Chapter 39: Hunt
Her smile froze as disbelief slowly replaced the excitement in her eyes.
The sword slipped from her fingers. A second later, her body toppled sideways into the snow.
Damien stood up and quietly let out the breath he’d been holding
"I gave you too much credit,Yuri’s ability is much stronger".
The battle ended quicker than even Damien expected, if only Leslie stuck to what she was good at, defensively attacking her opponent, then perhaps she would have worn him out, and perhaps even succeeded in forcing him to retreat, but instead she allowed him to sweep her into his rhythm as he turned the battle into a chaotic dance.
She was skilled, yes. But her ability was more of a cage she barely understood, than an extension of her own body.
The last two undead dissolved and fused back into Damien’s body.
"Now then, Leslie. I hope you haven’t gotten far enough".
Damien broke into a sprint through the frozen forest as he chased after the direction Priesty and Leslie had disappeared. The trees blurred past one after another while his eyes remained fixed on the trail ahead.
But after only a few minutes, the tracks began growing fainter.
A cold wind swept through the forest, carrying loose snow across the ground. gradually filling the footprints until only vague outlines remained.
Damien frowned.
He instinctively looked back.
Far in the distance, a wall of swirling white slowly swallowed the horizon. The wind was picking up and another snowstorm was coming.
"Looks like even the Storm Gods are on your side Leslie, but even they can’t stop me from killing you today".
Damien slowly came to a stop, and focused his mind, attempting something he had never tried before.
Priesty had already travelled far beyond his line of sight, yet it was still following his command to pursue and kill Leslie.
Which could only mean one thing. His undead didn’t need to remain within his vision to obey him.
If that was the case. Perhaps he could sense where they were as well.
Damien closed his eyes, and allowed the sound of the cold wind to drown out his thoughts. Then, something tugged at the edge of his consciousness.
It was faint. Almost impossible to notice if he wasn’t actively searching for it, but it was there.
Damien slowly turned his head and the feeling felt slightly stronger.
A smile slowly appeared on his face.
"Found you Leslie, I hope you’re enjoying our little game".
The connection was nowhere near precise. He couldn’t tell how far Priesty was or what it was doing, only the general direction it had travelled.
It was enough.
Damien immediately took off through the forest, following the faint pull buried deep within his soul while the approaching blizzard continued swallowing every footprint left behind.
...
Leslie wasn’t by any means enjoying herself, she tripped at the edge of a frozen slope and toppled downwards, her massive cloak stuck itself to a tree but failed to support her weight.
she collided with the ground, her hair falling down like a tidal wave, the cloak she used to cover her body tore nearly in half, she gritted her teeth in frustration before ripping the rest of it off her body.
"Damn it, I should have listened to Naomi and one shot you when you least expected".
Leslie didn’t dare look back.
She immediately picked herself up, and kept running desperately trying to widen the distance between herself and Priesty.
Leslie didn’t want to risk her life fighting Priesty, especially when there was a high chance Damien wasn’t that far behind, and more than anything. She needed to return to camp and expose Damien to her sister Naomi, then the star of misfortune could be her problem.
Whoosh.
A black arrow suddenly buried itself into the ground right beside her.
The white feathers at the end of the shaft were unmistakable.
Damien had already entered shooting range.
Leslie cried out in alarm and immediately pushed her body to its absolute limit, desperately trying her hardest not to run in a straight line while constantly changing directions.
Meanwhile, Damien cursed loudly. If it wasn’t for the powerful wind sweeping through the forest, that first arrow would’ve struck true and ended everything before the situation spiraled completely out of control.
Maintaining his pursuit, Damien drew another two arrows and released them in quick succession, this time accounting for both the fierce crosswind and Leslie’s erratic movements.
Even so, both arrows still missed their mark.
Leslie was simply too far away. Between the growing blizzard and the distance separating them, all Damien could make out was her faint silhouette, along with Priesty relentlessly chasing after her.
Leslie, on the other hand, was rapidly losing whatever sliver of composure she had been desperately trying to maintain.
Constantly changing directions was helping her avoid Damien’s arrows, but every sharp turn robbed her of precious speed.
She didn’t need to look back to know what would happen.
Sooner or later, Priesty would catch her.
As though the situation wasn’t already bad enough, black mist suddenly erupted from Damien’s body.
His last two undead materialized one after the other before immediately breaking into a sprint. Unlike Priesty, they were smaller, faster and far more suited to running across the uneven snowy terrain.
The moment the three undead let out a deafening roar in unison, Leslie finally realized just how utterly fucked she truly was.
"Damien, you and I ain’t enemies, we can talk through our differences... Even if you kill me, my true body will still live, then I will make sure my sister Naomi kills you". She bellowed.
She wasn’t even sure if Damien could hear her, she was just grasping at throws.
Damien cursed inwardly, he heard every word and it infuriated him.
"Are you begging me for mercy or threatening me?".
Damien released another arrow, it rode the powerful wind, curving unexpectedly and grazed Leslie’s cheek, leaving behind a thin trail of blood before embedding itself into the frozen ground.