The Vampire & Her Witch

"In general, there are two kinds of fighters," Thane explained to Ashlynn on a dark and misty night in the Vale of Mists before her departure. "Power fighters," he said, lifting a large and heavy two handed sword, before delivering a crushing overhand blow to one of the practice targets. "And speed fighters," he added, lifting a lighter, slender rapier and deftly puncturing the target several times in quick succession.

"Which kind of fighter are you?" Ashlynn asked, furrowing her brow at him as she caught her breath after several minutes of intense practice. She found him to be both much faster than her and to be significantly stronger so she struggled to place him in either category.

"When I was a knight, I was a power fighter," he said, offering a courtly bow. "Heavy armor slows you down, and the weapons you need to overcome an armored opponent aren’t light either. If you’re strong enough though, you can wade through even crowded battlefields and keep fighting like an unstoppable juggernaut."

"My sister was the opposite," he said, setting a hand gently on the rapier’s hilt. "Speed fighters don’t belong on crowded battlefields. They’re deadly in duels and less honorable fights in places where people don’t wear armor to protect themselves. On the battlefield, against an armored knight, a speed fighter has no chance, but take away the armor and attack that same knight in a crowded tavern and they’ll die before they’ve finished pulling back their sword to swing."

"You said ’when you were a night,’" Ashlynn pointed out. "Does that mean you’re a speed fighter now?"

"No," Thane said with a deep chuckle. "It means that the dichotomy no longer applies once I became a vampire. Even in armor, I’m faster than any human would ever be and at the same time, I’m stronger than even our friends from the Clan of the Great Claw."

"That’s why I picked the falchion for you," he reminded her. "You’re faster than humans now, and stronger than many among the Eldritch peoples. Use that combination of speed and power and you’ll understand why vampires are so feared, even within the Eldritch nations."

Now, as she raced across the ice, Ashlynn understood what Thane had meant far better than she had at the time. Broll had been a power fighter who was used to fighting in armor and he died because he was overly reliant on the armor’s protection to accommodate his wide, powerful swings.

The Tuscans were just like Broll, doubled in size with added tusks. They wore heavy pelts and had thick skin under their shaggy fur in place of armor but they all carried heavy weapons. A single blow, whether from the mauls or the clubs, or even the long iron chain, would be enough to cripple, maim, or kill a person.