The Nameless Warrior's page

The clouds were out in force, thick and black. Covering the shining stars and illuminating moon, letting only torches and lanterns be the lights of the ground below, all whilst the wind howled and roared like a snarling melee of dragons. Destructive and merciless towards all those caught within their grasp, beaten down the poor mortal fools that braved this turmolous weather, breaking fences and uprooting trees, as well as blowing out many of those flicking flames that were meant to illuminate the ground below. As if this was not enough, the rain poured down from the world above as if several Decanters of Endless Waters had opened up by those who ruled the heaven, swelling rivers until they burst out from their banks, creating lakes where there was once fields, and causing many a muddy paths to transform into boot-sucking swamps that tugged and pulled at all those whose squelched through it.

Yes... only the foolhardy, the insane, or the desperate would be out in this weather... and Jaido Daz, Kennel Master of the tyrannical Prince Rithautvim Starbinder, could very easily be described as all three. Being that he willing walked down from the grim, imposing castle, overlooking the town a dragon overlooking its hoard, despite this heavy and chaotic weather. All so he could join his friends within the warmth of this small town’s tavern. If it was up to him, he would have left the castle hours ago, and already have a mug or two of ale warming his belly. Alas, circumstances meant that if was very late by the time that stumbled into the wide open room.

“Bloody hell Jaido, you look like a drowned rat! And here we thought that the esteemed kennelmaster of our glorious prince-in-exile Rithautvim Starbinder had finally realised that he was too good for us common folk.”

“Ah shut your trap Bader.” Jaido replied good naturedly as he trumped over to join his friends at the hearth. Pulling his soaked gloves off and remove his cloak, hanging them up to try before slumping down in an empty chair. One of the lot shoved over his mug, and Jaido took it with a cheers. Downing several mouthfuls of the ale before slamming it down on the table. “The honourable prince’s prize b~*!@ decided to have her litter a month early, meaning I had to spend hours fightings to keep her and her pups alive. Most of the pups didn’t make it, and the one that did is unlikely to survive the night. Can’t do anything else through, so I left my apprentice to look after the pup and the b$&+*.” With this news shared, Jaido took another gulp of the ale, before pushing the mug back across the table to its owner, relaxing back against his chair and asked with a burp. “So, anything interesting happening in this dismal town?”

At this, Bader grinned and learned forwards conspiracy, glancing around the tavern before speaking lowly. “Some say, that The Nameless Warrior himself is nearby and might even pass through the town!”

Jaido stared at Bader, the older man was well known for spinning tales and telling lies to try and provoke a response from his audience. Yet Jaido had known Bader for years, and felt that he had a good handle at knowing when the old man was making up s#$*... and at this moment, Jaido saw none of those signs, none of the tells that reflected Bader’s delight in tricking others... which only meant he was telling the truth... or at at the very least, believed he was telling the truth.

“Get real! The Nameless Warrior? Coming here? What would a guy like him do that for? You’ve heard the stories Bader, they say he took on a family of eighteen powerful dragons with nothing more than a sling and a stick!”

“Thirteen dragons. Five of which weren’t even Juvenile, hardly a powerful creature.” This new, sudden voice nearly had Jaido falling back out of his seat in shock. The kennel master's head whipping round to stare at the bar in surprise. As he had been sure that there was nobody sitting there when he first came in! Yet regardless of that impression, there was no denying that there was a stranger sitting there in plain view. Head and shoulders above Jaido in height, through his robes made it difficult to judge his build and stature properly. His hair was a dark brown, and as he spared the table a glance, Jaido noted that his eyes were a surprisingly bright, if cold, blue. By his side seemed to be an oddly shaped metal staff, with a device on the top... a device that was wrapped in cloth.

“Nine hells, how long have you been there?” Jaido asked in shock, through he got no answer from the stranger as he turned back to the mug he was nursing. Instead, a man by the name of Hordel answered in his place.

“He’s been here all evening mate, he was there since I first arrived... and your not the only one to overlook him till he spoke. And he only speaks to correct us on what The Nameless Warrior’s done.”

“Really? He’s basically saying he knows the stories better than us?” Jaido said, his skepticism easily read in both his face and tone of voice. Seeing the nods of the others he soon scoffed, asking. “Like what mistakes have we supposedly made that our fine guest has correct?”

“Well supposedly, he didn’t betray Azrael in the battle against Ocrus, the angle backstabbed him during the fight, only he lived and fought back.” Bader took over once more, more than happy to explained what was supposedly true about the tales of perhaps one of the most famous ‘humans’ in the world. “Nor did he defeat Ares in single combat, he only defeated an avatar of Ares, so he’s still uncertain how he would actually compare to a god.”

“I never did believe that story.” Jaido said, only to receive a glare for his interruption. “Sorry.”

“Supposedly he held the Serpent Bank Bridge against the Horde of the Black Sun for eight days and eight nights, not the seven days in which the stories claim. And when faced against the Justicar’s of Asmesha, there was actually nine of them, despite the fact that Asmesha upholds only seven virtues. Also he never did keep track of the amount of different creatures and beings he had slain over the eons of his life, but if he did it it quite unlikely to take an entire week to say.”

“That’s a handful of stories alright.” Jaido said, glancing over at the stranger again, before turning back to Bader with a shrug. “By the Abyss, I have no clue if he’s right or wrong. The Nameless’ Warriors stories are always a jumbled mess. Shame we don’t have him here to answer our questions for us.”

There was a round of laughter at Jaido’s statement, no one believing that such a legendary, nay, mythic figure would ever spend time with such common people, let alone spend so much time answering their likely thousands of questions.

Laughter that was immediately cut off at the tavern door was slammed opened and a troupe of heavily armoured guards strode into the tavern, soon followed by a tall, imposing and ugly figure. The half-orge prince of the region, whose mother famously used magic to disguise herself as a fair maiden and seduced the king whilst he was away from the capital. A prince whose ugliness in physical appearance was matched only by his ugly temperament love for causing pain and misery on to others. A prince that was discovered to be planning to kill the King and take his throne first earning him and exile do the farthest reaches of the kingdom until he had learnt better... Through those who lived in this dismal town know that the exile simply made the prince worse. Behind him stood a being hidden within a black robe, a sorcerer who had come into the prince's employe after his exile. With many people believing that this sorcerer was actually a necromancer of the black ring. From the lack of rain upon the prince's formed as his beady eye swept through the tavern it was clear that the sorcerer has used his magic to keep the group dry and warm as they strode out into the storm.

It did not take long for the prince’s eyes to settle upon his kennel master and his visage to twist into an ugly snarl as he strode forwards, the others in the on the table quickly scrambling away leaving Jaido alone as the prince’s hand swifty found his throat. “Astro is dead.” The prince growled, lifting the choking kennel master up off his chair, hoisting him up in the air as the unfortunate Jaido scratched at the hand cutting off his air flow. “My prize b$!@+, who cared for me even when that bastard of a king and all of his servants and lords didn’t, is dead. And where do I find the kennel master, who is meant to keep her alive? At her side, fighting to keep her alive? No! I find him in the tavern, drinking himself stupid instead of doing his job!”

Lifting Jaido up a little more, Rithautvim slammed the poor kennel master onto the table, scattering the mugs and cracking the wooden table... and nearly Jaido’s back as the prince snarled. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t drag you back to the castle and have you strung up by your entrails!” Softening his grip, Rithautvim waited as Jaido took several gasps of breath, bother struggling to find the words to save his life.

“M-milord... I-I had done all I could! T-there was nothing else I could do. Astro was just too old, too weak-”

“ASTRO WAS NEVER WEAK!” Rithautvim’s roar drowned out Jaido’s desperate explinations, his grip almost crushing Jaido’s windpipe as he picked the kennel master up. Pulling Jaido up to his face, spittle flying from the half-orge’s lips as he shouted. “ASTRO’S DEATH IS YOUR FAULT!” Seconds later, Jaido was able to breath once more... if only because Rithautvim had thrown him towards the bar with all of his strength. The kennel master flailing in the air, trying desperately to catch something, to do somehow slow himself down and arrest his monument before he crashed into the bottles and jugs stacked beneath the bar...!

And suddenly found himself caught in a grip. A grip whose strength was nothing like Jaido had known before. His eyes slowly shifted from the surprised and startled Rithautvim, to the bar-sitting stranger who hadn’t even turned to look at the commintion, holding Jaito by the scruff off his neck as easily as a pup, before depositing the kennel master on his feet. For a moments, there was silence, the people of the tavern needing a few seconds to realise that yes, this stranger had been able to use one hand to casually catch the flying Jaido, and do so in a way that hurt neither himself or Jaido...

Rithautvim was the first one to recover, and stepped forwards. A horrifying smirk crossing his face as he considered this stranger. “Well well well, what do we have here? A newcomer to the town... a newcomer who has already shown themselves to be-”

“Not interested.” Rithautvim’s eyes bulged as the stranger simply cut him off, not even allowed him to finish his talk. Growling, he strode forwards, reaching out grab the stranger’s shoulder.

“How dare you-” Once more, Rithautvim was interrupted. This time by the stranger grabbing the prince’s wrist. A snapping sound echoed through the tavern as the stranger affixed Rithautvim with a piercing glare, one that seemed to bore through all of his bluster, all of his self-pity and rage at the world. Cutting right down to the spoiled brat who demanded that the world did what he pleased for it.

“I said. I’m not interested.” Was all the stranger said, before letting Rithautvim go. Allowing the half-orge to stumble backwards in shock, nursing his broken hand. For a brief second, Rithautvim hesitated, seeing the clear judgement in the stranger’s eyes... then his hesitation was consumed by rage. What did this stranger know off him!?

“Guards! Seize this man and my ex-kennel master! It seems we need to remind the populace whose in charge around here!” Grinning, the guards drew their blades, advancing on the unarmoured and unarmed stranger, as well as the terrified Jaido... the stranger however, simply sighed and reached for his staff.

The events that followed happened so swiftly that even years afterwards, Jaido struggled to believe that they actually happened the way they did.

With a casual flick of the staff, the stranger knocked the first guard’s blade from his grasp, setting the weapon spinning round so the handle slammed into the guard’s unprotected throat, causing the guard to drop like a stone.

The second guard swung at the stranger with a powerful, two-handed downwards strike. But a simply twirl of the staff had the clothed object intercepting the sword, shattering it in two. Without missing a beat, the broken front of the blade was grasped and driven through the guard’s hand. Slamming it and his hand into the table.

The third darted forwards, trying to follow forwards with lighting swift lunge, and landed a direct hit on the stranger’s throat... yet the blade simply skidded off to the side, and the guard stumbled forwards, unbalanced. Straight into the butt off the staff, launching him back into the fourth guard, knocking both of them back into the wall at the back of the tavern.

Even as Rithautvim, Jaido and the rest of the tavern goes tried to comprehend what had just happened, the stranger’s hand flicked out, spending the staff spinning across the room. Slamming into the black robed sorcerer’s head and knocking him out cold. With the staff then bouncing back into the stranger’s waiting hand. Where he simply placed it back against the bar and turned back to his drink.

He had never turned to face against the guards once during this ‘fight’.

“By the way. Rithautvim wasn’t it? Your father had a spy amongst yours staff, and he is quite disappointed to hear you are dealing with necromancers and demons. He’s on his way here with a small squad of royal guard and battlemages to take you into custody.” Stunned by the swift and devastating defeat off his guards, and the news that the plans he had been laying out carefully and methodically for years was about to come crumbling down around his ears, Rithautvim reacted in the only way he knew how.

Rage.

“MAY THE NINE HELLS TAKE YOU.” He bellowed, swinging at the stranger with a devastating left hook... that had not even closed half the distance between them before the stranger’s fist slammed into his chin in an uppercut that have Rithautvim’s head knocked back...

And with a wet rip, wrenched his head off his neck entirely, the now free bodily part launching upwards until it embedded itself in the wooden roof of the tavern. The rest of his body soon collapsing in a heap on the floor. All whilst the stranger sighed once more and finished his drink.

“I always forget how fragile people actually are...” With his drink finished, he placed several coins on the bar, saying. “This should cover my drinks... and the mess.” Standing up, he headed for the exit. Ignoring the stunned looks that followed him as he went... only to stop as Jaido called out to him.

“Your him, aren’t you?” Jaido’s voice was low, and awe-filled whisper as he began to comprehend just who this stranger actually was. “The one we were talking about, The Nameless Warrior... your him, aren’t you?” Those last few words were less a question, than a statement of fact. To which the stranger glanced back, replying with a mild.

“How else would I know the truth of the stories?” With that, the stranger took his leave. Exiting Jaido’s live as swiftly as he had entered it.