"Kyaa!"
Noticing the spear was just a few meters away from her face, Naomi let out a fearful squeal.
Naomi's scream alarmed him, Adonis turned to assess the spear's proximity.
Despite the weapon's imminent danger, Adonis maintained his composure and avoided succumbing to panic.
His response was swift and calculated, he dove off the ten-meter-tall temple roof, effectively dodging the lethal spear.
However, his hopes for safety were short-lived.
THUD
As he landed, he was greeted by two awaiting knights, their spears aimed squarely at his chest. Their menacing smiles barely visible in the darkness, revealed a sense of triumph.
"Raise your hands where we can see them!"
{You can't see anything shitheads.}
"You sure?" Amid the dim darkness, Adonis spoke calmly, being able to discern the guard's faces easily despite the lack of light.
"Stop playing games! Raise your hands!"
"Very well." Sighing, he followed the knight's instructions; although the actions were accompanied by a a strange sequence of movements.
Adonis used the long nails on his right hand to dig into his right thumb, drawing blood.
SPLURT
After successfully making himself bleed, he utilized his left hand to adjust the large chilton, exposing his bare chest and an aged piece of paper fastened to it.
With remarkable fluidity, Adonis proceeded to smudge the blood from his right thumb onto the inscriptions on the parchment.
Simultaneously, he whispered something under his breath.
"Two seconds." Upon completing this sequence of actions, Adonis found his hands raised like he was told.
"What is your name." The guards demanded as they cautiously approached the boy, being able to only see the boy's figure due to the lack of light.
"Boom."
"What?"
BOOM
In swift succession to the boy's whispered taunt, the mystical scroll on his chest triggered a Novice-level magic spell, resulting in a slight backward jerk of his body.
The ensuing fireball erupted in a brilliant flash, temporarily blinding the approaching knights it targeted.
Despite their initial shock at the unexpected spell, the two knights were seasoned and managed to maintain their composed demeanor.
With practiced precision, the knights twirled their spears adeptly, conjuring a makeshift barrier that effectively dispelled the impending threat posed by the fireball.
By the time the fireball had dissipated, the boy they had tracked down was just like the spell...
Gone.
***
Navigating through the familiar alleyways and scaling rooftops, Adonis surged ahead until he reached the city's main gate.
However, as escape was in sight, a wave of disappointment washed over him. His heart sank as he discerned the city gates were guarded with even greater vigilance than usual. They knew he was coming.
"There he is!" A guard who stood near the gate screamed as he saw the figure of the fatigued kid.
'I can't catch a break, can I?' The boy once again delved into an alley before he was joined by an Intermediate Knight who was committed to capturing him.
"We have one option left, this better work..."
For an hour and a half, Adonis continued to push himself to the physical limit, sprinting at full speed with a girl strapped to his back; he remained relentless in the attempt to shake off the knight.
His evasion tactics against the city's numerous guards held a straightforward brilliance: As he raced onward, Adonis methodically deposited magic scrolls along his path.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Each of these scrolls unleashed spells at varying intervals, resulting in a cascade of disarray and distress across the city. The carefully timed explosions sowed chaos, rendering his exact whereabouts nearly impossible to ascertain.
***
The boy finally ran out of gas as he reached a familiar empty plaza with a statue of Mercury.
"How fitting that you'll be the one to save me..." Adonis sighed as he glanced at the statue behind him.
Summoning his spear, the knight swiftly aimed it at the boy who had abruptly come to a halt, for some reason.
"If you come with me willingly, I won't hurt you."
Adonis exhaled as he held out his hand and summoned his staff, preparing for a confrontation.
"Don't tell me, you think you can beat me." The knight scoffed as he pointed his spear in the boy's direction.
{Do all humans talk this much during battle?}
"Unfortunately..." Twirling his staff, Adonis sighed.
'Let's see the gap between me and an Intermediate Knight...' With the girl still strapped to his back, Adonis charged at the knight with a decreased pace.
The guard let out a disdainful scoff, strategically manoeuvring his spear to jab at the boy's leg.
"Amateur..."
Despite Adonis' keen eyes tracking the guard's movements, his body lagged, struggling to keep up with the guard's speed.
Yet, in a miraculous twist, Adonis managed to sidestep the attack, defying the odds.
Swiftly seizing the opportunity, he wielded his staff with his right hand, executing a horizontal swipe aimed at the guard's midsection.
However, the guard seemed unperturbed by the attack's intentions, deeming it insignificant.
He opted to counter by raising his spear, slicing the air with a fluid motion directed at the boy's upper thigh.
Upon the impact of Adonis' strike, he encountered an unexpected wall of resistance – his attack proved ineffective.
Recognizing the futility of his offence and sensing the imminent threat of the incoming spear, Adonis chose to swiftly retreat. Yet, not before the spear managed to graze against his thigh.
SPLURT
"Ahhh!"
The exclamation burst from Adonis as he observed the crimson drops trickling down his soiled chiton.
The knight regarded the boy with a quizzical expression, momentarily perplexed, as he deftly spun his spear to rid its blade of the bloodstains.
WHOOSH
"That's all? I thought you had more to offer than that..."
'One more time...' Adonis muttered under his breath as he cautiously closed in on the guard once more, adopting a more measured approach to his impending attack.
Employing his timeworn staff, Adonis executed a vertical swing aimed at the guard's head.
However, instead of employing his spear to counter, the knight deftly lifted his arm and nonchalantly used his forearm to deflect the blow.
In an astonishing display of agility, the knight then capitalized on Adonis' mid-air vulnerability.
Moving with remarkable celerity, he executed a swift kick to the boy's stomach, propelling him forcefully in the opposing direction of the statue.
BAM
"ARGH!" Feeling his stomach forcefully cave in, Adonis screamed.
"Kya!"
Adonis took his time to get up, and when he finally did he looked at the knight with a look of despair in his innocent eyes.
"Just come with me already." Leaning on his spear boredly, the knight looked at the distressed boy.
Adonis picked up the staff that lay on the ground next to him.
"Attacking again? Haven't you learned your lesson?" Getting into a defensive stance, the Intermediate Knight sighed once more.
"Of course not," Coating his staff in a faint blue hue, Adonis tightened his grip on the staff.
'Even if I was in perfect condition, I'd still lose a hundred per cent of the time.'
"Aura?" the guard remarked, his tone reflecting his astonishment as he observed the radiance emanating from the boy's staff.
Despite his surprise at witnessing the utilization of Aura, he maintained his mental composure, refusing to be rattled.
With the glowing stick in his right hand, Adonis tightened his muscles and bent his knees as he prepared to release the tension in them.
After he successfully prepared the attack, Adonis held the staff above his head and threw it at a frightening speed; hurling the staff towards the knight's head.
WHOOSH
Although the staff was thrown within a short distance and travelled extremely quickly, the knight was more than quick enough to dodge it completely.
Just as he was about to move out of the way he remembered something, behind him was a statue of a God.
One thing about the mortals on Earth is that they respected their Gods and any sort of disrespect towards them was completely intolerable.
Adonis knew this fact and had used it twice now to his advantage: the first time was when he leapt on the temple, knowing the guards wouldn't follow, and now the second, where he purposefully made the guard stand.
Realizing that he couldn't allow the statue to be damaged, the guard dropped his staff and coated his thick forearms in Earthly Aura as he prepared to block the blow.
BAM
The blow landed squarely on the knight's forearms, yet its impact proved surprisingly ineffectual, resulting in little more than a faintly swollen, bluish circle on his arm.
Upon thwarting the attack, the guard's exhalation carried a trace of frustration as he shot an irate glare in the boy's direction, only to find him vanishing.
Despite his fatigue and minor wounds, Adonis fell short of his peak speed, which inadvertently enabled the knight to detect his fleeting form as he fled.
"Idiot," the guard's chuckle was laced with derision.
"That's a dead end." With a quick motion, he reclaimed his spear, banishing it into his spatial ring.
Ensuring the statue remained unscathed, the knight verified its untouched state before resuming his pursuit of the boy.
However, upon concluding the dead-end passage, he found the boy had once again vanished, leaving behind an empty path.