Agitation

"Cold like desert, it gloats sadistically."

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Before sunrise,

The plan was dangerous, keeping away from prying eyes was more difficult than it appeared, the mission was fast becoming endangered.

'Being the silent one was never my forte, only if he would understand this... that ignorant Verlon head.'

Crouching low against the shrubs while hiding behind the glass partition, Vladius peeked through the small openings in the bushes directly above him. He could make out the forms in the dark very easily, not even needing the dull glow of the moon or the dim light of the streetlamps. The hazy figures were digging up the greenhouse for something and it didn't sit well with him of how hurried they seemed with their task. What was even more alarming to him was the location where they were digging, it was the same spot Pierce had been sitting on when they were having lunch in the afternoon. 'Real messed up...' he mused to himself silently.

A small sound behind him quickly made him turn around to find the intruder but to his dismay and slight relief it was just a small animal which Pierce had referred to as 'dog'. Vladius shushed it away with a full blown glare but the dog was stubborn and sat down next to him quietly. 'Well, if it stays silent then I have no issues.'

It was strange for an animal to stay so close to evil, it was unheard of. He was suspicious of it, very much so, but he didn't have time to check with his enemies so close.

Turning back to see his prey he swiftly leaned extra far to watch the now empty greenhouse while risking his hideout. 'Where are they?' Eyeing the surrounding bushes and plants he searched for the creepy shadows to make a move but everything was silent as if a trap lying in wait for him to walk into. Glancing back at the dog again he tried to decipher any kind of a change in the behavior of it, yet it turned out to be a fruitless search when he couldn't see anything worth noting.

Sighing mentally he tuned out the dog and focused back on the missing targets, but as soon as he turned around a surprise awaited him as the bushes he was hiding behind started to move and trapped him despite his quick reflexes. The branches were thick and hard, impossible to move away with only strength. It was encircled around his waist, arms and legs, letting only his head to move freely. 'Impossible, they couldn't wield natura before... this is... just can't be.'

He let out a small whimper when several twig like branches penetrated his body, it indicated clearly that he was found out and had little time to counterattack before they would do their worst to kill him.

Clenching his fists tightly and flexing his body as best as he could while being trapped, he searched for the dog who had been there before and to his annoyance he couldn't find it. "And now they could control the animals too, great. Just what I wanted."

A sharp stinging pain assaulted his limbs as the bushes started to converge around him like a cocoon, trying to engulf him with their strength and mass. 'No wonder she got scared of these, the aura is strong.'

Vladius couldn't summon his powers for the fears of exposing himself to the others but with all the facts he had found at the site, they all were in great danger. Enemies be damned they would be dealt with but if the human government learned of this late night hunting, they would feel betrayed or worse, threatened. 'Hell with them, I would leave the old man to deal with this, it was his idea in the first place,' he thought stubbornly, not considering the fact that he himself would have planned the same without being told to.

"Wield, Xaris," he summoned his weapon.

The pendant he wore started to change shape and the temperature around him shifted slightly to a warmer degree. Within seconds the ring pendant, clipped off from the chain and started to expand in mass, morphing into a long metal staff which easily penetrated past the bushes despite their strength.

The penetration allowed him to free his hand away from the sharp branches and take hold of his staff quickly. And the moment he took hold of the copper colored weapon, he felt a surge of power travel down his spine strengthening his nerves and muscles.

"Vero Igneous."

The staff charged with energy, and its sharp tip sparked with white flames. The surrounding area which had been warm before shifted to blazing hot, no less than an inferno. A burst of white flames spread upon the shrubs and the nearby plants, disintegrating them quickly into grey ashes.

Getting up from the burned crisps of the monstrous plant, he made his way towards the dug pit he had been admiring from far for the major duration of the night.

His clothes were all but reduced to fine remains thanks to the flames. He was now stark naked, with the charred scraps of fabric still sticking to his chest and leg. It fell off like dead leaves with each movement of his body as he walked with great pain, pain in his muscles and burning agony in his nerves.

His self-healing powers far surpassed the others in his clan, so it was obvious the shrubs were poisonous, that was why he was still not healed.

His dark gaze scanned the area in front of him, the stinking smell of burned wood made his nose shrink in disgust, the pungent stench was a proof of poison. 'To think I let it stab me,' he thought angrily. The loamy layer of soil ahead was extracted from the pit which had been dug by his enemy, the dug out matter was thrown haphazardly all around the area, giving away the people who could be considered the messiest workers of the century.

Krutz, the evil they had to fight.

Looking inside the gorged out crater he found nothing of significance, though he was far too gone now for doing the thinking part, the bloody holes in his body were messing with his temper and the pain from it was excruciating even for him. Whatever the plant was, it had some kind of a deadly attribute to it for it to hurt like that, generally he would have been healed within seconds but this time it was taking too long to heal.

"Come out now you creeps, I don't have all night," he called out in the air, his eyes surveying the area for any kind of movement. 'The krutz are here, I can sense them.'

Others might have gotten impatient in that split second of silence and would have taken a drastic measure by going off to search every nook and cranny, but he wasn't others...

"Vero Igneous." He summoned again.

His long metal staff flamed up into white flares, licking up his palm to. The flames were so wild and untamed, it quickly spread through the vegetation, also torching up the whole greenhouse with hot burning gases. The temperature was so high that let it be the glass or the window panes, all of it melted away like chocolate which he had become so attached to recently.

The smoke and the heat would have been enough to melt him away too but the protection from his staff was keeping him from achieving the same fate. His face lit up with a smirk when he noticed the smoke rising upwards in the now open sky as he had burned away everything including the greenhouse to the ground.

So walking on top of the heated ground and the red molten materials he cooled himself off once he got away from the mess. The night was still cold but thanks to the stunt he pulled, the park was nearing the desert like heat he had visited from.

Reaching some distance away from the heated zone, he looked on at his handiwork with reluctant pride. The greenhouse was wrecked with bright yellow flames, lighting up the surrounding nursery and park area, the sky which had previously been covered with clouds was now parting away to reveal the pale moon. The wind carried the soot and ash like a bearer of sad news, the whole site was depressing.

He seldom destroyed trees or plants but with the war coming in it was a given everything will eventually be demolished, he only took the step earlier than meant.

His person was joined by a mammal who sat down next to him again whimpering slightly while looking at the scene. 'What's with this dog?'

Looking at the chocolate colored fur of the mutt he noticed the wide brown eyes taking in the scene in front, "So maybe I went a little overboard, but that had to be done to erase them without a glitch." Vladius had no idea why he was talking to the suspicious little thing but he wasn't about to just stab it when it hadn't yet harmed him.

The dog tilted its head to the side as if saying 'You call that going a 'little' overboard?'

"Wait here dog, I will be back in a second."

With a flash he raced over with an amazing speed human could only see as a blur, his figure blurring out and appearing all around the area at different spots, but sadly he found nothing resembling a shadow. 'Usually they are distributed all around like fleas but instead they were collected at one spot which was the greenhouse. What were they searching for there to abandon their own life like that, risking their ploy.'

"This is confusing," he muttered, taking support from his staff thoughtfully while contemplating the facts together.

Looking down at his naked chest he remembered what he had forgotten. 'My clothes were ruined, now what to do about that?'