Solar Mage

Chapter 36: Goblin Chieftain

Damn it, they\'re too far away! Can I run fast enough?

My body reacts before my thoughts come to form. I enhance my body with mana and my legs get ready for sprinting at maximum speed.

My heightened senses activated, great! I need to time this perfectly.

.

.

.

Now!

My leg kicks my motionless body off the ground in a split second with immense force, launching myself forward– in a near-perfect straight line to Tin and Rachel.

Swift Wind can remove the air resistance of moving, allowing me to reach unmatchable speeds, without disturbing the steady, calm motion of the air.

I run precisely at my maximum speed toward them with a fading light-green flow of mana forming in front of me and leaving a light green trail of dissipating particles behind me as I advance forward.

The area of the room is too large, I can\'t even see the hole!

"Nameless stop! The gap is too wide!!"

Did they say something? Forget it, I need to focus on running.

The figures of Tin and Rachel become more clear as I close in on them.

Yes, I\'ll be able to make it to them in less than five seconds!

Suddenly, the gap that continues to recede backwards, comes into view.

Is that the giant gap that they were talking about? It doesn\'t seem too wide, I should be able to jump over it-

I continue to run, with the true size of the gap slowly being revealed to me the further I run. Just as I prepare to jump over the gap, to the other side, I abruptly come to a stop as I gaze upon the totality of the gap.

This– this gap was too wide to jump over from the start!

Inside the gap, there is another structure with a roof, held up by pillars, that hinders my vision.

I can\'t see what\'s inside that, it\'s probably the second room where another monolith is.

Then I look up, to the direction that they are standing in and imagine their terrified faces.

"Don\'t worry, I\'ll save you soon, just wait there for me!"

I say that, but how will I be able to get there in the first place?

I hear them screaming but am unable to discern their words.

Suddenly, I feel the vibrations in the moving ground rumble even more.

What was that?

I look down at my foot and see my feet standing on a lowered plate.

Shit, I forgot about the trap plates because I was too focused on running over to them as fast as possible!

I look up again at Tin and Rachel, and see that the walls behind them now have countless white figures on them.

What are those? I\'m too far away, I can\'t get a good look at them.

Then, I turn 180 degrees, backwards, and see the same white figures on my.

What are those?

I concentrate for a long time on the same point.

Are those– spikes?

The floor continues to recede at a steady pace.

Damn, the floor isn\'t moving any slower– Tin and Rachel will die at this rate!

I stare into the room below the receding floor and see calculate the distance of the fall.

If my calculations are correct, then we should be able to survive the drop. It looks to be less deep than the first one and both Tin and I managed to survive. That was however, when Tin was in peak condition. Even then, Tin only barely managed to survive and Sara died so it would be impossible for Rachel to survive alone. Ahh- this is so stressful; the walls are closing in so all we can do now is to take a leap of faith.

I grunt, to stabilize my throat to shout and use mana to project my voice louder.

"Listen carefully to me Tin, if the floor continues to recede, then we\'re all going to die. I, however, have an idea. It might sound crazy but I need you to trust me or both you and Rachel will die. On my mark, Rachel, you will need to grab onto Tin\'s back and hold tightly. If you let go and fall, you will definitely die.

Rachel drops her staff and moves behind Tin, preparing to jump up.

Great.

Tin, after Rachel is secured on your back, grab your axe and jump down. Now, this is the crazy part– instead of jumping down and taking the blow on your legs, which will surely render you unable to move, I want you to take the blow of the fall with your arms. It might seem difficult, but you need to time your swing carefully and swing with as much force as you can. You should also use all your mana to enhance just your arms and shoulders alternatively to your whole body. It will be hard, and something you\'ve never done before, but your life depends on it.

I see him shuffle around and open his mouth.

I can\'t hear what you\'re saying Tin, just pick up the axe!

Then, I see him grab the axe.

Alright, good.

I turn back to my wall and calculate the distance.

Hmm, I\'d say we have about forty seconds left before the rest of the platform is gone.

I look down, into the room below us, and focus on its floor.

The texture of the floor seems to be the same regardless of where we jump so it doesn\'t matter. I should give the signal to jump now.

I shoot a sunbeam to the ceiling and squint my eyes in Tin\'s direction.

That was bright enough for them to see it right? They\'re too far away, I can\'t see if they saw the signal and are preparing to jump down or not. Wait, I didn\'t specify what the signal to jump was going to be, were they unable to infer?

Then I see Rachel go behind Tin and disappear.

Oh thank god, so they did hear me.

I see Tin grab his axe and lift it over his head.

Is he going to jump? I should jump after them to make sure they\'re doing everything correctly.

I see Tin, who slowly shrinks to the size of a small dot, only visible to his, now dirty, shiny white armor.

Alright, he jumped down, and I think I saw a light exuding from him which probably means Rachel cast a blessing on him, great! Now it\'s my turn. My legs feel almost fully healed so I should be fine. No more time to waste, let\'s go!

Heightened Senses, Swift Wind, Iron Body, and Enhanced Body (Legs) activate as I jump down.

Swift Wind lightens my step, but I\'m still falling at the same speed...

In my freefall, I look down at Tin, and see Rachel\'s body upside down as her legs are being dragged down, while she desperately clings on to Tin\'s neck for dear life. Tin\'s axe is still high as he grips onto it tightly, it\'s great size almost coming into contact with Rachel\'s body.

They seem to be doing fine. As long as they keep their descent and Tin times his swing well, they will survive. The real thing that concerns me however, is what could be under that structure. I thought at first that there would just be another monolith below it, but really, there could be anything in it. The only way to find out is to see for myself, so I should just focus on making my body take as little damage as possible. The ground is fastly approaching. I need to brace my knees for the impact unlike last time, where they almost broke off.

I look back at Tin and he screams loudly.

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

He approaches the ground rapidly and I see his axe swing down just before a cloud of smoke covers the area of his impact.

"BOOOM!!!"

I can\'t see the results but he probably succeeded in timing his swing. That scream didn\'t sound like one of fear, but the battle cry of a warrior.

The ground is rapidly approaching for me as well, should I try it too? It looked really cool.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!"

"BOOOOOM!!!!"

A cloud of smoke covers all of my vision.

That fall felt a lot better than the first one, my legs barely felt damaged.

I wave to try to move the massive cloud of smoke away. While shouting.

"Tin!!! Rachel!!! Are you okay?!!!"

There is a slight silence before Rachel\'s voice echoes to my ears.

"Tin\'s arms are damaged, but we\'re both alive!!"

Okay, they managed to survive. But this cloud of dust is annoying, I can\'t see anything. It isn\'t dissipating.

I ran outside the cloud of dust, to the direction from where I heard the echo from. As I exit the cloud of dust, I stand still in terror as I gaze upon the terrible being laying with its eyes closed under the structure held up by stone pillars.

What is that huge monster? It has the body structure, face, and wooden club of a goblin, but it\'s at least six times bigger! The only thing that matches that description would be the boss of the Zidden Dungeon, the Goblin Chieftain!

But why is it\'s skin purple?