As soon as he was outside, Alex took a quick glance to the left and right, to gain an overview over his situation. There were at least 5 people outside the hut. Everyone held weapons. A spear, a sword, someone even had a club or mace. The teenager wasn’t quite sure and didn’t have the time to ponder medieval weapons or their history, at the moment.

Andrej, the one at the front, yelled again, “Alex, com-. Ah, here you are. Good. Drop your weapons and turn around.” But the shadowblade had no intention to comply. He made a side step to the left, watched the two boys on that side tense up and threw his conjured dagger to the right. The boys to that side dodged, but Alex didn’t plan on injuring them. He needed the bigger gap.

After casting [shadowclone] and directing them to weave around him, he called for his [shadowcloak] and sprinted through the two boys. They tried to block him, but a quick swing with his spear shooed one back and Alex was gone. The teenager silently cursed Lisa's treachery. He should have known, but in hindsight, everything becomes clearer. He banished the girl from his thoughts and ran through the empty streets.

Luckily he knew his surroundings pretty good, as he had meticulously memorised them the last few days. Not in preparation of fleeing from the hut, rather to it, but still. This time his preparation worked wonders and soon he had outpaced the group of five. Alex slowed to a jog, having decided to expand his lead.

Some time later, he was completely sure to be alone again, the teenager oriented himself to the woods again. While highly dangerous, the forest would be safer for the moment, and he had to let his trail cool down again. His Skills were pretty awesome, and who knew what the system might give the others. Maybe they could sniff him out if they had an obscure seed. Alex knew what Andrej and Jones had, but he had been gone for nearly a week. If he could find two seeds, the orphans at the camp would be complete idiots if they couldn’t even find that many.

Alex ducked back into the evening shadows. How had they found him? He was sure he hadn’t crossed their path, or tracked back. Yet he heard two voices from a side-street in front of him. Could they have surrounded him again? He didn’t want to hurt or injure his former people, so Alex quickly recast [shadowcloak] and hid between the crumbled remains of the buildings.

“Damn, Jones has lost him again. The rat is quick,” a deep voice said. “Just give it some time. We know he has to be here somewhere. We just have to flush him out again, so Jones can spot him from the roofs.”

‘So that’s how…Interesting…Lucky I didn’t just hide the earth seed. I have to be sure to be alone, and then find a hiding place for it. Even if they get me, they won’t get my trophies.’ Alex grinned. His lightning seed was securely hidden in the forest, and he couldn’t imagine a situation, where he would easily give it up for Jones.

The teenager hid for a few more minutes, until the two voices grew farther away. Then he cast [shadowclone] and sent one of them to the position of the two voices. He took the other with him, in case he was surrounded and needed a distraction. The skill was expensive, so he couldn’t just spam it every time he needed it. His [shadowcloak] in comparison was negligible.

Alex knew, he needed some bigger houses, or even a skyscraper that wasn’t completely dilapidated, to break Jones field of view. If he could do that for just a few moments, he could hide the seed and continue fleeing. Even if pursuers got him, his loot was safe.

The teenager could hear shouts from the street he just had left. His diversion was working. The second part of his plan was still hindered by the other boys, as two were just walking up the street. Alex quickly send his second clone their way, only for a moment, before he told it to vanish in another side-street.

As soon as the second team was gone, the shadowblade legged it. He had remembered a few positions from which Jones could watch him. A few more junctions, and he would come to a part of the city, where he should be out of view.

It went better, than the teen could expect. He didn’t see any more patrols and the danger of being spied at should be gone. Alex quickly looked for a few landmarks and determined the perfect place in the run down park. He had visited that park a few times before. Mostly after school, as it lay on the way between school and the orphanage.

Of course the park was now overgrown and in disuse. Former shade-giving trees, pruned bushes and carefully laid paths were gone. In their stead, gigantic trees and huge shrubs growing to all sides had reclaimed that carefully tamed part of nature. Alex finally noticed the statue, beneath which he had often sat, eating ice or other fingerfood.

It was from an ancient doctor or artist, which had donated much to the city. It’s head lay by the side and graffiti adorned the rest of the body. At least what rest was visible beneath the overgrowth. Alex quickly dug a small hole underneath the statues head and put the seed in it. He hoped nothing would happen with a buried earth essence seed. But he had no other choice, and better the earth got its treasure back, than Jones.

Alex sighed in relieve. He had done what he came for. Now he had to try and find a new hideout. He was sure, that Jones or his goons would keep watch on the hut and it would be the high of folly to just wander back there. He considered the landhouse from a few days before, but Derek and Mary hadn’t been wrong. Something there was creepy.

Deep in thought, the youth wandered back to the forest. He would have to camp in his tree. At least for the night. It was dark already, and he wasn’t suicidal enough to find shelter in one of the houses. His trip down the car park was still a vivid memory and while he didn’t have any nightmares from that day, sometimes he shuddered just thinking about it and how scant he had escaped with his life.

Even now, he got goosebumps just thinking about it. Or wait, that wasn’t that. His sixth-sense flared, just as a new sun bloomed in his back and banished the protecting shadows. His cloak sputtered, but the skill held.

The shadowblade whirled around. A few dozen metres behind him, Andrej, Thorsten, Stephan, Reinier and someone he didn’t know, emerged from the gloom. He hadn’t heard them, hadn’t seen them. Nothing had told him, that they had found him. “How? How do you know?” He shuddered. There was no way out. There was no time to carefully scout a path through the forest, the others would just grab him, and if he ran, it was certain death. The night hid predators and prey alike, and if he sprinted through it, he would be an easy meal for every hungry beast out there.

“We knew you would come back to the forest. It’s where Andrej found you last time. Some of us have tremor sense and we posted guards at the forests entrances,” Thorsten gloated. Andrej immediately cuffed him. Hard. “Why don’t you tell him all our skills,” he hissed. “S- Sorry Andrej, won’t happen again.”

Jones’ Lieutenant then looked at Alex. “And you, you’re coming with us. Drop your stuff, or don’t and let us have a bit of fun,” he sneered. The youth thought about resistance for a moment, but knew it would be futile. If they knew about Skills, they knew about levelling up and most of the other boys had their essence for more than the short few days he had his. They had to be at least at his level or even higher.

And even if he could fight his way out, where would he hide? Where could he hide? He had stashed all his goodies, and if he didn’t tell them outright, they couldn’t get them. Those thoughts shot through his mind, before he finally dropped the wooden spear, he got from Derek. He released the dagger he got as a gift from Gatex and dropped it to the floor. It clanged as it hit the tarmac and Reinier flinched for a moment.

Alex would have grinned, if the situation wasn’t that dire. But they had caught him finally. His last thought was: ‘They can’t steal my essence, can they?’ before the sledgehammered fist of Andrej knocked him out.

“Ahh, I wanted to do that for a long time. Damn rat, shooing us through the whole city. Thorsten, frisk him. Rainier, the rope. I don’t want him to run again.”