Dante’s Immortality - Chapter 48

Guards began to swarm in, drawn in by the sound of the crowd's screams.

The entire situation actually worked in his favor. No one was paying any attention to him at all, and ducking his head to hide was far more effective without his silver hair.

Dante immediately headed for the gates, he needed to leave now. Staying an extra day had been a massive mistake, but he hadn’t expected the Calmans to have spread wanted posters so quickly.

Actually, he had thought that they had been so reliant on their Trackers that they wouldn’t resort to conventional means, such as a bounty. Even with his hair and eyes changed, his features would still match the sketch, making him easily identifiable.

And with a newly posted one thousand gold bounty, every second counted. Anyone who even walked past it would mark down his features so that they could recognize him on the off chance that they stumbled upon him. Just thinking about it made it hard to restrain himself from shoving his way through the crowd to move faster, but he managed.

When he finally made it to the gates that lead to the stairway out of Grimspeak, he was met with an unwelcome surprise. Contrary to what Clint had told him the day prior, the guards were checking anyone who was leaving. Carefully examining them before letting them past, but not checking any sort of documents.

Dante let out a curse. It didn’t take a genius to see why they were doing that. Grimspeak’s high altitude location was turning into a type of nightmarish prison.

Blinking over the gate was an option, but there was no way that he wouldn’t be seen and chased. The best-case scenario was leaving Grimspeak without anyone who was alive knowing he had ever been there… which was impossible unless he made a few detours. Not only would he need to track down and kill Clint, who he was quite certain would be willing to sell him out for a thousand gold, but the cartographer would also be a potential threat if left alive.

Dante took a deep breath. He might have been able to kill Clint if he knew where the man was. From his brief trip with Clint, he knew the world wouldn’t miss the man if he were dead. The cartographer was different though. He wouldn’t involve an innocent man who had done nothing but help him.

That line of thinking done, his new best-case scenario was to get out of Grimspeak with a significant head start. Enough of a head start to lose any potential pursuers in the open stretch of land between Grimspeak and the border.

Dismissing the idea of heading down the stairway, Dante cut through the crowd toward the lifts. As soon as he neared them, he moved to the side of the road and kept his head down and waited.

In less than five minutes he was rewarded by a cart led by two horses pushing through the dense crowd toward the lift.

Holding his breath, Dante pushed into the crowd, then crouched to reduce his visibility and lower himself to the appropriate height. Then he Blinked directly under the cart, holding on to the bottom of it and letting it carry him toward the lift as he waited for some commotion to indicate that someone had noticed him.

But the commotion never came. It seemed like the sudden Blink hadn’t caught the attention of anyone, or anyone who saw it didn’t realize what had happened. Dense crowds definitely had their pros.

Relying on the anonymity of the crowd to hide his Blink was his best idea to get out of Grimspeak on short notice, and even though it was a horrible idea, it had still worked.

The cart rolled up to the guards at the lift, and Dante calmed his breathing to be as quiet as possible as two of the guards began to systematically check the cart.

A gruff voice came from the front of the cart. “What do you think you are doing? I pay extra so that I don’t get checked.”

The guards didn’t pause, and one of them answered absentmindedly. “Calm down you thieving bastard, we won’t touch your merchandise. Everyone gets checked today, no exceptions.”

The sound of discontent muttering came from the front of the cart, but other than that there was no answer.

“Alright, everything seems to be in order.” The guard who had talked earlier began to lead the cart toward the gate.

“You can be damn sure of that, and let Aldric know I’m not paying him next month if this shit continues.” The crack of an indignant whip rang out. Causing the horses to hurry forward, even though they were only a few feet away from the lift.

As soon as the cart was securely on the lift, they slowly began descending toward the ground below.

So far, things were going far better than he had anticipated. Now he just needed to find an opportune moment to separate from the cart.

The lift clicked as it collided lightly on the floor and came to a stop, allowing the cart to move forward, and it had barely moved when the cart driver spoke up loudly. “What do you lot of bastards want?”

What now?

A matter-of-fact tone replied to the driver. “We are stationed here by the orders of House Calman. No one may enter or leave Grimspeak without being checked first.” Dante cursed internally, then shifted his grip on the cart so that he had a free hand to carry a weapon. He created a long dagger began pumping it full of world essence and shaping it.

A whip sounded out, and the horses moved forward. “I was already checked. Out of my way, you lot of bastards.”

There was an impact on the cart, and it came to a halt. The man who was talking to the cart driver had stopped two horses with a single hand, and Dante held back his curse.

He was strong, too strong. “Regardless of whether or not you were checked already, you will be rechecked.” This time there was no response. The cart driver seemed to realize the gravity of the situation.

Dante was debating whether or not to make a preemptive move when a head popped into view as one of the guards inspected the bottom of the cart.

Acting before the guard could utter a word, he Blinked closer to him and plunged the dagger into his eye. Then, without stopping, he moved to attack the guard who stopped the cart. Not only was he the clear leader, but it was likely that he was the largest threat present.

Dante Blinked out, utilizing his element of surprise to stab directly into the leader’s eyes.

He knew for a fact that he had caught the man off-guard, the widening of his eyes made that apparent, but somehow the leader got his sword up in time to block his blow.

Dante Blinked out, completely disengaging the leader and eyeing him warily. Not only were his Strength and Dexterity absurd, but the speed that he formed a world essence blade was insane. Even using Blink, his chances in an upfront confrontation were abysmal.

The leader saw how careful he was acting and gave him a cocky smile, there wasn’t a trace of anxiety on his face. “Looks like I’m due for a promotion, my luck couldn’t get much better.”

That was the second time he had heard those words that day, but this time they didn’t seem nearly as ironic.

Instead of answering, he took a moment to check his surroundings. Aside from the cart he rode on with the two horses harnessed to it, there were three guards, the leader, and the corpse of the one he killed. Behind the guards, there were five horses tethered to a tree. Those would be his best chance of escaping… but he had no experience in riding at all.

The other three guards didn’t seem like much of a threat, they were all hesitating to attack him, but he would need to at least deal with their leader if he was going to have any chance of getting away.

Dante created another weapon, this time a short sword. He began to recklessly fill it with world essence, not bothering to shape it.

There was also another potential threat he needed to be wary of, if they were checking everyone leaving Grimspeak, there would be another group of guards by the stairway. More regular guards wouldn’t be a problem, but if they had another combatant like the leader he was facing, his chances of escape would be demolished.

The new weapon he was creating had finally reached capacity. Dante Blinked forward, back to where he had been initially and only inches away from the leader, then he stabbed forward with both of his weapons.

The leader sneered, then swiped out at his weapons with his unarmed hand while simultaneously stabbing Dante through the gut with amazing speed.

There were groans of pain as the two of them both sustained damage. Dante with a sword through the gut, and the lead guard with his self-sustained injuries from blocking his dagger with an open hand. The two of them paused briefly, but then a look of realization crossed the leader's face, and it was his turn to sneer.

Dante Blinked away, putting as much distance between himself and the guard as he could before the sword he Blinked behind the leader exploded.

He had just managed to place some distance between them when the sword exploded, sending shards of shrapnel into all of the guards, but causing the lead guard to sustain the most extensive damage.

All of the guards were downed, and he Blinked back to finish them off while activating his Rebirth of the Revenant at two percent to heal the large wound through his gut.

He started killing the ones who sustained the least damage first. The killing seemed to be enough to completely stop his wound from bleeding out.

Then, after killing the other guards, he moved back to the leader.

The lead guard seemed to have weak Constitution and was almost certainly dead, but he wouldn’t take any chances. The last thing he needed was for someone that strong to search for him with a vengeance.

As he moved closer, Dante’s expression became unsightly. The lead guard was healing himself.

What Classification does he have?

The self-heal was far superior to his Rebirth of the Revenant passive. He could see the holes in the guard’s body stop bleeding, then repair themselves one by one. The guard was still pale from the lack of blood, but he was in no threat of dying.

Upon seeing it, he Blinked above the guard and aimed his long dagger downward, intent on taking the leader’s life. But the man seemed to be waiting for such a move. With a reaction time that seemed hard to believe, he swatted Dante’s blade to the side, then kicked him away.

Then, with a cocky smile back on his face, the guard stood and raised his sword towards Dante. “Not bad, but you won’t surprise me like that again.” Then he turned to the stairway and shouted as loud as he could. “Jared get your ass over here!”

Shit.

Instead of being stalled by a guard that didn’t seem killable, Dante Blinked to the horses by the cart. The driver continued to watch dumbfounded as he slashed their throats, then he Blinked to the tree were the guard’s horses were. He stabbed into four of their throats, not taking the time to ensure the kill, but made sure they would be slowed at the very least, then cut the reins on the last horse and jumped on its back.

Even though he didn’t have any riding experience, he decided to risk fleeing on horseback before the exhaustion from his passive kicked in. He settled into the saddle with a death grip and slapped the horse on its hindquarter with the flat of his blade, causing it to shoot off at an all-out sprint.