For the second time, my system alarm woke me up.
I opened my eyes and jumped to my feet, my heart beating within my metallic chest as I checked my dashboard.
*1. New Notification Alert*
Warning Alerts: 173,789,537x bricks of Odesso moving. 0.0 km away.
Swallowing to get something down my dried throat, I quickly wore my night goggles before looking around me, and not one of the bricks that I had studied so cautiously when I first came here was in sight. All had disappeared into emptiness, and it was simply sand all around.
"Oh no." I gasped.
What was I to do? How would I know what challenge the bricks were going to pose for me?
"Maia? What are the bricks about?"
"They move."
If I had been angry before, I was right about to spiral into madness now. I knew the bricks could move, as that was clear in the notification alert. It told me that the bricks were moving.
"And how do I fight them?"
"Use what you have."
It was almost the same as the first time when I asked what to do against the Sand Demons. Now deciding that it was useless to try to get an answer from Maia, I started to wonder where the bricks were. A flash of lightning from above drew my attention, and I looked above to see a thick cloud above me.
'Rain in the desert?' I wondered to myself.
I looked at the cloud again with my night vision goggles, before seeing that this was not a cloud of water, but a cloud of stone bricks that was gently spreading far and wide without even the slightest sound. Even my camel seemed to sense what was about to happen, and was making loud, panicked grunts as it pulled against the rope that tied it to the altar.
Taking out my katana, I went and cut the rope, wanting to climb onto the beast and intending to escape with it, but I only lost control of it and ended up slapping the animal's side helplessly as it rushed into the distance, my rope on its neck, and so went my trusty beast that had carried me through an endless journey. If it never made it out, then I would have no choice than to get to Pella by foot again.
My senses all tingled as I threw my hood over myself and started to run from the cloud, only stopping when one brick crashed before me, splitting in two from the force. With a speed I almost missed, the next brick came straight at me like an arrow, and I moved to the side, dodging it so that it sailed right past me.
That was when my system dashboard appeared, with a count.
*1. New Notification Alert*
2 out of 173,789,537 bricks dodged.
"Aaaaaaaargh," I yelled, wondering how I was to dodge almost two hundred million bricks.
They started to rain now as I ran, coming at me from all directions. It was as though I was being stoned by unseen forces from every direction, all of them coming slowly but surely, and I dodged all I could with only one hitting my metallic body so hard that the impact forced me to the ground, only to narrowly escape one sailing through the sand.
All the same, I was terrified of them getting to my head, afraid of the pain that would result if it happened — pain that would only be pain and not kill me — and I bent low and put my metallic hands over my head, hoping to reduce whatever impact they would have if they got to strike my head.
Use what you have, Maia had said.
What did I have that could save me now?
If I had something that could slow the bricks and allow me to see them as they came.
What about my night goggles?
"Maia? Do my night goggles have slow motion vision?"
"Yes. They do. To activate them —"
A brick to my metallic chest sent me to the ground, rendering whatever Maia had said useless as I crashed into the sand.
"How do I activate them, Maia?"
"Squint while wearing them."
I did as she said I should, and instantly, the motion of the bricks slowed, moving at a speed fast enough for me to dodge, but still enough for me to get hit if I lost my attention for even so much as a second.
Jumping back up to my feet, I got my head down in time to miss one, and started to wait for them to come. For the ones that sailed through the sand like boats would in the ocean, I jumped right over, and for the ones that came at me through the air, I moved aside.
This did not mean it was an entirely smooth process, as I jumped and landed on a moving brick countless times, which would make me lose my balance and fall, or in focusing for too long on one brick or on the counter on my system dashboard, I would fall victim to another.
As the bricks moved, it struck me that it would continue as long as I remained in one place, and I started to run forward, dodging the bricks as I did. The whole time, my system was counting.
*1. New Notification Alert*
15,612 out of 173,789,537 bricks dodged.
Focusing, I continued to dodge, running forward with all the energy I could muster. One had managed to graze my head, leaving a dull ache where it struck, and I continued without thinking of the pain.
It carried on for the whole night, all the dodging and running, until not far off, I saw a gate without doors before me. It was just like everything else in Odesso, broken and chipped, so that even the gargoyles sitting like guards on either side had their own share. Outside that gate was bright sunlight and the desert view which this rain of bricks had made me wish to see again, and in that instant, I knew.
Escaping the moving bricks had been the way to leave Odesso, and all I had to do now was get past that gate. Even my counter was close to its target now.
*1. New Notification Alert*
169,086,891 out of 173,789,537 bricks dodged.
Joy started to fill my heart, only to be quenched by the slow realisation that the bricks were moving faster, all of them coming at me, and by something I thought was even worse.
The gate was becoming smaller.