Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Lucius kept his senses on high alert so he could make sure that he could get the drop on any enemies before they got the drop on them. He also had his blade sheathed so that he only used unarmed attacks. Lucius would attack first, that way any other scouts would come across the comrades looking like they were attacked by a monster. During that panic is when Paul and Mia would take out the others.

It took a short while to travel through the forest for the almost three quarters of a mile to make it to the outer edge of the enemy's patrol zone. When he started to think about it, it was rather odd that a group of bandits had gotten this large unnoticed…let alone were able to organize themselves in such a way…

"Dammit!"

A voice called out several hundred feet away. It was followed by the sound of breaking twigs and crunching leaves. Basically the idiot tripped and fell. Realizing this was a great opportunity, he smiled cruelly and jumped into the trees. He quickly approached the bandit's location from above and saw him massaging his ankle.

It was simple enough to realize the bandit was weaker than he was, which meant this would not be a problem.

"Fuck that hurts… stupid forest and stupid trees and stupid…"

"[Forsaken Arts: Gouging Strike]!"

The bandit's words were cut off by Lucius' attack from above, he dove straight down from the trees which let him maintain all of the mana used by the attack in his hand, thus maintaining one hundred percent of the power.

His hands were surrounded in a golden light turning his fingers into claws at the moment of contact. The claws tore through flesh and bone as he flew past the man raking from his neck down the length of his spine. The shock of pain so intense the victim could not scream.

Were this person to have had any compatibilities at all, Lucius may have had to leave him for Paul or Mia, but since these were bandits, they usually did not, save for a few nasty customers.

He pushed the body to the side so it was splayed outwards like he had run from an attack before moving on to the next target. From what he could tell there were a few more patrolling the woods. Given the numbers alleged by Mia, there should be no more than three or four scouts total, but there seemed to be at least five different scents shuffling through the woods.

Paul and Mia were trailing behind, waiting for any targets that Lucius could not take out as well as making sure they took out any potential reinforcements coming to look for their missing scouts.

Lucius rapidly approached the second bandit, but noticed that two of them were actually standing really close together whispering about some sort of 'haul' that the 'boss' pulled off. They were apparently planning to steal it from under his nose with some help from some other men inside.

Lucius was not equipped to take out both of them in a single strike at the moment, plus one of them felt a little more dangerous than what he could handle quickly.

Instead, he put his fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle. Both of the bandits looked up at the tree he was in, but as they opened their mouths to shout, two golden colored arrows connected with the backs of their throats.

"Nice shot guys…" He muttered before jumping off again. From what he could tell there were a couple more, though they were a little further away.

Lucius made sure to pay attention to the surroundings as well to see if there were any traps that might present a danger to the assault team, but thankfully there were none so far.

The fourth bandit was, like one of the last two, too strong for him to handle alone, so he whistled again and for the trouble of trying to shout, he received a set of arrows in his face.

Lucius simply moved on to the next target since Paul and Mia would take care of the bodies. He was starting to get a little antsy and excited for the upcoming battle, but he used every ounce of self-control he had in order to calm himself. Getting too eager too early leads to mistakes, and since he was outnumbered and outclassed in many cases, mistakes were something he could not afford.

After taking a quick breather and calming his nerves, he then put his energy into expanding his search range. He wanted to find the last of the scouts as quickly as possible. After a few moments he was able to figure out the general direction of the scout and leapt through the trees towards the target. As he got closer, he was able to pinpoint him. This time it was someone weaker than him.

It was a young man, probably no older than twenty.

Lucius watched the young man move about, closely examining the woods and holding a wooden club tightly to his chest. It was almost like this was his first time doing something like this. In all likelihood, he was a simple villager who ran away from home or was abandoned and this was the only life he could make.

Most bandits were like that, people who lacked options and banded together and used strength in numbers and surprise to abuse those weaker than them. However, the young man's circumstances did not matter to Lucius. Eventually he would kill someone and become a ruthless marauder and that would put Rena in danger. Lucius would not allow that.

He slowly gathered mana in his body and focused it in his right hand. "[Forsaken Arts: Goring Rush]!'

Lucius lunged forward with all his strength plus the added force of using the branch he was on as a spring board. Before the young man could react, a black blur zoomed past him. He turned around to look at the mysterious figure and saw a boy with multi-colored eyes staring at him blankly.

Lucius watched as the bandit slowly looked down at his own stomach and realized that most of his insides were now on his outsides. The man took two steps forward and attempted to raise his club, but all his strength left him and he faceplanted and remained still. Lucius tapped him a few times with his foot before kicking the body to ensure no reaction. Sure enough, he was dead.

Lucius scanned the surroundings for another ten minutes and sensed no signs of any more scouts in the woods. He let out a short whistle, which was followed up by a second, then a third. After several minutes of silence, he felt a massive surge of mana in the direction of the bandit camp. A smile crossed his face as he realized that Rena was not holding back, just like him.