Iron Blooded

The air was cold - colder than it should have been.

I could see the puffs of steam rising from their helmets as we ran. The howls were loud as the things that stalked us grew ever closer.

I could see the occasional glint of eyes in the dark, the shifting of a shadow between tree trunks. Astrid stumbled on a loose stone and nearly went down. Only my hand under her arm kept her from sprawling in the mud.

“They’re trying to surround us,” she huffed. “We can’t let that happen.”

“I know.”

Armor rattled as we ran, too loud in the silence of the rain. I couldn’t see damn it, and it was making everything that much worse. Another howl sounded so close I could see the steam of breath from within the darkness.

The things were closing in and I would have to make a choice.

Die running from the threat with our backs turned? Or stand and hope to live? It wasn’t much of a choice.

“Back to the house!” I roared into the downpour. “We’ll hole up inside, use the walls as cover.”

“Aye Sarge,” said Jorgen from my right. His eyes were wide and terrified and I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d make it out of this alive.

We doubled back, the lamps at our belts swinging madly and casting an unearthly glow on everything around us. It felt like insanity. Felt like hell.

Something snagged at a soldier's boot and he screamed, hitting the ground hard.

We had already passed him but I skidded in the mud to double back. Astrid’s hand seized the back of my chain mail and her voice hissed in my ear a moment later.

“No, Will, he’s already dead.”

I could see the whites of the soldier's eyes as he stared up at me, hand outstretched, and mouth open in a silent scream.

Then he was dragged backward into the night.

In the glow of his lamp, the silhouettes of shadow creatures loomed over him. They made gleeful sounds as they descended on him. Then his lamp went out.

Cursing I turned and ran up the path towards the house.

It was dark now and without the light, Jorgen was fumbling at the door. It took him long, too long, to finally wrench it open.

“In!” shouted Astrid, shoving at our shoulders. “Bar the door.”

We lurched into the house, rain water spilling across the wooden floorboards. The glow of the lanterns was barely enough to illuminate the drawing room. it was mostly bare, with a few pieces of furniture scattered against the wall.

“Somebody get those fucking candles lit.” I snapped. “You two, help me barricade the door.”

Astrid hurried to the far end of the room, pulling a tinderbox from her inventory. I focused on helping the men lift a heavy rack from the wall and shoving it up against the door. Jorgen put his back against a set of wooden shelves and pushed it screeching across the floor.

It covered the window just in time. Something rocked into the shelf, causing books to tumble down and onto the floor. Jorgen braced it, his teeth gritted from the effort.

Finally, a flame flared into life, and then another. Astrid was lighting candles as quickly as she could. Her bow was slung across her shoulders and she was gripping a long-bladed hunting knife in one fist.

All around the house, the howls grew louder. We were surrounded now and the only way out was to survive.

“Ready,” I called, unslinging my shield from my back and pushing my arm through the straps.

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“Stand your ground and stab anything that makes it through those doors. We’re earning our XP tonight boys.”

A roar of agreement went up for the men, though it seemed half-hearted.

Jorgen’s face hardened into youthful determination as he readied his spear. He was a good kid, and I wanted to see him through this.

Astrid whipped her hunting knife expertly through the air and came to stand at my back. Together, as a squad, we faced off against the unimaginable.

They came quickly and without mercy. I could hear the scrabbling on the porch outside, the thunk of something heavy striking the roof as they climbed overhead. The door shuddered as a body threw itself against it. Claws scraped across the wood.

Another shove at the door had it rocking on its hinges. They don't make doors to withstand Monsters. But it was the only thing between us and them.

Wood splintered and a clawed hand shoved its way through. I hacked at it, taking two swings to cut it off entirely. It hit the floorboards with a meaty thump.

The creature retracted the stump of its arm and I only had time to glimpse a pair of all black eyes in a grotesque face before the chaos truly started. The bookshelf rained books across the floor as a creature fought to get in.

Jorgen shouted as it struck an arm through the gap between the bookshelf and wall. Then it’s head. A long curtain of matted hair covered its face.

“Stab it!” I shouted, even as I fought back the clawed hands now trying to force their way through the hole in the door.

“Don’t let them,” I stabbed a leg. “Get,” I bashed the pummel of my sword into a face. “Inside.”

Jorgen brought his spear up across his body and with a thrust dispatched the creature. Its head lulled to the side revealing a face that might have once been humanoid.

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The skin was pale, stretched, and scared. The teeth were sharp and unnaturally large. Most noticeable however were the eyes. Dark and without whites - the eyes of a creature of the occult.

Jorgen was so focused on his kill that he failed to notice the hand now curling around the top of the bookshelf. Moments later a mass of long matted hair rose from the shadows, followed by a bony spine as it climbed its way on top.

“Look out!” I shouted, dashing forward. Jorgen turned too late. Claws caught him across the chest and he screamed as leather armor came away along with a chunk of flesh.

The creature lifted the flesh to its mouth, tongue darting out to lick at the meat. These things truly were monsters.

I brought my sword down on its neck, severing the head completely. The body crumped, the bloody mound of flesh still clutched in its clawed fist.

As soon as I managed to kill the creature, the level indicator blinked and updated.

Class: Shadow Kin

Rank: Dark Dweller

Level: 18

“Thanks, Sarge,” said Jorgen as he pushed unsteadily to his feet. Blood ran freely down the torn armor of his chest.

“Use a healing potion on that soldier. Then get back to work.”

“I don’t have one sir. That is I couldn’t afford one.” Jorgen looked down, obviously embarrassed. I slapped him on the shoulder as I moved past him to take his place.

“You’re earning your keep today. Here.”

I tossed him one from my inventory and then turned away to bash the bottom of my shield into the hands now trying to force their way in through the window. Things weren’t much better at the front door. The men were holding off the Shadow Kin, but just barely. The top half of the door had splintered and begun caving inward under the strain.

As I watched two Shadowkin forced their way inside. Astrid slashed one across the throat while a soldier had to charge the other, pinning it to the wall beneath his shield.

“There are too many of them,” Astrid shouted over the carnage. She slashed at a foot that appeared, dangling from a new hole in the roof. I cut at a head that appeared above me. She was right.

We were being worn down, and now we were trapped. I clenched my teeth against the fear that fluttered in my chest. A Shadow kin leaped from the ceiling and knocked me to the ground.

It drew back its black claws and slashed at me. Only my chain mail saved my life. One of its claws knicked my skin and I smiled beneath my helmet as my skill activated.

The blade of my sword glowed red, and moments later It punched through the mouth of the shadow Kin and out the back of its skull. Bloody drool dripped onto me and I curled my lip, tossing the body away.

We fought hard in our last stand.

Bodies of enemies piled up around us in heaps on the floor. But no matter how many we killed they just kept coming. Eventually, the door splintered inward and Shadow Kin forced their way inside, howling and screeching excitedly.

Another crawled through the hole in the ceiling, and when it spotted me it grinned unnaturally wide.

“Fresh meat,” it hissed and its voice made me shiver. “Bloody flesh to eat. More, the host demands more.”

It lunged at me and I stepped aside to hack it in half with a wet crunch. Jorgen slammed the butt of his spear into one enemy, knocking it sideways. Then he stabbed another through the chest. One of my swordsmen went down under the onslaught at the door and his body was dragged screaming through the breach.

I could hear the wet sounds of the Shadow Kin feasting mingled with his agonized screams.

“This can’t be how I die.” One of the Swordsmen had dropped to his knees, hands clutching at his helmet, ripping it off. His eyes were wide with terror.

Tears leaked down his cheeks.

“No no no,” he muttered, rocking back and forth.

The Shadow Kin seemed to react to his fear, screeching in delight as they flowed towards him.

“Delicious!” they chorused in unison. “Feed us your despair. The host demands more.”

With a roar I charged the breech at the door, moving around the soldier on the ground and using my shield to send two creatures flying. I brought my sword forward, slicing and hacking around me. Limbs and black blood flew. I was covered in it, teeth chattering with a mixture of fear and rage.

“Hold your fucking ground!” I snarled as I knocked a creature to the ground and began crushing its head under my boot. Brain and blood sprayed. Moments later another dropped, shot through the eye of one of Astrid’s arrows.

"Get up," I growled to the soldier, yanking at the collar of his gambeson. The man was muttering incoherently, not even seeming to register my presence.

The Shadow Kin milled around. They were a teeming mass of stringy hair and dark eyes. Then those eyes seemed to lock on me.

“See how he burns?” They shrieked, claws clicking together. “Take him. Eat him. Another for the cage of souls.”

Cage of Souls? It sounded eerily familiar.

I was forced to raise my shield and step back as five Shadow Kin rushed me at once. I decapitated one, and stabbed another through the eye. But my grip on my sword was too slick with Icor. When the creature fell the sword was wrenched from my grip.

A heavy weight struck my back and I was knocked to the floor.

“Feast!” cried the creature above me. Its matted hair brushed across my face as it launched for my neck, sinking its teeth into flesh.

I shouted, raising my empty fist to punch it over and over again. It’s face was a bloody pulp. I could feel shards of it’s teeth stuck in my hand but I didn’t stop, I just kept punching, trying to free myself.

Another Shadow Kin bit at my leg, teeth tearing through my boot and flesh. Oh god… I was going to be eaten alive.

Then the ground next to me trembled. I turned my head in time to see the wooden floorboards come apart.

No… a trap door had opened and three grim-faced soldiers were climbing out onto the floor. One was wielding a mace and I recognized him as a man of the 3rd.

Was I hallucinating? Was this the end?

Bone crunched as the soldiers beat back the Shadow Kin. The creatures, shocked at this unexpected emergence of new foes, began to retreat into the night.

For a moment I lay there, wondering if they had gone for good.

But then more howls sounded from beyond the shattered door. They were calling for reinforcements.

I shoved myself to my feet, grimacing as I put weight on my injured leg. My trousers were soaked with rain water and blood.

Swinging around I took quick stock of things. Two of my soldiers had been killed, their bloody remains were no more than piles of meat and blood. Astrid, Jorgen, and a veteran holding a bloodied short sword stood staring at the newcomers.

“Well don’t just stand there,” snapped the soldier, waving a hand urgently. “Come now, quickly before they come back.”

I glanced around the room but I saw little choice. Outside the creatures still surrounded the house and I didn’t like our odds of surviving yet another round of attacks.

“You heard him,” I said. “Let’s get a move on.”

One of the soldiers held the heavy trap door open for us, while we climbed down the old ladder. There was a small cellar here, lined with straw and several shelves of jarred foods.

I realized as I got to the bottom that Astrid and I had the only light in the space. The soldiers must have been hiding here in the dark since the caravan had been attacked.

“Where are the Supply Wagons?” I asked. “Did either of them make it?”

The soldier grimaced.

“Only one, Sergeant. They are holed up in a barn up the hill over yonder. They are safe there, believe me. Those creatures… whatever they are attacked us. They can speak, it’s.... grotesque.”

He shuddered.

“They kept talking about meat, saying they wanted to eat us. Then they went for the horses.”

I laid out my leg on the straw, wincing at the pain. Reaching into my inventory I pulled out my second minor health potion and uncorked it.

“Did they say anything about a cage of souls?” I asked as I poured. The soldier bit his lip, his shoulders rising and falling.

“They said they wanted something… some book. But we didn’t have any book Sarge, honest. I don’t know what they were talking about. Mad, most likely. Beasts like them? They aren't right."

One of the other men nodded in agreement.

“I can’t even read,” he said glumly.

Jorgen made the sign of the saint.

“They’re devils,” he said. “Unnatural Devils. God King save us.”

The skin of my leg was starting to steam as the bleeding stopped and the skin tried to knit itself back together. It wasn't the work of a healer, but it would have to do.

I opened the quest window on my HUD and stared at the text with a sinking feeling. They had mentioned something.. A cage of souls? And they had been looking for a book.

Quest: Find the Book of Souls

“Well shit,” I whispered into the dark. "Things just got a lot more complicated."