*Blade*

Blade sighed, he hated the cultists with a passion, why couldn’t they all just wander off into demon lands and get eaten? With a demon parent, Blade felt he was more qualified to say whether or not it was a good idea to try and let the demons take this land. It was not.

To make matters worse, what with the cultists, Duke Are’s men, Julian’s men, and Blade’s associates this battle could only be described as a clusterfuck. To make matters worse, regardless of the group, most of them were dressed in Duke Are’s uniform… He wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few of the bodies throughout the castle had lost their lives to their own allies who killed them out of fear.

But that was not his problem… Is what he would like to say, the reality is that he had a few key targets to go after and this would not make it easier. On the bright side, Blade watched as the cultists did his job for him, chasing down a brutally dismembering a wailing fat noble that was on his list. That lord had been the owner of much of the farmland in the area, without heirs or any family related to him that did not belong to a foreign power, the land would end up under control of the Crown.

His back itched, but he suppressed it. Now was not the time or place… Instead, Blade slipped through a window and moved stealthily through the shadows. His father had given him quite a few gifts, and some inconvenient things, but the ability to slip into the shadows was one thing Blade was grateful for. The soldiers running to and fro never saw him as he snuck by, his next target should have been here when the chaos started…

In this kind of situation, the question would become where would the target go. Blade was after one of Heidall’s uncles, technically not in line for succession, but you could not go halfway in a coup d'etat. Anything less than total victory would come back to bite you in the ass, so even those who were innocent had to go.

Lucas had not been happy with this, Blade felt he had a good grasp on the ‘hero.’ He could be a dangerous man, but he wasn’t yet. He was curious to see if the man would develop into a sociopath, the hero wasn’t yet… But the way things seemed to be going…

But that was for later, he had reached the quarters of his target, there were no guards at the door which meant his target probably was not there either. Still, he might get a clue from investigating…

Blade slipped under the door, he wasn’t sure how he did it, but he did and examined the room. As always for these humans, it was decadent in the extreme. You would think that with a war raging for several millenium they would have devoted more resources to their troops instead of to their bedrooms, but in general they weren’t that smart.

The room was messy, not quite enough to suggest it was ransacked by an opportunistic sort and more like someone gathering some items before quickly leaving. So the target had likely been here, probably grabbed a weapon of some kind and perhaps documents judging by the condition of the desk by the window. This man was not like Duke Are, he had a spine and balls to boot.

However there wasn’t enough evidence for Blade to deduce where the target went… He felt like sighing, but his training stopped the reflex, involuntary noises were not good for an assassin. Blade simply had not had enough time to study his target and he was not sure about his habits or what he might do if he felt in danger. Targets could do everything from running to the hills, to attempting to gather forces, or even try to turn the tables and ambush Blade.

“Fucking asshole…” Blade somewhat lost his cool, if he wanted to find the target he would have to do something he hated. His back itched and the shirt on his back seemed to undulate, soon anyone watching would realise that it not just seemed to, something was clearly trying to get out…

Through cleverly concealed sleeves that looked like pockets of various kinds had something strange slip through them… If anyone could have seen Blade as more than a slight shivering shadow they likely would have screamed in horror as four spider legs emerged from his back.

Blade rolled his shoulders, stretching. He hated these legs, but he had to admit that it felt good to let them out after so long. However, they had another purpose besides allowing Blade to relax for a moment. Most of his kind were the children of minor demons, but he was something different. Blade wasn’t sure what a High Demon had been doing in the village Blade would be born in, well aside from raping and murdering, but the fact that such a powerful creature had been so far from the front lines was strange to begin with. Blade had been born in the southern region of Francea, many miles away from where a demon should ever be seen.

As he grew up, he questioned the survivors about that time, few had answered, but the ones that did… A High Demon like a spider, who could spin webs like steel and slip through the shadows and find you wherever you ran.

When his demonic heritage started to show and he was forced to run, those stories gave Blade a guideline to understand what he might get from his dad if he was lucky. He could not spin webs, but he could slip through shadows and as for finding people…

Blade closed his eyes and focused, the hairs on the spider legs were special, combining several senses into one. Smell, hearing, touch and taste… The smell, touch, and taste allowed him to understand who he was searching for and the sound helped him to create a mental map to where his target was.

As long as his legs were out, he did not bother to walk on the ground and carefully avoid guards. Instead he was a shadow crawling quickly across the ceiling, hunting down his target who had managed to find some loyal guards and maintain a protected position…

Until Blade dropped down on his head.

The targets throat was slit in a second and Blade struck out at the guards before they could react. His dagger found the chinks in their armor, and soldiers fell to his blade. But more were killed by the powerful demon appendages he had, some by the sheer power of their blows and others from the poison that coated them.

All in all, from the time he dropped to the time the last body hit the blood stained floor, merely thirty seconds had passed.

“Roughly two seconds per person…” Blade sighed, “either I am getting rusty or the Duchy has better soldiers than I thought.”

And then he disappeared into the shadows to go after his next target.