From the Ashes

“I told you it won't work.”

“It is happening and that is final.”

Richard, a tall man with pale white sink and long brown hair growled. “You may not have a problem with getting killed today but I do!”

Alex only shrugged “Then try not to get killed, but like I said this is happening. Even if I need to drag your dead mutilated corpse with me.”

Richard didn't respond, he settled on glaring. Alex turned around to him glared at him. The other four men that had come with them shied away from the glare. Most finding something incredibly interesting about the ground.

Alex turned and pointed at a small flickering light in the distance. They were standing on a rock face that looked over a large clearing that was cut into the forest, likely made for the mine he had his eyes set upon.  “Inside that mine is at least fifteen people, we have seen them being led in and out over the past few days. We are going to free them and slaughter anything that stand sin our way.”

Two of the men by the name of Mark and James nodded. They were gaining Alex's attention and admiration. They followed orders well and were both interested in improving their fighting ability’s.

Something Alex found great pride in consider Mark and been an accountant and James a lawyer.

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly when he locked eyes with the others. Richard, Ken and Matthew. They didn't like Alex, he knew that but didn't really care. What he did care about however was their endless nagging and questioning of orders.

“There are to many guards.” Richard said causing Alex to frown. “It will be suicide to go in with so little people.”

“No one else could be spared, they are either working on improving the camp, or finding a somewhat sustainable food source.” Alex growled. Repeating the same line over and over again as growing tiresome.

“As for the reason you three were picked.” Alex said, knowing the question was on the tip of Richards tongue. “It's because I find your lack of trust and support for me to be quite painful.” he said sarcastically.

Richard shook his head in disbelief. “You may be a powerful, but we are not warriors. I was a Bricklayer!” Richard said. “Ken was a chef, and Matthew was a door salesman!” He shouted.

“And yet you expect us to be able to fight of trained and well armed guards!?”

“What are you afraid of? Dying for the... fifth time I believe it was.” Alex growled, his patience fading fast.

“Yes I am! You have lifted the curse that affected us. You even said it yourself, if we die not we will  not come back!”

“We are going in and that is final.” Alex growled as he tightened his grip on his spear. “If you do what I say, when I say, you will survive. If you or anyone deliberately puts the lives of anyone else at risk I will kill you my self. Is that understood!” Alex gave it a moment for the words to be absorbed.

“This mine will also be filled with supplies, gems, weapons armour, food. And we need those items desperately.” James and Mark were nodding as he spoke. “Not to mention the people that we must free, and if you stand in the way of that goal I will kill you.” Alex said for second time to make sure the point was across.

Richard didn't say a word. His gaze fell and he settled with staring at the ground.

“Now that everything is settled.” Alex said. “Lets get on our way.”

The first guard went down quietly. Alex had sneaked up behind him as he scouted the outer most regions of the mine. One quick stab in the neck and the dog was dead within moments. The attack invisible due to the heavy rain that was erupting from the sky.

Alex untied the dogs scabbard and drew its sword. It was old and in poor condition but would suffice. He secured the untied scabbard to his wast and sheathed the sword. With the spear in his right hand he moved forward.

He glanced back and sure enough the others were quickly making their way over the muddy flat of dirt towards him.

Alex slowly closed in on the glowing light through the heavy rain. Sitting under a thatched roof outbuilding were three dogs, packed closely around a fire in hopes of keeping warm in the terrible weather.

Alex waved the others over. “James, Mark.” Alex said once the small group had arrived.   “I want you two to run around and sneak up on the two that are facing this way, once I distract them I want you to sneak up and stab them in the back.”

Both of them nodded and ran off into the heavy rain. Alex gave a clear five minutes before advancing. The dogs were heavy in conversation but anything they said was drowned. out thy the rain.

He stalked forward until he was only a few meters from the outhouse. He readied the spear and took aim. He spotted James and Mark in their respective positions. Not wanting to wait any longer he aimed and threw.

He was already running forward, unsheathing the sword as he ploughed through the thick mud. His aim was accurate  the closest dog to him was impaled through the stomach. The other two dogs jumped in fright.

They both however met similar grisly fates as James and Mark sprung from the darkness. Both of them with their spears already on target. In less than a second two dogs were on the ground in pools of their own blood.

The first dog that had been hit wheezed and coughed. Somehow still alive even with a spear sticking from his gut. Not wasting time Alex casually approached and brought the sword down onto the dogs neck, cutting through with ease.

Alex turned to Richard and Mark who both looked a little pale. Alex shook his head and waved James, Ken and Matthew over.

“Grab their weapons, take what you want and leave the rest by the fire. We will come back for them later.” Alex said as he grabbed a second sword and tied it to his waist.

James and Ken both grabbed the other two dogs spears. By this point Matthew was the only one without a real weapon. Grunting Alex pulled the spear from the dogs gut and threw it a the man, who quickly turned green when his hands turned red.

They were now less than twenty meters from the entrance of the mine. It was little more than a large outhouse in the middle of the open plane. A single dog stood guard with his back to the door and watched the rain carefully for any movement.

“I'll deal with it.” Alex said as he pushed back into the rain. He moved quickly and quietly. Falling into a sprint he made right for the dog. No one inside the mine would hear a yell for help over the rain, and the only dogs that could have heard him were already dealt with.

The dog narrowed his eyes as he saw a figure making its way toward him. He didn't have the time to shout however as Alex was already on him. Two swords punctured the dogs chest and drove him into the outhouse door.

Withdrawing his swords Alex waved called the others over. Alex could hear the clapping of feet against the wet ground as he moved the body away from the door, before slowly pulling it open once the others had joined him.

The door led into a dark tunnel with the barest amount of light. The clapping of the rain made it impossible to hear anything that could be coming from inside and a trickle of water was making its way down the tunnel stairs. “Lets go.” Alex said. “Just remember to stay behind me.”

Alex pushed into the darkness, careful with his footing as the muddy and crumbling stair case looked like it would collapse under any form of pressure.

The further they moved down the stairs the brighter everything became. It the tunnels were being illuminated by sparsely placed torches.

The trickle of water that had been moving down the stairs had pooled into a large puddle at the bottom of the stairs. With a splash Alex landed into the puddle and continued on as faint voices became noticeable further down the tunnel.

A large flood of light was coming up ahead. The light was pooling out from a room to Alex's right and illuminating much of the tunnel ahead. The voices that he had heard could now be understood clearly. It sounded like there was at least two of them in the room.

Alex slid along the tunnel wall and peaked in. He was right, Two guards were sitting around a fire laughing as they cooked something that resembled meat on the fire. They looked to be unarmed, their weapons likely being with the pile that were stacked up against the far wall. Two large open-top barrels filled with a clear liquid sat with the weapons. Alex guessed it to be some kind of oil if the strong smell coming from the room was anything to go by.

“Nice and juicy.” One of the dogs said, causing Alex to dart back around the corner. “Needs more salt, the meat is always a bit too chewy when cooked like this.”

“The younger meat always is, never knew why Griffons find this stuff to be a delicacy, it tastes like crap.”

“Yeah, what's up with that anyway? You’d think that with one of their biggest exports being meat they would have better taste. ”

Richard and the others had gone pale. They had all heard stories of how Griffons used Humans as farm animals. Lie the dog had said they were one of the Griffon kingdoms largest exports besides weapons and armour.

Richard closed his eyes and tried not to think about it, the horrors those people must face would be unimaginable. He had almost met with the same fate once before, he however was lucky and had been sold to a griffon noble as a pet. Something he was forever thankful of.

He took a few deep breaths before opening his eyes to find Alex had disappeared. He moved forward and stuck his head around the corner. Alex was standing behind the dogs, his weapons were not drawn and he was completely motionless.

All Richard could hear for a moment was the dripping of water from his hair and the crackling of the fire. The dogs had turned around and were both looking right at Alex. Before the dogs could react Alex had reacted, moving so fast the movements hadn’t even registered to Richard until the dogs howled in shock.

In less than a second the first dog Alex approached had its jaw broken when two large hands grabbed the side of his head and pulled. The top part of his head being ripped from its body before Alex sent a kick into the body sending it flying into the wall.

The last dog didn't have time to blink  before Alex was upon him. Richard went wide eyed and ducked behind the wall. Just in time for a piece of the dogs torso to go flying through the door and hit the tunnel wall with a wet smack.

Richard covered his mouth with his had in an attempt to keep his stomach in check. He and the others turned sharply away from the body, but not before getting a good look at the dogs mutilated guts that painted the tunnel wall. The smell of copper filled Richards nose causing him to gag.

“We need to keep moving.” Alex said breathlessly and painfully, his hands twisting and contorting as he tried to keep the pain under control. Richard turned around slowly making sure not to catch sight of the mutilated corpse and nodded.

Alex turned and walked on. The others followed quickly behind, none of them wanting to be left alone with two dead dogs that plastered the walls.

Richards eyes burrowed into the back of Alex's skull. The use of any power he had was always up for discussion, some thinking that it should be used only to free people from the curse as his ability to kill anyone at a moments notice was a terrifying prospect.

As such the survivors were divided. A number wanting to push Alex away from things. His attitude towards people and the enemy causing a lot of friction.

The other group however were the polar opposite. James and Mark being in said group. Believing him to be their only hope for humanity, 'An angle that came from the darkness' Richard had head one man call him.

Richard shook his head. What hope did humanity truly have if they were already braking down in separate factions. He however wasn't stupid, he could see that Alex was a danger to everyone, not just the survivors.

Richard's train of thought was stopped when a strong hand pushed him into the tunnel wall. Alex was staring at him with his finger over his lips. Richard had been so lost in thought he hadn't noticed the large cavern they were coming up towards.

The cavern was massive, five floors high and dozens of tunnels cut into the rock wall with large wooden platforms allowing for easy access to the highest points. Gems of all colours and sizes dotted the cavern walls, the small tunnels glowing with multi coloured light.

At least fifteen humans were digging away at the walls. Using large pick axes they picked away before throwing any gems into large barrows beside them.

Dozens of carts were filled with the brightly coloured gems, most of these carts being pulled by the largest of the men.

The largest problem however was the number of dogs. There had to have been at least thirteen of them, all of them well armed and a few with what looked like heavy plate armour.

“There's too many of them.” Matthew whispered breaking the silence.

“For a frontal assault yes.” Alex agreed. Before a smile appeared on his lips.

The five men went cold at the grin.

Toby hated his job, guarding the humans was so boring, every so often they would get into a fight with one anther but it was easily sorted by just separating them for a moment. He would have much preferred to be on guard duty, even if it was pissing down with rain.

A loud clank from the cavern entrance caused him to jump. He turned quickly only to find Rex standing in the entrance. He breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of his friend.  “Don't do that Rex, you scared the life out of me!” he called over.

Rex however never answered. Actually, he never moved, and he wasn’t standing on the ground he was floating. Toby's blood went cold as he finally saw what had happened to his friend. His throat had been slit and his arms and legs were limp.

A dark figure moved behind him and the body of Rex fell to the ground. “Rex!” Toby screamed and getting the attention of the entire room.

Rage filled him and he ran forward towards the shadowy figure, he would make him pay fro what he had done to his friend. Toby was joined by seven other guards all looking for revenge for the death of their friend.

The shadowy figure darted up the corridor out of sight. The group of now rampaging dogs filled with a burning rage didn't stop. They ran as fast as they could around the corner. Toby’s foot got caught.

He fell flat onto his muzzle causing all of the other dogs to trip as well. It would have been quite comical if not for the dire situation.  A strong smell filed his nose as he tried to push himself up only to fail due to the large weight on his back.

It was oil, he was laying in a large puddle of oil. Toby managed to get one last glance at the shadowy figure. He was standing in front of him with a large barrel. The figure was not a dog however, it was a human. A human that was looking right at him. Teeth bared and a sickening smile on his face.

Toby wanted to yell, to scream, but he couldn’t. His moth was quickly filled with oil as the human kicked over the other barrel of oil, coating all eight of the dogs. Toby coughed and sputtered as he breathed in the oil.

The was a loud snap and then the true pain began.

Richard forced his eyes shut and cusped his ears. He didn't want to think about what was happening further down the tunnel. He didn’t want to think about what Alex was doing to the dogs. He was no Angel like many in the camp had said, he was little more than a monster.

Alex watched on happily as the dogs burned alive, they flapped and floundered but it was no use against the flames, and within moments they were burnt black. One however still squirmed, the small dog, the first one to come after him.

He twitched in pain causing Alex to smile more. He brought his boot up and slammed it down onto the dogs neck, there was a sickening snap as the body stopped fidgeting.

Turning back Alex frowned. The only ones still standing behind him were Mark and James. Though they looked a little green, had stayed behind to watch. Alex admired the fact they hadn't ran away, something he would need to congratulate them on later.

There was a loud howl from inside the cavern. Alex stepped over the crisp bodies and turned into the cavern. The other five guards watched in horror as Alex emerged from the tunnel with the smell of burnt flesh and fur following him.

Mark and James came into view but stayed within the tunnel. Bunching against the tunnel wall as to be as far away from the burnt bodies as possible.

The cavern was silent for a moment as the smell of burning flesh reached the dogs causing many of them to take a step back. The mining humans had stooped and turned towards where the previous screaming had been coming from.

Alex approached further and looked around. He only hoped that the still cursed humans didn't try and save their owners once the killing began.

Not wasting any time, Alex locked eyes with one of the closest dogs and began moving forward. He drew both of his swords and smiled. The six dogs took a step back in unison.

Mark and James joined him on his flank. They looked eager for a fight but were both tense, they stayed a good foot behind Alex as he approached. All they had to do was stay behind him, just like he had said.

Then without warning it took off. One of the dogs, tiered of all the waiting and eager for revenge ran forwards. This new found enthusiasm was quickly shared by all the dogs as they joined him in the charge.

Alex jumped forward into the first dog. He sent the sword in his right hand into the dogs chest, the impact driving the dog to the ground. As Alex fell with him he slashed towards the next closest dogs feet. Slicing into the ankles causing him to fall.

The wounded dog fell to the ground a few feet from Mark and James. Who quickly were upon him. He didn't even have a chance to Howl as two spears were driven into his gut finishing him off.

Alex slashed and cut his way through the dogs. One fell, then another and another. Leaving only one dog alive. He was on the ground with a seeping wound n on his thigh. He tried helplessly to push himself away from Alex. He stopped however after Alex drove the two swords into his gut, pinning him in place.

After the final guard was dealt with he let out a tired sigh before looking up at the humans, Thankfully they had all stayed in place as their 'owners' were mascaraed.

“Mark, James.” Alex said getting the two men's attention. “I want you to unchain all of them and bring them down here.” Motioning to the working humans.

“Got it.” they both said before making their way towards a rather weak looking ladder.

Alex needed to rest for a moment. All the running and killing took quite a lot out of him. He turned his attention to the entrance as Richard, Matthew and Ken rounded the corner. All three of them turning a shade of green as they walked over the burnt bodies.

He was going to Have a long long talk with them.