The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 200: Chase

“Run. Don’t look back.” Percy whispered, letting go of Nesha’s hand.

He didn’t even glance at her as she bolted off. His eyes were still glued to their remaining enemies. Taking a deep breath, he finally pushed the mana in his channels past the point of no return, activating Synchronization. At the same time, he grabbed the invisible scythe he’d left propped up against the tree’s trunk.

Naturally, the nobles caught sight of him immediately, the motes leaking out of Percy’s body painting a stark contrast against the darkness of the swamp. But that was the idea. Nesha couldn’t move as fast as him, so he had to keep the Greens occupied for a few minutes, to buy her time.

Percy kicked Dranold’s eye right towards Rambert before dashing into the bog, hoping this would be enough of a provocation. It must’ve worked like a charm too – if the rush of infuriated footfalls thundering behind him was anything to go by. In fact, a second set followed after the first, Grian probably just a step behind the hot-blooded youth.

‘Good. Now I just have to not get caught…’ Percy thought, speeding towards the next location. The plan was to take the long way there, to give Nesha the chance to arrive before they did.

Running away, he took extra care to weave between the trees, trying to block the nobles’ line of sight whenever he could. This was crucial, if he wanted to survive. After all, even his boosting art and two cores weren’t enough for him to outrun a Green in a straight line. His only other advantage was that he was covered in concealment runes from head to toe, making it harder for them to detect him through obstacles.

Still, the glowing trail he left behind him ensured they never lost track of him for very long. Their heavy stomps were interspaced with muddy splashes – depending on where they stepped. They grew louder by the second, as the distance separating the two parties shortened with every breath.

But Percy didn’t let fear slog his pace. He navigated through the familiar landscape with the confidence of a veteran. Tossing a barrage of throwing stars behind him, he tried catching them off-guard multiple times. He had long engraved concealment runes on many of the trees too, making his attacks almost impossible to see coming. The projectiles phased through the rotting trunks, stabbing at the nobles from all sorts of insidious angles.

This seemed to do the trick, slowing the two a little, buying Percy a few more precious moments. Still, the nobles never got hit, always managing to dodge the projectiles at the last second. Not that it mattered much. It wasn’t like the flimsy spells would have done much damage had they landed.

At some point, the mages grew impatient. Percy caught a bright flash of orange by the corner of his eye. It was accompanied by a deafening explosion, followed by the sound of cracking wood. Soon, trees started collapsing behind him one after the other, as Rambert continued smashing through them with his fire magic. Blazing through everything in his path, the young mage was about to reach Percy!

‘Too little too late.’ Percy smirked.

They were already at the second location.

Gripping his scythe tightly, he turned around, catching sight of his opponents for the first time in a while. The greatest downside of his concealment runes was that they inhibited his own Mana Sense too. Still, his mutated eyes picked up the slack, swiftly bringing him up to speed.

Not missing a beat, Rambert launched an enormous fireball at him, trying to reduce him to cinders.

Percy leapt out of the way, positioning himself such that the two nobles were lined up behind one another. Next, he hurled his weapon at them with all his strength.

At the same time, the blazing spell exploded right by his side, the blast shrouding him in a blanket of fire the following instant. Luckily, his armour didn’t let the second-hand flames scorch his skin. Unbothered by the heat, Percy’s gaze remained fixed on his scythe as it spun towards Rambert.

Once again, the young talent noticed the attack at the last second, probably being on guard against the concealed constructs by now. Still, the short window to act forced him to dodge at an awkward angle. As for Grian, he had an even tougher time evading the Soul Harvester, only realizing the danger he was in after seeing his companion’s reaction.

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Both nobles landed clumsily on the ground. But that was just the beginning. Soon, a series of pocket runes lit up beneath them, forcing them to roll away before they sank into the pitfalls.

‘So far, so good...’ Percy thought.

Not letting up, he launched another barrage of throwing stars against Rambert as he called his scythe back to him. At the same time, a flock of black butterflies wormed their way around the trees, rapidly descending upon Grian.

As soon as the Soul Harvester returned to Percy’s hand, he tossed it at Rambert again, keeping up the pressure. He forced the young man to keep zigging and zagging around the traps, evading the onslaught by the skin of his teeth. And Grian didn’t seem to be faring much better, as Nesha did something similar with her own spell.

Of course, this was never going to last. Rambert was the first to escape the traps, as Percy’s mana dropped dangerously low. Climbing to his feet, the young Green snarled, before dashing towards him once more. Not wasting a second, Percy turned around, bolting off again, as the sound of cracking wood began anew, Rambert burning down everything in his path to get to him.

However, Percy struggled to keep his lips from curling upwards as he heard only a single set of footfalls chasing after him.

Naturally, he and Nesha hadn’t expected to deal any serious damage just now. Unlike Broose, their opponents had seen both the pocket runes and Percy’s constructs this time, making it far more difficult to catch them by surprise. Suffice to say, killing or even crippling the nobles in this brief exchange would have been a tall order. That was why they hadn’t even tried that. Instead, their goal had merely been to split the two up, to handle them more easily!

‘Good. Keep coming after me, you bastard!’

That said, escaping the enraged Green wasn’t particularly easy. Rambert utterly obliterated everything in his path, leaving a trail of devastation behind him as he sped towards Percy. Judging from the sheer rate by which he was closing in, he was probably using his flames to propel himself forward too. Such a manoeuvre was bound to be costly to his mana reserves, though the young man likely had plenty left to deal with him.

Gritting his teeth, Percy only focused on dodging any direct blows, as those packed enough force to potentially damage his armour. Other than that, he ignored the explosions entirely, relying on his spell to shield him from the heat.

‘I bet he’s scratching his head in confusion right about now.’ he chuckled, catching a glimpse of Rambert’s grimace at some point.

The young man couldn’t perceive his armour, so he was probably struggling to understand how Percy had even survived this long. That said, they both knew this couldn’t go on forever. Even if Percy never made a mistake while dodging, the rising temperature would eventually cook him alive.

Luckily, the two were already close to the final ambush spot.

Picking up the pace, Percy tried to cover the last stretch of ground to his destination. In his excitement, however, he finally made an error in judgement, failing to dodge one of Rambert’s attacks. This time, the fireball exploded right on top of him, shattering his armour, blasting him through a tree. Though Rambert clearly wasn’t satisfied just yet, sending two more spells at him, trying to finish him off.

Percy – having somehow survived the first attack – barely managed to evade the follow-ups. That said, the projectiles still landed close to him, the resulting explosions pushing him around like a boat trapped in a storm.

The only silver lining was that smoke filled the entire area in the aftermath of Rambert’s attack, shrouding Percy while he got back to his feet. Still, he soon noticed yet another fireball coming his way.

‘He can spot me through Mana Sense!’ Percy realized, narrowly evading the blow.

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It was only now that he managed a fleeting glance at his armour. The Phantomscale Raiment wasn’t entirely destroyed. In fact, the second and third layers – arguably the most important ones, were still intact. However, a large chunk of the outermost layer had already been peeled off. Whatever remained of the concealment runes wasn’t remotely enough to hide him from Mana Sense any longer.

Shrugging, he dodged the next fireball by leaping atop a nearby tree. Squatting on a thick branch, he looked down at Rambert, calling his scythe back to his hand. At the same time, he allowed his armour to turn visible again. There was no point trying to hide it now that the cat was out of the bag.

‘I hope the others are alright…’ he thought.

But he shook his head. This wasn’t the time to be worrying about Nesha and Micky. He had his own fight to focus on, as they did theirs.

Realizing Percy wasn’t going down so easily, Rambert steadied himself. He didn’t rush to attack again, allowing the smoke to disperse as the two stared at each other.

Seeing that his opponent had chosen to take him seriously, at last, Percy couldn’t help but feel a hint of respect bubbling up. While the two stood on opposite sides, he knew there weren’t many Greens on Remior capable of letting go of their pride, acknowledging an Orange core as a worthy foe.

The roaring flames crackled all around them, as the two locked eyes. Both were keenly aware that, come sunrise, only one of them would draw breath…

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