One Shot

The palace should have been impenetrable. It didn't matter that this was an outer palace vault but the expectation was still the same.

And yet, the bodies of the vault guards lay scattered across the stone floor, their blood seeping into the cracks.

"Urk!" The guard struggled, trying to break the grip of his neck but in the next moment, there was a crack and he hung limply from the hand, dead.

Octavian Underwood tossed the guard aside with a sneer. "Weak."

He'd expected better resistance but as always, he'd been disappointed.

He adjusted the cloth mask on the lower half of his face as his eyes flicked up to the heavy steel doors of the vault. At least, the guards had been trained well. None of them had divulged the secret of opening the vault.

He could sense it. The vault was a blood bounded object. But it wouldn't stand before him.