The ladders were on point as we managed to climb up behind the back above the hips, but when looking down, I was a little paranoid that if any of us fell, we would die, except for Stella. While we walked around to the stomach and kept walking, there was no other way to climb up. The bridge just went around the lower stomach.
“Hooman! No ladder!” Mejni commented and stopped giving me a stare like it was my responsibility to fix everything for us.
“No shit Petlock! I told him.
Stella was touching the walls or, should I say, the monster's body, which was bizarre behavior. We kept moving, and Lol has been all quiet. He was most probably worried about his dad. Stella stopped on the way and looked up, and it did look like she had found something, except for a bridge. It also looks like it is going around; a tiny bridge is beneath it. Looking more like a rest area, but there is no ladder up there.
“This is the way we need to go next!” Stella told us, and I just looked up and then looked at her because it was a crazy suggestion.
It is around 20 meters up, and if we even tried climbing that high up, it would be over for the one that would fall from that height.
“I vote for Mejni to take one for the team!” I said.
Even Lol didn’t look like he was on my side because everyone gave me the it-is-your-turn look.
“You go, Berk!” Stella commented.
Mejni nodded quickly after the comment, and Lol looked down from the bridge, looking preoccupied.
“Yay! Take one for the team!” I told them with a sarcastic tone.
“You are handling the daggers, which means you are doing all the most important parts.” Stella tried to explain, but our eyes didn’t meet.
Lol should be the best support, but he seems to be agreeing with what the other two decide, which makes him a slipper, damn pussy who trusts a spirit and a pet more than a fellow person with arms and legs. He probably can send a signal with his ears to a satellite to get the signal to the best TV channels. That damn brat should join the LITRPG league if he wants to sit and count how many stats he has done.
“Fine! I’ll do it, but Mejni has to help me because the distance is quite far.”
I loosened up the rope around my body and plunged the dagger into the bush of hair. Slowly, I started to climb with Mejni, quickly going up on my shoulder before I was too high up, but the main problem was that I couldn’t rest my legs on anything, so I slowly got weaker for every stab I made to climb higher. When it was a couple of meters left, I didn’t have much strength in my left arm. My stabbing was so weak I couldn’t get through the skin, but the little one was fast and helped push it in while his tail had a grip around my throat. We were dangling, and I moved my right hand on the left dagger as I had to support my body with both hands and tried to get a little rest, but it made me think that I couldn't hold on forever and we would probably fall any second now.
“Mejni! I need to throw you up with the right dagger, but I will lose my grip, so you need to try and attach the dagger to the small bridge before I fall.” I tried explaining to him, more or less saying that I would die if I fell from this far up, but all I was greeted by was his unique smile.
I stretched out my right arm so he could climb and get the other dagger, and he quickly moved back on my shoulder. I managed to make a snare around my wrist, and I knew this would hurt as hell...again.
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I relaxed my left arm, and Mejni quickly moved down to my arm and held on for his life with the other dagger, hoping I would not slip. I swung upwards, throwing Mejni towards the little bridge, and the dagger got loose from the wall. Everything stopped as I fell. Something snapped in my arm. The pet had managed to stick it somewhere as I was dangling in the air.
“Hooman is okay?” I heard Mejni's voice from above.
“Yeah! I am okay with a little bit of pain on my shoulder!” I answered him.
“ARE YOU ALL RIGHT!” Stella's screamed beneath.
I lifted my left hand to give an OK sign and started climbing slowly on the rope.
When I reached the small bridge, I noticed Mejni had pushed the dagger between two wooden planks. One more circle was on the small bridge, so this had to be the right way. I rechecked the dagger and threw down the other dagger with the rope.
“YOU CAN CLIMB UP!” I yelled as Mejni, and I waited for them to climb up.
After they had reached the bridge, we all looked at the circle, and I pulled the rope around my upper body. I grabbed both the daggers and plunged them into the second circle when everything shook around us. Everyone grabbed a hold of me as if everything would maybe break around us. Everything started to lean forward, and the monster fell forward, with us descending towards the ground fast.
“GRAB THE HAIR, NOT THE BRIDGE!” I screamed out to everyone as the risk of falling off was down.
Even if we managed to get up on the bridge above the small one, it is impossible to know the impact.
Everything stopped, and it was a vast field in front of us. I looked back and saw that we were still high up as the monster was only on his knees supporting itself. A man looking like a human showed up, but we could see through him. He was smiling at us with his baggy farmer clothes and bald head.
“Hello! Welcome to The Fallen Kingdoms. My name is Timmey the ghost. My spirit is attached to this monster, and only you can release me by getting the monster to give up. I looked back to check with Stella, who had disappeared. Lol looked at me and just shook his shoulders. I will not even talk about Mejni, who was smiling as usual.
“Yeah! So what can we do for you, Timmy?” I asked it.
“Oh, No, no! It is Timmey.” He corrected me, and nobody cared if it was Timmy or Timmey.
“Yeah, okay! What can we do for you when you show up in a critical situation where we do not know when the monster will try to stand up at any moment and fall to our death?... Timmey!”
“Oh, you do not have to worry about that dear friend. The monster will not move until you reach the third circle.” He said with a punchable face.
“Okay! So we move forward?” I asked Timmey.
“Oh yes! You have to walk far to the left, where you can find the third circle, then you have to walk through the field to the right, far, far away from here, where you can not see the fourth circle until you have passed the challenge that will occur there. The fifth circle is on the neck of the monster, and you have to run to that one to get a chance to make it in time.”
That didn’t sound so hard; maybe this is the easy part left on this monster, and then we will have passed this stage.
“Well, that sounds okay, right?” I asked Timmey.
“Oh! Yes, my friend. There are just a couple of Prawlers on the way, and you will reach the end sooner or later.”
Did he just say Prawlers as Grawlers, for fuck sake? I hope not.
“Eh! You mentioned Prawlers! They don't happen to have something to do with something else called Grawlers?” I asked.
“Oh yes, they come from the same bloodline. They are nasty creatures; they can not become invisible as the other bloodline. I can assure you that they are very aggressive, and both their hands are made of metal steel and look like spears.” Timmy explained like it was nothing.
“Hm, How do they reproduce?” With Mejni's follow-up, Lol asked, “Yes, I want also to know!”.
I shook my head, believing it would be a miracle if we even passed the first level because of the idiotic questions constantly coming from our group.
“So, these Prawlers! How many do you think it is, like two or three?” I asked, trying to be the serious one.
“Oh, no, my friend! That would not be a challenge; I think there are maybe 50, 70, or 100 of them. They are underneath the skin, so they can show up any moment you approach the field, and you will notice what will happen every time you finish one circle. A huge surprise will happen.” Timmey explained with a big smile, and I was right about earlier that this one have a punchable face.
Well, I had a problem with a couple of their relatives, but if it is 50 or more, we will die if they have freaking spears to kill us with.
