The battle turned brutal.
Leo, Mira, and Aric fought in perfect coordination—or so it seemed. They pressed from three angles, attempting layered assaults, but the creature adapted with terrifying precision. The halberd spun like a storm around it, deflecting Leo's thrusts, parrying Mira's flaming strikes, parting Aric's torrents of water as if slicing the wind itself.
Each exchange was a brush with death.
Every time they advanced, they were forced back—cut, bruised, panting. Mira grunted as she took a grazing cut across her side. Aric's shoulder bled from a near-miss that barely failed to take his arm. Leo's forearms ached from repeated blocks, and even his spatial footwork began to falter under the pressure.
Behind them, the rest of the climbers fought desperately to hold the flanks. Screams echoed through the night as the twisted, many-eyed creatures surged through the camp. Even without looking, Leo could feel it—they were being pushed to the edge.
We're not going to hold.
The thought struck hard. For a flicker of a second, Leo faltered. The halberd came for him again in a cleaving arc. He barely twisted aside, the blade singing past his ribs.
And then something broke—not outside him, but within.
He stopped thinking.
Stopped looking for the path.
And instead—became it.
Time didn't slow. His eyes didn't widen. Nothing dramatic happened. Only… the noise faded. The pain vanished. And he was no longer choosing his movements.
He was moving.
The spear flicked, turned, flowed—not in reaction to the creature's strikes but in tandem with them. The halberd came, and he didn't dodge it—he stepped through it. When the creature turned to meet Mira, Leo was already there, intercepting the shift in posture before it fully formed.
Every motion he made felt inevitable.
There were no paths to see.
He was the path.
The creature, for the first time, hesitated—its rhythm disrupted, its flawless defense faltering for half a heartbeat. It corrected—but not fast enough.
Leo's spear didn't strike to kill. He redirected.
A subtle shift of his blade along the haft of the halberd, knocking it slightly off-course, forcing the guardian's feet to plant deeper—
And exposing its flank.
"Mira—now!"
Flame exploded behind him.
Mira was already mid-leap, fire cloaking her body in a comet of burning fury. She slammed into the creature's side with both fists, flames detonating point-blank. It staggered—its first real stumble.
Aric followed, his eyes cold, arms sweeping in a final crashing wave that surged like a tidal blade. The water struck with crushing force, locking the creature in place just long enough for Mira to drive one last, flaming uppercut into its chest.
The halberd fell.
And the guardian collapsed with it.
Dead silence followed.
Only the sound of the enemy retreating in scattered waves behind them. The creatures at the flanks stopped, looked to the fallen figure at the wall, and then—vanished. As if whatever force bound them here had been severed with the guardian's fall.
Leo stood motionless, breathing hard, sweat dripping from his brow before Mira pushes him froward to make it out before the enemy regroups.
The flash of teleportation left Leo stumbling slightly as his feet hit solid ground. The biting air of the valley was gone, replaced by crisp winds and the gentle scent of ozone.
They were standing on stone—white, smooth, and edged with polished silver veining. Around them stretched an open sky of swirling clouds and light. And beneath the ledge they stood on… nothing. Or, rather, a vast open void, with only distant floating islands suspended like stepping stones in the air.
The Seventh Floor.
It was beautiful, in a surreal, impossible kind of way. Light streamed down from no visible sun, casting soft shadows as distant birds—or perhaps something stranger—glided between the islands.
Mira was the first to speak. "Huh. Well, this is a change of pace."
Aric took a deep breath and nodded, gazing across the floating terrain. "I'll take sky and space over trenches and monsters any day."
Leo didn't answer.
The rest of the climbers—six others—began arriving behind them one by one. Only eight. Out of ten.
His fingers curled tighter around his spear as the memory of the valley returned—the screams, the brutal fights, the eyes staring blankly at the sky.
"We lost two," he said quietly, his eyes still scanning the horizon. "If I had just been a little faster… If I'd broken through earlier…"
Mira stepped beside him, bumping his shoulder gently with her own. "Stop that."
He glanced at her.
She looked serious, not annoyed. "Anyone still climbing knew what choice they made your not responsible for them."
Aric approached on Leo's other side. "She's right. They choose the path of danger plus it won't all be team trials. So just focus on what you can protect"
Leo exhaled slowly, jaw still tight.
"It just doesn't feel like a win."
"No," Aric said gently. "It doesn't. But we're still here. We honor the ones who fell by climbing higher."
Mira added, "And for what it's worth… the Seventh Floor looks like it has a few less monsters and a few more sky views. Maybe the Tower's giving us a breath before the next round of hell."
Leo couldn't help but let a faint smile tug at the corner of his mouth.
Maybe.
But as he looked out over the endless sky and floating islands, he made himself a quiet promise:
Next time, I won't be a moment too late.