Guards in the cities were made up of mostly wind Wizard Apprentices and also people that were at the first stage of using Aura, it was the Captains of The Guard that were the stronger of the group however those were only deployed when it was a serious situation that actually damaged the city.

Their green cloaks snapped in the cold night wind and the swirling currents of rudimentary wind magic trailed behind their boots as they moved across the clay shingles.

As for how Klaus knew all this, there was a mission where the Protagonist had to escape from the City Guard of the Capital in Artemis Online after being framed for killing the First Prince of a distant Empire who had visited the Capital... so naturally he knew what came after the captains.

’But for now I can’t see any Captains among them,’ Klaus thought as his boots hit the next rooftop with a heavy thud.

That meant that they weren’t taking the situation that seriously. He bent his knees, his cloak billowing around him, and turned back to look at the people that had been chasing him.

They had stopped as well with their boots skidded against the slate tiles, kicking up dust and loose chips of stone.

"Why the fuck are we stopping?" one of the thugs shouted, his chest heaving as he gripped a rusted shortsword.

Another one pointed a trembling leather-gloved finger at the approaching green cloaks. "The City Guard is coming!"

The first guy scowled, raising his thick hand, and slapped that one hard on the back of the head and the smack echoed in the cold air.

"Five hundred gold is worth so much more than angering a few City Guards," the man snarled, spitting onto the roof.

Immediately, the others cheered, raising their weapons and stomping their boots.

The sheer greed in their eyes overpowered their common sense.

Klaus let out a long, exhausted breath. ’Why the hell won’t they just give up?’ He thought as he shot forward.

Regardless, the City Guards were already close.

The air pressure dropped drastically as one burst forward with wind, joining them in the air. The magical propulsion scattered loose leaves and debris across the street below.

He hovered above the roof with his green cloak flaring like a parachute as he raised his polished silver badge, the metal catching the moonlight.

"I am a member of the Rivera City Guard," the hovering man projected, his voice magically amplified to rattle the nearby windows. "If you continue like this, the Guard will be forced to enga—"

His words were cut off by a metallic screech.

One of the men chasing after Klaus stepped forward with his eyes burning in a pale light.

He extended his weapon with aura, shooting thick heavy steel chains forward. They whipped through the air like iron vipers, wrapping it around the hovering guard before he could even blink.

The steel constricted tight around the green cloak, crushing the fabric against the man’s ribs.

With a raw grunt of exertion, the pursuer planted his boots and yanked his arms, flinging him over to Klaus.

The guard was sent hurtling through the air like he was a ball with his limbs pinned to his sides by the glowing chains as his face twisted in panic.

Klaus looked back to see this man flying directly toward him.

His mind calculated the mass and velocity in a fraction of a second so he didn’t dodge.

Instead, Klaus adjusted his legs back, timing the impact perfectly. He stepped on the guy’s body while using both the momentum and the metal on his armor to spring himself forward.

His magnetic field engaged, repelling the guard’s steel breastplate and the violent kinetic transfer sent the Guard flying down to the ground.

His armored body hit the alley floor below with a sickening crunch of pavement, while Klaus flew forward, launching himself into the night sky and putting massive distance between him and the people that were chasing him.

Immediately, one of the remaining City Guards landed on the roof, pointing a vibrating blade at the thugs.

"For attacking a Guard, the rest of you will be caught and imprisoned!" he shouted as his face flushed with anger.

The tactical layout shifted instantly.

The apprentices as well as the aura users split up. There were nine of them, so six went after the eight pursuers, while three went after Klaus with their boots cracking against the clay tiles as they reignited their wind magic.

"Alright boys, deal with them while I handle Heavenly Commoner," the man leading the thugs said, pulling a wicked serrated blade from his belt. "I’ll make sure your share will be big."

"Yes sir!" the others shouted in unison, turning their weapons toward the approaching guards.

The leader turned his head to a lean scarred man beside him. "You follow me."

"Yes," the guy said.

They immediately pivoted, their boots kicking up debris as they moved in the direction where Klaus was taking.

Behind them, the battle erupted.

The guy with the chains landed heavily on a rooftop as his boots cracked the slate. He swung his heavy weapon around as the first guard approached with a gust of wind.

"You won’t get in the way of me and my money..." The chain user sneered with his grip tightening around the weapon.

With that, he blasted his chain forward at the guard. The iron links blurred into a grey streak. The guard reacted quickly, tilting his face away and letting the chain slide past his cheek with the cold metal slicing a thin line of blood across his skin.

However, the man smiled as he violently pulled it back. The iron links snapped taut and tied around the guard’s neck.

The metal pulled around it completely, crushing the windpipe, and dragging the man forward across the rough tiles. The guard choked with his hands clawing uselessly at the unbreakable iron.

Seeing his comrade suffocating, one of the guards who currently kicked one of the other thugs away pivoted.

He sent a concentrated burst of wind to him by thrusting his palm forward and the pressurized air screamed across the roof.

The chain man narrowed his eyes. He pulled back his own chain without the guard, the metal unwrapping and returning to his hand, and he slapped it at the wind. The aura-infused steel clashed against the magic, completely dispersing it in a loud concussive pop.

"All this is fine," he said as his eyes glowed with white aura, and the aura trailed out of the sides of his eyes like bleeding smoke. "I don’t have any problems as long as I get my money."

With that, he charged forward, his boots crushing the tiles into powder.

He didn’t make it three steps.

A third guard dropped from the sky directly above him, entirely bypassing his field of vision. The guard pivoted his hips and delivered a brutal wind-accelerated kick directly into the side of the chain user’s face.

The impact sounded like a sledgehammer striking wet concrete.

The man’s jaw unhinged instantly with his teeth shattering into white splinters. He was getting knocked out immediately and his eyes rolled back into his skull before he even hit the ground.

The guard landed heavily above his unconscious body as his green cloak settled over his shoulders. He spat a glob of saliva onto the broken tiles.

"It’s because of fuckers like you that we get deployed at times like this when we’re supposed to be fucking our wives." The guard said.

...

"Stop in the name of the law!" one of the soldiers shouted with a burst of wind pushing his voice closer.

Klaus sighed beneath his mask. Not only were the three guards on his case, but the leader and the second guy of the original group were right behind them so there were five targets trailing him.

’Luckily this doesn’t take too much mana to do so I have tons to spare,’ Klaus thought and he was grateful for it.

Klaus immediately altered his trajectory. He ran alongside the flat line of a towering brick building, then he reached out with his gloved hands while holding onto the thick metal pipe that ran down the structure.

His magnetic field flared. He reversed his polarity and disappeared down the side with an explosive burst of power, leaving a wide shattered crater down the side of the brick building where he launched.

The five people advanced with their boots stomping across the edge, and chased him down the sheer drop.

However, once they came out the side of the building, they hit solid ground. There was nothing else other than a pretty big bar up front.

The structure was made of heavy dark wood and reinforced stone and there were no windows on these buildings, so there was nowhere to escape except up.

The front guard, hovering three feet off the alley floor with the help of wind, pointed a stern finger at the oak door.

"You two go into the bar," the guard said to the two behind him. "I will wait outside here. In case the guy tries to escape, I will corner him outside."

The two guards nodded with their boots hitting the ground as they went up front to the bar. The hovering guy positioned himself on the side of the building, hanging alongside the bent metal pipe.

A second later, the two others came landing on the ground. The heavy thud of the pursuers’ boots echoed in the alley as they began walking to the bar.

As much as the City Guard wanted to apprehend them right there, he decided to wait. They needed as much help as they could in apprehending that slick criminal that had attacked a Guard.

Just then, the other two guards and the two men who wanted Heavenly Commoner arrived together at the heavy wooden door and a large man in a leather vest stood by the entrance with his arms crossed.

"Do you have a reservat—" the guy protecting the bar said.

He didn’t finish the sentence. The man got picked up by the guy who had promised everyone a share.

The leader grabbed the bouncer by the collar and belt, lifting his massive frame, and then tossed him to the side like a sack of grain as the bouncer slammed into the brick wall and slumped over.

They all entered the bar.

The heavy door swung open, revealing a warm, dimly lit room filled with some calm jazz music from a small band in the corner.

The smell of cheap ale and roasted meat filled the air as everybody at the tables turned to them with conversations dying instantly.

The bar owner, a balding man wiping a glass behind the counter, dropped his rag.

"What the fuck is going on?" He asked.

One of the City Guards stepped forward as his green cloak brushed against the stools.

"We need a guy in a mask." He demanded.

"We don’t have anybody in the establishment with masks," the owner said, raising his hands defensively then, the Guard’s eyes darted to the back booth. He noticed that one guy serving a tray of drinks to a customer had that exact same cat mask over his face.

"We have the target!" he yelled.

He immediately shot out a highly pressurized burst of wind directly to Klaus. The air screamed across the room and Klaus reacted calmly.

He tilted back from it, bending his spine at an angle. The wind blast sailed over his chest and hit the wall, completely damaging the wood and splintering a heavy shelf of bottles as glass shattered, raining alcohol everywhere.

"My Shop!" the owner behind the counter shouted, ducking for cover. The calm jazz stopped and people began clearing out, flipping chairs and screaming as they scrambled for the exits.

More blasts of air were fired at Klaus, tearing through the tables and shattering mugs.

The Guard firing the magic moved forward, stepping into melee range and Klaus didn’t retreat. He reached out with his magnetic field, locked onto the metal soles of his boots, and violently dragged him forward. The sudden pull completely destroyed the guard’s balance.

As the man stumbled, Klaus stepped into his guard and gave him a brutal, bone-cracking punch straight across the face. The guard’s nose shattered in a spray of red as his body crumpling to the floor.

Instantly, the second guy that the leader had brought along closed the distance. He moved with terrifying, silent speed, extending a jagged poisoned dagger directly to his neck. He really moved like an experienced assassin with flawless footwork.

However, Klaus’s Metal Sense tracked the blade’s exact trajectory. He flicked back the dagger with a precise pulse of magnetism, knocking the assassin’s arm wide open.

Without missing a beat, Klaus snapped his leg up and gave him a devastating kick directly in the crotch.

The assassin’s eyes bulged out of his skull. He screamed out a high-pitched, agonizing wail as he reached down to hold his crushed crotch.

His knees buckled, dragging him downward.

He looked up, his face pale and contorted in agony, only to receive the meanest straight punch directly to his jaw and the kinetic force was monstrous.

Teeth went flying from the man’s mouth, scattering across the wooden floorboards like bloody dice, as his body launched backward and he hit the wall with a sickening crunch.

Klaus didn’t stop moving. He shot forward, his hands glowing with magnetic force, pulling the heavy metal tables from the floor.

He used them to attack them, hurling the massive iron slabs through the air like cannonballs. The other two raised their arms and weapons, desperately trying to defend themselves as the tables collided with explosive force, shattering wood and bending steel.

In the chaos of the crashing furniture, Klaus whizzed past them, a blur of motion going completely outside into the cool night air.

Once they fought off the tables, pushing the dented metal off their bruised bodies, the man behind the counter who had been ducking perked up.

"Who’s going to pay for all this?" the owner asked, looking at the ruined establishment.

Nobody replied as the remaining combatants scrambled to their feet and ran outside with their boots crunching on broken glass.

When they burst through the door, they stopped dead in their tracks. They looked up only to see that the thick metal pipe had been bent entirely around the guy that said he was going to keep watch.

The steel was wrapped tight like a metallic python, and he was completely slumped, unconscious against the brick wall.

"Fuck..." the man walked forward and sighed, dropping his sword to his side. He had completely lost sight of Heavenly Commoner, which meant a loss of a whole lot of money, then, the remaining Guard behind him raised his hand as a thick green aura surrounded him.

He pointed his finger at the thug leader.

"You are under arrest..." He said.

The man laughed, then he turned around.

"And who is enforcing that, you?"

"No, we will!"

And with that, the sky above them roared. Several city guards landed in heavy bursts of wind, their boots cracking the pavement.

The six that had been dispatched against the others landed in a perfect perimeter. One stepped forward, resting his hand on the pommel of his sword and looked at the leader.

"Your buddies are already being transported back to jail," the captain said. "If you come along too, there will be no issues."

The man sighed, looking at the overwhelming numbers. He dropped his weapon onto the cobblestones and slowly raised his hands up.

"Fuck you, Heavenly Commoner." he muttered and far away from the Guards, Klaus, who was still in his Heavenly Commoner fit, dropped silently from the sky.

He landed heavily in a dark isolated alleyway from above with the impact being absorbed by his knees.

In a sudden, brilliant flash of spatial light, his inventory ring engaged and he walked out of that fading light completely changed, dressed in some regular, unassuming clothes while rolling his shoulders.

"Well, at least that’s done..." Klaus muttered, adjusting his collar.

"In under ten minutes, you managed to not only get the City Guards but also people chasing you off your trail," the Masked Man said as he stepped out from the shadows.

Klaus stiffened as his muscles tensed and he took a step back.

"Everyday I look at you, you become more and more competent," the Masked Man continued. "I admire the way you carry yourself despite being a Commoner... I admire the way you try to become better even though you could lead a regular life like any other commoner. And above all, I admire the way you hate me."

The Masked Man reached up with a gloved hand and slowly removed the mask from his face.

The porcelain slipped away, revealing the luscious, flowing white hair as well as the piercing, crystal purple eyes of Prince Zephyr.

However, he was not done. The man unbuttoned the top of his shirt, revealing a glowing, intricate magical rune burned directly onto his chest.

He reached for it with his fingers brushing the glowing lines, making the spirit flicker next to him. Eli manifested in the shape of a small vibrating sphere of golden light.

"My Prince... you mustn’t." Eli said however, Zephyr ignored the plea. He pressed his palm directly against the rune and instantly, a brilliant, roaring purple crackle of raw magic escaped from his body.

It surged upward, lighting up the sky like massive fireworks that lit the night sky completely, casting harsh, violent shadows across the brick walls.

Klaus gritted his teeth and lifted his hands in front of his face as the blinding light threatened to sear his retinas.

As he saw the prince disappear into the overwhelming purple flash, the light rapidly condensed. When the intense glare finally faded, leaving the alley bathed in a soft violet glow as the person standing in front of him had changed completely.

In his face was a woman.

She was a bit smaller than Prince Zephyr, her frame delicate but radiating immense suffocating aura pressure.

She still possessed that same flowing white hair and those impossible, piercing purple eyes but the masculine features had completely melted away into aristocratic feminine beauty.

Klaus blinked, lowering his hands slowly. Did this mean Prince Zephyr was actually a Princess...?

Princess Zephyr blinked, her long white eyelashes catching the moonlight and smiled warmly as she looked at him.

"Will you marry me, Klaus?"