Yes.

Yes.

Nearly there.

So close.

So.

Close.

Ephin’s head was on fire. He opened his eyes, the whole world sideways. Grimacing through the pain, he forced himself to his feet, swaying to keep balance as everything spun around him.

He was standing in the middle of a battlefield. There were screams, shouts and monstrous screeches all around him. A.D.A.M. ran past him and he instinctively grabbed out at him to ask what was going on, but the metal man was running too fast and his swipe missed him entirely. With the pain, Ephin was still moving sluggishly and struggling to make out everything happening around him. There were people. They were all running in one direction. Screaming. A.D.A.M. had run the opposite direction. He stood at the rear of the fleeing crowd as they funneled into a small cave at the base of a large mountain range. Ephin looked back to see what they were running from. Instant regret had him joining the crowd in their escape as fear spiked through him. The land was unusually flat, for as far as he could see. Scattered in the air were floating ruptures, everywhere. Many he could look through and see small portions of other realms, many had a collection of fighters looking back through, prepared. The ones that did not, instead had the creatures he had previously seen in his dreams, dragging themselves through the ruptures, forcing the ruptures open more and flying down, wailing, growling, screeching, chasing the fleeing masses.

One creature was larger than all the others and held a more certain form. Standing at close to ten times Ephin’s height, a swirling red cloud shrouded around this being. It had only two arms and two legs- that alone was saying something in comparison to the other monsters- and It was wearing a deep crimson armor to suite its skin tone and the color of the cloud. The armor was not decorated at all. No crests to speak of.

With pure white eyes, red vapor pouring out of them and adding to the cloud as it looked across the battlefield at A.D.A.M., another warrior and the fleeing crowd, it smiled. It grabbed one of creatures that had just crawled through a nearby rupture and hurled it towards the crowd. The creature spun through the air and flew above the innocents, instead crashing into the mountain above. Rocks began to tumble down from higher up the mountain due to the impact and cascade down, threatening to block off the cave entrance. Ephin made it through, hearing heavy footsteps rapidly catching up to him.

He turned back to look out of the cave and saw a very similar scene to the statue in Kimmington. An armor clad being, twice the height of Ephin and obviously stronger than possibly anything he had seen before was currently holding up a huge rock to stop it collapsing in front of the entrance, allowing more people to race through. One person stood by his side and another further into the cave helped direct the panicked traffic.

The woman by his side, fire red hair, held open a book and, with a splayed hand, shot out burst after burst of arcane energy, downing multiple flying creatures as they attempted to harass the survivors.

The second person, someone more resembling a walking lion than a person, helped direct which cave turning to make, whilst keeping his eyes securely on what was transpiring at the entrance.

Ephin stood by as the last person managed to limp through and, immediately after, Kin looked down at the woman by his side and, smiling sadly, he kicked her back into the cave and let the rocks collapse behind him, cutting them off from the battlefield.

“I’m sorry, Arx. Make sure you and Honour get them to safety,” Kin said through one small hole in the entrance. Not large enough for someone to climb through, although Arx initially tried out of desperation.

The person known as Honour ran up to the entrance, also looking through the opening and shouting to Kin, but it was too late. He turned, lifting his sword and joined A.D.A.M. in charging back across the battlefield. Two warriors alone against a god and his minions.

Ephin watched along with the other two, as Kin challenged the god himself, and the two fought, with A.D.A.M. running around, almost a blur, swinging an axe into any creature that came close to the conflict. Kin, through the course of the fight started to glow brighter and brighter, challenging the overwhelming shadows of the red cloud, his sword swings landing more frequently until, frustrated, the giant being backhanded him back across the battlefield and formed his own weapon out of the cloud, fully revealing his wounded form in doing so. Kin, also gravely injured, charged once more and, they both swung with all their might, carving brutal chunks out of each other, the impacts shaking even where Ephin was standing. The flashes from each collision forced him to look away, until finally, there was a break in the flashes. Ephin looked back to see the being on its knees, obviously in extreme pain. However, Kin was pierced through the chest and held aloft by the spear wielded by this deity.

Suddenly, another flash, this time of purple, and a rupture exploded between the two wounded enemies and Jackson appeared, holding something that Ephin couldn’t quite make out. It looked like a spear, but with multiple additional objects attached to it.

As the being still reeled from the surprise of a new opponent, Jackson raked the weapon across the god’s chest, forming a rupture where the god was standing, and then fought the god backwards, into the rupture, forcing him out of this realm. A.D.A.M., still trying to keep the creatures away, celebrated as he saw the god disappear. The celebration turned sour immediately as a red fist reached back through the rupture, dragging Jackson with it, the rupture closing behind them. In the commotion, A.D.A.M. ran to check on Kin and, Ephin could see the outcome from his reaction, the metal man screamed out at the creatures, moving faster and faster. Ephin could see the creatures that had simply been forced to avoid the area, start to be torn apart, chunks of their bodies spraying out as A.D.A.M. moved faster than Ephin could properly process. Once he stopped, Ephin could see a being that was barely still A.D.A.M., his metal exterior in near shreds due to his efforts. He then picked up Kin’s limp body and ran.

It could soon be your turn. What makes you think you’re worthy to stand tall in the face of certain death?

Before Ephin could answer, the cave he was standing in collapsed in on him, striking his still pounding head, and his world went black once more.

Jadon was getting the hang of moving with the wheelchair. Unfortunately, he was having to learn whilst being swung at by a great ape. A great ape with far too many limbs, in his opinion.

There had been one too many close calls of this creature swinging and nearly hitting him, as ducking was less effective when you were already sitting down. The creature’s large fists connected with the icy walls of the cave, showering the two of them with small splinters of ice each time.

“Careful, big boy,” Jadon said as he continued to back up, “or you’ll cause another cave in.”

Apparently, the large ape did not understand sarcasm, as it simply bellowed and charged Jadon again, who pivoted on the ski and one of his walking poles, to avoid it. The creature ran past, running into a pile of collapsed ice chunks and falling over. Jadon too the opportunity to not joke around and started speeding back down the cavern to try and reach the opening with the daylight. A roar and rapidly approaching footsteps warned Jadon to continue on and not try to slow and turn into the sunny area, instead pushing on further down the cavern.

As Jadon was considering how to beat this physically superior enemy, Beth was considering her approach for getting out of her predicament.

The ice blocks pinning Beth down had been just as precarious to carve out an escape as to when she tried the first two times. Now she was wondering how bad it would be if she tried to cut through the ceiling slab and hope that the falling halves don’t crush her and instead fall outwards instead of inwards.

She then heard a muffled roar, followed by slight vibrations that quickly increased. Another roar, much clearer and louder. Something quieter mumbling, just behind the sheet of ice behind her head. The small mumbling was cut short as something crashed heavily into the ice sheet, sending cracks shooting out from the impact spot and shaking the room Beth was lying in.

Beth barely had time to look back up from looking over at the ice sheet as the ice that she was pinned under crunched and twisted from the shaking of the room, sending the delicate balance of the ice into a free fall.

Quickly, Beth fumbled with her gloves, changing the setting and slapped her hands together, shattering the ice above her, just before it connected with her and crushed her.

Not waiting for the possibility of more ice to collapse in on her, she scrambled to her feet and ran towards one of the ice walls that was either thinner, or had daylight shining on the other side. Either option was a good sign to her and she clapped again, the shock wave blasting into the ice wall and, whilst not breaking it, sending cracks out like spiderwebs. She barreled through the weakened wall and out into the snowy pit. She looked around quickly, seeing another hole in some ice over to her right and a large opening into a cavern to her left. Straight ahead was a rope leading up and out of the pit. She could see Guy waving above.

A roar rattled her eardrums and she snapped her head to the left, seeing an enraged beast with eight limbs standing at the opening to the cavern. It roared again and Beth cringed at the volume. It sprang forward, to charge at her, so she clapped once more, in its direction, forcing it to slow down at the sudden blast. Beth did not hesitate, sprinting across the base of the pit and dragging herself up the side of the pit with the rope and convenient footholds.

She felt a slight tug, but it was only her bag swaying after the creature batted it, too slow to properly grab onto it.

Beth reached the top, saw Guy almost unscathed, and hugged him.

They both looked over to see what the angry ape was doing and saw it looking back up at them, furious. Something grabbed Beth’s attention. The glint of metal. Jadon’s ski-supports for his wheelchair had pushed into the sun, with him looking up at what the creature was looking at, whilst it was distracted.

“Oh damn,” Beth said, as the creature once again spotted Jadon and he sped out of view.

Iarkspur was sure at this point that they couldn’t hear her. Possibly the ice was too thick. More likely, whatever was going on outside her and Ephin’s small boxed in area was a lot louder than she could be.

Her throat raw, she slumped back against the ice and placed a hand on Ephin’s limp body.

“I’m sorry,” she said, closing her eyes and squeezing out a tear, “I don’t think I’m very good at this whole making friends thing. First Arledge and now you. I might be a bit of a curse. I’m sorry Ephin.”

Ephin’s hand closed around hers and squeezed gently. She snapped open her eyes to stare down at him, before immediately shutting them again. He was looking up at her, but was shining so brightly that he nearly blinded her.

“No need to apologize,” he said, standing up, his head popped and cracking back into shape.

He smiled at her and swung out, a translucent sledgehammer pounding through the wall in one hit before vanishing, opening up their chance for freedom. He turned back to Iarkspur and smiled calmly before the light faded and his smile vanished.

“Oh gods, I might be-”

Ephin threw up onto the ice, the liquid solidifying quickly. Iarkspur jumped to her feet, shocked back into action.

“Sorry,” Ephin said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “That was unusual for me to experience.”

Iarkspur nodded and rushed to leave but Ephin stopped her with a hand.

“And Iarkspur? There is a lot I regret about what led me here. Meeting you is not and will never be a part of that list.”

Iarkspur nodded again, flicking away the tears as they fell over her face. The two of them ran out of the ice prison they had been in and spotted the rope, dangling across the other side of the opening they were in. They both heard roars coming from the entrance to the caves and decided against investigating, so Ephin let Iarkspur climb the rope first, following quickly after her before whatever was roaring would come to check them out.

“That makes four,” Guy said as he and Beth helped pull Ephin and Iarkspur up out of the pit.

“Where’s Jadon?” Ephin asked.

“You hear the roaring?” Beth said.

“Of course.”

Jadon’s arms were getting tired. He had barely managed to poke this thing with one of his poles before it gets close enough to tear him in half. He had been corralled by it into a deeper part of the caverns, unable to get around it. They were now racing around a slightly larger portion of the caves, the ice allowing enough light from a crevice in the roof for Jadon to see.

He knew that there was no chance to beat the creature in a straight brawl, for obvious reasons. He now also did not have as much of a speed advantage as he was used to. So, he needed to use his brain, as he was sure the creature wasn’t as smart as he was considering it hadn’t laughed at a single panicked joke he had thrown at it.

The ape smashed into yet another wall in its attempt to hit Jadon, with Jadon dodging the strike once more, trying to weaken it with its own attacks. Watching the creature, Jadon barely avoided an ice stalactite from crashing down upon him. The missile shattered on impact with the ground and the ice scattered between the two. Jadon had an idea.

As the creature lined up once more to charge down him and his wheelchair, Jadon slid across the floor, scanning the ceiling for the largest looking stalactite and stopped by the cavern wall nearest it, almost directly under the spike. The creature charged again, determined in its approach to the fight that eventually this would win out. Jadon once again slid aside and the ice buckled under the pressure of the ape’s face colliding with it. The stalactite above became dislodged and Jadon threw one of his two poles up at it, knocking it free.

The stalactite fell, with the pole attached and the creature, its eyes following the trajectory of the pole Jadon threw, caught the stalactite just before it impaled itself in the ape’s head. It looked down at Jadon, who shrugged innocently before reaching forward and throwing his other pole at it, the spiked end, to grip on ice, plunging into the creature’s unprotected throat. The shock of the pain got the ape to release the stalactite and it crashed down on its head, the spike pushing through the skull under the weight of the ice.

Jadon tried to slide back to avoid the carnage but couldn’t without his poles. The ape fell over him and pinned him down as it bled out and died.

Jadon took his time pushing the heavy limbs off of himself and the chair, trying to give his arms a rest from the exertion of racing around with poles. Following his thought pattern, Jadon pulled the first pole out of the ice block, and then used it to help peel the ape’s head off of his other pole, the thick neck enveloping its spiked end.

The others are never going to believe me, Jadon thought as he slowly slid his way back to the exit and the rope, covered in ape blood.

Holding onto the rope, he let the others pull him and his chair up and out of the pit.

Finally, they were all up and out of the caves. They had arrived.

“Vernox,” Jadon said, waving a tired arm out at the expanse of white.

“Vernox,” Guy nodded.

So. Close.