Chapter 127: Calming down.
Chapter 127: Calming down.
"And what makes you so sure about that?" Snow’s voice cut through his explanation despite her earlier agreement to remain silent, her skepticism evident in every syllable. "What if we all instead die of exhaustion here, sitting around doing nothing while the pressure slowly crushes us?"
"What if resting actually makes things worse–"
"Are you always this much of a motivation killer?" Lucuis’s tone carried genuine curiosity rather than offense, as if he were truly interested in understanding what drove her to constantly find the negative in every situation.
"If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you actually want us to fail, cause it seems as if you’re looking for reasons to give up rather than any to continue."
That comment earned him nothing but a cold stare from Snow. But before the argument could reignite, this time around, Leo stepped forward and positioned himself physically between his brother and the increasingly angry serpent woman.
"Brother." Spoke up. "Perhaps we should all just take a moment to breathe and think clearly before anyone says something they might regret later."
Leo’s presence, his calm demeanor and neutral positioning, served as a buffer between the two opposing forces. He did not take sides, nor did he declare anyone right or wrong, he simply created a space for their tempers to cool and rationality to reassert itself.
Lucuis looked at his brother for a long moment, then let out a defeated breath and allowed his shoulders to drop from the tension they had been holding. "Fine, fine. You are right, as usual. There is no point in continuing this argument when we should be focusing on completing the challenge instead."
He turned away from Snow, and found a relatively flat spot of rock nearby where he could sit and rest. The others followed his example, each finding their own place to settle while the pressure continued pressing against them from all directions.
And so they sat there on that mountainside, six hundred meters above the base, with four times the normal pressure pressing down upon them, simply resting and waiting and allowing their bodies to adjust to the weight they would need to carry higher up the slopes.
The sun continued its journey across the sky above them, indifferent to their struggles, and somewhere far above, the summit continued to wait for those who would eventually attempt to reach it.
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After a short break that allowed their bodies to adjust to the increasing weight pressing down on them, the team resumed their ascent up the mountain.
The initial stiffness that had settled into their muscles during the rest period gradually worked itself out as they climbed, though each new step felt subtly more worse as they progressed.
In what felt like no time at all, they managed to cross another six hundred meters, the terrain growing steeper and more unforgiving with every passing hour along with the pressure.
At this point, there truly wasn’t any vegetation left, for all one could see were bare rock and loose scree that shifted treacherously beneath their feet, and the air had grown thin enough that each breath required conscious effort to draw into their lungs.
But it was not the thin air or the difficult terrain that finally forced them to come to a halt. It was the pressure itself, which had intensified to such a degree that most of them could barely remain standing, let alone continue climbing.
Gunter was the worst off by a significant margin. The young baron stood hunched over with his hands on his knees, sweat pouring from his brow and soaking through his clothing until he looked as though he had just been pulled from a river.
His face had gone pale, not with fear this time but with genuine physical exhaustion, and every breath he drew seemed to require more effort than the entire climb had demanded at the start.
His legs trembled visibly beneath him, the muscles shaking from the strain of simply remaining upright against the weight that pressed down upon his shoulders like an invisible giant’s hand.
Grey and Snow, by contrast, appeared far better off than the others, their supernatural constitutions granting them a resilience that the ordinary humans in the group could not hope to match.
Grey stood with her posture relatively straight, her breathing steady if somewhat labored, while Snow had adopted a position against a nearby rock that suggested she found the pressure more annoying than genuinely threatening.
Neither of them seemed anywhere close to reaching their limits, and Lucuis suspected that if they chose to, they could probably continue climbing all the way to the summit without stopping again.
Besides Grey and Snow, the two who were holding up best under the crushing weight were, somewhat surprisingly, Lucuis himself and Amy of all people.
Adrian was managing well enough, his face betraying none of the strain that must have been affecting him, but Amy had somehow positioned herself as one of the stronger members of the group despite her unassuming appearance and gentle demeanor.
’ Looks like she is using magic to keep up, Lucuis thought to himself after stealing a brief glance in her direction, noting the slight shimmer of energy that occasionally flickered across her features when she thought no one was watching.
It made sense, of course, that the village doctor’s daughter would have some tricks hidden up her sleeve for situations exactly like this one.
As for himself, he did not need to resort to such methods yet, and he was not entirely sure when he would need to. While it might seem strange to anyone looking at his lean frame and aristocratic features, his body was far stronger than it appeared at a mere glance.
Years of disciplined training since childhood had built a foundation of physical capability that did not show itself in bulk or obvious muscle, but instead resembled functional strength that came from relentless practice and genuine dedication.
After all, he had been able to clash successively with Rugbeard, the captain of his family’s knight squad, and hold his own well enough to force some distance from the old veteran.