In the Distance

Chapter 129: In the Distance

/When the Hunter met a good challenge, it was always a joy. They found countless creatures to hunt. They gave chase, set up traps, drove things to exhaustion and delivered the final blow, rarely savouring their victories for very long.

Of course, they used all that they could form the creatures. Harvesting ingredients and meat, furs and scales, whatever they could. But after a day or two, when preparations were finished, they went off again, following their compass. Towards the next target.

Sometimes they saved people, not very rarely, either. When rabid beasts attack settlements, they often gain levels, which made them worthwhile, but to go through settlements, they needed levels in the first place. Thus, the creatures that attacked society often found themselves in the Hunter's crosshair.

Usually, though, they were too late, such as with this case. The Thing that they were watching had ravaged a town, and they had only found it when it was chasing the last survivor. They had even witnessed a dead boy get up and continue on running, yet it mattered little to them. Those lives were lost, certainly, but such was nature. A death is but a speck, and many more would follow.

But the Thing that had just hunted seemed to think otherwise. It gazed after the boy with confusion, its grey body still contorted to grab onto multiple trees with its legs. The Hunter almost clicked their tongue at it, but held it in instead.

Perfectly silent, that was the way they approached their prey. When the Thing was still distracted, looking away and thinking for once, the Hunter finally pounced, striking with a knife fashioned from another beast's long fang.

Before the monster had a chance to react, the weapon sunk deep into the flesh, dealing pain that seared its flesh. The Thing roared in fury, and shook itself with all its might, tossing the Hunter off. For a moment, it seemed as though they would crash into a tree, but such did not happen. Instead, they vanished, and the Thing was left to itself.

Yet, the silence only lasted moments, before the Thing noticed a gleam by its side, soon accompanied by another burning sensation of pain as the Hunter drove its weapons into it. It was horrendous, almost as bad as the hunger the Thing had felt before, and it drove it to flee, to run like the boy had before, wishing for even a fragment of his speed.

Seeing such made the Hunter smile. This was how things were supposed to be. They gave chase to the Thing, catching up soon. Most of their traps had been blown away by the boy's wind, but some still triggered, biting down on many of the Thing's legs until it was hurt and bloodied.

Still the Hunter did not grow overconfident, instead slowly driving the Thing to exhaustion. They hoped to, at least, but it was a poor choice.

As the days passed, rather than grow tired, the Thing seemed to regain energy, their skin mending wounds that had been inflicted the day before, while the Hunter became worn down instead. Long had their traps been left behind, and when they had gotten too greedy, the Thing had attacked back, breaking some of their ribs. Truly, that hunt was one of their most glorious ones, a prey so adaptable that killing it would be all the sweeter.

Well, that is what the Hunter would have said, had the Thing not escaped. After almost two weeks, the Hunter had gotten greedy once again, aiming at what they thought was a moment of weakness, when an eye opened on the Thing's back to face them. They had paid dearly, receiving a blow heavy enough to throw them through multiple trees, before they were forced into hiding. And when the Hunter had healed, the Thing was already gone, their compass pointing elsewhere.

That day, the Hunter had a taste of failure./

(Legends: The Hunter - 5; Failure)

- - - - - -

Opening his eyes in the middle of the foggy swamp was not exactly great for Mercury's motivation. Just when breathing had become a bit easier, he suddenly felt pressure on his chest again, the fog dragging him down. It was more intense than the first time he came here, perhaps because he was deeper in.

Shaking his head, Mercury decided to focus on his current surroundings. Even as he withdrew his attention, his stamina still seemed to follow the more beaten path, largely. Almost like a group of hikers, who'd usually follow some kind of rocky path, but occasionally, some of them would take breaks or explore a bit. Maybe it was also a little like trying to go on a walk with a group of kids.

Whatever the case, he felt somewhat lighter, as his body slowly began adjusting to the pressure again. Looking at the sky, Mercury could still see the scarlet diamond he had been following the last few times he'd been in the swamp. Every time he fell asleep, he'd continue from where he ended the dream last time, whether that was a good sign or not.

Very quickly, Mercury began to walk again, not exactly keen on meeting any more of whatever that thing that hunted him on his first journey. The fog was too thick to tell whether one was close, but with nowhere to hide, being on the move would probably be more beneficial. At least with him not leaving very many traces in the mud.

Thus, he began making his way towards the diamond once more. It seemed closer this time, larger at the very least. Perhaps both, it was hard to compare. The changes were very slight with every night, same with the pressure. But compared to his first dream, it certainly seemed closer.

As usual, the journey was mostly very boring. Since the mana in the air was so thin, he couldn't even absorb it properly, and he also couldn't exactly try to bring up more stamina while walking. In fact, the only thing he really found himself able to do, was think. Like, as an example, where was he?

Why was he unable to go where his dreams usually took him. It still felt like that every time he went to sleep, that his mind was approaching that place, and then was dragged away from it by some force. There was no choice there, and he didn't exactly feel like he could stop it, either, so he was kind of just stuck getting dragged back to the marsh.

Which was frustrating, since the place was incredibly demoralizing. Between being creepy, boring, hard to traverse, and constantly having a threat against this version of himself, being here was an absolute drain on his nerves. Even the need to always be aware of his surroundings was wearing on him, given how they didn't change at all.

Once again shaking his head, Mercury avoided another crack in the marsh beneath his feet as the ground opened up. Its pull had grown stronger, too, and Mercury almost felt like he had to stop to avoid having himself drained. Almost. He sighed. This really couldn't get much worse.

Except, as it turned out, it very much so could.

Only an hour or so later, when the exhaustion from the march was beginning to set in, Mercury heard another sound, different from just his footsteps. That by itself was already rare, so he paused for a moment and listened. It wasn't as silent as the things with the floodlight for a face, so perhaps he was lucky this time?

The thought lasted for just a second, until he understood that the noise was panting, and the fog around him seemed to grow a little more... yellow.

'Shit.' Immediately, Mercury began to burst into a sprint, hoping to avoid whatever poor creature was already being chased, but his reaction was too late. When he just had the thought, he could already feel his stomach sink, as the fog discoloured further, and seemed to grow cold. Behind him, a circle appeared far above, barely visible to the eye, hovering above four streaks of darkness which seemed to root it into the ground.

This time, it was ever so slightly closer than during his first encounter, and Mercury was sure he could see a maw of fang spread into a wide grin below the light that shone down on him. In the fraction of a second his legs took to begin moving, he could also see something else, a ripple in the air around it.

Where just a split second ago had been nothing, darkness spread from the creature, then disconnected, solidified, and turned into a long, lusterless stake of black.

Moments later, Mercury darted away, and felt the ground behind him shudder. The projectile seemed quite a bit faster than when he ran the last time, and he felt slightly slower, too. Even the fog seemed to cling to him more.

Gritting his teeth, Mercury began to rouse his stamina, guiding it towards his legs, while his mana flowed to them. His lungs soon began to hurt, the cold air stinging against them as he continued running.

Whatever the creature was he had heard, it seemed like it also hadn't gotten away, since he heard a strange wail a minute or so into his chase. The noise distracted him for just a moment, but immediately, he could hear one of the stakes whistle closer to him, and scrape by his flesh.

The attack grazed him, leaving a long, thin gash on his left side as he continued running. The feeling from the wound was strange, a kind of cold, burning pain, mixed with something else. He could feel from it, not just the warmth of his blood dripping down his side, but also some sort of malic and glee.

Somehow, he could almost hear the thoughts of the thing behind him. It wanted to see him run.

Another attack whistled by, barely missing, and by now it seemed less like he was good at dodging, and more as though the creature simply wanted to tire him out.

Gritting his teeth, Mercury tried to push the pain from his mind, instead focusing on his legs and lungs. One foot in front of the other, accompanied by deep, big breaths. He could feel the blood pulsing through him, even more so close to his wound.

When his <Intuition> hummed again, Mercury quickly darted to the left, avoiding a stake that would have speared him clean through the chest. Perhaps the creature was growing tired of chasing him and wanted to end it now.

Mercury panted heavily, putting his all into the running. A few seconds passed, then a dozen, and then a few dozen, as Mercury ran for his life, trying to figure out what he could do. Throwing back a stone was out of the question, and he couldn't exactly weave a full net while running like this. But there had to be something he could do, right?

As two minutes ticked by, Mercury could feel himself closing in on the edge of his endurance, yet the damn thing chasing him showed no sign of slowing down. This time, he didn't even manage to throw a stake back and escape, with each shot being faster than it used to. If only he could just hit it!

Wait, if he couldn't hit it with anything physical, maybe he could with his mind?

Quickly, he split his mind, dedicating one zeyjn to continue running, as the more advanced one began to compress. Only a little at first, then tighter and tighter as quickly as he could, until it felt like half his mind was squeezed by a vice.

After a few seconds, he swung his rijn at the creature as hard as he could, slamming it into its face. Some of the force was lost from the distance, and he was sure it wouldn't die, but he also wouldn't be around to check.

With a bang, Mercury's mind fused back together, his skull ringing as he continued running. His rijn had dissolved, all its energy channeled into a single hit, which made the creature screech in pain and fury. Yet, when it turned to continue following him, the mopaaw was already gone.

Only when he had more distance between that thing and himself did Mercury slow down a little. Even then, he still changed directions a few times and activated <Sneak> with as much stamina as he still had remaining to try and hide his tracks.

He stopped the blood from the wound with <Telekinesis>, too, trying to make sure none of it dripped onto the ground

Finally, once he felt sufficiently safe and <Intuition> was perfectly silent, Mercury's jog slowed down to a walk. His lungs burnt, and his feet hurt like hell, but if he stopped now, he didn't think he'd be able to continue. So, he kept walking, focusing on his side.

The gash was long and hurt like hell, but at the very least it wasn't very deep. Why was he even able to bleed here in the first place? It hadn't ever happened back when he was still in his own dreamscape, on the plains. 'Damn it all,' he cursed, trying to bear with the pain.

Keeping the blood afloat turned out to be a bigger mana drain than he'd wished, so he instead began to put it into his fur, where he didn't have to lift it with a Skill. It felt uncomfortable and strange, but it was still much better than revealing his position to those damn things again. If he was going to encounter them, perhaps he needed a name. <Appraisal>?

[Gloom Stalker]

Sounded about right.

With a frown, Mercury continued on his journey, trying to regain as much stamina as possible. He hoped he wouldn't have to run again, but you never know. Well, he probably would receive a small warning from <Intuition>, but by then he'd probably just have to start running.

Looking at the sky, he could at least tell that the diamond had grown slightly closer again. He'd tried to keep his direction somewhat constant as he fled. Seeing there was some form of progress at the very least, Mercury decided to simply journey on until he woke up again. Not like there was anything else he could do.

- - -

When his sleep finally ended, Mercury opened his eyes wearily. His head hurt, and he felt more drowsy than ever. Apparently, almost dying in his sleep wasn't gonna feel great the next day.

Taking a quick look around, Mercury could see his watery friend slowly rousing. Its eyes weren't exactly closed when it slept, he noted, instead, an opaque sheet of ice covered its entire body like a somewhat form-fitting cocoon.

As it began waking, Mercury could see cracks form, and then watch as the ice began disappearing into thin air. He suspected that the creature was absorbing the water again, instead of letting it evaporate. Did that mean it was limited to how much water it had? Maybe he could ask once he actually understood it.

For now, as the creature roused from its sleep, it first stretched, then quickly created a small bowl of water for Mercury to drink out of, which made his head feel a little better at least. A nod of thanks seemed to please the water, as its tail swung side to side, then Mercury stepped back out of their little cave.

He'd solved his main issue of surviving, for now. He could get food by hunting, and had his current ally for water. Now, there wasn't much else to do but look for a way out. Except, where would he even start to look?

All around him was just ash and rocks, though some of them went a bit higher than the hills back down where he came from. Well, if anything, he might as well try and take a look around from up high, see if he can't notice anything peculiar.

With that, his journey resumed. It took him quite a bit to get to the nearest mountain and all the way up, but honestly, the view from there was... almost serene.

Sure, in a weird, fucked up way, but still. There was no warm, orange sunset, the sky was all red and black, and the clouds seemed perpetually dark with thunder, yet from up there, most of the creatures down on the ash seemed so small. He felt a bit further away from the carnage, and for the first time since he came to this place it was really quiet, without making the hair on his neck stand up at least.

Taking a few deep breaths, Mercury looked at the horizon. Not just on in the direction he'd been going for the last few days, but also back the way he came from, trying to make out any landmarks. Funnily enough, his <Night Vision> even seemed to help a little, given how dim this place seemed from so high up.

And then, he actually found something. Further forward and to the left, there was something on the horizon. He couldn't make out what it was, not from here, but he saw that it was tall. Perhaps even a little higher than the mountain he had climbed. Maybe, with a little luck, it would help him escape this place, or at least figure out more about it?

Well, for now it was his only hope, so Mercury simply decided to check it out. Taking a few more deep breaths and enjoying the quiet, he simply gazed at the structure, soaking in the scenery. He felt calmer now, more at ease with a goal.

[<Steady Heart> has levelled up! <Steady Heart lv. 8 -> 9>]

It seemed even the system agreed. With that, Mercury turned to his newly found ally, and announced their new goal.

"You see that tower over there?" he asked. "Seems like the two of us are going on a bit of a journey."