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As the energy surged through his legs, Isaac felt a potent power propelling him forward. He braced himself and took off with an explosive leap.
*(Boom!)*
He shot off the massive black stone, rocketing through the air like a human cannonball towards the next target.
Thirteen meters away loomed another stone, dark and foreboding.
*(Whsshhh)*
The wind whipped around him, a fierce resistance as he cut through the air.
"Woah!" Isaac gasped, exhilarated and caught off guard by the sheer speed.
His slight frame rendered him almost weightless, yet he was channeling a force that should have been impossible for someone so small.
'Is this what it's like to be a bird?' he wondered, reveling in the fleeting freedom.
For a moment, he was suspended in the air, liberated from gravity's unyielding pull.
The world below seemed distant, a chaotic blur of movement.
"Rahh!" The possessed screeched below, still attempting to scale the black stone he had just abandoned.
Isaac's next target was a daunting 16 meters.
As he neared it, he readied himself for the landing.
*(Thump!)*
He hit the rock heavily, the impact sending shockwaves through his legs.
He winced at the pain but couldn't afford to pause.
Energy conservation was crucial. He quickly scanned for his next landing spot—a stone twelve meters away.
Just as he bent his knees for another leap, the possessed below froze, as if time itself had halted.
The sudden stillness was eerie, their lifeless eyes locked in place. But in an instant, they sprang back to life, more frantic and vicious than before, sprinting in his direction, heedless of obstacles or each other.
'He's finally making his move,' Isaac thought with a grim satisfaction.
The orchestrated freeze and sudden burst of movement confirmed his suspicion—someone was controlling these possessed and shadow devils.
This was no random attack; it was a calculated assault.
Ahead, the possessed were already scrambling up the stones, attempting to cut off his escape.
'I expected this, but not so soon.
Still, I can handle it,' he reassured himself, impressed by the controller's quick response but confident in his own abilities.
"They're still too slow," he muttered, a defiant smile tugging at his lips.
*(Thump!)*
He landed on another rock, the impact jarring his already aching legs.
But there was no time to rest. He had to keep moving.
*(Boom)*
*(Whsshhh)*
Once more, Isaac launched himself into the air, defying gravity. The wind roared past him as he flew.
*(Thump!)*
He landed hard, nearly losing his balance on the uneven surface. His feet slipped, but he caught himself just in time and leapt again before he could fall.
*(Boom)*
"That was close," he panted, wiping sweat from his brow mid-air. The continuous leaps were taking their toll.
"It's getting harder to maintain the energy flows to my legs," he muttered, concern evident in his voice.
Once he had mastered the trick, it had become easier, but managing two flows while running, calculating, and enduring painful landings was draining him rapidly.
"I must keep up this speed. If I slow down, I'll be caught by the possessed climbing the stones ahead."
The challenge of maintaining his momentum while preventing his legs from breaking was pushing him to his limits.
His head throbbed from the strain, and his legs were a painful mess of numbness and burning.
He glanced forward and saw the possessed nearly at the summit of the stones, using each other as makeshift steps.
"No, I will reach it," he declared, defiance burning in his eyes.
With a powerful leap, he cut it dangerously close.
*(Boom)*
As he landed, a hand reached for him from the edge of the rock.
"Shit!" Isaac twisted mid-air, narrowly avoiding the grasping fingers and barely managing to land.
Without pausing, he launched himself toward the nearest rock, but he saw another possessed already on top of it.
'I have to kill it,' he thought instinctively, reaching for his sword ready to channel a flow of energy but he remembered.
Channeling energy to his sword would disrupt the delicate balance of flows to his legs.
'I'll push it instead,' he decided, formulating a new plan in an instant.
He readied his sword mid-air, adjusting his momentum to use the blade for a powerful shove.
*(Whssshhh)*
The wind howled in his ears, each moment stretched into an eternity.
'Two seconds, one second—now!'
Isaac braced for impact.
"Rahh!" The possessed lunged, its arms wide open.
"Why are you opening your arms like that? I'm not your lover!" Isaac retorted, thrusting his sword into its chest.
Using the sword as leverage, he twisted his body, pushing the possessed off balance.
*(Thump!)*
He crashed into the possessed, using its body to absorb the impact and then pushing off it to launch himself again.
"Rahhh!" The possessed tumbled, taking others down with it in a chaotic heap.
"No way am I landing there," Isaac muttered, seeing the infested rock.
The possessed had piled high enough for others to grab him if he landed.
"I won't be dying today, no thank you," he said, springing off the possessed's body.
*(Boom)*
He soared through the air again, leaving the tangled mass of possessed behind in a disarray of limbs and growls.
"That was too close for comfort," Isaac admitted, feeling the cold sweat trickling down his back.
He was barely escaping death with each desperate leap.
*(Thump!)*
He landed hard, his legs trembling with exhaustion.
"Hufff, Hufff," he panted, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He was dangerously low on energy.
"I will make it. I don't care," he vowed, his eyes fixed on the distant red light.
The town, with its towering castle and massive walls, lay just beyond the end of the black stone forest.
The mist clung to the ground, stopping abruptly as if confined to this cursed place.
*(Boom)*
He jumped again, every leap bringing him closer to freedom but pushing his body closer to its breaking point.
'Three hundred meters,' he estimated, calculating the distance to the forest's edge.
*(Thump!)*
"Huffff, Hufff," his breath grew more labored, his legs numb and burning with each impact.
Using the energy so intensely was taking a severe toll on his body.
His head pounded with a relentless ache.
"I just need to make it out of the black stone forest," he told himself, relying on his theory that the schemer's control was limited to this area.
'I hope I'm right,' he thought, his resolve wavering under the mounting pressure.
If the schemer could control the possessed beyond the forest, it wouldn't have needed such elaborate plans to trap him here.
It would have toyed with him closer to the edge, offering a glimmer of hope only to crush it.
His only fear was the schemer taking matters into its own hands or leading the horde personally.
But he had to hope his theory was correct.
Isaac kept leaping, flying through the air with desperate strength.
'I'm so close,' he thought, each leap drawing him nearer to the forest's end. But his body was at its absolute limit.
His head felt like it would explode, his legs were being crushed and burned, and his breathing was more ragged than ever.
"Hufff, Hufff, Hufff," he gasped for air, his vision blurring.
"Ten meters. This is the last jump!"
Summoning his remaining strength, he launched himself, feeling weaker than ever.
*(Boom)*
With one final, desperate leap, he cleared the forest of black stones, landing just outside its dark boundary.
"I made it!" he whispered, relief flooding him. He hoped his theory about the schemer's range was correct.
"WROOOOO!" A monstrous roar echoed from behind, shaking the ground beneath him.
'That must be the schemer screaming in rage,' Isaac thought, a triumphant smile forming on his lips.
'If it's that angry, it can't leave the black stone forest. I was right!'
"Hehehee, I was right," he laughed weakly, feeling a surge of victory.
But then he realized his fatal mistake.
"Oh no," he muttered, eyes widening as he looked at the rapidly approaching ground.
In his desperation to escape, he had forgotten he was still mid-air.
*(Whssshh)*
The ground rushed up to meet him, and he braced himself for impact.
*(Boom!)*
Isaac crashed into the hard earth, the world spinning around him.
His vision darkened, and consciousness slipped away, leaving him at the mercy of the harsh landscape once again.