Chapter 2 – Repercussions

Actions have repercussions. Obvious, Marcus knew, but he probably should have realised that earlier.

In hindsight, Marcus's actions might have been a little bit brash. There were probably other ways to handle the situation, but if he were in that situation again, he'd do the same. Even if you were the emperor, he won't let anyone touch his sister. And if anyone did? Somebody had a death wish because he wouldn't ever stop hunting for their life.

The middle-aged man left with his son after a few embarrassing moments, and the siblings put the stand the man named Salvius had crashed into back together.

'That brat. I'll kill him. I'll have his sister killed in front of him then I'll murder him myself. I'm starting to regret bringing my son,' Salvius thought to himself, 'If I hadn't, I could just blow up their shop and get out before anyone realises it was me, but since my son is here, I must keep up appearances.'

Salvius fixed up his clothing, uncreased his trousers and robes, and made sure he hadn't dropped anything important. he still had his ID and Crystal Card, holding most of his coins in it, but he noticed his badge seemed to have fallen off when he was hit.

'Oh well,' he thought, 'I'll just get a new one when I get back.'

Later on that night, three hooded men lurked around Kazekura, armed with daggers dipped in poison and wearing cloaks made of shadow panther fur. Shadow panthers were a species of Fallen that hid in the shadows waiting for their prey. They were native to the Saltu region found in the western parts of the Ziria Dominion, near the Kingdom's Junction, and were the bane of large armies and undefended mages, as heavy and protective armour impeded their spellcasting and having defence spells constantly active drained too much mana from the typical person. This made them an easy kill for the fangs of the Grade Gold II Fallen.

The three men circled the shop, looking for their target and ways to reach her. They hadn't been told the purpose of their actions, nor even who had sent them in case they were caught and tortured, and only knew what they had to do. They only knew where they had to meet after they accomplished their task, and thus where they would be paid.

Their target was an 18-year-old girl by the name of Alice Vindictio. Her most noticeable features were her silver hair and incredible beauty; however, the three hooded men had been told they were not allowed to touch the girl in any way, outside of kidnapping her of course.

The man who seemed to be the leader had a black buzzcut and a vertical scar on his left eye, earning him the nickname Scar. He wore a mask that covered his lower face and nose, and his one working eye was blood red and was quite often the last thing people saw before they died.

He had a very peculiar ability at the rank of Gold II that he acquired in an auction for several tens of thousands of gold pieces, however the price had been boosted due to the potential of the skill, called Assassin's Creed (Low). It was the first and weakest of the Assassin's Creed skill chronicle, said to contain the essence of Assassinations. The abilities it gave him were [Camouflage], which made him invisible to anyone with less Vis than him, as long as he provided it with his own Vis. This was a key ability that allowed him to rise to the peak of his profession, as he could easily assassinate stuck up nobles and other threats, however he still had to fear the superpowers above his grade of Gold III.

His second ability was [X-Ray Vision], which is rather self-explanatory if you think about it. It allowed him to see through walls and objects, as long as they didn't have more Vis energy in them (so things like magical armour or walls).

Scar could see that his prey was on the second floor, and the easiest way of access was on the bottom floor in a room that seemed to be a shop floor. The front door would probably have an alarm attached to it and disabling that would be unnecessary work.

With a route in his head, he quietly leapt down, landing beside the window. He took a knife with a strange red glow around its edges out of his knife bracer, then effortlessly and silently pushed it into the window and cut a wide circle in the glass. He leapt through like an acrobat at the circus and landed with a quiet roll.

The target was asleep, and Marcus was loudly hammering in the workroom on the bottom floor, oblivious to what was happening outside his room.

Scar casually and confidently walked up the stairs to Alice's bedroom, feeling out the steps before shifting his weight onto them. Within a minute of entering, he arrived at the door of Alice's room. He opened the door slowly, timing the door opening with the clangs of Marcus's hammer so that the sounds of the door were masked. Scar walked up to the bed of his target, poised for quick action, and covered her mouth and nose with his hand, chopping at her neck to knock her out then throwing her over his shoulder.

To his surprise, however, she was wearing full body fabric armour that stopped him from knocking her out. Whilst he could have easily broken through the armour, he hadn't even begun to think that she would be wearing armour to sleep, as it would be incredibly uncomfortable and armour you could easily sleep in would bring minimal effects. The only thing it could really be used for is stopping regular, Bronze I humans, from attacking you.

His strike woke her up, and after hearing hundreds of lectures from her brother as to what to do if attacked or kidnapped, she began to scream and kick at things, knocking over a bedside vase, shattering it and spilling the water onto the floor.

Marcus, hearing this in his smithing room, felt his heart start to beat like a drum. He dropped the weapon he was hammering and ran out of the room, hammer in hand. He took the steps 3 at a time, practically leaping up the stairs.

"ALICE?? WHERE ARE YOU??" he yelled, assuming the worst already.

Marcus ran into her room through the already open door, seeing fragments of glass on the floor. There were signs of struggle everywhere, but there was no blood, which was good. In the corner of my eye, he saw the door close slightly as a figure passed through it. The figure moved towards the stairs, so he turned quickly and ran after it.

Marcus easily recognised the iconic silver hair of my sister on the one slung over the figure's shoulders, but other than being unconscious she didn't seem too injured, which brought about a lot of relief.

"PUT HER DOWN AND I WON'T HURT YOU," he yelled out, hoping to intimidate the attacker.

Without turning, the figure replied, "You couldn't if you tried. Don't butt into things bigger than you are, child. You don't know what you're dealing with here. Just be thankful I wasn't asked to kill you."

With that, he leapt forwards through the window, leaving a gust of wind behind him that caused smaller objects to be blown around. Marcus leapt out after him, but he couldn't come close to matching his speed. Without much else he could do, Marcus threw his hammer at him, and against all odds, the hammer hit his right shoulder, making his mask fall off as the hammer threw off his balance, making him turn mid-air. Whilst Marcus didn't see much of him, he was certain he had seen a large scar down his left eye, and his one working eye a blood-like shade of red

Marcus engraved that image into his head, holding back tears as the kidnapper quickly widened the gap between them.

Marcus had seen the guy with the Scar carrying my sister on his back, which meant she was most likely safe, but he couldn't think of anything he owned or knew about that could be of any value. The weapons he made were barely average, and if you wanted to rob anyone, he was definitely the wrong person to steal from. Also, the only way to enter the building was through the shop front where the weapons were held in protective casing at the rank Bronze III, so they would not need to go up the stairs.

Through this reasoning, Marcus realised there was something important he was missing.

Full of hate, he returned to the shop front, pondering ways of getting her back before falling to his knees in defeat. He smacked the floor in anger, hoping to at least relieve some of the anger he was feeling and felt something shatter beneath his fist.

He had to piece it together to figure out what it was, but he managed it in the end. It was a badge with a large cobra with a man suspended between its jaws. The symbol of the Anguis Family. At this moment, all he felt was hate. Tears flooded down from eyes as blood drizzled from my fists as he gripped them tightly.

He decided, the Anguis Family would die by his hand if they didn't return his sister, and he would start hunting them down today.

More worldly lore

What are these grades you ask? Grades are a means of identifying the strength of a Fallen, another Human, or even equipment and power packs. They are identified by either the form of the Fallen, the colour of the pack or the amount of essence energy, more commonly called Vis energy, found in the object or creature in question.

Upon activating their first power pack, humans gained the ability to quickly and easily discover the amount of Vis energy found within an object or individual as long as they had more Vis than their target, or were less than 3 grades beneath them.

Using this fact, militaries created skills that could track or see people using their Vis, and later, skills were developed to counter this.