The ground cracks under my feet.
I dig the blade deeper, separating one side from the other. My weight pulling the hilt sideways as stone and tree roots crumble away. A roar echoes then the ground gives way entirely... And I fall.
But not all at once.
I jump away from the soil disintegrating beneath my feet. I find a jagged slab of falling rock and immediately slam my boots on it, hard enough to push it further down as I bend my knees forcing my body to spring forward, onto a new piece of breaking terrain. Like running against time upon a collapsing bridge.
The ground buckles again, I leap forward from stone to stone, each one collapsing the moment I touch it... I need to be faster. Faster!
Dust starts to fly all around and partially blinds me. For now my most reliable sense is my hearing, as screams echoes from all sides. The other falling soldiers, the swords still drawn as some try to climb back up just like me... Fighting against gravity before the gorge eats us up.
Yet even in the mist of surviving, we are still enemies. One close man lunges forward, not being able to pass on the perfect occasion presenting in front of him. The heavy axe rised high, I lower myself and spin around on a fragment of stone, once I regain full control of my balance I rise up and kick him in full chest.... The heavy axe make him lose balance and he falls down into the abyss while screaming.
Another man grabs my ankle from beneath me and tries to drag me off my secured position, I twist my wrist and slice off that hand dragging me down before he can succeed in taking me with him.
The rock I'm on couldn't sustain all that movement and begins dall apart, I'm not climbing anymore... Just surviving, second by second.
A larger platform appears above my head, with little footing I have left I bend my knees and throw myself in the air. I landing with a grunt as best as I can, only to find two more enemies landing the same moment as I do. Due to the heavy weight the stone shakes and all three of us trembles with it, I steady my left leg and straighten up while gripping my sword hilt again.
One enemy is already swinging in my direction, I parry with one hand alone and push the other off the platform with my free arm taking advantage of the unstable ground. The impact comes harder than I thought, not having realized that I've used my injured arm.
-Damn...- I growl while biting on my sleeve, I tore a piece of fabric with the mouth and thrust my sword with the hand simultaneously.
I manage to send off the last man and put away my sword, focusing now on tying my arm as blood flows down from the wound, all this jumping and climbing didn't do any good to my injuries... What was once a light scrape has now turned into a much more serious matter.
I begin to see the top of the cliff but a soldier crashes onto me midair, he's falling backward, already unconscious. I jump up on him and use him to throw myself even higher by kicking his torso further down.
Another one follows him and he's coming right on me, I dodged him and roll into a slab the size of a coffin... Hitting my wounded arm once again, yet there's no time to indulge in the pain as I find myself face to face with an enemy. The ground falls twice as faster with both of us on it but right now there's no other stone or rock around good enough to attempt another leap.
We fight in free fall.
Steel clashes on steel. He swings down, too slow. I sidestep and back his jaw with the hilt of my sword, in this situation that's enough to send him to his death... And enough to preserve my strength. The clash sends me back and I don't move away fast enought to avoid a pointy rock coming my way, I can just turn on one side to avoid it from injuring my only good arm and decide to sacrifice the one already in bad condition.
As the skin gets torn apart I scream in pain, once the stone moves past me I tighen the improvised bandage to the point of not feeling my arm anymore. I exhale once and jump again.
As I climb back up again I look behind me, I've lost quite a few meters and I'm closer to the bottom that to the top... Luckily enough the sand seems to be dissipating.
I lock eyes on a new stone, two men again. They charge before I even touch the ground... I barely caress the border of platform that I have to jump backward and spin on myself midair, I press against a few debris behind me and aim for that occupied ground again with the sword in front of me.
Almost flying toward them I catch a man on my sword as if it was a skewer, I drag the sword back toward me and rise a foot to push him off my blade finally throwing him down to meet his demise. The other man falls forward and grabs my arm, dragging me back in the air with him...
I start spinning with him who's still grabbing onto my arm, trying to further damage my wound since that's my only visible weak point for now. I move my sword in every direction even if it's almost impossible to control my blade right now.
-Just die already!- I yell and let go of my sword to punch him in the face with all my strength. He looses his grip on me and spins around, pushing me toward the wall of the cliff and he falls.
I land on a small stone and look above me, there's no more sand so the top is clearly visible and... So far away. This is my only chance.
Tying to calculate my next leap a bigger stone comes above me and I'm forced to jump away without much preparation.
I grab anything I can with my arms and manage to rest one foot on an irregular rock slightly protruding from the flat wall... I'm currently hanging against the gorge walls.
I look up and see no more pieces of stone falling... Which means only one thing, I have to climb up.
The roar of the last falling pieces finally touching the ground reaches my ear and I know well what's about to come, I press harder on the irregular walk with my healthy arm and grab a couple of daggers with my other one, I stab a knife on the rock then another and use them to hold on better... Soon after I feel it coming, I close my eyes and bend my face against the fabric of my clothes to breathe through it as the sand bursts up toward the sky...
I try to hold my breath as much as possible just in case and hold onto those daggers for my life, a splinter comes my way and hits one of my knives sending it flying away.
I gasp at the sudden loss and my healthy arm swings in the air, I yell in pain trying to rise myself with the injured one... The strong wind current coming from below makes it impossible to reattach myself to the wall and I struggle for quite a few seconds to find a new point to grab.
The blood travels down and I feel a warm streak passing over my neck... I try to hiss myself higher and grab the knife with my other hand but fail to reach it everytime.
The black Sky decides to join in and make it even more difficult for me as rain begins to pour and loud thunders pierce the whole battlefield... My weak fingers, now completely wet, fail to hold onto the knife and I feel myself slowly slipping away...
I hear the waves of the river beneath me, crashing again the sides and floating the gorge as the debris blocks the natural course of the water... The sound fading away in the back of my mind as my strength leaves my body...
And that's the moment a thunder hits some trees nearby, causing the unstable cliff to shake even more... I loose grip completely and fall.
The world spins and gravity wins, dragging me into the gorge below.