Alaric gently closed the door to the house, as he was leaving. The night sky was in full bloom above his head, with many stars to view. He heading out to join his patrol squad and start his rounds for the night. While walking along, his thoughts fell upon his son. Earlier in the day, after he had finished the previous night patrols, he came into The Dancery and had heard a couple of adults talking about the recently started war. He noticed that Adam had a worried look on his face while he was listening to the adults. Seeing his son like that, Alaric new the perfect remedy for him; time for some training!

Now that he had nothing to distract him, Alaric thought about the war. Even if Luxom tried to invade through their area, they wouldn't besiege Fort Erich right? The fort had almost no strategic value, and had an innocent city surrounding it. Alaric convinced himself that even if Luxom did invade through their area, they would just go past Fort Erich and not waste their time with them.

With renewed vigor, Alaric sped up to quickly join his squad. Alaric's patrol had six members, all hired by the trading council that ruled the town to promote peace. None of the members outranked another in these squads, as the higher ups preferred their desk jobs and telling the patrols where to go.

Everyone in Alaric's squad had some sort of previous experience. Dallen was an ex-mercenary like Alaric. Jeffery, Timothy, and Barnaby were a trio of brothers who used to guard merchant caravans before settling down here. And Hansen claimed to also be an ex-mercenary but, with his gruff attitude, everyone believed that he was actually an ex-bandit, instead. But even still they were all fast friends.

As Alaric reach the meeting spot for his squad, he noticed that everyone else was already present. “Guess I was slow.” he thought to himself. From afar, if one was to look at these six men you could barely tell them apart as they all wore the same smart blue uniform. Dallen and Hansen stuck out a bit as they had blonde and black hair, respectively, rather than the brown hair of the other four.

“Tad slow aren't ya?” Dallen called out to Alaric

“Yea, got caught up thinking about something on the way over.”

“What about the war? If you really worried about such things, you shouldn't have moved all the way out here.” Dallen teased with a smile.

“Yeah, whatever. Lets just get to the patrol.” Alaric responded, trying not to give Dallen anymore material to use against him.

Their patrol route this night was a fair distance away from Alaric's home. It was rather close to the fort. As they walked through the silent night, eyeing the dark ally-ways for anything suspicious, they would talk to each other to pass the time by.

“Hey Alaric, when are you going to start more intensive training for your boy?” Hansen asked.

“Adam is till shy of his ninth year. I myself only started full training when I was twelve. I'll give him a few more years of reprieve before I start making him work his ass off.” Alaric responded with a slight smile. “Why were you interested in helping him train?”

“Mayhaps, there is no woman in twenty miles who wants to marry me. The only thing I have to pass on is my skills and right now your kid is the only one who could possibly learn them.”

“Well, when he is ready for full training, I'll ask Vivi if she will agree to let you.” Alaric contemplated.

Hansen only nodded towards Alaric not pushing the subject. He knew that, even if the others were outwardly friendly, they thought that he was once a bandit and were a little weary of him.

In an effort to amicably change the subject, Alaric turned towards the others and asked with a sly smile: “Hey Barnaby, you get your wife pregnant yet?”

Barnaby gave an embarrassed chuckle. Just as he was about to respond the six of them heard a sharp whistling fwish followed by a thunderous BOOM! As horrendously large black flames appeared on the horizon, at the city's edge. The faces of the six had visibly paled at the sight of these flames.

“Wha... Is Luxom attacking us!?”

“That flame couldn't be made by even a siege engine, it would have to be the work of a spiritualist! Why would they...”

Alaric was momentarily stunned, like the others. He then noticed which end of town this horrifying black fire was. “Shut yer yapping!” Alaric's grim voice spoke out to the others. “We have a job to do.”

Looking at Alaric's serious face, the other five looked back towards the fire and finally noticed. That's the end of town that Alaric's family lives. The others understood what Alaric meant by the job they had to do; protecting the citizens from whatever caused that fire would be protecting his own family.

Adopting similarly serious faces, all six of them started to quickly march towards that horrendous fire and the unknown danger that spawned it.

A few minutes later, the six found themselves in front of a large group of civilians clogging up the road as they pushed each other to try and advance forward. There were some city guard that were trying to organize them to make things faster and smoother, but the panicking civilians almost wholly ignored them. This road was the quickest one to get to the fort from Alaric's home, he dearly hoped that his family was not trapped inside or behind this mass of people. On the way down here they had started to hear the screams and howls coming out from the city's edge and Alaric was quite worried for his family.

With that road so clogged there was noway they were going to be able to make it down the road. Moving over a few buildings, there was another road that led outward. This road still had many civilians moving along it but it was far less congested than the previous one. They would certainly be able to make their way down this road. Other guardsmen had the same idea and had started to head down the road with Alaric's squad.

As he was threading his way through the crowd, Alaric noticed a new group of civilians coming up the road. There was one man covered all in black surrounded by many smaller figures. “Children?” Alaric thought. The man then rose a black sword over head before bringing it down. The small figures all the sudden darted away. Half of the group split going down a crossroad that would lead back towards that congested road they passed earlier. The rest darted in front of the man. As they all darted out the figures had let out guttural howls as Alaric stiffened when he realized these figures that were actually crawling on all fours were.

“Ghouls!” Alaric shouted out as he drew his sword. Startled, the civilians all gave wide birth to the guardsmen and started fleeing at a faster pace than before. When the civilians had given them enough room, all the of the guards that had made the way down the road armed themselves with their respective weapons. They then formed a line across the road to try and keep any of the ghouls from making their way past.

No more then a few moments had passed, since Alaric had cried out, before at least twenty or so ghouls set themselves upon the guards. It wasn't too hard to fight the ghouls if you were defensive. The ghouls carried no weapons and could only claw or bite at you. The worst thing about ghouls was their numbers and twenty of them hardly counted for anything. Alaric was more worried about how many ghouls were roaming freely around the city, and if anymore groups would decide to join this fray.

As he was fighting the ghouls, Alaric had forgotten about that man clad in black that was sauntering his way up the road. He was so distracted by the ghouls in front of him that he didn't notice a group of three come out of a side ally, right in front of that man covered in black and, subsequently, get knocked down by him. Only when he heard a familiar woman's scream did he look over to see that man heavily stepping on the woman's leg. It only took him a moment to recognize that it was his wife with his children lying on the ground next to her.

Stopping for a moment in shock at the sight of his family, a ghoul came up and clawed at his face leaving a trail of bloody scratch marks across his cheek. It then proceed to try and bite at his neck as it couldn't chew through his leather armor. His mind brought back to the fight before him, he turned aggressive as he forcefully pushed the ghoul back. As it fell back a few steps Alaric brought his sword quickly up, followed by a downward vertical slash through the ghouls skull.

With blackish blood spraying everywhere, the ghoul fell. Alaric then heard Adam cry out in pain. when he looked over he saw Adam on the ground clutching his head. Between Adam and the black covered man was Emilia. She stood with her arms apart like she was blocking the man from Adam. The man was only gleefully smiling with a wicked face as he brought his sword diagonally down into her shoulder. Vivienne cried out loudly: “NOOOOO!” as the man brought his sword out of Emilia and she crumpled onto Adam spilling her blood across him. At this point even Adam stopped moving.

Alaric was dumbfounded. Were both of his children really killed before him? His heart filling with grief, and his head with rage, he broke ranks with the other guards as he charged over, bellowing his lungs out like a mad man. He did not even hear his name being called out by fellow squad mates, nor did he notice Hansen closely following him.

Looking at this man, who seemed to be joyfully waiting for him, Alaric finally noticed that pale face which had black veins spreading across the man's face. “Ghoul commander” came to Alaric's mind, but he cared not who or what this man was. He was going to tear...him...APART!

As Alaric ignored everything and just viciously stuck his blade out against it, the ghoul easily parried his own sword provoking him with a cackle: “What, this wasn't your family was it? Sorry for killing the kids.... it was just too much fun!”

Filling with rage, Alaric barely had the presence of mind to push the ghoul away from what remained of his family. He was only able to do so as Hansen had quickly backed him up, together they stuck out at the ghoul who just looked relaxed and joyful.

As they clashed against the ghoul, Alaric and Hansen found that their blades would only bounce off the black leather it was wearing. On the other hand it's black sword would easily tear through their own blue leather. Alaric already had a shallow cut across his chest, while Hansen had a gash down his arm. The two realized that the ghouls weapons and armor must have been spiritually enhanced.

As they continued to fight, Alaric started making more mistakes in his movements and strikes, as his anger and grief were clouding all his judgment, and they were just growing more and more as the seconds ticked by. Finally Alaric made a truly fatal mistake in a lunge. The ghoul used his own sword to parry Alaric. Alaric's sword bounced up high completely missing the ghoul, as it thrust it's own sword forward with gleeful light entering it's eyes. Seeing the thrust aiming for his heart, Alaric knew he couldn't fully dodge the blade. But an insane thought burrowed itself into his mind.

As the blade came perilously close he took his free hand and grabbed the ghoul's sword, forcing it away from his heart. It still pierced through his torso, below and to the right of the heart. Dropping the sword from his hand, he brought his arm around the ghouls back, and brought it close in a hug. Alaric's other hand grabbed behind the ghouls elbow of the arm holding it's sword in his chest, locking the ghoul down. The ghoul actually held a little surprise in its face.

Not missing a beat, Hansen swung his sword across the ghoul's unprotected neck and beheaded it. Blood shot up like a small geyser from the severed neck. The black blood splattered everywhere, even as far as a few splotches hitting Adam. Letting go of the ghoul's dead body it fell to the ground as Alaric fell down in the opposite direction. After having been run through so deeply by the ghoul, that ghoul had actually been the only thing holding Alaric up.

During the time of Alaric's fight with the ghoul commander, Vivienne had not been sitting on the road doing nothing. Sobbing uncontrollably, she had ignored the pain of her leg, and everything else going on in the word, as she managed to slowly crawl her way over to her children. She had been hoping that there was something, anything, that she could do for them. There was nothing to be done about poor Emilia, the light of life had already left her eyes. But she had noticed Adam's chest still moving up and down!

At this point, Dallen and the others made their way over. Having already disposed of most of the ghouls, they had left the remainder to the other guards. They had quickly come over to try and help. When Vivienne noticed them close by she desperately pleaded towards them: “Adam is till alive! Please help him.” The somber look Dallen, and the others, had turned into a hint of surprise at Adam's survival. While crowding around Vivienne and Adam to check on their injuries, they blocked her view from noticing that her husband had fallen.

Alaric felt a hint of joy after he heard Vivienne shout that Adam was still alive. It was then quickly replaced by disdain for himself. He had actually found the time to be happy for a moment, even though his family had been injured, and his daughter killed.

Hansen knelt down beside Alaric to see if there was something to be done about the sword that was impaling him. Alaric knew, however, that his wound was quite fatal. The sword had passed all the way through his liver, and he was bleeding out.

Looking at Hansen's worried face, Alaric spoke in a ragged manner: “Hansen, if you really want to train Adam, you have to promise me something.”

This shook Hansen. While he had wanted to have a boy to train and pass skills down to, so that he could leave some sort of meaningful legacy behind, Hansen had never wanted it to come as a death vow from someone he had considered his friend.

“You must promise me that you will protect my wife, and son for me. Deal?”

Answering in his gruff voice, Hansen replied: “Deal. And of course I wont teach him any bandit stuff.”

Alaric gave a single small chuckle followed by a bad cough. “Guess Hansen really was a bandit after all.” Alaric thought to himself. “Then take my sword, give it to Adam when he is old enough.” After Hansen had quickly collected his discarded sword. Alaric then said: “Good now help me over to my family so I can say my farewells. After that, lay me down by my daughter. I will accompany her.”

Hansen carefully helped Alaric up. At this point Barnaby had separated away from the group looking after Vivienne and Adam to check on Alaric and Hansen. Worry spread across his face as he eyed the sword lodged hilt deep into Alaric's chest. With Hansen holding up Alaric up one shoulder, Barnaby helped support him on the other side as they gingerly made their way over towards Vivienne.

Vivienne was cradling Emilia's body as she sobbed over it. She had also wanted to help Adam but, with her leg broken at an odd angle like it was, there was no way she would be able to carry Adam to the proper healing facilities. She left Adam to her husband's squadmates while she uncontrollably cried out for her daughter.

“Vivi” a rasped voice, that could barely talk, called out to her as she sobbed. Looking up, Vivienne saw Barnaby and Hansen bringing her husband forward. Blood had started to pour out Alaric's chest, as moving over here had made the sword saw around his wound, finally letting enough room for blood to freely flow. Seeing this Vivienne could only repeat softly: “no no no no no.” As even more tears profusely ran down her cheeks.

While being supported up by Barnaby and Hansen, Alaric cupped his wife's cheek in his hand. He then coughed briefly before speaking: “Now, now, don't cry so much. Somebody had to accompany our daughter, she has never gone anywhere alone before. I will watch over Emilia, just as you will watch over Adam.”

Refusing to hear his words Vivienne desperately spoke: “No! No! There must be something we can do! If we take you to the fort they might be able to heal you.”

Alaric fell into a small coughing fit, visibly becoming weaker. Hansen spoke forward in a blunt manner for Alaric: “There is nothing they would be able to do for him. Even if we did take him, and were allowed to bring him in to the fort, after he dies they would just throw his corpse out to make room for those who live.”

Vivienne was momentarily stunned by the bluntness of Hansen's words. Anger flared in her eyes. Just as she opened her mouth to speak harshly against Hansen she heard a stern voice speak out: “Vivi!” Stuffing her words back in her mouth she quickly looked at her husband's serious face as he spoke: “I know Hansen's words sound harsh, but he is correct. They would certainly not let us even bring Emilia in. Please just let me stay with her.” Alaric finished with pleading words. Vivienne could only weakly nod her head to her husband as she tried crying, but it seemed as though she had already cried all the water out of her body as no more would come to her.

“Good. I made Hansen promise to protect you and Adam. You might not like or trust him, but I know he means well. Please let him watch over you.” Not letting his wife a chance to refuse, he then turned towards his old friends that formed the patrol squad. “Now you should all go. More ghouls are surely coming.” After speaking Alaric, who was already deathly pale, visibly weakened unto the point of death

Instantly moving into action, Dallen picked up Vivienne in a princess carry and started down the road towards the fort. He totally ignored her efforts to escape his grip and return to her husband. Timothy also bent down and picked up Adam as he headed off. They were joined by the other guardsmen, who had already dealt with the last of the ghouls, and formed up to protect the injured and incomplete family back.

Barnaby and Hansen laid Alaric down next to his daughter and got up to leave. For the patrol squad the best farewell they could give Alaric would be to bring his family back to safety. Just as he turned around, Hansen heard Alaric speak: “O and Hansen? Don't touch my wife.” Looking back Hansen noticed Alaric's hand giving a backwards wave towards him. Cracking a small smirk at his friend, Hansen noticed Alaric's hand fall lifelessly back down, while that smirk totally left his face. He would never laugh at a friend's final words.

Hansen then noticed a new pack of ghouls running up the road. Hansen quickly turned around and ran to catch back up with the others and tell them to pick up the pace.