Drip-Fed The Hunt Ends

Everything beca much more imminent. It flashed through Apexus’ mind that they had already lost just by the over-levelled sniper’s appearance. Even if they got off the leaf, wouldn’t he just chase them that little bit onto wherever the Stem led them?

“Keep on going!” Aclysia nevertheless shouted out. She knew things that Apexus didn’t about the space they needed to reach and thusly her voice was hopeful. That tone was enough for the sli to continue its effort to crawl as quickly as he could. Ignoring the hunger, he continued to grow out his wings, flapping them desperately.

They were still too small to lift him off the ground, but at least they provided a bit of a boost.

Near to the gate, a dic of the city guard was helping hily and Berholdt recover. They extended their offer to help to Evria, but the Inquisitor was ignoring all of them, already back on her feet, if swaying, and stumbling after the trio.

Reysha grabbed her last throwing knife and just blindly tossed it in the direction of the approaching guard. It bounced off a raised shield without any aningful result. Desperate, the tiger girl threw any and all remaining weaponry she had at their pursuers, just to give Apexus more ti.

The sky had turned into a dark blue at this point. The world behind the trio seed less and less like a place they were at and more like at a cut-out of a landscape viewed through a looking glass. Indeed, it slowly seed to shatter, individual fragnts showing different parts of the world, all separated by silver veins. The na leaf hadn’t just been chosen because of the branching nature of the Omniverse, it seed.

Apexus had no ti to marvel at any of this as the Hunter broke the border fortress’ arching gateway. The speed at which he moved caused nearby guards to almost fall when he cut closely by them. In one fluid motion, the Sharpshooter stopped his run, readied his bow and pulled an arrow from his quiver.

From previous encounters, Apexus knew very well that he was in the range of the Hunter’s strikes. He was also a much slower and less defended target than ever before. This constant checking of what was behind him caused the sli to get slightly off course. A shocking revelation hit him in ti: there was no border barrier to this narrowing path. He was hanging a slight bit above the nothing and retracted in ti.

Under other circumstances, a tactical fall may have been possible, but Apexus would need at least another minute before his wings reached flying size. There was no telling where he could fall in that ti.

While he recovered from that shock, he realized that not a single arrow had flown his direction yet. Instead, the Hunter had gotten to running, with the arrow ready and the bow lowered. While this bought them more ti, it wasn’t exactly a reason to relax.

The guards ford a corridor and just let the Hunter pass. Even if it was their official duty to act here, none of them was foolish enough to make a stand where they could be catapulted into the Abyss. Sa could not be said for Evria, who shouted sothing unintelligible when the Hunter passed her.

Gabra, just slowed down for a mont to give her a toothy grin. “This is my prize, Inquisitor,” he mocked, then eyed the sli in the distance again. Sure, it was ever shrinking, but he really shouldn’t stop to boast like this. Once they were off the leaf, he would have to try to drag that thing back by purely physical ans or risk sothing else showing up and complicating the entire ordeal. Possible, but unneeded and difficult.

The sli occasionally leapt with his wings beating at this point, so Gabra knew he had to hurry. “…Fine!” there was a sudden outcry from behind him. “Better your prize than escaped!” An ice blue energy bolt suddenly flew by Gabra, quicker even than he could run.

Apexus saw it coming as well, its straight trajectory was bound to hit him. The sky was basically black at this point, the world behind him nothing more than a leaf-shaped assortnt of landscape images. The path was at its narrowest point now, broadening in front of him again. Connected to sothing massive, silver like the veins and the Stem, but with many shades to it. It’s fissured appearance seed to be massive bark and powers of all colours pulsated under the semi-translucent surface.

A branch of the Omniverse, it was right in front of Apexus and his allies.

“We are upon freedom, my darling!” Aclysia exclaid with a huge smile on her face, spending as much of her magic as she could dare without falling into a passive state in order to obstruct the Hunter’s path.

“Finally, off this awful fucking place!” Reysha exclaid with insane enthusiasm.

Indeed, all Apexus had to do was leap one more ti. Dodge that spell and jump into freedom at the sa ti. The three of them would escape, side by side. His wings raised, then moved down with imnse force. It propelled him up and forwards. The spell would sail right under him.

It would have. Were he not the target of the Inquisition.

As it was, the mass of pale energy adjusted its course ever so slightly. Before either Reysha or Aclysia could react, it struck Apexus in the back. Just like the last spell of Evria, it dealt no damage but the terrorizing amount of pain caused Apexus wings to tense at the wrong ti, ending even this little flight.

It was just a few seconds. However, the scope of the current happenings, it might as well have been several minutes. By the ti Apexus ca back to control over his senses. The Hunter was jumping over the trio and landing in front of them.

Against their better judgent, so close to the goal, the Reysha and Apexus prepared to attack the much higher levelled adventurer. Gabra, with a self-assured smile, pulled on his bowstring.

Reysha was the quickest of them, but neutralized by the old Hunter without him even taking a hand off his bow. Two kicks, faster than Reysha could react to, sent the redhead flying back down the path they had co from.

While Aclysia was stunned, struck without magical power or a plan, she could only watch as Apexus rose into a wave of sli, about to crash onto their assailant and devour him whole. For a mont, it looked like that could be a winning strategy. Then Gabra had pulled back the bow all the way and loosed the arrow in the sa mont.

The arrow with the forked tip ripped a fist sized hole into Apexus body, which ceased moving imdiately. Gabra took a quick step back while he nonchalantly lowered his bow, while Aclysia felt a cold hand grip her heart and guts.

The large mass of sli slumped down. Slowly at first, then very suddenly, as sli was converted into water. Disconnected body parts were washed down into the void to the satisfied stretching of a Hunter whose retirent money was saved. “Job’s done!” he exclaid and wandered off.

“Job’s…done?” Aclysia asked in a state of absolute disbelief. She landed in the puddle that had been her awakener monts ago and touched the quickly dispersing water. Grotesquely, a single wing laid on the floor, one of Apexus’ blue eyes rolling past it. It looked dull and lifeless, as if the sentience behind it had never existed. “Apexus… darling… awakener?” she asked while looking for any signs of life remaining.

“You got to be fucking kidding …” Reysha growled as she saw the scene from her position further down. “That’s where it ends?! YOU COCKSUCKING PIECE O-!” she jumped at Gabra but she was treated to the exact sa treatnt as last ti, a shin slamming into the pit of her stomach and catapulting her even further down, right into the arms of the ready standing guard. It took three people to keep the thrashing tiger girl fixed on the floor. “WHY?!”

“Money,” Gabra answered quite easily and strolled past her. Reysha had a much longer, extensive tirade of curses for the Hunter, but he didn’t listen. “It’s just a monster, calm down.”

“Monster…? Just A monster?” Reysha stated in a quiet tone, then began giggling. A giggle that quickly beca a shrill laughter that made every last guard around here wish she would just continue struggling instead. They could deal with physical threats, but this unnatural display of amusent disturbed them deeply. It was like the redhead was scratching on their soul with her words. “I see enough monsters still here.”

hily looked at her forr comrade from a distance, with more worry than she had ever felt. A feeling she couldn’t dwell on for too long, as Gabra passed all of them. “The angel is still around,” the Hunter pointed out, pointing up the stem where Aclysia was still searching for life in the escaping water. “I guess she’ll be able to tell you enough of what you want to know. We all win.

“So, it seems,” Evria agreed and walked towards the tal fairy to take her into custody. That she was still around despite her quest being fulfilled and her awakener now defeated was its own mystery they needed to crack.

hily wasn’t quite as sure if this was a victory and she stood still, occupying herself with checking on Berholdth’s healed face for the third ti. Just an excuse to look after Gabra, trying to figure out what he had even wanted out of all of this.

Stuck to the fortress wall, between stone and the three-parted tip of the arrow that had killed the sli, she found the answer. The fist sized nucleus of the unique beast, a pearl the colour of midnight and unique in all records of the Omniverse. A trophy worth a lot of money to the right person.

Gabra gave it a greedy smile as he held it up to inspect its status. Specialized arrows, only shooting at perfect angles, he had gone through a lot of pain to make sure he got this thing without a scratch. It was good to see it all paid off.

Without any further care, he threw it into his bag. It was ti to get his paynt and get drunk.