The Grim Legion

by Kindred Ult

  "That has nothing to do with it. I've killed twenty-five werewolves with my bow here, but you guys who are in the middle of the fighting always take their hearts before I get there." Niethel pulled back on the string.

  "You know that I saw your kill, I kept that heart for you did I not?" Demenn was only a few rooms away.

  Niethel thought about it and shrugged. He put down his bow. "Alright, but that still doesn't mean I'm coming with you."

  Demenn came up to him. "I promise that we will give every kill you get to you, and we will even give you some that you did not kill."

  "Still not coming."

  Demenn sighed and turned around. "Fine, but I guess I will have to find another archer to be our support along with Sophella." He had not taken four steps before Niethel's hand clamped onto his shoulder and turned him around. A look of manic was on his face.

  "Sophella's coming? But I thought that she said she would never accept anything like that." He looked strange.

  "Well she changed her mind." Demenn smiled.

  Niethel's eyes narrowed. "Fine, you win Demenn. I'll go with you, but I better get those hearts you promised me."

  "Of course."

  They walked out, and as they did both Rafael and Leon groaned. "You really accepted? Aren't you like the biggest coward on the planet?"

  "Yea, that's why he never goes into close-combat."

  Niethel completely ignored them and smiled at Sophella. Before anything else could happen, Demenn called to everyone.

  "Alright, now everyone is here. I have chosen all of you because I trust each of you with my life. Does everyone here accept the team I have chosen?"

  Leon and Rafael grumbled, but in the end everyone was satisfied and they all went to their houses to get ready for departure.

  - 16 -

  Blood For Blood

  8

  Blood for BloodBryce charged through Darkoven, thoroughly devoted to following the scent the other werewolves left behind. He was close now, so very close, but dawn was coming soon, and running as fast as he could all night was beginning to take a toll on his body. Sweat was pouring down his fur, and his breath was coming ragged through his lungs. Despite his difficulties, he still ran forward with amazing speed. He must have been running faster than even his eagle could fly, and his reflexes were good enough that he could still dodge trees and choose the route best suited for the young girl who was still clinging to his back for dear life. He was impressed by her; she had been holding onto his neck for a long time, while holding her armor and weapons, but she had not let her grip break and never asked for a rest.

  He was beginning to think that a rest would be necessary, when he sensed the scents of his quarry grow exponentially, and he knew that they had stopped to take their own respite. All thoughts of stopping left him and he renewed his chase with increased vigor. He was soon rewarded for his determination, when he burst into a clearing and saw five werewolves standing in the middle of it. The werewolf in the middle, who had the smell of the "head cook," grinned when Brand entered the clearing and stopped in front of them, but his grin faltered a bit when he saw Nasoren slide down from his back. He addressed Brand quizzically.

  "I do not understand brother, we had assumed that you would destroy the entire town in your first bloodlust, but you seem to have let one live. Oh well, I guess it is a big town, and your bloodlust must have run out before you killed all of them, but not your lust aye? Very well, I suppose we can have fun with this one."

  Brand was ready to tear this cook's head off, but he controlled himself. He needed to extract what he needed from these ones so that he could enact his plan. He kept his face emotionless. "Yes, I am very sorry for that problem, but I've brought this one as recompense for not killing all of them. I do not understand, though, how you looked like humans last night, are we not werewolves at night?"

  The cook smiled. "Only the weak ones, once you gain any amount of control, you will be able to become human in shape any time you see fit. Also, once you become even more in control, you will be turn one part of your body werewolf while keeping the rest of it normal."

  He was rambling, which was exactly what Brand wanted, however, the answer to the question truly interesting to him. He wondered how much control he had, so he tried what the cook said to, and in a minute he had turned back into his elf form, which rendered him strangely blind, then back to his werewolf form and blessed sight. The cook seemed very surprised by Brand's control over himself, so much so that his feral eyes narrowed. He shifted his head to the side.

  "Turn your head to the right please."

  "What?" Brand was taken aback.

  "Just do it." A hint of menace entered his voice.

  Not wanting to start a fight just yet, Brand turned his head to the right, regarding the trees. The cook barely reacted, except to point at Brand. "He didn't kill anyone in his first bloodlust. Kill him and the girl—" the words barely left his mouth before Brand was right in front of him with his claws inside the cook's stomach cavity. The cook looked at him, his face trembling with pain.

  "W—why?" He stammered, blood spewing from his snout.

  Brand brought his teeth very close to the cook's ear. "Because I'm not like you."

  The cook lifted his eyes to the moon and laughed out loud. His laugh slowly turned into a howl and in another second he grew to his class one size and shoved Brand away from him. He watched his stomach re-shape itself and chuckled again. "I knew it, your eyes are blue, which means that you obviously didn't kill after your lust began. Well, the order still stands. Only don't bother with this pup, I'll kill him myself. You focus on the foolish woman he kept with him."

  As Brand and the cook clashed together, the other four werewolves grinned and pulled their various weapons from their sheaths. One had a normal sword, another had a bow (which Nasoren found exceedingly strange), the third had a one-handed axe and a rock he had very recently retrieved, and the last one pulled a spear from his back. Nasoren was shocked to see the last weapon, but then she grinned. In her opinion, that werewolf had made the greatest mistake possible. She studied the four of them and made her choice. The archer would have to die very quickly if she were to win this fight, so she took out her hand crossbow and pointed it at him. The werewolf sneered and began to put and arrow to its bow. Even from twenty feet away, it could tell that the tip was not silver. She aimed quickly and pulled the trigger, sending the bolt flying towards the werewolf. It merely stuck out its chest, intent on taking the strike and proving its impenetrability, but when she spoke those words from before and the bolt burst into an inferno of flames, the werewolf thought better of his decision. It was too late for him, and the fiery dart buried into his chest, setting him on fire almost instantly. If there was any substance that werewolves feared besides silver, it was fire.

  The three other werewolves saw their comrade scream while rolling in the grass before finally giving out and dying and they thought better of savoring this kill. All three ran towards Nasoren, but the one with the spear ran a little slower than the others did. She focused on the first two and let her crossbow fall to the ground while drawing her sword from its sheath. The one with the sword ran forward and swung down with both of his hands on his sword, while the other ran to the side. She made her decision and charged the sword werewolf. It was surprised and swung prematurely, which allowed her to block the strike with the blunt of her blade. Even though the werewolf's attack was half-hearted, and Nasoren was able to strengthen her block with her forearm on the blunt side of her blade, she was still barely able to stop the strength of the strike it bore down on her. It did stop, though, and when the werewolf took its sword back to strike again she slipped her sword out and sliced open its gut before stabbing it in the chest, slicing off an arm, and finally stabbing it in the head.

  The second werewolf fell to the ground, but just as it did Nasoren saw the third werewolf cock its arm back and throw the rock it held at her with superhuman force. She had no time to anything except
watch the projectile zoom towards her, but before it hit its mark a large hand intercepted it. Brand let his right arm swing back with the strength of the throw and spun with it before cocking his arm back and launching the rock at its original owner. The stone smashed a hole through the werewolf's chest and broke its spine, lungs, and heart. The werewolf slumped against a tree before it slipped to its knees and fell to the ground. No life was in its eyes.

  Nasoren breathed a sigh of relief and was about to confront the last werewolf, when suddenly she saw movement to her right and was shocked to see the second werewolf stand back to his feet and place his arm back into its place. It held it there for a second before reaching to pick up its sword with both of its hands. Nasoren was amazed, but then she remembered, only silver. She cursed herself for not having thought to bring her silver weapons, but she could not dwell on it very long, because the werewolf was attacking her already. The werewolf was not an especially skilled fighter, but it did have brutal strength and ferocity, and for a bit all she could do was evade its sweeping strikes, but then it became frustrated and switched to using one hand to make its attacks faster. This had the desired effect in that Nasoren could not dodge any more, but it also made its attacks weak enough for Nasoren to block with both of her hands on the handle of her sword. Now, if this werewolf had been any better, this would not have mattered, but as it was, this made a deciding factor. Nasoren blocked the first strike given to her and immediately lifted her hands and cut a long gash down the werewolf's chest. It did nothing save to strike again from a different angle. Once again Nasoren blocked this and shoved her sword straight into the werewolf's chest. It smiled and lifted its sword to slash down at her, which forced her to rip her sword out and lunge backwards.

  Nasoren watched both of the wounds she caused almost instantly disappear, and she felt a wave of despair flood over her. How could she fight something invincible? Then, however, she got an idea. She said a quick spell and her sword burst into flames. The werewolf's eyes widened in fear even as Nasoren grinned.

  Brand was having a rather hard time with the cook. Both of them were regenerating any wounds the other was causing, and neither of them had any way to defeat the other. Brand was obviously the better fighter, but he could not gain a definite defeat over his enemy. The cook looked at him and grinned.

  "Ready to give up and die?"

  "Not remotely." Brand growled and charged forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nasoren slash through a weak werewolf with her sword on fire and he smiled to himself as the werewolf burned. This young girl really was something. If she could kill three weaker werewolves, then he could definitely kill his opponent. He crouched and charged forward. The cook readied his defense, but he was unprepared for what was to come. When he swung out, Brand was no longer there, and when he looked down he saw Brand's normal sized werewolf feet slide between his legs. Before he could turn around Brand turned back to his first class form and wrapped his large arms around him. The cook laughed again.

  "Very good pup. I had not thought you were in control of your powers to this degree. Turning from class one to normal is no small feat. However, we are at an impasse. You cannot kill me, nor can I kill you…" his voice trailed off when he felt drool on his face. He looked up to see Brand's mouth open.

  "Really, I say we test that theory." Brand clamped his jaws down of the cook's skull and jerked his head from side to side, tearing a large chunk out of it. He swallowed the bite whole before he took another large bite; this one took both of the cooks eyes and half of his mouth. Three more bites and the cook's head was no more. Brand let him fall to the ground and wiped one furry hand across his jaw. "Let's see you grow that back." He laughed and turned to watch Nasoren as she battled the last werewolf.

  Nasoren had been excited to fight a spear-wielder, but now she knew why this one had trailed the other two. It was a coward. It had hoped that they would finish her off, and now that it had to fight it constantly jabbed out at her in an effort to keep her away from it. She had hoped that it would fight like she knew that vampire would fight, but she found herself somehow disappointed. She had learned how to counter these kinds of fighters, they were easy. At one point it stabbed out too far and Nasoren let the blade pass between her and her sword. Before it could retract it, she shifted her entire body into her left arm and snapped the wooden spear with her metal gauntlet. She then grabbed the stock and pulled the startled werewolf towards her, resetting her spell on her sword as she did. The werewolf howled in fear, but it could do nothing to keep her from severing its closest arm.

  Nasoren watched with satisfaction as the fire began to spread to the rest of the werewolf with unnatural speed, but before the fire got to its head Brand's large hand slashed down past its body and his long claws sheared its body in half. It fell to the ground, and almost bled to death, but then its healing factor slowly caught up and skin slowly formed along the half of its torso it still had left. It could barely breathe from the pain it was experiencing, but even then it tried to howl for help. Brand quickly lunged onto it and placed one large hand over its snout, while digging the claws of his other hand into its chest. It mewled in pain, and Brand stared it in the eye.

  "Tell me where the werewolf lair is. I'm a new recruit and I want to go there. Your master was weak, but I'll be strong. You will be allowed to live and become my slave if you comply. Just tell me where it is." Brand tried to sound cajoling. He knew that many a werewolf had been interrogated to no avail, but he guessed that this cowardly one, with the promise of life and with the reassurance of knowing that he was a werewolf, might tell him.

  It stared at him for a moment, but then it lifted its remaining arm and pointed in a direction.

  "Thank you." Brand stood and was about to start walking in that direction when the sun came up over the mountains and he was forced to reassume his elven form. With the loss of his werewolf body, Brand suddenly felt all the strain of his night's work fall upon him. He took one more step before he passed out.

  ………………………………………………………………………………………………

  When Brand awoke he was blind. He did not mind this at all, since he only recently regained his eyes, but it did give him a clue as to what time it was. He assumed that it was still day, but that it was late afternoon. For a bit, he was content to merely lie where he was and listen to the forest around him and stare at the life of the trees. He replayed the scenes of the night before in his mind over again, and while he still felt a harsh stab of agony and guilt for killing Janije and for almost killing everyone in the village, he also felt as if he could now atone for what he had done. With his guise of a werewolf, he could infiltrate the werewolves and…he paused. And what?

  A footstep about twenty feet to the side interrupted his thoughts. He jerked his head to the side, but then he settled back as he smelled Nasoren and saw her life and good intentions. Almost immediately, her scent was joined by that of a freshly killed deer. She walked up to him and dropped the deer to the ground.

  "About time you woke up. I've been waiting here all day with only these stinking corpses to keep me company. It's a good thing for both of us that I know how to hunt. I just spent all afternoon hunting this deer, and you had better not expect me to skin and cook it too." She was huffy for some reason.

  Brand was about to protest that he was a vegetarian, but then he thought about the earlier night and the concept almost made him laugh. He reached for his hunting knife, but soon realized that he was completely naked. He must have burst through his clothes when he turned to his larger form. Nasoren chuckled.

  "Yep, you were naked enough to make a maiden blush when the sun came up. Luckily for you I was able to drape my cloak over you. Also lucky for you, the cook took his clothes off before he met us and threw them into the forest. They are in good shape, and they're also the only clothes available."

  Brand was about to move towards where he could smell the cook's clothes, but then Nasoren quickly s
topped him. "No, that's okay, I'll go and get it for you." She walked over towards them and tossed them towards Brand before turning away. If Brand could see at the moment he would have seen her blush.

  After Brand was dressed, he reacquired his weapons from where Nasoren had placed them. She explained that she had dropped them before they entered the clearing because she did not want to look suspicious. He then proceeded to skin and gut the deer, sending Nasoren out to get certain herbs that he would make it taste better. Once the deer was ready he started a fire and began to roast some steaks. As they ate their venison, Nasoren looked up at him and spoke.

  "So, what are we going to do now?"

  Brand chewed thoughtfully for a bit. "Now I am going to go to the werewolves' lair and try to atone for my sins."

  She stared at him for a bit before cutting off another piece of steak. "You?"

  "Yes. This is my burden to bear." Brand was looking down.

  She swallowed. "But you'll die if you go alone."

  He stopped eating and looked at her. "First, I just killed my partner, so naturally I'll have to go alone. Second, after what I did, I deserve to die. There is no way I can repay my dead friend for what I did to him except to die in battle avenging his death. Maybe then he'll forgive me. Maybe then I'll forgive myself."