As he moved, he reflected on the discussion that he had overheard. Odds were, the Crimson Sect that the guards had been talking about were the people living within the tower that had sent that colossally powerful beam of energy after him and Edgar. He agreed with the guards. They were not a force that he wanted to mess with.
As he walked into the darkness, he missed the cluster of guards who were gathering around the piece of the gate, as well as the scarlet robed man who stood with them, crackling with dark potency. He also missed the wave of crimson lightning that killed every last guard in the area. The Crimson Sect did not tolerate failure.
Jonathan continued on, oblivious to the drama unfolding behind him, and headed into the darkness, trying to keep out of sight of the main road. As he walked, he began to notice that the citadel was under far higher alert than it had before.
Barely a minute passed before he came across a small patrol, heading down the alleyway. Upon seeing him, they charged, with a few remaining behind to cast spells at him. In total, there were about a dozen guards, out of which four were mages.
Jonathan snarled, and raced forwards, using about half of his maximum speed so as to not overtax his body. Streaks of vibrant light shot over the guards’ head from the mages, but Jonathan ignored them. The few that did hit him only glanced off his armor, barely making a dent. A moment later, he was upon the guards, who, with his lack of full power, were actually considerably difficult opponents to face. These guards were well trained, and Jonathan found his punches and kicks matched by swift parries and blocks that transitioned into strikes to his armor. However, despite the fact that he had been weakened, his armor had not, and it was more than up to the task of taking the blows.
However, his body still felt the pain of the strikes, and he was taking far more damage than before. He began to draw upon his martial prowess and his Impact skill, using it to make his attack land with bone crushing force. Shouts of pain accompanied his strikes, and the guards were slowly being whittled down. However, the noise had drawn other patrols, and Jonathan could hear the stomp of armored feet heading down the streets towards his position.
“Damn it!” Jonathan shouted, before leaping over the heads of his opponents, and barreling through the loose array of mages, knocking them onto their backs.
He was off into the darkness of the next alleyway in a matter of seconds, with the entire patrol on his tail. He had been detected, and it would now be far harder to escape. Jonathan picked up the pace, taking the burning in his muscles in stride as he ran. He needed to lose his pursuers in the twisting warren of streets around him, or else he could be quickly overrun. He was in no shape to fight a battle against dozens or even hundreds of similarly leveled fighters, though that assumed that he could do so anyway. He had never been forced to stay in any fights against large numbers of opponents before, but the space within the city was limited, and he would eventually be cornered.
The edges of the dawn were starting to peek over the horizon, and Jonathan was starting to become worried that his cover would be gone when the sun came up. Day was a blindingly bright affair in the Ash Heaps, and there would be little to no places for him to hide. He could evade the lower level soldiers well enough, but if Granath became involved, or some of the Crimson Sect that Jonathan had heard about, then he would be in trouble.
Jonathan dashed along the shadows of the buildings, and spotted an entrance into one of the mansions that was at odds with the surroundings. Most of the buildings lacked any sort of entrances on the bottom floor, but this one was different for some reason. Jonathan raced up the short flight of stairs that led to the door in the wall, and burst through it, splintering the wood and stone with a single flying kick. He landed on a thick red carpet, in the middle of a room filled with a scene of debauchery like none he had ever seen before.
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Ten richly dressed men and women lounged at ease amid what looked like a cavorting carnival of naked and semi-naked bodies, all of whom seemed to be quite unhappy with their positions. The people lying down were at ease on large sofas and recliners, sipping on expensive looking drinks, with lust evident in their eyes. One of the men was in the process of waving over a nearby woman as Jonathan entered. No wonder there was a door in a back alleyway. It was so that the entertainers could come and go without disturbing the sensibilities of the neighbors.
Upon seeing Jonathan, one of the women screamed, drawing the attention of her other companions. One of the men rose from his recliner, and started to gather energy in his hands, causing the naked attendants to scatter, and head towards the rest of the house.
“How dare you enter my house uninvited!” the man shouted, throwing a ball of fire towards Jonathan as he said the words.
The man was quite weak, and Jonathan simply batted aside the attack with a fist coated in purple light, causing it to land on the carpet. Fire began to spread across the floor, and the people still in the room redoubled their pace. Jonathan dashed towards the exit, and sped past the shocked bystanders, whipping up the flames behind him into a frenzy with the wind of his passing. A few seconds later, he heard the wall collapse behind him as a group of soldiers stormed in.
Jonathan emerged into a grand waiting room and burst through the door into a kitchen. He barely paid attention to the house around him, only vaguely noticing that it was quite richly appointed for a dwelling place in Hell. It seemed that toadying up to Granath was quite a lucrative business in these parts. As the fire spread further and further, Jonathan smiled. None of these people deserved to live, save perhaps the entertainers who had been forced here unwillingly. Most of them had already been out by the time that the fire had really started to spread, and Jonathan did not worry too much about their safety. In any case, it would provide some cover for his escape. Edgar was somewhere within this maze of oversized houses and alleyways, and Jonathan would find him.
At that moment, Edgar was barely half a mile away from Jonathan, and he started to hear the noises of conflict from the nearby parts of the city. Despite his hopes, it seemed as if Jonathan had come back for him.
Edgar leaped down from the top of a building as he thought this, avoiding a circling patrol. However, most of the guards were heading towards Jonathan now, leaving Edgar mostly undisturbed. He landed with a muffled thump, using his elemental energy to cloak the sound of his landing with a wall of wind. Air was an unassuming element, but one that was quite useful, as well as the one that provided flight the earliest.
Among the people of this universe, flight was one of the most sought after skills, and it was seen as a status symbol of sorts. Even in a world where mastery over magic was common, there was still something special about defying the laws of nature and treating the air as nothing more than another mode of transport. Eventually, people became strong enough to levitate through sheer willpower, but Edgar was able to fly with an application of his wind magic, which was partly why he had attuned to the element. He did not have a true affinity yet, but he was eventually planning to become one with the air. However, all of that was quite unlikely in his current situation. As it was, he could lift himself off the ground for minutes at a time, but it was very mana intensive, and it drained him if he did it for too long. If he was in any other situation, he would simply have flown out of the citadel, but he was surrounded by higher level fighters, and mages who could snipe him out of the sky in an instant, or even unbind his spells. No, he had to play the long game and hide within the city until he found his opportunity.
Now that he realized that Jonathan had come back for him however, he knew that he had more of a chance than he had thought. Edgar sped up his steps with his mastery over the wind, and ran towards the sounds of fighting on the other side of the citadel. He would support his friend in any way that he could.