Chapter 85: Hiding game

Steven could feel the guards searching the whole ship for him as he stood on top of one of the masts, staring down at the mix of searchlights and yelling below.

Letting out a chuckle, a sudden flash of light nearly scared him to death as he took a step around the mast, hiding from the guard checking the masts.

"Man, what do they even want from me?" Steven asked himself while jumping to a mast multiple dozen of meters away without being caught.

"I can’t be caught so easily, or else the finger will know something is up." He continued while sliding down the wood, easily evading a searching beam of light.

Hitting the planks silently, two guards weren’t further than a meter away from him, but his invisibility proved effective as he was able to follow them by just walking behind them.

One of them even turned around, probably thinking he had heard something, but Steven had already moved to his blind spot on the left.

As the guard turned his head back ahead, Steven moved back behind them as he could hear them debate about something important.

’’Why would an intruder run on the main deck out in the open? Wasn’t he seen inside the special dorms? ’’ One of them asked his teammate, who let out an annoyed sigh.

’’Doesn’t matter; we are just here to check if he comes up. We got plenty of guys searching the other decks. "The other guard answered, shining his light towards a dark, empty corner. ’’And we already got a team checking the room.’’

Steven had a feeling placing the bomb was going to be a lot harder than he had expected, especially if Professor Alem himself would join the search party.

Following the guards towards a staircase downwards, Steven waited for them to turn around back to searching the main deck as he stepped past down the stairs.

Walking them down silently, he could already hear multiple guards speaking and sprinting below trying to find him.

’’This is going to be annoying...’’ Steven whispered while hiding behind a cracked open door as a singular guard stepped past him.

’’I am really sorry for this.’’ He spoke as the guard turned around towards him upon hearing something. But Steven had been quicker, and with a single strike of his hand, he sent the guard to the ground.

Even when he tried to resist, Steven was already upon him, knocking him out with another powerful strike to the stomach.

Watching the unconscious guard lie on the ground, Steven decided to pull him inside the room as he started stealing his clothes and putting them on.

Quickly having changed into the guard’s uniform, he hid his body inside one of the giant closets as he put on the crimson mask on his face.

Nobody would be able to tell him apart from the other guards so easily anymore; he just had to act cordially and make sure nobody found his new friend before he found a new costume.

Stepping outside the room casually, he was nearly run over by a group of guards, as one of them was already yelling at him. ’’You there come with us.’’

Staring at them with confusion, Steven didn’t hesitate as he nodded agreeingly, following them quickly as they moved onto the main deck again.

Steven watched them speak to any remaining student outside, ordering them to leave the region and return to their dorms quickly.

As Steven observed, Syno stood in the middle of the chaos, looking confused; however, instead of following the others, he began to run towards them.

He should probably tell the other guards that one of the students wasn’t following the order to hold his costume, but he didn’t, instead allowing Syno to catch up to them.

Being part of the group searching for him, Steven wasn’t sure what to do, simply following them towards where he had met Qwenz the last time.

As all of them stopped in front of the door waiting for something to happen, one courageous guard dared to enter the empty room, and as soon as the rest of them followed.

And to his expectations nothing was inside, because the person they were searching for was standing beside them, hiding himself among them.

"Room is empty; he must’ve escaped somewhere." The guards started discussing as Steven could feel a powerful presence growing closer behind him.

Turning around, he watched Qwenz standing on the stairs as one of the guards started questioning him about the attack.

Qwenz’s answers were more than just empty, pretty much giving away nothing, as the giants’ focus suddenly shifted towards Syno, who was just standing beside all of them.

"What’s he doing here? Isn’t he a normal participant?" The giant spoke as everyone turned towards the poor sapphire student who only got here because Steven had allowed it.

Feeling bad for him, Steven tried to intervene quickly. "He’s just here to be able to tell the other students everything is fine." He spoke with the weird voice; he was not able to cast a voice-changing spell so quickly.

Gaining a few strange gazes from anyone, everyone had stopped paying attention towards Syno, who seemed just as confused as relieved about his words.

Quickly stepping behind a different guard, everyone seemed to change their focus back to finding the intruder quickly, as in just a few minutes they had found out he had escaped through the window to the outside.

But they were just a bit too late, as they were quickly split up into different new search teams; Steven had gotten all the information needed to hide himself properly.

As in just a few minutes he managed to step away from his group without them finding out, the situation would easily allow him to search even the furthest rooms for Alem while everyone thought he was searching for the intruder.

But before he could even start searching, did he once again walk past Qwenz’s room, who was still there talking to Syno, as Steven hid behind a few boxes?

He watched Qwenz pick up from the ground by his throat, threatening him for information. Just as Steven was about to intervene, he heard somebody approach.

Another fully masked guard stepped down the stairs, stopping Qwenz’s attacks on Syno instantly, but instead of going mad like usually, the giant seemed happy.

As all of them spoke about something, Steven couldn’t hear from the distance; the guard suddenly removed his mask.

Revealing Professor Alem below as Stevens’ heart sank to his feet. What was he doing here? And why was he disguised as a guard? This was going to make his mission a lot harder.

But before he could even fall into thoughts, something weird happened: Syno mana had suddenly grown a lot weaker even after Alem had taken care of him.

But the professor didn’t seem to mind it at all; no, it even looked like this had been his plan all along, as Qwenz suddenly picked up the unconscious Syno from the ground.

Both of them continued their talk while stepping away in the direction of the student dorms.

This left Steven with the choice to either follow his target directly or try to find his room and prepare the bomb before returning.

But worrying about Syno, he decided on the first option as he followed them through the small corridors with great distance. After all, he didn’t know what their plans were. What if Alem wasn’t going to return to his room at all?

This was the most logical solution a Bright would do in such a situation, and the fingers wouldn’t be able to blame him for any failure.

As all of them continued their path forward, suddenly Qwenz stopped completely, opening a random door and stepping inside the room for just a quick moment before returning without Syno.

They had probably brought him back to his room, as Steven could watch them continue their way somewhere completely else, stepping through multiple staff-only corridors.

They had been walking for nearly half an hour through nearly the complete boat, as Steven had even tried to spy on their conversation.

But it was of no avail, as they had even stopped speaking at all, simply just walking forward without a target.

Until the both of them stopped in front of a giant steel door filled with runes running all over it.

As Professor Alem seemed to pull something from his pocket resembling some kind of key, the giant gates slowly began to open after inserting it.

Watching both of them enter the new room, Steven hesitated for a moment before trying to follow them.

He only decided to do it as he watched the gates slowly close again.

"Ah, fuck it, let’s go." He spoke while flashstepping forward.

Barely managing to pass through the gates on time.

As with a loud metallic bang, they closed behind him.

Trapping him in whatever this place was.