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Chapter 158: A Long Sprint

Grace had just finished picking up a bundle of arrows, she had around twenty in total now, and had just sheathed her dagger. "Should you carry me or should I run myself?" asked Grace.

Kat\'s eyes flicked towards the elf for just an instant before sprinting over and picking Grace up in a princess carry. This was promptly followed up by Kat sprinting as fast as she could towards the tower.

"Well, I\'ll take that as a yes" said Grace as she lightly activated her wind shield to allow for communication despite the rushing wind. "Why did you decide to go with this?"

"I\'m much faster than you, and carrying someone doesn\'t slow me down that much??? said Kat as she approached a turn in the mazelike ruins. Pouring as much energy into her wings and legs as she could Kat took a jump and soared over the offending wall.

Kat kept herself to only gliding, and it wasn\'t much time before she found her feet back on the ground "Plus I can do that. I recover much faster than you as well. I think at this point speed is what matters" said Kat

Grace nodded as Kat continued to speak "So what\'s the plan now? What do you think we\'re likely to find?"

"Well, I\'d have to assume that Green is one of the people who has found the orb in question. Nobody else is quite so fast" said Grace "Though, at the same time, we did take a while with that fight of ours"

Kat nodded "That\'s reasonable, I guess. Do you think that Green is likely with anyone else?"

Grace shrugged "Hard to say. I\'d lean towards no, but I am aware that Green is certainly capable of reaching the end faster I\'m sure of it. She might have been waiting up for some others"

Kat flew past a small shrine off to the side and noticed the chest in it but kept going. *It likely isn\'t worth detouring.* "We don\'t need anything from the chests, right?" asked Kat

Grace shook her head "I doubt we have time. Anything even close to the length of the vault would kill our momentum"

Just as they said that though strange sound rang out again, though quieter this time. It still projected across the whole area, but there was no rattling of bones and stones. After this, the beam of light wobbled a few times before sputtering out.

"What the heck does that mean?" asked Kat slowing down.

"Don\'t stop" said Grace, though after a short pause "Well, I mean, as long as you\'re fine… I don\'t think it\'s over yet.

Kat nodded and picked up the pace again, quickly approaching her full speed. She was pleasantly surprised at the practically straight path towards the tower they were on. Seems skipping over that first wall was a great idea.

"I\'m fine Grace, I just… I didn\'t know what that meant exactly?" said Kat still a bit confused.

"Well, I\'d bet that Thyme has a cassette ready for us once somebody succeeds. The fact there was no announcement means that it isn\'t over just yet" said Grace

Kat wanted to facepalm, though managed to resist the urge to drop Grace to complete the action. "Of course, why didn\'t I think of that… though speaking of, where are the Timmy\'s?"

As if on queue the Timmy\'s in question suddenly appeared in the corner of her eye on a branch that leaned onto the path.

As Kat passed underneath said branch the two Timmy\'s dropped down onto Grace\'s lap popcorn in hand. Kat examined the bowls carefully as she ran, trying to figure out what was wrong with them.

*Ohhh…* As she ran Kat realised the kernels weren\'t reacting, the bowl and the popcorn contained within were all fake… *Actually is it a fake bowl? It has fake stuff in it and it\'s full, but does that constitute it being fake?*

"Hey Grace, is that a fake bowl of popcorn?" asked Kat

"Well, Kat you see…" said Grace "that is completely irrelevant!"

Kat pouted in response, but the elf was paying attention, so Kat quickly diverted her focus back to running.

It was only another five minutes of full speed running through corridors that they arrived at the tower… which was actually a lot smaller in person. The original, seemingly massive structure was in actuality perhaps twenty metres across and twenty metres tall. Still an impressive building but compared to the spire which towers over all surroundings and reaches for the sky… it wasn\'t much.

The front had a very obvious wooden door on it, and Kat could see in her peripheral vision other doors that ringed the edge of the tower. The whole thing was a strangely smooth yellowed stone.

It seemed like it was meant to look like it had aged in the sun for a number of years, but the colour was a bit to clean for that impression. The construction was seamless. There were no cracks, chips, or even bricks for that matter. The whole thing was one giant, smooth almost marble-like structure with a vibrant yellow of a pleasant summer afternoon.

"Ok, what is the game plan?" asked Kat

Grace took this chance to escape Kat\'s embrace and slid up to the wall. Putting a finger to her lips, she then gestured for Kat\'s silence and put her ear to the wall. A moment later a green sigil lit up on her bracers.

Grace\'s face broke into a frown. "Shame" said Grace "It seems like the whole thing is warded. Or at least magically insulated"

"And that means?" asked Kat

"We have to go inside and figure out what\'s there ourselves" said Grace.

"So, what? We kick the door down" said Kat as she took a fighting position.

Grace sighed and shook her head. "No, we slowly open the door and hope that it\'s well-lit or that whatever we\'re dealing with isn\'t in the room"

*Well that\'s just boring and sensible. Who could possibly want to do that?* Thought Kat as she nodded in confirmation and stood off to the side behind the door.

Grace held her breathe and slowly creaked open the wooden door. It was well oiled, but still made a bit of noise. The elf glanced into the room and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was both well-lit and empty. Perhaps the best configuration possible.

Of course, being well-lit and empty did not stop the sounds of clashing metal that now emanated from the tower. Grace allowed herself to carefully put her full head into the room and took a glance around.

The room was still, whatever noise wasn\'t from this floor. Looking around it was a completely circular room with a floor and high ceiling, perhaps halfway up the tower or there abouts.

There was a stair set into the side of the room. They weren\'t so much on the one side, as a slow meandering spiral that lead upwards towards presumably the second floor, but the view of the final stairs was obscured by… well stairs.

If you ignored the stairs though, the rest of the room was in terrible shape. There were deep gashes in the floor, and what looked to have once been a dining table, however the various wood shards that had been thrown around the place made it hard,

Strangely, Grace couldn\'t see the other doors. Despite noticing that there was at least one more on the sides. Shrugging this off Grace examined the pathway between the door and the staircase… it wasn\'t horrible?

The wood and small amounts of food scraps scattered about littered the path between the two, but Grace had sturdy boots and Kat could fly…. so hopefully they\'d be alright.

Grace pulled herself out and shut the door before whispering "Ok, so Kat, the room is pretty much empty. You\'ll need to fly a little just in case because your boots don\'t look that strong and we don\'t want to make too much noise"

*Hey I\'m sure my boots are plenty strong… though perhaps not.* Kat thought back to the gashes and cuts made during her fight with the others. *I\'d assumed my Demonic Attire would hold up a bit better but apparently not? Or maybe it was holding up better but they had even stronger weapons?*

Grace reopened the door and gestured for Kat to follow behind. Kat did as bid and carefully flapped her wings and tried to hover through the doorframe. Luckily it was tall enough for her even while hovering around half a metre off the ground…

That didn\'t help her wingspan though. So, dropping back to the ground Kat snuck inside the doorway and then started to hover… for real this time.