Skye is the Limit by Phenomenal Pen (best time to read books txt) 📕

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They set out to the Orc Mother’s Nest as soon as they had agreed on their battle plan, leaving no tip to their over-enterprising landlord who kept measuring their heights with a long strip of leather for his coffin-making side business.

The Dreamwalkers learned that, in Erebus, there was no switching of night and day. Mage probably knew this but didn’t inform them (because they didn’t ask). There were in fact two suns. One rose in the west just as the other was dipping in the east, robbing the entire world of nightfall.

They had also glimpsed a few pocket timepieces back in Hordo’s collection which showed a full second divided into sixty 16.6 millisecond increments. Man-At-Arms supposed it was because everything needed to be rendered at 60 frames per second in that world. But this metaphysical glimpse into the inner workings of Erebus was soon dismissed by his short-term memory as just another brain fart. 

Three significant events happened on their way to the Orc Mother’s Nest.

First, still following the map they had looted from the Lord Thorne, they proceeded to traverse a mountain named Tri-Gludair because of the shape of its summit. With the aid of his Anima bracelet, which could show 3-D terrain, the Count had selected the easiest ascent route for their party; a Grade 1 scramble that led directly up a ridge. It was on the ridge that they were attacked by a chimera, a cross between a giant mountain goat and a hedgehog. It shot its quills at them like only an RPG monster could.

The chimera provided a good spar for them; a practice before the real thing. Instinctively, Bear Tooth protected himself with his scutum but at the same time he manifested an auric dome-shaped force barrier which shielded the rest of the party. Inside the safety of the force barrier, Man-At-Arms discerned a pattern in the attacks and the directions that the chimera shot its quills.

He coached the Count when to step out of cover, how to time his dashes to avoid the quills, and where to tic tac off the rock face to deliver the blow. Man-At-Arms figured that the Count should take this opportunity to practice with his new sword. The chimera was easy enough to fight and the Count might finally find his self-confidence. Man-At-Arms had also assumed, for some undefined reason, that the Count would be familiar with parkour techniques. 

Unfortunately, the Count got cold feet and missed the beat when he was supposed to make the jump. He closed his eyes and curled up as a rain of quills hurtled towards him.  

In a flash, Mage was standing over him with his arms spread and projecting a smaller auric dome, a humpback that was the breadth of his arms. The quills ricocheted harmlessly off them.

In the end, it was Nethril who executed Man-At-Arms’ instructions – flawlessly and with accurate timing. She was like a dancer or a gymnast as she evaded the monster’s attacks and then took the opening and delivered the fatal arrow. The chimera slumped lifeless and then burst into a mound of gold coins.

216 GOLD, announced an ephemeral 3-D sign.

The second incident was a close encounter with The Faceless Horseman. It happened in a mountain pass overlooked by larger-than-life busts of the great kings of men, which had been sculpted into the rock face by slave giants. From Mage’s brief history lesson, it turned out that the empire of Adam had long fallen so most of the colossal carvings had been vandalized and lay in ruins. They still looked grand but didn’t bode well for the Dreamwalkers.  

At first, they thought the Faceless Horseman was another monster they had to face but he passed innocuously by on his black horse. When Dreamwalkers and horseman were alongside each other, they saw that both rider and horse were heavily armored. The horse trailed fire from its nostrils and, in spite of its peytral and crupper, its sides were peeking and the Dreamwalkers glimpsed that the flesh had been eaten away, exposing its ribcage.

The rider rode tall, sporting pauldrons that were oversized, spiked and unfurled a long blood-red cape underneath it. Instead of being draped down his horse’s thighs, the cape was in tatters and defied the law of gravity by swaying like the flag of a sunken pirate ship.

His head was unhelmed but it didn’t help one bit because, as his name suggested, he was faceless. It was as though he was wearing black stockings over his head; except that was his head. He and his horse would also flicker like electronic interference.

The Faceless Horseman vanished as soon as he had galloped by them, leaving chills and a strong feeling of premonition in the middle of the day.

“What was all that about?” Man-At-Arms asked.

“You might find it hard to believe,” Mage said, “but what you have just witnessed was a ghost.”

“A ghost?!” everyone echoed.

“Here inside the Sky-Earth program?” Man-At-Arms pressed.

“Call it a digital ghost if you wish,” Mage said without looking back. “A simple glitch in the system. Pay it no heed.” 

The third and last occurrence was their arrival at a water well. Oddly enough, the well had been filled in and capped by a material that resembled concrete because of its smoothness. The Dreamwalkers with the exception of Mage and Man-At-Arms couldn’t begin to imagine why a well would be dug and then closed up, but Man-At-Arms acted as though he was a nomad that had discovered an oasis in the middle of the desert. He was hugging the structure and almost crying tears of joy.