The Grim Legion

by Kindred Ult

  "He pulled out their hearts because he's a psycho crazy mass murderer who enjoys feasting on civilian's hearts, that's why! At least you said something right, though, the murder of Jake and Sean was unforgivable. This thing is evil, just like all of the other vamps an' wolves."

  The elf turned his head to blindly regard the dwarf. His cloth hid any emotion he might have shown on his angelic face. "You are generalizing. You know as well as I do that there have been good vampires and werewolves in the past."

  "Exactly, in the past! They aren't around anymore, and they're never coming back. You're just too much of a pansy elf to realize this!"

  Whatever the elf's response would have been was cut off by a third speaker breaking into the conversation from his seat behind his desk. "Shut up you two! I brought you here to give a report on your findings, not to give me your personal opinions and tell me what to do while bickering amongst each other!" The third speaker dressed like the first two, but somehow his hat and cloak seemed to have been made for him. He had long brown hair and blue eyes that burned into any person he looked at. This man was none other than E, the famed vampire slayer, and the founder and leader of the vampire slayer academy. It has been said that he has killed more undead beasts than all other humans combined.

  The dwarf lowered his head, slightly ashamed for letting his anger get in the way of his reasoning and manners. The elf, however, lifted his chin in slight defiance, confident in his position. E looked at the two of them and his gaze softened. These two, despite their respective bloodlines and ancestry, were actually quite good friends. Even though they argued almost constantly. The elf, Brand, was blind, and had been so ever since he gouged his own eyes out in order to see being's life forces and the evil inside them. He claimed that it was a good trade, but E still wondered. The dwarf, Janije, was about as short as he was short-tempered, but in the end he was good-natured and usually easy to get along with. Knowing him, he probably only thought that this vampire was evil because Brand thought that he was not.

  Janije, unlike most of his race, was a very good shot with his bow made from goat's horns, although he was also an adept fighter with his two-handed silver hammer if the enemy ever got that close to him. Contrarily (which seemed to be standard with these two), Brand had never been a good shot with a bow by his people's standards, although he was still better than most humans were. His real strength, however, came from his expert use of a sword. He was one of the best fighters in all of the vampire slayers, and he was certainly the best with a sword, excluding E himself that is. The two of them had been partners for over ten years, and they almost never went on missions separately. For while they were both amazing fighters on their own, together they formed the best team E had.

  E brought his mind back to the present. "Look, I don't care whether this vampire is guilty or not. The fact is that he infiltrated Valestren twice, committed murders, and got away. The townsfolk are getting worried. I need the two of you to go to Valestren and conduct a separate investigation of what happened and, if you can, to track down the vampire. Do not, however, do anything stupid, I cannot afford to lose either of you at this time…Oh, and I want no shooting until you actually find out what you are shooting at, is that clear Janije?" He tipped up his hat and let his long brown hair twist for a moment as he looked pointedly at the short dwarf.

  "Yea, sure thing boss." Janije mumbled.

  "What was that? I'm not quite sure that I heard you just excitedly acknowledge the benevolent grace I am showing by giving you the privilege of redeeming yourself for shooting one our horses because you thought that it was a werewolf."

  "I said yes sir! Thank you sir!" Janije stood straight, clicked his heels, and saluted. "I await working under this blasted tree bugger with great enthusiasm."

  "Alright then," E ignored being patronized. "Also, I'm placing Brand in charge of this mission, any problems with that?"

  Neither of them had any. Having Brand as the leader had always been how it was. Janije would accept it now, but later he would complain about it, just like he always did. Brand could never tell whether Janije complained because he was actually upset about something, or if he only did because that was what his race did. That had always been a strange mystery between the two of them.

  They went to their rooms to prepare for the upcoming trip. Brand packed several different sets of clothes, his slender curved sword, his bow, arrows, and a spear he had with him for throwing. All of his weapons had silver blades. Janije took out his bow, a powerful dwarf bow made with mountain goat horns that fired silver-tipped arrows, his heavy armor, and his two-handed hammer that was silver and coated with holy water. When they reached the courtyard that served as a kind of hub for the vampire slayer's activities, they stood for a moment and looked each other over.

  "I can tell that you've brought only that one change of clothes again." Brand pretended to sniff in disgust.

  Janije responded by spitting on the ground. "Yea, an' I can guess that you've got several pairs a' clothes just picked out for any occasion."

  "Oh, but of course," Brand smiled while performing a sweeping bow. "It just wouldn't due to be caught at the wrong time without the perfect apparel to appropriately match the situation now would it?"

  Another blob of phlegm burst upon the cobblestone. "Bah, we dwarves know that all ya' need is yer armor and a good weapon. Any place that 'apparel' ain't appropriate in ain't worth goin' to. An' that's a fact."

  Brand sighed and shook his head, feigning distress. "You dwarves, when will you ever listen to us and start behaving dignified, like immortals are meant to?"

  "When you elves start growin' beards lad." Janije put his fingers into his mouth and let out a piercing shriek. "Bloody unnatural, not having a beard." He mumbled to himself.

  Brand Looked up to the side and let his consciousness flow out of him until he caught the mind of a giant eagle that was nesting somewhere nearby. The eagle responded to his touch with enthusiasm and in seconds it was soaring through the air. It reached him in about a minute, but long before then a huge wolf loped through the gates of the vampire slayer castle and ran to Janije. The dwarf smiled and let the wolf lick his face before he slapped it on the shoulder affectionately.

  "Ye're a good one Hrathgar, ye're way better than any old eagle now arntcha' boy?" Hrathgar just smiled a wolf smile and let his tongue wag while Janije ran his stubby finger's through his fur, searching for ticks. In a minute, a shadow fell over them, and Brand's eagle descended to the cobblestone courtyard. Brand smiled and began to saddle it while speaking to it with his mind.

  'How are you doing Flenwing?'

  'I am well master, and yourself?'

  'Fine, fine. Are you ready for this journey?'

  'I always am master.'

  Brand hopped onto Flenwing's saddle and turned to see Janije already mounted on Hrathgar's bare back. Janije was looking at him quizzically, but then he just spoke a word to Hrathgar, and the two of them were off. Brand gave no command to Flenwing, but his thoughts were enough. Moments after Janije exited the courtyard and started down the road, Brand was flying above him and keeping pace with him.

  "Bloody druid show off." Janije grumbled. Hrathgar barked in agreement.

  The rest of the trip went by in relative silence, because in order for Brand to keep pace with Janije, Flenwing had to go rather high so that he could catch the updrafts. Still, even with the silence, they knew that the trip would be relatively short, since Hrathgar and Flenwing were exceptionally fast. They always raced each other too, to see which was the fastest on any given day.

  Brand contented himself to just relax and let his gaze sweep over the forest that they were beginning to enter. Without his sight, Brand was deprived of seeing any texture, but with the powers he gained without his eyes he could see the life flowing through every tree, animal, and blade of grass. With this other sight the forest of Darkoven appeared to be a pulsing sea of red, yellow, and orange life energy. He still had not decided whether he had made a w
ise trade or not, but he felt reaffirmed whenever he used his sight to tell an evil person from a good one. It was while he was musing on this very state of affairs that his sight was suddenly drawn to a spot further along the road, one closer to Valestren, where many evil individuals appeared to be skirmishing with a smaller group of relatively good humans. The good ones seemed to be loosing from what Brand could see, so he quickly sent his mind down to Janije and invaded his brain.

  'Dangit' Brand, you know I hate it when you do this.' Janije gave a mental growl.

  'Yes, I know. However, there appears to be a group of humans fighting another group of humans. The more numerous group is rather evil. Shall we help the good ones?'

  Janije did not need to think. 'Hell yea elf, lead the way!'

  'Just follow the road.' Reassured with Janije's enthusiasm, Brand sent Flenwing into a steep drop towards the sight of the skirmish. He knew that Janije would follow. Once Flenwing was close to the tree line, Brand drew his sword, took his feet from the stirrups, and vaulted to the ground. He landed right behind on of the assailants and, before the man could turn, spun around, his curved sword cutting a clean line across the man's spine. As that man fell to the ground, Flenwing dropped Brand his spear and he launched it at another man who had his opponent on the ground. The man staggered before being impaled by his beaten adversary. Two other men left fighting the other group to charge at Brand, they both swung overhead at the same time, so Brand just blocked one's sword into the other's. They would have continued, but Brand just could not pass up the opportunity provided by both of their wrists being right next to each other. He cut off both of their sword hands and before moving around them and slicing off their other hands.

  'Just in case they're ambidextrous,' He reasoned, before stabbing his sword through both of their heads at once.

  From the screams of those two, most of the others figured out that Brand was very dangerous, so about ten of them gathered in front of him. They did not speak to him in some effort to try to make him surrender, they just all charged at once. Before they had taken their first step, one fell to the ground with an arrow in his throat. By the time they came to Brand, only four of them were left.

  "Easy." Brand spun towards the first, blocking his thrust with his sword before cutting a nice line down the man's chest. Brand then lunged back while two others lunged and stabbed. The two recovered from their attacks, but they were far too close to each other. Before the first could blink, he was impaled. The second one actually blocked Brand's first cut, but even while he was recovering from the blow, Brand cut him five times in various parts of his body before slicing open his throat. The last one thought that he was sneaking up on Brand, but as he raised his mace, an arrow imbedded itself into his chest right under his arm, piercing both of his lungs and his heart as well.

  There was only about five enemy warriors left now, so Janije put his bow back in its sheath and pulled out his hammer. The first warrior he met swung his axe at him. Janije laughed and swung his hammer at the axe. When the two met, the axe shattered into pieces and Janije swung back around to smash the human's head. The second was faster than Janije, he shoved his sword into Janije's chest, only to have its point completely stopped by his armor.

  "The hell?" Amazement took the better part of discretion for the fight.

  "The hell." Janije agreed, before smashing the warrior's toes. When he fell to the ground screaming, Janije placed a rather permanent dent into his chest.

  Brand was fencing all of the last three at once. He was smiling as he did it too. They all carried swords and were reasonable skilled, but if elves slept Brand could have beaten them in his sleep. Once he was sure that they could do no more, he gently tapped one blade point to the side before lunging in past it and in between the two other swords. He stabbed straight into one's neck, before spinning and decapitating another, and finishing his spin by stabbing down on the last in the back with both hands on his hands on the handle of his sword.

  After he retrieved and cleaned his weapons, Janije surveyed the group around him. There looked to be many merchants on their way to Valestren for who knows what reason, accompanied by a few guards. There had been quite a few more guards, but most were dead now. Then, however, something surprised him. A young girl walked from behind one of the carts that lined the path and over to Brand and him. Her sword was bloody, and Janije guessed that she had killed no less than three of them. She pulled a cloth from a pouch and ran it across her sword while addressing them.

  "I thank you for your assistance, vampire slayers. I fear that we may have been overwhelmed had you not interfered and for this we are in your debt. However, I am curious as to what business brings you so close to Valestren. Has something happened?"

  Janije narrowed his eyes before tapping Brand on his hip. Brand bent over and Janije took his head in his hands. He put his mouth to Brand's ear and whispered.

  "What does she look like?"

  Brand chuckled. "That's my line."

  "I'm serious dolt, is she good or bad?"

  "Oh, she's an exceptionally good one. So…What does she look like?" Brand was smiling.

  Janije sighed. "Idiot, she's…Gimme' a sec." Janije stole a quick look at Nasoren. "Really tall, blond, would be good looking if she wasn't so durned tall, got a sword and golden armor. She's a paladin by the looks of her. You happy?"

  "Yep. She's good, I'll tell them what happened." Brand took Janije's hands off of his head and straightened until he was standing at his full height. He turned his head towards Nasoren and smiled. "Yes, something happened some time ago. Some bandits, a few villagers, and two vampire slayers were killed by a vampire. We are here to further investigate the area and to track down the demon if it is at all possible. My friend tells me that you are a paladin, what brings you here?"

  Janije saw the girl stop cleaning her sword for a moment and cast a furtive look at the two slayers. He did not understand anything about it until she herself straightened and addressed them. "My name is Nasoren. I am a paladin, and I am returning to my hometown of Valestren just as I promised. I was there over two months ago when Mark was killed by the vampire."

  Brand and Janije exchanged glances. They both looked forward to asking this girl in person about what had happened. This time Janije spoke first. "Yes, all well and good, but you should get all o' these merchants or whatever they are into the town before dark gets on. Wouldn't want anymore casualties now would we?"

  "Right," Nasoren quickly agreed. "Well, I'm in charge of the security of this caravan, but since most of our guards are dead now, could the two of you consider staying with us until we reach the town?"

  "Sure," They agreed easily.

  It took a few more hours to get all of the wagons assembled and to lead them all the way to Valestren, but nothing else happened to slow them down so it was a peaceful few hours. Once they reached the town they found that the townsfolk had been expecting Nasoren to come back that day and that they were preparing a town banquet for her. As soon as the gathered townsfolk saw the two of them, however, they immediately surrounded them and began to pester them with questions about the deaths. Janije was getting rather disgruntled and was about to start swinging his hammer when the crowd stopped talking and parted to let one man through. Janije assumed that it must be the mayor, based on his bearing and the others' respect for him. The man surveyed both of the slayers and Nasoren before speaking in a bloated voice.

  "Welcome back Nasoren, and welcome as well slayers. We appreciate E's commitment to our safety. Nasoren knows about, and has already accepted our request to hold a feast in her honor. We would be immensely happy if you two would join us as honored guests." His throat seemed to get fatter and larger with every sentence he spoke, but then it finally began to deflate after he was finished speaking.

  "Hmmm," Brand was truly contemplating the offer, but he knew his duties. "We are very thankful to you for your invitation, but I'm afraid that we must start tracking the vampire that attacked your village a
s soon as possible."

  "Hold it lad," Janije tugged on Brand's elbow like he did whenever he wanted to interrupt him. "It won't be good to start our hunt so late in the day. We should stay the night and begin early in the morning." His voice was level and his timbre was impeccable, but everyone besides Brand saw the drool that was creeping over his lips.

  Brand slowly nodded at his friend's sage advice. "Yes, I suppose that this is best. Very well then, we accept your invitation with honor good sir."

  The mayor's smile seemed to eclipse the rest of his face. "Great! It's not often that we get such distinguished guests as an elf and a dwarf. Give us an hour and everything will be ready. Also, in the morning, just ask myself for anything, and I'll be happy to help you in any way that I can."

  Brand and Janije were immediately surrounded again, and before Janije could bring out his hammer, the two of them were herded to a small house and practically thrown inside it.