“Those demigods, they love their shows of force. For example, Wiesis, demigod of storms, uses his authority over violent weather patterns to signal the start of his territory’s week-long annual celebration.”

“Ah, this is nice,” I breathed.

Hartwin, Roska, Gino, and I stood around the entrance to an alley close to the massive wall that encircled Lowestoft proper. Lloyd’s group was over on the opposite side of the city. As planned, we had met up and registered for the Heist Game.

I had decided to wear something a bit more eye-catching than I usually wore, a light blue overcoat with gold trim, a similar white and gold shirt, black pants, and a heavy, dark-red cape. Around my waist was a similar dark-red cloth held in place by a thick leather belt fitted with numerous pouches. For armor, I had a thin layer of leather padding underneath my shirt, along with leather bracers and pauldrons. Because the rules forbid use of deadly force, I had opted to take a baton with me rather than something like a dagger.

“What is, sir?” asked Hartwin. He wore his rust-red armor, but now he also carried a shield strapped to his left forearm and a wicked looking armored gauntlet on his right hand. The shield, which had the same color as his armor, was big enough to cover his entire torso when held out in front of him. The rust-red gauntlet had three stout spikes protruding from the back of the hand, just below the knuckles. The metal was just as thick as his chest armor, and the tips of the gloves were open, allowing his nails to stick out.

When I had asked, he told me that he used the gauntlet mainly for grappling and blocking weapons. If he was already blocking with his shield, he could use his other hand to fend off even bladed weapons.

Stretching, I gave my response. “It’s the first time in at least two weeks that I’ve gotten to hang out with a group without Lloyd breathing down my neck.”

“O-oh,” he muttered.

Roska put a hand on her hip, turning to me. “So are you two…” she trailed off.

Roska wore padded armor, a short, airy skirt that flowed in the breeze, and had a dark green bandana draped over the back of her head. She was armed with a set of darts and an assortment of tools like bolas, ropes, and more. I very much approved of her loadout, as I myself had brought much the same. I was curious to know if this was her preferred kind of equipment. She said that she was proficient in pretty much anything but close combat, taking whatever tools she’d need for the job. I nodded in approval.

“Yep. We’ve been together for a few years now, but it was technically only two weeks ago that it became official,” I beamed.

“My, my,” she giggled. “You’ll have to tell me all about it after this.”

“Sure, just not when Lloyd’s around. He’d use his shadow blessing to gag me before dragging me off by the ear,” I laughed. That was a real possibility, though.

Roska nodded, grinning.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Gino leaning up against a wall, eyes closed, completely tuning out all the noise. I had a strong urge to walk over and start bothering him, but my indifference won out in the end. I only had to tolerate him for a single day. There was no point in interacting with him now.

Today, the streets of Lowestoft were filled with the scent of good food and alcohol, boisterous laughter and loud conversation, and smiling faces. Cadius personally funded the event, providing the necessary funds for building materials, ingredients, labor, and hiring all kinds of entertainment for the city. Food was available at rock-bottom prices, and all kinds of performances could be viewed free of charge.

What I had found most surprising was the fact that no one exploited the pricing on food, everyone bought only what they needed. Was it the fear of retribution? Was there not a single person who was in such a desperate situation that they felt it necessary to buy cheap food and hoard it? The former was more likely. While Cadius wasn’t a bad ruler, there would always be the haves and have-nots. There would always be a portion of the people who went hungry. Though I had seen beggars set up in high-traffic areas, and even malnourished kids hiding in alleys, I had estimated that the fraction of the population that was living in poverty was far, far lower than in our old city.

For being the embodiment of thievery and deception, Cadius sure was a relatively kind and fair ruler.

“Sir?” Hartwin called out to me.

“Yes? What’d you need, Hartwin?” I inquired.

“I once heard that Apostles have special powers, like the demigods. Is this true?” he asked.

I held up a hand, palm facing towards the sky. A rotating cube manifested, hovering just above my palm. Hartwin’s eyes started sparkling. “Yeah, I can make illusions. I can also mess with sounds. There’s more to it, but I’m not proficient enough with those to use them in a practical setting,” I informed the group.

“Interesting. Will you be using it during the final round?” asked Roska. Very astute of her. She had already wrapped her head around the concept and applied it to future encounters. Scary, how she could quickly absorb and integrate new information. Roska was a top-tier scout for a reason.

“I’ll only use it to hunt my first target, just to get in some practice,” I informed her.

“I pray for that unfortunate soul,” she grinned slightly.

“Hm?” I grumbled. I had felt a chill.

“What’s up, chief?” Dan asked me.

“Oh, it’s nothing, it was probably just Von scheming up some new way to mess with me,” I answered.

“Uh, ok,” Dan shrugged.

I wiped off the accumulated sweat from my forehead. Did it really need to be this friggin hot?! The hooded cloak helped somewhat, but I was still wearing several layers of clothing in colors of muted green, tan, and black.

In addition to my cloak, I had on a thin cloth overcoat, an airy shirt, and underneath that, a vest of leather armor over yet another shirt. Tied to my belt were around a dozen pieces of cloth of varying sizes. I had figured that I would arm myself with as many ways to create shadows as possible, even if I didn’t have the Anima to use even a fraction of them.

Dan and I chatted as we walked the streets, Johan and Falur trailing behind us.

Dan wore hide armor lined with animal furs and carried no weapons. He said he usually wore a pair of heavy gauntlets, but that would be overkill for the Heist Game. The conversation trailed off as we bought some snacks from one of the endless numbers of food stalls lining the streets.

Falur was lightly armored, only protecting his torso with leather armor. He had a shortbow and quiver on his back. I was glad he had made the smart choice and hadn’t used a longbow. Shortbows were much better in urban environments where you wouldn’t always have the room to draw it to its full length.

Johan had on a set of half-plate armor and was armed with a metal staff loosely wrapped in strips of white cloth to allow for a better grip. When I had subtly brought up the issue of not having enough space to swing his weapon, he said that wouldn’t be an issue, as the style he was trained in primarily used strikes and thrusts, rather than sweeps. Supposedly, the style was adapted from one that used spears and polearms.

“Lloyd,” Dan said. He waited for me to turn towards him before continuing. “I wanted to ask before the game begins, what’s your blessing?”

“Ah.” I reached under my cloak and ripped out its shadow. It coalesced in my hand, condensing into a sphere. I then presented it to Dan. He tilted his head and furrowed his brow. “Shadow manipulation,” I supplied the answer.

“Amazing,” he breathed.

Using both hands, I molded the shadow like clay. I pushed, pulled, kneaded, stretched. Slowly, it began to resemble a winged creature of sorts. I injected it with Anima and a mental image of what I wanted the shadow to become. Over the past few days, I had worked purely on developing this technique. I had learned that by slowly infusing the shadow with Anima as I molded it, far less Anima was consumed to achieve the same result than if I used it all at once. That alone allowed me to create far more complicated objects than before. Creations like…

“A bird?” Falur inquired.

I nodded. “Correct.” I then gave a mental command to the shadow before tossing it up above the crowd. As it reached the apex of its ascent, the wings unfurled, catching the wind. While it was maintaining its altitude, I asked the group a question. “Give me something to search for, preferably something nearby and easily spotted from the air.”

Falur was the first to speak. “Oh! What kind of performance is going on at the square a few streets over. I want to know if it’s worth seeing.”

I nodded. The mental link was something I was still struggling to wrap my head around. Right now, all I could do was send commands and receive blurry, indistinct images only when commanded to do so, both of which used up Anima. I already had an idea of where the square was, so I had it fly in the general direction towards it while periodically checking its surroundings by sending me mental images. The square quickly came into view, too far away to tell what was going on. I ordered the bird to get closer before sending me one more image.

“I think it’s a group of… actors? It almost looks like a mock duel. I saw what looked like two figures crossing swords,” I informed the group.

“Yeah! That’s right!” Johan gasped. “I saw a group setting up a stage on the way over here!”

I sent a command for the bird to return, heaving out a sigh of exhaustion. The mental and spiritual strain of something so simple was infuriating. According to some of the accounts of past wars, even the Attendants of minor demigods had ridiculous strength and extraordinary powers.

“You ok, Lloyd?” Johan asked, his voice tinged with concern.

I nodded. Not entirely, but it wouldn’t bode well if word got out just how weak I am. The shadow bird I had sent out finally returned, and I held out my palm for it to land on. I crushed it in my hand, extracting the Anima. The fragments and strands of shadow squeezed out from between my fingers, dissolving in the air.

“As you can see, I can also make creatures and give them orders, though I’m only able to make small, simple ones. I’m better at manipulating shadows directly. When a shadow is in contact with my body, it’s far easier to manipulate, stronger, and consumes less Anima, basically soul power if you don’t know what that is.”

There was a mix of mumbles of understanding and confused acceptance coming from the group. I took out another shadow and had it stretch out like a snake, coiling and snapping at the air to demonstrate my control. Once I deemed them to be sufficiently impressed, I dismissed the shadow.

And not a moment sooner, I heard a familiar voice.

“Greetings, people of Lowestoft!” the voice boomed, echoing throughout the city. “I, Cadius Katergaris, lord of thieves, am pleased to announce that this year’s Heist Game will begin in just a few minutes!”

The sound of metal scraping rang out across the city. A lattice of iron bars rose up from the wall surrounding the city. It grew upwards, curving towards the city center. It took less than a minute for a cage of crisscrossing iron to form a dome over Lowestoft.

Then, as if a blanket had been placed over the cage, the sky darkened, and Lowestoft was enveloped in twilight. The surrounding buildings took on a grim, eerie style. A low fog suffused throughout the city streets. I heard gasps of surprise and murmured excitement from the crowds around us. Surely, many of the people here were citizens, but there’d also surely be those who came from out of town who were seeing this for the first time.

So, this is the power of a demigod. Amazing. It was breathtaking. Von’s illusions, which I had thought laudable, looked almost insulting when his beneficiary had the capability to affect the world on such a grand scale and with meticulous detail. Cadius could cover the entire city in an extremely complex illusion, altering the entire landscape to such a precise degree that, even after a close inspection, I was unable to spot a single mistake in the deception.

I hope Von doesn’t get too depressed at how far behind he is.

This is what I’ll eventually be able to do!? Damn, this gets me pumped! The entire city had been transformed in a matter of moments. Not only was the illusion perfect, but it had also just slightly overlayed the architecture, so even if you were touching it, you wouldn’t be able to tell it was an illusion. Even the fog swirled in response to the wind and the people moving within it. Massive in scale, perfect in detail, and brilliant in construction. This was what a demigod was capable of, at least, it was a new baseline. If covering an entire city in an illusion for a festival was a relatively simple task for him, just what the hell was he truly capable of?! All I could was stare.

Then I heard Cadius continue, using his powers to broadcast his voice across the entire city.

“Now, for this year’s Heist Game, the first event shall be…” Cadius trailed off, the crowd waiting with bated breath. “Pickpocket!” He shouted. I heard cheers throughout the city.

Colorful squares of cloth, roughly twice the size of a bandana, fell from the sky like snow. I reached out to snatch one, only for it to pass right through my hands. The moment they touched the ground, they burst into individual threads that flew off in all directions, vanishing.

“In this round, your task is to steal a cloth, which look just like the ones before you, and maintain possession of it for the remainder of the round,” Cadius announced. “The round will last for one hour, and during this time, anyone in possession of a flag must remain outdoors. A timer will be visible for the duration of the round, and I will also give warnings when fifteen and five minutes remain. Aren’t I generous?” I heard a few scattered chuckles.

I rolled my eyes. A massive clock face appeared at the top of the dome, facing down towards the city. Oh, wait, I think that’s a stopwatch. Clocks and the like were expensive, so I hadn’t seen very many before dying. That’s why I hadn’t immediately recognized it.

“Now, who has the flags you ask? Why , members of the Vagabond Spirits will be roaming the city with several flags tied to their waist. You may use any method to obtain the flags, so long as it is non-lethal, and you refrain from causing any permanent or long-lasting injury.”

Cadius paused before continuing. “Oh, and this year, the Vagabonds are permitted to steal back the flags,” he revealed in a nonchalant tone. I could practically see his shit-eating grin. Groans of despair could be heard all around. I just smiled, looking forward to the additional challenge.

“Oh? It’s been a number of years since he last used that one,” Roska commented.

“Do you participate often?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No, but I do come to watch almost every year to gather information.” I tilted my head at that. “Oh? I would have thought you had noticed it. This is not just a game put on for entertainment, Cadius uses it to scout and recruit for the Vagabonds,” she revealed.

“Oh wow, that’s brilliant,” I nodded in admiration.

I turned my attention back to Cadius. I had already heard the rules when we registered for the event this morning, but there was the possibility he would say something crazy again. “You are permitted to work in teams, but you will need one flag per member. Anyone who does not possess a flag at the end of the round may not advance.”

“Now, I already mentioned this, but I must reiterate,” he continued. Four lights like stars sparked into existence, one in each of the cardinal directions, bordering the dome, just above the wall. The lights stretched horizontally, forming words.

USE OF LEATHAL FORCE IS FORBIDDEN

“Use of lethal force against participants, Vagabonds, and non-participants is strictly prohibited. To be clear, if you inflict an injury that can’t be healed with, at most, basic medical treatment, you will be disqualified. Cases involving extensive damages will be handled by the courts,” Cadius declared. “In short, don’t break any bones or cut too deep,” he summarized.

The words disappeared, as if wiped away by an invisible hand.

“Finally, remember to have fun! It’s a game, after all!” he said cheerfully.

“YAAAHHH!!!” the crowd roared in excitement. I couldn’t help but yell with them, punching the air.

I heard a voice in my ear. It was Cadius. “Good luck, Von. I’m looking forward to your performance,” he whispered.

I jumped a little at hearing his voice right next to my ear, but I couldn’t help but smile and mutter, “Yeah, I’ll definitely put on a good show,” nodding to myself.