Of course, that’s what I had thought to myself as I had begun my mad dash into the woods. I hadn’t really fully thought that I would be able to catch them, but I had been more focused on trying to make them think I was trying my hardest to do that. After all, my whole purpose in chasing the damned bastard was to be as real as possible. As believable as possible… And honestly, the only thing that had been truly believable to me, truly something the archer would fall for, was to chase after them in a rage. To seem so pissed off that the only option I though was left to me, was been to track the fuck down and beat the ever living shit out of them.

  It was a pretty okay plan I had thought… But what I hadn’t been expecting was for the damned archer to have set up traps everywhere. The first one I had run headfirst into had simply exploded, creating force waves right below me and sending me flying through the air and straight into a tree. I’m pretty sad to say that I had let out quite the humbling yelp, which had been rewarded with the sound of giggles floating through the air. I’d tried to be more careful after that, but I’d still managed to get slapped around by giant rotating trees, stabbed in the foot and legs by various spikes, had an axe narrowly miss cutting me in half, had a mist of poison melt off a layer of skin, and had even managed to fall into a pitfall of venomous snakes.

  Frankly, the future where I was able to run down the archer on my own and kick their ass… Well, it was not looking up for me at the moment. Looking back on it, I found it hilarious that I had thought that I had stood any chance of actually catching the coward on my own! Still though, I had a plan to accomplish. And so, I had continued flying through the forest, ducking and dodging arrows and traps to the best of my ability.

  I cursed as I flew by another trip wire, and had to drop to the ground in order to avoid the snake that was catapulted at me. A SNAKE! Like, how the fuck did they have the time to set up a snake catapult!? If it hadn’t been for my spatial awareness skill, I just knew that I would be dead by now. I growled and pulled on the void once more, activating leap and launching upwards through the air right as another arrow slammed into the ground. I laughed and lashed out, grabbing onto a branch and swinging off of it and through the air, just barely dodging a spear trap that shot out from between the two trees in front of me. I sailed through the air and slammed into the ground, but at the last second, my senses screamed out, and I realized that it was yet another fucking trap.

  I yelped as I crashed through a thin layer of leaves, mud, and branches and fell into a pit of boiling water that instantly seared most of my skin off. I roared in pain, and clambered out, glaring up at the trees as Unending Vitality was forced to really started to kick in. Fucking damn it, I wasn’t even sure how long they had been setting up these traps, but it should have been impossible to carry around all the different components in a day or so. No, they must have been working on setting them up for a long time now. I growled and cracked my neck before I activated sprint again and dashed off into the forest, listening for the little clinks that I had come to realize were the sound of the archer dashing through the forest.

  Thankfully, we must have made it to a part of the forest where there were much fewer preset traps, because I only had to dash over and around one here and there. Granted, that also meant that they were much more annoyingly prepared, and after the third time I had a swarm of poison darts fly towards me, I felt something change. The clinks weren’t moving at such a carefree pace anymore. The giggles and laughs that had been echoing through the forest for so long were coming at fewer and fewer intervals… They weren’t giving off the same aura of cocky cockiness… Instead, the clinks that were their telltale calling card, sounded almost… panicked?

  I grinned and ducked under a razor wire and leaped over a trip line, just as I sensed another volley of arrows come my way. My spatial awareness pricked, and I grunted and dropped to the ground rolling to the left and right and feeling the arrows slam into where I had been just moments before. I bared my teeth and rolled forward, pushing off with my legs and activating leap to get particularly higher in the air. I felt the air being disturbed around me as my hand grasped another branch, and I pulled myself and jumped from tree to tree, charging forward towards where I could sense the archer was.

  They were still a long ways away, but I couldn’t help but feel a slow smile spread across my face. I had made them panic, even if there was no way I could dodge every single arrow, I had finally been able to make some headway for once. I laughed and leaped to another tree and hid behind the massive trunk, several thuds impacting the other side. I darted out and dashed to another tree, but the archer had thought that far and had already sent a swarm of arrows to cover every possible way I could go, even if I had tried to backtrack to the cover of the tree. I cursed and stepped off the branch, feeling one of the arrows smash into my shoulder and leg as I fell down through the air.

  I lashed my claws out, trying to cut down or smack away as many arrows as I could, but I couldn’t actually deflect every single arrow and suffered quite a few wounds. The archer had obviously known I might have chosen to drop, and had by now noticed that I was. Obviously it was a terrible decision, and once I impacted the ground, it was highly likely that I was going to break or crack the bones in my legs and be unable to move as quickly, dragon bones or not. Still, I had a feeling this was the best move, especially since it was the least expected move that I could have pulled. Which was probably why it took them so fucking long to send the unending swarm of arrows towards me.

  I laughed and lashed out with my claws, digging into the tree and slowing myself down from free fall. Of course it still didn’t do much as I felt my muscles and bones scream from the stress of trying to stop that fast, but I could tell that it was slowing me down just enough. My claws got white hot from the friction, and I was forced to unlatch and push off of the tree, kicking off upwards so that when I crashed into the ground it would lessen the impact.

  I slammed into the ground, thankfully only fracturing my shin bone as I staggered and fell to the side. I flopped onto the ground and stared up at the canopy above my eyes, for a brief moment, a smile slowly spreading across my face as elation raced through me as I gasped for air. I had done it! I’d actually managed to make the fall!

  I laughed hard, and sat up, turning towards where I knew the archer must have been. I couldn't see anything from all the way down here, but I could hear the sound of an intense fight raging through the trees, and the shouts of Darnell and the others. They must have caught onto my plan and wrapped around and set up a trap for the archer… No wonder I wasn’t a pincushion yet!

  I had my doubts that they intended to help me when I had been chasing after the archer for an hour or so without seeing any of them… But earlier when I had been leaping over a branch, I had felt how ice cold it was and seen the frost coating it, and realized Cryon must have been close. And if he was close, then that definitely meant the rest of them were still tracking the archer, and they must have them in their sights.

  I let out a sigh and stood up and cracked my neck. I guess break time was over, they might have caught the damned archer, but it sounded like they were still struggling with them. I started making my way over to where the sounds of the fighting were coming from, breaking into a jog after a moment. I’d definitely need to get there soon to help them out, but at this point I had done my part of the deal, and frankly I was absolutely exhausted!

  Still, as I felt my breathing coming hard and hot, misting the air in front of me, I couldn’t help but feel content and happy. I had missed being able to run and let loose like that, and a large part of me was singing with joy after being able to truly be able to run like that for so long. Even with my screaming muscles and joints, I couldn’t help but feel like this was what I really loved, even from before I had lost my memories. Being able to run like this and feel the wind through my hair and skin, the soil and nature under my feet as I raced as hard as I could, and the wild beat of my heart and lungs… something about it all felt so… nostalgic. Like I was born to do this.

  I shook my head hard and narrowed my eyes. Ugh, that didn’t matter right now. Whatever had happened that made me sacrifice my memories was in the past. I could think of that later, the real thing I needed to worry about right now was the archer, and helping the Richter’s catch them.

  I guess I didn’t actually know anything about the wanted poster that was supposedly there for them back at the guild, or how much money it really promised as a reward, but anything was good for me right now honestly. I hadn’t even looked at the quest board before I had run off with the Richters, since I had been so sure that I was just going to go out, see the entrance and head back. Whatever amount of reward money I got was going to be good for me, especially since I still had to buy so much gear, let alone finding a place to sleep and eat… I’d had my little ritual with the guard, so it had actually been a while since I had eaten and damn it was I hungry! Who knows how expensive that all would be… maybe that pelt I had skinned would fetch for some money if this failed? I still had that chunk that the old man had left with me, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t be enough for a room while I was trying to get on my feet, let alone all of the gear I’d need… Besides, my claws were doing a lot for me now against weaker foes, but as soon as I ran into a monster that had more reach or weapons of their own? Let alone some armor? I had a feeling they wouldn’t be good enough. Whatever my split of the reward money was, I’d be set for a while hopefully. Which means, I had to make sure this damned archer was caught!

  I cracked my knuckles and reached into the coiled void, activating leap once more. My legs filled with energy and power, and I shot upwards through the air. I lightly rested on a branch and activated leap again, dashing from tree to tree, flying through the trees, my heart racing as I laughed from the crazy rush of it all. I ran as fast as I could, making my way higher and higher up into the treetop canopy and evading the few traps that were set up here and there. I locked onto the sounds of fighting and kept as quiet as I could, racing forward as quickly as I could. I didn’t know how much help I could offer at this point, but my biggest bonus was probably the element of surprise. Maybe I could catch the archer off guard and corner them with the Richters, or just throw them off for a brief moment at least. As I swung around the branch, the sound of fighting and explosions suddenly became unbelievably loud, and I yelped anc leapt up towards a higher branch. I quickly dashed around the thick bough of the tree and hid behind it, sneaking my head around and taking in the vicious battle happening in front of me.

  The Richter’s had definitely caught the archer off guard, managing to trap them in a wide clearing surrounded by massive trees and pillars of ice and stone. I could see the scattered arrows, singe marks, ice pillars, and huge gashes in the trees scattered around it, but I could also see that the fight was far from over and the Richter’s were struggling to withstand the archers onslaught. After all, even without their annoying ass traps, they hadn’t been harassing adventuring groups and not getting caught for this long without having some serious skills of their own.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  The first person I saw was Spyr, and my eyes widened as I saw her struggling and cursing, her wings pinned to a tree’s trunk with two long daggers. Cryon was the next person I saw, and he was livid, chasing down the archer with an icy cold rage in his eyes as arrow after arrow phased through him. The others were grouped together, hiding behind Darnell who had opted for a smaller more portable shield and was knocking aside arrows. Kwamp was holding their own, as the arrows pinged off of his rock hard skin. He stomped hard on the ground, causing it to rumble and spit up head sized boulders into the air, which they slammed with two hammers and sent flying towards the archer. Sprig chanted behind Darnell, holding onto a rather intricate staff covered in vines and flowers that glowed green. Slosht was leaping between the trees even faster than I had been, which was quite impressive considering how tall and covered in armor they were. Slosht was slinging knife after knife at the archer, seemingly pulling an endless supply out of thin air. Each one either deflected the arrows flying through the air, or impacting the trees around where the archer was, just barely missing them.

  The archer who I had been expecting to be out for the count by this point, especially considering the impressive oncoming onslaught, was somehow still in one piece on the other side of the clearing. They were madly spinning and jumping through the air, slinging arrow after arrow from a massive longbow. I watched in amazement as they easily dodged four boulders, a slew of knife’s, and a massive icicle spear that Cryon had created. They were grinning, a sweet smile gracing their features as they ripped the bow around as if it was nothing and firing off arrow after arrow. They looked almost… ecstatic… as they dodged the knives, boulders, and icicle-like blasts from Cryon, and I didn’t even see a mark or cut on their body.

  I had expected them to be humanoid like the others I had met so far, but they were anything but that. They were tall, with long lithe legs, and a long torso that had two pairs of incredibly muscular arms. They had several small horns sprouting from their brow, and a long length of braided dark green hair swung behind them as they dashed from side to side as they continued dodging attacks. Not only that, but they had a pair of long lizard-like tails that lashed out and wrapped around branches and provided them support as they continued to fire shot after shot. They did not have much armor, but were instead wearing a dark brown cloak that hid most of their body.

  They continued to giggle and laugh as the fight continued, up until they suddenly froze and whipped around, locking their eyes on where I was hiding behind the tree trunk. The look of pure… rage, that they sent my way… well, suffice it to say, I was forced to take a step back. Without even stopping their barrage on the others, they started firing bolts towards me, arcing them, creating scatter shots, and unbelievably fast arrow shots that almost seemed to vanish. They were strong, but just like before, I was easily able to dodge each one. All I had to do was allow my body to flow and move around them as I kept my eyes locked on their slit eyes.

  As I continued to dodge arrow after arrow, the rage that was searing through the air towards me… changed. It adapted and molded itself, switching from that hot searing rage, to more of a wild crazy one. I raised an eyebrow as I saw a knife that Slosht threw and that they had been easily evading before, get dangerously close to nicking their leg. They were… they were panicking! Hahaha!

  I laughed and cracked my neck. Oh this was good… I really must have gotten in their head! It was a good start, but if I wanted it to make a real difference, I needed to do more than just that. I needed to rush them and press them hard, even if I managed to get hit by those crazy fast arrows. I eyed poor Spyr, who had finally managed to rip the long daggers out of her wings and was getting mended by Sprig, a look of red hot fury in their eyes. Yeah… I couldn’t just stand around and let any of the Richter’s get hurt again.

  I locked eyes with Darnell, who gave me a nod as he knocked aside another volley heading towards them. With a grin, he turned to the archer and took a wide stance, letting out a loud scream which briefly caused the archer to freeze up, if only for a moment. I laughed hard, and cracked my neck, locking eyes with the panicking archer again. It was about time this fucking ended.

  I punched my arm out towards them, and flipped them off, letting out a loud taunting roar of my own, “Oh hey there, you fucking coward! I see your aim hasn’t gotten any better! What, are you new to using the bow!? I’m right the fuck here! How are you going to miss me for this long!? Hit me already, you blind fuck!”

  The archer screamed and turned their full attention to me, unleashing an absolutely blinding wall of arrows. I laughed and went to work, allowing my body to move back and forth as I stuck out my tongue and made faces at them, narrowly dodging each one of their arrows. It was an impressively overwhelming barrage, and so I couldn’t really keep an eye on the others as my senses and body were pushed to the limits, working to stay out of range of the fury of the archer’s shots.

  I laughed and ducked, rolled, and leaped, feeling the arrows fly by me, drawing deep red lines in my skin as my body creaked and burned, my muscles being torn to shreds as I continued to push past my limits, relying on my high stamina just to stay alive. My regeneration struggled to keep up with the damage I was putting my body through, but I was still wracked with unbelievably powerful waves of pain and agony. It was hard, but I kept my eyes locked on the archer, and they locked their eyes on mine, rage pulsing off of them in almost tangible waves. We continued to dodge and attack each other, playing our little dance while we each waited for the other to blink first.

  Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t just them and me playing this game. I had backup, and right as I began to be overwhelmed by the arrows, even getting hit by several of them, Cryon appeared behind them and struck. They screamed loudly, causing a massive surge of ice and frost to explode out of the tree towards them, creating a massive barrage of huge spears.

  The archer let out an enraged roar and was forced to tear their attention from me for a brief moment, dashing away and dodging each of the spears. They glared at Cryon and unleashed a flurry of arrows, each of them flying through Cryon’s immaterial body. Cryon let out a cold laugh as he continued drifting towards the archer, sending icicle spear after icicle spear at them. They leaped towards another tree, but a gigantic boulder crashed into it, and they fell through the air with a yelp. The archer flashed out with two of their arms and grabbed onto a branch, stopping themselves for just a moment.

  They began to pull out more arrows, but just then, Spyr crashed into them in a screaming raging ball of feathers and fists, “OH YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!!!! YOU THINK YOU CAN STAB ME THROUGH MY WINGS AND GET AWAY WITH IT!? FUCKING DIE ALREADY!!!”

  Spyr screamed and slammed her fists into the archer as they knocked them off of the branch and slammed into the ground, a giant plume of dust being sent into the air. I fell to my knee for a brief moment, catching my breath as my heart beat wildly. I had a lot of stamina thanks to my ability, but damn had I put myself through hell trying to dodge all those arrows. I could still feel my muscles being healed and brought back together, and with a groan I staggered back to my feet. I let out a long breath as I broke the end off of the arrow head and yanked it out, grunting as I put pressure on the gushing wound. What a pain in the ass… that reward better be worth it.

  I raised my eyebrow as I looked up and saw the two screaming forms rolling back and forth on the ground, and with a sigh I began to make my way over. Darnell and the others had made it there first, but they were sort of just awkwardly standing there as the two of them screamed and tore into each other, sending feathers and blood flying through the air.

  I pursed my lips and nodded at Darnell, motioning towards the two of them with my head, “So uh… are we going to do something, or…?”

  Darnell tapped his hand on his shoulder and sighed, “Well, I mean, I’d love to intervene, but honestly, I don’t know if I could if I wanted. After Sprig healed up Spyr’s wounded wing… well… she screamed at us all that the archer was hers, and to not interfere or she’d rip off our heads.”

  Darnell let out another sigh and looked back at the two of them. Usually I would feel some bit of pity for him, but as I looked down on Spyr and the archer, all I felt was annoyance. I glowered at the two of them and stomped forward, hearing Darnell’s protestations coming from behind me. I growled and reached down, grabbing the two of them by the shoulders and receiving several gaping wounds to my chest and arms in the process.

  I roared and lifted hard, tearing the two of them apart. Spyr’s and the archer’s eyes were ripped from each other, and they turned their rage on me, but I didn’t care. I roared again and slammed their heads together, catching the both of them both off guard. As they yelped and groaned in pain, I strained and spun, sending Spyr flying through the air. She yelped in surprise and spread out her wings, slowing herself down as she shot me a long hard glare.

  I took a long deep breath and then screamed at the top of my lungs, “You fucking impatient dumbass! Do you know how long I’ve been dodging this stupid fucks arrows!? It’s been fucking six hours! I thought I told you I get to have a couple kicks in first eh!? Don’t you go and try to skip the line!” I turned to the archer who was staring at me, their mouth hanging wide open. “And you… I’ve been meaning to have a talk with you, you fucking coward!”

  I roared and flung them at a nearby tree, knocking their breath out. They grunted and fell to their knees, but before they could do anything, I reached into the coiled void within me again. My muscles tensed and exploded with power as I activated leap, and exploded off the ground towards them. I let out a loud laugh as I activated claw and blow and swung and punched at the archer, pummeling them into the tree as they screamed and returned the favor, sending all four of their lithe fists at me. I could tell that in a real fight, I definitely would be on the losing side, but as tired and beaten down as they were now? This was an even closer fight than I could have ever hoped for.

  I bared my teeth and snapped at them, using my claws and fists to wildly slash and attack the archer, but I was doing incredibly little damage to them. In return, the archer struck and pummeled my body with unbelievably powerful and precise strikes, crushing my organs and creating massive bruises all over my body. I gasped as one crushed into my gut, knocking the air out of my lungs and sending me into a spasm.

  I fell to my knee, wincing as the archer took that as an opportunity to pummel me with their fists. Red filled my vision, and with a roar I exploded upwards, slamming my forehead into theirs, and swinging my claws around. They let out a groan of pain and stepped backwards, but I wasn’t done. I dashed forward and slammed my fist into them, roaring as I let out all of my annoyance from the last six GODDAMN HOURS. I screamed and spat and kicked and punched, seeing nothing but red as I attacked, mercilessly.

  A part of me heard the others yelling at me to stop, and another part of me felt every punch, hit, and kick from the archer, but mostly I just felt anger. Anger at this archer, anger at the wolves, anger at the bear, and anger at how I had ended up in this situation. The attacks hurt, and my body was screaming in agony even with my hardened body passive and Unending Vitaliy, but… it was manageable. I roared and threw my arms and fists forward, not because of the pain, but in spite of it. I mercilessly pressed the attack, flinging my entire self into each strike until suddenly their barrage of fists slowed, and then stopped, the only sound being my fists slamming into them.

  I laughed, and bared my bloody teeth as I roared down at the now still archer, “OH IS THAT ALL YOU CAN TAKE YOU COWARD!? NOW THAT ITS AN EVEN FIST FIGHT YOU CAN’T FUCKING KEEP UP CAN YOU!? HAHAHA YOU FUCKING RAT!!!” I leaned my head back and laughed, falling backwards as my legs gave out beneath me, “HAHA… Oh you stupid fuck…”

  I groaned and coughed up a wad of blood as my body began to shut down. My Unending Vitality, Enduring Heart, and hardened body had done wonders for me, but there was a limit to what they could do. I laughed and fell to the side as my vision darkened, the blood loss finally catching up to me. Haha… yeah I showed them… I closed my eyes and coughed up another spew of blood, welcoming the sweet peace of the darkness and relaxing as I felt the feel of the sand on my hands and feet again.