The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 312: Climbing a cliff

“Did you two wrap everything up before leaving the city?” Percy asked, breaking the oppressive silence of the night.

The trio had been walking for several hours, and they’d likely have to keep going for a few more. Twilight City was dozens of miles across, and the Valley was larger still. On top of that, they had to put some distance from both first, to avoid being spotted by the Divine Root.

“I made sure Martina’s collaboration with Alexander ended on an amicable note. She sold the last of the products, completed the mushroom deal, and handed him his share of the profits before going on her merry way.”

Percy nodded. This was actually a fortunate side-effect of their deal. Now that they’d handed the mushrooms to their competitors, they’d lost the main source of their revenue. But everyone involved was aware of that, and had willingly chosen to prioritize some short-term profits over a long-term collaboration. Even if Alexander had been greedy enough to want more, the option was no longer on the table.

“What about you?” he asked Elaine.

Granted, his cousin was the lowest risk factor among them, but he still wanted to make sure everything was ok.

She shrugged.

“There wasn’t much to do. People at the water manifestation company come and go. Nobody asked any questions when I resigned. As for the second job at the warehouse… it doesn’t even exist anymore.”

The trio remained silent for a while after that, though Percy and Elaine got a bit tense at some point, when they had to cross one of the Divine Root’s supply routes. Apparently, they used it to dump beasts into the Valley. Though Nesha assured them that the next batch wouldn’t be delivered until several hours from now.

“Why are we trying to enter from the north side anyway? Is the security weaker there?” Elaine asked at some point.

In the past, Percy had hoped they’d be able to use the bronze badges they’d looted from Jason and the other members of the Divine Root to sneak into the Valley. But he might have been a little naïve about that. It seemed that each member of the Great House possessed a personal identification code, so they would have been busted relatively easily, even if he and Nesha hadn’t been fugitives.

“Kinda.” Nesha said, before elaborating.

The perimeter of the Valley was so large that the Divine Root couldn’t man it by themselves. They had the Syndicate to pitch in too, and even then, they barely managed.

Not that people tried to sneak in often: in fact, what they were planning to do hadn’t been attempted in decades, if not centuries. But the Root did have to keep the beasts contained. After all, they were free to roam the Decree, so they could technically escape from any direction, attacking the city.

To prevent that, the Root and the Syndicate stationed a lot of people along the west, east and south sides of the Valley. Since the south bordered the city directly, they had to bring in the beasts from the east and the west, tossing them inside and making sure they stayed there. These three sides were bounded by a long hill, roughly shaped like the letter ‘U’.

As for the north side, it was given a lower priority, for two main reasons. First, even if the beasts escaped from there, they wouldn’t pose an immediate danger to the city. Second, crossing it was significantly harder, for both beasts and humans. That’s because it ended in a colossal chasm, half a mile wide, and several miles deep.

“Ugh… So, I’m guessing we’ll need to climb to the bottom of the chasm, and then up again?” Elaine asked, clearly not very happy about that.

“Afraid so.” Nesha nodded. “And we’ll have to do it in under two days.”

“How come?” Percy asked.

Nesha sighed.

“The chasm helps with security, so the Root doesn’t have guards permanently stationed there. But they still have regular patrols. Unfortunately, their schedule is both erratic, and nearly impossible for outsiders to get their hands on. I did manage to learn some of it, but my information will be outdated soon.”

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Percy grimaced. Even with their enhanced physiques, scaling the cliff twice in such a short time would be tough. More so for him, in fact.

“It’s not so bad, is it?” Elaine asked again. “If we run out of time, we’ll give up and try again later.”

Nesha shook her head.

“Getting the information took a lot of patience and luck. If we miss this chance, it’ll easily be another two months before we can make a second attempt. Probably longer.”

Needless to say, Percy didn’t like what he was hearing, but she wasn’t even done yet.

“Worse still, I’ve heard that the current season is ending in less than a year. It’s already going to be tight for us. I’m not sure if we’ll make it out before the place is teeming with Holy Children.”

“Wow… No pressure there.” Percy chuckled.

If everything went according to plan, they’d be in and out in just under nine months. Hopefully, that would be enough. But it certainly meant they had to make it into the Valley this time, or it’d be over.

“Why did it have to be so complicated?” Elaine groaned. “Couldn’t this Kronos guy have given everyone a portal to his Decree, like Percy’s buddy?”

“Hate to break it to you, but I don’t think the three of us would have made the club if he had.” he shrugged. “Also, save your frustration for later. You might have to carry me up the last stretch.”

***

Just reaching the ravine took them the rest of the night. And making it to the bottom took them the whole day too. That only left them about 24 hours to complete the climb.

The good news was that it wasn’t necessarily dangerous for them. Even if they slipped and fell, they wouldn’t be injured that badly. They had several ways to slow down their descend, propel themselves back to the cliffside, or soften their landing. The problem was that they’d lose a ton of precious time in the process, so they couldn’t afford any mistakes.

Strictly speaking, Elaine should be able to propel herself all the way to the top. The average Green wasn’t able to fly for a prolonged period of time: certainly not with a water affinity: but she had Circulation too, boosting the strength of her spells and extending her endurance. Unfortunately, the others couldn’t, and she wouldn’t be able to carry them with her either.

“Are you sure this will hold?” Nesha asked, tugging the reinforced string Percy had wrapped around everyone, linking them all together.

“Remember the troll king? How strong his attacks had been?” he asked back.

Nesha shuddered, likely recalling the demi-human’s monstrous club, sending the swamp waters into turmoil with every thunderous strike.

“These strings are a lot stronger than the ones holding my armour together back then.” he added, some pride seeping into his voice. And sure enough, his words achieved their intended effect, as Nesha visibly relaxed upon hearing that.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Percy still hoped to get some free time in the Valley to complete his mana strings. Though the Dance took precedence. He was pretty sure both spells would be Masterful, but the latter was more likely to save his skin in a fight.

‘Let’s focus on making it into the Valley first. Plenty of time to worry about my training afterwards.’

After making sure everyone was secured, he handed each of them a couple of reinforced picks too, to aide them in their climb. Not his most elegant crafts: just a bunch of misshapen scythes really, with thicker edges and much shorter shafts. He’d hastily put them together over a few minutes, without even bothering to engrave any runes on them. But they should be more than strong enough to support their weight.

Satisfied with their preparations, he was about to begin his climb when he saw Elaine staring at something. Following her gaze, he noticed it led to some bones. Not a human’s. They had belonged to some kind of alligator. An oversized one, roughly the size of an elephant. This wasn’t the first skeleton they’d seen down here, but it was the most complete one.

“I suppose some of the beasts do try to escape. Not sure how many of them succeed.” she muttered.

Percy shrugged. Green beasts had tough bodies, but also heavy ones. They couldn’t use their mana as freely as a human mage either, so they wouldn’t be able to arrest their momentum or protect their heavy frames from the impact. Sure, some might be able to fly away, while others might have an easier time scaling down the cliff with dexterous limbs or clawed digits. Not many though.

Most of them were trapped in the Valley, doomed to stay there until they got killed by a human, eaten by a fellow beast, or starved to death.

All this time, Percy had focused his attention on Acton: and with good reason. The boy would certainly be their greatest adversary inside the Valley. But not the only one.

The beasts wouldn’t be easy to handle either. They would be everywhere, and they wouldn’t ignore them like they ignored the Holy Child’s entourage. Elaine was the only one who could defeat them relatively effortlessly, but she’d need to sleep too. Percy himself was confident he could handle one or two at a time, yet his stamina wasn’t limitless either. They’d probably end up surrounded many times during their stay.

Suffice to say, the next decade would be a constant struggle.

He sighed, swinging his handcrafted pick onto the cliff, its dull tip sinking into the rock with a crisp sound.

‘It doesn’t matter. Beasts or humans… or inhuman monsters… I’ll beat them all.’

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