Tormacc watched from the entrance to the valley as Zedna disappeared, her form blurring as she sped downwards, soundless in her descent. The plan was for Zedna to create a distraction to allow Tormacc and Athra time to move down into the valley and hopefully get at least part-way across it before they were swarmed by monsters and had to fight their way through. As plans went, it was rather basic, but sometimes simple was best; especially when faced with the untold number of variables the monsters below represented. They didn’t really know what the response would be to their attack, so rather than create complicated plans that would need to be adjusted on the fly they went with a straightforward distraction.

Very quickly Tormacc lost sight of Zedna, her form fading from view as she got farther away. She didn’t specifically mention it, but he suspected she had some sort of cloaking skill. Not something that gave her outright invisibility, but something that would help her avoid detection, especially when she was moving at high speeds. From the way she was talking she might have had even more powerful stealth skills, but it was possible she was keeping them under wraps as they weren’t required for her job.

Only a few minutes later a pillar of light descended on the center of the valley. Tormacc was ready for it, and his eyes were downcast, staring straight at the ground to avoid being blinded. He still had to blink his eyes from the secondhand glare but with his sight still mostly intact he sprang into action, dashing down into the valley below.

Thankfully he had the foresight to practice running downhill with Athra on his back before, as with the intense gravity it was difficult to control his momentum. But thanks to skills like Firm Footing he was able to manage, although he did have to take some parts slower than he would have liked. There was a real danger of overbalancing if he slipped up for even a second.

It wouldn’t have been so hard to carry Athra if she was the only thing he had to carry. The real problem came from the large chunk of rock she was bringing along with her. Since he would be busy carrying her and trying to dodge attacks from the four-armed trolls she was the one who had to fight back to help clear a path. The issue with that was she needed access to stone to use her abilities, and since she couldn’t touch the ground, she had to carry all the stone she needed with her.

They must have made for a strange sight as they sped down into the valley. Tormacc carrying Athra and Athra carrying a large amount of stone that was constantly flowing around her like liquid. Instead of a person, it looked like Tormacc was carrying a large bundle of living stone with arms and legs sticking out from it. The additional weight reduced his top speed, but he was never going to be able to dodge all the attacked from the monsters anyway. He needed Athra to help protect him on their run.

As he ran down the path into the valley he spared a glance at Zedna’s situation. It was absolute chaos. The roars of the four-armed trolls were so loud that Tormacc imagined he could feel the sound waves washing over his skin. Once more he thanked Stella’s foresight that she had included earplugs, as otherwise his Tattoo of Perception might be more of a hinderance than a help in situations like these.

Similar to the rest of the mountains they had passed, the steep cliffs surrounding the valley were mostly bare, which was a good thing, as if they wouldn’t the cries of the four-armed trolls would have surely caused an avalanche if there had been any loose rock or scree to be found. Perhaps the added chaos caused by that would have been beneficial, allowing them to more easily pass through the valley, but there was also the chance of a stray boulder knocking them over and spelling their doom.

And based on Zedna’s performance they didn’t need more chaos anyway. Tormacc was able to reach the valley floor and be well on his way towards the other side before he was noticed, the clamor caused by her distraction incredibly effective. That might have also had something to do with her chosen location. The Sparkle Stone that was being collected in the center of the valley was under watch by the larger ogre-like overseers and the response to protect it was immediate and immense, the monsters pouring towards the inspection site and leaving Tormacc and Athra free to skirt around the edge of the valley.

Being unnoticed couldn’t last forever though, and as reinforcements started streaming up from the tunnels some of the new arrivals, not knowing what all the commotion was about, saw Tormacc and Athra and launched an attack. He had been taking it slowly to minimize their chances of drawing more attention to themselves but once they were under attack anyway Tormacc moved from a light jog to a full on sprint, running as fast as he could while carrying Athra. For her part, Athra prepared to meet the charges of the four-armed trolls, the liquid stone surrounding her vibrating according to her will.

As he ran forwards Tormacc ignored the trolls directly ahead of him, trusting in his companion. She didn’t let him down, and spikes of stone shot out from behind him, impaling the trolls’ legs and causing them to stumble, allowing Tormacc to thread this way through them and continue his charge to the other side of the valley.

After that first group of trolls more came, and soon they had a train following them, each new group they bypassed locking onto them and following behind. Their screams and howls propelled Tormacc to run even faster, the sounds echoing around him as the more enemies were drawn away from Zedna and towards the other enemies that dared invade the valley. Thankfully Athra was machine-like in her defense, stone spikes shooting out in multiple barrages, the spikes never killing and only buying them time to advance.

Soon it was too much for Athra to deal with and Tormacc started to adjust his path, ducking a tackle before weaving around a particularly dense clump to charge ever onwards. But because of that dodging he lost speed, his path that of least resistance, the most efficient route denied to him from the sheer mass of four-armed trolls that continued to pour up out of the tunnels.

Because Zedna’s distraction was located in the center of the valley he had started off towards the edge, which now meant he was close to the tunnels. In the beginning that was where the least enemies were located, but as the tunnels popped trolls out in in ever-increasing numbers his path started to become clogged, the tides of trolls from the tunnels crashing against the group in the center of the valley and blocking his path forward.

Under the press of enemies it was only a matter of time before they were caught, and as Athra was withdrawing a stone pillar she had used to push a troll away another barreled into it, the force transmitted back up the pillar to Athra and from Athra to Tormacc. He stumbled to the side, a quick activation of Speed Burst the only thing that saved him from toppling over.

With Speed Burst active he was able to squeeze around the trolls, but he knew that as soon as the ability ran out they would be in trouble. The trolls didn’t need to land a clean attack, only to knock him over, as from practice he found out that he was unable to easily get up with Athra on his back, and those wasted seconds would leave them surrounded in a sea of enemies. And once they were trapped, there would be no escaping.

All of a sudden multiple explosions sounded out from the surrounding area as the trolls were knocked away, the area now clear of threats. Zedna had finally made her move. They knew that Tormacc and Athra would eventually be unable to cope, and at that point it was Zedna’s job to transition from distraction to escort, guiding them through the horde of trolls to the far side of the valley.

“Keep running!” Zedna shouted, her daggers flashing impossibly fast as she knocked trolls back left and right, their bodies falling to the ground with grievous wounds. “There’s more than I thought there would be. We need to get out of here ASAP.”

“Athra, just focus on the ones in front,” Tormacc said as he started to pick up speed in the now clear area in front of him.

“Got it.”

With Zedna leading the way the three of them plowed forwards, Tormacc focused only on running and Athra on clearing away the few trolls that managed to sneak past Zedna’s blades. As they were running, he could feel the energy in the valley shift. Previously, Zedna’s distraction had been the main focus, with the majority of the killing intent from the monsters focused there. But as they realized that Zedna had moved positions, the focus changed; their group of three now the nucleus of action.

It created a type of formless pressure, the weight of thousands of gazes bearing down on him, the invisible weight almost equal to the gravity coming from the mountains. He could feel his breathing shorten, the long, deep breaths he needed to maintain his pace giving way to sharp, rasping gasps. The world around him became blurry, Tormacc only focusing on Zedna’s back as he tirelessly ran forwards.

The rest of the trip passed in a blur of motion and sound, the screams of the trolls that Zedna maimed cresting in waves as she was forced to take additional action, her blades forming a temporary bubble around Tormacc and Athra before the four-armed trolls surged back in once more as the cycle of violence repeated.

Were it not for Zedna the plan would have been impossible. While she wasn’t able to kill the trolls outright with her attacks, disabling them for a minute or so was within her means, and thanks to her great speed she was able to zip around the battlefield to keep a path open for Tormacc to run through. From above their small group must have looked like a ship parting waves of monsters as they sped along the valley floor. The horde of trolls was never-ending, and the floor of the valley eventually started shaking under their innumerable footsteps.

Before he knew it Tormacc was running up an incline, the exit to the valley before him. He stumbled briefly, but thanks to Athra shedding the stone she no longer needed to defend them he was able to adjust and continue his run.

“How much farther do we need to go?” he said, his breath catching in his parched throat. His mouth felt like it was full of cotton. Without access to water the intense run had wicked away the last traces of moisture present on his now dry skin.

“I’ll come find you,” Zedna said. “Just keep going. I need to take care of our pursuers.”

Making it through the valley was only the first part, as if they couldn’t shake off the horde of trolls they would surely falter and be caught by them, as outlasting monsters with powerful regeneration was a losing proposition. In addition, there was always the threat of whatever boss was in control of the valley. While Tormacc and Athra created some distance Zedna had to make sure they made a clean getaway.

As he ran out of the valley Tormacc felt a strange feeling of satisfaction welling up inside him that he couldn’t quite identify. There was a part of him that had enjoyed the hectic sprint through the surging tide of trolls, but this feeling wasn’t quite the same. It similar, yet different; the satisfaction having an additional layer he wasn’t used to. After some thought, he finally identified what caused it: his Party.

Overcoming obstacles alone gave him satisfaction, but the feeling of doing so as a team added a new dimension to the feeling. It was a novel situation, as he hadn’t really faced anything similar when it had been just him and Athra, but he decided he liked it. Conquering a challenge alone was fun, but doing so with friends was even better, and he resolved to do it more in the future.