The Grim Legion

by Kindred Ult

  In the first seconds of the fight, the guardian had killed twenty of her skeletons and ten of Skull's. Sophella could also see that Skull had placed his own newer skeletons on the sides of the battle, away from the guardian. That way her skeletons would have to either focus on the guardian or turn their backs to him, and Sophella had to choose for them. She instinctively gave the first group of skeletons up as dead and ordered them to solely attack the skeletons within them and the guardian. They would die very quickly, but they might be able to do damage to the ones around them and to that guardian.

  Even as she gave them their death orders, she looked down at a ring on one of her fingers and said her personal password into it. Instantly her mind met another's, and her guardian spoke to her.

  "Milady, do you require my assistance?"

  "Yes, I do. I want you to join the battle ensuing. Kill all enemy skeletons you meet, but make killing the other guardian skeleton your top priority."

  "Yes, milady."

  As soon as her guardian affirmed she felt his presence leave her ring and travel to a few feet away from her. When he formed, she looked at him with satisfaction; she had made him well. She had used the same method for making him as she had with her staff, and it had taken an entire year, but the result was very satisfactory. He looked like a mannequin, with a full white body that was obviously male. He had a face, but his eyes and mouth were always closed and he was devoid of ears. He had no weapons, but she had designed him with that thought in mind. In her opinion, he was the perfect guardian.

  She sent him out with her newest batch of skeletons and returned her attention to her dying skeletons. They were obeying her to the letter, and had turned their backs to the skeletons around them and attacked only those within them. They attacked even as swords, hammers, and axes sliced and smashed them from behind. Amazingly enough, they had been able to pretty much destroy all of the skeletons within them, but they were having trouble with the guardian. Those that survived destruction by the bone whips were inevitably broken apart by its eight axes, whether it was spinning and slicing or just fighting with each of its bodies separately. One skeleton, which had had its legs sliced from under it, did manage to crawl close enough to slice off a leg, but it was smashed by two other legs, and then the rest of the leg was ejected from the guardian as another leg appeared from somewhere to take its place.

  Skull's guardian had succeeded in killing off the last of her skeletons when her guardian and the rest of her new army charged towards it. Skull was forced to gather his remaining skeletons around his guardian so that it would not be overwhelmed, and once again the two armies smashed into one another. This time, though, Sophella's guardian was in the front of her army, and he made all of the difference.

  Once the sides met, a skeleton swung down at her guardian with a sword. He stuck one arm up and activated the ward that Sophella had placed on his forearm. The sword clacked against the ward and bounced off as if it had hit metal, and as the skeleton's arm went back, her guardian closed his fist and activated the ward places on his knuckles. He punched the skeleton in the face and it exploded. Another skeleton swung from behind him and hit him in the back. The consistency of his bone skin was much harder than stone, however, and the sword barely dented him. The skeleton tried to swing again, but he spun around and kicked its head off of its shoulders.

  From there, her guardian was an unstoppable force on its way to Skull's guardian. Everywhere he punched a skeleton exploded, and even when he was far past his allies and surrounded by skeletons he simply activated the wards on his forearms and shins. He spun around, blocking every attack directed at him with either his hands or his legs, and in the second of rebound he switched the wards to his hands and feet. One skeleton's mouth was open, and its jaw flew through the floor when he punched it through its mouth. A second was hit in the rib cage, which compressed for a moment before imploding upon itself. Another skeleton was blown to the side by a kick to its waist, and another lost both of its legs by a similar kick before losing its neck to a straight kick.

  All of the skeletons around her guardian were quickly destroyed, but he sensed that he should end things quickly, so he activated the wards on his thighs, crouched, and sprung forward towards Skull's guardian with supernatural speed. The other guardian responded by shooting out all four of its whips at him. The two whips in front shot at him, while the two in back whipped around and slashed at him from the side. The length of the whips surprised Sophella since Skull had made it so that all four had the same length when attacking her guardian.

  Her guardian ended his jump on top of a skeleton and blew it apart with his feet while launching himself forward again. He spun in the air and barely dodged by the first shooting whip, then activated the wards on one of his forearms and one of the back of his opposite leg as he stuck his arm to block his face and kicked his leg up. The two whipping bone whips smashed against his arm and the back of his leg with bone breaking strength, and Sophella saw her wards crack under the strength, but the wards still held long enough for her guardian to turn with the whips and let them pass by him. The last whip shot at her guardian, but he activated the wards on one fist and on one palm. Right as the whip was about to slam into him, he swung with a punch and blew away the tip of the whip. With his other hand, he slapped his palm onto the remains of the whip, and when the other guardian retracted the rest of the whip it took him with it.

  Skull's guardian did not seem to be worried by him coming towards it, in fact, it began spinning on its axis with such speed that its bodies began to lose their individuality and it looked like a double-bladed top. Her guardian kept his open-handed grip on the whip until he was moments away from the axes that spun about, but at the last second he released the ward and dropped to the ground. Before the other guardian could change its spinning radius, he kicked out, blowing four legs away at once, rolled under the other guardian, and kicked up once while activating the ward on the tips of his toes. His toes blew through the bottom of the other guardian as red furrows began to grow around the hole he had crated. He swiftly activated the wards on the tips of his fingers and shoved them through as well. The other guardian actually screamed from all of its canine mouths as her guardian emerged from under it and began to rip it to pieces.

  As the other guardian fell to the ground and broke apart, Sophella saw that the rest of her skeletons were winning as well, and she also knew that if Skull stuck to this method, which was the most popular method, he could no longer win. She was able to summon more skeletons than he was, and now that his guardian was dead and hers was barely hurt, he had no chance. Now that she thought about it, though, he should have made more skeletons to at least stall her forces…

  She sent her thoughts over to him. 'Your guardian is dead. Do you yield brother?'

  Amusement flashed from him to her, but when he spoke his words were forced, as if he were concentrating very hard. 'Not in the slightest sister. While you were with the vampires, I've been experimenting. Watch this.'

  She looked over at him and froze. She had been too focused on the fight between the guardians, and had not paid any attention to Skull. Now she wondered how she could have not noticed him. Glyphs and sigils surrounded him and he was still racing his fingers through the air to make smaller and smaller sigils inside the larger ones. Sophella could read the glyphs and sigils with her superior eyes, but she did not recognize most of them, and that scared her. She quickly shot a ball of purple energy at Skull, but when it hit the glyphs it fizzled out of existence. He must have laced himself with wards as well.

  Frantically, Sophella sent her guardian and all of the remaining skeletons towards Skull while at the same time summoning fifty more and sending them out. When she was done, she grabbed her staff out of the air and readied for whatever it was Skull had spent all of this time preparing for.

  She had hoped that her skeletons would reach Skull before he could finish, but they were still thirty feet away when he yelled out the final command and made cut
ting motions with his hands. The power from the spell being released actually blew several of the skeletons out of existence, and Sophella felt it as it hit her and almost knocked her back. When she regained her footing, she thought that she was still stumbling, but then she realized that the ground itself was shivering. More accurately, the bones covering the ground began to shake and tremble as they strained to move towards Skull.

  The bones in his Skull's immediate vicinity moved even faster as they shot up into the air and began to make a gigantic ball. Bones by the hundreds flew into the ball, and many of her skeletons went with the bones on the ground. When the ball was about fifty feet in diameter, legs broke out of it and it fell to the ground. Cracks formed all around the ball, and then it broke into pieces as the giant inside it burst out. It was an enormous Bone Giant, with the bones of other skeletons serving as just parts of its own bones, and it stood a least fifty feet tall.

  As soon as Sophella saw the giant she called her guardian back into her ring. He was too useful to be sacrificed. Even as she did that, though, she sent all of her skeletons to attack the giant. She knew that it was pointless, though, even before the giant began smashing them into the ground as he advanced towards her. Many of the skeletons simply broke apart and merged with the giant before they ever reached him, and those that did not were swiftly destroyed.

  The giant ran towards her, the skeletons in its path not even considered in its mind. Even as she looked at it Skull's voice came into her head.

  'Do you yield, sister?"

  'No.' She had to think of something.

  A sigh came over from him, and the giant continued its charge.

  She did not move until the giant reached her and slammer its hand down at her. She jumped to the side and grabbed her staff in both hands while whispering something into it. The giant's hand hit the ground and caused a shock wave of bones to fly around it, and once it did Sophella spun back around and hit the hand with the tip of her staff. The staff barely tapped the hand, but once it did the hand instantly disintegrated. She did not wait for it to recover, but spun and delivered a strong swinging blow to the giant's shin, which also immediately turned to ashes.

  The giant began to fall, and when it did Sophella leapt into the air, straight for its chest. She slammed her staff into it, and was satisfied to see a hole appear in front of her. The giant fell to the ground, and she landed on its back before smacking it in the head with her staff and ending its existence. As she did, though, the rest of the bones became like water as they lost substance, and she stumbled as they fell back to the ground. It was at that moment that she saw that Skull had been making another, smaller, array of glyphs and just finished.

  She watched in horror as a large amount of bones merged into two of the giant's fists, positioned themselves on each side of her, and swiftly closed in on her. Skull must have realized that she could only use one side of her staff to Cleanse the dead. Even as she stumbled, Sophella came up with a plan. She spun and disintegrated one fist, and then turned around as fast as she could. Skull had done well, though, since she was only able to get her staff parallel to the fist. She only hoped that this was enough.

  She activated the ward on her staff and in the instant before the fist hit her a circular ward as long as her staff and two feet thick sprang up between her and it. The fist hit the ward with more strength than she had ever felt in her life. Eventually, her ward, which was the strongest she had, shattered, but when it did, the fist had lost all of its momentum and fell to the floor.

  Sophella smiled in relief, but even as she did she stiffened when a ball of black energy hit her in the back. She fell and landed on her back amidst all of the bones, and Skull materialized on top of her, with his boot on her chest and his spine staff raised above her. The tip of the staff began to glow menacingly red.

  "Do you yield now?" Skull wanted everyone to hear the conversation. Sophella saw him glance to the side for a moment, and knew who he was looking at.

  She weighed her options, and had to wonder how much the vampires meant to her. Were they worth dying for? She thought about all of the vampires she had met before, and many of them had been less than desirable company. In fact, the vampires as a whole had never done very much for her at all. Why should she risk her life to save a nation that probably did not deserve it?

  Then, however, she thought about Demenn, who had stayed behind to give her a chance to live. He had always been kind to her, and had kept her alive during her first months as a vampire. She also thought of Niethel, who had almost died for her sake. Maybe it was worth her life to repay debts like that.

  "No. I do not." Something of a gasp came from those watching.

  "Very well." She thought she saw a tear start to form in his eyes, and for a second he hesitated, but then he glanced to the side for a moment, and Sophella followed his gaze and saw that woman smile fiercely and nod. Skull nodded back and stabbed his staff down.

  Right to the side of her head.

  Sophella saw that he really was starting to cry. "Damnit Sophella, you know I can't do this. I could never kill you."

  Her superior smile was plastered to her face. "Yes, I know. So that leaves only one option."

  He took his foot off of her and helped her up. "Yea, I yield. You win."

  The crowd began to yell excitedly, but none of their conversations could eclipse the scream of a certain female, and Sophella's right lip curled in triumph as her eyes darted to the side to catch a glimpse of the other's distraught face. She did not look quite so beautiful, or handsome, now that all of her plans had fallen apart.

  "And, since I have won this duel, it is my right to choose not only the new Lich King or Queen, but to also decide whether we will go to battle or not." Skull almost looked relieved, and she remembered that he had wanted to stop being the Lich king. He probably would have too, if not for that woman. "We will go to war, and you, Skull, will be the Lich King. I could not justify being Lich Queen when in truth you are stronger than I am."

  She saw disappointment in his eyes, but also some pride at her compliment. She had never given him very many compliments, and this was definitely the greatest. He would be the Lich King now, and the vampires may just have a chance of surviving the war.

  - 24 -

  Alone

  16

  AloneBryce had been following the group of vampires for some time now, and he could not help but marvel at the silent way the weredragon carrying him through the air glided around. Had it not been for Nightwing's finesse, he was sure that Demenn and the other two, for that was who he had discovered to have captured the queen and Lupine, would have sensed them hours ago. As it was, they had been stalking them for almost a day and a half, even though they had to rest during the day and catch up later that night. There was nothing Brand wanted more than to attack, but he knew that he could do nothing until Demenn and the others stopped to rest, and they had not done that during the night yet.

  His centennial patience was eroding, and he was beginning to think that the vampires would run until they reached their territory. If that turned out to be the case, he and Nightwing would be forced to attack while they carried the Queen, and unless they executed their attack perfectly, that could end disastrously. He had sent his minotaurs to the werewolf lair and had instructed Brokenhoof to inform the royal couple that he had completed his mission and was currently on his way to save the Queen, and he could only hope that he would return with the Queen after making such a bold statement. He knew what would happen to him if he came back empty-handed, especially after what Brokenhoof had told him about how they had escaped. Why Nasoren would do such a thing was beyond Brand, and he was resolved to have a talk with her when he got back; if he got back.

  As more hours passed, Brand actually began to plan for having to attack the vampires while they were running, but then finally they stopped, put down their prisoners, and leaned against trees while taking deep breaths. Brand saw this from miles away with his other sight, and immediately i
nstructed Nightwing to increase his speed as much as possible while still being completely silent. Nightwing grunted a reply from his mind and his pace quickened noticeably. Brand was amazed to discover that still no sounds escaped the weredragon.

  As he steeled himself for the battle ahead, Brand thought about Demenn and the two with him. He wondered how he should fight them, whether he should pull out his sword and drop down on them from above, let Nightwing attack while fighting from his back, or have Nightwing attack and then attack in the confusion. Every part of Brand's being wanted another duel with Demenn, but he had also seen the prowess of the other two Vampires, and knew that he could not win a fight with all three of them. No, as much as he wanted to, he could not meet the three of them with conventional fighting because rescuing the Queen and Lupine was far more important than beating or killing them. He had to make sure that none of them would be able to get to the hostages and hold them captive while he was busy fighting the others. He needed something different.