There was a bar sticking off the side of one of the giant columns. That in itself wasn't enough, but hooking his weapon onto it would allow Clover to swing across to a small ledge on the next column after it. He was confident he could make the distance. From there, he would be in a good position to catch someone and haul them up to safety. While it would be risking losing his balance, he felt that he could most likely rely on his luck to keep the ledge from collapsing or to keep him from tipping over and falling. The advanced vantage point was also quite appealing, seeing how the dark conditions inside this huge chamber made it difficult to see very far, and all the thick columns hid a lot of their surroundings from view.

Ruby quickly ran ahead, leaping off the platform they were all standing on at the entrance. Activating her Semblance, she turned into a blur of a red ball, weaving through the air towards the nearest column. Once she was near enough, she burst out of the tiny ball of energy, Crescent Rose unfolding rapidly in her hands, and expertly jammed the pointed tip of the blade into a slot that had been waiting in the stone face. It looked like it was placed there specifically for this kind of use, and just like her, Weiss flew past on a trail of glyphs, angled down towards a lower point on the next column past her, where she opportunistically thrust Myrtenaster into a small hold. Ruby had spotted the slot from the entrance, but she found it hard to believe Weiss had seen that hole from so far away.

Ironwood watched as Clover expertly swung across to the distant ledge. They could make it through this chamber. It would be slower going for the four of them in the back, but the other three could clearly handle the various paths that seemed to be laid out for them. He watched as Vine grabbed onto the bar Clover had used to swing across, and hung there from his Semblance's arm. Reaching his other arm over, he grabbed Jinn, pulling her across the abyss to him before twisting around and reaching out to place her on the ledge right next to Clover, but couldn't quite reach. It looked like he couldn't risk stretching any further without possibly losing his grip on her, so instead he started to swing back and forth from the bar. Shortly after, he was able to deposit Jinn and turn back to get Ironwood.

While he repeated this process, Weiss located the next hole, which seemed like it had been specifically set up for Myrtenaster to fit. She got the sense that the others couldn't see it, but there had been a small white glyph hovering just over the first hole, like it was prompting her to take this path. She was now a good thirty or forty feet below the others, so unlikely to get any assistance if something went wrong, but so long as these prompt glyphs kept appearing she wasn't really going to have difficulty. The real challenge for her here was just a matter of aim. She wasn't too worried, but it did threaten to exhaust her ability to use her Semblance, and if her path continued to go off the trail the others were following, she could find herself lost and alone very quickly.

Ruby darted across between two of the columns, digging her weapon into another prepared slot, barely missing Vine's arm on the way by. Vine took it in stride, since Ruby hadn't collided with him, and so prepared to place Elm on the ledge with the others. As soon as he let go of her, the ledge moved. It was beginning to buckle under the weight of the four people standing on it. He quickly pulled Elm off and backed away. Something wasn't quite right with this.

When the ledge stopped acting like it was about to collapse, Ironwood took a deep breath, then turned to Clover. "If this whole thing is designed specifically for us to be able to do this, then it might be that this ledge and others like it can't actually hold all our weight. It could just be the difference in weight between you and Vine."

Clover nodded, understanding. "So it's very finely tuned. Okay, I'll move ahead."

Ironwood turned back to Jinn. "You wouldn't just so happen to be able to tell us more about what's in this specific chamber, would you? Any more surprises we should be worrying about?"

"I told you everything I can, General." She looked up and around the chamber, scanning the distant dark with her eyes. "It's not like I'm being prevented from helping. There's just not much to tell. Your Ace Ops are quite skilled, so I don't think this will take very long."

Elm landed beside her, and then Vine swung over and hung from the ledge. It didn't move. Satisfied that it could hold the four of them, Vine found where Clover had moved to. It was a platform that stuck out a bit further, but it was also a bit further away. He grimaced, realizing that Clover had had to swing from a pole higher above them and then jump down to the platform. It was a bigger target, but he worried about having to throw the others. Regardless, he grabbed the pole and took his position. He wanted to move Elm first, so he reached down to her. Swinging back and forth to gather momentum, he let go, and Elm soared through the air towards the platform, hitting with precision and attaching herself to the stone. Then it was simply a matter of throwing the others to her, once Clover got off.

Clover hooked himself onto the next bar he'd spotted, which was sticking out of the corner of a column at a diagonal angle. He figured they were meant to swing around the corner, so he did just that, and as luck would have it he was correct. The others wouldn't be joining him for a short moment, so he took the opportunity to look down. A trail of white glyphs ran across beneath him, coming to an end where the column he was standing on disappeared into the water. He didn't envy what Weiss was having to contend with, but she seemed to be handling it rather well.

Down below, Weiss was cursing her luck. The latest hole she'd had to drive her sword into was only a few inches above the surface of the water, and so she was submerged up to her shoulders. This made it very difficult for her to form more glyphs in order to move forward. She was drenched and upset, and much closer to a whirlpool than she would have liked. The current was tugging on her enough that, if she let go of Myrtenaster, it would be lost, and so would she. Just as she was about to curse her situation out loud, a slot opened up in the stone just a few feet above her head, just like the ones Ruby had been using to move through the chamber.

Almost as if to answer her conundrum, Weiss heard Ruby's voice calling out through the chamber. "Uh, guys? I've got a problem. I don't see where I need to go next."

Hoping that Ruby was indeed close enough to reach her, Weiss called back to her. "Ruby! Follow my voice! I'm down at water level! There's a spot here for you!"

"Say again? I'm not sure where you are?"

Somewhere up above, Weiss saw Clover swing from the column she was clinging to and land on one that was two over and one further into the chamber. His voice rang out as he waved to someone Weiss couldn't see. "Ruby! Weiss is down there!" He pointed, and a moment later there was a red blur that shot through the air and attached itself to the column stone just above Weiss.

Ruby looked down on Weiss' less than stellar situation. "This is totally like a co-op video game. You find the place for me to go, and then when I get there I can help you get to your next place. I could almost do this all day, if it wasn't so draining."

"While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I'm more than ready to be done here. Pull me up." Ruby obliged, and Weiss was able to conjure the next trail of glyphs for herself. "Thank you, Ruby." And then she skated off into the distance, heading upwards.

Ruby looked around for the next spot she was meant to go, but again couldn't find it. She saw the rest of the team swinging around up above her, and watched as Clover swung away, then called up to them. "Anyone see where I'm supposed to go now?"

Hearing Ruby calling from below, Ironwood looked ahead. He couldn't see any of the slots Ruby had been making use of, but he could see ahead of them what looked like it must have been the way out of the chamber. He looked back to where Vine was swinging Elm over to them. "Vine. Can you see anything Ruby can use?"

Vine dropped Elm onto the platform with the others, then swung back and forth a few times, looking between the columns for any hint of where Ruby could go. Just when he was about to give a negative report, the bar he'd been hanging from shifted. Alarmed, he looked up to see that a section of stone that the bar was sticking out of was coming loose from the column. The shape of the stone block was the same shape and size as the slots Ruby had been using.

"It's right here."

Elm shouted to him. "That's going to fall! Get over here!"

Vine would have done exactly that if he hadn't already determined that Ruby would need that block freed. "No, I need to pull it out." But how to do that without falling himself? Weiss slammed into the side of the column, around the corner from where he was hanging. That was perfect. "Schnee! Catch me!" Pulling himself up by the bar, Vine swung upward as far as he could go, then pulled himself back down, shooting past the bar and stretching his arm down as far as he could go, and the stone shifted again, sliding out of the side of the column.

A glyph appeared below Vine. He let go of the bar, letting the stone block fall into the water below. Another glyph appeared beside him, and Ruby shot through it, coming out of her Semblance to the acceleration and course correction Weiss had provided for her, slamming Crescent Rose right into the open slot. Vine reached up from the glyph he was standing on, grabbing the platform the others were standing on and pulling himself up.

Elm helped Vine onto the platform, commenting as she did. "That was exciting."

"You are more than welcome to take over next time."

"I'll pass."

Behind them, Ruby shouted in excitement. "I think I can see the end! Clover's there!"

Sure enough, when they looked, they could see a door with a wide floor area around it set into the wall of the chamber just ahead of them. Clover was standing there, waving to them. Vine couldn't immediately see the next thing he needed to swing from, but he did see something a lot closer. A smaller pillar rose out of the water to a point just below them. Its flat top would give him a good place to stand, but from there it was too far to the door for him to just reach over and place people on solid ground. He jumped across to the pillar. He could see now that there were tiny notches in the next of the big columns, which would have allowed Clover to swing across. Their size would not permit Vine to do the same, so he would have to settle for a more extreme method to get the others to the end. He would have to throw them.

He reached up behind him and picked up Elm, plucking her off the platform. She was confused when he first started to wind up, then was clearly about to warn him not to throw her when, suddenly, he threw her. Elm flew through the air and landed right where he had aimed, slamming into the floor feet first, cracking the stone. She turned back to him and started shouting something, but he was already preparing to throw Ironwood, who was already more than ready to go. The expert veteran Huntsman landed without issue, as one would expect.

Behind them, Weiss made a trail of glyphs ending in one that would launch her. She pulled herself free of the column and skated along her path. As she neared the launch glyph, Ruby jumped free of the column and activated her Semblance, shooting forward. Colliding with Weiss and catching her up in the ball of energy and rose petals, Ruby pulled her partner along with her through the launch glyph, and they flew through the air towards the exit together, breaking free a moment before landing, where Weiss created one last glyph to slow them.

Jinn saw all this as Vine was taking her off the platform and preparing to throw her. "You know, I'm thinking it might be better if you just leave me here. I'm not really needed ahead, am I?"

"Elm will catch you."

"It's the flying that I'm afraid of, not the landi-." He threw her.

At the exit, Ruby and Weiss watched Jinn flying through the air. Ruby leaned over. "She's screaming."

Weiss nodded. "He threw her."

"She'll get used to it."

"Probably."

"I've got her!" Elm pushed them out of the way, bracing to catch Jinn. A moment later, Jinn landed in her arms. Elm let her down, watching as she staggered away and sat down. Elm looked to Ruby and Weiss, giving a shrug. "She would have landed on you."

"You know, I get that, but I could have just done..." Weiss pointed Myrtenaster back towards Vine, and a path of glyphs like stepping stones appeared for him. "...that. She didn't need to be thrown at all."

"Eh. It builds character." Elm said, turning back to see Vine hopping across the glyphs to join them.

Once they were all safely at the end together, they scarcely had a second before the door cracked open, letting them all through to the next chamber and the next test. Clover and Ironwood led the way without a word, pushing the door all the way open and passing through. Weiss and Ruby helped Jinn to her feet and went ahead with her, leaving Vine and Elm to follow at the back. The two Ace Ops took a moment to look back on the chamber behind them.

Elm clapped her hand on Vine's back. "Good job. That was pretty easy."

He shook his head. "I get a sense that this has lured us into a sense of security. These tests cannot all be so simple."

"You're probably right." She agreed. "But maybe not. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Let's go."

They walked through the door together, and the door closed behind them. The second chamber was open and vast, not quite on the scale of the one before, but still quite impressive. It looked like it had been constructed from Atlesian technology. The floor stretched out ahead of them, leading to a huge open door. On either side of them the floor dropped off into a black abyss. As the seven of them stood at the entrance, one by one, their eyes locked onto the lone figure collapsed on the floor halfway across the room.

Another General Ironwood.