Victor Reilly fell two stories then grabbed the steel railing of the thirtieth floor fire escape. He hauled himself onto the platform and lay there for a moment on his chest, then span around and got to his feet when he heard footsteps coming down the steel steps.
The Link appeared, clutching a ten inch long shard of broken glass. Reilly sidestepped to the left as the glass was thrust at him. He grabbed the Link’s arm and pulled the Link towards himself, smashing the hand that held the glass against the rail twice. The glass was dislodged and fell clattering to the steel platform.
Reilly ducked, grabbed the glass, and shoved it upwards into the Link’s thigh. He watched as the flesh healed around the wound, leaving the glass lodged there with only a few inches exposed. The Link backhanded Reilly across the face, sending him down. Reilly held out his leg and tripped the Link, grabbing him as he fell and sending the two towards the stairs.
They fell through the opening and down the steel steps, Reilly yelping in pain as his head hit several of them on the way down.
They stood simultaneously when they hit the platform of the twenty-ninth floor, Reilly grabbing the Link around the neck as they did so. He hauled the Link over the rail and tried to drop him, only to find the Link grabbing his arm and dragging them both over.
Reilly grabbed the edge of the platform and the Link grabbed Reilly’s leg. They dangled there for a moment, neither knowing what to do.
The Link grabbed the piece of glass that was lodged in his leg with his one free arm and drove it into Reilly’s thigh, swinging his weight towards the platform as he did so. Reilly screamed, and let go of the steel platform. The Link swung in towards the platform on the twenty eighth floor, landing on his feet and standing up.
Reilly grabbed the platform as he fell, finding himself dangling from the fire escape once again. He doubted the few metres closer to the ground would help him much if he was to fall.
The Link stood above him, still clutching the glass shard.
“You had nothing to do with this,” The Link said to the hanging Reilly. “You could have walked away and no harm would have come to you. But now…”
The Link kneeled down and swung the glass shard towards Reilly’s hand.
Victor let go before the glass could make contact, finding himself in free fall.
He silently admitted to himself as he fell that it was probably a bad idea. He extended an arm and grabbed for the nearest solid object, flailing uselessly at several levels of the fire escape as he passed them. He finally grabbed the steel rail of the seventeenth level platform, screaming as he felt his shoulder dislocate. He pulled himself up and over the rail, coming to rest on the platform. He grabbed his left shoulder with his right arm and tried to pop it back into place.
“Bloody hell…” He said to himself as he heard the Link descending from above. Standing up and leaning his head over the rail, he noticed that his opponent wasn’t even taking the stairs. He was climbing down the outside of the fire escape like a spider, lowering himself down the outside of each one then jumping to the next.
Reilly braced himself against the solid concrete wall of the building as the noise got louder. The Link soon appeared, lowering himself from the eighteenth floor platform with one arm then dropping to the platform on which Reilly currently stood. He lunged at Reilly, who stepped to one side, grabbed the Link’s head and drove it into the concrete wall. The Link drove an elbow back and Reilly ducked, smashing the head into the wall again. The Link spun around and kneed Reilly in the midsection. Reilly doubled over in pain for a moment, and then swung a solid right hook into the Link’s face. The Link ran at Reilly, tackling him around the chest and sending them both over the rail once more.
Reilly was ready for it this time, and he grabbed the rail as they went over. He held himself there on the edge of the eighteenth level platform, then descended to the seventeeth as the Link fell.
The Link smashed his head against the sixteenth floor’s steel platform, and continued falling. Eventually he reached out both arms and grabbed the rail of the twelfth floor, hauling himself up.
“DIE ALREADY!” Reilly yelled downwards, and headed for the stairs. He ran downwards at speeds a normal man couldn’t match, quickly headed for the twelfth floor.
The Link grinned as he heard Reilly descending, and walked slowly up the stairs towards the next platform.
They met on the thirteenth, Reilly diving off the top stair and driving his shoulder into the Link’s chest. The Link pivoted as Reilly struck him, pushing his elbow downwards into Reilly’s back and sending Reilly’s head against the steel bars of the rail. Reilly grunted once in pain, turned, and kicked the Link in the crotch. The Link staggered backwards, coming to rest against the rail. Reilly ran forwards and drove all his weight into the Link’s chest, really not caring this time if they went over the edge.
Which they did.
Reilly extended his arms and reached for the eleventh floor rail. He missed, but succeeded in grabbing the tenth. He ignored the pain coming from his left shoulder.
The Link tried the same thing, but Reilly shot out his leg and kicked the Link in the chest, sending him a few feet away from the fire escape. The Link’s arms shot out uselessly at the ninth floor railing and then the eighth, trying to grab hold of a steel bar that was several feet out of reach.
The Link came to an abrupt halt when he fell into the concrete path circling the building.
Reilly slowly hauled himself onto the steel platform, knowing that the Link was not dead. That it would soon regenerate.
“Damn, I could use some help,” He said to himself as he clamped one hand over his still bleeding thigh.
