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Through the disorientation and roaring wind, Ibai had a difficult time following what was happening, but after a fashion, he did notice Emiliana. The poor girl was as limp as could be. The sheer force with which they’d left the ground had probably been enough to break every bone in her body and rupture most of her organs. He wondered if she was unconscious or simply dead. There was a fair chance that her brain had been turned to jelly.

It was a bit humbling to know that he would be in the same boat right now if not for his shadow. Humbling--and exciting.

Also, they were still ascending, Ibai realized. Was this really the power of a single jump, or had Gohvis grown wings and started flying? Both seemed equally likely.

Oh, but back to the shadow--he found it surprising that it hadn’t protected him completely. He knew that it wouldn’t shield him from soul-empowered damage very well, but what were its physical limits, he wondered? Come to think of it, he’d never really thought to test that before. Why not? That kind of experimentation could have been super fun.

Hmm. He supposed he’d just never had much occasion to. He’d always thought the shadow was basically perfect. The idea that it actually had some kind of impact threshold hadn’t really crossed his mind.

Maybe it didn’t even matter. Clearly, the threshold was pretty high. A proper experiment would mean that he’d have to do something pretty extreme.

Like what?

Like falling out of the sky and hitting the ground at terminal velocity? Would the shadow protect him from that? He could test that right now, if he wanted. He could teleport out of Gohvis’ hand and just let himself fall. It’d be easy.

Nah, that was a bad idea.

Wasn’t it?

Yeah, an awful one.

But maybe...

Nah. The Monster might just catch him again anyway. Somehow.

But, fun?

Bah, he should stay with these three. That was what a responsible person would do.

Wasn’t it?

Ah, hey, they were descending now. So it was just a jump, after all.