Enmity of Atlas

The night passed without incident, Trenton nervously eyeing the trees around them his whole shift. The sudden encounter, mixed with the exhaustion from traveling and training, wore on Trenton’s mind. Just like Walibeld, he wished he could do something instead of sitting still waiting for trouble to find him, but that wasn’t a luxury he had. Without any knowledge of what was actually going on, he had no possible way of jumping ahead of his problems. All he could do was sit and wait to be killed, by one force or another.

They woke, just as they had every day before, and ate in silence. The air was tense from last night's encounter, no one seeming to want to address the dire situation they were now tangled up in. For the next month or so, they held close to this pattern, wake, eat, travel, make camp, train, sleep. It was a simple life, one much more humble than Trenton or Leo was used too, but it was all they could do to still remain sane. The monotonous pattern was much needed comfort in their upside down life, a guarantee that things would be like they always had if they just stuck to it. Once Leo healed, some days after Trentons first training session, Walibeld began to do nightly sparring sessions with each of them, Leo and Trenton both seeing some steady progress. For many years, the two of them saw stagnating results, but now, under the pressure of success or death, their presence slowly expanded, their spells grew larger, and their fundamentals became smoother by the day. It wasn’t much, but it was progress.

Everynow and then, they would find themselves in combat. Walibeld would usually step back, letting Trenton and Leo take the brunt of the offensive, and only stepping in if things started to go poorly. After all, they needed the combat experience far more than he did. However, much like their encounter against the crawlers, Leo found himself struggling to overcome his fear, while Trenton blitzed forward with grand confidence. Now that he wielded a proper weapon, Trenton saw much greater success fighting, not suffering any significant injuries. He did still notice that whenever he would go to sleep, he would wake up completely unharmed, his body stitching itself together while he slept no matter how small the injury. It made it easy to keep pushing forward. Leo, meanwhile, had to grit his teeth through his slowly accumulating wounds. Walibeld could heal him, but the cast was inefficient and costly, so he preferred to let Leo heal naturally, unless of course, Leo had some grievous energy which required immediate attention, something that did happen once after a particularly gruesome encounter against a stone golem that Trenton ended up smashing into many pieces.

More or less, they continued on unabated, partaking in the beautiful scenery all about. They passed through grottos, passes, areas with great stone arches and underpasses, large crags and cliffs with great views, small lakes with nearly crystalline water, and so on. The untamed natures of Colossus Cliffs had more variety in scenery than a thousand Aria’s put together. It was truly incredible what was laying just beyond their reach. As they moved north, the foliage coverings became more sparse. Tree’s were few and far between, instead replaced with steep cliffs that were irksome to climb.

At one point, Trenton stopped them, looking across a great chasm to where an odd formation sat. Atop a great crag, there was a great weave of stone, wreathed in grasses, vines, and what have you. It almost looked human shaped. It was absolutely massive, of course, its body stretching out some miles either direction easily, but still. What a peculiar formation.

“It kind of looks like a human, no?” Trenton said, holding up his hands to frame the formation against the background.

“Ehhh, I don’t see it. Its shape is a little off,” Leo responded, his arm tied tight to his chest from the fight against the golem.

Walibeld stopped, regarding it for a moment, “It looks kind of familiar.”

After going back and forth for a couple minutes, they eventually kept moving, Trenton and Leo still arguing about the humanoid mountain while they traveled. Begrudgingly, they eventually agreed to agree to disagree, their banter never reaching any sort of reasonable conclusion. As they kept moving north, without ease of access to modern comforts or utilities, Trenton noticed his hair starting to grow out a bit, coming down over the nape of his neck. He kind of liked the new look, rugged and more symbolic of the hardships he was going through. What he didn’t like, however, was the stubble that started to grow out. Given he was still seventeen, he couldn’t grow a full beard yet, which just meant it looked awkward and patchy, not something he wanted to see every time he had to wash himself. He brought it up to Walibeld, who himself was always clean shaven somehow. Walibeld gave him a razor from his deep pocket that Trenton added to his invisible storage, making sure to shave every couple of days with whatever water he had on hand. Leo also took a razor from Walibeld, falling into a similar habit, shaving after training whenever he felt it growing out again. Trenton also used the razor to keep his hair trimmed. He liked the slightly longer look, but didn’t want to let it go completely. He had to keep appearances to some extent. It wasn’t clean, but it would serve. Finally after more than a month of traveling, they found themselves just a couple miles out from Walibeld’s friend, her grand wizard tower visible in the distance. It was still a couple hours before sunset, so they’d have plenty of time to make it the rest of the way today.

“A fair warning. She happens to be a little…erratic. In all likelihood, she’ll attack us as we approach. Just stick behind me and I’ll forge us a path forward,” Walibeld said, peeking at the tower off in the distance from behind a cliff.

Walibeld stuck his hand into his chest, drawing his legendary weapon, and holding it in front of himself. Oh, he meant business. He took a step from behind the cliff, Trenton and Leo now practically nipping at his heels for protection. They were passing through a valley in between two small mounds, almost akin to mountains. Ahead of them, atop a great cliff, overlooking the valley, was Rema’s tower, its grays contrasting boldly against the late day blues. Walibeld talked a little bit about her, but not really anything notable. Walibeld didn’t seem to be the type to even have friends in the first place, so it wasn’t too weird. Who knows if he even thought anything of her at all, but even still. You’d think he’d have the decency to describe her even slightly. All Trenton and Leo got was her name. Personality? Presence? Ability? Aspect? Absolutely nothing.

Off in the distance, at the peak of the tower, Trenton almost thought he saw a glimmering light. It looked like the signature translucent white of spatial magic, but they were still far away, so it-

Suddenly, almost faster than he could see, a sharpened white bolt the size of the entire tower slammed into them. Walibeld, still amidst a stride, flourished his blade outwards, catching the bolt just as it reached him and diverting it to the side in one clean motion. The bolt arced over their heads, its massive body reminding Trenton of Terraphage, before landing some hundred feet behind them, crashing into the side of one of the cliffs, causing the entire thing to begin collapsing. Trenton and Leo stared in awe at the destructive power of the bolt as a rockslide began just behind them, the calamitous shaking distorting the world around them. If that thing had hit them…death, instantaneous. There wouldn’t even be corpses left, just piles of red paste.

“Keep moving, and follow closely behind me. If you stray, I can’t guarantee you won’t get caught in the collateral,” Walibeld said, his eye locked on the tower still in the distance.

Two more great bolts blotted out the sun, their monstrous bodies casting peculiar shadows over them. Just like before, Walibeld redirected them without stopping, forcing each one to arc over their heads and crash into the scenery behind them. It was impressive how quickly Walibeld was able to move his arm to intercept them. His arm wasn’t even visible to Trenton with how fast he was swinging, the turnaround time between strikes almost non-existent. Trenton and Leo bustled forward, now clinging closely behind Walibeld. For the next half hour, they slowly crawled forward, Walibeld easily catching every bolt launched at them, his stride never once faltering or breaking. Some bolts were larger than others, but every single one was large enough to be considered a natural disaster by most standards, so it didn’t really matter in Trenton’s eyes. Progress was consistent, but it was slow. They had to move at practically a crawling pace to be certain that Walibeld could actually defend them, which meant they weren’t making nearly as much progress as Trenton had initially thought. The sun was slowly descending over the horizon, and the assault wasn’t slowing in the slightest.

“This is too slow,” Walibeld said, deflecting another bolt over his shoulder, “she must not have had a guest in a while. She’s typically not this persistent,” he sighed, stowing his sword, turning around, and hoisting Trenton and Leo over his shoulders. “I didn’t intend to do this again, but I’m growing tired of this. Hang on, keep your eyes forward, and try to keep yourselves in one piece,”

Trenton watched as a bolt came down upon them, like the hand of god descending to crush them, this time with nothing there to protect them. In an instant, the world lurched, its colors blending together like the violent stroke of a poor painter's brush. Behind him, Trenton heard the crash of the bolt hitting the ground, louder and more violent than ever before–closer. Somehow, in the time it would’ve taken Trenton to twist his head to even see what was happening, Walibeld had accelerated the three of them around the mighty attack. It was very similar to how he would end their training sessions. Except, this time, he was carrying two hunks of dead weight with him–Impressive.

Off to the side, Trenton heard Leo begin to retch, his insides suddenly becoming his outsides. Even Trenton was struggling to hold onto his stomach after that maneuver, its contents rustling around angrily inside of him. But, he did manage to hold it together, for now, at least. It was difficult for Trenton to keep track of what was happening, the shaking and quick movement dulling his senses, but outside, Walibeld remained in complete control, staring down the dozens of bolts lining the sky with a cool, experienced gaze. Looked like she was turning it up a notch.

He broke into a dead sprint, his legs launching them forward dozens of feet with every leap, their mighty prowess standing bold against the ground's unyielding power. He wove in between the bolts, dancing across the war torn ground rife with holes, the elegance of his controlled movement shining like a goddess's grace. The bolts, now coming down in handfuls, dozens, hundreds, tore through the air to get to him, but he easily twisted through the thin paths between them, narrowly scraping through the gaps, riding along the sides or tops of bolts, all the while ducking underneath or around anothers regardless of how many there were. Even as the ground listed upwards, he ran, seamlessly bolting up and over shifting chunks of the earth itself. He leapt, coming to the edge of a great crag lifting out of the ground, landing atop the biggest bolt yet, its massive body careening into the ground he just a moment prior stood upon. The bolt carried him backwards just as fast as he moved forward, the crashing stone behind them like a great gaping maw threatening to consume them whole should he falter. But, Walibeld did not falter. He knew exactly what he was capable of. At the edge of this great bolt, Walibeld once again leapt, the three of them carrying a gentle arc forward, the wind whipping about them as Walibeld stared straight forward. For the first time, Trenton tilted his head up to look at what lay before them.

Death

A bolt, its sharpened tip mere inches away from Walibeld’s chest, hung in the air before them, time seemingly stopped to allow Trenton a moment to savor their end. Although being in the air allowed them to avoid the torn up ground beneath them, it came at the cost of maneuverability. This was one of the first things Walibeld ever taught Trenton. Avoid going airborne like your life depended on it. It’s the worst possible position a warrior can be in. Trenton watched the point inch towards them, its force certainly capable of plowing right through their fragile bodies.. But Walibeld knew this, of course he knew this. He taught Trenton this, so what exactly was he doing? Next to him, Walibeld looked at the bolt coldly, his eye locked onto its sharpened point, and he smiled. Smiled?

Walibeld slammed his right toe against the underside of the point, and pushed with the divine might of one thousand gods in less time than it would take for a fly to beat their wings. Using the bolt as a source of stability, which was moving at them so quickly Trenton could hardly even see, Walibeld pressed against it, pushing upwards while leaning backwards to flip their entire bodies upside down under the bolt, his right foot flat against its bottom, and his head locked as far back as it could go. He wasn’t even looking at the bolt anymore. He was already looking at their next destination, the ground. In the blink of an eye, Walibeld had used the speeding bolt, which threatened to obliterate them, as ground with which to flip them completely upside down.

Masterful

From Trenton’s perspective, he watched as his vision once again blurred, the bolt sliding cleanly over them, its sharpened tip mere inches from Walibeld’s face as his entire body was forcefully slammed upside down. It felt like his organs were switching places, what an insane maneuver. Walibeld leapt off of the bolt, launching them straight at the ground, flipping around midair, and landing on a shattered spike of upright earth. They slid down the edge of the spike, Walibeld vaulting once more off of it to land atop another bolt, this time immediately jumping straight up, the cliff face now like a slideshow before them as they sailed upwards. They made it. He landed lightly at the top on a beautiful grass pasture, setting the two boys down to do what they needed to do. Trenton and Leo heaved, violently retching on the lowly ground. For several minutes, Walibeld sat there, smiling to himself as he watched Trenton and Leo retch on the ground.

“Why?” Leo moaned out when he could stand up again. “Why did you do that?”

Walibeld chuckled, his look of mirth only growing. It was rare to see Walibeld smile, and even rarer to hear him laugh. “If I’m being completely honest, curiosity. I’ve always been of the mind that aerial combat is something that should be avoided at all costs. But, I trained a kid many years ago who disagreed. His fighting style is that of, what I could only describe as, absolute freedom, so he’s phenomenal no matter what position he is in. For years he’s tried to convince me to try more unique maneuvers, but I’ve always just stuck to my old ways. That move in particular, using an attack being launched at you as a platform, is something he’s wanted me to try for years. I thought the opportunity was too good to pass up.”

“So you nearly killed us so you try out a new trick?” Trenton asked, staggering to his feet.

“I had it under control. Even if the bolt hit me, it wouldn’t have been able to pierce my body. Besides, my use of the technique is nearly infantile in comparison. The kid is so good at it that he can even use an opponent's own weapon as a platform to twist his body midair. Hopefully you’ll get to meet him, someday. Watching him fight is a spectacle, to say the least. Now, come. Rema is waiting,” Walibeld said, taking a step onto the stone path leading up to the grand tower now right in front of them.