A Day of Darkness Ch. 3

Chapter Three



He was now in a tree above the camp waiting, waiting for the sentries to pass beneath it, one after another. The first sentry walked by and just as the second was below him Dagur pounced, landing exactly where he wanted to, his fall snapping the sentry’s neck. The remaining sentry began to turn, reacting to the noise, and as he did Dagur ripped his throat out with his teeth. He then stood and watched the man’s panicked eyes as he thrashed on the ground, blood spewing in all directions. When he ceased to move Dagur continued on toward the first tent, since they were arranged in a plain circle he would start with a random tent and make his way around.



Dagur entered the tent and looked around. There was only one occupant and Dagur smiled as he drew a long, thin dagger from his belt. He crept over to the sleeping Venatore and, still smiling, thrust the dagger deep into his chest. The man’s eyes popped open and a soundless wail came from his throat, after which he began to gasp and looked at Dagur with horror. The man would live for a while as Dagur had not pierced his heart but aimed for his lungs. He was unable to make a sound as Dagur slowly carved out both of his eyes and all ten of his fingers one at a time. By then the man was dead and Dagur proceeded to the next tent, where his plan was altered.



As he entered this tent he was met with the unexpected. A dog was sleeping fitfully and as he went past it awoke and bit him on the leg, snarling and growling all the while. Even though he quickly reached down and snapped the animal’s spine with his right hand, the noise had wakened the tent’s other occupant who shouted a warning to the rest of the men.



As Dagur exited the tent, muttering a curse at his own foolishness, he was met by an armed man whom he dispatched with three slicing strikes of his claws, each swipe being punctuated with a step forward. Sensing someone behind him he kicked out with his right leg and twisted to face the attacker. As he twisted he used his right hand to slice across the man’s eyes blinding him. Dagur then finished the man by thrusting both of his clawed hands into the man’s throat. Another of the Venatores was swinging a sword toward him from the left and Dagur stepped toward him and blocked his wrist with his left hand reinforced by his right. He then slashed his right across the Venator’s eyes, his left digging into the wrist. Dagur’s right hand thrust its claws into the man’s side and afterwards he drove his right knee into the same place, hearing a satisfying crunch from the ribs inside. Throwing the broken body away from him he heard a yell from behind him to the right, Dagur spun around instantly taking in the angry man swinging another sword at his chest. Dagur swayed his body back, the sword just passing him, and with his right hand grabbed the man’s wrist and stepped his left leg behind his right, dragging the man off balance. Dagur unstepped with his right foot and as he did so used his left hand to slash across the man’s face. As Dagur’s foot touched the ground he slammed his left palm into the man’s elbow and was rewarded with a gratifying snap. As Dagur dropped the broken body to the ground yet another human came at him, this time with a horizontal swing of his sword. Dagur ducked, dropping to his right knee and shot out both arms, one catching the man in the gut and the other breaking his kneecap. Dagur span to the right, kicking out the man’s broken leg and as he fell, Dagur dropped and landed an axe kick to the man’s skull, being rewarded by a crunch. He then jumped to his feet, blocking the next sword cut at the deliverer’s wrist and thrusting his clawed hand deep into the man’s throat with an uppercut-like motion. As Dagur span to look for another target, he was grabbed by the throat from the front. He brought both of his arms slamming down upon the arms of his attacker, nodding his head as he did so. This resulted in the top of his thick skull slamming into the Venator’s nose with a delightful scrunching noise. He then brought two elbows across the man’s face, one horizontal and then a vertical elbow with his left arm. After he finished the elbow he brought his claws back down across the face of his attacker finishing him for good.



Looking around Dagur saw that only two of the Venatores remained, and both were circling him waiting for an opening in his guard. One of the Venatores lunged toward him with a sword, quickly Dagur sidestepped out of the way and grabbed the man’s wrist and slammed into his elbow, breaking it. He threw the man away from him and faced the last of them. He could see that the last Venator was shaking and barely managed to keep a grip on his sword. He decided that what would shake this man most would be a show of force.



Dagur began to laugh hysterically. The sound was not simply a laugh but also a snarl, growl and almost a deep howl. The sound was terrible and fearsome, embodying all that was dark and terrifying. The man swallowed hard and almost dropped the sword. He was now shaking uncontrollably. Dagur noticed the man with the broken arm had stood and was also shaking. To top off all of this Dagur began to talk to them in a deep, growling and raspy voice. “Fools!” he spat. “Did you really think you could defeat me!” The man with the broken arm whispered to the other “Don’t listen to it.” “Of course not, we aren’t people are we?! Just animals for you to destroy. Did you really think that they were alone! That they had no family, no one that cared for them and loved them?” the broken armed man replied “And what of the people you’ve killed? What did they die for? Money, power, or did you just enjoy killing them.” Dagur was ready with an answer “After what you did to our kind, we enjoy killing you with the utmost fibre of our being. When we lived peacefully among all, you drove us out. When that wasn’t enough you sought to destroy us. Our race was hunted to near extinction and you hunt us still for a few of the worst of your kind that we have taken. Your kind are killed more by each other than by we, yet you have entire armies devoted to hunting my people. Answer me, how large is the force protecting your cities from their own inhabitants?” Both men were silent for a time, still shaking but not speaking a word. Dagur then answered the question for himself “That’s what I thought, whatever few guards still have a sense of duty. At this Dagur gave an earsplitting roar of anger and watched as both of the men cowered before him. Then he continued to speak “Look at you shaking and weak. How can you live with yourselves? The brave Imperial Venatores, is it not your job to dispose of ‘monsters’ like myself. You seem to have had less trouble killing young ones barely old enough to talk!” Still the men shook and Dagur grew still angrier as he raged at them. Eventually his anger got the better of him and he leapt at the less shaky of the two men, the one that had spoken before. They went down with Dagur on top and using his fangs to tear out the throat of the man before they had even reached the ground. During this however, the other of the two men had, more through instinct than courage, swung his sword down at Dagur. Because he was moving swiftly and going to the ground the man only managed to score a long cut down his left leg. It was by no means deadly but did hurt a good deal. As Dagur rolled out of his pounce he landed more heavily because of it, as he turned to face his last opponent he saw the man had decided to fight it out, likely realizing that if he tried to run he would be pounced upon and killed. The Venatore ran at him swinging his sword downward with both hands. Dagur jumped to the left, smacking down the sword with his right hand, and used his left hand to score five deep and jagged cuts into the man’s side. He began to bleed just as Dagur’s own blood began to clot and scab. The Venatore then thrust his sword at Dagur, hoping to impale him. Unfortunately for the man Dagur leapt to the right and bit him deep in the shoulder, releasing quickly to avoid a counterattack from the Venatore’s sword. The human staggered back, reeling from pain and loss of blood. He tried to direct one last feeble swing at Dagur, but dropped his sword midway. Not that it would have mattered for he was far too slow now to have actually landed the blow. The man dropped to his knees, looked up at Dagur’s snarling face, and began to speak in a small whimpering voice. “Please, let me live. I-I have a family- brothers and a mother…” Dagur slowly walked towards the man, placed his right hand on the Venatore’s head and lifted him into the air. “So did I” He whispered as he crushed the man’s skull into oblivion.



With that Dagur fell to his knees and wept.