Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Kalliope had begun to slow down after her initial burst of speed, allowing the two beastmen with her to catch up slightly. None of them cared about staying out of Lucius' sensory range after the massive discharge of mana coming from the cliffs overlooking the valley.

Before they could get too much closer, there was a massive burst of heat, rush of air, followed by a sound louder than anything they had ever heard. They simultaneously covered their ears in pain in reaction to what could only be described as an entire storm's worth of thunder sounding off all at once.

It was bad enough to leave her ears ringing and her feeling some disorientation, but she could tell her ears were not permanently injured in any way. What she wanted to do was rush up to the cliffs immediately, but the disorientation she was experiencing threatened to topple her over.

"Lady Kalliope, are you alright? What was that sound? Did someone cast a high-level fire spell?" one of her men questioned. He too was nursing his ears by rubbing them gently.

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"I don't know. Come on, to the cliffs!"

Kalliope finally felt herself become steady enough to walk and began to move towards the human meeting spot. Slowly, but surely she regained confidence in her stride and returned to a run.

When the Eroans reached the top of the cliffside they saw score marks, gouges, and small craters pocketed all over the rocky surface. The biggest among them was a massive crater at the edge of the cliff that was colored black. Upon closer inspection, the edges of the crater had turned into a glass-like substance, reflecting the sun's rays.

"How powerful was that spell…" one of her men asked while carefully inspecting the edges of the crater.

Panic was starting to set in. Kalliope began to frantically inspect the battlefield for signs of Lucius or bodies, but there was nothing. The shifting sands already covered up tracks of anyone who fled the area… so what happened here? Who attacked them? Was it Alorek?

Everything about this situation was sketchy. If it was Alorek, they would still be nearby or their other scouts would have reported enemies in the area.

"It must have been a setup…" she mumbled.

"Lady Kalliope! Over here!"

One of her men was standing on the edge of the cliff and pointing down into the valley. At first all she saw was rubble and devastation from parts of the rock wall having cascaded onto the valley floor. However, upon a closer examination, among the rubble was a body.

Without any further reservations, she jumped off the side of the cliff. "[Shield Arts: Negate Impact]!"

As she approached the ground below, she activated her Arts to cancel out any of the impact and damage from the fall. The shield took increased damage as compared to what it would have taken upon a normal block, but in exchange the user felt zero residual effects of the strike.

In this case, it absorbed the impact of her fall and in repayment, her shield exceeded its durability and shattered into splinters. The cost of the Art was worth it though.

Scrambling across the rubble, she made her way to the body. The person had dark colored hair that was coated in a layer of dust and sand. On top of his chest and stomach were armfuls of rocks and sand, but the face was unmistakably Lucius.

"Gods! Lucius!" Kalliope ran to his side and began to dig him out from the dirt. "Come on, don't be dead. Don't be dead. Don't be dead."

*****

Like he did every day, Kalivas stood as the solitary guard and watch at the gate of Fort Sella. He took breaks of course. He would trade with a squad of fighters at the twilight and dusk for a period of three hours each. As a powerful fighter who trained himself in nearly every martial style, there were times where he had to train his stamina and mental fortitude.

It was thanks to this intense training that he had been able to maintain his solitary watch. On top of that, he knew that every moment he was not protecting the gates, was a moment that Alorek would choose to attack and he was not about to be taken by surprise.

The times of day in which he took his rest periods were also openings in his defense, however they were also disadvantageous times to begin a siege, so the risk of his guard being taken advantage of was low.

Right as he was thinking about that someone came up to him to deliver his lunch, which he ate on duty.

"Thank you. After this war is over, I am going to devour the stock of every luxury restaurant in the capital. This dry jerky and stale bread just doesn't cut it." He laughed.

The soldier who delivered it to him had a sour look on his face. In his defense, Kalivas had been making this joke every meal, every day, ever since Alorek attacked.

"Sheesh, tough crowd…" He mumbled to himself as the man disappeared.

He was half way through chewing on a piece of jerky when he caught wind of Kalliope and blood. Off in the distance he was able to see a group of shadows running towards him. Slumped over Kalliope's back was the familiar form of a boy that he had only just seen off earlier today.

"I knew it." Kalivas growled, trying to calm the rage in his chest. "Healers! To me! We have a severely wounded soldier incoming!"

His order's echoed through the air and a number of men behind the gates started scrambling around to find their best healers. It did not matter to them if those healers were off duty, because the tone in Kalivas' voice was fierce enough to imply the outcome of failing to meet his request.

"Uncle! It's Lucius… they…" Kalliope stammered between gasps. It seemed she had run the entire way back despite the protests from her body.

He carefully moved to remove the boy from her back, but she warned him before he could move further, "Don't touch his back. You have to hold him stomach down…"

Kalivas was stunned by the strange request, but moved to do as she said. When he finally shuffled the boy into his arms, he realized why she had said so.

The skin along his back was covered in burns and deep gashes. Not only would holding him on his back be immensely painful for him, but he'd likely drip even more blood than he was already losing. Several of the openings were deep enough to see bone and severed muscle. He also did not miss the fact that there seemed to be a handful of wounds on his front from being pierced by arrows.

"What happened to him…" The anger he had quelled up until now threatened to spill over. Even the other soldiers started to shake from the pressure.

Kalliope was unphased, focused solely on the boy in his arms. "I don't know… but it seems their 'reinforcements' were a trap, I don't know if it was for him or all of them, but I only saw him. No one else was present."

"Okay…"

"We did what you asked, but when battle started to break out, I charged forward. I wasn't able to make it in time. Before I could get close there was a massive explosion, like someone set off a King Rank fire spell." Kalliope continued.

Kalivas nodded. "Come, let's get him inside and heal what we can. Guard the gates! I'm going to be busy for a while. If anyone slacks, I'll feed you to Sand Wyrms myself."