The Way Ahead

Flight was absolutely amazing.

Sure, he’d experienced glimmers of what it was truly like to fly from time to time, but he was always so limited in what he could do. Most of the time, the Skill was relegated to just enhancing his existing mobility capabilities and slowly drifting through the air like what Inion tended to do.

But this? This was so much better.

Rillah zipped through the air on her leafy wings, pulling Edwin along as she did so. Sure, he could probably gain some control over his trajectory if he let go of her hand, but if he did, all he would really be able to do was to move relative to Rillah, and even that was bound to be limited. Even with a tight grip on her hand, he needed to put most of his mana into Flight’s tether strength, something he previously didn’t even know was an option.

Rillah was really, really good at flying, too. Dipping into Skillful Assessment, he watched the veritable symphony of Skills working in concert… he saw the skill-based skeleton of her wings connecting at her shoulders, providing a massive framework for her flight to base itself off of. The rest was filled in presumably by magic, but that magic was interwoven with a wholly separate set of Skills that allowed her every twitch to help her turn, her every flap making her go faster. True to her word, her flight was powerful enough that he was barely an additional strain, and he couldn’t help but wonder what sort of Skill was involved and how he could get that sort of thing himself.

If he were to guess, she had gotten her Wings as a skill evolution at some point, and then picked up a new basic Skill built around its functionality. He could ask later. For now, he was going to enjoy this.

They had started off with a dramatic swoop towards the ground, and Edwin had almost flinched at the speed they were hurtling towards the stone building at the base of the tower. He nearly broke off… but he was trying to trust, so he held fast.

It was well-rewarded, as she pulled up into a wickedly fast flight forward, darting to and past the wall surrounding the tower’s property. He had squeezed her hand tightly in concern but she had just laughed and brought them just barely over the wall- closer than .22 meters, that was for certain- and… that was already higher resolution than he could normally get from Numeracy. He was getting some serious levels, it would seem.

The part of him responsible for keeping an eye on Numeracy informed him that they were going some fifty meters per second, and the rest of Edwin unanimously declared that he should pay more attention to the experience.

He came back to himself fully to see Rillah not looking where she was flying- but still effortlessly dodging every obstacle, of course- but instead looking at him. She gave his hand a quick squeeze, what was she… oh, of course.

“You’ve got this!” she promised, and Edwin hesitated… then let go of her hand. He doubled down instead on his tether and let her pull him along like he was at the end of a fairly stretchy rope as they dove into the city streets themselves. The crowds of people below them parted as Rillah dove through them. When one of her wings did occasionally run into something- either an object or a person- they just passed straight through without so much as a hint of a collision. That she didn’t have to worry about decapitating people was certainly a relief, but it just as much pushed her to go and take even more risks. At least Edwin was able to navigate into the space in the crowds left by her passage to avoid hitting anything.

Rillah pulled into a tight spiral, circling around one of the rare columns out in public, carrying Edwin into a whirlwind spin as she recovered some height. Another flap of her wings and she’d risen further above the city, and then she pulled them back into a dive, swooping down to the streets and rising back up.

She jetted around buildings, spinning around and narrowly dodging people as she swept close to the ground. Edwin decided to play it a bit safe this time and flew so he was above and mostly in-step with her, but she was at the point where her wings were brushing the ground.

“I thought you said people got annoyed at you when you did this!” he called out.

“Yeah, well they’re all a bunch of hypocrites! You think they don’t do this? Only if they can’t! I think I also said that I just don’t care! Take that, Vsarin! You and your stupid furry snakes!”

“Who and their what?”

“Don’t worry about it!”

With a quick flap of her wings, Rillah took off from the ground, leaving the puny humans and the resulting chaos of her flight through their midst behind and jetted into the sky, where flocks of avior were similarly undergoing their normal routine.

The air was thick with Skills, though primarily concentrated within the bodies of their airborne companions; very few had active flight Skills, and so far as Edwin could tell, all external Skills were active.

Rillah swooped through one of the few places where Edwin could see a Skill active in the air, and immediately jetted up, the Updraft skill effect pushing her into the sky and pulling Edwin along for the ride. The Veteran Overseer responsible for the Skill screeched something that was snatched away by the wind as they pushed past him and continued on, further and further into the sky.

The wind this far up almost froze Edwin to the bone at first, but he felt Adaptive Defense kick in and swiftly reduce it to ‘chilly but manageable.’ From this far above, the sight looked spectacular. This bird’s-eye view was something that he never thought he’d ever see, and was far better than the measly view he had gotten even on airplanes back on Earth. Here, he had a completely unobstructed view of everything in all directions.

Far below him, the gray and brown of the city stood in sharp contrast to the greens and wheat-golden patchwork of land that surrounded it in all directions. The roads were oddly gray straight lines cutting straight through the landscape, clusters of farmhouses making villages tiny brown dots scattered some distance away from the city, and distant forest making a patchy, dark green carpet. Even the river was a brilliant sapphire far below them, winding to and fro as it meandered downstream. Upstream, Edwin thought he could see the waterfall Inion had mentioned as the terrain stepped up as it headed towards the massive mountains that dominated so much of the surroundings.

From up here, though, Edwin could see they were nearly at the tail end of the Highpeak mountain range, and that far off in the distance an ocean glittered. A tiny wisp cloud drifted by beneath them, and the azure sky offered an infinite backdrop behind them.

“Wow,” Edwin couldn’t help but remark, and Rillah grinned.

“Quite the sight, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It’s… I’ve seen some views in the past, but this is something else.”

“Flying is great, isn’t it?” she asked, and Edwin nodded mutely, “But it’s nothing compared to seeing everything down there up close. What might be a tiny dot of color from up here could be the most interesting place that’s ever existed. A patch of forest might have some rare and beautiful flower, a person you meet on the road may have truly fascinating stories. Seeing things from this far up, you can see everything… but also nothing. It’s like being in the tower. To see anything worthwhile, you gotta get close, you gotta go and interact with stuff.”

“Is this why you travel?”

She chuckled, “No, I loved to travel long before I ever could fly. This is perhaps the single greatest viewpoint to see from, but like anything, it can only be interesting for so long.”

“You find this boring?” Edwin asked incredulously.

“No, not boring. The awe goes away eventually, but the sights are always just as amazing. Being up here during the sunset casts it all in truly wonderful colors, or right after a rainstorm you might be able to see a rainbow that’s actually a full circle. Sights from up here really make everything seem so small, and… it almost makes sense why avior look down on us poor earthbound humans so much.”

Edwin nodded, drifting slightly further away from Rillah to better enjoy the view. He could understand why he might eventually get bored, but the novelty still had very much not worn off yet, and he would appreciate that while he could.

“You ready?” Rillah’s question broke him out of his thoughts. Ready for what?

“Let’s go!” She made a sudden turn, jetting off to the side with almost no warning… well fine, he had a warning, but it wasn’t sufficient.

The sudden movement caught Edwin completely by surprise, and before he could adjust to double-down on the strength of his tether it was already too late, and she had gone past his limit.

His stomach dropped as Flight’s tether snapped, torn like a cobweb in the blink of an eye. All at once, the security the Skill provided dropped away, and Edwin suddenly found himself very, very far off of the ground and falling very, very fast.

“Rillah!” he yelled out, eyes wide as he tumbled through the sky, “Help me!”

Flight.

Flight!

Flight!

FLIGHT!

“Aaaahhhhhh helpmeeeeee!” Edwin frantically tried to re-engage Flight, but without Rillah as an anchor point, his Skill had nothing to latch onto. That, or he was just too panicked. His heart dropped into his stomach as he tumbled through the air chaotically.

Everything seemed to darken around him as his brain tried to reboot, but he refused to pass out. His thoughts… his thoughts were sluggish. His awareness shrank into a pinpoint of light, what… what should he do? Um, there was…

It felt like he had been falling for hours, surely the ground was coming soon? He needed to… he needed to what? Come on, think…

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

Think productively!

He blinked his Status open to try and see what might help him, but… what? He had something that would help him survive impacts, what was…

Overcharge!

The world sharpened and slowed around him, putting away his worries that he might pass out from the experience. The ground was still quite a ways away, and the wind rustled through his hair and past his ears, drowning out all other sounds. He didn’t think he was screaming, was he screaming?

He should be safe, probably. He had Overcharge up, that could help him survive splatting into the ground at terminal velocity, right? He suddenly realized that they’d only ever tested his defenses against Skill-enhanced impacts and injuries. Granted, that was the majority of what he cared about, but it meant he didn’t know how a high-speed impact might stack up against his defenses.

Once he got close enough to the ground, he could activate Flight and hopefully use that to dampen his impact like he was running into a giant pillow. The closer he got to the ground, the more force he could exert and it would hopefully be enough to soften his impact?

Assume a spherical physicist is falling at terminal velocity and is about to collide into a 2m spring…

A pair of arms wrapped around him, as Rillah pulled him into an embrace to catch him. His muscles weren’t very responsive, but he was at least able to wrap them around her in turn, holding on for dear life with all the strength- wait, no. Overcharge. Bad idea- about a quarter of the strength he could muster.

He didn’t jerk to a stop. No, more likely she had flown up behind him and matched his speed, now was slowly pulling them back to a more sedate pace. Would it be fast enough, though? The ground seemed to be approaching awfully fast, though. How were they going to-

Whomp.

A massive gust of wind struck the ground beneath them as a pair of powerful wings blasted a cushion of air for them to land on. Then they were back on the ground, and Edwin breathed a sigh of relief as they returned to the tower’s lawn.

Rillah was saying something, what… oh, he was still desperately clinging to her, wasn’t he? She didn’t have her wings out anymore, but he was still really tightly hugging her.

Edwin released his death grip and collapsed onto the ground, panting wildly. He wasn’t sure if it was psychosomatic or his body had just flatly adjusted to the Skill’s presence, but Breathing didn’t seem to stop him from getting winded in high-stress situations.

His mind raced a thousand kilometers a second, desperately trying to put itself back together from that… harrowing experience. Suspecting that he could survive a fall at terminal velocity was one thing, but actually trying to put that to any kind of test was not something he was ever eager to test. Though… he probably should, shouldn’t he?

Overcharge wore off suddenly, and that added a whole new layer of complication and pain to things. Exposure to the extra-concentrated version of the Skill when it was constrained to his arm had numbed the pain of the normal variety somewhat, and he knew that with a bit of rest he would even be up for some light magical exertion. But it still hurt worse than a failed exam and until he did get a few minutes, he’d be in a lot of pain.

Putting all of that aside, though… Only including the effects the extended period of freefall did on his psyche, it would be at least a few minutes before he was coherent enough to do anything but babble about… something -he didn’t know what but hoped it wasn’t too bad- and shakily walk around. His Flight skill categorically refused to activate, though he suspected that was related to his general lack of coordination.

Rillah seemed… not exactly concerned, but she didn’t brush him off either. Did she say something about having seen this before? Probably not, but his brain was telling him all sorts of things that were probably inaccurate.

She laughed about something- probably at him- and brushed his arm with her fingers, instantly bringing him back to reality.

The human contact was nice, sure, but what was definitely more useful was the massive amount of Calming Touch she infused into the caress. A few minutes later, Edwin was stable even without the Skill acting as a crutch, and he glanced at his notifications.

Level Up!

Skill Points 885→895 (Average level: 48)

Numeracy Level 42 → 44

Flight Level 44 → 50

Overcharge Level 26 → 27

Skillful Assessment Level 41 → 42

“Thanks,” he actually remembered to say, mind still slightly frazzled, “I don’t know how long I would have been like that otherwise.”

“Happy to help,” she laughed, “It was my fault after all.”

“It’s not your fault. Besides, you couldn’t have really known how badly I’d react, though.”

“No,” she admitted, “But I still was insensitive and careless, and for that I am sorry.”

It was so nice, finding a person who cared about his feelings. It was… novel. Edwin wasn’t sure it really helped his social anxiety though, because now he just was extra-worried about not chasing her off.

He knew that was being unreasonable, though. He should just ‘be himself,’ apparently. Nevermind that unfiltered Edwin was unbearable to even himself, how could anyone like that? He knew that people didn’t truly want people to be their natural, annoying selves. That just meant that… honestly, he didn’t know what. Hopefully he’d figure it out.

“So… you going to say anything about why you reacted so badly?”

“Oh, right. I suppose I can.” Edwin had been sitting in silence for an awkward amount of time again, hadn’t he? Gah, social stuff was so hard… and he was doing it again.

“I’m not sure I can really explain it adequately, because it is a fear of mine and those are always irrational. But I suppose if I were to point to some time where it really started up… it was probably the last time I fell from the sky.”

“The last time? How in Xares’ name did you fall from the sky before? I thought you hadn’t free-flown before?”

“I… haven’t. This was before I got the Flight skill anyway.”

She raised a very skeptical eyebrow, green eye practically radiating disbelief, “And how exactly did you fall from the sky? Wait- don’t tell me. Are you from Vis’Daric?”

“Um, no actually. Have you been there?”

She shook her head, “One day, haven’t made it to a Docking City in time before.”

“Oh cool, we can go togetherrrrr… if you want to, of course,” Edwin’s brain went into panicked recovery mode, “I don’t want to assume that you’d want to travel with me anywhere, you know? I mean, I kind of hope that you’d want to go with me to places, but not in a weird way! I just enjoy… actually, I’m going to stop talking now.”

She laughed, “It’s alright. If you want to go that way, and think you’ll make it, absolutely let me know. Visiting the Bronze Sun is a longtime goal of mine.”

“Bronze Sun?”

“Uh-uh! No changing the topic. If you’ve never been there, how did you fall out of the sky? Did you make some avior mad?”

“Oh, right. Vis’Daric,” he realized, then finished processing her statement, “Um, I don’t think so. I don’t actually know how I got there, if I’m being honest. I don’t have any memories of the arrival, I just remember…”

He suppressed a shudder as he recalled his first moments on Joriah, and the strange dreams he had been dealing with before waking up.

“A lot of falling. But yeah, that was terrifying. Didn’t have any Skills that would help me, tumbling through the air… it was pretty terrifying. I think I actually blacked out.

“You didn’t have any applicable Skills? What the gashith did you do?”

“I survived.”

“No, really? Never would have guessed. So you didn’t use the Eleven Lives skill?”

“Wait…” Edwin’s mind was racing, “Is that a thing?”

She let out a snort, “Ha. No. Well, it might be. Who even knows?”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“Lefi would,” they said in unison, then broke into laughter.

Once they’d composed themselves, they spent an amicable moment of silence simply recovering and formulating their next thoughts.

“Hmm.” Edwin noted, “I’m hungry. You want something? I think I saw a bakery while we were flying around earlier.”

She nodded, “Sure! Free food is always good.”

“Great. I’ll be right back.”