Chapter 1: Stygrian

Cade stumbled at the edge of the escarpment. He teetered trying to balance himself from falling over. He wasn’t used to moving so fast while holding a baby. He wasn’t used to holding a baby at all. He wiped the blood from his eyes. He had to keep moving.

“Sytrgian!” an unnaturally loud voice echoed through the dense forest. They were getting closer. Cade carefully lowered himself down the embarkment and slide down to the edge of the ravine. He held his son close to his chest, avoiding knotted roots and other plant life. This wasn’t how things were supposed to have gone.

He looked down at his son, asleep in his arms as he splashed across the the knee deep stream. The running water, would at least keep some of them at bay.

“Sytrgian!” the voice yelled again, a chill running up Cade’s spine. He couldn’t let Thalric catch up to him. Not when he was so close. If they overpowered him and managed to get a hold of his son….

He pushed the thought out of his mind. He didn’t want to think about his son’s fate in her hands. What that would mean for the entire world.

“We have your scent!” Thalric’s voice echoed, “Give him to us and I will give you a clean death.”

Cade held his son close and pushed through the branches overlooking the river and pulled himself up onto the shore. They would be on him in seconds. He hadn’t had time to take any of his armor or other items. The only thing he had was the clothes on his back and the Lunarian pendant. Another precious item he could not let fall into their hands.

He pulled himself up by the roots of a tree and hauled himself over the side of the ridge. His son whimpered in his arms. Cade grimaced, ready for the child’s cries to give away his location.

“It’s going to be okay,” Cade said softly, quickly adjusting the blanket that held his son tightly. The sounds of boots splashing against the water behind him made him pick up his pace. They would be on him soon. He couldn’t out run them. Not here. Not without his gear. He would have to stand and fight.

“Stygrian,” a mocking voice said from behind him. Cade stopped in his tracks and turned to face his pursuers. Thalic stood in the moonlight, his yellow eyes piercing the darkness between them. His unnaturally pale skin and pointed nose almost illuminating in the dark forest. A dozen of his thralls stumbled up and stopped behind him, quickly followed by helmeted men in dark plate armor. A hulking figure stood at their rear, one of the beastkin. A large creature that stood a few heads taller than Thalic with rippling dark muscles and the head of a wolf.

“Stygrian,” Thalic strolled back and forth in front of his thralls with a fake casualiness, “That child has a destiny and it is not with you. Hand it over now and I will cleave off your head quickly.”

Cade didn’t respond. He held his son close to his chest and grasped the Lunarian pendant with his free hand, “Old friend, I need you once more.”

An ethereal shadow slunk out from the pendant, swirling next to Cade’s feet. The shadow continued to swirl, forming a large mass beside him. The shadows began to coaless, forming a giant umbrawolf, whose head stood above Cade’s shoulders. Despite now being a shadow, the worlf faintly glowed in the moonlight, its yellow eyes unflinching staring at the amassed enemies in front of it. It lowered its head and snarled, its lips retracting showing a row of gleaming teeth.

“You’re pet won’t be able to help you,” Thalic mused. While he strolled casually back and forth, Cade didn’t miss the creature’s finger’s growing longer like talons. He was preparing to strike.

Cade wanted to look down at his son but knew better than to take his eyes off the amassed creatures and men in front of him. He pulled the blanket tightly around his son and pulled him off his chest. He held the child up to the snarling mouth of his familiar, “Take him away.”

The wolf looked at him uncertainly but Cade’s eyes never left the forces amassed in front of him. He nodded to his old companion. The wolf wanted to fight. It wanted to draw blood. It didn’t run unless it was hunting. It bowed its head and bite down on the knot that held the blanket tight around his son. The child hung down under the wolf’s jaw, who was slowly backing away, eyes still trained its master’s enemies.

“Excellent,” Thalis hissed, a smile creeping over his face. Blood ran from his mouth as his fangs pushed down through his gums, overlapping his human teeth. In the dark, the vampire would be at his full strength. “If you fought, Erthera promised I could have you. You’ll be a powerful addition to my army.”

Cade felt his wolf pull back into the darkness of the forest behind him. He wiped the blood from his forehead, then held his hand out to the side. Shadows swirled again, forming a dark, curving sword. The sinister blade was ebony, its hilt silver with a red gem on the pommel.

“You shall be sorely disappointed,” Cade’s other hand sprang up, palm outstretched towards Thalis. The vampire snarled, face morphing from a handsome man to the real creature it was beneath.

Cade felt the power surge through his arm. Electricity filled the air, Cade’s outstretched hand crackled. The wind and shadows seemed to bend around him, whipping his dark hair into a frenzy. The thralls surged forward as black lightning exploded from Cade’s palm, it arc’d into three of the formerly human thralls before chaining to three more behind them. The black lightining cooked them from the inside out, charring their skin before their bodies fell to the ground.

Cade dashed forward, into the oncoming horde. A thrall dove towards him, hards clasping at his throat. He spun back, slashing its hands clean off with his sword before decpatiating it. Black lightening coasred through his veins as he grabbed the thrall and hurled it at the oncoming men in plate. Cade smiled and unlashed a barrage of lightening at them. It poured into the metal armor of six of the men. They went ridgid as the lightening bounced around their bodies, between their helmet, breast plate and boots. Sizzling filled his ears as the scent of burnt flesh filled the air.

He’d lost track of Thalius but he pushed forward, dancing amongst the thralls and armored soldiers. Slicing off limbs and electryiging anything that moved. He danced amongst them, falling into his familiar stance. He didn’t have time to impale any of them, unless he wanted to be overwhelmed. He needed to keep moving, turning, evading.

A thrall pulled his cloak from behind, making him stumble. Cade whirled and stabbed back, his sword piecing the thrall’s neck. Lightening shot down his arm and into sinister sword. The creature’s eyes exploded leaving nothing but burnt eye sockets behind.

Something large crashed into Cade. His back collided into a tree, inhumanley strong arms held him in the air. The beastskin roared, its maw opening frighteningly large as it bit down on Cade’s shoulder.

“Ughhn,” Cade groaned as the creature’s teeth sunk deep into his flesh. An armored soldier raised his sword over his head and screamed, running at Cade. He needed to move. Cade dismissed his sword. It puffed away, leaving a billow of smoke behind.

The beastkin shook his head, ripping through more of Cade’s flesh. Cade grabbed the creature on both side of the head and shot black lightening between his palms. The lightening shot from one hand into the other, through the creature’s skull.

He creature whimpered before it’s jaw went slack and it slumped over, dropping Cade to the ground. Cade groaned as he hit the ground. The incoming soldier yelled again and Cade rolled to the side as the soldier’s sword pierce the ground where he had just been. Cade shot his hand out towards the soldier and resummoned his sword. He lunged forward and thrust his sword through the man’s temple.

Cade stumbled to his feet, holding his shoulder, the beastskin had managed to piece his enhanced leathers and tore through his skin. Blood poured down his body. Cade stared at the thralls and remaining soldiers who were beginning to circle him.

His quick gamble, dashing into their their mindsts had thrown them off but momentary pause while he had been pinned against the tree had given them time to regroup. The soldiers raised their swords, preparing themselves for his attacks. The thralls’s hunched over, fingers turning to talons, preparing to strike. Cade was surrounded.

He summoned the black lightning once again. “Light the way, leave the echo,” he muttered. The a brilliant flash of black lightening exploded out of him. The thralls reered back and the soldiers hit the ground to avoid the strike. The after image of Cade stood in the centre of them, burning a brilliant black and blue into their irsis.

Cade was behind them in an instant, slashing with his sword, firing lightening through his palm. He bisected a thrall, quickly spinning to parry a thrust from a soldier. He palmed the man’s helmet and send an arc of lightening through it to another soldier behind him, killing them both. Two more soldiers charged at him, swords raised high into the air to slash downwards.

Lightening pieced the the treetops, setting the canopy a blaze as it streamed into both swords. The men shook violently for several seconds before slumping over, smoke rising from their burnt corpses.

Something slashed at his back, forcing him to his knees. Talon like fingers grasped his head, pulling it the side as sharp fangs bit down on his neck. Thalis. Cade blinked feeling the world spin as the vampire’s sanguine taint flooded into his veins. The vampire held him as the creature’s toxin began to take effect. He felt a sense of peace and the world drifting away as a pair of thralls grabbed his hands holding them to the side.

Why were they even doing that? It all seemed so strange. All he wanted to do was lay down and rest.

Thalius’ teeth retracted from Cade’s neck and he whispered, “You’re mine Stygrian. Together we will end the wolf and bring the boy back to Erethra so she can complete the ritual.”

What was he talking about? Why did he call him Stygrian again? He knew what the wolf was….and the boy…Cade’s son. He’d been protecting him. Protecting him from her.

“No,” Cade muttered, a whisper of energy spreading through him. Thalius snarled and sunk his teeth into Cade’s neck again. He could feel the vampire’s toxin being injected into his veins. The last two thralls holding his arms bit down on his exposed flesh.

“NO,” Cade bellowed. Black lightening shot through his veins, burning away all of Thalius’ taint.

“NO,” Cade yelled again. The sky split open with an ear-splitting roar as a jagged black lightening bolt shot down from the heavens. It split the air with a flash of pure searing light igniting the treetops in flame, and pierced Cade’s chest.

His muscled locked up as the lightening surged through his veins. Cade’s skin shimmered with deadly energy, glowing briefly before lightening exploded from his chest in a binding wave of destruction.

The explosive force radiated outward, sending a shockwave of heat and destruction around him. The thralls on his arms turned to ash and Thalius released a blood curtling scream in Cade’s ear. The ground cracked open around them as if the world itself recoiled in terror. The trees around them uprooted, their charred remains toppling over like matchsticks.

For a instant the air itself seemed to bend and crack around them. Flames swept down the tree trunks in all direction. The jagged bolt of lightening leaving an after image burned into the sky.

Cade, battered and scorched, pushed himself uneasily to his feet. He stood at the center of the devastation, his chest heaving with ragged breaths. The remnant of his aorrudings, twisted and burned by the power he had called down. Everything had been turned to ash, the area permanently altered by the violent clash of divine power and human will.

He looked down at the piles of ash at his feet – the two former thralls. Cade’s eyes scanned the devastation around him. Thalius was gone, but Cade hadn’t slain him. He hadn’t felt that addictive rush of power flood into his body with each life he took. The vampire lived.

Cade took a step forward and stumbled. He felt at his belt for a healing potion but they had all been destroyed in the blast. His breathing ragged, Cade limped deeper into the forest in the direction of his familiar’s presence. Toward his son.