Ascending the sixth floor could almost be considered routine. With the team forced to move diagonally and vertically to ascend, keeping an eye on where they could jump to, which platform jutting out of the walls was viable to climb to, and how to get to them was the trick. Arthur had to keep a 3D map of the place in mind at all times, with the occasional bouncing ball, monsters, and other traps in play. All of which meant that he made mistakes.
***
"Go left, left!" Arthur waved his hand in the direction he meant, even as everyone scrambled. Not all in the right direction, what with the team being turned one way or the other, chatting, looking out for threats, or breaking down a spike trap, or firing at a creeping camouflaged creature climbing upwards.
All of which meant that Jan, Casey, and Yao Jing chose to move right—as per Arthur's facing—instead of left. At which point, Lam, Uswah, and then Eric grabbed the three and yanked them the right way as they scrambled away from the falling rock. It came slamming into the ground a half-dozen feet next to the sprawled group.
Arthur shaded his eyes a little as he waited for the ball to careen away. Once the dust had settled, he jumped up sideways and then again, using his Cloud Step rather than bothering with the longer passage the others had to use to get to the same area. He managed to get a hand around the platform edge and hauled himself upward, grunting a moment later as he reached the majority of the group. Leia was right at the top with Rick at the moment, the pair leading the charge as Rick took potshots at mushrooms high above.
"Oy!" Arthur called, waited for Rick to stop shooting, then waved at them all.
"New rule." He pointed upwards, to where a line of brown basalt was: the sun was beginning to set. "Sunward." Then, he turned and pointed down the other side of the canyon. "Canyonward. I scream sunward, we all go that way. I scream canyon, we go this way. Got it?"
"I . . . maybe?" Casey said.
More frustrated looks. They understood the point, but shifting to new words and orientations in the middle of the day was going to be difficult.
"Let's try it. And let's keep moving. Rick, more mushies."
So warned, Rick turned and scanned for the bouncing creatures, raising his pistol. Casey joined him moments later, even as Arthur bounced up to the top level so he could continue charting the way.
***
"Tiu!" Yao Jing snarled, rearing back from the swinging scythe of death. Those often hung or fell down from other platforms, swinging through areas randomly and nearly bisecting climbers who might be caught. The only way to catch sight of them was to watch for the telltale glint in platforms above.
In this case, Arthur had nearly missed it. If Yao Jing had been only a little faster, he'd have been bisected. As it was, the damn thing kept swinging back and forth, its speed increasing as the arc decreased. Eventually, it'd be retracted, reset, and fired off again. Which was a delay, but not an unexpected one.
The bigger problem was the spikes right ahead on this platform. They needed to cross this bridge to the other side, just so they could jump, climb, and cross over the series of platforms ahead. And while the spike could be broken when they came up, they also had a bad habit of regenerating.
Sometimes at the most inconvenient of times.
"Boss?" Yao Jing called.
"Shit, shit, shit . . ." Arthur cast around for options. They could push ahead, maybe, but with the timing they might not get all their people through. Jumping and timing the spikes that rose out of the ground was child's play, except you still had to time it. And they'd lose quite a few minutes, waiting for the swinging scythes. Never mind waiting around for giant balls to bounce in or the mushrooms, which were all coming to close in on them.
"That way." A hand on his arm, Casey turned him to look down. He watched her finger as she pointed out the way she'd picked out. "Works?"
"Mostly." He spotted a few more issues that way, more carpet monsters from the first level where they had to switch over and some grasping vines right next to the carpet monsters on a platform they weren't going to take, which was why he had avoided it in the first place. Then again . . .
"Bombardment on three." He was already forming an Exploding Energy Dart as he called out. "Back down. Two platforms, head canyonward and to the other edge, then up. We'll mark where you need to go."
The group scrambled, Yao Jing jumping down near him moments later, firing an explosive off.
"Ready?" Arthur asked, only to find Casey already loosing arrows. He snorted, checked where she aimed at, and released his own attack. He'd bounce ahead, using Cloud Step over the open air. One advantage of his technique and having progressed it farther than the others.
***
Monsters, dozens of them. All swarming around, the tiny mushroom figures bouncing downwards. Tiny, because they'd found a variant that exploded when they got struck but became even smaller copies of themselves. There were dozens, but it felt like hundreds as they scrambled all around Arthur’s group, spears swinging and blocking. More than once, Arthur was nearly knocked over by another spear, the damn creatures finding them at the worst time, when they were all grouped close together on two different platforms while waiting for a series of swinging scythes of doom to reset and for Lam to get the timing right.
Arthur was smacked in the back and thrown off, forced to stagger and catch his balance by forming a Cloud Step beneath his foot. He threw himself back onto the platform, knocked into Mel, and had to grab her armour by the nape to stop her from falling. Making a decision, he dropped his spear to the ground and snatched out his kris as he shuffled to the side.
"Parangs. Close-ranged weapons only!" he cried.
It filled him with some pride to see that the group had already made the decision to do so themselves, jumping to the very same conclusion long before him. They kept fighting and, thankfully, only managed to lose one person—as Uswah, blown back by an unhappy explosion, fell down.
She slammed into a surface, two platforms down, half off and hurt. Arthur winced, even as Jan leapt downwards to go to her aid.
Hopefully, she wasn't too badly injured.
***
"Inside!" Arthur called, waving the group into the administrative center. They'd made it halfway there, which was decent progress for their first day. But night had fallen, and while the luminescent biome of the canyon walls and monsters shed enough light for the team to continue, albeit more dangerously, the group was injured and sore from their ascent.
Most especially Uswah who was still groggy and concussed, having hit her head when she fell. She also had managed to wrench her back, so she was currently on the need-to-heal list. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to stop long enough for her to heal properly, forced to keep moving by the traps and monsters. Thankfully, the passive healing effects of their technique had certainly helped relieve some of the issues.
On the other hand, considering how hard they'd pushed, they had done well. Even if there was more planning to do.
"Everyone in?" Arthur said, then double-checked his own count. Mel was doing the same and gave him an affirmative nod shortly before he managed his own confirmation.
Then, and only then, did he relax. Slumped against the edge of the door, he looked outside and watched the bouncing balls that rained down around them, the constant slamming like a thunderstorm that never stopped rolling. A drumbeat by an over-enthusiastic god, all of which had made shouting commands for the last half-hour a pain.
They needed a new method for tomorrow. Something to think about.
Shaking aside those thoughts, Arthur waved to the fox creature that acted as the Tower Administrator. The rest of the team had splayed out, resting, though he noted Rick searching in his pack, ready to make a trade. Not a problem for him to worry about, but he had first dibs.
Arthur made his way over as quickly as possible, offering the creature his token and waited. After all, he'd gotten used to the routine by now.
The only question was if the Chins had any building they could take here. After all, they'd come across more than one shattered building as they ascended the sixth floor.
Time and the Administrator would tell.