“Come back here you wretched things!” Jumping the ledge and sliding down the slope, Maggie ran after the surprisingly fast Imps, stumbling while trying to recharge her crossbow and shoot at them for the third time. Despite Belinda’s optimism, she was not getting better at it with practice.
You know, if your objective is to hit the local architecture, I am sure you are doing great.
“Not the time to be funny, Belinda!” Not slowing down, Maggie jumped over a few blocks of stone that were littering her path, probably the scattered remnants of a long deteriorated building, she surmised. “Why is this thing so heavy, anyway!? It is just metal and wood, isn’t it?” She asked, tapping at the crossbow.
A better way of looking at it is that IT IS metal and wood.
“Okay, screw this.” Making sure to not lose much of her speed and not trip at the scattered rocks and uneven terrain, she slid her haversack forward until its first few straps were in front of her, and quickly tied the crossbow at them, making a few rough knots so it wouldn’t fall easily. “Change of plans!”
To what?
“Kick them to death? They are the size of small dogs!” She kicked at a loose dead tree root as if to make her point. “—Huh. I just remembered dogs. I love dogs, Belinda! We need to get one when we leave this place.”
Focus, Maggie. We have less than 25 minutes.
“Right. Why would they run anyway? The other Imp seemed too eager to get to me.”
You said these were smaller and didn’t seem to present any kind of aberration, correct?
“Yeah, that’s about it.”
In that case, that brings me to a simple provisory conclusion.
“That is?”
They got scared of you.
“...Great.” Maggie continued running after them, only briefly slowing to scoop up some rocks and throw at her targets, in hope that her aim would be better with a new kind of projectile. She didn't seem to be having much luck on that so far.
It didn't take her too long to get into a new kind of impasse.
As the Imps jumped over the end of the current landmass they were in —falling into a small, floating, rock platform— Maggie abruptly stopped in her tracks.
“Ugh, you gotta be flocking me.” Regaining her breath, she took a moment to assess her situation, and it didn't look very good.
What is it?
With a loud huff of discontentment, she answered “I just found the American Ninja Warrior course from hell.”
…What?
In front of her, a series of convoluted platforms extended. Ranging from regular stone blocks, seeming to be just floating in thin air at different heights and angles, to slowly moving, wire-like appendices, wrung at odd angles and coming from, apparently, any and every direction.
The Imps stopped, noticing she was no longer pursuing them. They looked back at her, cautiously prodding in her direction, tilting their heads in curiosity. Then, nearly at the same time, they came to the conclusion that she couldn't go after them. As one, the Imps fell to their knees and started laughing, pointing at her face.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“They are laughing at me, Belinda!”
Oh, no. What a terrible thing. Said Belinda, in a serious, unemotional, but still, clearly sarcastic tone.
“You just wait, you poop heads, I will get to you!” She exclaimed, menacingly waving her fist at them, which only made the Imps bowl even harder.
Poop heads?
One of the creatures tumbled to the ground from sheer laughter. Seeing an opportunity, Maggie seized the moment and jumped towards the closest platform.
She almost tripped and fell to oblivion doing so; it was a long jump to make without a running start. But it paid off in the end— The Imps were momentarily startled by her fast movement, but still, they were small and agile, quickly getting out of her way. Well, most of them at least.
The last one wasn’t so lucky. He was a heft fellow, and being on the ground laughing at the time, he was not quick enough to leave her reach. As soon as the Imp noticed her movement, he jumped after his friends, but Maggie was already too close. Extending her left hand mid-jumping, she grabbed the last few centimeters of his tail and pulled it backwards.
She immediately regretted that.
The sharp barbs on the Imp’s tail bit into her flesh and she almost let the creature go out of sheer pain. But that only made her angry. Screaming in pain, she held it even tighter, and with all her strength, heaved the thing by the tail, spinning him in the air a couple of times, and smashed his body against the hard stone floor, making a sickening splurt sound, as if the Imp’s bloated torso was a rupturing jelly balloon.
He was momentarily stunned by it, squirming on the floor. Maggie seized the moment to let go of his tail, wincing in pain as she forced her hand open and blood started to flow from the wound, dripping down her palm and fingers.
“That. Bloody. Hurts!” She exclaimed, dropping to the ground on top of the Imp. She pressed her knee over his torso, putting all the weight on her front leg. Her instincts kicked in, and before she could stop to think what to do, she raised the rock she was still holding in her right hand over her head and brought it down in a swift movement, smashing the Imp's head, stunning him deeper.
Still not sure that was enough to bring the thing down, she held the rock with both hands this time and smashed the Imp again, and again, and again, blood starting to smear the scene, her's and the Imp's. Until, with one last blow, she felt the rock caving in his head. Immediately, the Imp stopped resisting, his body going limp, save for the occasional spasm.
Breathing hard, she quickly let go of the rock, wincing at her injured hand. She was about to get up when she noticed the imp was still somewhat breathing. At this point, she wasn't sure if the thing was this resistant or if she was just not that physically strong. In the end, though, she felt bad for the little creature. She picked up her knife from her belt, and in one quick movement, buried it deep in the Imp’s chest, ending the poor thing’s suffering.
You know, you are surprisingly decisive when you need to inflict violence. It is uncanny, really.
She didn't answer Belinda. It was weirding her out too. It was like embodying another person during a fight. She didn't want to think about it right now. Besides, she wasn't in the right state of mind for that. She was getting tired; out of breath. Less from sheer exhaustion and more from the adrenaline of the moment. All things considered, It was easy to kill the Imp. Maybe too easy, she reflected as the light vanished from the Imp’s eyes. If it wasn’t for her clumsiness, she was sure she could have done that faster and without getting hurt. Come to think of it, she should have gone for her knife from the beginning, instead of just hitting with what was in her hand at the moment.
“That… Was… Messy. Sorry little Imp.” Reaching out with her hand, she tried to clean the sweat that was forming on her forehead but only ended up smearing herself with the blood from her palm.“Oh shoot, I am bleeding!” With hands shaking, she quickly reached towards her haversack and ripped a piece of the robe stashed in it, using it to haphazardly stop the bleeding. “How are we doing, Belinda?” She asked with a trembling voice, holding the pain, wincing as she pressed down the improvised bandage on her hand.
We got an extra 20 minutes. You might want to start running after the other Imps.
“Oh, snap, the Imps!” Fearing they had already gone too far, Maggie quickly turned around in their direction, ignoring the pain. And to her surprise, they were still there, just sitting on the platforms. Some were clapping, others were just chirping and making strange monkey-like noises, but they were all laughing.
“Wait, were they just watching the whole time?”
They continued laughing, some pointing towards their friend's body, seemingly entertained midway through some conversation.
“They are laughing at their friend? That's messed up, man— You guys shouldn't laugh at your dead friend! That's not cool!”
I highly doubt they can understand you, Maggie.
"I'll show them— I am coming for you, little pricks! You just wait!" Maggie walked a few meters back, and with a running start, jumped towards the next platform; a smaller one that slowly wobbled up and down. She was sure she would make the distance, with it not being impossible far ahead and also way below the one she currently was. So aside from bursting her knees with the long landing, there was only one other thing she had to worry about—
Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down!
Almost immediately, she completely failed at not looking down. In the quick space of time from one landmass to the other, Maggie saw the abyss extending below her; strange wire-like formations made of an unidentified material, extending from one side to the other, and apparently, moving on their own between other smaller landmasses scattered below, crisscrossing like a dark, slowly moving web. And below everything else, fire, in every direction, with a few scattered monsters seeming to just walk around it, like titans crossing a stormy ocean; patrolling a perimeter, or just going through their normal lives, whatever normal means for not-hellish demon-like creatures. It blew her mind how casually they were strolling through the fire. It reminded her of someone just taking a bath on the beach, enjoying the waves hitting their torso. Huh, she remembered beaches. She got weirdly mixed feelings about it.
Regardless of her daydreams, land approaches, and before she could prepare for it, her feet touched the new landmass, her whole body following it, as she half fell face first, half instinctively rolled forward, dispersing the impact, even if in an awkward manner. As her body hit the platform, it wobbled down with her weight, going alarmingly low, scaring her, but only to set back up in its space a moment later. Noticing she was coming after them, the Imps started moving once again. She shook her head and got up, feeling a few new bruises from the long fall.
I can't slow down!