The Grim Legion

by Kindred Ult

  Jake was ready to argue, even now. "Why should we—"

  "Release!" Sean yelled out before drawing his sword and running up next to Jake.

  Jake shot Sean a cross look, but he seemed content to let it slide. He reached behind his back and unwrapped a morning star that was stuck to his belt. It was of middling size, and designed to be used with one hand. It's chain was about two feet long and the spiked ball at the end was six inches in diameter and had inch-long spikes all over it. He swung it around menacingly for a couple seconds before he paused.

  The seven werewolves ran until they were twenty feet away from the three of them, and then they came to a skidding stop. In a flash, they stood on their hind feet and drew their swords. After this, they mulled around for a bit. Apparently, they were unsure as to what they should do. Demenn took this opportunity to walk up between both Sean and Jake, he drew his spear and let the tip of it rest on the ground while he held the shaft in his right hand.

  "I hope that killing young people who are alone in the woods isn't the only thing you can do, vampire." Jake was getting a little jumpy himself.

  "I assure you that I will do everything within my power to keep the two of you alive." Demenn sized up his opponents. He did not like the look of this. Somehow, there were two more than he had originally thought. 'They must have just been in the area. Just my luck.'

  Eventually one of the werewolves came forward from the others. It looked at the three of them. "So, what's a high and mighty vampire and two slayers doing in werewolf territory? Would you be looking for our boss, by any chance? Well that's too bad. He's far away from here. He knew you'd come, even had us wait here for you. Now, give yourselves up, and we promise that the vampire will be the only one to die."

  For a moment, it looked like the two slayers might actually take the werewolf up on that, but then Demenn retorted. "Right, the promise of a werewolf is about as dependable as one from the vampires. You had better hope that you are all at least fourth class, or you will all die tonight."

  The werewolf's eyes narrowed. It showed its teeth in a snarl. "You'll find that we will be more than a match for you, vampire. You're only a second class, while we have two fifth classes, three fourth classes, and two third classes. You have no chance of victory, even with those slayers by your side."

  "We will see." Demenn bent down and looked like he was re-lacing his boot, but then he leapt forward while flinging his boot knife at the leading werewolf. It lunged out of the way, but the fifth class behind it had no time to emulate it, and took the knife in its chest. It looked down at the wound before looking back at Demenn and laughing.

  "You really think that a knife could kill one of us?" Then it fell to the ground, convulsing and howling, but in another moment it was dead.

  "It should, especially since all of my weapons are made of silver," He quickly leapt back until he was with Sean and Jake again. "Are your weapons made of silver as well?"

  "Yes, both of ours are." Sean looked a little more reassured now that one of them was dead."

  "Yea, but we're still killing you after this, got that?" Jake fixed Demenn with a commanding stare.

  "Fair enough."

  The rest of the werewolves howled and charged. Their swords glinted in the moonlight, and their mouths opened wide with the thought of blood.

  "This will be hard." Flipping his spear to his left hand, Demenn grasped the net that had once bound him, and hurled it at the closest one, a class four. The net caught it and immediately bound it as securely as it had Demenn. The only difference was that the werewolf's weapon was far too large and bulky for it to use to cut itself loose. It growled in frustration, but there was nothing more that it could do.

  The other five charged forward as fast as they could, not wanting to see what else these three could do at long range. Demenn grabbed his spear with both hands, while Sean put his left arm behind his back and faced the right side of his body towards the enemy and Jake let his morning star's spiked ball rest on the ground while he faced the opposite side of his body towards the enemy. His other hand seemed to have something in it, but Demenn could not tell. Despite there being three of them, and also having two werewolves down already, Demenn knew that this battle would not be easy. He could probably only count on the two slayers for about one kill each, which meant that he would have to deal with the other three himself. To this effect, he stepped forward as the three he selected ran towards him. A third class reached him first and swung out horizontally. Demenn ducked under it and lamented that it had stepped forward with its right foot, if it had, he could have cut off it's leg and ended its role in this fight. As it was, he slammed the butt of his spear into its knee, since thrusting would extend him too far for him to easily recover if another attacked him.

  The third class fell back, staggering as its leg bent in a direction Demenn knew was not naturally possible, but no sooner was the third class out of his range then the other two he had selected, a class four and what he assumed must be the other class three, came running at him. As they did, a class four and a class five ran towards the two slayers. Demenn couldn't focus on them, though, because the two werewolves that were fighting him were giving him all he could deal with. He was still dealing with them though. They both attacked overhead, and he blocked both attacks with his spear set horizontally. They both stabbed out, and he spun his spear to deflect their swords. He finished by grabbing his spear and slashing out at the werewolf on his right. It jumped back and fell to the ground, while the other slashed upwards diagonally. Demenn was forced to roll back, and so the skirmish went on.

  Elsewhere, Sean and Jake were having similar problems. Sean tried to parry his opponent's sword, but he forgot to account for the werewolf's strength. It easily bashed through his fencing guard, and he was forced to quickly backpedal as the werewolf continued to slash and run towards him. Eventually, the werewolf reached him and slashed at him once more. Desperately, Sean dropped to his knees and rolled under the sword strike, but he was too slow and the werewolf kicked him in the ribs, launching him back a couple feet. He lay there for a moment, trying to stand to his feet while the werewolf stalked towards him. It got to him and raised its sword above its head.

  "Goodbye, foolish young slayer." It was about to stab down when a hole suddenly formed in its head. It fell to the ground and Sean looked over to see Jake fighting the fifth class while throwing away his used pistol. Since his opponent was only a fifth class, and since he was the senior of the two slayers, he did not seem to be in too much trouble.

  "Careful buddy, don't let your guard down, this vampire may betray us at any moment." Jake lunged back to avoid a swing and swiftly retaliated by bringing his morning star around and swinging it with all of his strength. The werewolf also lunged backwards, but it recovered slower than Jake, who had switched his mace to his other hand and now led with the right side of his body, with his morning star in his left hand now.

  "No, I don't think he will Jake, he seems diff—" at that moment both of the werewolves that were fighting Demenn swung at him from different sides and at different levels. It seemed like there was nothing Demenn could do, but then he suddenly bent his knees, and in an instant he was gone into the night.

  "There!" Jake finished an unsuccessful swing, switched his hands, and punched the fifth class in the snout. It fell back, bleeding. "I told you that he would leave us, and now we're really screwed. As if to accentuate this point, the werewolf that Jake had shot stood back up and began stalking towards Sean again, the werewolf with the broken leg snapped it back into place, groaning in pain as its tendons immediately healed, and the one Jake had punched in the nose strode forward.

  "That's right," Sean moaned, "Only silver."

  The third class with the previously broken leg looked at the two that had been fighting Demenn and gave them a triumphant smile. He never saw his death coming. Demenn came down from his jump and landed on it, with his spear cutting a wedge into its chest. For a moment, it stayed bent over back
wards, but then it slid down his spear's shaft and fell to the ground. The other two ran towards Demenn, while he ripped out his spear and cut open the throat of the werewolf that was still trying to get out of the net. It slowly stopped its frantic struggles, and he readied himself for the next two.

  "Three down now." He smiled.

  Sean wished he could be as confident as that vampire. He was just barely avoiding each strike that the fourth class werewolf was sending at him, and that was by constantly giving ground to it. He could not figure out was so wrong. He had been trained with the use of the rapier, and had been drawn to it because it relied on finesse and speed rather than brute strength. He had been able to beat most of the others in his class, and had eventually gained confidence in himself, but now he was fighting a warrior that fought using sole brute strength, and he was losing. He just could not match blades with this werewolf, because its strength was far greater than his own was.

  'Calm down,' he tried to think logically as he dodged behind a tree and the werewolf slashed past him. 'There has to be some way to beat him,' the werewolf was on him again, and again he tried to block its swinging blow. He soon reaffirmed that this would not be a possible maneuver, since his sword was batted out of the way and the werewolf lunged onto him. It bore him to the ground, and latched the tips of its front teeth into his right shoulder, but he put his feet under its stomach and launched it past him as he rolled back to his feet. 'Well, at least that worked, but now I have some holes in me, and I know that I can't match its sword. Maybe…maybe that is how I'm supposed to fight, by not matching it. Yea.' He rolled this idea through his head for the few seconds of reprieve he had, before the werewolf was back on its feet and charging him again.

  'Don't connect.' He spun to the side, getting just barely cut by the werewolf's jab, and finished the spin by slicing the werewolf across its ribs. It was a superficial cut, but it gave him pleasure to finally score a hit. It barked at him and slashed out. 'Don't confront, flow around,' Sean bent over backwards, letting the sword pass over him, before stopping his fall on a tree, pushing himself back to his feet, and putting another slash into the werewolf's fur. Now the werewolf was getting annoyed. It had been stung twice, and the blood from its wounds was matting its fur, but it was no fool. It stepped back, giving it a bit of room, before trying to go back to how things were by charging forward, its sword swinging.

  'Finesse over brute strength,' Sean stood in the way of the swinging sword for what seemed like too long of a time to block or dodge, before disappearing from the werewolf's view. For a moment it wondered where he was, but then it stopped caring as it felt his rapier pierce through its ribs and into its heart. It looked down to see Sean doing the splits on the ground and his sword sticking into its chest.

  Sean smiled as it fell to the ground. He had won. He tried to get up, but found that he had gone beyond his flexibility with that last move. He groaned in pain and managed to barely shift his legs around until he could bend his front leg. When he finally got back up to his feet he gingerly ran back to where Jake and the vampire were fighting.

  "I should definitely stretch more." He grimaced as he reached the road again. He was just in time to see the fifth class that was fighting Jake swing its sword at him. Jake laughed like he always did, and swung his morning star into the sword, but it was too close for the ball to hit it. The chain wrapped itself around the sword and held tight to it. For just a moment, the werewolf tried to continue with its slash, but the chain held it.

  Before it could think of anything else to do, Jake pulled his arm straight back, pulling the morning star off of the sword, and quickly spun it behind his back, switching it to his right hand and smashing the werewolf's sword arm. Next he spun his entire body to his right and returned with one final attack that smashed off the front of the werewolf's snout, before coming around again and imbedding his weapon into the side of its head. It did not even twitch before it fell to the ground, completely dead.

  Jake turned to face Sean and let out another laugh.

  "See? I told you that he wouldn't run away." Sean felt along his bite marks and found about eight small holes, four on each side of his shoulder.

  "Whatever, you need to be ready to kill him once he finishes those last two off, okay?" Jake had a few cuts as well, but they looked like they had been caused by a blade, and seemed minor.

  Sean sighed and looked to the ground. "Yea, I guess so."

  He looked up when Jake put his hand on Sean's left shoulder. He looked into his eyes. "I just want you to know that I'm proud of what you've done here today Sean, not many new recruits could beat a fourth class werewolf without silver bullets or arrows."

  "Th-thanks Jake, but shouldn't we be more worried about that vampire?"

  "Dagnabit', that's right. I hope he hasn't beaten those two yet." The two of then ran towards where they thought Demenn was.

  When they got to Demenn, he was still fighting the two werewolves just as hard as he had been at the beginning. Somewhere along the way, he had lost or dropped his spear and was now fighting with his sword and his long knife. He was trying his hardest to hold both of them off, but he seemed to be a little winded. The werewolves must have sensed this as well and they attacked with renewed ferocity. For a moment it seemed like they would over come him, but then he ducked under one blow, parried the second with his sword, slashed out at one of them with him knife, and kicked out at another. Both of them had to leap back to avoid being hit, and this gave Demenn a bit of a break. They both stood in their place, trying to think of some kind of a plan.

  "Um, shouldn't we help him?" Sean was worried, because it looked like the vampire might lose.

  "Nope, this will work well for both of us. We only agreed to let him go, not to save him. So if he dies, we'll just kill them; and if he kills them, then we'll kill him. Perfect right?"

  "Yea, sure." Sean sat down on the ground and fingered his right shoulder again.

  Once their plan was formulated, the two werewolves howled in unison and charged Demenn again, but this time the fourth class jumped into the air while the other one just charged straight. Demenn shifted to the side at the last second as the fourth class slammed its sword down into the ground. This miss left its back open, but when Demenn struck at it, the other one was there to block him, allowing the fourth class to spin on the its knees to slash at Demenn's legs. He leapt over it, however, and stabbed out at both of them. Fourth class rolled out of the way, while the other one simply blocked his attack again.

  'Well, at least they are on the same side of me, but if I am to catch my quarry, I need to end this quickly,' Demenn was already starting to feel fatigued, and after this he would still have to run from the slayers and fight Wulf. 'Wonderful.'

  The fourth class charged again, and at first it looked like the other one would as well, but that one just jerked forward so that the forth class would think that it was running too. Demenn though that this was strange, but chose to dwell on it later. He charged towards fourth class and launched his long knife at it. His aim was true, and the blade would have pierced the fourth class's heart, but at the last moment, fourth class threw out its arms and took the blade in its wrist. It saved itself from immediate death, but it also left itself wide open. It was too slow to recover and, before it did, Demenn was right in front of it. He shoved his sword into the fourth class's stomach, and in a moment, its spine was shoved out of its back with his sword stuck into it.

  It looked down at him and gasped out, "But, it's not…silver." Then its eyes rolled back and Demenn rolled it over, placed his foot on its chest, and took out his sword. The other werewolf just stood there as Demenn retrieved his knives and spear and walked in front of him. Sean was about to walk up next to him, but Jake grabbed him by his left shoulder and shoved him back to a seated position.

  "Patience."

  Demenn stood in front of the last werewolf with a quizzical look on his face. This one had let him kill the other one, even going so far as to let the other t
hink that it was attacking with it, but at the same time it made no effort to run. Then it spoke.

  "Hello again Demenn. It has been awhile since last I saw you."

  The look on Demenn's face only deepened, how could this third class werewolf know him? Then, however, it hit him. This was no third class, but was actually his quarry, a first class werewolf. He almost smiled with joy.

  "Hello again Wulf. Yes it has. A fraction too long by my reckoning. You have had this coming for a very long time." He wrapped both of his hands around his spear and settled into a stance.

  "Well, I could certainly figure out your zeal just by watching how you've been tracking me for months. Do your superiors know what you're doing?" Wulf was still calmly standing a few feet away from Demenn.

  "Yes, I was sent on this hunt as an official mission. The fact that you happen to be a first class is the main point here, but regardless, I'm here on official purpose."

  "Oh, well aren't we just the coldly formal one. I don't seem to remember you being quite so formal when you met with my brother. But I suppose that is understandable. You were under considerable grief and stress at the time." Wulf's eyes glinted red with glee.