It had taken them five days to reach Venice. They had been lucky, not being attacked by monsters or bandits prowling the roads, which were an increasing problem during daylight hours the farther away they were from any major settlements. They kept to routine of moving from evening until dawn and sleeping during the day, which meant they had to look for shade to avoid being burnt to crisp during the hot midday sun.

When they did finally reach the city, they more than welcomed the lodgings Federico provided them, which were meagre, but infinitely better than sleeping in the shade of a rock while pretending the one quilt underneath was softening the ground in any way. It was also nice to have someone else to talk to besides themselves because after two days of spending in each others constant companionship the two men had exhausted all their conversations to the point of 'oh look a pretty woman' and 'sure is' or better yet 'the weather is really nice' and 'true'.

The thing was, Malik had already figured out years ago that while they were friends, he and Ezio didn't really share many interests outside of violence, which on most of the days was just fine. But while travelling for long periods of time together, violence wasn't really an option if they wanted to reach their destination on time, or even in one piece. Ezio enjoyed flirting with anything with two legs, whether that was a chicken, a ladder, or a woman - it didn't matter, whereas Malik spent his time observing the world, mentally mapping everything from the placement of the trees to the bends in the rivers. So in short, he and Ezio were very different people, which while not necessarily a bad thing, made things at times difficult during long journeys.

Then there was Venice, a city made out of canals, which smelled terribly after spending so much time in the countryside in Monteriggioni. People insisted the city was romantic, but all Malik could think of was the smell of faeces and rotting fish, and he couldn't decide which was worse than the other. He had been to Venice before, in fact he had drawn a few maps of the city, but somehow the smell was always just as nasty a surprise as ever. Kadar should be grateful there was never any need for him to leave Monteriggioni, but no, his little brother insisted on being jealous of his unfortunate tours across Italy in search of deadly monsters.

"So how long are you going to stay and are you going to keep up that ridiculous sleeping schedule the entire time?" Federico asked them over dinner, in an obvious attempt to rile his little brother up. Federico Auditore wasn't trained in monster hunting, but it didn't mean he wasn't aware of the reasons for their daily routines. Federico was to inherit all the Auditore fortune and power after Giovanni, which meant that dying while hunting for some monster was a very bad thing.

"I hope not too long, my brother, and yes we are going to be sleeping in the usual way," Ezio answered surprisingly civil.

"As the monster moves around during the night, so do we," Malik supplied.

"A shame. The women of Venice are something to behold, but I guess you won't have the chance to enjoy their company," Federico leered while plastering a smirk on his face, gaining an instant reaction from Ezio who in turn frowned hard. Malik rolled his eyes.

"A shame indeed, brother. That you should have such an ugly face no woman would look at it." This time around it was Federico who visibly tensed looking ready to fight. The only thing keeping the older brother from lunging over the table was probably the fear of Ezio's fists connecting with his face. Malik couldn't understand the Auditore family dynamics most days, but then there were days like these when the brothers had some sort of imaginary manliness competition going on, and then he really didn't understand them.

They finished eating in relative peace. No punches were thrown and no insults spoken, though the atmosphere stayed volatile. They uttered their thank yous, before heading out to research their target.

"I think we should split up," Ezio said abruptly while shifting his weight from one leg to another looking uncomfortable.

"Why?" Malik questioned with suspicion.

"We cover more ground that way. Then meet up in the morning back at Federico's place." The reasoning was sound but the way it was delivered sounded out of place to Malik's ear. The Italian must have had some ulterior motive.

"How can I be sure you are not just going to end up fooling around in some whore house?" It wasn't much of a question, but more of an accusation.

"They are brothels, Malik my friend. Not whore houses. And have I ever fooled around while on the job?" Ezio's attempt to sound flabbergasted was a terrible one.

"Actually, yes you have. Several times in fact. Also, brothels and whore houses are the same thing," Malik argued, while scowling hard.

"It is not very nice to call them whore houses, now is it, my friend? But seriously, I wouldn't leave you alone to do all the research, now would I? You are my best friend after all." All of them empty words Malik knew and all of them had happened in the past as well, but he also knew he was going to give in because Ezio would find his way to try out the Venetian women one way or the other.

"Fine. Let us split up. I have a map here, so we can distribute the area equally to both of us." He saw a smug smirk cross Ezio's face the moment the words left his mouth, but chose to ignore it in favour of drawing a faint line with a charcoal on the map. He explained how to proceed the most efficient way through the city into the swamps itself.

"Right," the Italian sounded and looked confused at his explanation, but it didn't really matter since the only thing being explored by Ezio's that night was the depth of his coin purse and maybe a nice pair of tits. Malik sighed and berated himself mentally for being way too lenient.

"Unfortunately I do not have a second map with me, but you can have this one since I remember the area by memory," which he did. He could, in fact, remember several other Italian cities with ease as well, including some he had never even physically visited.

"You are not just trying to slink out of doing your part, are you my friend," Ezio teased good naturedly. Malik tightened his expression.

"No. I am not you Ezio. Besides, I drew the map; I ought to remember what it looks like," Malik scoffed. Truth to be told, he wasn't so much against the idea of parting with Ezio, because he had spent enough time with the man to last a lifetime, as much as he knew he would end up doing all the research all by himself. He wondered what he had done to to deserve being surrounded by such manipulators like Kadar and Ezio.

Ezio slapped Malik in the back, which he responded to by glaring daggers at the man. Then they parted ways, each on their own endeavours or rather Ezio would find the nearest whore house, while Malik would try to learn all about this swamp monster. 'What a great deal,' he thought to himself, while rolling his eyes at his own idiocy.

Malik didn't stay in the city, but made it to the outskirts where the swamps were. It also smelled considerably less awful there, though the distinctive pungent earthen smell of swamp was noticeable. There were very few people there, all of whom were completely clueless about the monster looming in the swamp, which was both annoying and unhelpful.

He attempted to look for more physical evidence of the monster to help him figure out the type of creature they were dealing problem was of course that the swamp tended to either swallow everything whole or there was nothing to leave trails on. But after a while of wandering around, with his boots being considerably more soggy than they had been before entering the swamp, he found the dead body of a man in his thirties.

He crouched down to examine the body. The man had been killed cleanly. None of his clothes were torn nor was there any blood to be seen, which made no sense whatsover since the body lacked both arms, which had presumably been eaten. He frowned while trying to wrack his brain. He then noticed something conspicuous at the man's neck so he turned the man's head slightly sideways and sure enough there were two puncture marks right on top of the jugular.

Malik's brain started running at the speed of a hundred galloping horses, with the possibilities, but he could reach only a certain one and several not so certain ones. His eyes widened with the realisation, making him gasp audibly:

"A vampire," is somewhere in this city. But vampires didn't eat body parts; they only went for the blood. So where the arms were, was the question he asked himself when he stood up back to his full height. Malik realised it was a really bad thing to be here alone without Ezio, but not just that, actually it was a really bad thing for Ezio to be alone as well, if there was a vampire skulking in the city. He forced himself to calm down, becaue it wouldn't help him in the slightest.

He looked around scanning the area for the missing limbs. He couldn't find any, but what he did find was more corpses missing various body parts. All of them had bite marks, except for the one without a head, though it was safe to assume the person had suffered the same fate as the others. So he turned around with the intentions of returning to the city, but was stopped in his tracks by his boot sticking to the mud. He was beginning to feel the familiar feeling of anger heating his skin up while he attempted to extract his foot from the mud, but his outburst was disrupted by a huge bird of prey landing on the corpse.

A golden eagle had landed on a human corpse maybe 20 meters away from him and all Malik could think was, 'how bizarre, aren't those day animals'. The eagle looked straight at him with its golden eagle eyes and he realised he was, for once, looking at a mere animal, not a demon in disguise. The eagle had just found an easy meal and was now enjoying it. Whether the eagle could have ripped apart the corpses or not was the question that came to his mind, but he dismissed the idea when he looked at how the bird extracted relatively tiny pieces off the corpse.

He managed to release his foot and boot from the confines of the mud with a sickening slurping sound. Malik left the eagle to enjoy its nightly meal, his head filled with various hypotheses of two different monsters, one of which was a vampire and one undefined monster living in the swamp eating the carcasses left by the vampire, but possibly also killing on its own.

He continued his journey back to the city as gracefully as a person with wet and muddy boots ever could. He stuck to the most populated areas of the city, which was something he usually tried to avoid, but in a situation like this it was the best course of action. However at this time of the night there wasn't much of anything else roaming the streets except for drunkards, so he changed his plans and took to the roofs to avoid the unwanted attention he was given at the street level. The roofs provided him unobstructed view if something should approach him and it smelled less awful there, which was always nice.

He made quick progress back to Federico's place. He hoped Ezio had made it back already but if he had not he would have to find the hunter as soon as possible, so he dropped to the balcony leading inside the house. His boots sloshed uncomfortably when they hit the floor, making him frown at them, as if the boots were somehow offending him.

The house was empty save for Federico's snoring coming from one of the rooms. Malik decided quickly that he needed to know where Ezio was more than Federico needed to sleep so he barged in waking up the sleeping man.

"What is the most likely brothel Ezio would go," Malik demanded of the half awakened man still lying on the bed.

"Huh?! What?! One with women in it?" was the unintelligible answer he was given. Malik narrowed his eyes in frustration.

"Like there were any other kinds of whore houses. Think Federico. This is serious," Malik attempted quite literally to squeeze the answer out of the man at this point. At this the older man seemed to sober up considerably.

"Any brothel that is not a complete shit hole. He has some standards, albeit not very high ones." With that Malik was out of the door leaving one very confused looking Federico Auditore behind. He would have to find Ezio as soon as possible because a vampire was just way too much for a lone hunter, especially if that lone hunter wasn't even aware of the possible threat.

Vampires were not like other monsters because they could blend with humans easily and were intelligent. Normally the height of monster intelligency was reached when facing demons of various kinds, but even then they were surprisingly easy to tell apart from humans. Vampires on the other hand could move like humans, talk like humans, look like humans, and fake human emotions even though they were just as bloodthirsty as other monsters with terrifying powers unrivalled in many ways. It wouldn't be much of stretch to say vampires were the worst kind of monsters to exist.

Malik had not managed to make it very far when he spotted Ezio walking nonchalantly with a smug smile on his face towards him. He sighed in relief, since at least he was now excused from having to skim through every whore house in the city like he originally thought he would have to.

"Ezio. We have problem in our hands," Malik said with a serious tone while turning to fall into step with the other hunter.

"No my friend, I think the problem is more in your feet," Ezio joked playfully while pointing at Malik's soaked feet. To Ezio's benefit, his boots did look terrible.

"This is no time for jokes. There is a vampire loose in the city," he snapped incredulously and then proceeded to whack Ezio on the shoulder.

"I know," the Italian said while wearing possibly the most complacent grin Malik had ever seen. Malik then broke into a tirade since he was the one who had actually done all the work after all.

"While you were whoring around I actually- " Malik stopped mid sentence to take a hard look at his friend. Ezio seemed way too conspicuously innocent. He then questioned suspiciously,

"How do you know that?" narrowing his eyes to examine Ezio's face for any trace of a lie.

"You assume that all I ever do is have sex. I should be offended, my friend," the other hunter said with a voice full of fake hurt. Ezio thought he had bested him in this, making the bastard gloat, but Malik wasn't without ammunition either.

"There is a very good reason for that. Besides, you have a hickey." He enjoyed seeing the Italian visibly flinch, with his right hand instantaneously reaching for his neck to cover the mark.

"So how do you know there is a vampire in the city?" Malik demanded with the newly found inner peace the satisfaction embarrassing Ezio brought him.

"I went to talk with the guard captain since the barracks were located in my part of the map. I asked if they had a list of missing people or confirmed kills by the swamp monster. Most of the people who have gone missing or are confirmed dead were known criminals, madmen or other outcasts of society," Ezio explained calmly while gesturing with his hands to accentuate his points.

By then they had reached Federico's place, continuing their conversation while sitting at the kitchen table. Malik was attempting to rid himself of the soggy boots while making faces at them.

"That is way too intelligent for a simple swamp monster or even any kind of demon," Malik concluded after listening to Ezio's story, trying to clean his boots from the mud covering them at the same time.

"Yes it is, my friend. But how do you know our swamp monster is a vampire?" Ezio asked. Malik stopped cleaning his boots to look Ezio in the eyes, just to make sure his friend was listening to him.

"The swamp monster is not the vampire, but there is a monster in the swamps eating the bodies the vampire leaves behind. I found a body in the outskirts of the city with two puncture marks in the neck and missing both arms. No blood trail to be seen, no bruises, clothes intact, and I could not find the missing arms, which I assume were eaten. The corpse was not bloated and did not have rigor mortis set in, so the kill must have been fresh. Then I found even more bodies – all of them missing body parts."

Ezio looked at Malik funnily for a while, before snorting in an attempt to stifle a laugh.

"Your mean face scared the monster away. I am not sure if I should be impressed or not," Ezio sniggered, while wiping his eyes in a dramatic manner as if to wipe tears from them.

"You are an imbecile."

They kept their conversation going until the dawn. They talked strategies against both the vampire and the yet undiscovered swamp monster, if they even should go after one of them or both of them. Bouncing ideas until sleeping was the only thing both had in their minds.


That day Malik dreamt of flying. He flew high up in the air above a city he had never seen before and couldn't recognise from any of the maps he had ever seen or drawn. It was a very vivid dream set in the dead of the night, but he still could see the outlines of the buildings clearly as if it was a day. The buildings were mostly brown-colored, one-or-two-storied simple things. There were a few people occasionally walking the streets and guards patrolling the streets and a occasionally a light would flicker somewhere, indicating a presence of a late-night worker perhaps.

Sometimes he would glance at his side while gliding, seeing his own set of strong wings occasionally flapping through the air, but also a golden eagle flying next to him, the tips of their wings at times grazing each other's. The eagle would look back at him with piercing golden eyes, before setting his eyes forward. He himself would have sharp talons, which he curled under his body into the thick feather coat. The sensation of air brushing against his feathers felt amazing, like a tender touch cool against skin. He felt so free, so happy and so intoxicated on life.

The dream was unbelievable, but still felt every bit as real as anything he had ever felt as if it wasn't a dream but a memory. The feeling was the same as those post battle flashes he experienced, just much longer and more detailed.

He woke up soaked up in sweat and confused. He could remember everything about the dream in excruciating detail, down to the point of being easily able to draw a map of the city he had seen. All of it made his head hurt. He attempted to ease his headache by massaging his temples with his fingers. The hurt eased slightly but the disconnection to reality he was having did not.

He decided he needed fresh air to clear his head, to contemplate things alone. He grabbed his boots, which were still damp from the previous night's adventures in the swamp, but pulled them on anyway despite the discomfort. The boots were followed by the rest of his clothes, the cloak and weaponry.

Then he exited the house through the balcony. Climbing the building was easy despite the moisture gathered on every surface. It was raining and the roof was slippery, so he pulled up the hood of his cloak to shield himself from the raindrops. The sky was grey making the city feel gloomy and dirty. He had thought the the rain might have wash away the smells, but it was considerably worse than it had been the previous day.

Malik heard footsteps approaching him. He turned to see Ezio approach him with his hood also pulled up waving his hand in a greeting. Malik turned back to watch the city ignoring the other hunter, but he knew Ezio had come to stand next to him as the sound of leather boots against the roof stopped. The sound of rain came muffled through his hood.

"How is it that the city manages to smell even worse today than it did the day before," Malik asked after while, wringing his nose in disgust.

"What are you talking about, my friend?" Ezio answered clueless. Malik looked at the Italian with disbelief.

"The city smells of rotting fish and faeces. It is nauseating."

"It does no such thing. If I take a really, really deep breath I can smell only a bit of garbage floating in the canals, but not shit or dead fish, my friend," Ezio said while looking slightly concerned and to punctuate his point took a deep breath through his nose. Malik was beginning to feel very uncomfortable for reasons he wasn't even sure of himself. Maybe he was too stressed out from the threat of the vampire, making him overreact to things. As if he would admit something like that aloud to anyone.

"Why are we talking about this?" Malik asked slightly annoyed.

"I do not know. You tell me, my friend. You started the conversation," Ezio answered neutrally. Malik didn't answer but remained quiet, observing the rain.

"I think we should sent a pigeon back to Monteriggioni," Malik said after a considerable amount of silence.

"Why?" Ezio questioned clearly unhappy.

"Because there are two monsters instead of the one we were sent after. One of which is considerably more dangerous than anything either of us has ever faced before. That is why," Malik explained as if he was talking to a simpleton.

"We are perfectly able to kill one vampire with both of us working together and the swamp monster, whatever it may be won't be much of a challenge after that. The thing is eating carcasses, what kind of monster eats carcasses instead of killing on its own?" Ezio stopped, but just as Malik was about to open his mouth he continued,

"A weak one. A weak monster sits in the swamps and waits for vampire to throw crumbs at it. We do not need my father's approval for this," the Italian nearly shouted while his hands made wild motions in the air. It took about two seconds for Malik to process the entirety of Ezio's outburst, before realizing this wasn't really about the monster at all. This was about Ezio's need to prove himself in some inane way only an Auditore could think of.

"So you want to brave the swamp today in search of a monster lurking in there?" Malik asked attempting to keep his tone neutral.

"Yes!" was the immediate, yet clearly agitated answer.

"You realise with all this rain the ground will be so soggy we will be literally knee deep in it. How do you reckon fighting when every step is a struggle to free your feet?" he asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"It can not be that bad. I will figure out something on the go," the Italian defended himself. Malik rolled his eyes in response at the stupidity of the statement.

"It really is that bad. I actually went to the swamp yesterday, yet managed to have one of my feet stuck to the mud. Now it is raining; how do you imagine things will be?" he kept lecturing. Ezio was clearly sulking now with his head cast down towards the roof underneath his feet.

"Fine. We will wait out the rain, but we won't involve my father in this," Ezio said with a tone of finality in his statement leaving no room for negotiating.

"Fine. I guess I can live with that," Malik sighed already regretting everything he had ever done or would do that had lead until this point of his life. Ezio turned around to leave the roof.

"See you later, Malik," and with that the Italian jumped down the roof leaving Malik alone to his own musings. But when he turned around to begin staring at the same spot on the opposite roof, he had been staring at previously, he saw an eagle sitting on one of the chimneys preening like it was a normal thing to do.

He looked at the bird dumbstruck. The sight was an absurd one. Here in the middle of a bustling city, was a golden eagle sitting on a chimney like a carrier pigeon. Something fishy must have been at play for him to spot a bird like that twice in such a short amount of time, but no matter how much he tried to find anything out of place on the eagle, he could not.

The eagle stopped cleaning itself and looked him straight in the eye, making him recall the dream he had had. They were the same eyes he had seen in the dream. Shivers ran down his spine. Then the bird cocked its head to the side as if it had heard something, effectively breaking the eye contact. Then the eagle spread its massive wings and took to the air, leaving Malik with a bucketful of feelings he didn't know what to do with.


The following evening when Ezio stepped alongside with Malik to the swamps, he was beginning to regret his haste to fight the swamp monster. The ground really was soggy even after the rain had eased and eventually stopped, but the ground had not had enough time to absorb the additional water load of in it. Ezio could practically feel the stitching of his boots straining to keep the water outside. He cringed hard when the muddy water finally breached through his left boot.

The other hunter was walking as if the conditions weren't affecting him any way, but Ezio knew it was just Malik being a stubborn ass, so he did the only sane thing he could think of and was stubborn as well. Then again, he should be looking for signs of the swamp monster, not whining about his boots.

They had been walking around the swamp without finding even a hint of any kind of monster, when they finally found a corpse. The problem was they had found their swamp monster along with the corpse. It wasn't a swamp monster though. It was a fiend and a well-fed fiend at that.

They ducked behind a rock quickly before the creature would notice them. This needed a bit more strategy than 'whack it until it stops moving'. Ezio looked at Malik pointedly, but the other hunter turned to take a peek at the feasting fiend. He could practically hear the gears turning in his friend's head and for once he was thankful for Malik's presence, since out of anyone it would be he who could cook up a plan to fight a fiend on the spot.

Ezio dared a look at the monster which was now gorging on the intestines of the poor man or a woman who had fallen victim to either to the fiend or the vampire. The creature's elk-esque antlers had pieces of moss and fern dangling from them and it's brown fur was covered in mud. The sound of its sharp teeth grinding flesh from bone was nightmare inducing.

Malik nudged him slightly in the side, with a look that told him the man had devised a plan.

"We need to lure it to more solid ground if we wish to stand a chance, where we need to set up entrapment wards to immobilise it. That way we gain an advance over it. We need to keep our distance, so throw bombs and use your crossbow. We can not get close to it, because despite its size it is faster than either of us and ten times more powerful. Only after it has been weakened enough, may we go after it with swords." Malik explained in low whispers, which to Ezio's ear sounded good.

"Which one of us sets ups the trap?" Ezio asked quietly.

"You do it. I weigh less than you do, so I am less likely to have my feet stuck in mud while acting as the bait. Besides your grasp on the magic has always been better than mine." Ezio knew must have been a hard thing for Malik to admit, especially judging from the sour expression the man was wearing, but now wasn't the time to gloat. He simply nodded in response.

"Let us do this then, my friend," Ezio said with mirth in his voice. He gave Malik a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, put on his best smirk, and headed off to set up the wards. 'This is going to be so good,' he thought while stalking through the swamp in search of dryer land. Finally there was something truly challenging to fight instead of the endless swarms of demon-infested animals eating chickens and upsetting peasants.

He managed to find a clearing not too far away where he could set up his wards. Five wards should do the trick for this one, so he set up all of them except for the one he kept for himself, which he would use when the fiend entered the area enclosed by them. He took a quick look around him, making sure the wards were spaced out evenly before whistling loudly for Malik to make a move.

He stepped to the side, readying a bomb to his left hand while holding the remaining ward with his right one. Sure enough, shortly after he could hear an explosion go off, followed by quickening footsteps making loud noises against the soaked ground and an ear shattering roar. Ezio could hear his own pulse hammering anxiously through his chest with adrenaline surging through his veins making him feel giddy and light in his feet.

Then Malik appeared with the fiend in tow rampaging through the swamp attempting to take a bite of the hunter with its terrible jaws every now and then. Fortunately Malik seemed to have better reflexes, so far but the creature was gaining on quickly. He saw expression of utter determination and concentration on the hunter's face. He himself tensed from the anticipation.

Those last few moments before the creature stepped into the magic circle felt like pure agony to Ezio, who would have rather just hit the last ward to the ground and actually do something worthwhile. He had only seconds to act while the fiend was still inside the area, so he slammed the last ward down hard and ducked to avoid being impaled by an antler.

Blue foxfire spread out from one ward to another in the shape of a pentagram near instantaneously, effectively trapping the fiend inside. Ezio threw the bomb he had been holding in his left hand all, while reaching behind his back for his crossbow. Malik was somewhere to his left probably already shooting at the fiend. The fiend roared in rage revealing its unnaturally long tongue from which lumps of saliva flew all around.

The bomb he had thrown seemed to do little apart from annoying the fiend judging from the way it roared at the impact. Then he saw Malik's bolt hit the fiend squarely in the left eye, and not to be outdone by his friend Ezio loaded his crossbow as quickly as he possibly could. He then proceeded to shoot at the monster, with the intention of hitting it in the right eye, but the fiend moved its head making the bolt fly harmlessly overhead. Malik had managed to grab the creature's ire with his actions as the fiend had its remaining red eye aimed towards the hunter along with razor sharp claws.

He loaded the crossbow once again, shot the bolt, and didn't miss the fiend this time. He repeated the motions over and over again until he ran out of bolts to shoot. The monster had crossbow bolts sticking out from it everywhere drawing trickles of blood from the creature. Ezio took this as a cue to draw his silver sword. This was the part he had been waiting for all along. A hunter should not stand at a distance firing his crossbow, but in close quarters slicing the damned monsters to pieces. His energy suddenly spiked to a completely new level.

He charged at the fiend, expertly dodging the antlers, while making a slice at the side of the monster drawing a considerable amount of blood from the shallow wound. He grinned like an idiot while stabbing and slicing at the fiend. He even parried the antlers a few times. He was in a battle high making him forget everything around him except for the fiend. The creature was thick-skinned and monstrous in size, so it took all of his strength to swing his sword at it.

Then the unthinkable happened. His boot got stuck in the mud like Malik had warned him. He panicked for a fraction of a second, but managed to pull himself free just in time to stumble away from the reach of the antlers. He sighed in relief in time to hear Malik berating him for something.

"Ezio, you dimwit! Fix the wards!" The other hunter practically screamed at him all the while dodging his own share of antlers.

"Shit!" Ezio cursed when he realised what had happened and sure enough the ward that was supposed to be right in front of himself was nowhere to be seen. The pentagram had of course vanished leaving the weakened, yet very lethal fiend free to do whatever it wanted to do, which was probably kill and then afterwards eat them. It was after all a monstrous fiend a size he had never seen before.

"Distract the fucker and I will fix this!" he shouted at Malik. He didn't get a response from the hunter, but then again the other man was doing everything he could to both fight the newly freed fiend while staying alive.

He scrambled through his pouches in search of a matching ward for the ones he had set up on the ground previously. His hands felt like they were made out of paste, making them near useless. He glanced quickly at the fight, which seemed to have put Malik on the defence judging how the fiend was now at the very edge of the incomplete magic circle.

Finally what seemed like an eternety he managed to secure a right kind of ward in his hand, but the fight was now out of the preset circle. They would have to bring the fiend back to the circle in some way.

"Malik! You need to bring it back here!" Ezio shouted as loud as he could in the hopes his friend would hear him over the horrible sounds the monster was making. For a while the fight continued similarly, but then Malik rolled through the muddy ground to face the side of the monster.

The fiend predictably followed, turning its whole body so that it was facing the direction of the wards once again. All Malik had to do was to lead the creature back to the circle now and lead he did. Thank God for his friend's fast reflexes and agility. Ezio was holding his breath everytime the monster took a swipe at his friend, and everytime Malik evaded the attack he flinched to the same direction as the hunter did.

Everything was going well, the creature was almost back inside the wards. He was holding the ward so hard his knuckles turned white, ready to stab it through the ground as soon as possible. Only a few steps was needed to trap the fiend back to its place. That was of course when everything went horribly, horribly wrong. Ezio could only recognise Malik flying sideways through the air as if he weighed nothing, then hitting the ground with an unhealthy crack and not getting up.

He dropped the ward on the ground that instant. He saw the fiend lunging after his unconscious companion. His heart stopped beating for a second. Everything slowed to a snail's pace. Ezio charged towards the creature without any kind of plan except to prevent the fiend from killing Malik.

The fiend had almost reached Malik, making Ezio feel like he was still miles away and running through tar. He felt desperate, because he really didn't want his best friend to end up being killed by an ugly monster in the swamps, but he felt powerless like he had never before. This was no longer fun and exhilirating, but dreadful and exhausting. He realised he was shouting Malik's name on top of his lungs, but there was no response and the monster was now so close to ripping the man to shreds.

But just as he was about to lose all of his hope of ever seeing Malik alive, a white blur appeared between the fiend and his friend. The world returned to its normal pace, when he realised the white blur was a man wearing odd white hooded robes, which starkly contrasted with the surrounding darkness and murky ground.

The newcomer sported a sword in his right hand but it was his left hand, he used as if to punch the fiend. Ezio didn't stay to watch, but continued his charge to attack the fiend's side while the man in white took the deadly front.

Then the man in white did something he had never seen anyone do before. The stranger jumped on top of the fiend grabbing onto the antlers for leverage. Then without any hesitation plunged his sword through the monster's neck. Ezio used the opportunity presented him to stab the fiend's heart through the side, now that he didn't have to worry about the antlers impaling him anymore. It took all of his remaining strenght to push through the thick skin and hard ribcage to reach the monster's heart.

The fiend fell to the side with a heavy thud with Ezio's sword still sticking from its side. He was exhausted breathing heavily, and for a while he could not do anything but catch his breath while staring at the bleeding dead fiend on the ground. Then he remembered Malik was still unconsciously lying on the ground, making him spring back into action.

He rushed to his friend's side, where the white clad stranger was already crouching over the hunter's unmoving body. He could not see the stranger's eyes from underneath the hood, but he could see a scar crossing his lip on the right side. Ezio's eyes were then drawn to Malik, whose robes were torn from the left side showing nasty gashes underneath bleeding profusely, but the most worrying thing was he had not still shown any signs of regaining consciousness and the puddle of blood formed beneath his head.

"He's not dead, but he has broken ribs and probably a concussion. He'll live," the white clad stranger said with an accented but emotionless voice. So they had been rescued by a foreigner, what were the odds?

"Who are you?" Ezio asked, because he could not think of anything better to say.

"I'm Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. You are Ezio Auditore. Your friend Malik Al-Sayf, here needs medical attention, but if you would rather let him die, I won't interfere." What a jerk this Altaïr was, Ezio decided, even if he had skills to back up his attitude. But the jerk was right, he needed to get Malik away from here. Then he would question Altaïr on how he knew their names, or why he had showed up during their fight and all the other numerous questions he had in his mind.