Lucius dashed to the side with such force that Maryanne nearly tumbled out of the open backpack. The child reacted instinctually, pushing her legs against the inside of the bag to keep from flying out. At the same time she reached up behind her own head, sinking her fingers into Lucius' hair and holding on for dear life.
"Tsk!"
Lucius gritted his teeth as a violent ripping sensation spread across the back of his head. It wasn't pleasant but he could endure it, especially with so much adrenaline pumping through him. Besides, his attributes were high enough that his body was no longer the same as a common human's. Even the hair on his head could endure far more punishment than normal. He did his best to ignore the feeling, focusing on their survival as he raced into the forest, narrowly avoiding the trees whizzing by on each side as he weaved back and forth.
The giant centipede-like creature followed behind him like a homing missile, crashing through any trees or branches in its way. Shattered limbs and upturned root systems littered the path behind it as the creature moved through the colorful foliage. When Lucius jumped between the narrow opening of two particularly large trees, leaving no obvious path around the dense patch of forest for his pursuer, the centipede leapt into the air like a shark jumping out of the ocean before diving into the dirt as if it were the surface of the water.
"What the hell!"
Lucius furrowed his brows as he shouted out a curse when he witnessed the physics-defying display.
That has to be a magical ability... He had been betting on the large trees, which the creature could not move through swiftly, to delay it and help them escape. But when he saw the centipede diving through the ground in such an impossible manner, he knew that the logic of the normal world had failed him. His mind scoured through possibilities as he continued to run, dismissing the ideas that seemed less likely to succeed and promoting the ones that felt plausible. He was ready to try his next plan when he felt a sudden rumbling beneath his feet, as Sense Danger rapidly increased the intensity of it's warning. Lucius glanced down, wide-eyed at his rapidly moving feet, before quickly launching himself into the air with his next step. He flew toward the closest tree and used the trunk as a second step to jump further into the air—and not a moment too soon, as the dirt exploded directly beneath them, sending dust, rocks, and small tree limbs flying through the air at dangerous speeds.
Lucius turned his body around to face the explosion to protect Maryanne. He even pulled a particularly large rock into his storage space as it hurtled toward his face. But he didn’t have either the perception or telekinesis powerful enough to stop everything, and the rain of projectiles crashed into his body. He crossed his arms in front of his face to protect his eyes as dozens of points of impact sent signals of pain coursing through his mind. Luckily, like his hair, it was painful but not truly damaging. He quickly opened his eyes in time to see the massive set of pinchers sailing through the air toward him.
Lucius scrambled to grasp onto anything to redirect himself out of the way of the creature’s attack, spreading his arms and legs in all directions in a desperate attempt to find purchase. By pure dumb luck, his left foot hooked around a branch as he flew up and immediately stopped his flight. His eyes teared up, and a grimace spread across his face as Maryanne yanked heavily on his hair in an attempt to keep herself from flying out of the bag after such a rapid stop.
Lucius held Matriarch's Fury out in front of him, expecting the creature to bend its body in order to reorient the direction of its attack, but no such thing happened. The massive centipede sailed through the air, its vicious pinchers snapping shut with a deafening crack, creating a shockwave of pressure that hurled debris away in all directions. Lucius’ eyes narrowed as he watched the creature dumbly attack the position he would have been in if he hadn’t halted his movement.
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It can't see! It's been using some other method to track us!
The strange scene before him sent a flurry of realizations racing through Lucius’ mind. Maybe the creature wasn’t the perception-defying hunter he thought it was and didn’t possess any powerful ability that interfered with Sense Danger. The talent may well have been working perfectly, only stopping its warnings whenever he paused to search for the creature because not moving had thwarted the danger.
The creature crashed through the canopy, angrily thrashing its head back and forth as if it had captured its prey while it tumbled to the ground. The tension disappeared from Lucius' face as he observed the centipede's behavior.
Oh... It's an idiot.
Hanging from a thick tree limb with one hand, he turned his neck back as far as he could so Maryanne could see his face, then held one finger up over his mouth. Maryanne quickly nodded her head and pressed her lips together firmly. The two of them watched from the tree as the centipede hit the ground, soon realizing that it had failed to capture it's prey as it began circling the area. Every few meters, it would stop and press its long, hairy antennae to the ground. The hair follicles were most likely sensitive to vibrations, and that was how the creature located its prey from so far underground.
Lucius pulled a rusty wrench out of his storage ring, grasping it in his hand as he reached back and hurled the item high across the forest canopy, using his telekinesis to push it and add a little extra momentum after it had left his hand. The item flew through the air with tremendous force, crashing back down into the tree line with a loud series of cracks at least a quarter of a mile away. He watched as the creature's body stiffened the moment the item hit the ground, before it dashed through the forest toward the noise, kicking up buckets of dirt and bulldozing tons of trees in the process.
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The two humans dangled from the tree, remaining as quiet as possible, for over an hour. For the first twenty minutes or so, they could still hear the loud shattering of tree limbs and even see the canopy trembling as the creature moved around off in the distance. But soon it traveled far enough away that they could no longer see the signs of it's presence, and for the last half hour, the world around them was undisturbed. The sound of chirping birds and the scurrying of small mammals slowly returned to the area. The wind causing the two to rock slightly back and forth in the cool air beneath the limb of the tree. Lucius glanced up at the sun, squinting his eyes at the brightness and judging that close to one hour had passed, as he switched arms for the tenth time to relieve the strain on his fingers.
"I think we're safe..."
He said the words quietly, his subconscious still not quite trusting that the hideous nightmare centipede wouldn't reappear at the slightest noise to eat him up. Lucius paused for a moment after he spoke, listening carefully to the ambiance around him. Releasing the tension from his body with a deep exhale, he begun to carefully descend from the tree. When he reached the bottom and both feet were firmly placed on the ground, he couldn't help but rub his aching arms. The lengthy hang had been difficult, even for someone so strong; it was like holding a very light weight in your outstretched hand—simple at first but increasingly painful as time passed.
Through effort, you have gained +1 to the Stamina attribute.
Well... That's one way to do it.
Lucius smirked as he saw that he had achieved his goal of increasing his Stamina, just in a rather unexpected way.
"Let's get out of this forest and back to the path, then we can take a break."
"Okay."
The two of them continued to speak in hushed tones, even when the creature was presumably too far away to hear them. Lucius looked around the ruined forest for a moment to regain his bearings, then took a step forward heading back toward the road. As his foot reached the soil before him his eyes shot open fully as he quickly turned his head toward the ground. The feeling of hard earth that should have accompanied his step did not arrive, like when you thought you had reached the bottom of the stairs but there was actually one more to go. He clenched tightly to his sword as he felt his body tipping forward from the ground collapsing beneath him, he reached his arms outward to grasp onto anything he could, but it was no use. There was nothing to hold onto, a wide circle of the earth around him was also falling.
"Ahh"
Maryanne's scream echoed off the wall of dark soil and rock filling the sides of their vision, as the sky rapidly fled, turning into a smaller and smaller circle of light above them.