"I know. Cass has replayed your video six times."
"I was checking his footwork," Cass said.
"You asked whether he’d dyed his hair."
"Both can be true."
A heavy metal case suddenly slid out of the truck behind them. Max turned, expecting it to hit the ground, but it stopped in midair. The case floated past his shoulder, rotated upright and landed gently beside a man in a dark field coat.
The man looked to be in his early thirties. He had close-cropped hair, a tired expression and the calm posture of someone who rarely needed to hurry.
"Darius Venn," he said. "C-rank Gravity Warden."
Max looked at the case, then at his hands. "You did that without touching it?"
"Usually works better that way."
"Can you do it to yourself?"
"Sometimes."
"Can you make something fall sideways?"
Darius picked up a loose bolt with a flick of his fingers. It rose, stopped, then flew horizontally toward the warehouse wall. A moment before impact, it changed direction and dropped into an empty crate.
Max’s eyes lit up.
"Okay. That’s incredible."
Darius gave him a brief smile. "Glad you approve. My range is limited, and anything heavy costs me a lot of mana. So don’t expect me to carry you through the entire Gate."
"I wasn’t going to ask."
"You were thinking about it."
"Well, now I am."
Cass burst out laughing. Ilan merely shook his head.
A few minutes later, the four of them stood before the Gate. It floated at the far end of a fenced quarry, its blue surface completely ordinary despite the name on the permit.
[D-rank Gate: Hollow Sky]
[Party: 4/4]
[Entry Authorized]
Darius looked around at the group. "We don’t split up unless I order it. If somebody falls, Cass calls it and I handle the weight. Ilan covers us from a distance. Max, you take anything that reaches the ground, but don’t chase a flying target off a ledge trying to prove yourself."
"Understood," Max said.
Cass glanced at him. "He’s definitely going to chase something off a ledge."
"I heard that."
"Good."
They entered.
The world on the other side was mostly sky.
Max came out onto a slab of pale stone barely wider than the Gate itself. Beyond the edge, a ravine stretched so far downward that its bottom was hidden beneath white cloud. Other islands of stone hung in the air at different heights, connected by narrow ridges, hanging roots and broken bridges.
Above them, enormous shapes drifted between the cliffs.
"Whoa..."
Max approached the edge before Darius caught the back of his jacket.
"First rule," the captain said. "Look before you walk."
A thin stone bridge led from their island to a larger one ahead. Max watched Cass step past him and walk straight off the edge.
"Cass!"
She dropped half a body length, and then a gust of white wind curled around her boots. The metal fins on her back opened, catching the current, and she rose until she was floating beside the bridge.
"Relax!" she called, grinning. "Cloudwalker, remember?"
Max leaned over to watch her. The air under her feet was moving in a tight spiral, supporting her weight in bursts rather than continuously.
’Not wings. She’s making her own lift.’
"You can teach me that?" he asked.
"Only if you change classes."
"Ah. Worth asking."
Ilan stepped onto the bridge first. He had an arrow resting on the string, although the bow looked heavy enough that Max wondered how he drew it without straining his shoulder.
They were halfway across when something moved beneath them.
A broad shadow slid across the stone.
"Down!" Ilan shouted.
Max ducked as a creature shot up from below, its narrow jaws snapping through the space above his head. It resembled a long-bodied lizard with four thin wings, but its chest was swollen by two transparent sacs that glowed faintly whenever it moved.
A second creature came from the opposite side, angling toward Cass.
Ilan’s bowstring snapped.
TWANG!
His arrow missed the first creature completely, or so Max thought. Halfway through its flight, it curved sharply around the lizard’s wing and punched into the exposed side of its neck.
The beast tumbled out of the air.
"Nice shot!" Max called.
"I know," Ilan answered, already drawing another.
The second lizard folded its wings and dove toward Max. He waited for it to commit, then drove himself forward with Burst Step, using the narrow bridge as his runway.
WHOOSH!
He caught the creature by its rear leg as it passed, yanked it down and slammed it headfirst against the stone.
CRACK!
The bridge shook beneath them, but Max kept one foot planted and drove his gauntlet through the back of its skull before it could pull free.
**Ding!**
[D-rank Kitespine slain]
[EXP +200]
**DING!**
[Level Up!]
[Level: 15]
[EXP: 20/6,200]
[Fatigue: 0]
Power ran through Max’s limbs. His shoulders relaxed as the exhaustion of the crossing disappeared, and for a moment the cold air around the bridge felt wonderfully sharp against his skin.
’Finally!’
He opened his Status before the feeling could fade.
[STATUS]
[Name: Max 79UG03]
[Level: 15]
[EXP: 20/6,200]
[MP: 228/240]
[Fatigue: 0]
[Class: Glutton (Unique) | Rank: ???]
[Class Stage: E-rank]
[Title: Gatebreaker]
[STR: 70]
[AGI: 60]
[CON: 27]
[INT: 24]
[STA: 24]
[WIL: 24]
[Skills: Devour (Rank: ???), Burst Step (Mastery: 23%), Stormbolt (Mastery: 36%), Tyrant’s Roar (Mastery: 2%), Stomach]
[Traits: Toxic Immunity (Rank: ???)]
[Devoured Experiences: Feral Instinct (100%)]
[Equipment: Unknown Gauntlet (E-rank)]
[Gauntlet Evolution: 1/5]
Max grinned at the numbers. Level 15, and his Strength had reached seventy even before accounting for what the next meals might give him.
"Max!" Darius called from the other end of the bridge. "Don’t stand there daydreaming!"
"Coming!"
Max pulled the corpse away from the edge before they moved on. Its flesh was warm and oddly light, almost as if the air inside those transparent sacs had yet to escape.
He wanted a bite. Unfortunately, all three teammates were watching him.
A few moments later, while Darius inspected the path ahead and Cass argued with Ilan about his shot, Max crouched behind a broken pillar, sank his teeth into the creature’s shoulder and chose Stats.
[WIL +1]
’Willpower? Interesting.’
He had expected Agility from something that could fly like that. Maybe the creature needed remarkable control to keep its floating sacs working.
The core was already in Ilan’s pouch. Max didn’t argue over it. They’d agreed to divide the haul at the end, and now that he had Stomach he didn’t have to worry about making room for his share.
They reached the larger island, where the air was filled with the cries of more Kitespines. Several hung motionless beneath a rocky overhang, their wings folded flat against their bodies.
Max saw the transparent sacs along their chests pulse together.
"They’re waiting for something," he said.
Ilan stopped. "What?"
"They shouldn’t be able to hover without moving their wings. Something’s holding them up. And those sacs are all glowing at the same time."
Cass looked up. "Wind current?"
"Maybe. But there’s no wind coming from that direction."
A pebble rolled from the overhang above them. It didn’t fall straight down. It curved in the air, circled once and floated back toward the cliff.
Darius watched the pebble for a long moment.
"Everyone stay close," he said. "I don’t think the creatures are the only thing we need to watch."
The pebble floated toward the cliff, then dropped as though whatever had been holding it had suddenly let go.
Max watched it bounce twice and disappear over the edge.
"That isn’t normal mana circulation," he said.
"Nothing about this place is normal," Cass replied. She had landed beside Ilan and was looking up at the Kitespines under the overhang. "Question is, can we cross without waking them?"
Darius lifted a hand. The gravel around his boots rose a few inches, settled and rose again. He frowned.
"Something’s pulling against my field. Not enough to be dangerous yet, but enough to make precision difficult."
Ilan tested the string of his bow. "Then we don’t stay here."
He started along the path, keeping to the inside of the island. Max followed, watching the suspended creatures. Their chest sacs were contracting together, their bodies lifting and settling to a rhythm he couldn’t hear.
A loose buckle on Cass’s gear struck the stone.
CLINK!
Every glowing sac brightened.
"Oh," Max said. "They heard that."