Having learned from her past mistake with the gerbils, this time Maggie acted before her enemy. Without stopping to think, she threw herself in the direction of the approaching pair of burning eyes in front of her, making all the other creatures jumping to her direction miss her by a slight margin.
Screaming, she collided directly with the monster, putting all the weight of her body on top of it as they hit the stone floor. The creature squirmed and lashed at her arm, slashing her coat, but it didn't last long. As soon as they hit solid surface, her knife was already waiting, biting deep into its flesh under her weight. She quickly twisted the blade and ran it all the way across the creature’s body, wreaking havoc along the way and finishing whatever she was facing.
20 minutes! Warned Belinda, not wanting to take too much of her attention from the fight. Even before her clue, Maggie had already come to the conclusion herself.
“I know, the Imps!” While under the light of the burning ocean, the things seemed clumsy and loud, but here in the dark, they were silent and seemed to work perfectly as a pack.
She didn't have time to think. In a second the rest of the Imps would have already reached her.
Still on the ground, she tumbled backwards and quickly shot up to a standing position, just in time to see another pair of burning eyes bolting towards her. This time though, they did not try to attack her directly. Watching their apparent leader being quickly dealt with by Maggie, the other Imps became more careful. They began to pounce around her one by one, slashing with their tiny, sharp claws, trying to slowly wear her down and bleed her to death using the darkness to their advantage.
It was very hard to get hold of the creatures now that they were not throwing themselves directly towards her. Every time one of them jumped around her, she felt her clothing ripping and tearing, sometimes cutting her skin in the areas where her simple protection was thinner. She tried to keep her stance wide, so she could reach wherever they were jumping to in short advance, but they were too fast, and with her only visual cue being their eyes, she wasn't having much success. She needed to get out of there fast.
She didn't have enough time to properly see the room she was currently in before the lights went out, so she had no idea of where exactly its exit was. And while her eyes were more used to the low light now, she still couldn’t see much. So there was only one way out of this situation. Slowly, trying to not trigger the creatures, she started moving back, towards the corridor, in the hope that the previous path still had its torches lit.
As soon as she started moving again, though, something changed in the Imps’ behavior. They seemed to have noticed her slow shift in direction and silently changed their tactic accordingly. They started to move around her, jumping and bouncing on the walls to flank her and stop her movements before she went too far back. That only confirmed that Maggie was probably right; the darkness was definitely limited to that room and they were growing desperately to stop her before they lost their advantage. But it was too late for her.
Having already been flanked by the Imps she quickly turned around, giving up on subtlety to bolt towards the corridor. But she wasn't fast enough. As soon as she turned around to put some distance between her and the Imps, she was faced with the approaching bright red light of an Imp’s eyes.
The creature jumped towards her face, ready to attack, but at the last moment, Maggie managed to grab it with her one free hand and stop the creature before it could claw her to death, but the wicked little thing took advantage of that to bite down into her hand, perforating it with its two long canines.
“You little—!” Swallowing the pain, she pinned the Imp to the ground and hammered its body with her knife, desperately trying to get it to release her hand. But before she could get rid of her first assailant, the remaining Imps arrived. Without any warning, she felt two of the creatures jump on top of her, clinging and clawing at her torso; the leather of her coat barely blocking them from cutting deep into her flesh. She pulled her knife back, and feeling the first Imp’s grasp on her hand release, she tossed the creature at a wall. Before she could deal with her two new assailants, though, a third one jumped on top of her, slashing and piercing her back, drawing filets of blood with its tiny claws. Screaming in pain, Maggie jumped backwards and hit her back against the stone wall as fast and as hard as possible, smashing the Imp between her and the rough surface. Applying pressure, she dragged its body across the uneven, porous rock, and started to backtrack, moving towards the previous corridor, where hopefully the torches were still on. At the same time, she buried her knife deep into the torso of one of the Imps clinging to her; the creature squirmed and jumped out of her reach, ripping the knife out of her hand before she could ever react; and almost simultaneously, she felt the claws of the second one stab her just below her ribs, making her shriek in pain, as the creature tried to deal even more damage to her body. With her hands now free, she tried to peel the creature off her, but that only made it cling to her arms, further tearing her already tattered sleeves and puncturing her forearms with its tiny claws.
Reaching the corridor, she finally had confirmation that in fact, the lights were still working outside that one room. But she didn’t have time to stop just yet. Releasing one of her arms from her first assailant, she pulled the Imp that was on top of her, ripping it off her back, and threw the thing at the wall. The creature rolled in the air and fell on all four, like a mangy cat, before pouncing at her once again. But with the light down the corridor, now she could see enough to better react to its movement. Before the creature could reach her, she kicked it mid-air, throwing it further into the corridor and giving her an extra second to deal with the Imp still attacking her.
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With her dagger being somewhat far from her —still stuck on the body of the last Imp she killed— she didn’t have enough time to roll towards it. So going with more instinct and panic than anything, she thrusted her thumb deep into one of the burning motes of light the Imps had for an eye, and squeezed, trying to go as deep as possible.
The creature started to lash recklessly at her; its high-pitched screech filling the room. But before it could do any more damage, Maggie threw herself to the ground and used her body weight to pin it down against the floor and with her other hand, held tight at the lower part of its face. Roaring in anger, she twisted its head with all her strength, snapping its neck loudly.
At this point, she was already out of breath and her body was getting ever so slow, but she couldn’t rest just yet; there was still one last Imp, and she knew she couldn’t afford to stop for a second or two.
As soon as the creature under her weight stopped moving, she rolled to the side, barely dodging the last Imp’s pounce. She knew it was right behind her, so without wasting time, she crawled in the direction of her knife and jumped on top of it, quickly drawing the blade from the creature it was buried in and twisted her body at the last moment, just in time to lash at the last Imp jumping towards her, slashing its throat clean mid-air. Finally silencing the last of the Imps.
The Imp’s body fell on top of her, drenching her already blood-soaked coat in deep red liquid. Pushing its body from over her, she tried to clean her face, coughing and spitting Imp’s blood that got in her mouth all the while breathing hard from fatigue.
With an effort, she crawled toward the closest wall, letting her body collapse to the ground against it. Feeling the throbbing pain of her wounds coming back all at once as the adrenaline spike left her body once more, she closed her eyes and tried to hold back tears as her breathing slowly came back to normal; even though she'd been trying to keep her positive demeanor so far, all the exertion, pain and constant violence were taking its toll.
She was just exhausted.
“Belinda, I… I think I am bleeding again…” She mumbled, still breathing heavily, holding onto the side of her torso where one of the Imps stabbed her. The wound didn't seem too deep, considering how small the Imp’s claws were, but it was still bleeding, and hurting like hell.
Maggie… Get up. Ordered Belinda.
“I… I don’t want to keep doing this… We have enough time, right? Just let me rest for a bit.” She pleaded.
It’s not over!
With Belinda’s mental scream, Maggie suddenly opened her eyes. That’s when she saw it. One last Imp. She had never noticed that one coming, but she recognized the creature. That was the little thing that threw her from the bridge, she was sure! It could only be the cheeky bastard. She was just there, looking at her; not making a move, immobile like she was getting ready to bolt in any direction.
Maggie took a long breath, and with effort forced her body upwards, once again readying her knife to finally have her revenge. She took one step forward and then stopped.
She wasn’t sure why. Maybe with the end of her adrenaline spike, her anger calmed down enough to not force herself beyond her limit to seek something like revenge. Maybe she was just pitying the creature now that she got to have a longer look at her. Or maybe it was because that one creature never tried to attack her directly. She tricked her in the first time and let her pack-mates attack her directly in the second. She realized there was an eerie sentience to her eyes, like she was smarter than her feral peers.
“Come on then. Go away” She said, pointing in the direction she came from. She stood there for a moment, looking directly into the creature's eyes. Until they broke contact, and the Imp moved a few meters away.
Are you mad? Belinda was speechless. What was she doing?!
Maggie let out a long huff, falling back to the side of the wall.
“She deserves to live.” She finally said, grimacing in pain.
Maggie… You are definitely a weird girl.
“I hope so!” she tried to force a laugh out, but her wounds flared with her chest movements, making her stop. “Now, I am bleeding… A lot. How does that Healing something work again?”
If you need to use it, you need to do it very fast. This is not a safe place. I feel like there is something very near.
Right. Book!” Calling the book for the first time since her short rest, she prepared to activate the Healing Salve card, but before she could do that, a rhythmic noise started to emanate from the later end of the corridor, like something heavy was moving, and approaching.
Stop! Belinda exclaimed, There isn't time. There is something coming. Get up!
The rumble became ever so louder, and now she could distinguish it as steps. Very loud steps of something heavy, and it was very close.
The Imp, hearing the noise, started to panic. She looked at Maggie one last time, and then back at the end of the corridor, where the sound was coming from, and without dallying, bolted in the opposite direction, running for her life.
Maggie then came to the realization that maybe it wasn't just because of her that the Imps were hiding.
The sound got louder and louder, until, in front of her, a massive giant of a creature emerged from the curve of the corridor. Its bulky body resembled pure stone, covered in moss. The creature’s eyes met Maggie’s and it let out a loud roar, making the stone rumble underneath her. Her fight was not done.
“Holy crap, I’m going to need a bigger knife.”