𝙳𝚊𝚜 𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚣: 𝙱𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝙴𝚒𝚗𝚜

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟖

𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙫𝙤𝙩𝙚, 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚

𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝕗𝕠𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨!

Outside Loviturä, the soldiers climb a hillside, accompanied by the Gypsy. "So, why are we here?" The bright moon lights the land.

As Lorelei begins to respond to Koza's question, "Because-"

"We must learn how the changes to our bodies affect our fighting." Eber steals the answer as he passes by her continuing up the hill.

"Yes." She frowns her eyebrows that he interrupted her and picks up her pace to get ahead of him once more. They reach the top and settle for a flat section of land.

"And how are we going to learn about these changes?" Koza asks as he surveys the surroundings.

She takes a stance in front of the men. "Simple... fight for your lives." The night shifts, as if something controls it. The trees grow darker and slowly this feeling of despair spreads like a low fog across the ground. "Before you died you were soldiers of the King, now you are predators of the Devil."

The moon begins to shine brighter in this place of increasing darkness, stretching the shadows of the men. Koza watches the woman as her blue eyes start to match the brightness of the moon above. Suddenly, Koza's stretching shadow begins to move, to twist and coil on the grassy dirt. It is no longer the flat image of the soldier. The thing rises from the ground and draws the reflecting image of Koza's sword. The soldier stands agape at the sight. Ermanno and Thayer look on in amazement, while Eber seems to have seen this trick before. The shadow swipes at

Koza who ducks out of reflex. He swears he could feel the air rush by him from the swipe.

The shadow lunges for him and he jumps back, avoiding contact with its blade, his blade, "If this thing is real enough to strike, then surely it is real enough to be killed, but is it possible to kill a shadow?" his mind races with other worldly questions and presumed answers. Finally, the shadow strikes a tree cutting a limb clean off. Koza watches the limb fall in front of him and he looks up in shock at the wavy image he can't escape.

Koza closes his eyes and waits as the shadow draws back for another swing, then just as it moves to attack, it bows back to the ground at his feet and becomes a part of him again. "I am not impressed," the woman picks at him, having had to call the creature off to spare him. Koza passes his shaky gaze to Eber and can see the man is thinking the same thing of him. He drops his eyes to the ground at his shadow as he breathes heavily, regaining his composure.

Ermanno chuckles drawing all to look at him. "You may have creepy shadows, but you're still just a woman. Let me show you what I can do." He pulls the large battle axe from his back and runs at her screaming. His enthusiasm is unmatched as he rushes her. But just as he reaches her and draws back with the deadly weapon, she yanks a colorful bandana from her mess of clothes and as if it takes a life of its own wraps itself around Ermanno's head. He swings the axe and misses now being unable to see. With a light poke, she sends him rolling and yelling down the hill they had all labored to climb.

After an enjoyable pause, watching the crazy bald man, she turns to the youngest. Thayer meets her gaze and she asks, "And you young one?"

Thayer stutters his answer, "If Koza didn't stand a chance then neither do I."

To justify his young friend's fear, Koza speaks up, "We have never known anything like you. You are another level of battle."

She stares at him blandly. "A level you now stand on with me." Koza and Thayer pay heed to her words knowing she has wisdom of things that to them were only fables. "Widen your eyes soldiers, your time of human wars has passed." Ermanno finally reaches the top of the hill having ripped apart the bandana, leaving shreds of it on his clothing. "Spend the night fighting amongst yourselves if need be for the importance of learning what you can now do, is immeasurable."

A short time passes and Eber stands at the treeline with his arms folded, while watching the familiar sight of his men practicing. Little by little one of them discovers another inhuman trait and works to hone it. They begin to move away from the necessity of their weapons, finding otherworldly strength and speed, even hearing and smell to aid them as well as a sharp blade or arrow. The skill Ermanno appears to favor is his new capability to appease his savagery to its fullest. Ermanno gives an animal yell and lunges for Thayer who chooses to run. "The bald man is insane," Lorelei comments sitting on a rounded stone by Eber.

"Each one of them possesses something useful to me," he replies drably.

She turns her gaze up to him with a smirk. "Tell me."

"Thayer is a mother's son. He is a cowered in hand to hand combat, but left to himself in a place that offers stealth, he is the best shot with a bow and arrow I have ever seen."

She toys with a lackluster finger on her lip. "To impress you is impressive." She smirks. "And the crazy one?"

The scene of Ermanno chasing Thayer with a smile of crooked pointy teeth spread on his face and Koza trying to bring a stop to it. Eber drops his gaze down to her. "He is... eager."

Lorelei studies Koza closely. "Koza is special now, but what made him so in life?"

The commander watches his young Captain. "Loyalty."

"Feel you can turn your back on him do you?" she smirks sideways up to him.

"He's the only one." Eber reconsiders his thoughts and turns his expressionless gaze down at her. "Other than you." It is a statement said coldly, but suggests a warmth that existed at one time, a time Lorelei's gaze lowers to the ground in thought of.

"Commander!" Koza calls as he approaches. "I believe Ermanno is undergoing rigor mortis."

They turn their attention outward and see Ermanno convulsing on the ground. He thrashes like a man more wild than usual. Thayer is attempting to single-handedly hold him down as Koza rushes to help his friend in the task. Hurriedly, the Gypsy grabs one of the sticks which the forest has plentifully provided on the ground. She kneels beside the thrashing bald man and commands Koza to open the man's mouth. Koza grabs Ermanno's gnashing jaw. "Take care he does not bite off your fingers!" the Gypsy orders in a high voice to try and overtake Ermanno's booming yells of muscle twisting pain. Koza pulls at Ermanno's jaw, opening his mouth as Lorelei braces the stick between his teeth. Eber stands, watching over the scene. Of a sudden, Thayer heaves backwards and begins the same convulsions as Ermanno. The man being younger than even Koza, his screams are higher pitched than Ermanno and even the more indicating of great pain. The woman tells Koza to focus on Ermanno while she tasks herself with the smaller man.

An hour or so later, Koza, Thayer and Ermanno rest themselves on the dirt, having each undergone their own torture of rigor mortis, not even after they had been killed on the battlefield have they looked so dead. Lorelei sits resting on a downed tree while Eber sits beside her. Aware of all their eyes as they stare at him merely waiting, wondering when the Commander would be next to writhe. "Stop staring at me." His voice is low and not accepting of their glares.

The Gypsy leads the turn of all their heads to look elsewhere. After perusing her gaze over the tattered men, she gets to her feet in a huff of breath. "Well!" All eyes go to her. "I am sure your muscles feel abusively strained." A collective groan comes from the lot. "Come!" she says sharply and begins to head back towards Loviturä.

Koza stretches the tendons in his neck to watch her. "What now?!" he shouts to the woman leaving them behind.

She turns and with a less mischievous grin than usual says, "Sweet relief."