"You’ve gotta be kidding me..."
The words came out from under Grey’s breath. His fingers relaxed a little bit too much and the arrow he had nocked went flying, soaring right through the flapping door of the house-turned-monster.
It did about as much as one might expect, as in not a damn thing.
But it seemed to infuriate the Wicked Forest Witch nonetheless. The roar reached another pitch and Grey could swear the wind was just a few more kilometers an hour from knocking him right off his feet.
"Dammit."
Grey tossed the bow to the side. It was completely useless to him and he didn’t have the bandwidth to make sure it fit back into the Weapon Space properly.
He pulled the spear out from the ground, holding it up as though it would give him some sort of help.
It felt like the world blurred and in the next moment, he was coughing up a mouthful of blood.
BANG!
His back slammed against an invisible wall. His eyes bulged, his lungs felt as though they collapsed in his chest. All the air that had been in them flew from his lips and nose like a trio of projectiles.
By the time he slid to the floor, he couldn’t seem to breathe at all, his attempts coming out shallow and vapid. It was hard to tell whether he was having a panic attack or if he really couldn’t take breaths that sounded any different from whistles.
’Shit.’
Grey just barely realized that he had been hit by one of the arms. But it had moved so fast he didn’t see it. How could something be that big and that fast at the same time?
’It’s coming. It’s coming...’
The thought repeated in his mind again and again, but his eyes refused to see straight. He tried to stand to his feet, only to stumble to the side.
He barely managed to catch himself by piercing the ground with his spear again, but his knees buckled.
At this point, he couldn’t even sense the Goblin Spirit, let alone use it.
Grey kept talking to himself, kept telling himself to get it together, that he didn’t have much time before the Wicked Forest Witch closed in the rest of the distance, but nothing he said seemed to matter.
And then the house fell right on top of him, swallowing him whole.
...
Grey had every reason to think that he was dead, and that was what should have happened. But for once, he had a stroke of luck.
When his eyes barely opened up, he found that he was hanging on by a thread, quite literally.
His feet dangled above a raging flame below. In fact, the heat was part of what had woken him up in the first place.
His hands were above his head, May’s Nexis Suit just barely holding on to...
’An arrow? Is that... that one I fired?’
Grey’s body suddenly jerked downward. There was nothing like imminent death to wake someone right up.
He immediately realized that he was about to slip toward the raging flames below. May’s Nexis Suit only worked when he slipped it onto his forearm, so that had thankfully saved him. But considering his current state it was just on the verge of slipping off.
Recovering quickly, Grey gripped it tight from both sides, taking deep breaths he immediately regretted.
"Fuck, where the hell am I?!"
That was when Grey realized that it wasn’t a raging fire beneath him, at least not in the normal sense. It was a hotbed of coals.
Above his head was the door to the cabin, and down below was a furnace that would have otherwise been quite cute and homey, but was instead threatening to take his life.
It was a normal brick furnace, darkened by soot. But at the crown of it there was a beautiful ruby gem that sparkled in the red-gold hues.
The house must have swallowed him whole and then tilted back to send him tumbling into the furnace, but the stupid arrow he fired earlier actually managed to save his life.
"Don’t you fucking move." Grey growled at the arrow as though it could understand him. He had no idea where his spear had gone, but he assumed it had already been eaten up by the furnace.
With a grunt, he heaved himself up. It was just a pull-up all things considered, he could do a dozen before he fatigued. But the moment he was on the verge of gripping the arrow with a hand, the house shook.
"SHIT!"
The arrow swayed and flexed. Grey’s fingers just missed it and May’s suit slipped.
’Move! Move! Move!’
Grey kicked a foot at the floorboards just as the suit slipped, pushing off to one side away from the furnace.
The house rolled and gravity felt like it flipped on its head. The diagonal Grey took became useless in an instant. He was falling right back toward the furnace, his eyes opened wide.
’Not like this.’
Grey gritted his teeth, slapping a palm against his Weapon Space and pulling out Ray’s longsword.
With a roar, he pierced it right into the floorboards of the cabin, curling his feet up and away from the raging furnace. The flames danced and rose, licking at his feet. If not for the foot protection of the only part of his Nexis Suit actually properly fitted to him, he would already be burning alive.
But that feeling of security and safety didn’t last long.
The heat was unbearable. Soon, the fabric would start melting right into his skin.
’It can’t go on like this.’
BANG!
The door to the cabin slammed closed and the windows pulled their shutters tight.
The cackle of an old woman filled the air.
"Come. Come, my pretty."
"First of all, phrasing. Second of all, I’m not into saggy tits. And third, fuck you."
Grey received a screech in reply and the cabin shook wildly. It felt like the gravity pressing down on him increased, and then the floorboard he had pierced his sword into began to vibrate.
’Shit.’
The sword was pushed out and Grey found himself falling right into the flames.