Casper had underestimated the dragonkin, that much was obvious.
Casper shifted his weight to his back foot moments before a clawed hand tripped through the space he was in just a fraction of a second ago, the searing heat radiating off the dragonkin's body was enough to make him take an additional step backwards to avoid the pain of the growing heat.
Not only had he underestimated the dragonkin, he had that strange man to worry about.
Casper cast his gaze for only a second down to the tall man in all black gripping the marked girl by the hair. It looked like he was actively trying to pull her to get her off the stage, and while Casper had no idea who this girl was, he knew she was marked, just like him, and that would be incredibly valuable.
Casper teleported the short distance down to the stage in a flurry of black smoke to disengage from the dragon, his fist already positioned to deliver a blow to the tall man's face.
Casper felt the tips of his knuckles make contact with the man before he too teleported, leaving behind only black smoke.
The force of the unconnected punch sent Casper nearly tumbling, but he quickly righted himself and spun to reassess the battlefield.
Just as he turned, the body of the dragonkin woman blotted out his view as she leaped from the box seats, down to re-start their brawl.
Heat burned across his body as his clothes began to ignite in the mere presence of this dragon.
Another clawed hand threatened to rip out Casper’s throat, but he channeled more of the mark and dodged the blow. Even with the dragon's attack not making contact, the force alone sent a torrent of wind rushing past him, almost taking him off his feet as the wood of the stage splintered around him.
Moving in close he countered with an elbow to the dragon's face, creating a deafening crack as he felt his own arm break against her durable skull.
"Fuck!” Casper winced and pulled back, just as the dragonkin's tail burst from her back, as more scales slid from her skin as the heat around her increased.
Casper moved quickly, using the mark to heal his injury he rushed back for the marked girl, the man in black already back at her and holding onto her long hair to drag her further and further away from the fray
Casper dashed in and closed the distance to the man, but the man teleported yet again before Casper could strike, instead he was met face to face with the dragon who moved in to reengage. Hot with rage, her horns began to grow and her teeth sharpen as she became more and more draconic.
It was clear she was furious at Casper’s lack of full attention on her as an enemy.
Casper channeled the mark to strengthen his body, strengthen his bones, and make him more durable. The heat within him radiated out to counter the building flames around him.
He risked a look up to the Duke, he was already in the process of leaving.
He couldn’t let him escape, but he couldn’t let this man in black take the only other marked person he had seen, and he sure as hell couldn’t let himself lose to this dragon.
Casper let out a breath, and with it, the heat being stored in his body. The air around him felt cold in comparison to the inferno tearing its way through his entire body.
He couldn’t channel everything, he might need more of it and who knew when he would get the chance to gather more power, he needed to use just enough to win.
%15 it was then.
Faster than the dragon could perceive, Casper launched his assault. He circled the woman to approach her flank, and spun on his left foot to deliver a huge overhead kick to the dragon with his right. The strike cracked against her skull and popped one of her eyes inside her skull, sending fluid into the broken stage.
Casper felt the bone of her skull give under the force of his strike, and then her feet left the ground as she rocketed away from the stage to collide in an explosion of debris.
The auction house shuddered at the blow, but Casper couldn’t afford to waste time with a follow up. The man in black was already dragging the girl off the stage, his own body radiating a heat of its own. The man had managed to somehow make it to one of the doors in just the short time Casper was focused on the dragon. Though the pile of bodies blocking it hindered his escape.
Casper teleported in, and drove his fist into the tall man's stomach. He felt his hand connect, but as the flesh and muscle of the man in black's body began to give, Casper found himself straining against a rapidly growing durability.
He stood face to face with the man in black, his own eyes looking deep into the hollow, cold gaze of the much older man.
He must be marked too… but how? Casper wondered, but couldn’t wonder for long as the man in black swiped a needle point dagger out at Casper.
Without thinking, Casper brought one hand up to block the blow, and brought his palm down on the blade with his other, snapping it clean in two.
The two parts split, and sent the needle point spinning.
Casper grabbed the spinning needle point and rapidly drove its tip into the man in black's shoulder, pulled back for only a second and then kicked the blade the rest of the way in.
He felt, despite the man's increasing durability, it wasn’t increasing quickly enough. He felt the needle tip dig and lodge itself into the man's shoulder blade.
In that moment he dropped the girl and threw himself through the exit door, shattering it in a splintering of wood as he dove for the outside air.
Casper had half the mind to pursue him, he would be full of answers too, but instead he teleported, and Casper couldn’t figure out where right this minute.
The auction house shook again, though far more violently.
He quickly brought his body over the marked girl who sat huddled in on herself on the floor, as stones and bricks rained down around them.
Casper launched himself out to cover her naked body with his own, protecting her from the raining stones and burning wood
“Are you alright?!” Casper shouted over the colossal rumbling.
The girl nodded her head yes, “thank you so much! Thank you!” She exclaims rather softly from her curled positioned underneath his body.
The moment the stones stopped falling, Casper turned to see what had caused it.
The dragonkin had fully transformed.
A colossal red dragon stood tall, occupying the space the glass ceiling of the auction house once did. Its head poised to breathe a storm of fire down upon them.
Casper couldn’t let that happen.
He launched himself from the ground, creating a crater in the space he left and sending stones flying into the air as he shot into the sky.
He met the distance to the dragon's head high above where the ceiling used to be in a second, and spun mid air to drive a kick down on top of the dragon's skull.
He felt the crunch, and the following shower of blood that sprayed from the dragon's cracking scales.
The dragon's head lurched down at a sharp angle, but just as Casper was going to follow up, its tail struck down against his back and sent him hurtling back down to the auction house floor.
He bounced against the floor but quickly righted himself just in time to brace as the dragon's massive arms bared down on him.
Casper brought his arms up and caught the dragon's strike in his own arms but only barely. The dragon's arm alone was the size of a damn oak tree.
The dragon switched its strategy, and brought its arm back up, taking Casper with it.
Without a good grip around the scales, strength alone wasn’t enough to keep him secure. Casper slid from the dragon's arm and up into the sky as it shook its powerful arm free of him.
He tumbled and turned in the air, and righted himself just in time to watch the glow of fire in the dragon's throat ignite.
A torrent of fire rushed towards him in an instant.
“Oh fuck me.”
Casper closed his eyes and focused more of the mark exclusively into healing him, and gods was he happy he did.
He felt the water begin to boil from his skin. His lips begin to crack and bleed only for the blood to evaporate in the presence of the overwhelming heat. His hair was gone in a flash, the world around him agony but only for a moment, as the mark worked to repair the damage just as quickly as it was happening.
The dragon didn’t expect that. As the fire sputtered out and died its reptilian eyes widened to see Casper healing himself as he plummeted downward.
The dragon tried to move, to scramble away, to defend, anything, but its body was too big now and its movements too slow.
Casper's fist collided with the dragon's snout and crushed it inwards, half crunching himself into the dragon's throat as its nose touched the back of its own throat.
Casper pushed himself from the body to land back on the ground, and delivered another strike with %20 of the mark’s strength.
His fist created a sonic boom as it broke the sound barrier moments before impact, and what an impact it was.
The scales around the dragon's ribs shattered, the muscle gave away, torn through from the force of the blow on such a small area compared to the mass of the dragon.
Casper's fist blasted away the protected muscle and fat, shattered the rips and sent a shockwave through the dragon enough to burst the flesh on its opposite side.
The dragon roared, in agony, and fell to its side, but not without its own follow up.
In its gurgling roars another gout of fire threatened to erupt from the dragon's body, this one more intense than the last.
Heat radiated off it in impossible pulses, Casper could heal from this but the marked girl could not.
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He rushed to grab her as the heat threatened to consume the entire auction house.
In an instant he was on her, pressing his body tight to hers as fire burst from the dragon around the entire auction house.
Casper struggled to move, he tried to carry the girl but so much of his energy was focused on healing himself from the burns that ripped away flesh and boiled his blood he couldn’t find the strength to move.
Air rushed around him as the heat tore the stone from the walls and leveled the auction house around him. What little remains of the box seating above collapse and fall, burning Casper under the weight of stone.
Just a little long, just hold out a little longer, Casper thought to himself as he felt the heat begin to dissipate, though the persistent heat in the stone around them still burned as the rubble pressed hard into his skin.
Seconds turned to minutes, and once Casper was sure the heat had gone enough, he focused his strength to tear the rubble off of him.
Still protecting the marked girl he held her eyes shut, was hurt, but not badly.
Casper watched with relief as she too started to heal herself from the superficial damage she sustained as collateral from the brawl.
“Thank you, thank you so much,” She breathed out, relief washing away the fear that had gripped her up until moments ago.
“I gotcha, don’t worry” Casper offered as reassurance, but still she persisted in her thanks.
“I don’t know if I could have survived that, what did that man want with me? Why did you save me? Why would you risk your life for me?” she stumbled from one question into the others.
“Hey hey hey, take it easy, we can talk later, are you all healed up?” Casper asked, glancing over her frail body.
Gods she was thin. She looked malnourished, Casper could see nearly every rib under her deathly pale skin. Her arms were smaller than Elisayra's and her legs were no better than twigs.
“Right now, I need to know if you are alright.” Casper eased off her, offering the thin girl a hand, which she graciously took.
“I'm alright” She said, though not at all too convinced. Casper could see the marks on her arms, though they were fading fast. Whatever residual magic was put over her from the auction house owner was leaving.
She didn’t seem to care to hide them, though then again she was raised away from civilization and likely was never told about the dangers of showing them off.
“Alright…good” It was hard to focus, the lingering effects of the mark threatened to overtake him, his sense of judgment and desire. He forced the thoughts down and buried them deep, right now was the time to focus, he could find a way to give in later.
Easier said than done however, he had used more of the mark than ever before, and its passive effects over his body were quickly becoming more apparent. He needed to relax, he needed to force out the feelings before they consumed him.
Casper breathed out, and let the mark leave him as he sensed no further danger in the area.
He turned his attention up, as the distant sound of flapping wings drew his gaze to the sky.
Heightening his senses, he narrowed his vision to spot a figure atop the dragon's back.
“Damnit” Casper brought his hands through his freshly regrown hair and held them there. He could have killed the dragon with just another strike, but between killing the dragon and saving the marked girl the answer was obvious.
Her ability to heal didn’t seem nearly as developed as his. The heat alone could have killed her, and if not the heat the collapsing building certainly would have.
Now, he watched as the Duke and the dragon flew off into the distance.
The dragon knew his face, but only in broken fragments of pitched combat, she would likely not be able to identify him given how quickly they had moved. The duke didn’t know his face either. He had attacked from behind and only ever saw the duke again as he was leaving.
Casper was likely safe from identification from all by the man in black, who was well and gone into the wind by now.
A breeze moved through what remains of the auction house, chilling Casper slightly as he realized that the dragonfire had turned all of his clothing to ash, and he now stood naked surrounded by lingering flames and a circle of rubble.
Quickly assessing his surroundings, it was clear that the city was in chaos. What little civility these people had was gone the moment something extreme happened, and now they had an excuse to loot and cause more trouble. Even though the damage was contained to the auction house, it didn’t stop opportunists from spreading the damage as an excuse to do more awful things.
The boat that had been docked behind the auction house was gone, and given that there is no evidence of debris in the water it was safe to assume that captain Dumont had made it out.
Heightening his senses further, he scanned the collection of bodies, and let out a sigh of relief as he didn’t recognize any of them.
“They must have gotten out,” Casper said out loud, mostly for himself.
He turned back to look at the girl, who was now fully healed and standing, looking around in utter shock at the chaos around her.
Casper looked around for something, anything to cover him, but couldn’t find anything, so instead he turned his attention back to the girl.
“What's your name?”
She blushed, as her gaze drifted down, but she quickly pinched her eyes shut and reopened them looking at Casper.
“I…my name? I don’t have a name…the…the uh” her voice is soft and gentle, and incredibly shy and nervous. Her eyes were wide with uncertainty, her body shivering despite the heat of the lingering fires all around them.
She suddenly seemed to recognize her own naked state, and quickly moved to cover her thin body with her hands.
“It's alright” Casper reassured her, “You're safe now, alright? You don’t have a name? Can you explain that a bit for me?” He spoke in a cool, measured tone, trying his best to draw her attention away from the chaos and instead to focus on him and his questions, to get her mind away from all that just happened.
“The Acolytes, they called me “daughter” but that isn’t a name…” she explained, and sounded saddened by it.
Casper just nodded, this was a lot of baggage he couldn’t unpack right now, nor could he afford to.
The chaos around them all was acting as a good distraction but sooner or later someone would approach what remained of the auction house with alot of questions, and Casper didn’t want to be here for that.
“We can figure your name out later,” Casper said calmly. “Wouldn’t you come with me please? I need to talk to you more but I can't do it here, we need to get the hell out of this city.” He urged.
“Yes…please I would like to come with you. You are marked too, yes? I have many questions for you as well…” She said in her soft, low tone that sounded almost like a whisper.
“Alright, let's get the hell out of here, and see if I can find some damn clothes…”
Casper looked around, and his vision settled on the rooms where the payment was to be made for the purchase of slaves. While most of the auction house had been reduced to rubble, the majority of the damage was done around the stage. The area where the coin would have been kept was much further away and not nearly as damaged.
“But first….” Casper said, as he maneuvered effortlessly over the rubble in that direction.
It wasn’t pretty, but several of the noblemen who had been cut down trying to escape had clothes that weren’t totally burned away, and Casper couldn’t be seen running through the town carrying sacks of coins while naked.
He carefully stripped a dead man about his size and donned his outlandishly rich attire. A noble woman who had her throat slit was also nearby.
“Here, wear this” Casper offered, stripping the dead woman as well and offering the dress to the girl for her to cover herself.
She seemed far less bothered by it than Casper was, which was good, he thought.
The area where payment was to be made was mostly buried under rubble, though as Casper took to removing huge piles of stones and stripping away bent metal, he was relieved to find a series of mostly undamaged safes positioned near the back of the room.
It looked as though payment and ownership documents were stored in individual safes. Each safe was approximately 2 foot cubed, and set into a solid stone wall that was mostly collapsed in on itself now.
“Help me open these, and carry as much as you can” Casper said to the girl, who nodded her head and diligently obeyed his commands without question.
Casper grabbed one safe and tore it free from the mostly collapsed section of wall it was resting on, letting it fall to the ground with a metallic thunk.
“No key…” he muttered, and instead channeled the mark and punched his fingers down like a knife through the metal, and tore the front of the safe off its hinges.
Inside, Casper saw slips of paper. A hell of alot of them too it looked like. Each piece of paper was folded neatly, with a wax seal at its bottom and a stamp in the top corner. Fine ink on thick paper indicated a value. Quite the value too.
“What are they?” The girl asked, having managed to find the key Casper could not, on the body of the teller behind the counter, and having used it to open one of the safes herself.
“Bank notes, if I had to guess. They don’t have any names of ownership on them, just values and a blank line at the bottom. It looks like they weren’t filled in yet? Maybe they were supposed to do that after the auction”
Casper turned and looked over at the pile the girl had, very much the same, it was nearly 100 slips of paper, each one denoting a value between 5,000 marks to 50,000 marks.
“Keep those safe, let's see what else we have” Casper said. Bringing his senses outward, he noted the sounds of people approaching the auction house. A mix of guards and looters alike. They wouldn’t have much time then.
Quickly tearing off the doors of 3 more safes, Casper found what he thought to be ownership documents. These appeared to be proof of ownership of different slaves that had been transferred to the auction house, to later be transferred to the winners of the auction.
Casper found the ownership documentation for the marked girl, as well as nearly a dozen other slaves, though given how none of them were present here at the auction house its possible these were slaves who were meant for the next batch, and hadn’t made it here yet.
Pocketing those, the other two safes possessed further bank notes, as well as physical coin in a denomination Casper wasn’t familiar with. He had heard of the copper and silver marks, however the sacks of coins inside the third safe were of a much finer, almost silver color though much smaller, nearly half the size of a gold mark.
He took those as well.
The girl found more bank notes, more of the strange small silver marks, as well as a collection of slave collars as well.
“We should take those, just in case, being able to limit someone's magic could come in handy” He noted.
By now, what remained of the auction house was swarming, and they needed to move.
“Hold on tight, let's get out of here…” Casper urged, grabbed the girl by the hand to lead her from the rubble.
After arriving at the inn, Casper took a quick moment to tally their collection.
It was no small sum. Though Casper didn’t know of the value of the small silver marks, even assuming they were silver and approximately half the value of a full silver mark, he had nearly 10,000 marks worth.
Casper similarly had never interacted with a bank, and as such didn’t know how to make sure of the notes he had acquired, but were he able to figure it out he would have. Well over 2 million marks.
Additionally, he had ownership documents stating he was the owner of 10 impressive sounding slaves. Though none as extreme as the marked girl, the archfey or celestial twins, each looked capable in their own right.
Not to say Casper would choose to own them, but rather he would be a fool to not see the benefit in having powerful beings being indebted to him.
After tallying their loot, Casper quickly donned his original clothing the girls had left him in the inn.
It looked like the others had done their jobs. The inn was cleared out, with no evidence of anyone having come back.
“They must already be on the road…” Casper thought out loud.
“Who are “they?” The girl asked, having taken in investigating the room with delicate curiosity.
“My traveling companions. I told them to get out of the city quickly, they should have left by now. With how chaotic things are out there I would have left.” he explains casually.
“What should we do then?” The girl asked, visibly nervous.
“Right now? Good question. We also need to get out of the city and meet back up with my companions, but we should also get some cleaner clothes for you. We can't have you running around with a bloody dress…” Casper noted, looking over the ill fitting attire she now wore.
“We should also take that slave collar off you” Casper motioned to the tight metal band around her neck.
“I tried to remove it when they first put it on me…I couldn't figure out how. It dampens my mark quite a bit too” She says, tugging at the metal.
“Let's take care of that first then” Casper noted, moving over and bringing his hands to the collar.
The girl closed her eyes and turned her head slightly, as Casper channeled the mark through his fingertips until the metal shattered around her.
The girl gasped at the sudden bursting of metal, and took in a quick breath as if she had been holding it.
She quickly touched the area around her neck to ensure that it was really gone. And then sighed with relief once she was certain the collar really had been removed.
“Thank you” She said softly, blushing more.
“Of course…you’re the only other marked person I have ever seen, or even heard of for that matter. We need to look out for each other. The whole world is after us” Casper sighs.
“I knew they were, the Acolytes said as much, it is why they kept me safe, but I didn't know it would be so… literal” she said with a huff, moving her incredibly long hair out of the way enough to sit on the bed.
“Yea…they killed my entire village, but I wouldn’t expect them to use the whole “all who see a marked child should die” as an excuse to purge the nobles of this city” Casper mused. “Oh, worth mentioning by the way, my companions don't know about my mark and I'd prefer to keep it that way. When we meet back up with them, don't mention anything” Casper says with a great deal of seriousness.
“Of course….” the girl responded quickly, almost instantly fearful, making Casper regret the harshness in his tone.
“It's just dangerous is all, I've grown to like their company and if they learned I was marked they wouldn’t see me the same way ever again”
“I…understand,” the girl offered in a quiet voice. “The looks I was given when I was found…I will never forget their faces. The sight of me terrified them. I've never wanted to hurt anyone but still they thought me a monster, a demon, a…” her voice shook, as tears threatened the corners of her eyes.
“A harbinger of death” Casper finishes.
“I don’t want to be a harbinger of death…” the girl trails off.
“You don’t have to be, but you should at the very least learn to protect yourself, I can train you during our travels to meet up with the others. I marked a location on the map, it's about a day's travel south of the city. We should have at least a little time then to at the very least help you learn to use the mark to protect yourself” Casper offered.
The girl didn’t respond for a time, but instead just nodded her head. After a long minute. She steeled her resolve and turned to look Casper in the eyes.
“I will do whatever you ask, I owe you my life…” she started, and Casper just sighed.
“Yea yea…I know…” Casper sighed