The Blade Guardian

by Darren Hultberg Jr

  “The ravens... those bastards! They’re slaughtering them!” Ezry roared, her body trembling with rage. “If only I could use my godforsaken bow...” Her eyes shifted downwards to the blade that now replaced her right hand as a mix of sadness and rage seemed to cross her face... Dammit all, the ravens really had taken everything from her.

  Suddenly, Ezry’s gaze shifted back to me and the others who’d collected on the ridge to witness the carnage. “If I release you, will you help me take back the city?”

  “We’ll do what we can,” I quickly replied. “But the city looks to be overrun. Maybe we can help get some of your people out and—” The ground beneath our feet rattled, bringing me pause as an eruption of fire and dark energy consumed a pair of structures at the center of town. Ezry seemed to visibly recoil from the blast, the pain of witnessing her city fall clearly weighing heavy on her heart.

  “Lady Ezry!” another soldier shouted, bringing an end to the woman’s brief second of solemnity. “It looks like the black wolf company has gathered some of the fleeing townsfolk and helped them escape outside Lorethain’s northern wall. They’re trying to flee but they’ve got ravens on their tail!”

  Ezry nodded as the pain in her expression faded, quickly replaced by a look of sheer resolve. “Can we reach them by foot?” she asked, her tone militaristic and direct.

  “No, ma’am,” the soldier replied. “I don’t think so.”

  Again, the iron wolf captain nodded, then she did something quite unexpected... she raised her blade hand into the air and cut me free of my bindings.

  “I know of your mounts,” she said. “I saw them when I was tracking you. I’ll send some of my men back to Yggrash with your wounded dark-elf friend... but I need to get to those people. Can we ride with you?”

  Without responding to her directly, I raised a hand into the air, calling on the cold, northern wind. In seconds, a creature began to take shape, riding the very gales themselves. Zephyr, my windsteed appeared at my side, prancing with glee as the winds stroked her mane.

  It was then that I turned to acknowledge Ezry, outstretching my hand and giving her a firm nod of affirmation. “Let’s ride!28

  Unleash the Kraken

  We rode with the winds.

  Ezry sat behind me as we rode atop Zephyr, her unsurprisingly strong arms wrapped tightly around my waist. Riding parallel to me were Hilda and Roy, Ezry’s next in command, and behind, Horus tumbled along with my father and four iron wolf soldiers atop his bristly-haired back.

  We’d rode along the town’s outer ridge, staying clear of Lorethain’s crumbling walls as the ravens continued to consume the place in darkness and death. Perhaps the heroic thing to do would be to charge in, defy logic and take on the insurmountable odds. Maybe our valiant deaths would even appear in legends one day…. But no. Throwing away our lives would do nothing but guarantee the Asurans an easy victory over the realms. We would save those that had escaped the destruction of Lorethain… And then we would bring vengeance.

  As we cut north, the scene unfolding was less than promising. A large group of people had managed to escape the falling town and had begun to flee in a trio of wagons that were stationed near Lorethain’s outlying stables. Motivated by fear, they dashed through the town’s outer fields as a small troop of iron wolves struggled to guide them atop horseback. It looked like they hadn’t gotten far, which was a problem… because a large group of winged raven attackers had broken off from the main assault and were now in hot pursuit.

  “We need to get to them before they’re surrounded!” Ezry shouted, pointing to the fleeing Lorethainians. I nodded, then spurred Zephyr on even faster, riding the embrace of the winds themselves.

  In seconds, we descended from the town’s outer ridge and headed north across the field, joining with the wolves and the townsfolk as arrows began to slam into the ground around us.

  “Create a perimeter!” Ezry commanded. “Defend the innocents! And Darkblade, take me to the head of the pack!”

  I leaned low on Zephyr as we galloped through the caravan of townspeople and rode up to the two men leading the pack. My eyes went wide as I spotted exactly who it was that rode in the lead.

  Two men each sat atop a pair of massive black dire wolves, indomitable creatures that made Zephyr look like a pony. The man on the left wore tight darkleather armor with a pair of runic hatchets hanging at his side and an impressive looking longbow strapped to his back. His long, brown hair blew in and out of his face as his wolf sprinted across the field while a smaller wolf ran parallel at his left.

  And at his right, the other wolf-rider sat a bit less comfortably atop his dire beast, his fingers gripping tightly at the creature’s black fur. This rider lacked any noticeable armor, instead clad in rather fine-looking travel wear with a pair of thick leather belts strapped loosely around his waist. The belts appeared to hold a number of smithing tools used to create armor and weapons, their finely crafted nature easily spotted from afar. On his back he wore a larger warhammer, likely used for self-defense.

  I just couldn’t believe my damn eyes... leading the escape from Lorethain was the unlikely pair of Rhylor and Vic!

  “Boss!” Vic shouted as he noticed us ride up alongside them.

  “Vic?” I said as an arrow zinged by my head. “What the hell are you guys doing here?”

  “Running for our lives, Boss,” Vic replied with enthusiasm.

  “Darkblade! What’s the meaning of this?!” Rhylor interjected. “Call your men off!”

  “Not my men anymore, Rhy,” I replied. “They want me dead just as bad.”

  “Enough chatter!” Ezry growled. “We need to get these people to safety.”

  Rhylor nodded. “There’s an abandoned temple a few miles north. We can dig our heels in there and set up some defenses.”

  “Then get us there, Captain,” Ezry ordered.

  Without responding, Rhylor hopped to his feet atop the back of his charging wolf and equipped his ornate longbow, taking aim at one of the ravens who managed to dive in close. “Burning bow...” he whispered before firing off an arrow that ignited mid-air before slamming into the raven, dropping him as his cloaked body consumed with blood and fire. “Let’s move double-time, men!” he then shouted. “We ride for the temple!”

  ><><

  My mind raced as we darted across the field, dodging diving assaults from the ravens as they continued to pick us apart from the skies. Some of the iron wolves had managed to fire back at our attackers, and even Salence and Ivan had taken to the skies, using their aetherial magickk to try and rebuff some of the attacks. Still, the ravens had managed to take down an entire wagon full of villagers, and it wouldn’t be long before they managed to get another.

  “How much farther?” I yelled back to Ezry before turning and launching an errant throwing knife into the sky.

  “Just ahead,” she replied, pointing to some rocky foothills just nearby. Apparently, the ravens had noticed as well, as a handful of them swooped ahead, before turning to meet us head on. They did not want to see us escape... no, for them total annihilation was the only option.

  “Darkblade... we need to clear a path!” Rhylor shouted, dropping back a few paces to ride along side of me. “You remember the arena?”

  “Oh yeah,” I replied, gearing myself up for a fight. It was odd how natural my camaraderie to the ranger felt. On our first encounter we’d nearly killed each other, and on our second we fought for each other’s lives in the arena. It was a bond forged in battle and blood, but a growing one nonetheless.

  The first winged raven darted in, grinning as he flew just feet above the ground, a claymore dangling in his grasp. “Watch your right,” Rhylor instructed, before nocking a pair of arrows and firing them from the back of his wolf. The arrows flew through the air, forcing the raven to swoop to the right to avoid their sharp points. This left the man directly in my line of sight... just as expected.

  I forged nevermore from shadow and swung the blade upward, sheari
ng the man’s right wing off as he crashed into the dirt before being trampled by one of the horses at my rear. It was an off-balance blow that I dealt the man, but thankfully Ezry retained her tight grip on my waist as I attacked, otherwise I may have found myself trampled alongside the raven!

  “Two more incoming!” Rhylor shouted. “Your bow... Aim high!”

  I dismissed nevermore and quickly equipped Eagleshot as Rhylor took aim. “Burning bow,” he uttered once more, launching a pair of fiery arrows at the coming ravens... though this time, things were a bit different.

  “Ignite!” Rhylor yelled, causing the arrows to explode in a torrent of flame that nearly engulfed the two assailants. The men swooped high to avoid the fire, hovering in the air above us for a just a split second before one of my arrows flew in and caught one of the men in the chest.

  I scrambled to take aim at the second raven, but the man dove too quickly, coming directly at me with a thin, curved blade! I winced, prepared to take a slash to the face, but the attack never came... not with Ezry at my back.

  The woman watched as the raven dove at us, biding her time before reaching out with her blade hand and stabbing the assailant directly through his eye! The man immediately dropped, his body going limp before he could even finish swinging his blade.

  “Thanks,” I said, straightening myself out atop Zephyr.

  “Stay vigilant,” was her response, which I assumed was the iron wolves’ way of saying ‘you’re welcome’.

  In seconds, we managed to reach a path at the base of the foothills, continuing our charge as the ravens regrouped in the skies above. The rocky hills grew larger on either side of us as we followed the winding path, our mounts forging on with everything that they had.

  Anticipation grew as our group made it around another bend. We’d nearly reached our destination, yet the ravens still hovered above, preparing for a last assault. We were so close, just so damn close...

  Suddenly, we reached the end of the hillside path and my jaw nearly dropped. Sitting there at the heart of the hills was a wide, pointed structure of stone and steel. The building was expansive, with one large pointed tower at its center accompanied by several smaller points along its sides. At the front of the structure was a pair of large, ornate doors with markings that continued to stretch along the building’s sides.

  “No way,” I uttered as a quest notification appeared in my vision.

  Quest completed:

  Discover the blade temple

  500 exp. gained

  “Get everyone in!” Ezry shouted as we rode up to the temple’s doors. A group of iron wolf soldiers immediately dismounted and went to work prying open the sealed entrance. Slowly the doors began to slide open, but not nearly fast enough... no, not now that the ravens had resumed their assault.

  “They have us cornered!” Hilda yelled, lifting her aegis shield as a hail of arrows pelted the area around her. “They’re going to slaughter us before we get those doors open!”

  Dammit all, she was right. I grimaced, re-equipping my bow and taking aim at the skies. Perhaps I could help hold off the ravens with a few well-placed....

  “Oh no.” My eyes went wide as a growing ball of fire came spiraling out of the sky, courtesy of a pair of ravenflight mages. “Take cover!”

  The fireball crashed into the ground nearby, incinerating a pair of soldiers and sending smaller balls of pitch crashing into everyone and everything around it. One of the winged mages let out a cackle as they began their chant anew, preparing to launch a second ball of flame in my direction.

  “Enough,” a defiant voice yelled, a voice that boomed over the tumult of battle. My eyes scanned the area until I spotted him standing above the others, perched atop a jagged rock with his familiar hammer in hand. Candor the spiritwalker... my father, was facing the ravens head on!

  Aether pooled around my father’s body as a translucent, hooded deity took shape around his muscled frame. It was clear that he was pouring everything he had into the spiritform, as it had grown to a size much larger than his previous incarnations. Nearly a dozen translucent tentacles unraveled as they stretched out from my father’s core, bringing the ravens the slightest of pauses. They had no idea what they had just done... they’d provoked the wrath of the Kraken.

  “Feel the power of the tides!” Candor yelled as he willed the tentacles into the air, wrapping the ravens tightly in his aetherial appendages and tossing them about with ease.

  “Protect that man!” Ezry shouted as a trio of iron wolves rushed to my father’s side, guarding him from errant projectiles as the spiritwalker went to work.

  And went to work he did.

  Tentacles continued to lash the members of ravenflight, knocking them out of the air with brutal efficiency as they scrambled to switch to the defensive. One of the ravens managed to dodge Candor’s tentacles before taking a dive at the man, sword drawn and ready to strike. Unfortunately, he only came within a few feet of the spiritwalker before the hooded avatar of Vorghan reached out, smashing the raven between a pair of open palms and nearly obliterating the man’s health reticle.

  “It’s open!” Rhylor growled, waving in the others through the temple’s open doors as my father continued to stave off the raven’s assault. In an act of finality, my father recoiled his translucent tentacles, forming their ends into sharp points before launching them into the air in every direction, scattering the ravenflight flock to the winds with Vorghan’s wrath.

  Suddenly, Candor fell to a knee as his spiritform faded, his body taxed to its limits after his all-out assault. I raced over to him, Hilda at my side as we scooped the man up under his shoulders and hauled him back towards the temple doors.

  The ravens began to regroup, scowls now on their faces as we retreated into the depths of the temple, slamming shut the structure’s large, stone doors behind us. Then, for perhaps the first time since reaching the Thornlands, we breathed.

  ><><

  The ravenflight members pooled around the entrance to the blade temple, eyeing the sealed stone doors with more than a bit of scorn. “We better pry this thing open,” one of them growled.

  “I don’t know...” another argued. “They said the wolves were our enemies, but a lot of those people seemed harmless. We already sacked their city... do we really need to—”

  “Yes!” a guttural voice declared, interrupting the man’s words as he descended upon the crowd. The ravens turned their heads to witness Morose and his group of personal assassins approach from behind, a look of annoyance etched into the man’s dark, brooding face. Morose hadn’t been part of the assault on Lorethain… no, he had traveled from Yggrash, hot on the trial of Zander and his crew. Fortunately, that path had brought him here where a group of ravens stood fresh at his disposal… ravens that would suit his plans quite nicely.

  “We have to hunt them down, for the sake of the guild,” Morose continued, rousing the men as he raised a fist into the air. “If we don’t, they’ll only rally their brethren and come back at us ten times harder. We must deal them this blow if ravenflight is to claim Aetheria... they must fall.”

  “He’s right,” one of the original muttered. “They had a Tidecaller with them. They’ve already begun to rally against us!”

  “Get the doors open!” a third raven shouted. “We won’t let them flee the ravens!”

  “For ravenflight!” the men began chanting as a handful of them began to pry at the door.

  “Yes...” Morose whispered, eyeing the temple with more than a bit of scorn. “For ravenflight... and for a final end to that damned Slayer...”

  29

  Forceable Entry

  Darkness engulfed us as the doors to the temple slammed shut, along with the eeriness with that accompanied entering a long-abandoned building. Thankfully, a few of us had torches, and in seconds the sconces surrounding the circular room were burning anew.

  Inside there looked to be nearly forty of us... twenty terrified townspeople, another fifteen or so iron wolves in
cluding Rhylor, Vic, and Ezry, plus my father, Hilda and myself. Our familiars were also present, and of course Horus, which also bolstered our numbers just a bit.

  As we gathered at the chamber’s center, Ezry’s instincts took over and she began shouting orders. “Wolves, we have enemies gathering at the door. Do what you can to prevent them from getting in, and if they do... show them who the true predators are.” She then turned to my father, who’d taken a seat on the floor to rest. “Thank you, Tidecaller. Without your bravery, we might’ve perished out there.”

  “No problem,” my dad replied, giving her a thumbs up before turning and shooting me a wink. I gave him a slight smile of affirmation, then turned to Rhylor and Vic. “What the hell are you guys doing here?”

  Vic grinned. “Our guild, the black wolf company got absorbed by the iron wolves. They bought us out thanks to yours truly... gave us positions of rank, our own housing... the whole nine. And all I have to do is make them armor with these hands of mine.” Vic wiggled his fingers in the air in front of me in a goofy fashion, though I could easily sense the pride in his voice as he spoke. He’d gone from a man afraid of low-level swordsmen to the armorer of one of Aetheria’s great guilds in a matter of months... dammit all, maybe he was more cut out for this world than I thought!

  “Zan!” Hilda shouted as she rushed over to my side. “This is it! This is the blade temple!”

  “I know...” I replied solemnly. “But we never made it to the priests in Lorethain. We don’t even know what we’re here to do.”

  “Then perhaps you must figure it out, Zander,” Razyr cut in, climbing back up to his resting spot atop my shoulder. I chuckled, then slowly I began scouring the chamber for clues.

  The room where we had found ourselves was quite massive, a circular area with stone walls covered in strange markings accompanied by etchings of long, symmetrical blades. There were no windows or doorways in the chamber... hell, there wasn’t even a chair to sit in. No, the only discernible feature that the room contained was a plain, silver sarcophagus placed directly at the chamber’s center.