"Is this the one?" A robust man asked, holding an axe, standing to the left of the trio. He wore a grey fur hunting outfit common in these parts and had a serious-looking face and a bald head visible from under a raised hood.

"Seems like it, look at his eyes." The archer standing on the right stated. The man wore a similar outfit, the only difference being the quiver and bow attached to his smaller frame. His hood was down, and short, mousey blonde hair sat atop a scowling face.

"You were right. I guess he would have to come through here on his way back. You're not an easy person to track, kid. Come here and be obedient, and we won't hurt you. We just want to talk." A tall, slender man with an ugly face in the middle commanded. He wore the same outfit with his hood down and dark-cropped messy hair running down past his ears. He held a large greatsword as he spoke.

Taking the three people in and listening to their conversation, he realised he was probably in deep shit and had been an idiot by using the same path.

By the sounds of it, they were looking for him specifically and had not been able to track him down, only finding him because he used the same obvious route.

He couldn't help but internally berate himself at that fact. As he was avoiding animals, not humans, taking the same path didn't matter as they were not intelligent enough to plan an ambush, but humans were. That oversight might cost him today.

The three men were obviously not here for anything good, and he could infer some things from their conversation. Someone had sent them for him, and it was apparent who, as he only had one enemy. The fact that Tantalus was the type of venomous spoilt brat to send thugs after him also helped narrow it.

What do I do?

He used his mind's eye to look inside himself and slow time down on the outside, giving him breathing room to think.

Fighting was an option, but not a very good one. He doubted the people Tantalus had sent after him wouldn't be up to the task. He could not sense their cultivation, which irked him as he desperately needed that ability right now. It would have allowed him to make a more informed decision, but he would make do with what he had.

The only natural choice was to run away. Fighting three men with unknown cultivation realms was stupid, so now he needed to figure out how and where to go.

They might have an advantage in numbers and probably cultivation, but he know this area extremely well, and there were a few places nearby he could lose them if he could get there.

He had several Talismans on him, and a couple of them were

enhanced by his unique combination of essence, but he wanted to save those two in case things looked dire. As bad as this situation was, he felt it wasn't at that point yet.

Fleeing was the only option here. He could try and get past them to the village, but he didn't think that would be possible. He had used this clearing because it passed through a natural bottleneck in the surrounding terrain. They were between him and that passing.

I guess that place is my only option if I want to escape.

There was another place close by that he had in mind. That location formed part of that natural barrier, but it wasn't somewhere he wanted to enter if he could help it. Unfortunately, it looked like it was the only option.

He wasn't sure what he was feeling at the moment. This was probably his first true life-and-death struggle in this world, and even if the men meant him no harm, he would go by the assumption that they did.

Part of him was scared at the thought of failure, but another part hummed, excited to put all his training and hard work to use. Psyching himself up, he focused on the side of him that wanted this, trying his best to push the lingering dread down, but it was still there whispering if he cared to listen, but he didn't.

Let's fucking go!

Leaving that inner world, he moved like lightning, letting his hunt fall free as he opened the pouch on his side, producing and activating a Talisman. Five ice spears formed in the air and shot forward towards the archer. He had picked that man, hoping to eliminate the obvious ranged threat.

At his defiance, the two melee cultivators charged forward as the archer produced a Talisman of his own and activated a defensive barrier that looked like a glass dome surrounding him.

The spears bounced off with a clang, but he had already turned and sprinted back into the forest, weaving behind a tree as an arrow whooshed by. The thrill of the chase brought surging emotions that mixed with his adrenaline, both forming into something more splendid, like high-end fuel powering him onwards.

Staying behind the large tree momentarily, he conjured two clones and sent them out, evading in different directions as he went right. He felt the one he sent to the left get destroyed as the twang of a bowstring rang out.

He resisted the urge to turn and look as that would give him away, so he dodged in and out of trees. He was close to the thicker part of the forest, and it wouldn't be easy for the archer to shoot at him there. He had no idea where the other two were, but he had yet to hear footsteps nearby, so they hadn't closed the distance yet.

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That meant their cultivation wasn't to the point where running was pointless, but if that arrow that shot by him earlier was anything to go by, they were in the next Realm up, at the Mortal Shedding Realm.

He heard a loud crash and felt the other clone wink out of existence, so he turned around to see a tree falling, cleaved in two by a blow from one of the pair wielding melee weapons.

It wasn't falling in his direction, but he knew they would be after him next, so he pulled another Talisman out and activated it, this time a large man holding the axe. More ice spears shot out, but he didn't watch the result as he dived through a bush and hid behind a tree, creating four clones this time.

Before he commanded them to run out, an arrow blasted through the trunk of the tree he was hiding behind, the splinters sticking into his left cheek and causing him to gasp at the sudden pain. Fear washed over him as he wondered what would have happened if the arrow had struck him.

Yep, definitely at the Mortal Shedding Realm.

The sprinkle of shrapnel destroyed two of the clones closest to the tree and caused him to curse internally. Sending them out, he picked another random direction and got lucky again when the archer targeted one of them first.

The bowman missed a second shot aimed either at him or the other one as the telltale sound of the bowstring rang out, but the clone wasn't destroyed, and no arrow came past him.

This got him the rest of the way into the deeper section of the forest, where many little bushes, twisting roots and large rocky outcroppings provided him with another layer of obstacles. He felt blood dripping down his face but ignored it as the fear-induced adrenaline masked the pain.

He conjured clones every time he moved behind something and sent them off in a random direction. Checking his core, he noticed that he still had plenty of essence to spare for now, but it wasn't close to turning over to relying on that to help him at the moment wasn't going to be a thing.

Breathing heavily, he moved again. The archer didn't shoot at him or any of his clones, and as he was thinking he was getting away, a crashing noise came from behind him as he turned his head. The two men were closing in on him, and he cursed as he watched them charge through the surrounding obstacles like a pair of wrecking balls.

Pulling more normal talismans out, he fired off more ice spears and some ember burst attacks at the pursuing duo. The man with the greatsword used some kind of metal defensive skill that looked like floating rotating plates to deflect the spears as the man with the axe threw himself to the side, easily avoiding the flames.

Holding his hands as he ran, he conjured a swarm of insects and even a large cat, sending them off to harass the men as he carried on ducking and weaving through the complex terrain.

His Mirages and the odd Talisman were keeping him slightly ahead of them. Melee fighters could still perform ranged attacks, but the power of these fell off rapidly the further they went, so he needed to stay just outside that range.

Another arrow whizzed by, snapping a smaller tree in half in front of him and showering him with wooden splinters, but none stuck in him this time as they rained down around the area.

He ran hard, never stopping, using a mixture of ranged attacks and Mirage creations and obstacles to maintain the distance, but he noted that his lead on the group was slowly decreasing anyway.

Entering a small clearing, he noticed a group of the little four-armed monkey creatures lounging around in the sun that shot up angrily at his sudden arrival, but he didn't stop.

Instead, he conjured two similar-looking creatures and sent them running towards the group, screeching before running away in the direction of his pursuers.

These small beasts were highly territorial to others of their kind, and they ignored him, deciding to chase the two intruders that looked like themselves.

He couldn't see the men now due to the thickness of the surrounding forest, but the muted noises of screeching and muttered curses caused him to grin a little. Even though he was scared of being caught, it was exhilarating, and the taste of outsmarting his enemies was sweet.

Another arrow thudding nearby quickly caused his grin to fail, and he powered his legs even harder, making sure to keep his evasive manoeuvring going.

Heavy footsteps caused him to look over his shoulder, and he spotted the tall man with the greatsword powering towards him, his face red with rage. Silver essence leaked off him in such density that it was visible to the naked eye, forming a white trail as the man moved with enhanced speed.

These people were obviously warriors by the cultivator definition, and he had hoped that none of these men had moved into forming a proper class. A class in this world wasn't a set-in-stone definition like a game, as you could mix and match them in specific ways, but some you couldn't.

They were a way of putting someone into an easily identifiable bracket, such as a warrior or a sorcerer and gave you a rough idea of their strengths and weaknesses.

A warrior was among the more common classifications and was, at its simplest, meaning that someone used their essence to enhance their body. They are typically short to medium-range attackers with melee weapons, but archers could also be classed as warriors, and they were typically medium to long-range.

Most of their essence goes to empowering their bodies, and they do this by reinforcing their essence channels and making them stronger at the cost of reducing their diameter. This added robustness lets them handle the constant stream of condensed essence passing without damaging their insides.

He was surprised the man behind him had reached the stage of enhancing his channels, but it didn't appear like it was a finished process, or he would have done it from the start. This was also why people in the first Realm didn't worry about classes, as your body wasn't strong enough to handle the changes required yet.

Seeing that he wasn't far from arriving at the location he was escaping towards, with the man closing in, he made a split-second decision, jumping down a short steep ridge, praying he wasn't followed.

At first, he managed to keep his feet under him, and he spotted the man arriving at the top of the cliff and coming to a halt before quickly moving to the easier path down the side he was initially going to take.

Because he was checking over his shoulder, he didn't spot the small root sticking out that caused him to fall head first and roll the rest of the way down the steep decline, battering his body.

Grunting as he landed at the bottom, he jumped to his feet, pulling a sharp rock out that had stuck into his side slightly, causing him to hiss through his teeth as he kept moving.

Another shot landed right where he had been, so he dodged behind a tree, spotting the archer at the top of the incline and the greatsword user rushing down the side of the slope that was easier to navigate. The axe wielder was nowhere to be seen.

Sending out more clones to distract the bowman, he pushed hard, knowing that salvation was close as he neared a break in the forest.

The tall man was gaining on him as he exited the treeline several metres away from a sheer drop into a dark abyss that had no end in sight.

*Crash*

Looking over his shoulder at the noise, he was in time to see the man with the greatsword blow through a clump of overgrown branches, shifting metal plates hovering around his body, making him look like an enchanted knight.

The man slid to a stop, and he watched as the greatsword began to glow silver as the metallic man swung out the large weapon twice in quick succession, creating a silver cross shape that shot towards him.

Moving to the side, he tried to evade but was too late. The edge of the strike lashed him on the back as he arrived at the canyon's rim, sending him spiralling through the air and down into the bowels of the earth.