In this grueling pursuit spanning a thousand miles, Horitake lacked the sheer mobility of his prey, making it impossible to end the chase in a single stroke. However, he was far from being at a disadvantage.
The scales were tipped in his favor by a simple, brutal reality: the enemy was weak, while he was strong. The enemy was exhausted, while he remained unscathed.
Horitake had been hunting this Hawk Demon for several nights now. Like clockwork, he would track the creature down every evening, forcing it into a desperate, frantic flight for survival.
The Hawk Demon's only recourse was to retreat into the freezing heights of the stratosphere, putting as much distance between himself and Horitake as possible. But while his escapes were successful, they were pyrrhic victories. By the time he managed to shake Horitake off, dawn was always just over the horizon. The demon would then be forced to find a dark crevice to hide from the sun, spending his days in a state of restless hiding rather than recovery.
As soon as the sun set and he took to the skies, Horitake would find him again, resuming the relentless hunt.
This endless cycle had led to one devastating result.
The Hawk Demon was trapped in a loop of constant flight. While he could hide and rest during the day, he had been robbed of the chance to hunt and feed at night. Because Horitake was always there—either actively attacking or closing in with terrifying speed—the demon never had a window of peace to find a human meal.
He had been running on empty for days, his strength flagging, his mind fraying at the edges.
This can't go on, the demon thought frantically.
Horitake had the luxury of sleeping and eating during the day, returning each night with renewed vigor and killing intent. The demon, shackled by his biology to the darkness, was being suffocated. Horitake was pressing too hard, driving him toward a breaking point where hunger was beginning to eclipse his fear.
If this starvation continued, only two ends awaited him.
First, he could simply starve to death—becoming the first demon in a millennium to die of hunger. It would be a "legendary" death, one that would see his name mocked by every demon for eternity.
Second, he would be forced to descend and feed, exposing himself to the earthbound Horitake, who would undoubtedly strike him down the moment his talons touched the ground.
There was no third option.
It had been so many days that the Hawk Demon had lost count. He was consumed by a cocktail of rabid fury and bone-deep starvation. He couldn't help but replay the misery of the previous night in his mind.
Yesterday, the moment the sun dipped below the horizon, he had emerged from his hiding spot. Ravenous, he soared through the night sky, his eyes scouring the vast, rolling mountain ranges for any sign of human life.
He needed a settlement—a small mountain village was ideal. A town was too risky; more people meant more noise, and more noise meant attracting the monster on his heels. He needed someone isolated, someone he could snatch up in a silent dive, devouring them instantly to appease the gnawing void in his gut.
But they were in the heart of the great wilderness. Horitake had driven him deep into the uninhabited mountains. In such a place, finding a human soul was like searching for a needle in a dark haystack.
Eating wild animals was an option, but their blood was thin and their essence weak. For a demon of his caliber, animal meat provided almost no spiritual energy. It was like drinking salt water to quench a desert thirst.
As he beat his wings through the thin mountain air, the Hawk Demon pushed his ocular prowess to the limit. His "Hawk Eyes" possessed both night vision and incredible telescopic range, scanning the dark canopy below for even the faintest heat signature or movement.
Nothing. There were no humans in this desolate waste.
The hunger became unbearable, a physical pain that felt like claws scraping the inside of his stomach.
Checking the area one last time, he saw no sign of his pursuer. Driven by pure desperation, he decided to descend. Even if animals couldn't truly nourish him, they would at least provide a temporary reprieve from the cramping hunger.
He tilted his wings and began a slow, spiraling descent toward the forest floor. But just as he cleared the fifty-meter mark above the trees, his sharp eyes caught a flicker of something impossible in the distance.
From the dark heart of the woods, a streak of jagged, violet lightning was tearing through the terrain, bolting toward his location with terrifying velocity!
The Hawk Demon's heart nearly stopped. Panic overrode hunger instantly. He abandoned his descent, beating his wings with such violence that feathers scattered into the air as he clawed his way back toward the clouds.
After days of being hunted, he knew all too well what that light meant. To face that man on the ground was certain death. His only sanctuary was the sky.
Indeed, the purple bolt streaking across the earth was Horitake.
Using his Spirit Vision, Horitake had detected the demon's presence the moment he attempted to descend. Without a word, he had detonated into a full-speed sprint, intent on decapitating the creature before it could react.
He was just a second too late.
By the time Horitake arrived at the clearing, wreathed in crackling purple arcs of electricity, he looked up to see the Hawk Demon already spiraling out of reach. Had the demon stayed at fifty meters, a full-power leap might have allowed Horitake to reach him. But now, the distance was too great, and the demon was too high for any ranged attack to be effective.
Standing in the clearing, his Spirit Vision still active, Horitake glared up at the retreating shape in the night sky. He watched with a grim, frustrated silence as the demon flew higher and further away.
Horitake was annoyed, but the demon in the sky was absolutely livid.
This bastard is relentless! He won't give me a single breath!
Every time he tried to lower his altitude, the man was there like a parasitic shadow. If he wasn't high enough, that purple lightning would surely tear him apart. He had no choice but to stay in the freezing heights, flying until his wings ached just to stay out of range.
As he flew, the Hawk Demon kept looking back, his Hawk Eyes fixed on the ground behind him. He prayed that Horitake would lose the trail, that the man would finally tire or lose sight of him in the dark.
But his hopes were shattered. Through the darkness, he could see that terrifying figure still following him, tracking his flight path from the ground with eerie precision.
If he dropped even a few dozen meters, he knew Horitake would be there to meet him.
The demon was on the verge of a mental breakdown. "This bastard is a human!" he screamed internally. "How is his vision as good as mine?!"
He understood why he could see the ground from the sky—he was a demon with the eyes of a hawk. But how could a mere human track a speck in the clouds from the forest floor in total darkness? It defied all logic.
Poor Hawk Demon had no way of knowing that Horitake possessed a set of "cheat-code" eyes of his own. If a demon could see from above, why shouldn't a master of the breath see from below?
And so, Horitake pursued him for the remainder of the night.
Horitake couldn't reach him, but the Hawk Demon couldn't escape him.
Only when the first gray light of dawn began to bleed over the horizon did the demon manage to push himself to his absolute limit, flying until his lungs burned to finally break Horitake's line of sight and dive into a lightless cave.
That had been the demon's experience yesterday. In truth, it had been his experience every night for the past week.
He expected tonight to be the same.
But would it be?
Did Horitake have the patience to keep this up? Did the Hawk Demon have the willpower to endure another night of starvation?
Tonight, this thousand-mile game of cat and mouse would likely reach its end.
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