Hugo turned to see a nox guard, holding a candle over her head. She was a few hundred feet away. She had seen Hugo peering around the corner, wearing prison garb, late at night. Hugo couldn’t have looked more suspicious if he tried.

Fight or flight? A quick check with mana vision showed that she was soulmarked. He was armed with the knife and the club. Hugo felt confident against a single nox, regardless of her domain, but the guard had just yelled pretty loudly. He didn’t feel confident against more than one soulmarked, so flight it was.

He pointed and said, “The monster is behind you!” When she instinctively glanced behind herself, Hugo ducked around the corner. He immediately put on the speed, using every ounce of strength and dexterity in his body. He made a few turns as he ran, trying to lose the guard. He didn’t try to be quiet though, his main focus was getting away.

At this point, a guard was alerted and he knew that the rest of the base would be on alert soon. He couldn’t hope to sneak out of the base. It was time to run.

The base never seemed bigger as he ran for his life towards the northern wall. He checked behind himself. The guard hadn’t caught up with him, but he heard shouting in the distance. He looked forward and saw a pool of light ahead. It was another guard with a candle. That made them easier to avoid. Hugo juked to the left to avoid that intersection.

“Stop!” a voice yelled.

Hugo glanced back to see another guard. This one didn’t have the shadow domain, thankfully, and Hugo ran on. He put on a burst of speed, as fast as he could. A quick glance back showed that the guard was gaining on him. Hugo cursed his short nox legs.

Without looking back, Hugo fabricated a few thin caltrops and started dropping them behind himself until he heard a scream. That was one pursuer off his back.

A quick check of his mana showed he had sixty-two points left. He decided to be more economical with his next encounter. When he saw someone running at him from the side, he used his barrier domain instead of his formation domain. Once the human guard got close, Hugo created a thin spear of mana and thrust it at her.

She threw up her hands to protect her face, but Hugo was aiming lower. He speared into her thigh, hobbling her. She quickly fell behind in the chase. Hugo recycled the spear so the glowing mana wouldn’t give away his position. He ran on.

Hugo saw the outer wall of the military base. Finally.

With one last push, Hugo created barriers and ran up the air to the top of the wall. Thankfully it wasn’t four stories high like the outer walls. This one was just two stories tall.

He got to the top of the wall and stopped for a moment. There were guards on the wall, but it would take them a moment to get to him. Hugo looked around the buildings outside the base, trying to decide where to go next.

Before he could decide on a destination, he was knocked off his feet and flung back into the military base. As Hugo fell through the sky, he saw an enormous blue hammer hanging in the air. A powerful soulmarked had entered into the chase.

Hugo tucked and rolled with the impact. His upper left arm was severely injured from the impact, if not broken. There wasn’t any time to properly assess his injuries, he needed to get out of here.

Now that he was looking for it, he saw a nox clad in glowing blue armor standing atop the wall. Nice of him to highlight himself like that. A whistling sound made him look up. A blue dot was heading right for him. Hugo ducked behind a building and out of the way of the hammer. It came crashing down on the grass where he stood moments before. It left a three foot indent in the lawn.

Hugo glanced around. There was no point in trying to fight against that guy, he was obviously too high ranked for Hugo to take on. He could hear shouts and people running. He didn’t see any candles or mana lights, but he knew they were closing in on him.

Taking off running, Hugo ran parallel to the wall. As he ran between a few buildings, another whistling sound made him stutter step and look up. There was nothing up there but the reaction still saved his life. A trio of knives went through the air in front of him. Hugo glanced to the wall to see the blue armored soldier throwing another trio of knives at him.

That soldier must have the formation domain too. Hugo’s first thought was that was totally unfair, even though he had three domains himself. He shook his head and headed farther away from the dangerous man.

He made sure to keep a building or two between himself and the wall. Every time he caught a glimpse of the glowing blue armor, he ducked back behind a building. Hugo was glad for military regulations. He knew that the powerful nox wouldn't leave his post on the wall so he could just run out of his range.

Once Hugo judged himself far enough away, he made another attempt at the wall. This time he used the stairs to be less conspicuous in the dark. His airwalking with glowing blue platforms had probably given him away the first time. He took three stairs at a time and ran up them.

This time he didn’t arrive at an unoccupied section of the wall. There was a nox woman standing at the top of the stairs, holding a spear and a large shield.

Hesitation had cost him last time, so Hugo didn’t pause. He created a small buckler shield to deflect the spear and kept on running. He reached the top of the stairs, grabbed her shield and tried to push her to the side. It didn’t work.

She must have been soulmarked because Hugo couldn’t overpower her. She pushed back and made him stumble to the side. While he was off balance, she struck out with her spear. Hugo was just barely able to deflect it with his club. That gave him an idea.

He stepped forward and swung the club at her head. She didn’t even flinch, it was clear that his club would miss her by a foot. At the last moment, Hugo pushed mana into the rune in the club and a jet of fire burst out of the end. It flowed over her face. She screamed and flailed backwards. In her panic, she backed into the outer crenulations and tipped off the wall.

Hugo followed right behind her, using her to cushion his fall.

She cried out in pain as they hit the ground, two stories below. He could have finished her off, but he just rolled off of her and continued on. She would slow down some of his pursuers as they checked on her. Hugo tossed the burning club to the side. That was a one trick weapon.

He needed to get out of here before they woke up the heavy hitters. Hugo was just lucky that that high ranked nox guard stayed at his post and didn’t chase after him. Hugo was glad for the chance to exploit military regulations like that.

Two blocks into the city, Hugo turned off to the side and headed for a nearby house. He could dimly see painted designs on the outside of the building, nox must live here. It took him longer to fabricate his tools than it did to pick the lock. He stripped out of the prison garb and snuck around the house. Luckily, he made it to the laundry room in the back of the house without running into anyone.

He dressed himself in nox clothing and snuck out the back door. The clothing stunk, but he figured that the smell wouldn’t get him caught, he would just seem like someone with poor hygiene walking around. Putting it on was harder than he expected. Adrenaline had masked the pain earlier, but he knew now that his upper left arm was broken. That still left him with three unbroken arms though, so he made it work.

He left out the back door and started walking away from the military base. He was tempted to run, but that would just make him seem suspicious. Instead, he did his best to act calm. He tucked the runed knife into his clothing and plodded along, trying to look like someone going home after a night shift.

A short while later, three soldiers raced up the street. They each held long spears and seemed ready to fight. One of them spied Hugo and yelled, “You there! Stop!”

Hugo slowly turned around.

“Did you see someone run by here? We are searching for a prisoner,” an enlisted said.

“Na, didn’t see anyone. But I did hear someone run by, going that way,” Hugo said and pointed to the right.

Two soldiers immediately turned and ran off. The third stayed there and said, “Wait a minute. You just lied to me, didn’t you?”

Hugo looked at the human’s eyes and saw them glowing faintly yellow. He frowned, it was a light mage. He said, “I’m not a fan of soldiers, so what if I told a tiny lie to get you to leave?” He turned around and started walking, as if he wasn’t concerned at all.

“You can’t fool me, you know something. And your arm is broken, why are you pretending like it doesn’t hurt?” the enlisted said, “You are coming with me. The major will be able to tell the truth of the matter.” He reached for Hugo.

As far as he knew, there was only one major in the army with the light domain, and Hugo couldn’t afford to talk to him. He swayed out of reach of the light mage’s reach and grabbed the knife.

Activating the disregard rune, Hugo thrust out the knife, now obscured with magic. To his surprise, the soldier ducked out of the way of the knife. Swearing internally, Hugo realized his tricks wouldn’t work on the light mage. As he jumped out of the way, the mage swung his spear at Hugo.

They were standing close together, so the spear tip was behind Hugo. The haft of the spear almost hit his broken arm, but Hugo used his lower arm to block it. He grabbed the spear with two hands and they wrestled with it briefly. Hugo created a spear of his own, a long thin barrier spear. He stabbed at the human and pierced him through the stomach. The light mage refused to give up though, and just shouted as he fought for his spear. Hugo stabbed two more times before the soldier's grip grew lax. Hugo cut his throat and turned and ran.

Panic and pain made it hard to think. Hugo tried anyway. He couldn’t keep running like this. It was only a matter of time before a group found him or one of the higher ranked that he couldn’t afford to engage. Hiding was out of the question, not with the light major out there. His superior perception would make any hiding spot a trap.

Hugo made up his mind. This life was a lost cause. It was time to try again.

Turning towards the shimmer vein, Hugo ran for all he was worth. He needed to get to one of the access ports and set off an explosion. He couldn’t wait until the end of the year anymore.

Five blocks later, he slowed down. He hadn’t run into any other soldiers yet but he was getting close to their secret base. The soldiers were sure to be on high alert. The shimmer processing plant he was heading for was nearby the fake shimmer warehouse they were guarding.

Before he could get close, he heard the telltale sound of a shimmer caster. A shot splashed through the wall next to Hugo. They had found him. He threw up a pair of barriers in front of himself to protect himself from the shots and kept running.

Two blocks ahead were a trio of soldiers standing in front of the shimmer processing plant. They must have been sent by the Black Marshal. He was the only one that knew Hugo would want to create a shimmer explosion. The guards weren’t showing any special skills so Hugo hoped they were just mundane enlisted.

A shot took out a shield and convinced Hugo to run in zig zags. He needed enough mana to create bombs once he got there and he only had fifty points left. A glance showed a trio of shimmer shots heading his way.

He dived beneath them, rolled and kept going. His shield was still intact, but not for long. The next volley took it out. Hugo ducked behind a nearby warehouse. He couldn’t get close without them shooting at him and depleting his mana reserves. They were already low enough as it was.

He couldn’t stay here either, he couldn’t allow himself to get surrounded. He needed to come up with a plan of attack that didn’t end up with him manaless and dead.