The Lich's Master

Chapter 17: A Hopeless Escape

Kyle took a sharp breath as Igna unsheathed her blade. He considered trying to fight her, but not more than a split second of consideration was needed to figure our what a terrible idea that was.

So, he turned around, and dashed in the opposite direction.

Now, bounties worked a certain way: A player bounty was temporary. At most, they lasted for seventy two ours, as in, three days. For this one, Kyle had noticed a timer when Igna showed the interface to him. It had just eight hours left.

That meant two things: Kyle had a slight chance of escaping, and Igna was in a hurry to kill him.

As he dashed uphill, he forced himself to think. Hiding in Cacophus’ cave was not a viable option. Igna wielded the power of the sun god after all. She probably could defeat the Lich in just a couple of hits.

Running towards the elves also seemed like a fairly bad idea. He had barely gotten them to accept him as an outsider. If he brought an angry woman with a flaming sword to their grove, he didn’t think they’d be amused.

With those two places out of the question, there was only one thing left to do: Run to the mountain.

His mad dash up the hill allowed him to put some distance between him and Igna, though he had no doubt she would catch up fairly soon. She was higher level after all, and probably knew at least one mobility skill.

That meant that Kyle couldn’t afford to just run in a straight line. He needed to confuse her, hide away and then sneak past her back to safety. In short, some bamboozling was quite necessary.

“Damn, you’re fast Kyle!” her shout reached his ears. Her voice was full of joy, she was clearly having the time of her life. That was fine, except for Kyle’s somewhat irrational fear of permanent death. He simply couldn’t bring himself to accept to die.

He ran through the woods, up the hill towards the monster camp he cleared just the other day. The goblins had respawned already, and he immediately spied some loot just sitting there, out in the open. He bit his lips, he didn’t exactly have the luxury of time right now.

“Flamestrike!” Igna’s voice sounded. Kyle drew a sharp breath and looked over his shoulder to see her wave her blade around. A wave of fire followed her blade, and expanded outwards, burning the goblins to a crips. She paused momentarily to collect the loot, then grinned as their gazes locked.

Kyle’s face turned pale. She was stronger than he expected. His heart raced as he put the camp behind him and continued dashing upwards. Soon, the trees began to thin out. The green leafed trees were nowhere to be seen anymore, all that dotted the landscape were the tall pine trees.

The shrubbery had also grown thin. Large enough plants that could have concealed him became rarer as the air grew colder. The small, narrow stone path he was following became less clear, the stones that formed it left their places to a simple dirt road with patches of wildflowers growing at places.

Kyle couldn’t help but glance around as he ran. He had never climbed up this mountain quite so far before. The view that stretched before him as he looked to his left was breath taking. He could see forests that stretched all the way to the foot of the mountain. The fields that covered most of the flatlands, and the large city in the distance.

Arceum, the hub city of the players. It was likely where most players resided in. The homing system was working within those walls, and especially elite players – like Igna – could even own small mansions.

“If you die to some random high level mob,” Igna’s voice reached his ears, pulling him out of his thoughts and snapping him back to the present. “I swear I’ll find and kill you again!” She finished her words.

Kyle couldn’t help but let out a laugh, though he definitely didn’t slow down. He continued running on the now dirt path, hoping to come across some dense vegetation, or some caves to hide in. He hopped over a narrow creek, only to see a few flying enemies approach from above.

He wondered, could he use them to his advantage? He dashed under them and heard Igna’s annoyed grunts not a moment later. When he looked over his shoulder, he noticed the woman cut a monster’s wing off, and decapitate the other. She had hardly stopped to kill them, but every second she lost was a second gained for Kyle.

He spied a camp not far from the dirt path, though it was much more crowded than the one he cleared before, and instead of goblins, it was filled with about a handful of ogres. He gulped and turned away from it. As much as he’d like to have Igna clear the camp and lose some more time, he simply couldn’t risk getting one shot by a high level creature.

“This is getting boring!” Igna’s voice reached his ears.

“Sorry, but I’d rather not die!” He responded in turn before continuing his climb to the peak. Maybe, just a chance, she would decide not to go all the way to the top. Despite her unique weapon and top ranker status, she was far from immortal, and Kyle could bet an arm that there was a powerful enemy at the peak of the mountain.

“I noticed that!” Igna shouted. Her voice seemed to come from closer than it should. When Kyle looked over his shoulder again, he quickly noticed her closing the distance between them. “And I really want that bounty!” She said with a grin on her face. Her eyes sparkled, and she grasped her sword even tighter.

Kyle clenched his fists and looked forward again. The path he had been following up until now split into two, one that circled around the mountain downwards, and one that led up to the peak.

He didn’t hesitate as he beelined to the top. If she wanted to kill him, he was going to make her face some danger herself too.

Besides, maybe, just a small chance, but perhaps he could orchestrate a repeat of what happened with that dumb knight.