Camila stood up again, and the two made their way down the platforms, this time using the front. They still moved urgently but with a noticeable lack of pep.


    Backtracking the path they’d taken there, they reached the shorn pyramid tops without incident. Sam crouched low, infused himself with aether, and leaped from island to island. A gust struck him in the side on the last one before solid ground. He windmilled and regained his balance enough to make a final jump. Breathing hard, he exchanged a celebratory fist bump with Camila.


    They slinked their way past the fallen cube, keeping an eye out for any rogue vibrations. None came. Except, near the end of the valley, Sam heard the pitter-patter of steps behind them. He signaled to stop and turned his head slowly from side to side, listening. Nothing. Five feet more, and it happened again. And again. They’d caught a very persistent shadow. Sam gestured to suggest an ambush, but Camila shook her head and signaled to keep going. Sam nodded in understanding. Speed was of the essence. They sped off as fast as they could, giving up any attempt at subterfuge.


    They reached the midpoint, where they originally entered the course. Sam’s chest burned from running so hard, and he clutched his knees, panting. He tried moving aether through his chest, but it was like his lungs had been stabbed, and he gasped and stopped right away. Electrical aether and lungs must not mix all that well. He took a deep breath. Phew, they still worked.


    Formations of blocks and cubes greeted them, presenting a variety of different paths. A less-winded Camila consulted her wristband and took advantage of the mapping done by their teammates. She pointed to an opening to the right.


    They ducked through a tucked-away archway, only to be met by a large chasm that stretched the width of the cube. A cylinder, about five feet wide and the length of a football field, bridged the gap. It was the only path across. The chasm had no bottom. Sam tried not to look.


    Camila moved toward the cylinder, but Sam stopped her and patted his ears. A high-pitched whine emerged from the end of the cylinder nearest them. They inched closer and could feel air buffeting their bodies. Then it stopped and the whine became a howl as the air rushed back into the cylinder and flew in the other direction.


    Sam tapped his wrist. They needed to time it right. Each revolution of air lasted about a minute. If they entered with the air at their back, they might make it across in time to avoid the reversal.


    The exact second arrived, and they plunged inside. The power of wind at their back was such that Sam had to strive to avoid pitching forward.


    Once they reached the halfway mark, the cylinder began to turn slowly. Gah. He made it a few extra steps without losing balance, but the rotation picked up speed. Desperation cleaved all extraneous thoughts from existence, allowing him to push even further into the second step. He flushed his legs with a burst of aether and, energy restored, surged past Camila. As the cylinder picked up speed, he lost traction and shifted to the balls of his feet. He tap-danced his way up to the opening at the end, then rushed through with all he had.


    Camila’s head emerged a split second behind him, right as the cylinder forcefully twisted to its side. Fearing Camila would slip and get trapped, Sam ignored the cramps in his sides, dropped down, and threw his hand out. In the space of a microsecond, she dived forward and grasped the hard edge of the ground that Sam stood on. She held on tightly with one hand. Sam immediately grabbed her other one and pulled her up.


    They sat, chests heaving. A foot away, the cylinder thrashed from side to side. Anybody inside would be shaken violently. It was survivable but would sure leave behind a fair share of bruises.


    “If there is somebody tailing us, I wish them luck,” Sam muttered, not without sympathy.


    Not fully recovered but needing to keep moving, they turned to what faced them. An impassable wall stretched in both directions, but Camila pointed out an opening right at the edge where the wall met the boundary of the cube. They squeezed through, then for a good minute, they were confined to the thin path. Sam did his best to avoid touching the cube, fearing he’d fall through.


    At last, the corridor ended, only to morph into a dark alleyway in between large, heavy blocks. Not relishing traversing in such an enclosed space, Sam stepped forward, eager to get this part over with. However, Camila stopped him with a raised hand. She pointed out some well-hidden handholds in a nook around the corner from the alleyway.


    The wall rose around forty feet. Unlike at a rock-climbing gym, they’d have no harness. Sam’s heart fluttered as he attempted to map out the route he’d take. If he lost his grip, it was doubtful he could activate the jetpack in time to avoid splatting against the ground. The fear disrupted his connection to aether, and his legs weakened. The downside to relying on aether too much.


    Camila had evidently decided not to wait because she rotated her arms, kicked her legs up, and sprang onto the wall. Guess we’re doing this. He watched as she swiftly moved from hold to hold. Your teammates are depending on you, Sam. He took a measured breath, exhaled his anxiety, and positioned himself against the wall. He tested the first grip. It held firm. He grabbed the second. You got this. His instincts kicked in, allowing his feet to act on their own. Reached for the third. Took hold of the fourth. Kept going and never looked down. The distance to the top shrank, bit by bit. Finally, he heaved himself over and breathed the biggest sigh of relief possible. Camila smiled at him warmly and imitated clapping.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Their height gave them a decent view of the overall course. The landscape around them revealed itself to be a field of jagged blocks, like the roofline of a medieval town. Eventually, the blocks dropped off, opening to a wide, open space, occupied by a series of concentric circles, with only a void in between them. A familiar structure stood on the central circle, but this time with green stripes. The overall formation reminded Sam of Saturn and its rings.


    Camila and Sam shared a meaningful look. They were in the home stretch, but a lot of the territory remained to be covered.


    Sam spotted movement to the left of the circles. A hollowed-out cube loomed in the distance. Inside it, human-shaped figures faced off in groups, looking like a classic standoff. It appeared their teammates had embroiled themselves in a conflict.


    Too late, Sam realized that they’d exposed themselves. One of the members of the group closest to them turned in their direction and spotted them across the distance. They wasted no time getting the attention of the others, who collectively disengaged from the fight and sped off the cube, into the morass of lower-lying shapes.


    The other group observed and followed suit. Sam hadn’t been able to tell which group was which, but in either case, they now had a race in front of them to reach home base.


    Feeling fresh from their victory over the wall climb, he and Camila held nothing back, zipping across the tops of the blocks. He bounced from one awkwardly sloped surface to another, his thighs flexing. Maybe I have a future in parkour.


    His lungs again burning, he hoped the cetoprene suit could keep up with his oxygen needs. He clutched the flag in his left hand, willing himself to hold onto it no matter what. At last, they reached the top of the last block. Judging the distance ahead of him, Sam reinforced his legs with aether, took a running start, and jumped onto the outermost circle, which was about three feet wide. He skidded to a stop just a few inches from the side.


    Camila hadn’t joined him. He cast a glance backward and saw her wrestling with a blue-colored figure. Their shadow had made it after all.


    The shadow lunged toward Camila and almost succeeded in pushing her off the block they stood on, but Camila crouched low and scooted away from the edge. A pang of concern almost caused Sam to turn back, but he braced himself to go on. The second he reached the base, this would all be over.


    Right as he crouched to start his leap to the next circle, a cetoprene-covered hand reached out and snatched him, grabbing hold of the arm carrying the flag. His momentum arrested, Sam had to push off the edge of the circle to keep from falling.


    He turned up to face his attacker. The hand holding onto him had grown warm, uncomfortable so. The face a foot away from him revealed itself to be Victor’s, wearing a devilish grin.


    The heat began to build, like he’d stuck his arm in an oven. Feeling the start of a blister, Sam pulled as hard as he could to wrench his arm away, but Victor managed to keep his grip. Sam grunted in pain and twisted his head to look for reinforcements. Elias was running up to them, followed by Nadia. On the next circle over, Win danced around a blue fighter, who avoided his strikes through a series of fast and slow jumps. That would be Manal, making Jun, the fourth member of the Aces, the likely candidate for their shadow, now currently grappling with Camila.


    Elias and Nadia skid to a halt behind him. Given the narrowness of the circle, they couldn’t get past him to fight off Victor without risking somebody falling off. They both stared at him helplessly.


    By now, a burn had formed on Sam’s arm, and he let loose a howl of agony. He lacked the concentration to summon any electricity to fight back. Then came the outcome he dreaded: he lost control of the muscles of his hand. He watched in horror as his hand unclenched and the flag rolled down his fingers and floated into the open air.


    Adrenaline and stress caused time to slow. A breeze caught the flag and the angle of its descent changed. Rather than landing on the circle, it would spiral down to the depths below and be lost forever.


    A new one would generate back at the Aces’ base, but Sam couldn’t accept that outcome.


    Victor yelled triumphantly as the flag sailed through the gap between the circles. He released Sam’s arm. Although it still pulsed with heat, it stopped hurting just enough to allow clarity of mind to return to Sam. He faced a choice. Camila’s face flashed in front of his eyes, full of determination to win. He wouldn’t let her down. Nor the rest of his teammates.


    He pressed his hands together and dived after the flag.


    The flag had only floated a few feet below them, so Sam caught up to it easily. Seconds ticked by as he tucked his knees into his chest and somersaulted midair. The movement came so fluidly that Sam could barely understand how he’d done it. Sweat from the exertion and the residual heat from Victor’s assault dripped down his forehead. Blinking, he looked around him.


    Oops. Huge mistake. His heart almost jumped out of his chest. Shit. Do something, you idiot. He brought up his wrist and toggled his jetpack. The jetpack heaved into action, and he began to climb. Every cell in his body throbbed. Did he pull it off? Please let this work.


    His short-lived euphoria was shoved aside as a downdraft of wind pushed on him. His jetpack sputtered and quit.


    Oh, God.


    He fell rapidly, and the ceiling of the transparent box grew distant. Once he crashed through the bottom and exited into the Saturn wilderness, he was done for. He thought he heard a scream. Was it his own?


    He closed his eyes. Frigid air rushed past him. He made a prayer and thought of his mother. He hoped she would forgive him. A sob wrecked him.


    He didn’t want to die, but he’d made a go of it. He could make peace with that.


    He willed his eyes open to at least observe the view as he descended, so he could see a place no human may ever witness again. But then something large hit him, knocking the breath out of him. Appendages . . . arms? . . . encircled him and his momentum arrested.


    What? How? Elias’s sweat-drenched face was inches away from his, though he was looking up. Sam followed his line of sight to see his sister crouched over the side of the circle, her hands outstretched in their direction.


    They accelerated and made up the distance. A flood of relief and wonder washed over him. Thank you.


    At the same time, a cloud of dizziness descended on his mind. His stomach churned viciously, and he saw stars. On the aether plane, sludge overwhelmed his barrier and splashed into him, sending lightning bolts hurling all about.


    He flung the flag toward his sister and then all went black.