Injured Dog

Marcus had quickly grabbed his bag due to remembering where it was previously to having put on the blindfold, and after putting out the fire, he climbed up a nearby tree to hide.

The task wasn't too difficult for him. The blindfold did have him feeling around for a proper tree to climb but once he'd found one, getting atop it was a breeze.

While waiting in the tree, he'd been listening in on everything the two men had been discussing and gathered a few important details while they were talking.

'So, I have a bounty on my head worth 10 gold coins huh?'

A childish side of Marcus was impressed by his bounty, as a smirk started to appear on his face, but on the other hand, he was also getting more annoyed by the fact he was going to be continuously chased around by idiots looking to make quick coins.

"These fools should make good practice dummies as you grow accustomed to your training," Nekros spoke to Marcus, which pulled him from his earlier thought.

"So how exactly is this supposed to help me with training? Why can't you just teach me a mage art to get rid of these guys. That [Terrify] technique you mentioned seems like it'd be pretty useful here since they're already somewhat cautious of me. I'm thinking just a small push would be all I need."

The men Marcus had still been listening to were now moving cautiously to find any clues as to where Marcus had went, and judging by how scrutinizing they were being, it probably wouldn't be long until they figured out where he was. After all, the two had tracked Marcus from a town over 50 miles away.

Marcus would have to get moving sooner rather than later.

"To wield the darkness you must first understand it. Your eyes will only hinder your progress, so it's better if you remain blindfolded. Don't concern yourself with the 'why' and just focus on the now."

Marcus wanted to complain to his master that this didn't make sense, but before he could open his mouth, his vision started acting strangely. Marcus started to feel a slight headache coming on as well, which made him grimace slightly.

"Good, it seems your eyes are finally beginning their change? Well I'll be leaving you to manage on your own. I'll check on your progress again at dawn. Try not to die until then."

Those were the final words Nekros left Marcus with as his presence left Marcus's mind entirely.

Once the headache Marcus felt started to calm down as well, he tried listening for any sounds of the men from earlier. It had gotten too quiet since his master last spoke, and Marcus was growing concerned. He could no longer hear the two bickering men below him.

Suddenly, something grabbed Marcus's leg from behind, and he was immediately pulled down from the tree he'd been perched on.

"Gotcha' ya little devil! Hey Tom! It's over he- augh!"

Marcus, who had been hanging from the tree with both his arms, was caught by one of his legs, and to escape his grasp he let go of the tree and fell down, kicking his pursuer in the eye as he fell.

"Errgghh. I'm gonna kill you ya bastard," Jerry exclaimed while he was crouched over holding his hand to his right eye.

Meanwhile, Marcus lied on the ground as he struggled a bit to get up from falling from the tree. He succeeded in escaping his captors grasp by kicking his eye, but he'd ended up falling to the ground stomach-first as a result.

He quickly recovered though. Since he'd been through much worse in the past few weeks, it would take more than a fall from a tree to keep him down for long.

Although, this did not mean it didn't hurt.

'Ugh. I gotta' get away before this guy gets back up.'

Marcus only made it several feet away from where he fell before he caught sight of something flying in his direction.

*FWOOSH*

A tiny cut opened across Marcus's left cheek as he moved his head slightly to the right to dodge the object that was thrown at his head.

He turned to see what it was that nearly pierced him through and saw a spear, shaft deep in the tree behind him. A cold shiver ran down Marcus's back.

'That was close! Wait I can see?!'

Marcus still had the blindfold on his face and technically wasn't able to see in the truest sense, but somehow he was able to view his surroundings.

'Wait... What is this? Why's everything grey?'

Marcus squinted his eyes behind the blindfold. His vision right now could be described as a 'world of grey'. All around him, he could see the various trees, rocks, and other objects painted all in the color grey. He turned to the side and was even able to see the man crouched down only a few feet away from him.

Although, something was strange about what he saw. Along with the same grey color scheme, the man had some weird white light glowing in the middle of his chest where his heart must have been.

'Huh?'

Marcus tried to get a better look at the man, who was struggling to get up, but was immediately pulled from his thoughts when he saw another man charging at him.

The man had the same white glow radiating from his chest so he was easily spot by Marcus, even though he emerged from a dark part of the forest with no torch in sight. He ran directly in front of Marcus and cocked his right hand back and launched a right hook directly at his head.

Marcus who saw the man coming earlier was able to duck and narrowly avoid his head being knocked clean off, and as he ducked he noticed tiny ripples and fluctuations occurring around the mans fist.

'Is that-'

Sadly, he didn't get to finish his thoughts as the man followed up with a knee that hit Marcus square in the chin.

Marcus went flying backwards several dozen feet before stopping beside where the spear was still stuck in the tree.

Tom stopped to look at his partner who was still struggling to get up.

"Haha the little rat got ya right in yer' eye huh? Well since ya let him get ya, don't blame me for taking most the reward for this one. This omen's mine!"

Jerry, who heard Tom's statement about getting a bigger portion of the rewards, immediately got pissed off. He got up with one eye closed tightly and glared at Jerry with his one good eye.

He was lamenting the fact he held onto the torch in his hand while trying to grab the little demon. If he hadn't needed to carry the torch to see him, he'd have pierced him clean through when he spotted him.

Tom was rapidly approaching their target, who was now slowly starting to get up and Jerry decided to quickly rush after him to catch up; otherwise he'd have to settle for a smaller portion of the bounty, which was something he vehemently refused to do.

While the two men were racing to get to the now injured omen, they failed to notice the icy expression he now had on his face. Normally one would be panicking at the sight of two extremely muscular men charging at them with weapons drawn; however, Marcus showed no reaction to this and merely stood to his feet, preparing to defend himself.

Just then, he recalled a lesson he'd learned from his father years ago.

***

One day while Marcus and his father were out training, they ran into a pack of silver-backed wolves. The duo seemingly happened to stumble upon them by mere coincidence, or so Marcus believed.

His father, Liam, had instructed him to go hide in a nearby bush, and so Marcus did as he was instructed and went to hide.

Just as he did so, the wolves moved in to attack the father and son duo, and Marcus expected to finally catch a glimpse of his father's battle prowess; however, instead of getting to watch his father fight, he didn't even get the chance to hear the sounds of a battle being fought.

By the time he made it to the bush and turned to check on his father, nothing was there.

There was no blood, no severed limbs, no ghastly wounds, or any signs of battle for that matter. The only thing Marcus saw was his father and one injured wolf that stood limping behind him. When he saw this, he was confused by the fact this all happened in a matter of a few seconds without any sound being made, but his father didn't give him anytime to think about the situation as he instructed him to finish off the last wolf behind him.

Marcus was pulled from his thoughts due to his father's instructions so he stopped thinking and made his way over to the injured wolf. He wasn't opposed to killing monsters or beasts; he'd done so before whilst hunting, so it didn't make much of a difference to him doing such a thing now.

As he moved in for the kill though, Marcus dropped his guard due to believing his father would protect him and the wolf being too injured to fight. Contrary to his belief though, the wolf lashed out with what little strength it had, and shot a claw directly aimed at Marcus's head. Because of this, Marcus received a small cut across his forearm as he tried to shield himself. The reason behind him only receiving a small cut was due to his father having been standing nearby and reacting fast enough to stop the wolf from inflicting any mortal wounds on his son.

Marcus, who was now sitting on the ground looking up at his father, was dumbfounded at the thought of just how quickly he could have lost his life. Had his father not been there to protect him, he could have easily been mauled by the supposedly injured wolf.

That day, his father spoke a single sentence to his son as he stood in front of him without turning to even check on his condition. It was as if he already knew his son was okay.

"Remember this son," Liam spoke in a sagely tone. "An injured dog bites hard."

***

Whilst Marcus was recalling a memory from long ago, the two men were still rapidly charging at the blindfolded omen in front of them, ready to shred the little demon to pieces.

Little did they know, this little demon had fangs.