Daring escape.

What he knew about the activities and recruitment methods of Black Velvet did nothing to reassure John. In a way it was a good thing that he often reacted best in **** situations. Two flights of stairs down he equipped the charm he had picked up while running out of the room where it had fallen down when his Clone disappeared.

He really did not want to end his life in some sort of prison, drained of his mana, or sold into slavery. His only hope was that the capacity of the people hunting him to detect him was limited.

"Where are they?" he asked his cat guide who was cheating on the way down by going through the steps of the stairs to follow him more quickly. He was running down at great speed and without his boots to dampen the shock and get on his feet after each jump he would have already broken his ankles or legs a good number of times.

"Hey, how can you ask me that? These guys are dangerous, they might even be able to see me!" retorted the cursed thief.

"Yes and what will happen if they see me? Listen I don't ask you to go between their legs, just try to check if they are taking the stairs or elevator. And if they left someone down there," he explained.

"Alright, fuck! But I'm not getting anywhere close to them. If you manage to exit the building and the range of the jammer, I will find you to send you home anyway, in case we are **** to split up," she told him, disappearing through the floor.

John soon reached the 22th floor and took a second to check his phone, what Katia just called the Earthing Rod was even more frightening. He had absolutely no signal, in the middle of one of the largest cities of the country.

He had no idea yet if they knew where he was or were just going to the penthouse where the trouble that attracted their attention happened.

He hadn't seen what he looked like now, but didn't care. The only thing was that he wasn't himself or a sort of gas mask wearing rogue.

He jump back when he saw a black shape burst through a wall in front of him, Katia's abilities were not easy to get used to.

"Good news, bad news. They split up, but if one of them sees you the others will come back, that is how they hunt. One in each elevator, one in each staircase, one in the lobby. Other cars can arrive at any moment, or worse than that. They won't let anyone out and I think they will have engaged the emergency locks on the side doors! The one in this staircase was on the 12th floor and coming up really fast," she said. Then offering no further advice, she disappeared again. It seemed she had little trust in his ability to get away from there and didn't want to get captured along with him.

John had to make a choice right there, he technically already did it once, even if being possessed changed it a bit. He was facing ruthless opponents and despite the fact that they were human he might have to fight with all he had, even if it meant killing them. He had loaded the revolver he recovered in the penthouse and put it on the chest weapon slot of his harness. If it ever came to it he would have to go for a head shot, their suits were bullet proof. Of course all of this would be some last resort, the main objective was to get away.

He began to hear the steps coming from the stairs under him, this person was making a lot of noise. On the 19th floor he opened the door to the hallway wide open and went back up to the 20th getting in the floor and discreetly closing the door behind him.

Just before going further on the floor he heard something in the staircase.

"He's on the 19th, in through Eastside staircase, I'm chasing him. Congregate on my position. Comb three floors above and under, no ID yet, be on guard!" shouted a man with a deep burly voice, probably on a radio. If they had direct and continuous communication taking them out would be harder.

John walked in front of the elevators and both were coming down. It only left the other staircase, but John did not know if the person in it was above or under him right now.

He began randomly unlocking doors and leaving them ajar, using the pass he stole earlier. He suddenly stopped in his tracks... This was mad enough to work... And stealth was a thing from the past now.

He tried the door to the Westside staircase. No luck! The noise was coming from bellow.

This was insane, this was his only solution! He ran to a corner apartment and entered it. He ran through it, paying little attention to the big titted blonde getting fucked by an old business man on the bed. He grabbed a folded sheet left on a chair and opened the sliding glass door.

He had remembered that corner apartments had some small balconies. It wasn't a convenient entry point because they started on the third floor and climbing to the first one would have been too visible. He carefully slid down the rail guard on the side of the balcony and dropped one floor lower after swinging himself. He managed to repeat the process, but as he reached the 15th floor he heard a loud bang followed by a ping. Someone had just shot at him.

"He's on the 15th floor, he's using balconies! Hispanic man, 5 foot 5, bearded, red t-shirt and blue jeans!" shouted a woman's voice. To his amazement she then began to do as he had done and jump down using the balconies, but with a lot more ease than him, despite wearing a suit.

John made a choice he hoped he wouldn't regret. He took the revolver and aimed it at the woman. Once he had a clear shot, he pulled the trigger. It wasn't a head shot, but even making her lose balance would be enough.

Nothing happened, he fired again and the cylinder rotated, but each time the hammer hit another bullet nothing happened. Hanging down by one hand from a balcony two floors up, the woman took a large black automatic handgun with some silvery runes and a glowing red gem on it and fired back at him.

John had just the time to step back after seeing the gun.

"Fucking gun, why are you not working? There is no safety on it, she shot at me with it earlier. Fuck! They can jam guns? Fuck, fuck, fuck!" cursed John. He used Move to quickly open the sliding door and ran inside of the hotel room, this one was thankfully empty. The bullets of the mobster had left holes big enough for him to put his dick in them, they were not there to play.

In the hallway he had to win some time. There was probably already a lot of confusion due to the gun shots, but John needed more. He pulled the first fire alarm he found and cast a Magic Projectile on one of the sprinklers on the ceiling. Soon water began to spray everywhere and a loud alarm rang continuously.

He also cycled the charm to look like someone else and ran for the stairs. A crowd of panicked people was beginning to run down too, the fire alarm had disabled the elevators, hopefully trapping some of his enemies inside. He could hear the screaming of the mobsters, roughing people around while looking for him. But also some noise downstairs of people panicked at the fact that the whole building was locked down.

One of the mobsters entered the staircase and looked at him with rage. Apparently this one was not fooled by his disguise. John only had the time to drop a sleep bomb and run in the hallway while he was coughing. He had no idea if these things would even work on these guys.

He ran as fast as he could, taking a turn to break line of sight and get out of range of his gun.

"Here, cough 8th floor! He's a shapeshifter and he's using sleeping...." John heard behind him.

'That is one down, I guess...'

On the other side of the hallway he was faced by another woman in a dark suit, with red pointy hair and glowing eyes. No gun in sight, probably the spell caster Katia talked about.

John took his sword out and threw two sleep bombs at once on her. For his plan to work he needed to get on the other side of where she stood. Mid air the two bombs stopped and crashed on the walls, their yellow pollen blown his way by a strong wind.

A wind so strong he even received some damage from it, like if the air had punched him.

-24 hp

-13 hp

Magic Projectile

Restrain

He cast the two spells in quick succession and threw a slime bomb at her this time. The girl tried to do something to stop the projectiles, but she was slowed down just long enough to fail and while recovering from the shock she took the slime bomb head-on. The sticky paste covering her from hair to waist was slowly eating her clothes and blocking her view. Unleashing winds at random in the hallway, she failed to stop John who managed to slide on the ground and go past her.

He threw the pass away, ahead of him to open the door at the end of the hallway and began to run as fast as he could. As soon as it was in sight he also slid the door to the balcony of the room.

A few feet from it he jumped landing on the rail guard of the balcony and taking support on it he pushed as hard as he could and jumped forward, diving in the air. During his fall he took the sheet he stole from the first room out of his inventory and grabbing two corners in each hand he blew it open with move as a sort of parachute. He was now gliding forward at great speed, but still falling really fast.

There wasn't enough of a fall to slow him much but every bit would be useful. Just before reaching the roof of the three story building next to the hotel John used the trick he had tried when he thought he could learn to fly. Using Move on his harness for nearly all of the mana he had left wasn't enough to make him levitate, but it slowed him down a bit. Upon impact he felt the hit and despite his boots dampening the shock, the momentum of the dive and consequent fall sent him rolling on the tarred roof.

-86hp
debuff : sprained ankles, - 20% walking speed until fully healed.

'Note to self, never do this again!'

Without the combination of his gear and all of his powers he would have probably died from doing this. He managed to untangle himself from his makeshift parachute, thankful of having had the good idea to pick the clean sheet in that room and not the one which was on the floor near the bed.

Bullets were flying around him as at least three of the mobsters were on balconies trying to shoot him. The high caliber magically enhanced guns were punching big holes into the roof around him.

John blew one of few sleep bombs he had left into the air behind him, hoping it would provide a temporary smoke screen (the effect was a lot less impressive than he expected) and he ran as fast as he could to the other side of the roof, building distance between him and the shooters. While falling he had spotted his escape vehicle. Arriving at the edge of the roof he jumped another time and landed flat on his belly on the roof of a train moving on an elevated track. He laid down and grabbed some hand holds, waiting for this providential means of transportation to take him away from there. At the next station he took his phone out and saw that he had some signal. He had reached the limit of the jammer and could now leave this place. As soon as this damn cat showed up...

"I don't know if you are a genius or the most retarded person I ever met, but damn if it wasn't impressive!" said a now familiar voice behind him.

"SEND ME BACK! I never want to see this crazy city again!" he said to her. He had his sword out and was ready to send the pet say hello to her mistress at the first sign of further betrayal.

"Hey, no need to get angry! Look, you did the job, you're alive, no one died, everything went well! Say hello to the old crone for me! I will be staying here!" she said. John wanted to reply something, but the cat jumped on him. As soon as her paws touched his chest he was pushed backwards and hit the bookshelf behind him.

John looked around and realized he was back in Mrs Wentworth office at the Academy. He changed back to his uniform, now looking just like a normal student.