#003 – Chemistry was never my best subject

#003 – Chemistry was never my best subject

I sprinted away at full speed even while the thing behind me continued to produce ominous mechanical creaking.

I was a complete and utter idiot. Why had I assumed that only the chests would be mimics?! Of course any old pile of metal could have been a killer robot in disguise! And now, once it was done transforming, one of them would probably be coming after me!

I made it nearly halfway across the debris-filled crater when I heard the creaking sounds behind me stop. For a second, I thought the thing had given up and I was safe, but then, a loud crash reached my ears.

I couldn’t help it. I turned my head to look what had happened, and nearly tripped when I saw the metallic amalgamation, its two eyes now glowing red, whizzing through the air straight at me, its finger blades ready to gut me.

I screamed and redoubled my efforts to get the heck away.

Unfortunately I was in the body of a small child, and even my fastest running speed was pitiful, despite my newfound nimbleness.

The rhythmic stomps behind me were closing in on me as I zig-zagged between the debris. I jumped over a lump of metal, sprinted around a metal pole, and ran along the length of a beam, somehow without tripping or stumbling. If I wasn’t panicking so hard, I would be marveling at my amazing parkour skills.

Just as the stomps got loud enough that I felt my insides vibrating, I heard a swishing through the air and without thinking about it twice, I hurled myself to the side mere moments before the slasher movie-esque arm bigger than me impacted the ground where I had been, lifting a cloud of dust and scattering debris.

I rolled on the ground as a piece of metal landed near me, and for a brief moment thought that I could hide in the cloud of dust. My hopes were immediately dashed as the red glowing eyes locked on to me again and I hurried to get up and continue running.

But it was pointless. That thing was faster than me. Even if I could dodge a swipe or two, it would eventually hit me and I was done for.

I needed somewhere to hide.

From the corner of my eye I saw the metal beams hiding a chest underneath that I’d found earlier, and in a snap decision changed course to head there. The mecha-godzilla was still hot on my heels and it was all I could do to stay out of its swiping range.

Then I heard swishing in the air again and I used every ounce of my strength to throw my body forward into the little passage where the chest was. Once again, the attack missed me by a hair’s breadth, but this time, I didn’t escape the splash damage unscathed.

I screamed as something cut into my left leg. But even with the pain, the metallic sounds of the killer robot behind me made me crawl forward, deeper into the little hidey hole where the robot was too big to enter.

Then a crash.

The metallic walls around me reverberated, but somehow held strong against the damn thing’s assault. Despite my fears of being mimic’d, I crawled all the way to the chest just to get further away from the entrance. Not that it would have helped if the whole thing collapsed on me.

Another crash. Then metal scraping against more metal, giving me goosebumps and making a chill go down my spine.

There was also someone wheezing and coughing.

Wait, that was me.

I hadn’t even realized it, but my lungs were burning and my body shaking with how much I’d exerted myself. There also may or may not have been some tears staining my face.

“Fuck...” I swore as I pressed my back against the chest and looked at the exit in fear.

Another crash.

That thing wasn’t going to leave me alone, was it? What was I supposed to do? Was I really going to die the very first day I’d gotten reincarnated?

“Ow!” I winced as I moved my leg and remembered the pain I’d felt earlier. I looked at it and saw a long cut alongside my calf. It didn’t seem to be very deep, but was bleeding profusely.

“S-Shit...”

I immediately took off my skirt-shorts and hastily tied them around the wound. It didn’t help a whole lot.

Then I heard a long and loud metallic creak... before everything went silent again.

I froze in place and continued staring at the little hole that led outside. Part of me thought that maybe the thing had given up. But a smarter part of me noted that I hadn’t heard it stomp away.

It was probably waiting for me to come out then. That was the worst case scenario.

I needed a plan. I needed something. But I didn’t have anything!

I let out a pathetic whine as I slumped, my head bumping against the chest–

How was I supposed to know? This thing could grant immortality and it would still be useless because I sure as heck wasn’t going to risk drinking or even touching the nasty stuff.

And that was that. Now I had a cool sword and a vial of suspicious liquid. That was more than I had before, at least.

“Okay...”

I sat down again, careful not to agitate my wound again and tried to think. Now that I wasn’t in immediate danger, I could afford to formulate an actual plan. My resources were limited, I was injured, and there was an enemy way stronger than me waiting just outside.

Alright. Still a terrible situation, but I’d beaten bosses and challenge runs harder than this. Sure, those were video games and this was real life, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use my elite gaming skills to my advantage here.

What were my options?

The sword was the obvious tool to use. Smack the big robot with it and hope for the best. Probably also the worst idea.

Next up, I had the weird liquid. I had no idea what to do with it and I only had a limited amount of it, so if I was going to experiment with it, I had to be smart about it.

Next... I still had the stupid letter, didn’t I? Where had I... Oh...

I carefully reached down and ruffled the makeshift bandage around my leg just enough to reach into its pockets before pulling out the blood-stained letter still mocking me with its ‘Good luck! ;)’.

I sneered at it, as was becoming tradition, and placed it on the ground next to me. Next, I carefully uncorked the vial, raised it over the letter and began to carefully shake it.

Obviously, the first test was to make sure the liquid wasn’t dangerous to touch. If it burned through the letter, I could maybe use it as a one-time throwable weapon, but that was probably it.

I kept carefully shaking the vial, trying to pour just a drop of it on the letter. Finally, a bit of it dripped down and I immediately turned the vial upright again.

I did not expect the letter to burst into greenish flames as soon as the drop hit it, but that was exactly what happened.

I yelped and jumped back, but the pain on my leg made me stumble and fall on my butt.

But then, with horror, I realized that the fire was spreading and heading straight for me.

“Wha-?! Why?!”

The blood.

I noticed too late that apparently, my own blood was like gunpowder to the green fire. I couldn’t even run anywhere in this cramped space and before I could figure out what to do, the fire reached the wound on my left leg.

I screamed as the burning feeling spread through my entire body and I spasmed on the ground, my hand still gripping the opened vial.

A moment of eternity later, the green fire vanished and I was left hyperventilating on the ground, somehow still alive.

I slowly lifted my head, tears staining my face once more.

“Wha... What the fuck?!”

And then I noticed that there was smoke, no ashes, not even the smell of fire. The letter still lay there, covered in blood, as if nothing had happened. The only difference was that the blood had a bit of a green tint to it and seemed to be glowing.

“...Huh. I see. I understand.”

I understood nothing.

Belatedly, I realized that I felt lighter and full of energy. The exhaustion from walking and then sprinting away from the robot was completely gone. Moreover...

“Wait...”

I inspected my leg, expecting to see a glowing green wound. But under those few remaining splotches of glowing blood, the wound had completely closed up and it didn’t hurt anymore.

“...Seriously?”

Apparently, it was a healing salve. Just a really intense one.