The Lance of Zaros, Chapter VII

The New Recruits

Standing over Calevmir's dead body, Kyran's vision suddenly began to blur and spin. A gnawing pain exploded in his stomach, and he doubled over, then fell to his knees. Each breath was suddenly a monumental task that took all his energy to complete.

"This…" he managed to choke out, "is…not a weapon…for mortals to use…This…is truly… a weapon…of the gods…" He finally slumped over, unconscious.

Kyran!

The black armour protecting him dissolved into a fine mist, and coalesced into Astrid once again. She knelt down beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Kyran!" she exclaimed, shaking him vigorously. "Are you alright? Kyran!"

She punched the soft ground in frustration. "Damn! I should have known that it would be too much to handle…I'm sorry…"

UUUUUUUUUUUUU

Joel grunted with the effort of swinging the massive spear that Kyran had given him in a long arc, separating the heads of three vampyres from their bodies. No matter how many corpses lay at his feet, though, it seemed as if two more replaced every single one.

"Hate to say it, Alucard, but-"he stabbed an enemy through the skull- "I don't think we're going to be able to take 'em all down by ourselves!"

"We don't need to!" Alucard replied, stabbing a human through the underside of his chin. "All we need to do is delay them long enough for me to set off the charges!"

"Set off the what?"

"The charges! I can't explain right now- just hold them off as long as you can!"

As Joel shrugged, Alucard danced around another opponent and pulled a half-foot long silver stake from his pocket, stomping it into the ground. It trailed a fine silver wire, which he pulled along as he dashed around the fringes of the crowd.

A vampyre leapt at him, throwing him off balance. He dropped the wire by accident as they both fell to the ground, grappling with each other.

"Time to die, traitor!" the vampyre hissed, aiming to take a bite out of Alucard's shoulder. However, he took a quick swipe across the vampyre's face, and he fell back, screeching as blood dribbled down his face.

"No time to debate semantics now, brother," Alucard said, getting back on his feet and picking up the wire again. "So sorry." He took to the edge of the crowd and pulled another stake out of his pocket and rammed it into the marshy soil. He saw that he would have to run through the thick of the picket force to plant the third one and knew he wouldn't be able to do it himself.

Instead, he pulled the third stake out of his pocket and shouted, "Adalyn! Catch!" She was directly opposite him across the crowd, perhaps a hundred feet away. He lobbed the silver object in a lazy arc above the crowd, but none of the enemies seemed to pay attention to it. Instead, his shout had focused their attention on him instead.

"So…fifty angry vampyres, all focused on me, "he quietly mused. "Oh well. As long as Addy catches the stake, I suppose I can't complain." He dropped into a defensive stance, his arms spread wide, and grinned. "You want me? Come and get me!"

Across from him, Adalyn saw the silver object flying through the air toward her, and she knew what to do with it. She quickly backpedaled, trying to gauge where it would land, when it slammed into the upturned palms of her hands.

"Damn, that's heavy!" she muttered. "How did you throw it like that, Alucard?"

Questions aside, she knew what she had to do. She plunged the spike into the earth, trailing wire like the first two, and grasped the wire in her lithe hands. Now all she had to do was connect it to the first.

She stole around the perimeter of the army until she saw the silver spike jutting out of the ground like a six-inch-tall monolith. She quickly knelt down and wrapped the wire around the stake, and stood up.

"Dammit," she cursed under her breath. "What were the words again?" She smacked herself on the forehead with the heel of her hand. "Think, Adalyn, think, it's got to be-"

"Fire breaker, activate!" she heard Alucard yell, and she instantly dove away from the triangular set of stakes. She heard a low rumbling, and yelled, "Joel! Toward me! Get over here now!" She saw his surprised face, but he quickly dispatched of the foe he was fighting and dashed toward her.

"Addy! What's going on?" he asked. "What was Alucard talk-" He was cut off by a sound so bass that Joel could feel his teeth rattle in his skull. He looked at the triangle of wire surrounding half the opposing army, and was stunned by what he saw. As high as the eye could see, pillars of iridescent fire poured down from the grey sky, torching all who stood within the boundary created by the stakes. It was accompanied by a continuous bass roar. The heat was so intense that both Joel and Adalyn had to turn their faces away. If it was this intense for them, how much worse was it for those caught in the triangle…?

It abruptly stopped, and everything was relatively quiet for a second as the vampyres looked on in stunned silence at the scorched remains of their comrades. Behind it all stood Alucard, panting heavily and covered in cuts and gashes of varying seriousness.

"You'll…have to forgive me…you two. That spell drained…all my energy. I don't think…that I can finish this fight…"

With a tired grin, he toppled forward, his face to the side.

"Alucard!" Adalyn yelled in distress.

"Uh…Addy?" Joel said nervously. "I think that, uh, maybe you should be worrying about us!"

She turned to look and her gut froze over. Though Alucard's fire spell had taken most of the vampyres out, there were still over twenty of them left. Kyran and Alucard were both out of the fight- the odds didn't look too good for them.

She took a deep breath and loaded her crossbow with another set of bolts.

"We can do this, Joel," she said quietly. "As long as we fight…we'll win."

Joel sighed. "Whatever you say, Addy. You wanna split 'em evenly, or give me fifteen and you get the rest?"

Adalyn couldn't stop a grim smile from playing on her lips. "Evenly. Fair's fair, after all…"

She was about to fire off her first bolt when she saw what looked like arcs of fire tracing through the air behind the crowd of vampyres. It was accompanied by cries of pain and death rattles from the vampyres in the back. Suddenly, as the rest of the foes turned to look at this thing that was killing their allies, a figure barreled through the vampyres, throwing them aside, and stood in front of Adalyn and Joel.

Adalyn couldn't help but stare; in front of her stood a man who must have measured at least six and a half feet tall. He was muscular, but not hulking. His hair was a messy blond mop tied back in a spiky tail that hung to his shoulders. He wore a white platebody, trimmed in gold-just like David's, Adalyn thought- and platelegs of the same colour. In his hands, he wielded two wickedly curved silver scimitars that had strangely glowing chains attached to their hilts, both trailing to a black belt he wore around his waist. He wore no helmet, but his cape- it was the same as Kyran's.

"You're a slayer master…" Adalyn said slowly.

The man grinned. "Indeed I am."

"A slayer master?" Joel said. "Wait, what's your name?"

The man looked pensive for a second, then scratched his clean-cut chin. "Well, names are tricky things. I gave mine up a long time ago. Apparently, though, people have taken to calling me the Raging Bull of Relleka. You can just call me Bull."

Joel raised an eyebrow. "That's, uh, quite a name, Bull. But never mind that at the moment, would you mind helping us take care of our current problem?"

Bull smacked a fist into his open palm. "Oh, yeah. Let's do it!"

Suddenly, lines of fire grew across the edges of his silver scimitars and down the links of the connected chains. Bull put his hands around both chains and swung his blades around his head, swirling into a blazing tornado. He took a wild slash at the front row of vampyres, slicing them into hash before they could blink. Almost instantly, the ones behind them charged forward, but were stopped in their tracks, either by Adalyn shooting them through the head or Joel bashing their skulls in with the spear.

Bull firmly gripped the hilts of his scimitars in his bare palms in a reverse grip and dashed forward. He slashed a bloody canyon across the chest of one vampyre, and spun around, severing the head of another.

The three of them quickly dispatched the small group of vampyres in a few minutes. Blood streaked Joel's spear and Bull's scimitars, and dust caked around Adalyn's feet and legs.

Joel leaned on the spear, and exhaled. "Hoo, let me tell ya, Bull…without you, we'd have been vampyre chow by now. Thanks. By the way, how exactly did you find us?"

Bull looked over his shoulder at where Astrid was kneeling over Kyran's limp form, then at Alucard, still lying on the ground. "That's a story for another time…Perhaps we should take care of the others first?"

Joel shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose so. Addy, you take care of Alucard. Bull and I'll take care of Kyran." Adalyn nodded, and stole over to his prostrate form.

As Joel and Bull walked over to Astrid, she looked up at them, her eyes tired and grey.

"Ah…Apparently, the Lance was too much for him at first," she said after a brief hesitation. "His body wasn't accustomed to that kind of power. He'll be fine after a short rest."

Joel raised an eyebrow. "So…you're the Lance? As in, you're Kyran's sword? And his wife?"

"Yes, Joel," she replied, rolling his eyes at him. "Go ahead and tell this person of whom you have no previous knowledge that I am in fact one of the most powerful weapons known to mankind, rivaling the Godsword. I'm sure he can be implicitly trusted."

Bull scratched the back of his head. "Oh, come on. I'm not that suspicious-looking, am I? I mean, if you had some way of contacting Kuradal, she could verify it. But, ah, I mean, I do have the cape."

After a second, Astrid shrugged. "I suppose whatever damage could be done has already been done. My name is Astrid," she said, standing up and extending a hand.

He took the hand and kissed it. "My name, Astrid, has been lost to the ravages of time. You may call me Bull instead."

Astrid took a look at Joel and Adalyn. "I suppose we should probably get back to Burgh de Rott, then."

"Well," Adalyn said, "we would have access to better medical care there."

"Alright," she replied. "Then we'll set out after Kyran comes to."

Several hours later

"You sure took your sweet time getting up, Sarge!" Joel said, poking his arm.

Kyran looked at the former Lance-Corporal and scowled. "I'm sorry for holding you up, kid. It's my fault for not being able to handle a weapon as powerful as the Godsword the first time I used it! By the way, why did you take that thing?"

Joel gripped the hilt of the Godsword, which was strapped across his back. "Oh, come on, Sarge, why would you leave a weapon like this lying on the ground when you could use it yourself? Beats the hell out of your spear, that's for sure."

Kyran was about to respond when they passed the arch that led to the six Barrows.

Astrid popped her knuckles. "You know, Kyran, there's a legend that Zaros revived the six Barrows brothers from the dead so they could guard something deep in the crypts."

"Let me guess," he replied. "You're going to say that it's not actually a legend, and that they really are alive after all?"

Astrid smiled. "Oh, Kyran, you're a mind reader, aren't you?"

He smacked himself on the forehead."I hate when I'm right," he groaned. "Let's stay the hell out of there, huh?"

"Actually," Astrid said, "the Barrows brothers are fundamentally Zarosian after Zamorak betrayed them and lured them to their deaths. They would be friendly to someone in the company of, I don't know, the Lance of Zaros?"

Kyran shrugged. "Then what do we have to lose? I suppose they'd be helpful, but, well, it's getting dark. Perhaps we should just camp out here and delve into the tombs in the morning?"

Alucard had bandages wrapped around the better part of his torso, and both arms, but he still nodded. "That would probably be wise. There are things that lurk in the night in those tunnels…"

Next morning

The group stood in the middle of the six mounds of earth.

"There's nobody around, what do we do now?" asked Bull.

"Let's have a look in those tombs," said Joel. "Who knows- we might meet Guthan in there!"

Bull chuckled. "I have a feeling he'd be rather upset that you're wearing his armour."

"Which I'm sure would be quite amusing," said Alucard. "But who's that?" He was pointing to an old man wandering around talking to himself.

"That's just the strange old man," replied Joel. "He's, uh, kinda strange, but essentially harmless. I don't know what he's doing here, or why he's here, but he wasn't any trouble to me when I come on a task from Sumona. Changing subject, though, we'd have to dig our way into the tombs. Be careful of all the skeletons, rats and worms, though- they're all a lot bigger and stronger than the ones I've seen anywhere else!"

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bull. "Rats and worms? Oh, whatever shall we do?"

"Shut up, you," Joel replied. "Things really are very strange in there. For one thing, I feel less connected to Saradomin when I'm in there." They descended into one of the pre-made holes that led into the tombs, surrounded by eerie gloom, making them feel alone, and slightly scared.

"These tombs are quite strange," Alucard commented, looking at the six stone coffins arranged in a large hexagon. "It's exactly as I remember them."

"True enough," Joel replied. "But if we want their help, the best way to get in contact with 'em…is to wake 'em up!"

"NO!" shouted Alucard, as a strange figure, clothed in battle armour and wielding a huge spear, leapt from inside the coffin. Joel desperately parried each of his attacks with the Godsword.

"Whelp!" the figure growled. "First you steal my armour, then you have the nerve to disturb me?" Dumbstruck, the others could only stare at the combatants.

"Don't their armours look alike?" commented Adalyn.

"Yeah, they do…" mused Kyran. "It also looks like my platebody. That must be Guthan, then…"

As Joel wrestled the figure to the ground, Guthan roared "Come to me, my brothers!"

From the other coffins, five figures appeared as a cloud of smoke rolled in from the tunnels, all fearsome looking characters, heavily armoured. One figure, wielding a huge axe, rushed Joel, but Alucard jumped in front of him, blocking his axe with his claws.

"Guthan! Dharok! Stop fighting!" shouted the oldest-looking of them, a mage, judging by his robes. As the brothers paused, Joel and Alucard stole back to the group, as the other brothers stood by Guthan and Dharok. The one who had shouted came forwards, and seemed to be scolding them. Joel and Alucard took the opportunity to dust themselves off, removing the age-old dirt that had been on the coffins from their clothes.

"I must apologize for how those two have behaved," the mage said. "They always were rather hot-blooded. Believe me, their aggression got them into trouble more than once… Anyway, allow us to introduce ourselves, I am Ahrim, the one with the crossbow is…"

"Let me guess," Joel interrupted. "He's Karil. The one with that massive flail is Verac, and the one with that wicked set of hammers would be Torag. Right?"

"Ah," Ahrim said. "Then you do know of us!"

"The six legendary Misthalanian heroes?" Joel said, a stupid grin forming on his face. "As a good Varrock boy, how could I not know about you?"

Before anybody could reply, Alucard extended a hand."Pleased to meet you, Ahrim, I am Alucard, and my friends are Joel, Astrid, Kyran, Bull, and Adalyn," he said, pointing to each of them in turn. Also, I'm sorry if this appears to be rude, but, ermmm, aren't you supposed to be... well, dead?"

Ahrim nodded."Ah! We know Astrid here- she's the daughter of our…boss. Yes, the official records say that we are in fact dead. Blasted bureaucrats, they've probably still got us voting for them anyway. Regardless, the reason we're not dead after that accursed Zamorak betrayed us is- well, we owe our lives to Zaros. After we were buried in these tunnels that our fellow soldiers dug- they're all long dead, Guthix rest their souls-Zaros appeared and presented us with an offer to protect a certain sigil that was located in one of his temples. In return, he granted us immortality. Incidentally, Joel, why do you appear to be wearing Guthan's armour?"

"Oh! That…" Joel said, scratching his head and grinning awkwardly. "I was set on a task by my slayer master to kill some undead, and I found the reanimated skeletons here, so I decided this was as good a place as any. While hunting them down, I found a chest, and this armour was inside."

"Hmmm, that seems plausible," Ahrim said, nodding. "We did keep spare armour sets in a magical chest we were given. Anyway, what are you doing here?"

That was where Kyran interrupted."We're on a quest to kill Drakan, and we thought that there may be something here that could help us, perhaps some sort of weapon."

Astrid cleared her throat. "You mean, a weapon like the Lance of Zaros? The one that you already found? Or the Godsword that we looted off an enemy's body?"

Kyran put an arm around Astrid and grinned. "Oh come on, honey, you know it's all about being sure, right? Can't be too careful, huh?"

Ahrim looked supremely confused for a second, pointing at Kyran and then Astrid. "Wait a second. You…and her…You're…"

Kyran nodded. "We are. She's my wife. Got married in Relleka 'bout a year and a half ago. Of course, I thought she was dead for a good chunk of that time, but still."

Ahrim scratched his chin. "Now, that's…interesting. But as for something that could help you in your war with Drakan…how about us? Dharok's handy with that axe of his, as aggressive as he is, and I'm no slouch with magic either. Not to mention that Verac, Karil, Guthan and Torag all received training from some of Zaros' chosen generals."

Joel grinned. "Absolutely! We'd love to have you by our side, but don't you have to guard that sigil you were talking about?"

Ahrim dug around in his pocket, finally producing a small stone staue that looked like a robed, headless figure with his hands together. "You mean this one? Its purpose was to absorb the prayers of the adventurers who passed through here, which it's done for over a thousand years now. If we take it with us, it'll remain safe. So we're completely free."

A smile crept across Kyran's face. "Then by all means, my new friends. Our first stop is Burgh de Rott. After that- Castle Drakan!"

They all filed out of the tomb in a disorganized group, with Ahrim and Kyran in the front.

"You know, Kyran…There's something you should know about your wife," Ahrim said in a low tone.

"Yeah? And what's that?" he replied.

Ahrim's face turned serious. "She told you that she is the Lance of Zaros, yes. But not only is she his weapon…she's his daughter."