Ciel stood up to the best of his ability, and summoned a piece of scrap iron.
The plan was simple. They would use the recoil of an explosion to get the wooden board to the distributary of the Pearl River.
They had regained enough Spirit Essence to use Void element again.
Once in the center of the river, it was extremely difficult to move to the sides due to the current. Therefore, they couldn't just stay towards the right side of the river. They would just be swept back to the center in under a minute.
Soon, they could see the distributary just 100 metres ahead.
[ Now! ] Ciel exclaimed
Rein imbued the metal scrap with Void element before Ciel threw it to his left into the water nearby.
A second later, the metal scrap exploded, and the wooden board soared a few metres above the flowing water towards the distributary.
The wooden board successfully landed on the distributary with a huge splash, sinking into the cold water for a second before emerging up again.
Rein didn't use much Spirit Essence on Void Manipulation, so it wasn't too much of a setback in their Spirit Essence.
To their left was the base of a cliff, while to their right was the Emerald Forest.
The distributary was around 250 metres wide.
[ Hey, that gave us a little bit of Spirit! It was under 1% Spirit charge though. ] Rein said excitedly
[ True. Maybe we should find the best way to gain Spirit without risking our lives fighting Forsakened. ] Ciel replied
[ Okay. But what now? Why are we still travelling by the river? ]
[ If we walk, it would waste our energy. We might as well get as far as possible with the least amount of energy spent. Those bears are still following us. ] He explained
Rein nodded. She then entered his Shadow again to regenerate faster.
She could have stayed in his shadow and provided the Void element, but it was safer to do it in person, as mistiming it would have led to a disaster.
After a few minutes, Rein suddenly tensed and mentally said with a wary voice:
[ There's something moving underwater… quite a few of them at that. ]
[ They're approaching us quickly. ]
Ciel nodded.
He didn't expect the river to be completely safe, but at the same time, he didn't know what to expect.
[ They're at Soul Tier 1, Feral Forsakened. We should be able to fight them off. ]
[ But if we do that, the wooden board will likely be destroyed. ] She said
Just as she said that, a large, 2 meter long Feral Pike emerged from the water, with razor sharp teeth, and spikes near its fins.
Ciel didn't know what a pike was, as they didn't exist on Prisma. That didn't stop him from killing them, however.
'Screw this… why can't we just be left alone in peace?' Ciel cursed his luck
Nothing had gone right since the strange and unknown anomaly occured back in the Arrow Village. All Ciel was sure of was that it involved him and Rein.
He summoned his katana, which manifested itself in under a second.
He cut the Feral Pike mid air in half before it could reach the wooden board.
[ We won't last long like this, especially if a stronger Forsakened shows up. ]
[ We'll climb the precipice. ] Ciel said
Rein agreed and exited his shadow.
If they escaped to their right, near the Emerald Forest, the Blood Bears would have a free dinner when they would inevitably arrive.
Ciel passed the katana to Rein, and summoned the 40 metre rope and the 2 metre long stone spear.
There was no need for excellent swordsmanship in a situation like this, as one well timed slash was all Rein needed to do for a kill.
A bow and arrow also wouldn't cut it since the number of enemies was too high, and the balance was currently terrible. That and the fact that most of the Feral Pikes were underwater.
Ciel tied one end of the rope to the spear, and the other through a small hole he just made on the wooden board.
He then threw the spear towards the precipice. The cliff was around 200 metres high, and the spear reached its 30 metre mark, sticking into its rocky surface.
He started climbing the rope, keeping his feet against the rock, while leaving Rein behind on the wooden board.
Of course, she could enter his shadow at any moment. But her job for now was to distract the Forsakened Pikes.
Ciel continued to climb at full speed. After he reached the spear, he held on to the rocky surface of the cliff with both hands.
He looked down and called out to Rein. She was still holding on, without any notable damage.
The wooden board, however, was quite heavily damaged.
Ciel brought the katana back to the Soul World, along with the remains of the wooden board. It could still be used for a fire.
Before that, she entered his shadow and then immediately exited, now sitting on his shoulders.
Since Ciel couldn't throw the spear and climb up the cliff, she would have to do one part. She pulled the spear out of the cliff, and threw it another 30 metres higher into the cliffs rock.
Ciel held on to the rocky surface of the cliff with one hand and reached for the rope with the other.
Rein couldn't throw the spear any higher due to the angle and balance. Still they were far enough from the Forsakened Pikes to not need to worry about them.
Still, Ciel decided to be safe and summoned the bow and arrows, passing it to Rein.
Ciel started climbing with the help of the rope, while the Feral Pikes were jumping out of the water, reaching a lenghty 10 metres in height.
'How the hell are Forsakened so damn strong? At least they don't have magical abilities.' He thought
At that moment, the water below stirred, and a pike that was over double the size of the previous ones emerged.
It shot through the air, reaching over 40 metres high in the air.
'Shit… this one's a Soul Tier 2, Twisted Forsakened. I have to leave this to Rein…' He thought
If he tried to help her, they would both plummet down back into the river.
Rein drew the bow and arrow, shooting the Twisted Pike near its head.
The arrowhead was made up of Eternal Stone. It was slightly blunt, but it was still better than the previous arrows she used.
Ciel had tried making a few as he figured out that the regular arrows would not do the job in due time.
Thanks to the arrow, the Twisted Pike lost its sense of direction and hit the cliff less than a metre away from Ciel, before plummeting down into the river.
Ciel soon reached the spear, and they once again did what they had done before. Ciel held the rock surface while Rein threw the spear towards the top of the cliff.
Before they could start climbing up again, another Twisted Pike had emerged from the water, almost biting off Ciel's leg.
Luckily, Rein was more prepared this time, sending two arrows into its eyes before it had the chance to bite the leg off.
It didn't die, but fell back into the water, blinded and in a fountain of blood.
Then, after repeating the same steps a few more times, the duo finally reached the top of the precipice.
Rein reached the top first, getting off Ciel's shoulder.
Ciel followed a moment later. They were both panting heavily, nearly out of stamina.
"It's about time you mentioned how much our Spirit Charge has increased." Ciel said sarcastically
"You idiot, why would I care about something like that right now? We almost died. Also, we gained 3% Spirit Charge." She said with a faint smile
They were now at about 25% Spirit Charge, a quarter of the way to Soul Tier 3.
'We met just a few days ago, but it already feels like we knew each other for a decade. Is this what a real friend is like?' She thought inwardly
On Earth, there was no one she thought of as a best friend. She only talked with a few girls her age at school, but their friendship never went beyond that.
'I wonder what my life on Earth would have been like if I had a true friend… come to think of it, I don't know anything about Ciel's old planet, Prisma. I wonder if he had any friends there. I should ask him about it sometime soon.' She thought
After catching their breath for a while, they looked around to properly observe their new surroundings.
It was the same as it was below the cliff. A dense forest with massive trees.
"Do you think the Blood Bears will be able to come up here? If a Twisted Pike could jump over 40 metres, I personally wouldn't put it past them" Rein asked
"I agree. We should make some preparations in case they do come up here. They are still 12 hours away from us… I don't know why they are moving so slow."
"That's a good thing for us. We can rest and make a trap to kill them both. Let's scout the surroundings to make sure there are no Forsakened around here first."
After searching together for half an hour, they came back to the edge of the cliff.
"There's nothing around here… except that thing. But we can use it. Let's make a temporary camp while we have time and rest." Ciel said
He used Soul Transfer to summon some water and uncooked Feral Ant meat along with wood, flint and a small piece of scrap metal.
"Let's save our preserved food for emergency situations where we can't cook. There's only a little we have."
"Our water supply is also running short. It will last us 3 more days."
"Lastly, we need to make sure the fire and smell of meat cooking doesn't attract that thing." Ciel warned
"What if we cook the meat in the Soul World? We can't eat there, but we can still cook the food and bring it out." Rein suggested
"Right, I would have never thought of something like that. It would probably work, you're quite brilliant when it comes to things like this." He replied
Rein smiled awkwardly. She had read so many novels that she always thought of ways to cheat the system.
However, in most of the stories she read, the author would not mention if the cheat was possible or not, making her feel irritated.
'Finally, I can answer these questions myself. Is this what it feels like to be an author?' She thought