30

Many of it's big windows stood open, and hollow after they'd been broken. I didn't want to see more of the place since it would just tell me how much of my childhood had been broken in this whole mess. I didn't have many good memories to begin with. Why ruin the few I had left? I had looked back when I'd fallen deep in my thoughts. 

I turned my back on the hollow, and dead restaurant, and kept walking. I crossed the lawn of the spacious corner lot. It was just as dry, and dead as the rest of the grass in town. I found it kind of funny. The grass by my parents house was probably still green since it was the tough crappy looking natural grass that grew in this area. 

All this fancy pretty grass was dying simply from not getting watered for the better part of a month. I laughed to myself about it. It was stupid, but in my desolate miserable state I found it hilarious. I crossed the street, and looked up into the empty store. The doors had been destroyed since I was last here. 

I wondered if it was some sort of monster. I walked through the doors, and chills ran up my spine. Something was in here. Something dangerous. Maybe it was what broke the doors. 

I raised my dagger. Lighting the dagger aflame as I walked into the darkened store. I looked around at what I could see of the store. Many of the remaining shelves were toppled or completely obliterated. Whatever food had remained in here before had been completely destroyed. 

Not that there was much left that had any real nutritional value left in here after we picked it over the last time. Whatever had slammed it's way into this store had picked it completely apart. Ceiling tiles had been torn out, and there were many random wires hanging. It looked like a tornado had torn through the small store. I heard a groan, and a snort. 

Two glowing red eyes peered at me from the darkness. It stood slowly, and looked down on me. 

Warning

This is a highly evolved monster. Your level is too low. 

I had barely enough time to read the warning before the beast appeared right in front of me. Swinging it's big hand at me. I used my high jump skill to jump out of it's range. Taking advantage of the backwards lean I'd gone into when I realized something was swiping at me. I was propelled entirely out of the store.

I landed on my back, and rolled back to my feet. I knew I'd given myself some nasty road burn, but it was better then being dead. It wasn't enough distance. The monster looked like a hybrid of ogre, and gremlin. That was all I had time to absorb before I was smacked into the air. 

I felt like I'd been hit by a sledgehammer the size of a human being. I didn't know how I managed to keep ahold of my dagger through all of that. I rolled mid air, and came down with both hands gripping my dagger tightly. Swinging it down with all the force I could muster. It slammed right into ugly's forehead, and breaks. 

The blood in my veins felt as if it had frozen. Two hands closed around my middle, and started squeezing. He laughed as he squeezed. Breath was being forced out of my body, and my ribs felt as if they were creaking as the force he was applying increased slowly. Fear flooded my eyes, and he laughed as he continued to slowly squeeze the life out of me. 

Rage followed my fear as pain, adrenaline, and shock heightened my senses to an impossible degree. This thing was laughing. That meant he probably needed to breath. I leaned towards his face suddenly. No longer trying to get out of his grip. 

If he was going to play with me then I was going to play an even more dangerous game with him. Flames ignited inches away from my palm. He was startled by the fire in his face, and let go of me to swat the flames away. My ribs screamed as the pressure was suddenly let off, but my mind was impossibly clear. I grabbed his vest with my free hand, and kept the flames going over his mouth, and nose. 

He tried to swat the flames off his face for a few moments before realizing I was still attached to him. He grabbed me by the back of the shirt, and tried to yank my off, but I started forcing those flames down his throat. He screamed as he yanked. My shirt was ripped clean of in one fairly painful motion since t-shirts weren't exactly designed to rip. Now that he had screamed he'd pushed all the air out of his lungs so he reflexively taken a breath. 

Pain, and fear rippled across his face as all the flames on his face disappeared into his mouth. He gripped my arm as he started hacking, and coughing. He threw me off. Bloodlust coloring my vision as I used high jump again to get into the air above him. I used the high jump skill several times in rapid succession to make it so I could cling to the creatures back before he could catch his breath. 

I grabbed the back of his vest, and surrounded his whole head in a ball of fire. Not caring one bit how much mana I wasted on this. If I didn't kill this thing somehow I was going to be the one to die. This thing was so strong he didn't see me as a problem. I was just a toy that he could break however he wanted. 

The darker my thoughts got. The hotter the flames got. He stood up straight all of a sudden, and started running as fast as he could. It was hard to maintain the flames on his whole head as he ran. My fingers clicked as my hands clenched so tight that my fingers felt as if they might break.