Deadly Honour
As dark as night, the blood soaked floor glistens in the moonlight and the reflection of a grief stricken elf stared back at me. My armour now a dark red, dyed from the once gleaming white shade that coloured it before.
My eyes burn with fury, my comrades laid dead on the battle field in each other's blood, is what is to become of our race? Must we die for the reasons given to us, who says honour is everything? Why does honour matter? I for one don't care, my comrades have lost their lives all for our people, yet we gain nothing but grief.
I stood and turned towards my foes, that both stood proudly above the bodies of my fallen comrades. Yet none had met the sharp blades of our group. I readied my blade, a pitch black blade as dark as the abyss with a handle as white as pure snow. I appeared by the side of the assassin who killed my squad, my blade was at the edge of his throat, he gasped his last breath of air as I slice across his neck. Blood spilled to the ground, gushing through his wound it stained the ground beneath me as I disappear into the darkness. A thud could be heard as his body collided with the ground, blood splashing across the floor.
My next opponent was one so utterly ruthless he butchered his own family to become leader of the city he once grew up in before he was forced out. Now a lonely mercenary he hunts for anyone and anything, just for a reason to kill. I knew he wouldn't be an easy target but still, revenge was all that would suffice. If I died there, I would have died in vein of my comrades and I would never have forgiven myself.
So I stood before him, my blade and dagger at the ready, I couldn't lose that fight and I would make sure I didn't. I charged in, my eyes as red as blood and as fierce as a wolf. He let out a large roar as his blade clashed against mine, his eyes stared down into my soul, I could hear his thoughts, all I heard was 'tear him apart limb from limb, rip off his head and skewer it'. We clashed time after time, neither one backing down, my arms felt heavier and weaker as the battle dragged on, if I didn't end it he would surely have killed me at any chance. As I started to stagger and sway slowly, I grabbed my dagger and thrusted towards him, at the same time swinging my blade. My dagger cuts his right arm, the blood trickling off the sharp edge. I swung my blade once more but stronger, his blade shattered as the two swords clashed, my dagger pierced the mercenaries cold skin, his blood oozed out of him. It wasn't a natural reddish colour as it should have been but was black instead. What was this? It made no sense, no-one can have obsidian black blood it was demonic. But what was he, he appeared human enough, he couldn't have been a demon could he?
It was not the time to be confused by such nonsense; I must concentrate on that moment. There were two more members of the enemy team left to kill, this would be a difficult challenge for me and they were also twins and never fought alone whereas I was trained in one on one combat specifically. I travelled west to the nearby city for rest, I met with several elven warriors, all from different tribes and they had abandoned their own kinds because they believed the thoughts of the elders from the clans were wrong. I too felt the same but I had unfinished business and so requested they joined me on my search for the Kartunian twins. As soon as they heard me mention the twins they immediately said yes, I saw hatred in their eyes, exactly like mine looked when I stared at my reflection in my comrade's blood. This was the beginning to my journey and to a long and tiring struggle for the revenge I wanted as well as the truth I sought.
We set travel in the morn and left in a hurry, we had heard rumours that the twins made an appearance in a neighbouring town. They had claimed the lives of many people and painted the town red with blood. The stories of them must be true, everywhere they go the leave a pile of dead bodies at the steps of the head family's house and pave the towns with blood, they are truly savage beasts and they must reach the end of their path by my blades.
We walked down many roads until suddenly we heard a heart wrenching scream from ahead of us, a mile down the road a carriage laid on its side crushing the coachman, the passengers dead in front of our eyes. As we raised the carriage together he scrambled out and begged us to protect him, we couldn't deny him this. His eyes were full of fright, his clothes torn and covered in blood. We travelled with him to the town of which the twins had massacred surely they didn't stick around and do this to the coachman and his passengers. As we walked into the town the citizens stared and pointed, whispering silently. The coachman thanked us and went to the nearby doctors to recover, we stood still as we became surrounded by the people who had pointed and stared at us.
Some of them threw stones and bits of rubble at us and screamed at us to leave this town, we stood still and tried to explain that we were looking for the kartunian twins but no-one listened they all despised us and carried on chanting for us to leave. The wood elf then stepped forward and suddenly the citizens backed off, some ran away screaming in fright. Wood elves were known for being vicious hunters who summoned the help of creatures like wolves and bears, these people must believe that we were something to do with the twins.
I had to figure out where they went, I bellowed loudly for the attention of the people. They fell silent and asked where to find the head family of the town. The people pointed down towards the main square, we walked forward slowly, so that they didn't become enraged more. I thanked them for their assistance and we continued forward as they dispersed, we reached the house of the man we wanted to speak to and knocked. He answered, we could see he was frightened, he scream and fell backwards. I appeared behind him and caught him to stop him becoming injured. He became shocked and thanked me hesitantly, I sat him down and explained about what I wanted and suddenly his face became enlightened he two wanted the twins dead, they had came and slaughtered many citizens including his wife and two children.
He gave us some supplies for the trip and pointed us in the direction of the mountains; we must travel through them to the village located beyond it. I had been there before, the village was made up of all different races, the people all had one belief that all races should live side by side and survive together. It was a perfect union of races and no-one dared to upset them, the power they all held as an army was greater than that of my own race the blood elves. We had as many different tactics for battles as we did books in our library which consisted of a 3 story mansion covered wall to wall.
We set off on the trail down towards the foot of the mountain, we must have been travelling for several days before we reached it, yet we had at least a week's journey left to go till we got to the village. Luckily we had a mountain elf with us that had travelled through these mountains many times and could tell us which direction was best to go. As we started to ascend the mountain, we began to see a large group of arcane mages running towards us. Naturally we assumed we were being attacked but once they got closer they slowed down and called to us wondering where we were headed, we told them and they tagged along for the beginning of the ascent until we reached a temple to which they belonged. They explained that they had been over to neighbouring cities that surrounded them keeping up the peace treaty that they made when first forming.
We had been familiar with these mages before, my people had been asked to become part of the treaty, those who had a chose joined the mages but other than that nothing became of their visit, our race was to proud of our solidarity and individual prowess as a race and so did nothing but ignore the mages requests. I now know that my people made a grave mistake in turning down the option to a peace treaty, we had been through many wars since then and many of us died including recently. The honour we carried was too high, nothing mattered to our clan but honour, now only the head of the clan and a few noble families remained including mine.
Our two groups departed our separate ways and we travelled high up the mountain, we soon became tired and set up camp, we all had different ideas on where and how to set it up and so it took longer than expected. There was me the blood elf, I was taught to focus on the defence of a camp and to always have a guard on duty. Then there was the wood elf taught to make camp in the trees so enemies were easily spotted and animals were not to disturb us in the night. There is the water elf that was taught that a camp needed to be tactical, someone must be on guard and the others must be hidden so that an enemy group can be ambushed easily if attacked.