Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman
Chapter 40: Grave Peril (2)

Anton dropped a rock into the crater. And almost instantly, a 'thud' sounded out as the rock hit the ground. He called, "It's less than a couple of dozen metres deep."

Wrik nodded with the other in the group. The crater was on their way towards their destination. Anton found a whiff of some human here. So they were pretty sure it's the way to An Byul and Kevin went.

A dozen metres was a safe height to jump off if they landed safely. His current physical attributes: strength and constitution were almost close to twenty, so if he jumped properly he shouldn't have much problem. And most of their group have close or better physical attributes than him, except Tanya.

She has the constitution only a little better than a normal human. Well, being on the path of Mage and female were the main reasons for it. Wrik looked anxiously at her and noticed her frown in the blue lamp she was holding.

She felt his gaze and called out, "Who's going to jump first?"

"That was another issue," Wrik said. "How will you. . ."

"Yes, Tanya—you know—you can't jump there with us," Davin said as well. "Let's thought.. ."

"That's not the main issue, wool heads," she didn't let him finish it. "Let someone hop there first and examine it. See if the sidewalls could be climbed down or not."

She gave a fair explanation. All they were thinking about jumping into the creator. While climbing down was also a choice. A safer choice than jumping headstrong.

"So who will it be?" She asked again.

"Let me," Anton and Evan stepped forward at the same time.

"Now we have two," she said. "Here I thought nobody would volunteer."

"Let me jump, I'm quite experienced in this regard," Anton said to Evan, who looked hesitant but nodded, seeing the firm look on Ton's face.

Anton stood beside the ridge of the crater before dropping the backpack. He took a deep breath and prepared to jump off.

"Here," Tanya gave her blue lamp to him. "Don't crush it."

Anton nodded before jumping into the crater with the blue lamp on his arm. They saw a dim blue light dropping into it before it stopped.

"Ton, are you alright?" Wrik called.

There's no answer for a moment before Anton laughed out. "Who? Me? I'm as good as the day I entered here."

"Now examine the sidewalls if we could climb down," Tanya said again.

"Wait a minute," Anton said as he examined the embankment. After a few minutes, he yelled from down there. "Try climbing down from this site, it's less inclined here."

Evan stepped in this time again and nobody stopped him, either. He similarly dropped his bag first before climbing down. The dim light enabled him to see where he was going as he climbed down efficiently, with no issues.

"You two climb down first. I'll follow right up," Tanya said in her natural tone. She dropped her bags. Davin and Wrik followed suit. They were already tight on time, so they didn't waste more.

Wrik advanced down cautiously with each firm grip. Beside him was Davin, who had an expression of panic on his face.

"Are you afraid of heights?" Wrik couldn't help but ask, looking at the unnatural posture of Davin.

"N-no," Davin said in his unnatural tone, almost funny. "Why do you think that?"

Wrik was about to say something when he heard Tanya say:

"You two quit squabbling, advance faster."

He glanced straight up to notice a slender figure climbing down with caution. She was slow, about half a dozen feet above him.

"Don't worry about us, you stay steady." Wrik advice as his gaze turned towards Davin. "You need any help?"

Then suddenly, a sound of rock being cracked sounded out. It was not Davin, Wrik judged as he heard a panicked cry from Tanya, with the sound of a body falling against the embankment.

His vision cleared immediately as a silver glow appeared in his eyes unknowingly. Wrik could glimpse the falling figure of Tanya clearly. His mind raced immediately.

Without any thinking, Wrik gripped the embankment tightly with his left arm and pulled his body horizontally with his dominant arm towards the falling figure in an attempt to catch her. And he did catch her. But the problem was not over. The moment Wrik pulled the slender waist of Tanya towards him, another body smashed into him.

He was not the only one who tried to catch Tanya. Davin—the guy—frightened of heights a moment ago, similarly pulled his body towards them and slammed onto them.

"Shit," his grip on the stone loosened as he started to fall with two bodies above him. He instantly tightened his grasp on the slender body, with her head being at his chest as they fell. He didn't have time to worry about the other person above them, as the thought of falling on stone surface was more than enough to make him shudder.

The good thing was that Wrik had the helmet on, but he still pushed his head upwards in an attempt to rest everything on his back. And it did help, though he heard the sounds of a couple of his ribs breaking, with intolerable pain in the back.

But he didn't stop, rolled immediately as he hit the bottom. With all his might, he could barely roll once as he was on the top with Tanya at the bottom. And in the next moment, a body fell beside them, almost impacting them.

If Wrik didn't roll at the last moment, Davin's body would fall on Tanya, and it would've been more devastating for both him and her.

Tanya, who finally came to her senses, blinked at him. She was still giddy over what happened. She was looking at his eyes, the silver glow in them.

"Crap, Wrik, are you alright?" Anton came in immediately as he helped him up from the fragile body of Tanya.

While Evan helped Davin. That guy was in better shape than him, still a bit miserable.

"I'm alright. .. cough. . ." Wrik coughed out. He noticed Tanya was still looking at him with big eyes. He added, "With a couple of ribs broken."

_____________