The Black Shuck gazed across the field's expanse at the newly risen draug army; its appointed Soulless army, quickly advancing toward Bolster. Liquid lava dripped from the beast's underbelly. Its army snarled and screamed as each draug stepped out of the gateway created by the Shuck's portal stone. The Shuck stood to the side of the wavering enigma and could feel the presence of the boy and the immortal it sought. It knew they were close, they had spawned only a few leagues from the city's outer gates. Still, the Rain Maker initiate felt stronger somehow and it confused the Shuck. It growled gutturally before taking a gaiety breath to push out a barrelling howl. He drove it directly for the boy's ears.
Let him know I wait.
It hadn't been hard for El'Athan to convince the Black Shuck to lead the Soulless in search of the boy. Nonetheless, the Shuck knew the undead Earth Builder should have waited longer for his strength to return before attempting a mass resurrection. These draugs were not as strong as they could have been, they were stuck in their physical form.
El'Athan was rotten to the core and too ambitious. He was no threat to the Shuck. His mind games did not work on the beast, and any Primordial magic El'Athan still carried would only be enough to cause a small earthquake or dust storm. His power now came mainly from the Great Dark, and the Black Shuck had been a warrior for the Dark since before the Shattering. It was not an undead creature pasted back together with dark magic, it was pure demon.
The boy was a different story. If he or any of his sort were initiated fully it could mean the end of the Shuck's days on Valterra. The Primordials tapped right into the Light and its power. To the Shuck, that could mean an end to its freedom. It would be given a dark and dismal fate, trapped in the Netherworld, with no place to hunt, no place to run, no place but to sit and burn and watch the endless existence of the universe pass it by with every breath.
So a bargain was made. The Shuck's portal stone traded for leadership in this first battle, along with the chance to kill the Rain Maker initiate before he was resurrected. And it wanted to rip his throat out. It wanted to feast on his entrails and feel his bones crush between its teeth. Let El'Athan have the other to toy with, that Chancellor. He was dirt, kicked up stones. But the Rain Maker, he could part the skies. The Shuck had already been witness to it. Surely it had been nothing compared to his true magical potential, but there was no doubt that it was the boy who made the lightening during their first encounter. The Shuck would crush him. What is lightening to a demon, but fuel? It regretted not ending him that first night in the Pass. It only had but to try and it could have run them down in an instant. It was the Great Dark who swayed him. Probably because of El'Athan's plan to keep the immortal alive. If he had killed them both, another initiate would surface and they wouldn't have a clue as to where.
The Shuck was ready to begin. It telepathically sent out the images of the two targets, the Chancellor and the Rain Maker initiate, to the Soulless army. They were to locate and capture them, then bring them back unharmed. The Shuck itself felt it should stay behind. It did not want to be seen inside the city limits, it would keep its presence on Valterra somewhat protected. As far as most people were concerned, Primordials and Elders alike, the Black Shuck was a legend. If they believed it existed at all, it was as the ghostly hell hound of Shuck's Pass. Keeping things that way worked to its advantage. Besides, no one should recognize its howl but the the boy, he was the only human alive who had ever seen the beast in the flesh and held its red gaze.
The Black Shuck watched the draugs as they easily ripped through the first line of City Defender's who'd come to meet them outside the city's gates. The Shuck was surprised because these draugs were a weaker lot. Though each one had a skeggox in hand, a charmed bearded axe encrypted with runes to bestow it with magical properties. In combat, the skeggox would seek and target its opponents most weakest point, allowing the draug a rampage of quick and easy kills, chopping off limbs or heads with ease. The draug simply had to raise an arm as they ran and the axe found its mark.
As arrows poured into the draugs from atop the city's wall, each wound released a foul smoke into the air. It reeked of rotten flesh and poisoned those humans who were close enough to inhale it. As soon as it touched the victims nostrils, it made it's way deep into their bodies. Soldiers gasped for air as their lungs disintegrated and a skeggox cleaved them entirely in half. They didn't have a chance.
The Black Shuck howled again at the sight it beheld. Every death meant a closer victory. It sent out the images of the targets again, showing the faces of Marcus and Avos, whom the Shuck didn't care to know by name. Bring these two to me.
The draugs had made it to the North Gate. Only a few had fallen simply because their legs had been damaged by sword. Though wounded, they remained animated, pulling their bodies across the fields, seeping the acrid smoke from their wounds so no one could get close enough to finish them off. They trudged slowly towards the gates to join the rest, for the Soulless could not be truly killed unless beheaded, buried and burned. Each putrid body wafting its toxic fumes was a welcome in battle. They surged the gates and began smashing it over and over with their axes, growling and drooling over the flesh they smelt within.
----
Avos and his companions, the witch, Elise and Chancellor Marcus, bolted through the Citadel doors just as the Soulless pierced the gates with their magical axes glimmering in the sunlight. They clashed and smashed the doors to splinters until the gates fell to the ground in a pile of rubble and then they trudged into the city square. Avos stood frozen in fear. He had never seen anything so disgusting. Dead men in ragged armour. Some moving more quickly than others. Some missing eyes or half their jaw, all with rotted flesh. Bones peeped out from behind their grey skin. And the stench, it would be burned into his memory forever.
Marcus ran towards the action, looking around frantically at the city's defences. Screams of women and children could be heard from windows, most likely on lookers too ignorant to flee. "Go find shelter! The lot of you!" Marcus yelled and waved them back.
The first line of Defender's had been beaten and lay broken outside the gates. If their wounds were tainted with the undead's fumes before they passed, they would soon rise again and join the battle as draugs. More Defender's, the reserves, now stood in semi-circle form with raised pikes inside the city gates, facing down their Soulless opponents as they charged. Some turned tail and ran while others were quick to block the blows aimed for their skulls.
Marcus balked when he noticed the archers atop the walls had stopped loosing arrows. They stood motionless, waiting to see the outcome of this showdown.
"Flame your arrows!!" Marcus yelled as he ran up a stairwell towards the archers. It took a few moments and more prompting until they realized the command was meant for them.
"Fire! We need fire to squash their fumes. Then aim for their throats! Their heads must fly!"
The commands breathed a new confidence into the Defender's. Suddenly there was hustle, there was purpose. Flaming arrows loosed as the undead began to catch fire. Though seemingly unfazed by the flames, their wounds began to dry out and their flesh began to wither away. The putrid smoke was smothered, but yet on they fought.
Marcus grabbed a sword from a rack and ran back down towards the undead attackers. He held his breath and hacked away the heads of those closest to the walls, who'd been dropped by flames and shafts to the jugular.
Avos felt as if he feet would not move from where he was standing. He had heard Marcus shout the orders, he watched as he ran right into the middle of the battle. Yet Avos was still as stone. He tried to push aside his fear, yet he was still unable to decide how best he could help. He had never even held a sword, let alone tried to loose an arrow.
"Give me your hand, Avos." Elise had remained calm beside him. Without a response, she grabbed Avos' hand and began to chant again in ancient Valtra. He felt her then, not just her hand, but the breath in her lungs, the words in her mouth. He became a part of her. He felt their minds connect; he could hear her inside his head. He understood perfectly.
Blood give me strength.
Fire give me breath.
Elise chanted over and over. Avos felt something inside of him stir. He felt the heat of the warm bodies all around him. He could see Marcus still yelling orders to the Defender's, but he heard no sound. All was inside him, all was around him. He thought of the rain and the power of a storm. Dark clouds formed above the battle, swirling, lightening bursts shimmered through the heat of the clouds.
Suddenly, Elise screamed. Not a painful scream, but a powerful one as she held out her free hand towards the Soulless Army. Above her palm grew a ball of flame, it effortlessly bounced and fluttered as if ready to strike. She drew back her hand and threw it as hard as she could towards the gates where the undead were still clambering inside the city walls. The fireball exploded and burned a handful of Soulless to a crisp.
Marcus jumped back in surprise, but was quick to finish them off. The Defender's around him followed his lead and beheaded their remains.
Avos watched in amazement. How did she do that? Did I help her do that?
Yes you did, responded Elise in his mind. She had not looked over at him, she was still focusing and forming another ball of flame to blast anything else coming through the gates.
That's when he heard it again. A sound he had only heard now twice before, but never this close. The terrifying howl of the Black Shuck, the creature that had chased him and Marcus on their way to Bolster. Stunningly, the beast jumped itself clear over the heap of undead at the gates and bolted towards Avos and Elise.
As soon as the Shuck had seen the skies part and the fireballs fly, it knew it had to intervene and risk exposure if the Chancellor was to be captured. His deal was for the immortal, not the boy.
It turned away from the pair and looked to Marcus who had stopped instructing the Defender's when the beast arrived. It opened its jaws wide and ran for him. Marcus could only see the beast now that it was focused on him. He turned and tried to run away but only took a few steps before he was scooped up and surrounded by large pointy teeth.
Elise blasted the Shuck from behind with a fireball but the beast seemed immune to its effect.
The demon held Marcus in the clutches of its jaw. It stood there looking back at the pair as though trying to make some sort of decision. Then it made a gruff sound within its throat, almost a laugh, and turned around and ran out of the city with Marcus still in its mouth.
"NOOOOOO!!!" Avos cried out, but it was too late. The Shuck was already halfway to the forest and would soon be through the portal's gate and out of sight.
Avos ran after it. He screamed and tripped over the dead men in the city square. He fumbled over the bodies and out the gates where he fell slowly to his knees. The Shuck was no where to be seen.
He could feel Elise trying to comfort him, she must have followed him. She rubbed his back with one hand and held his shoulder with the other. She was saying something to him, but her words had no sound. The last of battle still waged behind him, though most of the Soulless had been burned to the bone, the Defender's were busy beheading those who still stirred.
Avos wondered what was he going to do. Was he still to be resurrected? Did this mean it was all over? What about Lucinde? The Earth Builder? What was he supposed to do now?
"We will, Avos. I promise," was the first series of spoken words that registered in his head. "Come on, snap out of it!" Elsie raised her voice in slight annoyance and gave him a shake. "You're a Primordial, for Light's sake!"
"Marcus, he... he was the one who knew what to do. He knew everything... I know... nothing about what's to come, what to do, how to be resurrected."
"You still have me, Avos, and we know where that thing is most likely taking Marcus. If it wanted to kill him, it would have just bit him in half. Don't you see? They're baiting us, they want us to go the Scourge."
"The Scourge?" Avos took in the scene of destruction around him. Though this was a small attack, not more than 40 or 50 draugs all together, there were still so many losses.
Most of the Soulless lay headless and burned in the City Square. The Defenders were rounding them up to get them into the ground as Marcus instructed them to do mid-battle, before he was carried away in the jaws of that beast. They began to lay the dead from the guard in a row against the city wall. Burlap woven with prayers draped their lifeless bodies. Their heads only seemingly attached by the cloth. It was a risk to keep them whole, even if they hadn't changed.
"Listen, we've got to get moving. They obviously know where we are now, we can't stay here any longer. We have to get to the Scourge, get Marcus, get the Scrolls, and get you resurrected. That demon dog thing did not look friendly, and I did not like the way it was looking at you." She pulled him to his feet as she spoke, wiping off his shirt, though it was clean. "We'll get him back, Avos. I promise."
Elise took his hands in hers and searched his eyes until he finally saw her. His shock was wearing thin, but as he looked down at her, he felt her presence within himself. He greedily connected with her essence, though Elise welcomed it. He felt safe again, like he was a boy and his mother just scooped him up from falling down and scraping his knee. He felt free like when he was travelling with Marcus and comforted enough to believe her.
"We'll get him back. " He squeezed her hands and pulled her into a comforting embrace. "I promise."