Ruwen wished he’d stored air in his Void Band. With enough air, he could raise the oxygen level past twelve percent, which would make the methane out there flammable. But who would store something like that in their Inventory? He realized Bliz probably had. It didn’t matter, though, the fire would kill him as well.
The entire shed shook again, and a loud crack echoed like thunder inside the small space. He probably had less than a minute left. Standing, he prepared himself to fight.
The pain from his Coiled Lightning ring decreased and Ruwen smiled at the small blessing. He had entered the fifteen seconds of elemental air immunity, and fire would be next. That last thought bounced around his head.
Ruwen’s Cleverness Attribute triggered, making his brain feel like ice. Stone Echo’s overlay, Sixth Sense, Dig, Warm Welcome, and the Revolving Ring of Elemental Immunity spun like a tornado in his mind, providing a possible solution to his situation, and he only had ten seconds to prepare.
With a thought, Ruwen dismissed the roof of his shed. Using Stone Echo and Sixth Sense, he found the location of the obsidian seam in the ceiling and channeled fifty Energy into Dig. It only took him five seconds to tunnel through the thirty feet of brittle glass to the surface.
As the fifteen second fire invulnerability started, Ruwen raised his left arm, Void Band open, and sucked in the surrounding methane with a hundred Energy per second. The vast displacement of air made his ears pop, and a loud whistle made him wince as outside air rushed downward through the hole. His Void Band had created a massive negative pressure, and he hoped enough air from the surface had replaced the consumed methane.
Ruwen’s shed shattered and fell away. His Minion and Fallen Hero had long since been destroyed and all fifteen enemies stood in a semi-circle around him. Three stuns and six roots struck him, and one root succeeded.
Only six seconds remained of the fire invulnerability.
Ruwen triggered Tunnel Vision, clearing all crowd controlling effects, and granting one second of immunity.
Finally, he cast Warm Welcome for twenty Mana. The level five Fighter spell instantly created a burning dagger which would stun its target. Ruwen only cared about the fire and threw the magical dagger at the tunnel he’d made in the ceiling.
As the last seconds of fire invulnerability ticked down, the world turned orange. An explosion so loud Ruwen’s ear drums burst, arrived with a blow that knocked the air from his lungs.
Ruwen flew upward, rising on a sea of fire.
Chapter 20
As Ruwen sailed through the air, he cast Massage. The level five spell would heal thirty-two Health per second for the next thirty seconds. He had only lost one hundred thirty-three Health, but his ears had taken much of that damage. As his ascent stopped and he started falling, his hearing returned.
Ruwen turned his body to face the ground. Thankfully, Last Breath remained active, and it stopped Ruwen’s panic from swamping his brain. The explosion had thrown him almost three hundred feet high, but he knew it would only take four seconds to hit the ground, even from this height. Last Breath had sped his thoughts, stretching each second and allowing him time to appreciate his terrible situation.
Ruwen opened his Void Band a few inches, and channeled two-hundred Energy through it, but it barely slowed him. The air just didn’t have enough density to slow him, and he closed his Void Band with an angry thought.
Four years of constantly avoiding hard falls during Step training with Rami had earned Ruwen seventy-one skill levels in Tumbling, reducing his fall damage by thirty-five and a half percent. His Gold Fortified body made his entire body, including his organs, at least as strong as plate armor. But a fall from this height would probably still kill him. And if he landed poorly and took critical damage, he didn’t have a chance.
Ruwen had just used four Ability Points to max out Analyze, and he wondered if he should add a few spell points to the Worker spell Tumble. Every spell point would make another twenty feet of altitude safe. But even if he maxed it out at a hundred feet, it wouldn’t counteract his current fall.
A gigantic hole to Ruwen’s right was all that remained of the cavern, which continued to burn, and the ground under him looked like a sea of sharp rocks. Boulders surrounded him, and he figured at least a few of them would land on top of him doing extra damage. He spread his arms and legs wide, trying to catch as much air as he could and slow his decent.
Last Breath had given him a few extra seconds to think, but things didn’t look good. He needed to slow himself down to a speed that wouldn’t be fatal. Again, he found himself in a situation where a little Spirit would save his life, but the risks made that choice impossible.
If Ruwen died, though, he wouldn’t even remember this. The last time he synched to Uru was in the underground oil tunnel. Not only would he lose all the experience from whoever had died in that explosion, he would lose the knowledge of this hidden position and any chance of salvaging items from the Naktos temple. Surely those things warranted using his Spirit and the Scarecrow appearing for two seconds.
Ruwen gritted his teeth in frustration. His speed had rapidly increased, and he only had seconds left. The buff Grasp Crate caught his attention, giving him an idea. A bad one. But it beat starting the apocalypse.
For twenty-five Energy per second, Move On allowed Ruwen to create a bridge with five hundred square feet of adjustable surface area. He pictured a bridge with two fifteen by fifteen-foot triangle bases
