The Grim Legion

by Kindred Ult

  "Yes, very few of them do—Wait, what's that supposed to mean?"

  He flinched reflexively. "Nothing, nothing, it's just that they don't exactly seem like the kind of people who would have kids is all." He hoped he sounded contrite and convincing.

  Her eyes narrowed and she kept facing forward. "Well, it doesn't matter. I say that we're going south, so that's what we're doing. And that's final."

  "Yes master" He mumbled.

  "What was that?"

  "I didn't say nothin'." Niethel growled and focused on running. He knew that wherever the Necromancer's lived would be far away, and that he would have to steel himself for another long run.

  On the subject of running, Varus was getting very tired of that same action. He had managed to run for a day or maybe two, but now he was running out of strength. His breath was running ragged in his lungs, and he was barely aware of where he was running; only aware that he had too keep on running. The incessant howling behind him drove him on like war drums, and the blood in his ears throbbed in time with his pounding feet. Even using all of his strength, and with the break provided by them becoming human during the daytime, he was still only barely ahead of them, and they were catching up faster than any time before. He felt like they would catch him at any moment.

  Then, ahead of him, he saw something that made his heart jump. It was the trail that would lead him back to the vampire territories. He knew where he was now, and might be able to evade his captors. He felt unnecessarily giddy at having this one ray of hope, but his hope was quickly shattered as he heard a thundering noise behind him. Without looking, he somehow knew that it was a first class werewolf coming after him.

  Despair fell over him, and he felt only a little more as a large hand wrapped around him and he was flung to the side. He glanced off of a tree, spun in the air, landed with a thump, rolled, and ended back on his feet. Despite this display, however, he knew that he was dead, and it was not just because the werewolf was over twice his size, he had been running since before he could remember, and he had no weapons. No, he knew, somehow, that even if he had his weapons, was rested, and the werewolf in front of him was in its normal form, that he would lose to this red-haired beast. It seemed to give off an aura that overpowered him before he could even think about running or fighting back.

  The werewolf did not attack him. For some strange reason it just stood in front of him and stared at him while the other werewolves surrounded him. He did not know why, but he felt fascinated by the red werewolf's two swords that were strapped to its back. One was huge and must have been at least ten feet long, the other was smaller and only five feet long. Varus resigned himself to his death by this gigantic werewolf. He supposed that it was only natural to be defeated by the perfect hunter. Just as he was about to give in to his exhaustion and fall to the ground—why keep standing when one could die on the ground just as well—he heard a voice bellow out from nowhere he could tell.

  "Triplecorpse Hammerblow!"

  The noise made all of the werewolves, even the large red one stop and look around for a moment. When nothing happened, though, they turned their attention back to Varus, and the ten smaller werewolves began to stalk towards him again.

  Varus blew breath from his mouth. That voice had shocked him out of his submissive state, and now he wanted nothing more than to kill at least one of these before he died. He knew that he would die, though, that was clear. Then, however, he saw a figure falling from up above him and land on the ground a few feet from one werewolf. The werewolf spun around in surprise, but it could do nothing to dodge the huge hammer that smashed it into the ground, flattening it like a pancake. The rest of the werewolves turned to regard the figure, and several actually gasped. Before them stood the largest human any of them had ever seen. He stood taller than any of them besides Blood, and must have been at least ten feet tall. His muscles bulged on every part of his body as he brought his huge hammer up from the ground and rested it on his shoulder. His sandy blond hair hung to his shoulders and his face was handsome enough.

  Within an instant, all of the werewolves forgot about Varus and charged at the human. He laughed until three got too close, at which time he grabbed his hammer with both hands and swung it sideways, smashing all three into a tree and completely obliterating their torsos. The hammer stuck in the tree, and he was forced to let go of it when a feral werewolf ran at him from the side. It lunged at him, but its movement was stopped completely by his outstretched arm. It slammed against his palm and tried to dodge around, but he closed his fingers around its skull, and before it could start to claw at him he squeezed. It made mewling sounds for several seconds before its skull imploded, spraying blood and gray matter all over the human.

  With his free hand, the human finally ripped his hammer from the tree, causing it to fall over, and held it in front of him, daring the other werewolves to attack him. They were very wary of him by now, however, so the remaining five—Blood had not done anything for the entire fight—circled around the human, trying to find a chance to kill him. Unfortunately for them, they failed to notice the second, black-clothed, figure that was even now lurking in the shadows around them. They did notice him, though, but not until he leapt out, shoved a silver saber into one's back, pulled it out with a spin, and finished the spin by kicking another werewolf in the face.

  The werewolf staggered for a bit, but then it recovered, and was about to attack the other human again when it realized that it had moved far too close to the large human. It never fully realized this, though, because it was smashed within moments. Another werewolf charged the black-clad one, and it swung its sword with all of its might. Unfortunately, the human was no longer where it had aimed, instead he was behind the werewolf, stabbing it through the neck. The remaining werewolves charged the smaller one, but one was not paying enough attention, because it stepped just a foot too close to the large human, who promptly smashed it as well.

  Even as the large human reduced the werewolf to pulp, however, Blood made his move. He rushed towards the large human, who saw him out of the corner of his eye and spun around, swinging out with his hammer grasped in one hand. Blood was too close, though, and the head of the hammer passed behind him, making the rest of the hammer pass as well. Blood was very close now, and he was about to attack when the human grabbed the neck of the hammer with his other hand and pulled with both hands, pinning Blood to him. He had intended to break Blood's back with the handle of his hammer, but once he began to try he realized the futility of the actions. Blood was much too strong for a maneuver like that, and with his added height, pinning him was ineffective too. Blood smiled and lifted his fist up before slamming the human to the ground, breaking his hold on his hammer.

  It was obvious to Varus that the human's nose was broken from its shape and all of the blood that was gushing from his face, but he did not flinch. Blood lifted his fist to his mouth and ran his tongue along it before smearing the blood into his fur.

  "You have good blood, human. You will increase my power greatly."

  "Not yet it won't, my beastly adversary." The voice from behind Blood was accompanied by a huge ball of fire that blew into him. Even Varus knew that werewolves feared fire, but watching Blood he wouldn't have been able to tell. Blood stared down at the human on the ground as the fire began to spread along his back, and he then looked at the other one before smiling.

  "You win this time, warriors, but pray that you are not alone the next time we meet." He ran off into the forest, the pyre on his back giving away his position for several hundred feet.

  The skirmish was over and Varus was just beginning to fully comprehend what was going on. He saw all of the dead werewolves and the two humans and realized that he would live. 'That is,' he thought with a sudden jolt, 'if they don't want to kill me too.' He figured that he would have to take offensive action if he were to live through this encounter. He walked towards the two of them and tried his best to smile.

  "Thank you friends. You've no idea
just how much you've helped the vampires tonight. If you'll come with me to the Vampire Castle, I'm sure that you will be greatly rewarded." He thought that the vampires would have no objections to this, or at least he hoped they would not.

  Unfortunately, the large one, the one Varus assumed must be called Triplecorpse Hammerblow, only frowned. "Stow it vampire, we didn' come here to save your sorry arse. We came here to avenge Lidian, and these were the first werewolves we cud' find."

  "It is as my large, barbaric friend says, my little vampire. We did not travel countless leagues to this decadent place in order to swear our allegiance to a society that is corrupt and altogether devoid of honor, but rather to seek vengeance for the crime that was perpetrated against our mutual friend Lidian; who unfortunately decided to ally herself to you and your brood." The Human who spoke next to Triplecorpse was about five-eight, rather good looking, and dressed completely in black. In his hand he held a bloody saber, and he had knives visible from almost every conceivable place. He had two in each of his boots, three in each of his sleeves, four in his belt, and two were showing from inside his shirt; and that was just the ones Varus could immediately see. The man had the look of intelligence mixed with deception.

  Varus cocked his eyebrow. "And…Who're you?"

  The man smiled, as if he had been waiting for that question. "Aha, I'm so glad you asked. I am Jacque Dufromage (Don't let the name fool you, I'm from our continent, I just liked this one better than my original one), pirate and assassin extraordinaire!" As he said this he bowed low before springing into the air, flipping backwards, and landing back on his feet with a flourish of an imaginary hat that should have been on his head.

  "Um…Right, well, since you guys are technically on Lidian's side, and since I'm on her side…Are you going to let me go?" He hoped that his logic would make sense to them.

  Jacque's smile disappeared, replaced with a frown. "Oh, don't mind us, you just continue on your way with whatever information you have that is so vital." He walked to a tree and leaned on it while cleaning his blade with a cloth he had produced from somewhere.

  "Uh, thanks." Varus did not want to wait around and see if they would change their minds, so he abruptly turned tail and ran back off into the forest, anxious to get as much distance between himself and these strange humans as he could despite his horribly aching body.

  Dragon Hunting

  13

  Dragon HuntingThe male vampire opened the door to the room and was astonished to see the fountain ahead of him already glowing. She had contacted him, which was a first. He quickly walked to the fountain and placed his hand on its waters. In seconds the water stilled and he could see her staring at him. He grinned happily, but he doubted that she had called just to talk to him.

  "Ah, my sweet, you called for me, and here I am. Shall we talk about old days? Or shall we discuss a way to be in each other's arms once again?"

  She narrowed her eyes. "Be quiet. You know fully well that we cannot see one another until our work is done. More importantly, did any of them reach you?"

  "One," he sighed, "Varus just reached us a little while ago. He has not presented a formal report to the council yet, but he has told several vampires about his findings, and the entire city is awash with talk about the discovery of your lair. I thought that you said your men would kill him. You even said that you sent Blood."

  "We did, and Blood said that they had caught him when they were attacked by two humans. A mage and a large barbarian. We sent ten werewolves along with Blood, but only he survived the incident. His entire back is burned black too." She made a face, and he could not tell if it was consternation or amusement. She always had this way of making such ambiguous faces that he could rarely tell what she was thinking. He did not know if he enjoyed that or hated that about her. He noticed that she had stopped talking, and was waiting for him to respond.

  "Damn, so what happened to the humans?" It sounded weak to him, but he did not know what else to say.

  She raised an eyebrow. "We don't know, I had assumed that they would come to you with Varus and join you. Have they not?"

  "No, he came alone. We thought nothing of it, but this information is rather disturbing. What do they think they can do alone?" He puzzled.

  She waved his concerns aside with her hand. "Regardless, it is better to act as if they did not exist. We don't need any more complications right now. The more important matter is what to do."

  He was not completely convinced, but he figured that he would let the matter slide. "Right, on a side note, though, how do you want us to deal with that Deathbreak fellow you were having problems with?"

  She cocked her head to the side for a second. "Oh right, him, you don't need to worry about him. Something came up this morning, and I've found a way to have him taken care of. More importantly, how will we deal with Varus? Can you kill him?"

  He chuckled. "As much as I would love to, it would be far too suspicious to have the bearer of such important news die right after making it public. Those whom he told about it would step up and trumpet his information for all to know. I must give him credit. I thought that he would just be Demenn's pawn in this, but he has proved to be resourceful when it comes to surviving in a politically charged environment."

  "Then the only option left is to speed up our plans." She did not seem very pleased with the thought.

  He thought about that for a moment. "Yes, we should just go straight to the last phase."

  "Exactly what I was thinking, but we'll need Lueke's permission before we do that." Now she seemed almost happy to him. Maybe the thought of blood was exciting her. She always had been excited by it. The thought of that made a shiver pass through his body. Oh how that had excited her. The memories those thoughts brought back to him made him feel that he could not bear to be apart from her any longer.

  "I-I'll send one of my men to Lueke as soon as possible…But wait, how will we get the werewolves out of their lair and into an open field with the vampires? They could conceivably stay there and make the vampires invade, which would destroy our plans quite thoroughly."

  She appeared to be in thought for a moment. "True, but I have no idea how we'll get them out."

  He tried not to smile as the thought hit him. It was perfect. "As much as it pains me, I think that you will have to release Demenn and his subordinates."

  "What!?" Surprise and rage showed on her face. Two emotions he rarely got to see, but that she was very bad at hiding.

  "Just listen, if you can find a way to have Demenn and them released and then have the werewolf Queen be near the prison when he is, then he would jump at the chance to serve his race and would capture her along with her handmaidens. You would obviously be there, to make sure that everything would work out." He hoped that he sounded casual.

  For a moment her eyes narrowed. "Is it really necessary for all of us to be captured?"

  He felt her suspicion, but his face was placid. He had been through worse situations. "Yes, the King will not be provoked unless someone dear to him is taken, and everyone knows how much he loves the Queen. And," he could not keep his desire out of his voice, "I can't bear to be apart from you for much longer. They said that we would only be apart for a short time, but it's been almost fifty years. I need you, Victoria."

  Her face softened. "Alright, Aaron, I'll agree to this. Are you sure that it will bring about the war that needs to be fought?"

  "Exactly," he was surprised at how the entire situation actually worked out, "and when they've fought to the death and one side claims a narrow victory…"

  "We will be there." She finished for him.

  "And that's when the victory will belong to us…" Leading her felt good.

  "The Werepyres." She finished for him again with pleasure.

  "So how've you been Deathbreak?" Brand turned around in his seat to see Lupine enter his house and revert to her human form.

  "I've been better." He tried to smile as he put down the book he had been reading with his n
ew eyes.

  She looked at him quizzically. "Got something on your mind?" She said as she helped herself to the chair that was across from him.

  He sighed before speaking, trying to compose his thoughts. "It's our race. Do we have any honor at all?" He felt stupid even asking the question.

  She seemed to immediately know what was going on. "Oh, you're referring to the outcome of your fight with that Demenn fellow who defeated you in combat but was still captured and imprisoned."

  "Exactly," he felt better now that he was talking about it. "He had the honor to let me live after defeating me, but now he's in prison awaiting whatever fate our society has in store for him."

  She thought about that for a bit before reaching a conclusion. "Well, listen, remember when I told you about the time when vampires and werewolves were united?"

  "A little," he searched his mind. "It was during the Werepyre war right?"

  She smiled at his good memory. "Right, well, after we beat them we agreed to an alliance and made a pact that divided Darkoven into two parts and stated that neither race could cross the boundary into the other country unless given permission by the leaders of both countries. For a time all of us prospered, and both races lived in relative harmony. One night, however, we awoke to find that our King and Queen had been killed in their sleep and their hearts had been ripped out. Even though the vampires still denounce the deed to this day, we know that it was them. Who else could have done it? Every werewolf loved our King and Queen."