It was so dark, light from the half shaded blood rock looked to be pouring on all sides.
What madness lied in wait would be no match for them.
Beasts snarled.
Gnashing, blood breath, curses of Eldreth's old language, and his flail arm was ready.
While unslinging his hundred keg whirlwind of death, he swung ahead of the party. Spikes gored the darkness, and the beast wailed, rising to its hind legs.
Hellhounds.
All over the woods, dozens, maybe hundreds of them.
Three years ago it would've cost them countless nights.
Yet as the first hound towered over them, himself at the front with flail in hand, he knew it would be a joyous night.
He let the beast swing, spear sized claws on a paws which could cover a chariot. Shield up, nothing penetrated, and he me merely flinched. A couple steps back, then he whirled his flail forward like a master to a slave.
The hellhound's front paws were shattered, bones protruding from its arms. It wailed, whimpering on its back. He slammed his bloody flail into its skull, silencing it for good.
Fiery silver-white arrows loosed, landing between the eyes of several charging hellhounds. Al kept loosing, one arrow at a time, all that was needed to bring down with an arrow to the face.
She never missed, though the dogs were stampeding through the woods.
An army of claws, teeth the size of greatswords, breath's like fire, skin thick as steel.
Arthur and Dany separated, staying close to Al, slicing ankles or any paws swiping their way.
A hound led with its horns, snapping fifty meter high black oaks like twigs, towards Dany. She leaped, leading with her sword, fire on its edges. One thrust drove the hellhound into the dirt, Dany plunging her sword into its skull. She sliced mad, fire roaring on her greatsword, and cut the dog's head clean off within a few swings.
Several dogs stopped, hunched over while growling, cautious to rush into the slaughter.
His flail bashed open one's belly, spilling guts like rain on all sides himself. Then he swung at another's face, caving in its face, bone revealing along its skull.
One slammed against his ironite armor, its trims with silver-white steel gleaming in the darkness. He didn't budge, then brought his flail down so hard the dog's eyes popped from its socket, its skull opening like a red geyser.
Howls echoed, hellhounds creeping back from the Embers with heads raised to the sky.
For a moment it was silent, save for a cursing Dany.
Arthur's eyes darted, the spearman searching the sky for whatever it was the dogs were whining about.
"They've never done this before," he said, a sharp yet cautious look. "Edgar, what's this all about?"
On one of few oaks still standing round the party, the red-eyed crow whistled down to them.
"I've not the slightest clue," the strange bird said, looking up as well. "They're too far from the palace to expect any reinforcements. I'd worry not if I were you, I'd say they've more reason to fear than you."
A sudden warmth fille the air.
"Fly ahead," Arthur demanded. "Don't get too close."
"As you wish," Edgar said politely.
Smoke filled his nostrils, but not of the dogs.
Before he could warn the crow, black flames engulfed the bird moments into it flight north. The fires raged, scorching the woods for almost a mile towards the palace, and the wyvern above cawed a howling bloodcurl.
Nathan cracked a whip, and the wyvern turned up, Edgar's burning corpse falling until it withered away as black ash.
"Motherfucker!" Arthur shouted, charging the nearest hellhound.
Though several hundred meters away, he ran the dog down.
Al shouted for him to stay close, but he paid no heed, skewering the beast until it's organs spilled out. Covered in blood, he raged at the loss of the crow.
Dany stayed next to Al, Nathan turning his wyvern back down.
He knocked his flail hilt against his shield, demanding his brother to face him.
"It's me you want! I know that bitch sent you to do her bidding!"
Silver hair soaring back, Nathan shook his head.
The poor lad muttered something in old elvish, almost like he were sad, then his eyes flared red.
Fire spewed from the wvyern's jaws, though Al loosed several arrows at once. One penetrated Nathan's belly, and another landed in the wyvern's narrow serpent-yellow eye. Rider and beast hissed, smoke rising from their skin.
As the wyvern soared on, towards Eldreth's walls, every hound within the woods retreated.
Arthur ran down one last dog, and didn't stop cutting with his dark mithril heavy spear until his arms trembled. The spearman wept, over the crow, over the years lost to Marryvia's darkness, and the party decided it was best to end the day.
Nightfall brought about the stars.
He looked at them while wiping down his flail, Dany sharpening her greatsword next to him. They sat a little ways from the fire, Al and Arthur sound asleep.
"He's…tired. We both are," Dany said, giving her blade a long graze. "Edgar kept him sane during his season, but, I could see it was still taking a toll on him."
After wiping down a las smudge of blood, he asked, "What kept you together?"
She gave him a blank look. "I'm like you, remember?"
"Aye," he said, patting his beautiful flail. "Aye, I don't remember."
She smiled. "I, killed a giant on the battlefield, two actually. One was a cyclops that could shoot fire from its eye. I didn't tell anyone else, because I didn't think they'd understand like you, but I received a memory."
He held his flail tight. "What'd you see?"
She ran a hand through her hair, giving it a light stroke. "I was…alone. I was in a place, I think Arthur said it was gym? Somewhere people go to train their bodies. It was the only place I was happiest, and other people told me how strong I was for my size."
"What'd these people look like?"
"Some were men, others women, all young, some of them older. I thanked them for the compliments, but, I was too shy to talk any further. The gym was my favorite place, whenever I wasn't with my dogs."
He didn't know what to make of it, truly.
It sounded like she was a bit less of a troublemaker than he was.
"I want to do this, just as much as you," she whispered, leaning close. "Quarrath's gone too far, and, I want to know what happened. I need to know what happened."
He gave her a long stare, almost scowling. "Do you? Or is it the thrill of blood, guts, and swinging that thing?"
He pointed at her greatsword.
She started turning red, and looked away from him. "Y-yes, alright, I admit it. Aside from two memories, fighting and dying in this hell is all I've known."
He laid a hand on her shoulder and gave it a light tug. "We're going to win."
She looked at him, battle lust taking both their eyes.
They smiled, as though regular folk did at a festival, or some merry fucking event where the sun shined. Not here, not in this place, not as cursed soulless monsters with a thirst for blood greater than any beast in Marryvia.
Stars faded, and the black morning welcomed them.
With the Embers he pressed onward, in and around giant pawprints. Blood stained the ground, and they stumbled across a few carcasses, so disfigured it was difficult to tell what animal they belonged to.
Al and Arthur cursed in disgust, though he and Dany marched onward, both determined to breach Eldreth's walls.
Within the woods they came across a path, ridden with mud and claw marks.
It was the exact same path they took before, leading to the fountain of the four-sword knight.
Yet the fountain itself was crumbled, just a slab of a head to be left.
It was enough, as upon resting for another night all their aches and pains of the previous day were gone. Their strength restored, they decided to make for the tunnels and storm Eldreth's walls.
Along the walls, tall with three pointed stars round different precious stones, they stalked for over an hour.
They were expecting some sort of resistance, many of the hellhounds and Nathan haven retreated days prior. Nothing snarled nor hissed as they pressed on, and for good reason.
Upon reaching what used to be the tunnel entrance, the found hard slabs of granite sealed round the opening.
Carvings were round the seal's edge, all old elvish, and some gibberish of that Dark Lord the vampyres loved so much. None of them, not even Dany or Arthur with all their time within the dark lands, could make out what it was.
So the spearman hurried off into the darkness, headed back to the village to retrieve William.
Everyone else returned to the fountain.
High pitched curls rang out, and Nathan's wyvern, the lad himself not atop it, soared above Eldreth's palace.
She was waiting there.
So was the lad, and he promised he'd do whatever it took to set him free.