Adeus stared daggers at Lily, completely ignoring Einar.
His neutral stance shifted, his right foot glided across the snow putting it behind him as he adjusted his ankle so he's toes faced to the side. His left foot stood still its toes facing Lily. He had left enough space between his feet to bend both knees for a jump or dash.
His torso including his right foot turned to the side, his head continued to face Lily. His right hand was brought to his back in a position making it quick and easy to defend or attack. This was a suitable stance for him.
Lily exhaled letting out a puff of air that looked like smoke. "I wouldn't do that if I was you."
Einar stood next to her bringing his fingers to his lips letting out a loud but quick whistle. All the soldiers stood up with their weapons ready for battle. In the middle of the group Lily was the only one sitting. She rested her elbow on her knee with her chin on her hand leaning her body forward.
No matter the age all the soldiers had a lust for blood in their eyes. It wasn't as strong as Einar's nor Lily's non the less it was still a sign of experience.
"Hmph! You wicked hag!" Adeus calmly exclaimed. Despite Lily's look's she was actually forty-five yet she never looked a day over thirty due to her genes and fit look.
He removed his hand from his back and lowered his stance. He strolled toward Lily slowly as he didn't feel the need to further alarm the soldiers. Once he got closer Adeus stood face to face with Einar who moved in front of Lily.
Adeus wasn't close to the height of Einar, he was maybe 5'9 (175cm). So he still had to tilt his head upward to face him.
"Something wrong?" Adeus gestured towards Einar yet no reply.
Einar lowered his head towards Adeus's ear. "If you even come close to hurting Lily I will bring it upon myself to pummel you. Understood?" His deep voice threatening.
"Don't you worry I won't get caught." Adeus whispered back into Einars ear.
"Enough with the threats Einar." Lily interrupted.
"Hmph." Einar pulled back his head and moved aside allowing Adeus through. They had one last glare, both sized each other up.
"You know I can't get him to stop the more you rile him up right?"
"Then find a spellbinder, that'll fix his tight ass"
Lily exhaled with no reply. She gestured to the log right beside her. Adeus sat down facing the fire with Lily on his right-hand side.
"Care to explain." Adeus leaned his body forward closer to the fire.
"We're hunting the Blackening Owl nickname BO. We heard he can be found in this terrain and hoped a local..." She gestured to the wooden hut. "Could help us out."
Adeus sat in thought. Lily is someone he met in a cavern down by Favela. She taught him the ropes of accepting deals or rejecting them and in due time he became an infamous thief due to her teachings.
Their relationship wasn't out of love or pity, it's more like a deal. Lily only taught him the ropes cause he paid her. She thought of the benefits, losses and saw nothing to lose so she accepted. It is the same for him.
"How much?"
"One."
"One?" He replied.
"One Aureate." Lily corrected her response.
"Aureate!" His voice turned loud in shock, attracting attention.
Whispers begun amongst the crowd of soldiers that were now sitting down. They knew there was a huge payment, they just didn't expect it to be in Aureate, they mostly assumed it would be in silver.
The currency goes: Crycies, Silver, Aureate then Valerion. Valerion being the highest currency.
five hundred Crycies equals one Silver.
Three thousand Silver equals one Aureate.
Ten thousand Aureate equals one Valerion.
Lily glanced around seeing the faces on her troops. "Well thanks for telling my soldiers."
Adeus remained quite. His facial expressions changed, he was serious. He was no longer in thought nor was the shock there anymore.
"All right then we best get to work." He stood up. "Tell them to get rid of any source of light." He gestured towards the campfires that were placed near teams of soldiers as a source of warmth.
With a satisfied look Lily stood up gathering many looks from her troops. "Get rid any light source you possess, obviously that includes the campfire."
She let out a heavy breath upon her campfire turning it's once warm burnt logs cold as ice. Adeus stared at the once warm campfire as he remembered her Spirit.
[Name: Lily Percival]
[Spirit: Hielo.]
[Category: Transformation.]
[Information: It allows her to conjure or transform massive amounts of ice into any shape that is solid.]
[Weakness: Ki drainage will depend on the mass of the object, the more it weighs the more Ki she losses.]
Once the troop had all light sources around them removed they stood in rows awaiting their commander's order.
The birds that once fluttered and chirped all 'round escaped into their dens. The moon bested the sun with it taking it's rightful place within the semi-night. The forest that seemed harmless with it's silence had now taken a turn for the worse.
With the moon shining down onto the forest, its silence reply only served as a source of fear. Many monster roamed and walked within the night yet none dared to make a sound knowing the consequences.
The wind hummed letting it's existence be known. With the amount of trees surrounding them anything could happen especially in the dark. The soldiers had no trust in Adeus and why should they?
He was someone their commander is acquainted with but he is not specifically known to them. For all they know he could be a Cucuy luring them into a trap.
They tried to put their suspicions about him on halt and focus on the mission. It was then that one soldier decided to have a passionate look at the surrounding tree's.
The trees were obviously dark but the more she stared the more darker things felt. As sounds slowly faded she noticed something odd and stared at the ground, the snow was there but her foot left no footprint. There was no footprint, no frozen air that she would puff out making it smoky, no one around her not even her weapon.
She glanced toward the trees again. Red eyes responded to her gaze this time. It looked her up and down. She felt naked the gazes of the red eyes were sharp going to every curvy edge that was carved onto her body, she felt not even clothes could save her.
Finally it stared at her face, eye to eye. A line appeared below the red eyes. It gradually opened and spread wide until it reached a full on satisfied grin salivating from its mouth.
That's when she realised its red eyes wasn't undressing her due to her appeal. It was only seeing if she met it's standards as its prey. And with that satisfactory smile, she knew she was a goner.
Lily, Einar and Adeus came to a halt. Scanning their eyes around before they heard a flying thud near them. The drop sounded like a body that had fallen from a great height. Realising such Adeus glanced up seeing the flying beast.
"ABOVE!" He shouted.
All eyes stretched to the sky.
They had encountered the Blackening Owl. Nickname BO.