Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It had been a year since I had taken Rebekah hunting with me for the first time since then she joined me as much as possible and had even come fishing with me a few times, it was nice spending quality time together. Although I did enjoy the chance to spend time with my sister it felt nice to be alone on occasion like today as I checked the fish traps in the local river, being alone gave me the time to think over the last year my abilities with magic had increased alot and I was even using it combat much to my father's chagrin. I walked along the bank and pulled out another fish trap when I heard a scream coming from the village. Dropping the trap, I turned and began running to the village. When I got halfway to the village, I saw three men I did not recognise with swords drawn and coated in blood. As they saw me, they started to advance quickly. As the first man got close, I threw the throwing hatchet that was on my belt straight at him, it arched through the air before embedding itself in his skull. Before he even hit the ground, I had drawn my sword. The second man looked at his fellow raider, without hesitation, he thrust his sword toward me, it was a sloppy strike that I parried with ease, just as I was about to counter, the third man reached us and delivered his own barrage of strikes. I dodged most of his strikes, occasionally parrying, looking for an opening. I saw one just after the second man finished his strike. I kicked him square in the chest, knocking him to the floor. The third man attempted to buy the other some time by attacking, but I just continued to parry his str,ike, toying with him until the perfect moment. The second man rose just as the third delivered a thrust, perfect. I knocked it to the side straight into the second's throat, stopping his ascent with a wet gurgle as blood poured out of his neck. The third man, completely consumed by anger, started shouting in a language unfamiliar to me. I laughed, causing his anger to rise. He charged at me, swinging his sword recklessly with all his strength. G hth I ducked the first, then the second, and on the third, his elbow caught my mouth and I tasted blood. I spat the blood straight at his face, causing his next strike to be completely off target. I slashed across his chest, achieving a non-lethal wound but it was still painful. He growled in rage and pain and came with another swing, it was too slow, as I moved to the side to dodge he left his stomach open, I thrust inwards and dragged my blade through his stomach. Pulling the blade out, his hand clasped on the wound, trying to keep his intestines from falling out, he would be dead in a minute at most. I picked up my hatchet, attached it to my belt, and then continued running towards the village.

As I got to the village, I looked at the destruction. Several buildings were consumed by fire, bodies lay strewn about the village, and a group of about twenty raiders were trying to break down the storeroom door. I breathed in, using magic to amplify my speed, strength and agility. A dead villager with a spear lay near me. I grasped the spear and threw it with all my might, striking true. It went clean through one man and into a second, pinning him to a tree. As soon as the spear left my grip, I advanced on the group.The closest man was cut from shoulder to hip in a single devastating strike; the others had already started moving towards me. Three down, four more men ran towards me, slashing at me. I countered one, pushing him back with my magically enhanced strength, then ducked to avoid the other three slashes. I charged forward, going on the offensive, a slash toward two of the men, a strike aimed at another's chest, the one I had knocked back before, and slashed forward. I moved to the side and dragged my blade up his wrist, cutting deep. I kicked that same man to the ground, then turned to engage the other three. I slashed in a wide arc towards their throats, hitting one of them and forcing the other two back. I charged forward and started hacking at the bot. The first man dropped his blade from the strength of my strike, allowing me to hack down into his skull, killing him instantly. The last man standing of the four distracted by his fellow raiders' deaths was killed by a thrust through his ribs and into his heart. I drove the blade of my sword into the still living man whose wrist had been slashed. Seven down, five of the other men ran in swords raised, I raised my off hand, nd a torrent of magical flame shot out towards them, the white hot flame killed three men instantly, turning them into charred corpses. The other two, only suffering some light burns, charged quicker. I blocked a sword strike with my own blade and released a smaller ball of flame, hitting the man square in the chest, then released a telekinetic wave at him, knocking the screaming, burning man to the ground. The next man ran in, slashing madly towards me. I seized his arm with my magically enhanced strength, then twisted his own sword into his chest. Twelve down. I felt my magic starting to run thin, and the amulet I wore, so I could draw from it, was running out of power. An arrow sailed past me, two of the men were using bows to try and kill me, and the other six were running towards me. I laughed and side-stepped another arrow, then blocked a strike from the first man to arrive. I pushed him back into the path of the archers, just as an arrow was loose, hitting his head, he dropped instantly. I drew my hatchet and started to counter strikes from the men attacking me, the next man slashed towards me, countering I brought the axe down onto his shoulder I kept hacking, one strike his collarbone gave away, the next blood spirited out as his shoulder was destroyed, the last strike severed an artery killing him. Spinning on one foot, I barely avoided a strike from the next man, and I threw the axe toward a bowman, killing him. One bowman and four men left.t I ducked under a strike and dashed at the bowman. He raised the bow, but he was too slow.w I delivered a strike straight to his neck, beheading him. I turned back towards the last four men, a slight look of fear painted on two of their faces, and they charged me. The first to attack was killed by an almost surgical strike to the temple, the second I delivered a downwards strike at his shoulder, my blade travelling all the way to his ribs. I tried to pull it free, but it did not budge, swearing I had to roll to the side to avoid a strike from one of the two remaining men. A sharp pain exploded through me as a blade hit my shoulder. The man who delivered the strike was close, so I rammed my head towards his nose. With a wet crunch, it gave way. He dropped down, injured but alive. Another bout of pain lances through me as a dagger slice hits my back, I turned, facing the attacker, a smile spread across his face as he started a flurry of attacks. I dodged and weaved the dagger, it getting dangerously close, my magic depleted and my injuries taking their toll, I knew if I was not quick, he would kill me. He dashed back in, driving a thrust upwards. I saw the chance and drove one hand onto the blade, with the other I grasped at his throat, driving my fingers deep into his neck. I pulled out, his throat in my hand. Just as his body dropped, I saw the one with the broken nose start to get up, I dived on top of him, pinning him to the ground and started to hit him. One strike and his already broken nose recessed further into his head, five strikes his eye sockets were broken as well, ten and he was unrecognisable, twenty and his head was completely caved in, shattered bone and blood surrounding his head. I stood shakily and looked around just in time to see Rebekah running towards me. I grasped her in a hug. Looking over her shoulder, I saw villagers emerging from the storeroom. Within the group were Henrik, Tatia and Esther. I heard a voice call my name, letting Rebekah go. I turned, seeing my other brothers and Mikael heading towards us. I started towards them, my legs nu,mb, causing me to have a slow pace. As I got halfway there, I felt my body succumb to its injuries, and I passed out.

I awoke a couple of days later pain still flared through my body, I sat up and looked around, I was on my animal hide bed in the room I shared with my siblings. I looked at myself, for over seeing dressing covering multiple smaller wounds across my body and the large one at my shoulder, I felt my back and also discovered another dressing covering the wound at my back. I thought back to the last memories I had, the battle, being injured, passing out, killing people I thought about that last one, I knew that I should be more bothered by it, for some reason though I was fine with it. As I was thinking, the door creaked open, spilling in blinding light and knocking me out of my thoughts, and the familiar face of Rebekah rushed across the room. She dived at me again, crushing me in a hug. A wince from me got her to ease up, she stepped back, and suddenly a crack sounded and pain flared through my cheek. Tears welled in her eyes, and she began to speak, "You idiot, I thought you died, how could you do that?" She tried to continue, but her words turned to sobs. I looked at her, unsure of what to say, so I just pulled her in for another hug. We sat like that for a while before she started speaking again. Rebekah filled me in on all of the events of the last few days. According to her, during the attack, Elijah, Kol and Finn had fought off about fifteen raiders before meeting up with Klaus and Mikael, who were on their way towards the village. Apparently, Mikael absolutely decimated an unknown number of raiders. Klaus had seen one injured almost dead, enranging Mikael, who nearly beat him to **** for showing mercy to an enemy. I realised that this also happened in the show, but it was larger, more raiders had attacked, causing all of us to be involved, not just Mikael and Klaus.

It took me almost a month to recover enough to begin walking again, though the pain did not cease. Every one of those days, Rebekah would sit with me for hours, talking about everything that was on her mind. Although it was nice the time I spent with Rebekah and the chance to avoid my chores I was glad to be back on my feet. Getting back to training was difficult, it took almost three months before I could make any real progress like before, though my off-hand was almost unusable after the dagger went through it.

Over the next four years, we rebuilt the village. It was not an easy task, but we managed, just about. My injuries had also all healed apart from my hand, which may never get better; my shoulder had a nasty scar across it, and a few dozen others were spread across my body. I also gained a sort of hero status among the village with many of the women flirting when ever we spoke and the men showing me more respect.

After the attack, Mikael had truly begun to despise Klaus, not even looking him in the eye on the few times they did speak. Mikaels' **** towards Klaus had gotten even worse; multiple times a week, I had needed to step between them, and so had Elijah. One night after a particularly bad beating, Rebekah had tried to avenge Klaus; if Elijah and I had not been there to stop her, she would have killed him there and then.

It was the night of the full moon, all of us, apart from Klaus and Henrik, were in the caves under our farm, waiting out the full moon in an area where the werewolves could not get to us. "Where are those two boys?" came the aggravated voice of Mikael, his patience regarding Klaus at an all-time low. "Don't worry, my love, they will have found another place to hide out from the wolves".

In the morning, we left the cave and started our daily chores. Rebekah had started helping me harvest some of the vegetables that had grown. The voice of Klaus rang out, "FATHER" In his arms lay Henriks' mauled body.