Astrid chased after Dolk through the park, jumping from tree to tree in desperation to catch up to the dark elf traitor. The branches and leaves blurred past her as she blitzed forward like a speed demon, her eyes practically locked on to Dolk.
Jumping onto a sturdy tree branch, Dolk paused for a moment and turned around to hurl a couple of throwing daggers, in an attempt to slow Astrid down. However, the opposite happened when she used her two blades and easily deflected with a single swipe. She did this without stopping in her tracks, making her appear like some unstoppable force of nature that not even Dolk could do anything to her.
The traitor’s eyes widened with shock before he got back to running away, not wanting to get caught by such a being chasing after him. Meanwhile, Astrid was seething at Dolk’s sudden action to flee instead of fighting.
Even though the bastard was a traitor, she at least expected him to keep fighting until the very end. Not simply run away when he found the right opportunity to do so. But once again, Dolk had proven Astrid wrong and just stooped even lower than ever.
The two players burst from the gathering of trees and were greeted by a rather large lake in the park. Somewhere in the middle, a small platform or island was poking out from the water. It was likely big enough to have two or three people on it.
When Dolk spotted the island, he dove toward it in a heartbeat. His feet were planted on the surface for a mere moment before he kicked off the ground and leaped into the sky once more, hopping away from the lake in a single bound.
Astrid performed a similar stunt, landing on the platform before leaping off a second later, continuing her pursuit of the dark elf traitor. A couple of leaps and bounds later, and the dark elves exited the park area, returning to the desolate and industrial streets of Portland.
Dolk landed on the first street after leaving the park. His head spun around, trying to find a place to either hide or run to escape Astrid’s wrath. Meanwhile, the dark elf in question was hot on his tail.
“Dolk!” Her voice echoed as she roared his name, expressing her rage toward the traitor.
In a panic, Dolk looked over a nearby building and made a run for it, leaping into the air once again. Astrid soon landed on the street he was just in before spotting him running away. Her eyes narrowed angrily and her feet kicked off the ground to follow him.
Dolk climbed the nearest building, making it to the rooftop in no time. Once his feet were on the roof, he rushed ahead, trying to get to the other side so he could jump toward another building. Behind him, he could hear Astrid catching up with her rabid-like snarls and explicit vocabulary targeted at him.
Looking back, he watched Astrid make it to the top of the roof before charging right toward him like a bull seeing red. He hastily looked forward and noticed that he was a few steps from the edge. A moment later, he jumped off the roof, soaring toward the next building.
Landing on the next rooftop, Dolk’s feet didn’t stop and kept moving forward, desperate to escape from Astrid as soon as possible. But that wasn’t easy because of how persistent she was. It didn’t take long until she made it to the same building and kept chasing him with a literal vengeance.
Dolk could tell that it wouldn’t be long until Astrid caught up to him. It was only a matter of time at that point. However, as soon as Dolk made it to the edge once again, a message panel materialized before his very eyes. And when he read the message, a sly grin formed on his face as he realized that he might have a chance at escaping after all.
Instead of jumping to the next building, Dolk stopped near the edge and turned around to face Astrid. Seeing this, she abruptly skidded to a stop, her shoes grinding against the surface of the rooftop.
“Why are you suddenly stopping?” Astrid questioned, staring at Dolk suspiciously. “Have you decided to give up and accept your death like a member of the Legion?”
Astrid knew that he would never do something like that. The moment he betrayed her and the rest of the tribe, Dolk was no longer a member of the legionnaire. But still, she felt the need to ask in case, out of some miracle, that was the case in this matter.
Dolk waved his hand dismissively. “Not even close. I only stopped since I already got to my little spot.”
Astrid stared at Dolk with an arched brow. “What do you mean by that?”
Dolk smiled. “Oh, you’ll know soon enough. Like...right now.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
As if knowing the future, Astrid suddenly watched a message panel manifest before her. And what the message said forced the color in her face to drain in an instant.
[You are within range of the Spider Queen! The Spider Queen has now sensed your presence and is sending her children to hunt you down!]
Astrid shifted her attention back to Dolk while glaring at him. “You bastard!”
Now she understood why he ran away in the first place. He wanted Astrid to get within range of the Spider Queen so that the monster could slow her down. By doing that, he could have enough time to run far enough away to where she couldn’t catch up.
Dolk responded by shrugging his shoulders with a smug grin. “No need to tell me. I’m well aware.”
Almost immediately after reading the message, a powerful tremor was felt around Astrid and Dolk, threatening to force both of them to collapse on the spot. The buildings around them shook and creaked from the sudden quake. Down below, the very streets cracked further, leaving large crevices in their wake.
As Astrid tried to stay steady, her ears were assaulted by a sudden familiar screech. She immediately covered her ears to block out the noise as much as possible, or else she might lose her hearing from the sound. Dolk did the same thing but looked more ecstatic by the sudden change in events.
The screeching then ceased, leaving the pair in silence for a few moments. Soon after, both players could hear the sound of scuttling coming their way. When Astrid turned toward the source of the sound, she witnessed a familiar black swarm flooding the streets of Portland.
She watched in horror, knowing that there was nowhere for her to flee. Even if she got out of the range of the spider queen, she still needed to deal with the swarm, and she couldn’t do that alone. Much less with her current skills at the moment.
None of her abilities had area of effect capabilities, leaving Astrid in a bit of a bind. And then there was Dolk.
“Well, I’d love to stick around, but I need to leave before the swarm catches up to us.”
“You seriously think I’m letting you escape?” Astrid growled, brandishing her daggers.
The dark elf traitor glanced at her weapons before shifting his gaze up to make eye contact with her.
“I mean, we can continue our fight like usual, but are you sure you want to do that with the spider queen’s swarm coming our way? You may want me dead, but I know you aren’t willing to sacrifice your life just to kill me.”
“You’re clearly underestimating me, Dolk.”
“Maybe, but we can only test your resolve to see how willing you are to kill me then, huh?” Declaring this, Dolk jumped near the edge of the roof, practically on the verge of falling off.
Astrid became anxious, unsure of what the dark elf traitor was planning. And what he did next only worsened her anxiety.
“Catch me if you can, Astrid!”
Dolk then jumped off the roof, falling into the street that would soon be infested with thousands of spiders scuttling all over the place. Astrid rushed toward the edge and looked down, watching the traitor land on the ground and make his way closer to the swarm.
She desperately wanted to chase after him, but after witnessing how lethal the swarm was firsthand, she knew that staying on the ground was a poor decision. And yet Dolk went down without even batting an eye.
Astrid knew that Dolk hadn’t become suicidal. If he had, he would’ve chosen to die by her hands instead of getting ripped to shreds by the numerous spider infants marching their way there. Which meant he was moving toward the spiders to solely keep Astrid from following him.
And sadly enough, it worked. Astrid watched Dolk disappear around the corner just as the spider swarm slowly made their way over to her. She noticed that a portion of the swarm changed course and went down the path that Dolk took. However, something told her that he wasn’t going to die at the hands of the spider infants like that.
Moving away from the edge, Astrid turned around and was prepared to run away from the swarm. Just as she did, her eyes spotted a flying figure up ahead and coming toward her at a frightening speed.
She was on guard upon noticing the figure, but soon relaxed after realizing who the figure was. As soon as she could make out the appearance of a large flying humanoid bat, Astrid immediately knew who it was.
“Astrid!” Hazel called out to the dark elf while on top of Nycteris.
The Witch and familiar quickly approached Astrid, landing on the roof at record speed. Upon landing, Hazel jumped off Nycteris and rushed over to her dark elf partner.
“What the hell happened? Why is the spider queen sending her swar-whoa!”
Hazel was interrupted when a new panel willed itself into existence, displaying a rather disturbing message.
“Ah, crap, we’re in the spider queen’s range! That’s why she sent the swarm!”
Since Hazel was under the same curse as Astrid, she was now within range of the Spider Queen’s radar. Which meant both of them were now targeted by the queen’s children. Just like before.
“We need to fly as far away as possible,” Astrid recommended. “They should lose focus on us once we’re out of range of their queen.”
Although the pair were within the queen’s range of detection, it should be possible for them to escape if they move out of range and fly as far as they could from the swarm. It was their best chance to escape the horde, and since they had Nycteris, their chances of escaping were even higher than before.
However...
“Yeah, but that would be a bit of waste, don’t you think?” Hazel suddenly declared.
Astrid looked over at Hazel with widened eyes, unable to believe what she just heard. But before she could say anything in response to her statement, the witch gave the dark elf a wicked smile. A smile that sent chills right down to Astrid’s very bones.
“Instead of running away like fools, I say we take down the swarm ourselves and reap the rewards.”
