And Blood Flowed Part 1

After sitting on the dusty road a few minutes, the girls got up and continued on their way with renewed determination. Evelyn had finally gotten a hand of her own talent and was able to release spells way faster than she would usually. The backlash made her unable to move for a moment but with Laena's help they would turn into a terrifying duo.

The young elf was quite in awe in front of such talent. Her small friend had found her way and unleashed an impressive potential. It was incredible and yet it only made her feel empty and weak.

'What does I have of special ? I have no special talent nor powerful body... My only gift is an item that I received... I need to work harder !' She thought, lighting a fire in her emerald eyes.

Unsheathing her sword, she closed her eyelids and focused her mind while walking. Evelyn watched her doing this for a little then looked again around the road, carefully searching the landmarks described in the quest giver's report. They were apparently a bunch of F ranked adventurers walking in this region to gather plants and saw a few orcs on the road. Carefully following them, they located the humanoids tribe and then ran away.

On their path they inscribed many crosses in the trees and wrote some information for the exterminator's party. This kind of custom was usual in the guild as all the adventurers knew how dangerous their job was. Since they could die at any moments many did those kind of things to make the other's work easier. Their report alerted the higher ups and they decided to put a reward on those orcs before some merchants were hurt as the monsters were too close of a commercial road.

Soon, a few hours passed and while many passerby threw a curious gaze to the elven swordswoman, none dared to interrupt her concentration. Evelyn made a surprised jump when she heard Laena's sudden laughing fit and curiously asked the elf :

"Laena, what's happening? "

"It's nothing Evy, I just understood why he made me make this exercise." She replied, lighting a small fire on her fingertip.

"This doesn't explain anything !" The young girl pouted, wanting to know the truth.

"You will see." The elf replied with a teasing smile on her face.

They continued to walk in silence, the swordswoman seemingly quite happy while Evelyn was stomping grumpily on the dirt road. Their relaxed atmosphere disappeared as fast as it came when they saw the first cross graved into a tree bark on their left. Tensing up, a determined gleam appeared in their eyes while they drew their weapons.

The sun was slowly going down and soon, their foes would too.

-

Jack was completely oblivious of his student's murderous aura and was currently roaming around a huge iron fence surrounding a massive house. The pointy end on the fence and the guards patrolling didn't scare him at all and he was currently hiding in the shadows, searching for his entrance. A small garden well kept with small trees and ponds around the building gave him many opportunities to sneak his way into the manor-like place.

With light orange brick walls, white ironwork and delicate looking windows and at least three floors this noble's house indeed looked more than expensive. Its location a bit isolated from the rest of the city and its main arteries made it a hunting ground of choice for the immortal magician.

The sun finally let place to a dim moon in the sky and soon a shadow jumped over the spiky fence, landing without a noise into the garden.

'There is a patrol coming every hour, and this one passed a few minutes ago. Time to take down everyone.' He thought coldly. The possibility of sneaking in without alerting the guards was tempting but it brought many needless uncertainties. Slaughtering everyone was way easier and relaxing for Jack, and so he walked toward the guards waiting around the massive gate.

Seeing its size again, he couldn't help but chuckle internally : 'I guess that those massive guys don't know a single things about fighting and in facts are just there to open this heavy gate.'

Focusing himself again, his gaze turned into a predator's one while he was watching the two armored guards holding their torches and leaning on their spears. They were shoulder to shoulder, joking about something Jack didn't care about.

Approaching them while releasing his veil of shadow, he focused himself on his wind magic to reduce all the sounds he produced. Standing straight behind them after a few seconds, he murmured the last words they ever heard :

"Wither."

No scream left their mouths as their flesh decayed away within the span of a few seconds, leaving a pile of dust on the ground. This was a level 1 Lifomancy spell that Jack created recently while trying to optimize his assassinations. It was quite complicated and required a lot of mana and concentration for its caster but the effect was satisfying as it made it easier to dispatch of the bodies.

'Phew, weaving Death and Life mana together is honestly harder than I thought. Still, I do wonder what kind of power it would have in a bigger scale... I think that I can improve Wither a bit further, after all the spell is young. Actually, the mana cost is high and the rebound too. I should focus on tweaking this after cleaning this place.'

Waving away his interesting but inappropriate thoughts, he disappeared in the darkness again, going on his way for his next prey. Having a physical body brought his five senses again but he didn't forget what he had learned as a skeleton. He could still sense the mana, having something like a sixth sense and always kept it on in case something dangerous appeared. For now, he knew that this place had no magician except one of extremely low level inside the house.

A few minutes later, all the guards outside had mysteriously disappeared. Jack was standing in front of the main door, checking that it wasn't enchanted and that there was no living being around. Taking a deep breath he drew a form in the air and murmured :

"Life Detection."

His eyes were glowing with a golden hue, allowing him to see the lifeforms easily through the walls. Ignoring the rats and other small animals, he confirmed that a lot of people were probably sleeping in their rooms and that there was someone walking around on the second floor. He had already sensed this thanks to his mana sense but the disturbing part was what he hadn't noticed earlier since he didn't focus on it.

There was surely a room five meters under the mansion in which many people were stacked. Whatever it was, it meant nothing good and thinking about the possible uses of this place made his blood boil. Feeling his contempt and indifference toward the humans slowly turning into hatred, he took a deep breath to control his feelings.

After a few seconds he finally chained his blood thirst and continued his grim work with cold eyes, unlocking the door silently with a push of wind magic. Cleaning the ground floor of all the maid and butlers sleeping in their quarters, Jack also took everything he found interesting and put those into a huge bag made with a tablecloth.

Of course he didn't take items without a subjective value like paints or sculptures. What interested him more were the gold coins, items or simply some books kept here and there.

He also looked around for the entrance of the cave but didn't find anything else than an useless wine cellar. After investigating around a little more, throwing away every painting on the wall and expensive carpets on the ground he found a hidden trap in what looked like an office. Smiling evilly, he opened it and hoped in the hole, disregarding the ladder next to him.

A tunnel dug in dirt and consolidated with some wooden pillars was what welcomed him. It was completely dark and damp, reminding Jack a place where he spent way too much time.

'It seems that I have developed a phobia of underground spaces... Goddamit. Let's get rid of all those peoples and get the heck out of here.' He thought while shivering unconsciously.

Walking onward in the darkness, he followed the tunnel and reached a solid iron door from where muffled cries came out. Slowly, the shadows disappeared around the immortal, leaving a vermilion hue take their place. Thanks to his mana sense, he knew what was happening behind this door. He put his palm on it and simply melted it away.

His steps resonated as he walked on the molten iron. Under his feet, it turned into solid metal and cracked into pieces. His demonic gaze wandered around the small room where many cages containing humans, elves, beastman and other races filled the space. In the middle, a few men were busy with one of the chained prisoner.

They turned around with a surprised look and asked : "Who the hell are you !"

Jack didn't reply and simply raised his hand, muttering with a jaded voice : "Darkness Maw."

-

During this time, the two girls made their way on the road and started hunting down the orcs from their last traces. From the information the guild had given them their preys were diurnal creatures and thus striking during the night would be the best way to go. Furthermore, Laena could see quite well in the dark and was a good asset.

What they didn't expect was that the tribe was way further from the road than they thought and the night fell on them while they were still trying to locate the enemy camp. Since continuing to follow the footsteps without light was nearly impossible they tried another strategy, hoping that they were close to the orc camp.

The elf had climbed in a tree and used the height to locate a fire source. Since it was in the right direction they expected that it was their quest's location and continued with all senses alert. Avoiding tripping on the tree roots and making as little noise as possible, the duo slowly progressed in the forest's darkness.

When a tree branch fell next to them they both jumped on their feet, ready to murder whatever was going to come to them. Yet, they only thing moving was a possum making his way above them. Sighing, they continued for a few more minutes until Laena started to hear some laugh further away. She was holding Evelyn's hand to guide her since the little girl couldn't see anything and strengthened her grip to signal her to stop.

"There are noises further away. I think we are close to our objective." She murmured, seeing her companion nodding.

Holding their weapons tight, they continued their stealthy walk and stopped again when the noises were clearly audible. It sounded like a guttural and weird language to the elf while it seemed that her friend recognized it. The young mage spitted a few words, her rage almost palpable :

"It's orc language. Let's do this Laena."

The swordswoman smiled weakly then tried to find a tree to climb on in order to get a better point of view. After a few tries she found the right one and was able to see the whole camp from her branch. It was illuminated by a huge campfire in the middle on which something was seemingly cooking. A few wooden huts had been built around in the glaze where the orcs decided to stay and they seemed to walk around happily.

A bit further away, Laena noticed that one of her enemies was standing away from what looked like a party and was holding a wooden club. He had an animal skin around the waist and seemed bored, leaning on his weapon while looking at the sky.

'They have guards... This was expected.' She thought while trying to count them. 'I see around ten of them in the middle. I just hope that they aren't more than this or it will be difficult.'

Slowly going down, she explained the situation to Evelyn and they went toward their preys together. The elf was walking around five meters in front of her, ready to take down any hidden orc while the young girl followed the sound those monsters made.

Turning around a tree trunk, Laena saw an orc sitting on a stump a few meters from her. He hadn't noticed her as he was busy fighting back his drowsiness. A flash of silver surprised him and he tried to move his hulking body, wanting to get up. Yet, all he did was fall down and the ground. The sleep he was fighting back turned into a black abyss that engulfed his consciousness greedily.

'One down, many more to go.' The elf thought while looking at the decapitated body in the grass. She had been surprised by their flesh solidity but still managed to cut the head off cleanly, making her proud of her weapon again. Ignoring the puddle of blood forming, she and her companion continued toward the fire's light to bring them to the eternal darkness.