Sunlight crept over the desert, dispelling the darkness . Wind cleaved the night’s cloud cover, allowing shafts of blood-red light to peak through .

The moment day broke temperatures began to rise . The heat sent creatures of the night scurrying for their nests and in only a few minutes hot air warped the horizon . It was hard to see anything more than a few hundred feet away .

Cloudhawk struggled over the dunes while the wind whipped around him . He clutched his gun and leaned against the biting gusts, trudging at an even pace . What he experienced at Blackwater Base had made him strong . Now, he recovered faster than his energy was spent . So long as he had energy to spare, he could keep moving .

He made sure to keep a safe distance between him and his enemies . Whenever they were poised to catch up he would lose them in the ruins . They continued like this, over and over again for six hours, never clas.h.i.+ng but never losing track of each other .

Cloudhawk knew where he had the advantage, and he knew how to make use of it . His enemies were many, but that made them slow and unwieldy .

The trail of blood they’d found? Cloudhawk had planted it on purpose . For one thing, he had to get them away from Lighthouse Point . Otherwise, they would have continued killing those poor people . It also gave them the mistaken impression that he was hurt . The aim was to make them feel overconfident . It was the same reason he didn’t use his relic cloak to escape .

The young demonhunters aimed to exhaust their wounded prey by keeping up the chase . However, they were starting to question their decision as they struggled back and forth to gain ground without catching sight of him .

He still hadn’t collapsed . On the contrary, his pursuers began to tire while Cloudhawk just kept going . Luna, who had been using her senses to track him this whole time, was quickly becoming exhausted .

Both of the demonhunters were far stronger than Cloudhawk, and the soldiers they brought were each about his equivalent . It was a sharp disparity in strength, but out in the wastelands it wasn’t always strength that won fights . Experience, patience, and luck were one’s weapons . Often times the weaker beasts of the wastes could take on a foe vastly stronger and win handily .

Eventually Cloudhawk’s intentions became clear to the elysians: pretend to be weak and force them into exhaustion!

Like many wasteland creatures he was pretending to be weak so as to confound his pursuers . At the last moment he would turn and attack, taking them by surprise . Much like a pack of wolves Cloudhawk would take a bite out of their forces, slowly chipping away at their strength . Then when they were exhausted he would strike – expending the least and maximizing the damage he could cause .

The wastelands were a cruel and effective teacher . Cloudhawk was a talented student . Over time the Skycloud soldiers slowed to a crawl while he hadn’t weakened at all .

Luna turned her head and looked at the soldiers . Stragglers were falling farther behind, stretching their group out . She could tell at a glance they were tired, not at their best . Their prey was more cunning than she’d given him credit for, more tenacious than predicted . Their soldiers wouldn’t be able to keep this up for very much longer .

Stragglers were left behind to try and catch up, while the demonhunters pressed ahead . However, this spread them thin . Was this not the traitor’s intention?

“I think we’ve been tricked . The turncoat isn’t injured at all!” Raith had come around to the realization as well . Though he was dripping with sweat his eyes were as hard and as cold as ice . He regularly scanned the horizon . “He’s clearly skilled at traveling through the ruins . But if he thinks that will be enough to save him, he’s gravely underestimated us . ”

He reached to his waist where an elaborate arrow had been strung through his belt and pulled it free . It was unclear what the arrow was made from, it was about the length of a hand and arcane runes had been carved all along its surface . The marks of a relic .

Luna looked at him with the light of surprise in her eyes . “You’re going to use the Lifedrinker?”

The Lifedrinker arrow . Raith’s heirloom relic!

He’d only acquired it recently, and as such he wasn’t very proficient in its use . Employing it cost him a lot in energy and psychic power, making it unsuitable for most situations . Now appeared to be the time .

The arrow emitted a crisp and melodious sound, then like an extendable baton its ends snapped out to make the arrow three feet long . The runes on its surface glowed mysteriously and shrouded it in a coc.o.o.n of light – an indication that the relic had been awakened .

“Our group is too slow getting through these ruins . If we continue, when will this chase end?” He slowly lifted the arrow in his hands . “It is a disgrace to use the Lifedrinker on this turncoat, but we are beset by dangers all throughout these blighted lands . Our enemy is cunning . It is worthy to use this arrow to ensure the safety of our holy warriors, and to end this farce quickly!”

Once the arrow was loosed, the turncoat would surely die . The result was indisputable!

Luna produced a small bottle, within which was Cloudhawk’s blood they’d gathered from the dirt back at Lighthouse Point . A single drop was extracted, then spilled onto the Lifedrinker arrow’s triangular head . The moment the blood touched its smooth surface, it vanished . Archaic runes s.h.i.+mmered hungrily in response and turned red . The arrow had its target .

Raith and Luna exchanged a wordless glance . She nodded and stepped back .

The young demonhunter placed his foot atop a nearby rock and adopted a bowman’s stance . He drew back the bowstring with a deep sigh . Energy gathered quickly around him, causing the dirt and gravel below his feet to tremble, even the rock beneath his feet began to crack under the strain . Inch by inch the exorcist bow, bearing the Lifedrinker arrow, was drawn back toward its limit .

Nearby the Skycloud soldiers looked on with envy and admiration .

The young demonhunter’s bow was a relic that did not need any arrows . By itself the bow could lay an enemy low, but with the arrow together these two relics could do truly frightening things . Young though he was, Raith commanded such impressive power . He was an outstanding talent among the younger generation of demonhunters .

Slowly he drew back the bow, face red and veins stark and throbbing on his forehead . He wasn’t pulling on a mere string, instead it felt like he was trying to hold back a thousand pound weight . It took five seconds just to draw it half way .

 His Lifedrinker arrow was becoming brighter . The force field around him was becoming more intense .

At last he reached his limit . With his heart filled full of bloodl.u.s.t and rancor, he released it all with a single shouted command . “Go!”

The Lifedrinker arrow vanished in a streak of red light . Silent as death, faster than the eye could follow .  

Raith swayed and nearly fell over, but Luna had been ready . She stepped forward and made sure he kept his feet . She looked even more excited than he did, for witnessing the use of his heirloom was a special thing . “You did it!”

When she caught him Raith’s heart began to flutter . It made him proud and filled with manly vigor that he was able to manage the act of using the arrow in front of her .

 The two of them had known each other for ten years . Chosen as children, they had trained together, grown and improved together . Both were young, barely twenty, and trusted one another implicitly .

Luna was a year younger than Raith . She looked up to him like an older brother, while he had long ago developed feelings for her . All of his bl.u.s.ter, all of his bravado, all of his great effort was just so that she would see him .

Filled with pride and self-confidence, Raith was sure the turncoat had been slain . “The rest of you wait here for our orders . Captains, come with us . ”

Ten soldiers separated from the crowd and made to follow . These captains were much stronger than the typical holy warrior . Leaving the burden of the others behind this smaller group could move faster . With Luna and Raith in the lead, they left in search of their prey’s body .

As the Lifedrinker arrow was released a flood of foreboding swallowed up Cloudhawk . It was a terrible sensation, like something tore open his throat and pierced his spine . He couldn’t imagine what sort of thing would make him feel this way .

Then the ripples of a relic’s power reached him .

His face fell when he knew what was coming . Without looking back he threw himself to the side .

An arrow, moving faster than he could fathom, screamed past . It was frightening enough that he could hardly follow it with his eyes, more terrifying still the arrow didn’t make any noise at all . Not even the sound of rustling wind as it swept by . Cloudhawk had survived solely because of his danger sense and the sound of the relic’s resonance . Anyone else would have died on the spot .

Missing by mere inches the arrow raced by, only to spin in midair a few dozen feet away and head back toward him . Left with no recourse, Cloudhawk hit the ground hard enough to make his vision blurry .

Whatever relic this was, it sure was difficult to deal with! Once it locked on to a target it would adjust trajectory until it struck . If the first pa.s.s missed it came around for a second, then a third, and a fourth . It would only stop once he was dead .

When had Cloudhawk ever encountered a weapon like this? It was too strange, too wily!

The second pa.s.s missed . It was coming by for a third, still moving fast as lightning!

Cloudhawk pulled himself forward with his hands, but with every movement the arrow followed like the specter of death hungry for his soul . His eyes went wide as it headed right for him, but he flopped behind a low-lying wall just in time . A fraction of a second later the sound of splintering rock a.s.sailed his ears as the whole wall crumbled . The Lifedrinker arrow pierced his cover, searching for his rapidly beating heart . Rrrrip! His armor split like it was made of paper, and it was the Gospel of Sand beneath that saved his life .

It ricocheted off and rocketed into the sky . He’d hoped the wall would protect him but it might as well have not been there . The arrow soared high overhead before turning back one hundred and eighty degrees and beginning its descent .  

It was coming right for the top of Cloudhawk’s skull . Too deadly, too frightening! Nothing seemed to slow it down!

He was so frightened that his whole body was drenched in a cold sweat . He wrenched the iron dagger from his waist and, with a scream, swung it wildly at the arrow . He put all his power behind it for if he failed to stop it, the arrow would take his life!

Clang!

Snap!

Half the dagger’s blade lodged itself in the sand . Cloudhawk was left with only the hilt .

But the Lifedrinker arrow was knocked aside . It continued a few feet into the distance before turning around and picking up speed once more .  

He was left stunned, at a loss . What the f.u.c.k was this G.o.dd.a.m.n thing?! How was it so hard to escape?

There was no other avenue of escape left to him . He activated his cloak . Perhaps if he disappeared, the arrow couldn’t follow . . . but if it could, he was out of luck .

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