the ground flattened out again. By this point it was completely black. The lines in the ground having become so numerous that they had complete coverage. She had reached the peak.

Looking around Beth decided to head towards the centre of the mountain. Ideally she could do with a wall to put her back up against to limit angles of attack but that wasn't an option so she made do by setting herself on a pivot and almost constantly rotating to inspect from another angle. Doing so only slightly less frequently than would result in her becoming too dizzy to pay attention. The figure that had been following them was closer now it seemed to be circling her. Wherever she looked she could see it peaking out from between rocks or rotating the opposite way to herself trying to get out of her eyeline and into a position where it could attack her more aggressively. She rotated for hours before something changed. She could once again hear the voices of the other two. They had finally caught up.

The pair approached Beth slowly, suspiciously so. They were waving at her and generally trying to get her attention. But she wasn't so easily fooled. Clearly their first plan to slow her down and make her fail hadn't worked and so now, now they were working against her more directly. Attempting to distract her so the darkened figure could sneak up on her. She fished her water pouch off her waist and took a deep swig. In theory this water needed to last her until she reached the bottom of the mountain but it was more important that she was at peak ability for the attack the creature made. She drank deeply unconcerned about her reserves. Defending herself was all that mattered now anyway. Nate and Pauline took a step closer to her as she rotated frantically. They looked alarmed. They must have realised that Beth had seen right through their plan and that they would now be unable to trick her. She keep turning though one eye remained on the pair. They continued to step closer slowly now but still coming up to her. Getting too close, clearly getting into her range so they could steal her weapon, leaving her defenceless again her enemies.

She growled at them not wanting to waste the energy words would require. After all it might invite a conversation and the last thing she needed was a distraction like that. Not when she was so sure the battle was imminent. It had to been too long for nothing to happen. Something was coming. The other two took a step back reactionarily to her growl and shared a look. Beth caught the look and grinned. Clearly they were looking so disgruntled because their plan had been foiled. As she observed she couldn't help but overhear their discussion. Clearly another attempt to distract her from focusing on her assailant. But she didn't have time to worry about that. If she focused on it too much the distraction would be successful and she'd be in danger.