note:characer personalities, there appearances, back story, the location appearances and whereabouts will be different from the game
A few miles south-west of colhen lies a fierce battle between humans and fomers in small town called ainle under the starless black sky, usually the town was quiet and peaceful but lately the town has been attacked by fomers, and now there is nothing left but the remains of buildings engulfed in fire and smoke making the fire the only source of light, there is not a single building that is not destroyed, every corner of the streets are slowly being filled with ash and blood from the bodys' of both humans and formors as they both clash with steel and iron, however there is one man that stands out.
Sprinting through the battle covered in slashes, the man is wielding two katanas dressed in black boots, brown paints and a brown tunic with grey sleeves with blonde hair and broken steel plate armor tied to his chest, but what made him stand out from his fellow humans is the folded white and blooded silk scarf wrapped around his head holding his blonde hair back covering his left eye like a bandage, and the look of pure rage in the other, wielding his two katanas he sprints through the battle ignoring the the the clashes of the humans and fomors.
he charges through one of the burning buildings but before he could charge through the other side one for the humanoid fomors drops in through the roof, before the creature could even do anything the one eyed man impaled it through the heart with both blades, not stopping his sprint while its still impaled he charges the creature through the other wooden door of the house, as he breaks through he pulls both blades apart instantly turning the creature to ash, he continues to run through the streets but one of his fellow humans wearing a dark red tunic with a steel helmet spots him running, as the one eyed man runs through another building the mans expression turns from battle focused to worried.
"Lann...i hope you're not doing what I think you're doing..."
the one eyed lann runs up the stairs of the buildings and jumps out of the window grabbing the edge of another one pulling himself up, he looks around seeing the town filled with flames, as he looks around he sees a large human like figure on a rooftop surrounded by flames, lann grits his teeth and his eye widens with rage.
he jumps from roof to roof making his way to the tall figure but he falls through the roof of one of the houses losing his grip of both of his katanas, he quickly picks himself up ignoring the pain and looks from left to right for his katanas, unfortunately he only finds one of them, he sprints towards the door picking up his sword breaking it down, lann runs down the street running to the town centre, as he arrives he stands in the middle of the town square and looks up at the burning church seeing the large human like figure on the roof,
He has dark pink skin with long white hair down his back and wears torn black pants with fur boots leaving its toes exposed along with fur shoulder pads held to him with leather straps across its chest and back with bones sticking out slightly, around both its fore arms are fur gauntlets but its right arm has three long rusted blades down its hand held to the fur gauntlet with steel.
The tall thin monster notices lann and turns to him slowly creaking and cracking his bones looking down at him with demonic yellow eyes, and then smiles revealing its razor sharp teeth, in its left hand its holding a dead human by the head with its long fingers, in a instant, it crushes the humans head with just its grip causing the dead human to fall and roll off the roof, lanns eye follows the falling human to the floor, he slowly turns his attention back to the creature and grips his katana with both hands in rage.
In a instant the creature vanishes instantly leaving traces of smoke, lanns eye widens as he sees its hugh shadow in front of him, he quickly squats down lowering his head narrowly missing the three blades that that swung over him from behind, he turns around quickly slashing the creature across the stomach, the creature flinched slightly and took a step back, it then lets out a demonic loud roar that echoed across ainle, the rest of the humans heard the roar and the steel helmeted solider turned around in shock.
"lann you're fighting the blood lord by yourself? Are you insane!? MEN! TOWN SQUARE! NOW!"
The blood lord looked at lann with rage and began to swing its bladed gauntlet wildly at lann,lann being pushed back keeps ducking and dodging from from left to right avoiding the attacks but the blood lord makes a fast vertical swing to his head, lann raises his blade above his head horizontally to block the blades, but the blood lord pushes down on lanns sword making him fall to his knees, lann tried to push back but in his current condition that became impossible, the blood lord raises its right foot to lanns chest and pined him to the floor standing over him, it then looked down at lann with his head level to his, with the blood lord opening his mouth lann saw fire gathering at the back of its throat, lann knew what was coming so he stabbed the creature in the mouth piercing through the back of its head, as the creature flinched lann broke his sword pulling his sword out and then stabed the remains of his blade into its ankle that pined him down, the blood lord took his foot off lann looked into the air and let out a demonic roar while breathing fire out of its mouth, lann quickly stood up but before he could gain his footing the creature in a fury swung his left arm into lanns left side with full force, lann tried to block with his left arm but it sent him flying across the town square into a burning stall, lann not even seemed to be effected by the injures quickly got up, he felt dizzy slightly but he regained focus quickly, he saw a broken sword from one of the dead humans and went to reach it but stopped and looked at his left arm, he realised it was broken.
Lann picked up the broken blade with his right hand and watched the blood lord pull the katanas remains out from the back of its head and ankle, it then looked at him and slowly begain to walk towards him, lann braced himself into a fighting stance.
"FIRE!"
the blood lord looks to its left seeing archers firing arrows at it, before the arrows even reached him it vanishes again leaving smoke only this time its back on the church roof, it takes one final look at lann with lann starring back at it with rage before vanishing again but disappearing completely this time.
Lann lets out a deep breath and looks at the floor and drops the sword then falls to his knees and right hand in exhaustion, the solider that spotted him running before pushes his way through the archers and sees lann on the floor.
"lann are you crazy!? you went to fight the blood lord by yourself!?"
he quickly walks over to him and pulls his right arm over his shoulders.
"We have to retreat, ainle is lost to us now!"
lann struggling to get to his feet and responds in a tone of angry and but yet exhaustion.
"i'm not done yet marrac!"
Marrac looks at him in the eye "you're in no condition to keep fighting! Were retreating now!"
lann looks at the floor clearly stressed but he knows what he says is true. "fine...but I can walk myself"
"are you sure?" marrac asks nervously
lann pushed marrac away in frustration "I said I can walk!"
marrac and the other solders look at him in concern but let him stand on his own, as they turned around they heard a thud behind them, lann had collapsed to the ground unconscious,
marrac quickly turned around and stands over him in worry.
"lann? lann!? You! Help me carry him! Were not losing another man!"
2 HOURS LATER
location: colhen
like ainle, colhen is a peaceful place, however the town is under the protection of the mercenary group called the crimson raiders since colhen is there main base of operations, inside the mercenary outpost there is a middle-aged man named aodhan the leader of the mercenarys standing in the middle of the room with both hands on the table looking over a map, he is wearing a dark brown tunic with clean cut brown hair, the man looked anxious and lost in thought but that soon broke as a young woman barged in.
The young woman was wearing black boots and dark grey pants with a dark white tunic with dark brown sleeves and her brown hair tied back in a pony tail.
"sir, I heard what happened! Is lann ok!? Is he-"
Aodhan raised his hand silencing her so he could speak.
"calm yourself evie, all I know is marrac brought him back in critical condition and the doctor's seeing to him right now, so all we can do is wait but don't worry marrac is assisting the doctor".
Evie turns around and sits on a stool anxiously rubbing her hands together.
"I should have been there...I should have been there to help him...if I did-"
"If you did the outcome would have still been the same" aodhan interrupted. "besides he would have insistent that you stay here to help protect the town, but I share your concern evie, ever since that day he has been getting more reckless"
evie looks up at aodhan. "if he pulls through do you think I should talk to him about it? Maybe it will-"
"no" aodhan interpreted "I think that would make his mental state far worse, that one goal he has is the only thing keeping him together right now"
Evie looking disappointed looks at the floor and responds quietly.
"yes sir..."
aodhan turned around and placed both hands back on the table.
"and evie, don't ever say that again"
Evie looks up in confusion.
"you said IF he pulls through, evie he WILL pull through, he one of the toughest men I've meet"
evie sadness turns to a gentle smile feeling a sense of relief "thank you sir"
The door of the outpost slowly creeks open and marrac walks in with his hand covered in blood, evie quickly stands up anxiously and the aodhan turns his attention to him.
"report" aodhan ordered.
Marrac glances at evie then looks at aodhan.
"lann's in stable condition" said marrac.
Evie lets out a sigh of relief and walks up to marrac hugging him "thank you...thank you...if you wasn't there-"
marrac gently pushes evie away gently making evie confussed
"evie...sir...you need to listen very carefully"
aodhan and evie stand in anxious silence as he begins to speak.
"the only injury be got from the blood lord was the broken arm and concussion, the slashes, broken ribs and punctured lug was before he arrived to fight the blood lord, and I can confirm this because I saw him running towards the town centre to fight the blood lord"
evie expression turns from anxious to confused, "I don't understand, what are you trying to say?"
marrac puts his hands on his hips and looks at the floor, "evie, the doc told me with those injures he should have been dead long before he arrived to the town centre..."
evie puts her hands on her head in a panic "oh god!" then sits back down on the stool.
aodhan face expression turns from anxious to serious "marrac, don't let lann leave the town until he's fully recovered, if he trys to leave stop him, drag him back to the recovery bed if you have to!"
marrac quickly look up and replys "yes sir!"
the room was filled with silence with worrys until they heard a voice from the corner of the room.
"he's becoming too unstable, he's going to die if he carrys on like this"
everyone turns to the voice in the room seeing a man leaning up the wall with his arms folded, the man was wearing brown boots with dark blue pants and his tunic is light grey with brown sleeves with a steel plate tied to his chest, his hair is white long hair down to his neck.
Marrac was left speechless. "kai? How long have you been here?"
"i arrived after evie and before you"
marrac shakes his head "how the hell do you do that?"
kai doesn't respond he just smiles but turns back to a frown "but seriously ever since that day he's becoming more and more unstable"
evie stands up again rubbing her hands together nervously "but what can we do to help?"
kai took a second to think then looked down and closes his eyes "i don't know, he either has to deal with it himself or someone should speak to him but even that could make things worse...all we can do is keep a eye on him"
the front door opened again as two more people walked in, one a young female officer with blonde hair wearing a dark green uniform with a steel chest plate and steel gauntlets and the other a young boy wearing a red cadet uniform, the woman walked over to aodhan.
"aodhan I need a word with you, we need assistance on a urgent matters"
aodhan looked with a slight supprise "gywnn? ellis? What are you two doing here? Last I heard you was training recruits and eilis passed basic training, congrats on passing by the way ellis"
as soon as he heard his name ellis jumped slightly and responded in a slight tone of panic "oh! Um...yes...yes I did pass! And thank you sir!"
aodhan just smiled slightly "you're welcome, and you don't need to call me sir, us raiders don't have rank"
"oh! Um thank you si- I mean aodhan"
gwynn started to tap her foot clearly impatient "as I was saying I need to speak with you"
aodhan turned his attention to gwynn "alright, what do you need?"
"well, there are two things, one, we need foots soilders for a important mission"
marrac folded his arms and looked at gwynn "why don't you just use some of your own? you're a high ranking officer from the royal army"
gywnn looked at marrac with a calm expression. "i would but recently the platoons have had to be divided into smaller groups to cover more ground, and besides it's not like you or the rest of the mercs are doing anything important"
marrac quickly turned from annoyed to angry. "hey! We just returned from ainle!" marrac shouted "We've lost a lot of good men and a few of them are in bad shape so give us a break!"
gwynn folded her arms and responded with a flat tone of voice "well if you mercs were better trained that wouldn't happen would it?"
"YOU SON OF A-"
aodhan slammed his fist on the table to silence them both "enough! There's too much going on to argue now! Gwynn I will lend you a few men"
marrac turned around in shock "but sir-"
"marrac we need the royal army just as much as they need us" aodhan interrupted "royal army falls so do we, and then colhen, understand?"
marrac looked looked at the floor realising he was right "yes sir..."
aodhan took his hands off the table then stood up straight "and gwynn, don't take the loss of your men out on other people there are better way of dealing with it"
gwynn looked shocked a little in wondering how he managed to work that out and then looked at the floor.
"now, what is this mission?" aodhan asks.
gwynn looked up in silence and looked at evie then kai then back to aodhan
"it's the blood lord"
evie and marrac looked at her in shock and kai in the corner looked out of the corner of his eyes.
"we think we may know the places where he hides after a attack and were going to investigate"
aodhan looked at the floor in thought "so that's why your platoons are divided"
"exactly, if we find him in one of the many hidouts we've located we can take him down" said gwynn
evie quickly stands up "no you can't!" she said "if the platoons are as small as you say he will tear them apart!"
gwynn turned to look at evie in frustration "I'm not speaking to you mercenary and don't tell a member of the royal army what to do!"
marrac quickly interpreted to back up evie "evie's right we just came from ainle where the blood lord was and he torn us apart! It nearly killed one of our best guys!"
gwynn quickly became intrigued by what marrac said "one of you saw it and lived? Where is he I must question him on the subject"
marrac and evie looked at each other with a worried expression they knew once lann would hear about the blood lord there was no telling what he might do, fortunately aodhan responded to her question "he's not here right now he has decided to stay back in ainle to look for survivors"
gwynn folded her arms clearly not convinced "i see...well when he returns tell him I wish to speak with him now on to the second request"
evie sat back on the stool to hear what it was
"in rocheste there has been a string of seven murders we wish for one of you to investigate, again, we would do it ourselfs but we can't spare anyone right now"
kai in the corner of the room narrows his eyes in suspicion "bit of a strange request dont'cha think? With everything going on right now why is this a priority?" kai asks
gwym looks at kai in the corner "usually that would be the case but all seven men had been missing in the middle of the night and just turn up in the morning all killed in the same way"
"how were they killed?" aodhan asks
"drained" said gwyn
"what do you mean?" marrac asks in a confused tone
"you will know when you see the bodys, jarlath has them"
evie looks at gwyn in confusion "jarlath? The magician?"
"alright I will send someone to investigate" said aodhan
gwynn bows here head slightly "thank you, now if you will excuse me I must return to rocheste" gwynn turns around and leaves through the door with ellis following her.
aodhan turns around to kai "kai can you investigate these murders for us?"
kai unfolds his arms and stops leaning on the wall to stand up straight "you got it boss"
kai proceeds to leave the outpost hand places his hand on the door handle
"and kai" kai looks over his shoulder at aodhan "we have to make sure lann doesn't find out about the blood lord mission there's no telling what he might do especially in his state" kai doesn't say anything he just nods his head and leaves.
Evie stands up looking slightly nervous "sir i'm going to visit lann, I need to see how he's doing"
aodhan walks over to the table at the centre of the room with the map and places both hands on it "of course"
kai is walking with his hands in his pockets to the carriage at the edge of town the children and are running past in front of him playing and some of the mercenarys' patrolling the area walk by him, he then hears a voice behind him. "um...sir"
kai stops but doesn't even look over his shoulder or turn around "i was wondering when you would speak kid"
ellis expressions turns from nervous to shocked "you knew I was following you?"
kai turns around with a flat expression "yea, why aren't you with gwynn?"
ellis looks down rubbing his hands together nervously "well...um...i have a assignment... i'm suppose to make a report about the publics' characteristics that why I was following gwynn but she only speaks to soldiers and mercenarys and there too similar"
kai gives ellis a slight confused frown "characteristics? To see if they are worthy of recruitment?"
ellis looks up at kai "y-yes sir" said ellis while looking down again "so I was wondering if I can tag along with you, I promise I wont get in the way and gwynn said its ok as long as I stay out of trouble"
kai puts his hand on his chin and thinks for a moment "ok kid, you can tag along, it would be helpful to have a second opinion on the murders anyway"
ellis looks up at kai with joy feeling a sense of being needed "th-thank you sir"
kai smiles at ellis and puts his hand on his head "by the way call me kai, im not a solider so theres no need for formalities"
"yes si-kai, I mean kai!" said ellis excitingly
kai removes his hand from his head "we'd better get movin, once we arrive at rocheste we'll find a place to sleep and start in the morning"
evie walks into another mercenary outpost only this time it was the barracks, the beds were lined up side by side to the walls of the room with the pillows facing the wall, evie walks nervously to one bed that isn't empty standing over a man with his hair covering his left eye covered in bandages.
"hello lann..."
end of prologue
i hope you enjoyed it if i get enough interest i will continue with the story
thanks for reading