My breath came in ragged gasps, each one burning on the way down.
My legs were screaming. Muscles that had nothing left were somehow still moving.
I had had pushed myself to limit while training with Zen earlier.
That's good. Now do it again.
I cut left at the fork in the path, then right again almost immediately, ducking low under a branch and scrambling up a short ridge, trying to break my trail, buy myself something.
But... then I heard it.
Shit.
The hounds were getting closer.
I could hear them clearly now, they'd found my scent again.
Damn it.
I scanned the area desperately with my debug vision, looking for anything useful. That's when I caught it... a movement in the underbrush, maybe fifty feet ahead of me.
[ENTITY_DETECTED]
type: "forest_deer"
level: 3
status: "startled"
threat_level: NONE
It's a deer. Probably frightened by all the noise, trying to decide whether to bolt or hide.
Only option left for me now.
