I threw another punch and this time she dodged. She kicked out and I moved in closer. The Divine Empress swung up her stump to strike me, but it was a stump, not a hand. I delivered a massive blow to her gut she wasn’t ready for.

That was the bad part about getting crisped and being disoriented. High level combat required a person to counter impacts. If they missed an attack, it could be devastating. She staggered backwards, blood dripping out of her mouth.

I punched again towards her face, but it was a feint. I aimed for her gut. Another feint. My first hand came back and slammed into her jaw. She went tumbling along the ground. She quickly recovered and retreated. I chased after her for a moment, but she was as fast as I was. There was no way I was going to be able to stop her before she got back to the plaza and got a restoration.

It was kind of a win, but I had used my trump card and hadn’t been able to kill her. I didn’t have the energy to chase her either. Perhaps upgrading my skills had been a mistake, but it was one reason I was barely able to stay ahead of her and threaten her.

Dammit! I turned and left the city of East Bastion, running for the West. I was out of time. She would be after me right away and I had no doubt she would not be stopping her pursuit. I couldn’t let a fully healed Divine Empress, catch up with me.

I raced for the level 3 zone and exit to the East Bastion area. Clarissa had a road built from the East Bastion towards the East, cutting through the stonelands, mistlands, before turning South and ending North of the foul river.

I ran along the road. It drifted South for a bit and then went straight East. “Divine Empress incoming!” I shouted at a passing pair of people. I yelled that at everyone I passed, and they quickly scattered away. I wasn’t about to slow down for anything, but I wouldn’t let them get killed without a warning.

It would take her fifteen minutes to go back and get a restoration. That meant I had half an hour lead. Not much, but she would be hesitant to confront me directly. I wish I didn’t have to use my trump card in that tunnel through the wall, but I wasn’t going to be able to keep the energy I needed while staying ahead of her.

I checked behind me on the road. One reason I was on it, so I could see her. I had thought about running some other direction, but that was only a delaying measure. I also had no idea how high her Sense stat was. I had been hiding before and she had somehow picked up on my trail and followed me to East Bastion. I wasn’t not about to underestimate her in the slightest.

In the far distance I could see her chasing after me. That was annoying but completely expected. The only option I figured I had to was to draw the combat into a high-risk area and then force her to fight. It would be incredibly risky, trigger a level 5 monster, but it was going to be necessary if I was going to lose her.

The chase continued as the light source slowly set in front of me. I was just entering the level 3 zone and the road was a god send rather than trying to use the boulders of the stonelands. I would have to slow down to go from boulder to boulder, and it would impact me much more than the Divine Empress who could just soar after me.

I was also letting my energy come back. She had only gained on me slightly, but was about twenty minutes behind if I had to guess. I was losing about ten minutes per zone. I did the math in my head, that gave me two zones to work with before she caught up to me.

The zone with the Skittering Bladed Horror was my target. I would show up to the darklands at night. Hopefully the high energy, chaos, and general danger would allow me to lose the Divine Empress or buy myself some more time.

It was the only level 4 monster that I had some hope for. I wasn’t entirely sure, but it might have the strongest as its targeting priority. If that was the case, then I would run around and bring a party right to the Divine Empress.

Even with her prodigious combat skills and system skills, I didn’t think she could survive such an onslaught while also stopping me from retreating. I would make a run for Heaven to get supplies and then right for the tower with the Astrologer.

She wouldn’t be able to easily follow me, and I needed to resolve the bomb in my gut. It was a shame I hadn’t been able to talk to Doctor Katz after the surgery, but he had been smart to run away as quickly as his feet could move him.

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I wasn’t sure why the Divine Empress hadn’t killed him, but then I realized she didn’t want him to accidentally kill me. That was why she spoke up so I could get a restoration. She clearly wanted to question me and capture me alive for whatever horrors and tortures she had planned.

That was never going to happen. I wasn’t about to let her get her hands on me no matter what. The Throne of Tortured Souls made it clear what happened to people in her tender mercy. They got to scream for all eternity. That was a fate worth than death.

The road made a sharp turn to my left up ahead and the mistlands had come to an end as well. I quickly turned to the Northwest. I didn’t want to make a sharp turn, since that would just allow the Divine Empress to catch up to me more quickly.

I raced over the frostlands, avoiding the level 3 fox monsters. I didn’t have time or the energy to deal with them. The Divine Empress was only a few minutes behind me. Her energy was like an inferno in my Sense stat.

Like a giant boulder trying to crush me as it pursued me. I saw the darklands up ahead and checked the Divine Empress with a quick mid-air spin while leaping across the terrain. She was a minute from me and almost in skill range. I didn’t hesitate and raced into the darklands at night.

I couldn’t see anything, and my Sense stat was limited to skill range. The Divine Empress was just in range of my Sense stat and it was a struggle to move quickly. I couldn’t focus on her. I needed to make sure I didn’t trip, since I couldn’t see the terrain and could only see my feet with the Sense stat.

The sound of whirling came up and I saw the creepy blades full of eyes spinning through the darkness. I had no idea which way I was going and just raced through the darkness, avoiding the monsters. The Divine Empress just powered her way through them as I kept running and the monsters began to quickly pile up.

This was not a good situation to be in. That was when the terrain gave way along with the darkness. Stone steps, a tower in this zone! The Divine Empress was right behind me, I kicked my way up. The door at the top of the tower opened up in the gloom and ten pyramid shaped golems marched out and began shooting energy blasts.

I kicked off to the side and moved to the corner of a step, where they couldn’t easily target me and kept moving. I managed to glance at the Divine Empress and she had stopped several of the attacks with one of her skills.

I looped around while she was distracted and aimed for the darklands again. I had probably reached this tower from the South, so I needed to head back that direction. A horde of skittering bladed horrors was right in front of me. Air Burst. Air Burst. Air Burst.

I went over all of them, leaving the Divine Empress behind in the mess. While dodging a beam attack from the tower golems. The level 5 tower golems were unleashing a constant barrage at her while the Skittering Bladed Horrors came at her from the rear. After everything she had been through I wasn’t holding my breath that would kill her. But it should delay her at the very least.

Entering the darklands again, I ran. Thankfully the light source finally began to rise, breaking the absolute darkness, so I could adjust my course to head directly South. Checking behind me, no Divine Empress.

I heaved a sigh of relief, but that only was encouragement to go faster. I could see beams and hear the sound of fighting coming from the tower. Just die already! Why won’t you die! I mean, this woman was worse than a liquid terminator.

She just fought her way through everything and just wouldn’t die. It was honestly insane to me, how one person could survive this much. Clearing the darklands, there were only three skittering bladed horrors behind me and I saw the Divine Empress about forty or so minutes behind me.

I adjust my course to be more to the Southwest than directly South. I would pass by the foul lake and then go right for Heaven. That was two and a half zones, so I would lose about twenty five minutes. The swamp would be annoying, but she would have the same issues as me.

Then say five minutes to buy supplies. I still had two full zone lengths to cross to get to the tower I needed to with the Astrologer inside.

I had briefly considered entering the tower near the darklands, but that was stupid and a death sentence. If I could get to the Astrologer’s tower, then I would be able to lock her out for at least a day. I would have a time crunch to climb the tower and I didn’t know if there would be internal blocks, or how that would work, but it was my only hope.

The big issue right now, was that I was short ten minutes. If I cut down my shop time to one minute instead of five, then I would be short six minutes. The last bit of running into the tower would be quite tricky. I needed to delay her.

I had none of my equipment on me, including the headlamp that had been made before. Dammit! The problem was lantern fuel only kept it lit for an hour. The cost wasn’t an issue, but the amount I could carry. I needed to pack food and other supplies.

Well the darklands gave me confidence about moving in the dark, so I would hopefully be able to handle the tower relying on my Sense stat. I didn’t want to do it, but I had to do it. It was my only hope. Maybe it would light up once the doors were closed.

That would be nice, but I wasn’t hopeful. I leapt over the foul river and kept moving. Once I hit the swamp I would use the occasional Air Burst to speed me along. By the time she caught up, I should regain my energy. I just needed to figure out a way to delay her for a couple of minutes and how I was going to enter the tower with the golems at the entrances.