Chapter 17: Run
Max felt his head being assaulted by a sensation he had grown to despise—the stifling tightness of a wig. Knowing the soldiers were probably going to end up seeing them and having their appearances recorded on their Irises, Maya had to put down the bag she was carrying, fetched Maxine's wig, and put it on Max's head in one swift motion.
Nami had seen the wig coming so she immediately flew out of the way before resting back on top of his head.
After that, the three immediately exited the room into the hallway with Maya wrapping them in her version of invisibility cloak. They thought they had to run all the way down the hallway toward the intersection where they had last seen the backs of two guards. Basically retracing the steps they had taken earlier. But Lukas had a different idea.
[Take the first right turn. There's only going to be a pair waiting for you down that way.]
That meant that the other paths had more guards blocking the way.
So Dylan led the group to where Lukas had pointed them to, and finally saw two guards walking cautiously with their laser handguns raised and ready to be fired. However, their eyes failed to notice the three's presence, thanks to Maya's invisibility skill. This allowed Dylan to quietly drop his bags and sneak up on them before slipping right between their bodies.
Maya's technique could only hide someone's appearance by manipulating the lights around them. But it couldn't do anything to other aspects of someone's presence, like the sound of their footsteps or the breeze they stirred when they passed by someone else. Therefore, when Dylan squeezed his way through the two guards, both of them immediately sensed his presence.
But before they could do anything, Dylan pressed his hands on their shoulders each. Both of them at the same time looked down at the invisible force suddenly touching their shoulders, before their bodies went into a spasm and collapsed onto the floor.
[Just walk straight. Other guards are actually already nearing the vault room, so your path should be clear for now.]
A few seconds later, they arrived at an empty hallway, with the emergency door seen some distance ahead. However, before they could take a step forward, Lukas sent another message.
[Shit! They actually sent out another batch! They're coming right now from the elevator! Hurry!]
The elevators in the building consisted of two types; kinetic and electronic. The electronic ones were designated for public use, but they had obviously been damaged by Dylan's EMP attack. So that left the only two kinetic ones.
As to why the three hadn't used one of these and instead opted to the emergency staircase? Well, kinetic elevators were reserved for authorized personnel. They were heavily guarded and there were usually only one or two people controlling what floor the elevator would move to and where to stop.
In this case, the kinetic elevators were carrying the second batch of guards down toward the vault floor. And it just so happened that the location of the elevators were only a few meters next to the emergency staircase.
Mere seconds after the three arrived at the hallway with the emergency door, the elevator doors slid open. What great timing.
A total of about twelve guards poured out of the two elevators at the same time. They immediately made a formation that could fit the width of the hallway while advancing forward to block the emergency door. They stopped right in front of it and wouldn't budge.
With their exit being obstructed by those guards, remaining invisible was pointless. There was no other option than to force them out of the way.
Dylan told Maya to cancel her invisibility skill. He then dropped his bags and moved to protect the other two. He cupped both hands and prepared to perform a skill.
Problem was, the guards' first line of defense weren't even in the form of people; they were shields carried by some of the guards. They made a secure layer of protection in front of the guards.
These shields were especially resistant against heat and electric energy—two energies typically found being powered up by mana conductors on a laser gun.
Dylan went ahead with his attack, nonetheless. The mana stone on his earring lit up before streaks of blue lightning were seen dancing around his cupped hands. A second later, he swung his hands to the sides, releasing a horizontal line of blue lightning that dashed across the distance between him and the guards in the blink of an eye. It was so powerful that even the shield bearers were knocked back, pushing the guards behind them and shaking up the front of the formation. The electricity in the air lingered and managed to catch a few of the guards closest to the line of lightning, causing them to pass out.
However, there were still half of the guards who remained standing firm in place; these were the ones at the back of the formation. They raised their guns and were about to shoot.
Max had anticipated this. So even before Dylan came up with the idea to bruteforce the shields, he had dropped the bags in his hands and activated his gloves. This time though, he made sure to use more mana than he usually did, drawing it from the foundation of his ring. This would be his first time performing a skill using mana the same way as an actual mage.
As to what skill it was? He honestly wasn't so sure what to call it. And even though he had performed this a long time ago, it hadn't been at the scale where it could affect multiple people at once.
He had his soundwave sight on. And using the inflated kinetic mana from his gloves, he now found it easier to manipulate a big number of strings. His fingers caught the purple strings connected to the sounds the guards were making, and then expanded them drastically. At the same time, he vibrated them in very, very short intervals.
Very loud and very high-pitched noises; those were what he had just created. He made sure not to disturb the sound strings near Dylan and Maya though, so the two didn't have to suffer the eardrum-shattering audio attack.
The guards immediately dropped their guns and shields to cover their ears. Blood could be seen trickling down their ear holes. What made the scene even better was that they were all reflexively screaming, making the audio attack even worse, since the sound strings Max was manipulating originated from them to begin with.
However, Max wasn't done. His mana reserves were now twice as big as a normal human's, so he had one more trick he could try out. He abruptly stopped vibrating the sound strings. His hands were then raised up high, pulling up the strings with them. He expanded the strings to their maximum size before violently plunging his hands all the way down.
The amplified sound waves dropped to the lowest. It was so powerful that Dylan and Maya could see ripples of shockwaves in the air as their ears perceived the sound of bass and their feet sensed a weak quaking on the ground.
The skill effectively caused many guards to drop unconscious to the floor. The formation had been wrecked. All that needed to be done was finish off the remaining ones.
So Dylan did exactly that. He wiped them all out with one fell swoop, not caring if they simply passed out or straight up dead.
Meanwhile, Maya caught Max's body in time before he slumped to the floor. He had exhausted his entire mana pool just to perform those two techniques. The foundation of his ring was now in a state of chaos, on the account of the absence of an intact ring. It was always risky for a newly Awakened to drain their mana for this very reason.
Maya clicked her tongue before muttering, "So reckless." However, there was an obvious glint of wonder in her eyes. After all, wasn't Max supposed to just Awaken earlier that morning? How was he already able to use two skills with such finesse? No, more importantly, wasn't he supposed to be a force mage? She had clearly seen the white mana stones on his gloves glowing right before he performed his technique.
'Was he using kinetic mana to control soundwaves? Is that even possible?'
Max felt like passing out at that moment. His body was also overheating thanks to the mana overflow. Maya was currently propping his body, but he knew he couldn't keep relying on her like this. After all, those bags couldn't carry themselves.
[Thanks, Maya.]
He then tried to pull away from her before taking deep breaths. He was about to start stabilizing the chaos around his ring foundation before his Iris transcribed Dylan's words.
"We need to move now. Other guards from the vault room might have heard what just happened." The man then picked up one bag with his right hand and fitted the knots of the other two in his left hand.
Max sighed. Couldn't they just give him a break?
Regardless, he trudged toward the bags he had dropped. But then Maya beat him to it. She grabbed two bags and jerked her head toward the last one while saying, "That one's yours."
Well, at least he had one less weight to drag around now. The three then shoved the bodies of the unconscious guards out of the way before entering the emergency staircase.
They were in the middle of ascending through the floors when Lukas suddenly sent them a message.
[Bad news! I saw a woman entering through the front doors. Leo said she might be a mage.]
Max almost gave up at that point. His body was on the verge of collapsing, and yet fate still wanted to torture him some more.
Lukas' message didn't end there.
[You actually have enough time to exit through the emergency door before she gets there. Thing is, she might be able to locate you once you're out.]
That implied two things.
One, it was possible that the mage would be able to outrun them once she found out where they were, due to the fact that Max was now slowing them down.
Two, the only method they could think of for the mage to be able to detect their location was through Max's unconcealed Mana Regulator.
Those two things had 'Max is the weak link' written all over them.
"If the mage is powerful enough, she might even be able to see right through my invisibility technique," Maya added.
Dylan looked troubled after hearing that, but he didn't stop. There was still determination in his eyes. "Let's just try to run as fast as possible."
Suddenly, Nami conveyed a question to Max. 'Let me conceal your cultivation, yeah? Just until you get to Ryu's car. Please? I'm worried.'
Due to how hazy his mind was at the moment, Max didn't even think twice before agreeing. 'Right, I forgot you could do that. Conceal me, please.'
Secretly feeling glad that she could help, Nami flew from his head and landed on his left shoulder. She then sent out a sizable amount of mana into his chest.
Max didn't feel any difference at first. However, he then started to sense that the chaotic mana around his heart calming down ever so slightly. 'I didn't know your skill had this effect, too.'
And of course, Dylan and Maya noticed the sudden disappearance of the traces of Max's Mana Regulator. However, that ended up being just another addition to the list of burning questions they were going to ask him later.
The three finally exited the emergency staircase with Maya's invisibility skill active.
[The mage is about one minute away from your location.]
Lukas' message indicated they still had enough time. And as if fate had had enough toying with their lives, the rest of the way toward the building's back doors were actually quite smooth. Once they were out, they spotted a familiar car. After loading the car's trunk with mana stone bags, they got in the vehicle and were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Sadly, Max couldn't even enjoy a nap, being trapped at the cramped backseat now that Maya was here. He was squeezed between the woman and Travis—the guy had actually been waiting with Ryu the whole time after planting a tiny camera for Lukas to access. That was how the teenage boy had been able to spot the new mage.
"Alright, buckle up, everyone!" Ryu said before the car zoomed off along the Metropolitan streets.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone