I do not own Witcher or any of the characters.

The Ragged Demon

"I don't believe it," Aralyn breathed, staring at Cintra and the flames and smoke rising from it. "Cintra has fallen?"

"Black armor," Eldin said. "It's Nilfgaard."

"This is bad," Renfri swallowed hard. "If they beat Cintra, who else can stop them? Cintra had the strongest military."

"Only until either the North unites or the mages decide to act directly," Eldin said. "Come on. Let's head North. We're going to find nothing but death here."

The others nodded and they turned their horses North, spurring them forward, only for several shouts to instantly sound to their left. Eldin looked over and narrowed his eyes as a group of five Nilfgaardian soldiers rode toward them at a gallop. Eldin and Renfri spurred their horses into gallops as well as Eldin drew his sword with his left hand, then passed it to the other as Aralyn took the reins, Eldin wrapping an arm around her both to stay on and to reassure her he would protect her.

"Be careful, Renfri!" Eldin called out to her.

"You, too!" Renfri called back. She branched off a bit to get room as the Nilfgaardians caught up to them.

The first to arrive rode up on Eldin's right and stabbed at him with a spear, only for it to bounce off of Eldin's arm, deflecting away from Aralyn. Then, Eldin slashed backward, splitting the soldier's side open. He shouted in pain, falling from his horse just as an arrow shattered against Eldin's back. A horse quickly gained on Eldin and Aralyn on their left, but Eldin jabbed two fingers at him, Aard shattering the bones of his face and crushing his helmet. At the same time, the first soldier to reach Renfri tried to cut her down with his sword, only for her to knock it away and dispatch him with a quick thrust to the throat, severing his carotid artery. Eldin smirked, happy to see he hadn't wasted his time training her to improve her sword skills. The last pair caught up with Eldin and Renfri together, but before either could attack them, Eldin leaned back and slashed the horse's reins, then used Axii to convince the horse to first buck, then rear, hurling the rider from its back before kicking him in the head, killing him instantly. Renfri, on the other hand, resorted to slightly more desperate measures after fending off several slashes but finding her sword wasn't long enough to strike back. She hacked off one of the horse's front legs and allowed it and ride both to plow into the ground, breaking the horse's neck and killing it instantly as its body crushed the rider. Renfri guided her horse back over beside Eldin's again, and he nodded to her, glancing back the way they'd come, then ahead again.

"We might meet more!" Eldin called over the wind and the sound of their horses galloping. "Be ready!"

Renfri nodded just as an arrow drove itself into her horse's neck. It shrieked and went down hard, but Renfri was thrown away from it rather than crushed. Aralyn circled back instantly, Eldin raising his arm to block a second arrow for their horse, then dropped beside Renfri. She was alive, but unconscious. Eldin swore as Nilfgaard soldiers swarmed toward him from the city, but before they could get close, he lit a massive swath of the field between them with Igni. A moment later, Aralyn had returned, and Eldin threw Renfri over the saddle before Aralyn, then jumped up behind her again, Aralyn once again spurring the horse away from the battle. After a few moments, more horses began to ride up behind them, but Eldin was done being gentle or kind. The horse in the lead lost its life to a blast of Aard and tripped the horse behind it, both of their riders being crushed. Another was the victim of Igni along with its rider. The others spurred their horses faster, but all it served was to make Eldin's aim easier. All three riders were hit directly by Aard, sparing their horses. Except, they'd drawn attention to themselves now.

"More company's coming!" Renfri warned pointing to their right, opposite her from Eldin.

"We'll see!" Eldin said, having Aralyn guide their horse around Renfri's before he ignited a massive section of the field with Igni as they rode.

The Nilfgaardians broke off their pursuit, their horses refusing to go nearer the flames. Finally, they escaped into the trees, and Eldin wiped the blood off of his sword on his pants before sheathing it.

"Now what?" Renfri called over to Eldin and Aralyn. "Continue north?"

"Head for Sodden!" Eldin called back. "If the Northern Countries mean to stop Nilfgaard's advance, that's where they'll go!"

Renfri nodded, she and Aralyn steering the horses as they let them slow to catch their breath and not ride them to death. They rode for hours, but as the sun began to rise, they stopped by a river to let the horses rest.

"How long can we rest?" Aralyn asked.

"Well, I doubt Nilfgaard cared much for a pair of riders who set a field on fire," Eldin said. "At least not enough to immediately chase them away from Cintra during their assault when we made no effort to reach the city. I'd give it a half a day at most."

"Is that all?" Renfri asked.

"For now," Eldin nodded. "While we're in the trees and can't see them coming, we need to be more careful. Anyone could show up."

"Anyone just did," Aralyn said, staring past Eldin.

He turned, then sighed, seeing Triss a couple of yards away, walking toward them as the dust from her portal settled. "Triss."

"Eldin," Triss smiled. "I'm glad I found you."

"Found me," he snorted. "You did a tracking spell and portalled to us directly." His smirk dropped. "Why?"

"Myself and a handful of other Mages are planning to try and hold Sodden against Nilfgaard, but we don't have enough forces," Triss explained. "We need more. We need the Ragged Demon."

Eldin narrowed his eyes. "I didn't think that name had spread so quickly."

"It wouldn't have, if a sorcerer hadn't been in that town," Triss said. "By the end of the week it had spread all over the Continent. An unkillable, horned Witcher bearing the face of Death. We need that."

"No," Eldin said. "It's not a good thing."

"Eldin, please," Triss said. "I know you don't trust us, I know you don't trust me, but we need your help."

"Why should I believe you?" Eldin questioned. "As you said, I don't trust you. And isn't Nilfgaard home to one of your order?"

"Fringilla left the Brotherhood," Triss said. "Decades ago. But you don't care about that. I can't give you a reason to trust me, but have I, personally, ever given you reason to distrust me?"

Eldin narrowed his eyes at her for a long moment before sighing. "Aralyn, Renfri?"

"Portalling there would be faster, and give us a chance to rest," Renfri pointed out.

"And Triss has been at least decent with us in the past, even if not entirely honest," Aralyn said. "Besides, without her, you and I might not have ever gotten around to admitting our feelings."

Eldin groaned. "Don't start with that, I'm still mad at her for not keeping her mouth shut." He sighed. "Fine, but if I put on that mask, no one steps out of the keep."

"Deal," Triss nodded.

"I mean it, Triss," Eldin pressed. "No one."

Triss nodded.

"And we're not fighting a war gratis," Eldin warned her.

"I know," Triss smiled, offering a coin purse fit to burst. "Two hundred now, three hundred once we step out of the portal at Sodden, and another five if we win."

Eldin watched her for a moment, then accepted the coins. "I'm not starting out with the mask. It's a last resort. I hate wearing it."

"I understand," Triss nodded. "I can sense it from here, so I don't want you putting it on, either."

Eldin nodded and Triss formed them a portal, Eldin and Renfri leading their horses through after Triss and Aralyn. Once on the other side, they led the horses across the bridge to the northern end, tying them to a tree that they could easily break apart if no one came for them, then returned to the keep where Triss and Aralyn were speaking with a pair of witches, one appearing lightly older with chocolate brown hair in a bun with a braid encircling it and the other appearing as young as Renfri with black hair falling past her shoulders and vibrant, almost glowing, blue eyes.

"You must be Eldin," the darker-haired one greeted him. "I'm Yennifer. Geralt's told me about you. He said you're the only one who can almost match him with a sword, but also that you're the best of all the remaining Witchers when it comes to Signs."

"It helps that if I wasn't a Witcher I'd have been dragged to Aretuza," Eldin said. "As for the sword bit, most of that reputation is my armor." He tugged his collar down to expose part of it. "A gift and payment for a job, as well as insurance for its completion."

"It's beautiful," the older witch said. "I'm Tissaia."

"Pleasure," Eldin said disinterestedly. "What is there for defenses?"

"Archers and magic explosives," Triss said.

"Have you set up any to destroy the bridge?" Eldin asked.

The three mages exchanged confused looks.

"Well, if we have to retreat, I'd rather not have Nilfgaard follow us across the bridge, would you?" Eldin sighed impatiently.

"If it comes to it, we'll destroy the bridge with magic," Tissaia said.

"Right," Eldin sighed. "Okay, let me make this clear. No one but me will be fighting outside of the Keep. No one. You can have your archers shoot at Nilfgaard all you like, and if I have to use my last resort, they can shoot around me, too. But if anyone steps out of that Keep, I'll probably end up killing them, too."

"Understood," Triss nodded.

"Not understood," Yennifer said. "Why would you kill someone on our own side?"

"It's his mask," Aralyn said. "It amplifies his negative emotions. Rage, hate, bloodlust. When he's wearing it, anyone around him is an enemy. Even we're not safe." She gestured to herself and Renfri.

"And what are you two to him?" Yennifer raised an eyebrow.

"I'm his lover, and Renfri is a friend and companion," Aralyn said.

"This isn't the point of this conversation," Eldin said. "I need your word that no one will exit the Keep, especially if I put on the mask."

"You have our word," Tissaia promised. "If you put on the mask, we'll leave you to fight, and maybe die, alone."

Eldin, Aralyn, and Renfri all snorted. "Die."

"That's funny," Renfri smirked.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to make sure I have all the elixirs I'll need for this," Eldin said, walking away, Aralyn and Renfri following.

"I don't think I've actually seen you drink one," Renfri said. "How long do they last?"

"Depends on the ingredients," Eldin said. "The two I made with those Fiend eyes will last twelve hours each, so I'll use those first." He pulled out his stock and frowned. "The rest...a few two hours, a one hour, and a handful of half hours."

"That's a lot of fighting," Renfri said.

"And a lot of killing," Eldin said. "But even so, one man against an army...it might not be enough."

"You're not one man," Aralyn said, turning his head toward her. "You're one man fighting alone to spare others the pain of it, and you're backed by a small army of powerful sorcerers, your elf lover who is also magic and damn good with a bow, and our semi-capable friend who's about to learn to shoot a bow."

"Oh, well, excuse me," Renfri rolled her eyes. "It's not too late for me to ask Triss for a tour of Aretuza."

Both gave her a blank stare, knowing she had long-since put her revenge against Stregobor on hold indefinitely, probably unless passing him in the street. After a moment, Eldin sighed, kissing Aralyn.

"Let's help with preparations," Eldin said. "How long do we have?"

"About two days," Aralyn said.

"Plenty of time," Eldin said, gathering his elixirs back up before they all left to help prepare for the coming battle.

For half a day, they worked, readying bows and arrows, gathering ingredients for magic explosives and bottling them. The mages readied the enchantments on the explosives, along with Aralyn. A few of the mages duplicated arrow heads, or fletching. However, the battle arrived a full day ahead of schedule. In the dead of night, the first strike came from Nilfgaard. A fireball large enough to destroy the whole Keep, only for Yennifer to deflect it into the sky where it exploded harmlessly. However, as she raised a call to arms, another came. After that, sleep was nonexistent for everyone. Eldin waited by the main gate for his time to come and the mages and impromptu archers lined the walls and stairways of the Keep. Finally, the sun rose, its rays helping them all shake off the grogginess of a night of waiting.

"Once I cross, shut the gate behind me," Eldin instructed.

The two refugees to either side of him nodded, and they all waited. After a few moments, fog began to spread through the trees, closing in on the Keep quickly and blinding everyone to what lay before them. Eldin nodded to himself and passed through the gate, which promptly slammed shut behind him before they began to bar it against invasion. Eldin pulled out the first of his two strongest elixirs, but waited to drink. He'd left his satchel behind, instead having the mask hanging behind him with a length of rope around his neck, tied through the eye holes. Not his first choice, but easier than fishing it out of the satchel in the middle of a war. He waited, watching, listening. Chaos erupted among the Nilfgaard forces. In one section, he could hear choking. In another, the marching suddenly stopped. And then, the gate behind him exploded open, but when he turned, there was no one.

"The gate is a distraction!" he roared. "Ignore it for now!"

And then, there was chaos. Arrows were flying from a portal on the ground up into the Keep. He took a step toward it, only to stop, turning back to the front as he heard footsteps approaching. He drew his sword, narrowing his eyes. However, what approached wasn't a man, it was a husk in a robe. When it reached him, he kicked it and it fell away as ash, dropping a small, black box. He narrowed his eyes, sensing magic, and formed a Quen barrier around the box, then combined it with a specific application of Yrden. It was a special combination that was developed to combat sorcerers by nullifying any magic trying to pass through in either direction, or any attempts to use magic from within. It sacrificed a Witcher's Signs in exchange for forcing combat to a melee.

"No thank you, Fringilla," Eldin growled, picking up the box. "Yennifer! Portal this to the Nilfgaard commander!"

Yennifer formed him a portal and he hurled the box through before the portal sealed, the barrier Eldin had placed fading the moment it had passed through. And then, Nilfgaard arrived. Eldin started forward, draining his elixir, then groaned. As usual, the stronger the elixir, the stronger the effects, and the more painful. His face paled, his veins turned black to his collar and hair, and his eyes turned black. it was more drastic this time, and when the Nilfgaardians saw his face, they staggered to a stop from shock.

"Well?" Eldin asked, holding his sword at his side. "I'm waiting."

The Nilfgaardians hesitated for another moment, then charged. The flow of soldiers was slow toward the front. First one, who fell cleanly, then two equally cleanly. Another one reached him, only to once again die with so smooth a stroke of Eldin's blade that he didn't realize it had happened, as the three ahead of him hadn't. Four arrived next, and it took a moment longer to kill them all, by which time five more had arrived. He incorporated his armor, allowing him to kill them more easily. Behind him, Triss began to grow a new gate from roots.

"Make it thick and strong, Triss!" Eldin shouted over the cries of the Nilfgaardians rushing him. "Don't let me through!"

Then, he pulled his mask around front, cut the rope, and pulled it on. In an instant, his emotions muted themselves. In the next, he unleashed a terrible roar and the next group of soldiers to meet him were all but slaughtered. One charged at him from his left, but with an almost casual gesture, Eldin caught him with Igni. A trio with pikes charged from the front, only for Eldin to blast the pikes with Aard, sending the jagged, broken pieces of the shafts into the pikes own wielders. A duo with swords closed in on Eldin front the sides, seeming to materialize from the fog, only for him to seem to vanish into it. One of the two separated at the waist before they even knew he'd struck, and with a second sweep of his blade, the other's head was freed from the excess weight of his body. One with a torch ran for Triss's gate, only for Igni to ignite him in a greater blaze than his torch, the soldier collapsing short of his goal. Two more rushed at Eldin, their spears shattering against Eldin's armor before Eldin's arm swept up and split both across the chest. More and more soldiers charged Eldin, and more and more died as smoothly as a scythe reaping grain. The cry of "Demon!" spread through the army within minutes of Eldin donning his mask, and a trio of mages appeared. One hurled a fireball and collapsed into ash, but the fireball met only a Quen barrier and vanished. The next hurled the weapons of fallen soldiers, but those shattered against Eldin's armor. The third raised a hand and made a fist, meaning to crush Eldin's insides with magic, but Eldin was resistant enough to magic that while he felt pain, it didn't do any serious damage, lasting or otherwise. And then, Eldin had reached the pair and killed them as easily as the soldiers scattered around them. His eyes swept around, his elixir-enhanced sight peering easily through the fog, his hearing amplified until he could track the soldiers by their footsteps, and his sense of smell likewise heightened. When a soldier with an axe charged from behind, Eldin stepped around the overhead blow and split the soldier with an upward stroke, then turned again and split another on the downward stroke. A pair charged from the sides and Eldin turned profile fitting between their blades before pivoting on the spot and severing both at the waist.

A group moving to pass him and head for the Keep met their end to Aard crumpling their armor like tinfoil, and their bodies along with it, and a soldier meaning to sacrifice himself in order to hurl a torch into the gate instead found the torch jammed down his throat by a precise Aard blast. A trio of soldiers charged at Eldin with swords, but they shattered uselessly against his armor before Eldin's own split theirs like a hot knife through warm butter. And then, the battle dragged on. And on. And on. The soldiers stopped coming in groups. Where before there were a few, now when he felled one, two more took their place. And then two more for each of them. And still, the Ragged Demon, the Incarnate of Death, claimed them all. The Keep was entirely forgotten to the soldiers, save for the arrows and explosives that tried futilely to ease the burden on him, as the soldiers struggled equally futilely to slay the demon laying waste to their force alone. When twelve hours was reached and Eldin's elixir wore off at last, Eldin merely used a powerful blast of Aard to clear enough room to put the next bottle to his lips under the mask, then drained it as he continued slaughtering Nilfgaard's soldiers, allowing the empty bottle to fall once he'd drank the last of it. And still there was no shortage of soldiers. One of them managed to get a chain around Eldin's arms, but when weapons struck out to down the bound demon, they shattered against, or bounced off of, his armor before Aard shattered the chain, the shrapnel felling a handful of soldiers before he was free to once again swing Death's Scythe. The sun fell behind the horizon, adding darkness to the chaos, allowing Eldin and his black armor and mask to hide within, masking his movements and adding to his lethality.

And then, the battlefield was illuminated by fire. It bathed the world around Eldin like a flood, killing all in its path, and yet, it passed around Eldin, parting mercifully to leave its master's ally unscathed as it scarred and blackened the field before the Keep. It spread to the forests, and left none alive, save for the demon it had spared, and Tissaia, who stood between Eldin and the fire's master, Yennifer. But the demon saw only two more victims. Two more to die. It stalked toward them, snarling menacingly, and Tissaia turned to face him. But then, there came the sound of sprinting feet. The demon turned, brandishing his blade, but it swept along the blade of the oncoming challenger, skipping away from her. It curved, sweeping back, and then it flew from a hand that released it, the blade bouncing off of a Quen barrier behind her as she dropped the mask to the ground, her lips fused to Eldin's. Eldin let out a shuddering breath, holding Aralyn tight, Aralyn allowing her own sword to fall. For what felt like ages, they remained there, Aralyn's presence, her taste, her kiss, reminding him of who he was. Finally, they parted, and Eldin sighed.

"You're a fool," Eldin said. "I could have killed you."

"We've never proven that you can beat me in a fight," Aralyn smiled. "Welcome back."

He smiled, kissing her again, then knelt, lifting her sword and his mask, passing the sword to her. "Don't ever do that again."

"I promise to try not to," Aralyn vowed.

He nodded, retrieving his own sword, and looked to Tissaia, who nodded and went to fetch Yennifer. Eldin and Aralyn made for the Keep, and Renfri met them at the door with a hug, kissing both in her joy that they were alive.

"You're both so stupid!" Renfri smiled.

"At least one of my companions was smart enough to stay inside where it's safe," Eldin said. "Come on. My blade's in desperate need of cleaning."

Aralyn and Renfri nodded, and they found a quiet place to sit, away from the overjoyed celebration that the battle was over, Eldin using one of the very few scraps of clothing left clinging to him over his armor to clean his blade until his elixir wore off and exhaustion would claim him for days.

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