The malicious gaze of the goblin felt like a vat of ice cold water dumped on his head. An uncontrollable chill raced down the middle of his back.
'There's no way I can fight that' Liam quickly scanned his surroundings. To his right was the burning building with the electric pole stuck to its side like a spear piercing towards the heavens and the area surrounding it was packed with large debris as well as overturned misshaped vehicles.
He turned left and run.
It was also blocked off by large debris and vehicles but at least it was navigable…or at least he thought so.
Liam ran like his life depended on it…it really did. Never in his life had he ever put in as much effort as he was doing currently but then again he had never had to run for his life before.
He felt his heart pump in his chest. Adrenaline pushing to his very limits. The world around him disappeared, the sounds faded as he focused on two things. The feeling of his legs as well as what was in front of him.
Liam's body did things he didn't even know he was capable off. During his run there was a moment he skipped to the side to evade a concrete block, slide over the hood of a car that had managed to stay up right. Hell, he even managed to climb over rumble with such speed that he felt like a professional rock climber.
Still the bout of energy wouldn't last forever. No sooner had he climbed over the mountain of concrete, had the energy faded.
Liam felt his head spin. His lungs burned begging for air, limbs trembled in fatigue and strain. His body had nothing left to give. He paused for a moment and took a breath taking in the air filled with the acrid scent of smoke and iron. He just wanted to rest for a minute.
But the world didn't let him.
The shrill and eerie laughter of a goblin came from his back. Liam turned and standing at the top of the concrete hill was the very same goblin he was trying to escape.
'Damnit how is it so fast?' Liam almost cursed. The goblin hopped down but Liam was already moving once again. He slipped through a hole in the wall of what looked like a convenience store. The wall had long been taken out by the disaster that was the Zone collapse.
The power was cut and the place was fairly dark. He could barely make out the silhouettes of multiple shelves in front of him. Quickly he slipped between two shelves. One held various bottles of spirits and alcohol and the other held various pots and pans.
In his current state there was absolutely no way he could outrun the goblin. It may have been an E-Rank monster the very bottom of the hierarchy but Liam was no match for it nonetheless. He needed to find a way to slow down the creature so he made a plan and immediately went to execute it.
He stretched out a hand as he passed by the shelf with spirits making sure that his arms hooked onto the glass bottles. He then made sure to drag them off the shelf as he went by. The bottles clattered loudly as they crushed to the floor most of them burst into fragments of glass and spilled liquor covered the floor.
The smell of spirits hung heavy in the air.
Liam moved on phase one of his plan was complete.
…
The goblin just found interesting prey. One that knew how to run. Its favorite kind. It stepped through the wall in the side of the strange building made of unknown stone and transparent tiles that seemed to break with just a touch.
It entered a strange place one filled with rectangular structures it did not recognize. They were equally spaced apart with wide paths between them. The place was dark and its vision was limited. But its didn't matter.
The prey could never escape its keen sense of smell.
Suddenly there was a loud ruckus. Unknown things were falling in the distance. Quickly, it followed after the sound, its little legs carrying it over to a path those particular rectangular structures. Except the air here smelled different.
The prey's scent was completely overwhelmed by this particular smell that seemed to make it go drank almost like gloopshmack from its village. The entire floor was covered in it.
If it was gloopshmack then it certainly wouldn't harm it. Confidently it rushed forward. There was no way it would let prey escape. However the goblin had taken no more than three steps before sharp things cut into the soles under its feet. That wasn't even the worst part as whatever it was cut wounds under its feet the gloopshmack-like liquid seeped into them alighting fire into its nerves.
Pain the likes of which it had never felt before assaulted the beast stopping it in its tracks as it cried out in agony.
…
The moment Liam heard the creatures cries. He knew his plan had worked. Goblins didn't were any clothes other than the waistcloths that hid their private affinities meaning unlike him who had shoes on, its feet were entirely unprotected.
The glass shards from the broken bottles cut into its feet and the applying spirit and alcohol to its wounds injected it with a dose of pain.
Liam had counted on that pain being sudden and stalling the goblin and it had worked perfectly. Still it wasn't a permanent outcome after all spirits didn't cause nearly as much pain on wounds…you could say that the goblin was merely shocked but it wouldn't stay shocked for long.
Standing on the other side of the shelf with pots and pans, Liam drove a shoulder into its wood. The shelf swayed slightly. He pushed again, harder this time. The shelf merely swayed once more refusing to buckle.
At this point the goblins cries were calming down.
Liam felt panic rise within him.
'Come on you stupid thing. Fall!' with a final push of everything he had, the shelf obeyed.
It toppled and fell to the other side. Liam heard a horrified shriek coming from the other side but it was drowned out by the loud chorus of pots and pans clamoring to the floor. The goblin was buried under the shelf and pots.
He wasn't sure if it was dead though. That was never a part of his plans though. Taking the opportunity. He stumbled forward the symptoms of Aether exhaustion that had assaulted him before were almost gone meaning that during this entire time a part of his reserves had been replenished.
How much though? He bet it wasn't much.
He navigated through the shop and approached a pair of double doors made of glass. A small feeling of triumph swelled in his heart. He had actually done it. The moment he stepped out those doors he'd be someone who had survived. He had outsmarted a goblin and succeeded. He had evolved his healing ability to do more than before.
The improvements weren't much but in his heart. He had gotten stronger…just a little bit.
He rested a palm against the glass and made to push the doors open. However…
Shu!
Something darted through the air behind him and before he could react. Something sharp pierced into the back of his left leg. It did so with so much forward momentum it knocked him off balance.
Liam barely processed the pain before his body fell through the glass doors shattering them on impact. The pavement was there to meet his fall. On reflex he shielded his head with his arms.
A good thing he did too. A large shard of glass that had just bounced off the ground ripped through his flesh and lodged itself between his radius and ulna. Liam felt his vision swim, a tear almost falling down the corner of his eye as he fought the pain.
From the ground he looked back. The first thing he saw was the hilt of a short-rusted blade sticking out of his leg. It was bathed in his blood.
The second thing he saw was the vague outline of a little creature stumbling towards him from the dim depths of the dark convenience store. The goblin wasn't dead after all.