บท 167: Hasty Preparations
The first thing that crossed Altair's mind as the jarring feeling left her was, 'I don't have much time.'
Trusting her memory, Altair only had a couple minutes to leave. It took roughly three to four minutes before she was drugged last time she was here. She still didn't know where the attack had come from. But that didn't matter at all, she just had to leave before they attacked her again.
Thankfully, it was still night time so the Humans maybe had the disadvantage. Altair didn't really count on it after what she saw earlier.
Her clothes were dripping wet in a room that had obviously lacked a human touch in over a month. But, she was standing when she arrived instead of laying down, so that was something. After all, there was a thin layer of dust across every surface of the room.
The dress she left here was still in the same spot on the bed, completely undisturbed by what happened to her last time. Or perhaps that was just how she remembered it. In either case, the rest of the room was much the same as well. The vial she left was also in the same position on the nightstand. Upon seeing it, Altair remembered she left it there.
The first things he did upon arriving, was swallow the Manamium enriched water within her mouth to replenish most of her Mana. Next, she stopped using her Thread Magic and all the black vials around her fell to the ground and landed with a dull thud. However, not all of the black vials that Altair had made survived the teleport. She had originally made twelve of them, but she only had five now. She didn't know where the others went but she had lost connection with them.
'First things first,' Altair thought to herself as she looked over her wet clothes that clung to her like glue. Her pajamas felt very uncomfortable in the cold air around her and caused a shiver to run up her spine. She didn't even have shoes on. Her clothes were a mess of gravel from the bottom of the pond she was in and mud that was coated over most of her clothes.
She sighed lightly. These clothes would be completely unsuitable for running around in the forest nearby to escape any pursuers that she knew were likely around.
Her only other option was the dress near her. She bit her lip lightly before she started to hastily pull the wet clothes off her body. They stuck to her and refused to budge easily. Overall, it took half a minute for her to toss them aside and she growled in frustration at how much time she was wasting.
The only pieces of clothing she kept on were her underwear, which was practically see-through from the water, and her socks.
She grabbed her dress and pulled it over her head, quickly tying the back in place as fast as she could. Her dress was still unsuited for her not-well-thought-out plan of escape, but it didn't matter. She needed something to wear that wouldn't drain her Mana the entire time.
Once the dress was on she burned some more of her Mana to create cover clothes for what she was wearing. The shadow ran across her clothes and body like water, covering every inch of her below her neck. As it went by, the shadows that covered her became designed through a subconscious thought. Due to it being subconscious, its overall appearance came to look like lines run through the end outfit instead of anything cohesive.
Once the Magic had run its course, Altair was now wearing a mostly skin-tight leather-like clothing that covered her from neck to toe. There was no sign of the dress she was wearing underneath or her underwear. She still felt mostly wet though.
'This should do,' she thought to herself as she picked up the vials that had fallen to the ground. She titled her head for a moment before she burnt some more Mana to make a belt around her. She stole the design directly from the belt that she had been given to hold the daggers she had before. There was just one difference, the slots where the daggers were kept had been shrunk to hold the vials she had created.
From there, Altair added a hook on both sides of each vial as she placed them into the belt to better secure them. They locked around the belt she made and she tugged each one a couple of times before she was satisfied that it wouldn't fly out while she was running.
She then grabbed the real vial that she had left on the desk and frowned. She put it into one of the slots on the belt then closed the slot around it to make sure it wouldn't go anywhere. That was the best she could do for it.
As she raised her head, her hair flittered lightly in her view. It caused her to sigh once more as she considered how she should restrain her hair. If it got caught on any branches it could leave a trail to her or show where she had been. It was just another thing she needed to think of while her time was dwindling.
The first thing that came to her mind was a certain headband that went with a costume she would rather never wear again. It caused her to blush lightly before she shook it out of her head. Her Shadow Magic was not suitable to make a simple hair tie.
If she wanted to make such a thing then she would be better off using her Thread Magic. But that was incredibly inefficient in terms of Mana Drain from keeping the Magic going.
Thus, she needed to think of some kind of hat that wouldn't get in the way. The problem was, she didn't have any ideas. In the past she had plenty of Mana to just have it tied to the side or back with her Thread Magic. But she didn't feel that she had that luxury at this moment.
Her expression turned unsightly as the headband popped back up into her mind.
She absolutely refused to make such a thing.
However, another idea came from it at that moment.
She burned her Mana and created a basic headband atop her head. Then, she stretched out the sides and covered the whole top of her head with it. The sides of her head were free, giving her a really odd hat that was out of place completely and looked bad.
Altair brushed the sides of her hair back before she extended the coverage upon them as well, covering her entire head with the makeshift headgear that she had made.
Altair nodded to herself as the hat secured itself under her chin, around her forehead, and around the back of her head as well.
'Should do,' she thought to herself as she turned her attention to the window before her, 'For now.'
She then created a shadow knight with a hammer and had it smash the window open. The glass shattered loudly upon impact and she dismissed the knight away with a wave of her hand. She then leapt through the hole while creating a dozen shadow birds to scout the area around for any dangers.
She can't see through their eyes or know what they see. However, if they run into any human-like creature they would dismiss themselves on the spot, giving her an idea of where the threats were. She had to hope that would be enough.
Altair fell, as her room was overlooking a cliff. She didn't fall far, though, as she created a pair of wings on her back when she leapt from the building and started to flap them so that she could get closer to the cliff.
Flying around made a person stick out like a sore thumb in her opinion. So, she had a better idea as she drew near the cliff face. She created seven spindly segmented limbs that came out of her back and ended in points. She then drove them into the cliff and dismissed her wings as she began to climb up the cliff with them.
She nodded to herself in satisfaction as she watched them work. She had no idea if they would have worked when she made them. She just modeled them after the spider creatures she had seen in the Empire. Although those little insects didn't stick their legs through the surfaces they climbed on, Altair didn't know enough about them to make them correct.
Still, they did a decent job. She had no idea why Stacey was screaming and standing on a chair when she found one in her room.
They consumed slightly less Mana than the huge wings she had to make and were easier to control. Altair was pleased with them, even though she had to get closer to the cliff face than she would have liked.
Her attention was pulled to the shadow birds she had created as one of them blipped out of existence not to far away. She narrowed her eyes as she looked in a general direction towards her left.
'So there's at least one of them,' she thought to herself in response.
And then another one blipped out ahead of her. She frowned as she mentally plotted both points in her mind.
Then the rest of them cut their connections to her. Altair blinked while her limbs stopped pulling her up the cliff.
'Damn it,' she thought to herself as she saw the pattern of probably-enemies. They were in a crescent pattern around the building. No matter which direction she wanted to go she would need to go through them if she wanted to get away.
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