<h4>Chapter 159: Heading Upstairs</h4>


    Grace manoeuvred her way around the various debris with minimal effort, if in a slightly strange way. Ensuring she was tiptoeing and twisting her body to ensure that she didn''te into contact with the loose wood around the floor she made her way to the stairs.


    Kat followed behind utilising her extreme flexibility and additional limb for bnce. So, Kat flew across with her wings of course. Kat followed easily behind Grace and they both starting to make their way up the stairs.


    *I could just skip the effort and go straight to the next floor but… Grace can lead the way.* As Kat followed the elf, the sounds of shing metal only intensified. Focusing on the sound, Kat felt like she could identify just twobatants. The swords, or at least the steel, only seemed to impact once at the time, though asionally in quick session.


    Finally, Kat and Grace approached the door to the second floor. Trapdoor that is. Set into the ceiling was a smalldder. It was obvious if, unremarkable, made of seemingly old but sturdy wood.


    The pair shared a nce. Kat hovered off to the side, now in line with Grace instead of beside her unsure if it would be best to speak up or not. *Do we want to give ourselves away?*


    Another series of shing steel and heavy footwork answered that question. "Grace, how are we doing this?" whispered Kat


    Grace eyed thedder, clearly designed for individualsrger than either herself or Kat. "We can probably go up together, that might be best"


    Kat eyed the doorway suspiciously "Sure, it might be, but I think my wings are too wide" replied Kat


    Grace shook her head, "Not if you close them. Thedder can hold both of us. If we climb side by side it should be fine"


    Kat examined thedder in turn. *I think she might be right. Thedder is actually surprisingly wide, clearly not human sized. Hmm, in fact, you could probably get close to fitting three copies of Grace on thedder. So even with my wings closed there should be space for us.*


    Kat floated past the elf and grabbed onto the side of thedder. Closing her wings tight against her back she looked towards Grace to see if she could fit. The elf responded with a smirk and lightly jumped onto the rung and stood there without her hands.


    *Ooh, so it''s like that.* Kat smiled. *Seems Grace has recovered from the fight better than I thought.* The two slowly made their way up thedder in tandem. As they approached the top, Kat stretched out her tail.


    Grace raised an eyebrow at that but figured it out pretty quickly. Slowly, and in tandem, Kat used her tail to lightly push open the trapdoor and Grace followed. As she did so, a strange scene began to unfold before Kat''s eyes.


    The room was even more barren than the bottom floor, but it waspletely clear of debris. The only piece of furniture was a single pedestal in the centre with arge white orb, perhaps twice the size of a basketball. It emitted a faint light, but that was faintpared to the bright lights that seemed to shine from nowhere and kept the floor well-lit.


    What they did find though, made no sense. Twobatants moving at lightning speed. Without her eye enhancements, Kat could hardly make out the two aside from the sparks that flew whenever their des met.


    Even then, everything was just ncing blows. Even at the short moment of impact it was hard to actually make anything out. Whoever they were they never stopped, even after disengaging always moving, never at rest.


    Enhancing her eyes to get a clearer picture revealed even more strangeness. The first figure was actually Green. The speed was actually fairly expected to Kat. It was impressive yes, but she suspected there was a bit more of a trick involved to make them hard to visual.


    No, the real surprise was that the second figure was Nixilei. The healer was keeping up with Green and seemed to be hardly breaking a sweat. As Kat watched she noticed that not only was she not breaking a sweat… Nixilei was holding one hand behind her back.


    Kat''s eyes grew wide and she let her head creak around to face Grace who held a simr feeling of shock. That''s when Kat noticed the third person in the room. Behind Grace''s head was one of the other members of her team… which one wasn''t exactly clear, but the robes meant it had to be one of the twins.


    Kat raised a slow figure pointing behind her. As soon as she did Grace whipped her head around to see, before instantly rxing her shoulders. "Well, Estelle, what exactly are you doing here"


    The other elf sighed, Estelle, presumably "I''m asking myself the exact same thing Grace. I see you found a friend"


    "Um, well yes." Said Grace ncing towards the fight. "Should we be doing something?"


    Estelle shrugged "I dunno. We''re outnumbered three to one, and I doubt I could beat either of those two nutjobs even if I was by myself. Besides, crazy thing is I actually came here with the pair of them. I met up with them when we were looking for a sand skipper, so I doubt they''d turn on me now"


    "Right, but what exactly is going on?" asked Grace "Why are they fighting between the two of themselves? Aren''t they on the same team?"


    Estelle shrugged. "Nixilei suggested it. Said something about Green skipping out on training recently or something? I dunno I wasn''t paying attention. Anyway, she told me to sit tight and just wait for them to finish"


    "And you just let them?" asked Grace


    "Well, what would you have done Grace? I already said I can''t fight either of them. I certainly wasn''t nning to fight both" said Estelle


    "I mean, I dunno, can''t you like touch the orb or something?" asked Grace


    "Oh sure" said Estelle "Only if I wanted to stand in the middle of that fight for a good chunk of time. The cassette told us that we hold to be holding it for ten minutes. In that time, we can''t move the orb, and can''t release our hand from its surface"


    This time it was Grace who sighed. "Yup, that sounds about right. So what? We just watch them?"


    "Unless you''ve got a set of dice or something then yeah I guess so. I really hope they sort this out before the others show up though. Those fools will be tired, and I''m not sure we want to fight too many others, Skye and her lot would be especially problematic"


    "Oooh, we fought them off already" said Kat


    Estelle raised an eyebrow at this. "How many of them did you take out?"


    "The lot" said Kat


    Estelle''s eyes both went wide this time and her face paled just a little. She let her eyes meet Grace''s searching for confirmation and the scout provided it the form of a short nod. "That changes things then" said Estelle


    "Huh, I guess we really do just rx then" said Estelle letting herself slump against the wall fully letting the strain bleed out of her.


    *Huh, so what does that mean exactly. And who do we want to activate the orb? I said I''d help Grace as much as possible, and she agreed to the same. Though, I guess we might not be the ones who actually im the orb.*


    "What do you want to do Grace?" asked Kat


    "Well, what exactly do you mean by that?" asked Grace


    "First order of business. Should we get off thedder" said Kat


    Grace looked down at her hands and feet still securely on thedder, and past that stood the two Timmy''s tilting their heads to the side in a confused manner. Shaking her head Grace pulled herself up past the lip and sat next Estelle, though keeping herself tense and ready unlike her counterpart.


    Kat shrugged and followed suit, letting her tail curl up in herp. The temptation to try and tickle Grace was strong but seeing how serious the scout currently was, Kat tempered that urge.


    "Second order of business then" said Kat "Who do we want touching the orb"


    Grace looked confused for a second before understanding washed over her. "Well, I mean, certainly not you right?" said Grace with a cheeky grin.


    Kat shrugged "If that''s what ites to. I''m not too concerned now that Nixilei and Green are both here"


    As Kat finished her sentence there was a ringing of metal. The three turned their heads to see what was happening. In front of them the endless movement had finally stopped.


    Nixilei seemed to have caught Green''s dagger in her own. The two des were interlocked, utilising the small guard on both to keep them in ce. Green had a slight frown, but Nixilei had the same impassive expression as standard.