It was with some small urgency that he made his way through the tunnel, keeping his hand on the stone wall for guidance. He might be able to see a few feet in front of him but it helped with stability since he couldn’t really see that far ahead.
He was probably moving for a good five minutes before he came to a fork in the path. So that basically confirms that there could be more than one of those horrors using the same track.
“Or they do alternative routes.” she spoke with some slight tension to her voice, likely trying to make him feel better with that statement.
“Either way there is a risk no matter what” Quill whispered, keeping his voice as low as possible. Also he was going to need to find a map of this place or else he was going to get seriously lost.
Not really knowing which direction to take he decided to follow the advice of Gandalf the Grey and picked the tunnel that didn’t smell quite as foul. Those enhanced senses were really coming in clutch at the moment.
His headache, and the aches in his body were also dissipating which helped greatly. So while he didn’t exactly have much time to use his pseudo energy manipulation skill. He probably wouldn’t have to wait terribly long to use it again.
“Depending on the stuff you make, the complexity will likely decrease your time to have the construct active and formed, while something simpler will make it easier. As you grow levels in both your skill and level yourself you’ll be able to use it for longer with more complexity but it will take longer to recover too.” Her voice responded in his head, being surprisingly helpful for once.
Quill sent a mental acknowledgement in his head, realizing speaking out loud was probably a stupid idea since he didn’t know how well those horrors could hear. He was pretty sure it couldn’t see based on how it would pad the platforms with its hands to see if it could find something. But that didn’t mean its other senses weren’t working.
Quill jogged down the tunnels for about thirty minutes if he were to hazard a guess with only the occasional commentary from her every so often. Whenever he came to a branch in the tunnels he chose the tunnel that smelled not as rank or disgusting.
That’s when he heard it. It was faint, something that he almost missed at first but sure enough there was the slight sound of scraping and shuffling that could be heard behind him off in the distance of the tunnel.
Quill's jog instantly went into a sprint as he bolted down the tunnel as fast as he possibly could. Despite him running faster than he had ever done before, the shuffling and scraping only seemed to grow louder and louder.
He didn’t even want to look behind him fearing that all he would see was one of those clawed 5 finger hands reaching out to snatch him up.
Just that image alone seemed to make his legs pump even faster and he nearly ran into a tunnel wall as it turned, barely being able to turn just in time.
The sound of the scraping now sounded like it was right on top of him and he could hear gurgling snarls coming from behind. The thing couldn’t see him but it certainly could hear his foot fall and knew something was in front of it.
“Hey Quill, You need to pick up the pace because it's. DUCK!”
He didn’t even question it as he ducked his body while trying to keep his legs moving underneath him. Feeling the wind woosh over where his head was in what he could only assume was a massive hand trying to grasp him. Instinctually he brought one of his daggers up to try and slash at the hand that tried to grasp him and felt it slice through flesh which was followed by a very angry and very hungry snarl echoing through the tunnel halls.
Caution was to the wind now. He summoned up his skateboard and jumped on it, commanding his wheels to spin as fast as they could and he quickly found himself launching forward far faster than he could ever run and judging by the sound behind him, was actually gaining a bit of distance from the cursed sin.
It was only for a few seconds but he actually saw light at the end of the tunnel which he hoped meant a station. He could feel the strain of using the skateboard against both his body and mind but still kept pushing as hard as possible.
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The moment he zoomed out of the tunnels he leapt up, dissipating the energy skateboard and tumbling across the platform. Then leaping to his feet, he stomped on some surprised rat's skull before booking it to the stairs that were of course on the other side of the damn platform! With a shit ton of rats between him and it.
The rats seemed far more surprised that someone came rushing out of the tunnel so hadn’t reacted yet but he did curse as he saw several of the adult sized dire rats seemingly just as surprised as their brethren. So with every bit of strength he had he started running past them while they were still in shock, just as a vicious roar reverberated through the station and the horror pulled out of the tunnel.
This one was neither red or white but a putrid looking green, and its clawed hands started flying across the whole platform, slamming into the ground every which way making him swerve in every desperate attempt to avoid getting squashed.
“To the right! Quick! The left now!” Her voice echoed in his brain as jumped this way and that. Barely avoiding one claw while jumping over another hand that had just smashed a rat that was also trying to run from the rampaging monster.
The rats themselves seemed to have been freaking out as well. Many of them were already getting squished with their corpses getting thrown in the worm's maw. Several were trying to flee for the stairs but the horror seemed to have predicted that was where Quill would go and well over ten clawed hands were repeatedly smashing and clawing at the stairs, killing every rat that tried to cross.
Quill decided to bypass the stairs entirely and ran to the ledge the stairs led too/ He focused his energy into that of thin rope and hurled it up to the railing while sending a mental command to tie a quick knot. Then once secure he ascended his makeshift rope in record time.
He could feel his nose bleeding as his skin cracked open and split, his vision started to spin but he forced himself to remain focused as he got himself above the railing and started to sprint towards the exit where he hoped another break room would be.
He got maybe 10 feet before something snagged his backpack and yanked him back with such force he was pretty sure he would get whiplash from it.
Not even bothering to turn around, he summoned up a giant pizza cutter looking thing with jagged teeth on the blade and forced that to spin as fast as he could and swung it around, getting a meaty hit with it as oil like blood squirted everywhere and he fell back to the ground at the top of the stairs. The Cursed Sin in the subway howled in pain that reverberated through the entire station and caused Quill to fall to his knees clutching his ears in pain as a severed hand fell down right beside him.
His vision was swimming with black coming in around the edges at this point. His limbs felt really heavy too with the gashes across his body opening wider still from that manifestation but he still forced his way up and awkwardly jogged away. Loud thrashes and crashing could be heard through the whole station with loud gurgling shrieks of what he could only assume was pain and rage.
Quill couldn’t help but smile despite his current condition. He could taste blood in his mouth, there were several parts of his body that were bleeding with wounds all over but he had hurt the cursed sin, and that meant he could kill that horror. If that wasn’t a cause for celebration he didn’t know what was.
He barely managed to dodge another hand that came sweeping down the tunnel thanks to her voice giving him warning. He forced his legs to move faster despite their protest and the wavering consciousness that was happening.
He barely managed to stumble past the Kiosk before seemingly hundreds of hands came flying through the tunnels. Some went past the turn towards him and shot forward to the other platform but several did turn and started zooming towards him. Those bastards could elongate their fucking arms!?
He barely got to the door that led to what he assumed was another break room and began to fumble with the keys he got from the deceased security guard. Thankfully it seemed the key he used to open the previous break room also opened this one and he opened the door only to quickly but quietly shut the door the moment he slipped inside. Just barely in time to avoid the hands that he heard crashing around outside, likely destroying every single structure it could find in a rage.
He dropped to the ground barely having the energy to do anything.
“Hey Quill. I know all you want to do is pass out right now. But drink the health potion. Now. You are in critical danger.” Her voice came in, lacking the usual teasing mocking tone and had a sense of worry to it
Why was she worried? It’s not like she had known him for very long right? Had she known him? His head felt incredibly fuddled and it sort of hurt to think too. What was she even asking him to d-
“Shhh. No need to think. Just listen to me, listen to my voice. I’ll tell you what you need to do.”
Quill listened to her pleasant voice as she told him to open his bag and take out the red potion and he followed her orders, after drinking it under her instructions she told him to go ahead and sleep. He didn’t really need to be told twice, the crashing and howling outside the break room did little to deter his need to sleep. Who knows, maybe he wouldn’t wake up again. Didn’t sound too bad right now.