Scouting ahead

Gerand and Carlos immediately pack their bags and fill them with a few days worth of food and water. In a days time, the rest of Carlos's Sentinel army plus Rey and Sharin will join. Rey and Sharin are getting supplies ready for a longer stay. Packing preserved foods and more water. While Sentinels get more materials to make more Sentinels and just bring it with them for Carlos to infuse with power and become useful.

Both Gerand and Carlos waste no time. The journey takes them back to a familiar place, the same vantage point where Carlos first saw the war going on. He takes a quick inspection and sees that Gerand's information was correct. The Eth-hiem military is being pushed back, and there's even more men on the front lines than before. Carlos is silent and shakes his head in disbelief. "We must keep moving." Gerand nods, and they both quickly move forward, taking little to no breaks.

It’s getting dark, but as the sun goes down, they reach the problem that Gerand mentioned, the lava lakes. A massive, slow moving, stream of lava. It’s bubbling; all the land near it is black. Even though the light of the sun is gone, the light of the lava shines. Beautiful, but deadly.

The heat is no joke. The two aren't even close to the edge of the lake, and they're both already sweating. "So...what's the plan, Carlos?" Gerand asks with a hint of sarcasm. Carlos then heads closer to the lava lakes, as close as he can, anyway.

The closer Carlos gets to the lake, the hotter it gets. Once he gets a better view, Carlos looks around to plan. It becomes too unbearable for Carlos, and he backs out. Once back, he wipes the sweat from his face and sits down. Deep in thought, he contemplates a plan. 

Trying to build a quick bridge won't be the problem; the problem is the heat. Any human will be quickly cooked alive walking over the bridge. Sending the Sentinels alone is also out of the question. They can not handle complex orders, only one order at a time. The freezing runes are too powerful and will kill them. What to do.

"We need to retreat into the woods, Carlos. It’s too hot, and we'll die if stay any longer." Carlos, being too deep in thought, didn't notice how he's drenched in sweat. When he tries to get up, Carlos gets dizzy. He stumbles and wobbles around and almost falls down. Gerand catches him and helps him get away from the heat.

Away from the heat, Gerand lays Carlos down near a tree and makes camp. Carlos takes a sip of water and cools off. Never in his life had he felt air so hot it nearly killed him. Though sadly, it is a roadblock that must be overcome as soon as possible. 

Both Gerand and Carlos find a spot to sleep. Gerand sleeps with barely anything; he's always been used to rough living. Having a feeling that Carlos wouldn't be used to the rough outdoors, he instead gives Carlos most of what he brought for sleep. As Carlos goes deep into sleep, he wakes up in John's office.

John is not sitting in his usual spot. Instead, he is writing things down on a clipboard. He turns around and is surprised by Carlos’ sudden appearance. He puts the clipboard down and sits in his chair. "So, I’m guessing you made it to the first obstacle, the lava lakes." Carlos nods and then asks. "Do you have any ideas on how to get through this?" John shakes head. "No, sadly, but let’s talk it out and I’m sure we can come up with something." John's smile never falters.

Carlos lies back on his chair and looks up. John then begins the conversation. "Well, let’s start with a simple question: what can you do?" Carlos nods. "My best idea is to use the ice rune in some way. But the problem is that I can't have it on a person; it’s way too cold and will kill them almost instantly." John nods and rubs his chin. "It's a pretty big problem for sure. Hmmmm oh! How about you make an ice bomb! Just throw it into the lava and quickly run through!" Carlos nods heartily at the suggestion, but he thinks on it for a few minutes and shakes his head. "No...no, that’s not gonna work." He sits forward and explains. "I’m pretty sure that the ice bomb can chill the lava into obsidian and hopefully the ground is cool enough to walk through. But the problem is that the lava will slowly overtake it. By the time it does, we should be on the other side." John interrupts him. "And the problem? This sounds like a good idea?" Carlos nods. "It is, but the problem is that it’s good enough for me and Gerand to get through, but the others won't. It needs to be permanent. We need that supply line for a while until we set up a new base of operations next to the gap." John nods and smacks his face, all while laughing. "Ohh hahaha...you're right. So we need a permanent solution that is quick to build, got it." John sits back, arms over his head. He taps his foot, thinking and thinking until Carlos breaks the silence. "...how about a massive fan?" John raises an eyebrow and leans, Carlos further explains. "...a big fan, with the ice runes on it blowing cold air! Then we build a bridge using the levitating rune and throw it. An instant bridge! and it'll be slightly up in the air! That way it doesn't get lava on it, and it’s just slightly cooler. We'll have to wait on Rey and Sharin to get there, but that shouldn't take too long, I hope. Then all four of us run through to the other side as fast as we can." John nods and asks. "Not bad, not bad. Two questions? How is this fan going to be powered? And how is that bridge going to handle all your weight? The levitating rune can't handle much weight." Carlos's excitement comes to a sudden halt, and he races for a solution. "....im speculating but if there are multiple levitating runes, then maybe it can get just enough strength to hold us up. If not...I'll come up with something else. But then there's the power problem." Carlos then bites his nails trying to come up with a solution to that problem. But John chuckles and says. "Hehe...how about you manually crank it. The Sentinels can take over at that point." Carlos regains his momentum and nods at the solution. "That might just work! I just need to make sure the cranking mechanism can make the fan fast enough, make the fan slippery so that I can go faster, and make all the parts reinforced with runes so that it doesn't destroy itself!....but what to make it out of? And how big does it need to be?" Carlos sits back down and taps his foot in frustration. "For the size, I'd say it needs to be 3 times your size, roughly speaking. As for materials...wood?" Carlos bobs his head left and right, mulling it over. He then hits his fist in a Eureka moment. "I got it! Where scraping the fan idea!" John holds his hands together and puts his elbows on the table. He then rests his head on his clasped hands and listens to Carlos's new idea. all while his big and bright smile never wavers. "I can rune the leaves and make a handheld fan! OnTop of that, I can make them quickly and leave extra behind for the other two, with instructions." John nods. "And, uhhhh...won't it be too cold to handle?" Carlos shakes his head. "As long as the handle is long, it shouldn't be a problem." John nods and claps. "Well, there's our plan of action. When you wake up, it'll be dawn." John then snaps his fingers, and Carlos disappears.

Carlos wakes up, and as John said, the sun is just coming up. There’s enough light to get to work, and so Carlos doesn't waste any time. He collects leaves. He makes the fan first and then runes the leaves. The leaves are so cold that a small patch of snow piles up beneath. The handle is long enough not to be too cold to the touch. He then uses the fan to see if his idea works. With a gentle blow, he feels the cold air hit his face, and it makes him slightly shiver, perfect. But now on to the real problem, the bridge.

He gets to work finding whatever he can to put heat-resistant runes on and then tie together whilst then covering the makeshift rope. He makes a quick prototype and heads to the lava lakes. With the fan, he cools himself and gets close to the edge. He then throws the test bridge section to see if anything goes wrong. It stays just above the lava for a few minutes. Satisfied, he pulls the bridge section back and sees the rope is undamaged. He then heads back and makes more bridge sections.

He makes bridge section after bridge section. Each time he layers it on top of one another and ties them together and stands on top. Two is not enough, three is not enough, four....four is enough. He makes each bridge section 6 stacks worth. Two more for the Sentinels and their load. He becomes a madman trying to find wood and then make some rope. About 2 hours later, Gerand wakes up to see Carlos hard at work. Gerand, seeing him work so hard, knows that he's come up with a solution. He walks up behind him and with a smirk; he says. "What do you need me to do." Carlos looks behind to see Gerand. He stands up and mentions the idea he's had with the bridge, but it’s getting harder to find good bits of wood to use. "You focus on making the rope, leave the wood to me." Carlos nods and focuses on the rope making.

Gerand then uses his talent to boost himself. With immense, inhuman strength, he lifts his crude-looking stone sword. And slashes at a tree. It falls in one fell swoop. He then roughly cuts it up into the shape Carlos needs. He brings the wood to Carlos and asks, "Is this what you need?" Carlos looks at the wood and at the now-missing tree. He nods, his mouth wide open in shock. He then shakes his and says. "Get me...three more just like this." Gerand then nods and heads to chop down more trees. 

Gerand finishes his tasks first. Carlos then gives further instructions to Gerand. To make holes all around the edges. Gerand nods and takes the tools Carlos made for the job. With inhuman strength and speed, he punches hole after hole. Even with his strength, he has such finesse that he doesn't make unwanted cracks or holes too big that they become useless. Once again, Gerand finishes his task well before Carlos is even halfway done. Gerand then picks up the test bridge section and asks. "Does it need to be an exact copy?" Carlos looks at Gerand and the bridge piece and nods. "It just needs the runes to be in each section, then stack 6 of them together and tie them all together." Gerand nods and gets to work. Since these need more precision than speed. Gerand takes his time to rune the wood. They both finish their tasks at around the same time.

With Gerand's help, they tie all the bridge sections together. They both then bring the floating bridge to the lava lakes, cooling fans in hand. "Now one of us has to ride the bridge so that we can tie it down to the other side." Gerand nods and says. "You go, I’m a pretty good shot." Carlos nods. He then draws a line in the blackened ashy dust. "The end of the bridge should not go further than this line. Then hammer down the rope and make sure it’s tight. We can't have it possibly floating away." Gerand nods. "Anything else?" Carlos shakes his head. He gets into position and yells at Gerand to throw him. Gerand then grabs the bridge and aims. He then tosses the bridge over, hurling both it and Carlos with amazing accuracy and speed. Gerand keeps an eye on his end, making sure it doesn't get over the line. With pinpoint accuracy, he stops the bridge just as it’s over the line. He then hammers down the rope and makes it as tight as it can be. Gerand, with a fan in hand, doesn't hesitate he walks over the bridge and over the lava. Its heat is successfully mitigated by the fan and, with no issues, can get to the other side.

"We did it!" Carlos cheers, seeing Gerand successfully cross. Gerand then gives a big smile and pats Carlos on the back, nearly breaking it in the process. "There's no time to waste. Let’s keep going. They shouldn't have any problems reaching us. Let’s try to mark the path as we go and make it as safe and as quick as possible." Gerand nods, and they both head out.

One more challenge awaits them before they can reach the finish line.