CHAPTER 14: New heights II

Nate anderson

"Now Nate, tell me an enemy has launched an attack at you, now how should you know where the attack is coming from"

"by looking at the attack".

Suddenly Eleanor, who was standing behind me, smacked me with her cane into the side of my ribs.

"No you dolt"

Just then Eleanor put another log onto the 4 I was already holding.

"Only the weak use their eyes. If you wish to beat your enemy you must first learn to see without your eyes".

"see without my eyes?… have you gone senile you old ha-"

Before I could finish Eleanor smacked me over the head with her cane.

"pipe down and listen will you"

Eleanor walked a few steps back and closed her eyes.

"Alright now try to hit me"

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me put down those logs and try to hit me with all you got I don't want you holding back on me just because i'm old"

I carefully put the logs into a pile and walked over to Eleanor while my legs were still in recovery. I was sure I could easily land a punch on Eleanor but just then Eleanor shot towards me swinging her cane at me. I ducked down and kicked up as Eleanor who somehow knew what I was doing and sidestepped my kick. Landing on my feet I threw a punch at her but she shifted to the left dodging my punch she then swung her cane at me legs knocking me on my ass. Eleanor opened her eyes and started hysterically laughing at me.

"Oh you had so much confidence and look at you now knocked on your ass by an old woman just hilarious"

It took at least 5 minutes before Eleanor calmed down.

"Are you done?"

"Yes, yes I'm done, oh I haven't laughed that long in a while".

Eleanor walked over to me and helped me up and said.

"now how is it that I could dodge your attacks without being able to see you"

"I don't know"

"Of course you don't. I knew where you were going to strike because I sensed your energy"

"Just like what's her name… Emma you can also sense energy pools"

"Emma? You know my granddaughter?"

"Emma's your granddaughter wow you weren't wrong about energists being connected by an external force".

Eleanor walked over to me and handed me a blindfold.

"Put this on"

"Why?"

"just put it on"

Grabbing the blindfold I tied around it around my head and was spun by Eleanor till I couldn't tell which way I was facing.

Then I felt Eleanor but what felt like chopsticks in my hand.

"What are these for?"

"You'll see"

I could hear Eleanor take a few steps back and open what sounded like a jar.

"what are you doing"

"I've just released a fly you're going to catch it with those chopsticks"

"I'm going to what?"

"You're going to catch the fly by sensing its energy. It's small so its energy signal is also small so if you're able to catch the fly sensing a person should be easy by the time I'm done with you sensing energy should be second nature".

I took a deep breath and began to concentrate but just then I felt Eleanor stick something in my left ear.

"Ow what are you doing"

"I'm plugging your nose and eyes so you can't listen or smell the fly"

"You think I'm going to be able to smell the fly?".

"I'm just limiting your senses so you can be more in touch with your energy"

Once my nose and ears were plugged I took a deep breath and focused on my surroundings but other than the cold ground beneath me I couldn't hear, see or smell anything. I sat down on the ground with my legs crossed and focused on my energy pool. Then an idea came to mind when I tried to feel my energy. I could feel a faint signal from my chest. Maybe once the signal from my chest became clearer I could sense the energy of others. Minutes turned to hours and by the end of the 5th hour my energy pool became clearer to me. I could make out the details while the actual energy pool was the same as normal albeit for the colour slightly changing after my fight against Hunter I noticed the outer rim of the pool was different. I couldn't see it before but now I could see the rim was pulsating like waves and was brighter. It shined with a beautiful emerald green. Just then I felt a hand on my shoulder which startled me. Taking off my blindfold I saw Eleanor looking down at me holding a lantern because I realised it had already gotten dark.

"That's enough for the day you'll continue tomorrow at the crack of dawn so get some sleep".

James winters

It had been a couple of hours since we began venturing through the mines and I realised just how right Emma was about this place. We had tried to just go straight but in the past few hours we had somehow looped back to the cave entrance 3 times. After the 3rd time we started to place markers to find our way around and eventually we made it to what we believed to be the main mining site. We entered a massive opening in the mountains with caves all around us looking up. I could see wooden tracks stretching across the roof leading to more caves.

"It could takes weeks to find an exit in here"

Emma turned to look at me.

"Well we don't have much of a choice. We should start with the higher caves".

We climbed up until we were on the tallest mining track and we began walking. It hadn't even taken an hour but we were somehow lost again then suddenly we felt the mountain tremble under our feet.

"Is this normal"

I looked at Emma waiting for her answer but she looked just as confused as I felt.

"something wrong the mountain shouldn't tremble like this at least not after the min-"

Just then the sound of footsteps were heard heading our way.

We ducked behind a stack of dusty wooden boxes and watched as what looked to be 3 miners walked past us but what was strange was what looked to be swords strapped to their backs. I looked at Emma who also seemed to notice the weapons.

"I thought you said they stopped the mining in the caves".

I looked at Emma who's eyes were locked onto the miners who were almost out of sight.

"Emma?... what's wrong"

"I-i can't…"

"Can't what?"

"I can't sense t-there e-energy"

"Okay? Is that bad"

"Yes that's bad every thing and I mean everything has energy unless they hide the energy signals and if they can do that then we need to leave NOW"

Just then I felt a firm hand grab my shoulder. I turned and saw a tall muscular man staring down at me with his soulless eyes.

"You shouldn't be here boy"

Suddenly the man was flung back into the wall and I felt Emma grab my arm.

"We have to get out of here quickly"

"STOP THEM"

We sprinted down the cave as we heard multiple sets of footsteps behind us. We turned a corner but we were forced to stop as we saw more miners in front of us. The miner closest to us grabbed the sword off his back and dashed towards us. I pulled my glaive out and just barely had enough time to block the swing.

"Shit he's fast Noah a little help here"

Noah dashed to my side and shot an arrow into the miners shoulder. Noah ducked under a swing of another miner's sword and kicked upwards at the miner. Noah landed on his feet but wasn't able to react in time to a 3rd miner who hit Noah on the back of his head by using the butt of his sword knocking him out cold. Using my glavie I blocked the swings from multiple miners but there were too many Emma tried to help but we weren't strong enough then one of the miners grabbed Emma and held her in a choke hold till she passed out. I blocked another swing but my glavie broke in two. I narrowly dodged a swing from a miner's sword but failed to notice another miner who kicked me back. I felt my back crash into one of the wooden walls which supported the cave roof and I felt myself crash through it and fell down what seemed to have been an abandoned cave and I realised it was probably abandoned because it was basically a steep drop instead of a cave system. I felt the air rush past my face as I fell what felt like 50 feet. I stabbed my now broken glaive into the wall which slowed me down just enough so the drop didn't kill me but when I crashed into the ground I still heard a snap, looking down I saw my left leg bent unnaturally.

"Shit now's not the time for a broken leg"

This was bad, really bad. I couldn't beat even one of the miners with my limbs in tack, let alone a broken leg and weapon. I needed help but who? I pressed my earpiece again and again but the signal was weak. I was too low and too deep into the cave for it to reach anyone or that's what I thought at least but then I heard the crackle of static and finally a voice came through.

"Orion here"