Chapter 59: Hunted Again
Pyra glanced between the two of them before standing up and falling into step beside them.
"We’re going into new territory." Lucas said. "Stay sharp."
’But first...’ Lucas glanced at his own system window, the crimson interface sitting there smug and absolute.
He gritted his teeth... ’I’ve got something to take care of...’
[You have been marked by the Grim Reaper]
[Prepare to be hunted.]
The words stood there staring at the notification with clenched jaws...
"I need to take care of something," he said, keeping his voice as casual as possible.
Mark raised an eyebrow. "Take care of what exactly?"
"[Water Bearer] is running low. At this rate, we’ll run out of water before we get there." Lucas answered, the lie coming out smoother than he liked. "There’s a stream around here... You two go on, I’ll catch up."
"You want to go alone? Now?" Mark glanced at Pyra, then back at him. Suspicion and worry etched into his face.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed man?"
"It’s a stream, Mark. Not a war zone." Lucas answered with a sigh. "Keep moving toward the Faction Zone, I’ll catch up before you know it."
"Just sat it dude. You’re trying to get some sleep. You’ve been looking more tired lately. I just noticed actually"
"I’m always weird. That’s kind of my whole thing." Lucas with a shrug. "I’ll catch up, Mark. I promise."
Mark studied him for a long moment, clearly unconvinced, but decided against pressing further. "Fine. But if you take too long, we’re leaving you."
Lucas gave a dry laugh. "Sure thing bud."
Lucas went off toward the treeline, and the instant he was out of sight, the world dissolved into white.
***
The void swallowed him whole, just like the first time and when he was finally able to make out his surroundings, he was back at the forest where he faced the Reaper the first time...
[Skill: Ignition has been disabled.]
He stared at the notification blankly. "Of course..."
[Main objective: Survive for 30 minutes.]
[Time remaining: 30: 58]
Just as the timer materialized, he saw the floating shiloulette of the Reaper already approaching him.
"Wish I could say it was good to see you," Lucas muttered through a shaky laugh as he was already backing away.
The Reaper raised its scythe, and Lucas bolted.
The scythe came down, a wave of crimson energy flew towards him and cutting through the trees behind him, and Lucas swerved hard left, buying himself precious seconds as he stumbled and continued running.
Another slash tore past him, hitting the floor on his left— the impact blowing him aside as he hit a tree and scrambled onto his feet again.
He dared to look back and the Reaper raised its scythe again and slashed at him.
He rolled to the side, recovered as quickly as he could and kept running, adrenaline pumping through his body.
He ran until his lungs burned and his legs screamed, dodging strikes that came close enough to completely sever his head. He ran and ran as the exhaustion gripped him harder now, the terrain itself making running harder than it was supposed to.
[Main objective: Survive for 30 minutes]
[Time remaining: 15:30]
"I’m working on it!" Lucas gasped, cutting right to avoid a strike that was aimed for his midsection.
[Time remaining: 4:12]
He stumbled, caught himself, kept moving but the Reaper’s presence loomed closer with every passing second, floating like a cloud but moving like a speeding car...
[Time remaining: 0:47]
The scythe rose for another strike and it went down vertically, unleashing another wave of energy that went straight for Lucas’ head.
[Time remaining: 00:01]
[Ding!]
[Objective complete]
[You have survived for 30 minutes]
The world inverted, and Lucas gasped back into his own body, standing in the exact spot he’d left, the stream rippling quietly a few feet away like nothing had happened at all.
’That was too close...’ Muttering that, he went back to meet up with Mark and Pyra.
***
He found Mark and Pyra further down the path and both of them turned at the sound of his approach.
"That was fast," Mark said. "Didn’t even take up to a minute."
Lucas froze. "...What?"
"You’ve been gone for less than a minute" Pyra said, "We barely started walking."
’Time over there is way different from here...’
The realization settled cold in his chest.
Time didn’t move the same way inside whatever the Sovereign’s domain was, and he had no idea whether it worked in his favor or not.
"Guess I’m efficient," he said instead, forcing a smile, and neither of them pushed further, though Mark’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, he chose not to push farther..
Lucas exhaled. He was running out of excuses. The more time he spent with them slowly backed him into a corner that would lead to him slipping and revealing what he wasn’t supposed to...
They continued walking, eyeing the map whenever they could to make sure they were on the right path.
It was another hour or so before the fortress rose into view through the trees — tall and fortified walls carved out of the surrounding forest, exactly the kind of place Eleanor would have found her way into.
"Yes! We fucking made it!" Mark said in excitement...
Then Lucas’ eyes settled on the role of trees surrounding it and saw what waited above
And what he saw made his eyes widen in surprise.
Three enormous shapes perched in the surrounding trees with wings folded against bodies that looked metallic.
"Avallion," Mark said slowly, gauntlets already flaring around his fists.
"I can see that..." Lucas said, [Ignition] roaring to life around both fists.
Pyra’s claws grew from her fingers, her stance shifting into something that says she was bracing for battle.
She turned to Lucas.."Please tell me you have a plan."
"Working on it," Lucas said, eyes fixed on the golems as he waited for something, anything to come to mind...
"But I know that if we have to get in there, we gotta kill these things first..."