Solomon's Crucible 22. A Leap of Faith (Patreon)

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The rock flew smoothly through the air, tracing an arc that terminated against the hide of the nearest lioness with a soft thunk. She leaped to her feet and looked around, for a moment seeming like nothing so much as a big house cat looking for a ball of yarn. Then she laid eyes on Solomon and her expression twisted with the same rage that had overcome every other animal he'd encountered since the system showed up.

He turned and ran. Behind him he heard a snarl that assured him that at least one lion was hot on his heels. The others were probably tagging along, not that he would take the time to look.

He had to focus on the path ahead of him. That, and putting one foot in front of the other as quickly as he could.

He hadn't done much running since the system arrived. He hadn't done a ton of running before, either, to be honest. He'd enjoyed hiking and spending time outside, but he'd never been in a big hurry to get where he was going.

He was in a hurry now. He could feel the burn in his legs as he pushed for that last bit of speed. He could feel his feet pounding into the ground. He was breathing hard, his body greedily snatching in every ounce of oxygen it could.

He didn't feel a stitch in his side. He didn't feel the burn of exertion turn into outright pain. No signals were being sent to his brain warning him that he needed to stop. He'd wondered earlier if the system's boosts to dexterity were helping him out. Now he was certain that the system was doing something that let him push past what used to be his limits.

Which was just as well. The lions weren't about to let him stop for a breather.

Solomon saw an X drawn in the dirt up ahead. He adjusted his stride so that his right foot came down square on the X, then jumped forward and to the left. His left foot came down on a tree root, and he jumped again, this time forward and to the right. He held his breath, waiting for the moment of truth. Time seemed to slow down while he sailed through the air.

Thankfully, his zig-zag jump had carried him far enough that his foot came down on solid ground. After a brief stumble, Solomon righted himself and kept running.

Behind him, there was a crash and an angry roar that ended in a yelp of pain. The first pit trap had worked, then.

Solomon kept running. The other lions would be able to jump over the pit easily, now that they could see it. Assuming they were chasing him. 

When he'd made his plans he'd assumed his pursuers would be roaring in anger. As it was, he couldn't hear a thing over the pounding of his footsteps and the blood in his ears. The minimap in the corner of his vision was no help, refusing to mark the position of enemies he couldn't detect for himself. 

It was unnerving, but he grit his teeth and stuck with the plan, pushing himself to keep his speed up. Soon enough, he saw the next X. Another zig-zag jump had him over the trep without missing a step this time.

He had taken about five more steps when another crash sounded out behind him. Another roar. Another yelp of pain. It seemed his head start was just about used up. Fortunate, then, that he'd put the last two pits so close together.

Ahead of him, a vine dangled over the center of the path. Solomon took firm hold of it with his hand and activated his Dash ability for the first time in earnest.

The world blurred around him. He didn't feel like he was moving his feet any quicker, but the sudden gust of wind in his face gave visceral confirmation that the ability had worked. For a crucial instant he accelerated at a rate he associated more with a roller-coaster than any human-powered effort.

As soon as he reached the end of the slack on the vine he took a last lunging step. The Dash ability came to an end, but it hardly mattered. He wasn't running any more, he was swinging through the air. The vine whipped him upward quickly enough that he felt for a moment he had left his stomach behind. As his ascent slowed, he focused through the disorientation and reached out with his hook, slamming it home over a tree branch that was just barely within his reach.

He used the last of his momentum to swing his hand over and take hold next to the hook. Once he was hanging securely from the branch he chanced a look backwards.

Solomon's final opponent was the male lion. He was running hell for leather as he plunged straight into the last trap. Just as before, there was a great crash and a great roar.

Unlike last time, there was no pained yelp at the end. Instead, Solomon's heart sunk as the lion came leaping out of the pit, not a mark on him. 

When Solomon saw that, he didn't waste any time hauling himself up to the tree branch. It was an awkward maneuver with hand and hook. He might not have been able to manage it at all if not for the strength the system had given him. Fortunately, he made it up without mishap. Once he'd secured his perch he looked down and found the lion glaring at him with murder in its eyes.

Solomon grimaced. Some might say that two out of three ain't bad, but he had really been hoping the traps would clean up all of the lions. What's worse was that he still had the strongest one left to deal with.

He was pretty sure he'd seen in a nature documentary that the female lions did all the hunting out in the wild. Obviously, the system was playing a little fast and loose with mother nature. He'd been lucky so far not to run into any overtly magical animals, but that luck had run out. The lion below him had some kind of system enhancement that had allowed it to smash right through the spikes he'd left in his pit trap. It would be nice if it was the result of a temporary ability that had been used up, but Solomon could hardly count on that.

He looked back down the path. At least neither of the lionesses was trotting up to join the party. If they could have shrugged off the traps, they would have done so by now.

Solomon only had one animal standing between him and the end of this floor. Even so, he still had quite a lot of work to do.

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