55.

Gust kicked up a large cloud of dust, blowing it into the chimera’s face as it wheeled backward from the sudden onslaught. He cut the distance with a few bounding steps, stabbing at where the goblin was conjoined with the spider. The deadly point hit chiseled flesh and dug a thin furrow across its stomach.

Screaming in rage, the chimera scuttled away, long legs grabbing at the wall and letting it scuttle upward. The speed was beyond anything Santi could currently match, the monster's physical stats were beyond his own.

“That’s not creepy as fuck,” Santi said as he watched it climb without hesitation. Perched in the corner of the roof, blood leaking from the thin wound, the chimera hissed in agony.

“How dare you! You would desecrate my holy flesh?” It was shouting nonsense down at him as Santi tried to figure out how to kill it. He had to admit that this run of luck was truly terrible. The monster above him was truly beyond him as he was in a head to head fight. It was a physical classer that had grown accustomed to its own body, unlike the Night Hag he had killed earlier.

“Get bent!” Santi yelled back. So far his only edge was that the monster's own inflated sense of self-importance was so bloated. It would rather yell insults than just kill him.

“Your bones will decorate my nest!” It yelled, leaping free of the corner. All eight bladed legs were aimed at him, ready to leave him looking like swiss cheese if he didn’t move instantly. Santi threw another Gust at the heavy monster, the strong winds pushing the airborne monster slightly off target as he rolled the other way.

It landed with the impact of a meteor, the ground shattering into a spray of concrete. Bits of shrapnel cut him, drawing forth thin lines of blood that wept as Santi began to run. There was no way he could kill the monster in the confined space of its own lair, so he was booking it.

The narrow hallway was a welcome sight, the limited space preventing the spider beast to follow after him. He risked a glance backward and cursed as he started to run faster. It was right behind him, legs stretched out as it ripped apart the walls and forced itself after him into the hallway.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Santi chanted, sprinting heedless of any dangers as he was focused on getting out of the building. His Air Current kept him from falling on his face as he deftly dodged around debris on the ground. He got a hint of warning as the air pressure changed.

He kissed the ground, throwing himself at it like it was a long lost lover. The passage of something large over his head and the subsequent crash as the outer was demolished was enough to convince him it had been a wise decision. Eye watering light spilled into the building as Santi lunged for freedom. He was only feet away from the new exit but could feel the weight of the chimera behind him.

The fresh air was a relief, the humidity of the area seeming to have begun to dissipate. Santi was running in the opposite direction of the rest of the team. He had to cross an empty field and then he could get into a housing development and hopefully have some better choices than he did right now.

The rest of the wall came down behind him as the goblin-spider burst out of the wall. Its eyes were wild with rage, little cuts and nicks letting blood dribble down its chest as it looked around wildly. Santi hit it with another Gust, this time throwing up a cloud of dirt and rocks to impede the monster.

“Fucker’s fast.” Santi sprinted as hard as he could. There were spells that were soon available that would let him move at speeds that were near incomprehensible. Right now he was plodding with a giant spider monster ready to eat him following behind. Moving at full speed he was able to clear the nest in only moments, each step pushing indents into the hard packed earth.

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Thick green growth whipped at his arms and legs as he crossed across the field. It was waist high and thick with sharp spikes and sappy limbs that stained and cut at him. The sound of the spider chimera behind him was spurring him to greater and greater speeds.

A eight foot stone wall separates the pasture grounds from the partially built housing development. He pushed himself further than he ever had, each breath a dagger to his lungs as his legs stretched and pulled, threatening to fail him as he pushed himself beyond his limitations.

He didn’t slow as he came onto the wall, running at it and using a single step to throw himself at the top of the wall. He used his free hand to grab the edge of the wall and vaulted it, swinging his legs over and pushing to throw himself further away.

Santi took in the surroundings as he floated toward the ground. Dozens of skeletal houses, the frames only partially put up. Black unmarked rivers of concrete flowed around the development. Pieces of abandoned machinery sat around in mementos of ruin.

Then he landed hard, his ankle screaming in pain as he launched himself toward the heart of the construction project. The spider hit the wall like a wrecking ball, blowing it apart as it looked around in rage as Santi ran ahead of it.

Santi ran through a dirt lot that was going to become a lawn, leaping a wheelbarrow filled with dirt. A house lay open, the door propped wide open. There were walls on the house but the roof hadn’t been finished. Sant leapt right through the door and started running up the staircase that was directly in front of the doorway.

Wood splintered behind him as the chimera chased after. Stairs crunched as sword legs cut the air behind him. Santi could feel the passage of air, inches separating his vulnerable flesh from sharp chitin.

The second floor landing lead into a long hallway with no doors. Santi ran straight down the hallway and into the bedroom at the end of the hallway. The window hadn’t been installed and Santi jumped straight through without hesitation.

His already strained ankle buckled as he landed, sending him sprawling to the ground. The breath whooshed out of him as he hit hard. Behind him he could hear the spider ripping apart the house behind him. A leg punched through the roof, followed a heartbeat later by its other legs as it started to climb out of the rooftop.

As Santi watched as the spider struggled to get out of the wooden building his plan formed. It was simple and a classic, something he had already done. He got to his feet and started to look as fast as he could. The dead vehicles sat there just waiting for him to plunder them.

He limped towards a white truck covered in monster scratches and dirt. The metal along the side had deep furrows through the metal and it listed as the two tires on the drivers side had been slashed. As behind him he heard a house entering rapid deconstruction, he looked for a gas can. There had to be one or three laying around a jobsite somewhere.

The truck didn’t have one, but the next one did. The bright red plastic can sat in the back of the truck with its neon yellow nozzle sticking up like it wanted to catch his attention. There was nothing in it as he grabbed it, but he was fine with that. A quick glance behind showed he still had a few minutes if he was fast.

The morph blade transformed into a simple lever, which he used to break open the gas cap and cover. It took only a moment for him to reconfigure Air Current on the fly, forming a tunnel from the gas tank to the empty gas can. Creating the negative pressure was hard, but the time crunch helped motivate him.

He imagined the small currents tightening and sucking backward, air being vented outside while the interior walls remained solid. That’s not what happened, but it gave the magic the shape he wanted it to have. The goal he wanted it to do. It was enough.

Fuel started to flow slowly up and out of the truck, spilling into the gas can in a pleasant trickle of liquid hitting plastic. He kept his eyes locked on the house, the roof having been almost completely destroyed as the chimera forced itself out. The goblin’s eyes were locked on him as its sword legs chopped itself free.

Santi whistled to himself. A peace in his heart as he stared down the second Acolyte monster of the last twenty-four hours. He knew he could do this. He would kill this creature and then burn down the rest of that goblin nest. Fear was still there and pain never left him, but he was sure in this moment and the next he’d be victorious. He just had to burn another monster to death.