[Setting: The Geo-Thermal Valley Slope, Descending Toward the Soviet Installation - Leo POV]
The silent, frozen valley stretched out below Leo, a vast, tempting map of immediate dangers and future objectives. He was severely compromised: his left thigh throbbed with a dull, insistent pain, his core temperature was borderline dangerous, and his main pack, containing the Partner Bow and all his Tier 3 crafting resources, was lost somewhere far up the slope.
He leaned heavily on the Pry Axe, using it as a solid anchor against the steep, icy descent. The memory of the crushed bear, the adrenaline spike, and the subsequent Level 16 notification were all that kept him moving. He was out of the frying pan of the blizzard and into the fire of the Geo-Thermal Valley, the hostile, open-world hub of the game.
Leo needed three things, and he needed them now: Shelter, Warmth, and Lara.
He forced his mind to focus, allocating his three newly acquired Level 16 Attribute Points for maximum immediate effect. He was about to enter a zone thick with heavily armed Trinity forces; he needed more protection and better reaction time.
[Attribute Allocation Log]
* +1 Point to Strength. Rationale: Boosting the effectiveness of melee attacks against Tier 3 armor and increasing traversal power.
* New Strength: 17
* +2 Points to Mind. Rationale: Maximizing strategic calculation, situational awareness, and crucial puzzle-solving ability for the Soviet Installation.
* New Mind: 18
[Attribute Allocation Complete! New Base Stats: Strength 17, Dexterity 18, Stamina 15, Mind 18]
[Skill Points Available: 1]
Leo immediately invested his Skill Point into the SABOTEUR tree, choosing a skill that reflected the new priority of low-resource, high-impact combat.
[Skill Point Allocated to SABOTEUR Tree!]
* Scrap-Grenade Mastery: (Allows Leo to craft highly potent shrapnel grenades using minimal salvaged scrap and low-grade gunpowder, effectively bypassing basic Trinity armor.) Rationale: Essential for creating area-of-effect damage when high-tier materials are unavailable.
His mind felt instantly sharper, and the ability to turn junk metal into lethal ordnance was exactly the equalizer he needed against the coming wave of armored patrols.
As he descended, Leo used his heightened Recon Sense (Mind 18) to scour the environment. He spotted the tell-tale smoke plume Lara had likely created and started moving toward it, the sight of the dark smoke promising life and heat.
But his Recon Sense also registered a disturbing signature far below, near the distant ruins of the Soviet base: multiple clusters of Trinity Patrols converging on the valley floor. They had recovered from the avalanche and were sweeping the area.
Leo had to move off the main path.
He located a precarious, partially collapsed Soviet-era watchtower clinging to the cliff face. It offered a vertical shortcut but required complex traversal. Leo used his Pry Axe to chop footholds into the slick ice, his increased Strength (17) allowing him to power through the exertion despite his injured leg.
He was focused entirely on survival and evasion when his augmented senses registered a sound above him, not wind, but the rhythmic, controlled chipping of an axe on ice.
He looked up. A silhouette, small and fierce, was rappelling down the sheer rock face with impossible speed.
Lara.
She reached his position, dropping lightly onto the narrow ledge beside him. She was breathing hard but focused. Her eyes, usually warm, were currently blazing with a dangerous mix of relief and fury.
"You idiot," she hissed, her voice low and strained, her usual elegant tone replaced by something primal. She didn't ask if he was okay; she delivered a sharp, open-handed slap to his uninjured shoulder—a physical expression of the terrifying fear she had endured.
"That's my greeting, is it?" Leo managed, leaning against the rock, wincing.
"You dropped an avalanche on yourself and then fought a bear with a sharp stick! What did you think I was going to do? Bake you a cake?" she retorted, her eyes tearing up slightly, but her fury instantly hardening her resolve. She immediately dropped her pack and went into medic mode.
"Your pack is gone, your leg is bleeding again, and you smell like pulverized grizzly," Lara stated, pulling out a fresh bandage. "Let me see this."
Leo submitted, allowing her expert hands to clean and tightly re-bandage his thigh. The quiet intimacy of the moment—two seasoned survivors tending to each other's immediate, brutal needs—was a powerful balm against the trauma of the separation.
"Jonah is safe," Lara confirmed, her voice softening slightly. "He's secure in a shelter higher up. Sedative is wearing off. I found your kill site. That was resourceful, Leo. Terrifyingly so."
"It was the only way," Leo explained, his gaze locked on hers. "Trinity triggered that slide. They're below, searching the valley. They're going to converge on the Soviet Installation—it's the only defensible position and it holds the map to Kitezh."
Lara finished the bandage and looked at his empty back. "They took your gear. They took the Partner Bow."
Leo nodded, his expression grim. The loss of the Tier 3 composite bow was a massive blow to their combined ranged damage.
"We need a replacement, and we need materials," Leo said. "The patrols below are carrying high-quality Tier 3 Salvage. We need to hijack their comms and gear before they spot us."
He pulled out the crucial item he had carried, secured inside his coat—the fragment of the ATLAS retrieved from the Syrian Tomb. "This is the key to the next section. We have to decode it inside the Soviet base."
Lara nodded, the conversation shifting seamlessly back to pure strategy. "I spotted a small, satellite research shack near the base of the tower we're on. Trinity guards are using it as an initial staging post—two men, exposed. We take them out, get their gear, and use the shack as our entry point."
Leo's eyes, powered by his Mind (18), focused on the path. "I'll craft a distraction. My new Scrap-Grenades are perfect for clearing a tight space."
He quickly rummaged through the small amount of raw materials Lara had salvaged from the bear site—a few pieces of Salvage, a small amount of Gunpowder. He worked with quiet intensity, creating two crude but volatile shrapnel grenades.
Lara watched the process, a look of profound reliance on her face. "You build the weapon, Leo. I'll make sure they don't see it coming."
They descended the final, treacherous section of the cliff. The shack was nestled beneath a rock ledge, a perfect kill zone. Two Trinity soldiers were visible through the frosted window, hunched over a radio.
Lara initiated the attack. She fired a single, carefully aimed Hunting Arrow into a nearby exposed fuel drum. The drum erupted in a localized flash of flame.
The two guards immediately sprinted out of the shack, rifles raised, turning toward the sound of the explosion.
"Now, Leo!"
Leo hurled one Scrap-Grenade directly at the feet of the first guard.
BOOM! The crude shrapnel grenade detonated with savage force, the scrap fragments ripping through the guard's light armor. The second guard, stunned by the blast, spun to engage Leo, raising his rifle.
Lara, moving at speed, slammed into the second guard, dropping her shoulder into his chest and sending him flying into the wall of the shack. Before he could recover, she drove her Pry Axe into his exposed side.
[Trinity Soldiers (2/2) Neutralized!] - +700 EXP
[Tier 3 Scrap-Grenade Kill Achieved!]
The area was silent again, save for the crackling of the distant fire. Leo and Lara quickly dragged the bodies inside the shack.
"Perfect," Leo said, already stripping the high-quality tactical gear and salvaged components from the bodies. "We have their radio, their gear, and we have a staging area. The Geo-Thermal Valley is officially open for business."
Lara looked at the radio, then back at Leo, her expression now purely professional. "Konstantin is somewhere nearby. We need to secure the map to Kitezh before he realizes the Prophet's Atlas fragment is in our hands. The next step is the Soviet Installation Comms Tower."
They stood side-by-side in the small, newly secured shack, the cold of Siberia pressing in, but the warmth of their combined strategy keeping the darkness at bay. The long, brutal segment of Rise of the Tomb Raider had truly begun.
Chapter End.