Footsteps approach slowly as we all turn to look in the direction they are coming from; even Alonzo pays attention to the noise. I can feel my heart begin to beat in preparation as if what is about to appear will be highly dangerous.
I trust my instincts and immediately get my Ether flowing as I see a wave of darkness emerge from the forest, blanketing the entire northern side of the clearing. Rapturous, Strugglers Defiance, and Nightvision are active before the owner of those footsteps even walks out of the dark that seems to consume the march.
But when the owner does, my Ether skips along with my heartbeat, my right arm pulsing in phantom pain.
An old woman steps out of the dark with a face completely covered in darkness, obscuring her face.
I hear Johnny curse beside me under his breath as he frantically readies himself for this encounter with Darkstep, the lady who killed Levi and cut off my arm. He, however, seems to be preparing to escape as I see him load several of his "Stunning" rounds, bullets that explode with bright and sound on impact.
The woman, however, laughs at his attempts and flashes a compass at him swiftly.
"You can't run from me, Johnny. I've got you locked down, and I brought some friends who want a piece of you, too."
Alonzo looks around, confused for a second before he realizes what's going on, and I see him step to the side after realization strikes him. The surgeon puts his arms up and retreats from this open area.
"I'm not a part of their group, miss. I am only a guide."
Darkstep's shadowy face somehow seems to squint at him before nodding. Alonzo takes this as an opportunity to run, and the surgeon for the undead runs for his life with his undead carrying him. She only cares about us, huh?
But she's also not the only one here.
I see four more people step out of the shadowy cloud behind her. They start to fan out to try and block us in. Instantly, I activate Chain Eyes to assess their strengths. My face turns to Johnny with extreme worry as I see the results.
"Two 6th Sigils and two 5th Sigils."
He then looks at me in return and closes his eyes for a brief moment before sighing. He reaches down and unlatches Death's Lantern and passes it to me before yelling to everyone else. I take the lantern and latch it onto my belt.
"Scatter! She can only track me! Make it to our destination alive!"
I'm confused by his words for a split second, but Otto is the first to react, almost instantly darting out of the clearing on his own. Ether covers him in a pattern best suited for speed as he hauls ass out of here.
I see one of the 6th Sigils follow after him, a man covered in a vestment of raven feathers., disappearing in a cloud of ravens and flying after him as the flock.
I'm the next to react as I yell at Dakota and sprint for one of the open sides of the clearing.
"C'mon, boy!"
I hear his paws splash against the low water and mud as he follows after me as fast as he can. But he's not as fast as me when I'm uninjured and boosted by all my Ether, so I pick him up with my one arm and run.
Pivoting real quick to see what's going on behind me, I notice Blake uses her bandages and that spirit she devoured to create a whip to fling herself to a nearby tree and begin to run away. One of the 5th Sigils follows after her as he merely runs along the branches and jumps from tree to tree to keep up with Blake.
I also see the two that decide to follow after me. A 5th and a 6th Sigil. Fuck. No way I'm winning this fight. The 5th Sigil runs at me like a juggernaut as he breaks down every tree of obstacles that comes his way; meanwhile, I have to go around and dodge the things in my way.
The 6th Sigil is a woman who merely saunters after me as she draws a bow, nocking an arrow made of obvious Ether.
The last thing I see before I fully commit to running to the Laughing Reeds is Johnny standing alone against a wave of darkness. The lone Gunfighter spins a loaded cylinder in his revolver as he looks up from the gun toward Darkstep. He aims his gun, but I do not get to see it fired as I feel the whistling wind of an arrow through the air.
I try to dodge it by looking back to see where it's coming from and moving away from it, but the arrow seems to track me. Frantically, I twist my body sideways before it hits me for a final attempt at evasion, and Dakota darts his head out and catches the arrow with his powerful jaw.
"Good job!"
I praise him as I see the arrow shake rapidly in his mouth. It's still being controlled!
I continue running as I move him in my arms and slam the arrow against a tree we run past. The arrow explodes outward toward where the tip is pointing, blowing a section out of the tree and leaving me surprised by its strength.
The only move is to hustle. These two will undoubtedly kill us both if they catch us. I need every advantage I can get to keep them away from me, but what else can I do?
I'm running for my life, barely keeping the train of a man who is destroying everything in his way behind me. If he reaches me, I am surely dead. But simultaneously, if the woman hits me with her arrow, I'm likely dead.
Can I try to hide? Possibly, but how would I even do that?
Gunshots that resound constantly bring my attention behind me again, but I'm too far to see Johnny any longer, and all I see is an arrow flying toward me again. I curse and move Dakota from my arm onto my neck and shoulders. He's much too big for it now, but I need my arm.
The arrow screams at me once more with its deadly ferocity. As it gets closer and closer, I dart to the side, trying to get it to hit a tree, but the arrow shifts velocity and circles around the tree, going straight for me.
With a quick shuffle and a terrible bubble of Ether, I put around my hand in an effort to protect it; I grab the shaft of the arrow out of the air. Its speed isn't as bad as its damage and maneuverability.
I feel it vibrating and trying to escape my grasp as I do so, so I chuck the arrow at the thin water below me, causing a massive wall of steam to emerge.
This small opportunity is taken to full effect as I pull no punches. I breathe in a deep gasp of Ether for Strugglers Gasp, and for the first time ever, I don't use it to fight. I just use it to fucking run. My chains loosen drastically as my entire body speeds up by a whole nother level.
Almost all of my abilities that could possibly help my speed are active. Strugglers Defiance flows Ether throughout my body and weakens the chains slightly, and Strugglers Gasp does a similar thing but at a grander scale with Ether from outside my body. Even Ironheart and Chainlink Boots are helping me move, the duo helping to coordinate every step to make sure I don't trip in this marsh. The only two skills that aren't used are Adrenaline Surge because it can't be used alongside Rapturous, or at least I don't know how to yet, and the other is Daydream. My caution against the Bloody Palm is at an all-time high because of its long period of silence, so the skill will remain to guard me until the last possible moment.
I run past the steam cloud I made and book it for the deeper parts of Sinscreak, doing everything I can possibly do to go faster. Water splashes, and creatures move in the presence of my footsteps, but I ignore all the threats of the world around me and only focus on those that are chasing me.
I see crocodiles try to bite me as I run along a deep section of the wetlands, but I outspeed them and keep going. I spot a series of trees that grow out from the center of this river-type spot and jump toward one. All my decisions are made on split-second considerations, so only a few are optimal. This one? It is not one of those.
The jump only gets me about three-quarters of the way to the tree growing out of the river, so I'm forced to frantically swim to the trees as I feel creatures move beneath me in the water. I stroke my arm as fast as I can, managing to keep ahead of whatever is beneath me.
I reach the tree coming out of the barely flowing water as I reach up for a branch to pull Dakota and me up with. But the second I touch it, I regret it. The 'branch' reacts with a hiss as it twists around with a serpentine flow and tries to bite me. Dakota jumps off of my shoulder and bites the snake as it takes the battle into the tree.
This delay, however, let whatever was beneath me catch up. Something powerful wraps around my ankle and instantly drags me beneath the water. As it pulls me down, I look at what's beneath me, and with Nightvision still active, I can see it clearly.
A massive abomination resembling a grizzly bear crossed with a lizard and a fetus lies beneath the water. I recognize this terrible creature with a spine and scales like a lizard, the size of a bear with its horrible claws and jaws and a face that holds rows of several teeth, yellow eyes, and a pair of small arms on the side of the head. It's a Letiche.
The First mentioned one of these in one of the pages I read. He said that they are one of the apex predators within the Sinscreak. Every region has its own, and one of the two top dogs of Sinscreak is the Letiche, along with the Rougarou, a shape-shifting werewolf. One owns the waters and shores, the others all that is even a little dry.
I struggle against its grip as much as I can; through the murky waters that my Nightvision can pierce, I see the two Hunters begin to catch up. But I'm in the Letiche's territory, and it is determined to drag me to the bottom of the swamp to drown and eat me.
I kick, punch, and stab at it as much as possible, but its scales are problematic, and the water slows my efforts, rendering most of it moot. I am forced to make a quick decision as I am rapidly getting closer and close to the bottom and farther and farther from the surface.
With an internal curse, I once again do something stupid. But if I have no other choice, is it foolish?
I push all of the Ether out of my chains from Strugglers Gasp in a herculean effort and drive it all back into my left arm, which has just barely recovered from the last time. I then swing this fist full of a momentous amount of Ether straight at the Letiche's hand holding my foot. I see its little arms on its head shake with excitement at dragging me down as it opens its jaw to bite me. But before it can put those teeth on my skin, my fist makes an impact.
An explosion comes from my hand alongside a burst of crippling pain from my ankle as the Letiche lets go. I see that its hand is bleeding badly, green blood seeping out. It looks up at me and roars from within the water, causing the entire body of water to shake and thrash violently, bringing me even lower.
With a situation that only seems to worsen deep underwater, there is not much I can do but gamble.
I try to take another Strugglers Gasp. The worst thing this will do is fill my lungs with water, but if it works like I think it will, I should absorb the Ether in the water, calming it a little bit like it does with Ether in the air. There is also the chance of Ether saturation, but I'm slowly increasing my resistance. I think I can handle another Strugglers Gasp at this point.
I spent almost every day traveling, practicing to my limit, and reaching the edge repeatedly. Johnny himself said that it would do wonders for me over time, increasing my resistance if I could keep it up. Doing that type of thing, especially if you actually go over and return from the edge, increases your limit just as aging would.
And so, I take a deep gasp; this time, instead of air, water is what fills my lungs. Water filled with Ether as only the immediate water around me calms. It seems as though this water is denser in Ether, and while I grow in power from my chains weakening once more, I feel supremely uncomfortable with the water in my lungs.
But I disregard all my discomfort and swim up as fast as possible while the Letiche tries to catch me again after its roar. My hand slaps the water, and my legs kick as much as I can to get away from this monster. I guess I at least understand why we were so careful moving through the marsh, though. A creature like this yet dwells within human territory.
Or is it even human territory? It doesn't look at all like it and certainly doesn't feel like it as I emerge from the water, grasping toward the tree. Dakota seems to have successfully killed the snake as the fox pushes an actual branch toward me that is firmly connected to the tree. I grab on and pull myself up just as the Letiche emerges.
It roars at me once more, making all the water twice as crazed as before, splashing, swirling, and funneling up in some places like waterspouts. I ignore its movement and glance at the two Hunters on the shore.
Their faces are furious and annoyed at an interloper occurring in their hunt. I see the woman nod at the man as she pulls an arrow and fires it at the Letiche. I guess she decided to get rid of the monster and let the other one get me.
My guess becomes true as scales fly off of the monster, and it groans in pain, turning around toward them. The man then dives into the water, swimming toward me rapidly as the woman focuses on the monster.
I turn and jump to the next tree and grab Dakota as it starts to get submerged by the crazed waves. Why did they not leave it to kill me? Do they need something from me alive, or do they just think it wouldn't have succeeded?
Doesn't matter to me what they want or think, though. This works out for me as I jump precariously from waterlogged tree to waterlogged tree as the water slowly rises.
Steps slowly grow more and more difficult as I push my mind to the very brink of its multi-task capabilities and activate Chainlink Boots. I can feel my mind strain at simultaneously holding so many skills up, but I need them all. So all I can do is push on and get to safety as fast as possible.
The boots of Ether help stabilize my feet with the sharp chains that emerge from them, allowing me to walk even on parts of a tree almost entirely covered with fast-flowing water. I take a quick look around as I see the entire vicinity is being swept by a wave of growing water. The Letiche chases down the 6th Sigiled woman, who uses her arrows to jump into the air and stay out of the water, each one breaking after a single step.
I watch with an impressed gaze for a short moment before I see the man getting closer. It seems as though he's gone underneath all the waves to try and reach me. But I'm getting closer to the shore, even if the shoreline is moving further away from the muddy tsunami.
My feet only grow faster as everything starts to crumble around me. My chest pulses with great pain as the water in it and the Ether fight against me, trying to rob me of my stolen strength.
I hold onto it for a bit longer, though, as I jump off of the series of trees and make it to the other shore, where the water is almost three feet deep and only continuing to grow and spread out. This Letiche is insane!
I try to keep my head and Dakota above water as I move as quickly as I can away, barely outpacing the water flow but not outpacing the man hot on my heels. Before I fight him, though, I want to be on a least a bit of dry land, so I keep moving despite the fact he is now right behind me. I can even hear the man's heavy breathing as he closes in, and I am forced to surge forward to dodge a grab from him.
After just a few more moments, we reach a place that has water only up to our ankles, and I turn around to face him. My ankle fires a flare of pain up at the movement, and numbness ends, but my focus only lies on the man just before me.
He gives me a long smile as he pulls a hatchet from his belt and starts to circle me, utterly silent. Actually, now that I think about it, none of these people have spoken yet. That's… quite odd.
However, I don't have time to dwell on it as he rushes me down.