Tower of Ancients

by Jaeger Mitchells

  Dredge produced two short blades from the scabbards behind his back and twirled them around in his hands. A wicked grin crept up on his face as he cracked his neck and jumped from foot to foot.

  Ferdinand veered off slightly to Dredge’s left, giving him more space to do his theatrics. Dimas met his challenge and walked up to the gray-haired Vampire Lord. It was a funny thing as Ferdinand wasn’t even that old, it’s just that his hair had gone gray while he was very young. He hated it and always went into a tirade if offended, often drawing first blood; and the last more often than not. His weapons of choice were dual short-spears that were barely five-foot-long, but sharper than anything I’d ever laid my eyes on. No one knew how he managed to get his hands on them, but they could cut a fly in two with ease.

  Finally, Sarga started laughing out loud, sending me all kinds of looks. She blew me a kiss and waved her hand as if nothing was wrong. Typically Sarga. Sometimes she got lost in her own world and had no idea what she was doing was totally wrong. I blamed Lefrand’s mind-games and threats to her old family. It’s something she never got over.

  “I think she isn’t all good up there,” Sylvana said loud enough for all to hear. “And if you were into her, then you as well, dear husband.”

  Sarga’s face turned a thousand shades colder as she first stared at her and then at me.

  “Husband? Since when?”

  “Since you decided on attacking us,” I shot back, still cautiously approaching Dredge.

  “Then it’s time someone becomes a widow!” the young Vampire Lord laughed as he launched himself at me. I barely had time to take out my sword and parry his blade before the second one slashed across my left arm. The small shield I put on dented from the power behind his blow and sent me staggering.

  Dredge jumped back and lunged at me for the second time, both of his blades centered right at my chest. I sidestepped, knocking the shield against his side and kicked out as he passed. My foot only managed to hit air instead of him as he pulled his legs in, turned in mid-air, and hurled his blade at me. The shield took on the second blow but cracked slightly.

  “Since when have you become so strong, you fucking midget?” I cursed as the blade returned to him. Just then Dimas and Ferdinand started fighting to my right, but on the left, the four women were more busy throwing insults at each other than fighting. Good. If this was over fast, then maybe I could force Sarga to give up on whatever she was doing.

  Taking the initiative, I pushed off the ground, leaving a foot sized hole in it as I launched myself at top speed right after Dredge, but he evaded deftly by stabbing his blades into a piece of rock and hurling himself past me.

  “I fucking hate cowards like you, midget!” I hissed. “Face me like a real man!”

  “Then follow me where no one will see us fight!” he laughed and disappeared into the forest to the tower’s right.

  “Don’t die!” I yelled as I followed the bastard. There was no way I’d let him flee or do something funny, even if it cost me a limb.

  Dredge appeared not even fifty-foot ahead into the thick of the trees. He hung there from a thick branch like a monkey by one arm. I lunged right at him, trying to sever it, but he was too quick. The bastard. How the hell was I going to catch him at the speed he was moving?

  “I fucked your girlfriend last night,” he snickered. “Sarga was so hot for me, you have no idea!”

  I knew better than to reply to a nasty little shit like him, but I couldn’t help it.

  “What’s the mark on her lower back?”

  “Huh? Oh, that one’s easy. My sword up her ass!”

  “You never managed to change, huh? That one time you lost to me has been haunting you ever since am I right?”

  “What? You even dare mention you screwing me over? You’re a nobody, Raziel! You’re a bloody nobody! It sickens me when I think about how Sarga still loves someone as undeserving like you!”

  “Oh? Is that it? You’re jealous she still loves me over the rest of you losers? No wonder! You’re second to me in everything, aren’t you?”

  “Fuck you, traitor! Lefrand made sure she wouldn’t go back on her word this time! Otherwise, I’m sure she would have stabbed us in the back!”

  A sharp pain erupted in my right thigh. I snapped around and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A second Dredge stood there with a smirk on his face as he held the blade that was stuck in my back. I didn’t have to act all shocked as I had no idea what was going on, but I drew it out just long enough so I could grab his hand. Unable to run from me, his speed wouldn’t mean much.

  “L-Let go of me, you brute!” He yelled, kicking me in the side and slashing the second blade across my back, but I wouldn’t let go. His biggest mistake was coming in close and thinking he could get away with it.

  I twisted my body around and grabbed him with the shield hand next as I switched to my blade with the other. Not wanting to finish him off immediately, my blade passed cleanly through his right arm, just below the elbow. The bastard didn’t even let out a single sound, instead, he grabbed hold of the blade in my back and jump kicked me with both feet, launching me toward the other Dredge while he escaped.

  “What the fuck are you—?”

  “Shut it! You’re dying right here and now!” the one behind me hissed, slashing across my forearm with both blades. The sharp short-swords dug into my gauntlets and got stuck deep. One of them even got through to the bone, forcing me to drop my sword. I tried to pull my arm back, but the little shit twisted the blade in my arm, hurting my arm even further.

  The second Dredge appeared from my other side again and jumped atop me, pushing me down and stabbing his remaining blade right through my chest, prying at the wound and laughing all the while.

  “Do you know—what Crozan’s last words were?” I hissed, spitting blood in his face.

  “I’m sure you’re about to tell me, dead man!”

  I laughed, trying to get him to let his guard down. And it worked. He really was an idiot through and through no matter how you looked at him.

  “Yeah, I am,” I laughed as I activated the blades on my shield and sliced across his neck. Blood gushed from the wound, splashing my face, neck, and chest. I opened my mouth and let some of it slide down my throat. The bastard also had Elven blood inside him. How interesting.

  “No!” the second Dredge cried as he hammered down on the blade that was stuck in my arm. I could feel the bone start to crack, but I wasn’t beyond defenseless. I kicked off against the falling Dredge’s body and made a backflip, kicking him right in the face. Dredge fell over and pulled the sword free from my hand. The second I got up he was gone again.

  “Come out, you little fuck!” I cursed, provoking him, but he was nowhere to be seen. I looked around and tried to spot him in the semi-darkness, but there was nothing except for the corpse. Oh, the corpse. I knelt beside it with a grin plastered to my face and started ripping at his pretty weak armor. It was only logical that mine was sturdier; he depended on speed while I didn’t.

  It took me a measly twelve seconds to finally rip through his chest. All that remained between his dead heart and me was a thin layer of skin and flesh.

  “Let’s see how your heart tastes,” I whispered, ripping it out with a yank. His ribs cracked as I pulled at them, freeing the heart. It was dark-red and full of Elven blood. Just what I hoped for.

  I pressed the heart against my lips, drinking a mouthful before I lost it and bit down into the softness of where his power originated. An excruciating pain washed over me as I swallowed a big bite. It felt like poison sliding down my insides, killing me slowly. The hairs on my body stood upright as the feeling of pain and torture turned into something else: energy. I felt more mobile and agile than ever. My limbs felt like they were shrinking, but in fact, they weren’t. My armor still hung as tightly around my body as it did before ingesting the heart.

  I bit down again, taking another chunk and chewing on it. Three bites later, it was finally gone and I felt
as if I’d been reborn.

  “Dredge!” I yelled, hoping he’d come out on his own. “Oh, Dredge! Come out wherever you are!”

  Only silence greeted me. Where the hell had he scampered off to?

  I grabbed the corpse by its neck and hurried out the forest and to where the rest were busy fighting. The crowd atop the palisade cheered when they saw me emerge from the darkness, holding his dead body by the throat. The enemy camp erupted into shouting and curses. They easily drowned out my own people, but that didn’t mean much. One of their leaders was dead, or rather, half dead. Or not? Whatever it was that he did was a mystery to me.

  I stopped at the dead center of the clearing between the two raging battles. Sarga was throwing around fireballs and cursing her opponents, slowing them and wearing down their magical powers. It was all they could do to defend against the far superior Bone Witch.

  “Sarga!” I yelled, holding Dredge up. “This asshole said he fucked you last night! Did you really let him?”

  She sent me a glance full of disgust and even shivered. It was all Anya needed. She sent a blast wave that crashed into Sarga and knocked her over. The sisters darted in, both their daggers drawn. I wanted to intervene, but that wouldn’t do. They had their pride and if I butted in this time, I was telling them that I didn’t trust their own power enough to let them fight it out.

  I glanced over to Dimas and Ferdinand. They were about equal, or at least that’s how it looked like. Ferdinand’s movements weren’t as fast as I expected they would be. His attacks were precise and deadly, however, always aimed at the head or the arms. Dimas was hard-pressed while using his claws which were slightly shorter in range than Ferdinand’s long arms and short-spears.

  A glancing blow on Dimas’ left shoulder sent him flying and cursing. He caught himself and attacked again with even more ferocity as Ferdinand tried to keep up with the flurry of blows.

  “Hey! Hurry it up already, Dimas! I’m done with this little shi—.”

  Again, the same thing happened when the bastard struck from behind with both daggers and started ripping at my back. The pain this time was much worse than the first time as the blades entered under different angles.

  I dropped his dead twin’s corpse as I turned around, slashing through empty air. The Vampire Lord disappeared, only to appear to my left side, right behind my shield. He grabbed me and started stabbing just below my arm-pit, trying to sever my shield arm. I hurled myself at him, landing on his body and pinning it down.

  “You’ll never survive today!” Dredge hissed, biting my shoulder.

  “You nasty little shit! I thought you escaped to daddy!”

  “He’s not my daddy!” Dredge cried. It was another of his weak points. He hated Lefrand but knew his place. The King made him what he was, so he would never turn his back on him. It was funny how just a single year ago I was in the place where he was. How long would it have taken him to get rid of the Lords one by one? Even five of us would be enough to bring Lefrand and his despicable den of bloodsuckers down.

  “Oh, but he is!” I whispered as I leaned in, forcing my elbow against his throat. “Now tell me, what the hell is that corpse over there?”

  “Never!” he hissed, snapping his fangs at me.

  I bit down on his cheek and ripped a chunk out, then spat it back at his face.

  “Tell me!”

  I could feel two pairs of eyes linger on me, being pretty sure Ferdinand and Sarga were busy thinking about how to save the brat. I pressed in even harder to the point his windpipe was about to snap, but it wasn’t working. Alright, then I had another way.

  I let go of Dredge and grabbed hold of his leg, activating my strength Bloodline. The raw power in my arms grew twofold at least and combined with my metal boots pressing down against his dick, I pulled at the leg, twisting it around and dislodging it from its socket with ease.

  Dredge finally started crying and rolling on the ground. We might have a great tolerance to pain, but we still felt it, especially if it accumulated during a battle. The pain in my sides and back kicked up, but I bit through it and let go of him.

  “It’s my Bloodline! Using a living body I can make a second copy of myself! His power is always lower than mine since it depends on how strong the sacrifice is!”

  What an interesting Bloodline. I never imagined something like it even being possible. But then again, there were so many things out there which I never thought possible in the first place, yet there they were. Suddenly The Blight came to mind. Would they visit now that the tower had risen from the ground? I sure didn’t hope so.

  Distracted, Dredge sliced across my leg and kicked out, launching himself toward Sarga.

  “Catch the blade and run! It’s too late for me already!”

  Sarga released a tremendous explosion that sent both Elves and the Vampire Witch flying toward the palisade. Her hand shot up and she grabbed the blade from thin air, turned to face me, and just stared. I had no idea what game she was playing, but I had a feeling she was about to try and escape. No fucking way.

  “I’ll come for you,” she whispered in my mind. “Make sure you don’t die, my love.”

  “Dimas! They’re running! Kill Ferdinand!”

  Unfortunately, Dimas seemed too distracted by what just happened and suffered a blow from Ferdinand who kicked out and send my brother flying. Ferdinand beat a hasty retreat alongside Sarga, leaving the poor Dredge to his fate. Dimas growled and bellowed, calling Ferdinand a coward, but the Vampire Lord wasn’t stupid. He knew they were at a disadvantage now.

  “Cowards! All of you!” Dimas roared, picking up a blade from a fallen soldier and hurled it after Ferdinand. The blade caught him in the back, but he didn’t stop moving. Before Dimas could make another move I stopped him.

  “Don’t! It’s not worth it. There will always be a next time!”

  “Fuck! This is so embarrassing! How the hell could that bastard keep up with me?”

  “Hey, I’ve got something better for you. How about you let your anger out on this little bitch over here?” I smirked, nodding at Dredge who was still standing on one leg and glancing in between us. One moment Dimas was fifty feet away, and the next he stood there, looming over the much smaller Vampire Lord. He looked down at the beaten opponent and grinned.

  “I think I’ll start with the right arm.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Dredge’s mutilated body hung from the palisade wall. All that was left of him was a head and an upper body. Both arms and legs were missing from his long-dry body. The opposing army was in disarray. I could see that part of them were eager to attack us again, but they didn’t dare with Ferdinand and Sarga calling the shots. I was really interested to see where this was going since neither side had won, though we were slightly ahead when it came to important kills.

  “Do you think they’ll attack a second time?” Sylvana asked as we sat in the first-floor auditorium. She was having something to eat while I sat there sipping on a flask of Elven blood. Dimas and Anya sat to my right, while Helena sat to Sylvana’s left. They were exhausted and their pride had really taken a beating.

  “We almost had her,” Helena murmured and turned to face Minotaur who stood a couple of feet behind her protectively. “Why didn’t you help us? You could have thrown one of those axes and killed her on the spot!”

  “B-but no one--.”

  “Hey, stop teasing the Guardian,” Sylvana snapped. “It’s our fault for being overconfident. She is a beast no matter how you look at her, so it’s no wonder such a woman was together with Raziel in the past. I wouldn’t want anything but the best either.”

  Her tone quickly changed from weak to even weaker.

  “Hey, that’s enough,” I said, stopping any further talk about her. “If I was to fight her head-on, I doubt I’d be able to kill her as easily as I did Dredge. She is coolheaded and strong. Nothing you say can sway her.”

  “Yeah, I noticed,” Sylvana murmured. “She’s a bitch. And she’s strong. Ugh.
”

  “My Lord!” a voice called out from the entrance. It was Sentinel.

  “What is it?” I yelled back. “Are they attacking?”

  Almost every head turned at the word attacking and stared Sentinel down.

  “No, they’re retreating!”

  I frowned.

  “What the hell? Why would they do that?” I snapped, getting up and moving toward the exit. The soldiers outside were all in high spirits, joking, and cheering to have survived such an onslaught. Many of them didn’t make it, but fortunately, most did.

  I moved up to the palisade and jumped up on the walkway, staring off into the distance. He was right. The army was retreating and without as much as gathering their wounded, dead, or the equipment. We suffered a major blow when it came to manpower, but the equipment we gained, especially the Dragoon gear, that was priceless.

  Dimas landed right beside me as I was about to go search for him.

  “Can you have a couple of your children tail them from afar? I don’t want them anywhere near the army, but have them follow for at least ten miles. I want to know if our people can sleep safely tonight.”

  “Our people?” he asked, his right eyebrow slightly raised.

  “Aren’t you my brother?” I asked in turn, offering him my hand.

  “So it’s already come to that, huh? Sure, in that case, you as their uncle, can order them around, brother.”

  I chuckled, not really sure of what to say. Without him and his family, we wouldn’t have been able to tame the Basilisk and do much of the work at the camp. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to defend this tower, but this was only the start. I was sure that many more Kings would send out their armies to try and take this tower from us. We had to prepare for that time.

  A strange thing happened just then. A column of riders and a second of infantry appeared from the North-West, riding straight for the tower. I stared at the first row, trying to make sense of it. Then I recognized Widan, Crozan’s officer. He looked bloodied and beaten as did his men. There were roughly four to five hundred of them, all on horseback and a much larger group on foot.