There is something seriously wrong here, Rian thought as he and his group ran a distance away from the other soldiers.
The entire thing had become such a shit show, but still, why hadn't the Margrave come and shown himself? With his strength, Rian doubted this whole thing could be resolved in less than a couple of minutes. Heck, if he wasn't here, then why was the leader of the guards only a 3-Star? Surely the margrave had several stronger subordinates.
He looked back at the mansion gates, now far away. Not to mention, now that he could clearly see every guard who was chasing after Kaelan, he couldn't even see the princess's own guards, the ones in the best armor, participating in the chase at all.
Something is really, really wrong about all of this.
However, he was in too deep for it to matter now. Besides, this mess had been the reason he had managed to escape from the mansion in the first place.
Taking in a deep breath, Rian decided to completely abandon the two idiots who had followed after him. Their main purpose had been to get past the mansion gates and strong-arm the guards into letting them chase after the princess. Now that that was done, he couldn't see a reason to keep them around.
So instead, Rian focused and used a spell from his new rented wind sigil and jumped, floating in the air as his new spell pushed him up onto the low, slanted roof of a nearby shop right beside the other mage guards before continuing his chase.
That's right, after days of living on the streets and constant cultivating, he had finally managed to accelerate his cultivation and had managed to reach the 2-Star level just last night. Sure, he spent all his money on it and killed several dozen more Dravs to unlock his Water/ice affinity. But he had finally done it, using the rest of his money to rent out a storage ring as well as a new grade 2 sigil of a wind and ice affinity beast called a Frostfang Wolf for Water.
Sure, he had to return the sigil at the end of the week, but he had plans to make enough money until then for him to buy a better one.
Using his new movement spell 'Galesteps' to make the wind propel his movement, he quickly moved past several of the guards on the ground, all the while trying his best to assess the other guards' cultivation levels.
Most of the guards giving chase were 2-Star cultivators, and each one of them could be a threat to him individually, not to mention if the entire group of them tried to come after him.
The biggest problem, however, was their leader, the bald captain. The man moved through the roofs with the incredible strength of a 3-Star mage, his water spells aiming for Kaelen with scary accuracy. The moment Kaelan would teleport, a torrent of water would slam into the rooftop, the force of it shaking the entire structure, forcing Kaelan to not waste a single second before teleporting again.
Yeah, there was no way Rian could afford to be marked by that guy.
"He teleported that way! Follow him!" Rian shouted down to the soldiers once again before continuing to increase his speed.
It was all for naught; however, Kaelen, using his teleportation spell, continued moving like a shadow, jumping across the rooftops with quick, shaky teleports. One moment he was there, the next he was gone in a blur, only to show up three buildings ahead. Even the guard's leader, despite possessing the strength equivalent to a 3-star mage himself, was having a hard time keeping up, not to mention the other soldiers who were still toiling around on the ground.
Rian pushed himself forward, using sharp bursts of wind from 'Galesteps' to make his jumps go farther. On the outside, he looked like a very focused chaser, his face showing nothing but strong will. Inside, however, his mind was repeatedly calling out a single, worried thought. He couldn't let anyone catch Kaelan until he had at least made his way out of the city; otherwise, he would have no excuse to escape.
As the chase continued, the guards finally managed to cross the distance, surrounding Kaelen near a tall bell tower.
The bald captain yelled, his voice booming over the chaos, "DO NOT USE ANY RANGED SPELLS! Capture him! Do NOT risk the Princess!"
One of the guards leaped into the air, finally managing to close in on Kaelan as he pushed him against the stone wall, causing a cry of pain to escape Kaelen's lips.
However, he still didn't let go of the princess; instead, he fought back, shifting her unconscious body to use as a shield as he shot out a whip of fire from his hands, hitting it squarely in that guard's chest.
Not being able to defend himself against the impossibly fast whip, the man screamed in pain, falling back and rolling right off the roof to the road below.
Using the moment of surprise, the guard captain shot a sharp ten-foot spear made of solid water, aiming it for Kaelan's chest, only for him to dodge at the last second, having the spell break a part of the roof tiles inches from Kaelan's head instead of hitting him.