Chapter 36: Escape

Laurence immediately barreled into the group of people in front of him. Without stopping, he grabbed two of the people surrounding his group and pushed them by the neck through the windows of the room. The frame immediately cracked and splintered apart around the bodies of the men as Laurence followed them through the window.

As the men hit the floor he looked up. Outside was no better than inside. There were lines of people of all shapes and sizes surrounding the building, itching for a slice of the bounty hunter pie. Laurence glanced around before grabbing the two men by the neck and flinging them into the crowd. Both span like a set of bola and ended their journey by crashing into four Lupe clansmen looking in on the ruckus. They were pushed back by the weight and a pile up began to form behind them.

As the crowd collapsed under the weight of the Lupe men and the two bounty hunters, Laurence dashed out past his would be trackers. As he pushed off the pile of people he had made he yelled behind him, “Come on! Keep up!” Laughing as he ducked back into the mass of people, moving like a bull in a china shop, knocking over people and causing as much havoc as possible. There were cries and screams as he broke legs and arms in passing. With each step he would send out a punch or a kick with a crack and a scream in response. He milled through the people and finally exited on the opposite side of the crowd, heading off towards the north gate of the town. Sprinting into a large alleyway, Laurence felt the mana in his body churn and pulse as he pushed the gaseous tendrils of power into his calves. Almost immediately he shot into the air and pushed off a wall, catapulting towards his target. He glanced back at the quickly retreating tavern in the hope that he might catch a glimpse of one of his friends. He smirked, seeing three streaks of movement disappearing into the sky.

Turning back he let out a momentary yelp before vaulting over a smokestack in his path. As he landed on the other side he skittered to a stop before a man in full plate armour. The man raised an oddly shaped blade to his helmet before taking a simple stance. One had was above the guard, on the ricasso of the blade, while the other sat just below the guard. Taking a step towards Laurence, the man cut upwards before thrusting out at the centre of Laurence’s chest.

Laurence stepped back before pushing off against the smokestack. It shook and collapsed behind him as he summoned his hammer mid flight. The hammer trailed behind Laurence as he quickly approached the armoured man before flicking and colliding with the man’s curved blade. With a crack, the blade snapped in half and the man staggered back before reversing his grip on his weapon and swinging the pommel of the weapon at Laurence’s face. Before he could react, Laurence felt the pommel strike across his cheek. He fell to the ground and sat there for a moment, shocked. Spitting out a mouthful of blood and a tooth, Laurence gave the armoured man a bloody grin. “You’re a Saint, huh? No wait, what are they... Great knight? No! You’re a grand knight!” He laughed, pointing at the man. “I was not expecting that. You a bounty hunter too?”

“I would not besmirch the title of grand knight by claiming to be a bounty hunter,” a muffled voice from behind the helmet echoed out. “The reward is simply a bonus for removing a stain like you from existence”.

“Do you know what I’ve done? Do you know why I even have a bounty on my head?” Laurence laughed, stood up and raised his hammer to his shoulder. He glanced around, before levelling his hammer towards the knight once more.

“The bounty said grand larceny, so any shards on your corpse once I finish this is another bonus. If it’s anything else, why should I care”.

“Well I guess I we should end this then!” Laurence licked a small trickle of blood off his lips before darting forwards, thrusting out with the tip of his blade. As the blade ripped through the air something clicked within Laurence and he felt the barrier that had held him back from the peak dissipate. He continued forward with the momentum of the thrust, but as the knight raised his broken blade up to knock away the thrust Laurence pulled his hammer down and span, raising the hammer high above his head. As the hammer came down there was a sense of extreme relief that flowed through Laurence’s body, along with an increasing dearth of mana. His hammer collided with the ground and the dirt compacted, cracked and shattered before all the mana from Laurence’s body spread out through the ground. There was a momentary rumbling before spikes of earth shot out in front of Laurence like a cone. First three spikes shot into the air, then five in front of the three, then seven, then nine thin spikes of rock and dirt. Within the blink of an eye, hundreds of spikes had spread out towards the grand knight. The knight stepped back in horror before swinging the blade out towards the wave of rock. As he swung his blade the air rippled and a stream of mana cut through the tips of the spiked wave. He kept retreating and cutting, but the wave continued out for three meters, only stopping inches from the knight’s body before collapsing into a cloud of dust.

The knight grinned and looked at the street as the cloud dissipated, but the longer he waited the more anxious he felt. Finally the cloud cleared and he was presented with an empty street, a single footprint embedded into the ground and the word ‘sorry’ pressed into a nearby wall. As the knight turned around he could see Laurence’s fleeting figure in the moonlight, jumping from house to house.

In comparison to the knight, Laurence was elated. He had finally mastered the fourth form of his Kabballah. It was a momentous occasion for him as it signified that he was almost a quarter of the way to completion. With Yesod, Hod, Gamaliel and Naamah, Laurence felt nigh untouchable within the same tier of power. As long as he did not meet a Heaven ranked individual or something equivalent he would be nigh untouchable, simply through force of his techniques. It was a great step up from what he was before, where he had to pay a huge price each time he got into combat with anything approaching his own strength. Now as long as they were not miles beyond him, he was untouchable one on one.

As soon as he shook of the chasing knight, he sprinted towards the north gate of the town, finally arriving around ten minutes after he had started running. He skittered to a stop in front of the three girls and Yun before him, chatting away without a care in the world. They turned and looked at Laurence before Cleo got up and leapt at him, knocking him over and hugging him before he hit the ground. A huge smile was plastered across her face, and her cheeks were flushed.

“You arrived! I won! Jim’s last, Law,” she said, bashfully hiding her face in Laurence’s shirt. Looking down at the young woman lying on his chest, he could not help but smile. Her excitement to see him was something Laurence was still not something he was used to, so he could only really respond by patting her on her head and hugging her. As she rested her head against his chest she said, “Where is the ring you promised? I want to see it”.

“It’s in my bag, I’ll get it once you get off me,” Laurence replied, stroking her hair as he relaxed on the ground.

“What took you so long?” Winoa said.

“I met one of those grand knights! The guy was pretty fun, and I would have stayed for longer but the race and all. He was strong though, he finally allowed me to master another form of my Kabballah”.

“So mastering what, the other sixteen forms you have yet to even think of should only take another two hundred years?” Winoa replied, smirking as she said it.

“Honestly, the first four forms took me almost six years to complete, and each one has taken longer than the last, so two hundred years might be optimistic”.

A disgruntled rustling came from the side of the path out of the town. Laurence turned and looked at the sounds as Jim strode angrily into the group. Without even saying anything he sat down in the middle of the path and wrapped his arms around his legs. Laurence rolled Cleo off him and stood up, then walked slowly to his sulking friend.

“You were only a couple of minutes slower than me, Jim. What’s got you so angry?”

“You! I met a knight on my way here, who was stopped by you before he met up with me. Unfortunately this time the strength of his target was less of an unknown and he decided to go all out against me. I’m lucky to still have my head!”

“Come on, he wasn’t that strong. You could just do your mind thing and he would have walked off by himself”.

“Mind thing?” Jim said, “Mind THING? My art is more than a mind thing. It is sculpting the emotions of my target in a way that benefits me. Jeez. I dealt with him, but hell, my nose bleed only just stopped”. Jim sighed, grabbing Laurence’s outstretched hand before standing up. “I just made him forget about us entirely, so he should be less of a problem for us in the future”. He brushed himself off and looked around. “Are we ready to go? I can’t stand this place anymore”.


1 comment:

  1. Hi just a small thing I noticed, span has fallen out of use in current english in favor of spun. This isn't really a mistake but it does jar me out of the narrative as I do a double take. Therefore span -> spun for better flow.

    ReplyDelete