"My King!"

Torches light the way as a group of townsmen, armed members of the Neighborhood Watch gallop towards Lucien on their horses.

They'd come as fast as they could after being alerted by one of the townspeople who'd witnessed the attack. It had taken some time to saddle their horses and change into their battle gear, when they'd become accustomed to the peace after the end of the Great War.

When they finally arrive on the scene, one of the men can't hold back his fearful gasp at the scene he sees before him.

The large figure of Lucien looks like a nightmarish entity as he breaks the last assassin's neck with an easy twist.

It was total carnage. Men bleeding out from wounds on the ground, some fallen against the brick wall, clearly dead with their throats crushed, while others laid bleeding out, missing a few body parts. Some of them had their arms or legs pinned to the wall, the dagger flying with enough force to pierce the flesh and still had the momentum to dig deep into the hard red brick wall. It was an inhuman feat of strength.

In the darkness not illuminated by the far off street lights, blood pooled like small puddles of black oil on the ground, turning crimson when the torch light drew closer.

Lucien's messy hair fell around and framed his bloodied face. Longer strands of hair laid mingled on the ground with the red blood of the fallen assassins. He'd cut large chunks of it off, when the chest-length hair started getting in his way before he'd alerted the attackers to his location.

The flame-red hair, grown long down his back during the time Sera had been gone. He'd been growing it out for her ever since he noticed her blushing while she first braided his hair that he'd let grow during the war. And he hadn't been willing to cut it at all when she left. Because if he cut it, it would feel as if his separation from Sera was final.

But there was no hesitation this time. If he'd grown it out for her, he could cut it for her too.

"Sire, we've alerted the Knight Order once we heard the news of the attack. They will be arriving here soon."

Dismounting his horse, a man prods one of the black clothed assassins with his foot. No doubt about it. They were dead.

"I left one alive. Take him to the Keep for questioning" Lucien orders, wiping his long dagger on the black clothes of one of the fallen men and sheathing it back in his boot. He pauses when he sees a mark on the back of the man's neck. There was a branded mark in the skin, of a scythe with its handle loosely wrapped in a black cloth.

It gave him a clue on who his attackers were.

With confused glances and shrugs, the other men pause their observations of the scene. They weren't sure which one Lucien was talking about. All the attackers looked quite dead to them.

"That one." He nods to a man fallen against a barrel with blood streaming down his nose, the black mask cracked and smaller shards of it piercing the areas of his face. His arm was gone, practically torn off with brute strength, bleeding heavily as he laid there, eyes closed.

One of the older men lean down to check the pulse. Yes, he was still alive, with the slightest of breaths within his chest.

Lucien ignores the men working as he quickly tries to calm his breathing and focus on his magic. He'd missed one. One of the attackers had slipped away, most likely to report back to the mastermind behind this whole ordeal.

Slow, even, breaths, and a heavy pressure flows out of Lucien, as bloody and dark as it's master.

The ring that Sera wore was tuned to Lucien's own mana signature. Though it looked like a plain silver ring with a red gem, it was much more than that. If it was ever appraised, it would be impossible to put a price on it, the ring inlaid with a crimson red gem, the center of which swirled like smoke when gazed at closely.

It didn't look like any common ruby. After all this gem was actually a crystallization of Lucien's own blood.

Another result of one of the Elder's experiments to store mana, in the process of trying to summon Sera back. Mana, the source and catalyst of all magic, had never been stored before in the history of the new continent. Only the relics of the fallen empire that had existed eons before had drawings of stones powering their magic devices instead of using humans as the source, which was common today.

By releasing his own mana into the atmosphere, it would react to the slight traces left of the mana he'd poured into the ring himself through his blood. Lucien checks on Sera's location as he slowly releases his mana, sensing the direction it would be drawn towards like smoke towards an air vent.

That wasn't the direction he'd left Sera in.

"Give me your horse!" He barks out, quickly mounting the leader of the Neighborhood Watch's strong brown horse.

"Half the detail, follow me!" The men respond to the commands instinctively, moving quickly to accommodate their King.

Though they were simple town folk, some with experience of the Great War, they were not active soldiers like the ones in the castle. Yet, they still felt the strong compulsion to follow his orders.

They gallop after Lucien, eyes focused on following him as he expertly maneuvers the horse, jumping over the fallen baskets and carts and follows Sera's trail.

-----

Sera awakens to the sickening motion of being roughly carried over someone's shoulder.

It hurt, with all her weight bearing down on the man's shoulder digging into her stomach.

When Lucien carried her over his shoulder, it hadn't hurt like this. Maybe it was because while Lucien supported her weight with his arms, making sure the pressure against her body was evenly distributed, this man carried her like a potato sack. He had one hard arm around her legs to keep her from slipping off but other than that, he would walk with a jerking motion. Pausing often and leaning against the wall, then pushing off the wall and stepping forward again.

The injury in his side was slowing him down, which was good for Sera. She could see that they were out of the alleyways now, headed towards the side gate that Sera and Lucien had entered from. Lucien had said there would be more of them there...

She needed to escape. Desperately, her eyes search for any clues to help her.

Her hands were tightly bound together with some sort of thick, chafing rope. The prickliness of it made her sure it was the same rope that had bound the hay bales together in the stack she'd been hiding in. Looks like the assassin hadn't been prepared to take a captive.

The metallic taste of iron on her tongue made her grimace. That last slap had cut the corner of her lip. She winced as her small tongue tentatively touched the cut.

What could she do?? She'd lost the sword after losing consciousness, and it wasn't like she carried any hidden daggers on herself.

What had Lucien taught her before? Always go for the weak points in self defense. Throat? No that wasn't an option. Eyes too. Either option was unavailable with her slung over his back.

Wait, he was injured. She would have to use that.

Breathing deeply through her nostrils, Sera's heart races as she knows what she has to do.

Her arms stretch downwards while bound fingers form a claw-like shape. And she-

Digs her fingers right into the deep gash that still leaked fresh blood out of the man's side.

It hurts when she's dropped on the ground, but she uses her bloody hands to push herself back up, before the man groaning in pain while clutching at his side can respond.

She was lucky he hadn't tied her legs together. Eyes fixed on running back into the alleyway so she could get herself on the main street, she puts one leg in front of her to run.

-But stops when something pulls her skirt in the opposite direction. It was the man, still gasping in pain, but eyes set in determination to stop her with one red hand grasps her soft pink skirt.

Something like this won't stop her from escaping. She wanted to live!! She wanted to be with Lucien and Leo!!!

Kicking off her other shoe, Sera forces herself to move forward with all her might, gritting her teeth as the man, on his knees hangs on.

Her waist feels tight as the fabric of the skirt digs into her flesh, but she keeps going.

Until finally, her skirt rips off, leaving a pale, pathetic piece of bloodied pink cloth in the man's hand.

Off like a shot, Sera runs away from him, pumping her legs as fast as she could..