Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"It\'s okay Lucius. I\'m here. I got you." She cooed in his ear. She hoped he was able to hear her, but had no clue if the damage to his head had hurt his ability to hear or not. His mouth and nose looked like someone had pounded out a slab of beef. "[Lux: Heal]!

[Lux: Heal]! [Lux: Heal]! [Lux: Hea…]…"

Rena suddenly felt faint and her lips began to turn slightly blue. Her head pounded with the worst migraine of her life. Lucius\' body glowed brightly with the light of her magic spells as they took effect one right after another.

"Hey! Stop that, you are going to suffer mana deprivation and pass out!" Mia shouted from a few dozen feet away. She quickly ran up and pulled Rena away from Lucius whose breaths had started to normalize. His face had also started to return to its once handsome form. It was clear his cheekbones were still broken, and his jaw was still heavily bruised, but he no longer looked like ground meat.

"Sorry…I panicked…" Rena muttered.

"I can tell. Do you have any potions?" Mia asked.

Rena blinked. "No? Why? I can use my magic?"

Mia simply rolled her eyes and sighed. "And what would you do if you suffered mana deprivation, like right now? And you couldn\'t heal anyone?"

She felt a flush of embarrassment color her cheeks. What the half-elf said was true. It was foolish of her to not keep any potions with her. She knew other party members had purchased some, but she thought that she would not need them. In fact, she even dissuaded Lucius from buying any because he just had her to heal him.

"I\'m sorry…" she choked out. Tears started to well up in her eyes. She felt so stupid! How could she put the party, and Lucius, in danger like that?!

Mia patted her shoulder gently. "We all have to learn lessons as we gain new experiences. Sometimes those lessons have a harsh reality to them. You two should know that better than most considering your domain\'s traditions…here, I have a pretty strong one. Do you know how make sure they are able to swallow it?"

Rena shook her head because she did not. This was a skill she was not required to learn growing up. She was taught how to fight, use magic, strategies, and proper noble etiquette. Mia nodded in understanding.

She took a rag out of a pouch on her hip and poured a little water on it to soak it. Rena watched as the woman took the wet cloth and gently dabbed it around Lucius\' lips and let a little trickle of liquid seep into his mouth. Rena watched in awe at the process because she saw Lucius make a swallowing motion with his throat.

"Looks like he is able to swallow. Okay, next open his mouth slightly and turn his head ever so slightly to the side. We are going to drop a little bit in at a time, close his mouth and see if he swallows. If he coughs at all, we stop." Mia advised.

She handed Rena the potion, intending on this being an educational lesson as well. Rena gingerly held the glass up to Lucius\' lips as she cradled his head in her lap. The first pour went well and he safely swallowed it. The wounds on his face and body began to close ever so slightly. Bit by agonizing bit, Rena trickled the potion into her friend\'s mouth until the entire thing was gone.

"Okay. Now, while the potion is still in effect, it should last about twenty or so minutes, use another spell. That will amplify the effect of both. Little trick of the trade most people don\'t know." Mia informed her.

"[Lux: Heal]"

Rena had gained back enough mana to cast the spell without issue. Lucius\' body glowed brightly once more and when it faded, she saw his completely unmarred face looking as though nothing happened. Were it not for the wet blood still on his skin and soaking his hair, one would think he was simply asleep.

"Thank you, Mia."

"Sure thing. You are a good egg…caring for someone like us."

"I thought if I made him my retainer I could keep him out of the war…" Rena mumbled.

"Normally… yea it would, but nothing will keep us out of this war. I used to be a Runner, but this gave me a chance to restart. Most other Runners that tried to restart like this were arrested, but they saw potential in me, so gotta make the best of it… Don\'t worry, I\'ll keep an eye out for him out there." The half-elf promised with a smile and a big thumbs up.

Rena nodded back happily accepting her words. Jen, Lethen, and Paul came up and checked on the pair. They smiled happily after seeing that Lucius was still alive and well.

"Kid cleans up good! He wasn\'t looking so hot earlier… though he did take some good hits." Jen chuckled.

"What happened?" Rena asked coolly. A thin layer of mana enveloped her body and caused her hair to move as though blown by a gentle breeze.

A nervous sweat ran down Jen\'s face. She wasn\'t threatened by Rena, since she was exponentially stronger than the teen, but still, the tone was rather startling.

"Well, the boss dude took an enhancement potion. Damn good one too because he went from being a normal man almost as strong as a Novice Rank to just shy of being Advance Rank. Lucius took a number of hits from a guy that strong, so I\'m honestly impressed…" Jen answered nervously.

Mia jumped back into the conversation. She had started to back off to let the party talk to each other, but the information Jen shared seemed to have piqued her interest.

"Unranked to almost Advance? What the hell kind of potion goes that far, was it made from dragon nuts or what?" Mia questioned.

"I don\'t know, but that\'s what happened. He clearly had no Compatibilities, but after swallowing a potion, boom he held me off quite well for a little bit."

"That is highly concerning…come on, lets get to clearing the place. Look for any signs of who these people were working with…he had to have gotten something like that from someone important. Renton, Lynn work with the other meatheads to gather and burn the corpses. Paul, you know where the scouts bodies are, take one of the big guys with you to collect and burn them too.

Don\'t want to risk any undead raising around here."

Rena watched in admiration as she watched Mia quickly come to a series of hypotheses about what could have happened and provided clear orders for her party. Rena wished she could be that good at leading a party in the future. She briefly imagined herself leading a party of adventurers with Lucius at her side acting as her scout and spy.

The image brought a smile to her face as she brushed the matted hair from his face.

"You know… after the dungeon…I think I might follow you to the front lines myself… screw the position as heir… I\'m going to bring you back myself so we can do stuff like that forever." Rena whispered into his ear before planting a gentle kiss on his cheek… after everyone looked away of course.