Technomancer: Genesis Chapter 30: The Chase (Part 2)

A small silhouette rushed pa.s.sed an alleyway with guards. The guards were thoroughly stunned to see a speeding baby run faster than a horse. For a moment they were distracted at the sight and stood befuddled for a few seconds. This gave Catalyna a chance to dash forward and chase Ezra. His screams were heard by the people around the block and they went to watch the commotion. A lot of them were shocked at the sight. A woman in black chasing an infant that was faster than a horse.

When the guards recovered from the shock they chased Catalyna. Their plan was suddenly shattered by the turn of events. Instead of capturing Catalyna, they changed the plan to securing Ezra instead. Three platoons of regular guards formed as the captains gestured to their subordinates. The first platoon attempted to block the path of Catalyna. Spearmen were in front and archers were at the back ready for long ranged a.s.sault if anything unexpected were to happen. They had flanked Catalyna to the sides to reduce her speed but before they could even arrive at her location they were already left in the dust.

The archers didn't fire as they might hit the fleeing baby.

"Try to get as much distance between them as possible. If we get them to part at least one-hundred yards we can use that s.p.a.ce to conjure baron level earth magic and kill the woman," a captain bellowed to his soldiers who were down below. They were still on the rooftops surveying the situation. They kept on hurling stone bullets at her but they had slowed down by a noticeable pace because the Captains were slowly running out of mana. They were conserving their energy for a more powerful spell to finish off Catalyna.

The number of guards ama.s.sing was now fifty regular guards besides the two Captains. Four more knights were on the way and most of the guards had already been alerted. The soldiers who responded were those that were plotting the trap.

They had noticed that this woman had the magic power of a high-ranked n.o.ble. She made it seem that she was at a steady pace when fleeing but every time they tried to get closer she would subtly increase her speed. They had become cautious as they followed her and Ezra because they did not know the full extent of her prowess as there seemed to be a force blocking the discovery of her full capacity. Even the sensitives they had brought could not sense her power. It felt truly perplexing for them.

Suddenly Catalyna became agitated. She suddenly tore her black outer garment for no apparent reason and suddenly dashed toward the little baby running. Her speed was too fast for them to react so they could not block her at all. The explosive dash made the distance between her and Ezra disappear in an instant but as she was about to grab Ezra, Ezra jumped five yards right and started scaling the walls to the rooftop.

This not only startled the pursuing soldiers who were again shocked by the site. It also startled Catalyna she did not know how Ezra could have predicted her movement such that he could dodge that swift swipe. She unconsciously decreased her speed due to this which had made a considerable gap between her and Ezra.

Ezra, upon reaching the roof-top, was met by five knights, four of which jumped down, the remaining knight escorted Ezra and ran by his side. They did not even think about how a six-month-old infant was running as fast as a Knight, while shouting, 'Mama'. They just focused on their priority of keeping Ezra safe, such ponderings were reserved for later. They attempted to block Catalyna's advance. Two of them cast [Earth Shake] to disrupt Catalyna's movement, the other two launched [Stone Barrage] on a s.p.a.ce above Catalyna as the spell hurled fist-sized stones in rapid succession, they had predicted that she would jump up to cancel the effects of Earth Shake. To the four knights surprise, she did not jump.

"What happened?" The knight who had just cast Earth Shake was baffled as it seemed that Catalyna had disappeared.

"She went underground," Replied the astonished knight beside him.

There was a depression on the ground as the brick road had disfigured and had sunk into a man-sized hole.

"She can use Earth magic! I thought that she could only use Fire?" The knight who had just cast a Stone Barrage exclaimed.

Catalyna had gone underground and then abruptly transported herself to the rear of the barricading Knights. She then kicked the ground and then a boulder flew towards the knights, luckily they had noticed the depression in time to be able to predict Catalyna's move. They had foreseen a counter-attack and evaded the boulder. But the boulder still hit the soldiers behind them, leaving two of them heavily injured.

She propelled herself upward toward the rooftops once again trying to catch the little baby. The knight that was escorting Ezra summoned an [Earth Wall] toward Catalyna. Catalyna smashed the oncoming Earth Wall in two. On her fists were gauntlets of rock. She then pointed her hand at the knight and the gauntlet flew toward him forming a fist. This happened so rapidly that the knight could not react in time to dodge thus he tried to parry it with his s.h.i.+eld. The result was he was blown away by the force and fell down the streets again.

Catalyna once again lunged at Ezra but he sidestepped right. She landed on a cloth that made her slip further forward from her initial direction due to momentum. She tried to grab him again as this happened but Ezra just jumped on her hand and propelled himself further away.

'Oh s.h.i.+t, I'm getting tired now. It has been around five minutes since I activated AMP,' his movements were dampening but he could only push forward and buy more time before his mother arrived.

Catalyna recovered again. She saw an opportunity as Ezra's movements were slowing down drastically.

'Now I've got you. You gave me such trouble, Ezra,' but as she was about to grab Ezra. A sharp Ice shard had shot toward her forcing her to dodge.

"Mama," said Ezra as he was being overcome by drowsiness.

"I will destroy you and let your corpse rot, "Aerwyna bellowed as she grabbed the tired Ezra. She looked at Catalyna with a searing stare, looking at her as if she were already a corpse. She was going to kill the woman who had abducted her son.