The Grim Legion

by Kindred Ult

  "Whatever, shall we do this?" Demenn lowered his head and lengthened his stance.

  "Sure, but before we do, I have something completely fascinating to show you. It's what we get once we pass from being a second class to a first class. I personally think that you will enjoy it." Wulf growled. The growl seemed to start in his stomach and flow through his lungs before bursting from his mouth. Then he clenched every muscle possible, and bit down hard into his lower lip. His blood dripped down his chin, but he did not seem to notice, the only thing he noticed now was Demenn. He slowly lifted his head and looked at the moon.

  There was a part of Demenn that shouted at him to just finish this fight now, to just stab Wulf in the heart while he was not paying attention, but another part of him was immensely curious as to what this first class ability was. Unfortunately, that second part proved to be the stronger.

  Sean and Jake were also very curious as to what was going on. They both sat a safe distance away from the two warriors and just observed their interactions. Jake was busy bandaging his small wounds, while Sean watched the exchange with great interest and held his shoulder.

  Wulf lowered his head before throwing it up again and letting out a howl at the moon, which seemed as if it had just reached its zenith in the sky. At first it sounded like a lonely, mournful howl that wafted across the night and made Demenn nostalgic just by listening to it, but then it slowly turned to one of anger. Wulf's eyes began to roll all around inside their sockets, and his pupils were completely enveloped with blackness. Soon, the howl turned to one of intense anguish, and pain.

  Wulf screamed as his muscles burst through his skin. They each expanded to about five times their normal size, and his skeletal frame also increased to a size far larger than it was before. As his skin fell to the ground in tatters all around him, he fixed Demenn with eyes that were now completely black, with not even the whites showing. He was bleeding all over, but then his bleeding stopped, and new skin reformed itself over his entire body. Soon his fur had also grown back as well.

  Demenn looked up at this werewolf. Wulf must have been fully twelve feet tall, and his sword now looked like a child's toy inside his hand. Wulf towered over him, and Demenn could tell that strength could not be his only enhancement. Wulf returned Demenn's look with large, threatening eyes and snarled.

  "What do you think of the first class ability fool? You still think you can beat me?" Wulf's voice had not changed at least, although he spoke it through teeth that looked to be almost six inches long.

  Despite himself, Demenn could not help but show a brave face. "Your transformation appears quite ferocious. I hope that my own looks quite different after I kill you and gain it."

  "Fool, only death awaits you." Wulf tossed aside his sword and lunged towards Demenn with his hands leading. He lashed out at Demenn with both of his hands, and right before Demenn dodged, he saw that his claws were also about five inches long. Demenn ducked under both lethal attacks and sliced Wulf's leg open on the inside of the thigh with his spear. Wulf paid no attention to the wound and lifted up a hand to slam Demenn into the ground. He struck downwards with great might, and if the blow had hit him, Demenn had no doubt that he would be dead. As it was, though, he managed to roll to the side, but he got back up to his feet just in time to see Wulf's other gigantic fist smash into his chest.

  For one moment, life itself seemed to go into slow motion for Demenn as he saw that fist impact into him. He looked down to see his chest actually bend into itself and could have sworn he saw little ripples in it. The funniest thing he noted was how he did not feel any pain. At about the moment of that revelation was when time returned to its normal pace and Demenn's nerves finally contacted his brain with what had just happened. He gasped out in pain and flew backwards from the sheer power of the attack. Fortunately, he retained enough of his senses to curl into a ball, and so, when he hit the ground, he received no more damage.

  Demenn tried to quickly jump to his feet, but once he did he fell to his knees, gasping for air from lungs that were too badly shocked to do anything. He grabbed his chest with one hand in a vain effort to stop the pain that was flowing from it out into the rest of his body. He knew that none of his bones had been broken, which amazed him, but that knowledge did nothing to assuage the pain coursing through him. Eventually, after what seemed like minutes, he gritted his teeth and regained his feet again. His lungs still felt like they were only barely working, but he could not let go now.

  Sean was amazed when he saw the vampire get back up from the ground only seconds after falling to his knees. He had almost felt that blow from where he sat, and he had certainly heard it.

  "Nothing could have been able to survive that strength, let alone stand back up in moments." He could not keep the awe out of his voice.

  Even Jake seemed to be at a loss for some sarcastic comment. Only shock was displayed on his face as well. "Yea, this is crazy. Still, there's no way he'll win, we better get ready to either try to kill that other thing, or run." Despite his words, though, he just could not take his eyes away from these two warriors.

  Demenn forced himself back into a shaky battle stance and wondered why Wulf had not attacked. Then he saw Wulf stare down at his wounded leg, and his flesh quickly re-knit itself until there was no sign that a wound had ever been there. This time, even Demenn could not help but let his amazement be shown on his face. Wulf laughed.

  "Yep, not only have my speed, strength, and size been amplified, but my regenerative factor is now quite amazing. It can even heal wounds made by silver. What have you to say to that?"

  Demenn merely gritted his teeth and deepened his stance. Wulf narrowed his eyes dangerously and he charged forward once again. When he reached Demenn he swung both of his hands in a scissors-like strike. Demenn crouched under the attack, but then when Wulf kicked out with his foot Demenn leapt up, just barely passing through hole between Wulf's arms, and stuck his feet out to land on them. Before Wulf could do anything else, Demenn ran onto his shoulder and jumped forward as fast as he could. Even as he jumped away, though, he let his spear drag down and cut a line into Wulf's neck.

  Wulf quickly spun around and tried to strike Demenn, but he was already out of his immediate reach. He looked to the side to see Demenn apparently running for his life.

  "I'm disappointed in you Demenn. I thought you would have figured out by now that you cannot outrun one of us." He crouched and began to charge towards Demenn on all fours. He closed the ground between them in seconds, and just when the time was right he sprang forward. Demenn ran on until Wulf was almost on top of him before he spun to the side and slashed another line across Wulf's face. He watched as Wulf flew by him, groping his face as both of his eyes split in half. Without being able to see where he was going, Wulf smashed into a tree with the full force of his lunge behind him. As soon as he made contact with the tree, Demenn was right behind him. Demenn yelled as he plunged his spear through Wulf's back with all of his strength. The blow missed Wulf's heart, but it did pierce through a lung and also stick its way into the tree in front of him.

  Wulf had to wait until his eyes found each other and reformed back into singular circles before he could try to do anything, but once they did and he tried to get out of where he was, he noticed that his regenerative ability had closed his skin around the spear sticking into him. He tried to stick out both of his hands to push himself off of the tree, but both of his hands were pinned to the tree by two knives. He grunted with aggravation. With both of his arms completely outstretched, and his skin already closing around the knives, he could not rip his arms out. Behind him, Demenn chuckled.

  "I guess your healing factor is not as good as you seem to think it is. It looks like it has trapped you."

  Wulf did not reply. He only clenched his hands, shoving his long claws into the flesh of the tree, and bent over backwards, taking the tree with him. Once again Demenn was struck speechless at Wulf's sheer strength as he ripped the tree out of its roots, breaking his own
back in the process. It almost instantly reformed, and he spun to the side before letting go of the tree and sending it and all of the weapons stuck to it out and away from his body. It took a few more seconds for the wounds caused by the weapons to close up, but then Wulf turned around and he and Demenn stared at one another.

  "Wow." Demenn could think of nothing else to say.

  "Yea, I think that about sums it up," Wulf seemed remarkably calm for having just broken his back. "That hurt."

  "The next one will hurt even more." Demenn grasped the handle of his sword and pulled it from its short sheath. He grabbed hold of the handle with both hands, thinking that he would need the extra strength provided by that style. Wulf bared his fangs in a growl.

  "You really think that'll work?" Wulf flexed his hands and rolled his shoulders experimentally. "It's not even silver."

  "I think that I will still find a way to kill you, do not worry."

  Another growl issued from Wulf, and once again he ran forward. When he reached Demenn he swiped out with one claw. Demenn succeeded in ducking under this, but he was too slow to dodge when Wulf slashed up with his second hand. His claws dug four furrows into Demenn's chest and lifted him a couple feet into the air. Demenn landed back on his feet, but he had no strength to do anything more than just stand, at least for the moment. Wulf took advantage of this momentary paralysis to throw all of his weight into a kick that caught Demenn in the stomach.

  Demenn's senses cleared in one moment as he felt what very well could have been his stomach burst apart inside him. Once again his feet left the earth and he felt himself enter the state of weightlessness that had become so familiar lately. This time, however, a tree that was far closer than it had been when he had judged his surroundings ended his flight rather abruptly. His breath left him again, but this time he also heard several snaps that could only mean broken bones. He stayed stuck to the tree for a moment, before his momentum left him and he slumped to the forest floor. He slowly tried to get up, but by the time he was on his hands and knees he felt claws dig into his back, and he was lifted into the air until he was face-to-snout with Wulf.

  "Heh, I will admit that that whole 'pinning me' thing was pretty smart, but you underestimate the powers that I gained when I became a first class."

  Demenn realized that he was in no condition to continue this fight in the same manner he had been. He stared into Wulf's pure black eyes and spoke only one word. "Darkness." Immediately, pure blackness settled over both of their eyes. It was not the kind of blackness that came from there being no moon or stars on a Darkoven night, both vampires and werewolves could see perfectly in that kind of darkness. No, this was pure and utter darkness, the kind that could only be achieved by one method.

  "Magic." Wulf growled but then gasped when he felt a sharp stinging in his arm and dropped Demenn in his startled condition. In a moment, he realized what he had done and lunged forward to try to retrieve Demenn, but he was not where he had been. Wulf tried to calm himself, but he was not used to being in such a situation, and he did not even know if Demenn was blinded as well. Before he could calm himself he let out a small growl of annoyance.

  Demenn, who was also blinded, heard the growl and knew exactly where Wulf was. He swiftly, but carefully, so that he did not make a sound, lunged towards Wulf's position and swung his sword with all of his strength. He felt his sword make contact with Wulf's flesh and slice through it as Demenn passed him by. Demenn had hoped for a killing blow, but he was just a bit too far to the side, and his attack completely gave away his position to Wulf. Wulf, now enraged by the pain in his side, reflexively swung his arm in a low backhand, connecting with Demenn's back and sending him sprawling to the ground again.

  Demenn lay on the ground, surrounded by the blackness, and tried to get up. He knew that if he let go of the darkness, Wulf would immediately kill him in his current state. He barely had enough strength to hold the darkness, but he had to, at least until he could get to his feet. He struggled to his knees, and was just barely able to get one foot onto the ground before he gave in to the strain and let go of his spell. Color came just as suddenly as it had when it left them, and he shakily stood to his feet even as Wulf turned around to look at him. 'I cannot take much more of this,' Demenn thought, wearily.

  Wulf looked down at the wound in his side, which had come just short of cutting into his spine, for a second, waiting for it to regenerate. When it did not regenerate, he looked at Demenn with what could have been astonishment or pure anger.

  "You—You're sword…" His voice quivered, but Demenn could now tell that it was most certainly from anger, and not surprise.

  Demenn smiled weakly and held his sword out in front of him. "Yes, the ore of this sword is called Wolfsbane, or, as I affectionately call it: Wulfsbane."

  "That's the exact same thing, moron."

  "No, you see, it is normally spelled with an 'O,' but I spelled it with a 'U.'"

  "How was I supposed to know?"

  Demenn sighed, but he was thankful for the break he was getting here. He was actually starting to lose that hazy feeling that had covered his brain for awhile. "I would not expect a savage like you to get the complexities involved in such satire."

  "Then why did you tell it to me? Were you expecting those slayers over there to applaud you?" Wulf shot his head at the slayers, just so that they would know he had not forgotten them. Both of them cringed a bit.

  "No, I have been waiting a very long time for this Wulf, and wanted you to know just how personal this fight was." Demenn focused on slowing his breathing and slowly checking his body for broken or fractured bones. He counted about five or so.

  Wulf glared at him for a second. "Oh, this is definitely personal. You did, in fact, kill my brother not too long ago. You hunted him down and cut him down from behind, just like the filthy, cowardly, arrogant bloodsucker you are."

  "That is true, and I would have done the same to you, had you not noticed my presence. I'm surprised that you deemed it necessary to have so many minions for a lowly vampire such as myself."

  Wulf seemed to see that this conversation was getting him nowhere, but he needed to see if his how long it would take his healing factor to heal his wounds. He knew that it would eventually close up, but he hoped that 'eventually' meant very soon, his side was hurting and his arm was not healing from the cut it had received either. He needed a bit more time. "So, why did you hunt my brother down? You went for him specifically didn't you?"

  "I did. I did it because I thought that he was you at the time." Demenn was feeling much better, but he knew that this conversation had to take place.

  "And why were—are you hunting me, prey tell?"

  "Well, I do not expect you to remember this, but your brother and you slaughtered my entire family in front of me about fifty years ago. I was just a child, and my father had told me to go into the cellar for some reason. Through that window, I watched as the two of you ripped my family to shreds and devoured them. For this you will pay with your life."

  For the first time in awhile, Wulf chuckled. "You know what? You're right. I have absolutely no memory of killing your family. Who were they again?"

  Demenn lowered his face for a moment. "Their names were Kyrion, my father; Nicole; my mother; and Helen, my sister. Once I am finished with you, you will be able to recite them back to me, and everyone who passes by your corpse will know them as well, because I will carve their names into you chest."

  This time Wulf barked into the night with delight. "Hah, brave words from such a small being. It's too bad; I still don't remember a thing about your family. Oh well, I guess they weren't too memorable. I do, however, remember my brother. You never even challenged him like any other honorable warrior would have done. You vampires consider us to be the animals, but you are far worse than we could ever be."

  "That's probably true, but regardless of whether it is or not, I will kill you this night." Demenn resumed his stance, which had been relaxing while they spoke to each oth
er.

  Wulf smiled, showing all of his many teeth, and pointed one huge claw at Demenn. "Come and get me, bloodsucker."

  Just at the end of the clearing, Sean and Jake were just finishing their preparations for the end of the battle. Sean had loaded his flintlock pistol with a silver bullet, and Jake had loaded his with a wooden bullet. So now they just had to wait to see which one won, and then to shoot him. Despite Jake's extreme optimism about their ability to pull this off, Sean was getting very worried.

  "But, but the werewolf can regenerate silver." He rubbed his shoulder absentmindedly, while watching the two warriors talking.

  Jake sighed and checked his gun again. "Then shoot him in the head or heart, I doubt he'll live through that."

  Sean looked at the ground, his eyes filled with confusion. "Are…Are you sure that what we're doing is right?"

  This time Jake stopped checking his gun and stared at Sean. "Of course. You know what those two are. They're monsters, and the only reason that vampire did not kill us once you let it out was because it couldn't beat all of those on its own. There is nothing but evil inside that thing. Weren't you paying attention at the vampire slayer academy?"