Tower Climber (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1) by Jakob Tanner (interesting books to read for teens .txt) 📗

evening. So long as we manipulate the air flow and have some sort of covering the candles will be protected—”

Before Max could finish he felt a subtle strengthening in the ocean breeze around him.

Cyrus smirked from across the beach along with his ally Sybil Westley.

“I won’t be tricked!” shouted Sybil, not believing any of the words she was saying. “Stay away from me and my candles!”

Chaos soon ensued as a gust of wind swept across the beach.

Cyrus Archer and Sybil Westley snickered even more. They were clearly allied together for this exam. It made sense: the two children of the most privileged and powerful families in Zestiris teaming up to crush the other students. It was the exact kind of thing they would do. Max shouldn’t have been surprised.

They did not care about working together with everyone else though. They wanted to pass the exam and see everyone else fail.

Sybil twisted her hands—obviously manipulating the wind.

“Ahh!”

A bunch of students cried as their candle flames fluttered and then sizzled out from the gust of wind.

The candle flames went out like falling dominoes, getting closer and closer to Max and Casey.

Casey quickly stretched her arm backwards and shouted, “Max—take my candle and get back!”

Max grabbed her candle and moved backwards as quickly as he thought was possible without disturbing the sensitive candle flames.

This was bad.

Sybil Westley was a talented airbringer and she’d just knocked out forty percent of the class with that gust of wind she just shot out.

Casey raised her hands and pushed the wind back, stopping the air in its tracks.

Sybil and Cyrus scowled at her from the other end of the beach.

Sybil readied another gust.

“Max!” shouted Casey. “It’s time to run! Stick to the original plan!”

They rushed across the beach as the skirmish amongst the students continued as a waterbringer attempted to retaliate against Sybil by creating a huge rising tide of ocean onto the beach.

“Go go go!” said Casey as Max hurried through the island jungle. “Stick to the plan! Head to the summit!”

Max rushed and kept an eye on the candles.

He kept thinking the same thing over and over. That was an unbelievably stupid move on Sybil and Cyrus’ part. Sure, they’d knocked out a whole group of the competition, making future exams easier. The only problem was they’d just made this current exam ten times harder. They’d created more antagonists on the island than there were before. Just under half the class would now be hunting students with lit candles. They hadn’t solved anything by what they did, but their actions had now actively made the test more difficult.

The screams of fighting students diminished the further they ran off, but there was always a hint of something coming from behind them that made them not want to stop running.

It was good they had a destination in mind. Their forethought and planning might be the only thing that saves them from failing this exam.

Hopefully.

60

Max and Casey ran for fifteen minutes without stopping.

Max still held both candles in his hands, diligently holding them steady in his arms and protecting them as to not disturb the candle flames.

“I’m very nervous about these flames going out,” said Max as he continued running.

“Don’t worry,” said Casey. “I’m using my trait to create an air pocket around us, so the wind swirls around the candles and us, but never close enough to the flame to disturb it.”

Max’s heart pounded. He was so happy he was allied with Casey at that moment. He had originally been thinking that he’d done her the favor, but right now for this current situation, having an airbringer on his side was the perfect ally.

Cliffs eventually emerged and there was a natural passage upward towards the island’s summit.

The two companions kept moving forward, keeping an ever watchful eye over their shoulders for any other students following behind.

“Are we safe?” asked Casey.

So far it seemed like no one had caught up to them. They could still be fighting on the beach or scrambling frantically through the jungle with no actual destination in mind.

BOOM!

A loud explosion of mana and energy reverberated across the island from down at the beach.

“Geez,” said Max. “Some of them are still fighting over there. I don’t think we’ll be safe until tomorrow after the exam finishes. Just under half the class will be hunting down candles now thanks to Cyrus and Sybil’s selfishness. For now, let’s keep moving to the summit.”

They hurried up the island, keeping an eye out for other students and predators.

They eventually reached the top of the summit. They could see over the jungle foliage of the island and the ocean beyond, including the boat that the examiners and the instructor were spending the evening on.

“Alright, we’re at the summit,” said Casey. “What’s our next move?”

Max looked around, the summit was another smaller jungle raised by the cliffs to rest above the jungle down below.

“We need to find a good shelter spot where we can keep our candles,” said Max. “Then we need to figure out if there’s any other way onto this summit beyond this point. Then we need to set up traps and alarms all along those points. What do you think?”

“Sounds good,” said Casey. “As I can mediate the wind around us, it’s probably better if I take the candles from you.”

Max agreed and handed her both of their candles.

If he had wanted, he could have blown out her candle, just as she could do the same to him now. Yet, with every trial they went through, their trust for each other grew. Max felt good about this.

They searched the interior of the summit jungle and found a slab of rock and set up a shelter point around it.

After they had set up camp, Casey stayed behind and guarded the two candles as Max went off to search the summit for other passages.

“Am I allowed to eat now?” said Casey.

“Definitely,” said Max.

It was imperative that they stayed properly hydrated and nourished. This was more than a physical exam,