The lightbringer

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Adam walks the corridors and looks out the window, the sun is setting. He needs to hurry because if Gerard catches him in a bad spot, he will basically be invicible in the darkness. Adam rushes down the stairs and suddenly sees the guard that stopped him earlier. He immediatly slows down, calms his breath and relaxes his posture. " Had a hearing with the king, here is the authorisation you needed. ", the guard reads the note, inspects the crest and signals Adam to follow him. The guard walks really slowly and Adam feels Gerard's presence in the area, getting closer, much closer. Suddenly an orb of pure darkness shoots itself towards the guard, Adam blocks it with his light powers with a quick flick of his arm. He knocks the guard out and picks up his torch, no need for him to alert his comrades about the presence of a mage inside the castle and otherwhise he would have been a liability in battle as well. Now surrounded by a dense darkness, Adam lights up his left hand and holds the torch in his right hand. He is ready to take on his previous partner.

Adam quickly snaps his fingers multiple times and small but bright balls of light shoot in the dark, he needs to locate Gerard and... Bingo, he discerns some vague outline. As much as offense is not Adam's strong suit, he has to make the first move and thus he fashions some type of disk shaped light projectile which he throws at the outline. The darkness around Adam weakens and it becomes clearer to see now, Adam slightly lets his guard down and a sudden intense black flame of darkness pushes Adam in his back and he ends up on the ground. He manages to make a light shield and protect himself from the flame. The pain of getting burned by darkness like that is incomparable, Adam had experienced it before but no one ever gets used to something like that. The tone of his skin was shifting to a shade of black, moving his limbs was becoming harder and harder as his whole body was stifening up and Adam's vision was fading. 

The whole point of bending darkness in battle is to inflict enough pain so that the opponent cannot take it anymore and faints, or that their senses gradually lose effectiveness and that they fight without being to see or hear correctly, or inflict so much pain that the ennemy just starts fighting back with rage and becomes totally predictable and starts making  mistakes. 

Adam powers through the pain and manages to keep his head in the game. His body is slightly countering the effect of Gerard's attack by spreading light spores in his veins which stop the spread of the dark. Adam was really naive though, Gerard has a high battle IQ and Adam gets tricked most of the time, this time Gerard played with the darkness's density to make fake copies of himself. This time it will different, Adam stands up while maintaining his light shield and slowly backs up into a corner. He acts as though he's about to crack and abandon to trick Gerard into a more offensive but vulnerable position. He checks one last time and his line of vision goes along the two hallways that join where he stands, perfect for his plan. He lets down the light shield and turns his body into some kind of lantern that lights up both hallways leading to him, meaning no room for escape. The darkness really fades this time and Adam perceives Gerard stumbling away behind a corner, he could pursue him but there's no time right now. Adam needs to find the bard and get out of there. He runs through the corridors and tries to keep the pain inflicted by Gerard's attack out of his mind, even though it doesn't seem to be loosing intensity. 

He stumbles and nearly falls down but catches himself by grabbing onto a set of bars, bars of a cell. " Are you the bard Houben? ", " Who's asking? ", " Not important right now, I need information. ", " That is something I can help with, if you would provide me with freedom and a meal's ... width... MAN, making my sentences rhym is so hard... ". A man steps out of the darkness in his cell, he has a big beard and a blue robe. It seems like the man is full of a vigorous energy, he has quite a large build and has a small grin on his face even though he's trapped in a cell. He says " Just get me out of here and give me food and I'll tell you everything you want to know. ", " I can't do that, going against the king in his own castle is pure madness. ", " Then no interesting stories for you, bro. ". 

Adam's brain functions were overloading having to process the pain and make an important decision at the same time. " Fuck this shit! ", Adam focuses a large part of the light energy he has left at the tip of his finger and sticks it in the keyhole. Smoke is released and a metallic liquid pours out of the hole, the door slowly slides open. 

The foundational energies ( Meaning light and dark ) are usually not effective against solid material and usually act better against or with other energies but also on people's minds and senses but when focused on one precise spot, it can deal some impressive damage. Adam takes a look at the bard and says " Follow me and don't try any stupid shit or trust me, you'll regret it... ". The bard answers with a swift nod. Adam and Houben slowly make their way through the hallways, making sure they don't make a single noise. At the end of the hallway, near the exit Adam sees a guard and precisely at the same time, the bard ticks on his shoulder. Houben indicates another guard coming towards them from behind. Adam heads towards one of them knowing it's best to make the first move in these type of situations. " Help me! The bard escaped, he's right there! ", the guard is then just about to walk past him but Adam extends his foot to make the guard trip. The other guard understands and pulls his sword out, he swings at the bard but he dodges it. Another swing and another dodge, the bard then kicks the guard in the stomach and uppercuts his face as he was bent down, it's a clean KO. Adam looks at the bard in awe and asks " How? ", the bard answers " I'll explain later, just focus now please. ". Adam nods in agreement and walks towards the exit. He looks left and right, he takes of his robe and lays it on the bard. " From now on, you are on your own. The two of us would be too suspicious, do everything to avoid guards and guarded entries. The robe has noble colours so you are well camouflaged but be careful. I'll meet you outside of the gates, if I don't find you there, I'll mess you up, understood?! ", Adam lights up his eyes at the end of his sentence and the bard understood what would happen to him if he disobeyed, however he still looked unphased. The bard Houben heads towards the castle's main exit and Adam now needs to find a way out. This should be doable considering he is a bit familiar with the castle now. " HAAAAALT!!! ", Adam mumbles " Fuck ... ".