CHAPTER 10: The Chase

They bolted through the trees, Koro darting ahead, leading the way like a furry missile. Liu Xian trailed close behind, breath puffing out in panicked bursts, feet stumbling over roots and underbrush. The forest blurred around him, all jagged edges and shadows and the dull throb of adrenaline.

Liu Xian didn't dare look back.

They sprinted through a cluster of twisted trees that seemed to grab at them with their branches. Koro suddenly ducked low, veering left, and Liu Xian nearly crashed into a wide oak if not for the shout: "Left! Hard left!"

He followed, slipping in mud and nearly eating dirt, but he stayed upright.

"I thought you said they couldn't follow us!"

"They're not supposed to!" Koro snapped. "Which means this isn't normal!"

"What does that mean?!"

"It means we're screwed if we don't lose it!"

Koro took a sharp turn down a slope, and Liu Xian tumbled after him, sliding more than running. He crashed into bushes, thorns scraping his arms and legs, dirt grinding into his knees. But he didn't stop.

Behind them came the first real sound—a low hiss.

Not a snake-hiss. Not air. This was wrong. Like someone whispering and growling at the same time, a thousand tiny voices all breathing hate into the wind.

Liu Xian nearly lost his footing again. "Koro—"

"I hear it!"

"What is it?!"

"Doesn't matter—just move!"

They burst out of the dense trees into a wide clearing, the moonlight blazing down again. Liu Xian could finally see—really see—and what he saw made his stomach twist.

On the edge of the trees they'd just come from, something stood.

It was tall. Too tall. Its limbs were long and spindly, with fingers that brushed the forest floor. Its head was crooked, lopsided, with no face to speak of—just smooth, pale skin stretched over bone. No eyes. No mouth. Just a hollow space where those things should have been.

It tilted its head when it saw them.

Liu Xian froze.

Koro skidded to a stop beside him. "Don't. Move."

"I—I thought we were running—"

"Shut up. Don't move."

The thing stepped into the moonlight, and Liu Xian saw its legs. They didn't bend right. They moved like stilts—jerky, unnatural.

"What is that?" Liu Xian whispered.

"It's a Hollowed," Koro said, barely audible. "They're the ones that shouldn't be able to pass into this realm anymore. They're... echoes of something else. When the veil tore, some of these things got through. Now they hunt mana. And guess who smells like a freshly awakened soul?"

"Oh god," Liu Xian croaked.

The Hollowed twitched, that horrible, boneless motion, and took another step forward.

"We can't fight it," Koro said. "I have one last jump in me. One."

"Can we make it to the academy?"

"No. But I can get us far enough to hide."

"It's coming!"

"I know!"

The Hollowed started moving faster now, each step stretching, covering unnatural ground. Its fingers dragged through the dirt, carving long gouges into the earth.

"NOW, KORO!"

"Grab my paw!"

Liu Xian didn't hesitate this time. He lunged forward, hand gripping the scruff of Koro's fur as the dog's paw pressed to the ground and lit with a faint shimmer of blue.

The world twisted.

It wasn't like teleporting through sci-fi stuff. It felt like being turned inside out, like every atom in his body screamed and reorganized, like the forest had suddenly dropped out from beneath them.

Then—

Darkness.

And silence.

And cold.

They landed hard in what felt like a cave. Dirt. Stone. Moss. Liu Xian coughed and rolled over, dizzy, head pounding.

Koro groaned beside him, his body flickering faintly.

"That's it," the dog mumbled. "No more juice. I'm spent."

Liu Xian blinked, panting hard. "Are we... safe?"

Koro didn't answer right away. His head was tilted, eyes staring at the small opening of the cave, moonlight barely slivering in.

"Maybe," he said. "For now."

And outside, deep in the dense skeleton of the forest, far behind where Liu Xian and Koro had just fled…

The Hollowed stood still.

It didn't need to move. Not yet.

It had found the scent. Buried beneath the muck and leaves, the sweat of fear, the stench of dog and human and panic clinging to the air like oil.

The creature inhaled, though it had no nose. The air passed through the slits that formed along its chest like gills, writhing open and shut as it pulled in the trail.

A moment passed.

Then, without a sound, it moved.

But not like anything that should move.

The Hollowed didn't walk. It didn't run. It slid. Like liquid nightmare.

Its limbs bent wrong. Knees inverted, joints popping sideways, arms stretching a little too long with every shift. Each step was a twitching crawl that somehow never touched the earth—like it was being yanked forward by something unseen, dragged in place by the scent itself. Its faceless head twisted in slow, disjointed angles, like it was sniffing the memory of its prey through time and space.

It didn't stumble. It didn't hesitate.

It glided.

And behind it, the masked men rose.

From beneath the roots of trees, from the dark slits in the earth, they pulled themselves up like shadows detaching from the ground. Black-cloaked, masked from head to toe in those bone-white faces, each one faceless and silent as death.

"All we have to do," one of them said, watching the Hollowed twist its body through the trees like a marionette made of smoke and skin, "is follow the Hollow."

Another man stepped up beside him. "You're sure it'll lead us straight to them?"

"It's bound to him now. There's no hiding anymore. No more dimensions shit. No more tricks."

The Hollowed writhed forward, slithering through branches that parted like wet tissue to let it pass.

The masked men followed at a distance, never drawing too close to the creature. Even they, for all their calm and composure, kept a steady gap between themselves and the Hollow.

"You think the Koro will realize his being followed?" one asked.

"Doesn't matter," One of them stated. "Koro is out of mana. And the boy…"

He tilted his head, just slightly.

"The boy has no idea what he's agreed to."