Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Pana watched cautiously as mana swirled around her enemy, forming small bolts of electricity. "[Tempestas: Lightning Strike]"

As he activated the spell, a bolt of lightning struck a building inside the city.

"Are you mad?! Are you targeting civ…" before she could finish her words a massive explosion that shook the ground went off in the middle of the city.

When the sound dispersed, screams and shouts for help began to echo throughout the city. She hesitantly looked behind her and saw that several buildings around where his spell struck were obliterated and fires had started to spread along the city streets.

"Wait…"

"[Tempestas: Lightning Strike]"

Another bolt of lightning struck another seemingly random building and another massive explosion racked the city with intense heat and force. More buildings turned to dust and the screams of soldiers and citizens became louder.

"Kill him! Men kill him now! All mages, target that monster!"

"This ends when you surrender Pana. The longer you wait, the more lives you snuff out. You can end this."

"[Tempestas: Lightning Charge]"

The mages along the walls began casting spells of every school of magic. However, the Thunder Magic spell he used increased his speed and dodging the attacks seemed to be like a game to him. The man was dodging spears of ice, metal, and rock as if he were dodging stones thrown by children. Though his face was covered by a mask, Pana could not help but think the man was smiling.

"[Tempestas: Lightning Strike]"

Again, another explosion reverberated through the city. Pana was at a loss. The amount of damage each explosion caused was more and more intense. It was as if they had purposefully left some of their explosives in less populated areas and then moved to more populated ones with each successive attack.

Pana could not contain her outrage and roared before jumping off the ramparts. The drop was nearly three stories, but she absorbed the impact of the landing without issue. White and black fur had grown around her face and neck as she shifted into her more bestial state.

Her opponent eyed her and quickly charged in her direction. Spells continued to target him, but still none had struck him directly. His cloak had several holes and char marks from near misses, but other than that, he looked unaffected.

Consumed by rage, she began to go berserk, a rare art that few people possessed and even fewer could use effectively. "[Berserker Arts: Rage], [Beast Arts: Empowering Roar], [Beast Arts: Savage Claw]"

In the time it took to close the distance with her opponent, she activated three of her arts. With these, combined her strength pushed into the lower end of Master Rank. Though far more common than King Ranks, Master\'s were still not extremely abundant.

Even all of Alorek had a scant few hundred available to them at any given time. Intermediate was where most warriors could reach and then stopped and Advanced was for the ones who were a cut above that could push through.

She could tell this man in front of her was not a Master Rank fighter. So, she assumed that she would be able to take him on without concern.

"I see. Berserker and a beastman. What a deadly combination." The man shouted while dodging a swipe from her claws.

She roared in defiance. Under the effects of her rage, she could not speak. Though she had learned to control it enough to maintain her proper fighting techniques, speaking under the rage was not possible for her.

"So serious already." He taunted, continuing to side step each of her strikes with ease. His feet crackled with lightning, showing he was still under the effects of his Lightning Charge.

Since she was in melee range with him, the mages had stopped casting spells to avoid hitting her, which was appreciated. Though it meant she was fighting him one-on-one and could not command her forces, she was at least able to keep him from launching any more attacks on the city.

It was clear that the rat beastman they captured had assisted in planting the bombs that this Eroan bastard used. And since they caught the man while leaving the city, it is likely he had completed his mission, so there was no way of knowing how many more bombs were spread in unknown locations.

"Rargh!" Pana roared again as yet another one of her strikes missed the man by a hair. Her mana was starting to run out and soon she would not be under the effects of her Rage or other enhancements. When that happened, she knew that she would not be able to beat this enemy.

He was strong, but worse than that, he was fast. Despite how close her attacks came to hitting him, she always barely missed, as though he was playing a game with her.

In one last-ditch effort, she dove for his midsection to get him into a grapple. Somehow the gamble worked and her arms wrapped tightly around him. She attempted to maneuver him into a throw, but felt resistance as though she had hugged a tree and not a person.

The masked man leaned down to her ear and started to whisper, "[Tempestas:…"

"Wait!" she cried out. "You have men inside the walls! At least one, maybe more. If you destroy the city they\'ll be caught up in it. And the civilians! Most of my soldiers are on the walls, please!"

"[…Lightning Strike]" he cruelly sounded out each syllable slowly so she would feel a pang of fear with every sound.

Yet another massive explosion went off, as big as the first few combined, erupted from behind the walls. A large, mushroom-shaped cloud of fire, smoke, and sand filled the sky. Pana felt fear and guilt stab her chest as she lost the will to fight. The general fell to her knees sobbing.

Pana brought her hand to her ear and communicated to her commanders. "Surrender. All forces lay down your arms. Alvora has fallen."

She looked at her surroundings. Their fight had blown away the sand in the surrounding area exposing the sandstone beneath. While rushing at him furiously, she failed to notice the battlefield around her. Not only had they fought down to the stone, but the ground was littered with bodies of her men.

Dozens of fallen warriors wearing armor and shields emblazoned with the five black claw marks of their kingdom surrounded them.

"We did it!"

An excited looking wolf-girl beastman bounded up to Pana\'s opponent, and excitedly hugged him as though all was right with the world. Meanwhile she simply sat there, unable to move or speak, imagining the horrors that awaited her inside the city.