Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 82: Gathering of Refugees

Toren Daen

I was helping the Twinfrost party navigate the city, gradually snaking our way to the meeting point.

Our going was slow. None of the Twinfrost members were particularly mobile like Sevren and I were, leaving us to help them along. Instead of bounding from rooftop to rooftop, we ended up smashing our way through windows and walking through empty office spaces to the other side, then repeating the action.

I used a combination of my telekinesis to help the mages along, just as I had done with Darrin. It had been an exhausting ordeal to convince the Frost twins to let me carry them from building to building.

I jumped from one of the rooftops, pulling on a nearby ledge. Simultaneously, I latched onto Alun with my telekinesis rune. Then I pulled, drawing us both to the next building.

I landed far more gracefully than the striker, who stumbled to his knees after me. He still looked far thinner than was healthy, but his hair wasn't nearly as reedy after a good bath. Already used to this routine, I turned around and jumped back to the previous building, repeating the process with Jana instead.

I thought some color had returned to her cheeks since she began changing her bandages, but that might have just been wishful thinking.

I had to repeat this two more times for the twins while Sevren watched on with amusement.

This exercise was what truly instilled in me the difficulty every other mage would have with this zone. I could freerun through the entire concrete jungle as if it were second nature, using my telekinetic abilities and physical enhancement to keep out of sight and range of all the undead down below. In fact, the Clarwood Forest provided more parkour challenges for me in the form of jutting branches and scraping underbrush.

But most ascenders didn't have the luxury of my versatile abilities. Furthermore, I had the distinct advantage of being a solo ascender: I didn't enter this zone worrying about the well-being of a team. I didn't need to fight to get them to safety, or handicap my own speed to assist them in their escape from the hordes.

But things were different for regular ascension teams. Strikers and shields might be able to leap between the rooftops with superhuman strength, but it would be exceedingly difficult to always do so while carrying their sentries and casters. In any other zone, the Alacryan strike team layout was perfect for small unit tactics.

But in a zone where the only way to survive was to run? The slower ones got eaten. Which was what I surmised had happened to the Twinfrost's sentry.

Once the twins were reluctantly deposited in the next building, we began to slowly move toward the other side, following empty hallways and derelict passages.

We had to be more careful here. More than once had I spotted a few undead roaming these skyscrapers, even so far up. They were rare, but even one could alert any others in earshot.

So I kept my sound barrier up. I took the lead in exploring the buildings, as my enhanced sense of hearing allowed me to be a good lookout.

I turned to the side as Sevren sidled up, peeking around a corner as we checked for the undead.

"I asked Alun about what he knew of the other team," he said quietly. "He claimed that he only saw them once when they had just entered the zone, but didn't get the chance to interact before they were forced to escape."

I followed the intent of Sevren's words easily enough. "You think he's telling the truth?" I said, covertly glancing at the mage trailing behind me. Alun seemed to wither under the sunlight, that paranoid, almost animalistic side of him coming to life. The moment we ducked under a rooftop, however? More of himself emerged, though it was tired and haunted. "He didn't strike me as a liar."