[https://i.imgur.com/qKNtERz.jpg]

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[User: Default]

[Class Rank: Soldier]

[Strength : 15] [Constitution : 14] [Dexterity : 16] [Intelligence : 14] [Perception : 14]

[Stat Points : 0]

The lingering alien letters and numbers on the peripheral vision of Raicer’s eyes were slowly fading through the hazy background of a dark and ravaged land. The Blood Status, scholars of the old and ruined Emperor's Rhaodian academy named it, and as such, as is, condemned it. The Blood Status was the only stable tether that was keeping Raicer’s insanity intact, thus far, he supposes. Raicer’s Auditory senses, once deafen by musket blast and artillery thumps were now beginning to function to the sound of drips clinging into the shellshock of his mind. Plip, plop, plip, plop, plip, plop.

Raicer work to flutter his eyelashes open, glimpsing with his bruised sight at a world of red smoke and war-torn. It was the cruel aftermath and indifference of said battle. Raicer taking a deep sigh-began to check his new surroundings. He was low in elevation, he knelt within a shallow pool of dark crimson. He tried to maneuver his right arm to rub the crusty flakes of dry blood, that was currently drenched in his eyelashes, it was impairing his vision, but the excruciating pain that came up from lifting halted his actions.

A thought crossed his mind, ‘Brother?’ Where is his brother? A sense of panicky dread went down his spine, taking another gander around his surroundings, forcing his eyes wide to take another inspection of the scene that was before him for any signs of his brother. Several paces away from him, was a dark lying silhouette. The body was in a furrow of clump grass, covering the signs of life with its sparsity. Raicer, lift his person, from the pool of blood he was condensed in. Blood from his dark brown pants, began to stream down his attire, leaving the unearthly stain of blood on the latter half of his Recrest Uniform. The jostling of his sheathed rapier and empty holster alerted him that he did not have his officer assigned flintlock.

“Rai…? Rai? Is that you? Did you finally wake?” A voice of a boy, not yet a man, strangled out from the lying silhouette that Raicer was currently facing. “Gully, is that you? My eyes...I can’t see very well, tell me it’s you?” No other choice, Raicer continued to lift up his worn body onto the path of the dark silhouette that was hidden in the furrows and long grass. He felt the sharp slice of meat on his left bicep, telling him to not jostling his stiff arm too much. Brushing the long grass that was covering the silhouette’s face, gave him a long sigh of relief, finally able to see his brother’s pale and worn face in the muck, alive.

“Rai...I thought you fell asleep… Urgh, after I saved your life, so many..many times…” Hazy eyes greet Raicer, while he was staring down at his brother’s laying form. His brother tries to hold down a chortle, but could not, as consequences, A small wallop of blood started scoffs out from the side of Gully’s mouth.

“-Don’t speak, you are injured...Gully. And I told you, don’t mix up the real world with your dreams.” He scolds, rebuking his smiling pale brother. Raicer drags his right uninjured arm forward to sit his brother up to embrace him with a loving hug. “Argh! Not too tight Rai, I’m still currently growing.” Gully breathly rebukes under the neck of his brother. ‘For all the summer years, I know you brother, you make such horrible jokes.’ Raicer thought. Trying not to grimace, he took a deep breath than inspected of his brother’s worn appearance, trying to find his brother’s injuries that were hidden underneath his brother’s uniform. “Where are you hurt Gully?” “Hurt?” Gully lift a sarcastic brow at him. “All over.” “I’m serious brother…” Raicer deadpan, downplaying his brother’s happy go lucky attitude. Trying to hold on to his cough, Gully weaseled out that his chest was the most primary of his injuries.

Raicer continued holding his brother as he sat up, leaning against him. He contemplated the situation that they were thrust upon, trying to figure out a way to get out of their current straits. Pools of dark crimsons were drying around the land around them, the rocky soil they were upon, could not take any more blood into their earth. Raicer needed to find help, the Recrest army aid, in fact. Raicer’s brother head tilted on top of his shoulder, he seems to be losing consciousness. “I’m awake, I’m awake.” Gully sputtered, with a drowsy expression. Raicer needed to keep his brother awake as much as possible, he feared for the worst if his brother falls into a deep sleep--besides carrying his unconscious brother across the battlefield, while also injured would be an impossible task for him at this moment.

Holding his little brother up, lifting him while supporting his weight, Raicer tense all his aches and muscles for such endeavors. After lifting Gully out from the pool of blood that he was soaked in. Blood started dripping down both their uniforms and back into the puddle in which it was distributing upon. The aftermath of the battle, there were pools, no…more like rivers of blood streaming across the rocky hills of the northern territory border, the corpses of the soldiers of Recrest and Rensfor were sputtered across the field.

“Whose puddle is that? Did you wet yourself again..?” Raicer tried to lift the gloomy atmosphere they were with a smarmy joke to keep his brother occupied awake.

“Mine, don’t tell mother.” His little brother chortles-going along with it, began to cough out a glob of dark thick blood. Raicer’s shoulders tensed up from Gully’s chortling coughs. “-Don’t try to speak… Gully, we are going to get some help.” Raicer gently rebukes his little brother and also himself, for allowing things to go to this.

‘Why am I so stupid, sometimes…’

Raicer carefully inspected thoroughly his brother’s left side, above his arm, a vertical rip was embedded on his brother’s uniform. Gully had a vertical slash wound on his shoulder, beneath the layers of cloth. It looked deep, far too deep to be easily stitched.

Wrapping the wound with a torn strip of his uniform, gingerly, Raicer needed to get his little brother a Medicas, he knew a little first aid and he knew that his bandage would not enough to halt his bleed. Again, with no other choice, he gingerly wraps his right hand on this little brother’s side again, instead of sitting him up, he lifts him up using the last of his depleted strength. Gully palm the earth to support Raicer from lifting him up onto his sols, there was blood dripping down his brother’s left arm.

Raicer began his slow trek supporting his little brother on his side forward, he had to concentrate on his footing and his motions, so he would not jostle his brother top half. Gully faintly limp beside him, hearing his steps, gave Raicer some relief, even if they were heading to no direction, hoping for any motion of help.

‘Forgive me, Ma...Forgive me, Pa…I’m sorry, I’ve lead Gull here...Into this forsaken place.’

Raicer felt the shallow breaths of his brother lessen in thickness and sound. Missing his footing, they nearly stumble past an arm of a corpse, that was in their way. He lifted his brother up slightly, so Gully could comfortably lean on his shoulders to lessen his strain but his brother groans abruptly halted his movement.

“Sss-sorry Gully, I can’t seem to get my foot right…” Apologize Raicer, profusely. He rebuked himself for causing pain to his younger brother. His brother did not reply back. A dark thought crosses his mind. ‘Had Gully...taken my advice or did he fall deep into his family sleep.’ He hoped for the latter.

“Sshhh…” Gully quietly and softly voiced. A sigh of relief came from Raicer, the thought of his brother, dead to him, would be the final nail in his frame of regrets of his life. Trying to get that grim thought out, he remembers something from his childhood. His little brother would sometimes sleepwalk around the room they shared when they were children.

‘Sleepwalking injured… In a worn-torn battlefield. Only Gully would do something so bizarre.’

The thought of Gully sleepwalking gave Raicer a small smirk, as the two brothers trek onwards. His little brother a bit suspicious at the silence swayed his face towards the smirking Raicer.

“I was having a beautiful dream, then you had to ruin it, with that stupid look-What is so goddamn funny?” Gully stubbornly inquires, while Raicer tries to hide his shit-eating-grin away from his brother. Looking back at his little brother. “I told you Gull, don’t mix up the real world with your dreams.” He chided. Gully’s eyes shined with fond mirth, trying hold down a rough chuckle.”Gully, do not do this, don’t associate that… Sometimes, I wonder why I keep you around brother, if all you do is order me.” Gully exacerbated.

“Hey now...do you recall, I am still your Captain? The Captain of the 98th Regiment of the Red to be in fact.” Raicer intones Gully could tell when he was acting.“-You of all people, shouldn’t be sarcastic to your superiors.” Raicer continued, ending his inflection with a low tambour of authority.

“Ah big brother, I’m going..to-to miss these stupid moments. But the more you keep talking the less funny you are getting..” Gully coughing slightly, softly says.

Raicer paused their movements, holding Gully tightly while he lent on him.

“I am Officer Poet, not a comedian, do not oh fair brother, mix the latter with the other.” He remarks. “-Besides, situations like these are the perfect time for gallows humor.” Raicer strongly argues.

A metal clap sharply pings the surrounding air, pinging the two brothers that they were not alone.

“Quite right, boy...Quite right.” A man calls out, abruptly with the rich vocal tambour of a man of command. The man was plated in knightly silver steel with gold trims coating the edges. He stood out amidst the dead, one-hundred paces in front of the two brothers-blocking their forward trek. The knight was unblemished with the gore of the battle, he seems to be freshly new in his shining alabaster steel set. The knight continued his pinging claps, while the two brothers scrutinize him from afar.

A gold emblem of a pentagon with a red burning heart was emblazoned on the center of the knight’s chest plate, which branded the man what he was, an Inquisitor of the Holy Order of The Eternal Heart. One of the four ruling religious Orders of the Holy Rhaodian Empire. The Holy Orders strictly follow the Holy Edits of the Holy Pre-Exactor Pope, Radian the Ever Chosen. They were currently the foreign allies that the Baron of Registrar formed with to battle in the ongoing civil war for the Regalian Throne.

Raicer thought about the situation before them, an uneasy feeling at the back of his mind. Putting his best courtly act, he stood up sharp befitting his rank while his brother knelt himself on him. “I am Captain Raicer Lacea of the 98th Regiment of The Red, serving under the Baron Recrest of Registrar. I request the service of the benevolent Orders of the Holy Rhaodian Empire that is mandated by the agreement between the Baron and the Holy Pope you served under…” He declares, stating his alignment and request while the Rhaodian kept on with his clinging claps.

“Who is it-brother? I can’t see him properly. Curse Regis, I wish I had my glasses.” Gully laments for his lost eyepiece recently lost during the haze of the battle. The thought of his brother’s expensive eyepiece, lost in the furrows of the battlefield, made him groan at the expense of replacing it would be.

The clinging clapping increase it’s pace, giving a resounding melody throughout the mutters of rings. The plated inquisitor seemed more excited than before. The nerve of this man was infuriating Raicer, as he continued his stupid claps. Three similar garb men where silhouetted in the smoke, behind the first inquisitor.

“By thy holy mother… brethren thy mother haft bless us today, one of our quarry who hafts by fate-shown thyself to us in thy hallowed fields.” The first inquisitor announce. The uneasy feeling on the back of Raicer’s mind crescendo into danger.

“By the by, Sir Raicer Lacea… is that man leaning on you, Sir Rohan Reshant?” The inquisitor inquired. The man was smug to Raicer, his eyes leering at them. At least he ended his clattering claps from further clinging. What does the inquisitor even want with the sniveling upstart Lieutenant Rohan Reshant? Could they be friends in high places, looking out for him? He was a noble, and he once bragged about his connections. Well, whatever the reasons they needed Reshant, the nagging sensation of danger was still instilled in Raicer’s instinct.

“I am no Sir, Lord Inquisitor. And no...this young man before you is not Lord Rohan Reshant, but my younger brother, Gulcasa Lacea.” Raicer states as he nods gesturing to his younger brother.

“Oh I see, that saddens me to hear that one of our quarries is not fated to be with us at this noon. But no matter, for the mother haft gave us the one with the taint, which haft not fallen into it, yet.” The knightly Inquisitor laments to Raicer’s confusion, but the sinking knowledge that they were after him for something sinister was apparent. The three inquisitors behind the first, spread themselves evenly around Raicer, in a half encirclement. They pace themselves cautiously, it was clarifying to Raicer, that they were hostile to him and his brother. ‘Knowing one’s intentions before the actions.’ Was a mantra his father taught him in his younger days. Raicer tensed up his shoulders, preparing himself for the upcoming fight before him.

Feeling the tenseness of his brother. “What is wrong Rai?” Gully murmured softly to his side, losing his sound as he spoke. Raicer felt his brother slacken. His brother was losing his strength fast, he needed a place to rest him before the violence started. Raicer slowly lay his brother gently on the cold earth beside him. “Lay your mind at ease Gul. Rest here for a while, help will be coming.” Raicer with sorrow brimming in his eyes lied to his befuddled brother. Gully began to slowly close his eyelids as he blissfully smiled up to his brother, comforted by his words.

A small squelch, barely audible was heard by Raicer at the side of him. Raicer stilled at the sound, one of them was closer than he thought. It must be a fifth inquisitor, ready to strike him from behind, the moment he acts. He could not let the other inquisitors before him, know that he knew that someone was approaching behind him. “When you fight, always start off with a surprise for it will create confusion, delaying the actions of your opponents for the few moments it gives.” The voice of his father drills in the back of Raicer’s mind.

Raicer ganders to the side of his attire, at his rapier sheathed and the empty holster. Hovering his hand slowly yet carefully over the pommel, ready to launch it at a moment’s notice, prepared himself for the moment to act. Raicer still needed to fane distraction to give the Inquisitor before him, the sense of confidence. An idea crossed his mind. He needed to create a discussion and with that, to sound gullible, stupid and outraged during it all.

“Why, what’s going on!?” Raicer voiced adding panic in his inflection to show them that he did not understand what was going to happen.”-What does the Holy Order want with me and Lord Reshant?” He nervously questions, hoping his distracted acting help build confidence between the Inquisitors before him and behind him.

Raicer slanting slightly, pivot his foot to its side for a back-twist. The Inquisitors were edging themselves closer to Raicer, except for the first one that who had spoken, he just stood there, a stone man of silences, and then he spoke.

“Thy Regalian Nobility and the Marcian Nobility are a plague to humanity, cursed by thy Mother. With thy benevolence of thy Ever-Chosen, our holiness haft decreed--that thy infestation in thy mother shall be extinguished.” The Inquisitor proclaims with eyes burning with the fervor of his faith. The other devotees except for the one ready to strike Raicer from behind intones. “Thy Decreed by Thy Ever-Chosen.” They chanted in reverence.

“Decreed by the Ever-Chosen, huh? Whatever it may be, it has nothing to do with me--for I am no noble.” Raicer scoffs bristly with an inflection of anger in his voice. Concentrating his hearing, he kept his focus on any motions behind him. The audible of steel swishing will be his moment when he can act.

“You, Raicer Lacea, are thy bastard of one!” The Inquisitor snarls.

A flick of steel motions behind Raicer, hearing the approach with no time to wisecrack, he ducks down avoiding the steel slashing the air that he was previously. He then pivots, clutching pommel than drawing his rapier out from his sheath with practice efficiency, he twisted his body than thrust into the man, no Inquisitor before him. Surprised was planted on inquisitor’s expression, then the shock of horror at the realization that Raicer pierced through his neck with the point of his rapier. There was no time to contemplate his decision for striking a killing blow. This man was about to murder him, an Inquisitor of an Order that apparently wants him dead.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The Inquisitor stumbles back dropping his half-sword as Raicer draws out his point out of the man’s spluttering neck. Raicer than turn back towards the other Inquisitors that were half-enveloping him, their expression was of shock--frozen in their motions. They looked flabbergasted and outraged at the murder of one of their brethren.’A surprise for a surprise, that is what my father would say.’ Raicer thought at the back of his mind.

The dead inquisitor, No...man, there was no more roles for the dead, just a corpse of a man who was once holy. The man’s half sword was lying on the side of Raicer. Raicer crouched down, resting his right knee on the dirt. He quickly gropes for the half-sword pommel with his left hand.

On Raicer’s right hand was the freshly bloodied rapier, and on his injured left was the half-sword blade of the inquisitors. ‘Oh fates.’ He thought ‘--Whatever may come of this, I will be ready.’

The first inquisitor with the stony expression commanded his brethren to collect their composure. He then took a long sigh, the sigh sounded old and with regret.

“Quite impressive young man, it isn’t easy to kill one of the newly adept of our Order--but you...with one flick of your sword, you managed to fell a brother.” The inquisitor stated, plainly, without any form of malice or emotion at the death of one of his fellows. The silence after the statement was Raicer’s reply to the inquisitor.

Raicer had to calmly strategize a way to survive through this situation, carefully considering, he needed to act first before the rest could take action. The atmosphere was tense, if kindled by a spark, the violence would erupt. The first inquisitor than drew out his half sword to a precise and practiced motion, the rest followed half a moment behind. “Thy heart haft chosen, thy life hafts thy meaning… for thy curse will fall to our devotion. As is, as such.” The first inquisitor mantras, with the rest chanting half a moment behind.

The inquisitor all step, syncing their steps together while they pace towards Raicer in their half enveloping circle. Raicer needed to find a way to fight them separately. Defending attacks from encircling opponents will be an impossible feat for him, especially with his tiring and injured state. He also needed to lead them away from his unconscious brother, in case one of them had the brilliant idea of stabbing his brother while he was in his slumber.

Raicer swaying his head to the left than right decided. Breaking the encirclement was his only viable solution. Running towards one of them was his best option, he considered. If Raicer manages to get past that one of them, he could lure the rest of them to follow him and then he would be able to face them in a suitable area where he could then duel them one by one.

‘Now or never, will be a good time to act.’ Raicer sprang into action, heading the left of his direction. He was sprinting at full tilt by the time the surprised inquisitors reacted, pausing their chanting dogma, they started their chase for him. ‘Too late.’ Raicer thought, fifteen paces away.

Running towards the left Inquisitor ahead of him, Raicer prepared for the upcoming violence. The inquisitor was ready for him though, with an on-guard stance, his half-sword at his ride sight and it’s point reaching the grey skies. Raicer ready with a surprise--hurls the Inquisitor sword with his injured arm, ten paces away from the Inquisitor. It was an odd stratagem at first, but he needed to surprise his upcoming opponent. Sadly it did not work, the Inquisitor not budging from his spot--calmly parried the hurled sword to the side with a clang.

Unfettered, Raicer purposely stumbles into a roll—five paces in front of the Inquisitor. He closed the distance between them with his roll. Raicer then exited from his improvised roll, the Inquisitor redirected his front parrying form to guard his bottom, but he was a moment too slow. Raicer with a piercing upper thrust of his steel point punching through the circular metal rivets of chainmail and into the tender flesh of the Inquisitor. Raicer pushes his rapier deeper, driving the steel into the man’s guts. He then avoided overhead strike the Inquisitor was countering with.

Raicer release the pommel of his rapier that was lodged in the belly of the man, not tarrying any longer, he decided to leave it in there. Raicer twists his body to the side of the kneeling form of the dying inquisitor to run past him. With the other inquisitor nearly at his back, he continued onwards. The plated inquisitors increased their clambering pace—after seeing one of their brethren fall to a fatal and excruciating wound.

Raicer got a second wind from his earlier action. With death behind him, he continued his sprinting pace away from the dying inquisitor. Raicer took a quick gander back, checking if he had lured them away from his unconscious brother. Only seeing two that was chasing him, the first one who hailed them was slowly and steadily heading towards his slumbering brother. ‘Curse Regis.’ Raicer cursed.

Raicer slowed his sprinting, considering his thoughts to run back past the two inquisitors that were behind him and stopping the first inquisitor that was currently heading towards his little brother. A crunching sound of bone snapping pierced the silent rush of the scene. Raicer halted his thoughts and movements—searched for the distinct noise, he then saw it, he stumbling back a pace from the flesh and bones being munched upon 30 paces away from him…

A near hairless deformed creature was crouching down near barely naked corpse. The size of the creature was 7 feet, it was huge compared to the average man. The pink flesh of the creature, contorted as if wriggling worms were nestled within. The eyes were pale in its blankness, as it continued to grotesquely chew on a morsel of flesh, the arm of the half-eaten corpse. The creature was staring at them, with not a care in the world, as it continued its munching.

At that moment, that grotesque moment in time, recognition shatters Raicer’s thoughts. ‘No...It cannot be? Rohan? Rohan Reshant?” The blank depths of Rohan’s eyes were monitoring the paused Raicer with growing anticipation. The abomination halted its non-lucid monotone feast of the decapitated arm. The clanging sounds of steel clinking behind Raicer went still--with that the tension in the air intensified by the presence of the inquisitors behind Raicer.

“As such, as is.” A calm and gruff voice of the Inquisitor intones. “It’s-it’s the second abomination!” A younger voice interjects, next to the gruff Inquisitor.

“Sir, we got to inform Cell Inquisitor Rathgar-” The younger Inquisitor requested. “-No time lad. We can’t leave our backs to that abomination. We fight it and the other.” The gruff Inquisitor grunted.

‘Oh Regis, they are real…’ Raicer steps a pace back from the abomination. Rohan was a snob and a braggart, someone who envied Raicer’s position in the 98th Regiment of the Red. ‘Was the curse the inquisitors spouted-true? Are the nobles cursed? Am I cursed?’

No time for deep philosophizing Raicer thought, he needed to get to his brother before he gets murdered by one of the Inquisitors. The young inquisitor behind him was still gawking at the fiend who was frozen, staring at them. Raicer, no other choice but take the moment, spun his whole body around and sprinted back towards the two inquisitors who were staring at his action with consternation. ‘It’s a funny life.’ Raicer thought with humor.

The gruff Inquisitor stood in front blocking Raicer’s path he was ready to swing his half sword the moment Raicer got close to him. Raicer with the momentum of his sprint twisted aside at the last moment. Raicer miss-calculated how fast the slash from the gruff inquisitor motion, barely pivoting away with a deep cut on his left side. The lacerating sting gave a life of pain adrenaline to Raicer, motivating him to move faster so he could avoid further more swings as he ran pass by Inquisitor.

Blood was trickling down his officer’s coat, out from his recently deep wound. The pain was unbearable, after the spark of adrenaline past, fatigue and pain were all he could feel at that moment. Raicer stumbled slightly to the left as he continued his jog towards the direction of his brother. He did not think he would make it in time, or alive at all, but he had to for his mother and father, for his little brother, Raicer had to.

The gruff Inquisitor did not chase Raicer when he went past him, instead, all his focus was the abomination that was running on all fours towards him. The younger Inquisitor swivel his head to the back of Raicer’s form than at the four-legged abomination that heading for them. The abomination’s core desire was to feast, feast the flesh of everything it could find; the utter gluttony of it was all it dreamed.

“Oh, thy Mother protect me.” The young inquisitor shakily prayed. He then exposed his back to the gruff Inquisitor and began to run at full tilt-away from the corrupted fiend. The gruff Inquisitor seeing the young inquisitor action, cursed under his breath, he then ready himself to valiantly face the approaching creature.

“Thy heart hafts chosen, thy life haft thy meaning, for thy curse will fall to my devotion. As such, as is.” The gruff man intoned. ‘The bravery of one's faith is gravely one’s fate.’ Raicer poetically thought.

Raicer's running pace was halved by his bleeding side. He needed distance, but the blood loss made his light heavy and his feet dragging. Raicer then heard a muffled shout behind him, luckily it was a distance away, he had hope. He also had hope that the Inquisitor had killed abomination. Running and fighting Inquisitors sounds crazy, but doable-but fighting that monster with his rapier in hand, he dreaded it was impossible. ‘Soldier on, soldier on, keep your head close to the ground.’ It was a poem Raicer wrote in the first few weeks of his military career. Maybe it was the adrenaline or the final clarity of the last moments; for him to understand that he was never a soldier, but a poet in heart; but the world is cruel, beggars can't be choosers.

Nearly to his limits, he finally stumbled onto the ground. Kneeling, with eyes blurry, Raicer saw it. The first inquisitor’s swordpoint was at the neck of his unconscious brother. Raicer held out a shout. He was out of breathing, light-headed and fatigue. Gripping his bleeding side, he continued upwards onto his feet. Clutching his wounds, adding pressure to it-halting further bleeding. The Inquisitor turns to the commotion that was Raicer, who was unsteadily standing.

“Like fables of old...A valiant brother’s love was all for naught.” The first Inquisitor states, directing the point his half-sword towards Raicer’s younger brother’s neck.

“For a holy order, your actions make you and your men appear like lowest of denigrates. Thy, haft, thus...You do not need to pretty your words when you commit horror.” Raicer spat out. Like before, the Inquisitor before him unnerved him. This civil war, nobles wanting to be kings, monsters, and men, it was all tiring to Raicer. He was so...tired of it all...or maybe it was the blood loss?

The Inquisitor, acting his age, frown down upon the younger man’s rebuke. Out of sincerity or mercy, or what-ever a murdering Inquisitor consider--he nodded to Raicer than lifted his sword-point away from his brother’s neck. No words to speak, the Inquisitor step forward towards Raicer.

The inquisitor froze, at a motion behind Raicer. He was glaring over Raicer, his face was contorted in disgust and antipathy towards the unholy being at Raider’s back. Raicer with creeping horror swiveled his head back to an injured and loping Rohan, running on all fours, slightly limping but still crippling its way towards them at a surging pace.

Raicer gawking at the visage before him, the grotesque nature and the eerie semblances of Rohan made him nearly want to hurl his stomach. The abomination exterior was layered with pink bloating flesh, ivory human bones were protruding out from the malformity. It was like a fleshy reptile, haphazard bones disjointed everywhere on its body.

The Inquisitor flourish his half-sword into the sky, pressing the rain-guard towards his grim lips.” Thy heart haft chosen, thy life hafts thy meaning for thy curse will fall to our devotion. As such, As is.” The inquisitor mantras out with holy zealous. The man was like a knight of old, a stone man, adamant against the wave.

The Inquisitor, preparing for the inevitable, dropped his sword-point to the earth with his right foot pivoted in a practice sword stance. The abomination, unflinching, continued it onwards approaches towards the Inquisitor. Like a steel python, springing out, the Inquisitor lashes out his half-sword into a practiced arc. The Inquisitor seems to Raicer, a practiced man, a true professional of his trade. If anything was learned from what Raicer had experience today, was that the courage of men is on all sides.

The Inquisitor neatly sliced off the abomination’s arm, then twisted to the side to avoid the tackle. The monster stumbled to the side, knocking the Inquisitor off his sols at the creature sway in a painful frenzy. The Inquisitor on his back, the abomination took it’s chance and grappled with the Inquisitor with his only arm. In the hustle, the Inquisitor’s half-sword sprang out from his hand and into the mist air. The sword hurls past, landing near Raicer.

A top the Inquisitor, the abomination with his remaining arm, grip the man’s shoulders and took a huge bite through the chainmail of the Inquisitor’s attire. The Inquisitor trying with his steel gauntlets, yet failing to pull the abomination’s head from tearing his neck and shoulders apart. Sprays of blood and squelches of flesh flying were only Raicer’s view of the Inquisitor beneath the horror.

‘The Inquisitor won’t be clapping his gauntlets now.’ Raicer darkly thought.

The Inquisitor looks done for, without any aid Raicer was sure the man would succumb to the abomination’s frenzied hunger. ‘Damn it’ Raicer cursed himself, why was he just standing there gawking like a shy moon-eyed boy. He needed to act, if not now, then never. Remembering the half-sword that was zooming past him earlier, Raicer acted.

Searching at the direction the sword was hurled at, he spotted a spear lodged inside the entrails of a soldier, 10 paces away. ‘Curse it.’ Cursing himself, Raicer lightly steps forward towards the spear. Raicer took hold of the spear shaft and pulled. Bursting stomach entrails and sounds of squelches muscles was his reward. ‘This will the last ludicrous deed I will ever commit.’ Raicer pivoted his body with the spearhead in front, he paused his fraying thoughts for the moment, the briefest of moments. ‘Soldier on, Raicer…’

Taking a deep breath, it could be one of his last breaths, he soldiered on. With a burst of the last of his depleting energy, he sprang forward, shouting for all he was practically worth. Raicer punched the spear into the back torso of the abomination, driving it so deep that the spearhead metal clanged with the breastplate of the thrashed Inquisitor.

The creature scream in utter horror and pain at that moment. In a frightful few seconds, Raicer steps back from the Creature that was fidgeting and screaming from the lodged spear in its torso. They were not death cries of a dying animal, Raicer thought, but righteous indignation of one.

The abomination could not do anything to the spear inside of it, instead, he focuses his rage at Raicer, who startled back at the monster’s pale glare. The abomination’s bone riddled arm took a swing at Raicer, too fast to avoid, Raicer was careened off his feet and into the air. He landed with a thump in the soil and blood of the earth. Blinking thrice, he ganders the ground around him. Raicer heard a low breathe of someone in deep slumber, turning to the sound, his face terrified. It was his brother, several paces away from Raicer’s pruned form.

Raicer, grasping the soil with his worn fingers, palm the earth to push himself up from the muck. Hearing the thumps and despoiled earth, Raicer turn his head to the noise. It was the abomination, spear lodged, one armed was running three-legged towards them.

‘“Fuck, Regis!” Raicer cursed the god of his fatherland. He felt helpless now, no weapon to bear against the behemoth, nothing he could do. A glimmer of steel caught his eye. Raicer swayed his head towards that sparkle. It was the Inquisitor half-sword, the sword was buried point first into the dirt and brush. It was only a few arm's lengths away from him. Raicer’s felt pain all over his body, from the sols to his feet to the lightness of his head. ‘Bloodlost’ Raicer cursed Regis again.

The gleam of the metal pommel brought him up crawling, towards the only chance to survive this day. Just a few more paces, just a few more, and he will be able to get it. ‘Soldier on! Soldier on!’ his mind kept screaming at him. For his brother, for his mother, for his father--he has to get that sword.

Raicer finally, clutching the pommel of the half-sword, he drew it from the earth at the moment the abomination sprang out into the air to collide onto him. As fast as Raicer could humanly swing, he slashes the air, decapitating the head of the abomination before him. The decapitated head was hurled several paces away while its body landed lifelessly on to Raicer’s prone form.

The body spasm at contact, Raicer with disgusted panic, threw the body away from him with the last of his depleted strength. Taking a gander at the scene before him, he took the greatest sigh of relief he could have ever uttered.

A dying chuckle woke Raicer up. He fell asleep, why did his body fell so light, everything felt hazy and draggy to Raicer. Swaying his head to the distinct chuckle, he spots the Inquisitor resting against a broken rock with sparse and crumpled vegetation around him. ‘Why was the man laughing?” Raicer wondered. He scrutinizes where the Inquisitor was joyously staring at. Panic and dread shattered Raicer’s relief to zero. The abomination lodged off arm was currently and quickly crawling towards the body Raicer recently shoved off. He was now truly, utterly frightened, the absolute nature of this abomination, the defining nature of his death. A squelch, made him turn. It was the dislodged head, twitching and rolling it forms towards the abomination’s body as well.

Cursing Regis once more, he mustered the remaining energy he had and stumbled up onto his drenched sols. The Inquisitor, seeing Raicer awake and standing, halted his further chuckles. “Boy.” The man coughed out, with a spray of blood. “--Pierce the heart! Pierce it boy…”

The wound of the dislodged arm that was currently fingering its way forward towards Raicer and the spasming body, began to grow out small tendrils of flesh. Raicer had no choice but to move and stop this monstrosity to what-ever, what-ever this abomination is doing. Clutching the pommel of the half-sword, he limped his way towards the spasming torso.

“Pierce the heart…”

The mother must have really loved this Inquisitor, to have kept him breathing for so long. Raicer taking another deep sigh planted the tip of the sword onto the heart of the torso. The thought being close to this monstrosity sent spines of shivers down his injured back. Raicer shoved. For whatsoever reasons the squirming wriggling body parts, suddenly cease, deflating from his shoved blow.

The Inquisitor took a long wheezing to breathe, coughing slightly, still miraculously alive. “As such...As is, A brother’s love has no bounds.” The Inquisitor murmured. Raicer lightly swiveled his head towards the grounded Inquisitor.

“It was all for naught…” Raicer grunted, clutching his side that was profusely bleeding. The wound on Raicer side opened wider for more channels of blood to stream down his uniform. His head felt light, his mind was clouded, as if he was falling into grey skies. “My father would have been proud.” Raicer finally said, admitting the memory of his parents on the back of his mind. Thinking of his family, he searched the grounds for his unconscious brother. Raicer, taking his last few steps, he knelt down near his brother’s dying form. Gully's face was distorted with horrible dreams as he sleeps. His brother was so innocent to Raicer, he did not think his brother even pulled the trigger on his rifle, during the battle.

Placing his hand on his brother’s sweaty brows, brushing his dark-brown hair away from his sweat-drenched face. His brother’s forehead felt hot with a fever. Gully barely opens his lids to Raicer, he was still half asleep to the world.

“Rai? Is that you? Rai?” Gully drowsily inquires. Raicer grip his brother’s hand then squeeze. “Yeah, it’s me.” Raicer tiredly said. “That’s good...That's good.” His brother murmured, closing his half-lidded eyes asleep.

Liquid salt began to wet the lids of Raicer’s eyes. The thought of losing his brother from the world, a world without his nearsighted brother, tightens his heart. “Hush Gully...Go to sleep…The medicas are here…” Raicer holding his cry in his mouth lied. Tears unbidden began its sliding coarse down Raicer’s checks, as he gazes down upon his unconscious brother.

“A brother’s love has no bounds...boy. Be grateful, he won’t see you become an abomination…” The Inquisitor sighed out. Raicer with teary eyes swivels his head towards the man with a curse in his mouth but halted at his pale visage. “I’ll be going to thy Mother now...I’ll be waiting, Lad...I’ll be waiting…” The Inquisitors gleaming eyes faded, as he lay there for his final time, embracing the mother, earth, as his scriptures profess.

Raicer turns back his gaze to his younger brother, he remembers the moments he first saw his brother, clutched in his mother’s arms, the moments he pranked his brother, his brother’s morphing into embarrassment. His brother was dying now, and also he is, the lightness of his head informed him that he is.

‘Will I turn into an abomination like Reshant?’ Raicer thought. ‘Will I turn to my brother’s body when I turn and consume him in me?’ The thought sickened him. But he could not do anything about it. ‘What is it to matter.’ They were both going to die anyway, it did not matter what would happen after.

For all he was worth, Raicer glared across the godforsaken battlefield, the rage and bitterness he felt about their upcoming deaths. He ganders towards the broken Inquisitor, embraced to the earth, at the abomination’s deformed torso, head, and lifeless arm. Raicer halted his nearly blank stare. He swivels his head back to the dislodged arm, staring at it, like a poet with his words.

Raicer gazes down his brother’s unconscious form. Eyes stinging from the salt of unbidden tears. He readied himself on what he must do.

“Soldier on...Soldier on, keep my heart...close to the ground.”