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[img]https://i.postimg.cc/L5r26P82/Star-Fox-Final.png[/img]

[color=5edaf6]Level:[/color] 6 (48 -> 50/60)
[color=5edaf6]Location:[/color] Sandswept Sky - Tostarena Town -> Redstone City
[color=5edaf6]Word Count:[/color] 1200 (+2 EXP)
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When the suggestion of downsizing their collective unit for ease of management on the mountain ascent was brought to attention, Fox quietly sat out any debates of attendance that followed. He expected he could trust each party member to individually assess themselves and their capabilities and make their own judgements about their ability to make the climb unhandicapped. If they had any doubts about making it to the top, or otherwise suspected they would more burden than benefit the group trying, it was up to them to speak up and opt out for their own safety and that of their fellow Seeker, for which no one would blame them. They each knew themselves better than any, and could best be their own judge on the matter, as he saw it. All he knew for certain was that [i]he[/i] would be going regardless, and whatever may happen as a result, he would accept responsibility for.

Between the Heavy, Medic, BP, Ciella, and Sly (whom almost no one else on the team knew about), they accounted for a total of five stay-behinds out of their crew of two dozen, with Yoshitsune tentatively recommended for reserves as well. One of the town’s resident guardians assured them that they wouldn’t want for activity if they stayed behind, prospectively cutting into the idea of having a reserve force, but Fox couldn’t pretend to mind. Were he among the staying, he might oblige the town and its people however he could, and among those making the trek, he was confident as always that they could prevail with what they had. At any rate, he saw no means of expediently summoning reserve aid should they need it anyhow, which brought to mind a couple of vital concerns of planning and contingency.

[color=5edaf6]“I wouldn’t count on it,”[/color] he began by weighing in on the frankly ludicrous notion of luring the Guardian down from its nest on the mountain peak. [color=5edaf6]“We’ll be fighting it [i]and[/i] the mountain on the way down if we try.”[/color] If they (rightly) thought scaling the mountain would be difficult, coming down from it with one of the World’s dozen apex entities right on top of them the whole way would make for a hellish exercise in task management they might regret considering, never mind the collateral threat it posed to the town (and possibly beyond) should they hypothetically succeed. Fox almost preferred the idea of turning the Railway Gun on it from where they stood if he honestly thought it a viable option. Range, accuracy, altitude disparity, risk of causing avalanche/rock slide, and attrition least of all were just a few among several conceivable impediments to an artillery-based approach. [color=5edaf6]“We’ll be fighting on [i]its[/i] territory either way. We may just have to accept that and make the most of it,”[/color] he concluded, simply to keep expectations reasonable.

As it happened, the luchadora was able to bring them directly to a passable solution, one that would conveniently allow the climbing party to beam the ground team directly to the summit with them if they so choose. Fox, however, did have one suggestion: [color=5edaf6]“We should leave one down here,”[/color] he said, referring to the recieving portcrystals, naturally assigning an adjoining ferrystone with a climber. [color=5edaf6]“If anything happens, we’ll have to be able to get someone out; someone who can get word home if we don’t make it back.”[/color] This was essentially the same plan going the opposite way to serve an alternate purpose, and if enough stones were available to keep a two-way option open, potential volunteers could work that out amongst themselves prior to the team setting off. They had [i]then[/i] to figure it out, and later to make good on their options.

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Tostada, apparently having done this no small number of times, was glad to lead the Seekers up on the first stretch of their ascent, and Fox contentedly fell in behind her. She forewarned them of the first obstacle of reckless joyriders they would encounter on the way, assuring them that wouldn’t pose too much of a threat, and certainly not intentionally. Be that as it may, if said obstacle, the first and least of several to come, felled or gave hard pause to any of them, that would confirm for any in doubt whether or not it would be better for them to push on with the rest or stay behind and wait for them to clear the peak.

Anyone who could or cared to appreciate it had enough time before the initial challenge to take in nature’s splendor as they passed through one of its fine examples; a welcomed, pleasant reminder that deserts weren’t always so barren as to be devoid of value. A veritable peak range in itself, the graduation of burnt red spires tightly formed together almost as if by design gave the impression of having once been settled—or meant to be—and would have almost come as a surprise to find out that no one was taking advantage of it by making there a home for themselves. Surprising, if not for what it [i]was[/i] being used for.

The first bike crashed headlong into Tora, putting his improved defensive reflex to work right away, with utter disregard by its rider for their own safety, demonstrably for lack of need. The perpetual reset autoroutine allowed them to forego caution to focus expressly on building and maintaining speed and momentum, though at the expense of those who weren’t part of the race. The group responsively made their own haste setting up a defensive front against all manner of oncoming hill traffic that threatened to run them down. Along with Tora came Jesse, Braum, Midna and the Queen to establish a protective front line, revealing also just how many more ‘shields’ they turned out to have. Of course, they would get nowhere fast by simply staying behind it, as Razputin had realized aloud. Him and Midna both were right, in a way. The line had to end [i]somewhere[/i], and all lines for sure ended [b]at the start[/b]. To get [i][b]behind[/b][/i] them, rather, would see them past this.

Rather than sit tight and wait to see if they stopped coming, Fox decided to put his theory to the test by timing hard presses forward against traffic, moving from cover to cover between passes. The various riders were comparatively easy enough to sidestep or bound over, but the dense, rotund golems and seals of stone skin and thick white fur respectively that rolled and bounced downhill in tandem tacked on an unneeded layer of complication to their effort, as well as posing an evidently greater inherent danger to the health of bystanders. Though not without a share of near misses, Fox was soon able to get a cursory read of their trajectories based on the difference in how they moved, pivoting around pillars and hugging walls to slip by the Gorons, and ducking low in his sprints to pass under the Shiverians, taking special to flatten his profile for when they hit the banks, diving and sliding as needed. If there was an answer to their predicament at the top of the foothill, he was putting himself at risk to reach it.