Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

After bidding a series of long goodbyes to Kalivas, she began her trek back to the academy. There was still a large presence of people throughout the city, and they would trickle out over the course of a week or so. Most of the important people would be leaving within the next day or so.

Some people thought that Kalliope would leave the city even sooner than that, but they felt themselves sneaky enough to surpass her heightened senses. They were doing a very good job staying out of range of her hearing, however their scents lingered. If they had swapped out observers while she was in the embassy, she might not have noticed, but since their scents remained, she could pick them out.

Kalliope was a warrior, not a spy, however she was trained in some useful skills for that trade. One of those skills was how to lose a tail… a skill she was not going to be using. Rather she began to weave through town on a specific path, not to lose them, but to make them anxious about losing her that they close the distance.

Spying on a beastman like her was risky because you had to balance distance from their senses with being able to keep a reliable tail. The paths she was taking by weaving through a mixture of small streets and large roads played on that requirement and made them forget the sensory range over maintaining their tracking.

When they finally got closer enough for her to pick up their movements with her ears, she was able to get a good count on the number. It seemed there were at least three of them following her. She was not able to determine their strength, so an attempt to fight them off alone would be risky…

"Titan," she whispered as she touched her ear while pretending to scratch her head. At that moment, she was trying to look like she was lost to make her strange pathing make sense. "I have a tail—at least three. Strength unknown. Permission to engage?"

"Permission Granted. Provide me your location."

After giving Lucius her rough location, she began a route that would allow her to corner her followers. Before they arrived in the capital, Titan made her and a few others memorize the maps of the current street layouts. Thanks to that, she had the map of each road she needed to accomplish her task.

With one final update to Titan for her current location, she turned two more corners and came face to face with three people in dark gray clothing. They were all wearing cloth masks, but they were distinctly human. Something about their clothing smelled… strangely herbal.

"Alright. So, you\'ve been following me since the academy. Who are you, I can already tell you aren\'t from the Wisteria Concord." Kalliope asked.

They chose to remain silent, as they should have done, but that didn\'t work for her. Kalliope kept her weapons sheathed, but she quietly flexed her hands and prepared her sharpened nails for an attack.

"[Beast Arts: Predator\'s Presence]"

All three of the stalkers visibly tensed as a response to the skill. One of them even looked behind him for a beast that was not there. Kalliope took that moment to rush after the one that looked back. Her right hand was outstretched and grabbed him by the back of the neck while her left hand prepared for a follow-up attack.

The other two were visibly surprised at the speed of her attack and could not react as she slammed her first target face-first into the dirt.

"[Dagger Arts: Quick Strike]"

One of the other two managed to recover quick enough to launch a strike at her, but his dagger bounced off the metal bracer on her left arm. Though his attack used an Art, she was able to deflect the blow with the proper angle. However, her bracer cracked, and her arm hurt, so it was likely she would not be able to do that a second time.

"Rargh!" fur grew along her face, neck, and body as she began to shift. Her eyes took on a more lupine form, and her muscles nearly doubled in size.

Gravel sprayed along the street as she pounced on the man who tried to use his dagger. Unfortunately, all she caught was air as he saw her attack coming. Kalliope refused to give up and continued to swipe with her hands which now had sharpened claws instead of fingernails due to her shifting.

"Damnit! [Ventus: Wind Blade]"

Kalliope narrowly dodged the spell, which took a chunk of her hair as it passed by her and carved into the side of a building. Two more Wind Blades came at her in rapid succession, with one connecting across her left shoulder. Blood sprayed into the air from the hit, but her adrenaline kept her from feeling the pain.

Seeing that the attack failed to take her out, the two conscious fighters glanced around as though they were preparing to flee.

"[Lux: Enhanced Speed], [Lux: Enhanced Strength]"

Kalliope growled out two Light Magic spells and felt her body surge with more power. The two men looked even more scared and started to turn. However, they stopped when they saw two people in dark leather armor with hoods, cloaks, and mouth coverings.

It seemed that Lucius had relayed her location to some of their agents in the capital, and they came to assist. Kalliope could have taken the two men, but she was grateful for the help in preventing her from having to track them down.

"Now. You are going to tell us who you are."

"Never, you damn mutt… urgh!"

While they tried to be defiant, they were unable to react as Kalliope vanished from her place and reappeared behind them, right in between them. They each took a swift punch in the stomach that was hard enough to knock them out cold.

"That\'s three. Take them to the safehouse, I\'ll contact the Commander to let him know we have guests."

The two King\'s Shadow agents nodded silently and moved to collect the men. Kalliope looked around for a moment and sniffed the air. Other than these three, no one else seemed to stand out, so she released her spells and shifted back to normal. For a moment, she felt sorry for what was about to happen.