Morning light filtered weakly through the high canopy, turning the forest floor into a patchwork of dull gold and shadow. Moisture clung to bark and leaves. The ground slled of wet soil and crushed greenery. Nothing moved loudly. Even the insects seed to choose their monts carefully.
Robert finished checking the edge of their temporary hiding spot and returned to the group. No one spoke. They had already said what mattered the night before. Plans sounded simple in whispers. Reality inside the forest was rare.
He looked at Sai once. That was enough. Sai rose without a word and adjusted the strap on his sword. His expression held calm focus, the kind built from observation rather than confidence. Eissa noticed the exchange and gave the smallest nod. Ronan tightened his grip on his spear. Sarah and Taylen lowered themselves deeper into the brush, where their presence blended with the shadows.
The split began. Robert and Sai moved first, slipping between trees with asured steps. They did not rush. Speed created noise. Noise created patterns. Patterns were what hunters followed.
Robert did not turn. He shifted direction just enough to lead their unseen followers toward a shallow dip in the land where the ground softened with old leaf rot. Footprints would blur there. Balance would falter for anyone moving quickly.
A twig snapped behind them. Faint. Controlled. But real. They were close now. Robert moved across the dip and intentionally brushed a low branch, releasing a tiny pulse of qi as if by accident. Then he suppressed himself completely and turned right.
Robert allowed his qi to leak just a thread at a ti. Not a flare. Not enough to alarm. Just a faint trail that a careful tracker could notice. Then he sealed it again. Then another, slightly to the left. Then nothing.
Sai caught on quickly and mirrored the behaviour, sotis stepping on dry leaves on purpose, sotis avoiding entire patches of ground that would normally crunch. To a watcher, their trail looked inconsistent, almost careless. To a professional, it looked like prey trying to hide fatigue.
Behind them, deeper in the forest, eight figures advanced like a shadow with many limbs. The Walker assassins had tightened their formation since losing two mbers. The mory of the beast attack still lingered in their movents. No one stepped where they could not see. No one brushed branches without reason. Their qi remained compressed close to their bodies.
The leader paused near a scuffed patch of ground. He crouched, fingers hovering above disturbed leaves. Not touching. Feeling. A faint trace of qi. Recently passed. He gestured forward.
One of the Level 5 cultivators leaned close and nodded. The prey was moving but hiding poorly. Either injured or tired. Both are acceptable outcos. They followed.
Robert angled his path toward uneven terrain where tree roots twisted above ground like coiled snakes. Visibility dropped there. Movent naturally slowed. Perfect.
Sai noticed the shift and adjusted their spacing so they were never in a straight line. Anyone watching would struggle to predict their next step.
Minutes passed. Then more. The forest thickened.
Back at the ambush point, Eissa guided the others in silence. She chose locations where branches hung low, and vision broke into layers. Ronan positioned himself where a straight charge would tangle in roots. Taylen set a simple noise snare using a bent branch and loose bark. Sarah scattered small stones near one narrow pass where footing already looked unstable.
Nothing lethal. Only disruption. They settled into stillness. Ti stretched. A bird called once, then stopped halfway through its second note. Sai slowed slightly. Soone is closer.
Robert did not turn. He shifted direction just enough to lead their unseen followers toward a shallow dip in the ground where the ground softened with old leaf rot. Footprints would blur there. Balance would falter for anyone moving quickly.
A twig snapped behind them. Faint. Controlled. But real. They were close now. Robert moved across the dip and intentionally brushed a low branch, releasing a tiny pulse of qi as if by accident. Then he suppressed himself completely and turned right.
Sai continued straight for five more steps before slipping left and masking his presence. To trackers, it looked like hesitation. To the assassins, it looked like separation. The Walker leader frowned. Two trails.
He weighed risk. Staying together ant losing both. Splitting ans dividing power in the group. He signaled. The group is divided. Four shifted after Robert's path. Four followed Sai's lingering trace.
Each new group carried one Level 7 cultivator. The forest accepted the division quietly. Robert counted heartbeats before sensing the difference. The pressure behind him thinned. Fewer signatures. The split worked. He circled back slightly, moving parallel instead of forward, guiding his pursuers sideways rather than deeper. He wanted distance from Sai's side now. Two smaller hunts were easier to shape.
On Sai's end, he led his four through a tighter corridor between dense brush where visibility dropped to only a few steps ahead. He moved like soone trying to stay hidden, but not like soone trained for it. Just enough imperfection to keep them committed.
Then the first trap triggered. A branch snapped upward, scattering bark and leaves. Not dangerous, but loud in the quiet forest. One assassin fled. Another stepped wrong and slid half a pace on loose soil. Formation loosened for a breath.
Sai used that breath to vanish behind a thick trunk and redirect again.
Back near the ambush point, Eissa heard the noise. Her fingers tightened slightly against the soil. They were coming into range. Not all. But so. Ronan steadied his breathing. Taylen resisted the urge to peek. Sarah focused on the space between sounds rather than the sounds themselves.
Elsewhere, Robert led his four into a stretch where tall bushes forced single-file movent. He crossed lightly, then used Shadow Step to reposition two trees over, leaving a fading afterimage of qi where he had been.
One assassin followed the false trace for three steps before realising the shift. That mont of confusion confird what the leader already suspected.
They were being guided. But by then, the groups were already separated by distance and terrain. The Walker leader exhaled slowly, irritation building beneath discipline. The Osborn heir did not flee. He was arranging.
Still, numbers favoured them. Even though they split, they held strength. He pressed forward. Robert felt their persistence and allowed himself a small internal note of approval. Predictable aggression was easier to manage than cautious retreat.
He angled his route toward where he knew Eissa's group waited, but not directly. The assassins must arrive naturally, not be led to suspicion. The forest dimd slightly as clouds moved overhead. Light shifted. Shadows lengthened. Direction beca harder to judge.
Perfect. Sai, on the other side, finally slowed completely and masked himself. His four pursuers spread slightly, searching. Already less cohesive. Already more alert to the environnt than the hunt. Two balanced forces now moved in separate parts of the sa forest, each believing they were closing in.
Robert paused behind a broad tree and finally looked back. Four. One Level 7. Three Level 5. Manageable. Sowhere beyond the trees, he felt Sai still alive, still moving. The split was real. The board was reset.
The wind brushed through the canopy, carrying the scent of damp bark and distant water. The forest no longer felt like a battlefield. It felt like a place watching two hunts unfold at once.
Robert lowered his presence and prepared to guide the next movent. Not to run. To shape what ca next. Far behind him, the assassins advanced with equal caution, aware now that prey could also think. No blades crossed yet. No blood fell.
But the balance had changed. Eight hunters had beco two smaller packs. And in the quiet spaces between trees, both sides understood that the next mistake would cost lives.
The forest held its breath again as the distance between them slowly shrank. Then the light dimd further, and movent resud from both sides, silent and deliberate.
The hunt had split. The killing had not yet begun.
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