Dungeon Raider System

Chapter 201 Fear of heights

Once again, Sam's trait proved its usefulness as it kept him from losing sight of the girls, though as always it was as much a blessing as it was a curse. While knowing the whereabouts of his friends was great, he couldn't help but worry about their fate.

Uriel asked for constant updates about the condition of the girls, but once the birdmen landed on the highest crest he couldn't see them anymore.

"Dammit, if only I could see through objects." Sam clicked his tongue.

"You and I both know what you'd do if that was the case." Uriel said jokingly, but for Sam it felt as a well deserved, yet offensive, mockery of his character.

Now that they didn't count with Nika's help, leaping from platform to platform was much more difficult than before. Uriel would have liked to use a grappling hook, but without any experience it would only be more dangerous. Instead, they settled with tying a rope to their waists just in case they fell.

If it was a good safety measure or not, they didn't want to find out and they limited themselves to cross their fingers not to be forced into using it.

"Do you think they're being... you know..." Sam tried to ease his worries by asking Uriel.

"How would I know?" He shrugged his shoulders

"Does it really not bother you?" Sam's question seemingly fell into deaf ears, though that was far from the truth.

Uriel wasn't worried, he knew exactly how he should feel and tried to act on it, but he didn't actually feel anything about it. He questioned himself for a long time on whether or not it had something to do with the sacrifice he made when he thrust the orichalcum dagger on his heart or if it was related to the possession that was most likely afflicting him.

However, he couldn't deny that keeping calm wasn't necessarily a bad thing right now and that he would try to figure out once they were back home safe.

Each island was completely the same as the one before, safe for a few rocks that stood out from the thin layer of fog in the ground, and there wasn't much to do other than focus on their own thoughts. Time also didn't seem to pass as the sky remained on the same level of brightness, though Uriel could tell a day had already passed thanks to his ability to use his smartphone while inside the museum.

The same breeze that threatened their lives whenever they were climbing a cliff served to soothe their muscles once they reached the top. The monotone scenery, along with boredom, caused Uriel to space out and when he wanted to notice, he was already falling weightless from a cliff.

Sam felt the sudden tug on the rope wrapped around his waist and desperately tried to cling on to anything, he even attempted to bury his hand on the ground but that proved to be a grave mistake. Air, as hot as magma, blew out from the island burning his hand to a crisp in an instant and he let go with a pained scream until he was dragged to the same edge where Uriel fell from.

He vehemently grabbed on to the rim of the land with all the strength he could muster, but not even an ascended was able to lift his weight and that of another hunter with a single hand and he was starting to lose the grip.

"Keep going! I'll catch up!" Uriel said as he unceremoniously cut the rope with his pocket knife.

"Urieeeeeel!" Sam cried as he looked down trying not to miss a second of his friend's demise until he disappeared into the dense fog. "No! No! Why!? It had to be me! I'm the one who caused this, it's all my fault.

I've always been such a bad friend, I wish there was something I could do to make things right." Sam's tears flowed as though a dam had been opened. He couldn't stop himself from crying.

While Sam was bawling his eyes out, Uriel was falling from the insurmountable height for what seemed like an eternity. Fear gave way to panic once he realized something even more terrifying than meeting death at such young age, it was the fear of surviving the fall.

The concept of death is scary, but it was nothing compared to splattering into a thousand pieces and regenerating from that, only to be left alone forever in the forgotten depths of that place. He would never meet with his friends again, he would never speak to another human being ever again and the worst part, he wasn't sure whether or not he was even capable of dying anymore.

But now that he was already falling to his doom there was nothing he could do. In hindsight, he thought of a hundred different ways he could have prevented his current situation.

He could have summoned a grappling hook, a steel stake to bind himself to the rock, a pickaxe to hold on to the cliff, even a parachute would have given him enough time to think of a solution, but all that amounted to nothing now.

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Those were just the desperate thoughts of a young man that committed a simple mistake, one that on any other circumstances would have caused him to trip and maybe graze his knees, but now he was about to die, or worse.

The thought of his friends always crawled to his mind whenever he was facing against odds, but that brought him little comfort now that Nika and Luna were kidnapped by, presumably, horny cryptids, Sam was wounded and Medusa was with that jerk Jon Hunter.

Not even six months ago his life took a turn for the best and things were going better and better with time, if only he managed to survive, to come back home, he would have been the CEO of his own company, he would have been entitled to a share of the profits of the dungeon and more importantly, he would have been able to progress with his investigation.

This thoughts were occupying his mind when the sudden slap of the ground crushed him and Uriel Sage, the archaeology student, became a splatter on the ground.