Doll is still leaping. But something in front of it is more interesting. It's not a junction. It's not more corridor. It's wider. And brighter.
Doll has mixed feelings about it being wider. But Doll lands on the ground just fine (Good!), and looks around.
The same walls surround it, gray, slightly glowing in places, but there's more of a glow, and it forms patterns. Some kind of creatures? Doll doesn't know, but it wants to. And, in the middle of the room, a corridor with no walls, surrounded by... Well, it's blood, but it's not blood? It's slightly green, and lighter, greener things float on the surface.
Just like everywhere else, it's quiet. But doll doesn't want to fall off the corridor, so it steps closer to the liquid, getting ready to jump.
But something else jumps first. A scaly, thin thing with large black eyes, fins, and a mouth that opens as it flips, and-
Leap! Doll barely avoids, and the liquid splashes where Doll used to be, followed quickly by the monster falling back, splashing as it vanishes.
Doll steps forward. Again, but this time, two appear, and leap, and... Doll feels something wet... Rip its dress? Doll wasn't hurt, so it knows something new (the dress is part of doll, but it doesn't hurt either), but the other thing it knows is worrying.
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The liquid can kill it if it gets hit. Or hurt it. It isn't sure. But it knows that it can hurt it, at the very least.
But Doll doesn't want to go backward. Backward has nothing new, and there's no other forward. And it can see that if it tries the corridor, it won't be able to dodge as well, leap or no.
Doll doesn't move forward yet. Doll needs to think. How can Doll move without getting hit? Just as importantly, it can feel food, and it wants it. After all, what can this new food give it?
If it moves straight forward, it will get hit. If it moves straight back, it might get hit, and it won't be going forward.
...Troublesome.
...Very troublesome.
Doll thinks. And thinks. What can't these monsters do?
And Doll laughs.
They can't turn. They can turn up, and Doll is sure they can turn their heads some up and down, or side to side. But their heads didn't move any way but side to side when they were at the top of their leap.
Yes.
Doll can use this. And Doll can use something else.
Doll hits harder when it leaps toward something. And Doll can push things when it leaps toward them.
This time, Doll doesn't step forward. It just leaps, toward the closest wall.
The fish leap, two of them again. Doll also leaps. Toward the furthest.
And Doll's claws come out.
Sink into one of the fish's sides.
Pushes it exactly where it wants... Far away from the other side of the liquid.
Doll heard the splashes behind it, but the important one missed, so Doll doesn't care.
Its knife flashes, and its hand reaches inside...
[Water Magic]
Doll feels the liquid behind it. The liquid inside it. Moving. Pulsing.
The liquid behind it is... Water. And the monster, it knows now, is called a Bullet Fish.
Doll wants more of them.
Doll wants to hurt them for almost hurting it...