Making their way to the top was the simple part of this platform, once they had taken a moment to power up and understand the system. Spending an extra day, having to occasionally wake up and move away from a falling rock or deal with creepgrass, was annoying, and none of them were their best; but it did mean they managed to make it to the top rested.
For various definitions of rested, at least.
The most annoying bit was the last portion, where the swinging axes that went vertically across the canyon walls became horizontal axes, utilizing wood and cane arms that swung endlessly. There was barely a gap between the moving axes, such that you had to time things with utmost care or get bisected.
Or take other precautions.
"Move, move, move!" Rick called out.
Arthur would have chosen to speak, but he was currently pre-occupied with holding an axe still. He wasn't the only one, being shoulder-carried by Yao Jing who was acting as his legs. Much like a pair of medieval acrobatic fools. Together, they were holding at bay the axe that was meant to be swinging, legs and arms trembling as they strained.
"Give us more space then!" Mel snapped, as she helped the others to jump upwards, lacing her fingers together to boost them over the cliff.
Arthur could, intellectually, understand her point. After all, the gap he and Yao Jing and Leia and Eric had created by holding separate axes apart was barely large enough for one person to be tossed upward. Carefully, of course. He could understand it, but he certainly wasn't going to contradict Rick either.
After all, even with the Heavenly Sage running through him, giving him additional strength, both he and Yao Jing and his seniors on the other side were struggling to hold back the axes. With each moment, the amount of pressure increased and the chance grew of them slipping and letting the axes swing, catching themselves–or one of their friends.
One after the other, their teammates grew in number at the top of the cliff. Until Rick, jumping and then engaging his technique and literally being dragged upwards by the expelled energy in a weird, almost frozen pose, was up there, leaving only the four of them behind.
"Seniors, you first!" Arthur called.
"No, you. Go!" The grunting strain brooked little argument. Not that Arthur intended to, because a moment of consideration told him why he should be moving. If he got caught, it was over; and Yao Jing, the person clamped to him and holding his legs, was not as skilled with a movement technique.
Which did leave the question of how to vacate the space, but he had some time to consider the problem.
"HOLD ON!" Arthur called out below, clamping his legs firmly around Yao Jing's upper body. The man gripped tighter, not understanding but following orders anyway. And then, to his surprise, Arthur lifted him upwards, by curling his body up and then inwards, beginning to swing Yao Jing under a swinging wooden arm.
Immediately, of course, the arm began moving, adding to the momentum. Rotating in the opposite direction with his empowered curl, Arthur lifted Yao Jing inwards and upwards even as he swung him under the axe. It was a dangerous maneuver, though, because the swinging arm would enter the gap in the cliff face soon enough, smashing Arthur into the wall if he did not move fast enough.
Doing the world's most dangerous levered curl and plank, Arthur used all the momentum given to him and everything that the Tower had enabled his body to do, along with the explosive energy from his fast-twitch muscles, to almost throw Yao Jing into the air. He then finished the rotation, curling up on the other side of the axe arm as he let it go, no longer needing the pivot point. By that point, he’d released Yao Jing, who, unfortunately, was a touch too slow in releasing Arthur.
That left him tumbling weirdly, and only the formation of a cloud under his arm, just above where the swinging axe head popped out, kept him from getting skewered. Yao Jing, still in the air and much higher, had an easier time of it as he righted himself and then was grabbed by Rick who yelped at Yao Jing’s weight but pulled him to safety.
Arthur just threw himself into a sideways cartwheel, off the cloud and onto the cliff. He missed sticking his landing with his foot, sliding a little on the wet grass but managing to not sprawl on his face. All in all, as far as he was concerned, it was a successful operation. Maybe not cool, but effective.
Again, kind of like the Durians.
Grinning, Arthur took back his spear from Mel when she handed it to him, rotating his shoulders as he ignored the complaining Yao Jing, and wandered over to the edge of the cliff. His seniors had dropped their own swinging axe, though they had chosen not to be flashy about coming up. Instead, he watched as Leia held a hand up, a glowing green tangle of energy in it.
"What's that?" Arthur called out.
"New technique. Or old. Sort of." Leia shrugged. "Finally got it working at range. I think." Eyes narrowed, she counted for a few seconds and then tossed the energy upwards. She caught the swinging handle as it passed overhead, the tangle of green energy bursting into a snare of barbed vines that held the axe.
Before anyone could react or question her use of it, Eric had grabbed hold of Leia and leapt upwards, easily clearing the space by activating his own body-empowering technique. The man made it look easy, though Arthur couldn't help but wonder how many points he had to sacrifice to make it look that easy.
Moments later, there was a popping noise as the green thorns were broken, the technique fading and allowing the axe to return to its swinging.
No big surprise why they'd used their bodies rather than rely on the energy-based technique. Especially since this was likely the first time she had ever attempted the technique. It was a good test, to see how long her new snare method worked; though once the pair had settled themselves, he could not help but ask.
"What do you mean new and old?" Arthur said.
"It's a variation of the defensive technique I use." When everyone looked at Leia, she shrugged. "Or used to use. Don't need it as much with the group and it's expensive. It uses refined energy. It moves around my body, hurts those who hit me or grabs at their weapons, which slows it down." Now, Leia grimaced. "It's actually not as good as it sounded."
Eric nodded in agreement. "It supposedly is the base technique that the Killing Ivy uses." He shrugged. "But that might be a lie, or if it is, she's upgraded it a lot. It grabs things, but only if it's slow enough. Better with blunt instruments, but cutting ones are only slowed a bit."
"So I've been working on something else, figured if I could throw it . . ." She waved downwards, to indicate what she'd done. "I couldn't make it work before, but I had some time to really test it. It's still slow, and I can only throw it around ten feet away from me, but . . ."
"If you could fit that with your Energy Dart . . ." Mel said, excited.
"Trapping Energy Dart." Leia nodded. "Though I might need to make it out of refined energy."
Now Arthur was excited, because he would love to learn how to do it. But, he had rather enough stuff on his plate. He forced himself to temper his excitement, scanning the surroundings instead. Now that they were up here, there was only one last thing to do, which was to pass through the portal.
And over there, he could see the portal stones that indicated where they were meant to be.
All they had to do was hike the kilometer or so to the location.
Oh, and kill the boss that was hovering there, flapping its wings, feeding a nest of baby Rocs.