The Hunt Chapter 4: Byrd’s fight (Turning tables?)

Noice!

Although he kept digging further and further away from them, the soldiers always managed to track Byrd down. This chase went on for 10 minutes, but eventually, he became quite exhausted. In the end, the soldiers will certainly catch and kill him.

"Damn... These guys aren't giving up... I must get them off my tail somehow...", Byrd thought, while ploughing in the ground.
"There are probably thirty of them following me out there. I can't dig deeper, otherwise the tunnel I dug out behind me will disappear. If I get out right now, they'll kill me on the spot! Unless...".

An idea suddenly appeared in his mind.

"Yes! Let's hope this works!".

Meanwhile, the magical soldiers were taking the lead. They were on a roll in chasing their prey down. All was going well for them, until one of them stopped. Another had too, and another, and another. They all looked at the very floor.

"No... no. No no no no no no no. NO!”, exclaimed one of them.
"What happened?”, said a soldier from the very end of the group.
“We lost track of his soul and aura! He’s gone!”.
“HOW?!”.
"I-I don't know. His soul just disappeared out of the blue. We just lost him, but I think he stopped. Maybe, he’ll come out."
“Let’s hope he does.”

Yet he was wrong, lots of time had passed. The group waited, and waited, and waited, 'til they can't wait any longer.

“I think I’ve had enough of waiting!”, yelled a gunman solder.
“Yeah me too!”, agreed another.
“If he isn’t here, then he should be somewhere else. It’s best if we split into smaller groups. In groups of 10 or 12, we should separate.”, said a magical soldier.

Everyone agreed, nodded and went on their own way to hunt Byrd. After a while, everything went quiet. Silent.

All of a sudden, a blue hand popped out of the very spot which the soldiers left behind. Out came another, and then a head. Byrd gasped for air as he climbed out of the ground. He coughed. He looked around. No one else was there.

“Shit! F**king hell! I can’t believe I had to hold my breath for this long! Thank God, that temporarily turned my soul and aura off! I nearly died! Shit…”, said a trembling Byrd.

He looked around again to check that no one was spying on him.

“I still have to do something about those soldiers.”, he thought.
“I don’t have a proper plan to beat them however, so I’m gonna have to go all out on them.”

Some time later, a group of soldiers were marching somewhere in the forest. Obviously, they still were on their guard. They observed high, low, east, and west for Byrd.

“We’re getting nowhere with this wild goose chase.”, groaned a soldier, “How will we ever find our target?”.
“Chirrup mate! We’ll find ‘im soon enough. Ain’t that right, Bradle-“, another said while looking behind.
“Oi. What happened?”.

Everyone stopped walking. The first soldier looked behind. Someone was missing.

“I swear he was way at the back. Now, he’s gone.”, said the other.
“Oh come off it bro! One of us always gets left behind.”, the first comforted.
“Nah! Not like this! He usually just looks at the air, but this time he disappeared into thin air. How many of us are supposed to be here?”.
“12! Now there’s … … 9 of us?”.
“Ain’t no way! You’re prolly terrible at maths!”.
“Nope! I’m right! 9 altogether!”.

The 9 soldiers stood their ground and huddled together. Guns, swords, and magic were revealed and wielded. The paranoid, frightened warriors pointed their weapons at nowhere. They looked high, low, west, and east. Some of them began to shudder in fear.

“Stay together people! We can’t afford to lose another!”, shouted the scared soldier.

In a split second, everyone started sweating and worrying. Their eyes moved a bit frantically, and their hearts raced quickly.

“Aaaargh!”.

A soldier was taken.

“Waaaagh!”.

Another soldier was taken.

“Whhooooaaaa!”.

Another!

This kept happening until there were two left.

“Why the hell did I sign up for this job?.”, the soldier started questioning himself.

Unfortunately for the two, a blue shadow appeared behind and looked over them. The two felt it’s presence and turned around slowly.

“Boo.”, said the shadow.

Before the two could do anything to kill him, Byrd thought fast and bashed their heads together, knocking them out.

“Heh. Not so tough are ya now, huh?!”, taunted Byrd.

He then strolled away.

END of Chapter 4