AN: Eyo! new chap! lol uhhh read and review again please? Hope you're all having a wonderful summer/ whatever season you happen to read this in lol also, the paragraphs that are bolded are from a flashback lol thanks and have fun reading(hopefully)!
"I thought I told you both to stay put!" Teej yelled at Kimm and Leo as he protected them from an extremely skilled mercenary. The mercenary lunged his sharp, iron spear at Teej, but he deflected it with one of his twin Purified Claymores, bringing the other one down on the mercenary's exposed neck, where a tattoo of a target resided. How ironic. His aim was precise as he slit open the mercenary's jugular, causing blood to gush out and taint parts of his once clean silver armor a sickening dark red.
Before Teej could turn to Kimm and Leo, he was charged at by an unnaturally large Legion Fenrir, who knocked Teej's helmet off as he knocked him to the ground. He attempted to claw Teej's face, but Teej was just barely able to parry the attack. The Fenrir then howled in a rage and knocked both of his swords out of his hands in two opposite directions, with one sliding towards Kimm and Leo. Kimm stared in horror as the Fenrir lunged his open mouth in the direction of Teej's face, his fangs bared with intent to feed.
"No!" Leo yelled as he rushed towards the Fenrir, one of Teej's Purified Claymores in both hands above his head. Kimm saw that he was too weak to carry it, as his arms were shaking while he charged. The Fenrir fiercely knocked Leo back with his forearm, causing him to drop the blade again, this time at arms length from Teej.
"Ulo!" Teej yelled as he picked up his blade and lunged it deep into the place the Fenrir's heart should have been. This didn't kill the Fenrir however, it just irritated him more. With another roar he proceeded to slowly lunge his open mouth at Teej's head, despite the fact a claymore was sinking deeper and deeper into his body.
Kimm and Leo closed their eyes, expecting the untimely demise of their friend. They heard Teej scream, and then the sound of a head being ripped off of a body. It was over. Teej was dead. The sounds they heard had confirmed it. "You forgot that you need a clean chop of their heads off their shoulders to kill these things, bro. Well, if you don't have a silver weapon, at least," Kimm heard a familiar voice say amidst all the shouting and fighting going on around them. She slowly opened one eye and saw a lifeless Fenrir, head missing with blood trinkling out of the open space, lying on the ground. She threw up a bit in her mouth, but quickly swallowed it before searching for who could be responsible. She looked up again and right next to the dead Fenrir was Kaiban, holding what looked like Teej's Purified Claymore in one hand, except it had a more evil aura and glowed red instead of gold. In the other, he was pulling up Teej, who looked liked he had hurt his legs when the Fenrir charged him.
"Kimm, heal him up as best you can, I have to return to the battle, you're lucky our army was able to push back the forces here. The camp shouldn't be too far away, things are going to get ugly, so go back now," he said, the latter instruction with more emphasis than the first. "O-O-Okay," Kimm stuttered out. She had seen him fight before, but only small monsters and undead, and he wouldn't even kill the monsters. Just now he effectively killed a Fenrir, a living, breathing organism, without flinching. Even though it was after their friend, she couldn't bring herself to even think about killing it. He had changed so much, it scared her. Was this really the Kaiban she knew when she was a child?
As Kaiban walked away he handed to blade he was holding to Leo. "Here Ulo, hold Teej's blade until he recovers enough to wield it." The second the blade left his touch, it turned back into the Purified Claymore, with the gold aura and everything. Kaiban kept walking as if he didn't notice the change, but Kimm knew he did.
"Whattya mean I can't go fight!?" Green complained as Conn tried his hardest to hold him back. Because of Laken's mysterious concoction, Green's strength had tripled, and his aura had a more powerful feel to it. Conn almost regretted not joining the Legion. Almost.
"Well, you, in your weak, overconfident, miserable state, would, of course, die," Laken replied with obvious disdain in his voice. "But you've been training us so hard for so long, if we survived the first battle, we would definitely survive now!" Green retorted, still struggling to break free from Conn's grasp. "Green listen to him! He speaks the truth!" Conn managed to strain out, obviously tired by holding his friend back.
"Explain then!" Green yelled, still attempting to break free from his friends hold. "Well its simple really," Laken begun matter of factly, "our first offensive move was against Nulgath's first line of defense. The first line ONLY. Sure we took down three generals, but they were expendable, not like the ogre, bird and meatsack. Also, in the time between the attack, older adventurers, knights, mercenaries and all manner of fighter who owed a debt to Nulgath heard of the attack and came running. VETERAN fighters," he added with a sneer. "His forces are bolstered, a fact our LEADER tends to overlook even now..." He paused, his comment about the Dark Lord of the Legion hushed compared to rest of his explanation. "However," he continued, voice now at normal tone, "Nulgath also overlooks Dage's increase in power and followers over the years. He probably still sees him as the little necromancer who came to him for help," he said with a chuckle. "They are both ignorant," Green observed after calming down now realizing his situation. "And that ignorance will cost one of them," Conn said after listening intently.
"Still," Green said stubbornly after a few moments of silence, "I could hold my own agai-" "Listen boy," Laken interrupted, "I didn't stop you cause I didn't think you were strong enough. I stopped you cause HE is entering the fray. And I'm afraid the chances of you two meeting are too high for comfort. You wouldn't be killed by an average mercenary, hell no!... But HIM? Even if you are family, if he found out you were on Dage's side he woul-" "Family?" Conn interrupted after realizing what Laken had said. "Oh, did I say that out loud?" Laken asked in a voice that you could tell feigned innocence. "Oops," he said as he chuckled and walked out of the tent, smile evident in his vocal demeanor. As Laken left, Conn thought back to his discussion with Green and how they were interrupted by an excited mercenary.
"So... After you heard about... You know... The..." Conn fumbled out, not wanting to say his best friend was dead. "Accident?" Green sullenly helped him. "Y-yeah, that thing," Conn continued awkwardly. "Well, I stayed in Shadowfall for a while, but I'm still on King Alteon's side. I was too depressed to figure out what I wanted to do next. That's when I started talking to Teej more. He had to stay cause the Good Ambassadors had an argument with the Evil Council about what their first move against Drakath was going to be. As we stayed we both trained with the undead soldiers and monsters at the barracks. They fought hard for mindless monsters, and the ones that still had a mind like Tibias were even harder to train with," Green paused.
"Teej only stayed for a month, but I stayed for a couple more. I explored the huge castle regularly, there were many rooms, but most had an incredibly evil aura about them, not even Tibias would go into some. I remember in the basement of the castle, where they kept a couple jail cells, when I tried to enter the room, this evil aura made my knees weak to the point where I fell and had to crawl back up the steps. I swear man, the armies of Shadowfall have way more power than we give them credit for."
"I see that now," Conn replied. "Everything we've faced at this war had power beyond my imagination, I'm surprised I made it this far." As he finished speaking, Conn started to ponder how he could possibly still survive when he had only begun combat training recently. Sure he was better now, but not as good as Green. Green had been training for so long, he wasn't as shocked at his survival. But what about him? Prior to this, he didn't do anything for three years. He just hid away in an inn. When he remembered that, it made everything around him suspicious. He understood why they'd let Green into the Legion, but why was he there as well? Even the weakest mercenaries had an official training background, unlike him who only learned less than the basics of combat. When he stormed King Alteon's castle with his friends during Sepulchure's attack, he only stuck to healing them, he didn't participate in the combat. Neither him nor Kimm. If she wasn't dead then what was Nulgath's Army's use for her? What is the Legion's use for him? It made no sense.
His train of thought was broken, however, when an excited mercenary came by and told them they were beginning their second charge. The mercenary held a sharp, iron spear that could easily cut through any type of flesh as if it were paper, and residing on his neck was a target tattoo, right on top of his jugular vein. Conn surmised it was from whatever guild or gang he was a part of.
"Get your asses in gear, ladies! Dage is 'spectin us on the battlefield!" He concluded his message before he ran off with towards the other tents to spread the news.
After a few seconds of silence Green stood up. "I'm going," he said almost silently. "Wait! What about what Laken sai-" "I don't give a damn about what that asshole said!" Green boomed out as he quickly turned around to face his friend, an angry fire in his eyes. "Dangerous or not, Kimm AND Kaiban are out there, and they're why we came here in the first place. Mercenaries, Legion, Dage, Nulgath, none of that matters right now! What does is whether or not they're okay." With that, he donned his Legion armor and proceeded out of the tent, leaving Conn alone to his own devices.
"Dammit! Why does this have to happen to us?!" Conn yelled as he pounded his fist on the ground. A moment later he was out of his tent, taking a sword out of the nearby stock, headed towards the battlefield...and his destiny.