Icarus Awakens

The island holding the lake was larger than the first and oblong instead of roughly circular. Daniel had landed on the largest stretch of land, which was covered in grass with a dirt path leading to the bridge across the lake. Each of the trees had the same pulled-up appearance, with small branches scattered below them. Short tan reeds grew on the far bank. It almost looked like a park, and the path continued right up to the drop-off.

He stored that insight for later and investigated the ledge. The land below had more detail than he had been able to make out earlier, both due to his lower elevation and the lesser cloud cover. Green predominated in rolling waves, suggesting low hills. Directly below him, however, was a large brown mass that looked like a crater. On the horizon was a massive line of mountains that filled the sky. If the sun worked like it did on Earth they were to the west. Even more impressive was that he could barely make out the taller peaks from his position, and Daniel was already high up. All of this was something else to keep in mind, but there was nothing that immediately helped him.

Daniel dropped another branch off the island and watched it fall. No cloud intercepted it, but the height was far enough that it still slipped from his vision before it landed. “How do I get down from here?” he asked his phone. No notification showed up. “Can I fly?”

Flight (Concept: Power, Domain: Enchantment, Domain: Transmutation)

Flight is inherent to some Creatures, and naturally beyond others. Flight may be temporarily or permanently granted by various Powers.

You possess no powers capable of granting flight. ???

“More Unidentified knowledge. Perfect. I’ll need to find a ‘level 10’ something to fix that then. Right after a set of wings.” The dead eyes of a sparkbat glared at him again. The pain in his arm pulsed. They had wings, though they weren’t big enough to glide on even if he could fix them to himself. Still, they had saved him from falling to death somehow.

“Wonder what the monster tab has to say about that.” The Encyclopedia had things he hadn’t explicitly known but had experienced, so it stood to reason it may have some sort of explanation. Enough time had passed that he had to unlock his phone again by the strange process of thinking his password instead of typing his passcode.

The monster tab of the Encyclopedia was just as unique as the others. Like the world tab, the book opened. Like the system tab, it had a search function. Unlike both, its content was displayed as an image and name of each monster, further text filling in underneath when he tapped on the icon. Only one monster was visible, a lone sparkbat ringed with purple electricity that connected it to smaller sparkbats in the background.

Sparkbat Swarm – (1) (Monster, Elemental: Air/Lightning, Flight, Swarm)

A flying Creature that hunts in packs, stunning prey with electricity before devouring them. Sparkbat swarms tend to hide in clouds to utilize ambush tactics and disguise their natural Affinity: Lightning. To attack, sparkbats descend to build a charge within their bodies that may be discharged towards another of the swarm.

“Huh.” Most of the information wasn’t useful, but the part about building charge was. It certainly explained why the bolts of electricity had turned into a stream when he’d fallen with one. What it didn’t explain was why the rest of the sparkbats went with him, since at least some should have been thrown off by his wild flailing. He hazily remembered the swarm being a good distance above him during the fall.

He kneeled beside one, careful to keep his injured arm steady. In death, it was far less menacing. The main body was a wreck, melted in some places and charred in others. Only the purple spikes of the wings had survived unmarked, but the webbing between them was completely gone.

A sparkbat corpse was added to the things Daniel had thrown off of floating islands. It was a prestigious list with just two previous entries, if he included himself, though this was nudged off by his foot instead of held in his hands. As the body fell it glowed with electricity and slowed down. Daniel was sure it wasn’t gliding, the wings were ribbons. Something about its power to gather charge was affecting its relation to gravity.

“Maybe I could just ride one down like last time?” The body exploded in a powerful flash of light a few seconds later. “Uh…”

The setback didn’t slow Daniel down. Fighting monsters and falling off islands wasn’t his forte. Improvising was. He had a clear goal and an idea of how to accomplish it, all there was left was figuring out the fine details. Roughly a dozen sparkbats had been enough to slow his fall to the point that his legs hadn’t broken when he landed on this island. He hoped what he had left would be enough, but there was still the problem of them electrocuting him on the way down.

His earlier leaf parachute idea came back to him and he shook his head. It would have been almost impossible to pull off. With the sparkbats, he wouldn’t have to worry about the material shearing or the branches snapping. The exploding sparkbat was another roadblock, though he guessed it was an issue of the monster’s strange anatomy storing too much energy. Alone, they couldn’t discharge it.

“A parachute harness? I have branches.” Daniel talked himself through the process. “I can’t tie it on though. What about a hang-glider?” Neither was something he’d made before. “Might as well make a helicopter.”

He prodded one of the bodies with a stick, creating a sickening squelch that tore the main body as its poorly cooked flesh fell apart. “Dammit, I can’t waste these.” He had intended to impale the creature to make a handle that wouldn’t shock him. The other bodies could have been kicked off just before he jumped so that he could fall with them.

Unfortunately, it seemed the sparkbats hadn’t handled the fall as well as Daniel. The one he’d poked was more of a smear than a solid in most places. He brushed it off the island and waited for it to explode. Instead, the body of the sparkbat fully disintegrated as the turbulence in the air acted as a blender. Bolts of lightning jumped between three close points after a delay, illuminating the air as they fell past where the previous one had exploded. Because of the lightning, he was able to follow their descent longer than the stick. While he didn’t see them go all the way, he also didn’t see any explosions. Daniel thought for a moment, then nodded. “That’s it. I know what to do. I’m getting out of here.”

The next few hours were spent making what he could see in his head. The device would take advantage of the magical properties of the lightning spines, as he decided to call them. They were the true source of electricity he’d been shot with so many times. Evidence of this was lines of greater damage to his arm that matched with where the somewhat tapered, purple rods had been pressed against the skin. They may have required the body to work, but after that last “experiment” he’d concluded that it was just the spines generating electricity. If it had depended on their biology, he reasoned, the effect would have likely died with the monsters.

As to what he’d figured out? In short, the spines generated some kind of cumulative antigravity effect along with the lightning. There were two thresholds he had to be wary of, the one at which the spines started shooting lightning, and the one they exploded at. From his two accidental tests, it was clear that when the spines couldn’t discharge lightning to another, they would explode even if their fall speed slowed down. This also told him that lightning spines in close proximity counted as one unit, even if they weren’t directly connected.

The second test showed that spines that could arc electricity to another wouldn’t meet this second, deadly threshold. It wasn’t immediately clear why, but Daniel guessed that the transfer of electricity was just inefficient enough to cause the electrical buildup to plateau before the kaboom point. His last important observation was that lightning spines connected by electricity attracted each other. It was the only reason he could think of as to why the rest of the swarm hadn’t just flown away as he’d fallen with their dead friend. That aspect wasn’t needed to create something to allow Daniel to survive his next fall, but he could think of a way to make use of it.

Fortunately, the island had what he needed, and only just what he needed. When the time came the sun was lower, he was exhausted, and his arm still hurt. Not being able to use it without causing a spike in pain had caused delays at times, agony in others. Either way, it was done. The ledge invited him to test his theory.

Even without a strong fear of heights, he hesitated. Someone normally needed a great amount of confidence in their net to jump from great heights. Daniel looked at his net with only a middling amount. There was no way he could do a test run. What Daniel had made amounted to several large branches tied together into cords. The reeds had proven to be stringy enough to use as rope, though each individual reed wasn’t long enough for his purposes leading him to crudely tie and weave them together.

The largest wooden cord was tied to Daniel’s back, while the smaller two were placed on either side of the ledge. Reed rope connected those to one of each of his wrists, and during the fall they’d be above him to channel electricity away. “This is insane,” he said, standing on the ledge. “Maybe if I fall and die, I’ll wake up? This could just be a really weird dream.” The pain in his arm told him otherwise.

A bird flew some distance away. It was the first passive creature he’d seen in this world, not counting the trees. “Yeah, it’s that easy.” He tried to psyche himself up. “Just have to ignore the fact that I die if I’m wrong.” The wind whipped around him as he continued to stall. “I know I’m right,” he whispered. “I just have to fall.” He put one foot over the edge, spreading his arms out as if they’d sprouted feathers. “I’m not an Icarus, I’m a Daedalus.” He stepped back. “Would’ve been nice if I did have an Icarus to test this out though.” He went back and forth along the edge and sighed. “Alright, I’m the Icarus.” He stepped further back, then ran forward.

He tried to stop again out of instinct, but this time there was enough momentum to finish the job. For the second, or possibly third time, Daniel screamed as he fell through the air. He had just cleared the bottom of the island when lightning flashed out to the cords that had followed Daniel down.

Not needing the entire body to accomplish what he needed to, Daniel had bound three clusters of thoroughly washed spines into the middle of one cord of wood after messily separating them from the corpses. Grouped together, the spines didn’t discharge to each other and acted as one unit. The cords, however, were far enough to allow the lightning to flow and prevent an explosion. The only real flaw in the plan was that the lightning would eventually combust the wood and reeds. It was a race between that and reaching the ground.

Daniel’s scream was cut off in a grimace as both ropes pulled taut at his wrists. He’d considered attaching ropes to his legs instead but needed the control. It was the last idea he’d had. By pulling one rope closer to his back, he could increase the lightning arcing to one side compared to the other. Moving one cord closer than the other effectively allowed him to unbalance the lift created. What this gave him was a rudder on the ship he was piloting towards the ground. If he wanted to stop turning, then he only needed to stop pulling on the rope and allow gravity to overcome the weak attraction, which would otherwise make the task less strenuous. The closer cord would return to the maximum distance of the rope, and he should even out. The price of that ability was blinding pain in his injured arm.

The flashing lightning turned into a continuous stream spreading from his back to the cords tied to his wrists. If Daniel could see himself from above in this moment, it would look like he had wings. Janky lightning wings, but wings. Daniel’s back was growing hot, but that discomfort was bearable. The island was a distant sight above when he slowed enough to be able to control his movement. There was no danger of flipping over, though he still needed to pull at the ropes to steer or else he could land in the crater. That only made him feel slightly better about the ring of fire around his wrist.

Strange tension filled his arms as he continued to pull down. It was just like when he climbed the tree. Pulling against the wooden cords technically went with gravity, but the property of the spines within them resisted the movement. The force of his pull startled him. Sure, parts of his job involved lifting, but pulling the ropes on his wrist should have been beyond him. It felt like he was pulling a truck.

The streams of lightning began to arc more towards the cord above Daniel’s left and he turned like a drunk bird in the air. Several floating islands drifted below him, but he repositioned to avoid the nearest one. He didn’t trust himself to drop off again if he made an early landing. The ground was his goal, and it was approaching at a quick but survivable rate. Daniel was close enough to begin to appreciate the scale of the crater below him. He’d dropped off an island close to the center, and after minutes of gliding, he’d made it about halfway to the outer ledge. Getting there was important as he didn’t know if he’d be in a state to climb anything after this.

Smoke began to trail the falling man as fire sparked to life. The largest branches were incorporated into the cord tied to his back and burned slower. The water they’d been dunked in also helped. The smaller guide cords weren’t so fortunate, and his wings were now of lightning and fire. The reeds were the fatal flaw in the plan, even though they’d been dunked in the pond too. The one on the right snapped first, the left quickly following. The rope binding the cords together was thicker, and the draw of the lightning kept them close enough to prevent the one on his back from exploding.

Trees were distinguishable now. Beyond the lip of the crater were rolling hills broken up by more of the dome trees. They varied in number from small copses to a few forests. The majority was open ground and a road led directly into the crater. Several roads, Daniel thought as he examined more of the countryside. What happened here?

Daniel jerked violently midair as the right cord burst open and lightning spines freed themselves from their wooden tomb. They floated free of each other to make their own small swarm. The stream of lightning from his back arced wildly between multiple points as they spread out and burned the air. He was close, he was so close. He’d made it out from above the crater, his wings just needed to last for another minute.

The second cord tore itself apart. A storm without its cloud formed above Daniel as his pace accelerated. Lightning was now arcing between the two spine swarms as much as to him, throwing his abuse of their attraction mechanic into chaos. Worse, the lightning was more spread out and hit parts of the main cord that hadn't been damaged so far. The last strap on his back burned away, jettisoning the rest of the spines and catapulting him forward. His device has lasted some time, and yet he hadn't even reached the top of the trees. It’s too fast, he thought as the ground rose to meet him.