8/18 - Kingdom of humans - Midnight

The town is quiet, it’s only the three of us on the streets as we stroll along the dimly lit road.

"It's pretty quiet," Richard pointed out.

"Yeah, it's too quiet . . . Always wanted to say that," I said, excited from being able to use that gem of a quote.

"We gotta be quiet, guards are still awake and if they find us we'll be in trouble."

Cade has a point, we need to be careful in the noise factor or we'll wake the whole place up. We made our way towards the plaza, watching for any guards that might be in the way, the streets are being patrolled but it isn’t too heavy.

"Proxy, you know how to paint," Cade whispered.

"Of course, I'm known for my artistic side back home."

Though, I'd say it's because of the active reports about my graffiti tags. Honestly, though, I think I make buildings look livelier than they usually are.

"All right then, where do you think we should hit first?"

Hm, tough question, I usually hit a building that will catch someone's eye like an open side of a building. I do make sure not to hit the front of a building since it would be rude and inconsiderate towards the people who own those businesses and live in those buildings. But enough on that, I need to find a building to tag. After a bit of hard looking, I found the perfect target.

"That!"

My finger found its mark with a statue of some guy in the middle of the plaza.

"You sure," Richard asked.

"No, it's perfect. Let's wait until those guards leave," Cade suggested.

It took a while but eventually, the guards left the area, allowing us to move in without any problems. The statue is of someone wearing a cape and dawning a crown on their head.

"Is this the king?" I ask.

"Not the current king, this is the previous one: King Godfrey: the excellent," Richard answers with encyclopedia expertise.

"How do you know that?".

"I read books about the kingdom and its history. Right now, the current king is Relius: the new generation king."

"New generation?"

"They call him that because of all the advances in technology such as these street lights, vehicle transportation the knights use if and when they need to send out knights, and many other things like the kingdom's society."

"I heard before he came in, the kingdom was doing poorly, it was in a state of decay due to the lack of resources from a war that was happening between the outside and the kingdom," Cade added on. "However, when Relius came into power after the king's death, things changed. Soon after, the kingdom began to become the pinnacle of humanity's work on this land. Gah, why are we standing here, gawking at the royalty, let's just paint this statue."

"Got it."

We got to work on the statue of the king. I’m trying to decide on what to draw for his face but.

"Ha, what the heck is that Proxy," Cade burst with laughter.

"Like it, it's what we call a duck in my world. They have long mouths like this."

"Haha, that's pretty genius."

"Wanna see genius, watch this."

I went over to his rear area and began my master craft while shifting my focus to the waist area. Moments later I would finish my masterpiece.

"I call it, The royal pantsing!"

Cade broke out in hysterical laughter, slapping his knees. I heard a giggle leave Richard's mouth. Glad to know that I was able to kill it with my best. Gotta admit, it's one of my first and finest works on a statue, I should try my hand at it more often.

"Okay, this was great, but let's move on to the next area then," Cade instructed.

"We're not done yet," Richard's voice nervously trembled.

"Nah man, we gotta hit there next." Cade pointed towards the castle.

"Are you insane, that place is definitely going to get us if we try to hit that place it would. Why would we hit it!?"

"Because it's the center of attention. Cade, you're a genius!"

"I knew you'd see it my way, man."

"Now wait, you can't be serious, this is way too dangerous."

"Which is why I want you to go back to the sewer entrance," I ordered him.

"What about you?"

"I'm gonna go over to the castle and give it a make-over. It will be dangerous, so you should probably hang back."

"No way, I'm not gonna let you go off on your own. I'll be going as well."

"Are you sure?"

"As much of a bad idea it is, I can’t let you go alone."

I can see that his legs were shaking but he was serious about coming along. Guess if he wants to, I can't stop him. But I think he still shouldn’t come.

"Fine, but stick with me and do what I say."

"Got it."

We moved up from the common folk area closer towards the castle after our discussion. Its pristine exterior is appealing to the eye. The castle itself is a gigantic complex that takes up a great amount of space in the kingdom on elevated ground with several flights of steps. Currently, we're in the nobility area. The streets have lights installed on the bottom and lights on the top as well. The buildings up here were somewhat bigger than the ones the commons have below. I could also see that there were no stand shops like the ones below, instead, most of them were business owned buildings with actual signposts.

"Damn, this place never fails to impress me," I tell myself.

"Yeah, welcome to royalty ground, you'd basically be living the high life if you're here," Cade sums up accurately.

"Got something against the nobility?"

"Nah, not really, just making a statement. Though, it doesn't really matter if the place you're living in is great if you have paint all over the place."

"Let's not tag rando's houses, let's just hit the castle."

"All right then, let's go straight for the castle."

"Right then, let's move on!"

The three of us climbed up the second flight of stairs and then the third. These stairs were nothing for me but Richard looked like he was about to keel over, so I carried him up myself. We finally made it to the last step. The guards are patrolling the grounds near the stairway, so we went behind some shrubbery.

"Okay, I guess it's not gonna be so easy to mess with this place," Cade says as he placed his hand on his chin.

"I knew it wouldn't be, that's why we're going to run distraction."

I brought a small ball out of my bag. I got into a pitcher position and I ready myself to throw it. With all I can muster, I throw the ball as far as I can. It made a loud pop sound that echoed throughout the area, catching the guard's attention.

"All right, let's go!"

While guards moved towards the sound we went over towards and stood in front of the castle.

"This is good, Richard spell 'guard' over there," I instruct him.

"Got it."

Cade hands us the bucket and brushes. Richard went to work to spell guard as fast as he can, and I went to work on my own end. I need to be mindful of Richard's spelling and how far apart it is; not too close but not too far.

"Hurry up, the guards are about to come back," Cade warns us.

"Patience, I need to finish this."

My attention is slowly turning towards the guards, who are about to turn around any second now.

"Keep painting!"

Cade runs over to the guards. He drop-kicks one of them, catching the other's attention and having him draw his sword. Not good, definitely not good!

"Richard, paint the usual calling card at the end, I'm gonna go help, Cade."

"Proxy wait!"

I rush over to Cade's side. The guard was unaware of me, so a sucker kick is appropriate for this occasion. With a powerful leap, I hop into the air while carrying my forward momentum and kick the guard in the head, knocking him down to the ground in one go.

"You okay Cade!?"

"I'm cool, let's go already."

We ran back over to Richard who was just finishing up our calling card.

" 'You guards blow, lol'," Cade read off. "What does that mean?"

"Nothing, just a little insult to injury for having shit security. Come on, let's not waste time on it, we gotta go!"

"I'm with you on that, let's go!"

Our escape had just begun and the kingdom was ready to intercept us. Fortunately, we have our hoods on, so they won't be able to make out our faces. The lights in the city are brighter than before, enough to illuminate the shadows in the alleyways. A few of the guards saw us and gave chase. There are a good few of them coming after us. I throw the paint bucket at them to distract them and spill the other one on the ground to make it even harder to follow us, but they still wouldn't let up. We need to shake them somehow, or else this will end badly for the three of us.

"Cade, take Richard to the sewer entrance and get out of here!"

"What about you?"

"I'm gonna run decoy."

"Gotcha."

"Proxy, that's too risky!"

"Sorry bud, gotta do what you gotta do."

As we’re about to hit a split in the road, I went right while Cade and Richard went left.

"Yo dumbasses, I'm the one who painted the castle grounds, so come and get it!"

That lit a fire under their asses, now they’re running for me.

"Good, now we're rolling."

I book it as fast as I can. The guards are shouting at me to stop and all the usual stuff. They have heavy armor and carrying weapons while I’m just wearing my plain clothes, so the difference in speed and stamina consumption is greatly different. But running on a straight path is going to get me caught eventually, and going into an alleyway is too risky. Climbing up on a building is the best way to get away from the knights, I just need a proper building to climb up quickly on. There just so happens to be a building that fits my criteria.

"Okay Proxy, you got this."

I jump on and off a signpost onto a sign bracket. I quickly scale up a house. The roof gave me a general idea of where I am. I can see the stair behind me; south of where I'm standing and facing. So the sewer great is South-West in the pathway towards the kingdom's gate. If I can make it all the way over there then I can get away scot-free. I just need to make sure to give the knights the slip before heading over there.

"Hurry up and get after him!"

A few of them took out crossbows. That's my cue to leave. I run on the rooftops of buildings in the lit-up kingdom. More and more guards are beginning to come after me from the ground floor. Losing them proves to be a bit difficult but I put myself in this position, now, I need to get out of it. Luckily, I think they were wearing themselves out, so I lost them, so I can make a haste escape through the sewers!

"Okay, just about made it."

I climbed down from the building I was on and onto the street. The sewer grate was on the other end of the street, just gotta pop over there and get in, easy peasy. That was the plan until a came out of knight in the alley.

"Get out of my way!"

I draw my sword, preparing myself for an attack. More knights are appearing out of the wazoo from the alleyways.

"Thought it would be easy, kid? We knew you would come to the gate.”

"Had to try, right?"

Looks like they don't know about my actual escape route. Good, all I need to do is just bust through them then I'm home free.

"Men, attack, bring him in alive!"

They are about to close in. Guess it’s time to fight like my life depends on it! As I scan the area to make sure that no more nights were coming I notice something is about to land on one of the knights. It slams him to the ground. It’s a person, the hood looks familiar.

"Proxy!"

It’s Cade! Some of the knights are about to attack him, but I stop them from doing so. I went for the one on the left while he got the one on the right. We did a back to back afterward.

"Came back for me, gotta say that I'm touched."

"We don't leave our own."

"So you consider me a part of your group?"

"Course, expect anything less? But enough of that, we need to figure out what to do about escaping."

"They probably don't know about the grate, so we can use that."

"Okay, we'll have to create an opening to make it in there."

"In that case, let's stir up some mayhem."

"Gladly."

With vigorous leaps forward, we had attacked the knights closing in on us. The first wave was easily disposed of, the second and third came in at once. It was ridiculous how many of them were here just to catch us? Gotta admit I felt honored by that fact.

"Yo, you think we're even making a dent in their ranks," I ask Cade as I evade and dodge the knight's attacks.

"Not really, but hey, at least we're still alive, right?"

"Yeah, at least we are, but for how long?"

"Who knows, but if we're gonna go down, we might as well go down swinging."

Might as well, no other better way to go down. As I’m getting ready to charge in like a madman, I hear something coming from the gate. It’s the sound of an engine and the screams of the guards as they’re trying to get away from something. Whatever the hell it is, it's about to hit us! I grab Cade as I move out of the way of the Motorcycle that came crashing through the soldiers.

"Proxy, get on!" It’s Marie who came crashing through the soldiers. Richard is sitting in the sidecar while Nunnalé sat behind her. "Stop screwing around and get on!"

As she screamed at us, Cade and I got on the sidecar and she floored it, we barely had enough time to get situated to the seating as she gassed it. As she’s ramming through the guards surrounding us they were quick to close the gate to the outside.

"Hold on everyone, this'll be close!"

Holding on we are, her driving is getting bumpier and bumpier as we were closing in on the gate. The gate is slowly descending towards the ground.

"Go faster!"

"I'm trying to but there's too much weight!"

The gate is etching closer to the ground.

"Nunnalé, can you make it to the gate?” Richard asks her. She confirms it with a nod. "Then try to stop the gate if you can, but don't let it crush you!"

"On it."

She went to the front of the bike and took a giant leap off of it, almost knocking the bike off course. She then took several large leaps forward towards the gate.

"How can she do that?" Cade asks me, shocked by her superhuman abilities.

"She's super strong."

"You got some pretty crazy friends Proxy."

"I know."

The lowering gate was halted with a loud metallic thump sound. Guess Nunnalé was strong enough for the job.

"We're almost there, Richard grabs Nunnalé before we exit the city," Marie told him.

"Seriously!?"

We’re about to hit the exit, it was all or nothing, Richard put out his hand as we were about to pass through the gate. Nunnalé threw the gate up a bit and caught Richard's hand. She’s pulled along with us as we ride out of the kingdom. Richard and I pull her onto the car.

"You alright Nunnalé?"

"I am fine, what about you, master Richard."

"I'm fine."

We got farther away from the kingdom as we approached the bushes where our bikes were hidden. Marie hit the brakes, coming to a full halt and I hop out of the sidecar with Cade. I stretch my limbs. Cade and I went over to our bikes and started them up.

"That was pretty good today Proxy. I'm glad that you came along today."

"No problem, it was fun. But I gotta know, why didn't you bring anyone else with you?"

"Everyone else was too scared or didn't let me go. With you, I figured you would be interested."

"Good read then."

He got on the bike as its engine emits noise.

"Proxy, thanks for helping me. If I'm being honest, I hate the kingdom. They have the manpower, weapons, and the equipment to deal with the bandits but they never do anything about them; they just stay inside their protected home while ours is destroyed, burned to a crisp."

"I'm not surprised, they're the same people that had enslaved people in a mine."

"Yeah, I know about that stuff. Honestly, I wanted to go into the castle and just destroy the whole place but I knew that I would've been killed. But, my hate for them pales in comparison to the bandits. I will never forgive any of those damn bandits, especially the ones that killed wedge and Puck's parents."

I see, I guess I was right after all. It didn't take much to realize that their parents were gone, it just wasn't my business to ask them about it though.

"At any rate, thanks for everything today, man. I'll see ya later?"

"Yeah, you'll definitely see me later."

We did an epic high five that hurt my hand but I didn't want to ruin the mood. Cade and I went our separate ways. Marie had already gone back to camp, the drive back was quite relaxing, the cool air and stars made a drive through this place all the better. I noticed something that was in the back of my mind. Marie seemed kind of pissed off when she picked us up in the Kingdom. I just think it was my imagination or something to that effect. Whatever, today was pretty fun, so who cares…