Crusaders III: The New Age 1.27

The Slayer Return

4.1           Rosenheim

Most of the city was leveled by the bombing during the war but there were scattered remains of their structures. One of the last standing structures was the St Nikolaus and Holy Spirit Faith in the inner city, with it’s with its baroque onion dome. There was where Helmut was heading with his load of skins and furs. There he would meet up with Father Joseph and they would pray together. He made his way by the river banks of Inn with his companion orb hovering above him. The orb was absorbing the sunlight to re-charge its power pack but it also act as his early alert on any strangers or creatures.

Just as he walked by the dried river bed of Inn, he was soon alerted to the sounds of distress from further down the path. He unloaded the burden on his back and pulled up his broadsword. His wait was not long when the figure of child led by the lady appeared before him. The duo ran towards him and seeks his protection.

"We are pursued by the cursed hounds." Canine creatures that once adorned these lands as domesticated house guards are now roving packs of hunters. Just as she completed the sentence, Helmut saw the pack of six large hounds which had came rushing at the riverbanks. These furless bare skinned large hounds with their deadly fangs stopped their rush to look at the figure that stood between them and their prey.

"Cursed curs of the land," Helmut muttered to himself. He had killed many of them but he would never feed on them as these are abominations of science. He looked from the corner of his eyes that two ladies are safe behind his bundle of load.

"There is a bone dagger in the load." Helmut told the older lady. "Use it for your own."

He had fashioned off crude weapons from the bones of his prey and then given them to the refugees of the city. Father Joseph had questioned him on it, and his reply was that nothing that can be used should be discarded. He reminded Father Joseph that Samson, the fabled strong man of the biblical tales once wield the jawbone of the donkey to vanquish an army.

Helmut was not a patience man, as he rushed at the hounds, swinging his broadsword. The first strike took the jaw off the first hound, while the second was to cut deep into another hounds rear end leaving its entrails trailing out. The other four hounds were not keen to be killed then ran off howling their protest.

"You are..." Helmut turned to face the ladies but had not his left shoulder shield protected him, he would have been an undead soon. The elder lady who had bared her fangs had jumped onto him, but the shield had stopped her bite. Helmut shook her off his body and followed on with the thrust of the broadsword into her face

"Foul creatures of the dark!" Helmut shouted out as he pulled out his broadsword. He had seen them before; blood suckers which used to travel in the dark but now they feared not the sunlight. He turned to looked at the child who sat there behind the bundle. She had her right hand at her neck to stifle the flow of blood. She had been cursed and may revert to be one of them, but he was not a man who kills children.

Helmut drew out a piece of the rags on him and threw it to the child.

"Come with me. Father Joseph may have a cure for you. Or he would do the last rites for you." Helmut grabbed his load and proceeded on with the child following at his heels. He soon reached the market place of Rosenheim and was swarmed by the mass of refugees. They shied from the child when they saw her wound on the neck.

"She's cursed!" One of the refugees shouted and words started to spread. Soon Helmut had to hold the child in his arms to avoid any of them from harming her. He was near to the Faith when he saw the Guardians. There was also the man he seeks.

"Father Joseph, I ...." Helmut released his hold on the child to let her stand by his side.

"Speak no more, my son." Father Joseph dressed in the brown robe with a waist belt that held his trusted dagger and small shovel. Father Joseph once told Helmut, the dagger to protect him and the shovel to bury the one who died from his protection.

The kind priest had taken custody of the child and ushered her into the sanctuary of the Faith grounds. She was led by others who allowed the priest to see to his care who had arrived.

"Helmut, you are sometimes a fool." Father Joseph told his care but he did not elaborate as he led the man into the Faith. He had news for the man and its time his destiny would be revealed.