The resort was big, Odell already knew that, but something about running through the wide and tall halls with decorative wood floors and trimmings in sequential patterns while a group of angry, armored men chased after brought a whole new perspective on the place. He imagined the person who opened it could have never meant for the roomy halls to be the perfect place for battle, but here they were.

  Hal and Odell ran shoulder to shoulder, though the stockier Hobusian was putting more effort into his sprint to keep the same pace. They had barely entered the lobby when several folks of dubious character pointed right at them.

  “What floor was our room on?” Hal had asked, paying no mind as the foes grabbed swords, clubs, and other weapons.

  “Uh. 17th floor. 1747, I think, but you really should pay attention to….”

  “No time to waste, follow or not, I don’t care.”

  Hal’s back was disappearing down a hallway before Odell could even come up with a single word response. The grey prince looked to his sprinting companion, then back to the approaching soldiers, before running after Hal.

  “Wait!”

  They ran with full might, straight through the ornate but simple hallway. The resort wasn’t meant to be a complex layout, which meant that if they couldn’t get onto a lifter or find the stairs, it only led to dead ends.

  Odell knew that Hal knew that, but the green-haired boy didn’t seem to care. He was so focused on the task at hand, getting to his sisters, that the stamping behind them didn’t even get so much as a twitch of the head. Forward was the only way. Odell wished he could have such simplicity.

  The grey prince knew they were in a predicament not so easily escaped from, especially with Needaimus left behind. He cursed himself for letting Hal rush them into this situation.

  Hal spoke with a tone like he was crunching numbers, “Lifter ahead.”

  They turned on a dime to a nook which housed half a dozen doors, and Odell smashed the closest button to call their escape. There was little use, and the prince knew his companion was well aware of it. Hal already turned to face the opening of the small dead end as the soldiers, perhaps taking a break from their run, strolled in. The calculating tone remained. “Which weapon do you like?”

  “Uh,” Odell scanned the crew. The green-haired boy couldn’t possibly be that confident, could he? “The warhammer.”

  In a flash, the Netzian soldier slid in low in front of the black armored hammer wielder. If the man’s eyes hadn’t been obscured by his helmet, perhaps they would have gone wide. Hal twisted the man’s arm with a jerk to hand and elbow so quickly that the hammer easily fell loose and was tossed to Odell. The lifter behind the prince dinged as it arrived, then closed again while he watched.

  In seconds, the boy precisely snapped the armored men’s limbs and necks. When the last foe fell, he picked up a sword. He rolled his metallic shoulder while eying the blade.

  “Poor craftsmanship, but workable.”

  Odell wondered if he even needed to come, but wasn’t about to let those thoughts out in the open. He pushed the call for the lifter again, and it immediately reopened the door.

  The 17th floor seemed hours away as they stood side by side.

  “What do you suppose they intend to do with this resort?” Odell asked in an effort to break the silence.

  “Nothing I care about,” Hal replied. He watched the number inside the contraption change with each floor.

  “Don’t you think it might be easier to thwart them if we knew, though? Or even had some idea?”

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  Odell let the captured warhammer slide down inside his grip until the head pressed against his hand. It was lighter than his usual one, and a bit too weighty on one side, but it was better than nothing.

  “I don’t care about thwarting. Only my sisters matter.”

  “I know you don’t mean that entirely, but you should be careful; people might get the wrong idea if they heard you say that.”

  The lifter dinged, and the door opened to reveal the 17th floor. It was much the same hallway design as the first, but featured a large window that overlooked the area where the resort extended to the beach. The duo stepped out, and Odell locked in on a plaque that showed room numbers. 1701 to 1725, one way; 1726 to 1745, the other. “Where is 1747?”

  Hal grunted and stomped to the window. Odell followed suit. The building was constructed in a V shape, making up two towers on either side of the front entrance and lobby. It was perhaps artistic and quaint, but both realized that Hal’s sisters were in the other tower. The green-haired boy shattered the window.

  “Whoa, calm down, calm down.” Hal made a hard and heavy exhalation. “We just need to take the lifter back and find the one that goes up in that tower!”

  “No time, they will be waiting at the bottom.” He kicked the wall before taking a deep breath and leaning out the shattered window.

  Odell did the same. The roof of the connecting first floor was high and decorative. Had he had his Needaimus, he could have easily floated them to that and bounced back up to the 17th floor of the next tower. This would be the last time he left Cal so far behind.

  Hal hoped from the inside to a narrow ledge outside the window.

  “Wait a moment,” Odell stammered, but the Netzian did not wait a moment. With speed very dangerous for where he was, he balanced across the outside of the building out of sight from the window.

  Odell wasn’t about to follow; he took a deep breath and settled on the direction that Hal was walking. There was a perfectly good hallway going that way, and he charged down it to the very end. A key for the room meant nothing to the hammer, and soon Odell pushed past a frightened tourist onto the balcony where a steadily walking Hal approached.

  The grey prince leaned out, resting an arm on the railing as the green-haired boy approached.

  “You do realize-“ The sister crazed boy smacked Odell in the head and continued his dangerous balancing to where the building ended. The other tower seemed so far away, at least to Odell.

  Hal looked down at the side of their tower. A second later, he dropped off the side. Odell yelped and jumped over the railing to the precarious footing as fast, as safely, as he could. He shimmed over to where Hal leapt from just in time to see Hal finish riding a decorative angled rib on the side of the building. His green hair was bright as he jumped and rolled across the resort rooftop down below.

  Odell was one part stupefied and another part impressed. He scratched at the back of his head, leaning forward and back in a short rhythm. Eventually, he made up his mind.

  “Wait for me, Hal!” There was no way the boy heard him.

  Pulling his weighty hammer close to his chest. Odell made a deep breath, followed by the motion of Crenussul, followed by a careful shimmy to the angled rib. It was raised just enough from the building that climbing on top without losing balance proved a challenge. Eventually, he got sick of trying to do it delicately and smashed the hammer into the side of the tower. The lodged weapon made for a good handle so that Odell could clamber on top of the rib and sit. It was just like a slide. A long, steep slide without sides to prevent one from flying off, but just like a slide. Just like a slide. Odell made the motion of Crenussul again, noting somewhere in the back of his mind that that was twice now after years of not bothering, and jerked his hammer to dislodge it.

  Wind was brutal on his face, and seconds in, he felt his body beginning to lift away from the building. It was too steep to be a slide after all.

  Cursing, Odell smashed his hammer into the building. He was moving too fast to stop, and the weapon tore a scar down the side as he plummeted with it. His feet smashed into the rooftop above before the hammer could bring him to a stop, but he had slowed enough to make the pain something that was at least able to be walked off.

  Hal was already halfway across the roof, but had stopped to look back.

  “Ow,” Odell whined as he used the hammer like a cane to shamble over.

  “You’re an idiot,” Hal called out. He was the last person Odell wanted to hear that from.

  “Just tell me how you intend to get to the 17th floor on the other side!”

  The green-haired boy waited until Odell reached him before turning and pointing straight ahead.

  “We are about in line with the 4th, so we climb the rest of the way.”

  “You mean the stairs, right?” Hal said nothing. “You mean the stairs, right!”

  “I suppose that would be the most economical in this situation. We should conserve energy for any fights ahead.”

  Odell wasn’t about to look a gift nagtora in the mouth. He sighed and nodded, thinking that perhaps staying with Rheba would have been the better plan. She was surely having an easier time than they were.

  “Alright, let’s just get going.”

  Odell’s legs still burned some, but he wasn’t about Hal take the lead again. Who knows what stupid thing he might do next if he did. He stepped ahead and began his own weak charge across the rooftop to whatever might come next.