The smell of smoke was approaching.

The event had to end soon and no one wanted to leave. Emporer Valeborn was rushed off the stage by his knight, and just as his feet hit the pavement, an explosion went off in the distance. Everyone screamed and a stampede happened. The slow and unlucky were crushed underneath the weight of others' panic. The Phantom Knight thought quickly and took Emporer Valeborn quickly down a side alley, in the direction of The Pit. No one would want to go there, and he could reconvene with the rest of security in a few minutes.

When they were on the other side of the alley hiding in a small parking lot behind a restaurant, his knight tried contacting security.

"Aetheria, contact security forces," the Phantom Knight said.

A little hologram of a tiny woman wearing office attire came into view on his shoulder. She looked very meek and shy but would do anything for her master.

"Yes sir," she said softly.

A little ding went off and Aetheria gave bad news.

"I am unable to contact your unit," she replied. "Shall I try contacting another?"

"Yes, quickly," the knight begged.

Emporer Valeborn paced back and forth, trying to tell himself that it was hopefully an industrial accident. If it was a terrorist attack at his speech it would make him look weak, and his political opponents were already furious at his announcement.

"My Lord, are you hurt," the knight asked.

"I'm fine. Can you contact the others?"

"Not yet. Maybe connection services in the area are down because of the explosion."

"It wasn't close enough to hit us. That doesn't make any sense," Emporer Valeborn replied.

"We can figure it out later. What matters is getting you out of here."

Another explosion went off, this one much closer to them. The Phantom Knight lunged for Emporer Valeborn and covered his body while debris fell on top of them. Parts of Utili-bots rained down from the sky and a helmet with the head of one of the snipers on the building landed a few feet away from them.

"It's time to go," his knight shouted. "We need to make our way back to the car!"

Emporer Valeborn was taken through the smoke and fog of the street, looking for their car. When they came to where they had left it, it was a smoldering mess, and charred bodies of the security detail were inside of it.

"Oh," the Phantom Knight said. "Oh no."

"Oh no!?! What do we do now," the Emporer asked.

"This is a targeted attack, so that means they're looking for you. There's a body double in the area that might slow them down, but we need to make you look different to throw them off."

Emporer Valeborn took off his glasses and his fine suit top and dress shirt. He was wearing only an undershirt. His knight took some soot and dirt from the ground and rubbed it on his body, face, and pants. They ruffled his hair and put bits of rocks in it.

Emporer Valeborn was now unrecognizable, another random victim of the terror attack.

"I know a place you can go, but you won't like it," his knight said.

"I don't care, let's go!"

Emporer Valeborn and the Phantom Knight ran through alleyways and avoided dead bodies and burning debris while they ran through La Rando. His knight was taking him to The Pit, and once he was there, he could blend in and lie low, until he could escape later on. After running for about a mile, they arrived at The Pit.

The pavement and clean roads turned into dirt roads littered with trash. A smell was in the air that would linger in one's nose, and wild dogs roamed the area. Pregnant young girls walked up and down carrying buckets of water and men sat outside drinking, bored due to months of unemployment.

Emporer Valeborn was terrified of the disgusting filth he had found himself in.

"They live like this," he asked in disgust.

"This is not living. Come."

The Phantom Knight stuck out like a sore thumb in his fancy clothes, and the street children followed him, asking for money, for food, for his shoes. He was trying to get them to leave and didn't notice they were being followed by someone sinister. Emporer Valeborn was able to get the children to leave because he had some candy in his pocket he usually kept to give his son, and they were delighted.

After walking through the town of make-shift shacks, tents, and despair, the Phantom Knight had taken the Emporer to a warehouse.

"Why here," he asked.

"No one comes here often. There's a lot of stuff inside so it's hard for anyone to live inside. You can hide in there."

Inside the old warehouse filled with broken industrial equipment and barrels of chemicals, Emporer Valeborn preferred it to the smells outside. It was quieter too, and when inside, the Phantom Knight could hear the footsteps of someone approaching. He stopped walking and unsheathed his sword scanning the area for a threat, but he didn't see anyone.

"No one is here, it's only the echo of our footsteps," the Emporer said.

"I am sorry My Lord, but I would rather be paranoid than dead."

Emporer Valeborn paced in circles, and then stood still when he felt that someone was staring at him. He looked around and couldn't find anyone. He started to panic and regretted not bringing a weapon in his attempt to look like a man of the people.

They looked up when a voice from above shouted.

"HI THERE, HOW'S IT GOING," the friendly young man asked.

He had bright red hair and purple eyes. His black and red leather jacket, black boots, gloves, and pants blended in easily in the dark with what he wore, and he was bored of waiting for them to notice him. He was hanging from the rafters of the ceiling like a monkey and swung from metal bar to bar across the ceiling.

"Don't mind him, it's just some dumb teenager Kuraga," the knight said.

"Young man, get down right now," Emporer Valeborn shouted.

"Your young son has given you practice with that phrase, hasn't he, My Lord?"

The Phantom Knight laughed while the young man swung from bar to bar, but instead of coming down, he landed on an old crane. He stuck out his hands in their direction, which had very peculiar-looking gloves on them. They only covered the back of his hands and the fingers, but not his palms.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"I THOUGHT I WOULD HAVE SOME COOL CATCH PHRASE WHEN I CAUGHT YOU," the young man said. "I WAS THINKING ABOUT IT WHILE FOLLOWING YOU."

The Phantom Knight took a fighting stance and didn't think he was funny anymore.

"ANYWAY, I'M GONNA KILL YOU NOW!"

"Run," the knight shouted.

Emporer Valeborn ran out of the warehouse, and the red-haired Weaver rubbed the palms of his hands together, then shot hot balls of fire from his hands. The Phantom Knight was impressed because only a Weaver with plenty of practice could use fire from only a small bit of friction. It didn't matter how well-practiced the Weaver assassin was, the knight was stronger.

The knight ran in the direct line of the fireballs and caught them with his bare hands. He twisted them around his body while moving his hands in a circular motion, and then shot them right back at his opponent.

"This is not awesome," the assassin said.

He dropped from the crane and landed on the machine below. With dexterity, he could jump from machine to machine because he was small and fast. The Phantom Knight wasn't afraid of his cheap tricks. He held out his right hand and swept it to the side. Wind from outside burst through the windows, and the assassin screamed, giving away his location.

The Phantom Knight ran to the right side of the warehouse, through several tractors, and caught the assassin off guard. He used a burst of air from behind to speed him up, brought his sword at a tilt, and prepared to slash his throat. The knight caught him by his hair, held his head back, and right before he was about to kill him he paused.

The assassin's defiant eyes did not beg for mercy. His body shook in anger, and it was clear he did not regret a single action he had done that afternoon. Yet for some reason, the Phantom Knight couldn't shake something off about him.

"You recognize me, don't you," he said.

"I don't know filth, like you," the knight lied.

He brought the end of his sword even closer to his neck, now drawing blood. The assassin still did not cry or beg, and his look of pure hatred and anger was now a devilish smile.

"I remember you. You boot licker," the assassin said. "How'd you get him to abolish ŝtupetaro? Did you suck his dick?"

"The Emporer is a faithful and loyal husband," the knight screamed. "You-"

The assassin laughed, the face of insanity, and fearlessness, with his own life literally in someone else's hands.

"It must be true if you reacted like that," he laughed. "Was it worth it? Is he a gentle lover?"

The Phantom Knight pushed him to the ground and hissed at him. The assassin still didn't stop laughing and mocked his embarrassment.

"Do it," he said. "Kill me. Or are you afraid now that you recognize me?"

"Get out of here Kylan. I'm letting you get away once. You're just a dumb kid."

"It's been five years, Max. I'm nineteen now. I'm not a kid anymore, and neither are you."