It jumped. The gods have to be dead. That or they have to have a fucked up sense of humour. Tell me why that thing could jump so high? I watched, horrified, as the statue jumped and cleared the edge of the opening. Not even having to hang on to the opening's edge and clamber up, it just made it. It landed with a dull thud, its immense weight cracking the marble beneath its feet slightly. It was still crouched, as if it were recovering from the jump, but not for long. As it raised itself to its full height, I didn't even hesitate this time; I just booked it. I felt my feet pound the podium; the shocks ran through my body. Then I remembered I was, in fact, on a podium. In all of my haste, the fact had eluded me. So, soon after I started running, I ate marble. I didn't even have time to chuckle at this absurd situation as I could hear the statue slowly stalking its way towards me. Its slow, methodical thumps that rang out with each stone-laden step sent a jolt of fear through my prone body. Enough fear for me to forget about my embarrassment and pain and shoot back up to start running again.
However, it was as I started running towards the golden pews that I noticed something was different. I slowly watched as their colour seeped out of them, as if something had stolen their saturation. It was strange, and at any other time I would've stopped to think about what it was, but I was unfortunately a little preoccupied with trying to stay alive. As the thoughts rushing through my head found their end, I heard a whistling, which gave me a bad premonition. I threw myself to the side just in time. As I saw the statue's black marble spear slice through the space I had just been in. It slammed into one of the once-golden pews and tore through it, only to be stopped by the one behind it. It caused me to stop for a moment in pure shock, and I realised I was just dancing around in the palm of its hand. I couldn't stop though; I had to escape. I started running again; no; I was sprinting, and I felt the air burning through my lungs as it ripped through them. Soon, I felt my stamina reaching its end, and I knew I had to just keep pushing. I felt the warm liquid coursing through me again, but this time it followed its streams all throughout my body, allowing me to keep pushing onwards. Deep down, I still knew it wouldn't last long, and if I didn't make it out before my mana ran out, I was a goner. I pushed even harder at this realisation. I looked behind me again to see the statue staring at me. It had its hand on the haft of its spear. Then it jerked it back in one fluid motion, freeing the spear. It then used the momentum from the pull to sink into a throwing position again before launching its spear at me.
I watched it, and it almost felt like the world had slowed down. I could see every individual detail of the spear, the way it span, the way that it seemed to draw in the light even more as it flew. Then it was right in front of me. I snapped my head to the side and felt the wind slicing off of it, opening a small cut on my cheek, and felt the blood run down from it in rivulets. The pain snapped me out of my trance, and I saw the statue break into a jog, then slowly it started sprinting, hard. I was fucked. However, turning around, I saw the gates to the temple, and hope rushed through me. It almost seemed to refresh me. I was running again, my steps echoing around the pillars of the temple, and it started blurring around me. The halls of white marble that I had once admired passed by me in a blur of light. All I could think about was how close I was to escaping from this accursed place. Slowly, I approached the gates I had once strode through with the confidence of a much stronger being. My vision started tunnelling, and I could only see the gates of metal and carvings. I could almost taste the freedom. Then, as I stepped down, I felt my stamina and mana both run dry. "Fuck." The swear ripped from my mouth almost unbidden. I was so close; I was only about 5 metres away, but my legs were no longer responding. No matter how much I hit them, they refused to even shuffle forward.
I heard heavy footsteps as the statue approached me slowly. It was stalking me again. I turned to face the hunter, who was slowly closing in, and I could almost feel the happiness it felt deep within its petrified body. It was almost radiating from its skin. I turned towards it, steeling myself for what was about to come. After I tied the blindfold around my wrist, I slowly loosened the daggers from their sheaths and brought them up before me in an X. Ironically, this was the first time I had seen the blades in person. The one in my left hand was a straight double-edged dagger that shone with a deep navy blue metal, and the other was a single-edged dagger, forged from a metal of dark purple, its tip curved slightly towards me. I was trembling. It was part exhaustion and part fear. I couldn't tell which one was stronger. The statue had stopped walking and stood still about three metres away from where I was standing and looked at me with what seemed like mocking amusement. Like it was just begging for me to attack it, it wanted me to fight back, to struggle for my life in futility. I felt a deep hatred course through my bones as I watched it stand there in its self-assured confidence. However, I was just too weak to do anything about it. What could I, a mere Full Nebula, do to it? Nothing, but I could at least try.
The statue hadn't even bothered to pick up its spear this time. It was so confident that it could kill me it had left its own weapon forgotten in the temple. In a single step, it had closed the three-metre gap, and it swung the edge of its shield at me. This time, however, it had angled it in a way that I wouldn't be able to use the momentum of its strike to send me back towards the gates. I lifted my daggers to block its blow, but it was futile. Its strike struck down on my daggers and drove me to one knee. The marble below me had cracked from the force of the strike, and my arms were trembling. My muscles were screaming in pain as my bones slowly bent. It continued pressing down on me for a bit before it gave me a brief reprieve and drew its shield back. I staggered to my feet again and held my ragged arms up, still clutching onto my daggers. She swung again, and I didn't even manage to block this time; the face of the shield struck me in my ribs, and I felt them snap. My mouth let out a scream of pain that sounded inhuman, and for a moment I doubted it had even come from my mouth. Then the pain hit me as my shattered bones pierced through my organs, and I flew through the air like a rag-doll. I landed on the marble, which was now dyed red with my blood, in a crumpled heap.
Why was I so weak? I kept asking myself the same question over and over again, but I couldn't answer. When I first saw my status, I thought I was strong. I thought maybe I could be a protagonist too. No, in all my haste, I hadn't even thought to question whether I was afforded a protagonist's fate. I had thought that maybe, just maybe, if I could fix my fate of blindness, then I too could be a hero. I was mistaken, and now I was going to die for my assumption. The statue approached me, and I couldn't even turn to face it in my last moments. It was embarrassing, honestly. So I closed my eyes and waited for the final blow.