[center][color=FF8C00][img]https://i.imgur.com/1MvGTuH.png[/img]

RANK 3
16/30 EXP

[b]Sandswept Sky - Graveyard of the Peaks[/b][/color][/center]

This was rough going. No, that's putting it lightly.

This was impossible.

As the doomed trek up the final stretch of the mountain got under way Raz was beginning to realize, finally, just how dangerous this was. Despite how fantastical the locales have been and how many odd monsters they've encountered, he wasn't in a mental world. If he ended up succumbing to injury, the elements, or simply taking the wrong step, he wouldn't be shunted back to the real world and be able to try again. This was it.

That didn't fill Raz with much confidence. There wasn't a surge of renewed vigor now that he understood the peril, and his adrenaline didn't kick in - that was long gone by now. If anything the thought that he would most likely die on this mountain was the final straw.

Unlike the others, flying off into the blizzard with shouts and screams, Raz went slowly, quietly. His trudging through the show, so high that it buried his whole legs, eased to a crawl. The cold wore him down, hunching the boy further and further, until it all culminated in him laying right down without a sound. There wasn't much hope in Raz, not anymore, and he let his consciousness fade, shivering alone in the snow.

Only to then find himself safe, somewhere else from the endless blizzard. For a second he thought he was dead, much like Tora even though neither could see one another. He stood, opening his mouth to address the robed figures, only for them to vanish as soon as Raz laid eyes on them. A golden glow enveloped him, and before he knew it, he was rocketing into the skies! To anyone who may have seen him in their shared soaring through the storm clouds, the young psychic looked like he was hanging onto the tail of a comet for dear life, his Levitation ball pulling him like it had a mind of its own.

With no control over any of it, all Raz could do was scream - mostly in fear, partly in fun - as the gang were given their final push towards...

[center][color=FF8C00][b]Sandswept Sky - Apex of the World[/b][/color][/center]
Bursting through the cloud layer, Raz's wild flight slowed considerably, almost as if he was just thrown into the air and was reaching the peak of the arc before the plummet back down. There wouldn't be any Raz pancakes on the menu, fortunately, as the mysterious gold boost let him carry himself by the weight of his levitation still, hovering slower than normal as he cruised towards the nearest stable surface. The view was impressive, but there had been just a bit too much that happened for Raz to appreciate it fully, right now. And while he was incredibly happy that everyone made it out okay, Raz grew a lot quieter and distant than he'd been during the climb.

Even if it ended up working out in the end, he couldn't shake the fact that he let himself fail. It wasn't the wind, the cold, the snow that had gotten him, really. He just [i]gave up[/i]. That knowledge really weighed on Raz - had he even been helpful before? What was the point of hanging around if he was going to be such a load?

When the Champion revealed itself in all its unusual, gigantic glory, Raz pushed his goggles back up his head. The scale of the monster made his knees buckle, and he took a step back to stop himself from falling. There was no way he could do anything against [i]that[/i]. "Uhh, hey, I think you guys got this one," Raz said, the first thing out of his mouth since they arrived. "I'm going to stay here with..." He glanced back at Redenton, "that guy, you know, keep him safe. Keep Scout company since, well, he needs the rest more than any of us, right? Hah..."[hr][center][color=FF8C00]Word Count: 655
EXP Gain: +1[/color][/center]