Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

The middle-aged healer had a clear look of distress in his eyes. It was as if he sensed the oncoming strife before it was about to occur. Though he would be unable to see it, Lucius, under the guise of Wulf, smiled cruelly at the man before turning around.

From his sense of hearing and smell, Lucius could tell there were only a dozen or so guards on the first floor. Most of them seemed to be asleep. There were a few on the second floor that were drinking and sharing stories with one another as a way to relax.

It had been some time since he had been able to flex his infiltration skills. Excited to shake the rust from that particular sword, Lucius felt his heartrate increase from anticipation. He took a few deep breaths before heading deeper into the building past the reception desk.

His boots were leather and padded under the toes and balls of the feet to decrease sound. The cloak he wore on his back vanished as he stored it inside his ring. Additionally, he stowed any excess equipment including his special machete. The only weapon on his person still quickly accessible were the custom gauntlets from Corva.

As Lucius approached the first door, he quietly leaned his ear against the door. Satisfied that the room seemed empty of even the sounds of breathing, he continued to the next room. Time seemed to crawl as he paused at each door to check the interior for occupancy. After several duds, Lucius finally happened upon a door with someone on the other side.

From what he could tell, it was a single occupant. They seemed to also be working on paperwork due to the fluttering of parchment and the smell of fresh ink wafting into Lucius's nose. There were no markings on the door to indicate whose office this belonged to, but that did not really matter in the end.

Without a sound, the door slowly swung inward exposing the inside to the man stalking the halls. Sitting at the other end of the room behind a large, oak desk was an elven man in disheveled clothes. Though his outfit was not in the best of states at the moment, it was still rather fine clothing.

Placed haphazardly on a nice-looking bed in the corner was a set of armor with a crest painted on it indicating an officer rank. The man in the room seemed to be in charge of the guard station and was clearly flustered by the amount of paperwork on his desk keeping him from his rest.

Lucius shook his head at the man's naivete for not securing his door or having his office in a much harder to reach location. When he took over, things in this place were going to change for the better.

While he furiously scratched away at the parchment before him, Lucius quietly stepped up behind him. Though he had no skills at the moment to assist with keeping him hidden, he was quite adept at moving without being noticed through skill alone. It took little effort to close the gap without pulling the elf's notice.

"So sad." Lucius whispered into the man's ear, causing him to jump slightly. Without a moment's hesitation, the gauntlets activated and zapped the man into unconsciousness, sending the elf sprawling onto the floor. Before he left, Lucius got a glimpse of one of the documents relating to pay distribution.

He quickly memorized the list and number of names before subtracting the number of people who left as they entered.

The next few rooms were yet again empty and continued to be so until he reached a door that seemed to open into a large open space. No light escaped beneath the crack in the door, so Lucius quietly opened it. Facing him were dozens of beds lined up side-by-side in neat rows. Many of them held snoring men and women who were off shift and trying to catch a few hours of rest.

A quick headcount revealed the room held twenty men and women, all completely out of it. A small light emanated from Lucius's storage ring before four crystals, each the size of an apple appeared in his hands. They were given to him as a 'gift' by Corva in camp one day.

Apparently, he and Kalliope had been too loud one night in camp while their tent neighbored the elven princess. She bequeathed them to the couple on the promise that she be allowed a full night's rest in the future. They had proven their worth several times over and were about to again.

After placing one in each corner of the room, Lucius pushed a small amount of mana into the master crystal of the group activating a sound dampening barrier throughout the room. Because of the size, the effects would be far more diminished versus covering the space of a simple tent, but it was much more effective than not being active in the first place.

In a series of flashing lights, Lucius quietly activated his [Lightning Field]. Everyone in the room immediately startled awake, their movement forcing the spell to activate and shock them repeatedly. He held the spell active for several minutes until every one of the soldiers collapsed into smoking piles on the ground.

He ensured the spell was not strong enough to be lethal, but most of them would suffer intense burns.

Satisfied he moved up to the next level of the building. A quick check of his surroundings indicated that the ground level was no longer occupied by conscious beings, save Lucius and the healer.

At the top of the second floor, he heard the rowdy exchange of a group of five people down the hall from the stairs. The rooms between them and him were each empty. Since he knew they were there and would not notice him easily, Lucius continued to survey the rest of the second floor.

When he returned to the occupied room, he decided to go ahead and check the third floor of the building quickly. As far as he could tell there were no specific sounds or smells coming from it, but it was better to confirm than not. Thankfully, the top floor seemed to only be a wide-open storage area. The windows were even boarded up from the inside to prevent anyone from seeing inside.

It seemed this was where they kept all their extra supplies.

Satisfied, he returned to the second floor and listened to the inside of the room. By his count there were six people inside. Each sounded to be in different stages of inebriation, though people processed alcohol differently. It would be hard to rely on that kind of guesswork.

The safest option was to assume they were all functioning at full capacity when trying to plan on taking them out. Opening the door with them inside would be a poor idea, so their positioning and the shape of the room itself were unknown quantities.

Lucius sighed and powered his body with [Lightning Charge] while amplifying the effects with twice the amount of mana necessary. He also activated [Merciless] to further push the limits of his body. The last thing he made sure to do was to summon forth the intense rage he always kept buried beneath the surface. Red filled his vision as he felt his senses sharpen even more.

His fingernails sharpened and his already beast-like fangs grew even more.

Though he was incapable of harnessing the full effects of shifting as gifted by his beastman heritage, he still benefited from a smaller portion of its effects. With all of these abilities in effect, Lucius felt as if he could see the movement of the very molecules that made up the air. Find your next adventure on empire

In one swift motion, he threw open the door and charged forward. None of the men in the room could react fast enough to respond to the charge of the oncoming monstrosity. In a blur of red and blew light, Lucius wrapped his hands around the necks of two men standing close to one another.

The gauntlets activated, electrocuting them. The other four began to shout and grab clumsily at the weapons on their hips. The amount of alcohol they had consumed had dulled their senses and reaction times too much to give a proper response. This made Lucius smile again, but did not regret his overabundance of caution.

In an instant, he rushed forward and grappled two more to the ground. Their heads made a sickeningly wet crack on the floorboards while small bolts of electricity arced down their bodies. The final two decided running was the better option, but Lucius simply snapped his fingers, lunching a compressed [Thunderclap] at the base of their skulls.

The two men stumbled for a few steps before collapsing to the ground.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Lucius released his active spells before beginning the arduous process of dragging everyone to a single location. The immediate choice seemed to be the third floor where the windows were boarded up.

After starting with the six men on the second floor, Lucius moved to the barracks on the first floor to retrieve the sound dampening crystals. He then spent the next hour moving people one by one up to the third floor, making sure to space them evenly apart to make it easier on a new skill.

When all of that was over, Lucius finally let the healer out of the holding cell. The man had almost started to nod off by the time he was freed, and he had a frustrated expression.

"Wulf! What took so long?" he complained.

Lucius simply shrugged before throwing the receptionist over his shoulder. "Follow me upstairs. You will wait at the bottom of the stairs leading to the third floor. Under no circumstance will you move from that spot. Am I clear?"

The man nodded quickly, clearly fearful of his thinly veiled threat.

"Good. I would like you to stay alive so I don't create any additional problems with Kestis. Things will go smoother for me if our relationship stays amicable."