41 Jail Is Nice This Time Of Year

William saw his chance. He used the Array and his Speed to their fullest, dodging the AoE Light attack and sprinting into the group.

William reached the guard who first attacked him within a split second. He used muscle memory to launch a complex fist strike, punching the guard directly in the throat. The guard was launched backward a dozen meters, and there was a fresh hole in his neck.

-Killed a human: +5 Potential Points, -1 Humanity

Huh? I still lost Humanity. I suppose that's because the guard only meant to teach me a lesson or throw me in jail, not to kill me. William was a bit disappointed, but he didn't let that bother him. He turned to another guard and launched a fist in his direction, albeit weaker than the previous.

The guard was still knocked back but didn't die instantly from his wounds. He slumped to the ground unconscious while William faced his next target.

The other four guards were quite nervous now. It was six on one, and their opponent had no Cultivation, yet they were at a disadvantage. The guard leader also felt something was off. He told his group to back up again, "What's your name?"

"It's rude to ask for someone's name without introducing yourself first." William responded with a snort.

"Hmm, my name is Flip, now may I know your name?"

William laughed out loud, "Your name is Flip? Haha, do you happen to have a brother named Flop? Or maybe two siblings named Spin and Turn?"

The guard leader's face darkened. He couldn't understand why William was provoking them, but he couldn't do much else. He turned his head to a guard close to him, "Call for reinforcements, we can't handle him alone."

William heard what they were saying and realized his fun had ended. Wait, was it fun killing people? Am I a psychopath? He spoke up while pulling out his Array Badge. "That won't be necessary, here is my Badge."

The guard leader took the Badge from William and checked it over. He returned it to William with a nod, "The badge says he is a Level 9 Array Master."

The crowd was incensed. How can this kid be a Level 9 Array Master that's so hard to come by?

"A Level 9 Array Master?" one of the guards was confused. He whispered to his superior, "Isn't the Head Array Master at Level 9?"

The guard leader's eyes widened. That's right! How can someone so young be at the same level as the Head Array Master? He turned to look at William. "I'm not sure how you did it, but this Badge is fake. We are taking you in."

William thought everything was going well, but the atmosphere had suddenly shifted. "What do you mean, fake?" he produced an Advanced Rune and allowed it to hover in the air in front of the crowd. "Does this look fake to you?"

The guards were awed when they stared at the Rune. This kid was definitely the real deal, but how could he so casually kill one of their members? Isn't that punishment too hard for mistaking one's identity?

We have to do something! The population will think we are a joke if the word spreads! the guard leader was mostly worried about his position. He was close to promotion to guard Captain, but this event could ruin all his hard work.

"Guards, he killed someone. We're taking him in!" he shouted. He sent one to gather reinforcements while they prepared for yet another battle.

William saw this and was amused. The guards were no longer suspicious of his identity, but still chose to arrest him because he killed someone. Worse yet, William couldn't kill any guards because they only intended to arrest him.

There was only one option. Atticus was still on his shoulder, hiding with Illusion Magic. This might be the time to make use of him. William prepared an Advanced Array, weaving together three Runes of Fog and a Rune of Disperse.

The Array was formed, releasing a massive cloud of fog on the City block. William ordered Atticus to attack, but to not kill anyone and to remain in the fog. The snake unfurled and limited the concealment to turn him into a hazy blur as it sped in a certain direction towards the guards.

William prepared two more Arrays while waiting to trap his enemies. The guards had already called for reinforcements, and there were probably a few dozen in the area now. They entered the fog and carefully searched for William.

Some of the guards noticed a massive wall of Earth in front of them, and were forced to change directions. Just when they thought they made it through the maze, a lightning prison held them in place. Those who attacked the lightning would receive a whip made of sparks that would crumble any confidence of escaping.

Seeing this made William laugh, "They do say prison is quite nice this time of year. Unfortunately, I prefer putting others in prison than going there myself."

Outside the fog, the leader of the guards met with two other leaders and explained the situation to them. They were surprised when Flip mentioned William's mastery of Arrays but became serious after hearing that he had already killed someone and could easily kill any one of them.

They entered the fog together, also entering the range of William's Life Sense. He prepared a dozen Intermediate Arrays to distract the weaker guards while heading in the direction of the leaders.

Even with Core Formation Realm Cultivation, the leaders didn't seem to sense William. The fog from the Advanced Array was hindering their senses so much that they couldn't even tell if they were walking in a straight direction. William noticed this and readied a water spell, creating four water snakes resembling Atticus.

They slithered forward, remaining unnoticed until they entered a ten meter range of the leaders.

"Watch out!" Flip yelled to the other leaders and dodged a water snake that had nearly taken his arm off. He produced a Light spell, reducing the coverage of the fog by a mere meter but that wasn't the purpose of the spell.

A spear of Light was formed, stabbing into one of the water snakes. The snake exploded from the attack but reformed with the nearby water particles in a few seconds. The guard leaders were stunned, "How high is his Water Affinity? How can someone create a spell that maintains itself?" the guards weren't even sure they were only fighting one enemy now. What if there were two, three, or even four enemies in the fog?

The spell wasn't as impressive as the guard leaders thought, but William wasn't going to correct them. The water snakes were actively recreated by William from a distance. It cost a bit of Mana, but the expenditure was much less than creating the snakes from scratch.

With William's current Mana capacity of 400 and a Mana Regeneration of around 75 now, William could fight for long periods of time as long as he didn't waste the Mana on massive spells.

He continued to wear down the guard leaders with his Water snakes, but it seemed fruitless. They had a larger capacity than William, and there might be stronger opponents coming soon.

He noticed the other guards were all captured by his traps or taken down by Atticus, so William felt now was a good time to leave. He walked over to the guard leaders calmly, stopping when he was close enough to be heard but not seen.

"You've harassed me a bit too much today. I will let you off the hook, but do not come for me again in the future. Your guard was too weak so I killed him on accident, I hope you can let this matter slide."