Nosferatu Zodd

-Next morning

Kai sat on his chair, hunched down on his table where glass beakers, small balls of thin cloth, funnels and tubes with some powdery substances inside them were arranged like a makeshift alchemist's table. The room was mid-sized, with one bed where a pouch of gold and a book were placed. On one side of the stone walls where different weapons were arranged, mostly spears some like pikes, some jagged, some a mix of a scythe, some frail near the spearhead to break it inside someone's body. The other side of the room was filled with stacks of books.

*Knock* *Knock*

There was a knock on the door, Kai did turn from his table and said, "Come in."

The door swung and slammed on the wall. Kai heard a familiar heavy footstep and a large shadow under the yellow torchlight outside loomed over him. Salem the booker.

"The commander seemed happy with you, but one of the captains- not very much," Salem said.

Kai sighed without looking at Salem. "Why? What's up their arse?"

Salem cursed. "Cowards had a problem with you not killing the other enemy captain when you had the chance. The enemy fought desperately despite being outnumbered and outsourced, the fortress lost half its force along with a few mercenary bands."

"Should have put extra gold for the enemy captains when I asked for it in the contract then," Kai stated absently. "So did they withhold your commission?"

"I will fucking make sure no outside mercenary or merchant ever works with them if they did that, but no. The commander was quite level-headed with it."

"So why are you still here? Planning to settle down in Midland, starting a family or a whorehouse?"

"No, it's because I have a new contract for you and another battlefield."

Kai slowly mixed all the powdery substances with sulphur mix and then placed them on small pieces of cloth with a spoon as he asked, "Which miserable soul this time?"

Salem stayed silent for a moment then answered, "Nosferatu Zodd."

Kai's hands left the table and his head swung toward Salem. "You are serious?"

"I wouldn't be here otherwise," Salem said. If he was joking then the fat middle-aged face didn't show it.

Nosferatu Zodd was a legend, a beast in form of a mercenary that haunts battlefields in the darkness. The slaughter that commences upon his arrival is indiscriminate. Hundreds even thousand die. The lucky few who successfully feed describe him as a large naked man with a snout-like mouth with rows of sharp teeth. Some who looked at him from a distance described a winged titan with horns who could loom over castles. They say he has been around for a hundred years, spotted in wars across this timespan, an immortal beast hence his name Nosferatu and a legend among the mercenaries.

"He was been spotted in the western fortress, a day ride away from here," Salem said, "They say an entire raid has been blocked by him alone."

"Don't tell me the King and his generals started to believe it all that?" Kai asked. "This could very well be a trick by the Tudor Empire."

"That might be so. The general thinks the same." Salem said. "That's why the task this time is to investigate the actual cause of the matter and get rid of the problem, whether it is a Tudor ploy or an actual freaking monster."

"And how much is he willing to pay for all this?" Kai asked.

Salem waited then answered, "500 hundred gold,"

Kai was stunned for a moment but then he slumped on his chair as he whistled. "That's quite a stack."

"The heaviest stack an individual mercenary has been ever offered not as a joke," Salem said, "At least from my experience. I'll have the pass ready, so when do you plan to leave."

"At dawn," Kai said as he stretched his arms up. "I need to prepare for the hunt. Inform the general that I have agreed."

"That would be done."

********************

The next day, the sky was getting orange and the ground red with blood. Outside the fortress broken wooden gate, a ground of mercenaries had gathered, there was a mood of fear in many and anger in one.

"Stupid bastards!" Guts screamed as Gaston along with other mercenaries tried to hold him in place. "Let me go, Gaston!"

"Now way Captain" Gaston shouted. "I can't let you go alone there! Let's just wait for for"

"It's been an hour! You ass!" Gut shouted cutting Gaston off mid-sentence. "We have sent 50 men and no one has come back!"

Saying that Guts pushed Gaston away. "Just one man... a single enemy got all five hundred raiders stuck like nails in a wall. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SOMETHING THIS HUMILIATING!"

"AGHHHHH!"

A scream came from behind. The commotion came to a halt. Guts turned to see a figure exiting from the gate, it was weak and stumbling. The man had the entirety of his left arm ripped off along the armouring, he was bleeding heavily from the gaping shoulder, from the wound on the side of his head, while painting his path in red and Guts instantly recognised him. "Dillos!"

"HEY DILLOS!"

All the mercenaries ran up to him as Dillos collapsed on his knees. "Zodd... Nosferatu.."

Guts held Dillos as the others surrounded him.

"Zodd!"

"The rumour is true! It's really him!"

"The God of Battlefield!"

"Hey, this is big trouble!"

That's when Dillos stopped breathing and closed his eyes. Then Guts stood and grunted, "Nobody come with me. I am killing him alone."

With that Guts walked towards the gate Dillos had just come from, equipped with nothing but light armour, a sheathed dagger hanging from a belt near his chest and the old reliable bastard sword which was as big as Guts.

The moment Guts entered through the door, the familiar scent of blood assaulted his nostrils so did the sight. The hallway was littered with corpses, splattered piles of blood and viscera glistening under the burning torchlight from the walls. The body here, the head there, eyes hanging from smashed faces, legs torn off, arms ripped off.

'These corpses.' Guts thought as he walked down the hallway. 'What could have done all this? A large canon maybe?'

"AAAAAAGGG!"

A guttural scream came from ahead and Guts ran towards it to the hall filled with heaping piles of disfigured bodies, like in the ones in the hallway but on a larger scale, it was like looking at the aftermath of a large battle between two armies, between the pile of all these Guts saw the being who did all this, standing upright on two legs. Crimson eyes gleaming under the torchlight, it wore nothing, no armour, its grey naked body with blood sticking to it like mud was bigger than the biggest human Guts had seen in his life, snout-like nose under the wide forehead, under the spiky black hair, from which his pointy ears peeked through. One of its inhuman-sized hands wielded a large cleaver blade that had two men impaled through it, having them lifted above the ground and the other hand's fingers were lodged into another dead Band of Hawk mercenary's face through the eyes and skull.

The moment Guts registered all this, his instincts flared and he charged, brandishing his large sword. Zodd grunted and swung his cleaver with the two bodies on it, Guts reacted quickly and tried to parry the blow but was thrown crashing onto the nearby pillar from the sheer force of the blow and the two bodies on it were torn in two.

'What the hell is this?!' Guts grunted as he registered what had just happened.

"You parried that strike well, boy," It spoke in a deep guttural voice.

Guts slowly got up and raised his sword. His body felt heavy at that moment like refused to face Zodd as it froze in fear. An overwhelming sense of power, something Guts never felt since the time he was but a child against hardened veterans.

Zodd charged with an overhead strike, Guts' body moved and he barely blocked the strike with the force of his whole body as he planted his feet onto the ground. His sword trembled under the blow and his arms felt the weight of it. Zodd charged again this time with a strike to the side which Guts dodged, leaping away from the cleaver's range as it cleaved through a section of the pillar.

Zodd didn't stop and moved to Guts, attacking with more ferocity than what he had shown before. The strikes came from every direction, from left and right, from high and low, each one Guts barely blocked and kept being pushed back. Another one of those weighty strikes came like before came, Guts blocked it but were flung away like before to another pillar.

"Excellent," It said, "No man in fifty years has been able to defend against my sword this along."

Zodd took another step towards Guts and at that moment; white light exploded around Zodd's face. It stumbled as though it was blinded for a moment, at that moment a lone figure came between Guts and Zodd wielding a red spear and stabbing it into Zodd's eye.