Chapter 83: Chapter 69 – Aerial Pursuit

The expression on his face would have been comical if Aarav had not been panicking already, and this on top would have exploded his heart if he had one. The panic in his mind rose by another octave, and he screamed again. The man flung Aarav away in his surprise, and Aarav found himself flying through the air with nothing around him but air. His mind whirled as his worse fear came to life around him. He gasped and screamed some more, enough that his already messed up throat felt raw and gritty. Then he took a deep breath and screamed again. By this point, all four of the riders had turned to see what the commotion was about. None were sure what was happening and where the screaming was coming from, least of all the bull of a man that was on the closest gryphon. The hoarse sound was one that no human mouth could make. At the same time, it sounded like a sound a human would make. It was a strange dichotomy and one that left the men’s ears ringing.

 

Meanwhile, a very confused and very shocked man in the saddle of a gryphon stared after a quickly disappearing ball of feathers. Aarav had quickly remembered that he was completely exposed in the air as a ball of feathers and adjusted his Camouflage Skill to make him look like water; that, at least, was clear and would make him harder to detect in the blue of the sky. Next to unfurl those useless wings, hopefully, with the winds being this strong, I can glide to the ground and buffer my fall with the updrafts I find. Aarav wasn’t exactly confident, but it was better than plummeting to his death without trying anything of use.

 

Here we go!

 

Even with the Camouflage, he couldn’t stop his momentum from carrying him straight out from where the big man had thrown him. He had sailed out and, by sheer coincidence, sailed straight into the gryphon that carried the skinny enthusiastic man that had made the loops earlier. Aarav slammed into the beast’s side very close to the skinny man's foot. There was a resounding thud from the impact, and the gryphon was surprisingly thrown off course a little. This was quickly corrected, and Aarav clung to the feathers of the half-bird while he tried to get his wings out. It was a struggle trying to squeeze them out past his current bulk and the body of the Gryphon. They had to be on either side of his body. If they weren’t in that exact configuration, they wouldn’t work properly. His body had to be centred as well.

 

Wings out, Aarav then launched himself out and away. The magnification effect of his current water form was the only thing that gave away his location. He could have continued to cling to the half-bird, but they would have known where he was after the thud.

 

He could hear yelling as the others called to each other, presumably trying to locate him. Aarav was sure the men would tire quickly as soon as they lost sight of him and then lose interest. Aarav glanced back once to see all four of the gryphon continuing forward, moving toward his direction. He angled down to get out of their immediate line of sight and then allowed himself to plummet before finding an updraft and slowing his descent. He couldn’t hear the sound of the gryphon over the winds howl and so assumed that he had lost them. A swift glance back told him how wrong he was.

 

Aarav let out another scream and dived again, levelled out and dived again. He repeated this five times, bringing the chase closer to the ground each time. Luckily for him, gliding and diving did not require much, if any, stamina or he would have already run out. The Gryphon were hot on his heels. The fat one had donned a pair of odd-looking glasses that had a red tint. Aarav had a bad feeling he knew what they were. From the old world, they would have been called infra-red glasses. Here he didn’t know what they called them. Wait, but he didn’t put off any heat? Did he? Was he hotter than the air around him? Maybe.

 

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Whatever the reason was, they were able to track his movements, and he couldn’t fly only to control his fall. This is a sticky situation, isn’t it? Why do I always do this to myself? Also, why were they so keen on catching him? Every time he looked back, the fat one seemed to be coordinating the attack in one way or another, getting the big one to come round the side and cut Aarav off from the gesture. You idiot, you know I know hand signals just like anyone else! Aarav dodged left and down again, dropping like a stone. The ground was getting clearer, a thin blue tape meandering across his vision with dark green on one side and light browns, greens and yellows on the other with houses and other buildings nestled together on the other.

 

The gryphon started dive-bombing and converging, trying to pin Aarav down. He kept up the dodging and weaving, sometimes missing by a narrow margin. The fourth man almost managed to get a hand on him. It was clear that it was purely by chance as he sailed past on his way to the ground. As the chase continued, it became clearer in his mind that the fat one was the only person that could see him clearly, if at all. It’s those damn glasses, damn it! Somehow I need to either get away from him or get those glasses!

 

Now that he knew more about the situation and how they were tracking him. Aarav could stay away from the old-timer as he found a way to rid him of those pesky glasses. They would be the death of him. They probably wanted to catch him and cut him up. Those science types were all the same. Dissect the new species and learn what we can, Aarav was quite sure that he didn’t want to die again so quickly after the first time. He was no-one science experiment!

 

A quick feint to the right and then left again, he swerved and landed on the side of the fourth man’s mount as he came in again for another swipe. The old man had yelled at him, and they were all yelling at each other. The three younger ones had eyes darting all over. The older one could see clearly and pointed straight at where Aarav was while yelling. Aarav couldn’t understand anything of the words, but pointing is pretty universal. He needed to get out of there. Leaping from this gryphon’s hindquarters gave him the leverage he needed to glide with an updraft to the next mount in line. The old man’s orders couldn’t keep up with Aarav’s movements. He might not be fast, but in the air, he was a lot more agile than the large, cumbersome bodies of the gryphon. Ducking and diving past out-stretched hands, he continued to close the distance with the fat one. He would not let himself be captured.

 

A few seconds later, with Aarav’s movements and direction changing so drastically, the old man realised what he was planning. Realising that the creature knew how it was being tracked. A look of surprise crossed his pudgy face, and he quickly yelled to the others. They too gained similarly surprised faces, and the skinny one shook him a little before he visibly took hold of himself and powered forward, determined to get at this new specimen.

 

The other two, the big one that Aarav had woke up to see and the fourth out of his field of vision, initially barrelled forward with absolutely no hesitation. They know that I know how they are tracking me. Okay, let’s do this. A grin spread over Aarav’s face. He had been the mouse in a lot of the chases in his old life. The fastest way to get rid of the chasers was to either take out the leader or be faster than the fastest guy. Once you strung them out, you could pick them off one by one.

 

Aarav had fewer options available to him here, he wasn’t the fastest, and he would run out of stamina before these people looked like they would. His recovery was only at 10% still from the On the Brink that countdown still had twenty-two days on it. This was going to be a tough one to get out of. But he would. He knew he would get out. Didn’t he always escape, even if it was by the skin of his teeth? He would do it this time. You’ve escaped from worse than this. You can do it!

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