The moon radiated, enough for a werewolf to soak in its energy, commencing the transformation from man to carnivorous, hairy beast.

This moon shone on the charred moor, where war haunted the world with its dry howls.

The battlefield was perforated with death. A huge hulking machine, squalling, crunched the chain mail of a human knight. His heart skidded a few feet away, his eyeballs bulging out of his skull. Another knight lurched from the left, sword raised valiantly, screaming out a desperate war cry. The sword clanged on the cyborg’s thick arm, spurting out blue sparks as the attack was rebuffed . The soldier fell on his butt. The cyborg pivoted on its waist and aimed its turrets at him. The knight saw that in the middle of the cyborg, was a built-in glass panel. Behind it, the pale skinned Alitueti sat, grinning devilishly. ‘Those pointy-teeth bastards’ was the last thought which fumed through the knight’s head. The Alitueti initiated the bullets. The knight breathed through the puncture in his collar bone, blood spraying. Then he was cursed into stillness.

“C***!” The Alitueti said, swinging the ax in front of him. The knight simply ducked, and jabbed his own sword in the Alitueti’s stomach. He howled menacingly, head towards the gray-diseased sky, red eyes dilated. The knight had sneered triumphantly. But in a wraith-like vault, the Alitueti was on top of him. The knight’s head hit an outcrop of rock, and had started to bleed at the back. The Alitueti inclined his head to the side of the man’s neck. There, he pressed his fangs on its throbbing veins, injecting a burning poison which pervaded the knight’s body with death’s baleful tongue. He foamed. The Alitueti would smile in victory, of only he wasn’t being fed on by the wound on his stomach. He bled. And there they had died. Together. Alitueti on top of human.

The Alitueta-driven cyborg drilled bullets in a knight. Five others slashed their swords on its back, arms, and feet. But it was one knight, who had swung his sword across the cyborg’s waist. The upper body of it had fallen limp. The Alitueti had been ejected out of the panel. Horror melted his face, as he saw the knights converging around him. One stabbed him on his hip. The Alitueti screamed, eyes dilating. One stuck his sword in his heart. This silenced him, and left him choking on unuttered words. One stabbed him in the front of his skull. The Alitueti died with a crack, and the guts from his brain, infecting the air with putrid meatiness.

“Fall back!” Mercurious cried , signaling furiously with his sword, behind him. Luckily, his griffon was quick enough to tuck its awesome wings to the sides of his stomach, each time he did this. It dug its claws into the ground, enforcing its masters orders with a crow of its own. “Fall back!” He tightened its reigns. Still, he hammered his sword behind him.

The knights who were close enough heard him. Those who didn’t, saw how their comrades swung swords at the Alitueta, but at the same time, ebbed away like a tidal wave. They did the same. Mercurious’s forces fell back. Some Vamps had laughed. “Cowards!” But way behind the regiment which was pushing the humans back, an Alitueta lord was furious.

He would not let the humans escape. He had received orders to kill every last one of them. His failure would be punished by death. “Wretches!” he hollered, “You’ll all be damned if you let them escape! Fire the catapults!”

Behind him, the air was sliced with a thundering element. Fire.

As Mercurious conducted his retreat, a knight next to him nudged Thor on his wing. The griffon crowed angrily. “Sir!” he said, “The sky!”

Mercurious looked towards the sky. Like droplets chucked out of a water pail, balls of fire had looped across his troops. They would fall. They would crash on the knights. Their flames would engulf them. Melt them. They would scatter his proud men like roaches. And they did.

Mercurial watched his men scurry around him. Some were set alight, and ran like big bears of flames, beating at their bodies, trying to put the fire out. “F***” he said under his breath. Even if he escaped, there would be very little men returning to Marclas Reunion. Now he would kill. He would go to hell with as many screaming Alitueta souls tied to his leg. He saw his child. Then his wife, kissing him with warm lips. “Allow the gods to be with yer all times” she had said, “Allow me that please” He had smiled, and kissed his daughter on her cheek. “I’ll be back” he had said, “You won’t even notice that I was gone”

“Attaaaaaack!” Mercurious cried, scraping his lungs dry. “Kill those bastards for home! For Marclas!” A reverberating cry erupted from the human knights. Griffon Riders lunged their Griffons forward. They clawed the air, and once airborne, narrowed their bodies towards the opposing wind. They filled the battlefield with whooshes from powerful wings. Mercurious lead them forth. On the ground, knights charged.

A squirrel ferreted away beneath a fir, ten thousand miles away, as he felt the ground rumble. It heard cries. It sensed death. It watched as the Earth, tolerably allowed red wounds to be pressed on her. It watched all of this, with its whiskered nose twitching.

The air drew mucus from his nose. There was a flurry of bullets streaking from either side of Mercurious and his Griffon. But Thor had been trained to maneuver through bullet-showers such as these. He would kill the Vamp lord. He would go to hell with his soul tied to his foot. But Thor shrieked then. Clawed the air in one spot, and spiraled to the ground. “It’s over” Mercurious whispered, “You have won. But never again will it be so” There was a dull thud in his ears. He saw black. He thought he was dying, but he felt no pain. He saw black. Something soft was pillowed against his face. Thor had fallen on top of him. He heard a soft whimper coming from the animal. Then all was silent.

Around him, he heard footsteps from the Vamps. He had heard them celebrate with their barbaric tongues. Mercurious hid under the Griffon for five days more. When he pushed it aside, he was greeted first by Thor’s decaying smell. Then an afternoon sun, shyly hiding it orange crown behind mountains. Around him, he saw a sight which made him sob in hurt and anger. He saw the face of the Devil. Hell.