Transcending Dreams

B2 - Chapter 76

William felt the wind rush past his ears as gravity pulled him down. He could feel his body wanting to tumble, but that was one thing he could control. It wasnt possible for him to fly yet, but at least he wouldnt look like a flailing mortal as he fell to the beach below.

He ignored everything but the cliff wall in front of him as the speed at which he fell slowly increased. He looked for any cracks or protrusions that would make it easier to stop himself. Unfortunately, the cliff was smooth, almost like it was melted rock.

He quickly looked down and discovered it was the same the entire way down. So be it.

Qi blazed to life around his free hand. He formed a claw and slammed it into the cliff wall, digging his nails into the rock. William winced as a sharp force tugged at his shoulder, but he was successful.

Not in the way he assumed. Instead of an abrupt stop, William's fingers felt a trail of deep grooves in the rock as he slowed to a halt, the Qi acting like a softener to the rock instead of leaving it firm and brittle.

William looked down and saw that he had covered a quarter of the distance needed.

Not too bad, he said to himself. He only needed to repeat this a few more times.

Williams fingers had left a few more long grooves into the cliff wall before he felt confident enough to let himself drop the rest of the way. He pushed off the rock and redirected his Qi to his legs, reinforcing them to be doubly safe before his landing threw up a small plume of sand.

He smiled as his plan went as expected for once without something going horribly wrong.

Took you long enough.

William turned to see Kae standing over a suspiciously red-tinted white sand. He scanned his fellow disciples body to see where the damage was but didnt see anything obvious.

You got hurt, he frowned.

I did, Kae nodded. Now Im not. What you did isnt possible for me, so unless you could handle my weight on the way down, there was no other choice.

William had used [Observe] on Kae right before they entered the Abyss and saw that his Strength attribute was a hundred and fifty. Ten more than his own after he assigned points to Strength.

Sometimes, he forgot how much the way he controlled his Qi magnified his strengthsomething good that came out of the basic martial skills he had picked up in the Outer Court at the very start.

Right, William replied awkwardly. If we come across another cliff like that, know that your additional weight would make no difference.

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Kae glanced at his legs with a slight downturn of his lips before nodding.

William cleared his throat and changed the subject. So, whats next? This seems endless.

There was a never-ending ocean on one side, a towering cliff on the other, and a narrow strip that could barely be called a beach in the middle. In short, they had little choice but to wander on the beach.

On the bright side, that eye hasnt shown up yet, Kae offered instead of a suggestion.

William shot him a harsh glare before he looked at the sky, fully expecting it to appear like it had been summoned. He let out a sigh of relief when that didnt happen. Lets avoid mentioning that again.

Kae shrugged like he didnt almost create a disaster. Then again, he probably wasnt as superstitious as William.

Let's see where this beach leads us," William suggested. "Unless you have a better idea?

I dont. Other than keeping somewhat close to this spot. Im not sure if itll make it hard for the sect to find us if were not.

William hummed in thought as he looked up at the top of the cliff. It seems like the spirit beasts stopped chasing us completely. If they were, we would be able to see them by now. Still, I'd rather put some distance between us and this area.

What if thats exactly what we are being pushed to do?

That could be possible, William admitted. But if harm was meant to us, it would have already happened by now.

Is that what you really think, or what you wish to be true?

The latter, but William wouldnt say that out loud. He cleared his throat once again to change the subject. No point wasting time standing around. Lets go.

***

William had a decent internal clock after everything he experienced in the Shard, and it told him he had spent around five hours on an uneventful walk.

That was great, and not at the same time.

Nothing threatened their lives, but that also meant they were left wandering without a clue about what to do next.

The beach is still straight, William commented, breaking the silence of the past few hours.

It is.

The mountains that made up the border in the level was circular.

It was.

William sighed and came to a stop, Kae following immediately after. They had covered hundreds of miles in those five hours without anything changing, and it looked like that would continue if his eyes werent being tricked.

You were right a few hours ago, William turned to Kae, It might be better to just wait and see.

I wouldnt go as far as to say Im right, Kae squinted at the ocean. Does it look like the water level changed?

He followed Kaes line of sight with alarm. The ocean, or whatever it was, had an eerily still surface. There were no waves or any movement that could cause any changes. That was normal.

If Kae was right, it could mean trouble.

Im not sure, William narrowed his eyes. The only way to tell was to look at where the water touched the sand on the beach. It didnt look like it changed.

It seems higher to me, Kae insisted.

He raised an eyebrow at that and watched for it to happen again. His increased patience paid off when it took nearly an hour for him to see it.

William glanced at the surrounding hundreds of miles of shoreline and saw the small increase was consistent everywhere. A shiver ran down his spine when he realized how massive something had to be to cause this.

Back up, William ordered, pulling Kae toward the cliff wall. I think something is coming toward us.

Kae was quick to realize what he did. Should we take our chances and climb the cliff?

Too late.

A small hump appeared in the water. The problem was it was impossibly far from them, and if it looked this small from there, it was absolutely massive. Even worse, there were two red glowing dots at the front.

In the next second, it covered half the distance to them. At this pace, it would be at the shore before they could climb halfway up the cliff.