Chapter 47- Shadows

The squad of thirteen advanced at an unreasonable pace clearly showing off their ability as aura users. They paused every now and again to not be caught by any patrols or soldier that were on their way towards the mass destruction the Blood Hounds were creating. The inferno they had kicked up now had consumed hundreds of of houses and buildings. It razed lives, buildings, and soldiers who strayed to close.

The people were frantically trying to put it out and the guards around the capital were searching for the source while putting out as many flames as possible. Shouts and smoke dominated the air and chaos reined the atmosphere. And under this no one noticed a small group of thirteen pass by.

Eliana and the twelve aura users reached the above standard walls that surrounded the castle in the center of the circular city. She gave a quick hand sign and three men with bows strapped to their back began to fire off arrows at the wall. Their arrows were abnormally quick and deeply inserted themselves into the stone wall.

Eliana shot towards the wall while toting a long rope wrapped around her left shoulder. She jumped and grasped onto the first arrow lodged into the wall. Before the wooden shaft broke under her weight she kicked off the wall and grabbed the next arrow. She repeated this till she reached the top of the wall and tied the rope onto a large stone that stuck out from the top of the wall and threw the rest down the wall.

The twelve saw this and moved one at a time and deftly climbed up the rope. The slight noises they made attracted a couple of guards to their direction, but they were all effortlessly cut down by Eliana before they could even make a sound. As soon as the twelve all made it up the wall Eliana gave a couple of hand signs and the group split up into two equal groups of six.

The two groups separated in two opposite directions; one going left while the other advanced right. Eliana joined the group in right which started to head deeper into the palace. The group that went left quickly started to dispatch guards stationed on the walls while splitting off every time they killed one and taking their uniform and manning the position of the man they just killed.

Eliana's group had a greatly slowed speed as they fanned out and accompanied the shadows as they scoured the innards of the royal palace. They purged any unlucky guard or noble they came across and kept searching any rooms they came across. The stench of blood increased as their uninterrupted slaughter continued. However their conquest was going too well.

Eliana had first noticed that there was no aura users as they made their way in, and she quickly motioned for everyone to stop. They heeded her motions and began to retreat. They moved swiftly as if they were born in the shadows and quickly made their way out of the palace. When they reached the outside there was no more sounds of screams and the inferno that had burned with no end was gone as it never existed to begin with.

Then four lights shot up in the sky! They were the places that Eliana had originally placed her soldiers to stand watch.

"Something is going wrong, quickly retreat! Regroup with the others if you can." Eliana hurriedly commanded the six behind her and they quickly ran towards where the other six had gone.

Suddenly an immense pressure descended down on Eliana and she nearly blanked out from it. Four silhouettes stood around Eliana and looked at her with a condescending glare.

They all were cloaked in a similar black fitting cloth. One of them held a black sphere in his hand that appeared to be vibrating fiercely.

"So is this the one master wants?" One of the black figures spoke in an annoyingly high male voice.

"Apparently, well master wants her lover, so he sent us thinking that she'll have guards. Although she had a ton of small fry, there were twelve good one in her entourage." A female voice rang out from one of the black figures and spoke some ominous words.

"What did you do to my soldiers?!" Eliana couldn't stand their arrogant and yelled at them in her rage.

"Watch your tone. You do not have the right to know, all you need to do is obediently come with us!" The man with the black sphere aggressively spoke and a grey aura exuded into his surroundings signifying that he had mastered aura materialization! Eliana sucked in a cold breath of air when she saw this and she went silent. She knew that they could easily kill her, so her revenge would have to wait.

"Fine." Eliana spoke through gritted teeth and submitted to them for now.

"Wow, she gave up easily!" The female voice rang out again.

"I expected her to immediately attack us thinking we killed her comrades though." A disappointed male voice rang from the same one. At this point Eliana had confirmed the genders of three of them while the fourth one remained silent the entire time.

"We did kill most of them though! Hahaaha it was fun, we did let some away we should have a game while we hunt them down!" The annoying male voice came out again and Eliana had to grit her teeth at their clear provocation.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your fun, but I should inform you that I'm here to stop your antics." A overly familiar voice interrupted everyone's thoughts and a figure wearing a cloak of darkness emerged out of Eliana's shadow.

"Who are you?" The man holding the black sphere asked in a voice containing much apprehension. He sensed a dangerous feeling from this new arrival. And the fact that he had been so close and still be undetectable shocked the four.

"Ah don't worry I forgot my name when I was given a new life by my master. I am less than a servant to my master, more like a pawn." The shadow cloaked figure spoke once again and disappeared in a bunch of black smoke.

Stab!

"What the hell..." The annoyingly high voiced male was suddenly pierced through the chest by his shadow. The life from his eyes slowly dissipated and he slumped to the floor.

"A moment of carelessness can lead to death." A figure rose out of the dead man's shadow and wagged his finger in disappointment.

Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!

The wind stirred up from the three remaining arrogant people as they all materialized their aura. A grey aura wrapped around the man with the black sphere while a red aura surrounded the other two. They had long since abandoned their previous demeanors and carefully watched his movements now.

"Do you not know who we are?! We are disciples from the Lands of Sorcery!" The female screamed in her anger which enlightened Eliana on her attackers.

"Oh~ so that's who you are. Well then on that note, I don't have to hold back." The shadow cloaked figure suddenly turned into a wispy purple humanoid shape. His body grew larger and two deep purple light shone at where his head should be.

"You'll regret your decision." The woman gnashed her teeth as she spoke and the red aura surrounding trembled as she spoke.

"It is impossible for me to regret." The shadow spoke in a deep baritone.