Triple Strength

6. Against the Wall: Wiremu

We moved further into the darkness of the quarry. Suddenly the barracks behind me lit up and the horn sounded for an immediate head count. There would be patrols out soon and a search of the quarry started. I headed straight for the wall as stealthy as possible. I wasn’t going to take the time to get equipment. If chance provided an opportunity I would take it, but fast and unseen was the best chance I had.

Wait. I was acting like a newbie Hunter only thinking about sight and hearing. What about smell and the other tricks I learned as a new Hunter. I found a quiet dark spot and started to cover my hair and skin with stone dust. Identify niggled at me that with a couple of more points in Spiritual Agility there was a Skill that would help. I had the spare points. Did I trust my most frustrating Skill? This was my worst escape attempt ever. I usually had things planned and prepped. Now I was running on luck and chance. I guess planned and prepped hadn’t worked. Let's take a chance. I put one point into Spiritual Agility. Nothing. The second point triggered a Skill Camouflage 1. Identify told me Stealth had to be over 10, Physical Agility over 20, Mental Agility over 15 and Spiritual Agility over 12. A Proficient level Skill. I think that will be very helpful when I am clinging to the exposed face of a rock wall, while being hunted.

I finished covering what I could with Stone dust, the new Skill helping with thickness and shading. I was about to move on when I got another notification.

New Affinity Acquired:

Granite

Wow. It didn’t come with any Attribute points, but there was one skill immediately available. Granite Bones 1, which I took.This was like Hearing Aid and came with a passive ability in the form of a Resistance against Crushing of 10%, and an active ability of locking joints in place. The Crushing Resistance I was not happy about. It would increase my chances of surviving if I fell from the wall, and I did not want to survive if I fell. The ability of locking joints in place seemed like it would be very useful in the climb.

I got the sense from Identify that it was the prolonged period immersed in Granite dust that was the reason I got the affinity, The final straw was me deliberately smearing granite dust all over me. Identify also hinted at more skills, but these were not as clear as last time and involved multiple areas for additional attributes. I doubted I had enough free attributes. I decided to not invest any more now.

I checked my Status quickly and was very surprised to see Pip shared my affinity and also had Granite Bones with the crushing Resistance. I caressed his head under my shirt and his tongue tasted my finger. I wonder now, if I had got the smell or taste skills if I would be able to share any of Pip’s senses? I would need to get to level 30 in Physical Perception to test it. That will be a while. I need to keep moving.

The normal patrols were out in the quarry, but they were always in their regulation pairs, so I didn’t stop. The alarm had not reached this far yet. I would rather they not know where I was and have to search everywhere, rather than focus their attention. If I wasn't found overnight I knew patrols would be sent to the surrounding area tomorrow. That had happened before. The offender at that time was eventually found dead in the quarry, but the patrols were out for three days before she was found. Getting out of the quarry was only the first step.

The back of the quarry was about a kilometre and a half from the compound. Atarau, the larger moon was out, but there was a reasonable cloud cover to compensate. I would much have preferred Mahina as the light from her was not much more than the starlight. I was a beggar and I couldn’t be a chooser. I reached the wall without alerting anyone to my position. I worked my way along the wall to where I had picked out to start the climb. I had picked out a route as best I could over the previous few months when I had the opportunity. This had always been an option for an escape route, just not the most preferred.

I found my first hand holds and started to climb steadily. I briefly dreamed about gaining a climbing skill, but just like running and jumping, there were no Skills for them. How good you were at those things depended on your physical stats. I was 40% stronger than I was before and 20% more agile. My 20% increase in perception was the only thing keeping me on the right route in the dark. Pip was just along for the ride.

My Hearing Aid was on full listening for patrols at the base on the cliff. I was about 70m up when I heard a patrol and the cloud decided to clear. I grabbed the best hand holds I could and froze, pushing hard on Camouflage. There were five archers in the group. They were positioning an archer at key points along the wall, obviously not expecting me to have reached the wall yet, if I was coming this way. The one that was stationed in my view was close to the bottom of the wall. His focus was on the land leading up to the wall, but archers will have high perception. I know from my Physical Perception that movement in my peripheral vision will get my attention and their hearing will be acute, even without other bonuses.

My muscles had been starting to get minor fatigue from the climb and now they were frozen to keep me still. Most of my weight was on my fingers and one leg. I had locked the joints on the leg to help keep the weight off the muscles, I had locked the finger joints as well, but if my hand muscles didn’t help I would snap the bones from the weight. I was starting to think that Granite Bones had also added to my weight. And Pips.

The clouds were coming back, but very slowly. Even in the dark, the first rock or dirt I dislodged would alert the archer. First step: stay immobile and wait for the clouds. Step two: take out the archer from hanging off the side of a cliff, without alerting other sentries. Step one was hard enough. My muscles were straining even with the locked joints when the cloud finally came back. Camouflage had levelled.

When the cloud came back, I very carefully shifted my handholds and weight to relieve my muscles and free up a hand. I would not have been able to see the archer in the dark without Far Sight. This would have to be very carefully timed. Archer shouldn’t have the same physical Constitution as warriors and generally only light armour, but to make sure of this, I was going to have to hit the face, preferably the eyes. I took careful aim and then threw with all I could and not dislodge myself. It was definitely more than a guided fall, but not by much. After I had let go I made a small noise and the archer's head turned toward the noise. The jar of viper venom hit his helmet on his forehead and broke, spilling venom all over his face, including his eyes and mouth. He went down furiously, wiping his face and spitting out venom. He went still very quickly. The eyes and nose were the fastest and deadliest way to absorb the venom.

New Skill, Throwing Weapons 1. The body will be found in the morning or at shift change, whichever came first. That means there will be a patrol sent to the cliff top at first light, probably with the hounds. First things first. I needed to make it to the cliff top and I had at least three hours of constant climbing still ahead of me.

An hour later I was trying to figure out how to get past a particularly smooth area, and I was thinking Granite must have more that could help me. This whole rock face was granite. I took my five minute break when I could and then focussed Identify on the Granite skills. I got the feeling there was a Granite Spike skill, but my attributes were too low, especially Spiritual Agility. So no free handholds there. I couldn’t sense if there was a way to make cracks without causing a quake. I had five free attribute points and there didn’t seem to be a skill to help me so I needed old fashioned physical strength and agility. I put two into Physical Agility to bring it to twenty and one to strength to bring it to forty. That left me with two points. I really wanted to shore up some of my weak areas, especially Spiritual Agility, but at this time it was a life or death physical challenge. I was pretty sure if I fell now, I would not survive even with my crushing resistance. If I wanted to live I needed more Physical Agility. I put the last two points there and started to work my way sideways to where I thought I might be able to go up. It was all or nothing.

It was over four hours later I pulled my exhausted body over the top of the wall and lay for a few minutes. I couldn’t rest. Dawn was only a couple of hours away and I would have mounted patrols and hounds on my trail. I pulled myself to my feet and staggered into the tall grasses, not bothering to hide my trail.