Seeking Abyss

Leo reached to grab her hand before she slipped from the vertical fall. He grunted from grasping her weight, and she also got another flashback to when he did the same during the physical test. Leo was never going to catch a break whenever he was with her.

Her heart plummeted to her stomach as she swallowed in her startled scream since she didn't want to alert anything that could be out there and distract Leo since he was still pulling up her from the side of the ground that completely fell apart into the darkness.

It was a space so deep that she couldn't fathom if it was a natural occurrence that only led to the dirt of the earth and another opening way that could lead anywhere else. Her feet dangled, and she tried her best to help Leo out by pushing off the side of the dirt to push herself upwards.

With one last stride, Leo grappled her over the edge that was still slowly creeping its way down as its sibling land predecessors. She didn't know how Leo was so strong but was immediately grateful that her partner was her lifesaver.

Felicity patted Leo's shoulder and arm that he was massaging from the stress that he put on it, and she stuck her head out to the side and perused the fall despite it already being dark, one couldn't see anything.

The crack in the earth was so dark and black which lead her to believe that it was practically a whole to the abyss of the center of the world that could lead to another portal as it felt when she jumped through the engyure that made her go through another one. Chills ran down her back as the dark hole was taunting her.

Felicity looked up at Leo to see how he was doing, and he was also inspecting the black void with the longer strands of hair on the top of his head blocking his eyes. Hooking her over his right shoulder much to her surprise, he suddenly tossed her over to the side.

With her flailing arms, she cursed and grabbed onto the tree with all of her might, wrapping her arms and legs around the skinny trunk like a koala despite the tree easily being a target to fall due to its easy stature and breathed out, "Leo, oh my god. What was that?"

"This part is going to fall. I can't have you falling into the abyss."

"But you could have given me a heads up. Jesus, I thought it was over for me."

"The bigger thing we need to figure out is the fact that the world is breaking apart," he muttered.

She cringed and hoped that that wasn't the case. "I can see that. What do you even think it is?"

"I don't know," he muttered. "It is likely related to the engyure."

"It was similar to the psychological test that I had," she whispered. "Everything was distorted like this."

Leo nodded. "With all the colors vibrant it started to swim."

Felicity clicked her tongue. "Exactly."

"Call Medina," he said as he got up to his feet after crouching down to practically save her from her awaited death.

Felicity wrinkled her nose. "Uh, I can't at the moment."

He sighed and pushed in his earpiece. "Medina. Leo here. Where we are now, the surroundings are starting to shift. Is this normal or should we turn back?"

Nothing but crackling returned to him, and Felicity stared at him wordlessly before laughing lightly despite their dire circumstances. "That is just our luck."

"We need to get out of this area as soon as possible before the ground underneath us gives out," Leo said.

Felicity nodded. She placed one foot over to the grassy bit of land that was slanted and slipped slightly when she put her weight down on the leg. "I need a little help here."

Leo brushed the dirt and sand off of his knees and slowly crawled over to where she was which was honestly a good idea since it would be too cocky for anyone to say that their balance was good enough to beat a vertical surface. He grasped her arm tightly and pulled her up to his side.

Felicity laid flat on the ground, and her chest rose and fell as she took in deep breaths of relief. Every single moment could make or break their lives, so they had to be extremely careful going forward.

The sky was a midnight blue and twinkling with stars that were starting to brighten up as the daybreak of dawn was coming up in the next few hours. The only thing that did stick out however was the somewhat dim light beam that went straight into the air which was similar to what a flare would do.

She slapped a hand down on Leo's arms multiple times. "I see a light beam, Leo. I think Medina is calling for us to go there."

It was quite dim in the distance, and it didn't help that the tall trees were blocking the only sign that could lead them back to safety.

They eventually got up and used each other as support to shuffle up the slanted area to make it to flat ground. It was hard knowing that one mistake could cost them their lives, but Felicity didn't bother to say anything that could get them off task, and they made their way up to the top.

Felicity turned on the lamplight on her suit as well and turned it up a few notches to help light up the area since she forgot to do so earlier because she was distracted. She turned back to glance around suspiciously when she heard a snapping sound.

A sharp glint of the light crossed Felicity's eyes, making her cringe from the pain of the blindness, and she fluttered open her eyes to see the raures in the distance. The metal looking thin on their back seemed different from what she and Leo had encountered on their physical tests.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a second and internally screamed to try and gather the frustration that was about to start pouring out since she just wanted to go home. It was worrying since the raures looked a lot different this time around. If anything, they looked more hostile.

There were shiny and metallic spikes on their backs, and there were even of them that had tails that reminded her of scorpions due to the number of spikes mounted at the end of their bodies like a stinger. The light from her suit reflected off of there.

Felicity fiddled with the hilt of the dagger that came with the suit which wasn't anything too special, unlike her affinity weapon that she greatly wanted at the moment, and glanced over at Leo to see what he was pondering.

"Are we running or are we fighting?" she finally asked.

There was a beat and then a pause. He sighed. "Let's run."

Felicity snorted. "That's new."