*Bang*

A door bursts open and in stomps, Cannith ignoring the large group of men that jump up brandishing their swords in surprise before recognizing him and sheathing their weapons.

He stomps past them and slams a hand on the table placed strategically at the centre of the room.

“Tell me where the bastard is, Inspector” He growls the words lavished with anger

Inspector Maricius stops his pensive thinking and looks up at Cannith with surprise, as if he just registered Cannith’s appearance, and quickly hides his surprise with a façade of recognition.

“I don’t know that as of yet, Captain.” He says calculating every word

“THEN WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT SITING ON YOUR ASS? PEOPLE ARE DYING OUT THERE, SO GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER AND FIND THE BASTARD” Cannith roars into Maricius’ face, spittle splashing his cheeks.

The men, jump in surprise at the roar from the captain and inch away from him. However Maricius seems unaffected by being battered by spittle.

“I am playing a game, would you like to join?” Maricius explains with a smirk and gestures to a neatly set up war game over to one side of the table.

Cannith bores into Maricius’ eyes and he returns the look without falter.

After seconds Cannith frowns.

“Fine, I’ll play your silly little game. But if I win, you tell me where he is” he goes to sit down without breaking eye contact with a smirking Maricius

“And what if I win?”

“I’m playing your game aren’t I?” He frowns knowledgeably as he knows he’s already dancing to Maricius’ fiddle

Maricius just grins to that and sits down on his side of the board

The first move is an attack

…

An enormous crowd stand in a gaggle in front of the Cathedral all conversing to ones around them, seemingly dissipating the invisible lines of class and society.

At the steps of the Cathedral are a line of priests all serving the horde with dabs of water and incoherent words.

Away from this crowd, peeking from a wall in the alleyway are two figures, wearing nothing but a white shirt and brown shorts.

“So this is what you are talking about” Ankorr observes the huge crowd feeling terror at seeing such a large crowd especially since he can feel ‘It’ awaken with a slight pang of hunger.

“Yeah, apparently the priests are giving out free healing so everyone in the city is coming at one point”

“Free healing? There’s got to be a scam somewhere” His eyes narrow with experience as he tries to take in as much information with his eyes.

“Nah, it’s the day of the ceremony, so it doesn’t seem that scammy” The man shrugs

Ankorr smirks at the man’s naïve sentence.

The man, full of confidence strides into the crowd and Ankorr follows closely behind with much less confidence.

“Don’t worry, if you start acting up, attack me first” The man somehow knows Ankorr’s thoughts and reassures him.

However the words are a bit less reassuring when Ankorr realizes what he said”

“Wha-” His words die in his mouth as he remembers the trust he has in the man.

The two of them walk to the back of the crowd and stand trying to ignore everything.

However the world does not want to ignore them

“Heh, look at the newbies over there” One leather-armored man with a large metal sword strapped on his back points out to his friend

“The hell are they doing here? They look like they should be thwacking wolves back at the starting villages” A man with a bow looks at the two with a raised eyebrow.

One man; a wobbly well dressed man with a triple chin and much too much fat on his hips, waddles behind the two and bumps into them looking rather alarmed at how he has been stopped.

“WHO dares to stop ME, Lord Grentoth the fith? His piggy eyes leave the sky and look down towards the two men who look back at him with raised eyebrows

“I don’t know, who could it be?” The man says in a most confused expression puts on a devious grin as he looks at Ankorr

“It’s us” Ankorr looks at the man confused at the situation

“THAT’S RIGHT. So tell me why you still bother to stand in MY way” He sneers down at the two who look back with a mix of emotions.

“Because you’re a fat bastard” Ankorr spits out, angrier than one would normally be, however Lord Grentoth reminds him of a bad memory from days past.

There is a collective gasp from the crowd and the blue veins show upon the reddening face of Lord Grentoth.

“HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY FIGURE YOU PUTRID SCUM”

“Not to be offensive or-, nevermind; you really should get some decency in you, like the forty eight meals you ate last night” The man grins cheekily at the red-faced noble who grits his teeth audibly as he swerves around, for he cannot make more of a scene lest his reputation is ruined.

However that hope flitters out his mind as he trips on the hem of the long purple cloak he wears and slams into the ground with a thundering sound.

The observing crowd muffle their snickers at the man’s demise and soon turn into full blown laughter as he tries to stand up, but is only successful in waddling like a turtle on its back.

One person isn’t laughing though.

Soon no one is laughing as a grey-skinned being with sharp claws, messy black hair and crimson eyes leaps at the Lord Grentoth and gouges its claws into his back.

Screams and shouts fill the air as all hell breaks loose.

…

“-UAD EIGHT, BLOCK THE EASTERN ALLEYWAYS. SQUAD NINE GUARD THE GATE. EVERYONE ELSE WITH ME!” Cannith roars lightning fast his orders at the men, who burst out of their resting spots within the house and start to charge out the door

“MEN!” Maricius shouts drawing all attention to him

The men stop what they’re doing and look at the Inspector, realization that they just instinctively took orders filled their eyes.

“Go about as planned” He says in a much calmer voice.

Nodding, the dozen or so men fill out the house calmly

Cannith scrapes his chair as he stands up and puts a hand threatening on his hilt as he prepares to leave

“And where are you going, Captain?” Maricius asks with feigned confusion

“To kill the bastard” He growls back

“We haven’t finished our game yet, or have you forgotten?”

Cannith looks longingly at the door for a second before spitting on the ground and slamming himself back on the seat

“The game’s already over, we both know that” his spittle litters the board, covered in the crimson colours of Cannith’s country.

“Maricius smirks “Yes it is. A shame but you weren’t even close” He moves an infantry squad out of Carussia Forest, cutting supplies to the board dominating army of Cannith in the middle of a blizzardy winter. The army disbands and Cannith is left wiped out before he can do anything about it.

Growling, Cannith leans back on his chair, folding his arms.

“So, now that you’ve finished playing around with me ho-”

“I haven’t finished playing with you yet. We still have another game to play, Captain” He smirks, remaining calm and collected, pissing off Cannith to a vein-popping standard.

“I hate being your playing piece, Inspector” He spits out each word in contempt

“But you are just invaluable”

“Don’t start with me, I’m just a pawn and we both know it”

“True, but I believe you’re in for an upgrade” His smirk remains plastered on his face and Cannith can’t do anything but squint his eyes trying to figure out that man’s devious plan.

…

“ANKORR GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF” The man screams at Ankorr, slapping him full in the face with a loud smacking sound which is drowned out by the mass of screams and shouts.

The crimson dies slightly in Ankorr’s eyes and he looks at the man in horror, tears in his eyes and hands inside Lord Grentoth’s back.

The man slaps Ankorr once more for good measure before he pushes him towards a slight gap in the crowd.

Men and women, mostly foreigners charge at the pair, slashing, slicing and shooting at the two.

They run, both uncaring about the swings of swords and rain of arrows that come their way.

Ankorr bursts forth causing the stop of many righteous followers as they gape in awe at his ridiculous speed, easily beating the crowd who run on foot.

Everyone avoids him like the monster he is and so he easily reaches an alleyway with his pursuers far behind.

He goes to turn into it when a man smeared with blood steps out of the shadows followed by a few more similarly dressed men.

Cursing, Ankorr swiftly turns and darts towards another alley which he reaches within seconds.

Turning into another alleyway he ducks as a sword darts out of the shadow almost impaling him.

Without stopping, he charges past the wielder and runs into three more blades, two of which slice into him. But he doesn’t care and barrels past them, knocking all three over and continues through the alleyway.

Clambering up a building, he races across the rooftops quickly jumping on the stronghold walls and off into the Ring of Nobility.

Looking at his hands, he spots they’re still clawed and covered in fresh blood. Ripping his attention away from the deliciously intoxicating smell, he runs through the rings, hearing shouts from the guards and screams from onlookers but none are able to do much more as he whizzes past them out of sight.

A short while later, he stands drenched but clean of blood from diving into a fountain, and back next to the broken barrel the man found him at.

Panting heavily, he sits down next to the barrel and clutches his legs in fear. He had done it again. He had ripped his claws into the back of a man, an fat bastardly asshole like his last boss but still a human being.

For all he knows he killed Lord Grentoth and he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

Slowly drowning in the bloody memories and horrible screams that echoed both inside and outside his head, he almost misses the light sound of cloth footsteps on stone.

“Ah, I have finally found you, Blood Drinker”

…

“Ok ok, you caught me, no need to tie me up like this” The man sighs as his captors, all wearing leather armor with blood smeared all over, bind his wrists together.

“Cooperate and this will be easier for us” Renold, with his thick black moustache quivering, eyes the man over

Renold had never seen anything like this man that stood before him; cuts littered his body, enough to tatter all his clothes and his face is cut in parts as well as him missing an entire arm.

However the fact that the man is damaged greatly is not that amazing a thing for Renold. The fact that the man seems to care little about such wounds interests him deeply.

Making sure the man’s hands are firmly bound, he leads the way while four companions surround the bound

man.

…

“Sir we report that squad six has captured a companion of ‘It’” a messenger reports to Maricius looking haggard from running

“Good, bring him to me”

“SIR” Horath bursts into the house covered in blood, although Maricius mildly hopes it isn’t his own “Marcus, Kyle, Daina, Rorath and Chaine are all dead” Horath gasps out of breath

The messenger looks at Horath in disbelief

“That can’t be possible; I saw them just a few minutes ago”

Maricius’s chair scrapes loudly as he jumps up

“FIND THEM NOW” He roars at the messenger, losing all composure he had

Startled the messenger sprints out the door

“So who are this ‘squad six’ then?” Cannith asks smirking slightly at seeing Maricius lose his cool.

“They’re an unknown third party probably. I t was all so perfect all so FUCKING PERFECT! SHIT, DAMMIT, FUCK DAMNFUCKINGSHITASSHOLES AAAAAAAAARRRRRGHGHGHGH” He kicks the wall and then begins to punch it in furious anger causing small craters with each punch.

Cannith just sits back and watches the show with a wide grin. For him, it has been a while since he had seen Maricius’ more emotional side; thanks to his bezerkers blood.

Though the grin doesn’t last long as the wall soon gives way and Cannith jumps up to stop Maricius from tearing down the whole house, since last time that happened it was a castle and they were both inside it.

He grabs onto Maricius’ shoulder and resists being thrown to the ground by the man, but just barely.

Unable to throw Cannith, Maricius roars in incomprehensible rage with frothy spittle splattering onto Cannith’s face.

Cannith pulls Maricius’ shoulder, wrenching him to the floor and punches him square on the nose.

A few more of those and Maricius has calmed down by becoming unconscious.

Slapping him awake, Maricius opens his eyes groggily a moment later surveying the destruction.

“I did again didn’t I?” He frowns slightly

“Yeah, but you are weaker than last time, and we weren’t on the edge of a mountain either so no biggy” Cannith grins at him offering a helping hand.

“So, as I was saying before I raged; it’s an unknown third party. And this my little pawn, is where you come in”

“And my job?”

“I got you fired this morning, hence why your Lieutenant left once you two rejoined civilization”

“I hate you, Inspector”

“I believe we are even, Captain, now get to work”

…

“So mind telling me where we are going?” The man, curious as to why they are stopping next to a cellar, asks Renold.

“I’m taking you to Hell” He responds with an evil grin

“Oh…do I get to go with a friend or?”

“Be careful what you wish for” A figure, wearing a black robe walks towards the group and Renold looks toward the newcomer before he moves out the way “Because you just might get your wish”

Behind the man is Ankorr trembling slightly, but the minute he sees the bound man he grins

“I see you’re going to Hell too” Ankorr’s grin turns devious

“Well can’t let you go alone now can I. Since I have a feeling we’re meant to be together” He returns the devious grin

“Even in Hell?”

“Dammit, I hate fate”

The two of them sigh with their grins.

The bound man turns back to Renold.

“Before I go, can you itch my back please because I’ve got a real bad itch like something’s there”

Renold just grins

“Daiord could you do the honors?”

The robed figure hesitates but for a second before stepping towards the man and turning him around, only to chuckle.

Ripping out the arrow from in-between the shoulder blades, the man yelps and Ankorr jumps back in slight horror.

“Damn, how the hell do you itc-” the man turns round stopping when he sees the bloody arrow tip that had been jutting out “Well; I think I’ll go to Hell now”

The man walks down the cellar steps, his pensive face disappearing.

Ankorr soon follows through, eyes crimson and looking deeply at the wounds on his ally’s body in both fear, and in disgust.

“I see you’ve brought a Blood Drinker” Roland whistles deeply and the robed figure nods

“Yes, but yours is quite…unique”

Both nod and look at the bloody arrow tip curiously.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Corner:

THANK YOU ALL FOR READING

End of the arc so woohoo?

ALSO, Thank you to everyone(MILAROKA whooo, 4SAI the best! SLEPNIR :* and TagDaReaper! and ANUBBISK OMG ALMOST FORGOT YOU BUT I REMEMBERED SO :* :* DON'T BE MAD PLLLZZZZ) who has commented/reviewed/read :D :D :D

Also also, HAPPPPPPPY NEW YEEEAR

On a more sadder note; i will be HIATUS, for a few weeks (a month is around the most time (CAUSE REFRESHERS WOO!)) however i'll be back for this second arc and I hope you will do too!