The Lance of Zaros, Chapter VI
The Lance
Joel took a look at Kyran, who was so dizzy he almost fell over.
"Did she just call you 'my king'?" He asked.
Kyran steadied himself by holding onto a chair that sat in front of a plain wooden table, ignoring Joel's question. He couldn't take his eyes off her- the brownish-blond hair that fell in waves across her shoulders like a waterfall, the eyes so green it seemed they were finely cut emeralds…
It was her. It was Astrid.
But she was dead!
He turned his face down. "I…You can't be here, Astrid…you're…."
"Dead?" she replied, her voice full of the humour he had so loved. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Kyran, but you're not quite a widower yet."
He dared to look her straight in the eyes as he took his helmet off; his knees suddenly went weak. "But…How do I know that you're….I mean, that you're really…"
She walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder- it felt electrifying.
"Kyran," she replied slowly, raising her left hand, "Just look. Look at my ring finger."
The ring…it was the same one he had given her…the gold band with a purple dragonstone on top. It was her!
He couldn't stand it any longer. He threw his arms around her and pulled her close. He felt tears spilling down his face, but he didn't care anymore. It was a gift straight from Guthix- it was her, it was Astrid, she was alive!
"Hate to break up the happy reunion, Kyran," Joel said, raising an eyebrow, "but remember that we came here on a mission!"
Adalyn was strangely silent, with a blank look on her face, as if she was finding it difficult to comprehend it all.
Astrid was the one to break off the embrace. Still holding his hand, she looked at his three companions.
"I'm going to assume that you came here to search for the Lance. Am I correct?"
Alucard took off his hat and nodded. "Yes, my dear, you are indeed. We seek the Lance of Zaros to right what is wrong and topple Drakan's throne."
Joel looked at him angrily. "Oh, sure, go ahead and tell her our whole plan! There's an infinitesimal chance that she might not be one of Drakan's spies! You wanna tell her the combination to the Myreque Treasury Vault while you're at it?"
Alucard looked back at him, still smiling. "You forget, my comrade, that I am not human. My dear uncle does not use non-vampyre spies unless he's taken some blood from them, so he can ensure control. When humans have blood taken by a vampyre, a chemical called Tonrium is introduced into the bloodstream to mark that human as 'used'. It is highly detectable by the vampyre nose, and unless I have a case of the Sanguinesti cold and don't know it, I don't smell any Tonrium at all around her. Though, while I can see she is not a vampyre-" he adjusted his glasses "-neither is she completely human."
Joel looked skeptical. "So what is she, then?"
Alucard shrugged. "I could not begin to guess. It would appear she will have to answer that herself."
Astrid looked at Kyran, then back at the other three. "I believe…that I need to speak with Kyran alone. Feel free to make yourselves comfortable. You don't mind, do you, er…?"
He bowed theatrically. "My dear, you may call me Alucard, nephew to Drakan himself. And by all means, take however long you wish."
After Kyran and Astrid had retreated into an adjoining room, Joel clenched his fists and growled softly.
"Why does she want to talk to him?" he asked, sounding frustrated. "I'm much better looking than he is!"
Adalyn cleared her throat, and a perplexed look crept onto her face. "Uh…I think she's his wife."
Both Joel and Alucard did a double take, a rare instance of loss of composure for the vampyre.
"He's married?"
Adalyn scratched the back of her head. "Uh, yeah. Her name's Astrid. But from the way he told me the story, it sounded like she was, uh, dead."
Alucard sat down on the long padded bench and started cleaning his spectacles with a cloth he had pulled out of his jacket.
"It would appear, then," he said nonchalantly, his composure regained, "that Astrid isn't the only one to whom there is more than meets the eye."
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"So who do you think she is? I mean, who she really is?" Joel said, poking around the cupboards, apparently looking for something to eat. "Sure, she's his wife- okay, his dead wife, or maybe not so dead-but who is she? Normal people don't build a house around a celebrity burial site. Or come back from the dead."
Alucard sighed. "I think," he said, "that there's more to her than meets the eye, as I said before. Must you continually beat this horse though it's long dead, Joel? Your curiosity is insatiable to the point of morbidity."
Joel raised an eyebrow. "Well, sorry for offending your delicate sensibilities, Alucard. I just want to find some answers. And some food. I'm hung-score! She's got cookies!" He grabbed the circular jar out of the cupboard and opened it to find several of the chocolate delicacies inside.
"Don't be a pig," Adalyn said absentmindedly. Kyran had definitely said that his wife was dead. Hadn't he?
Joel came over, holding several chocolate cookies, and sat down beside her on the couch. He handed her one of them, then swallowed.
"What's got you wringing your hands, Addy? You seem stressed."
She propped her chin on one hand and distractedly took a bite of the treat. "I don't know what to think, Joel. He told me his wife was dead, and he wasn't lying about that- I could tell. I had thought we had something between us- but now…I don't know. I mean, if it actually is his wife, then I have no right to try anything with him."
He grinned and put an arm around her shoulders. "Well, hey- you'll always have me, Addy!"
Normally she would have promptly smacked him, but as it was, she just sighed. That was when Astrid and Kyran came out of the hallway from the kitchen. Astrid looked serious; Kyran looked completely stunned.
"Damn!" Joel said through a mouthful of cookie. "What'd you do to him?"
Astrid and Kyran took a seat in two chairs next to each other, and she looked at all of them.
"I'm going to tell all of you what I told Kyran here," she said plainly. "You're not going to find the Lance. It's-"
"What?" Joel interrupted. "Whaddya mean we're not gonna find it? The paper said-"
"As I was saying…"
"Joel."
"As I was saying, Joel, you're not going to find the Lance here, because it's not a traditional weapon, like a sword or a bow. If you want to know the truth…"
She took a deep breath. "I am the Lance of Zaros."
There was a beat of silence.
"Huh?" That came from Joel, who had finally stopped scarfing down cookies.
"As I said. I am the Lance of Zaros."
After a second, Alucard nodded. "Might I ask exactly what that is?"
Astrid was silent for a moment, as if she was rehearsing something in her mind. "When you said I wasn't completely human, you were correct. I am a living weapon, created by Zaros himself. I exist because of him, though what his final purpose for me is I do not know."
Joel began to laugh. "Oh, man! You really had me going there for a second! The Lance of Zaros! That's a good one! If I didn't know better, I'd say you were off your rock-"
"Ssshhh," Alucard interrupted, suddenly serious. "I would not respond so lightly to such statements if I were you, Joel."
"But…you can't be serious! Zaros has been banished from Gielinor for thousands of years; he couldn't possibly-"
"But he could. You know not the full power of a god you have never seen." He turned back to Astrid. "If what you say is true…then how old are you? You must be at least six hundred years old, at the very least. The last significant movement of Zarosians - and the movements of followers generally parallel the movements of their gods- was over four hundred years before this age began. That would seem to indicate something important was afoot. I'd be willing to wager that all that fuss was over you. Wasn't it?"
Astrid seemed genuinely at a loss for words. "How did…that's….you're right. You have…quite an intuition, Alucard. As of Pentumber, I'll be exactly six hundred seventeen years old."
Joel promptly choked. "Six…six hundred seventeen?" He turned to Adalyn. "She's gotta be lying! She can't possibly be that old, right?"
She shook her head. "She's not lying, Joel. She really is as old as she says."
Alucard began to grin coldly. "Now it's all coming together," he said. "Drakan didn't come here to retrieve the Lance because he's afraid of it. What are you, to cause my uncle- my fearsome, terrifying uncle- to quake in fear at the thought of facing you?"
Astrid looked down for a moment, then began to speak, but was cut off by Joel, who was looking out the window.
"You might want to save the explanation for later, Astrid…We've got trouble outside!"
Everyone crowded around the window, and Kyran's gut churned at what he saw.
Outside, in the gloom surrounding the tombs of the Brothers, was a small army of humans and vampyres. They were sitting, standing, milling around- but every single one of them looked feral as a wild cat, and twice as dangerous. There must have been at least a hundred of them. Suddenly, one of the vampyres strutted forward arrogantly, holding…
Oh-
Oh no.
"Is that…" Joel began to ask.
Kyran nodded. "Yeah. Yeah it is. He's carrying the Godsword. They…must want you worse than you thought, Astrid."
Joel looked incredulously at Alucard. "I thought you said they were scared of her!"
Alucard adjusted his glasses silently. "They were-they are. But we are an unexpected factor in the equation. They're still scared of her…but they're more scared of the possibility that we might take her. We've forced them into action."
A thought froze Adalyn's gut. "This was a secret mission…" she said slowly. "A very small number of people even knew about it…and yet they somehow managed to find us within hours of our arrival."
Kyran grimaced. "Then it's-"
"Hey!" Joel interrupted. "We've got more important things than that right now. Like the vampyre holding…oh…you know…just the weapon that the entire God Wars were fought over!"
Alucard slowly nodded. "The question, then, is what we should do now."
"I think he's about to answer that for us," Joel said.
"Attention, humans!" the vampyre holding the Godsword shouted, standing in front of the door. "By decree of the revered Lord Drakan, the weapon in this abode belongs to the industrious Empire! You shall bring the weapon outside, and relinquish it to me, Calevmir, his majesty's trusted aide; in return, you will not be taken as servants. Instead, your deaths will be quick and painless. You have ten minutes to comply with this demand!"
"Oh! Wonderful!" Joel said, throwing his hands up. "You hear that? They're going to make our deathsquick and painless. Oh, that's amazing. I would have settled for just one!"
Kyran had his hands in his hands. Astrid's eyes were closed; she looked deep in thought.
"What…what do we do?" Adalyn finally said. "Is there a back door that we can slip out, or…"
"No," Astrid replied emotionlessly. "They'd likely have the place surrounded. Trying to get away would only anger them further."
"Then what do we do?" Adalyn shot back. "I don't know about you, but I don't particularly want to die here. So what, do we-"
"We're going out there."
Adalyn was stunned. "Wh…What? Are you crazy? I don't want to surrender to them, Astrid! We need to-"
"We're not surrendering. We're going to fight them."
Adalyn looked dumbstruck for a second, then covered her eyes with her hand. "You know what? Maybe you are crazy. You'd have to be to want to fight someone who has the Guthix-damned Godsword!"
Astrid turned to look at her, a fierce fire in her eyes surprising Adalyn.
"They have the Godsword," she said quietly. "But we have the Lance. We have me."
Kyran sighed after a second. "Okay, Astrid…but how? How do we fight?"
"Give me your hands, Kyran. Like on the boat. Before we went to Waterbirth."
A look of distant pain passed through Kyran's eyes, then he did as she said after turning to face her.
Suddenly, the air took on a strange scent- it smelled of wild roses and blood. A faint wind began to swirl around the two of them, and Kyran began to look confused.
"Astrid… What's going o-"
"The wind," Astrid said, her eyes closed, her face serene. "The wind that connects us, that swirls between us, and the ancient power which the world has long forgotten…Let there be a virginal field of white snow, where the past is remembered, yet forgotten. With eyes like ice…"
She opened her eyes, which had changed from green to a pale blue.
"Bind us together!" she practically shouted. Kyran instantly felt like cold fire was pouring through his veins, burning and freezing at the same time. At the same time, he felt something attach to his arms and his back, but all he saw was a swirling vortex of rose petals. For a second, everything went black.
When he came to, he was standing in the middle of the room, and everyone was staring in disbelief at him. He looked down, and what he saw shocked him.
His torso was covered in obsidian-black armour with a light purple trim running around the shoulder plates and waist. In the center was an equidistant cross inscribed on a circle. His legs were covered by interwoven metal plates of the same colour. Hanging off his back was a white cloak with the same symbol as the chest and a gold trim around the edges. However, his arms were what stunned him the most.
Both his arms were covered from elbow to wrist in a chain mesh covered in black cloth, with dark purple fingerless gloves on his hands. On his right arm was a long, wide white metal blade that extended over the back of his hand. It looked more suited to stabbing than slashing, something in the back of Kyran's mind catalogued. In his left hand was a medium-sized black dagger, about twice as big as the defenders that the Warriors Guild used.
"Wh…What is this?" he finally managed to stutter. "Astrid, what's going on?"
This is what I am. I am designed to bond with a single person and be their weapon.
Kyran took an involuntary step back. "Astrid? Where are you? I can hear you…"
Kyran, I'm the armour you're wearing. I'm the blade you're wielding. This is why Father gave you Aranar. It's actually a part of me.
"Uh, Kyran?" Joel said with an odd look on his face. "Where'd Astrid go? And…who are you talking to?"
There was a pounding on the door.
"The time given has been rescinded!" the vampyre imperiously shouted. "You will surrender the weapon now, or face the wrath of the Morytanian Empire!"
Barely-contained flame pulsed through Kyran's veins. For reasons he couldn't begin to understand, a manic grin formed on his face.
"So they want us to come outside, do they?" He turned to Adalyn, Joel and Alucard. "I say we give 'em what they want! Do you think you can hold off the rest of them while I take out the leader?"
Joel's jaw dropped, and then he sighed after a second. "You know what? Fine. I always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. I'll keep 'em at bay for as long as I can."
Alucard nodded. "As will I."
After a second, Adalyn exhaled a breath. "Then I will, too."
Kyran's grin widened. "Kita!"
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Growling the vampyre pounded on the door once again. "This is the last warning you will receive! If you do not-"
"Oi! Calevmir!" another vampyre said. "They ain't gonna open up! I say we bust down the door and slot the lot of 'em!"
Calevmir scowled. "That's not how the Empire functions, Gorthalon. We have to give them at least some warning, or-"
"We've already given them enough warnings! They know what's comin', so we might as well get on with it!"
After a second, Calevmir grunted a reluctant agreement. They had been given sufficient warning, had they not? He reached to try to open the door, when there was a strange rumbling behind it, and he got the strangest feeling that he definitely shouldn't touch it…
His danger sense flared. "Everyone! Down!" he shouted before throwing himself face-down onto the ground, the Godsword beside him.
Suddenly, the door frame exploded outward in a violent shower of splinters and chunks of wood, along with a swirling cloud of dust.
Calevmir leapt to his feet, clutching his sword tightly in two hands.
His brain had a hard time processing what he saw. A human, clad in black and purple armor, with a sword extending about a foot beyond the back of his hand on his right arm. The sheer will the human was exuding was so strong it was almost palpable. It was the simple, distilled sure-okay-why-not-let's-FIGHT instinct present in all living beings, refined to a ridiculous degree.
"Everyone!"Calevmir shouted after finding his voice. "Focus on that man! Kill him at all costs!"
"Ah-ah-ah," he heard as another human emerged. He wasn't as intimidating as the first, but he was definitely a seasoned warrior. In his hands he held a massive spear, of the type that K'ril Tsutaroth was supposed to have used.
"You want to get to him, vampyre?" the human said, grinning. "You can, by all means. The others, though…they'll have to go through us."
"Us?" Calevmir said. "There's only one of you!"
"Not quite," said two voices simultaneously. Out of the door stepped a female elf and-
"You!" Calevmir shouted. "You're that traitor, Alucard! You coward!"
Alucard raised a hand. "Guilty as charged," he said cheerily. Calevmir blinked and-
-within the space of a second, Alucard was right in front of him, his red claws touching the soft tissue of his throat.
"You're not my target," Alucard said, smiling as always. "I'll leave you for my friend, Kyran, over there."
Alucard, the elf, and the human with the spear surrounded Kyran in a wide circle, leaving an open area between him and Calevmir.
Kyran finally spoke, a look of determination on his face.
"For the clan."
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"HAAAAAAAAAA!"
Kyran dashed towards the Calevmir, his sword arm behind him. He leapt up and directed an overhead slash at him. He brought the Godsword up and blocked the hasty attack. Kyran landed solidly on the marshy ground about a foot away from him, when he saw Calevmir swing his weapon in a long arc. He flattened himself on the ground as Calevmir lost his footing after missing with such a heavy weapon. He quickly tried to compensate, but Kyran quickly swept one of his legs off the ground, and he toppled to the ground on his back, losing his grip on the Godsword.
Kyran grinned and tried to get on top of Calevmir, but found himself on bottom as his opponent wrestled violently with him. His arms were pinned beneath the vampyre's knees and he found himself staring into Calevmir's evil grinning face.
"Not so tough, are ya, human? What are you going to do now, bleed on me-"
His gloating was cut short as Kyran slammed a knee into his lower back, momentarily paralyzing him. He keeled over onto the ground.
Kyran! Your hands! Astrid said.
He took advantage of the momentary reprieve to do as she said. The sword he had before was gone- instead, there were deep black gauntlets covering his hands.
"What?' he said. "The sword! It…"
That's what the Lance does, Kyran. It changes to suit your needs in combat. If you're going toe-to-toe with Calevmir, some unbreakable gauntlets should help.
Kyran nodded, then leapt up. Calevmir had recovered, and had picked up the Godsword. He was back in a defensive stance as Kyran swayed like a palm tree.
"Want some?" he said, grinning. "Come and get it!" He stole into Calevmir's personal space and threw a few right jabs, all of which were blocked by his Godsword. After a second, Kyran spotted a gap in the vampyre's defense and smashed his left fist into Calevmir's chest. To his credit, he didn't fall over- he stood his ground.
Suddenly, Calevmir turned the Godsword downward and stabbed it into the ground, up to its hilt. Kyran suddenly felt his feet glued to the ground- no matter how hard he strained his legs, his feet remained firmly planted in the same spot. Calevmir grinned as he moved around just out of his reach. Out of nowhere, he dashed at Kyran and smashed his right fist into the side of his head. Darkness nibbled at the edges of his vision- he forced them back through an iron will.
Astrid! I need a whip!
His right gauntlet morphed into a black whip made of woven cables that was about three-fourths the length of his body uncoiled. He flicked it at Calevmir, wrapping it around his neck and dragging him into melee range again. He pulled his body up and threw him onto the ground. He put his hands together and a massive black maul formed. He drew back and slammed the heavy weapon down-
-when Calevmir shot a small dart from a loaded spring around his wrist. It hit Kyran in the upper forearm, and he stifled a gasp of pain. He would have let go of the maul had Astrid not suddenly reinforced his grip.
Kyran! The dart was poisoned!
He could instantly feel the truth of her statement. A numbing sensation crept across his arms and up towards his chest…
What do I do? he frantically asked.
I can burn the poison out of your bloodstream, but it'll take a second to work. You'll have to keep him from attacking, even for just a moment!
He nodded as Calevmir jumped to his feet and pulled the Godsword's blade out of the ground. He swung it in a wide overhead arc, aimed at splitting Kyran's head in two-
-as Kyran blocked his strike with one of his gauntlets. It felt like his hand was broken, but it stopped the slash. Calevmir lost his footing-
That's the opening! Kyran said. Now, Astrid!
Got it! She replied. But it won't be pleasant…
She was right. A cold fire burned through Kyran's whole body, searing his nerves raw. After a split second, it was over, and Kyran quickly pulled the dart out of his arm.
Calevmir regained his stance, but Kyran was all over him, punching right and left, blocking the vampyre's attack routes, before he threw him to the ground and stood over him, his right gauntlet morphing back into Aranar.
"Wait!" Calevmir stammered. "Wait, I beg of you! Spare my life!"
Kyran leaned over him. "You threatened my kin. That is the one sin I will not forgive."
Calevmir's face grew even paler. "No, wait, I-"
His final words were cut off by a sword through his heart.
Kyran stared emotionlessly at his body. "A false warrior indeed."
So how was that? Any good? Sorry I suck at writing action scenes. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Make sure to read and review!