Chapter 108 - 108. Getting A Grip

"This is going to be rough." Asher looked at Dia with a hard glare. She was sneaky and couldn't be trusted. This was a tough rock wall to face if he needed to make sure that every single hand hold would not fall out when he reached for it.

If he followed the safe route he would need to carefully check every single one. If he followed the speedy path, the odds of falling with a loose hand hold in his hands was too high. "I just got a good running start and jump like halfway up." Laura was ludicrous and said this like it was nothing.

"If I could get the speed up like you I could jump halfway up as well." Asher's sigh made the annoyance tangible. However, this did not stop him from reaching up his hand and grabbing the next hand hold. He had decided that he should just start his path now and try for the top.

He could see the easiest path to climb but had a different thought. 'If it were me making this I would make the easiest looking hand holds the ones that fell out.' His theory was the most plausible and He moved upwards grabbing at the farther challenging to hold handholds.

He was making great progress upwards and had been nearly zig zagging across the wall. However, when he wanted to move up he noticed a perfect line of hand holds across the whole entire wall. "Nope, no way I am touching you," He said this out loud as he gathered an extra bit of energy to push himself to the next highest hand hold. He knew if it looked too perfect that he was not supposed to grab it.

With his efforts, he was able t make it to the top with relative ease. To his surprise, he found that there was a long slide leading to a small trail on the other end of the wall. 'Ha ha, this is was better than climbing down.' His delight was plain on his face as he turned to see Jackson following in his footsteps.

Jackson had avoided the areas Asher had not limbed and chosen to grab the handholds he had seen Asher use. It was the best part about watching the last person go. Unfortunately for him, Dia knew this.

She was seemingly innocent as she leaned against the tree. Yet, her hand disappeared behind her and an audible click was heard while Jackosn went to grab the next wooden hand hold. He knew there was something wrong but was already in motion.

His hand pulled back holding the hand hold while starting to slip a little downwards. Luckily he dropped it and frantically grabbed out for another. His hand latched on with all his might keeping him from falling down on to the bouncy mulch ground.

"What just happened?! That was definitely one that Asher grabbed before!" His worry was overtaking his calmness in his voice.

Dia didn't flinch at all and just replied cooly. "The wall might change here and there. A cliff face would never be the same for everyone that climbed it. Your hands are different, your weight is different, even the weather can be different." She had a point but none of them had expected such a dastardly wall.

"Just double check every spot you grab!" Asher's advice was not the best but it was the simplest method to continue upwards. Jackson already knew this but realized that he would take triple the amount of time to reach the top of the wall from this point.

His method of checking twice before he pulled himself upwards was quicker than he expected, however, he found many more of the hand hold pulled away from the wall than he desired. This was hard more and he knew it. Dia was just smiling at him from the bottom of the wall like the world was spinning around perfectly.

"Ahh!" Jackson grabbed a hand hold that pulled away and he swung out only holding on with one hand.

"Jackson, you need to get a grip!" Laura was giggling at her pun.

"Good one," Asher was stifling a laugh as well, he was slightly jealous he didn't come up with the quick corny joke.

"Oh yeah, because it's so easy when you are surprised by the hand holds that AREN'T REAL!" Jackson was not as appreciative of the joke as Asher and Laura were, but he was too busy to keep yelling at them since he was only a few hand holds away from the top.

When he finally made it there he was glad to see that all he needed to do was slide down to the bottom. "Yessss, I don't want to climb that thing ever again."

"Come on, let's side down and see what the next obstacle is." Asher had been waiting and was all ready to push on to the next challenge. Without even another warning he had hopped on the slide and was heading towards the bottom.

"Wait, but I just got here." Jackson was a little let down but he slid down the slide to the bottom anyways.

"This next one is super fun. You just have to crawl." Laura was looking at a row of mesh ahead of them. There was a small space between the ground and the mesh.

"Wait, we are crawling in the dirt all the way to the other side? That seems pretty lame compared to the other two obstacles." Asher knew as soon as he said this that it was not the best thing to tempt fate like this.

There was a small patch of dirt that looked like it was recently covered up. There was most certainly something underneath that would cause him trouble. Asher took a deep breath and accepted that whatever it was he would need to face it. He fell on to his stomach and started the crawl.

"He already started? I just got down here." Jackson saw that Asher was only a few feet in to the crawl when the dirt looked to be moving. "Why am I not excited for this one either?" Jackson's voice held a great deal of worry.