A Jaded Life Chapter 785

Many a curse was whispered in the depth of my mind when I realised that stealth wasn’t going to cut it. Not solely, at least. The Withered Hunter had managed to get a whiff of , scent, sound, magic or sothing else entirely, I wasn’t sure and I didn’t care, at least not in the mont. They were after and I had to escape as quickly as possible.

Ceasing to channel magic into the runes that had kept concealed all night, the cloak started to dissipate. Before it could fully vanish, I activated Overflow and drew a simple runic formation of Mist, Concealnt and Confusion into the air, channelling a vast amount of power into it. The formation held, just barely, and a huge cloud of fog erupted from it, rapidly spreading out. I had no idea how big the thing would be but I had high hopes it would confuse my hunters. The mont the cloud started to form, I gave up any attempt at stealth and started to run, pushing my body to its physical limit. Using Blood Magic, I could break that limit but doing so had its own disadvantages, especially in the long run. In addition, stepping through the shadows twice and conjuring the massive cloud of mist had depleted my Astral Power reserves further than I would have liked, so keeping the concealnt active would only hinder . It almost nullified my Astral Power regeneration, needing almost as much power as I would normally gain. If I wanted to regain my reserves, it had to go.

Behind , the psychic chittering grew even further, the Hunter doubtlessly after with a vengeance. I could easily hear them, not just in the psychic spectrum but also with my ears, and I could plan my flight to avoid their presence.

Now that I was no longer trying to be stealthy, I could move a lot quicker and thankfully, the Withered had yet to realise that I could detect their chittering, which allowed to avoid the positions I could hear them from.

Running through the night, I realised that, once again, they were trying to form a net before . My mind went back to the desperate flight in the jungles of Arbortoma, the last ti I had fought by Sigmir’s side. Back then, just like now, our enemies had been far more nurous than us, and then, just like now, our only hope had been superior speed.

I was tempted to kill the Undead and Withered I could see and feel all around , just like we had slaughtered the elves back then, killing dozens, maybe hundreds, of them as we tried to make our escape but I quickly realised that doing so would bring about the sa result. Just like Sigmir and I had been surrounded at the end, I’d be surrounded and I knew I didn’t have the power, or Lenore by my side, to cause the sa devastation I had back then.

As I jumped across a fallen bin, I realised just how much I missed my bonded partner, just how important to my ntal equilibrium her presence had been. Sigmir had been my heart and soul, but Lenore, she had been a constant presence in my mind.

Unbidden, images from my dreams sprang to my mind, the formation I had seen, the runes and glyphs. As I kept running, I noticed a pattern in my mories, a series of images that seed to build up to sothing, almost like a set of instructions. A plan, of sorts, to perform so sort of ritual, though I wasn’t quite sure what it would do. But in my frantic state, I realised that one of the symbols wasn’t a rune like the others, it was the sa glyph I had used on Mundus, to anchor myself and my body when delving into the Astral River. It was the closest thing I had to a personal mark, sothing I doubted many people or beings knew. Just those who I had travelled with. It was sothing I had never shown in my videos, I was nearly certain of it.

As the realisation that this had to be either a fignt of my subconsciousness trying to tell sothing or a ssage from one of my companions on Mundus sank into my mind, I also realised that it wasn’t sothing I should think about in the middle of a frantic run.

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Instead, I focused back into the present and realised, sowhat amused, that my brief flight of intellectual fancy had been enough to activate Titanic Ambition, pushing my attributes far beyond what they normally were. It had been only a short boost, but that brief ti had been enough to almost push out of the area of encirclent.

Realising that I could completely leave the area the Withered were currently threatening if I managed to step through the shadows twice more, I decided to risk it. I had the Astral Power and I knew how it worked, I had done so countless tis on Mundus. Sure, I lacked both the attributes and the skill-level I had back then, but I was confident I could do it.

As I continued running, I searched for distinct shadows in the moonlight, the clear demarcation making the distinction between a shadow and the night around it easier. Noticing one, I stepped into the darkness, this ti not trying to step through it imdiately, but staying within the Shadows. It was incredibly cold and I could barely breathe, as if there was no air around at all, but I could keep running. The experience was incredibly weird, as it always was, with distances stretching almost randomly, and objects turning translucent and faint, though luckily the ground below remained mostly solid. I could see so gaps below , likely the sewer pipes and similar buried necessities of civilisation, but nothing that I wanted to interact with. Curiously, I couldn’t see any creatures, even as I moved past an area where one had to be.

I stayed less than thirty seconds in the shadows, my Astral Power draining rapidly as I moved far further than I could outside the shadows. Twisting reality once more, I stepped back out of the cold void I had travelled through, taking a deep, shuddering breath. It was an incredible sensation to travel through the shadows but not one I wanted to experience often. Maybe the best comparison would be a roller coaster, a great trip but also a huge strain on body and mind. In this case, however, it had been well worth it, earning yet another point in Darkness Magic, bringing it to thirty. The entire night of sneaking and testing had been incredibly beneficial for my magic, showing that danger was the best inspiration.

Raising my hand, I quickly drew the runes I had used earlier again, concealing myself back into the cloak of shadows. I could still hear the chittering of the Withered but it was further away than it had been since I killed that Skulker, making think that I had managed to slip the net. Now, I just needed to make sure they didn’t get back onto their radar.

To make sure I stayed out of their sight, I kept moving, once more trying to be as fast as possible while maintaining my stealth. With my Astral Power as drained as it was, I wouldn’t be able to repeat the feats of magical travel I had perford just now, so I had to rely on more mundane ans of escape.

Trying to banish and fear, all worries that might make too nervous and cause a slip-up, I continued forward. Amusingly, it felt as if my path was almost entirely cleared out, with only a few Undead along their green-eyed minders in the way. I decided to Observe one of those, learning that the green-eyed Undead were actually called Withered Husks, a sowhat disturbing na, though a fitting one. Husks, nothing but a withered shell that had been stripped of everything that used to make it human. It was a sobering thought, but also a comforting one, that the people that these bodies used to be were gone.

Soon, I made it back to the no-mans land between racoon city and the area filled and controlled by the Shattered. Here, there were only a few of the basic Undead wandering around, nothing even remotely threatening and finally, I could let out a sigh of relief.

Keeping my concealnt active, I soon reached my companions, noticing a well-prepared trap for any Undead that might want to follow , anything stepping into the area would get attacked from multiple angles and would die, and die fast.

“I’m back,” I told them, letting my concealnt finally drop. My bones were aching with exhaustion and I could already feel a headache starting to form, thanks to the vigorous spellcasting and the constant danger.

“Welco back, Mother,” Lia greeted , her voice filled with relief. For once, I didn’t bother correcting her on my title, I simply gave my daughter an embrace, letting the tension flow out of .

“Good to be back,” I replied, “There’s a lot we need to cover, I saw quite a few interesting things.”