Tower of Ancients

by Jaeger Mitchells

  I darted right after her with my blade in the right and the shield in my left hand. The Razorbacks first noticed Sylvana and started swarming on her position, but she didn’t seem to care at all. As the first came in striking distance, her left dagger slashed along the creature’s throat and cut right through, leaving half of the head dangling to the side. A second Razorback followed it in death immediately as he came in from the other side and got a taste of her second blade.

  I stopped for a moment, intrigued by how competent she was with those small daggers of hers. Well, they weren’t really small, at least a good fifteen inches long, but still, they were much shorter than my Mithrill sword with a forty-inch length.

  “You’re gonna lose if you don’t get a move on, Raziel,” Sylvana shot, laughing as she danced in between the monsters and slit them across the neck with high precision. It was almost enchanting to look at.

  Still, I couldn’t risk a stray bite or claw-swipe wounding her so I followed and took the right flank as she veered off left. Every strike cut cleanly through their necks, leaving a headless body to crumple. The big bastard finally started moving once he saw his underlings were getting mowed down.

  I cut through two more Razorbacks before I jumped right at it, but the bastard curled up in a ball and shot out razor-sharp spikes in all directions. To my fascination, they grew back in a mere heartbeat. Luckily, I had my shield out and blocked most of the attack, but seven sharp needles struck my legs while two struck my neck and face. The tip went through my skin and lodged itself between my teeth. Now that only served to piss the shit out of me.

  I landed ten feet short, but instead of jumping at it again, I ran and placed my shield in between us, using my speed and body as a battering ram. The much larger Razorback rolled off, flattening three of his offspring as I sent it flying, slicing through them with its sharp spikes. A gust of wind struck the rolling creature and lifted it off the ground slightly, slicing into it as if struck by countless blades. The spikes and needles were cut into pieces and hurled around as the wind picked up even more. Suddenly, the sharp tips turned toward the creature and struck its head over and over again, impaling it a hundred times.

  The Razorback screeched and uncurled its body, rising to its full height as I literally threw myself at it. Sylvana had done significant damage to it and I wasn’t letting her hog all the glory. At ten feet in, I pulled back my blade and threw it right at the head. The tip pierced through its cheek and exit out the other side, but it wasn’t a fatal blow. Annoyed by my lack of precision, I threw aside the shield and hissed, baring my fangs and flexing my claws. It met me head-on with its thick, claw-like growths.

  I ducked under them and tackled it with my left shoulder. It reared up on its hind legs and tried to keep its balance while swiping at me with its front right leg. I swiped it away with a kick that broke the leg and connected with the chest, toppling the creature on its back. For the shortest of moments, I felt sorry for the thing for some strange reason and stopped as it tried to roll back over. It looked up at me, or tried to, but its body was too big for it to get a clear look at me.

  “Stay down!” I yelled, jumped atop its belly, and stomped hard. It screeched and tried to free itself, but after another good hit, the creature stayed down, recognizing it was defeated. “Sylvana?” I yelled and looked over my shoulder. She was busy with the last few of the creatures.

  Her movements were mesmerizing and enticing, the way her hips swayed and her body moved. The cleavage that showed more than it should as she bent over to cut the head of the last remaining Razorback really struck home. Damn, what a woman. What a monster, and what a fine lover.

  “I win,” she yelled back. “I helped you with that bastard so it isn’t just your kill!”

  “Fuck the kills, come over here!”

  She frowned, spat, and stashed away her daggers all the while as her hips swayed from side to side. The damn woman was doing it on purpose.

  “What are you so serious about?” she asked after joining me atop the beast’s belly.

  “I want this creature to be a breeder. Do you have a way to restrict it with magic?”

  She frowned, scowled, and then slapped me.

  “It may be dangerous, but do you really want us to keep it captive and have it breed?”

  “Why not? How fast do these things grow anyway? And what’s their diet?”

  Sylvana sighed and jumped off the creature, made it fifty feet from me, and then turned back around. She bared her teeth at me and stormed over again, then started whispering something while standing near the Razorback’s head. The creature screeched and howled, thrashed around, and tried to free itself.

  “What the fuck did you tell the creature?” I snapped, kicking it for the third time. It ceased to protest and went limp again. It took about ten seconds before it turned its head toward Sylvana and started growling slowly. So the Elf really could communicate with the forest creatures. How interesting.

  “It takes about thirty days for a dozen to grow to the size of—the dead ones. They eat both meat and plants, but the growth rate is doubled if they eat meat.”

  “Good enough. What about the creature? Is it willing to cooperate?”

  As if understanding my question, the Razorback shuddered and let out a howl. It remained motionless, however, probably sick of receiving my kicks.

  “If it’s allowed to live, yes, but only under one condition. It will do so for a total of a year. After that, it wants to be released.”

  “How long can it live?”

  Sylvana whispered something again and waited for the creature to reply.

  “It’s lived for eighty-seven years now. From what it feels, its death isn’t imminent. At least fifty to another hundred.”

  “And it only wants to give me a year of its life, huh?”

  The Razorback’s yellow eyes turned a dark brown all of a sudden. Was it afraid? What’s more, could it really understand what I was saying, or at least my intent? It whined for a long moment before looking away, just like an embarrassed Human would.

  “It will devote twenty years to you.”

  I nodded, trying to keep the smile from showing.

  “From today onward, you’ll be the quarry’s guardian. Is that understood?” It squealed and whimpered to the point it looked almost comical. I bent down on my knee and slashed my claw across its chest, drawing some blood and licked it off my fingers. It protested, flailing its legs around, but still didn’t try and throw me off. “And now that I tasted you, I’ll be able to find you no matter where you run. Do you understand?”

  “Yeah, it understands. It says that it will protect this place with its life and that it will never attack anyone in our presence.”

  “Good. We’ll show you who is allowed to be here, so remember them well.”

  I got off the Razorback and kicked it once more for good measure, even helping it roll over. The beast got up on all fours and ran off deeper into the quarry, then stopped and hid behind a large rock. Most of its body stuck out from all sides, forcing a chuckle out of me.

  “This is purely sadistic, you do realize that, right?” Sylvana said once I was done chuckling. It sounded weird to hear my deep, Vampiric voice make that sound, but it lightened my mood at least.

  “I don’t see what’s wrong with it. Cattle is cattle. Why can’t the same be said about the Razorback?”

  “It’s more—it can think and speak and react. It’s not cattle!”

  I sighed and placed my hands on her shoulders.

  “Do you even realize who you’re talking to? I’ve had no trouble draining countless Humans or other Vampires. Do you think I care about a Razorback’s feelings? What about the Basilisk? Should we have felt sorry for him and fed the bastard hundreds of our people?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying! There are other ways to go about it! I can grow enough crops so that they never have to starve!”

  “Oh, and you’ll have to since we’ve got quite some people depending on
us. Besides, since you can talk to the Razorback, who says you can’t talk to Tusks or other similar creatures?”

  Sylvana scowled and looked away, showing me a different side to her, one I hadn’t expected in all honesty. Sure, she was an Elf, but that didn’t mean she had to love nature. Quite on the contrary, the Blood Elves were renowned for massacring entire species if it served their purposes. Or at least that’s what was being passed on by those who said they knew. Whatever the case, it only served to show I barely scratched the surface when it came to her.

  “Whatever you say, Lord Raziel,” she whispered.

  “Lady Sylvana, would you care to join me as I inspect the quarry?”

  “Yeah, I’ll join you. I’m worried you might bully the Razorback if I’m not around.

  I snorted, unable to hold it in. Bully an animal? What the hell did that Elf think of me? Keeping that in mind, I started moving deeper into the place. Stone, stone, and more stone were all that surrounded us. We would definitely need some good equipment to even start working on this place.

  It took me about ten minutes to check most of it out and to circle the area around it, making sure there were no other hidden dangers around. All I could see was—nothing. It was clean. The pack must have scared everything away, or even killed the other animals and monsters for food.

  The dust we kicked up earlier during the battle penetrated through the holes in my armor and was starting to go on my nerves as we moved around. It was a good time as ever to go have that promised bath.

  “Hey, did you see that?” Sylvana asked, pointing deep into the quarry.

  “No. What did you see?”

  She frowned, closed her eyes, and opened them again.

  “It looked like a Human-like shape if I ever saw one. I think it entered the ore mine.”

  I sighed, really not interested in random encounters right about now. Then my mind started racing. What if it was a scout? Or someone belonging to a Kingdom or town nearby? I didn’t wait for her to say anything else and basically threw myself forward, trying to get there as quickly as possible.

  I stopped at the entrance, sniffing the air for unfamiliar scents, but there was nothing. Or it might have been so faint that I couldn’t pick up on it. Sylvana caught up with me an instant later and was about to speak, but I put my hand up to stop her from speaking. To my newest surprise, she remained quiet.

  Pulling my blade out, I entered the cavern’s darkness. Not that it mattered. Night and day were the same for me so that particular nuisance wouldn’t bother me.

  Wooden beams were put up all along the walls and ceiling to support the tunnels from caving in. Unlit torches lined the wall every ten to fifteen feet as we moved. A strange feeling washed over me as we made our way into the depths of the place. I couldn’t help but notice that the humidity was abnormally high. What’s more, it was accompanied by a horrendous stench that struck us head-on once we were half a mile in.

  Sylvana seemed worse off than me by the way she gasped. I didn’t have any real problem with it other than feeling unpleasant but to get a Vampire to the point of being bothered by the smell, it really must have been bad. Not even the curtain of air she cast around us helped her breathe any better. Seeing no point in taking her further in, I stopped walking and turned to the Elf.

  “Go back. You can’t take this level of stench. Get Dimas and return to this place. Have him follow the trail along the ground and meet up with me.”

  “No! That’s stupid! What if there’s an Elder Dragon further inside and it eats you?”

  “Really? An Elder Dragon? Isn’t there anything less believable that you could have used?”

  She gagged after inhaling a full lung and threw up. I moved her hair back and turned her around.

  “S-Sorry,” she whimpered and stormed off, not even looking back. I let out a deep sigh and shook my head as she rounded the corner, disappearing from sight. I grinned, finally able to move at my own pace. I slid the tip of my blade against the ground, carving a line as I moved through the narrow tunnel. Somewhere around a mile in, I felt the ground almost shift from beneath my feet. I wasn’t moving at a light angle anymore, no, it was much steeper now.

  “What the hell?” I cursed as I almost slipped on the muddy soil. I stopped for a moment and smelled the air, but the stench was mostly gone and a new scent replaced the old, a scent of fresh water. It didn’t make much sense to me, but I didn’t think much of it and kept on moving until I finally saw some light up ahead. There was an enormous cavern up ahead, easily half a mile across.

  “Is that a—?”

  I cut myself off as I finally noticed some movement in my periphery. Two bright-red eyes stared right back at me as I stood there, baffled. Shit, I could recognize those red eyes anywhere.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Sarga? What the fuck are you doing here? I thought you were up in the North.”

  “Is that how you greet your lover, Raz? I thought you’d be happy to see me. At least more than this, my love.”

  I could feel her extremely strong presence radiating from the corner as she stared at me.

  “You haven’t answered my question.”

  “I know. What’s the hurry? You afraid that little Elf will see you fucking my eyeballs out?”

  I laughed, not able to resist her usual charm.

  “You never changed, huh? Not even in the cold North.”

  “Nope. I’ll always have a spot for you in my heart, no matter what that bastard says.”

  “A spot? Or the only spot?”

  She finally stepped out of the darkness and dissolved the spell of darkness that surrounded her earlier, pressing her chest against mine. She was almost naked, all but for the piece of bony armor between her legs. It wouldn’t do much in order to protect her, I kept telling her that, but that’s all the shame she had. Her beautifully round and large breasts were laid out on display for me to see and I had a hard time resisting. No matter how much I wanted her, if Dimas and Sylvana found us here, I doubted everything would pass in order.

  “I see the shyness never left you, huh?”

  “It did. See, there’s the rest of my armor,” she chuckled, motioning with her hand to a large boulder. Atop it sat a breastplate, a crown, wrist guards, armored skirt, and a cape. Now that was a change I hadn’t expected. Not that I expected to see her here in the first place.

  “So, what are you doing here?” I asked, placing my arms around her.

  “You. He sent me to chase you down. You know, our bond isn’t a big secret after all.”

  I sighed and pushed her away, or at least tried to. She clenched her arms around me tightly, jumped, and crossed her legs behind my back. If I didn’t know her better, I might start to panic, but she loved these kinds of games, especially placing her breasts close to my face so I could feed on them.

  “Shit,” I whispered. “They’re as beautiful as ever,” I mumbled as my tongue snaked around her right nipple. It was already hard so I nibbled on it. She flinched at my bite, but I didn’t go fully through, instead, I opened my mouth again and sank my teeth on the same spot I always did, two inches to the right of her nipple.

  “Fuck, yes! I missed this so much!” she moaned. “Please, take me! I haven’t had you in me for decades! Fuck me, Raz! Now!”

  I carried her over to the pond in the far corner and plunged into the water as her hand went down and she tried to unclasp my armor, but it wasn’t working. This armor wouldn’t go off just like that. I suddenly remembered promising Sylvana a bath and all lust evaporated into thin air.

  “Sorry, I can’t right now.”

  “Shit, I thought you’d be eating me up before long.”

  “Not right now. Times have changed, and with that everything else.”

  “Even your feelings for me?”

  “No, they’ll never change,” I replied quickly, not wanting to anger the bone witch. She was easily as powerful as I was, especially using curses and death magic. Her temper wasn’t the best, and I
could only imagine it had gotten worse over the years.

  “So what is it then? Is it those Elven skanks? Is it someone else? Fucking tell me,” she hissed, baring her fangs and raking her extremely long nails across my exposed neck.

  “Stop it!” I growled, slapping her across the face. Her eyes went wide and then narrowed on mine as she hung off my body.

  “Now isn’t that sweet?” she chuckled. “He’s fallen for Lefrand’s trash. How amusing.”

  “Sarga, I’m warning you. Don’t make this reunion worse than it already is.”

  The position she had me in was awkward as I was leaning halfway forward while most of our bodies were already inside the water. She could easily pull me under and try to choke me if she was any stronger physically.

  “Alright, if you want to play hard to get, suit yourself. But let me tell you one thing you know very damn well! Ever since I became a Vampire, I never fucked anyone or let them fuck me. Not even the King! I saved myself just for you, and this is how you repay me?”

  “Sarga, why the hell are you here? Why aren’t you defending the Northern borders?”

  “Fine! Fuck you too, you damn bastard! I don’t even know why I was looking forward to seeing you!”

  I sighed and let go. She splashed into the water and got up immediately.

  “I’m sorry to hear that after all these years, but the times have changed if you hadn’t noticed. I barely managed to escape with my life.”

  “Oh, I have. And I’m so fucking happy, to be honest. As to your question, I already said he sent me to find you. He’s offering you forgiveness this one time, but you know that’s a load of bullshit. He’ll kill you the moment you’re back, especially those tight-assed Elves of yours.”

  “Tight-assed?” I questioned with my right eyebrow slightly raised.

  “You don’t know he fisted their assholes until they couldn’t take it no more?”