“Argh!”
Pushing herself out of the snow, Mia let out a frustrated yell “Was that another special guy?” she asked, dusting the snow off her body “The ones like that one girl you put into the void?”
[The…who?]
“The voices.” She straightened herself out, checking out her body to see if she was injured anywhere “Like uh… when you talk to me, they use that.”
[…Oh, what did they sound like?]
‘You seriously didn’t hear them?’ Mia thought, finding it odd she took such offense to the last one that talked to her… maybe because it wasn’t her voice?
“A guy, deep voice.”
[…Yes…maybe? The way you were thrown around is very similar to one of their powers.]
“Great!”
Mia stretched, happy to see she was somehow unharmed, maybe due to the force that was pushing her slowing her down at some point during the fall? “New goal after saving my parents and village. Stopping those guys from messing with me.”
With that new goal in mind, she finally checked out her surroundings “so, where am I?”
She was obviously still in the haunt, she didn’t think she flew all the way to the city on the ocean, but the buildings were nearly unrecognizable to how they were previously, twisted and warped. The only reason she recognized them at all was because she knew of the building’s prior, otherwise she would see them as weird rocks with a doorway at their base, or misshapen towers of stone. Some were even missing chunks or floating.
“Lot more holes…those are dungeons?” The holes in the ground were also more frequent, if she remember correctly, Roxie mentioned those were dungeons.
[Along with the buildings.]
“Well, while I am here.” She was annoyed someone had dropped her here, but if this was indeed further into the haunt, then she was looking forward to how much more difficult it was and how many more levels she would get.
She figured she might as well save, she already had one back at Roxie if anything got too bad… she wasn’t looking forward to having that fi-
Her hair stood on end, she activated her slow ability and twisted her body, turning around a hand came into view, just inches away from slashing her neck.
‘What?! When?! How?! Who?!’ she panicked, even with time slowed it was fast approaching, she stretched backwards, losing her balance from the forced motion. On her way down seeing the owner of the hand, a tall grey bodied humanoid monster, mouth filled with needle like teeth, face slowly turning from a sadistic smile to one of annoyance at its miss.
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Mia thrusted her arm into the air, a pillar of ice shooting from the ground as time resumed, slamming into the monster and pushing it away, Mia tumbling to the ground and rolling into an upright position “What is that?!”
The monster flew backwards into a wall, momentarily stunned. The pillar of ice crumbling from the impact ‘it’s hard.’ Mia panted, glancing at her mana ‘nearly 1/4th…’
The monster slid down the wall, seemingly unharmed, it stared at her for a moment “shaaa…” it breathed heavily, cracking its neck.
Mia slowly shifted into a better position, her mist spreading out. She then quickly dashed to the side, the monster slamming its fist into the ground where she just was “Hya!” she slashed her arms forward, crystals formed in this mist and slashed into the monster’s flesh, leaving only scratches as the monster pursued.
Making foot holds, Mia avoided its slashes, the long thin claws slashing at open air that quickly froze and slashed into it, but the monster ignored the damage, suddenly changing its pace mid slash.
“Hng-?!”
The monster leaped back, a clear guillotine like wall shot up from the ground, separating the two.
Mia panted, lowering her arm and catching a glimpse of a freshly cut wound “…” she could barely keep up with the thing and her damage… the small slices she had made were quickly closing.
She was in an unknown location, fighting a monster she could barely keep up with, she had yet to save, her last save was all the way back at Roxie, and there was no telling if the guy who brought her here wasn’t going to force her back here if she went back.
“…Heh.” She raised her injured hand, the mist condensing into a knife “Hehehe” a smile crept on her face, an unfamiliar feeling raising in chest. She did not understand why, but she swore this feeling was excitement. The monster was fast and tough but, she was injuring it. And while it was catching her off guard, it wasn’t overpowering her, and she wasn’t overpowering it. It gave her a rush.
The monster, bored of waiting, crashed through the wall, forcing its way forward with its long claws raised as it brought them down on Mia as time slowed.
She stepped to the side, stabbing her knife into the creature’s arm and resuming the flow of time, leaping back as the creature screamed, and to her surprise, pursued her immediately.
It assaulted her with frenzied slashes, Mia attempting to keep her distance while counter attacking with icicles that the creature slammed through. The creature randomly picked up speed again, instead of time slowing Mia launched herself upwards, their claws swiping at empty space.
Mia spun in the air as time slowed around her, her arms outstretched as ice flowed from her open palms, the ice forming a weapon while she spun around to face the slowed monster, it halfway turning to face her with an outstretched arm.
“Got you.” Armed with her trident she kicked off blocks of ice in the air, propelling herself. She reeled back, aiming for the creatures back as time resumed, she thrust forward.
“SHYEAAA!”
“?!”
She watched the creature, not even done turning around, force its body forward, clawing the ground to move but it wasn’t enough. It had cleared its back from danger, but with its twisted and forced position it could not clear all its body.
Mia’s trident pierced the creature’s thigh, its spears digging into their flesh.
But the creature had kept its original trajectory.
It was still turning, despite thrusting half its body forward.
Its arm was still outstretched, claws still cutting through the air.
And Mia, Mia was committed to the dive and was stuck in an almost floating position.
“!!!”
All of her mist condensed between her and the monster, forming a floating ice wall while a blunt pillar shot out of the ground, slamming into her waist as the claws crushed through the hastily made wall. It came crashing down, Mia gritted her teeth as she felt a searing pain, tumbling to the ground.
She bounced on the ground, sliding a few meters and skidding to a stop. Immediately a scream was caught in her throat, she fought through it, managing to sit up and look back at the monster, unwittingly seeing the source of her pain on the floor in front of it.
Her tail laying flat on the ground.