1.1 Dark and Cold: The Escape

“Escape the clutches of the king, even if it means killing. Show ‘em no mercy, Leith.”

Those words from earlier, spoken by an unfamiliar voice, echoed through my mind.

It’s dark outside. Dark and cold. Not a ray of sunshine permitted through the sea of clouds. At any given moment could their sky-stored water come pouring down. No birds travelled the heavens, nor were there any visitors in the castle’s garden. The harsh wind was the finisher to the weather’s ominous effect.

I casted a backward glance over my shoulder. Six heavily armoured Royal Guards were out for my head, running at the volume of a stampede.

Facing forward again, I saw no other choice but to run through the neatly kept flower field. This circular field is filled with blooming ice maidens; my favourite flower. It fairly stings trampling them, but I need to cut my route of escape shorter.

At the sound of a horn blown, out of the castle was yelled, “Four to three at the gates!”
It was Hradsig who was yelling. He’s not our army’s strongest tactician, but he’s good at quickly drawing up a plan. When we were defending Sterngrove from a raid, he lead our outnumbered unit to victory because of his quickness. On top of that, he’s also the one usually in charge of beating minor monster attacks.

Though I suppose he’s an idiot for forgetting that I am a guard in training and understand these codes as well. Four guards to rush from the gates for every three guards supporting from afar with magic. Idiots. A minimum of eleven against one, but for some reason I’m confident I won’t lose.
As I ran through the white flowers, deliberately slowing down my pace ever so slightly, the guards ran around the flower field.

Reaching the field’s diameter in line with three guards on each side, I slid to a halt and sprinted back to where I came from at full speed. Looking behind me again, I saw the guards dumbfounded by my feint, trailing behind me once more.

Feeling lighter and faster than ever before, I could envision my escape. Through the backyard of the castle, over the many fences, but I couldn’t just be tunnel-visioned on a single route; I envisioned many more. Another turn-around, a feint, or even a straight-line sprint about a hundred strides to the Port Gate.

“Hugo, summon a weapon already!” one of the Royal Guards yelled out.

“I can’t, am too low on stamina.”

Huogoberth, an A-rank Royal Guard. Unlike most in his rank, he doesn’t possess a unique weapon, but rather the ability to summon any type of regular weapon. Hence why he’s called the ‘Jack of all trades’.

This is… kinda bad.

Any throwable weapon could take me out. I’ve seen him summon javelins, throwable axes, daggers… In this split second of thinking I realised that not only can he summon any throwable weapon, he could also use any weapon as a throwable one.

“We’re losing ground here, just do something already!”

“Argh… gotcha. Master of far-range hunting, come forth!”

With a single glance over my shoulder I saw his body getting in posture to summon. One of his hands reached out in front of him, whilst he pulled the other one behind his head. A bright flash of white light emerged before his eyes, and then it appeared—

—A bow… this is a bad-bad kind of bad.

Summoning regular weapons is not what would get you a rank so high; it’s his ability to effectively wield any weapon combined with his magic. He casted yet another spell.

“You ain’t escaping this one. Endurikr, grant me your strength, Quick Draw!”

A prayer to the God of stamina…

When he uses Quick Draw, for each passing second, ten arrows release from his bow. Over my head and to both sides I saw flashes of lightning-quick arrows soaring through the air. Five over my head, two to each side. Every second I counted, and every second an arrow was missing in action.

Somehow, not a single one seemed to have hit me as I reached the Port Gate.

“That’s…” his body collapsed on the ground, “…all I’ve got.”

Five against one now, me having a massive upper hand with the distance I’ve gained.

Through the Port Gate—a cobble walling, within the larger defensive walls, connecting big cities like the capital to the current main port—I managed to shake the guards off by running through the masses. Everyone I ran by turned their heads my way, which isn’t surprising since you don’t often see people sprinting here.

At the crossing to Fryzwald, I climbed over the wall towards the Rippleflow river. Once I managed to make it there, I was out of breath and hiding behind a bush. Somewhere in between puffing for breath, a complacent grin appeared on my face. I was never one of the fastest at the academy—perhaps the slowest even—and just now I managed to outrun six Royal Guards.

Look at me now, Odin! I’m sure I’d beat you in a race, too!

I instantly felt a sense of nostalgia surging through my veins. I haven’t seen him in a while, since I was locked away until now, but the two of us would always make a competition out of anything back at the academy.

He wanted to become our kingdom’s strongest champion and I always aimed to be an arch-grandmaster; the tactician in charge of all other tacticians and therefore in charge of the entire army.

I pulled back the sleeve of my button-up shirt, revealing my wrist and the black ink-engraved “001”. I let out a hefty, hopeless sigh. This boost in physicality is undoubtably thanks to the experiments they ran on me. I let out another one.

So much for my dream, huh…

From the moment I sat down, sweat had been dripping down my forehead. To cleanse my face, I leaned over the river, nearly tumbling in upon seeing my reflection.

An arrow— no, at least ten of them were stuck to my back. I tried plucking one out using my reflection as aid, but as soon as I locked eyes with myself—

—I noticed that I wasn’t looking at myself.

This person in the river… didn’t look like me at all. My fluffy brown hair had turned straight and pitch black—with a little hint of purple here and there. My eyes, too, turned purple. I leaned a little more forward, delighted at seeing that the scar on my neck was still there.
So this is me after all, huh…

I swung my arm over my neck and instinctively started plucking the arrows off my back. Only when I was done I questioned how they were even stuck on my back without me realising it.

A little scared, but equally curious, I ran my fingers over my back from the bottom up. I came to halt, my eyes heavily widening in surprise when I felt something sharp poke my finger. I traced the sharp parts by tapping on them—I don’t want to slice my finger open after all. It kind of felt like a blade. But I wasn’t done tracing, I felt another one.

Ah, dual blades… I thoughtfully nodded. …Huh?

I turned my back towards the river, trying to peek over my shoulder what exactly was attached to my back.

“…Purple—”

With a loud splash, I tumbled into the wide Rippleflow river. I was left with no choice but to swim to the other side.

It also started drizzling, so I’d be soaked either way, I thought, trying to be as optimistic as possible.
I’d best make a fire soon to warm up.