26 Now with 50% more climbing

a/n: H.B. pathfinds like a champion and Frye free climbs O'rrh Sim Castle. Yelv is there too!

Feel free to skim because it went long. Underedited because same.

All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, and this climb is fairly accurate.

It started as a cross-country loop. Yelv wanted to head straight to the ruins that dominated the northern horizon. In fact, he had shot off in that direction without a glance at the others. H.B. didn't even bother to call out, merely flicking an emerald glance at Frye, who loped after his friend with practiced ease. He put a massive paw on Yelv's shoulder to bring him to a halt and said, "Lava pools and tyrants and bears that way, pal."

The route H.B. chose might have seemed overly elaborate, even precious. So much of the transit involved skimming the edges of low cliffs, avoiding perfectly smooth paths. Frye didn't complain, because he understood paths must be made smooth by something, often something with large teeth or large guns. They leapt from boulder to boulder, keeping a brisk pace when not a flat-out run, and gaining elevation with each bounce. When H.B. double-backed after a long smooth sequence of boulder jumping, Yelv started to protest, but the ease of the new route more than paid for the extra distance. H.B. clearly knew his job. Soon they had reached an ancient roadway, overlooking the central lava terrain of Cauldros. They ran smoothly, low grass waving along the edges of the pavement, until they came to the end of the road and the end of the landscape itself. One step, there was road; the next, there was empty air. The edge couldn't have been cut more smoothly with a colossal knife.

"Too bad we can't fly directly across," Yelv said. "We're about the right height to reach the fortress. Now what?"

"We jump," H.B. said. Then he made good on his words before Yelv could give the first grunt of dismay.

The fall was extreme, wind whistling past their ears, their bodies a blur, until they landed hard on a narrow but perfectly flat path running through the lava pools. No one seemed alarmed by BLADEs plummeting from the sky, not the aerial jellyfish visigel, not the playful giant snails. A few twists of the path behind them was a friendly away station. Frye thought he noticed a medi-skell parked at the away station, an unusual visitor and never one to be casually hanging out. He hoped that it was waiting for them to come back with Doug and also hoped that they wouldn't need it.

H.B. then did a most unusual thing: he hesitated. Frye grinned and pointed high in the air, toward a bronze shield on the side of the fortress that stretched from the roof to the floor. It was unmistakable, and jutted out proudly like the stern of a ship. H.B. nodded, then tossed his head back and took off running.

They didn't stop until they came to the base of the supports that held the shield in place. The supports were wide tubes of golden red metal sunk deep into the rock and rising into the smoky Cauldros sky. They were heavily decorated with huge circles or grids, each motif easily as tall as a human. Frye darted around them, checking against the info given during the briefing, finally stopping at the side of one column. "This is the baby. Let's rope up."

H.B. may have doubted how they could climb it, but he kept silent. Yelv muttered things that were a mix of admiration and suspicion, but otherwise genially let himself be hooked up to the group. Then Frye started the climb.

It seemed endless to the two non-climbers. H.B. admired how Frye used handholds that seemed nothing more than a rough patch on a flat wall, but the Pathfinder was mostly focused on his own duty of fixing ropes. A few times he and Yelv had to wait on a ledge for Frye to get past a tricky section and then drop a rope down for them. The daylight was starting to slip away. H.B. tried to remain positive. At least they hadn't faced any of the nastier weather that Cauldros had on offer. He was glad every time a loop of rope dropped down for them, although he was irked by Frye's uncanny ability to hit him square in the face with it.

After a stomach-turning shimmy across a glass smooth girder and a relatively simple climb up a panel thick with decorations of leaves and vines, the team reached solid ground. There was no cause for rejoicing though. They were no further than the base of the castle. All of their previous climbing had only let them clear the cliff it stood atop. In front of them was a smooth wall of metal, no decoration, no girders, nothing to help them. "How you gonna manage this?" asked Yelv. "We didn't bring any ladders, pard."

Frye's face showed a hint of tiredness, but his grin was as strong as ever. "Watch me."

Frye kicked off his boots, handed them to Yelv, and approached the wall with confidence. H.B. noticed that they had cleared the cliff edge directly in front of a seam that ran between the otherwise unblemished wall panels. It was the only mark on the wall, and it ran straight up into the sky. Frye wedged his hands into the narrow space and began to lift himself up.

That was the hardest section. Frye didn't rush it, but his progress was steady. When he reached the top he pulled up his teammates, not as slow but still as steady. They paused to rest in a side alcove and to let Frye put his shoes back on, under the shadow of passing mechanical Qmoeva. The flying enemy slowly swept the main approach to O'rrh Sim's entrance, their lights cutting the evening gloom. Sirens wailed relentlessly in the distance.

"We could just walk in, pard," Yelv whispered. Such quiet care was unnecessary, but the pressing closeness of the enemy made it hard to shake the feeling they needed to be as inconspicuous as possible. No one responded. The sirens were answer enough.

"Okay, next part is easy like the first beer on Friday," Frye said with a hint of longing. "At least until the last bit." True to his words, the wall they faced sloped slightly upward, and the wealth of decorations allowed enough handholds that even Yelv didn't need much assistance. Then they reached the threatened last bit, a horizontal overhang of pure slick gold, too wide to reach the edge even if Frye prayed very hard before flinging himself away from the wall with all his might. But the ice-haired Interceptor wasn't dismayed. Instead of trying for the overhang, he leapt at a nearby decorative feature, a spike that angled away from the wall. He slipped several meters below where H.B. and Yelv hung waiting, then climbed past them, pausing to wave. When he was high enough, he jumped over the gap to the hidden upper level, then swung a weighted rope down and around to them. The sharp curse let him know he had reached H.B.'s face, and he readied himself to pull the rest of the team up.

They took another much needed rest when they were reunited, but only a short one. The roof of the structure showed many more touches that were uniquely Ganglion. The heavy bronze ornamentation was gone. Instead, lights blinked crimson behind tangles of black cables, and sections were gated by interlocking scales of dull grey metal. The last part of the climb was the simplest of all, to the relief of a spent Frye. They reached the center area, a wide road that circled the lens that formed the building's roof, without trouble.

"Now we just need to get in," H.B. said. Frye nodded and rubbed his tired face.

There was a moment of silence.

"Why are you looking at me?" asked Yelv.

a/n: What I wouldn't give to Breath of the Wild all over Mira. Xenoblade X but withclimbing! Parasail! Fishing! Okay, not the point...

Next up: why are you looking at me?