Those who say 'War is hell' should just shut up.
I would trade hell for this any day.
Once again, I had my orders, I will not question them.
The orders were to march to some village that I had no desire of learning the name of.
The part of the orders I had kind of skimmed over were that we were to fight a bunch of damned Vanguard.
While we were forming our ranks, I received my long sword and just sighed, this weapon didn't suit me.
Turns out, someone knew.
A woman, bearing the crest of, what I recognised to be, the Central Shipping Empire, approached me.
But she approached me with a look of purpose in her eyes, nothing in them told me to trust her.
"Ah, master Rend, correct?" she said to me, readying a package in her hands. "I have a... Gift."
I knew of this 'Shipping Empire', She was lucky I hadn't cut her smuggling hands off.
"Oh? And what would this 'Gift', as you so generously put it, going to cost me, thief?" Nothing told her I cared for her words.
"Please, this is a gift. Well, I guess you could call it insurance." She held that word with a cruel twist in her smile.
"'Insurance'? What in damnation do you wish to ensure you selfish wench?" Almost spitting at her in hatred, she was sick and I was well aware.
"My own skin." As she said this, she thrusted the package into my hands. "Have fun, Elf."
I look up to see her... Gone
"Elf?" I murmur to myself as I open the package, the contents felt so sweet and right.
A bow and quiver full of arrows.
"MEN AND WOMEN OF THE IRON CITY! FORM UP!"
I run to my position with my new friend in my hands, my recruiter taking his stance by my side, Antonius Finch.
"Ha." One simple sound and I wanted to test fire it on him.
"What now, Finch?"
"Oh nothing, when was the last time you even held a bow?"
"A long time ago, my friend." Something told me that he was just being an arse, but I let him play it out.
"Well good luck then, I will miss you."
And there it was.
"What the damned do you-"
"You are a human."
"What does th-"
"You have a bow. Not your weapon."
No matter how much I wanted to argue, he was right. It maybe a real hit to my ego, I had to fight.
I had a purpose.
In all of my arguing in my own head, I missed the advance call.
I almost froze. So many dead.
All that my body did was react. Running forward I almost trip over a body.
Stumbling forward, I look back to see a man I trained with, we started the same day.
We fought together on the ships all those months ago.
He was my friend.
Then I realised, I had seen the man to kill a friend of mine.
A giant vanguard.
He was off in the distance, I could barely see him.
My eyes felt like they shifted and all of a sudden, I could see him, looking at me.
I could see the whites of his eyes, rotted teeth as he smiled.
He saw me and knew I couldn't do anything to avenge my fallen.
But he didn't know who I am.
Taking my stance next to a fallen centurion-like vanguard, I draw the bow.
Pointing the tip of the arrow right at him, I steady my breath and aim up.
"You didn't know his name, but take this arrow with mine." I whisper to the arrow.
I let lose the arrow, everything seemed to slow almost to a stop.
I felt the string slowly rolling out of my fingers, the feathers brush across as they warp into the wind.
As the arrow gained speed once more I give him the last thing he will ever need to know.
"I am Rend."
The arrow vanished off into the distance. A short moment later I hear a shrill cry from a falling Vanguard.
"And let hell know you have friends on the way."
"FALL BACK AND FORM UP!"
I run back to the line to hear some of the most grim new any of us could ever come across.
"The Vanguards have broken the treaty. All men they find. All women. All children. Will be killed."
Anger clouded my head that I almost didn't realise when Finch grabbed my head and looked directly into my eyes.
"Oh god-. Eladrin!?"
"CHARGE!"
In the heat of battle I hadn't thought on what Finch had said to me, the leaders of the Vanguard were formitable men.
One wielded a sword and shield while his close commander held his mace like a beast and wore little to no armour.
The mace-man charged at Finch, holding his shield like a wall Finch couldn't even dent, slamming down like a god.
Finch was in trouble.
Everything in me moved like liquid, a beautiful flow from grabbing an arrow, spinning it into place and knocking, then drawing.
I held the shot for the moment I needed, but every moment was the loss of my closest friend.
The Vanguard smashed Finchs weapons from his grasp, then raised his mace to finish Finch in a brutal crush.
To Finchs surprise, the mace-man stopped.
Finch had rolled out of the way in time for the Vanguard to slam into the ground to show a protruding arrow head, piercing out of his back.
"Good kill. Now -"
"- Get the rest of them. I know, Finch"
In the little boost of ego from my last kill, I almost missed the ringing of steel slicing through air.
Dropping to the ground, barely in time to save my head from being removed.
This Vanguard was fast. Very Fast. I had a bow. He had a sword.
I was going to die. But I ran, ran as fast as I could, fumbling for an arrow, I had neglected to think of what happens when you run with a quiver.
"SHIT!" I proclaim, turning around and rolling under the next blade swing, this time I wasnt so lucky, the blade slashed my right arm as I moved past.
Not enough to knock me out of battle, but enough to know its going to leave a mark.
Ignoring the slash I sprinted back to where I had first encountered the Vanguard.
THERE! An arrow laying on the ground a few meters ahead. I hear the loud THUD THUD THUD. Tell-tale sign of a Vanguard chasing.
As I get within range of the arrow, I drop to my knee, sliding across the ground and grabbed the arrow, mid-slide, I stand back up and keep running.
As fast as I knock the arrow, I spin and shoot.
The Vanguard stops and looks me dead in the eye.
All I could do is smirk beneath my hood.
The arrow was wedged nicely between his ribs,
Next thing I know, Finch sprints past me.
"DAMN IT REND! RUN!"
Dispite the fact he wasnt much higher than me, I wasnt about to ignore the man that recruited me into service.
"Whats going on Finch!?"
As he stops. I realise that the leader of the Vanguard is standing right infront of us.
"YOU WANT ME TO DEFECT YOU TRAITOROUS ARSE-"
"SHUT UP REND! THERE IS A GOD-FORSAKEN WARLOCK OVER THERE!"
I had felt every bit of death run past me in those words as I turn to see a single woman, Sceptre in hand, picking the very man I had just killed up.
"I-...I don't-" No words could come out. My training friends, the men I had just killed, the men I had just fought with, standing around this woman.
"Rend... I am sorry, they are all dead." Finch placed his hand on my shoulder.
No man is strong enough to never shed a tear for the lost, today, I have no desire to prove that wrong.
I check my arrows.
I have only two left, one knocked, one in the quiver.
Holding the bow with one hand, I draw the arrow sitting in the quiver.
"WITCH! I WILL PUT THIS ARROW THROUGH YOUR BLACK HEART!"
Placing the arrow back, I charge forward in a blind rage.
The Vanguards, or whats left of them, and Finch all manage to out run me, not before I take a shot at the Warlock though.
The arrow missed, but pieced the skull of one of her undead.
This is hell? No. This is worse.
My friend fighting two of our fallen commanders.
Vanguards killing those they had just fought beside.
She had to die.
I draw the bow, feeling every movement of the action, my muscles engaging and contracting.
The feel of the feathers as they brush my lips and the air of my own breath bouncing back.
The warlock had her back turned to me, Undead shield bearers all around her. No shot.
But the dead must stay dead. This is the law of all men. Those who break it, must follow their creations.
The vanguard managed to draw the attention of the shield bearing undead covering the warlocks back.
"DIE YOU WHORE!" The arrow flys. This time, not slow, but faster than anything I had ever seen.
Hitting the left shoulder blade. The arrow had pierced all the way through.
"Right into your black heart."
She turns around and points "Kill the archer"
Two of my captains, my leaders. My Archon and the Captain of the Guard both run at me.
I had nothing left, all I could do is die.
I open my arms and accept my fate.
A blade pierces each side.
All I could do is accept my fate.
Accept my fate and smile, knowing I died with my leaders.
Everything around me felt like it began to melt. My body was numb and felt as though I was floating in nothingness.
But I wasn't alone, A great white figure hovered over me. An Angel.
If my body wasn't numb, I would be sinning just looking at her.
She crouched beside me, her white warmth seemed to pump through me and her voice, so smooth and sweet called to me.
"Rise again, Fight for the Chaos God."
Darkness pulsed all around and she stood up. A pale woman stood there, dressed in black and in red.
With a noticeable arrow protruding through her breast. She smiles at it and just snaps it like a twig.
I rise, No, that is not right, my body, Rend was raising.
I was dead, the body seemed to want to move on its own and I was not there to stop it.
But something strange happened before Rend took up weapon. He spoke.
Not groaning like the other undead, he spoke clear.
He spoke the words I wanted so bad to say to her.
The words that would save me no matter what.
"My soul will be forgiven."