The Grim Legion

by Kindred Ult

  "Where do you keep all of thessse weaponsss?" It asked the vampire. Since Drakels were not built to speak our language Jaxon noticed that they always had a bit of a lisssp.

  "I am sure you would like to know, however, I have no time to be telling my secrets to a lizard." The vampire was coldly formal now.

  They circled each other. Both of them were daring the other to attack. Jaxon watched them for a bit before taking a step forward.

  "Look, this whole 'honorable duel' thing, or whatever, is really getting on my nerves. I'm joining this battle."

  "No!" The Darken was adamant; "I will dessstroy thisss pathetic vampire myssself, bosss."

  Jaxon knew better than to get in the Darken's way when it was like this. He sighed again and leaned back against a tree. Maybe the Darken would kill it, but if it did not, he could always just finish it off himself. One thing he was sure of, though, and that was that, no matter who it was that did it, that vampire was going to die tonight.

  As they circled for a bit more, the Darken studied the vampire's sword. It was made from a very strange metal, one that was either black or a very dark shade of gray. There were runes etched into the sides of it that were of a language the Darken could not understand. This was saying something, Drakels are known for the pride they take in knowing every living language and many dead ones, and he had been lauded for his linguistic capabilities in his home city before he had been exiled. It was a sword of normal shape and looked like it could be used with two hands, but the vampire was only using one. The hand guard was made of the same material as the sword but was, surprisingly, not ornate. There was just enough in it to provide full protection, but that was all. The handle also seemed able to be used comfortably with either one or two hands.

  The Darken broke their little waiting game first. It lashed out with a quick, searching jab, that the vampire swiftly blocked before slashing down. The Darken dodged to the side, and as it did, it threw out its sword in a strike that relied on its body's movement rather than its arm's movement. Instead of blocking this time, the vampire leapt to the side along with the Darken, beating the strength of the attack, and twisted his body to the side, sending his sword out with his right hand to get as much extension as he could on his strike. The Darken saw the jab coming just in time and slammed its feet into the ground with enough force to stop its sideways movement and send it flying straight backwards, but it was still too slow to fully evade the strike. The tip of the sword gouged into its breastplate and just barely pierced its flesh. It was a negligible wound but a wound none-the-less, and it was bleeding.

  The Darken's eyes went red for a moment and it lunged forward with its sword pointed right at the vampire's chest. The vampire swung his sword down and smacked the attack away. The two of them looked at each other for a moment before both of them spun to their right, grabbed the handles of their swords with both hands, and smashed their swords together at the end of their spins. Instead of moving to another attack, however, they both kept their swords together.

  Their muscles strained as the two swords dragged against each other in their efforts to subdue and overpower one another. They stood there and eyed each other for several seconds as neither moved, but then, ever so slowly, the vampire's sword moved closer to the Darken and the Darken's sword began to buckle underneath it. A look of panic momentarily shot across the Darken's face but it was quickly replaced by a twisted grin as it bared its many fangs to the moonlight. While still keeping its arms strained in its ever-worsening struggle, it spoke out in its strange language.

  "Ssslythrin Lathna."

  Its sword began humming and a look of curiosity etched itself on the vampire's face. This look soon turned to one of extreme agony as lightning erupted from the hilt of the Darken's sword, ran up its length, and spread from its sword to the vampire's sword, and then to the vampire. He jerked around for a few moments before crumpling onto the ground, twitching for a few seconds, and finally falling still. The Darken walked up to the corpse and savagely kicked it several times. Once it was sure that the vampire was in fact dead, it looked back at Jaxon and grinned again.

  "Well done, wasss it not bosss?"

  Jaxon grinned back and even clapped once, although he did regret not being able to kill the vampire himself. "Indeed, it was very well done. Search his pockets and I suppose we'll split it fifty-fifty."

  The Darken was pleased by this and even hissed a bit as it kicked the vampire over onto his back, straightened out his limbs, and began to search through his pockets, pouches, and whatever else he had. It soon found out why they had not seen his weapons until he pulled them out. He had a sheath about a foot long on his back and another about half a foot long at his waist but still behind him. Both were open on one side but closed on the other and, upon closer inspection, it found out that whatever you put into them disappeared until a certain length. So about only another foot of the spear's shaft and only the handle of the sword actually showed while they were put away.

  "That's intelligent," Jaxon mused.

  In addition, the Darken found a knife about a foot long inside a normal sheath, and a small throwing knife inside one of his boots. It also found ten thousand-gold pieces inside his pouch, which was a handsome sum. It was actually enough to reform his group and still have a bit left over. It found nothing else of interest until it unbuttoned the vampire's leather overshirt and found that he was wearing a silver necklace with a silver cross at the end of it around his neck.

  "Fancy a vampire wearing a cross around," Jaxon mused again. "I suppose he kept it between his over and inner shirt so that it wouldn't burn him to death. You can have that if you wish. I'm sure it will fetch a nice price at Valestren."

  The Darken grinned again and grabbed the necklace. As it was about to rip it off, though, a hand wrapped itself around the Darken's wrist and the vampire's eyes flew open.

  "Aww, sssh-" Was all the Darken was able to get out before the vampire's boot connected with its breastplate and threw it back. It landed on its feet and scrambled to get its sword back as the vampire did the same. It got its first, however, because it had taken his weapons and thrown them about ten feet behind them when it was searching him. It stayed between his weapons and him and held its sword out in front of it.

  "How are you alive?" It queried.

  The vampire smiled and tilted his head. "I am a vampire, little lizard, how could I be killed by electricity?"

  "Well, regardlesss, give yourssself up to usss. You have no weaponsss and there are two of usss. You have no chance."

  He did not reply but turned his head to side. The Darken saw something flying at it from the corner of its eye and turned to see an over-sized bat speeding towards it. It swung around and sliced the bat in two before turning back around and resuming its original position. The whole move was performed with stunning grace and precision and could not have taken more than a second, but when it came back the vampire was nowhere to be seen. It looked around swiftly but saw nothing.

  "Above you!" Jaxon yelled as fast and loud as he could.

  The Darken looked up in time to see the vampire come down and chop it in the side of the neck. The Darken listed to the side as pain was sent down its spine but in another second it was recovered and was about to turn around when it suddenly lost all feeling in its legs. It wondered what was wrong but as it turned its head around it saw the vampire with his sword stuck halfway into its body. Its armor was well made, and as such, the vampire was not able to fully cut it in half, but its spine was severed and it felt nothing when the vampire ripped his sword out to the side and pierced through the back of its heart. He ripped his sword out once more as it fell to the ground, like all of the others before it, and began to walk towards Jaxon, his sword by his side.

  Jaxon looked on dumbfounded as it finally dawned on him that his entire group had just been killed off. He looked at Bill's pierced head, the two holes in the Darken's breastplate, and finally, the menacing vampire that was walking towards him. This thin
g had to be the strongest fighter he had ever even seen. For one panic-filled second he thought about running away, but then he pictured Korinna lying on the ground with dozens of little bite marks all over her body. He remembered his pledge to his father right before his father died that he would protect his sister with his life or that he would never allow her to die without recompense. Jaxon looked at the vampire and his mind spun as he calculated everything he would need.

  "She's dead." He was trying to buy time. It worked. The vampire stopped and looked at him.

  "Who is?"

  "Korinna, my sister. You killed her and now I am alone in this world." Jaxon reached behind him and grabbed a small vial with his shield hand.

  For a moment, it actually looked like the vampire was saddened by this new, but then that steel entered his eyes again. "If you do not wish to lose your loved ones, do not place them in harms way."

  Jaxon yelled and charged the vampire with his sword held above his head. He started swinging haphazardly once he reached the vampire, but kept his shield next to his body. He was hoping that the vampire assumed he was emotionally distraught, and his ploy paid off. The vampire seemed content to just evade his sweeping attacks for a bit, and Jaxon thought it was laughable just how much the vampire underestimated him at that moment. Still, he kept on swinging wildly, just waiting for that one point when the vampire's arrogance would be at its peak. There it was! He was swinging back down diagonally after having swung upwards. The vampire smiled and just dropped his head back, making the sword pass mere inches away from his throat. Jaxon was smiling now. He shot out his shield hand and threw the vial of holy water he had been holding at almost point-blank range.

  The vampire's eyes widened as he recognized just what was inside that little glass canister and Jaxon let out an exultant yell. His happiness was premature and short lived, though, for at the last possible second the vampire tried to dodge and, using more speed than seemed possible to Jaxon, he succeeded in moving the majority of his face back and out of the way. He still screamed in agony when the glass vial hit his right cheek and burst, spewing holy water all along the right side of his face, but he was still alive. Almost instantly after the holy water touched him his flesh began to dissolve and disintegrate.

  The vampire threw himself back but Jaxon had no intention of letting him get any reprieve to gather his wits. He charged towards him and swung down with all of his might. What happened next was all a blur to Jaxon. All he saw was his sword being blocked, and then he was looking up at the moon and stars. He staggered backwards before he looked back down to see the vampire complete his flip-kick and rise from the ground. Then the pain set in. Jaxon's entire head burned with pain and his jaw felt like it was about to fall off. He just hoped he had not lost any teeth. As he reeled in pain, though, he looked at the vampire and saw that his entire right cheek and his right ear were gone. The holy water had stopped peeling away at his flesh, but the effects of it were obvious. He also had a long gash along his right forearm where he had pressed it against Jaxon's sword while he did the flip.

  'Well, if he can fight through something like that, then I most certainly can.' Jaxon though as he winced but still kept his composure.

  They paced off now, just like the Darken had. Unlike the Darken, though, Jaxon was very worried. He knew that he could not get that trick of his to work again, even though he still had a couple of vials left, and what was worse was that the vampire no longer underestimated him. This basically meant that he had no choice except to win this fight semi-fairly. The mere thought of this concept left a bad taste in his mouth, but any thoughts quickly left him as the vampire charged at him and shot out a lightning-quick jab. Jaxon blocked it and they set out into a quick skirmish. The exchange of blows could not have been longer than ten seconds, but in that time Jaxon realized that there was no way he could win this with conventional fighting. His realization was further reinforced by the vampire swatting his sword to the side and kicking him full in the chest.

  His breath left him faster than his last girlfriend and, once again, he fell backwards as the vampire followed his vicious kick with a thrust. Jaxon, even without his breath, was still able to turn his body over, plant his shield on the ground, and spin back around to barely slice the vampire in his side. Before the vampire could retaliate Jaxon disengaged himself and jumped out of his range. The vampire seemed as if he was ready to pursue but then he grunted and looked down at the small cut in his side as it grew into a hole in his muscles. His skin shriveled away and wafted out in the wind. He looked back at Jaxon and noticed that his arm was beginning to do the same as his stomach.

  "Yea, when this sword was forged, it was constantly cooled in holy water. So now it's pretty much saturated with the stuff. I never expected to see a vampire this far south, but I made sure to be ready if I ever did," Jaxon taunted.

  The vampire made no reply except to calmly walk back to his pile of weapons and pick up his spear. He faced Jaxon and threw it. It flew a perfect arc and headed straight at his chest. Jaxon lifted his shield but just as he did he noticed his mistake. He should have dodged. The spear clanged against his shield with great force but was deflected. When he brought his shield down, however, his fears were confirmed. The vampire had thrown his small knife and was charging with his sword. Jaxon was forced to try to deflect the knife with his sword and, when that was successful, throw his hips back when the vampire sliced at them. He just barely managed to avoid having his bowels aired out like mark had, but on the other hand, this position gave him a perfect shot at the vampire's outstretched arm.

  He brought his sword back and hacked down again, but the vampire had anticipated this and spun to his left, giving plenty of force to a chop that was like the one the he had exchanged with the Darken. Jaxon knew better than to do the same thing that the Darken had done, and he prepared to take the attack on his shield. Then, a thought entered his mind. It seemed crazy, but crazy was the only thing that would save him right now. He pointed the tip of his sword down, and crossed it over his body. His block just barely worked and really only succeeded in halting most of the forward momentum from the strike. That was all he had wanted it to do. He spun to his left, towards the vampire's sword, bent his knees down until he was looking at the vampire's waist, and finished the spin by slamming his shield into the back of the vampire's left leg. This forced the vampire to put all of his weight onto his left leg as he stumbled, putting him in the perfect position for Jaxon's sword which was swiftly following his shield on its way towards that same leg.

  'Got you!' Jaxon exulted.

  But then something happened he had not accounted for. With his other leg bent and his left leg his only support, the vampire lifted his left foot up and slammed it down on Jaxon's sword as it passed by. Jaxon gasped in amazement and the vampire swiftly stabbed his sword into Jaxon's hand, pinning it to the ground, before grabbing Jaxon by the neck with his other hand, lifting him up, and slamming him against a tree. Jaxon cursed as his hand tore free from the sword in the worst way possible and again when the small breath he had just gotten back was sent back out of him as his back smashed into the tree. It was at that moment, while looking the vampire in the eyes, that Jaxon realized the vampire had not just expected him to use that very unorthodox move, he had counted on it. And Jaxon had fallen for it.

  "H-how'd you do that?" Jaxon could not keep the amazement out of his voice.

  "I am a vampire." No expression appeared on the vampire's face.

  Jaxon chuckled despite himself. "Heh, I figured that part out by now. I meant to say: how could you possibly lift your foot while it was the only thing keeping you up?"

  "I put my sword in the ground and pushed myself up."

  "That's impossible."

  "Of course."

  Jaxon tried to grab another vial of holy water but the vampire pinned his other hand to the tree with his sword.

  "I think not friend."

  "Yea, that's smart I guess. I did make you rather ugly didn't I?
"

  "Yes, yes you did. Although next time you decide to rob a poor, defenseless traveler, make sure you get the 'poor, defenseless' part right."

  Jaxon gulped. "W-Who are you."

  "If you really want to know, I am Demenn, a second class vampire. And what is your name?"

  Jaxon was surprised by this small bit of civility, maybe he could still live through this. "Jaxon Thornstroke. I'm a bandit, or rather, I suppose I used to be a bandit. Now I think I'm dead."

  A smile from the vampire. "An astute observation. Now why, Jaxon, did you decide to become a bandit and have your sister join you?"