(old version, read next chapter) B3 Chapter 355: Obstinance, pt. 3

A/N: I decided to cut two chapters since they were sorta just a play by play of kaius running through obstacles without forwarding the plot enough. Might miss a few call outs to things happening in those chapters, so if you spot one point it out. 

Crunching his way through an apple, Kaius looked at the next obstacle with a pensive expression on his face.

The piece of fruit was a rare treat, both for getting over a particularly difficult wall and for the fact his struggles would likely only get worse from here on out. He didn’t have many of them, after all.

Only a dozen or so steps ahead of him, a gargantuan pit had replaced the floating pathway that the course was built on. It was, perhaps, better to describe it as a chasm. Easily five hundred longstrides from end to end, its depths confounded Truesight. A sheer drop for a league that quickly faded into an impenetrable dark. 

There was a path across — in a sense, at least. Floating platforms of polished granite, as smooth and slick as ice. Circular islands of stability, they sat in place, uncaring of the yawning space beneath them. 

Wide enough he could comfortably stand on one, they were scattered far enough that he would just comfortably be able to leap from stone to stone from standing — five longstrides, give or take a longstride or two in variation. He’d need a little care and focus, but he could do it.

Easily.

That made him suspicious. No way would it be easy — not with how everything else had gone. Plus, the stones were floating; he could think of a dozen different nasty surprises that could be hidden on the obstacle. 

Maybe they were frictionless, or would only hold his weight for a moment. Hells, some of them could be fake! The Crucible had already proven it could lock him out of the use of his skills — he couldn’t just assume that Truesight would pick up on such a deception.

He sighed — it wouldn’t be anywhere near as much of a problem if the chasm weren’t so long. An unpleasant surprise: he’d seen the far end of the obstacle when he’d done his best to peak around the climbing wall from the start of the course, but most of its length had been hidden from him. 

Caution, as always, was the play. There was no doubt that the trial had something positively diabolical in store.

Taking a last bite of his snack, Kaius grumbled before he tossed the core of his apple at the closest platform. Regardless if Truesight was impacted or not, his senses were still sharp. He might be able to hear when the core hit the bottom of the chasm, and hopefully get some sort of sense for how deep it was. 

The core sailed through the air, landing on the closest platform with a wet thud as it slid towards the edge.

And disappeared. 

Kaius froze, his mind racing as his senses tuned in and time seemed to slow. The platform was unchanged, lacking even a smear of juice from where the core had smacked into it.

A fraction of a moment later he heard the faintest puff of displaced air. He snapped to the sound. His apple core stood still and proud in the centre of another platform, a quarter of the way across the gap. 

He frowned, watching intently. Teleportation — again with no sign of mana or anything to power the effect. As far as he could tell, the platforms weren’t even inscribed! He knew it shouldn’t surprise him — none of the actions either of the ascendants he’d met used mana. It only made sense for the Crucible Xenanra controlled to run off similar principles.

It still unnerved him — a departure from the simple rules he knew.

Another moment passed.

Without warning, the platform holding the apple screamed down as a roar of wind filled the hallway. Kaius shot to his feet, watching it slip into the darkness in the same heartbeat. 

He paled — seeing a faint dot of green and red still stuck to the polished granite. The apple core had been held in place: with how fast the platform had rocketed down, the core should have drifted away — fallen at a slower pace. 

Another heartbeat, and he saw the platform pop back into existence as if it had never been touched. It hovered in place as if it rested on solid ground. 

Kaius paused, desperately weighing if he would be fast enough to cross the gap. The entire escapade from when the apple core had teleported, to when the descending platform had reappeared after falling had taken moments. That was barely enough time to land and jump to the next platform — something that would be monumentally harder if he was teleported from stone to stone, and had to reorient each time.

Before he could weigh up his options further, a shattering crash rose from the chasm — the sound of the falling platform breaking only just reaching his ears.

He was definitely dead if he fell — a fall from that height, at that speed? He’d be paste! 

Running a hand through his hair, he let out a slow breath as he looked longingly at the far side of the chasm. Of course nothing could ever be simple. 

He still knew too little — he had to test this. See if it was every platform, or just some. If he could avoid the teleport traps with Expedient Shunt or Slipstep, it would be much simpler.

For some reason, he couldn’t muster much hope for the chances of that happening. He pulled a carrot from his storage ring. 

Breaking off a chunk and tossing it, the carrot spun through the air before landing on the next closest platform. 

It landed, sliding across the platform, only to disappear a moment later — this time frozen in the middle of a platform only a few leaps further ahead. It shot down.

Kaius eyed the empty air where it had appeared contemplatively. Just like the apple, the carrot had frozen — losing all of its initial momentum. A problem, if a manageable one. It would be disorienting and slow him down further. 

There was one final thing to check. He needed to know if direction was preserved — if he jumped expecting to still be able to move forward, he might send himself flying right into the pit with how little time he would have to react.  He threw the final two thirds of the carrot to the next platform. Just like the others, it disappeared. Tracking the sound of displaced air, Kaius spotted it near the far side of the chasm.

It was facing a new direction.

“Gods’ scorn!”

Spitting over the ledge in disgust, Kaius stepped back and took a seat as he wondered how the hell he was supposed to make it past this. Individually, none of the dangers were too bad. Combined, they were lethal. If only the platforms hung for a little longer after teleporting, even by just a second! It would still be challenging, but he’d feel far more confident then he did now.

The problem was he could see little of how his spells could help. After his experience with the climbing wall he had just scaled, he had no interest in trying to circumvent the obstacle with Shunt. Last time it had led to dozens of lethal vines attempting to spear him after they appeared out of the wood. Slip Step would help slightly — but the physical jump between platforms was the least of his problems, and that was all it would help.

Drakthar was utterly pointless, and neither Eirnith nor Vyrthane had spells that would help him with this obstacle either.

Although…they could, in theory. Both skills were a hair from their next spell. If he got one that gave him some sort of physical barrier that he could jump off, or an Eirnith spell that boosted his perception or reactions, he would be far better off.

Even if Vyrthane gave him a barrier that he couldn’t stand on, it wouldn’t hurt his chances — and it would likely still be valuable for future obstacles. If there was one thing he had in abundance, it was time. There were no pressing threats: no danger driving him forwards. He had plenty of food — he could just grind away at those last few levels.

Besides, picking new spells was always fun, and it would double as training for his mana shaping skills. 

Sitting up straight, Kaius crossed his legs and focused. Reaching for Warhaven, he immediately had a sense for the spell — the area it could fill. He’d used it a fair bit to reach this point. It took time, but it had given him a much greater sense of what it could do.

He pushed at the shape — furrowing his brow as he tried to mould the shield into a torus. It fought against him as if it wanted to stay nice and simple, trying to snap back into a simple rounded dome. 

Setting his jaw, Kaius yanked — trying to mould the nebulous potential of his magic like it was clay. 

This would take a while.

….

*Ding! Latent glyph of Vyrthane has reached level 101!* 

*Ding! Spell-hymn available for selection - Latent Glyph of Vyrthane!*

Kaius let out a whoop of joy as he punched the air. Finally.

He’d been stuck on the same strip of stone for a day and a half, endlessly casting and reinscribing Warhaven. The climbing wall behind him turned out to be just as dangerous as it had been the first time he’d summited it. Rather than risk it, he’d stayed in place. Gods, it had been boring — repetitive enough that he’d be glad if he never inscribed the spell again for the next year. Still, he’d done it!

If only the bloody spell wasn’t so expensive! Half of what had made it so boring was that most of his time had been spent staring at the wall while he waited for his mana to regenerate. At least he’d had a couple of cloaks in his rings — if he’d had to lump discomfort on top of that, he’d have gone mad.

At the very least, he’d gotten much better at shaping the spell — both in absolute ability, and speed. With his last few casts, he’d been able to shape the barrier into rings and twisting tunnels consistently, each only taking him a second or two to snap into place. 

They still glittered in the chasm below him — barely visible forcefields that hung just below the path of platforms, stretching halfway across to the limit of his current range. They were overlapped as much as the spells had been able to handle without interference breaking them down. Considering they lasted a full twenty-four hours, he figured he might as well see if they could halt the platforms on their descent. 

Not that he would count on them doing so — regardless, he had spells to pick. Kaius smiled as a list of options appeared in his eye.

Bulner’s Vital Protection:

Runic Hymn - Tier I (Armour, Defense)

Affinity: Metal

Glyph: Vyrthane

300 Mana

Selection Available!

This Hymn coats the caster’s torso and head in protective liquid metal that repels physical and magical attacks for ten minutes, leaving their motion unhindered. The spell leaves the eyes, nostrils, and mouth uncovered. The caster is still burdened by the weight of the metal.

…

Deepfather’s Aegis:

Runic Hymn - Tier I (Barrier)

Affinity: Earth, Martial

Glyph: Vyrthane

400 Mana

Selection Available!

This Hymn summons a greatshield of solid stone that is weightless to the caster for thirty minutes. When blocking with the Aegis, the caster is fortified — preventing them from being pushed back against their will.

…

Bound Maelstrom:

Runic Hymn - Tier I (Barrier, Defense)

Affinity: Storm, Protection

Glyph: Vyrthane

200 Mana

Selection Available!

This Hymn summons a swirling maelstrom around the caster for 10 minutes. This barrier of storm diverts physical projectiles and defends against non-physical magic. 

…

Sundering Light:

Runic Hymn - Tier I (Barrier)

Affinity: Destruction

Glyph: Vyrthane

500 Mana

Selection Available!

This Hymn summons a halo of entropic energy behind the casters back. When attacked, the halo unleashes a single destructive attack that sunders the weapon of the aggressor.

Kaius hummed as he thought through the available options. It was unfortunate that none of the spells he’d been offered would help with his current situation, but they all seemed like strong spells. Suitable for him, too — mostly.

Deepfather’s Aegis would be fine for someone else, but he didn’t use shields, and all it would do is tie up a hand that he could otherwise use to cast and aim his offensive magic.

Bulner’s Vital Protection was similar. He did not fight like a traditional mage — he was already armoured. Besides that, the mention of its weight put him off. Sure, he was strong, but at his level, fractions of a moment could make the difference between a mortal blow and missing entirely. His entire fighting style was built around that mobility. If he was willing to make that trade off, he’d already be using heavy armour.

Sundering Light and Bound Maelstrom? Those were spells that sounded interesting.

Defence and disarmament in one, or protection against being targeted by backline opponents. 

Kaius sat back, a contemplative furrow on his brow.