The knight replied to me with only one word, "No."
I muttered, "What?! Are you still suspecting me?" My head started sweating bullets as I raise a question.
The knight shrugged off my question saying, "That doesn't really matter. We will not let off such untrustworthy one alive."
I desperately said, "Oh please tell me you guys are joking?"
"I'm afraid not. With that conspicuous getup in the middle of the night, you are not getting through." His cold demeanor monologue breeze to me with bloodlust
Sure. It may be my fault for wearing suspiciously, but they're being too unjust. What makes them think they're just gonna kill me right here.. unless the girl from before is an important figure. Thinking back on it, one of them said "princess", did they not?
Whatever. I'm not dying tonight. Let's just think of a way out of this mess.
I gripped my cane tightly as to use it as a weapon even though it's just a stick.
"If you're not letting me through, I'll just fight my way out of here."
Next thing all of a sudden, the cane then surrounds by a faint white glow in the form of dust particles. Looking at the cane brought my mind to a flashback.
2 years ago when Father Brian was still around, he instructs me to pour my 'self' into the wooden sword that he gave me.
"Louie, give the stick I gave you a piece of yourself."
"How do I do that, Father?"
He stayed silent for a moment and replied with "I don't know."
"(You don't know?)" I looked at him in disdain
"Here. Let me show you how it's done, my son." Father Brian then grabs a spare wooden sword, closes his eyes, and then the sword started showing signs of changes. Circuit-like patterns showed itself in the sword for a second and vanishes, next thing happened is the sword had a glow-up.
He then demonstrates the power by slicing a rock, it took him no effort in slicing it, he just swings it and it's cut in half.
I stood there baffled.
"Now Louie, if you don't do something like this, you might live such a lowlife crook."
"(How can a 'normal person' do that though?)" I thought.
I spent the time trying to figure out what was I supposed to be doing.
Brought me back to the present, I was facing the knights with me holding a glowing cane.
What Father meant was cover the weapon with the clad of essence. It was a lousy explanation. I subconsciously pour more of my energy in the cane and it glow a bit more white, it's almost blinding when I look at it.
The knights got alarmed and started spouting at me, "How did a brat like you learn aura coating?!"
I can't have them know anything. Let's act as if we know nothing.
"Aura coating?!" I reply to him with a question.
The knights, realizing this, got triggered. "Stellar Knights, kill him before he attain more knowledge about this!"
"So they call themselves 'Stellar', eh?" I whispered to myself.
One knight rushes and initiates an attack at me.
The knight raises his sword high, I dodge to his side, slip past his attack and whip him with the cane to the back of his neck. He fell to the ground hard, knocking him out cold.
Oh wow, I actually beat up a knight. Since when did I become this agile? Wait, don't concern myself with this right now.
I turned my gaze towards the knights I said out loud, "That's 1 out of 5 of you. Only 4 knights left. Good thing you all are not wearing helmets."
The 4 knights braces their stance for the battle. One of them spoke out, "This kid is not to be underestimated! Let's show him what we're made of!!"
The knights grips their weapons, and made them shine. Their swords are shining, it was very different from mine that just surrounds with glowing dust clouds.
It will be a tough fight battling them all, especially the scaling difference.
The knights rushes one by one.
Knight 1 raises his sword high and swings down, I slipped past to his side and tucks his foot. And tumbled him down in all fours for a moment.
Knight 2 was in front of me making a vertical slash, I jumped, flip myself and swing down my cane onto his head. He hit hard in the ground, making him unconscious. Marking another knight down, but with a cost of damaging my trench coat.
Knight 3 lunges forward with a kick, I jumped sideways straight into Knight 4 making a stance for an upward slash.
A voice in my memory emerges in the heat of the moment saying, "A single clash of output can determine the estimation of its power."
With the lingering voice ringing in my head, I clashed his sword with my cane in a downward attack. This mass and heaviness was on a different scale that I can't hold it for long. I jumped back to reduce the recoil of the clash.
Knight 3 makes a combo of vertical slashes, I watch them unfold and dodge them carefully. Jump, duck and parry with the cane in great precision.
Knight 1 breaks the combo by engaging martial moves on me, I deliberately block, evade and parry most of them but some managed to get me. Each blow hurts and I jumped back to recover.
Knight 4, not letting me rest, lunges a heavy downward slash, I jumped back again to evade it, the heavy slash misses the mark, meshes the ground and leaves a tiny crater.
"That was dangerous!" I said out loud
Knight 4 clicks his tongue and said, "This kid clearly knows how to fight. Who the hell are you?! You just hide your face with that hat?!
"I don't see the need of introduction as of now. You people are after my head after all." I meticulously replied.
Knight 3 sarcastically indulges in, "Whatever. We'll just remember this and become the witness so that you'll have no escape in case you slip through us."
At this point, I have no words to say. But something within stirs and I spoke subconsciously.
"Don't be too full of yourself now, brat. You will try. NOW COME ON!" My cane shone a bit more dimly when I instigated.
And each of them rushes for an attack.
*****
Many minutes have passed and I'm still dealing with these 3 upstart trainee knights.
Yes. After clashing my cane to their swords, I'm convinced that they don't have much experience in fighting despite being the knights serving the royals.
Knight 4 leaps for another heavy slash, I threw my cane into his face to stop his attack. Knight 4 blocked it with his sword and I fetch the flying cane back in my hands.
The battle took a heavy toll on me just fighting them all alone. They were 'inefficient' but they are, by no means, weak.
However for these unaware bunch, I distracted them long enough to make secure path towards freedom.
"Hey. Remember when you said 'You no go through.'"
"""...?"""
"How about you guys should ook around and see."
Behind the knights is a dungeon hallway to where I was before the fight, and behind me is an exit stairway. When the knights realized our switched positions, I made a run for it.
While running up in the stairs, I noticed behind me are two knights in my pursuit, they left one knight behind. I barely had stamina left in me so my good option of escaping is to hide.
It was nighttime and I'm also wearing black clothes but I remembered the moonlight is quite bright outside earlier and there's not much shade in the alleyways, so I need to lose them for a moment and then hide.
When I reached above ground, I launched a surprise attack by the door on the knights when they reached the peak. They fall down the stairs for a moment and I close the door behind them. It was a good chance to start hiding yet I found no shade at all under this bright moon.
The only place left for me is to go up top the buildings. I could see some bricks barely nudged against the wall on one of the buildings, then I used them as a foothold or stepladder and parkour my way up.
By the time a knight blast open the door, I was out of their sight. Their faces paled as they looked at the silent alleys intensely.
"Damn! How did he managed to lose us and vanish! Lannis! Run up already!" The first knight shouted in a fit of rage.
"Ars, you're so bloodthirsty! Cool down for a second!" The second knight yelps in a tired manner as he comes up the stairs.
Lannis the knight, expresses his surprise and opinion when he couldn't spot me out, "He was wearing a black suit but there's not much shade to see here and no one could jump high to get in the rooftop quick so he must've run in the alleys super fast. What'd you think Ars?"
"If he can really run that fast and then hide from out of our sight then he must be not that far from us. Let's split up here! Find and hunt that menace down!!" Ars the knight, makes a quick judge and order, and then they both split to make a quick search for a runaway fugitive.
When I watch them go in their separate ways in the rooftop, I lied down dead tired doing spread eagle to catch my breath.
Tonight was a full moon shining bright, I look at the bright night sky while taking quick and heavy breaths recovering the lost energy I've wasted. I took out my necessities in my back waist and make a quick midnight snack in silence.
While I was eating snacks, I saw a crow eerily staring in my direction. It was not directly staring at me but at my biscuits. Looking at the crow closely, it looked quite thin and weak.
Knowing what the crow was after for, I put the biscuits down in front of me and I signal to the crow saying, "Here, have some."
The crow hesitantly comes close but couldn't make it to the biscuits because it couldn't take a step further
"Maybe it's scared of me." I muttered.
I nudged myself backwards away from the biscuits so that the crow could come close and eat with ease. I took out a water bottle and drink silently trying not to alarm the crow.
Watching the crow eat its supper was kind of a rare sight to see. When the crow finished eating, the crow looks at me again, but this time it squawked at me.
I'm not sure what to think about the noise the crow just made, but I can tell that it's demanding something. I said, "It's water, isn't it?"
I used the cap of the bottle and fill it up with water, then I put down the cap in front of me without spill. Not sure how the crow is going to react but it didn't hesitated to come close to me and just drinks.
The crow finished the fill and demanded more, I just fill the cap again with water and the crow would just drink more. And then the cycle repeats.
This water cycle just went on for a while.