“There is no way we walked that in an hour,” Lex commented as her and Gregory crested the short hill and spotted the lights of Templeholm in the distance. It could have just been an optical illusion from how dark it was, but it certainly seemed like the city was much further away than it should have been. Gregory glanced over his shoulder at where Kyle stood, barely able to make out his friendly wave under the moonlight, before he nudged Lex and started walking.
“We aren’t going to make it back in fifteen minutes,” she said as they moved, “how did we get so far away anyways? I was certain we hadn’t been walking that long.”
“Probably one of his abilities,” Gregory replied, “he said he can move quickly when he needs to, maybe he can spread that effect to others. Between the dark and our conversation we didn’t notice.”
“Great,” she grumbled, “any chance this is just him messing with us? Making it feel like we’re in danger just to push our abilities?”
“You felt that bet of his snap into place, right?” Gregory asked, glancing over to see her nod, “that didn’t feel like a trick. And he wasn’t holding back with that arrow he shot. I don’t think this is a trick.”
“But, why would he announce his intentions so openly?” Lex shot back, “not to mention giving us a fifteen-minute head start. How does that make any sense? If he actually wanted to kill us why warn us?”
“Restrictions,” Gregory realized, “he has an ability that allows him to mark his prey, boosting his effectiveness against it. He then placed restrictions on it to boost its effect, something like ‘I must tell my prey they’ll be hunted, given them a head start’ and ‘I can bet my abilities on my victory.’ Something like that.”
“Gods damnit,” she cursed.
“I doubt we can out run him,” Gregory thought out loud, “and he can track us from a long distance, thanks to his aura.”
“Can’t you use your aura to counter his or something?”
“Only if I can feel it. Despite everything I still can’t feel his aura.”
For another minute the two jogged in silence, both thinking about how to escape this situation. Kyle was a true Ascender, unlike Lex, and had been one for far longer than Gregory. It showed in how many abilities he had and his knowledge of how to manipulate and upgrade them. With nothing else to do Gregory compiled a list in his mind of what abilities he knew Kyle had.
First up was his aura, it seemed to have a range of several miles, couldn’t be detected and would pick up any movement within it. Apparently, things got fuzzier towards the extremes, or if there was a large number of creatures in close proximity, but those didn’t seem like hard restrictions that he’d placed. More natural limitations of the ability.
Second was the homing arrows, the hunter could designate a target and his arrows would seek that target. Here Gregory knew some of the limitations that had been placed on it, for one Kyle couldn’t use this ability on anything in line of sight and for two the arrows wouldn’t start homing until they were within fifteen or so feet of the target. This led to increased homing abilities and caused the arrows to accelerate shortly before impact, making it seem more like artillery than a bow shot. Hell, Gregory had seen him fire off what amounted to a time on target strike with multiple shots landing at the same time.
Third was some manner of accelerated travel, it was something subtle and only resulted in him and his companions moving a couple times faster than they would otherwise. He hadn’t used it when they’d been fleeing the Mutts, so there were some limitations to it, like how many people he could effect.
Then there was his Hunter’s Pride, the effects of which were largely unknown, but seemed to have numerous restrictions placed for it to activate. He had to announce the hunt, state a bet and give them a head start. All in exchange for being ‘empowered’ which could mean anything. If the empowerment was on par with the bet then he’d be a quarter stronger than he’d been previously, but Gregory was guessing it would be more than that.
Finally there was the ‘Executioner of the Hunt’ he’d placed as a bet, but that sounded more like a title than an ability, similar to his own Blessing of Protection.
In short, Kyle seemed to be the perfect hunter, able to track his prey from long distance, fire highly accurate arrows without being seen.
“Gregory,” Lex said softly, coming to a stop.
“The fifteen minutes are almost up,” he replied, stopping after a few more steps to see why she’d halted.
“He’s hunting me,” she continued, “not you, if you just go then-.”
“Nope,” Gregory interrupted, not liking where her train of thought was going, “I’m vetoing that thought right there.”
“There’s no reason for both of us to die!” she insisted, looking up at him, “and if I really am a threat to this world then maybe it’s best he catches me.”
“You aren’t a threat to this world, and I am not going to abandon you. I swear on my life, you’ll survive this,” he replied seriously, only to jerk as a window popped up before him.
\-\-\-\-
NEW ABILITY: Guardian’s Oath
LINKED TO FACET: Blessing of Protection
You won’t allow anyone else to die on your watch.
-You may pledge to protect one person at a time, the pledge lasts until danger has passed and cannot be changed until the person you are guarding is safe.
-Wounds suffered by the protected person are reduced
-You gain increased stats while acting in defense of your pledged
\-\-\-\-
“What?” Lex asked, seeming to notice a new band of energy connect them, much like the one from Kyle.
“I bet my life on your safety,” Gregory stated, following his instincts.
\-\-\-\-
ABILTIY Guardian’s Oath MODIFIED
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ADJUSTMENT PERIOD BYPASSED ON NEW ABILITY
-Should the person you pledged to protect fall, so to shall you
-Stat gain while defending vastly increased
\-\-\-\-
Gregory nearly stumbled as he felt his aura surge outwards, first doubling then tripling in size. His danger sense also seemed to undergo as similar increase as he spotted a line of danger, resembling a laser of risk hanging in the air, that curved out of the sky to intersect with Lex’s torso. Acting quickly Gregory lifted his halberd, placing it in the path of the beam, and moments later an arrow shot out of the air striking the axe head of the weapon with impressive force.
“What?” Lex asked slowly, seemingly confused as to what was going on.
“Seems my nature took my declaration literally,” Gregory smiled, “if you die, so do I. But so long as I’m defending you I’m much stronger.”
As if to illustrate his point another two beams of danger lanced out of the dark, in a blur of motion Gregory blocked one arrow and slapped the other out of the air. Out of curiosity he pulled up his basic stats.
\-\-\-\-
PHYSICAL ABILITY: Significantly above average
MENTAL ABILITY: Above average
WILLPOWER: Far above average
\-\-\-\-
“Damnit,” Lex cursed again, “I’m supposed to be a protector, not the one being protected.”
“As I was told Ascenders grow fast thanks to our natures,” Gregory replied, “you’ll catch up in time.”
“If you say so,” she grumbled.
“For now, let’s get moving,” he said, pushing her to start running again.
It was as they started moving again that Gregory experienced an odd sensation, so long as he was behind Lex he found it easy to keep up with her, as if they were on a casual stroll. But as soon as he passed her he was suddenly struggling to stay ahead, all the strength draining from him in an instant. After a moment’s thought it made sense to him. The threat was behind them, in order to protect her he needed to be between her and the danger. Something made clear as he blocked another arrow.
“Any plan for losing him?” Lex asked as she heard the ping of the arrow off his halberd.
“I’m open to ideas,” Gregory responded, keeping an eye out for more incoming arrows, between his aura and danger sense he doubted even the boosted shots from Kyle could get past him. If the hunter was able to get more than three or four to strike at the same time, however, he was less certain.
“Your power boost allow you to sense his aura thing?” she shouted over her shoulder.
“No, I don’t understand how he can sense us without his aura being noticeable.”
“Did he ever use his aura from horseback?” Lex asked after a few moments of running, “I can’t remember but I think he only ever told us how close the Mutts were when we dismounted to walk the horses.”
“Maybe? I wasn’t paying attention,” Gregory admitted, “that’s the only time they’d be catching up to us so maybe that’s the only time he bothered to check?”
“Or his aura only works when he’s touching the ground?” Lex offered, “some restriction in order to be impossible to detect?”
“Hardly a significant restriction,” Gregory said, “not worth complete invisibility.”
“I don’t know then!” Lex shouted, stress clear in the strained tone and lack of patience, “I barely understand what an aura even is!”
“It was a good thought,” Gregory consoled her, pausing to block another arrow that shot out of the dark from an odd angle, “maybe you were on to something, he likes placing restrictions for weird bonuses.”
Out of curiosity Gregory directed his aura down, sacrificing the increased range he’d gained from his oath to push it into the ground. As his aura was focused on tactile sensations it was hard to ‘feel’ deeper into solid objects. He couldn’t push his aura into someone’s body and feel their heart, for example, but the dirt wasn’t a single solid structure, it was made of many bits of dirt and stone. It was hard for him to worm his aura into the ground but as soon as he did he nearly froze.
“I found it,” Gregory said, shocked. He hadn’t felt Kyle’s aura not because it was somehow invisible or something, but because it permeated the ground as his aura did the air. When the hunter said he felt movement he meant, specifically, footsteps. That would also explain why it was hard for him to make out individuals within large groups, too many footsteps to figure out which pair belonged to who.
“What?” Lex asked.
“His aura! It’s in the ground!” Gregory explained, and immediately turned his attention to pushing the aura tracking them away. In doing so he made another more minor discovery, Kyle’s aura was only present in a strip about twenty feet wide, beyond that it was absent. Had he sacrificed the 360 degree view for a longer ranged, more focused aura? That would also explain his impressive range if correct.
As soon as he had the aura suppressed the intermittent rain of arrows stopped entirely. Kyle could still feel his aura, so he knew about where Gregory and Lex were, but without their footsteps to target a specific location he’d have to fire randomly in a large target area where his aura was suppressed.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what he did, a half dozen arrows raining down all over the area, seemingly at random. Most of them missed, save one he had to block. At first he relaxed, expecting a reprieve before another rain of arrows came, but bare seconds after he’d blocked the single arrow two more lanced out of the dark, nearly striking him. Somehow Kyle had noticed one of the arrows was blocked and was targeting that area.
“How many fucking arrows does he have?” Lex demanded.
“Too many,” Gregory groaned, preparing to dodge the next arrow rain, “we can’t keep this up.”
“No kidding,” Lex snapped, they hadn’t covered even half the distance to Templeholm so far. At this rate, with or without his ability to sense them through his aura it was only a matter of time before Kyle won, one lucky arrow, one missed block or moment of hesitation was all it would take. They needed a change of plans.
\*\*\*\*
Kyle paused as he got another set of arrows ready, he’d taken his largest quiver and packed it full, made it difficult to get arrows out quickly but meant he still had plenty of ammo. He had to give it to Gregory, he’d figured out Kyle’s aura trick pretty quickly all things considered. He didn’t think he’d given many hints, only mentioning the basic abilities in passing and only talking about certain abilities. The ones that didn’t really matter if they were figured out.
In truth he didn’t want to do this, he liked both Gregory and Lex. As much as he liked anyone anyways. If it wasn’t for the need to locate risks to the world and eliminate them he’d have moved on. And Lex was a very minor risk, judging by how his ability Executioner of the Hunt reacted. But she was a risk, and as Executioner he couldn’t simply turn away from his duties. All he could do was be as fair about it as he could, unlike the previous Executioner he wouldn’t torture his prey, breaking every one of their facets one by one until their minds shattered. While the duty of the Executioner was absolute, the method he went about it was up to him. Thus he’d decided on these hunts, let his prey know they were at risk and give them a chance to either fight back or flee.
Worse case he lost the title and the duty that came with it, though how it would pass on in that case he had no idea. Best case he at least felt like he was giving his targets a chance to prove themselves, let them die fighting.
With six arrows in his right hand and another two in his left Kyle prepared to fire another barrage into the area Gregory’s aura was leaving him blind. He wondered if the other Ascender had realized he’d lied about needing to target an individual with his homing arrow, just a point in space. He didn’t even need to see or sense the point in question. So long as he fired the arrow close enough to them the homing ability would activate. So blinding him wouldn’t prevent the homing arrows, only force him to rely on different methods.
Just as he was about to draw the bow he paused, Gregory had reversed direction, had he decided they wouldn’t be able to reach Templeholm? Instead deciding to bet on defeating him in close combat? It wasn’t a bad idea, Kyle had been shadowing them between volleys so he wasn’t that far behind them. If they thought he’d be easier in close combat they were mistaken. Maybe before his bet they could have beaten him together, but his power boosted now? He’d simply overpower them with raw stats.
Deciding he could get one more volley off before they found him, Kyle began firing. Sadly it seemed that either he’d gotten unlucky or Gregory had figured out the trick, as he didn’t hear any arrows striking the flat of Gregory’s halberd. Putting his long bow away Kyle moved to greet the pair, drawing a pair of hand axes from his belt. Normally not a good weapon to use against a pair of polearm wielders but with his enhanced speed he wasn’t worried.
“If you think this will be easier for you,” Kyle said, deciding to lean into the villain role, “then not even the two of you will be able to take… me…”
He trailed off as Gregory crested the next rise and stopped suppressing Kyle’s aura.
“What about alone?” Gregory asked with a cocky grin. Kyle looked around, unable to see or sense Lex with Gregory.