Carnage (Remastered) (3 page)
Read Carnage (Remastered) Online
Authors: Vladimir Duran
Tags: #coming of age, #war, #teen, #magical realism, #action and adventure, #military science fiction, #military fantasy, #wizard and warrior
"You are to be my herald, boy. You will go
back to your masters and you will tell them all that happened here.
You will tell them I called you to this place so the lives of your
vile brethren could feed my hunger. You will tell them that the
vengeance of the Harrowers has begun. Do you understand me, boy?"
Even more jerkily, the man nodded his head, eager to agree to
anything that would keep him alive. The Knight was tempted to ask
for his soul to see if he would offer it up. "You will tell them
one more thing. You will tell them my name. I am…Wraith." If the
boy kept nodding like that, his head was bound to fall off. "Now
go, run boy, and tell everyone you meet of me."
Scrambling, the man got off the ground and
began to run. "Boy!" The Knight – no, the Wraith, he liked the
sound of it – spoke and the command cracked against the
hunter-no-more like a whip. He froze in mid-step. "Don't come
looking for any remains. They belong to me now. As do their souls."
If possible, the man ran even harder.
Alone in the site of his first massacre,
Wraith allowed himself to become Vlad once again. The agony in his
side crashed into him full force. Sweat poured from his body as the
heat he'd ignored during the battle assaulted him. Grunting in pain
he forced himself to remain erect as he spread healing webs over
his wounded side. Bones knit back together and burnt flesh repaired
itself. Not the first hit he'd ever taken. He could deal.
Vlad let the cloak drop too. No way the
little coward would double back to try and gather more information.
He'd created the web that made the cloak as a joke last Halloween,
but it'd come in handy. The perfect tool for the job he needed to
do, terrify a superstitious fool. That was all wizards were any
more.
"So that's what you look like."
Snapping back into his Wraith persona, the
Knight spun around. Behind him, maybe twenty-five feet away, stood
two new figures, one man, one woman.
The voice in his head had
been quiet since he'd first noticed the Hunters but it finally
spoke up.
Nothing's ever
easy
.
Kurt Cobain
replaced Johnny Cash with Smells like Teen Spirit.
The World
of Knights: Knight Hunter Tactics
The Knight Hunters are a paramilitary
organization sworn to the service of House Blackblade. Creation of
the Knight Hunters was mandated in one of the very first Articles
of the Burning Sand. At first the wizard High Council tried to
maintain at least nominal command Over the Hunter. Legal and
budgetary constrains forced them to hand total control over to
House Blackblade. The have retained control ever since.
While their membership is recruited from the
military Knight Hunters are not part of the military chain of
command. Their orders come from the High Inquisitor who is
appointed by house Blackblade. The second child of house Blackblade
is most often chosen High Inquisitor.
Numbering more than ten thousand the Knight
Hunters actually spend very little time actively hunting. A large
portion of their recourses and time is taken up by analyzing raw
population data. Legal constrained against brain scanning, data
mining is their only way of discovering Knights hiding among the
normal wizard populace.
Primary analysis units focus on analyzing
data collected from the entire population. They look for any
anomalies such as displays of heightened intelligence or athletic
ability. Their job is to find what is exceptional and ascertain if
it is beyond the parameters of what a normal wizard could do. The
Hunters also employ a secondary analysis unit that focuses
exclusively on schools. They scour all school records for any
anomalies consistent with a Knight. Once flagged by one of these
units a suspect will be further investigated by intelligence
agents. These agents make call whether or not to bring in one of
the Hunting units.
Aside of analysis the Hunters also provide
rapid response teams to be dispatched in case of a sudden attack by
Knights. There are dozens of Knight Hunter bases in all five wizard
cities. One of these bases will be publicly known, the others
secret.
Only three units of Knight Hunters spend
their time actively engaging Knights. When a potential Knight is
discovered one of these units will be dispatched to eliminate the
target. Their mandate allows only for one result. The Knight must
die. Occasionally a false positive will occur and a wizard will
prove not to have been a Knight. False positives are never publicly
acknowledged.
Though trained the Knight Hunters are
skilled only to the degree of a Pre-Ocean regular soldier.
Consequently their tactics for dealing with Knights rely on brute
force application of power. They overwhelm a target with saturation
fire from as many directions as possible. Hunters prefer to ambush
a potential Knight in order to minimize response.
Despite dealing with Knights on a regular
basis there has been erosion in the skill of the Knight Hunters
over the years. Hiding their skills atrophies a Knight's power
leading to easier Hunts. They have not faced a true Knight, let a
alone a Harrower, in five hundred years.
Glossary
Cords – the Reigh is categorized by six
separate elements differentiated by color and what they control. In
active spells or when used individually those elements are referred
to as cords. Shades vary somewhat from individual to individual but
generally they are yellow for air/wind/gas, blue for water/liquid,
brown for earth/solid, red-orange for fire/heat, violet for
lightning/energy, crimson red for shadow/spirit.Refers to the arm wearing a gauntlet that
generates a constant shield providing protection from most
attacks.Web – Wizards spells are sometimes referred
to as webs because their pictographic representation resembles a
spider web. The number and color of the radial arms representing
the elements to be used their length representing their proportion
and the connections representing interaction.
Playlist
The Man Comes Around – Johnny Cash
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvan
Next Time
After a year spent covered in the muck and
blood of battle and death Vlad has changed. The wraith has become
infamous. He's fought and there have been victories losses and
sacrifices and nothing has changed. It's time for a new direction.
Unfortunately the only way forward goes through the wizard criminal
underworld. He's here to make a deal and he's willing to pay in
bodies.
Collections
A
Rising Knight Volume One: Everything that has an End
He was a killer by fifteen, a warrior by
sixteen, a revolutionary by seventeen, a legend by eighteen, he
won't live to be nineteen. These are Steps Vlad will take to define
his destiny. He will spit at the feet of god and slay his
angels.
A
Rising Knight Volume Two: Born for War
Welcome to the game. It wants to kill you.
Now the stage had been set it's time for the real show to get
started. All three story arcs from volume one are continued in
explosive fashion. It's time to go play with monsters.
A
Rising Knight Volume Three: Destruction's Children
He was a killer by fifteen, a warrior by
sixteen, a revolutionary by seventeen, a legend by eighteen, he
won't live to be nineteen. These are Steps Vlad will take to define
his destiny. He will spit at the feet of god and slay his
angels.
Twenty thousand years before the Blood Ocean
and the Fall that came after, the Harrower Knights, the Deathwings,
ruled the sky. Sent on a grave mission in the midst of a desperate
battle, one Knight will find her moment. With the fate of her
legion and a city hanging in the balance will she be able to seize
it? In an age of Heroes how do you rise to the top? You do what no
one else can do.
Individual Stories by Story Arc
Wraith: Year One
Remember that kid in class who looked at you
like you weren't there. This is why you don't mess with that
kid.
Resistance Revolution Revenge
Sometimes we fight for ambition. Sometimes
we fight to defend others. Sometimes we fight for justice.
Sometimes it matters. Sometimes we just fight.
ARK-027 The Brothers Blackblade
Searching for a Symbol