Aaron’s plan had three steps. One, distract another group with an attack. Two, attack a group close to the last attack by killing or abducting one of them. Three capitalize on their reaction. He really hoped they would follow him into the hills, causing more and more of them to leave their posts. Next he would fight a bit in the hills, drawing them in and then he would literally skip over their heads and leave through the hole in the line they had made for him by following him.
All of this would not work if the high level group was able to react in time. They were too strong to fight while trying to evade his pursuers and they would probably stop people from running into the hills and destroying the formation in the first place.
But if his assumptions were correct then the High level Group would not be here and it would take at least 10 minutes for them to arrive if they immediately discarded their ambush and went to react to this attack. More likely it would take 20 or 30 minutes and by that time he would be long gone.
Aaron jumped off a big rock and landed in the dark open space, the snow barely making a sound. Silent as death he hurried through the open field with huge bounding leaps, making sure his passing barely made any noise and he tried to keep low to be less of a target in case they spotted him. But People were looking towards the attack and the sparks in the night sky. His current position was too far away for them to form up as a reaction to that attack. Aaron had chosen the fire that was right on the edge and would not deploy and so far his plan worked perfectly.
A young man in robes stood a few meters behind the line of torches, peering towards the red sparks of his attack not even 3 minutes ago. It was so convenient for Aaron that the enemy had literally different uniforms for their leaders. From what he had observed, Mages were always the groups leaders. Which was perfect for what he had planned.
His left foot crunched into snow as he sped past the torch and towards the mage. A shout went up towards Aaron’s right, but he ignored it. The mage turned his head, his eyes widened and he swung around, his fingers sparking with magic. Aaron dodged right and sped up again as the spell released. A hail of red sparks passed him by harmlessly and exploded behind him.
Aaron grinned and unsheathed one of his daggers in one smooth motion as he closed in on the man. The mage grabbed his staff and shouted something, before Aaron crashed into him. The mage had not even had a shield up. Aaron brought the man down with his knees and dodged lazily the staff the man swung at him, before he plunged a dagger into the mans stomach.
The scream was almost inhuman as the man howled in pain. Arrows came out of the trees, narrowly passing over Aaron who ducked on top of his victim. He grabbed the man by the throat and dragged him to his feet, using him as a shield towards the forest. Dozens of armed men and women streamed out of the woods, spells flew and stopped when they saw he had a hostage. But the group of the mage was closer than anyone else and 3 men sprinted at Aaron, while he backpedaled.
“Let him go!” one of the men shouted, but Aaron just skipped backwards with wind steps, putting some distance in between them, one arm around the mage in a chokehold. A wave of people streamed out of the forest, running in pursuit and he led them backwards over the open field while the man in his clutches screamed and held his belly.
Red sparks bloomed in the sky like fireworks above them and everything was moving fast. To Aaron’s left people were running faster than he had imagined they could, most of them clad in leather and with bows or short weapons in hand. “Surround him!” came the call from a mage who sent long icicles his way as sharp as swords. He seemed to barely care that Aaron had a hostage. But Aaron evaded the slow projectiles easily enough.
But the faster lighter classes were gaining a lot of ground and soon arrows flew at him from the side towards his back and Aaron had enough of this. With a mighty leap he cleared the coming encirclement and sped up towards the hills. The man he had held around his throat almost choked as he dragged him along. The mage did not fare well in his short sprint to the hills. The sudden acceleration and deceleration Aaron had to perform while dodging jostled the man around. Although Aaron was unaffected by inertia and conservation of energy, the same could not be said about his hostage.
Aaron almost broke the guy's neck by accident multiple times and he shifted to dragging him by his clothes instead of by his throat. Which meant he started screaming again.
A bolt of lightning broke through the trees and Aaron felt the electricity as it ran through him more than that he saw the attack. It hurt like hell, but his body did not lock up, like he expected it to. His hostage collapsed instantly though and Aaron could see a mage stand in the distance, blue arcs of electricity sparking between his hands as he ran towards the pursuing group.
Damn they had more firepower than Aaron expected. He dragged the unconscious body of the now stabbed and electrocuted mage into the closest canyon, taking cover from more spells and arrows that were raining down on them now.
They were more ruthless than he had expected, but Aaron still had succeeded with his gamble. The group of the mage was close behind him and they did not hesitate to enter the hills. Be it for revenge or to recover their half dead comrade, he did not know or care as he dragged the man behind him through the narrowing corridor of rocks.
He ducked arrows and spells and with one gaze back he could see 2 dozen or more people press into the narrow space of the canyon. But that was not enough, he had to lure them deeper. So he flung the unconscious mage up into the air and caught him mid jump, before speeding with him down the canyon, skipping from side to side while they sprinted after him. They still attacked him and sometimes Aaron was forced to let them come close to evade the worst of spells that had so much mana in them, that they felt like little suns in his mana sense. He did not want to risk taking them. One of the warriors was close on his heel and with a sudden leap he was on top of Aaron, hacking away with an ax.
Aaron ducked under one swing and punched the man in the face, knocking him back with sheer physical strength as he flung himself away from the melee. Others followed using skills or spells and Aaron only realized he had lost his hostage when he was battered by spells, rocks and pelted by arrows. Most of which he evaded, but a few found their mark. With a huge leap he sped up and rounded a corner, then around another corner, while they still were right on his heels.
With three big steps he vaulted up the rock wall and jumped on top of the plateaus. Even here some brave souls had climbed up to cut him off, but they were few and Aaron evaded their attacks easily. He kicked an archer who was too close to him back down into the canyon and sped away into the darkness. He knew this terrain, had hid in it, had sniped from it and he lured them deeper and deeper into it. This would be the time to ambush them if that had been his plan, but instead he broke line of sight behind a massive boulder that he called “the Ruler” in his mind because it was so straight and angular. Finally in cover and out of sight, he sped over the terrain in quick leaps. He moved around the groups, the torches and the light staying concealed in darkness and landed quickly back down in the open space, but a few dozen feet away from the entrance they had pursued him into.
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Before him was a giant hole in the line of defenders that were now behind him. Torches unguarded, camp fires abandoned. His plan had actually worked! Aaron would probably not get a chance like this again. He did not hesitate, he did not stop to look around. He just ran as fast as he could, slipping over the ground, his feet barely touching snow, he was moving so fast. It felt like he had skis on his shoes the way he slid forward through the snow, but he was way too fast and had absolute control over his movements.
Cries echoed over his shoulder and Aaron stopped and continued with sudden bizarre, impossible movements. He began to zigzag too as arrows passed him by and then a streak of light followed by a clap of thunder.
In the distance, still a few hundred meters away the lightning mage had appeared out of a canyon, his team moving around him as they sprinted for Aaron. In between the mans hands and a metal staff iridescent blue arc lightning buzzed and Aaron could feel the electric charge in the air as he redoubled his speed.
Flash after flash chased him, a fireball exploded over his left shoulder, the blast sending him off to the side. Arrows pelted his position, but Aaron did not need to take physics into account while he evaded. He spun into the air in a leap, moved downwards in a spinning torque and landed without losing any momentum, each step faster than the one before.
Aaron’s neck prickled and there was primal fear inside of his chest as he ran and all hell broke lose around him. Fire, lightning and ice pelted him, an arrow pierced his shoulder and his left foot suddenly froze to the ground. Panic rushed through Aaron for one moment, before he ripped out the solid chunk of ice his foot was embedded in out of the ground and leapt away. Finally he reached the trees and leapt upwards while the tree literally exploded from the ranged arsenal of his pursuers.
The whole army was on the move, the groups closest to him collapsing inwards, trying to cut him off. But Aaron was in the trees, he broke out of the canopy of a fir tree, touched the very top of another and then flew off into the night. But his pursuers were relentless and some of them were fast.
Light broke through the darkness from all the torches and fire spread among the trees as Aaron ran away. All around him were shouts, echoes and red sparks saturated the area, giving everything a faint red shine.
But Aaron could make it if he kept up this speed. He flung himself through the trees away from the wall, leaving behind the fires and vanished into darkness. He dropped down into the canopy level instead of skipping over the trees so it was harder to find him. All matter of spells exploded in the trees just behind him and it felt like they would be able to keep going indefinitely with their bombardment.
The fastest vessels were actually gaining ground on him too Aaron’s left side, but they were still too slow to catch him if he kept up jumping from tree to tree in this general direction and nothing unexpected happened. Soon he should be able to go into stealth mode once he had enough distance between himself and the army.
Aaron blinked as he saw a tree he was flying towards explode in a searing fireball that lit up the night like a second sun. He redirected his momentum to fly past the tree and landed lower in a branch of another tree. Before him the night brightened and Aaron stared in disbelief at at least 3 or 4 groups heading his way from right in front of him. They were in full formation, their ranged attackers ducking out from behind melees with shields raised or Armors glowing with skills.
Aaron leapt backwards into the top of another tree, hung there for a second before he flung himself away. Where the fuck did those guys come from? How many of these guys were hunting him? This was ridiculous.
He tried his best to move around the group, but they stopped and just blocked the way by literally setting the trees around them on fire. Their ranged classes doing everything in their power to keep him away from them. Aaron evaded more attacks as some of his pursuers caught up to him from another direction. An overeager Rogue flung himself at him from the shadow of a tree and earned himself a kick with all the momentum of Aaron’s flight in it for his troubles. The rogues chest caved in and he flew backwards, while Aaron did not even pause in his flight.
The wall was suddenly so close to him and with disbelief he watched the trees close to the wall being manned by archers, cutting him off entirely, trapping him again in an encirclement. Behind him, towards the hills, trees were still exploding, shouts and signal spells lit up the night and Aaron had his hands full evading the arrows and bolts shot at him. He dipped high and low while he frantically thought about what to do. How to get out?
He could try to just burst through one of the blockades towards the center of the Level, he paused and charged in that direction again and felt the tree rock he had just stood at. An arrow had flown past him so fast he had barely any time to react, its shaft bursting from the impact, wood splinters and bark turned into deadly shrapnel in an instant while the arrowhead had sunk deep into the wood leaving behind a circular hole a few feet deep.
Aaron felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He knew only one archer that was that powerful. All his plans to break through the center forgotten he turned and sped away, back to where he had come from, back towards the hills and the waiting army. He was determined to fight, to charge and wreak havoc until the high level group had reached him. He was ready to kill and die fighting until he spotted the stairs. Like a man dying from thirst who found a bottle of water, he jumped towards them, soared through the air while he jumped from one tree top to the next.
People were already there, waiting, guarding the stairway, sending spells and projectiles after him, some with uncanny accuracy. Another arrow pierced his side and he burst through a shower of ice that cut into his face and chest.
Bloody, his foot still stuck in a block of ice that just would not melt he landed on the stairs right next to an archer who went white in fear. But Aaron just body checked him and threw him off the stairs before he sprinted up his only escape route left, taking dozens of stairs at a time.
He passed the defenders by barreling through them in a charging tackle, then leaping up the stairs taking dozens at the time. The prickling in his neck intensified, but then he rounded the corner of the spiral staircase and the defenders fell away behind him.
His breath was quick, his heart hammered in his chest and his whole body hurt. His clothes were tattered, his armor had more holes than he could count, but by some miracle he had made it out without a debilitating injury.
Well, his foot hurt because it was still encased in ice and the arrow wounds stung, but they would not kill him or slow him down enough to matter.
Aaron could hear people on the stairs behind him and picked up the pace. His Qi reserves were at below 20% by now and he felt tired, dead tired. He had not slept and he was not sure if he was ready for the Second Level. He had no idea what awaited him as he climbed the stairs.
But he had no choice but to go up and the relief of having escaped flooded him. It felt like Victory to have escaped a death trap, no matter how hurt he was. He could not help himself and burst out into nervous laughter as he kept jumping up the stairs, taking only occasionally looks back.
The stairway itself was perfectly even, every single step just the same as the one above or below it. Pillars lined the walls in exactly even intervals, stretching to a high ceiling. The pillars were actually embedded into the walls and were as such technically only half pillars, but Aaron honestly doubted they had any use besides looking pretty. A bright blue pattern ran along the wall, illuminating the stairway. At a closer look the blue glow came from stones that had been embedded into the wall and were literally glowing on their own like a mix of an LED and a neon light. The soft blue light had soon replaced any light coming from the first floor and it gave the stairs an ethereal, surreal feeling. Like climbing up a stairway underwater.
He did not know how long he sped up the stairs, but it was more than 10 minutes at least. Which was quite frankly an absurd length for a stairway considering Aaron took 10 or 15 stairs with every step and he was sprinting while doing so.
Finally something changed. The stairs were getting brighter and Aaron felt like it was getting hotter, but that might just have been his physical exertion at this point. But the more he climbed the brighter and hotter it got until he could not ignore it anymore. It went from around 30° Fahrenheit on the first Level to 80-90° in the span of a few minutes. Aaron was soon matted in sweat and the light ahead was so bright that he had to squint and acclimate himself until he finally reached the top of the stairs.