[center][img]https://images2.imgbox.com/58/e5/jrKhVDm8_o.png[/img]
[color=fff200]◉ ◉ ◉[/color]
[i][color=b99e6b]Level:[/color] 5
[color=b99e6b]EXP:[/color] 17 / 50
[color=b99e6b]Location:[/color] The Midnight Walk - Cave of the Forlorn[/i][/center]

Luckily, for Professor Layton if no one else, the climb up the mountain thus far had been lax. It gave him time to sift through the thoughts he was having, the weight of this venture, and where his place in it might be. Fighting against a supposed god that had enslaved whole worlds was a bit [i]loftier[/i] than what he usually dealt with. Though that might be true for his companions as well.

Maybe there'll be a time to swap stories later.

It wouldn't be today at least. The further up the Midnight Walk they got the colder and darker the environment grew. Soon it was too cold to travel, and they had to find refuge in a cave, where spirits weren't so high after the climb and the worsening conditions. Layton had started a pot of tea by the fire, but by that point most everyone else retired for the night. They'd been up for quite a while he supposed. Perhaps he was just used to late nights.

Layton left the kettle of tea on the fireplace in case anyone decided to have some during the night and retired to his own tent. After the day's events, a nice quiet sleep would be good for them all...

He only really woke up when he was already falling.

The immense cracking of the cavern jolted him out of his rest, but the Professor's faculties didn't truly return until there was no more ground beneath him. Now scrambling in freefall, Layton shimmied most of what he could manage out of his sleeping bag - he didn't chance a safe fall from this height, so in the chaos he snatched his collapsed tent from around himself, knotted the ends around one of its posts, and had rigged himself a makeshift parachute. The fabric caught on the air of a warm vent he'd managed to tumble over, turning Layton's plummet into a much slower drift.

[color=b99e6b]"Everyone, get to higher ground!"[/color] He shouted as the bugs started pouring through holes, threatening to surround the Seekers in their disarray. Well, not on his watch, if he could help it. Layton angled himself towards a part of the horde on the fringes, kicking his sleeping bag the rest of the way off, and followed suit not long after, dropping onto the back of one such [url=https://images2.imgbox.com/3a/19/258Yp9KI_o.png]beast[/url]. A swing of his arm draped the tent over the bug's head, a tug to get it stuck on the thing's mandibles, and a dig of his toe into one of its spinal ridges; now the Professor was practically rearing it like a horse. It bucked and tossed, trying to get itself free, which is what Layton wanted as its furious thrashing knocked into its fellow insects.

Anything to level the playing field.

In the midst of it Layton spied a couple [url=https://images2.imgbox.com/fe/89/nhbXphkN_o.png]stalactites[/url] that looked unsecured from the rest of the ice formation. Waiting for a lull in the monster's movements, he threw the tent spike still in his hand as hard as he could (-1 [color=fff200]◉[/color]), landing true. The spike pinged off one and into the other, cracking both with enough force to send them both hurtling down into the crowd. Whether they crashed on any of the bugs or broke and shattered, surely it would be disruptive enough to give everyone an edge.[hr][center][color=b99e6b]Word Count:[/color] 555
[color=b99e6b]EXP Gained:[/color] +1[/center]