Technomancer: Genesis Chapter 29: The Chase (Part 1)

Catalyna scurried about on the rooftops not willing to stay still in one place. She had decided to stay in the inner district where buildings were taller. It was true that the outer district was more populous but the homes there were shabby and they could not hide among the rooftops. She could have opted to hide among the people but this was risky as the people in Bren were loyal to the Lord and would most probably point her out if she was found out that she was with Ezra, plus with magic sensitives looking for her and the lock down if she was seen roaming around, she would definitely be noticed in a matter of minutes.

She had deduced that Aerwyna would use the guards at the gate to start their inspection from the outside going in as it was more probable that she was looking for a way out of the city gate. In theory, she could jump over the walls and land outside that morning but the guards would automatically spot her in broad daylight and, considering that she did not have a means of transport outside the wall they would just overtake her. From her observation as well, the city wall guards had doubled and this was most definitely troublesome. While she had no problem of disposing of a few guards, human wave tactics would erode her stamina. If she did forcefully exit it was definitely only a matter of time before she was caught. The major problem was actually Aerwyna herself as she is a Duke Ranked mage close to Princ.i.p.ality and Primarch Seat level. Thus her only option for the meantime was to stay in the inner district and hide while moving stealthily.

She observed the guards from down below and carefully hid her aura. Then she had felt as if someone was watching.

'Oh my, they have noticed me. I thought that I could buy more time. What terrible luck I have. It seems that they have brought out a few magic sensitives.'

Then suddenly two men sounded an alarm.

"The woman is here! The wet nurse and Lord Ezra have been located!"

Catalyna swiftly moved. Five guards blocked her path. They all bore lances which they pointed toward her.

"Halt! Surrender Lord Ezra now, woman," bellowed the lead guard.

She did not even flinch or chant. She just condensed her magic and directed her palm toward the blocking guards and released a torrent of flame towards them. The five guards did not even have time to react.

The exposed parts of their flesh were burned black by the steady flowing fire. All that remained was their armour. She madly dashed to the north side of the wall, jumping and skipping on top of the roof.

'd.a.m.n it! I'm just biding time at this point. Aerwyna will definitely be on my tail very soon,' Catalyna thought.

Ezra was suddenly tense. This was his chance. He activated AMP the moment that the five guards blocked Catalyna. He was searching for an opening but did not see one at that moment.

'Speed seems like she is going an average of forty kilometres per hour. Potential energy doesn't give me accurate readings due to magical potential is unaccounted for. It seems like it just gets data from all the metrics of my previous life on earth. I can simply see the accurate velocity readings. It looks like I can only use this precisely if a body is in motion, at least the readings I get are produced in real time,' Ezra thought while concentrating on the silvery white text that was popping up on his vision.

Each jump gave him the data about the force Catalyna used to leap from building to building to. It showed him the direction of forces that were acting on her jump. Wind resistance, gravity, momentum, velocity. He was trying to use every useful equation he could think of.

Suddenly there were two guards chasing Catalyna on the rooftops. They were knights complete with plate mail and visor. They wore magic resistant armour.

'Hmm, what do I do?' Catalyna thought, 'I can't attack these guys, they won't die immediately. They will just swarm all over me if I'm caught.'

"Milady, the wet nurse is here!" Shouted the knight behind as he raised his voice.

The other knight cast a spell. There was rock bullet that launched toward Catalyna at an extreme speed. Ezra did not bother to measure it. He was too focused on Catalyna's movements as they kept moving from building to building. Catalyna bent her body as if she were rus.h.i.+ng forward, she then raised her leg to kick the projectile away. The rock bullet was smashed into pieces.

As this happened Ezra jerked to the right.

'd.a.m.n I missed the timing by around half a second,' Ezra thought.

"Hey don't jerk around too much, Ezra, " Catalyna exclaimed.

She had almost missed the ledge of the roof. The two knights were still following. Catalyna didn't dare to cast anything yet as they might have something up their sleeves. The two that were following were actually Blackfyre Guard captains so their combat experience was probably viscount level.

"Just surrender, It's over Catalyna," the Blackfyre guard captain on the right commanded.

After another minute, two more guards gave chase, they kept on moving but it did not look like they were getting any closer to Catalyna. The two kept a steady pace while the other two cast spells left and right.

As Catalyna moved forward there was a sudden Earth Wall that raised in between an alleyway. It hindered her momentum a bit and Ezra jerked again.

"Could you stop doing that. I will have to knock you ou-" A stone bullet rushed pa.s.sed her aiming at the back of her head. She dodged immediately.

The guards could only use precision tactics such as this. They could not injure their little lord. They were using lower tiered spells to distract Catalyna and lead her to a trap that they have set up. If they used baron level spells there was a good chance of injuring the lord. They could only aim at her back as Lord Ezra was tied around her waist at the front. Her arms were also free from carrying the baby so her balance was good. They were just trying to disrupt her so that she could not think of plans to set up on the contrary. They knew that it was a kidnapping so a Catalyna hurting the Ezra was unlikely. They just kept on a barrage of spells.

As this was happening Aerwyna was on her way. When she heard the Blackfyre Guard she rushed immediately to the scene. She leapt forward as far as her legs could take her abandoning her Riverruners. They were just Knight level combatants and could not possibly keep up with her. She did not see any commotion. She just moved to the direction of the sound. She heard multiple noises she rushed even more at to the location.

Catalyna ran and leapt, she had a rough time but she already had a contingency plan, she just needed to stall until noon for her back up to arrive outside the gates these were people who could stall the pursuing guards while she herself was to advance to a location two miles east of the planned exit location, but still, her primary headache was Aerwyna. She kept on moving and moving seemingly in a wide circle to attract as many guards as possible. She thought that if the guards were to flank her, she would just kick through normal guards if they blocked her path. The good news was she did not fear any incoming spells from the front. So it was just pure physical ability that was on display right now. She deduced since no one was facing her head on, the guards were definitely leading her to a trap somewhere. She just increased her speed a bit to gain distance from them so that she would just keep them running in circles. As she leapt to another ledge, Ezra jerked again. This time she was caught off guard, it was totally unexpected.

'Yes I have successfully disrupted her momentum, we are falling now! Seems like my ability improved, when I added Markov a.n.a.lysis to the mix' Ezra happily thought. In the split second that they jumped over AMP calculated the amount of force that Ezra should use to cause them to lose balance and fall in such a way that the cloth wrapped around him would hit a snag.

Catalyna was shocked at this and could not even adjust her position. As she fell the cloth brushed off an iron bar sticking ever so slightly and tore her clothes. As this happened Ezra used the situation to tear a hole and rip the clothing. He kicked Catalyna's abdomen as AMP calculated the amount of force and the angle in order to propel him the furthest distance from Catalyna.

"What!" Catalyna gasped. She was too busy thinking about falling that she did not notice the hole that Ezra tore. She reacted trying to grab him as he was propelled away from her. But it was too late. She was still on the air unable to adjust her body but in that split second Ezra was already on the ground, racing toward the end of the alleyway whilst screaming,"MAMA!"