FicWad

Disclaimer - Still not mine, still no money.

Chapter 1 - First Tests

Over the coming year these two adventurers did indeed meet up many times, they became fast friends when Mirrax saved Malios' life when investigating some trouble in the woods.

Malios, as usual, had waded into the thick of things against the Grawl invaders being led by Vatlaaw Doomtooth. Devona, who was leading the defensive, was trying to attack the Charr ranger and was unaware that Malios had been surrounded. By this time there were already two dead Grawl, but Malios had lost his hammer and his helm had been knocked off his head and had had to resort to his sword and shield. He was able to keep the remaining Grawl back but not much else. One of the Grawl, however, had managed to get behind him and was raising his own hammer to bring it down on Halcyon's head with a killing blow. Mirrax who had just prepared and ignited her arrows dropped the Grawl with an arrow between the eyes. The fight ended quickly after that, as the pair was able to pick them off with ease. As Malios inflicted some deep wounds, Mirrax followed up with some burning arrows that quickly ended the Grawls lives.

When Malios tried to thank her she merely waved it away by saying, "I'm sure you will be returning the favour soon." She then turned her glare at the returning Devona. This is the day that two rather important things happened. The first is that Malios learned to never piss off the ranger as he stood there listening to Mirrax rip into Devona. He could see the significantly larger warrior cower as Mirrax berated her for poor leadership for running after the fleeing Charr instead of helping her party. At this point Devona did try to argue back by saying that it was Doomtooth. At the mention of his name Malios' expression darkened and he gripped the shaft of his hammer so hard that Mirrax and Devona could here the wood cracking. Although only one of the two knew the reasoning for this action they both left it alone. Devona because she knew how much it still hurt and Mirrax because she wasn't done with Devona yet and didn't want to pry. She figured that Malios would tell her if she wanted too. When Devona heard how close her brother had come to meeting Grenth she paled dramatically and apologised profusely.

This is the second important thing that was learned on this day. Devona never forgot her actions of that day and will freely admit that nearly losing the one that she considers a brother in all but blood changed her entirely. Before hand she was considered to be rash and arrogant in battle, but this particular conflict taught her to keep her head and an eye on the rest of the party thus making her a much better warrior.

The next time the pair met was almost a month later. They had both come to Ascalon City for entirely different reasons. Malios had found a new hammer that he wanted to customise and Mirrax was talking to a Krytan man named Namar who was struggling to pay his rent. When they met up they could both see differences in each other. Malios had an aura of calm about him whilst Mirrax appeared to be much more powerful. For both of our adventurers had chosen their second professions, Malios had become a secondary Monk and Mirrax an Elementalist. However, they didn't have time to discuss this as a town crier found them with a message to meet Prince Rurik outside of town.

Both of them were very shocked to be meeting with the Prince before they officially joined the Vanguard. When they got outside they spotted the Prince not far from Lady Althea's Stage. When they reach him and his guard they both dropped to one knee.

"Rise, my friends, there is none of that in the Vanguard, there is also no time for pleasantries for now, a band of Charr have managed to breach the gate. We must stop them. Follow me!" Prince Rurik ordered.

They followed Rurik and his guards past the actors' stage and over the hill where the Charr were advancing. Rurik, his guards and Malios charged the Charr and were able to kill one of the two Mesmer's before the Charr reacted. The academy Monk that had accompanied the group was concentrating on healing Rurik and his guards. As Malios and one guard were fighting one of the Charr warriors and Rurik and the other guard were attacking the other Mesmer, none of them saw the remaining warrior advancing on Mirrax. She was firing a steady stream of arrows at the Charr, but they were being knocked away by his shield or glancing off his armour. The ones that were getting through his defence didn't appear to be doing much damage.

Malios had just knocked the weapon away from the Charr he was fighting when he heard a feminine scream from behind. He spun around to see a second Charr warrior standing over Mirrax with a raised sword. He could see the blood gushing from her thigh. Ignoring the now weapon less charr behind him he quickly used his newly acquired signet to knock down the warrior, cast a healing spell on Mirrax to close the wound, took out his sword and thrust it behind him into the weapon less charr that was about to use its claws on his neck. He let go of the blade as the now dead charr crumpled to the ground and retrieved his hammer. The other charr was now getting back to its feet and advancing on Mirrax again (who was still dazed), as the beast swung its sword Malios pushed out with his magic and created a shield around his friend.

The other charr were now dead and Prince Rurik was watching amazed as the remaining charrs sword appeared to bounce back off of thin air. Malios rushed at the charr and knocked it off its feet with a powerful hammer attack, his follow up blow crushed the charrs head as if it were soft instead of the armoured skull of a foul creature.

Malios rushed to kneel beside Mirrax as the academy monk checked her over. "Are you ok?" he asked. Too shocked to speak she merely nodded her head.

"Who cast this healing spell on her leg?" inquired the monk.

"I did," Malios replied.

"It's very good work, especially in the heat of battle. I fear I must apologise recruit Beasttamer, I wasn't watching the entire battle. The Prince is a great symbol for all of Ascalon and if he were to die in battle... well you can imagine how bad that would be. But still it doesn't excuse my actions and I am grateful that this young warrior was here today!" the monk truly did look ashamed.

"It's ok, I understand about the prince, he is the..." Mirrax began but she trailed off as the Prince approached.

"Malios, my friend, that was some excellent work, you're going to be a fine warrior someday," the Prince said. Mirrax mumbled something that sounded like "he already is" before blushing. The Prince quirked an eyebrow as he turned to her, "Mirrax, from the twang of your bow and the number of arrows in this beasts body and shield, not to mention the dents in his armour, I have to say you have a talent. However, I do believe that you need a better bow to face the charr, here take this it will help you to get one crafted in the city," he said handing her some gold. "You both did a good job and I look forward to having you in my Vanguard. Oh, and thank you both! Lady Althea liked the gifts." As the Prince walked away Malios turned to scavenge the bodies of the dead charr, hoping to find some gold and get some crafting materials from the armour and weapons.

After he pulled his blade from the chest of the dead charr, wiped it clean on the grass and sheathed it he turned to find Mirrax only a foot away staring at him. She jumped into his arms, sobbing into his blood soaked armour. He rubbed her back trying to calm her down. He knew he shouldn't, but he was enjoying this immensely.

"Thank you," she said when she stopped crying, "you saved my life. I thought I was dead, I should be dead. I was useless in that battle, all I did was distract you. I didn't even use the firestorm."

"Stop! You heard what Rurik said. If you didn't have a talent I would've been dead when we fought the Grawl and a firestorm in that battle wouldn't have done much good anyway. Until your magic learns to recognise friend from foe it will be indiscriminate, it may have been ok with me, as you know me, especially now that I've healed you with my own magic, yours will recognise mine as friend. What we will do from now on is stick together and so that your magic will grow I ask you to use a firestorm in every battle for a while and if anything goes wrong I can heal myself or other friendlies."

"Why haven't I heard about this before? And how do you know?"

"Well Mhenlo told me about it and that it also only tends to be a problem for rangers. The way he explained it to me is that it is because of the way most rangers grow up. He said that the vast majority of rangers that he has met across 3 continents have grown up having to fend for themselves, either completely alone or with one parent who has to work all day to support the family. Others may have learned the ranger art from someone like this and become like them, but either way there magic has trouble differentiating between friend and foe."

"I guess I can see what you mean, I've always been a bit of a loner, my mother died in childbirth, my father spends all day in the fishing boat and Aidan, my mentor, is most definitely what you described. It's funny though; I don't feel that way around you, never have in fact. Why is that?" she asked, still safely wrapped in his arms - as if to prove her point.

"I don't know, but we could ask Mhenlo when he comes back from Rin, he should be back in time for my nineteenth birthday. There's something else I need to ask him as well. The shield I used shouldn't have worked so well on you. It's not supposed to completely block an attack; it should only reduce the damage. It's the only protection spell I know and I was hoping to take enough force out of the attack that it wouldn't hurt you enough to kill you before the monk and I could get to you. I think that's why Prince Rurik was so shocked afterwards and the monk didn't even mention it. She wasn't close enough to hear the words I said so I guess she assumed it was something that Mhenlo taught me as all the monks around here know that he practically raised me."

All throughout his impromptu speech Mirrax was staring at him in wonder. She knew there was something special about him from the moment she met him, it was even more enhanced now though after he had saved her life.

"Come on lets get out of here, these Charr really smell," he continued.

"Hang on, I've just thought of something, what happens to all the bodies of the creatures we kill?"

"Well some get eaten by scavengers and others, like these charr will be, are collected by monks from the abbey for study. They look for any weaknesses that we can exploit such as the weakest parts of there body for a good solid hammer hit or what kind of spell they are susceptible to. Once the monks are finished the necromancers get hold of them."

"And what do the necromancers do with them?"

"I've never actually asked that and I have no intention to. I teamed up with a necro last week, and while I admit that there abilities are amazing, they scare the shit out of me and I'm not scared of anything." Well almost, he admitted as he gazed down at her, the fact that she hadn't moved in about 10 minutes now was making him very uncomfortable and grateful for the traditional cut of his armour - lots of room to hide long objects.

"Hmm... let's see... apparently charr warriors have rather soft heads." She giggled as he looked back at the mangled mess that used to be a head.

"Did I really do that?"

"Yes, you did, my hero!" she swooned dramatically.

"Oh, cut it out, I'm not gonna catch you as you faint."

"No you'd have to let me go first," she replied impishly, causing Malios to quickly extract himself from the very nice embrace - even with all that blood stained armour. "Spoilsport," she muttered, "come on let's go."

With that they walked back to Ascalon City in a slightly awkward silence, but when they both thought about the situation they had to admit - only to themselves of course - that they were very attracted to the other. A bright smile blossomed on both of their faces when Mirrax slipped her small hand into Malios' rather large one and didn't let go until they got back to the city.

Not long after this encounter the pair of them were asked to attempt to track down Vatlaaw Doomtooth. However, when Prince Rurik gave them orders only to find out how the charr ranger was moving around Ascalon and not engage him in battle, Mirrax was able to see severe disappointment on Malios' face. Remembering his last reaction to that name, she was very curios about his history with Doomtooth. But, she has already decided that she wasn't going to pry.

Deciding to check up on Rurik's idea of the catacombs, Malios suggested starting at the Abbey and questioning Mhenlo (if he had returned from Rin). As it turned out, the monk hadn't yet returned - at this point Malios was getting a little worried about his older brother, but there was nothing he could do about it - so Mirrax suggested an alternative that neither wanted to consider. Talk to Necromancer Munne, the primary necromancer trainer, who could be found just to the right of the catacomb entrance inside of the Abbey grounds.

A thought occurred to Malios about the safety of the Abbey. If the charr were able to successfully navigate the catacombs then they would be able to attack the Abbey with ease. The Abbey at Ashford was surrounded by a high metal fence with pointed spikes that was regularly patrolled by Ascalon guards. The catacombs, however, were not patrolled very far past the entrance. The only people who ventured into their depths were the necromancers, who were attempting to hold the hordes of undead that were the results of failed necromantic rituals.

The charr would not be hindered much by the undead or the relatively inexperienced necromancers, as the best were on the front lines creating minions from the fallen, comrades and enemies alike, and causing havoc amongst the charr forces. Gratefully the charr had not shown this level of necromantic expertise as of yet. Although, Malios had heard tales of Zombie Warlocks resurrecting minions in Kryta, just the other side of the Shiverpeaks. He was glad, in a way, that the war against the charr would mean that he would probably never have to see Kryta or its zombies.

Munne had told the pair that she had not heard of any charr moving through the catacombs, but admitted to spending most of her time training the new students and that Oberan the Reviled may know more. She told them that Oberan could be found north east of the ritual chamber where Mirrax had recently found the body of a Moa bird that had been used in a ritual.

The pair had no problem dispatching the enemies along their path, including the undead. Mirrax was able to hold them at bay while Malios got close enough to crush them with his hammer. When they found Oberan he looked as though he was preparing for a ritual whilst talking to what appeared to be a very novice necromancer. They were able to catch the tail-end of the conversation.

"... remember, the Crypt Fiends will come from the south west. You must hold them off until I have finished. OK! Good, because here they come.

At the other end of the hallway a very large mob of Crypt Fiends were approaching. The necromancer was looking very nervous.

"I'm not sure I can do this, there's so many of them," he said followed by a very audible gulp. It is possible that he may have been about to faint, but he was already so pale that it would have been impossible to tell.

"Oh, God not these guys again," Mirrax moaned, "well fire works well!"

"Ok, here's what we do. I engage them, then you throw a firestorm around the one in front of me, then hit them with your fire arrows," instructed Malios, "you, necro, stay with her and throw any long-range offensive stuff you have!"

The necromancer looked slightly better with someone taking charge and stepped up to Mirrax nodding. She, however, looked at Malios worriedly, "But..."

"I trust you!" Malios cut her off as he turned and ran at the crypt fiends. He jumped at the first of the 12 enemies and brought his hammer down in one swift fatal blow. Leaving his hammer, Malios drew his sword as fire began to rain down on the crypt fiends. He had just blocked the claws of one screaming fiend (they really don't like fire) and chopped of the head of another when the first flaming arrow came whizzing past his head. This was quickly followed by more as well as a ring of black magic encircling three of the enemy, one after the other.

'Finally,' he thought in regards to the necromancer actually getting into the fight. This was followed by large balls of dark energy being fired from the necro's bone staff. Malios quickly dodged a thrusting claw aimed at his head and retaliated by chopping the creatures arm off. The battle ended soon after as the necromancer raised two minions from the dead, who began to rip into the fiends. When one of the bone minions would fall the necro would simply use another corpse to create more. The firestorm and ended by now but it had severely wounded all of the fiends and Mirrax was still firing the burning arrows.

On of the last two managed to rake its claws along Malios' upper right arm, causing him to drop his sword from the sudden pain. Shield on left arm, he drove the edge into the creatures neck killing it instantly as the bone minions sliced up the last one.

Mirrax rushed up to him, "you ok?"

"Yeah, it's just a scratch," he replied as he cast a healing spell on himself and watched as the wounds closed. He retrieved his weapons and looked around for something to clean the black ichor from them as the rookie necromancer approached.

"I don't know what to say. This was supposed to be my last test, but there's no way I was supposed to be able to do that on my own. So, thank you!" He walked off before either of them could respond; he didn't even return to Oberan, he merely headed towards the nearest exit deep in thought.

When the pair approached Oberan he did look momentarily concerned at the retreating necromancer before thanking them for their help. Mirrax began talking to Oberan about the charr, but stopped when she hear a crack off to her left. Malios had just snapped a wandering skeletons neck and proceeded to tear a piece of cloth from its tattered clothes. He then nonchalantly began cleaning his blade before resheathing it. She had never seen anyone take so much care of a blade before and her list of questions were growing.

Oberan revealed that he had seen traces of this charr passing through the catacombs recently. He handed her a sharp charr tooth as evidence. Upon reporting their findings to Rurik Malios also told him about his thoughts and suggested placing a garrison of troops in the Abbey in case the charr moved in force through the catacombs.

When Rurik dismissed them they reluctantly parted ways to continue their training. Mirrax was heading to Regent Valley to charm an animal for a familiar, while Malios was heading out to the Barradin estate to take Little Thom up on his offer of some axe training - just in case he was ever forced to find another weapon he didn't think it could hurt to learn how to use axe. He even decided to ask Mirrax to teach him how to shoot a bow when they had some free time.

Just before she left Mirrax kissed him quickly on the cheek before darting away blushing furiously. Malios stood there for a moment before walking away whistling a jaunty tune.


AN - I don't know if anyone is reading this but this is up so quickly because my internet connection is a bit intermittent at the moment so I can't play the game and I've done enough revision for now. Please R&R.