Nature is unforgiving indeed. They'd been climbing for hours and had reached instant-death heights.  Even though he was being as careful as his experience allowed, it disturbed the mountain's strange balance every time Battler had to melt away a chunk of it. There was a sharp rumbling sound as a massive block of ice tumbled down at them from above. Between the three advanced Hunters, it was obliterated before it could make contact, but some of the shattered chunks slammed into Ebisu, knocking him unconscious for an instant. He fell off the edge, and Battler, who was closest, grabbed hold of the Graecian's wrist. But Ebisu, in his more than six feet of muscle, promptly made the boy lose his footing.<br/><br/>As he started to slide, Battler grabbed Heather in a panic, and she didn't exactly have good footing. Ijemaru saw the three of them going down and leapt foreword. He managed to catch Heather's wrist, but lost his own footing. "Fuck!" He exclaimed, managing, at the last second, to grab a hold of the edge of the platform. He ruined his gloves by shooting needles out of his fingertips that pierced the ice and secured his grip.<br/><br/>At this point, Ebisu regained consciousness. He said something sharply in a language they'd never heard him use before, but could only assume was Graecian, and immediately made a new platform below them. They dropped down one at a time and Battler let out a shaky sigh of relief. "Tell me we're almost there?" he begged.<br/><br/>Ebisu let out a breath and nodded. "Yeah. Well set up camp when we reach the bottom."