Gurthar walked amidst the training grounds eyeing with critical gaze the recruits beat eachother to a pulp. He did not agree with Ullari's training methods, but he was Gurthar's commander and what he said was law
Litterally thought the Crusnik. He stopped short as he eyed a few Vampires walking in through the entrance. There was really nothing Gurthar hated more than Vampires, though he was a Vampire hunter so that was somthing that came with the territory he supposed
But oh i just want to kill them all he thought in reguards to the group of vampires.
In a corral, not too far from where Gurthar walked, the monstrous spider Fara Shiva rubbed her bladed hands together, wearing only limb braces and her chest armor. She had arranged with Ullari, as a training technique, to pit herself against those who dared to fight against her in hopes to win their commander's approval; those who failed, she took back to her tent, sucked their veins dry, and strung them from her ceiling with the other corpses.
In any case, she thought to herself, rubbing the keratin blades across each other as if to sharpen them,
it's a kinder death than they'll meet on the battlefield, or at the hands of their fellow soldiers. One of the recruits, bored with his training, had challenged her to a duel in hopes of leaping ahead of his colleagues. He had yet to arrive.
"You look as if you are anticipating something, Fara," said Gurthar, noticing how she paced about and sharpened her blades.
Fara Shiva's many black eyes turned and rested on Gurthar, but she made no reply. The large man bothered her in the same way that everyone in Ullari's army did, and she didn't speak for fear that her strange, slurred speech would cause ridicule. Her eyes flicked from his to beyond him, where the recruit walked past him with confidence, vaulting over the corral wall and drawing his sword. Fara lowered her keratin blades to her sides, standing still and waiting for the recruit to strike.
Reguarding the recruit with slight pity an contempt Gurthar turned to Fara "Enjoy your snack, you're doing him a favor really...his death will come quick. Somthing many would envy him for in a wretched place like this." He whispered to Fara so the recruit could not hear.
Fara Shiva inclined her head to Gurthar as he whispered in her mangled ear and never broke eye contact with the recruit. She risked her speech. "No," She hissed in reply, her voice heard on three different tones, "Heell dai ssslouly-- yn paen, prhapthss yn piess-- ys up to hym."
With a battlecry, the recruit leapt forward, bringing his blade down on Shiva's head. She pushed it aside with one keratin blade and maneuvered behind him, thrusting both bladed hands through his unprotected lovehandles. As he cried out in pain, she came close to his ear. "Yu leethe eyourselth oupen tu kowntr otakk uwith such en oupening," She whispered. "Hhad eyu staed uwith yaour teraining, eyu would haff lernd such ffrom yoeur tiechrss." Having spoken, she took off his helmet with her front legs and wrapped her mouth around his neck, stabbing her mandibles into his jugular veins and injecting him with her venom. His moans of pain suddenly turned into high giggles, tears streaming down his face as her poison overloaded his brain. His legs gave out from under him and dangled under his hips as he hung by Fara Shiva's blades.
"You need not worry about being so hesitant with your speech Fara" The crusnik sighed "Your forgetting that i am on the same level as you as far as outcasts go..i'm a crusnik a Vampire who lives off of the blood of Vampires" he said quietly not in the least bothered by the unfortunate recruits demise "Speaking of which here come that bunch i was eyeing earlyer" He said in a slightly excited tone. "Crusnik!" Challenged the vampires "I challenge you to..." the words never left his mout, what where words became replaced with a gurgling sound as Gurthar decapatated the leader and then his three companions. Gurthar's eyes shone red briefly, as he drew out all the blood from the fallen Vampires, his swords runes now glowing a fierce red. "Foolish young ones think that they can win" he said, his words dripping with scorn for the Vampires.
Watching his blade tear through the necks of the four vampires, Fara was enthralled, and did not realize as she bit into the wound she was attending, her eyes half-lidded as she gorged herself. She snapped back into reality and spat on the wound, sealing it and pressed the weakly giggling body to her, embarrassed. "Eess a waessste," She said, her tritonal voice rising for the first time above a hiss.
"Normally it would be a waste Fara" he corrected gently. Gurthar's eyes no shone red again, but this time the blood on the ground, and on his blade an clothes rose to his now outstreched hand as he absorbed it into his hand. A fith Vampire that had hid behind a tree lept out at Gurthar with outstreched blade. Gurthar turned to him, a look of contempt as he now held the hapless Vampire in his hand "What, pray you witless filth makes you think you can defeat me? I am one of few who has fought the very leader of the group we fight against....foo
l" he said as the vampire bled dry into his hands.
"Gurthar," Fara Shiva replied, pleased that the vowels of his name comprised the few she could pronounce correctly. "Gnouw eyu uwhenn wy march nnekthssst?" She took her silver thread and wrapped it around the laughing recruit's wounded waist like a bandage.
"No i do not, though rumor in the command tent is that it will be soon, i doubt in any strengh though. Ullari is being abit more cautious, why; i do not know, as we are quite far from the border forts" he sighed, dropping the now lifeless husk of the Vampire in the midst of his former fellows 'If only i had been able to finish the job, then we would have no need of fighting now" he said quietly, in referance to his encounter with Lomien.
Fara Shiva was silent, clutching the laughing body to her like a teddy bear. She swept the intoxicated recruit off his feet in her arms and climbed over the corral fence. "Eyu hath ne'er tould mi othh that pattl," She said, curious.
"That i had fought Lomien?" Gurthar asked in slight surprise figuring he knew about the encounter. "Yes i fought Lomien, i ambushed him in the palace of thorns, Ninquelote his wife got in my way so i knocked her to the ground and was bent on erasing her memories altogether, then lomien began using his powers..." Gurthar trailed off with a haunted look "He in his rage unleashed a furiouse fire assault, i was only able to slash him across his eye, before he burnt most of my body...the council attacked him, which prevented him from finishing the job, however he drew Gurthang and destroyed all but a few where massacred, he then apparently either forgot about me or figured i'd be dead soon and left with his wife in his arms" he said his voice rife with emotion "I whached him destroy my family, i know they provoked him and attacked first...he killed them all, and i was to weak to even raise a hand though i hav since regenerated all my wounds" he said bitterly "an that my friend is the brief story of my Histoy, Ullari found me shortly after and made me his lead assasin when my training was completed".
"Eyu got therri klousse," Fara Shiva admired. Feeling as if his laughter was a bit inappropriate, she spat on his mouth, sealing it shut and silencing him. She folded the giggling recruit into a kneeling position against her back and on her carapace, keeping him out of the way.
"Yes i did" he said quietly "He is powerful, i was not aware of what he could do...till he unleased the blast that near destroyed me, and wiped out the council and my family, i crawled after him, whaching him battle in the streets his Wife..he cares very much about her, i know that much as he would not anything near her and fought all the moor fierce when attacks where aimed at her" his voice had a certain air of awe to it. "I have yet to face an opponent so powerful."
Fara Shiva listened quietly, troubled by his words. "A shayme, hy kould not hath such resspekt thur hhysss kountrie," She said bitterly. "Yth hy hhat trieted hyss pieopl laik hy trietss hyss wythe, perhapss hy woult not yn ekkssile, and uwy not at war." She thought of her own family, and of her life before the war, her face darkening in anger.
"I do not agree entirely with the actions of either, i think for his part he was being to protective of what was his and Ullari...i know not his part in it besides that he is Lomien's brother, the council and Telpurion should have stayed out of a family quarrel, but at the same time Lomien should not have resolved it by force, nor Ullari by ransacking and killing all who opposed him" he intoned, surprised at all that he had said. Gurthar was one of only a select few now alive to have witnessed both sides of the conflict and both sides reason for fighting.
"Aiy em..." Fara Shiva frowned, "ssupuraiysst, Gurthar. Eyu speik oth Ullari'ss taktykss ass yth they uwer oppossed tu eyur own. Aiy thought ae thellow predator would untrstand." Her black eyes flashed. "Onsse, ther uwas peyice yn this land, end ytss leadersss mov't yn peyicethul uways, end tha piepol untrstood end thluorished. The petraiyal uth both brothrsss," She spat, "hasst cheng't uss. Uwe cannot longr undrstant yntentyions; only actyonss. Loumyien mothes tu peyice, put uwe ar no longr ae piyecethul piepol. Yt yss py the sssuword thyss kaotik land uwyll pe tamed." Her tritonal voice rose to a passionate volume and her keratin blades sharpened in her anger. Never before had she spoken so much to anyone in Ullari's camp. Blood flooded her face, and she looked away, frustrated and ashamed with what difficulty it took her to shape her words.
"Fara" Gurthar said gently "you need not worry about either your speech or my allegiance, i fight against the alliance and for Ullari" he said quietly, slightly surprised at her passion in her voice. "Speaking of which Fara, my men have just cleared a gap in the northern border fort, and it is rumored that Lomien will be traveling there again....he's quite fond of using that route to get to Telpurion to help the rebells there....would you like to join me?" he asked slightly excited.
"Ass eyu uwish yt," Fara Shiva nodded. "Allow mi tu don mai armour end tu tend tu thys thortunet fool, end Aiye uwyll thollow eyu." She bowed her head to him in farewell and strode on her long legs to her tent.
"Very well" replyed the Crusnik, he was almost visibly happy to have her along. Gurthar returned on his horse fully saddled and arrayed in his armour, with a seven man cavalry body guard.
Fara Shiva returned alone in full armor, the sharp edges of the low-luster stark against the grey sky. Her presence made the horses antsy, but they knew better than to let it show in any way other than pheromones that Fara Shiva could sense. Even on horseback, she was still at eye level with Gurthar, although her face was hidden behind her helmet. "Uwe go," She said simply.
"Very well" replyed Gurthar "We ride to the Northern border fort line" he called out. turning his mount in the direction of the Border forts
Rayne strode out onto the training grounds and assembled a relatively small force consisting mostly of elves and vampires. Leading her force to an empty corner of the grounds she briefed them on their mission to take the Alliance's northern fortress, then instructed then to return within ten minutes time, ready for the attack.
When they were gathered again, Rayne had forsook her dress for tight fitting pants and shirt, all in black, and a black cloak and cowl. At her command the force rode for the border forts
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