Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Lucius locked eyes with the half-elf girl for a few seconds. It was clear she was not one of the bandits, so he gave her a proposition.

"I'm going to loosen up the pressure and back off. You are going to stay very still and we will both put our weapons away. Deal?"

The girl nodded slowly, so after taking a deep breath, he slowly released the pressure and stepped back out of her and his striking ranges. She came to a standing position and they simultaneously put their weapons back in their respective sheathes, though they also both kept their hands on the blades, just in case.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The girl put up a hand, holding up her index finger. The back of her left hand flashed momentarily and she let out a deep sigh. Suddenly Lucius was able to pick up her breathing and heartbeat, which was not present before.

"I'm Mia, a member of an adventurer party out of the capital. We decided to move down south and stopped through Pelith, but heard rumors of a gang of bandits, so we stopped to help. Who are you?" She finally answered.

The flash of light put Lucius even more on edge, but he recognized the feel of the power. It was not mana, it was something else, so he knew she was a Marked One. "I'm Lucius, my adventurer party is based in Pelith and we are on a quest to hunt down those same bandits."

"I see. Have you been able to locate their camp yet?"

"No, that's what I was doing when I found you."

"How did you do that by the way?"

Lucius simply responded by tapping the side of his nose. "However you hid your sound and visuals, it is very hard to hide your scent."

A look of mild alarm mixed with disgust flashed through the half-elf's eyes before she presented him with an offer. "My group is nearby, we have found the bandit camp, I take it you and that other man in the woods I was watching are together? How about we meet here, together at this tree, introduce our parties and do this together?"

"I can't make that promise on my own, since I'm not the party leader, but I will bring them here. Meet back in twenty minutes?" he asked.

"You got it."

With that the mark on her hand flashed again and her breaths and heartbeat vanished once again. Then he saw a dark glow surround her body and she disappeared into the shadows. Following his nose, he was able to track her as she left.

Occasionally when light shined on her, she would become visible again, so Lucius was able to deduce that however it was she remained invisible had to do with staying in dark or shadowed places.

He waited till she was completely gone from sight before he went to collect Paul and return to the group. Paul was shocked to have Lucius suddenly appear behind him, but they were able to avoid an incident.

"Find anything?" Paul asked when his heart rate settled from the scare.

"Something. Come on, let's get to the ambush sight and talk with the party. I have quite the interesting lead." He answered.

Paul nodded and they both dashed through the trees to the meeting site. When they arrived, Jen, Rena, and Lethen were scanning the edge of the woods for any signs or clues that could have been missed.

Lucius noted that the carts had been completely cleared already and since it had only been a few days since the ambush, the char marks in the grass where they cremated the dead were still plainly visible.

"What'd you find?" Jen demanded. She sounded frustrated, which was probably because she could not find anything at the investigation site.

"I did not find the bandit camp, but I met with another adventurer group in the woods. Well, just one. Her name is Mia, a half-elf. They want to meet us at the tree I found her in and discuss the possibility of working together on the bandit quest."

"Wait…" Lethen mumbled. "A half-elf named Mia…did she have a bow?"

"I'm not going to lie, I was more focused on the dagger she had her hands on to pay attention to a bow." He admitted.

"Hmm…" Lethen trailed off.

"Do you know who she might be, Lethen?" Paul asked.

"Maybe…Anyway, let's go meet them. Take us there?" Lethen answered.

Lucius nodded and guided the group back to the tree he had promised to meet with Mia and her group. He still did not trust her and was making sure to track her scent the entire time, in the event she was going to ambush them, however that proved to be unnecessary as Mia and three other people stood openly next to the massive tree.

There was one guy and two other girls standing beside Mia. One appeared to be a warrior, one a mage, and the other might have been a monk or some sort of unarmed combat specialist.

"Nice to see you again. Let's get started on this conversation shall we? To start, I am Mia, leader of the adventurer group lovingly known as 'The Marks' and it is very nice to meet you." Mia said with a devilish grin.

Lethen was unable to hold in his loud gasp so everyone turned to him. "No fucking way…it really was THAT Mia! The Marks are an adventurer group out of the capital that made a name for themselves as a party made up fully of Marked Ones. To think we would meet you all in some random forest!"

"Nice to know we have a fan!" Mia said uncomfortably. "A-a-anyway we should introduce ourselves to each other."

Lucius agreed and his entire party introduced themselves to Mia and her group. It felt only right to do so, since she identified their group name first. Also, they were clearly the senior party in terms of experience, so it was only fair.

"Nice to meet you all. So you are marked as well Lucius? Unknown and won't activate…strange. Anyway, we are all marked as well. I bear the Mark of Silence. Anything I touch, including myself will never make a sound for as long as I concentrate on it."

The sole guy in the group stepped forward. "I'm Renton, Warrior, Axe Arts, and I bear the Feather Mark. Any single object I touch weighs as light as a feather until I choose another, or cancel the ability."

Next up was the unarmed warrior. "My name is Lynn, Unarmed Arts, Fist Arts, same thing. Mark of Blindness. I can make any single target suffer from blindness as if I cast the Dark magic spell."

The final person to introduce herself was the mage. "H-h-hi. I'm Marie…mage…I can use all Elemental magics and I have the Mark of Light. I can create and dispel up to three orbs of light that each are about as bright as a torch."

"So that's us!" Mia confirmed proudly. "Anyway, we figure we should work together. That bandit camp is a bit worse than we thought. There are probably thirty or more there that I was able to count."

Jen and the party looked at each other and silently confirmed with each other that they were okay with this. They all nodded in agreement. It would be an impossible fight with just the five of them, but with an allegedly skilled party like The Marks, they might stand a better shot.