Chapter 17

The Attack on Haven PART 1

(that time I watched my world burn...)

I was nine years old running through the woods inside the wall as a white deer. I felt like I was made of light. It was the first time in three years I had managed to shape-shift and I was leaping through the air in pure happiness. My mother, Mia, leaping alongside me as she too had transformed herself into a deer. Together we pranced around the wild flowers, sending seeds flying into the air as we frolicked. It was the most wholesome I'd felt in my entire life.

When time came to change back my mother guided me with her soft spoken voice and I entered into a mediative state, a state of mind I'd been trying to cultivate for years. Finally, I was able to press my body back into a human shape. Though my ears never changed back, they had become more or less a part of who I was. Kind of like how Gob was a permanent part of riding on my shoulder whether I was fighting or transforming. The little Tenrec was becoming more and more skillful as the days went on.

"If you stay in one form too long you won't be able to change back," my mother warned me. How long was too long was anyone's guess. My mother could spend days transformed and still change back but since she had more control it was possible that if I did the same thing I wouldn't have the same kind of luck. It wasn't worth the risk.

One day I decided to ask her, "Do you think there are others like us?"

She looked sad after I asked her the question. I felt like I already knew the answer. I had never heard of Krsnik as a class before so I knew I was something rare, it wasn't something that could be taught or gained, it was a class that you had to be born into and it meant you were always at ends with the Kudlak and other vampires.

I sat beside my mom Mia by a streaming river. We had just changed back into our human forms and changed back into our clothes. My mom wanted to sit and watch the river for awhile before we made the trek back to our home.

"For all the darkness there exists an opposing force to bring balance. For the Kudlak that is the Krsnik, for other monsters there are heroes that rise. It is our duty, our instinct, to hunt down and kill vampires," she said.

"But the Kudlak, is it really a vampire?" I asked.

"Yes and no, it is both a pureblood and something more ancient. In some ways it exists like us as a guardian, only as we are guardians of light and balance, the Kudlak is a guardian of darkness, its instincts pushing it to devour and destroy as it grows stronger inside chaos," she tried her best to explain. The earliest legends of the Kudlak spoke of it as a vampire that could transform into a wolf or a bear. For years it was seen as the same thing and not something more until people started to realize the vast difference in its power levels. The Kudlak was on par with a Demon King and an Elder Dragon, though much smaller than the latter. Together the Krsnik and the Kudlak were yin and yang.

"Why aren't we out there fighting it?" I asked. The question was a hard one to ask that had started to haunt me. I could feel myself drawn to the edges of the wall, and it wasn't my thirst for adventure. Sometimes at night I dreamt of my birth, only I was an adult fighting alongside the soldiers with guns, running towards the Kudlak and tearing open the chests of any vamps that got in my way. When I finally came face to face with it both of us transformed into wolves and stared at one another.

Night vs day, light vs darkness, we circled each other until we both leapt forward to attack. It was then that I woke up. My father brushed it off, telling me when the time came I would be stronger than the Kudlak and it was nothing but an old fiend. I knew better. Despite his training my father didn't want me to fear my destiny. My mother knew better… so when I asked why we weren't fighting it she was honest. Brutally honest.

"We would die," she said plainly.

"But dad says…"

"Your father doesn't understand. He's hunted and killed thousands of vampires, but he's never bested one as powerful as the Kudlak."

"It was there, the day I was born," I told her.

"No, that was a copy, a shadow of it, it was leading a vampire horde into battle with our refuge using Battle Meditation, projecting its spirit across a faraway distance. Had that been the real Kudlak none of us would have survived," she explained.

"Why doesn't it attack Haven?"

"It can't cross large bodies of water, that is one of its weaknesses."

That was somewhat familiar. I'd heard that legend about vampires too and it proved to be wrong.

"What will we do if it does?"

"We'll run," she answered.

Moma-Mia was a warrior through and through. Never once did she flinch at signs of trouble. Probably, being able to transform into a giant bear helped but that wasn't the only reason. She had spent her life training to fight the darkness. Harnessing the power of all the elements and magics both dark and light. She could summon other creatures at her will, tame animals, and conjure a revenant blade of her own if she was unarmed. She was just as good a fighter as my father was when it came to close quarters combat and she was even better at using a bow.

I felt guilty. Instead of fighting she was training me. Sitting at a river, cooking meals, threading clothes. She had given up her adventures and was spending all her time in Haven. Even my other moms would venture out with father for weeks on quests. If I had to guess her level she would probably be in the high 80s but that was something only she knew and she never shared it with me. She probably had hundreds of skills at her disposal. It was hard to believe that she was afraid. Even worst that we were the only ones that could stand a chance against such a monster.

The sun was beginning to set and the air was getting colder.

"We should get back, its getting late," she said. 'Moma-Kalla said she has a special dinner planned for tonight and Ajax and Pan are supposed to be coming over."

"I bet its rice pudding, she always makes rice pudding and calls it special," I said. I hated rice pudding. Really, I just hated Moma-Kalla's rice pudding.

"Be nice, she tries," Moma-Mia laughed.

"So you hate it too?" I asked.

"Everyone does, even Kalla, but no one else wants to cook," Moma-Mia smiled. It was true. Sudra and Cass were always too busy running errands or training and Mia was always taking care of me. My father could cook over an open campfire but when it came to making a 'real' meal at home he was completely hopeless. I wasn't much better myself. Cooking had never been one of my primary or even slightly passive skills. I was just fine with that, most of the time I was fine eating bread or campfire meals. This body and the one from my previous life had kept much of the same tastes when it came to food though I did enjoy sweets a lot more this time around.

It took us half an hour to reach our home from the woods. We were still inside the woods and had no idea that less than a mile away at the wall there was already a battle starting to take place.

"We're home," I called out as I walked inside. Only Kalla and Sudra were waiting, Ajax and Pan were nowhere in sight, niether were my father and Cass. My first thought was that Ajax and my father were training.

"Kai, so glad you are both back safely," Moma-Kalla cried out.

"What happened?" Moma-Mia asked.

"Haven is under sttack. Thomas has already gone to the gates with Cass, its a Bobak and a Bukavac," she answered.

"How did they get this far south?" Moma-Kalla asked.

"We aren't sure, but Jor identified them and sent word through the village," she answered.

Unable to see the two creatures I couldn't identify them but I knew both were fearsome. The Bobak was a shapeshifting demon able to take the form of a cat or dog but in its demonic state was large, like a sabre-toothed tiger and just as deadly. A Bukavac was a six-legged demonic entity with gnarly horns known for strangling people to death with its immense strength. If these two demons had come to Haven and where attacking it head on that it meant there could be more.

I turned towards the door. I still had on my training armor and my black sword strapped behind my back, since my father had it forged for me after our encounter with the Arachnids, I took it everywhere. It was another lesson he taught me - never stand more than six feet from a weapon.

"Where do you think you are going!" Sudra jumped up and stood in the way of the door.

"I'm going to help dad!" I said, trying to sound confident and strong.

"Not today Kai," she said. She pointed back towards Kalla and Mia.

I balled my hand into a fist.

"I have to help them, I'm a Krsnik!" I demanded.

"Boy, sit your ass down, you aren't going anywhere!" Sudra called my bluff. I knew I couldn't get out passed all three of them. Even if I went to my room I knew they would be keeping an eye on my window, making sure I didn't sneak out. Being treated as a child wasn't sitting well with me.

"Sudra, I will take him," Moma-Mia said.

"Mia? Are you sure?" Moma-Sudra asked.

"Yes. Kalla, stay here and watch the village, Sudra and I will go with Kai to the gates and we'll watch the battle. It will be a learning experience for Kai to see what a real battle is like," she told them.

"He's too young," Moma-Sudra scowled.

"And how old were you when you got into your first battle? He already fought side by side with his father three years ago in the ruins."

"But that was Alantris, spiders are not the same thing as demons," she argued back.

I felt like telling them both I could take care of myself. Telling them I was listening and that in my past life I went toe-to-toe with all kinds of monsters from goblins to dragons. Not that they would understand or listen.

I'd kept that part of myself a secret for so long. Only now I could feel it boiling to the surface.

"We're going, only to watch. If you try to join the battle I will stop you. Do you understand Kai?" Moma-Sudra said.

I nodded. She opened the door and the three of us walked outside. I could see smoke rising in the distance. Things were escalating.

The three of us started sprinting towards the battlefield. Moma-Sudra was the fastest between the three of us and led our charge. The closer we came the more apparent the danger became. The smell of sulfur in the air, the demons, and burning flesh. They were using fire. We could hear screaming as we slowed down and Moma-Sudra had us begin to climb up one of the lookout towers just behind the wall, high enough to see over the wall.

When I reached the top I could see the demons, larger than I imagined they would be they were giants compared to the humans fighting them. I still wasn't close enough to get a reading on their weaknesses, immunities, or possible hit points but I could see I was right about their looks. The only difference was that their bodies were black with several blue glowing lines. Lines of energy manifesting themselves across their muscles. They looked almost like thy were glowing as they fought.

"Stay here," Moma-Sudra said. "I'm going to help Thomas."

Mia and I nodded. I understood watching the chaos unfold below me, the twenty, maybe thirty warriors that were fighting for Haven would only have to hold back if I was down there.

No matter how strong I thought I was I was still just a kid. Several had already given their lives. My presence would by default get in their way.

It took me a minute but I saw my father fighting side by side with Jor, the forgemaster. He was twice as deadly as I remembered him being in the ruins, using his grappling hook to grab hold of and swing across the Bukavac's legs all while slamming his two-hander into the Bobak to try and knock it off its guard. Several times it looked like he scored a Critical Strike but neither demon was backing down from the fight.

Moma-Sudra and several others joined the fight as several others retreating. They were taking turns going into battle. As one group grew tired they were switching out. It was a tag-team battle. Only my father and Jor didn't get the hint. Neither of the two legendary fighters were backing down as both took on the Bukavac.

The demon began to get the better of them. Conjuring a sword of darkness from the ether. The sword was made of shadow and twice as large as my father's two-hander. Jor countered it with his own blade as the Bukavac swung it down over him but the weight was too much for Jor to bear and his knees caved in. The Bukavac's shadow blade nearly finished him, missing by less than a foot as my father leapt forward and countered.

Jor screamed in pain, his bones splintered, knees broken, legs turned backwards. When the Bobak joined the fight between them it grabbed hold of his neck and began pulling him away. My father turned around, dropping his guard as he saw his friend being dragged away in merciless pain, a blood trail across the ground. The Bobak was falling back into the fields.

Moma-Sudra saw this and began summoning a creature of our own to join the fight.

-Bestiary-

Dvorovoi

Description: A spirit of the courtyard. Usually found near stables and farms. Similar to a house spirit though known for being far less kind. The Dvorovoi typically keep to themselves avoiding humans and demi-humans alike. They are well-known to be more trouble than they are worth, summoning them usually comes with a great price. They have been known to wreck entire farms and villages.

HP: 500 /500

Weaknesses: Unknown

Immunities: Unknown

If Moma-Sudra summoned a spirit creature with that much power than my father then all of Haven must have been in major trouble. As soon as the Dvorovoi appeared Moma-Sudra called for a retreat. Of course, my father was too busy running after Jor dragging his two-hander across the ground and powering up an attack to use against the Bobak to hear her.

"Dad!" I shouted loud as I could. The Dvorovoi and the Bukavac were locked hand in hand in battle but still, the Bukavac heard my shouts and turned towards me. The giant demons eyes locked with mine and for a moment I felt like my reality was melting back into the void.

Moma-Mia grabbed hold of me and I climbed onto her back. With a grappling hook in hand we descended the tower overlooking the wall and the gates opened wide.

The gates opened so that everyone could run inside to safety. The retreat didn't come quick enough. As the gates opened more and more warriors started flooding their way through the Bukavac and Dvorovoi came crashing through over the top of them destroying that part of the wall in the process. Haven was wide open for an attack.

Moma-Mia and I watched as the two titans wrapped their arms around one another trying to break the other apart. The Bukavac had the advantage, though the spirit was strong. Dvorovoi pushed the Bukavac forward and the two crashed into the lookout tower. I watched as it came crumbling down, the entire street filling with dust, followed by the Bukavac's fire.

I shut my eyes as Moma-Mia summoned a shield of blue mana around the two of us protecting us from the flames.

When I opened my eyes all of Haven looked like it was burning.