Adam inhaled slowly, silently, and waited.

Finally, a new song started over the speakers, a waltz -

Vas-Tin was slowly making his way own the center of the town, likely scenting everything out and getting a feeling for his surroundings. Adam smirked and slowly opened his eyes, holding his position as he listened to the slow, playful song.

He figured this was what Vas-Tin would do at first – once he caught on that this wasn’t going to be easy and that this was going to involve plenty of people, he’d have to formulate a new plan and that involved figuring out his surroundings. He would probably give himself a time to get a feeling for his environment, Adam was guessing a solid hour of him just sorting through scents, trying to link the one from the station he knew belonged to Adam to the one in town-

The song stopped abruptly and started a popular song from Zerric.

He was going into the grocery store.

And likely found Adam’s scent.

Adam tensed and pushed off the wall to hurry through another false building, pulling out his map to look at it and find the hardest route, one he had run only four times as it had continuously been added onto up til last night. He forced himself into runner mode and followed the path, spots on the floor color-coded with the route color so he would be able to see them and follow them, the one and only advantage he had on Vas-Tin.

He heard a crashing and grinned, biting the inside of his cheek knowing Vas-Tin had fallen through a false floor that Adam had swung over with a rope. When he realized that this meant that Vas-Tin was only two false structures behind him and that the hunter wasn’t just clearing the space between them, but absolutely devouring it, Adam panicked and kicked his efforts into overdrive.

He rushed through the next false building before he cut into the back of the bar, going up the stairs to the dwelling above to go out the window that had been pre-opened for him, closing it quietly behind him to walk across the wooden bard set out for him. Once he was safe on the roof of the restaurant he went and carefully climbed down onto the balcony on the second floor, pausing to watch as Vas-Tin came racing out of one of the false houses to stumble into the middle of the street, breathing hard and looking around before he turned and lifted his nose to inhale, deep and slow.

He turned his face toward Adam and Adam forced himself to stay calm, to not panic and curse and scramble off. He had to stay calm.

But he could keep from his skin prickling with anxious sweat.

Vas-Tin lowered his chin and smirked before he made his way toward the restaurant with a far more casual, unbothered pace and Adam nearly blew his top.

FUCK!

This was supposed to be HIS environment, where he was in HIS element! What the literal fuck!? They were only an hour in and he was about to get fucking destroyed?!

Fuck that.

Adam leaned over the balcony to where Arwin, the owner of the bar, was watching and he made a motion to him, signaling for them to change tactics. Arwin nodded and went into the bar and Adam climbed back onto the roof and sprinted across it to leap onto the roof of the theater, smoothing his hair back against his head as he walked to the roof access and climbed down it into the attic, grabbing

His scent was a problem.

He knew it would be, they all did, he just thought they would have more time.

But Vas-Tin was on his fucking A-game.

And so was Adam and everyone here.

They were prepared for this.

Once Vas-Tin picked up on his scent they’d have to make it extremely difficult for him to keep on it.
Adam slipped from the attic down into the projection room where a spray bottle was waiting for him, he inhaled deeply and held his breath as he started to spray himself, continuing to do so as he walked down the stairs and into the theater, where another one of the locals was briskly walking through spritzing the air with a different perfume.

Outside, everyone else was doing the same to the other buildings, swamping the air with different cheap but potent perfumes that would make it damn near impossible for Vas-Tin to follow Adam by scent only. He’d probably be able to catch his scent again when he got close enough to him, but as long as Adam kept that distance he’d be fine.

There was a loud crashing sound, what Adam was certain was the sound of the hunter kicking in the roof access into the theater. Adam quickly sprayed the air in front of him before he walked into it, trading bottles with the locals spraying the air so she could continue to spray, keeping an eye on the stairs Vas-Tin would soon be coming down.

Adam sprayed himself as he walked quickly, going out of the theater and into the back door of the restaurant where the owner and his wife were with masks on, the pair spraying the air as he walked through and handed him another bottle.

He went back onto his route while the locals went around spaying the ever-loving shit out of everything, and three hours later, Adam was still slowly making his way around while Vas-Tin struggled after, having lost his scent after an hour to storm around the town, grabbing locals in what Adam was sure was an effort to pick up Adam’s older scents to try and track him again.

The music stopped, signaling that Vas-Tin, who the dizzying violin song signaled had been stomping around the grocery store for almost an hour now, was back in the street and was just standing there. Adam took the minute to crouch down into a squat and gather himself again, catching his breath while he waited.

When the song started up again, it was signaling that Vas-Tin was going toward the trio of stores, which were in the opposite direction of where Adam currently was. So again, he waited.

He waited for a while, what felt like another hour before the song changed again, signaling he was going north, back toward the grocery store, with the next song played confirming that. Adam frowned and twisted a little in the direction of the general store, frowning further as he tried to figure out what Vas-Tin was doing. Was he still trying to find where his scent was the strongest?

Adam felt himself break out in a cold sweat as he slowly started to make his way back down the route that brought him to the further point away from the grocery store. As long as the song kept playing, that meant Vash-Tin was still on the move, which meant that Adam had to be on the move as well.

Everything felt like it was still going according to plan, but suddenly Adam felt uncertain what to do next. Vas-Tin was changing tactics to something else and Adam didn’t know how to prepare himself.

Maybe if he was confident that Vas-Tin was distracted enough in the general store, sure that the hunter had completely lost his scent, Adam could run to point B and end all of this. The hunter was clearly having issues finding him, that was for sure, and while he seemed to have completely lost his scent due to the perfume, he suspected the other’s hearing was still a major threat, even with the music being played.

And the second Vas-Tin caught on that Adam was on the run to the endpoint, he’d be coming after him and Adam would have lost the upper hand.

But it might be worth the risk, since he could possibly plan that out, wait until he was certain Vas-Tin was occupied.

The music stopped abruptly and Adam stopped as well, licking his lips as he rubbed the sweat from his forehead against the short sleeve of his shirt before he focused on listening. The music changed again back to the song signaling that he was heading back to the trio of store and Adam felt the hair rise on the back of his neck.
Something was off.

Vas-Tin was planning something, had figured something out.

Adam mouthed ‘Fuck!’ to himself before he turned a little toward the way he came, slowly making his way back as the song continued.

They had lost him! Adam’s mouth dropped open and quickly remembered the plan for this – he had to get back to the grocery store, where there were four different exits where could wait it out until Vas-Tin was found again by the others in the town and it was determined where he was heading.

He quickened his steps as he hurried back through the false building, swiftly crossing the pair of wooden boards there over the deep ditch that served as a bridge, hopping off it on the other side to leave their building, pausing to look around and listen for any sign of Vas-Tin. He saw a local rush by, looking around as well, and Adam pushed his sweat-slick hair back before he started through the next false building to navigate under the obstacles there quietly. IN this building it was mostly just wooden crates and sacks filled with soil, creating hollow castles, the one in the middle broken from when Vas-Tin had barreled through it earlier in the hunt.
There was a dull ‘thud’ and he froze, looking up to stare at the ceiling where he had sworn he heard the sound come from. When he realized that whatever had landed on the roof was far too light to be Vas-Tin, he tensed.

Vas-Tin was trying to distract him!

Adam panicked and twisted this way and that, trying to quickly figure out what Vas-Tin expected him to what, what he wanted him to do, and how to not do that.

So instead of fleeing, he decided to dive under one of the obstacles and crawl further under it to wait it out. He saw a shadow move quickly across the open doorway out and he scowled, gritting his teeth as he looked around for some way to evade capture.

He looked down and paused, seeing footprints in the soil. He straightened a little and looked around at the ground, the strategically placed holes in the ceiling and walls allowing light from the sun in so that Adam could always know where he was going. In the soil he saw large footprints that clearly belonged to Vas-Tin, circling around all the wooden crate structures and piles of soil bags, some of which looked like had been dragged to new places since the race started.

Vas-Tin had mapped this building out.

It was a trap!

FUCK!

Adam panicked and crawled out from his hiding place, knowing that Vas-Tin had driven him here because he knew that once Adam was inside, he would be able to figure out where he was due to having scouted it out already.

So Adam had to change that. He grabbed one of the crates to lift it and set it down on the floor, grabbing another to scamper off and set it elsewhere and he hastily rearranged things into a new layout, leaving the bags of soil where they were because they were too heavy.

A shadow moved across the room then and Adam twisted to see Vash-Tin set a trio of large wooden boards in front of one of the two doorways, blocking it before the hunter rushed off. Adam threw his arms up and twisted to turn toward the exit, but stopped when he was halfway between, staring out at one of the holes in the wall to see Vas-Tin was standing opposite him, waiting just outside the middle of the false structure to see which way Adam would go.

Adam’s eyes narrowed as he leaned back on his heel, a bead of sweat dripping from his jaw as he looked toward the open doorway that led into a false structure like this one. He then looked back toward the false structure that had the huge ditch in it, the way there blocked off by the boards.

If he was going to get the upper hand again, he’d have to drop Vas-Tin in that ditch. It was his only chance.

The question was...was he fast enough to get there and across it before Vas-Tin?

And the answer was fuck yes.

Adam couldn’t do a long-distance run and beat the other, but he could sprint like a motherfucker, and he was confident he could make it. He’d just have to fake Vas-Tin out and make him think he was going in the opposite direction. Those few seconds it would take for Vas-Tin to come around the building would be the difference between Adam getting away and getting caught.

And that was what this had come down to.

A few seconds.

If he got Vas-Tin into the ditch, he’d be able to go back into hiding and his chances of winning would be significantly higher, but if Vas-Tin got him?

It was game over.

Adam would have to leave this town and the moon forever.

Adam gritted his teeth and inhaled deeply, looking around quickly before he took a few steps back, keeping his gaze on Vas-Tin to watch him tense. Adam got back far enough that he was in a clear enough to be able to really dig his feet in and sprint unobstructed toward either direction. He rolled his shoulders, stretching his hands above his head as he stared forward as Vas-Tin, the other bowing his head low as he seemed to be concentrating very hard on listening to what Adam was doing.

He saw the other’s face scrunch up, twisting, his nose crinkling. Vas-Tin sneezed and Adam moved to go toward the left and Vas-Tin jolted before he moved as well to start in that direction. Adam twisted on his heel and dug his feet into the ground to turn on his toes and sprint like crazy, bursting through the wooden boards to sprint into the next false building and toward the ditch and the wooden boards over it that served as the bridge.

Adam realized way too late that the boards had been removed from the ditch and he came to a skidding stop, windmilled his arms to avoid falling into the ditch but he had stopped too hard after going too fast and still slid forward toward the ditch.

“Fu- Vas-!” He slid into the ditch and tried to reach back but only his fingertips brushed against the side of the ditch before he continued down.

He was grabbed by his lifted wrist in a grip that was way too tight, but as it saved him from falling and breaking a leg or a rib, he wasn’t going to complain. He looked up to see Vas-Tin kneeling on the side of the ditch, reaching down to hold Adam up.

Adam gritted his teeth as he looked up into the other’s unseeing eyes. “I can’t believe you fucking moved the boards and chanced me falling into a fucking ditch, man!” He hissed, kicking his legs out as Vas-Tin slowly stood, pulling Adam up easily by his arm as he rose. “You have any idea how deep this thing is!?”

Vas-Tin grunted in reply as he set Adam down on his feet and released his wrist, and when Adam went to rub where the bone still felt like it was being gripped, he felt something there. Adam looked down to see Vas-Tin had snapped the tracking bracelet on him. He stared down at it as the red light on it turned green and chirped. His jaw went slack.

Logically yes, obviously he had been caught, but seeing the tracker on his wrist made it painfully real.

He had lost.

Adam was going down to Zerric.