Chapter 56: The Night Watcher
The moment when Lucien saw the night watcher, he threw the tube of Flame Gel in his hand toward the guy without hesitation, then continued running toward the entrance of the secret passage.
He had cast the spell in the Ice Revenger Ring, so the Flame Gel was now his most powerful weapon. He was aware that Bat Screaming couldn’t work well in such a stormy night. The only thing Lucien could blame now was his bad luck.
The night watcher, wearing a pair of black gloves, was also very experienced in fighting with magic apprentices, sorcerers, as well as evil creatures at night. And the gloves he was wearing were also a decent magic item, enchanted with different demon-constraining spells. That was why there were not many night watchers from the church. Besides, every night watcher was by no means being unskilled. Some of them were high level squires, some of them pastors, and some were even knights.
The night watcher firmly caught the first tube of Flame Gel flying towards his face. Being controlled by the maker’s spiritual power, the gel was supposed to explode instantly, however, grabbed by his hand in the black glove, the momentum of explosion was suddenly stopped, like a fuse on fire suddenly being extinguished by a bucket of water.
In few seconds, the second tube of Flame Gel followed. Unexpectedly, this time, the tube did not target the night watcher directly, but hit the ground and exploded fiercely before the night watcher could react. The fire of the explosion also set fire to the tube of gel he was grabbing. Immediately, the night watcher’s body was covered with raging flame. Since the comburent was gel, even the pouring rain couldn’t put out the fire easily.
Lucien had no time to check if his enemy was down. He quickly ran to the entrance.
Before he entered the passage, a great pressure suddenly struck his mind. He couldn’t help shaking. Thanks to the ring he was wearing, at least he could still stand.
Lucien subconsciously looked back and instantly realized what was going on there.
In the bright lightning, the night watcher was still chasing him, with the upper part of his body covered with fire, but it seemed the pain was not bothering him at all. However, his skin had turned into pieces of scarlet scales, protecting him from further burning.
The night watcher was a dark knight with an awakened Blessing, and his Blessing was called "red dragon"!
With the help of Ice Revenger, Lucien did not panic under the pressure from the night watcher. He was calculating the distance between them.
"Twenty meters...ten..."
Then he threw his last tube of Flame Gel at the night watcher, who was only around five meters away from him. The great power of the blast spread fiercely and the wave separated them apart.
While the night watcher took a step back, Lucien was directly thrown into the secret passage. Since there was a slope near the entrance, he kept rolling for quite a few meters in there.
Lucien felt like he was struck by a huge hammer in his stomach and great dizziness took over his mind. A mouthful of blood just burst out.
Lucien had to hurry, knowing that the night watcher would catch up with him in few seconds. However, he was also very confident, since he had a plan.
When the night watcher was about to enter the passage, Lucien activated the magic traps set by Philosopher, which could instantly turn stones into piles of mud.
In only a second, the entrance was blocked by the mix of stones and mud. The night watcher couldn’t stop himself in time and ran directly into them. The last thing he saw was the sorcerer slightly making a bow, mocking him.
"We’ll wait and see, you wretch." The night watcher punched the mound of dirt with all the strength.
...
While he was running, Lucien took out a tube of Storm and unplugged it. He needed the potion for fast healing and energy boosting. At the same time, he triggered the magic traps one by one to destroy the tunnel. However, he did not trigger all of the traps to prevent the night watcher from tracking him by following the sound.
With the potion’s help, Lucien managed to get out of the passage way faster. Then he removed all the remaining potions and reagents from the pocket of his linen shirt, and burnt down his robe, since his robe had a special herbal scent which was used for hiding Lucien’s own smell. Lucien did not want to leave the night watcher any chance to somehow find him.
When he finished doing all of these, Lucien went back to his shack and stored safely all the tubes and reagents. After drying his shirt and pants, he finally collapsed into bed, exhausted at the end of the day.
He did not realize how weak he was until his head hit the pillow. Storm boosted the energy for some time but also drained him completely. He was not very worried about the church, partly because of the bad weather, and more importantly, Lucien was pretty sure that the church would focus on investigating the dead baron, Laurent, since obviously, he was more related to the heresy, Argent Horn.
Soon Lucien fell into sleep.
The rain was still pelting down outside.
...
In the early morning, the rain did not stop.
Lucien was awakened by the different sounds coming from the people’s work in the neighborhood.
He felt sick, and his body was very heavy, so Lucien decided to skip his shift this morning. The library was never busy, and Pierre was there all the time.
Later, Iven was sent by his mom to see why Lucien did not show up for breakfast. Lucien made Iven go to the library to ask for a sick leave.
Then Lucien went back to sleep and did not wake up again until noon. He felt much better, but still a bit sick. He had lunch with auntie Alisa’s family and left for Victor’s place.
There were just three days left before the due time for Victor to submit his last piece of work for the concert.
...
Ten in the morning. Victor’s practice room.
Victor was very distressed, feeling desperate with the new melody. Then he heard a knock at the door. It was Lott, Felicia and Herodotus, who were supposed to come in the afternoon.
"Why so early?" Victor was surprised.
"Well... Mr. Victor..." Lott was a bit hesitant, "Mekanzi asked me to tell you that... um... Baron Othello wants you to go to the association as soon as possible. The princess is there today. Her Highness wants to see your work, Mr. Victor."
"...?!" Victor’s face suddenly turned pale, but he could not speak a word.
Then with a long sigh, he nodded, "I will be there in half an hour."
...
When Lucien arrived, Victor had already left his place.
"Mr. Athy, where did Mr. Victor go?" Lucien asked.
"Mr. Victors was summoned by the Princess in the morning," answered Athy, looking rather worried, "Her Highness wants to know about Mr. Victor’s three pieces of work for the concert today."
"What?!" Lucien felt very regretful for being absent from work today.
"Mr. Victor left around ten forty. If you want to wait, Mr. Victor should be back soon." said Athy.
Now it was twelve thirty-five in the afternoon.
"No, I need to find him now. Thank you, Mr. Athy." Lucien grabbed his umbrella and dashed into the rain toward the association.