Dante’s Immortality - Chapter 49

Dante continued to glance around, looking for an opportunity to get rid of the demon he was sitting on while at the same time lose his pursuers.

Any lead that he had initially started with was destroyed by his poor riding skills. He was constantly losing his seating, barely hanging on to the horse, and then pulling himself back up.

The damn beast didn’t even seem useful, even though it was far faster than any other horse he had seen. The speed it ran was only marginally faster than he was in an all-out sprint… if his Rebirth of the Revenant passive hadn’t exhausted him, that is.

The skill, which was useful for keeping his insides inside his body, was taking its toll on him. Even though he only killed three enemies at two percent, almost completely healing his single gut wound, he could feel the sluggishness set into his body.

Dante glanced back. The five guards were still on his tail and gaining. Two of them in particular were downright frightening. The first, riding forefront with the same cocky smile, was the guard he should have killed. The other, who was only slightly behind him, was Jared. He didn’t know much about Jared, but given that he talked to the undead guard as though they were equals, it didn’t bode well for him.

He created two cheap swords and began to fill them with world essence. Now that they were within range, and he was within the range of their two archers’ arrows, it was time to try and reopen some of the distance.

Glancing back and picking his shots carefully, he blinked both of the swords at one of the archers.

The shrapnel tore through both the archer and the horse, causing the animal to cry out and crumple under the archer. And although he couldn’t see the whether or not the archer lived, it was unlikely that he would be able to continue the chase without his horse.

He saw other pieces of the shrapnel fly into the other horses and guards, but they barely flinched, a testament to both the rider and horses training.

The other archer saw his friend go down, then quickly drew his bowstring back and released.

Seeing the arrow coming, Dante swung his arm towards its path. Creating a new weapon just as it was about to reach him so that he could intercept it. Or at least he would have intercepted it if the horse hadn’t jostled him, causing him to lose his bearing and miss the arrow.

Dante winced as he watched the arrow sink deeply into his horse’s hindquarter. To the beast’s credit, it took the arrow rather well. Barely flinching, and only slowing its pace slightly.

Still, it was enough to slowly close the gap between him and the two real threats.

Not knowing how to best administer treatment to the horse, he decided to leave the arrow in and allow the horse to deal with it the best it could, then switched his focus back to the archer to diminish the possible damage he could inflict.

Creating a second blade, he began to pump world essence into the two of them, Blinking it back to the archer to distract him as he shot the second arrow.

The sword exploded, blasting shrapnel into the archer and his horse as he shot from his bow. The arrow sailed over him, completely missing both he and his horse.

He was now left with a single sword that was packed with world essence and a weakened archer. He didn’t hesitate to Blink his last sword, taking down the final archer.

That done, Dante created a new sword with the maximum amount of mana and began forming an edge on it. There were only three guards left, and even though they had no ranged attacks, they were gaining steadily.

Dante calmed his breathing and used the remaining distance he had to regain his spent mana. He had no delusions, what he was planning was beyond stupid with his lack of ability on horseback.

The three guards were still creeping up on him and were now only a few feet away. Gritting his teeth, Dante Blinked behind the weakest guard, slashing him through his neck with the blade, then tried to remove the fresh corpse from the saddle while maintaining his balance on the horse.

His coordination from his Dexterity attribute aided him, and he was able to easily orient himself on the horses back, but mo matter which way he yanked, he couldn’t get the damned corpse to disentangle from the saddle. The feet seemed to somehow be locked into the stirrups.

Jared spoke up, seemingly impressed. “Not bad kid, you do have promise.”

Neither of them seemed bothered in the slightest, they merely yanked on their reins and spun their horses to charge him.

Cursing, Dante leaned over the corpse and picked up the horse’s reins. He narrowly avoided the guard's charge by catching them off-guard and rushing into the forest.

Even though he laid flat against the corpse on the horses back, the branches of the surrounding trees still barraged him as he charged forward. He couldn’t open his eyes for even the briefest moment, but he didn’t allow the horse to slow its pace at all.

The chase lasted for over an hour. No matter how far he got, or how fast he ran his horse, the crashing sound of his pursuers running through the forest behind him never disappeared… and the exploding blades he Blinked at them didn’t make any difference.

The only thing that seemed to break up the chase was when he finally reached a large, circular clearing. It was completely barren aside from grass, and he used the opportunity look back and see how far away the two guards were.

That seemed to be his fatal mistake. Somehow his horse lost its footing underneath him, completely flipping him through the air with the corpse as he flew forward. On instinct alone, he Blinked. Forcing himself as far to the side as possible to avoid being crushed underneath his horse or trampled or by his pursuers.

The impact was the opposite of what he thought it would be. He didn’t slide through the grass or tumble on the floor. As soon as he touched the floor, he stuck to it, exactly how he landed.

What is this?

He tried to Blink, but the mana just diffused. Just like it had when he was captured by the Forsaker.

He was laying sideways on the floor, staring back towards the forest where he had come from when his two pursuers broke through the vegetation. As soon as their horses touched the grass next to his, they immediately came to a halt, throwing their riders forward to where he would have landed had he not Blinked.

He couldn’t tell whether or not he was happy that they had also gotten stuck. On one hand, they wouldn’t capture him anytime soon… on the other, if this situation was lethal, they wouldn’t be able to save him.

The two of them took the situation calmly though, and began talking to each other out of his view. Quiet enough so that he couldn’t hear what was being said.

Clearly, they were planning something. Meaning that either there was some chance of survival, or they also didn’t know what was going on.

Dismissing his pursuers, Dante looked at the grass that was actually entrapping him. Not only was it ridiculously sticky, but it also had the effect of blocking Blink. He attempted to use Create Blade to create a new sword. Nothing. It was exactly like the Forsaker Classification.

He couldn’t think of a single way that things could turn out okay, but he could think of several ways that things could go badly as he began to slowly sink into the grass.

He didn’t want to rely upon the two who would enslave him given the chance, but the situation was somewhat desperate. “Tell me that one of you has a way to get out of this.”

The one who he came close to killing earlier snorted. “Of course, we just need to kill it.”

Jared spoke up with a voice full of annoyance. “For the love of the Goddess, shut up Arron.”

Why shouldn’t he know that they needed to kill it, whatever ‘it’ was? That seemed like somewhat pertinent information as he slowly sank down into the dirt.

Dante cleared his throat. “Do you think you could elaborate a bit?”

Jared was quick to answer, likely trying to beat Arron to the punch. “Don’t worry, we will handle everything. Can’t let Andrea’s new pet get too roughed up.”

Andrea?

He had never heard the name before, but they were House Calman’s guards. So, he could assume she was a Calman. Potentially someone with more influence than Layla or Alexander. That didn’t matter at the moment though, he needed to think of a way to deal with the two combatants that were sinking next to him.

He didn’t know what Jared could do yet, but Arron was one of the most exceptional fighters he had ever seen, and his Classifications definitely weren’t standard.

Dante hardened his resolve as he slowly sank into the ground. He would kill the two of them, and whatever ‘it’ was as well.