They were too late. They were too far away to make it in time to save the group of people, so they could only hold their tongues and move closer. A few minutes later they saw the slavers bringing over more captives, but by this time, Sage and his men were only a few dozen feet away. He made a hand signal to the two Centurions who then repeated it to their men. Then Sage activated his Cerulean Cloud and crept closer. He circled around to the back of the dais, keeping back to avoid the slavers and their captives.

Then, he summoned forth a large emplacement. A huge many barreled weapon mounted on a pedestal. He leaned against the twin shoulder braces and grabbed hold of the two grips before pulling the trigger. Thirty Six three foot long metal spears were released with a terrifying loud hiss of steam. The Six by Six cannon released one long loud hiss of steam along with dozens of loud thumps, one for each spear that was launched.

“We give to you these sacrifices, mighty lord! Raise them up from beyond the grave to do your bidding! The…”

The figure’s voice was deep, gravelly, and emotionless. It almost sounded robotic. In the middle of a sentence the flurry of spears blasted into it. Each of the bright silver spears looked like they were passing through water. The dark robe tore, but the figure underneath seemed to ripple. A circular wave spread and the once solid matter spread apart, opening wide holes for the spears to pass seamlessly through. The first few spears caught the dark robes and ripped them to bits, but mid-way through it became easy to see the flurry of projectiles passing harmlessly through a liquid body.

With the robes torn to bits and falling to the ground, it was now easy to see that the figure underneath them was just one of those tar people from up above. The only difference was that this one had far more detailed facial features and was talking to the people around the pit. Sage released his Spiritual Sense and stored the Six by Six. He immediately felt a presence in the distance and darted towards it. He had chosen not to use Spirit Sense earlier to prevent the enemy from discovering his sneak attack. On the downside that also meant he couldn’t check for decoys.

Knowing his assassination attempt had failed, he yelled out an order. The slavers were already rushing towards him, but they didn’t realize that they were already surrounded. Crossbow bolts flew in from the distance and struck half of them before the two squads of the Jade Horde rushed in and engaged them directly. At the same time, Sage took a deep breath and then released a huge gout of flames from his mouth. The flames roared over the surface of the tar pit, covering it in a burning layer.

Sage started to move in pursuit of the fleeing presence, but he watched the flames closely. As he feared, the tar pit wasn’t reduced, instead the black liquid merely burned like an oil lamp. There was a small glint in his eye as he hurried in pursuit of his foe. As he ran, he battled using his Spiritual Sense. He couldn’t get a good feel for the other party, it was sort of like two blind and deaf men pushing and wrestling. Only if one or the other was subdued could they stop and take the time to touch the others face to determine an identity. Of course, this match was occurring with the two of them being hundreds of feet away from each other and sprinting through subterranean tunnels.

He wound his way back and forth, his target was running down the path that led deeper into the giant crevice. Sometimes the path would dig into the wall and he’d pass by cells on either side. Other times it would narrow and the wall would open back up to the crevice. A few places were even damaged and half the path was gone. The normally ten foot wide path was only half that width and the outer half was replaced with a steep slope that dropped into the darkness. Sage felt the other presence start to move closer towards him. He stopped in place and then drew back his Spirit Sense.

I sure hope I don’t regret this.

Sage turned and then took a leap off the open edge. As he fell into the darkness with a neon blue mist glowing around his body, a flaming silhouette walked to the edge of the path and stared down at him. The tar person that had been giving a sermon was not destroyed from the attack of flying spears, nor was it hindered by the flames. It had been following him all this time. It seemed slightly smaller, but was covered in a wreath of flames. It’s whole body was burning like a humanoid torch.

Sage looked back over his shoulder and almost gave the flaming profile a wink, but he didn’t have time for that. He returned his attention back to the dark abyss he was falling into. He felt a wave of Spiritual Sense wash over him, but the Cerulean Cloud hid him. He would only seem like a blank spot. Normally, a very careful check would leave some traces, just as how he’d first found the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent. Spiritual Sense was like an all encompassing sense of touch and when tracing the outline of everything in an area, a void or missing spot would be felt where he made contact with any other objects. On the other hand, now that he was falling through the open air, a void would be expected.

The only problem was that flaming tar person. Whoever the fleeing presence was, they were likely in control of the tar people. Given that the presence immediately left as soon as he attacked that powerful tar person, he expected the tar person was a type of clone or avatar, similar to Sage’s own Twin Soul or at least a puppet-like existence like his Linked Insect. Leaping into the darkness as he did wasn’t the most perfect option, but it would rid him of his tail. He was also testing how well the Cerulean Cloud could hide him from an active search. It had served him well so far to hide his presence when he wasn’t expected, but how good was it when someone was trying to hunt him down?

He fell through the darkness, waiting patiently. Then with perfect timing he shot out a thin line from his wrist and it caught onto a small rock projection. The wire pulled taut and he swung back towards the wall. A tiny grasping claw at the end of the line released and he landed onto a flat space with a soft somersault. That hole into the void was still present in his right eye, letting him not only know when to act, but to practice the maneuver a dozen times in his head before actually taking action. He’d dropped a few levels lower than the escaping presence. It was a risk, given he didn’t know where the person was escaping to, but the Warp Worm was already burrowing in that direction to look for secret tunnels. Sage wanted to get far away from that flaming tar person, while also setting an ambush.

Hopefully, by getting far enough ahead, his enemy would grow fatigued with apprehension. The foe would know that Sage was waiting for him, somewhere. There was sure to be an ambush, but where would it be? The best way to handle such a situation was to take it slow and carefully check everything, but how can he do that when he knows there’s an army coming behind him. Time was limited. At least, that was the hope. It was either set a risky ambush like this, or just rush towards the enemy like a bull. Given that the Timeless Eyes could see backwards even easier than they could see forwards, if the foreign presence never showed itself, he could always track it down later. The troops he’d left next to the tar pit would at the very least slow the creation of more tar people up above, and if they were all cleaned up, reinforcements would likely be sent to the 9th and 10th century units causing distractions.

Sage quickly surveyed the territory around him. While he didn’t have perfect night vision, the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent was a creature who spent most of its life in darkness. His eyes had also been strengthened many times by the fusions with other beasts and insects, which when combined with the Timeless Eye’s glimpse of the future he could move about like he was born here. Sage moved from the flat platform he’d landed on to the main path. He avoided the most likely places for an ambush, chokepoints and low visibility areas, instead picking the most unlikely part of the path and embedding Formation Plates in the walls and ceiling. Then he moved further down the path and placed his Formation Machine, taking his time to set up trapping and bewildering routines. The Formation Machine would be responsible for preventing escape, while the Formation Plates were just distractions to use in battle.

Now we wait and see if that fellow comes this way…