First year part II

This is the continued part from part I.

Disclaimer – I own Lizzie, and Lionius in this chapter. All others, I don't own.

Lionius Za'Ha looked up at the quickly darkening sky. Raising a clawed hand, the troop behind him stopped immediately.

"We'll rest here for tonight." He announced, pointing to the place they were to bed. It was an old, stone building, probably used as an old warehouse or something of the sorts. The four walls of the building were still intact, but only barely. Parts of the wall were crumbling; others had already broken. There was one entrance, and no roof; that didn't matter to these people, however.

They were mercenaries. Drakel mercenaries. And highly efficient ones at that. Time and time again, their services had been useful and reliable to anyone who had hired them. They were well valued, and well paid by anyone. Every single member of the mercenaries was well trained- strong, and clever. Well, not all of them.

But none of these traits fit any one of them better than their leader, Lionius. He had founded the Za'Ha mercenaries, as they were called, and he planned to lead all of them into every battle they fought, until the day that he died.

Which would come sooner than he thought.

When the men had all finished their meals, Lionius cleared his throat and called out,

"Ren! Xar!"

The two named men immediately left what they were doing, and went to their leader. "Yes chief?" They asked.

"I want you to stand guard tonight." He said gruffly, crossing his arms.

Xar's face fell slightly, but Ran nodded. "Sure, chief."

Lionius grinned. "Good. Don't fall asleep; who knows what there might be lurking out there. They'll come and get you."

"And," He added, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper, as he began to glare at them,

"If whatever's out there doesn't get you; then I will."

Xar gulped, and Ran nodded once more, fear evident in both their eyes. "Yes, chief."

Xar grimaced as he took his post, lance clutched firmly in hand.

"Don't know why the chief always picks us to do night watch." He grumbled.

Ran looked annoyed at his comrade's behaviour. "We don't always get chosen, Xar. Plus, you should be happy that the chief picked us. It means that he trusts us enough to watch over the rest of them while they sleep."

Xar snorted. "I'd be happier if I could get a full night's rest for once. Besides, we're always constantly on guard, and you know that nothing ever happens. This whole night watch thing is just to satisfy the chief's paranoia, and I'd say it's pretty much-"

A twig snapped suddenly. Xar tightened his hold on his lance, and Ren put a hand on the hilt of his sword.

"Stay here." Ran muttered. He drew his blade, and held it at the ready. Slowly, he left Xar's view and crept towards the noise.

After about an hour or so, Ran hadn't returned, and Xar was starting to become anxious. Holding his lance, he crept away from the entrance of the building, and went in the direction he saw the other male go off in.

Xar went along for a few minutes, when the sight of Ran came along. Ran seemed to be sitting underneath a tree, slumped over. His sword was dug into the ground beside him.

"There you are!" Xar exclaimed, running over to his fellow mercenary. "Honestly, you complain about me wanting to sleep, and here you are..."

Xar trailed off. Ran was a light sleeper- he would have woken up by now, with Xar babbling on like that. He shook Ran gently. "Ran?"

No answer. He shook Ran a little harder this time.

"Ran?"

Still none.

Xar dropped his lance on the ground, knelt, and shook Ran with both hands, one placed on each shoulder. "Ran! Answer me! This isn't funny!"

Once again, there was no answer, but Xar had shook Ran hard enough that he had shifted the man's position. Ran's head had lolled over to the side, and Xar could see that something was different about his friend's neck. Leaning in, he squinted at it. The moon, which had been hidden by the clouds until then, suddenly shone again. Xar's eyes widened, as he saw what was wrong.

Ran's throat had been slit.

Xar's vision trailed down, and he saw the blood covering Ran's tunic and armour. With horror, the mercenary realized that the ground surrounding him, and Ran's body was soaked with his blood. Xar was about to hear a jump to his feet, when her heard a thump behind him. Before Xar realized it, someone grabbed him, and pressed something cool and sharp to his neck.

The next thing he knew, it wasn't just Ran's blood covering him.

Lizzie released the dying drakel on the ground. In one hand she held a dagger. Still wet with the blood of its two victims, it gleamed menacingly in the moonlight. Making sure that the light had faded from Xar's eyes, she left, striding towards where the other men were resting for the night.

Once she was at the entrance, she took a quick look inside. Counting them, she estimated that there were about fifteen to twenty of them inside. All the better for Lizzie; it only meant that more of them would pay.

Reaching into her cloak, she pulled out a scroll. Unfurling it with one hand, she began to murmur the ancient script upon it. She backed up, and held up the bloodied dagger. It began to glow, once she finished the incantation. And as the glow brightened, Lionius began to stir.

Raising his head, he stared at the light. The light suddenly flashed, and it flew towards him. There was a sudden wave of intense heat and excruciating pain, and Lionius had to close his eyes. He opened them again with extreme difficulty, and his eyes widened.

The building was now painted red, orange, yellow and scarlet from the flames that now engulfed it. Looking around as best as he could, Lionius realized that everyone- every, single person, save himself- was now most likely dead. They had all been burnt to a crisp. Lionius felt sick. So many of his men...so many of his comrades, now dead. So many lives ended too soon. Looking down at himself, he saw that his own body was badly burnt, and his armour, weapons, and most importantly, his healing potions were now all destroyed. He gazed back to the source of all of this, and that's when he saw it.

Dressed in all black, Lizzie appeared through the flames. She walked to Lionius slowly, not rushing herself. 'Let him suffer.' She thought.

When she reached him, she simply stood over his mangled body. Lionius struggled to crawl away, but realized that he was paralyzed. He couldn't move anything, except for his eyes. All he could really do, was watch as Lizzie brought up her dagger. She looked down on him, and flipped the dagger so that the tip of the blade was pointing downwards. Raising it up slowly Lionius stared into the shrouded face of the person who was going to kill him.

He had but one thought as he caught sight of her eyes. And then he was struck thoughtless, as Lizzie let the dagger drop, right into his chest.

She retracted it after a minute, twisting it ever so slightly to cause Lionius more pain. It came out with a loud squelch, as it was now once again wet, the entire blade dripping with the blood of its third kill.

Lizzie didn't react to the scene around her; bright fire, surrounding the burnt corpses. She didn't flinch, she didn't gasp in realization at what she had done. She didn't even care. All she did was turn around, and walk back to the entrance, which was being blocked by the flames by now. When she reached the fire, she touched something, hanging around her neck by a chain, and a shield immediately formed around her.

When Lizzie was through, she fingered Rayne's ring, before letting it drop and hang around her neck again.

"Faster!" The man yelled. The inhabitants of the nearby village all strived to up their pace. They handed down buckets of water, throwing them onto the fire, and refilling them. What few mages there were had come as well, casting water spells to put out the fire. It was the middle of the night, and some of the people were still wearing bed clothes.

Eventually, they manage to put out part of the fire, the man who had yelled out 'Faster!' earlier, along with a few other people, rushed past the flames, into the fire.

They were surprised o see all of the bodies that littered the stone floor. They were even more surprised, when they heard a groan, so soft that they could barely hear it over the crackle of the blaze.

The man rushed to the source of the noise, hoping that whatever it happened to be, was still alive. Reaching it, he saw that it was a male drakel. The man saw that he was still alive...but only barely.

Lionius was badly burnt, and almost unrecognizable from what he used to look like. Along with that, the man could see that he was lying in a pool of his own, heated blood. Lionius was struggling to keep on breathing, but the smoke around him wasn't helping; it was taking up what little, precious oxygen he could get.

"What happened?" The man asked the injured drakel.

"Came...building...fire.." Lionius gasped.

"Who did?" The man asked frantically. He could already see that Lionius' life was slipping away from him.

"Don't...know..."

"What did they look like?" The man shouted. Lionius didn't have much time left. Lionius closed his eyes, before taking his final breath, and forcing out one last sentence.

"Wore black... looked like.... a Mourner..."

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