The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

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.

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.

"Hey, Johnny Laggard, take the left turn! The rest of us will go right!" he said, directing his team-mate [JohnnyDane] to check the leftwards path to make sure that Crucis hadn't run off there.

Crucis was disappointed to hear Awdimir's familiar, fevered footsteps following him again, but he kept his eyes on the thin, curving path in front of him. As he carefully eyed the position of the edge, he noticed a few long vines ahead of him billowing in the wind across the side of the mountain, approximately twelve metres beneath the ledge. They were moving back and forth, seemingly drifting into a small cavern on the steep mountainside.

As he came out of the part which had the most sharp turn, he began to speed up, but was surprised when the ground beneath him began to rattle and give way. Lurching forwards awkwardly, he stumbled and was forced to laboriously find his footing. Using Divine Mana to easily jump over the small, dent-like gap that had opened in front of him, he glanced back and saw that Awdimir had gleefully reduced the distance to about four metres now.

At this point, the chase was practically over, it was inevitable that Awdimir would catch up with him.

Running forwards, he slowed slightly and caught his breath, slowing down and pretending to be off-balance and unable to easily find his footing. Silently, he activated [The Headless Horseman], and felt the parasite numbing his skin.

"You little runt, I'll have your guts out!" Awdimir shouted in relish.

He was surprised when Crucis suddenly crouched, turned around and used [Agile Step], ending up just behind the charging Awdimir. Crucis' sword flashed up in an immediate [Slash], arcing up to cut off most of Awdimir's right arm.

Trying to stop his heavy forwards momentum, and get a good grip on his sword with his weaker left arm, Awdimir laboriously prepared his own attack.

However, before this could occur, Crucis vaulted off the edge of the path, drawing a puzzled grunt from Awdimir's companion.

Using the Divine Mana, Crucis managed to slow his ascent and drift towards the small cavern on the mountainside, grabbing the thick, strong vines and using them to pull himself into the cavern. He immediately swiveled round, deactivated [The Headless Horseman], and raised his sword to guard the entrance in case Awdimir tried to follow with a similar jump.

However, Awdimir seemed at first confused, and looked angrily down the cliff where Crucis had escaped into. He was clearly in pain, howling audibly as the injury to his arm caught up with him, and was screaming vengefully down the mountainside. Crucis couldn't quite make out the words, but it was clear that Awdimir was vehement.

Due to this, Crucis continued staring attentively out of the cavern, anticipating any attempts to follow him. Since the mountainside here was practically a cliff, there was no question of them reaching here except with a fall.

He could hear Awdimir stomping across the rocks high above, pacing from side to side as he scolded his companions for falling behind and not giving him support. Given the Divine Weapons, even a high-level player was vulnerable to injury. Further, Awdimir's pain was severe.

Roaring, he slapped one of his companions, and then launched himself down the mountainside.

As he approached the cavern, using his high supplies of Divine Mana, Crucis' sword flashed out in a methodical strike at his head. He had to raise his own sword rapidly to block, and was repelled away from the cavern and forced to descend.

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.