A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1486 - 1486: The Realm's Most Valiant - Part 4

"Verdant, Nila, Blackthorn, look for him with everything that you have," Oliver said in alarm. "He really will disappear on us."

He was somehow certain of that, as he gave the order. Any normal creature, even amongst the crowd, Ingolsol would at least have been able to have a slight sense for him. This creature, however, was completely void of anything.

"Find him," Nila told her dogs, quickly releasing all three ropes.

The hounds dashed forward together. Verdant stepped off to the side to make way for them, but his eyes never once blinked for a second. He knew how much Oliver trusted in his vision, and he went the furthest distance he could in making sure he made the fullest use of it.

Lady Blackthorn dashed forward, following the same path as her father, figuring that she would be of better use if she were closer to one of the tents, rather than all of them. She didn't have as much faith in her vision as the others did, but she had faith in her sword, and her ability to react.

Oliver merely stood waiting, as time slowed down to a halt. He had his sword drawn, but his hand was still, without yet any intention to move. He gave all the awareness that he had to Ingolsol and Claudia, half-losing his own thought process in doing so.

Then, with all the straightforwardness that a man like Blackthorn was famed for, the General rushed the tent, slicing open more than just its front door – he sliced open a great deal of the wall as well, bringing the structure crashing inwards on itself, in a great flapping of canvas material.

From the tut, General Blackthorn's guessing must have been wrong. He quickly looked over his shoulder. If not for that look from the General, Oliver would never have seen it himself. Just the barest silhouette, something vaguely human, with less presence than a single drop of water. Ingolsol didn't see it, but Claudia sensed the disturbance. The figure flashed out from the tent farthest away from General Blackthorn, and went racing, almost invisible, into the shadows.

His swiftness was otherworldly, and the degree of invisibility was unnatural. It couldn't be explained as mere camouflage. Verdant hurled a shout, and pointed a finger, alerting his comrades, and Lady Blackthorn, more advanced than the rest of them, went racing, along with Nila's three dogs hot in pursuit.

An arrow went flying past the rushing Lady Blackthorn, and Nila hastily released the shot from her bow. But with no shout of pain, and only the thrumming of the arrow running into a wooden stump, the shot on a target that she could not see yielded no results.

Only the dogs seemed to know where the man was, and it was the dogs that Oliver ended up trusting. He went rushing forward, with all the speed that he had available to him, with Lord Blackthorn's outraged voice pounding in his ear, overwhelming him. He recognized the sensation as Command, but he didn't think that he'd have surrendered so readily to it. It easily augmented his movements, making him just that slight bit faster than he usually was, at his normal Fourth Boundary pace.

He neared Lady Blackthorn and the dogs in the span of a single instant. His retainer only gave him the barest flicker of surprise, and then he was ahead of her too, looking through the long cast shadows, as the last of the sunlight faded away, and he was forced to track the fleeing figure by instinct alone.

Unnatural – that was what he felt it to be. Blackthorn was right, in that what existed before him could only be explained by the influence of the Gods. Or perhaps it was a sheer lack of existence. It was beyond unnatural. Ingolsol growled his frustration, kicking his fury.

"A mere ant, supposing that it can hide from us?" He fumed. "So lowly a creature that we do not even notice when we crush it beneath our boot?"

He was next to useless against such things. He was a man that saw things broadly, for all the power that he wielded. He cared not about the small, only the large. His vision was on the level of an entire country. An individual that lacked presence to the degree that this killer did, went so far beyond insignificance, that he virtually did not exist for the Dark God.

Oliver had to block Ingolsol's tirade from his mind, as he felt himself growing angrier for it. He knew anger would not help him find the man that he searched for. He'd pierced forward as fast as he could, overtaking the dogs, and Blackthorn, and now there was nothing to assist him. He was searching blindly, for that unnatural lack of presence.

It made him want to sweep down everything in front of him, to use overwhelming force to level the land. It took all the willpower he had not to give into that sensation. He forced himself to an unnatural calm, and only then, did he hear Claudia's voice, crystal clear.

"It's too quiet," she said. "A forest that's too quiet is always hiding something."

His eyes found themselves tinged with purple, as he felt himself lured by her calm, and her pathfinding abilities. She gently nurtured the world, as if she knew everything about it. She never tried to overwhelm, in the way that Ingolsol did. She allowed things to go simply where they were most natural to go. Her lack of force was to such a degree that even the slightest drop of water, adding itself to a mighty flowing river, at the highest end of her awareness, reeked of significance for her. For she knew well how that single drop of water could change everything – how it could be the final blow that brought down a precariously overhanging cliff, weathered after years of battering, and how that falling cliff could then lead to all sorts of further disaster.

She had a sense for the connection of all things. That was her nature. Overwhelming gentleness, overwhelming play. That was why she had her place on the Battle board. The playful connections that she made, those that went beyond conscious awareness, still held a grand significance in the highest level of strategy.