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Chapter 51 - A Path Above

They slept in shifts, a deep, dreamless sleep of pure exhaustion, the likes of which they hadn't known since the world ended. The barricaded chemistry lab, with its lingering acrid smells and hard, unforgiving floors, had become the safest place on Earth. When the gray morning light filtered through the grimy windows, it found them battered and bruised, but alive and, for the first time, truly a team.

While Kai and Elara sorted their newly acquired supplies, cataloging every protein bar and bandage, Ben stood at the window. He wasn't just watching the Collector patrol on its relentless, twenty-seven-minute circuit; he was studying it. His eyes, glowing with a faint silver light, were narrowed in concentration, his new Insight skill peeling back the layers of their enemy.

"Their knee joints," he said suddenly, his voice a low, excited hum.

Kai and Elara stopped what they were doing and joined him at the window. Below, a five-Collector squad marched with their eerie, synchronized thuds. To them, they were just hulking monsters of scrap and rebar. To Ben, they were a schematic.

"Their knee joints," he repeated, pointing. "The main actuator is shielded with a plate of reinforced steel, but the hydraulic lines behind the joint are completely exposed. A precise, piercing strike from a low angle would sever the lines and cripple the leg. It's a design flaw."

Kai and Elara stared. They could see the joint Ben was talking about, but the weakness was so subtle, so specific, they would never have noticed it in a hundred years. Ben hadn't just gotten a skill; he had become a living bestiary, a walking encyclopedia of how to kill things.

"That's great, Ben," Elara said, "but we'd still have to get close enough to stab one in the back of the knee, and there are dozens of them."

"Correct. Which is why a ground-level engagement remains tactically inadvisable," Ben agreed, turning from the window. His gaze drifted upwards, towards the roof of the adjacent building. "However, my skill reveals more than just structural weaknesses in our enemies. It also highlights deficiencies in their programming."

He tapped a finger against the glass. "I have been observing them for hours. Their optical sensors, that single purple eye, are focused almost exclusively on the horizontal plane. Their threat-detection parameters are coded for ground-based targets—Rift-spawn. Their capacity for vertical tracking is... limited."

A slow understanding dawned on Kai's face. He followed Ben's gaze, looking not at the quad below, but at the path above. The rooftops.

"You're saying we can go over them," Kai said.

"Precisely," Ben confirmed. "The rooftops of the campus offer a contiguous, elevated path that would place us outside the Collectors' primary detection grid. It's a bypass. A third dimension in a two-dimensional war."

The idea was both brilliant and terrifying. The campus buildings were close together, a maze of flat roofs, angled slate, and connecting walkways. It was a whole new world up there, a path that led straight towards the downtown district the Wayfinder was pulling them towards.

"What about the Harriers?" Elara asked, remembering the winged creatures they had seen circling on their first day. "We'd be completely exposed up there."

"A calculated risk," Kai said, his mind already tracing the potential route. "We stay low, we move fast, and we use the terrain for cover. It's better than trying to sneak past that army down there."

The decision was made. Their new path was set. But a journey across the rooftops required preparation.

"We need rope," Kai stated. "And better gear for climbing. Ben, does this building have a physics department?"

"Fourth floor," Ben said instantly. "They would have climbing ropes for demonstrating principles of force and tension. Also, a geology department with rock hammers and chisels. Excellent for securing handholds."

They spent the next hour scavenging their own sanctuary, their mission clear. They found a coil of thick, durable rope in a physics lab supply closet, along with a box of sturdy carabiners. In the geology department, Ben and Elara equipped themselves with rock hammers, their weighted heads perfect for both climbing and as brutal, last-ditch weapons.

They gathered at the window one last time, looking out at the sprawling, interconnected rooftops of the university. It was a daunting, broken landscape of vents, skylights, and treacherous, ash-covered slopes. But it was a path.

Kai checked on his team. Elara, her twin sabers strapped to her back, a rock hammer at her belt. Ben, his pack filled with bombs and supplies, the Tome of Echoes tucked safely inside. And himself, the leader, the engine, his hand resting on the hilt of the sword that had started it all.

"The next patrol passes in ten minutes," he said. "We go up to the roof and wait for our window. From now on, we don't touch the ground unless we have to."

They turned away from the quad, the world of the Collectors, and headed for the roof access ladder. They were leaving the familiar dangers behind, ascending to a new, unknown battlefield in the sky.

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