Hopping Celestial Fox

As I spun through the air, sheer panic finally overtook me. I had been stoic the entire chase but now, I just knew I was going to die. There was no way I would survive this fall.

But even then, I tried my best to prevent it. I flailed my arms, trying to find any purchase, but failed completely.

Then a sharp rock suddenly appeared in my vision and I blacked out for a split second.

I didn’t even feel the pain. One moment, I was panicking as I fell, then there was a rock, and then… nothing.

I floated in an expansive void, numerous tiny galaxies sprawling around m –

And then I was fine again, albeit still falling down a cliff.

I was quite confused for a brief moment, but somehow managed to finally recover and catch onto another rock for a second before my hand slipped again.

Fortunately, I managed to slow down my fall just enough to not die immediately upon landing down in the valley below. Unfortunately, I didn’t escape unscathed. I landed on my right arm with a horrible crunch and probably sprained my ankle as well at some point.

I couldn’t help but let out a pained gasp as tears gathered in my eyes.

But even through the tears, I could see the other being that had fallen down with me. That bastard of a spider seemed dazed from the fall, but other than that, it had no apparent injuries.

Meanwhile, I lay there in a broken heap, any small movement causing me horrible pain.

I moved anyway.

I forced myself to stand up, putting most of my weight on my good leg and quickly looked around in panic. There was no way I could run away anymore. I needed a place to hide.

I soon spotted a tunnel at the base of the mountain and lost no time in dragging myself inside as soon as I could.

Only then, in the darkness inside, did I notice the shining motes of light coming from around my neck.

I was confused and mildly panicked for a second before I remembered that I had actually hidden a Phoenix Amulet under my shirt.

The Phoenix Amulet. A one-time use item with a long cooldown that prevented death once before shattering into motes of light…

I’d died.

The realization hit me like a truck and the mild panic turned into sheer horror. My breath hitched and my entire body shook.

I’d actually died and the amulet had brought me back.

I took a deep shuddering breath as I screwed my eyes shut, before gritting my teeth and continuing to drag myself deeper into the cave.

But If I’d died, then how come my arm and ankle were still injured? The amulet was supposed to fully heal the wearer after reviving them. Was it faulty? Did it not work like in the game, after all?

No…

Even though my arm was broken and my bicep was bleeding, my fingers no longer bled. The injury from punching the boar had healed up.

But that meant… the amulet had activated before I had landed. I had died mid-fall somehow.

How? When?

Then, as if to answer my question, a drop of coppery liquid slid down my face and hit my upper lip. I stiffened momentarily before carefully raising my hand to touch my face.

When I brought my hand in front of me, it was covered in blood.

The rock.

I had died when I’d hit that sharp rock with my face.

A chill went down my spine and my hands continued to shake, but I never stopped dragging myself deeper into the cave.

Some goddess I was. A simple rock to the face was enough to kill me.

…

Pushing that terrifying thought aside, I needed to get out of here and back into the castle. Wi should be fine since she hadn’t fallen with me, but I was out of luck. I didn’t know whether the spider would keep camping outside or not but I couldn’t take the chance. I couldn’t just go and –

The ruby seed.

My hand immediately went to my pocket to search for my ticket out of here. But to my horror, I only found one of the infinity shurikens. The second shuriken, the ruby seed, and even my ring were all gone. I’d probably dropped them all when I’d fallen.

Fuck.

Of course, it couldn’t be that easy. Dammit.

With my shaking hand clenching in both fear and frustration, I walked deeper into the passageway.

With that said, the tunnels were surprisingly expansive.

And also very dark.

I took out the one shuriken I still had and held it in front of me. The soft light of the infinity symbol lit up my immediate surroundings. It didn’t help that much, but at least it wouldn’t trip over random rocks and holes in the ground.

My limping soon led me to an intersection with five different branching paths. I pursed my lips, already feeling that I would get lost in these tunnels. Hopefully, help would come before I starved to death.

Part of me wanted to stop going any further, but I felt like that was a pretty bad idea considering just how dedicated the spider was to chasing after us. The tunnel I had entered was pretty small, but the damn thing could probably enter it if it wanted to.

And also, I was curious. Where did all these tunnels lead? The fact that they were inside the cliff under the castle meant that Casey had probably designed them. Meaning they had to lead somewhere, right? Maybe I could even find my way out and into the castle through here somehow.

I entered one of the tunnels at random after carving a little X near the tunnel through which I had entered the intersection using my shuriken.

It didn’t take very long until my chosen path led me to a wide open space, softly illuminated by small glowing crystalline structures on the ceiling and the walls. I entered the room cautiously before abruptly stopping in the middle as my eyes widened.

The feeling of terror washed over me.

I had been here before.

Just not in the waking world.

My eyes whipped around the place and I realized that the only other way out of this place was a tunnel next to an elevated platform above me. Way too high for me to reach. This room was a dead end.

And then, with subtle dread, I realized that I had reached that point.

Broken arm, exhaustion, fear, open cave with soft light illuminating everything, a giant green spider on my tail –

“Renee!” a voice called out from above.

My head snapped up to the other tunnel above me. Two girls were gazing down at me from the small platform there. Wi didn’t seem to be injured at all, somehow.

Both gasped as my eyes met Casey’s. “You’re bleeding! Are you okay?!” she shouted, her expression the picture of distress.

I was not okay. But there was no time for this.

I put a finger on my lips and a shushing motion before whispering, “The dream… It’s… It’s happening.”

Casey’s eyes went even wider while Wi just seemed confused.

“Dream…?”

“The spider is still after me,” I rasped out in between my heavy breaths as my mind spun. “It’s gonna come soon… We… We need something… Something to bait it… and something to kill it.”

The dream had been way too vague. The two of them were obviously supposed to do something to cause the cavern to shake and kill the thing, but I had no idea what I was supposed to use to attract the spider’s attention.

“Bait? Oh. Use the magical items from the game,” Casey muttered, her eyes calculating. “That’s the only thing I can see.”

I stiffened.

“Why…?”

I only had one shuriken left, but if I left it on the ground, I would be completely defenseless. Even more than I was now.

“That spider… It’s called a Mana Gorger. It eats magic… That’s probably why it chased you. It wanted to eat all your magical items.”

My jaw hung open. That was the reason?! We could have saved ourselves all the trouble if we’d ditched everything?

… If I handed the shuriken over, would it still come after me? There was no way it would let me go, even if I gave it the item, was there?

I took a shuddering breath.

“Okay…” I whispered, before reluctantly, squatting down – wincing as I accidentally put pressure on my bad ankle – and placed the dimly glowing shuriken on the ground.

I looked back up, about to ask what the plan was when Wi spoke up.

“I have an idea.” She eyed a loose rock formation near where they stood. “I still have the ring. I can use it to kill it.”

I stared at her for a moment.

She was going to use the ring’s field to dislodge the rocks and make them fall on top of the spider? That… I didn’t like that. In my dream, the entire cavern had shaken at the end. Didn’t that mean she would end up causing a cave-in?

“I… don’t like that idea,” I said out loud, my voice shaking. “I don’t want to get buried –”

I was interrupted by a familiar screech reverberating through the caverns.

My breath hitched.

There was no time to come up with a better plan. The damn thing was here.

I took one last panicked glance up at the two and gave a shaky nod, before frantically looking around the room for the hiding spot I’d been in my dream. 

And for a couple of absolutely terror-inducing seconds, I thought I wouldn’t find it. But then my eyes spotted a small alcove in one of the darker corners of the room.

I dragged myself over there, crouched down despite the screaming pain in my ankle, and looked out at the shuriken resting in the middle of the room.

I forced my breathing to slow down to minimize the noise I was making.

And then I waited.