Inside the temple the air was cold and damp, condensation clung to the walls and formed into pools of water on the floor which the party walked through. Large snakes and other creatures watched the four orcs and two trolls move silently deeper and deeper into the complex.

They eventually found a long corridor that contained idols of ancient troll worship. There were offerings placed before these carved stones however the passage itself was empty. Nyako however spotted something on the floor, blood, she pointed it out to the others and Saku moved to look at it.

“This blood is clotted,” he said his tone betraying his confusion. “That’s not possible”

“Why?” Nyako asked as she crouched next to him.

“Cause that only happens when you’re dead.” The hunter told her.

At the end of the long passage was a flight of stairs that connected to a tall room with yet another set of stairs that led down deeper into the temple. Jarax spotted two orcs who had been throwing bodies of dead trolls into the darkness below they saw him as well however and looked at each other in surprise. Then they saw Zujin their faces twisted in anger.

“You come to save you sister traitor,” one of them called out and let go of the troll they had been carrying. “Those worthless runts you got with you will not help you stop the rise of the Dread Lord.” The other orc laughed and dropped the trolls legs before they both disappeared out of sight.

Saku was the first to give chase with Nyako and Jarax close behind. They persued the orcs down a third flight of long and narrow stairs till they reached a room at the bottom with four different exits. The hunter had drawn his claw weapons and snarled in anger when he realized he had lost his prey.

“Keep a lid on your rage Saku,” Zujin warned the hunter. “I need every one to keep a clear head if we are going to save Varlet and put an end to this.” Saku put his claws back on his belt and nodded.

Jarax is surprised by Zujin’s familiarity with his friends personality but realized that this was not the time as to enquire why that was. Instead he looked around for any indication as to which way the orcs had gone.

“They went up those stairs,” Saku told them his rage back under control.

Zujin wasted no time and led them the way Saku had indicated, the stairs led to a small passage way on the floor was the bodies of at least six dead green dragonkin and dozens of trolls some of which seemed to have died a long time ago yet had clearly still taken part in the fight.

The party moved on in a vast circular room which was filled with even more dragonkin and troll bodies. Jarax noted that some of the trolls had stab wounds in their backs as if their killers had been behind them. It became clear that the trolls had been forced to fight the dragons and some had been killed to make sure they did.

As the party moved further into the room they heard someone breathing in and it stopped them in their tracks, suddenly trolls rushed from their hiding places behind the dead dragonkin and attacked.

* * *

The tome seemed to radiate evil as Zujin took it from his bag, he looked around to make sure off everyone location as he placed it on his lap. Nasanda and her grandfather were busy attending to his wound while the black dragonkin’s attention was focused on the eggs scattered about the room. Once he was sure that no one would pay him any mind Zujin opened the book.

There were many dark and powerful spells contained with in the pages most which the young warlock did not understand, however he was interested on only one and he found it roughly in the middle of the tome. The process of summoning a Dread lord, with out the aid of the legion is a dangerous and difficult one, not to mention long. The book began.

To begin with a warlock must construct a lattice of perfect soul shards, these may not contain blemishes, chips or any other imperfections. The lattice must be made into the shape of a spider’s web. This will allow it to focus the magical energies that are needed to bring the Dread Lord into the world. So far it was all as Zujin had expected but then…

The lattice is also capable of transferring magical energy from one source to another, but this requires a soul to be used as a catalyst. Zujin started to become alarmed and was forced to keep reading.

The stronger the soul the more magical energy can be transferred, for best results a pure, innocent and young soul should be chosen. Zujin could not believe what he was reading they were going to sacrifice one of the children; his friends… or worse.

As he turned the page to look at the next part of the spell a small piece of parchment fell out, Zujin closed the book and picked it up. On it was a list of all the younglings in the settlement and each of their names had been scored out, except for the one at the bottom, Varlets.

* * *

Though the trolls had the element of surprise and greater numbers, this was in no way an experience that the party members had not had before. Saku did not even have to aim but just blasted into the mass of trolls that came at them, likewise for Zujin though his shadow bolts took longer to cast than the hunters shells.

Almost twenty were dead or dieing by the time the trolls slammed head on into Jarax, Nyako and Anarchic. Anarchic cripple his enemies by shattering their legs and spines with powerful blows, they had not even hit the ground by the time he was pummelling another. Garnesh moved about quickly finishing off those left behind by his partner. Together they kept Zujin and Saku clear of interference as they used their long ranged attacks.

Nyako like Anarchic saw the need to move fast from one enemy to the next to prevent being overwhelmed. However her path was considerably gorier. Her twin axes severed limbs, opened throats and disembowelled her enemies, and the more she hacked down the closer she got to her peoples feared berserk rage. Then suddenly she was out the other side of the trolls with no more enemies to kill.

She spun round to charge back into the attack but had to throw herself to the ground in order to avoid a large troll berserker that had dived towards her. She caught the briefest glimps of its large muscle bound body hurtling over her and down into a large hole in the centre of the room, it did not even make a sound as it fell. She leapt to her feat and spotted another barrelling towards her.

With a snarl of contempt Nyako stood ready to take its attack, the berserker used its hugely overdeveloped arms to increase its speed dramatically. Like its kin it leapt at her when it got close enough, and received a huge gash in its neck. Though its momentum however slammed its fatally wounded body into her and knocked her into the hole and they plummeted into the darkness.

Saku had reloaded his ammo chamber half a dozen times and though each shot was a kill the trolls were still numerous. One got past Anarchic and Garnesh and stabbed its dagger at him. The hunter smashed the troll with the butt of his gun and shot it in the face as it fell. Fragments of skull, flesh and brain splattered over him.

Then suddenly an arrow hit his shoulder, the head passed right through and stuck out the other side. He roared in pain and looked to see the night elf huntress, Kitti, who he had fought in Thousand Needles looking straight at him. Saku broke the tail of the arrow and then pulled the tip out before he moved to find an opening in the troll’s assault.

His path was provided by the Kitti’s pet the winged Serpent raised itself high in the air and spat a storm of lighting that slaughtered the trolls between her and Saku. Saku knew that neither Jarax nor Zujin would not approve of his chasing after her but the his hatred for the elf race was too strong and he pursued her into the shadows.

The sight of seeing their foes slaughtering their kin, the senseless violence and the screams of the dying that filled every chamber within the enormous temple eventually proved too much for the trolls and they fled. Jarax watched them do so with a grim satisfaction, then he noticed something in the way they ran.

As they fled the trolls avoided two areas, one was the large hole in the centre of the room but the other was just off to the side and Jarax became curious about what this was. So he moved away from the others to check it out. It took only moments for the last of the trolls to pass the obstacle and Jarax instantly knew that he was in a great deal more danger than he had been during the whole of the attack. There standing blazingly in front of him was Asta with a cocky little smile on her tiny face.

“We meet again orc,” Asta commented. “And this time you’re all alone.”

* * *

Zujin could not believe what he had just read, Bazzog and his father were going to sacrifice his baby sister in order to summon a demon that was as untrustworthy as his imp Ruppad. For a moment he could do nothing but sit there and stare at the note, then he crush it and reached into his bag. He took a glowing green stone from one of the pockets, then moved towards Nasanda and her grandfather, the eyes of the orcs that stood on the walkway above the hatchery followed him.

Though he was afraid of Bazzog, Nasanda’s grandfather did not fear Zujin and when the young warlock offered him the health stone he pushed it away. Looking about to make sure that none of the dragons or orcs were within earshot.

“If you want to get out of this alive I suggest you take the stone and follow me,” Zujin whispered. “I know now that as soon as we are out of this mountain my uncle will kill you both.”

“But you told me…” Nasanda began.

“I did not know the complete truth about what they wanted to do,” Zujin cut her off. “Now I do, so we need to act fast to stop them, and this is the only chance we are going to get.”

The old hunter looked a Zujin for a moment then nodded and took the healthstone. He broke it over the wound and within seconds it had healed till it was only a slight tear in his chest. Nasanda gasped in shock at the sight.

“All right young warlock,” Nasanda’s grandfather spoke. “How do we get out of this place?”

Zujin smiled, “Just follow my lead.”

He stood up and began to flex his neck and arms, this drew the attention of the two orcs on the walkway and they reached slowly to their weapons. Suddenly Zujin made a motion with his hands and the closest of the dragonkin was engulfed in blackfire. Instantly the two orcs were impaled by spears thrown by the two hunters.

“Make for the door now,” Zujin told them, as they did so the warlock called fire from out of thin air to fall on the eggs around him. Those hit exploded in a gory mess of blood and fluid as baby dragons in various stages of development died. After he was sure he had done enough Zujin ran after the two hunters.

The sounds of dozens of armoured feet however were coming from both higher up in the spire and from beneath. Zujin stopped in the next room for a moment before he spotted where his fellow escapees were hiding. He got to cover only a few seconds before orcs poured through the room and ran into the hatchery. Seizing the opportunity Nasanda leapt out and slammed the doors shut and they all helped to secure them locking almost every orc that had been between them and the outside in the egg room.

Those that remained knew nothing about what had happened and as the three ran past them they looked briefly and then went back to their own discussions. Zujin hoped that he had done enough to ensure that his uncle and father never got out of the spire alive.

* * *

Asta’s first attack was to launch dozens of magic missiles towards him, but Jarax saw this coming and rolled to the side out of their path. Then he charged and was right on top of her causing her to abort her next spell and frost nova the ground, before she moved back a short distance.

As she drew up her magic to throw a fireball at him she wondered why Jarax was not angered by the fact that he was unable to evade the coming attack. Then she saw him reach for a small red skull attached on his belt, as soon as he pressed it the ice around his feet shattered. Immediately she followed up her fireball with a pyroblast.

Her attacks charred his armour and set the end of his hair on fire, but still he intercepted her and she had to dodge his blows once again. In desperation Asta summoned a block of ice to protect her. Jarax cursed loudly as his axe became stuck and refused to budge, seizing her chance Asta broke the spell and blinked away, while the now free block of ice pulled the axe out of Jarax’s hands.

Now Asta was starting to panic, her best attacks were doing little but slow Jarax down and now he was coming at her again. He had abandoned his axe and had drawn the biggest dagger that the tiny mage had ever seen. This time she had no way of stopping the thrust that resulted in her chest being punctured on the right side. She frost nova’d the ground again and attempted to hobble away but she was finding it hard to breath and started to become light headed from the blood loss.

Remembering a trick that one of the warriors of Maligned had taught him Jarax dropped his knife and pulled out a loaded gun that Saku had given him, and fired at the fleeing mage.

“Ahhh!” Asta cried out as the shot tore through her tiny body and sent her sprawling to the floor that she would never rise from again.

* * *

Escaping the mountain had been the first step in Zujin’s plan, and though he and the other two were now safe, Varlet was not. He needed to get to the settlement fast and rescue his little sister from the clutches of his demon worshiping kin. To do this he would need an army, and there was only one of those in this area that he knew of.

The question he asked himself was could he trust them, but he realized instantly that he had no choice so he led Nasanda and her grandfather back to the horde base in the badlands. This time as they moved through the charred lands that surrounded Black Rock the dark skinned dwarfs did not attack them, in fact the short humanoids were nowhere in sight.

It was the General that spotted them first once again; he called for them to halt and came over with a questioning look in his eyes. Before the words had even formed in the powerful orcs mouth Zujin knew what the first question was going to be.

“Where are the others of your party?” the general asked, as the words were spoken Zujin knew he would have to reveal everything.

“They are dead,” Zujin stated, the general’s reaction was one of shock. “They were killed by the dragons of the black dragon flight and the reengage orcs of the Blackrock Clan.”

“Why were they in a position to be killed in such a way?”

“Within the mountain is a dagger that my uncle needed to use in order to summon a demon known as a Dread Lord.” Zujin told the general simply. “By my actions this plan has been stopped, but there are others who unlike myself have not seen the danger in such a summoning.”

“You are blatently admitting to me that you are part of a sect of orcs that worship demons?” the huge orc demanded.

“Yes I am,” Zujin replied as he met the other orcs gaze. “These two here were forced to guide us through the dwarven lands and into the mountain or my uncle and father would have killed them.”

“Bah! By my own orders I should kill you where you stand,” The general roared and drew his huge dagger, and the entire encampment stopped and looked at the comfortation.

“That is your right,” Zujin nodded but did not look away or step back. “But my uncle as I have said was not alone there are others who will no doubt attempt to complete the summoning with out him. I can lead you to them for a price.”

“And what would that be warlock,” the last word being spat out in disgust.

“The sacrifice for the ritual is my own baby sister who has never hurt a thing in her short life, I want you to help me safe her and then provide us with safe passage to Orgrimmar.”

“You ask a lot.”

“Yes I do, but the elimination of such a powerful sect of demon worshiping orcs would be quite a feather in your cap, I’m sure general.” Zujin explained and an ambitious smile grew across the general’s face.

“Very well I agree to your terms, you may address me a Goretooth,” he nodded, then he turned back to face the dozens of others who now stood and watched with bated breath. “Tools down lads, I have found us a foe worthy of the Horde expeditionary legion’s attention, bring those zeppelins down and prepare for battle.” Goretooth bellowed and the encampment cheered.

While every one ran about loading their weapons and gear into bags Zujin turned to his two companions, they both looked exhausted by the events they had been part of. He smiled and waved for them to come to him.

“You two have done more that enough,” he told them. “Go home and forget you ever knew me or this insanity.”

“I’ll take you up on that young one,” the old hunter smiled. “I’m too old for all this.” He slapped Zujin on the shoulder and turned away, leaving the younger orcs alone.

“You should go with your grandfather Nasanda,” Zujin told her though it pained him to say so. “This is not your fight, and you’ll be better off out of it.”

“It’s not my fight your right about that,” she agreed and Zujin felt a stab of pain in his chest. “Here I want you to have this,” she said and held out a small egg that was identical to the ones in the hatchery only a lot smaller.

Not trusting his words Zujin nodded his thanks and headed for towards Goretooth and the other grunts. He had not gone more that a few steps however when he heard Nasanda laugh in astonishment.

“I though you Burning Blades were smatter than that,” She commented stepped up to him and kissed his lips hard. “This might not have been my fight, but I’m choosing to make it mine.”

“Warlock!,” Goretooth bellowed. “The ships are ready, show us to this demonic sect of yours,” hand in hand Zujin and Nasanda followed the general on board.

* * *

The rate of fire of both hunters was staggering, while arrows zipped past millimetres from Saku shot exploded the stone the same distance from Kitti. The night elf continued to fall back from the main room drawing him further away from the others. Eventually she stopped in a room that appeared to be a gathering area with crude benches all around.

Suddenly the form of the winged serpent appeared on Saku’s right side, it blasted at him with its lighting breath and he was forced to dive to the floor in order to avoid it. Instantly he knew that now that he had lost sight of Kitti and he had no idea of her location, but she knew his.

He rolled fast along the ground towards the benches so as to negate her advantage. It was a good thing to as moments later the floor where he had been lying was hit by three arrows that became impaled in the floor. Saku came to a stop between two of the benches and everything became quiet as he listened for any sound that would give away Kitti’s position.

Moments later he realized his mistake, as the winged serpent appeared above him again, its mouth charged with lighting, he had nowhere to go and this was going to hurt. Then Arashi was there, the huge cat leapt through the air and collided with the flying reptile the two pets tumbled away in a blur of teeth, claws fur scales.

As Arashi’s teeth punctured the serpents glands that held the charged lighting the reptile exploded with such force that the white tiger was hurled back into the benches on the other side of the room. But the cat was back on his feet shaking the bits of flesh and scales from his fur.

Smiling at his friend’s fortitude Saku came out firing, because he had no idea where his enemy was, he placed his shots in such a way as to suppress her back into cover. It worked better than he had hoped, he had the pleasure of seeing Kitti duck for cover behind a large troll statue and as she did so he hit the quiver of arrows on her back turning them all into splinters.

She had only one arrow left he knew that, and any shot she fired from that distance and with out the time to aim would be ineffective, so Saku began to move towards her position. Moments later Kitti emerged from behind the statue and fired her shot. But Saku was not the target, Arashi was. The cat was hit in the side close to his heart and with a roar of agony he collapsed.

Seeing his pet fall in such a manner pushed Saku over the edge, he felt his blood burn with fury as he dropped his gun and grabbed his claws and charged the night elf. Kitti smiled as she discarded her bow and drew her swords, now that she had broken his focus it was a matter of turning his rage against him, like oh so many others she had killed.

As he came within reach however the ruby ‘eyes’ in Saku’s suddenly emanated an old and powerful magical energy. Saku found his mind body and soul filled with such anger and power beyond his wildest dreams as he attacked Kitti.

To her horror Kitti found herself fighting not an enraged and unfocused orc, but a avatar of anger and rage in the form of a huge tiger. It stood on its hind legs taller than a tauren, Its first attacks shattered her swords and then a back hand that connected oh her right side sent the elf to the floor. She rolled back wards to escape its reach but as she sprung to her feet it thrust out its left claw and impaled her on it.

Kitti screamed as she was lifted up off her feet and found herself staring into the eyes of the monster. “Noo…” she whispered before slumping forward, the avatar tiger let her slip off its claws before its magic faded and Saku was standing over her body.

“What??” Saku said as he tried to clear his head about what had just happened, it had all been a blur, and then he remembered Arashi and ran to the aid of his friend, his anger and hatred for Kitti forgotten.

* * *

The Zepplin flew in a V formation with a member of each airships crew standing within view of the others waving a pair of flags to their counter parts. Goretooth had explained to the two younger orcs that this was to allow the ships to communicate with each other. The lands around the base of Black Rock Mountain seemed to be split in half in terms of who controlled them. To the north the Dark Iron dwarfs as Goretooth called them were busy mining and creating golems for their eternal war with the orcs, who controlled the southern lands.

An orc who was checking his weapons pointed out the old base which had severed as the Horde’s main headquarters during the first and second wars, in this world. It was mostly in ruins now and containted a huge statue of a human knight who was the leader of the humans that finally crushed the demonic driven force.

Soon the blackened rock gave way to red ones. The orcs, trolls and tauren onboard all moved to the rails of the ships they were on with loaded bows and spears at the ready. They all scanned the sky line for any sign of danger but did not seem interested in the land bellow.

“What’s going on?” Zujin asked the orc that had pointed out the old base.

“We are above the human lands now, dwarven griffin riders have been known to patrol these skies.” The orc explained. “If they see us we need to be ready. If you want to help, watch the land for any sign of the humans summoning their shorter allies.”

The pair did so and watched the small human village on the edge of a large lake, most of the inhabitants seemed more interested in the construction of a huge bridge across one of the narrowest parts of the body of water than the three zeppelins above them.

If any of the humans did spot the ships they took no action and soon the Zeppelins were disappeared over the mountains and into the fog that seemed to permanently hang over the Swamp that had been Zujin’s home. Soon he would know if he could pull off his plan to rescue his baby sister and ensure that his uncle’s plan was truly defeated.

* * *

Orcs, five of them, had burst out form the rear of the fleeing trolls trampling a few of the slower ones who had not got out of their way in time. Two were instantly killed by a powerful blast of chain lighting from Garnesh, a third blundered into Anarchic’s grasp and died as the short orc smashed his fist into the orcs head so hard its neck broke.

Kron did not see his kin fall nor did he really care, not now that the traitor was within his reach. Vasu had held them back from outright killing Zujin for all these years but now their leader was occupied and this was Krons time to shine. His attacks however were blocked and parried expertly by the Warlock; try as he might Kron could not land a blow on his most hated enemy. The longer this went on the more frustrated he became and started to take some truly desperate thrusts and slashes that left him open to a counterattack.

That counter attack never came as despite everything Zujin was finding it hard to muster up the rage to kill an orc that had once been a close childhood friend. He could see that clearly the feel was not mutual, but then Kron made a fatal mistake.

“Come on fight you gutless worm!” Kron bellowed. “No wonder we were able to capture that pathetic creature you call a sister, I bet Vasu will take pleasure in ending her miserable life.” He snarled.

“How dare you!” Zujin yelled as his memories of the past evaporated and left him fighting a enemy that he would take great pleasure in so much more than just killing.

Not knowing why Kron suddenly found him himself fleeing in terror from Zujin, he tripped over the charred body of one of his kin and his mind seemed to snap back into focus as he hit the floor. But he looked up into the faces of Garnesh and Anarchic, both of whom grinned in a very unfriendly manner.

A fury of fist and feet slammed into Kron as he lay on the ground a booted orcish one slammed into his jaw shattering his teeth and sending some skipping across the floor, then a trollsih smashed down into his belly knocking the wind out of his lungs.

“That’s enough,” Zujin called. “Stand him up.”

They pulled Kron to his feet and held him as with both legs broken and his eyes starting to swell shut he would have fallen. Though he could cleary see Zujin smile and then a purple beam hit his chest and all other pain was forgotten. He could only manage a gurgling sound as he attempted to scream, and then he fell forward finally dead.

“Well would you look at that,” Zujin commented as he held the newly formed soul shard. “Perfect.”

Just then out of the shadows two orcs appeared, Jarax who looked like he was smoking slightly from his upper armour and hair and Saku who was carrying Arashi as the cat had a series of heavy duty ruin cloth bandages around him. Garnesh moved to help the hunter with his pet applying healing solutions and spells. Jarax looked around the room then asked a question that stopped every one in their tracks.

“Hey where is Nyako?”

* * *

The bodies of the two large trolls had broken her fall, though she was still sore and groggy when she climbed to her feet. There was cold slimy water up to her ankles and had she not been so bruised she might have shuddered at its touch. And then she heard the sound of something behind her.

Tightening her grip on her axes she turned around to face a troll that utterly dwarfed the two that she had just fought. It’s orange skin was covered in blue and yellow war paint, and on of its huge tusks had an axe head imbedded in it. Then Nyako noticed that its breathing was laboured and its eyes seemed to be rather unfocused. Then Slowly the hulking beamoth of a troll fell forward, its head landing within inches of her, and she saw the imprint of a hammer blow in it’s skull.

“My, that was a fight I’ll tell you that for nothing,” came a thick accented voice from the giant troll’s feet.

Nyako looked up from the head to see none other than Helga standing before her, who genuinely surprised to see her. But her look of surprise turned into a sadistic grin. Then the young troll moved to the side so that her path to the female dwarf was clear and Helga turned as she did so.

With both axes raised high Nyako charged and began to rain blows down on her smaller opponent. But the dwarfs hammer block many of her attacks and those that it didn’t were stopped by the paladins armour.

Suddenly from out of nowhere Hegla unleashed a blow that stunned Nyako, as she staggered back unable to see straight Helga smashed her hammer into Nyako’s ribs and sent the young troll flying backwards into the cold slimy water. As soon as it hit her face though the young trolls mind cleared and she was able to roll out of the way of a blow which would have been fatal.

Then Nyako was back on her feet attacking Helga once more with renewed vigour. This renewed assault began to take its toll on the dwarf and soon she was bleeding from many wounds, so she did what all paladins did in that situation she cast divine protection on herself and stepped back from the troll.

As she cast her healing spells she saw Nyako take a bottle from a pouch on her belt and emptied the red liquid inside in one gulp and just as the magic healed her own wounds so Helga saw that the potion healed Nyako’s.

The paladin decided that now was not the time to hold back and she replaced her protection aura with a retribution one that would damage any foe that hit her. Then she blessed her hammer with a spell that allowed it to do holy magic damage as well as physical.

As soon as Helga’s shield faded Nyako was on her, and the speed and power of her attacks seemed only to be enhanced by the pain and injuries caused by the paladins retribution aura. Then suddenly in one unexpected blow Nyako removed Hega’s right hand and sent the dwarfs hammer spinning off into the water.

Before Helga could even scream however Nyako used this sudden result to bring her axe down into the space between the dwarfs shoulder, head and chest armour with such force that it shattered Helga’s coller bone and cut so deep in that the paladin not only lost the use of her arm but the blood which exploded from the wound covered both her and Nyako.

With a look of utter surprise that she had received such a blow Helga toppled back into the water. Nyako stumbled a few steps away from her fallen foe and fell to her knees. Something hard bumped against them and she reached down to find the dwarfs hammer a strange onyx weapon that was shaped into the style of a boar’s head.

“Nice,” Nyako commented and then a portal opened up in front of her. “What the…” was all she could say before two arms from the other side grabbed her and pulled her through.

* * *

The attack that Goretooth had devised shocked Zujin, he had expected the general to land on the beach and march his force inland. In stead he spilt the three airships and had them approach the clearing in front of the caverns from three sides, then as the reached it robes were thrown over the side and the orcs, trolls and tauren slid down them to the ground bellow.

The orcs in the caverns were caught by surprised as their enemies landed amongst them, but as Zhain had always taught they had their weapons close at hand and a fierce melee erupted. Both the males and females fought with unrelenting fury against the elite force that now invaded their home.

Zujin and Nasanda were the last to descend from their ship and passed unnoticed by both sides. He and Varlet had a secret place within the caverns that they had gone to pains to hide from everyone else and he hoped that she had gone their when the fighting broke out. As neared the covered entrance they came across Zujin’s mother attempting to push a rock which covered the entrance aside.

“Mother,” Zujin said loud enough for her to hear him.

When she saw him she knew that is was him who had betrayed them to their enemies, her eyes became filled with anger and hate. Roaring one of the Burning Blades many battle cries she charge at her first born intent on killing him. She got no further than half way before a spear punched through her rib cage and shredded her heart. Without a sound Zujin’s mother fell to the ground and died. Nasanda moved past him and retrieved her weapon, she gave him an apologetic smile as she did so.

Wasting no time Zujin grabbed the rock that he and his sister used to cover the entrance to their little hiding place and moved it. He handed his staff to Nasanda and crawled through, Varlet was nowhere to be seen in the dimly lit chamber, but just as he turned to go he spotted a small face peering over a large rock in the back.

“Varlet it’s me Zujin,” he called to her.

“Zujin!” Varlet cried and ran to him. “What’s going on?”

“Its ok, I’m here,” he reassured her. “We need to go, I have a friend just out side, come on.”

Varlet nodded and they quickly crawled back through to where Nasanda was waiting. The two orc females smiled uncomfortably at each other for a moment. Then Zujin emerged and stood up.

“Nasanda, this is my sister Varlet, Varlet this is Nasanda,” Zujin introduced them

“Is she your mate?” Varlet asked with an impish grin, Nasanda laughed.

“I think that best left for another time,” Zujin replied. “Lets get you away from here.”

By the time that they emerged from the caverns the battle was all but over. Though it had never really been a real battle, sure the orcs had been members of the Burning Blade, but they had not fought a battle against truly skilled enemies in years. While the Gerenrals force had come through the third war.

General Goretooth ordered them on to a Zeppelin that would take them to Grom’gol from there they would take another of the airships across the ocean to Orgrimmar. He made it clear that they would all face tough questions about what had been going on once they were back in the city.

During the long trip Zujin explained everything to Varlet from the time they left the settlement to the time he found her in their hiding place. For a youngling she took it all well and only after he showed her the book and the parchment did she cling to him in fear. The one thing that still worried him was the Shard Lattice had not been found by the time he they had had to leave the swamps, but Goretooth had assured him that they would locate it; the warlock could do little else but trust the general.

* * *

“I can’t let you out of my sight for a minute can I?” Jarax commented with a smile as he looked at the blood and slime covered troll female that lay exhausted on the ground.

Saku shook his head as he reached down and helped Nyako to her feet; she tired to remove some of the gore from her face and arms when she was standing. Then they all heard a scream that they instantly recognized, and they ran towards its source.

The sight that greeted them was Varlet secured to a pillar in the middle of the room surrounded by the bones of a huge creature. Trolls stood around want seemed to be the skull chanting in an ancient troll tongue. Next to them was an iron frame that supported the very thing Zujin had thought destroyed years ago, the Shard Lattice and securing the last of the violet gems into place was none other than Vasu.

“Since you are all hear I will assume that the trolls, those alliance mercenaries and even Kron are dead.” Vasu commented as he finshied his task. “No matter I never expected any of them to succeed, only delay you.”

The painted markings on Varlet’s exposed body began to glow and the Trolls began to increase the volume and speed of their chanting in response. Seeing his mate in such danger Jarax began to move across towards her, but suddenly Vasu was in front of him.

“Ah you must be Jarax,” the rogue coldly smiled.

Without and word Jarax attacked Vasu swinging his axe at the rogues head. With a laugh Vasu easily side stepped the blow and drew his blades. Immediately Jarax was on the defensive blocking blows that came to fast for him to properly see, had he been on his own Jarax knew that he would have stood no chance against an enemy of this skill, but then he was not alone.

Vasu’s attacks suddenly stop and his arms fell helpless to his sides, Jarax spotted Vilneri channelling her demonic magic at the rogue. In the next instant Vasu was hit from all sides, shots from Saku and Shadow bolt from Zujin and blows from both Nyako and Jarax.

Some how though Vasu survived and vanished from sight as the succubus’s spell was broken. He could have been anywhere in the shadows of the vast temple and every one scanned the room in complete silence for any signed of the rogues location. They did not have to wait long for him to reveal himself.

The silence was broken by the sound of Vilneri spanking herself, every one jump and spun to look at the succubus but when they realized it was just her a few of them chuckled. Then Vasu struck, his blades sliced through the demonite’s unprotected body killing her before anyone could react.

Even as Vilneri fell Vasu attacked Zujin, he hacked and slashed at the warlocks arms and torso scoring many hits, but none of them fatal. However Zujin was not without his own defences. The rogues face seemed to be twisted in agony as he fought and soon old and fresh wounds alike were leaking disgusting black corrupted mucus.

His strength leaving him Vasu’s attacks became weaker until he dropped to his knees and vomited more of the corrupted black mucus. But when it stopped coming out of his mouth Vasu did something very unexpected, he began to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Zujin asked.

“You lot are,” Vasu laughed. “You have come all this way and you still don’t get it do you.”

“What are you talking about?” Nyako asked. “Your dead, we win its over.”

“Ah the naivety of youth,” Vasu smiled. “You think I am the mastermind behind all of this, but I tell you I would not know one end of a soul shard from the other.”

“If this was not your idea then whose was it?” Saku demanded as he grabbed Vasu by the shoulders.

“Only one other knew of what was needed to perform this summoning, other than my cousin,” Vasu commented his smile bigger than ever.

“Who?” Saku demanded, but Vasu was dead.

Nyako gasped loudly and everyone looked at her, she raised a shaking hand and pointed to a shadow that was darker than any of the others. What was more it was moving, then another one appeared right behind Zujin.

“Damn,” was all Zujin said before a blast of shadow magic hit him in the back.

It was so powerful that it tossed him through the air like a rag doll, then another flew from the shadow and hit him again, this one propelled him into the wall with such force that the huge stone blocks cracked.

As the shadows formed into the unmistakeable forms of orcs, they all knew that Zujin was dead…

To be continued.