It was noon. The keep and it's surroundings were peaceful. There were no riots and everyone was minding their own business. Hick climbs a stair case to get to the duke's chambers. With each step the air around him got heavier. The execution still haunts him. He reaches the door. There were two guards in red armour around it. They greeted him and let him pass. He slowly raised his hand and with slight hesitation he knocked.

Duke:"Enter."

Hick enters the chamber:"Sir?"

The duke was writing a letter:"Yes? What is it Hick?"

Hick:"About the execution that happened a couple of days ago. I'm still having second thoughts."

Duke:"It's to late to have *second thoughts* about killing someone when they're already dead."

Hick:"Yes sir, but, was it necessary?"

Duke:"We discussed this Hick. It WAS. The people need to understand who is in charge. They need to know their place. Sometimes, punishment is the only way."

Hick:"But maybe, there can be a system without punishment. Maybe, we can just come to an agreement with the people."

Duke:"The only agreement they will listen to is the one which includes the part where they get their crops back. And if they do we won't be able to supply our troops. Yes, the south region has been sending aid, but that's limited. We need to take care of ourselves otherwise we will look weak. And we can't allow that."

Hick:"I understand."

The chambers become quiet. Neither of them speak. The duke puts down his pen and looks at Hick.

Duke:"Do you know why the empress is the empress?"

Hick looks at the duke with a confused face.

Duke:"It's not common for a woman to lead. It's against tradition for the gods' sake. But she maintained that position for 22 years. Did you know she became empress at the age of 8?

Hick becomes even more confused. His face starts twitching:"Surely you're joking sir."

Duke:"I am not. Only the lords and certain dukes know about this. She poisoned all the men and paid the senate. She's a conniving little devil. She maintained her position by not trying to make *agreements*"

Hick:"Wait! This war has been going on for 12 years. That means-"

Duke:"She started the war as soon as she turned age. She's ambitious but strong. The only voice of reason she listens to is the one where she wins and everyone else looses. THAT, is what it means to be a strong leader. Putting people in their place. Making them see where they belong. You're a good garrison commander Hick. Your men listen to you because they respect you. But the empire listens to her because they fear her. I already told you:Fear is stronger than love."

Hick froze. The things he just heard were overwhelming. He does get a grip but his face is still covered in fear. The duke finishes the note, wraps it and puts the seal. Hick sees the note and asks:"What is that sir?"

Duke:"This a letter to lord Armstrong."

Hick:"But lord Armstrong is in the front lines on the eastern border."

Duke:"I know. This crow will fly over there."

Hick:"What does it say?"

Duke:"It's a call for reinforcements."

Hick:"Why do we need reinforcements?"

Duke:"We don't need them right now but we will soon enough. Listen, when the Phantom kills me, open this cage and let the crow out."

Hick:"B-b-b-but sir-"

Duke:"NO BUTS HICK! The time will come. Sooner rather than later. And when it does you must be ready."

Hick lowers his head and starts shaking.

Duke:"One more thing. You are not to attack him."

Hick raises his head in shock:"Why not? Do honestly believe I can't beat him. He may have the advantage in the shadows, but I'm a warrior. I will fight him one on one in the open and then-"

The duke slams his fist in his desk. Hick stops talking.

Duke:"I...I can't afford to take that chance. Once I'm gone, someone will have to take care of this keep. And that someone is you Hick."

Hick:"But...But I can't-"

Duke:"Yes you can. Just remember everything I told you. You'll be fine."

Hick:"I...I-"

Their conversation is interrupted. A knight walks into the chambers:"Sir Hick, you need to come and see this."

They step outside of the castle. A skinny knight shaking with fear is surrounded by other knights. He's talking to them about the Phantom:"and, and then he just-"

Hick shows up:"What's going on?"

Knight:"He's talking about some man who killed his partners on patrol."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Hick:"Knight get ahold of yourself. Tell me what happened."

Skinny knight:"Well. We were on patrol. And we were walking behind the tavern in Strâd, when all of a sudden, a man stepped from the shadows. He killed the others like they were nothing. I swung at him over and over and over, but nothing happened. It was like he knew what I was gonna do before I knew what I was gonna do."

Hick:"And how did you managed to escape?"

Skinny knight:"I didn't. He let me go."

Hick:"Why?"

Skinny knight:"He told me to go back here and tell the duke that he's coming. He said he'll know what I mean."

Hick's eyes twitch. He freezes for a few seconds then whispers:"Already?"

Knight:"Sir?"

Hick:"BATTLE STATIONS. I WANT ARCHERS ON THE WALLS WATCHING OVER EVERYTHING. SARGENT, I WANT YOU AND NINE MORE MEN DOWN IN THE SETTLEMENT, DAY AND NIGHT, BUT ONLY COVER THE ONE CLOSEST TO THE GATE, WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MEN TO COVER EVERYTHING. WE MUSTN'T GIVE HIM AN EDGE."

He grabs the skinny knight by the collar,"Were you followed?", the knight looks at him with a scared face but doesn't answer,"WERE YOU FOLLOWED?"

Skinny knight:"No, I don't think so.".

Hick let's him go and addresses the knight:"LISTEN. HE IS AFTER DUKE RODGER. FORGET ALL THE STORIES YOU HEARD, HE IS JUST ONE MAN. OUR DUTY IS TO DEFEND THE DUKE. AM I CLEAR?

All the knights:"YES SIR!"

The duke looks down from his window. At the same time, Phantom looks at the keep from the settlement. They both say:"Predictable."

—————————

Night falls. All the villagers in the settlement are asleep. The knights in the settlement are spread out and carrying torches. Archers are stationed on the walls. Hick nervously waits on the wall:"C'mon you bastard."

Suddenly, one torch stops burning. It was the Phantom. Then another after a few seconds and so forth until there are four left. The four knights attack the Phantom but he kills three of them. The fourth is the skinny knight he left alive the first time. He drops his torch and starts running towards the gate. While he's running he screams:"IT'S HIM. HE'S HERE, HE'S HER-" as he gets half way, an arrow goes through the back of his head (NOTE:the settlement is 150m away from the keep)

Hick gets angry:"ARCHERS! FIRE!" The archers fire into the settlement but they don't know if they killed him or not. He blends in the darkness and runs to the right side of the keep. When he gets far enough away, he fires an arrow with a rope and climbs up. He goes up the stairs to the duke's chambers. The guards see him, but they react to slow as he throws a knife into each of their foreheads.

The duke sits at his desk with a glass of wine. "Enter, not that it means much to you."

Phantom enters and closes the door behind him.

Phantom:"You must be duke Rodger."

Duke:"And you're the infamous Phantom."

Phantom:"Not very fond of that name."

Duke(chuckles):"The people call me *the HANG MAN*. You here because of that? The people?"

Phantom:"No. I couldn't care less. I'm here to kill you cause you're getting on my nerves. You keep sending mercenaries and bounty hunters to my forest."

Duke:"Can't say I expected more." He stands up and gets in front of the desk."So let's get it over with."

Hick(outside on the wall):"Where is he?"

Knight:"Maybe we DID get him."

Hick:"No, he's alive." He looks up at the keep and realises,"could it be? Stay here, guard the wall, I need 20 men with me!"

(Back in the keep)

Duke:"Just tell me one thing. Why? Is it money or do you simply enjoy it?"

Phantom:"I want to live a peaceful life, but you're not leaving me alone."

Duke(laughs):"That's it? You could've just left. Changed your name, cross the border. But no. You like it. The smell of blood, the look of fear in a man's face as you take his life away. You don't know anything else do you?"

Phantom:"That's enough." He grabs him by the neck.

Duke:"Can you at least give me a quick death. And please, spare the man that comes through the door."

Phantom:"I can't promise that. But this I can." He stabs the duke in the heart and he dies immediately.

Hick stands at the bottom of the stairs and tells the other knights:"Don't come with me. I'll take care of this myself. If anyone except me or the duke walk down these stairs, kill him." He walks up the stairs. With heavy breathing he opens the door and sees the duke on the floor."No,no no no." He kneels down and almost starts crying. He then remembers the crow and proceeds to open the cage, but Phantom stops him.

Hick:"You bastard!" He attacks Phantom. Phantom sees immediately that Hick is a formidable fighter. Someone that has skill. Hick keeps attacking Phantom. Phantom is forced to block, he sees the duke's glass of wine. He grabs it and throws it at Hick's face. Hick's vision blurred and Phantom kicked him in the wall. Just as he was about to finish him of, Hick uses his strength to block his attack and punch him in the face. He swings his sword but he sees Phantom closer than he actually is and misses. Instead he cuts his chest a little. Pieces of cloth as well as two necklaces fall. Hick's vision comes back and he grabs them(we don't see what they are).

Hick:"What are these?"

Phantom:"They're mine."

Hick keeps them in his hand:"Come and get them."

Phantom gets angry and starts aggressively attacking Hick, overwhelming his with brute strength. Hick then realised that duke Rodger was right, he was too weak to kill the Phantom. But he also remembered the other promise he made. He uses his remaining strength to push Phantom and break open the cage. Phantom then slices of his arm of. He goes to slit his throat but Hick mutters our:"Please, just tell me how? How did you do this? Where did we fail?

He replies:"You didn't fail. This was to be expected. I knew you were short on numbers and that you would enforce the point you assumed I was going to attack. Everything else was defenceless."

Hick laughs:"I'm an idiot. You win, congratulatio-" Phantom slits his throat and takes his necklaces.

"I heard yelling. Damn it, let's go!" The knights were on their way. Phantom ties a rope around the balcony fence and climbs down. The archers spot him but it's to late, he escapes down the rope he used to get in the keep. When he escapes far enough away he stops and catches his breath. Then he looks up in the sky and asks:"Why the crow? He had a chance to wound me. So why the crow?"

He leaves.

—-———————

The crow is flying over the fields, the forest and hills. The towns and villages. It's peaceful and nice. But then it reaches the border and we see war. The border is separated into the flat fields, the human side and the large thick forest on the elven side. The human cavalry charges into the elven infantry and destroys them almost completely, a lot of them manage to escape. The horses reach the forest and stop cause they can't get through. The elven archers shoot arrows at them. A lot of the riders die, the rest fall back. One of the riders signals the men at the catapults, who then launch fire balls at the forest. Before the impact, human mages, wearing white, black and green clothes use their spells to barely extinguish the fireballs and stop them. Another volley fires but then another line of mages stops those.

"Gods curse them,"says the battalion commander,"stop you're wasting it. Fall back!"

The knights leave and the elves go deeper into the forest. They reach a clearing with a wooden fortress. Inside the fortress was large room with a round table and a map. Around the table were gathered nine elves, three had black clothes, three had green and three had white. There were also several elder mages.

Black(clothed) elf: "We should surrender already."

White elf:"What? Are you mad? They'll kill us either way?"

Black elf:"Maybe not. Maybe if we just turn our selves in peacefully we could-"

Green elf:"Enough! This isn't the time to surrender it's the time to fight. If we surrender they WILL kill all of us. I saw them killing some of our mages, they don't care!"

Black elf:"Then how are we suppose to win?"

A beautiful female dark elf with green eyes and silver hair enters the room."I know someone who can help us!", she says.

Black elf:"What do you want Ember."

Ember:"I said I know someone who can help us."

Black elf:"And whose gonna help us? They in-slaved the dwarves, they're paying the orcs and unless you know a spell to control dragons and trolls, I don't see how ANYONE can help us."

Ember:"It's a man that the empire hates. They hate him so much that they're even willing to pull soldiers from the front lines to kill him."

Green elf:"How do you know this?"

Ember:"My scouts say that a crow landed yesterday. Soon after, one thousand foot soldiers left the battle field."

White elf:"What?"

Ember points at the map."He's here in the Avari forest near the town of Strâd. I'll go there and persuade him into helping us."

White elf:"Slow down. What makes you think he'll be on our side? What makes you think he'll even care?"

Ember:"I'll pay him", she pulls out a pouch of diamonds,"I'll even throw in myself if I have to."

Green elf:"Does he have a name?"

Ember:"They call him the PHANTOM."

White elf:"Phantom? I think I heard of him. The man who escaped from Armstrong in the eastern capital?"

Ember:"Yes. He's our man."

Black elf:"Are you absolutely sure about this

Ember:"Yes."

Black elf sighs:"Then go. Get across the border and get him to join us. If he has any followers bring them too. Well need all the help we can get."

Ember:"Understood. I'll bring the Phantom."

—————————

Phantom return to his cabin.

Daisy:"You've been gone for six days I was worried. Are you okay?"

Phantom:"I'm fine. Where's the wolf?"

Daisy:"Oh I let him out."

Phantom:"WHAT?!"

Daisy:"Don't worry,"the wolf returns to the cabin, but he's slightly smaller than a golden retriever,"see? He's back."

Phantom:"How is he so big?"

Daisy:"Well he's a black scar wolf."

Phantom:"What?"

Daisy:"See? He's grey with black fur in the shape of a scar on his side."

Phantom:"Alright but what does that have to do with his size?"

Daisy:"Well, a long long time ago, when men were excessively hunting, they almost killed of the entire black scar wolf population. Then, the goddess of the earth, Terra, blessed them with growth. The pups grew to full size and they fought back against the humans in large packs. The wolves inherited this and passed it down. They now grow to full size in about two weeks."

Phantom:"Guess that's good."

He sits down on the desk and starts fixing his necklaces.

Daisy:"Someone broke them?"

Phantom:"No, he just cut the strings."

Daisy plays with the wolf:"Who's a good boy? You are. Yes you are. And you need a name."

Phantom:"No he doesn't."

Daisy:"Ahhh c'mon." She starts chanting "name" and wolf starts barking.

Phantom:"FINE...", sighs,"Hannibal."

Daisy:"What?"

Phantom:"His name will be Hannibal."

Daisy:"Pretty weird name, but sure. Henibal!"

Phantom:"It's HANNIBAL!"

Daisy:"Sorry. Hannibal."

Phantom fixes his necklaces and hangs them on a nail on the wall. We see that it's an orthodox Christian cross and dog tags that say"Yuri Maksimov"

Yuri:"I need some sleep."

Daisy:"Are you sure you're alright Yuri."

Yuri:"I'm fine I just need sleep."

They all go to sleep.

End of ARC 1