[Amusement]
As John swore under his breath, another wave of emotion reached him. Moments before, he had been hoping that it was just his imagination playing tricks on him. But now he knew there really was something out there.
The strange sensation, tinged with excitement and a small amount of malice, caused John to grimace as his gaze rose to the skyline. Yet, no matter how much he searched the tops of the ruined buildings, he couldn't find anything that appeared to be the source of his immense discomfort.
He instinctively knew that the emotion wasn't his, the alien sensation almost as strange as the murderous chill, yet John couldn't entirely disconnect it from his own feelings. The conflicting sentiments caused him to become somewhat disorientated as his expression became even uglier.
"Shit," John repeated the profanity as he took a tentative step backwards. While his brain was still racing for answers, every fibre of his being was screaming that he was in a perilous situation.
He had heard of and even met a few empaths, people that were more sensitive to soul fluctuations, but John had never encountered a situation like this.
As he took another step back, pausing when he felt the malicious intent grow as the amusement fell, John tried to remember all that he could about them.
Because of their increased senses, almost bordering on being able to read people like an open book, those with empathic abilities were considered highly desirable for roles like pathfinders, tamers, inquisitors and public investigators. Due to this, and the increased pay and prestige, everyone wanted to be one. Even John, when he first joined the Regent Corporation, had tried to enter their ranks. His results were spectacularly poor.
As such, even though he had a higher instinct IQ compared to most due to his experiences and strange bloodline, John knew that he shouldn't be able to feel emotions from another being. That was unless it's soul power was so dominant that it was impossible to ignore.
The chill wrapping around John seemed to grow colder as John tried to push away the thoughts of how powerful his opponent could be. Not even Eos had achieved that level, and she was a little over eight millennia-old and considered one of the multiverse's powerhouses.
A trickle of sweat flowed down John's forehead as there only seemed to be one explanation why he was feeling like this. "Have I been-"
As if trying to display his innocence to the half-thought question, a loud explosion followed by what sounded like gunfire and screams erupted from the direction John suspected Baros to be.
"Then..."
A screech-like roar erupted from his right, feeling as if it was telling Baros to keep his distance.
Strangely, unlike before, John didn't feel any adverse effects by the sounds. However, because of his current state, he didn't seem to recognise it.
Slowly, holding his breath, John backed away while keeping an eye out for any noticeable movement. The icy sensation was many times worse than what he has experienced earlier, but at the same time, it didn't feel as imminent. In fact, the alien emotions seemed to fade, only leaving the terrifying sense that he was being stared at by a monstrous entity. "Then... is it her? If it is, why isn't she attacking?"
For some strange reason, John didn't want to mention the Void Lord's name, feeling as if thinking it would somehow make it real.
As he continued to move backwards, John's heart thundered in his chest. "It's definitely locked onto me... yet... Nothing is happening."
Forcing himself to breath, sounding incredibly noisy to his heightened senses, John tried to calm himself. "Breath. I'm still alive. If it was one of the Void Lords, I'd be dead by now. It must just be a high-level voidling or beast."
"Maybe... it doesn't want to reveal itself because it fears the Lords will focus on it. If so, maybe I can get away." John felt a small amount of hope rise before it vanished again. "Crap. That means that even if I find a place to hunker down and wait out the Void Lords, whatever this thing is will know I am about and come looking. One misstep and I'm fucked."
Initially, John had thought to gain enough distance and go into hiding in one of the buildings at the edge of town. But the current situation had given him a fresh take on his plan. It suddenly seemed somewhat foolish to think that he would be able to hide from beings as powerful as the Void Lords.
Even if he did manage it, that was under the assumption they weren't really sure he was there or were hunting something else. It wasn't a huge town after all, and the barren desserts around him made it almost impossible to escape unnoticed.
After calming his senses and mind, John briefly glanced around him as he listened. Compared to before, the streets were much quieter.
A small amount of rubble fell from a nearby building, causing him to jump and take a defensive stance. John swallowed noisily, suddenly he felt incredibly exposed.
Still feeling the gaze, John hardened his resolve before turning started slowly jogging towards the edges of the town. While earlier it had been relatively noisy, it had almost returned to its desolate, abandoned feeling.
As he went, paying as much attention as he could to behind him, John scanned the sides of the streets. Every now and then, John noticed a few limp forms curled amongst the debris. "Are they..."
The image of the black goblin appeared in his mind's eye. "Did the last roar shatter their souls or knock them unconscious?"
As he continued on, he heard a few shuffling, banging noises from inside the occasional building. Yet he still hadn't spotted anyone moving on the street. "Not good. Everything has gone to ground. If I don't get a move on, I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb."
However, even as he tried to check his surroundings, John was mostly focused on trying to find whatever was spying on him. He had tried using the debris and fallen rubble to block him from sight in certain angles, only to feel the gaze flicker for a moment before returning.
The foreboding feeling, one he felt couldn't get worse, increased. This meant that not only could he not locate the direction, but whatever was watching him was mobile.
John's jog slowly increased, silently praying that he wasn't going to get immediately attacked. After he was close to sprinting, he felt a wave of relief. However, the small sounds and noises that he could have ignored before slowly increased as if whatever was following him as if it were being forced to rush.
As the number of strange sounds behind him built up, John grit his teeth and sped up. "This thing... isn't going to let me go, is it?"
At the same time, John started to believe he had grossly underestimated the voidlands. Initially, he had been falling back to his previous experience dealing with humans and human-like opponents. However, the more he thought about the creatures from the Void, their beast-like nature, infamous temperaments and intelligence, the more depressed John felt.
Just as he felt as if he was losing hope, John remembered the locket with the pictures of his children.
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"Man up. Think. If it was strong enough, why would I still be here? I've got nothing of value on me bar my flesh and bones. It's probably some hungry beast with a unique talent or skill. I just need to show it I am not an easy meal." Even though John barely believed his own thoughts, he managed to slightly reassure himself.
After shaking his head and trying to ignore the slight sound of rubble falling from a tall building just behind him and to his right, John split a small amount of essence from the stream nourishing his muscles and directed it towards his skin. "I need to be more careful. It might lower my senses and reaction times, but what is the point if I am basically ringing a dinner bell and screaming come and get it. I might even be able to lose this bastard."
After seeping through the pours, the golden energy, tinted in places with black and icy blue, formed a thin, semi-transparent layer over his skin trapping most of his scent. The thickest coating appeared across his mouth and nose. Each time he breathed out, tiny motes of black, blue and gold gathered around the water vapour and particles escaping before quickly dissolving them. At the same time, his silhouette seemed to blur and flicker in the bright light, making it harder to make out his features clearly. While he would have stood out in the shade, as he was running under the direct glare of the sun, he almost seemed to become part of the light.
John immediately felt the strain on the essence of his body as it started to dwindle while his speed drastically fell.
[Shock]
John's mouth twitched upwards as the chilling sensation, feeling as if he were walking on the edge of a blade, rapidly faded. Even the sense of dread which he had almost gotten used to significantly diminished.
While he still felt like he was being watched, John no longer felt the extreme sense of impending danger.
"Was that sense of dread from whatever's following me? But I've felt that since that roar... Could it be that really was Akarhia? That she caught up? Then... why does it feel like she's not a threat anymore?" John's face looked almost as confused as his thoughts, each question he asked himself more confusing than the last. However, no matter how hard he thought, he had no answers.
While he should have felt relieved, John's paranoid thoughts wouldn't leave him alone.
Spotting a smaller street leading to his right, John abruptly made the decision and turned and entered while using the rubble from a half-collapsed building to check if anything was following out of the corner of his eye. However, he wasn't surprised to find the street behind him completely empty.
John internally sighed, already wondering if he had made the right choice. Even though he really didn't want to get closer to Sillithias, at least she felt that she was further away than Baros. Faced with the possibility that Akarhia was directly behind him, even if her hostility had somehow vanished, John felt like he had little choice.
As he stepped into the street, the buildings on each side blocking out the light from the two suns, the essence barrier around John become extremely noticeable. Not only that, but the sudden change caused him to blink rapidly as he adjusted his energy.
Within two steps, the glow around him had significantly dimmed, and he could clearly see the debris of the shady street. Compared to the one he had been running on before, even if he felt a little safer, this one felt much more ominous.
Sensing the gaze gone, John burst into a full-blown sprint. He felt that if he could get to the other end and turn back in the direction the crystal was tugging, he would lose his pursuer.
Yet, when he was no more than one-fourth of the way through the street, the sensation of danger slowly started to rise again. Moments later, the feeling of being watched also reappeared.
However, the foreboding sensation didn't feel the same as earlier. In comparison, the danger felt more tepid. As if it wasn't anywhere near as threatening.
"Strange, while I've always had something of a sixth sense, I've never been this sensitive." John frowned, noticing that the dark and ice essence in his body seemed to be in a highly agitated state. At the same time, the light essence in his body retracted towards his organs and core as if preparing to defend them. A subconscious action that every practitioner and warrior hoped to gain.
While the ominous feeling was nothing compared to before, it kept growing stronger yet remained elusive. To John, it almost felt like when he forgot something and the answer was on the tip of his tongue. At the same time, the more intense, unsettling feeling of being watched caused John's head to hurt. "What's going on... it's almost like there are two-"
[Curiosity]
Just as John passed a dark doorway that seemed to lead underground, a sense of curiosity washed over him. At the same time, a bizarre image, as if he were looking at himself running away from a high place, appeared in his mind's eye.
"Behind!"
Just as John was about to turn around, he felt another emotion.
[Anticipation]
Without warning, the arms of a shadowy figure exploded out from the doorway to his right and attempted to grab him. John's mind blanked. He had been so focused on turning around and the distraction the feeling and image had caused that he had been caught completely unaware.
Before he could make sense of what was happening, a gnarled, seemingly rotting hand had slammed into John's palm and sent the hilt of the essence sword scuttling across the ground. At the same time, the being's other hand, missing the little finger, flew towards John's throat as its digits curled into a claw.
However, before the decaying fingers could latch onto him, John instincts finally kicked in. Without a moment to spare, he slammed his right foot onto the ground and abruptly shifted his momentum, avoiding the lunge by a hairsbreadth.
As he span, John lifted his arm and positioned his elbow outwards while using the sudden shift to increase his momentum while releasing a grunt-like shout.
Without having even getting a good look at his opponent's face, John completed his rotation as his elbow slammed into the temple of the decaying, almost zombie-looking figure's head.
The result was similar to what could be expected from a small explosion that had gone off inside a rotten pumpkin. Black blood, fragments of skull, and inky, semi-translucent brain matter sprayed everywhere coating John, the surroundings and the figure emerging from his opponent's shadow.
Without a moment's hesitation, the second figure mercilessly pushed the body of its counterpart out the way as it lunged towards him. This time, the creature didn't attack John's vitals but moved in a way that made it seem as if it wanted to tackle him to the floor.
As John was already off-balance from his strike, he was unable to withstand the impact and fell backwards. However, he barely managed to maintain his footing.
As John retreated, he still managed to strike upwards with his left hand, closing the snapping, drooling jaw full of rotten teeth that appeared to want to tear his face to shreds. At the same time that his left grasped and locked the creature's chin into place, His right hand passed its head before his fingers dug into the matted hair and flesh on the back of its head.
[Amusement]
After tightening his grip and releasing a deep grunt, John pulled with his right while pushing with his left. After a moment of resistance, the creature's head span before ending in a loud, sickening crack. However, it seemed that he had used too much strength as the head continued to rotate, tearing the flesh and muscle before the body started to fall away.
A look of shock, morphing to disgust, appeared on John's face as he finally lost his footing and fell. As he did, without the head holding it back, the creature's body crashed into his chest.
With a dull thud, he hit the ground and black, foul-smelling blood spattered all over him.
[Amusement]
After throwing the corpse to the side and retching, John quickly regained his feet and wiped the filthy, already congealing blood from his mouth, nostrils and eyes. While he did, he internally used every swear word he had ever heard in a vain attempt to express his emotions.
He was just about to use his essence to burn away what was left when John remembered the feeling of shock he had felt when he created the essence membrane over his body. He then thought about the curiosity before he was attacked.
Suddenly, John felt incredibly irritated. "Either its fucking playing with me... or it wants to see me use more skills?"
After clearing the blood from his eyes and blinking a few times to try and relieve the intense stinging, John scanned the doorway for any more threats before hastily checking his surroundings.
Finally, even though he knew what to expect, he looked behind him and towards the partially collapsed building that seemed likely to be the source of the image that suddenly appeared in his head. There was even the same rusty spike of metal sticking out the side of a building that he had seen in the projection.
"Fuck." There was nothing there. However, what appeared to be a crude smiling face was carved into the wall of the building, five holes which looked like claw marks nearby.
[Amusement]
John clenched his fists as he released a subconscious growl. It was under his breath, and almost silent but still, he had a strange notion that whatever was watching him had heard it.
[Approval, Curiosity]
"Fuck you, your approval and your damn curiosity." John glared at the surrounding street and rooftops, trying to provoke whatever it was that was there. While he couldn't impending sense the danger anymore, John strangely felt even more uncomfortable, nervous and slightly irritable as he realised that he was being toyed with.
[Shock, Intense intrest]
However, no matter how long he stood there, seemingly glaring at nothing, he couldn't find even a hint that a living creature was stalking him.
"Shit."
[Amusement]