Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Jen watched as the ditch on the side of the road rapidly filled with water. She honestly never thought about using magic to flush Dire Rats out of their dens. Normally when the little shitheads retreated under the ground, that was it. They wouldn't use that entrance again and would dig a new burrow exit elsewhere.

This new revelation on fighting a common pest brought a huge smile to her face. It seemed these newbies had something to offer after all. Though, it still remained to be seen if the boy's estimates on the number of monsters was accurate. If she was being honest, she was more than skeptical.

Jen knew that beastmen had excellent senses, but this was a bit much, and that was not including the fact that this kid was only a half-blood.

Suddenly, from her peripheral vision, she noticed that Lucius' head snapped towards the center of the road. His eyes and head seemed to track something under the ground until his eyes once again landed on the ditch.

"Heads up, here they come."

"Alright, thanks Lucius. I'll keep the water coming to make sure we really drown them out if you can keep them off me?"

"Got it."

Jen watched as the boy sank into an odd crouching position with his machete drawn in his right hand. His left pulled back and held in a claw-like position. She had seen this before as it was a fighting style used by many different beastmen. It was a style based on instinct and not training, so most armies did not utilize it.

A few moments after Rena's orders, two massive gray rats the size of a large dog crawled over the edge of the road. They made loud squeals not unlike a wounded pig when they saw the three humans.

The first one that made it onto the road lunged at Jen while the second lunged directly at Lucius.

"[Forsaken Arts: Goring Rush]"

Lucius launched forward, spraying dirt behind him and almost flew towards the rat charging Jen. His blade was held out and had taken on a dull glow as it was enhanced by the mana infused into it from his Art. The Dire Rat he targeted noticed the sword and jumped to the left and out of its reach.

However, the moment Lucius flew past it, the glow in the sword vanished and suddenly reappeared around his hand. His fingernails rapidly took on a claw like appearance as they dug into the rat's flesh and rend through fur, skin, and muscle. By the time Lucius finished flying past the monster, it had five massive slashes down its side all pouring blood.

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From the lower two slashes, guts began to spill onto the ground.

Jen watched as he came to a stop, kicking up a cloud of dust before once again launching away, this time back at the rat that he left behind. This time he flew over it's head, creating an opening for Rena who launched a spell at it.

"[Ferrum: Iron Bullet]"

Her concentration on the water spell ceased, and a small metal ball the size of a fist launched towards the Dire Rat Lucius flew over. Since it was distracted by its target launching over its head, the spell connected with the side of it's face and turned it to mush.

"Good one Rena! Three more en route. They should be the last ones, after that there are a handful of pups in the depths."

Sure enough, another second later three more sets of claws reached over the side of the road and 'roared' with all the ferocity a dog-sized rat could muster.

"Lucius, hold 'em for me."

"Got it."

Once again, he charged at the enemies, though this time he moved at a more normal pace. With all her experience, she could tell the boy wasn't tired, which meant that he was holding back this time on purpose. All three rats jumped at the boy who made himself a clear and easy target. Without much effort he quickly blocked each clawed strike, leaving a shower of sparks with each one.

"For a Novice, he fight's pretty damn good…" Jen muttered in appreciation.

Rena had been gathering mana in her body for a particularly strong spell, or what she would consider one. Her concentration caused a faint collection of glitter-like particles to hang in the air around her.

"Lucius, now! [Ferrum: Spike Field]" The red-headed beauty place a hand on the ground at the same time her partner leapt into the air.

A trail of metal surged from her hand and in a line towards the rats. When it was only a few inches away from them, massive spikes sprouted at every angle from the line of metal. Instantly, all three rats squeaked in pain and twitched on metal spikes for a few moments before coming still.

A few seconds later when she was satisfied they were well and truly dead, the girl released the spell, causing the metal to evaporate into mana and vanish. She then went over to the side of the ditch and looked around for a few minutes with Lucius. When they located the actual opening to the burrow, Rena repeated the same water spell from before.

She held the spell for a few minutes before following up with an ice spell.

"[Glacies: Freezing Touch]"

Pale blue light glowed from her finger tip, which she pressed into the surface of the water filling the ditch and burrow. All of the liquid rapidly turned to ice, and with a satisfied, yet tired look, Rena sat down on the ground.

"And that should take care of the pups. One nest down. Did we pass?"

Jen smiled at the two. "Sure."

*****

Ten people stood around a campsite several miles outside of a large city called Lelvern. It was a large trading city in the kingdom of Arcadios and was, like essentially the entirety of Arcadios, surrounded by forests and farmland.

Thomas who had lived in the town of Pelith for his entire life was bored of the constant trees and greenery, having desired for something more exciting once becoming an adventurer.

Of course, the red-headed boy had no intentions of staying an adventurer, it was simply a request by his father to join his older brother's party to train and earn entry into the Grand Raid in a few months.

He had already been an adventurer for a little over a year how and was very close to being granted entry. Simon, his brother, already had a spot for himself, so if he did not also get one, his brother would remain a step ahead.

All of this was for one single purpose though, to gain wealth and power for their branch of the Petra family. They had given up attempts on Rena's life since the forest trial attempt ended in such spectacular failure.

They also could not touch her adopted body guard since the boy's father, a powerful warrior of the domain, sacrificed his own life to pay for the lives of two young children who, technically, failed their trial.

In reality, the domain would have been better off by keeping Wayne over the two boys, Vik and Peter, but since the blood price was paid, and with interest, there was no recourse for going after the marked half-blood.

Thomas muttered various profanities under his breath while he chewed on dry jerky and stale bread. This fair was far from what he would prefer, and he still had not gotten used to it. This was the adventurer life…but why did it have to suck so bad.

"Come on everyone, lets move out. We still have a few more Dire Wolves pups to hunt down. Cant let them grow up and pose more of a threat than they already do." The party leader, Simon von Petra called out.

Thomas grumbled yet again and readied his sword. "Bunch of bullshit."