Chapter 1269: Pursuit 1

Garen flew at lightning speeds. The snowstorm ahead of and around him grew denser and thicker, but he felt as though there was an immense danger that he could not shake off approaching him.

"The Soul Rings don't lie, looks like serious trouble is brewing!" Garen had long since expected that the disharmony between his soul and his body would invite trouble, but he never thought that it would come so soon.

Panic began to rise in his heart.

But since he was carrying the Ice Stalagmite, he just could not increase his speed to its maximum limit. The only comfort he had was the massive amount of potential aura surging endlessly into his body from the Ice Stalagmite.

It had only been a short while, but he had another Attribute Point now.

Garen quickly added it to his Speed, and he instantly felt himself speed up. The anxiety in his heart eased up slightly.

Everything before him was a flurry of white snow, and he could not see anything at all, so he did not even know where he was flying toward. What he did know, however, was that if he did not fly and the danger behind him caught up, the results would not be as pleasant as he imagined.

The power level of this world was too high, and their research into the workings of the soul was too advanced. He could not hide himself well at all.

Whoosh...

Suddenly, Garen seemed to hear something ring out behind him.

He concentrated and listened carefully. Suddenly, his expression changed, and he sank downward fiercely, leaving his original position.

Psst!

Just as he sank down, a black light shot past the place in the sky where he had been just a moment ago, leaving a long trail of afterimages in its wake. After it broke past the snowstorm ahead, it vanished without a trace.

Garen's forehead began to sweat. He lifted his left claw and saw that the back of the claw — the hardest part — had a deep gash carved out of it. It had been sliced open by the snow scattered as a result of the black light bullet that he had just avoided.

"Well... This really is serious trouble..." He flapped his wings even faster.

Soon, he floated upward again, avoiding the bolt of black light as it came back.

Hugging the Ice Stalagmite carefully, Garen used all of his power to fly forward madly as fast as he could, unwilling to linger for even a moment. If he still had some doubts earlier, they had all been put to rest by now. That guy behind him was terrifyingly strong, and completely beyond his current capabilities to resist.

Thankfully, Garen's combat realm was too high, giving him a complete understanding and comprehension of the environment around him within a certain range. Otherwise, he never would have avoided that bolt of black light in time.

The unknown enemy behind him also seemed to have noticed that this attack was ineffective, so they stopped using it. Instead, they fell quiet.

However, Garen was not naive enough to think that they had given up.

Soon enough, the Ice Stalagmite gave him yet another Attribute Point. He quickly added it to his Speed as well. His speed was bumped up another notch.

The enemy behind him seemed to be slightly surprised and confused about how he kept increasing his speed.

***************

In the middle of the snowstorm, the pitch-black Suffering Knight shone with black light as it flew, weaving through the storm. It had vaguely locked onto a small thing flying in front of him. The snowstorm was too heavy, though, and it was quite far away. The first time the Suffering Knight attacked, he had missed, and as a result, the little thing was wary now. It had gotten even faster.

"This is no longer the speed of a regular Dragon Whelp..." The Suffering Knight was slightly surprised.

But since its master had ordered it, it gave chase determinedly, even though it could not match up to the target's speed.

Any living creature would eventually grow tired, but it was different...

It looked down at the red symbols on the Greatsword, hesitated for a moment, and still chose not to activate it yet.

That was an Undead Imprint. When it had hit the little Dragon Whelp's claw just now, it had already placed the imprint on the Dragon Whelp. Once it was activated, the Dragon Whelp would be instantly dragged into the Blinding Hell, forcing the Dragon Whelp into a one-on-one fight to the death with the Suffering Knight.

But this was the Suffering Knight's strongest ability. If it activated that now, it would take at least two or three hundred years to recover. The target was a mutated soul, so it would not activate that ability unless it had no other choice.

****************

The time ticked by slowly, and soon enough, a day had passed.

Garen had already absorbed all of the potential in the Ice Stalagmite and gained thirteen whole Attribute Points, but he did not add them all to his Speed. He was already fast enough to leave the enemy behind him in the dust, and Attribute Points were precious, so he could not use them up so carelessly. Besides, he had a feeling that even if he added them to his Speed, he might still be unable to shake off that enemy behind him.

There was no reasoning behind this feeling, but Garen subconsciously trusted this sort of premonition.

He had flown at high speeds for a full day, so Garen was already completely worn out. He desperately needed to rest.

Even though he was being nurtured by the Soul Energy, his body was still that of a normal Dragon Whelp. It was already quite impressive that he could stay on the run for so long.

The enemy behind him would occasionally take advantage of his weariness. When his speed decreased, the enemy would close the distance again, scaring Garen into picking up his speed again.

But as a result, he had also glimpsed the enemy pursuing him.

It was a suit of empty knight's armor, with a pair of green flames burning where its eyes should be. It was very similar to the Undead Knight in his Inherited Memories.

"I knew it! Dammit!" Garen had guessed that his soul's uniqueness would be discovered by a master researching the soul, but he did not predict that they would come for him so quickly.

It was just a simple trip out, and he was already being chased down by an Undead Creature.

He just could not shake off the thing behind him, and for a moment there, Garen was stumped as well. He had completely lost his way around here, flying around everywhere in this snowstorm meant that he could not find any location markers whatsoever. Luckily, he had not encountered any high-level Elder Giant Iguanas even after flying around for so long, otherwise he would be just as dead.

Rawrr...!

Suddenly, there was a violent woman's scream from behind him.

A green wave instantly scattered the snowstorm all around him, completely revealing the distance between the Knight and Garen.

The wave hit Garen's body directly without any obstruction whatsoever.

Garen's whole body stiffened, and he paused in mid-air for just an instant.

Pff!

Tiny wounds opened up all over his body, and white blood sprayed out of the gashes.

A pain that came from the depths of his soul jolted through Garen, rendering him so dizzy he nearly fell directly down.

His chest tightened abruptly. At first, he had thought that he could just keep running like this, but he had not expected the guy behind him to suddenly use such a terrifying attack.

He knew this Spell.

Inferno Horn... a Level Seven Spell that was created as a failed attempt to mimic a Level Nine Banshee's Wail. Even so, it also had a terrifying destructive effect on the soul.

This was a special technique that only the strongest Undead Creature, the Suffering Knight, possessed!

"A Suffering Knight... This is bad!" Garen felt as though he was experiencing enough bad luck to last eight lifetimes. He bumped into a Level Seven Creature so soon after coming out, and he was just a regular Level Four Creature. Even so, he was already being hunted down by a Level Seven Creature.

Withstanding the pain out of habit, Garen glanced at his status pane.

That glance and the condition of his status pane made his heart thump heavily.

'Safive — Strength 21 (19), Agility 17 (15), Vitality 12 (10), Intelligence 17 (15), Potential 89%. Soul Limit 170.

Level 1 Draconic Aura. Level 1 Arcane Art Basics.

Currently under influence of Inferno Curse: All attributes reduced by two points every hour, requires positive energy to dispel, or else it will only automatically wear off after three days of rest and waiting. If not dispelled with positive energy, the target will permanently lose an average of five points. Warning, this curse is stackable.'

It actually reduced all of his attributes by two points!

And that was not all. An unprecedented sense of weakness permeated through Garen's body ceaselessly. He felt as though his body was a bucket that kept leaking water, his power was constantly dripping out of it.

He noticed the Inferno Curse icon at the very bottom, and swore inwardly.

An average reduction of two points every hour, and if he did not use positive energy to dispel it, he would actually lose five Attribute Points per attribute forever!

That was ridiculous!

If he could not manage to dispel it and it was disabled automatically in the end.

Four Attributes would result in a total loss of twenty points! That would take up all of the Attribute Points he just earned on this trip out, wouldn't it?

Garen also noticed that his four Soul Rings, stacked on top of each other, were starting to crack slightly after that roar just now.

Evidently, this type of attack from the enemy was too powerful, and it was aimed straight at the soul. It was extremely strong.

No wonder the powerhouses of this world could even casually catch a creature from another dimension for their experiments.

"What now?" He was starting to grow anxious. If at first he had tried to wear out the enemy behind him, he had now completely given up on the plan after finding out that the enemy was a member of the Undead. Undead Creatures did not tire.

And he also noticed the last bit of information about the curse- the Inferno Curse was stackable.

"Dammit! This damned thing stacks!?" For the first time, he had the urge to insult someone's mother.

Once was enough to crack his Soul Rings and potentially cause him to lose twenty potential points forever. How could he take one more hit!

He guessed that this might be because his level was too low and his Vitality was not enough, so he just was not strong enough. After all, that was a Level Seven Spell, and he had managed to endure it without dying despite being only Level Four. This was already extremely remarkable, in any other situation, it would practically be a miracle. Even if the Inferno Curse's main effect was to weaken, and not to kill off the enemy, it was still very impressive for a Dragon Whelp.

There was a three-level difference right there.

Although he was panicked inside, Garen's many years of experience allowed him to instantly calm down, suppressing any unnecessary emotions.

Under these circumstances, where he did not know how the enemy locked onto his tracks, the chances of hiding being ineffective were too high, so all he could do was run.

But if he just kept running like this, he would still end up dying eventually.

The Soul Energy in Garen's heart slowly began to tremble. He started to carefully sense the presences of all the creatures around him. Although he could not let his Soul Energy leave his body to explore, he still had the Demon Lords' Natural Ability, Dream Control.

As one of Ancient Endor's Demon Lords, the most troublesome thing he could encounter was an enemy discovering his uniqueness when he was in his smallest and weakest state. Before Demon Lords came of age, it was also catastrophic for them to be discovered.

Even though they matured extremely quickly, if they were discovered at such a time, they would still only be one or two levels higher in terms of survival power compared to other creatures at the same level.

It was already very remarkable for Garen to withstand a Spell three levels higher than himself.

Put into perspective, it was like fighting a steel knife with a balloon, and the balloon actually managed to take a hit without exploding. It was practically a miracle!

His Soul Rings trembled slowly. Under these dangerous circumstances, he pinpointed the locations of all the creatures around him, and they all appeared in Garen's mind, rapidly using up a large amount of his Soul Energy. He could not care less, however. If he was going to be stingy about little things like that at a time like this, he would truly be done for.

"Bottom left!"

He rapidly decided on a direction. The Soul Rings had given him the safest guide in this difficult situation, and although this direction seemed to be extremely perilous as well, it was already much better than the other few directions.

Garen never thought for a moment that he would die in this snowstorm without knowing anything. Since the enemy did not kill him off at the first opportunity, this clearly meant that it had other considerations. As long as Garen still had space to maneuver, he would surely have a chance to turn things around.

Garen also firmly believed in that.

"It seems that after living peacefully for so long, I've also started to let myself go..." Garen began to reprimand himself. Perhaps it was because his days so far had been too easy and carefree, maybe that was why he had ended up in such a dangerous state without even knowing it.

The snowstorm was growing stronger.

He flapped his wings and sped up, diving toward the bottom left.

*****************

"Sure is running fast... Is that its final struggle?" The Suffering Knight sensed the Dragon Whelp ahead of it from far away, and had already noticed that the target's speed was dropping. The second Inferno Curse that it was about to unleash faded slowly.

"Looks like it's just a matter of time before I catch it. There's no need to use up too much energy..."

It glanced at the glyphs on its Greatsword and decided not to activate it, after all.

Speeding up, it rapidly gave chase.

A vacuum layer separated the all-encompassing snowstorm around, and not even one snowflake actually touched his armor.