Chapter 67: Collapse

Chapter 67: Collapse

Erani and I climbed up the oldest, most brittle-looking tree I could find. This was all part of our plan to get across the wide ravine that split the earth in front of us, preventing us from escaping the forest fire that slowly encroached at our backs. We weren’t going to jump from it – even as high up as we were, we wouldn’t be able to get enough distance on a straight leap – but getting as far up the tree was still a key part of the plan.

I’d already explained the plan to Erani, but she still wasn’t incredibly optimistic about the future results of my idea.

“This is insane,” she said. “We’re all going to die. Or break our legs, then burn to death.”

I straddled a branch and reached down my hand to help her up to the next one. “Well, we can’t really afford to be picky, now, can we?”

She just shook her head and we made our way up to the next branch. As we climbed, I looked up at the Dryad, who had long since gotten to the top of the tree and was looking down at us, kicking her legs as she waited. She didn’t know what we were doing, of course, but seemed receptive to Erani’s mimed request to climb up the tree with us. She just bounded straight up to the top once she understood what Erani was asking. Sometimes I really envied her dexterity.

Minutes passed as we slowly climbed up to the top of the tree. With my new vantage point, I could clearly see the surrounding fire creeping toward us, the time limit on my plan ticking steadily down. The plan technically could’ve worked with us lower down, but it wouldn’t work as well, and I wanted the best odds I could get on this. Eventually, we made it up, and the fire was closer than ever.

“You ready?” I asked Erani as she, the Dryad, and I all sat at the top of the half-dead tree. We were straddled with out legs around one of the sturdier-looking branches that was attached to the trunk

“Absolutely not,” Erani said.

I laughed and nodded. “Let’s go!”

And then I activated Gravity Well, targeting all three of us.

At Rank 6, it increased gravity by a crushing 45%, and I gasped from the sudden pressure that crashed down on me. Erani had a similar reaction, and the Dryad – who had no idea what was coming – almost fell off the tree entirely. But we held on, and then enacted step two of the plan – possibly the dumbest step of them all.

“Pull!” I shouted, and we all leaned back, away from the trunk of the tree. The Dryad, thankfully, just copied what Erani and I were doing. She seemed to understand that we had a plan. With the combined weights of all three of us, each of which had been increased by almost an additional half, I began to hear the brittle tree crack.

We’d tried to push it down the old-fashioned way, but with no tools to get the job done and a very limited timetable, we had to resort to this. It could’ve technically been possible for Erani to blow a tree down with a Firebolt and we could cross that, but we didn’t really have any way of controlling how it fell, and so it would’ve likely taken quite a bit of trial and error – and thus, time. We would’ve chopped one down with the Dryad’s whip, but neither Erani nor I knew how to use it like she did, and the Dryad herself didn’t really seem to get what we were asking her to do when we tried getting her to help us.

What we had done, though, was use her whip to at least saw a gash in the tree’s trunk. We couldn’t lash out with it like she could, but with a bit of effort and teamwork between me and Erani, we’d pushed and pulled to create a sizable cut in the wood facing the ravine. It’d taken a while to even get that much, though, so we knew we wouldn’t be able to get the whole thing down in time purely with cutting.

And that was where this plan had been born.

You have activated Regenerate. You will gain 15.5 Health over the next 10 seconds.

35.4 Stamina Cost. Your Stamina is 38.

We kept running as it took effect, eventually raising my Health to 90, which, while low, was much better than before. And with the major roadblock that was the ravine out of the way, we slowly increased our distance from the wall of fire. We didn’t slow our pace, though, continuing through the forest and gasping for breath in the thick smoke, we all pushed ourselves to the limits.

We moved for hours upon hours with me continuing to activate Regenerate whenever I got enough Stamina, and the quickly-setting sun soon moved the time to night. When I looked behind us, I could see the soft glow of the distant fire, slowly growing more and more intense. Ironically, our life-and-death flight from the blaze quickly grew boring, becoming more of a test of constitution than a high-stakes, fast-paced race through the wilderness.

We took brief breaks to catch and eat things in moments when we felt we couldn’t continue any longer without sustenance. Whenever we found an animal that was severely wounded and had no possibility of truly escaping and living on its own anymore, I’d kill it and we’d eat that. I mainly did this because it was easier and faster to finish off a wounded animal than fight down one at full strength, but I also didn’t want to upset the Dryad – I had a feeling she wouldn’t appreciate me going around and killing the same things she was doing so much trying to help.

Eventually, enough time passed that Time Loop once again came back to me. I’d already used it that day because of the Faerie village, having waited until midnight for it to refresh back then, too, so it was good to finally have it back. It put me slightly at ease – now, even if we were overtaken by the fire, I’d still be able to go back a few hours with the two uses of it and make things right.

We continued through the night. Eventually, the fire could burn itself out and we wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. As long as we didn’t run into any major roadblocks, it was possible we’d be home free.

But then, we reached a clearing.

And I realized we quite literally couldn’t go on.

In the middle of the clearing was a blockade. Tents formed a long line across the seemingly-endless field. And throughout the barricade of tents were scattered ballistas and cannons, all aimed toward our side of the forest.

And, of course, manning this machinery, were Demons. Infernals stomped through the campsite with their ugly, angry faces, staring off into the treeline in obvious search. And what made me even more furious was that the Demons weren’t alone. Standing among them were Humans. Regular Humans. Soldiers and common-folk. Colluding with the Underworld to man the blockade and ready the siege weapons.

It was obvious who they were here for. And, judging by the positioning of this blockade, and the positioning of the wildfire behind us, it was obvious how they knew we’d cross through this exact place. I looked over at the Dryad, who was staring at the Humans and Demons alike with an expression of pure rage and malice. I remembered what she’d been trying to tell me before, back when we’d first noticed the fire.

She’d pointed to me, then the fire, back and forth between us. Now, it was obvious. She was trying to tell me that the fire and I were connected. She knew it was unnatural. She’d probably figured out based on the timing of it, or the shape, or the nature of its spread. She was a guardian of the forest – of course she’d know an authentic fire when she saw one. I sighed, frustrated with myself for brushing her off in my panic. It would’ve been very helpful to know that we would be running right into a trap.

But here we found ourselves. Hundreds of Demons and soldiers in front of us, armed with weapons and explosives, and a wild blaze behind us, forcing us ever forward into the hands of those very enemies.

We were completely and totally fucked.