Chapter 140: Pursued

Chapter 140: Pursued

As the footsteps behind him grew louder, Crucis glanced back and saw a pack of three Hashin Assassins in close pursuit.

The level 80 player acting as de facto leader, spurring them on like a pack of hounds, was the Hashin Vice-Leader [Awdimir]. He screamed in wild enthusiasm, and the others joined in.

"The little pipsqueak thinks he can run!"

"Better give up, you can't get away!"

"Nah, it's more fun this way! Let him think he can escape!" Awdimir rebutted.

"I bet you don't want to know what happens when we catch you!"

Crucis ignored this, and ran up across the mountain path, spiralling dizzyingly upwards. Soon, one of the pursuers had fallen behind, and Awdimir loudly berated this player as a 'joke.' However, Awdimir was still closing in, and only about 5 metres separated them. His footsteps pounded an excited, erratic rhythm as he closed in on his victim.Ñ00v€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Coming to a large rock blocking the path, Crucis quickly leapt on top of it, using Divine Mana to leap high and perch comfortably on top. He jumped forwards again as soon as his feet found purchase, almost gliding forwards as his enhanced movement carried him swiftly forwards before he set off again.

As Awdimir came to the rock, Crucis was surprised to hear the sound of a struggle as Awdimir heaved himself awkwardly over the rock. Despite his higher level, Awdimir seemed to have lower Agility. This wasn't entirely surprising, as Crucis had gone out of his way to develop Agility, and Awdimir seemed to have focused mostly on Strength and Dexterity. Awdimir had to rely on his Strength stat to haul himself manually over the rock, and then slid down, further away from Crucis.

All the same, given Awdimir's lack of Agility on this uneven, awkward terrain, it seemed strange that he had been outpacing Crucis so easily on this chase. Despite rarely bothering to use the Divine Mana, he seemed to be practically floating over the terrain, mostly ignoring the obstacles.

Soon, the chase reached a crossroads, with one path rising steeply up the mountain to the left, and one on the right around the mountain's circumference. The first of these was covered with slippery, slightly wet stone, and Crucis decided against it, swerving to the right instead.

Awdimir, however, had grown distracted, and had his head turned around to glare angrily at his companions as they slowly forded the rock after multiple attempts.

"You guys are useless!" he called out. "How the heck you call yourselves Hashin? You're ruining the fun!"

Turning disgustedly forwards again, he saw the cross-roads and realised that he hadn't seen which way Crucis had gone. However, regaining his senses, he decided that it was unlikely that someone being chased would take the steep leftwards path, and began running to the right.

Almost using up his remaining Divine Mana, Awdimir managed to just about get a hand on a small ledge on the mountainside. He hung on for a few moments, before his left hand gave out and forced him into a painful fall towards the ground. Despite burning further through his Divine Mana reserves to cushion the fall slightly, he landed in a pained heap and was lucky to survive. The stump of his right arm ached terribly from the fall, and he doubled over and vomited.

Crucis took a brief glimpse down from the cavern, and noticed that Awdimir had just about survived. However, in such an incapacitated state, Awdimir's character would be barely usable for at least the next few days. This would give Dr1fter time to shore up his authority over the Guild, and might lead to more peace between DeathGang and Hashin around Kruxol. Long live the King?

From the cavern, Crucis dimly heard as Awdimir's companions loudly scuttled away. They didn't seem in any rush to face Awdimir's wrath in the near future, and left the 'scene of the crime' skittishly. Although Crucis had been waiting with sword drawn to repel any of their attempts, he figured that there was no immediate danger of either of them trying to follow him further.

Looking around quickly, he saw that there was only one red column remaining in the sky. It was unmoving, and he was surprised that it hadn't been tracked down and killed yet like its comrades. Whoever this survivor was had probably found a fairly obscure hiding-place, although there was still plenty of time for them to be tracked down. The sound of screaming echoed around the area from further away, suggesting that the battle on the plains was becoming more intense.

Turning around, he found that the cavern was still and silent, apart from the occasional rap of vines from the entrance.

His Divine Mana had dwindled to 150 during the chase, and he would need to get some kills soon to make up for it. However, he would have a few minutes to figure that out. With no other players in his immediate vicinity, Divine Mana drained quite slowly, and his early kills against the Vanir had seemingly slowed this further, perhaps due to an unexplained mechanic rewarding victories against the other faction.

Walking deeper into the cavern, Crucis saw that it led into a cramped tunnel that led steeply downwards. Using his arms to stabilise himself, he began to descend this, and heard an unexpected, tinkling sound like stream water from below.

As he reached the end of this long tunnel, he was attacked by a slimy, large frog-like creature named [Vudash Disciple]. It was difficult to make out much about it in the darkness, but it had a swollen, frog-like body that seemed to melt like a candle into a puddle of slime beneath it.

Crucis managed a few, sharp strikes with his sword as the creature attempted to lunge inelegantly forwards, and the creature split easily apart. Slime fell in torrents from the wounds, and the dead creature briefly seemed like a grotesque fountain before it collapsed to the ground.

Sighing, Crucis kept his arms to the walls in order to avoid slipping over the slimy passageway ahead. There was no-one else in this place, other than that one creature, and so he peacefully approached the sound of water.

Soon, he came upon a small, transparent pool, filled with an occasional supply of water from a mercurial, tiny mountain stream emerging behind it in a miniature water-fall. This pool seemed to be connected to the larger body of water beneath this part of the heavens.

Looking down, he saw that he was near the large, castle-like underwater tunnel structure which he had seen earlier in the event. In fact, there was a large crack just a few metres below, which he could use as an entrance. Leaning further down carefully, he saw a few large, inchoate shapes moving through the water a few kilometres away, but they didn't seem like an immediate threat.

He noticed a few clumsy, slow-moving zombie-like creatures stumbling around the tunnels below. They would make for decent Divine Mana. Killing the Vudash Disciple had won him 30 Divine Mana, but he could do with more of a buffer to avoid running out.

Planning his path carefully, he stepped back from the pool and prepared to dive in.