Roger and his men as they were still on their mission, stopped by a rock spring to get water under the peak of the bright radiation of the hot afternoon sun, the sun flaunting its supreme power mercilessly over its helpless subjects.
They alighted their horses a few metres away from the spring bank and a number of them moved down to the bank to make the draw, carrying wooden gourd bottles while others stood by watching the area in case of any forthcoming danger.
Mark stood at a distance from the stream being part of the Sohei standing on guard.
He had a sheet of metal armor covering his left shoulder and chest region.
Two belts formed an 'X' on his chest as they ran all the way from his front to the back.
At his back, they held tightly, two sheaths which also hung in a position forming an 'X' at more slim angles and encasing two long swords.
He used his keen sight to scan the area around from his end.
Mark was one of the Sohei of the Monkogon temple.
He was also one of the Sohei having an advanced bloodline among the squad being a level fifteen Divino.
Mark joined the army 5 years ago with the aim of rising the ranks and becoming the strongest Sohei in the North.
Remember Thoma?
Thoma was part of squad eighteen which fell by the hands of the mages in the forest.
Mark was his elder cousin.
After the death of Thoma, Mark became even more determined to reach his goal and he added becoming a mage slayer as a new found, prime objective.
The death of his cousin got him sober for days only to produce a resolution that would not waver by an inch until his blade thrust sufficiently through the majority of the hearts of the mages for their unforgivable deed, as he thought.
His passion for revenge and his objective bloodlust increased his threat capacity and hence, the probability of winning a fight against his enemies.
Mark had transformed partially (only his eyes were upgraded) and he could see virtually everything in existence in the area.
Nothing could be hidden from the omniscience of the exercising dilation of his advanced eagle eyes.
Suddenly, four arrows swiftly and mercilessly tore through the air, heading straight towards the four Sohei who went down to collect the water.
In a split second, Mark jumped in mid-air withdrew his two swords from his back and deflected the arrows before they could reach their target.
'Claaannnggg!!!'
The metallic sound created by the deflection sent its waves ringing across the area which immediately set everyone at alert making them turn towards the direction of the deflection.
Suddenly, several figures began to come out of different corners in the forest surrounding them.
They were dressed in long black robes having crack-like patterns on them which were terminated at an oval shape on their chests.
They also wore black masks.
The men at the spring dropped the gourds and focused their gaze on the dangerous figures emerging from the forest.
The squad immediately recognized the enemies as a result of their outfit.
They were mages.
Roger stepped forward a bit from where he stood.
"What do you seek!"
He said in a loud voice.
The forest was quiet for some seconds and then the figures swiftly jumped into mid-air in the direction of the Sohei.
The squad took battle stances...
**************
Maryann held her bag tightly and began to follow the swift shadowy movement she had observed in the market.
It seemed to be going in a particular direction.
She increased her walking pace as she began to discover that she was losing them and she was soon running.
As she was still on the chase, the shadow traces moved around a corner while she came running after.
She turned around the bend and all signs of what she was pursuing had completely vanished.
She stopped running and started walking.
As she walked, her head was constantly moving around, her eyes scanning the area while her hand still held onto her bag with a tight grip.
Everyone in the market continued about their business completely unaware of anything happening.
Maryann began to get some attention from passersby as a result of her weird behavior as she kept looking around and bumping into people not concentrating on where she was going as she haplessly moved forward.
When she still couldn't see anything after a long time of searching she reluctantly gave up and continued walking forward, this time focusing on her path as she walked.
After covering a good distance, she eventually got out of the market into a boulevard path that would connect to another main road which she would follow to get to her neighborhood.
There were bushes and trees by the sides of the path.
She had walked a good distance through the mostly lonely path, the path usually having just one, two, three or maybe four people walking through at any point in time.
She was still walking when she suddenly heard a slight sound amongst the trees.
The obvious fact of someone stalking, making sneaky sounds here and there every now and then suddenly began to get her irritated.
"Show yourself!!"
She loudly demanded as she stood looking around.
There was silence.
She kept waiting for whatever was hiding to come out.
When it didn't, she continued walking.
Being pissed terribly, she clenched her right fist as she passed her bag to her left hand in preparedness to transfer the annoyance to anything that would try to sneak up on her.
She suddenly got her wish as a swift movement came up behind her and she immediately transformed her right arm and just as quickly let out a devastating punch with her right fist on the incoming figure which sent it flying right back the trajectory it came.
She stood and watched as three other figures emerged from between the bushes.
She observed the same patterns on their clothes as similar to that of the group which confronted Roger.
"Mages.
What do you want?"
She said.
One of the mages helped up the one that suffered Maryann's blow and another mage stepped forward and spoke.
"Haven't you heard...?"
He said as he created two purple colored sickle shaped weapons with his palms on each hand using his 'mana' while he kept walking towards Maryann.
Mana was the name given to the natural energy of the mages, similar to 'chi' used by monks.
"...The age of the Abyss begins!!!"
He said as he jumped forward, with his weapons raised in the air against Maryann.
Maryann focused on the enemy with a death glare.