Chương 48: [1.48] The Bouncing Terror (Part 1)

Her time as a bird was very short-lived. Angelica had turned herself into a graceful raven, a lovely familiar that would make any witch envious. But after a few flaps, barely making it to the restaurant's rooftop, she disengaged the Skill and turned back into an Imp. Clearly, she would need a lot more practice flying with wings before she used it for any real mode of transport. Being a cat and dog had been easy; it was basically the same as using her usual limbs, just hunched over.

Having to flap, though, that just felt so wrong. It was exhausting, too, flailing her arms like that. Her form was probably poor, and she could certainly improve the efficiency, but she'd panicked a bit. The difficulty of it all had thrown her off, but what really made her stop was watching her MP drop like a rock. At its rate of drain, she'd run out after not even a full mile, definitely worse than anything she'd transfigured into thus far. Was it because birds were too different?

Cats and dogs were fellow mammals, so there could be that. Or was it because she was just not used to it? The movement, the mentality—lacking Familiarity, as the Skill would call it. When she first looked from the ground, the drain hadn't been bad at all, but when she started flapping, it was like she was literally throwing the MP out of herself with each beat of her wings. She had never been super into birds, so it would seem she'd need to really study if she wanted to be more than a rat pretending she had wings.

But Gelic had a backup plan for quick traversal. Bounce, bounce, Multi-Bounce! After a few initial hops to build height and momentum, she sproinged into the air, easily clearing the distance from the rooftop of the restaurant to the grocery store right across the street. And she didn't linger, bouncing again off of a covered rooftop exhaust fan. Since it was sloped slightly, the angle propelled her even further, launching her all the way across the store's parking lot.

On the other side, she was set for another roof of… she had no idea. Gelic was moving too fast to read the sign. Another bounce, and whoosh, there she went, blasting across the city skyline. It was a shame she didn't have too far to travel, because this had become so much fun in just a few seconds. A few bounces later, and she was going fast, so fast. Oh, scuff, too fast!

Having made it to the wealthier neighborhoods where she'd found her previous Summoner's manor, she instead found herself hurling straight toward an iron railing with spikes on top. Just leave it to the rich to surround their houses with actual deadly reinforcements. She was going to be a skewered Imp kebab in seconds. But there was no need to fear. Jump Good! Gelic quickly found a good flat spot nearby and activated the skill, altering her trajectory.

The shake-up didn't break the Multi-Bounce chain, either, letting her continue her insane ricochets without losing any speed. [Multi-Bounce Lv. 2] [Competence, Creativity increased] [Balletic Attunement increased] The castle of the… something Sect—she never got the name—loomed in the distance. Though it was just on the horizon, with how fast she was going and distance she was covering, it was only one more bounce to go. Gelic could even see some of the assumed Summoners out in the yard.

It was too far to see who they all were, but they had Demons with them. Maybe they were running drills together or something of that sort. She quickly mapped it all out in her head. At this speed, landing could be problematic, but she had an idea to end her momentum. Then she'd quickly either find Vystal, or the nearest capable-looking person who could hopefully handle a simple delivery, and bounce her way out of there. She didn't particularly want to stick around.

Gelic had become friendly with a few of their number, but their number was a lot apparently, and the ones she saw probably weren't all of them. They may not take too kindly to an unfamiliar Demon suddenly falling out of the sky like this. It was kind of strange, actually. A big, fancy Sect like this, she'd think that they'd have some sort of protection. But there was nothing, as far as she could see, no floating Runes that made her feel bad if she got near.

Angelica even had Scrying Eye active, but it was clear skies ahead. Or was it? Hey, what's t— Whammo! She didn't even get to finish her thought before what looked like a sheet of mostly-clear glass appeared in front of her in the form of a giant dome over the Summoner estate. To make matters worse, in preparation for landing, Gelic had mentally disabled Multi-Bounce so it wouldn't activate on the next hit, meaning she got the barrier straight to the face with full force applied. [Wallop Resistance Lv. 3] [Punching Bag Lv. 2] [Vigor increased] [Suffering Attunement increased] Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Okay, so maybe not full-force. Though it hadn't been an attack, Punching Bag still triggered, since she had been "thrown" into an object, just thrown by herself. In fact, the combo of Skill, Trait, and just general blubberiness of her body probably did a lot in reducing the pain and keeping her from, well…

just straight up splatting into the barrier like a bug into a windshield and dying on impact. Because with how fast she'd been going, it was as if she'd been shot out of a cannon. Maybe she should be reclassified as a Cannonball Imp. Ooo, that would actually be a cool Skill, though. Make it happen, DGS! The system didn't even deign to give her a response, but she did get a significant amount of feedback.

As Angelica pried herself off of the lovely and well-kept lawn outside of her destination, she suddenly felt a wave of unpleasantness surge through her skin. Of all the ways to describe it, the best would be the creepy-crawlies, like something was wrong, so very wrong. [Suspecting Skin Lv. 2] [Lucidity increased] [Gnostic Attunement increased] At the very least, the Skill let her know where the shivers were coming from, as if it wasn't obvious.

Gelic bounced back up a bit, just high enough to see over the wall, and she was in everyone's sights. Had her impact set off some sort of alarm to them, or had it been so attention-drawing that everyone immediately knew? Perhaps on the inside, she'd caused some sort of noticeable doink sound that couldn't be ignored. Now there was a Demon horde headed her way. Alright, it was probably more like a Demon huddle, since it was roughly ten or so, but that was still intimidating!

And apparently, a few of the Summoners decided to tag-along in tow. Yeah, she, uhh, needed to skedaddle the scuff out of there! A shame, because the fancy barrier she'd just faceplanted into probably had a wonderful Rune behind it, one she'd love to learn the intricacies of, though not at the cost of her life. But at the same time, she wasn't going to abandon her mission so easily.

It'd be way too embarrassing if she got scared and ran off before completing her completely innocent task, and she wouldn't be able to face them again for a second attempt. Of course, she could just mail it, but it felt weird leaving magical artifacts in the hands of the postal service. They were pretty reliable most of the time, though. But no! She was there, just two seconds of bravery and she'd be done. Fortunately, the solution came literally flying right at her.

Xinder was among the group of Demons, leading the pack, even, thanks to its gift of having wings, and all. And maybe he had recognized Gelic and wanted to beat the others to the punch.

"Here, birdie, catch the shiny!" That probably came out of her mouth far more condescending than she intended, but it was too late. And after a good bounce to get up to the flyer's level, she pelted the pendant in his direction. After confirming that the avian Demon was swooping toward it, Gelic pivoted on the next rebound, engaging Multi-Bounce and springing away as fast as she could. That had been an unexpectedly erratic experience, and what better way to get over trauma than diving headlong into danger.

Well, hopefully, it wouldn't be too dangerous, but with how hopped up on adrenaline she was, both from the crazy bouncing which she was starting to love, and the hectic happening, she might be a bit reckless. Her next stop was Fioso's manor, but that was all the way on the ass-end of the other side of the city, which was much closer to her apartment. A bit strange that the rich lived so far from each other. They felt like the kind to congregate and segregate themselves from the poors.

But even in high society, they must not all get along too well, especially since her friendly neighborhood Summoner was a Rogue Summoner; he likely wanted to be as far away from the Sects that he could get. To make the long bounce a bit more entertaining and a good use of her time, Gelic asked Malignant Tracker to let her know of any of the scuff-suckers that were reasonably along the route. Which apparently made it quite the advanced monster-hunting assistant.

It had to know where she was going and what she understood as reasonable, because it asked for no sort of follow-up clarifications after she made the initial request. Immediately, a Malignant was on her radar—a metaphorical radar. There was no actual spinny circle thing with flashing dots overlaid in her vision, though that could be kinda neat. No, it just invisibly made her instincts flare.

Combined with Hunting Nose and an Order to hunt them down during her commute, she became a homing missile of flying hair, ready to bust open these Essence pinatas before they could do any harm to humans. But, yes, it was mostly for the Essence. Angelica wasn't going to pretend to be altruistic with her intentions. She bounced, bounced, and bounced some more, until she had enough speed that each bound was careening her over several blocks. It did seem like there were eventual diminishing returns.

At the start, she was roughly doubling her speed and distance with every boing, but after about ten or so, each subsequent skip added less to her momentum. That was probably for the best, or she could literally bounce herself out of the atmosphere. Maybe there was a cap, too, somewhere around terminal velocity; otherwise, she'd be ascending faster than she could fall, and that wouldn't make much sense. Well, none of this made sense in the eyes of mother physics.

Multi-Bounce broke all known laws of aviation, and it was quickly becoming her new favorite mode of travel. She'd had a lot of new favorites recently, but this one felt like it'd stick around for a while. Suck it, flying, I don't need no wings. Unless she got literal teleportation, she'd be bouncing herself to the future, even with the Skill's limitations.

And who knew, maybe she could combine it with Plunge to make up for the downward part, and eventually use it to summit mountains, cross oceans, and travel the world. Not that she really wanted to go much faster at present. It was already a lot, and when she got close to her first target, Gelic purposefully broke her chain and restarted, otherwise, she'd be going way too fast. Of course, getting up to a good speed didn't take too long, and as she bore down on her target, she was soaring at a decent click.

Four little nubbly things just chilling in an alley, that was apparently what she was out to kill. They kind of looked like sentient trashbags, wobbling around and blending in with their brethren. If it wasn't for their bloody brownish color, they could honestly be overlooked. Manifest Ice! Airstrike!