The Vampire had nocked another arrow to the string, after drawing it across the top of his hand and drawing blood, even as Alphonse made good on his escape. He had eight arrows left. Alphonse had nimbly deflected his assault, though Adrian had expected no less of such an opponent, to be struck down by his first strike would be woefully anticlimactic. Still, what Alphonse knew of fighting Vampire kind was questionable, considering his decision to run further into the denser and shadier forest, rather than closing the distance and forcing him into the light of the clearing. Still, Adrian was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“The Hunt awaits me,
What worthy prey I now chase
Fleet of hand and foot.”

It wasn’t particularly comfortable to run with the string drawn, so he loosened it and held his bow low pointed to the ground, the arrow still primed with the soft whispering of his poison spell. With his supernatural qualities it would be a thing of immense ease to re-draw it and shoot when opportunity presented itself, but for now he had to establish line of sight. Adrian immediately headed him off while keeping to the edge of the clearing, running at a straight diagonal to come in about twenty feet behind Alphonse as he ran into the forest, showing surprising speed for a human, as far as the Vampire could tell. 

However, Alphonse was at a significant disadvantage here. Adrian knew the forest well, three hundred years as a hunter in both life and death had taught him how to move both quickly and silently through the forest. This was aided now by his experienced application of muffle, a simple spell which none-the-less silenced his footsteps, making him somewhat harder to detect. The Vampire had no way to know that his foe was detecting his energy through the medium of Chi, but for that moment hiding his presence was unnecessary regardless, he hid his footsteps out of sheer habit.

Alphonse had gained a slight lead by not having to avoid patches of sunlight, but Adrian had still drawn close enough that as the nimble warrior darted between trees, he finally ran out of luck and a clear shot presented itself. Such was the nature of the forest, it could be protection for those who sought it, but not forever.

Adrian loosed his arrow from a little over twenty feet away as Alphonse headed towards a tree. He would have to slow down to avoid the obstruction, giving Adrian’s shot its best chance as it flew through the air with unerring accuracy, once again aiming for dead centre, but this time at his back, as it was the easiest target for the Vampire.