After Angelina and Rob made up, the stewardess came out of the plane and held up a backpack. “Please take one, HQ has prepared one for each of you.” Dantae was the first to grab one, but handed it to me instead of keeping it for herself.

Opening it up, I removed the carbon-fiber suit that was packed inside, and started to put it on over my clothes. The extra insulation was much welcomed against the cold climate of the chasm.

It was made so that it stuck to the body, and the greaves, gauntlets, and breastplate that wrapped all the way around the spine offered vital protection, while allowing both breathability and flexibility of the limbs.

The suit, aptly named “Assault Armor,” was one of the few inventions from the military base to be found effective against Dimension Eaters. The photon charged plating offered both protection from the pocket dimensions distortion as well as the transportation effects of the dimensional fog that the beasts themselves emitted.

“So, are we ready?” I asked as we were standing on the cliff and looking over the seemingly primordial valley when a sharp roar entered our ears.

“What the fuck was that!?” Maria screamed in Alison’s ear, much to her perpetual dismay and annoyance.

“Sounds like...” Alison’s speech trailed off as a giant, winged shadow flew out of the fog before flying overhead and quickly disappearing into the fog below once more.

“Did... did we just get Free Willy’d?” Rob muttered in awe.

I looked at Dantae, and we shared a moment before I turned my gaze to Rob. “What’s a Willy and why is it free?” Rob’s jaw dropped and I could hear Alison snicker from behind him.

I looked at Dantae, and then at Angelina, but they looked just as confused as I was. “Remind me to drag all you test tube babies to a movie theater after this is over.” Rob sighed in exasperation.

Following her partner’s statement, Angelina pointed to the fog, “Well, there is only one way to go, and unfortunately it’s straight after that thing.”

Dantae grumbled something about the Eiffel Tower and took my hand. “Leo...” she blushed and averted her eyes from mine. “Can you... can you go first?”

Thus, I was the first to start climbing down the cliff, but not before bitching about the amount of time this would take to anyone who would listen. Time flies inside a pocket dimension, and it would be awhile before I got to go home and cuddle with Dantae once more.

——

We had been climbing- no, I guess falling would be more appropriate, in increments of ten feet, which after three hundred repetitions was really starting to take its toll on my ankles. “How far down does this damn thing go?”

I wasn’t expecting an answer but a curt, “1877 meters,” from Dantae was my response. I sighed and sat on the lip of a plateau that only looked out over a misty sea. Rocks jutted out from the fog and reminded me of shipwrecks that penetrated the ocean’s surface: large, irregular, and dangerous.

“Sorry Vanessa, can I get that depth in feet?” Rob asked politely, but Vanessa was petty about the weirdest things.

“Ugh, I swear, this is why Americans are so...” She sat behind me and faced Rob, placing her back against my own. “Let’s see... I think it was something like 6000 freedom units.”

I could feel her back expand and contract with each breath, and her warmth came across as loving and kind. It was a nice moment until Rob interrupted with a shrill, “Freedom units!? What the hell are those!?”

Dantae sighed, “Listen Rob, it’s not that difficult to understand. America is the land of freedom, and its freedom is so vast that even their units of measurement have liberties.” Rob just tilted his head, clearly confused but just decided to leave it at that. In fact, even I was confused, but I wouldn’t say anything contrary to the Okinawa native. Nope, not a chance.

“Wait, Listen for a second.” Angelina put her finger over her mouth and closed her eyes. The rest of us followed suit, and listened for anything out of the ordinary.

After a few minutes, a far off thud could be heard, accompanied by a screech that echoed off the stone pillars and sent a chill up my spine.

After that, a few, tense moments of silence passed before the next wave came, this time the sound of crushed boulders could be heard, and one of the larger spires sank into the fog in the distance.

This time the screech had moved closer, and the tips of the creatures wings were visible over the fog line, which conjured up dread and remorse from my very core.

The creature made its way to the plateau, and before hitting it decided to shoot out from the fog and fly overhead and it’s giant wing beats caused the very ground we stood on to shake violently.

Grimy, gross rotting flesh fell from the giant avian, and fell dangerously close to Dantae and I, but we managed to dodge it because of our heightened reflexes.

The other four on the other hand, were not so lucky. Rob and Angelina managed to only get scraped by dodging and void-stepping respectively, but Alison and Maria weren’t so lucky. Weighed down by the frightened Maria, Alison could only look on in horror as the maggot-filled flesh rained on her from above.

Alison shrieked, but found it unnecessary after she wasn’t hit with the gross substance. Instead, I had opened up a rift and transported the chunk farther down the valley. After all, what kind of teacher would I be if I let my student as well as Dantae’s be taken out of the fight this early?

“Whew, that was a close one. So that’s why it’s called Rotwing.” Maria said nonchalantly, earning her a strong pinch on the cheek from Alison, who looked annoyed.

“Well,” I said, looking up at where the bird had just flew into: a cave we had passed earlier on the way down, “looks like we have the final destination of our Grand Chasm tour.”

Although the trek back up those twenty feet was not as grueling, I noticed that, save for Angelina, every rookie present dragged their feet heading into the inevitable battle.