The soft drizzle fell into a heavy pour, wetting every part of L’s naked skin and smashing against a thousand different leaves above him. The ground was slippery and difficult to traverse through, forcing L to allocate a greater degree of a mana control towards the soles of his feet. They dug into the ground with thick nails, giving L better balance over the crumbling grass and mud.
He carried the short-sword in one arm, while the other trekked forward, moving aside rogue branches and tall shrubs. Regrettably, he once again had to travel nude. His tunic and trousers would weigh him down far too much, and the sound they would have made rubbing against each other would have made sneaking about as effective not sneaking about. Precious mana had to be spent into recreating his legendary boxers.
A turbulent wind blew, dropping all the accumulating water on branches and greenery in buckets over L. He shrugged it off. He couldn’t get wetter than he already was, and he wasn’t in any place to complain about it, either. The rain concealed the sound of his footsteps, but most importantly, it made the heat bearable. It was odd weather, to have one blistering day in the first half of the first twenty-four hours, and then for a bloody storm to roar and bawl its thunder angrily across the piss filled skies in the next. It made planning for these things somewhat difficult. His bow was difficult to use as though the string was covered in fat to protect it from the rain, the arrow fletchings could not, making whatever shots L would take, of which he hoped he would not take, incredibly inaccurate.
Fires wouldn’t start, either, but that was fine. Who needed fires when two hundred...two hundred...two hundred what followed in his footsteps? L paused, clicking his tongue. This shit again. This quest is proving to be a huge pain. Whatever, tonight it ends.
L soon reached the clearing. Beyond the shade of the trees was the stone wall. The six feet of crooked stone was by no means a determinant to L, but it was for most monsters and every horse. On top of it were half a couple town guards, here and there, seen easily by the light crystals staves they held. It was a very expensive commodity, requiring a couple years in sun ridden areas for the short-stocked crystals to absorb enough energy to last a few months time of night watch. They were an invaluable source of safety for villages at risk of attacks, as it provided them light even on stormy days and in greater quality. It pierced through the darkness in a sky blue beam, allowing the guards to see a good 40 meters ahead with only the slightest input of mana. Some held it lazily with one hand, twisting their wrists in a random fashion, letting the rays of light wash over the field. Others held it with two hands and kept it as far away from their skin as possible, treating the thing like it was a deadly greatsword.
There were a few of those, one or two for each side of the wall, of which ran by about a 100 meters by 60, L knew from his past night strolls. While the way they brandished their staffs and light up the field had no order, the guard's pathing and the times they did this did seem familiar. Ah, so that’s what I did that night. Clever, but I still don’t see the reason why I could be allowed to know about it. Was it to throw me off, maybe? L shook his head. Trying to follow his own line of thinking was like dropping heads first into four-- now three-- different rabbit hole.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
He crouched to the ground, letting a dozen minutes. After triple checking that the guards would separate by the time he neared, and through a path that they rarely flared their light on, L began creeping towards the walls. He hunched his low as he could, making his body nearly horizontal to the ground. He whisked the darkness around up, gathering it about him as he took quick steps. It was not to conceal him in his light sprint, as no naked eye can see him in the pitch dark, and if the beam of light splashed into him no amount of darkness would hide him. Instead, it served to increase the mana concentration in his body, both physically strengthening him while increasing his reserves in case of any emergency usage of his dark arts, of which, unfortunately, was a category he had entirely neglected for any sort of offensive prowess. He was too stringy to allocate any type of time or evolutionary influence towards any offensive usages of his powers, as it wouldn’t be as efficient. In return, his stats reached a new brim. His body, drunk and infused with increasing amounts of mana, tingled and then roared inwardly, screaming to be released.
Half-way through, as he was in the open field did L realize he would have to pull something absurd. The guard which held the light staff stopped, spoke with another, snickered, then went on. The unexpected pause threw L’s course off. He was in no position to turn back. Tightening his teeth together, L quickened his pace as the staff went up, it’s light-blue rays zigzagging across the field, right where L was. He attempted to time his sprint, slowing down, speeding up, and then speeding up some more, in order to dodge the coming ray.
The light went over his head. L sighed, grinned, and then threw himself to the side as the beam came back. In the spare second or two L flew up and descended into the ground, he had allocated all the mana in his body to the left side of his body, and as he spun in the air, he altered the nature of the mana into a soft and squishy material. He tossed it on the ground as his shoulder bounced on it, splashing the mana as if it was water, but without the sound. Bouncing off the ground without the slighted pause, he dashed a few rapid steps as his left hand siphoned back the thick layers of mana back, reforming the flesh on his hand.
The guard’s beam fell back to investigate the odd distortion. It lingered for a few moments before shrugging off towards the edge of the clearing.
L did not stop. The beam of atrocious light could always return, and lightning was still in the air. There was no dodging the light from that. He had planned on climbing the wall using his claws, but in a moment of bravado, elation, and foolishness, he had decided that his day had not been hazardous enough, and that jumping over the wall would set the night in perfect order.
When he neared the 20-meter mark, L’s strides extended and pushed against the ground with greater strength. He let his mana drop to his two feet in significant concentrations, infusing the bones and muscles attached to it. His legs expanded and then tightened as he ran. His foot dug deeply into the earth, both in the natural mana instilled in it and his long nails, allowing L to propel himself forward without risk of slipping or tossing the earth off in noticeable qualities. Though a layer of dark mana under the skin of his feet stifled the noise his sprint caused, the force of impact would have still been heard if not for the glaring rain.
Then he jumped. Like a moving shadow he flew up with the wind blaring in his ears to the tips of the battlements, his fingers lightly skimming the stone as he swung his lower body over-- his stomach, chest, arms, and head following them promptly.