No, I didn't sign up to be a hero! I turned around and rushed upward at maximum speed, but it was no use. I barely managed to move my limbs a couple of times before three of its tentacles wrapped around me, squeezing both legs and my right arm. There was no way to dodge them—they were too fast, twisting in midair and making their trajectories unpredictable. In an instant, Lisa turned her body to the left; her tentacles followed suit and slammed me into the wall, which was much farther to my right—about six or seven meters away. Once again, I was glad I felt no pain, because the crunch in my right side when I hit the wall hinted at damage—and not only to the wall.
I jumped to my feet, but sadly realized I was too slow. Miss Trevor was already within arm's reach and delivered a powerful backhand blow to my right side. Even though it wasn't a fist but fingers spread like claws, it still knocked me back like a feather. My body hit the wall again, this time with my back, and I prayed to all the gods that my spine wasn't damaged—because while I'd be regenerating it, they'd tear me to shreds. I struggled back to my feet, noticing that my long-suffering right side was almost completely unresponsive. I wondered how many ribs she'd broken—or rather, were any of them still intact? And my right arm was hanging limply.
WHAT?!
How was I supposed to climb up now? Even with two hands, I couldn't get away from her tentacles, and now it was even more impossible. Since my arm wouldn't obey me, I wouldn't be able to climb at all. I needed both limbs for that; I climbed using my claws, and now that I was clinging with only one hand, what was I supposed to hold on to? With my feet? Although… why not?
Lisa wasn't rushing to attack yet—either she was hesitating or something else was going on—but since she was standing there so nicely, I decided to take advantage of it. Not wanting to bend over and expose my head or back to a possible strike, I stepped on the sole of my right foot with my left and, almost taking off my sneaker, hurled it sharply at the cave prisoner, hoping it would distract her, and I quickly repeat the operation with the left one.
That, however, was not what happened.
When the right shoe was just a few centimeters from the monster, almost hitting it in the face, it simply flew past without encountering any obstacle. Lisa was already standing a meter to the right and half a meter ahead of her previous position. Only the settling dust indicated that this wasn't teleportation after all. Now there weren't four meters between us, but three and a half—and the second shoe was already flying toward the target.
I turned my back on the monster—a deadly move, but a necessary one—tensed my legs, and jumped as hard as I could. With injuries like these, my body wasn't listening to me as well as it should, so I wasn't betting on the height of the jump, but on its speed. More than three meters—that was the distance I flew upward before starting to climb, securing myself with my toeclaws and pulling my body up with my left hand toward the exit visible above.
I had only one advantage: the monster didn't immediately realize where its prey—or who I was to it—had gone. By the time it raised its head and noticed me, I was already at a decent height. Still fearing its tentacles, I accelerated even more, squeezing literally every last ounce of energy out of my body.
And, as it turned out, it was worth it!
Its tentacles fell just a few centimeters short of my feet, and the relief was incomparable. But how Trevor howled below! My eardrums almost burst—or maybe they really did—from the acoustic shock. Most interestingly, though, not a single drop of blood spilled from my body. Yes, it would defend this precious liquid to the very end, and I agreed with my body on that point. It was thanks to my recent snack that I was still alive. If not for that Licker I'd eaten about half an hour ago, who knows what would have happened to me?
Once I reached the surface, my right arm finally started moving again—just in time, damn it! A quick examination showed that I'd climbed the last few meters with my ribs intact, but my hunger began to rise, even without any external factors like someone's presence nearby, and that was bad. But what was much worse was that my body had chosen the creature from the well behind me as its target.
No, I don't deny that the progenitor of most viruses might be very nutritious—or maybe not—but I wasn't ready to go back down there now and deal with it. I'd rather go after the entire Umbrella Corporation with my bare fists than descend into that pit again. So much for 'just going to check who was there.' Real genius, that.