Commander Aldric had served the Royal Family for twenty-three years.
Twenty-three years of loyalty. Of following orders without question. Of leading men into battle and bringing them home.
And this was how it ended.
The arrow pierced Aldric's knee from behind before he even heard the bowstring snap.
He staggered, hand flying to his leg, feeling the warm gush of blood between his fingers as the world tilted sideways. Through dimming vision, he saw Casimir lower the crossbow, his face twisted with a sadistic grin, trying to keep an outburst of laughter in as he stood on the hill looking down on Aldric.
"What a tragedy…" Casimir murmured to the other soldiers flanking him, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. "That this is how the mighty Commander Aldric goes out."
The wolves circled Aldric like sharks that smelt blood, each the size of a warhorse.
"Ravaged by those very beasts he sought to hunt."
Aldric stood at the center of their tightening ring, forcing his knees not to buckle, his breathing not to quicken. When he drew his sword, the blade trembled before steadying.
The first wolf lunged for his throat.
He gutted it mid-leap, steel finding flesh just barely in time. The creature's momentum carried it past him in a spray of black blood.
Then the second hit him from the side, jaws clamping around his shoulder. The third went for his legs.
He went down hard. His blade spun from his grip, glinting once before disappearing into the undergrowth.
Pain exploded across his body as teeth found flesh. He tried to fight, tried to struggle, but there were too many of them, too much weight, too much-
His vision blurred red.
'Twenty-three years.' he thought as fangs closed around his throat. 'And I die like livestock.'
The world went dark.
And then it didn't.
Something-someone had arrived before death.
Aldric's eyes snapped open.
He was still on the ground. Still surrounded by wolves. Still bleeding from a dozen wounds that should have killed him.
But the pain was... fading. Rapidly.
He felt his throat move, tissue knitting together, torn muscle regenerating.
'What-'
But before he could finish his thought, he felt it.
For one terrible moment, there were two things existing in the same space that was his body: himself, dying, and something that absolutely should not be there.
Then the presence pushed, and Aldric….
…disappeared.
He wasn't gone. Just... moved aside. Shoved into a corner of his own mind, a passenger in a body that no longer answered him and then he faded out, everything turning to black as if he was back in his mother's womb.
CRUNCH
The wolf's jaws closed on Aldric's throat.
Or tried to.
The flesh beneath its teeth moved. The wound that had been pouring blood suddenly reversed, tissue knitting back together with audible pops and cracks.
The wolf jerked back, confused.
Aldric's body sat up.
Smoothly. Calmly. As if rising from a nap rather than a mauling that should have been fatal.
The wounds across his chest sealed. The arrow in his knee pushed itself out with a wet sound as the joint repaired. Broken ribs shifted back into place with crackling pops.
The wolves backed away, growling uncertainly.
'Not bad, not bad at all.'
Verum flexed his new fingers, testing the body's responses.
'Just when I was contemplating how to infiltrate Theron's compound, opportunity arrives at my feet. Perfect timing. Perfect vessel. And best of all...'
He looked up at the wolves, then past them, toward where Casimir and his companions had fled.
'Witnesses who'll spread the most delicious rumors about a dead man who won't stay dead.'
Aldric's face split into a smile.
And what followed wasn't a fight.
It was a slaughter.
The first wolf lunged for his throat. Verum caught it mid-air, fingers digging into its skull, and twisted. The crack echoed through the forest. He threw the corpse aside without looking.
The second came low. He stomped down on its spine with enough force to shatter bone, then grabbed a third by the scruff and used it as a bludgeon against a fourth.
And through it all, Verum made sure to get as much blood on himself as possible.
He let claws rake across his chest, making shallow wounds that regenerated almost instantly. Let teeth sink into his arm, pulling the wolf close enough to snap its neck, painting himself with arterial spray. Grabbed another by the jaw and tore it apart, bathing in the gore.
When the last wolf turned tail and ran, Verum stood in the center of a circle of corpses, dripping with blood that wasn't his own, breathing steadily despite wounds that would have dropped an ox.
'Perfect.'
He looked down at himself and grinned as he began walking.
It was time for the witnesses.
He caught up to the nobles within ten minutes.
The horses had slowed to an uneasy trot, ears flat against their skulls, tossing their heads nervously. They knew something was wrong but couldn't articulate what. Meanwhile, the men riding them were blissfully unaware, laughing away, congratulating Casimir, already dividing up the spoils of Aldric's death.
"-promoted to Commander by week's end, mark my words-"
"-and his estates will revert to the crown, which means-"
"-should've seen his face when he realized-"
NEIIIGHHH
But their conversations were cut short by their steeds' screams.
Screams of pure terror.
All three horses threw their riders simultaneously and bolted into the forest.
The soldiers hit the ground hard. Casimir scrambled to his feet first, hand going to his sword, the others struggling up beside him as all three riders turned to look behind them.
Aldric's body, covered in blood and scars, walking with the relentless pace of something that didn't need to rest. Wounds that should have been fatal were simply gone, leaving only pale scars amid the gore. His eyes glowed faintly in the fading light as he came to a stop a mere ten meters away.
"Aldric?" Casimir's voice shook. "Commander Aldric?"
But the only answer he received was the overwhelming silence that echoed through the plain.
Aldric's face moved into something that might have been a smile on a living man but looked demonic in his current form. The expression didn't reach the eyes. Nothing reached the eyes.
"Kel'vash." Verum called out in that ancient tongue, then switched to common speech, letting his voice drop to something cold and empty.
"How... disappointing."
He paused, long enough to make it uncomfortable.
"We...we're not... finished yet."
Each word came out separated, weighted with something that made them feel like accusations.
And with that, Commander Aldric took a step forward.
Slow. Deliberate. Each step leaving bloody footprints.
"You-you're alive!" One of the younger soldiers, Brennik, shouted, his tone trying for relief and landing somewhere near hysteria. "The beasts-w-we thought…."
Nine meters became eight.
"We were coming back!" Casimir added, his hand white-knuckled on his sword hilt. "We were going to-to get help, to-"
But Aldric didn't respond. Didn't acknowledge the words at all.
Just kept walking.
Seven meters.
Six.
"Stay back!" Brennik's voice cracked. "Commander, I order you to-"
Five meters.
Brennik panicked and drew his sword with a metallic rasp that sounded too loud in the thick silence. "I'm warning you!"
Verum stopped and allowed his smile to widen fractionally as Brennik lunged.
It was a decent thrust, proper form, good extension. Would have skewered most men.
The blade sank ten centimeters into Aldric's chest with a wet sound.
Verum looked down at it.
Looked back up at the young noble.
And smiled wider.
Then he grabbed the blade with his bare hand and pulled it deeper. Another ten centimetres. The steel punched through his back, tip emerging dark with blood.
"Ves'korim." Verum said almost pleasantly. Almost… fondly.
He yanked the sword free, just ripped it out of the noble's shocked grip, and examined it with Aldric's eyes.
Brennik made a choking sound as he stumbled backward, face gone the color of spoiled milk.
And Verum moved.
One moment he was standing five meters away, sword held loosely.
The next, the blade had completed its arc and Brennik's head was separating from his shoulders, still wearing that expression of absolute horror, mouth open in a scream that would never emerge.
The body stood for a heartbeat longer as blood fountained from the stump of its neck in rhythmic spurts.
Crumpling like a puppet with cut strings.
THUD
The head hit the ground and rolled, coming to rest facing Casimir and the last soldier, eyes still wide and staring.
Then Verum took another step forward.
Casimir broke.
"RUN!" He grabbed the last soldier's arm and they fled, stumbling over each other in their panic, crashing through the underbrush like wounded animals.
Verum watched them go, still smiling that corpse-smile.
'Time for my dramatic entrance.'