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Chapter 5

Artorias

It took Marius twelve days to return with the Order of Durandal, and in those twelve days I spent most of my time killing.

On the first day I killed a large number of criminals that had set up a base camp on the outskirts of the city. They had cut of their base from the rest of the city by piling up debris into walls leaving only one way to walk into the criminal stronghold. The criminals would leave each morning to plunder different parts of the city and return before the sun would set, bring with them gold, silver, treasures, men, women, and children. I struck at midday, when the base was least guarded and most vulnerable, and after the crooks were dead, and their abductees released from their bonds but still safe within the makeshift walls, I waited. Every time a group of highwaymen returned from their barbarity they would barely have time to realize something was wrong before I removed their heads.

After the first day I got volunteers from those abducted to guard the entrance while I marched deeper into the ruined city. For three days I walked the streets aimlessly; killing murderer, slaughtering rapists, and dismembering looters, and by doing so I saved many innocents. Those I saved I lead back to the safe area I had set up when sun set before heading back out when the sun rose. By the fourth day most of the city had heard of me, and all petty criminals spoke in hushed tones about the 'Sword of Justice'.

On the fifth day my camp of survivors and I were meet by a pleasant surprise. A high-ranking guardsman by the name of Tiven had gathered the surviving, loyal members of the city guard, and volunteered to help protect the survivors I had gathered and help me save more. Tiven had even had the key to the city guard's armory and used the weapons within to arm the militia that had grown from the survivor's ranks.

On the sixth day my new allies and I plunged deeper into the city than I had before. We slew many lawless men and women, saved many more innocents, and even made contact with an elf from the city's alienage.

I spent the seventh day gathering weapons leftover from the criminals killed throughout the week and delivering them to the alienage, so the elves that lived there could protect themselves. During my delivery I had to kill many a bandit, thief, and opportunist; and even after reaching the abode of the elves I helped them repel an assault on their homes from militant dragon cultists.

On the eighth day the survivor's stronghold was attacked. Criminals, cultists, slavers, and mercenaries all assaulted our fortress of debris and met with the edge of mine, and the guardsmen's steel. The enemy attacked in increasingly growing waves, and by sunset my allies and I were exhausted. The last attack of the day was to be the biggest and my side would have been overrun if it were not for the last-minute intervention of the elvish archers on the roof-tops providing covering fire while being protected by warriors outfitted with the gear that I had given them. By the end of the eighth day all people in the city had heard of and feared the 'Blood Knight' who survived the attack completely covered in the blood of his enemies and stood on top of a mountain of their corpses to protect the city survivors.

On the ninth day I went on the offensive. With a combined squad of elves and guardsmen I delved deep into the city to permanently wipe out the weakest of the criminal elements still infesting the city. Cultist blood covered the entirety of my silverite sword and colored my armor dark crimson by midday, and by doing so I had made a new ally.

Brydrin Lavellan, an elf from the Dalish clan Lavellan, had been tracking the dragon's trail through the Nevarran mountains when cultists had captured her. They had brought her to Hunter's Fell so that the cult leader, a blood-mage that had tricked the cultists into thinking that his magic was a gift from the dragon, could perform a ritual that they believed would draw the dragon out of its lair and allow them to control it. I had managed to save her just before the ritual called for her death, and together with the help of the city elf and guardsman joint assault force we managed to destroy the cult. Brydrin revealed herself to be a powerful mage as she overpowered the cultist blood-mage without help, and even use her staff's blade end as a spear at the same time.

After destroying the cultists, Brydrin agreed to help me bring order to the city in return for my saving her life. Together we used her magic to sneak into the hideout of the criminal gang that had become the largest criminal element in the city. There I quietly broke the gang's leader before killing all his lieutenants. Brydrin and I then sneaked back out leaving the gang to collapse on its self and splinter into smaller, weaker gangs.

On the tenth day the Lavellan clan came to the city in search of their missing mage but agreed to help kill the Tevinter slavers who had taken residence in the opposite side of the city for the scum had managed to capture a few of the clan's scouts that were in the area, along with many Hunter's Fell civilians; both human and city elf alike. A captured Tevinter message runner informed us that the captured would be shipped out of the city soon, convincing us that a hasty attack was necessary. Again, I left the safe area I set up with a force of men and elves at my back, however this time the assault force had new additions in Dalish warriors and archers, and volunteering survivors who new men or women that had been captured by the slavers.

This assault was much bloodier and took nearly the entire day, but in the end, all the slavers were put to the sword or hung from a rope. By the end of the tenth day the people of the city had dubbed me 'the Second Dragon' of the 'Dragon Knight' for my sword which had been enchanted by Brydrin to catch fire when I spoke a specific pass phrase.

The eleventh and twelfth days were much calmer with the biggest threats taken care of, now the only large concern was forming parties of scavengers who would be escorted deeper into the city to secure food and water, and I was stuck behind desk for long periods organizing said scavenger parties. Brydrin and I had become friends in the short time since we had met and, when we weren't called out of the safe areas to help clean up any of the remaining gangs, she spent her time keeping company while I was stuck behind a desk. We spent our time learning about each other, talking about our cultures, and speaking about the dragon that had caused the chaos.

At sundown on the twelfth day Marius crested the top of the hill we had separated and at his back was the full force of the Order of Durandal and much of the Nevarran military, ready to restore order to the city.

"Welcome to Hunter's Respite, Marius." I grinned tiredly at my friend as he walked into my makeshift office.

"Artorias!" The Nevarran exclaimed. I stood up as he approached and embraced me. "Or should I say Sir Dragon Knight, ha! My friend is even half the stuff the survivors say true? That you massacred a cult, became a Crow and assassinated a gang boss, and that you burned a band of Tevinter slavers at the stake?"

"One burning Tevinter falls on a stake and suddenly you're some sort of Impaler." I sigh at Marius' words. "As for the other things; yes, I wiped out a dragon cult, but I had help, and no I'm not a Crow but a new friend of mine did use a spell to turn me invisible so I could kill the leader of the Fell Mob."

Marius' laughter brought a grin to my face, a rare sight that only my closest confidants within my allies in the city ever saw. One of those few took that moment to enter the room and her mischief's grin caused a spark of dread to travel up my spine.

"Oh Artorias!" A melodious sing-song voice cut off my dragon hunting partner before he could respond. "Guess who just got permission from your shem organization's leader to assist in said organization's dragon hunt?"

At 4'8 Brydrin Lavellan was short even by elf standards. Her shining gold hair fell freely to her waist, entirely unadorned apart from a shining emerald hair clip in the shape of a leaf that she wore above her right eye. She wore a dark green tunic underneath a sliver iron-bark chest plate with matching vambraces and grieves over her white gloves and breaches. Slung over her back, the heart shaped blade of her spear-staff Romanlia sparkled brilliant purple in the office's candlelight. Her smile stretched across her pale face and her light purple eyes shined with cheerfulness, as she bypassed my hunting partner to stand at my side.

"Hello to you too, Brydrin." I sighed good naturedly. "Allow me to introduce you two. Brydrin this Marius Pentaghast, my hunting partner within the Order of Durandal. Marius this is Brydrin Lavellan, Second of the clan's Keeper and the mage that helped me bring order to the city."

"I sincerely thank you lady Brydrin." Marius bowed his head in the elf's direction. "My partner tends to get in over his head. I hope he wasn't too much trouble."

"Not too much trouble no." Brydrin laughed at Marius' rib of me. "At least it wasn't anything I couldn't handle."

"Ha-ha." I false laughed. "I so glad you both can find amusement at my expense and I so wish you could continue doing so all day, but Marius I need information. Has someone accompanied you who can relieve me from watching over the city? When is the Order leaving Hunter's Fell to hunt the dragon? Am I going to be allowed to assist in the hunt?"

Marius and Brydrin's smiles died as I turned the topic of our discussion to such serious matters.

"The King sent a seneschal to manage the rebuilding of Hunter's Fell and he has already begun with his work. In fact, he asked that I deliver the news to you when I came to speak to you. As for the dragon; the Grandmaster has commanded that the Order prepare immediately. And yes, you will be involved in the hunt."

"Good." I grunted as I stood up from my desk. "Brydrin, I'm glad that you'll be joining us on this hunt, but I hope you've talked to that Keeper of yours. I don't want her turning that glare of hers on me again."

Said elf chuckled nervously which got both Marius and I to laugh, and together we left the cramped office space behind.

There is a tradition in Nevarra that involves naming dragons. For a dragon to be recognized with a name other that its breed it must fulfill three requirements.

The beast must have reached the High Dragon stage in its life cycle.

The High Dragon must be either much larger than normal High Dragons or must be showing signs of unique mutations.

The Dragon must have had a serious impact on the Nevarra of one of the surrounding nations.

The dragon that burned Hunter's Fell to ruin fulfilled all those requirements, and as such, was given a name that would going down in history books and had a Dragon Hunter Order assigned to kill it.

Fafnir, was the name given to the destroyer of Hunter's Fell.

And the Order of Durandal was give the task of slaying the beast and avenging all those the dragon had killed.

The night I left Hunter's Fell, the Grandmaster of Durandal had personally explained the plan to kill the beast to Marius, Brydrin, and myself. Two days later I stood on a cliff overlooking a grassy plain, empty except for three cows and four goats that had just had their throats slit.

The perfect bait for a trap laid for a Dragon of such infamy.

My men and I heard the beast long before we saw it. Its roar shook the stones next to my feet and vibrated my bones. When Marius galloped out of the woods thirty feet to the right of the grassy field that held our trap, I took only a second to verify that my friend was unharmed before looking above the woods that he had road out of.

Bursting out of a low flying cloud came the demonic hunter of the skies, and with liberal use of my telescope I finally got a good look at my prey.

The dragon's general shape reminded me greatly of a sketch I once saw of an Abyssal High Dragon; larger than normal horns, skinny but maneuverable front legs, and large powerful hind legs, but never before seen mutations had warped said traits even more. The dragon's horns twisted around themselves like a ram's horns but ended in incredibly sharp points that were parallel to the monster's snout. The beast's front legs still looked smaller compared to its hind legs, but not by much and the claws on the front legs dripped a foul looking green ichor that melted any unfortunate trees it landed on. The dragon's back was covered in dark black scales that seemed to absorb the light around it, while its under scales were of a darker grey color that looked eerily steel like. Its wings stretched nearly twice as wide as the beast was tall, their membrane a similar color to Fafnir's under scales, and the dragon must have been at least eighty feet long.

And its eyes…Fafnir's green silted eyes looked ancient and held an unfathomable hatred for the world around it. Fafnir's poison colored eyes seemed to lock gazes with my sea-green orbs and for a moment we both just sized each other up, until the dragon noticed the free meal stain the grass red only a few feet away, and its gaze left me.

Marius, after seeing that the dragon he had lured had token the bait, abruptly turned his horse around and road back into the woods, already prepared for his next task in the plan.

Fafnir let its original prey go, no doubt forgetting about a measly horse and rider when a veritable feast was within it's grasp. The dragon circled the dead animals from the air; one, twice, three times, before gliding down and landing next to the meal. It opened its jaws and I saw its razor-sharp teeth, each one half as tall as a grown man, and then it tore into the cow nearest to its landing place.

I waited as it devoured the first offering and kept silent as it nearly devoured one of the goats whole. Finally, when it moved to get closer to the rest of the blood-stained animals I drew a whistle from my pocket and blew.

The shrill noise echoed throughout the mountain range, getting the dragon's attention and drawing Fafnir's eyes back towards me. That is when the dragon hunters of the Order of Durandal struck, just like we had planned.

Four large grass-covered tarps, one on each side of the beast, were moved away revealing four deeply dug trenches that surrounded Fafnir. Within each trench was over twenty grown men and women, and in a nearly synchronized fashion all the hunters that the dragon had its back to winded up and threw a thick chain with a weight on the end. The chains flew over the dragon's back and was caught neatly by the group in front of the beast. Fafnir must have caught on to our plan because he immediately began to breath a torrent of flame at the group that had cached the weighted chains, but a thick wall of stone rose up to protect the trench in response. The catching group then pulled the chains tight, putting pressure on Fafnir's back, as the groups to the side of the dragon stood up.

The group west of the dragon tossed their chains and the east group caught and fastened them before they tossed their own chains back. Only after both side had added their own significant pressure to the dragons back, did the group that the dragon was facing finally throw their chains to be received by the back group.

The end result of the maneuver was that the dragon was trapped under the weight of chains and the pressure keeping them taunt on its back, and dragon that couldn't move made an easy target for the cart-driven ballista that I had hidden in the woods behind me. I had ordered that the siege weapons moved out of their hiding place the second I saw that the first chains had been fashioned, and by the time that all the chains were in place the weapons were in place and aiming at the beast.

"FIRE!" I screamed over the sound of Fafnir's bellows.

Seven bastille bolts the size of a man's arm with points of pointed tips dipped in silverite flew at speeds unfollowable by human eyes. Six of the seven hit, the seventh digging into the ground in front of the target, and three of the six ripped through Fafnir's more delicate wing membrane, one of the higher priority targets on the beast. The other three strike the dragon's scaled hide, hurting it by the sound of its screech, but not drawing blood.

With a quick glance I note the three ballista operators who deserve commendations and the one who needs more training. However, all the shooters do show proficiency by not waiting for further orders. The one who missed his first shoot is already firing his second while I muse, the bolt strike dragon squarely one the back, and the rest are already loading their second bolts.

The ballistae manage to get out three more volleys before Fafnir finally escapes the trap. The ancient dragons fire had quickly been melting through the chains that were drawn taut by its face, and after it finished with those the others that held it were much easier to destroy. The men in the trenches then did the sensible thing; ducked as low into the dug-up ground and waited for the mages assigned to each trench to erect thicker stone barriers to protect them. A few men screamed in pain as dragon-fire grazed them or when snapped chains whiplashed into them, but for most part they were spared the dragon's wroth, for Fafnir's new purpose was to escape back to her lair and heal up.

Her flight was severely hampered by the large tears in her wings, but she managed to get aloft. Her bellow of pain and fury shook the world, but instead of attacking she retreated, her black form diapering of the tree tops and back into the mountain range, right towards the direction Marius had road back to.

"Karvin!" I barked, drawing the attention of the man the Grandmaster had placed as my second-in-command for the duration of the ambush stage of our hunt.

"Yes, sir!" The straw-colored man around Fergus' age answered as he scurried to my side.

"I'm leaving the clean up here up to you, Karvin." I commanded as I double checked my weapon, shied, and supplies. "That beast won't die easily and there is no way I'm going to miss out on the hunt of a life time. Remember, the injured take priority and the ones severely injured even more so. Thankfully the Crown has granted up limited use of the Circle's healers until this hunt is over, so make use of them, but make sure the men are respectful. I have a friend amongst the Circle healers and if she tells me that any man or woman a part of the Order does anything untoward to her or her fellows, I will flay the responsible party alive. Am I understood?"

Despite being nearly seven years my elder, I was nearly a head taller than my second, and my friends had told me that my sea-green eyes can look downright dangerous in the right lighting. The combination must have looked quite intimidating because Karvin immediately blanched and whimpered something that sound enough like 'Yes Sir!' for me to accept. Then with my commands issued and my stuff packed I mounted my horse, whistled to get Chulainn's attention from the mabari treat I had given him to keep him quite throughout the ambush, and galloped in the direction Marius had road back towards and where Brydrin was still scouting, with my trusted companion running at my side.

A huge smile grew on my face at the thought of what would come after the four of us tracked down Fafnir's lair.

And... Cut! That's a wrap for today people.

I bet yall weren't expecting to hear from me so soon, but here I am.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to the next one. We are finally gonna finish off the first arch of the story.

Glader out.