Chapter 2: Ablaze

“What’s happening?”

One of the knights looked back and saw the fort engulfed in ferocious flames. He said nothing as he felt the stark dryness well up in his throat. He only turned around slowly with stretched thin cheeks and stared at his compatriots. They looked behind him and saw the growing inferno and stood aghast with horror. Then the figure they had fled from appeared out of nowhere and eyed them with its blazing blue eyes.

All three of them stepped back as the figure took a step towards them. One’s arms shook as he wiggled his sword from its sheath by his side. “St-sta-stay BACK!” he stuttered. The figure walked on as it glanced at the knight’s blade in jest. The knight felt his hands grow cold and his arms stiffen as he struggled to keep his weapon up to defend himself.

Still the figure advanced and the knight stumbled as he took another step back. Quickly he lost his balance and fell down on his back with a thud. He winced as pain shot up through his back and dropped his blade. He gasped as he heard the figure’s footsteps grow closer and closer towards him.

“I surrender,” he mumbled half-heartedly. “I surrender,” he repeated when he heard no answer. When he was met with silence again he looked ahead and saw the figure kneeling besides him inches from his face. He wore a dark white helm with the markings of a visor that only showed the terrifying blue flames. If he had a mouth it did not show, yet still he spoke.

“Your companions have abandoned you, knight,” he snarled.

“So what?” said the knight. He knew that they had gone before the figure could even catch them. They were probably long gone by now leaving him to fend for himself. “We owe each other nothing.”

“Strange,” said the figure. “I thought a knight’s honor prevented such cowardice.” He stood and brandished his blade. “But if that were so I would not be here.”

The knight dug his fingers deep into the earth, filling his nails with dirt, as he struggled to get away. The figure stared at him and followed as the knight moved one centimeter at a time away from him, with the figure quickly closing the distance between them in seconds. The knight whimpered as he could feel his strength being sapped from his arms and winced as he pulled his hands from the earth.

“What did we do to you?!” he cried.

The figure raised his sword high above his head and spoke as low as a growl. “The mere fact that you do not know is enough.” The knight closed his eyes as the figure lopped of his head with one fell swoop. The knight’s headless body stood stiff and upright as if in shock at its masters’ departure. The figure kicked it down and stabbed it through the heart in mere moments.

The blade was stained with streaks of blood mixed with the brown dark of the earth. It looked like a muddy mixture of death. The figure motioned his hand over the blade and flames shot out and seared off the stains.

“You’re getting better,” said the voice. The figure looked down at the blade and said nothing. “But you must work faster,” the voice continued. “Make haste for we are not alone. Look around.”

The figure raced its eyes across the clearing and made out groups of soldiers spilling out from the forests. There were thousands of them. Housecarls, hoplites, knights, ragged mercenaries, thin thieves, and archers all mixed and charged at him with the loudest roars he’d ever heard. Yet the figure did not shake nor waver as it readied its blade. He could feel the voice about to burst as they got closer and closer.

“BATTALIONS!” shouted the voice.

“It does not matter,” growled the figure. “All shall burn.” He swung the blade around him and flames shot out with each slash until waves of flames hurtled towards the battalions headed towards him. He heard their cries as the flames crawled through their armor and melted through their skin and seared through their bones. As their cries increased his movements grew faster as he swung the blade in arcs and swaths around him as if dancing with the flames shooting out from his blade.

With each soldier that fell the flames spread to the trees of the forest and soon a great blaze started to spread around the remaining hundred. They could smell the seared flesh that hung in the air and filled their nostrils. The figure held his blade by his side as it burned hot with the cursed flames. The men turned away from him and fled past the flames and deeper in the forest.

“AFTER THEM!” the voice shouted.

The figure took a step forward and then took off in a sprint as fast as the wind. The gusts pulled the flames closer to him and they raced after him in his pursuit of the fleeing knights. He held out his sword and waited until he caught sight of their backs before he swung. A bright orange red flame slashed through the air and cut ten of the men down. The remaining ninety did not stop to mourn as they hurried their escape.

Again the figure swung his sword left and right and deadly flaming slashes shot through the air and cut the men down. Before long the survivors had run out of breath and collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. The figure looked down at them as it swung its blade around.

“Only twenty now,” he said. The men pleaded with him to let them go. They swore that if he did then he would never see them again and that they’d be forever grateful. The figure stopped swinging its blade and looked at each of them in turn. A few moments passed in silence before the figure plunged its blade into the earth.

“I will let you go,” he growled. A dark blue flame encircled the blade whole and the flames quickly spread along the dry grass beneath them. When it touched the men’s fingers they screamed in pain. The flames in the forest grew bigger as the blue flames mixed with the fiery reds and the figure’s eyes burned bright. “I will let you go,” he repeated. “Every last one will go back to the DEPTHS FROM WHENCE YOU CAME!”

He pulled his sword from the earth and slammed its tip down on the ground and a huge burst of flames exploded everywhere. It was several hours before the flames died down and the smoke cleared. As the run rose past the dark smoot filled sky, the forest was no more. All that stood in its place was a crater of sunken black earth. The figure was nowhere to be seen.