Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Lucius stood next to Zira on the outskirts of the camp that Rena had identified as the next target. It was smaller than the one he had fought the Marked One in the mist.

Rena's plan was for them to wait for the attack on the camp to begin, but they had evacuated the actual residents and replaced them with Simon's party and some of their own party. Though, some also remained in the forest.

Zira was with Lucius, while Rena and Paul were together. The plan was to wait for the attack to begin and then the members in the forest would rain down attacks from outside. Zira and Lucius would skirt around their back lines and perform blitz attacks to sew confusion.

Previously, Lucius would be slightly concerned about running into one of the higher rank goblin variants, but now he was much less concerned. When he was a Novice Rank he could hold his own against a rank above, but now he was a Beginner and had access to three additional skillsets.

Zira seemed to specialize in single-handed sword techniques and was able to use Wind Magic and Light Magic. Her two magical affinities were rather fast activating when compared to their others, though not as fast as Thunder Magic, they still were very beneficial to someone who operated mostly as a scout.

Lucius and her had a friendly competition between themselves when they first arrived in the village on who could gather the most information as it related to goblin troop movements. It was a competition which the boy had easily won, seeing as he did not need to get as close to the enemy to track them.

Goblins were very simple creatures and were very easy to track. They also smelled very, very badly and had a tendency to be incapable of staying quiet. All these things combined played very well into the boy's strengths.

Zira did not really take it well and had accused him of cheating in their little competition, however, his argument back was that he was simply using the tools he always had at his disposal, just like she did. Plus, they never set any guidelines.

From the outside it might have appeared that he was indulging in fun and games. However, what really drove Lucius to entertain Zira's antics were that she challenged him to something he knew he was one of the best at. Unfortunately for her, he could be rather prideful about certain things.

Until now, he was rather weak, but he had a few strengths that he leveraged to his benefit and he would be damned if he let some uppity scout that served Simon take any of that away from him. When they had returned from their mission, Rena informed them of the general plan.

Zira nudged him lightly on the side of his arm. "Hey, so is it true you are only a Beginner Rank?"

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"Yes." He answered flatly.

"Hard to believe."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, I mean you move so fast and you are so confident…I could almost mistake you for an Advance Rank on that alone."

"Thanks. Now shut up."

Zira glared at him, but he did not pay her any attention. Right now he was focusing his senses on the approaching goblins. No one else had spotted them yet, but he could hear and smell them approaching. It was hard to guess their number since they were in the woods and so closely packed together that many of the sounds blended.

"They are coming." He whispered back to his cohort who nodded back to him.

Zira whistled out a special bird call that their party used. She had apparently learned them while being raised a hunter and Simon adapted it to information sharing in the forest. The signal she sent indicated to the 'bait' party that the enemy approached.

With their allies warned, the two scouts rushed into the woods in opposite directions to prepare for circling around the enemy. Lucius had rushed past Rena and Paul's position, but other than giving a brief nod to the two of them, made no other acknowledgements. It was nearly time for battle after all.

It only took another twenty minutes or so for the goblins to finally close their approach enough for the group in the camp to see the army. By Lucius' estimation there were at least twenty normal goblins, three Hobgoblins, and a Witch Doctor

One Hobgoblin and five normal goblins stayed back with the Witch Doctor who was acting as the leader of the group, while the others advanced quickly towards the camp.

Lucius watched as they all raised their weapons and began to shout in their own, guttural language. Before they left the Witch Doctor's area of reach, it raised its crooked staff and seemed to chant some strange spell. A purple energy covered the weapons of the charging goblins.

Lucius heard as the mage of Simon's group shouted out a warning, "Try not to get hit! That seems to be some sort of Curse or Poison effect!"

Thankfully, Rena was still hidden away and was waiting with Paul for the main force to hit the camp before attacking. Thanks to that she would be unlikely to be hit. Goblins also could not use complex weapons, save for other rare variants, so there were no archers or long-range attackers among them.

He gripped his machete tightly and waited for the enemies to pass his location. Zira should be on the opposite side of their ranks as him, waiting for the same thing.

Simon, Lethen, Jen, and the rest of Simon's group clashed with the first line of enemies. Since normal goblins were very weak, they were cut down rather quickly. However, their numbers and speed made them a threat when combined with the unknown effects they had on their weapons.

This extra caution when fighting continued to put them at a disadvantage since they needed to really avoid being hit and potentially given a deadly curse or poison that could not be healed mid-battle.

Finally, the Witch Doctor and it's guards passed Lucius' and Zira's imaginary line and he readied for their part of the assault. Paul loosed a set of golden colored arrows infused with his Arts that sank into the arm of the Hobgoblin, enraging it. The goblins around it also joined in the yelling, adding to the distraction they had built up.

"[Tempestas: Lightning Charge], [Forsaken Arts: Goring Rush]!"

Electricity crackled around him, causing the hair on his body to stand on end. It traveled down his body and concentrated around his feet. Thunder-like rumbling filled the air as Lucius allowed the spell to propel him directly at the Witch Doctor.

His machete glowed with a brilliant light as the Arts infused into the cutting edge. The Witch Doctor barely had time to register his death before blood sprayed from his midsection and the top half of his body separated from the bottom. The glow surrounding the goblins' weapons faded and allowed the front-liners to fight without concern.

Zira cracked Lucius a look with a raised eyebrow. "Beginner, huh?"

Lucius ignored her and prepared to accept an incoming attack from a very angry Hobgoblin.

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A/N: Interested in Discord?

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