Chapter 397: Day 824 (5) – Victory?

Chapter 397: Day 824 (5) – Victory?

I threw another punch and this time she dodged. She kicked out and I moved in closer. The Divine Empress swung up her stump to strike me, but it was a stump, not a hand. I delivered a massive blow to her gut she wasn’t ready for.

That was the bad part about getting crisped and being disoriented. High level combat required a person to counter impacts. If they missed an attack, it could be devastating. She staggered backwards, blood dripping out of her mouth.

I punched again towards her face, but it was a feint. I aimed for her gut. Another feint. My first hand came back and slammed into her jaw. She went tumbling along the ground. She quickly recovered and retreated. I chased after her for a moment, but she was as fast as I was. There was no way I was going to be able to stop her before she got back to the plaza and got a restoration.

It was kind of a win, but I had used my trump card and hadn’t been able to kill her. I didn’t have the energy to chase her either. Perhaps upgrading my skills had been a mistake, but it was one reason I was barely able to stay ahead of her and threaten her.

Dammit! I turned and left the city of East Bastion, running for the West. I was out of time. She would be after me right away and I had no doubt she would not be stopping her pursuit. I couldn’t let a fully healed Divine Empress, catch up with me.

I raced for the level 3 zone and exit to the East Bastion area. Clarissa had a road built from the East Bastion towards the East, cutting through the stonelands, mistlands, before turning South and ending North of the foul river.

I ran along the road. It drifted South for a bit and then went straight East. “Divine Empress incoming!” I shouted at a passing pair of people. I yelled that at everyone I passed, and they quickly scattered away. I wasn’t about to slow down for anything, but I wouldn’t let them get killed without a warning.

It would take her fifteen minutes to go back and get a restoration. That meant I had half an hour lead. Not much, but she would be hesitant to confront me directly. I wish I didn’t have to use my trump card in that tunnel through the wall, but I wasn’t going to be able to keep the energy I needed while staying ahead of her.

I checked behind me on the road. One reason I was on it, so I could see her. I had thought about running some other direction, but that was only a delaying measure. I also had no idea how high her Sense stat was. I had been hiding before and she had somehow picked up on my trail and followed me to East Bastion. I wasn’t not about to underestimate her in the slightest.

In the far distance I could see her chasing after me. That was annoying but completely expected. The only option I figured I had to was to draw the combat into a high-risk area and then force her to fight. It would be incredibly risky, trigger a level 5 monster, but it was going to be necessary if I was going to lose her.

The chase continued as the light source slowly set in front of me. I was just entering the level 3 zone and the road was a god send rather than trying to use the boulders of the stonelands. I would have to slow down to go from boulder to boulder, and it would impact me much more than the Divine Empress who could just soar after me.

I was also letting my energy come back. She had only gained on me slightly, but was about twenty minutes behind if I had to guess. I was losing about ten minutes per zone. I did the math in my head, that gave me two zones to work with before she caught up to me.

I looped around while she was distracted and aimed for the darklands again. I had probably reached this tower from the South, so I needed to head back that direction. A horde of skittering bladed horrors was right in front of me. Air Burst. Air Burst. Air Burst.

I went over all of them, leaving the Divine Empress behind in the mess. While dodging a beam attack from the tower golems. The level 5 tower golems were unleashing a constant barrage at her while the Skittering Bladed Horrors came at her from the rear. After everything she had been through I wasn’t holding my breath that would kill her. But it should delay her at the very least.

Entering the darklands again, I ran. Thankfully the light source finally began to rise, breaking the absolute darkness, so I could adjust my course to head directly South. Checking behind me, no Divine Empress.

I heaved a sigh of relief, but that only was encouragement to go faster. I could see beams and hear the sound of fighting coming from the tower. Just die already! Why won’t you die! I mean, this woman was worse than a liquid terminator.

She just fought her way through everything and just wouldn’t die. It was honestly insane to me, how one person could survive this much. Clearing the darklands, there were only three skittering bladed horrors behind me and I saw the Divine Empress about forty or so minutes behind me.

I adjust my course to be more to the Southwest than directly South. I would pass by the foul lake and then go right for Heaven. That was two and a half zones, so I would lose about twenty five minutes. The swamp would be annoying, but she would have the same issues as me.

Then say five minutes to buy supplies. I still had two full zone lengths to cross to get to the tower I needed to with the Astrologer inside.

I had briefly considered entering the tower near the darklands, but that was stupid and a death sentence. If I could get to the Astrologer’s tower, then I would be able to lock her out for at least a day. I would have a time crunch to climb the tower and I didn’t know if there would be internal blocks, or how that would work, but it was my only hope.

The big issue right now, was that I was short ten minutes. If I cut down my shop time to one minute instead of five, then I would be short six minutes. The last bit of running into the tower would be quite tricky. I needed to delay her.

I had none of my equipment on me, including the headlamp that had been made before. Dammit! The problem was lantern fuel only kept it lit for an hour. The cost wasn’t an issue, but the amount I could carry. I needed to pack food and other supplies.

Well the darklands gave me confidence about moving in the dark, so I would hopefully be able to handle the tower relying on my Sense stat. I didn’t want to do it, but I had to do it. It was my only hope. Maybe it would light up once the doors were closed.

That would be nice, but I wasn’t hopeful. I leapt over the foul river and kept moving. Once I hit the swamp I would use the occasional Air Burst to speed me along. By the time she caught up, I should regain my energy. I just needed to figure out a way to delay her for a couple of minutes and how I was going to enter the tower with the golems at the entrances.