Casper's plan was relatively simple in execution, simple enough to leave very little room for issues to arise at least.

Besides, doing things this way would be far more cathartic for him.

Casper stalked his way along the top of the fortress walls, sticking to the areas of heavy shadow created by the surrounding forest.

All in all it was a pleasant time, as the warm breeze blew blissfully unaware of the impending slaughter.

Casper approached the northwestern most tower, and listened in to the other side.

The guard within was pacing back and forth next to the door currently, which was perfect.

With a smile, Casper punched his hand through the door and grabbed blindly at where the guard would be.

He felt his fingers puncture through the metal of the man's armor, and once he had a good grip he pulled as hard as he could without channeling too much of the mark.

The man slammed hard into the door, but not enough to break it further. No, Casper didn’t want to make too much of a scene, not yet.

He felt the guard's body stumble from the force of hitting the door. Off balance, Casper smashed his other hand through the door to grab at the guards throat and hold him steadily in place.

Casper channeled the mark, and effortlessly forced the door to open inward. Still gripping the guard in both hands, he walked the man casually with the door between them, positioning the guard to be pinned against the interior tower wall and the door.

Casper squeezed until he felt the pop and splatter against the door. Once he was sure the guard wouldn’t be getting back up, he removed his hands from the holds and wiped the blood off using an old banner inside the tower.

Casper closed the tower door, investigating the splattering of blood against it and smiling in satisfaction at his still clean clothes.

He didn’t have any backup pairs just yet, and he would be killing alot of men today, so staying clean was fairly high on his list of priorities.

Casper dragged the corpse of the guard into the center of the tower and effortlessly stripped the man of his armor, managing to take a few limbs with it as he couldn’t be bothered to waste time unbuckling the more secure pieces.

He patted the man down, rifling through the clothing underneath until he found what he was looking for.

Casper figured that these men would have been well aware of the danger of this trip, which meant that they couldn’t risk leaving their contracts in a 2nd location. Most mercenaries dictate that if they die during a mission their cut goes to their families, which means they need to keep those contracts on them at all times.

This of course wasn’t knowledge Casper was aware of from his own travels, but rather one of the many useful facts his father had shared with him on their many hunting trips.

In truth, Casper didn’t really know what he was looking for now that he had the contract, but he could try his best to deduce it.

Unfolding the parchment that had been only slightly stained by the man's blood, Casper scanned the words until the details of the payment and where payment would come from caught his attention.

The contract was being paid out of a banking account held in the name of “Silas Hargrave.” Furthermore the contract was for quite the handsome sum. Paying out 500 gold pieces should the mission fail, or 1500 gold pieces upon success.

It would appear then, that the man in black's bids on the marked woman in the auction house were likely legitimate, he was well connected with quite the sum of money at his disposal.

Casper folded the piece of paper and slid it into his own pocket. He didn’t need the money, but it would be useful to know the man's name and banking information.

Casper grabbed the man's semi-intact head and torso, and began the next step of his plan.

Carrying the corpse and trailing blood down the spiral stairwell, he used the interior passageways of the wall to draw a line towards the gatehouse's interior doors.

Listening inside, there were a few men gathered there as well.

Perfect, Casper thought.

Casper let the corpse fall to the ground, knocked on the gatehouse door, and quickly jumped up into the air, pinning himself high above the passageway by stretching out his arms and legs to hold himself above the corpse.

And then he waited.

He could hear the shuffling of bodies from beyond the threshold. The passive conversation of what to do. Talk of a password not being spoken and the apprehension of opening the door.

Eventually, the door opened. And one of the soldiers from within let out a low curse as he rushed to investigate the corpse on the ground.

“Oh hells….” the man whispered in a low, mournful tone.

“What is it?” another view called out, threatening to approach the doorway.

“Move out of the way, let me see” another voice intoned, shoving past the man blocking the door and the first guard to see for himself.

“You idiots!” The larger of the three began, only for Casper to cut him off as he dropped from above and slammed both of his closed fists into the helmet of the guard.

The man's skull caved in with a crunch and the helmet buckled under Casper's blows, followed by the rest of his body shortly after.

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Without giving the other two men time to react, Casper kicked the larger man hard, sending his corpse colliding into the other soldier, and then the two into the man at the door.

The corpse of the guard split as it bounced off the doorframe, showering the two men in the gore of their comrade and blocking their view of Casper as he rushed in with the original body of the first man he had killed.

Holding the corpse by the torso, Casper slammed the body down into the first soldier once, twice, three times until the metal of their armor twisted and linked, making it nearly impossible for the man to move.

The 3rd guard tried to scream, but Casper grabbed the body of the first guard and threw it hard against the other, sending him flying backwards again until they both slammed against the far wall.

Not letting up, Casper moved and grabbed the third guard by the helmet, spinning it around, and with it, the man's neck.

The guard's spine shattered before the several straps eventually snapped. He could still hear the guard wheezing faint breaths, so he quickly smashed the man's heads against the stone wall until the breathing stopped.

Leaving the two tangled corpses where they lay, Casper returned to the muffled screams of the man pinned down in the tangled corpse of his comrade.

Casper peeled the torso away, and pressed his gloved hand against the soldier's mouth to avoid letting the building scream escape.

Bringing a finger up to his own mouth, he made a “shhhhhh” sound, and watched as the soldier's eyes went wide in fear, then narrow in understanding.

“I'm going to remove my hand, and you’re going to tell me everything I need to know.” it wasn’t a question, it was a demand.

Casper slowly removed his hands, but sat the twitch in the man's jaw as he readied a shout.

Disappointed, Casper shot his hand out, gripping the man by his lower jaw Casper pulled until it popped from his face, and then slammed it back down through his throat and into the floor.

His scream died faster than he did as the spinal cord was crushed from the force.

Casper quickly pulled his hand out. A bit bloodier than he would have liked, but he also would have preferred information.

With the guardhouse cleared, Casper pressed onwards into the interior halls.

Another guard wandering on patrol had his neck snapped.

One more in the other tower had his spine snapped in two as Casper passed by.

Two more in a guard room, both with crushed skulls, and another one on patrol was slammed into the wall until he stopped moving.

Extending his senses, he heard the sound of a guard in the tower muttering some complaint about not being relieved yet.

It looks like he needed to move a bit quicker then. If the guards were looking to rotate it meant the trail of corpses would be discovered any minute now, which wouldn’t do well for the chances of his friends escaping.

Casper rushed up the stairs and punched clean through the helmet of the tower guard, slightly annoyed by the ease in which the men died.

He knew those thoughts were the mark. Casper didn’t enjoy killing people, it was a necessary means to an end. Of course the thought of revenge was nice, but he more so valued the result of, "the people who have wronged me are gone” more than the process of actually getting there.

That was of course the case without the influence of the mark.

With the mark coursing through his blood, strengthening him, enhancing him, he couldn’t help but find a sick pleasure in the trail of bodies he was leaving behind. There was some…predatorial desire to be recognized at the top of the food chain, but he worked hard to drive those thoughts down.

He couldn’t have the marks influence forcing him into making any critical mistakes now. This wasn’t about him being strong, this was about freeing his friends.

By now he had cleared every single guard in the towers, walls, and directly adjoining rooms. Which meant that the guards meant to come as a replacement would be inside the interior of the fortress itself.

Casper figured that if the guards were meant to be on rotation they would be positioned on the lower floors, to quickly reinforce the others, as well as check on the prisoners what he could tell were below ground from the muffled sounds of distant movement below the earth.

That meant, the 3 figures he was picking out on the upper floors of the fortress were very likely the man in black and some hand selected guards to stay with him.

The best he could hope for now then, was for the nameless girl to do her part in clearing the lower levels as she freed the girls. Casper would have to skip straight to the top if he had any hope of dealing with this without the girls knowing he was marked.

Casper found his way to the upper section of the fort's walls, running along their length until he found a position that granted him a view of the high windows on the top floor of the fortress.

Casper let out a breath, and focused his enhanced vision on the mostly blurry, vine covered window he could see.

Teleportation in combat was dangerous, teleportation under pressure even in a wide open space equally so. The act of teleporting using the mark was the single most focus and energy intensive ability in his arsenal, even after he had been training with it for years now.

In order to teleport, Casper needed a perfectly clear mind, and the ability to visualize in as perfect detail as possible the place he wished to appear in. He had failed this task only three times in his life, and all three resulted in his body partially fusing with the environment around him, requiring excruciating surgery to remove.

He shivered at the thought of his father having to cut up his thigh down to the bone in order to remove the bulging mass of stone and brambles that had become a part of him when he attempted to teleport mid fall. The damage from the fall would have been less than the damage from his failure.

Casper focused his mind, trying to clearly visualize the space beyond the window, the floor, the stone, the torch flickering behind it.

He closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath.

Inhale the warm air, exhale the raw heat and power of the mark.

Inhale again, exhale once more.

Inhale a final time, exhale a final time.

Casper opened his eyes, and then thought better of it.

Jumping down from the wall he cleared the distance to the fortresses' open door, over the corpses of the men the nameless girl and killed, and sighed with audible relief at his decision to not do something so stupid.

The nameless girl worked fast, and learned faster. The kill on the inside of the fort were clean, and though he could hear the sound of Alex and Elisayra reuniting he couldn’t risk stopping to be with them, not yet.

Casper sprinted up the stairwells higher and higher into the fortress, eventually reaching the open antechamber at the top, doing well to make each footfall as silent as possible in spite of the speed to hide his approach.

The antechamber itself was sizable, with a tall vaulted ceiling and touch lined walls. Benches to either side of the walls were the only other item in the space, not counting the large double doors that led to, presumably, some audience chamber beyond. Casper tuned his senses to gather the positions of the men, only to realize that one was missing.

Cursing silently at his lapse in attention, he extended his hearing as far as it could possibly go in an attempt to locate the missing.

Three guards were in rooms joining the audience chamber beyond, but there was still no sign of the missing person he had sensed before entering the fortress.

There was only one way forward then, and it was likely to be a trap, he realized.

Still, the highest priority was making sure his friends escaped, and that would only be possible with these men dead.

Casper opened the doors into the audience chamber, revealing the grand room beyond.

The ceilings in the space were even higher, though instead of torches along the walls, a massive chandelier sat lit hanging in the room's center.

A single large throne-like chair occupied the far wall, with slightly larger windows set above the chair, causing the pillars flanking the path to the throne to cast long shadows in the hall.

Two doors rested on either side of the audience chambers walls, each one marked by a torch.

Casper extended his senses once more, picking up that the three guards were positioned behind the top left, top right, and bottom left rooms.

The hairs on Casper’s neck stood on end, as the pressure in the room shifted noticeably. A faint rush of wind, the heat of another body.

The missing figure had just arrived.