Runebound Reverse Tower of The Dead-Chapter 123: Spider-Kael

"Oh, fuck, please don’t let me go!"

Peter’s voice pitched up, pure panic now, the kind that made him sound younger than he wanted to.

"That’s more like it, hang tight," Kael said and simply jumped down.

For a split second, Peter thought Kael had actually let go. His body lurched, and then Kael’s other hand latched onto the silk.

For anyone else, it would have been suicide. After all, the lines from the spider silk were tough as steel, and definitely felt like steel. Trying to grip it and descend would fry one’s hand before splitting it in half.

But for Kael, that wasn’t the case.

The silk wasn’t soft. It was abrasive, almost serrated in the way it resisted. It hummed faintly under tension like a wire pulled too tight. Kael’s gauntlet was the only reason the plan wasn’t instant mutilation. Even then, the moment he clamped down, heat and friction screamed in the air.

Thanks to his gauntlet made of heat-resistant steel, once he grabbed it and loosened the grip just enough not to let go, but just enough that they started skidding down at blinding speed down the wire.

The descent was violent. Not free-fall, not smooth. It was controlled chaos, a forced slide that turned friction into sparks. Kael’s arm vibrated as the silk tore past the gauntlet. The air filled with bright streaks of light as metal scraped against thread. Peter’s weight yanked downward, his legs kicking uselessly as he clung to Kael like a drowning man.

Peter’s scream made Kael’s ears ring, but he didn’t care; he was looking up at the massive amounts of sparks flying out from his grip as they descended several floors a second.

Many spiders seemed to realize what was happening, from the red dots on his minimap, to actual sighting of them peering over windows, some even began to climb down in hope of catching prey that was far easier to kill in mid air than on solid ground.

The building rushed past them in broken layers. Half-collapsed floors. Floors with cubicles that looked like black skeletons.

The wind battered their faces. Dust and ash got shoved into Kael’s eyes and between his teeth. The silk line swayed slightly under their combined weight, and every sway threatened to slam them into the building’s edge.

Once they reached all the way to the bottom, Peter began howling, "STOP, STOP, THERE IS NO MORE LINE!"

Kael already noticed that and finally tightened his grip; the sparks flared even more.

Kael’s gauntlet clamped down hard enough that the vibration shot up his arm. The stopping force tried to tear his shoulder out, but his stance in mid-air was all instinct and stubbornness now.

They managed to stop at the third floor, the one blackened by fire. And thanks to the sudden jerk, it made them wobble on the line. Allowing it to sway back and forth, and just when it was close to the building, Kael looked at Peter with a mischievous glare.

The latter looked back, just as the idea of them surviving this stunt setteled seeing that glance in Kael’s eyes immedialty gave him a bad premonition.

Kel tosses Peter forward.

It wasn’t gentle; he launched him like a sack into safety.

Peter fell on the soot-covered floor and began kissing it from fear, while Kael couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. The force was still swinging Kael, so he began timing it.

Once he felt it was proper, he released and dropped the last short distance into the room with a controlled bend of his knees. The floor puffed soot around his boots. He straightened and immediately looked toward the stairwell, already listening for the skitter. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Good, let’s fuck off. I saw a couple of spiders that heard your girlish screams and are coming down."

Peter’s head snapped up, offended and terrified at the same time. The insult didn’t even land properly because the sound of metal tapping from above made it real.

Kael didn’t need to check the mini-map again to know noise traveled. He saw how fast those things moved when they committed.

"You don’t have to say that twice!" Peter handed Kael the axe he was loaned, "If that stunt was the price of loaning me this weapon, please take it, never give it back."

Peter shoved the axe toward Kael like it was cursed. His hands were shaking so badly that he almost dropped it before Kael took it. His face was still pale, his lips dry, eyes flicking to the ceiling as if expecting legs to puncture through again.

Kael smiled and took it, "Let’s go now," He said as he walked down the staircase and outside the building soon after.

They didn’t run immediately. Running made noise. Running made mistakes. Kael moved fast but controlled, taking stairs two at a time when safe, slowing at corners, keeping the axe ready. Peter followed closely, still looking like his soul hadn’t fully returned to his body.

The sky had begun dimming.

The daylight that had made goblins hesitate was fading into a deeper red, then a bruised purple, like the world was preparing for night the way a wound prepared to bleed. Shadows stretched across broken streets, and the wind carried a colder edge.

"The days are feeling like they’re shorter," Peter said.

It wasn’t just a complaint. It was fear. Shorter days meant less time to move safely. Less time to farm. Less time before monsters took the streets as they owned them. Peter glanced at the horizon as if he could bargain with the sun.

Kael looked up and seemed to have the same realization. They did spend a lot of time in the building, but from noon to now, it couldn’t have been more than a couple if not a bit more. But I was already feeling like it would darken in less than an hour from now.

Kael didn’t like that. The Tower already had a timer on the floor. Now the day itself felt like it was shrinking too, compressing the margin for survival. He filed it away as another silent pressure, another rule change he didn’t get to vote on.

"Let’s go back to the clan."

Peter said it quickly, like he didn’t want Kael to suggest any other destination.

"I have a good amount of cores on me, we’ll give the boss a portion, but we’ll still have a lot left... but I don’t know if you should show him that axe, boss might get greedy."

Peter’s voice dropped on the last part, and Kael noted it. Peter wasn’t wrong. The boss was pragmatic, not loyal. Pragmatic leaders counted assets. If the boss decided the axe belonged to the clan, Kael would have to choose between conflict and deception.

"I’ll give him a reason not to greed for it, don’t worry about it," Kael said.

Kael didn’t explain what that reason was. He didn’t need to. The tone carried enough that Peter stopped asking. It wasn’t reassurance. It was finality.

The two of them finally headed back to their base, with loot from the spiders and cores in hand. It felt like it was good enough for one day of preparation. With this many materials, they can trade with Baltak for upgrades and perhaps get enough cores to make a difference in the battle against the basilisk.

Night was still coming, and the floor was still tightening like a fist. And if they don’t hurry... that fist might just clap shut on them.