Alice pushed herself into a stiff jog, her every movement sending sharp trills of pain through the hole in her abdomen. Her entire plan revolved around gaining enough distance to comfortably prepare a powerful attack, at this point though her plan was just to survive. Another shriek cut through the air. While this screech brought the familiar sense of terror with it, the sensation seemed partly amuted, like fear wasn’t the main focus. Alice couldn't help but notice the feeling was partially reminiscent of mana sense. How did the creature manage to make a semi mana sense field? Alice filed that away as something she could try later. Unfortunately all the evidence suggested she would never be able to run since she would always be within the monsters senses.
The solution felt like it should be something simple she could quickly enact, if only she had the time to think it through. Not knowing how far away the spider was, Alice made a 90 degree left turn.The spider only had the one burst of mana to predict where she would be going, so conforming to those predictions would be the worst thing she could do. Alice knew there was a better, more permanent solution to her problem, but she would have to leave it on the back burner. Ten seconds later she heard the creature pass by behind her, racing to where she would have been had she not made that turn. Alice realised that she should have had [Eyes of Fate] on from the get go, Half a second of future sight would always be helpful as well as gaining extra time to think. She also realised she had [Deus Ex Machina], a skill that had saved her life before and seemed to summon a literal angel to help her. She honestly didn’t know why she hadn’t started with this.
Even as she activated the skill she continued running on. The standard choir of ever present angels started, but instead of any coherent message it only sounded like otherworldly singing. Another shriek came, and with it another wave of mana. Alice made another turn, right this time. She then thought back to the only other time she had used [Deus Ex Machna] successfully. Did she have to say a prayer for the skill to fully activate? She whispered a small prayer under her breath to no avail. She tried saying the prayer a bit louder and made it more like the one she had heard her mother say all that while ago. This seemed to work as she could now glean some kind of meaning from the singing.
“You are already equipped with all that you need for your survival. Fate has favoured you and luck will follow.”
Was it just Alice or was the skill becoming less and less useful as time went on?Well, at least she had an angels confirmation that she could survive.
Alice continued running, and once again she heard the spider pass by behind her, but instead of following where she should have gone, it released another pulse of mana before barrelling towards her once again. Alice now understood just how hopeful and naive her plan was, she would have almost no chance at running away unless she managed to further injure the beast, something she doubted would be possible in the current situation. All she could do was push through the pain and run as fast as she could. Alice ducked through some trees that were too close for the spider to fit through but wide enough for her, occasionally stopping time to plan out her route. The monster seemed unfased by the obstacle ahead of it and simply tore through the obstacles and continued chasing her down, slightly slowing down in the process. Alice was about to try turning through more obstacles to buy even the smallest bit of time, but instead found her way blocked by a glowing green strand of web about the size of her forearm. Knowing that she was seeing half a second into the future gave her the confidence she needed to duck under the web, and thanks to having the time to plan out every individual muscle movement, Alice executed the maneuver safely if a bit clumsily. Right as she stood up she heard the wet splat of the web hitting the tree across from her. Alice continued running and felt her vision lurching forward as if she had tripped over something - or had been knocked over. Alice ducked out to the side and saw a glowing blue web shoot ahead of her, chilling the air slightly. Alice wished she could do something other than running but her survival depended on her speed right now, the fact that she hadn't been instantly overrun by the beast meant that the injury was slowing it down substantially. Alice felt the dark fog of terror around her shifting like air into a thick wall in front of her, instead of the omnipresent sense of terror and dread she felt before, it was all concentrated in front of her. She felt every fibre of her being begging her her to turn back and spare herself from the almost certain death that lay beyond the veil, but Alice didn't have the luxury of listening to her instincts, no matter how much she would have wanted to. Alice plunged through the dark mist and felt the mana trying to worm its way into her body and corrupt her internal mana into the fear-stained grey around her. Taking a moment to focus on her mana showed that the transformation had already made some progress, even before the fog had redoubled the efforts.
Alice focused [Eyes of Fate] onto herself and stopped time once more. Alice needed to rework her plan, and to do that she had to understand any strengths or weaknesses she could use to her advantage. The spider was faster, larger, stronger, could use magic, had more mana, could shoot magical webs and apply a fear effect. Alice was smaller and more agile, and hopefully could control mana better than the monster behind her. It seemed that the corruption of her mana was what caused the terror effect, while Alice had never thought of using mana in this way it seemed obvious in hindsight. If her mind could affect her mana, it stood to reason that her mana could affect her mind. Alice formed a new plan. Alice realised the only thing she could possibly hope to beat the monster in was mana control. Alice undid her skill and tried just that.
