Chapter 153: Chapter 153

I think she’s mad, honestly. My dislocated head sits on the ground laying sidewards, as I watch the tiny elf beat my poor body senseless. Ah. Did she see the carrying thing? Her head snaps towards me, her eyes wide with rabid fury.

 

Yeah, she saw the carrying thing.

 

  With a final kick, she knocks my defenseless body over. The hollow armor rattles, as it topples downward, falling apart into a dozen pieces. My head begins to shake, as the force that holds me together comes into play; the thing grabbing hold of me and dragging me towards the rest of my shell. Spinning round and round, I, my helmet that is, begins to roll sidewards straight towards the rest of me. The world becomes a blur.

 

*thunk*

 

  I am stopped, as a single leather boot presses itself down onto my face lengthwise, obscuring my right eye. The left stares up at the elf who is glaring down at me and I can’t help but feel a little afraid. I say hi, but I can’t speak to her in this form. Instead, my body behind her rattles, as a single arm meekly raises itself up to wave hello to greet her. I want to ask her how she’s been, but uh… judging by the look on her face I’m just gonna say the answer is not great. Then agai- IAH!

 

  I am sent flying, as her boot thuds into the side of my head again, kicking me off the floor and off into the distance where I spiral, sliding across the stones before coming to a halt again a little while later as she walks after me. Once she catches up to me, she kicks me again and I go flying once more. And so, a pattern emerges. She’s kicking my head around like a bored kid kicking a rock down the road. But all the while, her look is anything but bored. It’s angry. Upset. I suppose that’s fair.

 

  She places the bauble of white magic on the ground and, picking my head up, slams me down into the glass sphere. It shatters beneath me, wet, warm liquid dribbles around the side of my head as the glass shards scratch against my exterior. I get the feeling she would have done this even if I wasn’t made out of metal.

 

  “Where were you?!” she asks me, apparently having calmed down enough now to speak. She lifts me up again, white magic dribbles down the side of my face, running over her worn gloves. I’d ask her the same, but I don’t have a mouth. “I’ve been here, listening to that thing. It wouldn’t let me pass. It wouldn’t let me go past,” her eyes still wide, seem to shake in their sockets as they nearly bulge. “But you know? You know?! I knew you would come this way! I knew you would come to find me! I heard your voice, it talked to me in your voice! So I knew everything would be fine!”

 

You are reading story Respawn Condition: Trash Mob at novel35.com

  She leans in closer, her expression turns sharp and angry. “But you know? You know? It really hurt me, you know?! That you couldn’t tell!” She smashes me down to the ground. I can’t feel pain, but it’s still not a great time. Especially now, as she smashes her boot down onto my face over and over again. She seems really upset. Though she is more composed than usual at least, not crying this time, so that’s nice. I think she’s really getting the hang of taking control over her emotions, you know? A boot hits my face again. Real character growth.

 

She turns away in a huff, crossing her arms indignantly. “At least I recognized that it wasn’t really you,” she says with a pouting expression, that I’m not used to seeing on her sharp face.

 

  My body, having pulled itself back together, approaches now and places a hand on her shoulder. She turns away with a ‘hmpf’. Ah, guy, this is awkward. I don’t want her to be mad at me, but there’s not much I can do. I look around the empty room and then back to my body. I nod to it. It nods back, agreeing to my plan. Wrapping my arms around the elf, I hold her in an embrace. She softens up, but lets out another ‘hmpf’ to make her point clear. Not good enough.

 

  What I won’t do in the name of a healthy work environment. Fine, you win. Grabbing her, I lift her up into the air and hold her like I did the thing that skitters. She doesn’t say anything else, but she doesn’t turn her nose up in the air anymore either, having been given what she was owed. She simply grumbles and points down in a different direction. My helmet rattles, sliding up over the floor and up the side of my leg and body as it rises up to plant itself firmly back on my neck. A little worse for the wear, but still very fashionable.

 

  And so I walk down that way, holding the mumbling elf who occasionally thwacks me with a random punch or slap before turning her head back around forward. Soon enough, this ritual stops as I keep walking onward unperturbed. Sparing a glance down at the thing in my arms, I see that she is fast asleep. Has she been here this entire time? Alone with the thing that skitters? I stare as I walk. What a strange thing she is. Fragile. Colorful. She reminds me of the glass bauble filled with white-magic. Is that a weird thing to think? Am I creepy? Dunno.

 

  The dungeon wall approaches and again, there is an opening in the side of it. But this time there is no void, there is simply a single staircase leading upward. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that this was the real staircase. But as I set foot on it and then another foot one step higher still, I know the truth. And so, with the sleeping elf in my arms, I climb up the staircase to floor eighty-four. I’m getting closer now to my goal. I look down to her, as she mumbles in her sleep, a small arm twitching to strike my chest and I shake my head, remembering the lesson that I had been taught by the thing that skitters in the darkness.

 

We’re getting closer.

 

 

---