96 Prey and Hunter
The ming monster pursued relentlessly, hurling crimson fireballs that sted craters in the earth. Lumian was thrown off bnce multiple times.
mes licked at the charred logs that littered the destendscape, casting flickering red light in every direction.
Lumian barely spared a thought for the fire still consuming his clothes. Gritting his teeth against the searing pain, he was sent sprawling by the shockwaves of detonation after detonation. He staggered to his feet and careened wildly towards his destination—veering left, then right, arcing and darting straight ahead.
Mercifully, he didn’t have far to go based on his n. Just as he felt the taste of blood in his mouth and his body threatened to give out, a dpidated building loomed before him.
Boom!
Lumian contorted his body mid-stride, narrowly avoiding a fireball. The scarlet projectile exploded just ahead, unleashing a hellish maelstrom of mes.
Seizing the moment, Lumian dropped to the ground and rolled beneath the worst of the congration. With the momentum, he tumbled into the partially copsed structure.
The ming monster halted and hesitated, wary of pursuing its prey into a potential death trap.
It watched as Lumian rolled deeper into the building, summoning a swarm of red Fire Ravens around it.
Their screeches filled the air as they took flight. Half of them dove towards the building’s support beams, while the others bore down on Lumian from all sides.
These avian mes were unerring, constantly adjusting their trajectories to match Lumian’s movements.
In that instant, the ming monster could almost see its enemy’s charred remains.
Fire Ravens were far more difficult to dodge than mere fireballs!
And then, Lumian disappeared from the monster’s view.
He had rolled into a well-preserved basement.
Bang!
Lumian mmed the wooden door shut and leaped aside, using the force of the impact.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! The scarlet Fire Ravens mmed into the door.
Boom!
The heavy door disintegrated into ming splinters.
Rumble!
The remaining Fire Ravens struck their intended targets, bringing down the decaying structure in a torrent of debris.
Stone, wood, and dust engulfed the area, entombing the basement.
Lumian had already taken refuge in a corner, using the umted dirt to smother the mes that clung to him.
But he was still badly burned, his internal organs battered by the force of the explosions. Without swift medical attention, he wouldn’tst another day.
The ming monster’s attack had been devastating, even more potent than Ryan sans his Hurricane of Light!
Lumian had intended to use Invisibility to elude the ming monster, slipping into the basement to perform his enigmatic sacrificial dance, activating the ck thorn symbol on his chest to terrify his foe. He’d nned to bide his time for Fallen Mercury toplete the exchange of fate. But the persistent fire had thwarted his Invisibility, nearly costing him his life.
The one constion was that he had a backup n in the event he couldn’t escape the monster’s pursuit, nor could he perform his sacrificial dance in peace.
He’d even considered copsing the building to bury the basement and buy time, but the ming monster had done the job for him.
Phew… Exhaling deeply, Lumian sat cross-legged.
He retrieved the bottle of gray amber perfume from Aurore, unscrewed the cap, and ced it before him.
Outside the demolished building, the ming monster’s gaze cut through the swirling dust, searching for any trace of its quarry.
It was certain that the cunning intruder wouldn’t have been buried alive so easily.
Given theplexity of the traps he’did and his intimate knowledge of the ruins, he must have left himself an escape route!
The ming monster wasn’t particrly intelligent, but its Hunter’s instincts led it to circle the copsed building.
In less than ten seconds, it discovered a hidden cave entrance angling downward.
The opening was concealed by debris from the fallen structure, sheltered from the ensuing copse. It was difficult to spot and tucked away in a discreet location.
The monster raised its right hand, conjuring a fist-sized white fireball in its palm.
With a sudden lunge, it hurled the fireball down the passageway.
The mes streaked through the air, prated the basement, and collided with the far wall.
Boom!
The st wave didn’t affect Lumian, who was deliberately hiding in another corner. It only overturned the bottle of gray amber perfume in front of him and quaked the entire basement.
The gurgle of liquid flowed from the open bottle, its elegant and sweet fragrance intensifying instantly.
Lumian leaned against the wall, eyes closed, lost in Cogitation.
His mind conjured a crimson sun, holding it steady for a few seconds.
Suddenly, a terrifying sound reached Lumian’s ears, as if from an infinite distance yet unnervingly close.
Blue veins bulged across his face, hands, and neck, quickly turning red.
Simultaneously, silver-ck spots seeped from his skin.
He opened his mouth to scream, but copsed and curled up before a sound could escape.
Fallen Mercury slipped from Lumian’s left palm, but it dared not make a move. It didn’t even attempt to approach his exposed face or right hand to create a marite through contact.
It just quivered there, violently.
Outside the basement, the monster poised to conjure a fireball froze beside the entrance Lumian had excavated.
It couldn’t help but shudder.
A few secondster, it fled, abandoning the hunt.
...
Lumian plunged into a darkness teeming with flickering mes. His mind was overwhelmed with excruciating pain and malevolent thoughts.
In that moment, death seemed preferable. He sensed something deep within him rapidly growing and taking form.
It appeared to be a traumaposed of all negative personalities and a particr will. Once assembled into human shape, it would utterly supnt the original him.
Amid the unending darkness of despair and pain, Lumian caught a whiff of a scent.
Elegant and sweet.
It was Aurore’s fragrance, a familiar aroma.
Aurore… Grande Soeur… Lumian slowly regained hisposure, as if hearing theforting melody once more.
I want to live!
The loop hasn’t ended yet!
…
A rush of thoughts flooded back to him. Lumian finally vanquished the pitch-ck will and the agonyced darkness within his heart and opened his eyes.
...
The first thing in his sight was the toppled bottle of gray amber perfume on the ground.
It toppled? Lumian’s heart ached as he reached out his right hand.
Initially, he’d only intended to mimic Aurore’s use of incense to control his symptoms and rely on the natural perfume as a wake-up call. Unexpectedly, more than half the bottle had spilled.
In the next instant, his body quivered. He saw the charred, bloodstained back of his hand and the silver-ck circr spots that had yet to fade.
Without needing a reminder, Lumian could “smell” the unfamiliar, hair-raising scent on himself.
If he crossed paths with Valentine now, he’d be “purified” by his Holy Light Summoning without revealing a thing.
Lumian scooped up the remaining half of the gray amber perfume, tightened the cap, and stowed it away.
He then picked up Fallen Mercury, still trembling violently, and asked in Hermes, “Is the fate exchange over?”
Fallen Mercury swiftly shook left and right, signaling it wasn’t.
Lumian exhaled in relief.
He feared that by the time he awoke, the fate exchange would’ve beenpleted—the shock wouldst no more than a minute.
If he couldn’t locate the ming monster in time, his recent torment would be futile.
Breathe in, breathe out… Lumian adjusted his dreadful condition and mustered his remaining strength before crawling out of the basement through the hole he had dug earlier.
Each motion tugged at various wounds, making him wince in pain.
Upon exiting the basement, Lumian searched for the ming monster’s tracks and sighed inwardly.
Using Cogitation in such a state and fully activating the thorn symbol on my chest is downright suicidal…
I haven’t done it since bing a Hunter, barely repressing the symptoms with gray amber’s scent. Had I done it a few times before, my body might have mutated slightly, turning me into a monster…
I can’t risk this for a while unless I have a death wish…
He opted for Cogitation to fully activate the ck thorn symbol on his chest rather than the sacrificial dance’s partial activation, as time was of the essence and he couldn’t perform the dance.
With Cogitation, he could frighten off the ming monster in five or six seconds. The enigmatic sacrificial dance, however, took 30 to 40 seconds—even with his familiarity.
In Lumian’s hunting strategy, this was hisst resort. If he couldn’t evade the ming monster’s pursuit by other means, he’d attempt Cogitation!
Lumian hadn’t anticipated that Cogitation would leave him gravely injured from the start and on the brink of losing control, turning into a monster.
Before long, Lumian discovered the ming monster’s tracks and pursued them.
A few minutester, the prints appeared fresher, so he slowed his pace.
Soon after, Fallen Mercury shuddered on its own, notifying Lumian that the fate exchange wasplete.
Without hesitation, Lumian brandished the iron-ck axe and charged forward, following the ming monster’s footprints.
In under twenty seconds, he spotted the scorched and smoldering prey.
It cowered in a rock-encircled corner, quaking.
Lumian dashed over, cast aside Fallen Mercury, and seized the axe with both hands, cleaving down with all his might.
With a dull thud, the ming monster’s head and body separated.
Bright red blood spurted out violently, igniting into scarlet me clusters on the ground.
Lumian, unable to hold on any longer, copsed to the ground with his axe.