[1.26] Heisty Type (Part 4)

Gelic found her body wriggling into the armor’s helmet on its own. It was a tight squeeze, and she was surprised her hairy, bulbous body could fit at all. Fortunately, whoever wore it in a time long past had a fairly large head. Still, she had to slot her arms and the tiara out the front-facing eye slit, since it was just too cramped otherwise. And, regrettably, because of her horns banging against the top, she couldn’t get quite as much of herself in as she’d like, leaving everything below the equivalent of her waist exposed.

Perhaps that was for the best, since it still allowed a free range of movement for her lower half while providing decent protection. And Gelic needed that nimbleness once she started moving again. Frost once more exuded from her body, but this time there was a lot more control, produced only by her theoretical feet. Then her—it was still hard to call them legs, but whatever nubby limb-like appendages protruded from her bottom—began swaying back and forth in a rhythmic pattern, scooting her forward along the suddenly slippery ground.

She was skating. That was the only way to call it. Frost would appear inches in front of her mere moments before she should hit the dry floor, creating a path of glacial wonderment that Angelica could glide across with ease. Funny, because she didn’t actually know how to ice-skate, at least not to this degree. She’d tried a few times in college, and grasped the fundamentals, but was barely able to stay upright and in a straight line for more than a few seconds at a time. Her legs were built to stomp through the woods, not eloquently skim across a frozen lake. Now it felt so natural. Assuredly, the Order was helping, but likely, her stout form and denser weight distribution were also doing a lot in keeping her balanced.

And she was keeping up an otherwise unwieldy speed, to the point that the guard had to genuinely begin sprinting to keep up with her. His movements were now so laborious that he couldn’t aim properly, but he still fired regardless, hitting everything but the fleeing Demon. Eventually, he’d do more financial damage than the value of what was being stolen. It was also around this point that Gelic realized the man had never actually reloaded his rifle. Maybe that was some form of magic?

[Might increased]

While elegantly gliding down the halls, the Imp received that notice. She found it a bit strange. With the dextrous action, it felt more like Competence should be increasing, or at least Creativity. But the act of using the skill really had nothing to do with how well she was skating. No, all that mattered was the exertion of frost beneath her feet. And then the radius of it suddenly increased.

[Frost Touch Lv.2]

[Might increased]

[Creativity increased]

[Glacial Attunement increased]

Since her body was doing most of the work keeping her alive, only needing to make minor adjustments herself when she felt wobbly, Angelica took a glance at her MP. She had initially recovered a good bit after all of her Order Rejection attempts, but the persistent Active Skill use was definitely making it drain steadily. She was currently at 54, which then ticked to 53, then 52. It wasn’t an absurdly fast depletion, but it also wasn’t exactly comforting knowing that she was working against a clock.

Fortunately, the museum entrance wasn’t too far now, at least from what she remembered. Since Gelic only knew the one route, she had to assume that the Order was taking her the same way back. Even if it was basically a cheat that let her use her body in ways she couldn’t normally imagine herself capable of, it still couldn’t know what she didn’t know, or what her Summoner—still her—didn’t know. And if it started picking random directions, that could be disastrous. It’s possible Lustre’s knowledge and intent could play a part as well, but it was hard to say how reliable that layabout’s intel of anything outside her own home would be, so it would be best not to lean into the unfamiliar.

There was one slight diversion from what Gelic expected. When they reached the atrium, she found herself veering away from skating straight ahead, but it made sense. In the middle of the room lay a patch of grass. Why? Probably some nonsensical artsy or vibes-based reason. Her frost could undeniably freeze the grass, too, but the question was would that then stop it from bending down when she tried to move across, becoming a tripping hazard? It would require proper testing, and since she wasn’t confident with the answer, her body chose to stick to the smooth, flat surface.

Regrettably, this gave her pursuer time to line up another shot, knowing right where she’d be heading. Her body pushed to keep going, but just to be completely safe, She made an executive decision to purposefully override it. Gelic forced herself to slip slightly and fall onto her back, causing the helmet to dig into the ice and pull her to an abrupt stop. But at that angle, the big metal headwear provided full protection, as if she were a snail hiding inside her shell. The moment the bullet clanged against it, she scrambled back to her feet and resumed her skate toward freedom.

With the lobby in sight, Angelica could feel an end to this nightmare. Hopefully, the Return spell would work when she got outside, speculating that the museum must have some form of enchantment or barrier that prevents it from working, and even if it didn’t, she’d have a lot more room to hide and scamper. Plus, the guard wouldn’t openly fire their weapon in public, right? She had to hope that was the case.

However, there was an unexpected problem. The once wide-open doors at the entrance of the museum had been closed and shuttered, no doubt part of the security system that was still blaring. While that means of escape was undoubtedly closed off, there was still hope. Above the doors were lovely, beautiful, slightly gaudy stained-glass windows. Getting up to them would be an issue, or would it?

Placed right in the middle of the lobby was her salvation, the fossil of some ancient creature that Gelic didn’t know the name of, probably something overly long and complex. The way its skeleton was arranged, with its head held high and the tip of its tail touching the floor so that kids could play with it—essentially assuring that the fossil was fake—almost felt like it had been purposefully left for a slippery little Demon to make a grand getaway. Undeniably, that hadn’t been the curator’s design, but damn if it wasn’t perfectly laid out.

The Imp did the slightest hop to get on top of the tail, followed by a series of continuous little skips up along the skeleton, over its spine, to get across the gaps between the bones. She built up speed along the decently extensive runway before she swooped up the ramp-like neck and over the creature’s head, launching into the air. Angelica pivoted her body so that the tip of the helmet careened straight for the window like a guided missile.

It shattered the glass with ease, releasing the Demon into the great outdoors, to safety, to freedom. If only the elegance carried with her landing. Fortunately, gravity pulled the helmet down first, so she landed with a relatively safe thud before bouncing once and then rolling like a can down the street until she wiggled herself free.

[Contract “Escape Alive” complete]

[Summoner Rank: Initiate Lv.10]

[Summoner Skill: Simultaneous Orders unlocked]

Wow, that was a huge jump in Summoner Rank, likely because the Demon under her command, herself, had pulled off a great feat. Angelica was of course interested in the new Skill, but she needed to get to safety first. Just as she was about to try to tell herself to Return, she suddenly heard her name… several times.

“Gelic, Gelic, Gelic, Gelic.” It was Lustre, constantly repeating her name through their telepathic connection, with a varying intonation each time, clearly bored of the act.

“There you are, where did you go when I needed you?!” The panicky, furious Imp spat back in her mind, scrambling away from the scene since she didn’t want to get caught while having this conversation.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I’ve been calling you for the past several minutes, waiting for you to be done. You took far longer than I expected, so I was about to give up,” the Summoner defended herself.

“Whatever, just get me out of here!” The next moment, Gelic felt the call, bidded to return to her master’s side. Another second passed, and she was back in the familiar, sparkling clean study. She took a moment to breathe and unclench, finally feeling safe.