Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Knowing very well that merely attempting to speak his way out would not be possible even if he had an incredibly good grasp on the local language, Griar choose to just take off running, something he was pretty good at, his speed was well enough to leave most completely in the dust as they would only be able to watch him disappear in the distance, but whoever, or whatever it was that the countess commanded was also incredibly swift.

Griar did not commit the foolish mistake of looking back, that would only slow him down, so he had no idea what was behind him, all that he could tell was that it was slowly catching up, every step bringing the pursuer that slight bit closer to Griar.

The youth weighed his options whilst running through the tall hallways of the castle, making a sharp turn, feeling a breeze go right back his neck followed by the sound of something heavy hitting a wall.

He realised that it had not been a near-miss, feeling warm blood flowing from the side of his neck, a thin cut having been left upon its surface, just the simply action of making a turn, despite having been performed most admirably by Griar, had been enough for the one behind him to swiftly catch up and nearly land a killing blow.

It was likely that if the occasion presented itself again, the swift shadow would not miss, and Griar knew very well that the occasion would appear again eventually, he would have no choice but to make a turn again…

His options were greatly limited, considering just how fast his pursuer was, he could not spare any amount of time with anything other than running, so grabbing a piece of furniture or such to throw behind himself to slow them down was out of consideration.

Turning back to fight sounded like an even worse idea, would Countess Ada really send someone after him if that person was any weaker than a burlap-wearing villager? No, surely anything or anyone commanded by her would exceed that level of strength, so with just a machete and a bit of magic, Griar would not stand a chance, and even if he could face the chaser in combat without being crushed, that would only made him a sitting duck for potentially more enemies to arrive and take him apart.

No, he needed to keep fleeing, and he needed to use a spell to lose the one following him, he had access to a rather wide catalogue of spells, and he had been taught plenty of them by different people… He had also seen many different spellcasters in action, some of them used elements far different from wind, but theoretically, any magical element could achieve anything as long as the caster was competent enough.

Unfortunately, Griar would not exactly call himself competent, he had some raw talent, but also limitation and not that much experience- Now he was really thinking that he should have asked for help from at least one of his older sisters, after all, it was basically law that older siblings were always stronger than their younger siblings.

Even if he was bigger and physically stronger, he knew very well that having any of them here to help him would have made everything far smoother, heads and limbs would have been detached from the bodies they belonged to in groves if Lizi had been here.

Even the incredibly resilient burlap sack wearers would have been annihilated by a single spell from Louizon, probably reduced to nothingness alongside the terrain and forest as well…

Alize could have prevented all conflict by merely being present- Or Zally and Zaya could have wielded incredible powers of nature to restrain everything and anyone that caused problems.

But alas, Griar had been too worried about meaningless things to ask for help, and now, he was running for his life from an assaillant which he didn't even know the first thing about, he continued to run, well aware that his best chance was to use a spell to swiftly escape and make it so the one hunting him could not catch up, or find Griar again at all.

There were multiple spells that he believed could work, but what he needed to go with them was an occasion, it did not matter if he was able to trip his pursuer or speed away for a little while, if he remained within the castle without a clue of where was anything, he would be found out eventually, and moreover, now that Griar was bleeding, he feared that the smell of blood could give away his position.

'Damn it…' it was far from what he had wanted to do, but he was being faced with another turn, convinced that he would die if he attempted to simply run away like before, he instead continued to run in a straight line, directly toward a window, the glass was pristine, and beyond it, thanks to the moonlight, he could see that it actually overlooked water.

Seeing this, Griar casted a spell, manifesting a barrier directly behind him, causing the foul thing chasing him down to slam into it, and momentarily be confused as the pursuer had no idea what had happened, bit swiftly attempted to break through, even then, Griar did not stop to look at what had been after him, only wearing what sounded like claws smashing and scraping against the mana barrier as he leapt through the window, soon overtaken by the vertigo of falling.

Looking at the water reflecting light from the moon, he came awfully close to landing on rocks instead of water, his body sunk down into the cold, and he hastily swam back to the surface, only to see a vile shadow halfway to crawling through the window he had just jumped through, beady red eyes staring directly at him before a foul screech resounded, the figure jumping down to get to him.

Leaving no choice but for Griar to hold his breath and dive beneath the water, swimming away from the castle to the best of his abilities, surrounding by only the cold and darkness, his heart gripped by fear, fear that the pursuer would catch up to him, and fear of the very place he found himself in, here, he was vulnerable to anything that might have bad intentions toward him, the waters lacking in light terrified him, the unknown gave rise to the purest of fear within his heart.

On many occasions, he thought that something reached out and tried to grab him, that unknown creatures brushed up against him, or that dark shadows lurked and circled around his body…

Until everything seemed to turn into a blur.