Rexus ~ Chapter 13!

“I don’t know how mush longer I can go on, ‘axon.” Jess’s words were slurring, and she was swaying on her feet. “I’m… I’m so tired. And thirsty. An’ I could really go for a nap.”

“We’ve only been awake for two days straight and moving the entire time with very little food or drink. We’ve got this.” Jaxon tried to smile winningly, but at that moment he received another debuff and his smile came out as a horrific sneer toward his partner.

Debuff: Sleep Deprivation (Rank three). Your constitution is not high enough to sustain the lack of sleep you have been accruing. Current impact: -15% all raw characteristics, rounded down to the nearest whole. -20% Skill experience gained. +20% Experience gained.

“Did you know that we gain extra experience right now? That’s exciting, isn’t it?” Jaxon prodded Jess to get her moving again, the short stop causing her head to droop - almost sending her into an unconscious state. “Since I’m already a Master of the things I really care about, I’m fine with the skill point loss. Too bad about the loss of stats though, that puts my dexterity all the way down to eighty-five. I won’t be able to escape the primates when it gets dark again.” Jaxon was half-carrying the Scout as she stumbled forward. She was hardly moving of her own volition, the loss to her stats dropping her endurance - and therefore stamina - to untenable levels. 

Jaxon was barely able to keep going on his own, and Jess was slipping further and further toward the ground. The monkeys were on their trail again, they must have come across a blood trail. Hooting and screeching was resounding through the woods, and Jaxon wasn’t sure if they were going to make it. He blinked away tears, not from sadness, but from the sudden and intense sunshine that flooded over him. Looking around, he blinked away the pain and tried to understand what he was seeing. 

A white structure stood on top of a hill almost large enough to be called a mountain. The building itself appeared to be a temple of some sort, and Jaxon realized that they had found their destination! All they needed to do now was survive long enough to reach it. “Jess! Jess, we are here! You need to wake up, there’s a steep incline here, I can’t carry you up!”

Jess mumbled something incoherently, continuing to slide down. When she was almost to her knees, Jaxon heard her speak clearly. “You should go on without me, or find a way to force me to wake up. Otherwise I’m going to stay here.”

“I hope you are sure about this.” Jaxon pulled out an extra long acupuncture needle. “The process of waking someone up is not approved, and if I were to do this in a coma ward I would be put in jail. It is going to hurt.”

Jess was somehow breathing deeply and regularly even as she responded. “Go for it, Jaxon! It’s the only way.”

“I agree, let’s begin.” Jaxon stood behind her, holding her head steady with his left hand as the long needle in his right came closer to her neck. “I am about to insert this needle into your brachial plexus, so make sure not to move until it is inserted. I have no plans to cause you permanent injury, and I’m not sure what all the world here will fix without outside intervention.”

The needle jabbed deeply into Jess’s muscle, stimulating her nerves and sending intense and shooting pain through her. Jaxon had already removed the needle by the time she was able to consciously react, so as she shot upright and whirled to face him, all she saw was the man staring at her with an excited expression and a too-wide snarling smile. His next words confused her further, especially since his lips were twisting in ways that didn’t seem to make the words that he was saying. “Did that hurt? Good! Maybe now you will be able to move yourself and I won’t need to do all the work!”

“Jaxon!” Jess teared up, the stress of no sleep and his cold words sending her mood spinning. “Why are you being so cruel?”

Jaxon looked at her with a vicious sneer, “Cruel? I’m not being cruel, you are just sleep deprived and not listening to me correctly! I’m trying to be realistic, I can’t get you up that!”

For the first time, Jess looked at their location and realized that something else was going on. They were at the temple! Well, almost. She nodded at him tiredly, the pain in her neck and shoulder beginning to fade rapidly as the muscles stopped spasming. “I understand that you had to make me wake up, but promise me you won’t do something like that again!”

“No can do.” Jaxon shook his head as he began carefully climbing the steep hill. He had to be on all fours in order to not fall, but he seemed to be in his element. Jaxon rapidly began moving up toward the temple, calling down behind him, “What if another situation arises like this? Where a little pain saves you from being torn apart? Can’t promise that I won’t save you! Also, there are animals coming, you should probably get moving!”

The howls were getting much closer, and from his vantage point Jaxon was able to see flashes of fur through the trees. Thank goodness it was still daytime! Jess tried climbing the hill without going onto all fours, but she quickly found that keeping her balance was near impossible, even with her high dexterity. Since Jaxon wasn’t looking at her, she gave in and started bear-crawling up the incline. She slipped several times, the current reduction to her stats making her far less capable than she felt she truly was.

Jess looked down, a mistake as she realized two things. One, she was already much higher than she had thought she was. Two, the primates had left the woods and were congregating at the base of the hill. They stopped there, watching and waiting. each time she slipped, they began to howl and hop up and down. By slipping, scree would be disturbed and loose stone would tumble down to where the animals waited. The rocks started coming back up as the monkeys began chucking them as accurately as they could. One clipped her as it bounced off another rock, opening a gash on her forehead that began bleeding profusely into her eyes. She wiped away the blood, almost slipping again as her moist hand lost traction.

“We are almost to the top, Jess!” Jaxon called back to her. She looked up, expecting to see the temple looming over her, and instead found that they hadn’t even moved a quarter of the way up the rocky face of the hill. “You know, in comparison to the last few days of travel. We are infinitely closer!”

“Why did I try traps? Why didn’t I just sneak up on him and stab his kidneys until they were exposed to the open air? He couldn’t have done anything about it!” Jess muttered under her breath, gasping from exertion. She started needing to pause and let her stamina refill, and each time she did so there was a chance she would simply fall asleep.

“Jess! Jess!” Jaxon’s words shattered her thoughts, and she realized that she was laying down on the hill. She had started slipping downward as well, and needed to scrabble to arrest her momentum. That was only a part of why Jaxon had started yelling though. “Behind you!”

Jess looked back and saw that there were nearly a hundred primates gathered at the base of the hill, and they had just started climbing. luckily the ascent was very steep and rocky. Where there wasn’t a handhold, the rock was quite smooth. The primates were moving faster than she was, but not by much. if she were to get moving, they shouldn’t be able to catch her. Jess got going, looking up to see Jaxon over halfway to the top. “How did you get so far up there?”

His reply came floating down to her, making Jess grind her teeth. “Continuous effort!”

Her stamina recovered slightly, Jess started climbing upward. Jaxon watched her for a moment, then nodded. She was focused now. Even though the pain was no longer keeping her awake, her willpower and survival instinct should be working together to keep her moving. He looked up, not at the temple, but at the position of the sun. “Maybe an hour before sunset? I could make it, I could make it easily, but…”

Jaxon looked down, where the simians were climbing and starting to throw rocks again. Actually, from the way that projectile splattered and stuck, not everything being thrown was a rock. With one last glance at the edge of the hill, he made his decision and waited. He wasn’t going to go down - just in case she fell or was overtaken - but when she got here he would do what he could to help her the rest of the way. The wait was torturous for him, and nearly half the time remaining for daylight had slipped away by the time she was level with him.

“Why didn’t you keep going?” Her words came between gasping breaths. Jess’s arms were shaking, and their pursuers were closing in behind them.

“Gotta make sure we both make it there. We may not be a party, but that doesn’t mean I am fine with watching you get torn apart and eaten by monkeys with feces-coated claws.” Jaxon smiled winningly at her, but her head drooped and she lightly tapped her forehead on the rock below. 

“Sometimes I just don’t know about you, Jaxon.” Jess whispered with deep exasperation. He reached over to her, and she was looking forward to some human contact, but all he did was pluck a stone out of the air that had been aiming for her head. 

“Nasty creatures.” Jaxon slid down a few feet, taking the lead beasts by surprise with a couple solid kicks. they started tumbling down the slope, taking a few with them as they careened down to the base of the hill. “Make sure not to slip or let them grab you, I’m not too excited to attempt climbing this again.”

The monkeys, understanding the danger posed by falling, were now spreading out and attempting to get ahead of the humans. Jaxon and Jess began scrambling up the slope, intent on staying ahead and alive. Twice one of the primates got ahead of them, but working together the small group was able to fend off the attacks and keep themselves from falling. Sunset came and went, the darkness settling in on them making the climb even more treacherous.

They were almost to the top, but the climb had become almost vertical. They needed a rest before attempting to continue, and so spent a few minutes sending the monkeys tumbling down the slopes. when they had a good five feet of space, they began scaling the rock. Jaxon was certain they were going to fall, but then his hand slapped down on horizontal stone! He pulled himself over the ledge, taking a deep breath before reaching back and grabbing Jess’s hand. With a grunt of exertion, he pulled her to safety.