Chapter 46 - The Chase

The chase started with a loud bang that echoed through the empty streets as Oliver promptly kicked himself off the ground and ran towards the direction to where Shyft had disappeared from.

Without rhyme or reason in his actions, he expanded everything that he could to move as fast as he can, the moonlight looming over his tortured soul. What happened was completely unexpected. Betrayal to the utmost degree while simultaneously committing murder has broken him.

Right now, though, there was no time to think about what happened as Oliver only thought of what was ahead of him.

Despite Shyft's early casting of the movement skill to create some distance between them, he was still comparatively slow compared to Oliver's overall Agility. He was fast, arguably, in the context of a normal person but nowhere near the league of the Shadow Assassin that was chasing him.

It didn't take long for Oliver to catch up now but the trail had long since gotten cold.

Shyft's [Torrential Displacement] only gave out a trail that leads from the point of the cast to the point of landing. Anything that the caster would do after that was practically untraceable.

Oliver used his speed to traverse any and all sorts of obstacles and reached a vantage point. From there, he tried to spot where Shyft had run off to. However...

Shyft had officially disappeared.

By using the surroundings and the knowledge he had of the town, he was able to conceal himself from Oliver who had no way of finding where he went.

In reality, Shyft was actually hiding instead. Despite his earlier bold statements, he knew that he was not even a match against Oliver. He took advantage of the terrain and the dotted buildings to stealthily make his way towards woods that was on the edge of this part of town.

'Damn, he's fast,' Shyft thought as he slowly crouched in an alley. He looked up to where Oliver was and clicked his tongue to see how quickly the young man had made it here. But, he was more than glad to realize that he couldn't be seen.

The biggest hurdle right now was for Shyft to get to the forest. Even if he knew how to get there without being noticed, he still had to cross a road that had no way to cover him from Oliver's watchful eye.

There were some options available to him, though, and decided to exploit them.

Oliver, on the other hand, was angry. No, scratch that. He was pissed. He couldn't believe that the killer had gotten away so easily and, now that he's standing on top of a rooftop, he had no way to find out where the guy went.

A massive drawback to his overwhelming strength was the inability to find the person in such a large area. He didn't have any sort of wide-area detection skill to find Shyft in this part of town.

Fueled by his rage, Oliver jumped down from the building and started running. He ran through every nook and cranny of every street that he could go to.

With his double daggers held in a reverse grip, it was only a matter of time.

Shyft, on the other hand, noticed that Oliver had decided to find him on foot. It was an opportunity for him to leave the town while Oliver was too busy checking in the wrong direction. With a spring in his step, Shyft picked up the pace to get to the farthest building that was the closest to the forest.

His heart was pounding as he ditched his stealth for speed and started sprinting towards the forest. Even though there was a considerable space between Shyft and Oliver, there wasn't enough time for him to mess around.

With every step, his heart pounded harder as he made his way through the street. Luckily enough, Oliver still didn't notice that Shyft had left his hiding place already and was proceeding to get away from him.

In a few moments, Oliver was on the last few parts that he hasn't checked and finally caught a glimpse of Shyft. Out of the corner of his eye, there he was, the man that he swore to kill.

With a serious face, Oliver started to run towards the unsuspecting Shyft. He was tired, admittedly, but his anger fueled him to keep going, to avenge who had fallen.

"You sick bastard!" Oliver shouted, now covered half the distance between Shyft and himself.

Shyft inadvertently hesitated out of fear. He could hear Oliver's footsteps getting louder with each step. After a split second, he decided to give it his all. To running, that is.

The chase of cat and mouse was finally getting to its climax with Oliver catching up to Shyft who was giving everything he had to sprint away from his pursuer. Shyft had finally made his way inside the forest itself, the only problem was that Oliver wasn't far behind.

The two kept going deeper into the forest not soon after. Shyft was taking advantage of being pursued by making trouble for Oliver who was too mad to be cautious in the unfamiliar terrain. However, neither party realized that the forest itself was odd.

The trees stood taller than before and the terrain was covered with a lot more plant life. Shyft could have possibly realized this if it weren't for the fact that his mind was only filled with terror.

Then, he saw it.

A large creature was covered in vines that appeared to be connected to the plants around them. It doesn't take a well-versed botanist to realize that this isn't normal.

Without even a slight movement from the creature, plants from the ground suddenly attacked Shyft who was caught off-guard. Luckily, though, he had managed to dodge the attack by side-stepping at the last moment.

However, the vines didn't stop there.

The vines continued to travel from the creature outward like it had a mind of its own and soon stopped. Coming up from behind and unaware of what Shyft encountered, Oliver had his feet tangled by thick vine-like ropes.

Oliver tried to slice the vines but the attack turned out to be ineffective. Despite the daggers being relatively sharp, the cut wasn't deep enough for him to be free. He tried to cut the vines once more but he was suddenly pulled to the ground and dragged by his feet.

While being dragged, Oliver noticed that Shyft looked back and gave him a mocking smile before running in a different direction.

It was clear that the chase of cat and mouse, the mouse had won.

Oliver was really unlucky this time that he came across something like this. A plant that only had a single-target attack pattern and he was its target. It was annoying, to say the least, but Oliver was feeling a completely different thing.

"Damn it!" he yelled loud enough to make sure that Shyft could hear him, "I swear to the gods, I'll kill you! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!"

In his mind, Oliver thought that Shyft planned this. To lure him out to a forest and let the thing that was dragging Oliver do his work for him.

The creature was still dragging Oliver, the speed of which was gradually getting faster. Every little bump and uneven terrain was felt by his back as the creature slowly opened its mouth. Before being devoured, Oliver managed to see what the creature looked like.

It had a gigantic mouth open but the overall height of the creature wasn't big. In fact, it looked like a dwarfed tree but its width was no joke. It had no appendages, only vines that did its bidding. Its main function is to catch prey and devour them as soon as they get caught.

Which is exactly what happened to Oliver.

The mouth swallowed Oliver whole and started to decompose the young man's body with what seemed like corrosive saliva. He could feel his clothes starting to burn through while the only thing he could do to protect himself was to struggle frantically.

Whether it was his anger, vengeance, or his overall bloodlust, a voice suddenly called out in his head.

"Do you want power?" It said in a deep, dark tone.

Normally, this would be something that the normal Oliver would second guess. However, if it weren't for his desperate struggle against the strong plant-type creature and his drive to kill Shyft, he couldn't think straight.

He desperately shouted, "yes, yes!" as the creature was slowly corroding more and more of his skin.

Oliver was in the creature's mouth for a few minutes now before the voice had appeared in his head. There wasn't a way out of this but to take upon this unfamiliar voice's suggestion. As soon as he responded, though, a large, white, devilish smile appeared.

It was then a large surge of power burst forth from within him. Oliver was unable to contain the surge and only felt pain from the experience.

He couldn't tell which was worse, the pain from the corrosion or the pain he got from accepting the Devil's deal.