Unchained Potential (The Whispering Crystals: A LitRPG Series Book 4), page 19
The other end of the spatial tunnel dumps me in a huge hall, easily a hundred feet wide and high, and stretching out even farther in the distance. The walls and ceiling are made of smooth grey stone and covered in gently glowing crystals, but the floor is, well, a little absent. Beyond the ridge I’m on, it drops down into a giant pit that I can’t even see the bottom of.
Pillars rise from the pit, supporting platforms at various heights, a variety of familiar obstacles like rope swings, bars, tightropes and trampolines providing a means to cover the distance between them. Together, they provide multiple crisscrossing paths across to the distant other side. At a glance, I count at least six different paths starting from this end of the hall.
Of course, the path ahead is not my main focus right now.
To my immense relief, Kaitlynn appears five feet to my left.
She’s not the only one, either.
Five feet to her left, there’s Jacob, then Mark, Alec, and Dave. Seeing them all alive and well is a real weight off my shoulders, but I don’t have time to dwell on it.
To my right I find the rest of the participants, starting with Calyx and Steve. Ah. We’re lined up in the order in which we left Hub Three.
Despite everyone suddenly reuniting, a tense silence hangs over the group, as people check out the venue and their competition, seeming to wait for an actual signal to start—or more likely, a pop-up window with instructions.
As no one’s run off yet, I turn back to check out my friends, smiling in relief at seeing them, then do a double take.
Jacob is still in his Hoig Skinsuit, but he wields only a spear in his left hand, and no shield, as his right arm ends in a stump at the elbow.
Shit, what happened to him?
From the way he’s glaring at Mark, I feel like his partner might’ve had something to do with it, but I don’t immediately see how or why.
Dave’s smile quickly drops a little when he spots the same issue I did, and then even further when his eye lands on something in front of me.
I glance down. Oh, right. He’s looking at my missing foot.
I shoot him a quick wink, to let him know I’m fine.
Finally, when I catch his eye, Alec salutes with a big grin on his face. It takes me a moment to realise what’s weird about that. Oh, he’s got his eye back!
The thought flashes through my mind right before a window obscures my view.
Shit. Twelve participants and only eight doors. I knew they’d pull something like this. Also, Darksteel? That’s new... Well, I can at least guess what it looks like.
Before anyone can take so much as a step, Jacob raises the spear in his left hand, still facing Mark.
Mark pales and raises a hand, shield still strapped to his back. “Wait, Jaco—”
With a grunt and a flash of yellow, Jacob suddenly swings his spear around. The blunt end smashes into the side of Mark’s head with a crunch.
Mark hits the ground like a sack of potatoes. Some blood immediately starts to pool, as Jacob spits on the ground next to him.
“Asshole,” he mutters.
“Holy shit, what went down between you two?” I blurt out.
Jacob glances at me, and his frown softens a little. “I’ll explain later, we’ve—”
“Well, that wasn’t very nice,” a sultry female voice remarks from above and behind me.
I whirl around to find Dominique floating over the giant pit, surrounded by several floating discs of Boreum.
Behind her, Mia bursts into movement, running onto one of the paths and jumping for a bar swing.
Dominique spots her in the reflective surface of one of her floating discs and freezes. “And where do we think we’re going?” she snarls, whirling around with a dark look on her face. Before Mia can even reply, Dominique fires a bolt of lightning from the tip of her spear.
It strikes Mia right when she grabs onto a bar, and sends her into a fit of convulsions.
Right when it ends and it seems like she’s going to hold on, her fingers slip.
We all stand frozen, watching transfixed as she falls, letting out a mournful cry as she plunges down into the dark depths, fate unknown.
Dominique is silent for a moment, before she licks her lips and turns around to continue speaking to Jacob in a cool tone. “Did your parents never teach you not to break borrowed toys?”
Steve and Calyx share a glance and take up defensive positions, Focus Crystals glowing. Behind them, I see Lilly and Onni do much the same.
Seems like neither pair is willing to risk moving onto the platforms with the Lightning Bitch overhead like that.
I don’t see anyone else. Looks like Peter didn’t make it. Nor whomever Dominique wrangled up to go with her.
I can’t help but wonder if she did them in herself when she saw the word ‘race.’
Jacob lifts his chin. “If you think we’re scared of you, think again.”
Dominique floats out over a nearby platform and turns to me, ignoring Jacob’s statement. “Ah, Emma. Did you think we’d never meet again? Karma is a bitch, you know. Though I guess you found that out already, judging by your state.”
I exchange a quick glance with Kaitlynn, then stretch lazily as I turn the Qi in my medium Focus Crystal into Spatial Energy. “What, this?” I drawl. Lifting my stump a little. “Eh, I figured I’d even the odds a little, give you a fighting chance.”
I pay little attention to the bemused reactions around me, only Kaitlynn’s smirk and the fond little shake of her head.
A little muscle twitches next to Dominique’s eye. “You really don’t know when to quit, do you? Fine, I’m going to give you to the count of—”
“Yeah, blah blah blah,” Kaitlynn interrupts her, rolling her eye. “You know, you talk a pretty big game for someone who’s all alone.”
Oof, straight for the jugular. That’s my girl.
Dominique’s eye widens as she turns to Kaitlynn.
“Exactly,” I add. “You think being able to float a little makes you so special?”
I deploy my thick Spatial Boundary, and a gentle push sends me drifting up.
Kaitlynn exhales two controlled streams of Astreum which wrap around her body, before expanding downward in a steady stream which causes her to rise and hover next to me under her own power while wrapped in a swirling coat of Astreum.
A variety of surprised and amused noises come from the peanut gallery as the total number of people in the airspace increases to three.
“Either one of us would already be more than a match for you,” I finish.
Dominique’s face darkens as her eye flicks between us. “You sound pretty smug, for a copycat,” she bites out. “You really think you can outfly me?”
I smirk. “You’re right, I should really thank you. Couldn’t have done it without ya!”
Meanwhile, I whip out tethers to all of my friends.
There’s no way we’re letting Dominique hang around here and play arbiter of who gets to cross and who doesn’t.
Kaitlynn rolls her neck with a crack and takes over. “Much as we’d love to hang around and chat, there’s a Crystal Door out there calling our names. See ya!”
CHAPTER 25
Kicking off the race one-legged
At Kaitlynn’s cue, I form a pink spiral of Negative Inertial Energy around me and kick off the wall behind me, all while maintaining my Spatial Boundary.
It took a lot of practice to get to the point I can do this reliably, but it’s paying dividends now.
I shoot off over the bottomless pit like an arrow released from a bow, exhaling as I go to begin forming my glowing green tail.
Meanwhile, Kaitlynn angles the stream of Astreum at the wall behind her and increases her output.
She takes off after me like a rocket. I’m not worried about leaving her behind; in mid-Aether, she can accelerate much faster than I.
Hovering, on the other hand, is not something her propulsion method is suited for, which is why we really couldn’t stick around much longer.
And I’m not just talking about the difficulty of maintaining balance with jet propulsion. Maintaining my zero-G boundary simply costs far less Spatial Energy than Kaitlynn’s propulsion jet costs Heat. Even with the Heat production from her Energy Power-Up and the conversion cycle, she’d still run out after ten minutes or so. Faster when she’s jetting around like this.
Still, she’s got more than enough in her tank to reach the other side of this room. Flying together would be more fuel-efficient, but it would also decrease our manoeuvrability.
More importantly, doing so would make us a lot less intimidating.
Below us, everyone but Mark starts running at the same time.
Glancing back, I get a glimpse of Dominique’s expression. She looks furious.
Come on, chase us!
The last thing I want is for her to start harassing our friends as they try to cross.
Thankfully, my provocation was successful. She kicks off one of her discs of Boreum and launches herself after us.
Then she lifts her spear and fires a bolt of lightning that curves after Kaitlynn.
Of course, Kaitlynn sees it coming a mile off. The Focus Crystal at her wrist flashes red and a well-timed wave of Vibration Energy blasts out to interfere. Weakened and slowed, the lightning misses and veers into a distant wall.
Dominique swears. I glance back again, and my eyes widen.
A giant pair of shiny blue wings sprout from her back, seemingly made of a mixture of solid and vapour-like Boreum. She flaps them, speeding up.
Shit, she’s faster than I thought! Still, I doubt it’ll be enough for her to catch up like this.
Below us, it’s a madhouse. Most people barely seem to be paying attention to the obstacles. Jacob takes an early lead, leaping from platform to platform with flashes of yellow without ever slowing down.
Surprisingly, Alec appears to be the second-fastest, even though he’s actually using the various obstacles to get across. His speed really is impressive, and might very well have something to do with the arcs of lightning coming off his limbs. Right, he was going to take Boost Reflexes! And was that Decrease Inertia? Not bad!
Dave is trailing after him, doing much the same, albeit less handily and therefore slower.
Onni and Lily take a different approach. They’re bypassing the obstacles by running over a slithering path of Boreum that Onni’s constantly growing, using the platforms for support.
Steve and Calyx, who started out using the obstacles, quickly copy their method, with Calyx forming a second path of Boreum, albeit with more straight angles and fewer curves.
Meanwhile, clearly aware that her lightning won’t do much to me, Dominique continues harassing Kaitlynn with bolts.
However, thus far Kait’s managed to deflect them all, and she’s not taking it lying down either. In response, she sweeps her propulsion jet over Dominique.
Unfortunately, the Lightning Witch manages to block it by sacrificing one of her floating discs, and shoots another bolt.
Damn, if Dominique keeps this up, Kait’s going to run out of Qi!
Dominique’s reserves can’t be endless either, of course, but she definitely came in with a lot of Electric Energy stored, while Kaitlynn has to directly spend Qi to form Vibration Energy to fend off her bolts.
Narrowing my eyes, I make a mid-Aether U-turn. This kind of rapid change in direction is something I never could have pulled off before, but under the effect of Negative Inertial Energy, it becomes possible.
Dominique sneers as she sees me coming, but doesn’t relent. In fact, her next lightning bolt is extra thick.
It breaks right through Kaitlynn’s counter and smashes into her. Kaitlynn seizes up, her cloak of Astreum fading as her jet sputters out.
Shit!
Thankfully, gravity is pretty weak over this enormous pit, so her trajectory towards the other side of the pit only slowly starts to drop as she careens on.
With a sweep of my tail I abandon my charge and dive down after her, kicking as hard as I can to catch up.
But Dominique isn’t done. She launches one of her discs of Boreum at me.
For a split second, I just think she has terrible aim as it’s about to pass harmlessly in front of me. However, the moment it’s in my path, tendrils of Boreum vapour suddenly anchor it in the Aether.
My rapidly approaching reflection looks just as surprised as I feel.
My first instinct is to try and swerve around it, but I forcibly suppress it. Experience has taught me that Boreum vapour is the real danger, as it can flash freeze in an instant.
Gritting my teeth, I prepare to disregard the risk and use Positive Inertial Energy to smash through the disc with my spear.
However, right as I deploy my field, a beam of Astreum shoots up from below and blasts a large hole in the disc.
I immediately shift my Inertial Energy to its Negative variant and capitalise on the opportunity to speed up and dive through the circular opening.
On the other side, I catch Dave’s smile as he lowers his hand.
I grin back, then swoop down and catch Kaitlynn right above a platform. However, I have too much downward speed, so I’m forced to flip us around and allow my tail to disperse so I can land on my foot.
My Negative Inertial Energy and Strength combined turn the landing into nothing but a light exertion. Some of the Electric Energy still coursing through Kaitlynn enters my body, but I shrug it right off. Still under the effect of my zero-G Spatial Boundary, I kick off again before I lose my footing.
“Thanks,” Kaitlynn mutters through some final aftershocks, as I reform my tail.
I just turn to glare at Dominique as she flies past, practically cackling. “Nice catch! I’ll be going on ahead.”
“Ugh, I hate her!” Kaitlynn spits out. “Screw it, let’s switch to flight mode B and catch up!”
“Sure, let me just—”
The sound of a dull thud triggers some age-old instinct within me, and I turn in time to see Dave swing back on a rope swing, clearly having smacked into the wall of Boreum in front of him.
For a moment I suspect revenge from Dominique, but the Boreum doesn’t hang by itself in the Aether. In fact, it’s part of the bridge Calyx and Steve are running over. They cut him off on purpose!
As I watch, Dave slips down a few inches, clearly dazed from the impact. Shit!
“Son of a bitch,” Kaitlynn mutters, wriggling out of my arms. A new cloak of Astreum forms around her even as she starts to drop, and then she’s rocketing towards him to help out.
Dave loses his grip before she can reach him, however.
My heart clenches as he starts to fall, but suddenly Alec’s there, swinging in from the side on another rope and grabbing him by the wrist.
Well I’ll be damned. Go Alec!
Calyx frowns in their direction. They start to turn and lift a hand.
Yeah, that’s not happening.
I take my crystal spear out from the loops on my back and swoop down.
“Watch out!” Steve warns Calyx as I come barrelling in.
They both dive out of the way as I sweep past. Tch.
With languid kicks of my tail, I circle their position threateningly. “Playing dirty, are we?”
Calyx gets up and spreads their hands. Several spikes of Boreum form around them, hovering in the Aether. “I’d really rather not get into it with you, Emma, but I will if I have to. Are you sure you’ve got time to concern yourself over here?” they say, their eye flicking towards Dominique’s disappearing figure.
I narrow my eyes at them, preparing to shrink my boundary to dodge. “I’ll make time, for my friends.”
But then Alec calls out. “Nonya, Kaitlynn, we’ve got this! Go defeat that Storm wannabe!”
I glance over to where he’s helping Dave cross another obstacle under Kaitlynn’s hovering watch. She turns towards me, looking torn.
Calyx glances at them, then their bridge suddenly stretches out forward, attempting to cut them off again.
“Oh hell no!” Kaitlynn shouts. Her eye lights up, then spews out a beam of orange that cuts straight through the floating bridge, halting its progress.
Then she swings her beam around for a second pass through the bridge behind Steve and Calyx.
Calyx’s eyes widen as their bridge starts to collapse, and they quickly start forming new supports to keep it from disappearing into the abyss below.
“That was awesome!” Alec exclaims, touching down on the next platform and turning to assist Dave’s landing. “Now get your butts out of here!”
I share a glance with Kaitlynn. She nods, determined, then turns around and rockets off.
I turn back one last time to give Calyx the universal hand signal for ‘I’m watching you,’ then fly off with a swish of my tail.
CHAPTER 26
If you give a mouse a cookie
While we were distracted by the stragglers, the first participants finished crossing the pit and moved on to the far more natural-looking tunnel beyond it.
Glancing ahead, I make a split-second decision.
I sweep down next to her.
Without missing a beat, she disperses her cloak of Astreum and hops onto my back, the pressure of her thighs clamping down on my waist reassuring.
The moment she’s secure, I kick off one-footed.
We considered mid-Aether transitions but ultimately lacked the space to properly practise those.
Flying like this is less suited for combat, as we’re a much bigger, less-manoeuvrable target, but there’s no avoiding it; Kaitlynn needs time to refill her Qi Pool.
