Light shined through the tall trees of the Lutean forest as two warriors walked side by side on their hunt. Deimos unarmed and Eldlasa wielding a short sword. Deimos' wound was almost fully healed after just two days but Eldlasa was still quite unable to use her left hand. Something was definitely off, or perhaps the legends of the Black Legion were, in fact, true. They were considered to be the hardiest of soldiers and could withstand serious injuries for extended periods of time. It would seem these soldiers hardened more than just their hearts for war. Their hearts, beneath chests like that. Eldlasa's face lit up, now quite red. He wasn't awful to look at, despite being a brachen. A man of a slave race. Eldlasa quickly let her mind wander elsewhere.
"Are you getting sick, elf? You can't really be this frail," said Deimos, noticing her milky, porcelain skin was suddenly quite red.
"W-what're you blathering on about with that bear mauled face of yours!" Eldlasa said, stuttering and her face even more red as she quickly snapped her head in the opposite direction.
"...my face isn't that bad is it? Hahaha."
"Oh it's as smooth as fresh fucking tree bark in the spring. Without the pleasant, earthy aroma of course."
"So now I smell bad too?" Deimos said, one brow raised.
"Like shit," said Eldlasa with a devious grin.
"Words would be better spent on planning and tactics, instead of...whatever this is, elf."
"God, your breath isn't much better," she said, now batting her eyelashes.
Deimos sharply exhaled, clenched his jaw and then quickened his pace through the woodlands.
"Oi slow down you oaf, ladies first remember!"
A few moments later they both come upon a den of wolves, a few of which were injured. Eldlasa was commissioned by a fellow paladin to deal with these wolves killing game on Lutean royal hunting grounds. Seemed like work beneath a High Paladin but she assured Deimos the wolves were beyond a mere soldiers chore.
Seven wolves were spotted, two sleeping and the other five feeding on the carcass of a large bear. Ripping bits of ripe flesh from the corpse, gorging themselves. The pungent odour of blood and rotting fish met Deimos' nose with hostility. A taste of raw iron filled the air, almost suffocating to him as well. He noticed it while tracking the beasts through the thick forest. Other than the wolves he could hear naught but the rustling of the trees and perhaps a few rabbits and squirrels scurrying freely while the wolves were away. There was also a very faint smell of burnt raspberries. This was a very bad sign. His ears grew hot and an uneasy feeling unsettled his stomach.
"I've found your beasts, Eldlasa. I count seven."
"There were maybe twelve last I was here but the request is for seven so whatever. I think a see something up ahead too."
"Can you not see them at all?"
"I don't have the great and storied eyes of a legionnaire," Eldlasa said, rolling her eyes.
"You lack the nose as well, otherwise you wouldn't have attempted to hunt this particular pack in the first place."
"What, why?"
"The leader of this pack has been kissed by the abyss. Had it bit you, we might've never met," he said as he focused his eyes on it. Thrice the size of the other wolves. A truly dangerous creature.
"It fucking what!"
"Voice down elf or we lose the advantage."
"Oh fuck my pretty arse. That pompous idiot must've known," Eldlasa said under her breath.
"Let us plan our attack, Eldlasa. I'll dispatch of three or four of the ones feasting and then move onto the two sleeping. You'll engage whichever ones survive the first assault. Understood?" Said Deimos as he kept a watchful eye on their prey.
"You'll use that ice beast again? Surely that'll kill more than just three or four."
Deimos shook his head. "Págos won't be assisting us here, I'll be using this weapon here," said Deimos as he pulled out a flat bent stick, lined with steel and embedded with three green jewels.
"How the fuck is a children's throwing stick supposed to kill four fucking wolves..."
"It's not a... Grrrr this is a War Wing from the Tempest war bands," said Deimos, his voice crackling with outrage. War wings were powerful weapons made in the Tempest continent and were known to have explosive results when empowered and employed against ones enemies. Shocking a paladin from the neighboring land had not heard of them. "It'll do a lot more than kill some wolves."
"Maybe you legionnaires die so bloody often because you do mad shite like throw sticks at savage beasts. Won't you at least use your actual sword?"
Deimos grimaced. So pronounced was his expression that Eldlasa felt a chill run up her spine. He got up and began marching towards the wolves, the look in his eyes alone let her know it was time to strike. He didn't do much planning with her but how much planning would one really need against wolves. She collected herself and followed suit with her short sword in tow. She watched Deimos run his hand along the throwing stick and it started trembling violently as the three jewels began to glow a bright green.
Deimos jumped out of the woods and tossed the odd weapon as hard as he could as he shouted, "loose!"
The wolves looked towards Deimos, now alerted to his presence, and started growling. But before they could act the stick curved through the air and connected with one of the wolves in the pack.
Kaboom! A loud noise punctuated the air as three of the wolves were obliterated by an explosion of wind magic. A mist of blood covered the area of Impact while splatters of intestines and other viscera dispersed from the area half coating Deimos as he charged at his next foes.
He held one hand out and icy magic started to take shape in his palm. One of the two surviving wolves immediately jumped out of the mist, fur covered in blood and guts. Its dull yellow eyes met Eldlasa's and it began rushing towards her.
"Remember me bastard!" Eldlasa said as she took a stance with her short sword before her, one foot behind the other and her injured arm behind her back. It lunged at her but she deftly side stepped and it tumbled to the side. "Dumb animal haha!"
As Eldlasa gloated she heard a second growl behind her as another wolf appeared from the blood mist. Licking the blood from its face. It and its companion begin circling her. Eldlasa's heart pounded madly within her chest and her hands were now slick with sweat inside her gauntlets.
One of the two wolves Deimos charged at took off towards him while the other only walked. Within his hand a long, sharp javelin of ice quickly formed, cutting his hand and instantly freezing any blood that left the wound. He gripped the icy javelin and held it under his arm as he crouched low and thrusted it into the wolf, piercing it cleanly and killing it instantly. As its body fell limp he stood and kicked it off the glacial weapon.
The last wolf facing him had grey and black mottled fur and stood silently, focused on him with pink glowing eyes. An abyssal wolf no doubt. The reason a paladin was given the task. Deimos readied himself, tightened his grip on his weapon and exhaled frosted breaths.
"You little cunt!" Eldlasa yelled as a wolf bit at her leg almost making her tumble to the ground. She stabbed downward, lodging her blade into its skull from above but before she could take a breath the other wolf bit her Injured arm. It gnawed at the pristine armour, pulling her as she winced in pain, "Fuck fuck fuck!"
"Careful, elf! Hold your own," said Deimos having heard his companions distress. It was enough to distract him as a second abyssal wolf lunged at him from his left where there was none before. He was able to shift his attention to it quickly enough to bat it away with the javelin, leaving him open for the first to sink Its teeth into his leg armour and pull him to the ground with a loud Thud. It began dragging the soldier into the woods prompting him to anchor his javelin into the earth and start trying to kick it off.
As they struggled two more similar wolves suddenly appeared from clouds of black smoke before his eyes. The abyssal wolf could create dopples. He dislodged the javelin from the ground and thrusted at them, piercing one's hide while the other bolted for his neck.
Deimos fed it his armoured forearm instead to protect himself. Beads of sweat coated his brow, his eyes opened wide and his breaths quickened as the wolves surrounded him.
Both beasts pulled him in opposite directions preventing him from regaining his footing. With both arms now preoccupied, another abyssal wolf darted towards him and bit down on his helmet, trying to wrest his head from his shoulders. Deimos flailed as much as he could in an attempt to free at least one of his arms. If death should come, it would have his answer.
***
"Another story of my travels is it?" Said Dalrith to Lorelei as they both looked out from a window on their carriage at vast plains of wildflowers, bathing in the light of two separate moons. the Crimson moon, Avernus, and the Verdant moon, Mitéra, on the border of the Crimson and Verdant continents. At night this made the field of white flowers an ethereal amber. Lorelei stared speechlessly at the fields as the Drake moved their carriage tirelessly through the night. Two months had passed and the she had already witnessed a lifetime of beauty on the road with her Viceroy, Dalrith Antonna. The only downside on her journey was wrapped in tattered cloth and wore a permanent scowl. Nirgrin. She would've preferred if the woman never came along, instead she made love with Dalrith every night, sometimes twice, occasionally thrice, even four times once. At least she could sleep through it now. She could sleep through just about anything now.
"Lori! You've gone wandering again in that head of yours haha!" Said Dalrith as he snapped his fingers at her, brandishing as wide a grin as ever. Reaching his beautiful eyes.
"Oh! Apologies Sir Antonna! I was just--"
"Lost in thought as per usual, right," he said, interrupting her with a smirk as he rested his head in his palm looking directly into her eyes, holding eye contact, holding her attention, holding her heart. Lorelei quickly looked outside having felt a familiar twitch between her thighs. The carriage was now oddly warm on that cold night.
"Y-yes-i just," Lorelei took a deep breath and then continued, "you've seen so many things in your life... Done many things too."
"Hmm, things you haven't done?"
"Yes! T-that. Things... Things I haven't," she said as she started fidgeting.
"Want to know more things I've done? I've been to all seven realms you know! Basked in the light of all 6 moons and fought for causes great and glamorous!"
"No! Um yes but not that. I want you to..." She trailed off into mumbling her words. Fidgeting frantically as she chewed each word under her shaking breath.
"Huh? Want me to show you something? That it, Lori?" Dalrith said while scratching his head innocently.
"Yes exactly that! S-show me..." Another deep breath, "how to, how you would," Lorelei said, hoping Dalrith didn't mind her rambling and sweating. Her heart galloped as a horse would through a vast meadow, being chased by vicious wolves. Her chest also burned as if her heart was now a ball of fire deep within. If only Oden himself would speak on her behalf.
Dalrith leaned in closer with his brows furrowed, eyes narrowed and a bit of a smile on his lips. "Show you what, sweeting?" A spot of recognition seemed to gleam in his eye.
Lorelei, upon seeing him lean in towards her, began trembling. Did she really get this far? She let out a sharp sigh. Her heated breaths were dragons fire now, her hands trembled madly and she could hear her own heart beating at her temples. "Please s-show me--"
Slam. The door to the backroom of the large and opulent carriage swung open and collided with the wooden wall. Any harder and the door might've flew off its hinges. There she stood, naked as the day of her birth, as always, every night, to take him away. Lorelei's heart hit the floor and she lowered her head onto the windowsill. Nirgrin came to collect what was hers.
"Dalrith! I need you to occupy me now! My urges are stronger tonight...my love," Nirgrin said as she leaned against the door-frame, arching her back and licking her lips as she looked at Dalrith. The look in her purple eyes was more so a desire for food than for-- other things-- to Lorelei.
"Fuck, again tonight! I'll occupy you like a fucking enemy nation my princess," Dalrith said as he chuckled nervously. He got up from Lorelei's side to leave but not before suddenly kissing the crown of her head.
Lorelei shot up in fright after the kiss covering her mouth to stifle any noise she might've made. Dalrith smiled and walked off. Lorelei felt his kiss like a jolt of energy passing through her body like lightning magic. It struck her from the crown of head straight down to a... certain private place she was too embarrassed to think about aloud.
Nirgrin narrowed her eyes as he approached her but did nothing other than grab him and slammed the door behind him. Lorelei was too preoccupied to notice. She got up and went off to lay in her small bed at the other end of the carriage. It wasn't what she wanted but she was close. She smiled to herself and would surely sleep soundly despite the wild romp that would take place in the other room.
Boom! A loud sound rattled the carriage and woke Lorelei from her sleep. Belisarius outside began bellowing loudly but kept the carriage moving. Dalrith quickly flew out of their room, getting dressed and panicking. His eyes were wide and his mouth was agape.
"FUCKING DRAGON!" He shouted, with only his pants on he dashed towards a window. Lorelei, now awake scratched her head as she watched him stick his head out the window, looking around hurriedly.
"Oden's fucking cock, Its coming back!" Said Dalrith as he lunged at Lorelei and picked her up into his arms.
"Sir Antonna! Sir Antonna! W-wh--!" Lorelei said frantically as Dalrith opened the moving carriage's door interrupting her. "WAIT DON'T--EEEEEEK!" she screamed as her viceroy jumped from the carriage with her in tow, landing skillfully onto his feet. He immediately began sprinting with her holding him tightly, without looking back.
The screams of traders, travelers and other lesser drakes could be heard as the caravan erupted into chaos. In the sky flew a giant winged, white dragon. It moved impossibly fast through the air with loud booms each time it changed directions. It was just like the stories she had heard from her father as a child. A Luft Dragon from the Tempest continent. It had powerful wind magic at its command and decided their caravan held its next meal.
Boom! It spun around towards the front of the caravan picking up a lesser drake and its wagon in a flash. The occupants and their cargo were flung from the wagon. It then swung said wagon and drake to overturn three carriages. The air was awash with the wails of people and drake alike. Terrified of the abhorrent beast overhead.
With another deafening boom the dragon took off directly up into the sky with the lesser drake it held. People watched it shoot off into the clouds where they lost sight of it. For a moment things were silent and everyone looked up above, frozen in fear, waiting, waiting, waiting.
"is it gone?" A panicked trader asked before another softer boom echoed far up above pulling all eyes back to the sky. The Luft Dragon pierced a cloud and its white scales glistened in the moonlight, wet from diving through the heavens.
It quickly released the now headless drake it held before sharply changing direction midair again. The drakes body collided a carriage so hard both were all but annihilated on impact. Strong winds from the crash flung several people and debris from the area and knocked many off their feet. Dalrith was toppled over with Lorelei.
"Are you hurt!" He said as he climbed to his feet, eyes darting around looking at the chaos the dragon caused. "I don't think Nirgrin fucking left the damned carriage. Wait here!"
"No don't leave me!" Lorelei said as she reached out towards him.
"I won't be long!" Said Dalrith with his signature grin. This time it didn't reach his eyes.
He took off sprinting towards the carriage and Lorelei watched with baited breath as the dragon took another loud turn towards the dispersed caravan. The loud sound slammed her eardrums making her cup her ears and she curled into a ball cowering, hoping it wouldn't be on its way for her next.
The dragon's maw began to glow an eerie blue and it shot several bolts of blue fire rapidly. Each shot made a bone rattling whine that drowned out the screams of the people below.
Many of the hellish bolts missed their mark but those that didn't obliterated more wooden vehicles and their drakes. With each impact several explosions followed, littering the sky with bright flashes of light and burning debris. One bolt landed between Dalrith and the carriage with Nirgrin inside, overturning it and Belisarius. Dalrith was knocked back by the blast several metres landing with a dull, earthy thud into the field of wild flowers.
"Sir Antonna!" Lorelei screamed as ash and soot filled the field of now burning flowers. People screamed and cried as the dragon darted above.
"March my brothers!" A man shouted, his voice pierced the pandemonium. Lorelei looked behind her to see a glowing white mist and several heavily armoured men marching with purpose. Their black armour brightly glowed in the light of the blue fires and the moons above. As the men drew closer the air fell still and the entire field seemed to grow incredibly cold.
"When death calls!"
"WE ANSWER!" The entire group of soldiers shouted at the top of their lungs as they sprinted towards the burning land and the dragon that assaulted it. The Black Legion of Vedinne entered the fray.
***
"Urrk...aughh! If death wishes for my answer let him fight for it!" Deimos said as the abyssal wolves gnawed at his limbs. One had his entire head in its mouth struggling to break through his helmet. The others had more luck as they drew blood, their teeth finding weak spots in and around his old, broken armour. A throbbing pain could be felt all over his body, so strong it could drive a man mad. His heart sprinted as adrenaline shot through his veins.
Inside the ghastly maw of the beast Deimos knew he was running out of time and options. Calling upon the legion's beast recently had worn his body down and doing so again could mean his untimely demise, time to Improvise.
Deimos released his icy javelin, stuck in a wolf and reached for the wolf biting his arm. The beast quickly released it and bit his free hand. The sharp fangs delivered a bite that made Deimos grunt loudly in agony. He felt the poison of the abyss seeping into his wounds but this bite was exactly what he wanted.
He firmly grabbed the beasts jaw and inhaled deeply as it locked onto him. The veins in his hand began glowing and his skin became icy as he channeled magic into the wounded hand. The searing pain of the bite and the bitter cold of the ice together were a torturous experience.
The wolf attempted to release his hand but Deimos held onto its jaw, every vein in his head stood pronounced as he endured. With his now free arm he grabbed the snout of the wolf biting down on his helmet and did the same with his ice magic. Gusts of frost exploded from his palms freezing the heads of both wolves solid before shattering them into half frozen sloshes of blood, bone and brain.
Eldlasa struggled against her last wolf with only one arm uninjured, "fuck it!" she said as she imbued her right gauntlet with light magic, burning the wolf biting her and causing it yelp in pain, releasing her arm. The magic cooked her flesh from the inside as if her bones were hot iron. She grit her teeth and held back a wall of tears, steeling her resolve.
Her burnt hand throbbed as she tried to grip her sword but before she could hold it properly the wolf ran off. "Shit... Fuck that one," Eldlasa said as she winced from her burns, now light headed from the intense pain she had to endure just to repel a few wolves.
The original abyssal wolf released Deimos' leg and hopped back, wary of him. The only other doppler that remained was still impaled by the icy javelin and stood back as well. Deimos pointed his frosted palms towards the ground and boosted himself up to his feet with another deep breath and gust of magic. He held his palms together and froze his wounds shut before slowly separating them, attempting to create another javelin with his injured hand-- clenching his teeth as he felt a deep twinge from the wounded hand.
Both wolves charged as he stood creating the new javelin but they weren't fast enough to interrupt. Deimos grabbed the weapon and stabbed it into the earth.
A nearly invisible wave of magic flew out from the point of impact and made both javelins briefly glow white before they exploded into sharp missiles. The impaled wolf disintegrated. Gore spattered out in all directions. The new javelin shattered into a more uniformed spread, sending sharp blades of ice at the original abyssal wolf which managed to survive the onslaught.
Deimos rose to his feat with both his hands outstretched towards the wolf, pulsating with ice magic. Blood trickled from several wounds all over, he started to lose vision in one eye and his aching body could barely stand. The poison was spreading rapidly.
The abyssal wolf began growling and lowered itself, readying a final pounce towards Deimos as the glow in its eyes grew brighter. It enveloped itself in deep red abyssal magic as it stared at the soldier. "Come claim your prize beast!" Said Deimos wearily and with a howl the abyssal wolf shot into the air towards Deimos fast, almost too fast for his eyes to perceive.
Shluk! A spear of light pierced the beast from the right as Eldlasa swooped in, matching the beasts speed with her own and then planting it hard into the earth, pinning it before Deimos. The paladin moved with incredible speed and grace to match as her white and gold armour glowed brilliantly.
"Stop gawking and kill the bloody thing!" Eldlasa said as she held the spear, pinning the thrashing wolf. Deimos dived towards the wolf and placed both hands onto it, delivering another wave of frost, freezing the beast and then shattering it into one more bloody heap of ice.
Deimos then stumbled backwards against a nearby tree, "I could've finished it on my own, foolish elf," Deimos said, his breathing laboured and vision too blurry to clearly see Eldlasa.
"You dullard! You stood there facing the beast with your guard down!"
"The creature was smart, I had to goad it into a direct attack! You needn't cast more magic on yourself," said Deimos between breaths as the magic faded from his arms. Replaced by darkened veins slowly creeping up to his shoulders.
"You... Sod that. You've been mauled by the damned things...will you survive?" Eldlasa said to Deimos, "y-your veins have gone black, soldier."
"I feel it... I can't see out of my right eye."
"Fuck... I-"
"Calm yourself, elf... I just need to purge myself."
Deimos rose to his feet once more as black blood began oozing from his right eye and his veins grew darker still. The wounded soldier clenched his teeth and his fists, squeezed his eyes shut and emptied his lungs of air.
Eldlasa watched as his skin gradually turned grey, like stone. Deimos swung his head back, opening his eyes which shot a brilliant golden light into the sky above. His body shook violently and heat radiated from it as golden sigils faintly appeared floating around him. The black of the abyss started to evaporate from his body.
Eldlasa froze right where she stood, legs shaking madly as she dropped her weapon. The searing pain of her burnt flesh faded from thought as she witnessed light magic powerful enough to quell the abysmal poison. Once the darkness left his body, his skin slowly returned to its original colour and he fell to his knees before her, "Soldier... W-what...was that?" Eldlasa shouted, "What in the f-fucking six moons was that!"
Before Eldlasa could finish stumbling through her words blood began leaking out of Deimos' eyes, ears and nose. His body stiffened unnaturally and he fell onto his side convulsing. She sprinted to his aid, holding him steady so he wouldn't choke to death. "Hey!" she called out to him but received no response. He only coughed up blood. Eldlasa sat paralysed with fear.
All the ice he conjured made sense to her, humans had affinity for water and earth magic and the ice magic was from the pact with the Ice Beast Pagos he mentioned. Light magic however, made no sense as no group of humans had affinity for three elements and only light elves could cast light magic.
As if all that wasn't strange enough. Deimos could cast light magic that worked against the abyss. He can't be human and no horns meant he wasn't a demon either. She desperately wanted answers but at this rate he might die before she got them.
Eldlasa knew convulsions to be a symptom of the mind and light-based healing magic excelled at mending damaged minds. She removed her gauntlets, revealing her burnt hands. She trembled as she looked at her lightly singed flesh and at Deimos, dying. All sound faded around her as her heart pounded loudly behind her ears. She grabbed his head and straddled him to keep him steady before firmly pressing her thumbs to his temples.
"If you live you owe me a great debt!"
Eldlasa slammed her eyes shut and channeled light magic from her arms and into his head making them glow and start to sizzle. "Aaaahhhhhaaaa, live you fuck!"
Both arms burned as the sensation of touch gave way to pins and needles. When the pain reached its peak and tears began streaming down her cheeks, Deimos stopped shaking and she ended the spell. Both hands fell limp as Eldlasa collapsed onto the grass beside him. "Don't you bloody die one me, you fool, don't you dare."