Thought I'd give this story some love :)

Saladin

Early Dark Age - Perm Region, Old Russia

The snow was falling quite slowly in the early morning sky. The inky blackness high above still gave Saladin the impression that it was far past his bedtime.

He could barely hold his eyes open for moments at a time. He absolutely regretted even agreeing to Perun's little hunting trip.

"Come on, Saladin. Don't be so glum." Perun tossed a hard piece of bread at him. He caught it and rubbed his eyes. He wanted desperately to go back to sleep. Almost as if his whole body was forcing him to shut down for just a few minutes…

"Hmmm…" He grumbled slowly to himself as he fell back onto his dry mat. Saladin yawned as he clutched the stale bread to his chest and rolled over. "Just a few minutes."

Perun shook her head, along with the snow that had collected on top of it. It had gotten longer during their stay. For a woman, her light blonde hair seemed quite shaggy and unkempt, almost like a man's. "Come on, Saladin. Just a few more hours until dawn, okay?"

They'd come to this spot deep into the woods. It was atop a high hill overlooking the rest of the valley. Saladin could see the village from where he and Perun had camped. There came a bitter resentment for Radegast and Jolder, who were probably sound asleep. Lucky bastards…

"How do you do this frequently?" Saladin sat up again slowly. Every inch of his body seemed to creak with the effort. "It's not human." He said with a stern glare.

His friend simply smiled at him. "This? This is what I call payback." she smiled evilly at him. "That's for making fun of me in the cave, remember?"

Of course… Perun had to be the most patient woman he'd ever known. Even though her childish grin, he knew she was dead serious. Should've known she'd get back at me eventually…

Saladin fell back onto the mat again, exhausted. Just as he raised the bread to his mouth, he heard Perun speak up again.

"Don't you think about going to sleep, Saladin. I'll keep you up until the sun rises whether you like it or not."

"Then I want something warm to eat." Saladin felt his teeth grind against the cold bread as he chewed it in his mouth.

Perun shook her head again. "Hard rations build character," she said philosophically as if that were the end of the conversation. She's been spending too much time around Radegast…

"They also build hunger," Saladin said right before he threw the last chunk of hard bread into his mouth, feeling it scratch his throat as he gulped it down.

"Well, that goes away after-" She'd cut herself off suddenly. "What's that?"

Saladin looked over to his friend and saw where she was looking. She was looking directly at the village. He couldn't really see that far away, but he knew his friend had eyes like a hawk.

"We need to get back." Perun swiftly began rolling up her camping bed and quickly put out the fire with a thick shower of snow and her feet. "Now!"

Almost with renewed life injected into him, Saladin shot up from his bed, rolling it up and stuffing it into his pack. "What's going on?" he asked as he looked to his friend.

The intensely scared and worried look in Perun's eyes told him all he needed to know.

He'd begun hearing the screams once they'd gotten closer.

The dark forest was glowing brightly with the consuming firelight coming from Dostoyvisk. There was the thick scent of smoke that had layered in the once-crisp morning air.

Saladin entered the clearing, and right behind him was Perun. What they saw had shaken them both straight to their cores…

The cottages and cabins were burning profusely, the fire rising high into the black sky above. Flying above Vladimir's burning lodge was a glowing figure with a flaming sword in his hands.

No…

"Radegast! Jolder!" Perun yelled desperately into the comms. "Where are you!"

Nobody answered back.

"Shit!" Perun unslung her rifle with one swift motion and took aim at the Risen floating above the lodge.

THUM! The thundering shot cracked the air like a whip. The Risen's sword disappeared and the flames around him dissipated as he fell to the burning lodge below.

Saladin ran into the burning town. Everywhere he saw bodies lying around of the people he'd gotten to know over the last few months. Vladimir lay dead outside his home, a bullet hole in the old man's skull.

He ran over to Makarov's small cottage but was blasted backward when it exploded into a wild firestorm. KABOOM! Saladin rolled and tumbled along the rough dirt ground, his bones cracking with each impact.

Slowly, he got back up to his feet, the ache was unbearable but he knew he had to keep going.

"Saladin!"

The Risen swiveled his head to the screaming voice. Kristina was running towards him, a young girl in her arms as she tried to sprint across the clearing in her dress.

Saladin forgot the ache in his bones and started towards the blonde woman. But he was too late.

A large man with broad, bulky shoulders lunged forward suddenly, crashing his fists into the ground where Kristina had been not a few moments ago. The ground quaked and shook beneath him, and Saladin soon found his feet leaving the ground again for the second time as lightning entered his vision. WABAM!

His back had slammed violently right into a burning tree. "AGH!" He fell back to the ground.

Saladin looked up to where Kristina had been just a moment earlier. All that remained of her and the girl was the smokey and charred husk of a woman and a young girl…

And standing tall over them was a large bearded man with an ice-cold look on his face. He laid his eyes on Saladin and gave him a thin smile.

Saladin instantly got to his feet. He threw away all traces of tiredness and felt the fire in his belly roar. He summoned up his Arclight as sparks hissed and danced on his fists, and ran towards the Risen waiting for him.

The bearded man was briefly surprised by his opponent's abilities. But that shock had quickly faded away as he also summoned a coat of wild bolts around himself.

The two men clashed in a roar of thunder and lightning. The bearded man was much taller than him, but Saladin found that he was faster. He dodged the bigger man's left punch and landed his closed fist into the Warlord's gut, knocking the wind out of him and sending him onto his back.

The Warlord tried to get back up, but Saladin jumped onto the man and straddled him. He punched the bearded man's face again and again. Right, left, right, left, right, left, right, right, right.

Saladin heard the terrible squelch of blood and flesh as he landed blow after blow into the bearded man's face, but he didn't care.

It wasn't long before the Arclight surrounding the Warlord had lessened and stopped entirely, signaling that the man was dead. Saladin kept punching anyways. Right, left, right, right.

CRACK!

He heard the cracking of bones underneath his closed fist. Saladin stopped and realized he'd shattered the dead man's nose completely. His own hands were dripping with blood. Was it his? Or was that just the other man's blood?

The light flash of a Ghost soon reflected off the dirt ground. Saladin shot up and snatched the Ghost out of the air. Its metal frame had struggled and fumbled against his iron grip.

"No! Wait-" It screamed terribly in his palm. He didn't care.

Saladin squeezed and squeezed the metal in his hands, easily crushing the machine and grounding it into fine metal shards.

"Saladin!" Perun's voice had called over the channels.

"Perun!" He called out, looking around the rest of the burning village for any more survivors… or Risen. "What is it!"

"Radegast and Jolder are fighting off a few other Warlords! They've taken the fighting deeper into the forest. Can you try and find any survivors?"

Saladin nodded grimly. "I'll do what I can."

Just as he'd made to move towards the screams in the clearing, he heard loud shuffling come from the burning great lodge.

CRUNCH! He looked to the front door of Vladimir's lodge. It had been kicked clean off the hinges by the Dawnbreaker. Must've been resurrected…

The glowing orange sword had immediately reappeared in the man's hand now that he lay his eyes on Saladin. The Warlord didn't waste time as he jumped into the air and raised his sword high.

But he didn't aim at Saladin…

Saladin watched in horror as the Warlord swiftly rained fire on the rest of the assembled cabins and cottages in the clearing, the explosions silencing the screams of the people running or trapped inside of the buildings.

This had to be a nightmare… It couldn't be real… It couldn't be…

Saladin heaved himself up into the air again, the rage that had been silent was now blazing and beating his chest like a drum. He snatched the flaming man's foot and tore him right from the sky as both men plummeted towards the Earth.

Flaming wings had sprouted from the Warlord's back, however, and he managed to recover mid-descent. He rebounded in the air with Saladin still dangling from his foot. The look on his face was more of annoyance than anger.

Saladin began climbing up the Warlord's leg and crashed his fist into the man's knee. The sickening and biting crunch was all he needed to know that he'd shattered it.

"AGHHH!" The flaming man thrashed wildly in the air and swung his sword down at Saladin's hand. The ethereal blade cut his hand as if it were made of metal, making Saladin let go.

He crashed back into the ground again back first. Saladin widened his eyes as he saw the cloister of fire headed straight for him and managed to get up and dive out of the way.

When he looked back up at the Warlord, he now saw the man's anger as clear as day. His painfully shattered knee dangled helplessly in the air.

He needed to get up closer, but if he just kept jumping, the flaming man would easily float out of reach… He needed something better. Saladin's eyes quickly found the roof of Vladimir's lodge and the plan began to form in his head.

Saladin stood back up, ignoring the large gash on his forearm from where he'd been cut. He began sprinting again towards the flaming man.

More and more bolts of fire showered from above like falling stars as the Warlord swung his sword in incredible arcs back and forth. Saladin narrowly swung out of the way of one and grit his teeth as it grazed his arm and seared off the skin like melted butter.

He kept going and jumped onto the roof of the wide roof of the lodge's front porch, climbing just in time to dodge another large swath of orange and red flames where his feet had been. BOOM!

Saladin gave himself a running start and jumped off the roof, summoning his arclight to his feet and propelling his legs in the air as if he was skating towards the Warlord.

The flaming man widened his eyes now as he was too slow to stop Saladin. He threw another bolt of fire at Saladin, but the Risen had charged through it and focused all of his remaining light and momentum into his shoulder.

BRRRACK!

As if thunder had licked the sky, the Warlord fell backward, the lights behind his eyes went out as he glanced down at the gaping dent in his chest. He skidded awkwardly in the snow.

Saladin landed on his feet this time and strode up to the man's corpse. His ribcage had literally been snapped in half. Saladin had no regrets, however. This man was a monster.

Fwoosh! The dead man's Ghost appeared out of thin air. Just as it was about to emit its beam on the Warlord, Saladin had punched it clean in the air.

There was a brief gust of wind that blasted into him as the Ghost's frame broke into several pieces. The blue diamond iris of its eye had gone out permanently.

Saladin finally let himself exhale fully as he looked around the clearing that had once been his home. The rustic wood log cabins were burnt to the ground. Corpses of the people and children who'd used to play tag in the clearing were now strewn about or horribly disfigured.

He didn't hear their voices anymore. The screams were finally silent.

By the time he'd made his way around the clearing, it was already the late morning. The sun had risen high above in the clear morning sky. There were no survivors. Not a single one of these people who were under his protection had lived.

Saladin could still smell the smoke and ash in the air. The fire had stopped spreading, but now what remained of all the cabins-even their own cabin- were blackened piles of wood.

Perun and Jolder had walked back into the clearing and had found him sitting by the firepit they'd gather around in the evenings. He didn't know what to do.

Slung over Jolder's shoulder were two more dead Warlords, and Perun was carrying another in her arms. "Where's Radegast?" He asked.

"By the creek," Perun answered. "He's fine, but…" she paused as she glanced back at the remains of the village. "He needs some time alone."

Saladin nodded. No doubt Radegast would take this especially hard. They were supposed to protect these people and they'd let them down…

He saw the downtrodden looks of Jolder and Perun. Both women seemed about ready to burst into tears. I have to be strong for them…

"These people need to be buried." He said stoically, at least as best he could. Saladin stood up and looked at Perun. "You handle the Lightbearers. Jolder and I will take care of the dead."

She nodded stiffly and continued towards the main lodge. Jolder followed her, though she gave one last parting glance at Saladin. It looked pleading to him.

It took them nearly the rest of the day to bury the dead. Jolder had broken down halfway through burying a small girl with jagged burn scars running up along her arm and the left half of her face. Saladin held her until she cried herself to sleep.

Perun was wordless as she laid the five Warlords next to each other in a row and covered them in a thick cloth sheet. Then she helped Saladin bury the rest of the dead folk.

It must've been the early evening by the time he saw Radegast appear just over the hill that led into the small valley. The sun was setting and the dead were in their mounds of dirt. It was the best they could do for the people who had sheltered them.

Radegast dropped his helmet as he climbed down the hill, letting it roll in the dirt and the snow and ash. The hard look on his face told Saladin that he'd been more devastated than Saladin initially thought.

Saladin's friend had approached the corpses of the five Risen who they'd been fighting hours earlier. His lip curled upward in disgust.

Saladin walked over to him and heard Jolder and Perun follow close behind him. They stopped in front of the splintered remains of the great lodge.

"Never again." Radegast said quietly as his face set into stone. Saladin said nothing. He didn't know what to say.

Radegast continued. "We ride against despots and warlords. We hide in these enclaves," he spread out his arms to the ruins around them. "Hoping that other Lightbearers won't find us. We fear each other…"

"And we shouldn't." Saladin's friend looked to him now. Then Perun. Then Jolder. None of them spoke a word. "We're stronger together. We are mighty together. And all we have to fear is this-" he pointed to the dead warlords strewn out in a line. "Giving in. Letting our Light blind us to what we really are…"

It was Perun who had stepped forward now, eyebrow raised in mild curiosity. "What are we?" she asked tentatively.

Radegast was silent for a moment. He looked to the lodge, seeing the walls and beams laying in a pile of blackened ash. His eyes glinted as he looked back at Perun. "We'll be what the people need us to be…" he paused briefly as he tried to find the right words. "Guardians. Protectors. We'll hold the last of us together. Our days of hiding have ended. Say it now, each of you. Who else can we trust to ride with us?"

Jolder stepped up, the tear stains still on her rosy cheeks. "I know one who can fight with us… her name is Bretomart."

"There's another." Perun said. Though she seemed quite unsure of what Radegast was getting at. "I met her sometime back in Moscow. Name's Deidris."

Radegast nodded in approval and his crystal eyes landed on Saladin. It was his turn.

Saladin shook his head. "I don't trust anyone else… Except for you three," he said gloomily. He'd never met friends he could count on except for these three. He doubted he'd ever find others like them again.

His friend had frowned in response and was about to open his mouth when Perun spoke up again. "But I don't understand, Radegast… What are you trying to say? What are we?"

Radegast looked back to Perun now with a warm smile. His voice had thundered in the valley. "We'll gather those you trust. We won't wait for this-" he gestured to the ruins and destruction around them. "-to happen ever again. We'll take the fight to those who would use their Light against ours. Humanity needs protectors. Just like the knights of old…"

For the first time in hours, Saladin smiled. His friend was tired of waiting for the warlords to come to them. Now was the time to strike back. To go out and tear them down once and for all.

His thoughts came back to the terrified look he'd seen on Kristina's face. The abject horror she must've felt as her whole life ended in a literal flash. He saw the hauntingly thin smile of pleasure that the bearded man had worn when he killed an innocent woman and a little girl.

Saladin did not wish to see that ever again. He couldn't.

Radegast continued. "Well? Are you with me? Will you ride with me as Iron Lords?"

As the sun finally set on the horizon, falling slowly back underneath the white line through the trees, they all gave him their single unanimous answer.