After a couple minutes of hopping like an idiot, it hits me! I can skip - like an idiot. It’s quicker and easier to do on sliding ground since I can maintain the momentum like a form of ice-skating.

Challenge time! 12 miles to cover. No more distractions. Closing my eyes to revisit my mental map I notice that I can see where I am on this thing. It might be faster to run this with my eyes closed.

Skipping forward at about the mile mark is the first of the switchbacks. Suddenly there’s a tingling coming from my left. I quickly dip my left shoulder forward and pirouette. Snapping my eyes open I look around to figure out what the hell that was all about. Nothing. Just dirt and rocks and an empty nothing. Shrugging I close my eyes and continue my skipping.

As I reach the top of these switchbacks and onto a narrow ledge that runs around the side of the ravine I again feel a strange sensation. Throwing myself flat I feel a whoosh of air right where the middle of my body was. Turning my head over my shoulder I again see nothing. What is going on here?

“Nope. Nuh uh. I do not like this shit.” I pointedly tell the wall next to me. Picking myself, and this dumb rock, up I start to sprint-skip to get off this ledge. My spine starts to shiver again - and I’m not putting up with this. Pushing myself flat to the wall I snap my vision sideways and see nothing. What the shit? No, wait… that odd shimmer reminds me of the magic I saw in the lab, but very different.

Grabbing at the reddish dirt on the wall I break out a chunk and hurl it behind me.

*Thwack* The ball of dirt strikes something and slides down. Uh oh.

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Screw this! I am not fighting an invisible monster.

With an incredible flex of my toes I feel the pliable scales in my boots grab the rock and I launch myself forward. Time to sprint and if I fall, it can’t be as bad as whatever the hell that is.

Using my toes and feet to spring load the scales for traction I lean forward and take off running at a dead horizontal sprint, staying as low and fast as I can. Taking a few steps I realize that these scales give me incredible traction.

“Fuck it, risk it for the biscuit!” I holler into the void as I pivot to my right and start trying to run up the steep, but not quite vertical, cliff face. With a bit of a cheer and excitement I start running in a direction it can’t possibly follow me in.

“Ha. Lets see what you’re going to do now - oh fuck me.” Whatever this is is now punching holes rapidly in the wall towards me. I can see the shimmering clearly, and if I’m not mistaken, that is active camouflage, not invisibility. Oh, and that’s the world's biggest scorpion? Spider? Spidorpion? Scorpider? Oh, wait, it has 10 legs, a stinger, webs, antennae, so spider/scorpion/ant/something else? Is this a chimera? That can camouflage? Awesome! No, wait… this is not the time to be excited.

Right, right… so my conundrum. Do I try and fight it and kill it, because, duh? Or do I need to reach the pillar without killing things to improve my time? Wait, does that even matter? This is probably one of Vorben’s creatures. I can’t kill that. It’s like my brother - or sister - err, monster-sibling. *Sigh* I really wanna kill it but I guess I’ll try to avoid killing things for now. It might have acid blood and that would really ruin my look.

Diving left I roll back onto the path, hopefully gaining ground. I’m sure this thing is way faster than me but maybe if I keep dodging it will decide to go away.

*clack clack clack Crash clack clack clack-clack-clack clackclackclack* Shit this thing is FAST. Also, it is now behind me. Wait, I can time this.

I start listening for the pattern and... there it is! As two of the monstrosity's legs hit the ground at the same time I plant my weight in the ball of my left foot and spin my entire body around the ball of my foot - my right side swinging out over empty air - and as I turn fully around push up and back. Launching myself in the air, I tuck, turn 180, and finish my backflip facing back in the direction I was running - just in time to hear the *whump* of air as the stinger flashes to where I spun. ~I’m gonna dieee~