The brightest shadows

By Alexander krueger

prologue

Shock, organ failure, loss of blood, but not death you would think that a man who is facing his final hours on this earth would think about death and be scared beyond belief but on the contrary he's calm as ever. These were my thoughts when my vision became clear and the fog that surrounded my mind lifted and I came to be staring at the sword that I birthed from the fire of my soul protruding from my chest dripping with the blood of its father. My disbelief in the fact that this would be my last day, this of all days where I revealed the truth that would rip the sanctity of the one I love, the one truth that has been hidden from her since childhood . I cant keep from thinking if things would have been different if I never interfered and left them alone but it seems the evil wrought will never be paid for to pass on to the next world. Although I wouldn't mind seeing her face for the last time before my strengths wanes and I fall to eternal sleep and never come back and so I did look.

chapter one

16 years earlier

"15"!

"22"!

"34"!

"sold to the man in red" says the auctioneer "up next we got this Elven wench that is 5ft 9 inches and weighs 104 pounds"

"why pay for a whore"

The crowd goes wild bye this remark and tries to pull the girl off the stand to have there way with her.

None of them clearly see that she is cowering in fear. Such as the way things go at the time. But I cant help but think of what she's been through with out no one to help her, no one to defend, and no one to hold as she cries herself to sleep.

It is clear what I must do but with so little money I hope no one else bids.

"20 coppers" I yell as loud as I can hoping the auctioneer will hear me but I believe I yelled to loud for the crowd got quiet and the room seemed to get colder and colder until finally the silence was broken with a clearing of a throat.

" lad you don't look like you have 20 coppers, you don't even looked like you eaten some food for days."

I walk to the stand and look deep into the blue eyes of the elf girl and then I turn to the auctioneer and say

"I do have the coppers and I will give them to you if you sell me the girl".

"fine moneys money sold to the young lad right here."

I laid a gentle hand on her showing her that I am here to protect her and keep her safe. She looked at me with a dumb look on her face trying to figure out why I'm being so nice. I lifted her off the stand so the auction can begin again then I tried to walk her out of there but she wouldn't move an inch because she was scarred to death so to comfort her I said.

"come on no one is going to hurt you now".

She was so scared she did everything I asked. She truly thought she would be left on the side of the street abused and used while dieing slowly from starvation. When we get halfway to the door the bidding starts up again with a human man with only one arm being auctioned off. I ended up caring her out of there because she seemed to have eaten even less then me and couldn't walk much further but I trudged on knowing that I still have 4 coppers left to get some bread and cheese in her stomach.

The only things I'm carrying besides the elf girl are two 7 inch daggers and a 3 ft broad sword I made with my mind and heart at the smithy I worked at part time. your probably thinking that a man as sweet as me who saved this girl from being gang raped can't be that dangerous, Well your dead wrong. Any way I'm not that sweet I spent two years as a mercenary cleaning out some elves around the town of Guntlin . Apparently the supposed surviving government from the old world doesn't like elves running free around there town. So They hired me a 17 year old swordsman, a 80 year old Brexton brute, and a 130 year old avion archer.

For now the three of us split ways and I got stuck in town with only 4 coppers left and an Elven girl who hasn't eaten in a week and is sleeping in my arms. I keep thinking to my self was this the right thing to do but every time I look at that young angelic face all doubts are gone and I'm left staring at her in awe. She has the most beautiful face with her cheek bones clearly showing and her strong but also fragile looking figure and to top it off with golden tuffs of hair tied in a ponytail . Her bright penetrating blue eyes shining bright with the stars over head, it really looked like she fell from heaven ,even her slightly tannned skin glowed but good thing for her none of those idiots in the auction house saw any of this.

Chapter 2

2 years later

"raise it a little higher or your going to miss the target completely".

"alright I got you , hopefully were going to have deer for dinner ".

I let The arrow fly loose and gets stuck straight into the gut of the deer

"alright Leon you did it ".

"thanks to you marethary ".

So yea I'm a 19 year old guy getting archery tips from a 13 year old girl, you might also be thinking this guy is pathetic an maybe thinking why I didn't get tips from the avion well here's the reason for one of those, no normal man can pull a string from a avion bow and I didn't have a bow at the time. The reason for the other is that marethary took archery lessons since she was 5.

" so marethary I know we had this discussion already but you didn't answer it all the way".

I've asked this question once and she dodged it completely, reason being I was to distracted to pry any further because by the time I asked she had (how can I say this) filled in on most of her growing. She had doubled in size on the chest and rear end and gotten taller just about 3 inches and started to let her hair loose.

"auugh"

"don't be like that just try answering my question with out dancing around it, why were you in the slavery auctions and more importantly why were you in that god forsaken town"

"I should be asking you the same thing"

" you know why I was trying to find decent work to make enough money for food and that is skirting around the question marethary".

"look who's skirting questions now, why were you in the auction house for any way".

"I was meeting with a friend to put me in contact with some work and thankfully for that it saved you from the whore house".

"fine I'll tell you, my parents were Elven scouts for the glenton clan and where trying to figure out why some of our patrols where going missing"

"why was the clan so close to town"

"We had information that a dredge was near by and we couldn't let the humans from the town to capture it and use it to destroy innocent lives"

" I thought dredges don't move from the dead marshes ,damn if the government gets a hand on a dredge they will have an endless army of undead".

"now you see why we were so close to town my mother and father were both excellent archers but they aren't good fighters in a sense, they never learned to use swords much less knives, they got ambushed while I was fallowing some odd tracks that where leading towards town

By the time the tracks stopped and I got back to the place where my parents were, my mother was killed and my father taken I tried following the tracks the killers left but it got me caught by the guards on watch".

Her voice was shaky and tears ready to burst by the end of the story I keep forgetting how fresh the memories are.

"that all happened 2 years and 1 months ago"

1 month before I ended my mercenary contract

" I'm sorry I didn't know"

"how could you have known I kept it inside with out giving you a hint of the sadness that was inside"

She right I would have never guessed but now I cant keep from thinking that I will kill the bastard who did this when I see those big gleaming blue eyes of her, but I can guess who did it and I cant kill him just yet. And that is a very big yet.

Finally realizing that it was getting dark out we started to head to our little camp that is just a couple of blankets propped with a stick to make a tent and is enough room for both of us if we stay close together under our third and final blanket.

that's nice and all but sometime having your own bed is nice sometimes, but we just get use to it sort of speaking.

As we were closing in on camp I moved to the pit where we had set up to keep the fire from lighting up the forest. While I was setting the dried bark in place marethary sat herself on the other end and stared at the dry pieces of bark and leaves as they smoked and were consumed little bye little by the red heat of fire.

"Mary I want you to tell me exactly where the dredge was thought to be"

"it was said to be spotted on the south end of the town and 20 yards into the forest"

"that is way to close to town and way to far from the dead marshes if I dint know better I would think it was looking for something or someone and that is very dangerous "

"how so"

"When a dredge wonders away from the dead marshes which doesn't happen often there are only two reasons for it to leave one is it simply wants to find a dead body to make a spine sword and a dagger made from a femur, the second reason for a dredge to leave is for it to look for the person that is worthy to lead the dredge race into the war of eternity which has only happened once and if that's what the dredge is looking for then I'm scarred out of my sarding mind."

"If its really that bad then we need to find it"

"no no No you are not going after this dredge I'm taking you back to your Elven camp so that I can go after this dredge with a few friends "

" you bought me back at the auction house saving me from the whore house and you bought half a loaf of bread and gave it all to me when you were starving as well a I hadn't had the chance to repay you so stop looking at me like that I can handle myself"

"but"

"No buts I am going with you and that's that"

After a hard and concentrated minute of trying to look each other down I finally gave up. I have to admit she has the most stubborn personality I have ever seen.

"fine but if your going to come with you have to learn how to use a sword or at least a dagger"

She brightened up, put a smile on her face, stood up and put out her hand for me to shake which I shook and let me tell you elves are defiantly the stronger race when put up against humans. She popped all the joints in my hand with that one shake.

"ok Mary I'm going to have to get my old team together and when I do the hunt for the dredge is a go"

chapter 3

2 weeks later

The hunt isn't going so well it went off in a good start but started to make the group more edgy and when a Brexton starts getting paranoid you better stay clear of him or you'll end up as flat as a pancake.

"hey Spendute are you ok"

Spens head turned so fast his horns took out a squirrels nest. Your thinking that's impossible but let me tell you a average height for a Brexton male is 8 ft 6in and that's average.

"just a little on edge Leon ill be ok after we find this god damn dredge, have you heard the stories on what they can do"

" yea I have, raise the dead, form metal on any piece of bone to make a weapon of there choosing oh yeah they can also control the near dead to"

"Leon stop it you no how Spen gets when you start stating the odds."

"I know floweit but it's the truth and I'm no less scared then he is, how about you Mary"

"I'm scared as well but there is no one else to do this "

"you are wise for your age little one"

That is the greatest complement that a avion can give. Mostly because she is older than all of us. avion can live up to 3000 years old while Brexton can live up to 400 years and elves and humans are almost the same except for about 40 years. your probably wondering what were scared of and it's the constant fact that your spine will be ripped from your back before you can even blink that's scarring us.

"its getting dark we should head back"

"if we do that now we'll lose the tracks"

"we cant track in the dark we could be killed way to easy if we do track at night"

" fine Leon but when I comes to morning we need more help I think is time to call upon the four tribes of life"

" has it really come to that flow"

"who are the four tribes of life"

"they are the for elemental races of earth first is the Pyrons keepers of fire , second is the Aqeenians keepers of water, third is the avions keepers of air which is the race flow is apart of, fourth and final is the Gigians keepers of earth and all four are the guardians of Gaea there is a fifth and that is death and the keepers of that element is the dredges "

"Which if we fail to find the one chosen to lead the dredge race then we will need the four tribes of life"

"alright we'll go to them"

And so we made off to camp to rest till morning and head to the four tribes but it will take a while since the four elemental races are spread out so greatly across the land. When morning came to pass spen came to me with an idea.

"I will get my clan to form a war meeting and will meet you at the specified lands meet"

"ok spen "

Brextons are a very peaceful race which is surprising compared to there size and strength but when they go to war they are an amazing sight because there intelligence in the matter of strategy is about the same size as they are. while Floweit and Spendute split from the group and head to there tribes me and marethary were left alone to ponder upon who to go to first. when we were to tired to think any more we went to the tent we shared and went to sleep. But we were not entirely alone.

After we woke up in the morning we had our session of close combat training then had breakfast which was bacon on wheat bread with scrambled eggs.

"ok Leon so we are going to the Elven tribes first"

I look up from the dieing fire to see her standing with her pack all ready staring down at me.

"yea we'll go to them first so that we can have more people going to the far out tribes to make thing speed up by a little"

"all right then lets get going"

"before we go I want to know If your up to seeing your clan again"

"I will as long as your there with me"

I stood up walked around the pit and game her a chokingly big hug. The bond that me and Mary were forming was getting bigger and stronger as the days past soon I can tell her about the burden that I carry. While we were walking north to the southern side of the woods were the Glenton clan was staying for now marethary asked me a question that is more personal then she usually asks

"so Leon how come you don't have a wife or at least a girlfriend"

The question kind of caught me off guard because usually she only asks personal question if she can get useful information and I don't see how any thing that has to do with my love life is useful to her.

"well I never really found the woman who was right for me or vise versa"

"oh ok, have you tried dating other races"

Ok this is getting a little weird.

"well floweit did try to get me to marry her about a year and a half after we met"

Avions are extremely deep when it comes to intuition she truly thought back then that I was the one for her. When avions find a mate they are stuck with each other for life and when one partner dies the other one dies also. Which is why I tried to explain to her that I she does truly think that I'm her soul mate she would have a very short life compared to her lifespan.

"really what did you say to her "

"I just told her what would happen to her if she chose me"

"wow you really rejected an avion out of all the elemental races the avions are the most beautiful "

"I didn't so much as reject her as she withdrew her proposal"

She seemed to be delighted by my answer cause she smiled and walked a little faster then me so I couldn't see her face but I can imagine what she's trying to hide.

"so your 19 with no wife or girlfriend you must get lonely sometimes"

"well I'm not totally alone you're here with me aren't you "

"that's true but don't you want more than just friendly companionship"

Oh now I see what she's getting at and that is not very uncommon these days but I don't think she fully understands what she's saying or maybe she does elves do mature at a faster rate than humans depending on the situating and she had a very scarring situation for her to mature into an adult faster then she's supposed to. I believe that the best approach to this is to wait and see her intentions.

"well sometimes I think about getting a wife but it is hard finding the person who fits me and I her"

"maybe the perfect girl is closer then you would think"

Ok now I know that is the biggest hint I have ever seen but I just kept quiet and kept walking we had a long way to go to reach the Glenton clan. As we walked we would stop to take breaks and brush up on our combat skills she was a extremely fast learner with in half an hour of practice she was beating me at my own mastered skill. Which is very impressive since I am the best swordsman in the human race.

chapter 4

6 days later

We finally arrived at the Elven camp and I have a sinking that I am not welcome here at all wait no let me rephrase that you can just feel the hate in the air just as I walked through the two trees right before the camp. And I don't entirely believe that the only reason for the hate is that I'm a human

" cormamin lindua ele lle marethary"

" nae saian luume Toulin "

"ya naa tanya edan"

"Sina naa Leo melamin "

The elf Toulin must have been surprised because his eyebrows literally touched his scalp and his eyes got huge.

"melamin, melamin ed' I' ear ar'elenea" !

I'm sensing that I'm going to be in a lot of trouble or at least going to get some kind of punishment.

"Manka lle merna at naa detholalle "

"diola lle"

"You may enter human"

"come on Leo I'll show you to the elders so that we can explain what's going on"

I don't think that's all that's going to happen when I meet the elders. If my hunch is correct about the conversation that just happened and the shocked looks of the people which came out to see then this is going to get exciting. as we walk through the rows of tents we were greeted with small bows of the heads and a few scornful faces but no matter what her people did she did not respond to anyone of them and acted as if they didn't exist. When we finally neared the biggest tent in the camp Mary stop and spoke in a loud enough voice for only me and the people in the tent to hear.

"elder tumon'lea we come to speak to you about the matters of the rogue dredge"

"come in marethary it has been quite some time since you've been in the camp and some a great deal of time since your parents have died"

That small remark brought small tears at the edges of her eyes but thankfully the elders could not see them

"yes it has been a long time but I have returned to inform you that we know what the dredge is after and that the four tribes of life are going to be forming a clans meet and the elves and Brextons are invited."

"Then come in quickly so we can discuss this without unwanted ears. you may enter as well edan"

As we step into the tent an aroma hits both me and Mary strongly but it's the sweet smell of honey and roses which Ironically is a calming scent.

"now then may I ask what your name is sir"

"Its Leon fenturen"

"well Leon I pray for your happiness and a safe path for you but for right now I ask that you leave her with us so that she can be cared for by her own kind"

" I will only leave if she says so, Marethary do you what me to leave you"

" no elder he will not leave and Leon I never want you to leave me"

" yes then lets get to discussing what info you have figured out about the dredge"

"we have discovered that the only thinkable reason why the dredge is that far from the dead marshes is that the dredge is looking for the leader of death, do you know who that is elder"

"that I do and let me tell you that is the most dangerous news you can give because that would mean that another eternity war is upon us again."

"so then will the glenton clan be at the clans meet"

"yes we will be there and we will send messages to the rest of the Elven camps so that they all will be ready to travel"

"thank you elder"

"no thank you, you have given us more warning then we had in the last war and that will be all the difference and please call me elder tumon"

I bow my head in respect and the elder gives us the sign that we can go. so marethary and I go to the trader in the camp so we can replenish our supplies and then we headed for the gate.I was shockedit didn't get as exciting as I thought it would. When we got to the gate the guard Toulin whispered to Mary a little to loud on purpose for me to hear also but no one else but Mary can hear.

"I give you my blessing sister"

So there siblings that means that whatever he was getting angry about was very personal. I'm going to have to ask her about that later because there was a lot of yelling and I think a lot of it was about me and because of me.

When we were a good distance from the camp I turned in a full 360 degrees so that I can look at her face to face and asked her

"what the hell happened at the front of the camp with your brother"

Her cheeks instantly got red and she tried keeping with my stare but the embarrassment took over and she looked away but she finally explained in a shaky voice.

"well I kind of announced that you are my love and that we are unofficially married"

That was the very last response I thought but if she announced that she love me to her whole clan and could possibly be exiled. The least I can do is tell her how I feel as well.

"well then since you love me and I love you and your brother gave blessing we might as well get married "

"does that mean we can have fun"

And that my friends will cause you to go as red as a tomato.

"were the hell did you learn that"

"well to be fare you may be older but im much more3 mature"

All I can really say about that remark is that is true in many ways

"maybe when you get a little older"

"aaaaaahh"

"don't start that your only 13"

"yea but I want to have that experience with the one I love"

"oh don't bullshit yourself you know as well as I do that it would be better for you to wait"

"alright but as long as we do get to have some fun"

Yeesh she might say she is more mature but you can just feel the immatureness oozing from her. Any way we made our way to the pyrons last known location.

"ok Mary the place that the pyrons last were is a good 4 months travel from here do we have the necessary supplies to make it"

"yes we do and I also have this so training will be a little easier"

I became very surprised when Mary pulled a fine crafted blade from her pack. Let me tell you elves decorate everything they have including there sword but don't let the decor fool you Elven swords can cut half way through a tree when put in the right hands.

There were light blue sapphires at the guard and hilt and the handle was a design of golden leaves from guard to hilt and then there was the blade it was finely sharpened on both sides and had vines sketched into the blade itself. It truly was a beautiful blade and one meant for killing many.

"You have a very good blade Mary and it will serve you well"

"And it will be an excellent practice blade"

chapter 5

1 month later

We have made good progress and had no trouble at all but that was about to change and I will make a decision that I will regret for the rest of my life. For this is the month that will cause her hardship and will cause her to have knight mares for some time she learns the real me and why I am feared as a swordsmen.

"how much longer do we have to travel"

"its only another 3 months of travel left and we might make it there before that if we move fast enough"

We were making good time but something feels wrong about the path were traveling but I might be just imagining it there were no reports of any danger in this path.

"lets set camp here"

"how come its still day out "

"that is true but it will take time setting camp and we can also get some training in before dark"

she lowers her head in a sing of defeat and some hair gets into her face making her look all the more beautiful. We set up camp and then she pull her sheath from her pack and buckles It to her trousers and goes into the position I taught her to do when preparing for a forward attack she's been practicing while I sleep it seem her footing is good her legs are bent and far enough apart to make a bent "v" and her body is slightly twisted with on hand on the sheath and the other on the handle a perfect defensive stance. to return the stance I spread my legs the same way but I draw my sword (which is finely polished steel with onyx gems on the guard and the hilt and fine leather strands that wind around the neck of the handle) I pull the sword to my right side and I angle it towards her just by a little and so the match has begun. I run straight at her not moving my blade an inch and at the last moment I turn the blade upside down and blocked the right slash she was about to deliver. Our blades are locked in a perfect "t" and so to break contact and to counter attack she jumped back a little while lossing her strength on the blade then pulling it so she can pull it up in a position to deliver a downward slash but I predicted that and moved my blade in between her arms an brought my blade to rest next to her neck and the match is over just like that.

"that was very good marethary you are learning well and fast"

"I still lost though"

"at some point in our lives we will lose repeatedly at that to but we should never give up I remember when I was just like you but then I learned from my failures and pushed on when I finally beat my master and I believe that you can beat me"

" alright lets go again then"

And so we did several time for the next several hour and through those hours she lasted longer and longer until we spent half an hour on one duel but she never gave up even if she lost again and again until she got so tired she couldn't lift her blade anymore so we called it for today and I helped her put her sword in her sheath and I made a fire and started cooking some of the meat we have and pulled out some dried bread and also gave Mary the canteen to stay hydrated. An hour later and we were both sound asleep.

We woke up the next morning broke camp and set out on the path again not knowing that this day will lead to marethary and I being separated.

"so Leon if you beat your master does that mean that your better than him"

"no Mary it does not mean I was better swordsmen then he was he did not teach me everything there is a point in training that the teaching stops so the trainee can find there own path the master cannot give the student the path the student must find and walk that path alone it is the only way to gain great strength within themselves"

"oh can we go visit him once all this is over"

Something must have shown on my face for she looked like she regretted those words and she quickly said

" oh Leon I' sorry I didn't know how did he die"

"how he died was bravely and like a true warrior the village he was sworn to protect was being raided by a gang of bandits and to protect the village he ordered me back and stood outnumbered 10 to 1 and still he was standing so calmly but even he couldn't kill them all when they attacked him all together but when he was finally dead there were only 4 bandits left and the rest were lying dead in a circle around my master feet with so few numbers the rest of the bandits retreated but didn't get far for the villagers manned up and rained the rest of the raiders with arrows but not without them cursing my master and me that I will be hunted until the end of time."

It hurt talking about him but something's need to be talked out and out in the open before they can heal.

"wow even though he is gone Leon he would still be proud of you because you are doing the right thing and protecting the world from curtain destruction."

"I know I know"

We walked in silence for another half hour when suddenly I hear a crack and I stop dead in my tracks.

"did you hear that "

"no what di mmnn"

I turn to where mary last stood but she was not the instead there was a note that said

hope you can find us cause if you don't find us in time we will sell your little girlfriend to the nearest whore house and make sure she is set up with the most biggest men there is oh and so you don't follow our tracks so soon we left you a surprise

-the bandits of sultino village

I hear a foot step behind me and instinctively I turn around with my hand on my sword but I was top late for I was hit in the head with some kind of club and left unconscious

Where are they taking me and what the hell did they do to Leon I seriously hope that Leon is ok and that he will find me these assholes wont get away with this.

Ok so they got me tied with rope they also gagged and blindfolded me so I don't know where we are going so the only senses I have left is hearing and feeling the feeling sense wont help but if I can hone in on the sound around me then I can figure out where exactly where I am. So that's exactly what I did but all I can hear is the birds calling and wind blowing but know rivers or streams so I' just going to have to wait for an opportunity to run

"alright we can stop here put her over there and tie her to that tree"

"alright but do you want me to ungag her"

"go ahead our surprise probably already got him"

There surprise do they mean they killed him.

"don't look like that we didn't kill him well not yet any way he's just a little unconscious at the moment"

Thank atash that leon is alright but that doesn't make things any less difficult then they are once my gag was off I could start asking them what they want.

"who are you guys anyway"

"oh you don't remember we were the ones you and your boyfriend were talking about but the ones who died at the village were not the leaders I am and they were a very small group that his master killed I have thousands more people that will kill Leon the swordsmen of the wind and rain."

I have never heard that title before but I have been out of the gossip channels for some time. But it must be a hard eared title if Leon has it.

"why why chase him till the end of the earth "

"because his master killed my sons and he is already dead and no one else but his student can be dealt the consequences"

This man is feeling nothing but vengeance in his heart there is nothing that can stop him besides death. Oh Leon I hope your alright.

chapter 6

Several hours later

"ah god damn my head hurts like hell"

As I wait for my eyesight to clear back up I slowly try to stand, falling a couple of times cause I sarding sore as hell. When I finally got to my feet with a little head swirling I finally started to remember everything that happened, marethary being kidnapped me turning to find her gone and me getting pummeled in the back of the head. I looked around seeing that there are four sets of human tracks that aren't mine or Mary and then one giant pair of foot prints that could only belong to a sarding Brexton

"don't worry Mary ill find you and I will kill every last one of those bastards too".

I start to follow the tracks and keeping my hand on my swords handle just to be safe. the hunt is on and this one I wont fail because its almost impossible for me to fail these bandits are a weak bunch of sarding arses. They wouldn't dare kill her knowing the devastation I could cause. and with that I started on the trail to finding Mary.

"Leon is going to find you and gut you like an animal"

" I have no doubt that Leon will find me with you but he will be the one gutted not me"

"oh really whys that"

I'm getting really scarred for Leon now if this guy is that confidant that he will kill Leon then he got something up his sleeve.

" oh you'll see soon enough"

I was running at full speed knowing that the sooner I reach her the better but my energy is running flat out and my muscles ache but what drags me on Is knowing that Mary is in danger and that I am the only one who can help so I run on. But I don't get far because a massive arm fly's out and clothesline me. I recover quickly and get to my feet and draw out my sword and I come to be staring at the abs of a 8 ft Brexton with a 6 ft sword on hi shoulder.

"well you're a big arse aren't you "

Ha it seems my taunt worked, he frowns at me and lifts his big arse sword and swings it at me like it weighed nothing but a twig. I duck and roll back lifting my sword to block the down slash that the Brexton obviously thought was smart and could kill me in one stroke. I push the sword up easily surprising the Brexton with my strength and moving to the left and I push forward pulling my sword to look like a clothe line and I slice the Brexton right in half without so much as breaking a sweat.

" a small dilemma but at least it was handled fast, I am sorry you had to die today noble Brexton"

Brextons never fight unless it is to save lives or to repay a debt. But sometimes its purely for the friendship of a friend.

"you will pay for this I swear it"

I yell this to the world but I mean it for only one man.

I cant stop now so I continue to run as fast as I can towards the way the kidnappers went. I hurry on the path and the tracks start to get farther apart as I go which means that there picking up the pace which I'm going to have to double

"boss…boss …bossss"

I turn to where I see a man running up to the main group he was pale as hell and looked like was going to faint from the sight he saw.

"boss we got trouble you know the Brexton that you left behind to wound Leon before he got to the base"

"yes"

"well our spy that is keeping an eye on him says that Leon killed the Brexton without breaking a sweat plus the Brexton didn't even get to scream in pain before he died"

The leader of the group looked like he was going to faint also but he turns to the group of 8 men and another Brexton and says

"you nine stay here and wound him as much as you can doesn't matter how many of you fall he must not reach the base in full condition"

I wonder why he's so scared al of sudden.

"your probably wondering why I'm worried well it's a long story but ill explain on the way to the compound"

I'm getting closer I can feel it plus I just ran into a camp full of hi men.

"god sarding hell how many ambushes did he se-"

I didn't have time to finish the sentence because the whole group charged me and I barley had enough time to draw my sword and parry 2 attacks while I still got cut 3 times and stabbed once. I ducked under a cross slash and I moved into the strike and gutted the nearest bandit then twisted blocking a stab for my spine then jumping forward to dodge two slashes that cut there friend in half

I'm going to have to thin there numbers for me to be able to continue running. I do a front flip over the bandit trying to charge and gut me but while I did the front flip I slashed just centimeters right of his spine all the way up to neck 4 down 5 to go. I jump to the left dodging a cross slash to the right of the chest and the pull my sword it straight up and into his skull where its open at the bottom and straight through the top of his head spraying skull and brain fragments on the ground and on me. This causes a slight stir of fear among the group but they decide they can still take me and charge but what they don't realize is that there out classed and I charge them at the same time and sliding at the last moment I make it between one mans legs just as I pull my sword up cutting him halfway up the torso spilling all his guts on the ground I quickly jump up turn around and combat roll to the side as the Brexton brings his axe down I spin on my knees swinging my sword to the right and cutting the right leg all the way off and the left slightly severed. I get up and swing my sword in a perfect slash and take the head right off the Brexton and then there were only two. both of the men were scared as hell and decided it was best to just retreat. I check the wounds that I got during the fight it wasn't to bad but it wasn't god either I had one cut on my leg, a gash in my right arm and a hole in my left leg but I quickly tore my shirt into three strips and thoroughly bandaged each wound and fitted the rest in my pants pocket. I continue to run even though it hurts like hell even so, she is worth every pain in the world.

We finally started to see a compound that's well camouflaged to match the surrounding forest it looks quite professional to.

"so you going to tell me what this is all about"

"yes so as you know Leon is human right"

"yes I know he's pure human"

"this story starts four months before Leon was born where my men where hunting his father because he had a bounty on his head for 200,000 gold piece which would set me, we hunted him knowing the price but not the reason and that was our down fall, when we finally found him I had 200 men and each and every one of them died that day."

"how did 200 be killed by just one man"

"I escaped the massacre and went to the people who posted the bounty and you want to know who it was that god damn government down in Guntlin, they said that it was a secret and that they don't tell civilians like me, I yelled for and hour straight putting into graphic detail what happened to the 200 men that I took to take down falden which is the name of Leon's fathers I didn't know at the time but one can accumulate information if one needs to, any way all I know they had a lot of dead body's and test tubes"

"What happened then "

"I went to my fathers compound and asked for some more men to kill falden he said how did you lose 20 me I kept telling him falden killed them all, he finally gave in and gave me 200 Brexton warriors and 200 human archers."

He stopped and looked down at his open hands

"we barely killed him I lost 60 Brexton to him and 20 archers but he was so riddled with arrows that he couldn't move an inch before the four Brexton surrounding him swung all there swords at his head at the same time. Finally beheading him but little did we know he had already impregnated his wife Selene, she was purely human that I know, I tracked her down through the mountains it took me more then 5 months to do that the reason though was that she had a bounty of 10,000 gold pieces on her, when I finally found her she was alone and without her child I subtly walk to behind her and put a knife to her throat and ask her two questions first was where is the child and you know what she said she gave her child to a Brexton so he can be safer then with her, the second question I asked her is what was her husband as in race, he was half human and half of an ancient race that was on this earth for a billion years a race born of fire hotter then the pyrons can withstand but sadly she said Leon wont know this because she sealed his other half with magic and only she can release it and that was when I stabbed her through the stomach and ended that long hunt"
I was left starring at him in disbelief and fear at what he did he had no regrets no sadness for the life's he took this is a true monster here but I regret to say that what he has said made me fear Leon and his fearsome heritage. In respite to that fear came and I spat right in his face saying.

"I hope Leon will tear you limb from limb"

He walks to the front door of the facility and when I look inside I feel like my eyes are about to pop out of my skull there are 200 or more people in this compound each is heavily armed and fitted with Brexton made armor.

chapter 7

1 hour later

As the shadow of death's incarnate approaches the compound of the bandit group from so long ago, you can hear the ringing of a distant chime as the wind guides the souls of the lost to the forever forgiving palace.

Darkness has set across the land bringing an end to the light and bringing forth a new twilight on witch many will gaze upon in wonder. Others though will see this as the beginning of the end.

"so I finally found your final resting place on witch you will never see day again"

I say this as I stare at the compound thinking of all the different ways I'm going to tear him apart. But my mind focuses and then I realize this is a perfect place for an ambush, the building was even windowless. Even though I realize this I will still walk straight into this ambush and I will either walk out of there with Mary by my side in one piece or have her walk out alone either way everyone except her will die in there.

I walk straight to the door, I flinch when I reach for the handle still feeling the gash on my right side hoping it wont hamper my fighting skills, with a steeled face I yank the door back and step through prepared to die and head to the burning palace.

I didn't expect to be welcome by 2,000 soldiers and a throne sitting high above everything else. But I did suspect that he would be there holding her against her will, which above all else pisses me off.

"so this is where you been, it's a little to hot in here even for my tastes but I think I can fix that"

"oh you'll be surprised by what little you can do against 2,000 soldiers "

I look at the first row of armed men that have surrounded me and I notice the fear, the sweat ,the nervousness, and most of all I can sense how each will die right here right now.

I dash forward pulling my blade into a wide ark to take out the soldiers on my right while still charging to the soldiers in the front, none of them had a chance to even raise there arms as I decapitated three on the right side and impale the one in front of me. I look up and I see the shock in the face of the man I just killed and I'm disgusted to find myself having satisfaction in killing him, but ill just have to deal with that later because I still have 1,996 more soldiers to go. I pull my blade free and turn to so that all my enemies are in front of me