He could smell the blood long before he saw the first body; it was obvious that Kiri could too, as the large tiger’s movements became predator like. When the corpses did start to appear they formed a line which led straight up the hill to the large, ruined grand hall, at one time this would have been the centre of this village. Dismounting the massive cat, Rokash unfastened the straps that held his massive tree trunk to his back, then after a few practice swings he made his way inside, while his cat began to consume the nearest corpse.
“Ah so this is where you were hiding it,” a soft, seductive female voice commented; there was a strangled rasping sound in response. “You have been so helpful I must think of a way to repay you,” the playful voice cooed, Rokash entered the main hall to find out what was going on.
Three figures stood in the shattered hall, well only two actually stood, the third, a forsaken, was lying on the floor in a growing pool of dark, coagulated blood. Next to him an orc in full crimson armour who was completely oblivious to the figure at his feet nor the blood pooling around his metal boots. The reason he was so unaware was that he was staring mindlessly at the third and last person in the room, a night elf who was gently stroking his face and rubbing her body against him, in her free hand there was a book, the one Zujin had sent him here to retrieve.
“Well, well who do we have here?” the night elf female asked stepping away from the orc, and fixing Rokash with a a smile that would not look out of place on a succubus. “Aren’t you a find strapping example of a Bovine Bull,” she complimented him, her voice heavy with innuendo.
“Why thank you,” he replied with a nod of his head. “Nice rack,” he added looking at her barley concealed and ample chest.
“I’m glad you like them,” she laughed bouncing on the spot for the obvious effect
“Your welcome,” He smiled and held out his right hand. “Now hand it over,” he demanded.
“Hand it over,” she repeated, biting her lower lip. “What could I have that you would possibly want?” her eyes sparkled.
“Sorry tiny but you not my type, now hand over the book and we can avoid any unpleasantness,” he told her his voice becoming serious.
“Oh poo, and we were having such fun,” she sighed looking as if she was about to cry. “Shadowmaster Grieve,” she said to the orc at her side he turned to look at her. “This tauren is in my way, please remove him,” she ordered.
“Of course,” he said drawing his sword. “You’ve drawn your last breath savage,” he roared and charged Rokash. As soon as he was within range of the tauren’s massive reach though, he found an armoured fist smashing into his face. However such was the speed he was running at and the force of the blow that the bull found his right hand stuck inside the ruin remains of the orc’s skull.
“Oh that’s disgusting,” Rokash commented as he moved his arm up and down rapidly, shaking the corpse impaled on it like a rag doll until it came of and flew across the room. “Not so fast tiny,” he stated as he blocked the night elf’s path.
“Hmph, you’re faster than you look,” she commented her voice now cold and calculating. “Tell me whats your name?” she inquired.
“Rokash,” he replied. “From that ugly scar on your mid-rift and the black glowing eyes I would say that you are Kitty, the one group who kidnapped and tortured my little friend Torgina.”
“My fame precedes me, it would seem,” she smiled as shadows began to form around both her hands. “Jar’ag says that you are the muscle behind the one being who my Master considers his only true rival, so let see how good you are,” she added as a twisted black sword and an evil looking barbed whip formed I her hands.
Kitty dashed across the room weapons ready to strike, timing his attack Rokash swung his massive tree trunk with enough force to flatten a small hut, but the blow only connected with the wall making an almost deafening bang. To his surprised she was now standing on top of his weapon with a coy smile on her lips.
“You’re going to have to do oh so much better than that,” she teased and lashed out with her whip but he did something she had not expected, he dropped the tree trunk. Almost before she realised that she was falling his right hand delivered an upper cut to her chin that sent her hurtling up wards into the air flipping head over heals.
She hit the far wall and dropped to the ground with a painful thump, shocked by the power of such a blow she had to rely on her demonic agility to roll out of the way as Rokash closed the distance between them and attempted to punch her again. She rolled Left, right, then left again as his fists gouged chucks of masonry out of the floor before stabbing him in the hand with the tip of her sword, the attack caused him to stop for a moment and that was all of she needed to regain her feet and attack him again.
Moving faster than she had ever done before Kitty lashed at him with her whip and stabbed with her sword all the time dodging his killer punches he retaliated with. Her attacks though were barely scratching his heavy plate armour and she knew that he only needed one good hit to bring her down. However she had a plan, but to pull it off she need him to perform a move that all tauren were taught from birth, and after the barbs of her whip struck his helm he did it, infuriated with her speed Rokash slammed his hooves into the ground with all his strength.
A fraction of a second was all the warning she got that the move was coming, and she leapt away from him as the force of his slam caused the already weakened wall supporting the roof to finally collapse. The large pieces of wood and stone fell on top of Rokash and a growing cloud of debris filled the room. Kitty smiled victoriously as she saw her enemy vanish, but as the dust settled her smile was replaced by a look of shock as standing there in the rubble unhurt other than a covering of grey dirt the huge tauren stood motionless. He gave a snort of amusement at her expression. It was then that she realized that the book had broken from the bindings that she had used to secure it to her belt and was now lying exactly in between her and Rokash. However she also spotted her only escape route from this confrontation, it was a long shot but she needed to get out now.
Dismissing her weapons she channelled all her magic into enhancing her running speed as she ran straight at her huge foe. Seeing her coming he pulled back his right fist intent of killing her with a single blow, however just as he began throw his punch Kitty let her fleet slip forward. Suddenly she was sliding on her left side, feet first using the blood of the forsaken she had killed to grease the floor, grabbing the book as she past it; she passed between Rokash’s legs. In disbelief at this the bull found himself looking at her through his own lower limbs, not only did the blood allow her to do this but glide through a small gap in the base of the rubble. As she did this she looked back at him, a triumphant grin on her face, with her left hand raised and middle finger extended.
Moving quickly he grabbed his tree trunk again and bashed his way through the rubble with all his strength but by the time he was through Kitty was long gone.
“Damn,” Rokash said to himself. “Zujin was not going to be happy.” He added as he looked around for Kiri.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Wyvern flight had been short but cold as Oleysia climbed of the flying creature shivering slightly. The beast shook its furry main and leapt back up on to the empty perch were it roared at the other wyverns close by. The young warlock looked over to see Ruya and Oathbreaker waiting for her.
Falcon Watch was the first place she had been to, since she left Silvermoon nearly a year ago to become a student of Master Zujin, that was controlled solely by her Blood Elves. As she fell in step with the others and made their way towards the inn she thought back to the short briefing that Jarax had given them before they had left.
Apparently a group of Blood elf pilgrims had gone missing, they all had believed the propaganda spread by Prince Sunstrider’s followers about this shattered world being their ‘Promised Land’. Refusing to listen to his advice to wait in Thrallmar or return to Azeroth until the peninsula was more secure they had set off for this outpost, without an escort and subsequently vanished. Jarax also explained, that after the pilgrims disappearance the commander of Falcon Watch had demanded a fully armed search team of horde grunts to search for them, when it was explained to him that there was no such team available the commander had hired his own mercenaries, a troll sharpshooter and forsaken assassin to do the job, after setting off to begin their mission, neither had been heard from in since.
Now with the destruction of the Bleeding Hollow Fel-Orc’s stronghold things had quietened down for a while and Jarax was sending them out to do the job properly. He told them to head straight to the inn and meet up with the back up he had arranged for them to help find the missing pilgrims. Oathbreaker had asked how they would recognize these reinforcements and Jarax had shrugged his shoulders and said it would be easy.
“Ah there you three are,” Saku called out as they entered the small inn. “Come over here, there is someone I want you to meet.” With him was a tall female troll who rested casually on the bar, as they approached she looked in their direction and smiled.
“Hi there, I’m Nyako,” she greeted them, then paused. “I guess Saku wasn’t lying Oathbreaker, you are working for Jarax” she laughed. “Well can’t say I’m surprised you’re the a-typical Mercenary and this is the place to be for you guys at the moment” she commented in a friendly tone.
“Enough talk,” Saku interrupted. “Nyako this is Ruya a shaman and Oleysia, Zujin’s latest apprentice,” he said introducing them, both nodded to the troll warrior and she smiled in return. “Come on, lets get moving,” he ordered and headed for the door.
“He’s rather abrupt,” Ruya whispered to Oleysia.
“Something must be bugging him,” the warlock replied. “He’s normally very friendly; while I was being tutored by Master Zujin he was always teasing me.”
“Zujin did something he did not like,” Nyako said as she appeared beside them, they looked at her. “I’m not sure the details but Saku said that Zujin left himself opened to assassins from the Shadow Council by sending him and his other bodyguards away.”
“Master Zujin would never do something so dangerous without there being a good reason,” Oleysia said jumping to the defence of her teacher, she made a move to walk ahead and catch up with the hunter but Nyako reached out and gripped her shoulder firmly.
“I’m sure Saku knows exactly why Zujin did what he did, but he is still angry about it, just let him cool off a bit, trust me this is not a fight you want to take on,” the troll explained.
As they talked Saku whistled loudly and a flame red flying serpent descended from the air to hover at his side. He held out some fruit and after it had taken the food he turned to a orange raptor that stood patiently as he un-strapped a long box from its side. Placing it carefully on the ground he opened it and produced a long barrelled black sniper rifle. Next to Ruya and Oleysia Nyako whistled; he looked up at her and smiled, before slinging the weapon over his back and replacing the box back on the raptor.
“Ok, Nyako and I scouted the area out before meeting you here and we discovered the spot where the pilgrims were ambushed,” he told them. “The signs of a battle were old but there were easy to find clues as to the identity of who attacked them,” he held up a large feather the length of Oleysia’s forearm. “This is an Arakkoa feather which means the pilgrims can only be in one place, the Den of Haal’esth.”
“How can you be sure?” Oathbreaker asked. “Those could have been planted or have nothing to do with the pilgrims at all.”
“As soon as we found the feathers we checked the Arakkoa Den,” Nyako spoke up. “We spotted the mercenaries that the Blood elves had sent to find the pilgrims before us; or rather we spotted their heads, on pikes.” She finished grimly.
“Ok lets get out there there’s no time to waste,” Saku stated and turned to leave.
“Yeah you’ve wasted enough time already,” heckled a Blood elf guard who was standing close by. His fellows sneered at them until Saku punched the offend elf in the abdomen with such force that they crumpled to the ground. The others started to go for their weapons but a sharp look from the hunter made them think better of it and they went to help their friend instead.
Surprisingly the trip to the den was far shorter than the trio expected, it was a gorge cut into the mountains, the mouth of which was guarded by three tall Arakkoa. All of whom looked distinctly bored as if they had been at this spot now for a long time and nothing had happened, they had no idea that that was about to change. Nyako released her onyx black hammer from its holder on her back while Saku lay prone on the ground aiming his long rifle towards the bird men. Following the pairs lead Oathbreaker drew his own weapons, while Oleysia and Ruya readied their spells.
“Kill the gaurds fast, because as soon as we do the rest are going to come pouring out of that gorge,” Nyako told them. “Saku what’s your target?” she asked.
“The one to our left,” he answered not looking up.
“Alright then I’ll take the middle, Oathbreaker the one on the right is yours,” Nyako decided. “Girls give us what support you can to bring them down,” she told Ruya and Oleysia.
“On your Signal Nyako,” Saku said.
“Well, then there is no sense holding it back, FOR THE HORDE!!” the troll yelled and charged the middle Arakkoa, Oathbreaker was a step behind her as he engaged his own target.
To the bird men their boring assignment suddenly became interesting, too interesting. One found its head being bashed in by a black hammer that looked as if it was a boar’s face, another suddenly had its arms removed by a large bull man wielding two brutal looking weapons before being hack in half. The last one released that they were not being attack and decided to flee, but only moments later a shot from a sniper tore off its beak followed by another which shattered the back of its skull. In that brief instant their lives became and intense series of images and sounds before they were ended.
“Is everyone alright?” Nyako yelled out, the others nodded.
Saku moved forward quietly, he strode past the one he had shot without a second glance as he reloaded the two bullets he had just used. Without a word he raised his weapon and pointed it towards the dark mouth of the gorge as the sound of screeching and squawking were growing ever louder and closer to them. Oathbreaker snorted in contempt and raised both his gore covered weapons ready for the battle that was to come, inside his head the voices laughed and screamed for blood.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“The first thing we need to do is reduce the size of our search area,” Sim stated looking at the map. “So lets make sure that they have not left the Peninsula.” The others nodded in agreement. “Alright Alpharius, you will take three knights and head east to the druid outpost in Zangermarsh find out if any one fitting the description of this group passed through at any time.” the Captain smiled. “Commander I need two griffons to fly some of my knights the alliance stronghold in Terrokar Forest, so we can confirm that they had neither seen nor heard any reports of our targets.”
“I’ll have them ready for you people as soon as they get here,” Trollbane agreed. “What about Shattrath though?”
“Since the ‘Fist of Fury’ have been operating out of the city for some time now I think we can safely assume this group are not there.” Sim concluded; his aura of self righteous and importance was beginning to show.
“You know where they are, don’t you?” Rhea commented.
“Well yes, presuming that Alpharius and the knights we sent to Terrokar come back without any reports of sightings then yes I have a very good idea as to where they are,” Sim smiled.
“Well out with it then,” Trollbane demanded.
“Think about it, if you had a sizable group, such as our enemy has, and you wanted, no needed, to hide them where would the obvious place be?” Sim asked, all three looked blankly at him. “First you would require a sizable space in which to base yourself, then you would need to guard yourself from your enemies in a way that would not reveal your existence and what better way to do that than with guards who don’t know that their guarding you,” As he explained this Trollbane and Alpharius caught on and both smiled broadly. Rhea though looked even more confused, which Sim thought was a very cute expression for her so with a laugh he pointed to the only place in all of the Peninsula that he could be talking about, Hellfire Citadel.
“There!?” Rhea exclaimed, clearly not convinced. “But they would be surrounded by Fel-orcs,” she commented.
“I know, where better to find a large supply of guards to protect you that don’t know they are doing it,” Sim smiled.
“In such a massive complex there are bound to be a few places that have been forgotten about or abandoned,” Trollbane agreed.
“Very well,” Rhea relented.
“All right then,” Sim said rising from his chair. “Alpharius and I will go brief our knights on what’s going on, I’ll be back before sun set,” he told them and left the room with the Captain.
“So,” Trollbane began leaning back in his chair. “What’s the deal with them and this Falkus ‘The Widowmaker’?” he asked.
“Well it’s a long story,” Rhea sighed. “But it seems we have some time on our hands so I’ll tell you…”
(Six Years ago)
Peace, Peace sucked especially for men like Falkus and his squad of army scouts, without any orcs, demons, undead or enemies of any kind to kill all of them were growing bored and frustrated. So now they sat in this bar, located in the heart of Stormwind’s Old Town, getting progressively more and more drunk and as a result louder and increasingly violent.
The pretty young, blonde barmaid who was waiting tables was terrified of the six armed heavily intoxicated men in the room, something that really got Falkus’s Blood pumping. As she tried to pass their table to get to another patron he grabbed her by the waist and roughly pulled her onto his lap causing her to scream in fear and surprise.
“Hey there pretty one, why are you so scared,” he laughed in her face; she just stared at him neither moving nor speaking. “I ask you a question,” he stated getting annoyed at her, still she said nothing.
“All right pal,” said once of the patrons who had been seated close by. “I think you’ve all had enough so just let Eve up and get out,” he told Falkus as he rose from his chair, he was a very big man but that mattered little to the rogue.
“What if I don’t?” Falkus shot back the threat clear in his voice.
“Then you’ll find out just how bad it can be for some one who treats a lady this way,” the man replied.
“Looks like we got ourselves a hero, boys,” Falkus laughed and threw the barmaid called Eve to his men, who began to lewdly paw at her as he rose from his chair. “Lets see what you got hero,” he taunted, suddenly the front door burst open and twelve Stormwind guardsmen entered the bar.
“I am Captain Alpharius and I demand to know what is going on here?” the captain demanded, looking over the scene.
“These men were harassing the young lady captain,” the ‘hero’ stated.
“Were they now,” Alpharius said fixing Falkus and his crew with and truly contemptuous stare. “Release that woman at once,” he ordered, the men did so. “You men are all currently serving in the Stormwind army, how dare you behave in this manner,” Alpharius lectured, he expected the men to look embarrassed and remorseful at their actions, but they just looked at him with hostility.
“Alright you’ve saved the lady,” Falkus snapped back. “Now out of our way we’re leaving,” he decided waving for his men to follow.
“I don’t think so, all of you throw down your weapons you are coming with us to the stockade,” Alpharius demanded, Falkus and his men laughed mockingly. “If you do not follow my orders we will use force.”
“Look runt, you don’t have a clue who we are,” Falkus explained. “Me and my boys here are the toughest soldiers out of Lordaeron we fought through the second war to reclaim you fancy city, and served again in the third war operating behind the enemy lines of the legion and their undead lackeys so why don’t you start showing us some damn respect before we teach you and your pups some manners.” His voice was so full of scorn and ridicule towards Alpharius and his guards that the captain’s face turned almost purple with rage.
In a flash the young captain had drawn his sword and charged at Falkus, the rogue had his own weapons in his hands in the blink of an eye, he blocked the initial attack and kicked the captain in his side before jumping back. Moments later both the guards and the scouts had their weapons drawn and were attacking each other. Blades flashed in the light, furniture was smashed and the patrons fled screaming from the bar, the guards had numbers and heavy armour on their side, but all of them were rookies with only their basic training to fall back on, while the scouts had the experiences of decades of war.
The fight was a virtual stalemate, but neither group was going to relent and of all the battles Alpharius’s personal one with Falkus was the most violent. Both men fought with the clear intension of hacking each other to pieces, the captain head butted the rogue as the older man attempted to stab him in the midrift. A split second later Falkus punched Alpharius in the jaw and stepped back, dropping one of his blades and he produced another covered in a thick green fluid, which could only be poison.
“Ok play times over kiddo,” Falkus said his voice full of hate. He dived at Alpharius the dagger out aimed at the captains neck, had he not been drunk the move would have been fatal but as it was Alpharius got just enough time to defect the blow. But it was that moment that changed both men’s lives forever the deflected blade sunk straight between the breasts of the barmaid, who had been attempting to escape the carnage, right up to the hilt.
Everything and everyone froze in that moment as her scream seemed to fill not just the bar but all of Stormwind. Well not everyone, even as she fell Falkus and his scouts shoved their way past the shocked guardsmen and fled the bar. Her body began to convulse violently as the poison took hold her lips began to turn blue and blood ran freely from her mouth, nose, ears, basically every hole. Throwing his weapon away Alpharius used his most powerful healing spell ‘Lay on hands’ but though it seemed to lessen what was happening to her it did not stop it.
He ordered the paladins in his squad to also use their healing spells and the others to get to the temple as fast as they could. As they obeyed his orders Alpharius turned his bags upside down and emptied its contents of mana and health potions on to the table, with out having to be told the others with him did the same chugging the blue ones down like their was no tomorrow and pouring the down her throat when ever they could. They fought to save her for twenty minutes before three powerful priests and two night elf druids who had been visiting the cathedral burst into the room adding their own magic to the paladins in the battle to save the barmaids life, and they did carried on the fight long into the night…
(Present Day)
“What happened to her?” Trollbane asked eager for the answer.
“She lived,” Rhea smiled, the old warrior audibly sighed with relief as if it had just happened. “She has a husband, and a kid now but it was a very close call, the poison Falkus used was never identified, even by the experts at SI: 7. As for Falkus, he and his men were declared outlaws and hunted for years, thought every time the army came close to catching them there was a blood bath and they escaped, he himself killed so many soldiers he gained the nickname ‘The Widowmaker’.”
“How does Alpharius still hold a commission within the army?” Trollbane inquired.
“Well, there was a full investigation of the incident and Alpharius was found guilty of gross negligence and actions unbecoming of an officer in the army,” Rhea answered. “But Sim used his contacts and influence to keep Alpharius in the services and maintain his captaincy but he was transferred to the garrison, if you can call it that, which was charged with the protection of Goldshire and ordered not to leave the town limits in any official capacity.”
“So they side lined him and left him to rot,” the commander summed up, Rhea nodded. “Well that explains quite a lot, thank you for telling me this, now I best get back to my own duties.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it before rising and leaving.
“Well now that went well,” Rice commented in his dry voice as he entered from the other room. “Good job baby sister,” he joked she smiled.
“I just hope the ‘Fists’ can handle the legion,” Rhea commented.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Rascal laughed with excitement and pleasure as the four armoured griffons flew in formation, the sound of his girlfriends joy made Tout’Sweet smile, of all of them she loved to fly the most. Even the bleak landscape of Hellfire moving below them did not dampen her exhilaration, to the warrior’s right Maestro was going through his bags checking and preparing the groups sapper charges while Brimstone watched the horizon like a hawk.
“There are the targets” the warlock called out as several large black structures appeared on the horizon. “Damn that’s a lot of demons around them,” she added as the rapidly closed on the area.
“Ok get your weapons ready,” Tout’Sweet ordered checking his goggles were secure. “Follow my lead, those demons are going to be all over us as soon as we touch down,” he commented then banked his Griffon to the left.
“Let’s do this!” Rascal yelled and followed him with the others close behind.
Air whistled past his ears and he urged his mount to accelerate towards the rapidly approaching ground, only at the last minute did he pull the reins back and flip of its back as the animal soared skywards again. Moments later Rascal was at his side, while Maestro landed behind him as did Brimstone who instantly called out her axe wielding Fel-Guard.
Reacting to the sudden intrusion a Blue skinned Fel-Handler roared orders at the Nether-hound by its side to attack the tiny intruders, while screaming at the top of her voice a type of female demon, nicknamed a Doomwhisperer by those who had fought them before, worked the three heavily armour Wrathgaurds up into a frenzy of battle lust.
“Well, time to earn our pay,” Tout’Sweet stated raising ‘Thunderfury’ and his shield and charged. The netherhound was the first demon he met its mouth opened to swallow him whole, but instead he used his powerful weapon to cut in half, length ways.
Vaulting over the demonic dog’s corpse Rascal was right behind the warrior closing in on the blue skinned Fel-Handler which raised its fist in readiness for the fight to come. It punched out with a left hook but Rascal dodged the blow and an instant later with a powerful leap she stabbed both her daggers into its upper chest. Using her weight she pulled her blades downwards opened the demon up and spilled its vital organs on the ground bellow, however she would have been squashed by its huge corpse had Brimstone’s Fel-Guard not pulled her out of the way.
In sending her pet to aid Rascal, Brimstone found her self alone facing a very large Wrathguard who sliced at her with its swords. However being a warlock she had a few tricks up her sleeves when it came to dealing with demons, before the blades were even half way towards her she banished her towering foe, forcing it partially out of step with reality. With it contained for the time being she turned her attention to the second Wrathguard which was coming straight for her, this time however her minion intercepted.
She smiled as her Fel-guard used its silver, skull adorned axe to remove the larger demons left hand, but in retaliation for this her pet had the other sword stabbed through its right arm. If this had been one on one fight Brimstone was sure that the Wrathguard would have won, but it wasn’t and by the time both were ready to attack each other again the legion foot solider was crippled with powerful spells, it roared in agony and spat gobs of corrupted black fluid from its mouth. It was an easy kill for her pet to make, the tiny warlock had no time to celebrate though as the first of the Wrathguard had broken free of its banishing and was bearing down on her.
This time it was Tout’sweet that saved her, appearing next to her yelling all manner of taunts and insult using some truly offensive language. It had the desired effect as the demon switched its focus to him, hacking at his raised shield with all its fury and rage. To Brimstones shock it was not alone in attacking him, the third and last of the Wrathgruards which had been hamstringed so it could not keep up with the warrior joined its kin in its attack.
“What are you waiting for?” Tout’Sweet shouted. “Get Rascal and help me deal with them, I can’t hold out forever.”
“Rascal!!” Brimstone yelled and motioned for his Fel-guard to attack the closet demon.
The rogue appeared behind the same one that Brimstone’s minion was attacking together they made swift work of the Wrathguard allowing the warlock to focus her offensive spells on the other, with in moments both were dead and their was only one demon remaining, however as they moved towards it Maestro suddenly appeared in front of them
He was smiling victoriously as the six armed female demon turned in their direction. What armour she had was badly scorched and in some cases melted. Chucks of ice were impaled in some parts of her unprotected body, while one of her eyes appeared to be in the process of swelling shut. Staggering about and attempting to hold the wound on her throat closed with her middle set of hands it was clear that she truly been out classed. Maestro looked at his friends with a smiled, raised his hands, and simultaneously clicked his fingers, causing the Doomwhisperers head to be engulfed in fire.
“Scorching,” the mage joked and they all groaned. “Oh you lot wouldn’t know funny if it bit you in the ass,” he laughed.
“Come on lets get these charges set,” Tout’Sweet ordered. “Before more of them show up.” The others quickly took their charges out of their bags and placed on either side of the structures. “Come on I think I hear reinforcements coming,” he informed them; they all yelled that they were ready and four fuses were lit. The resulting explosion shook the earth so much that it was only the gnome low centre of gravity that stopped them from falling on their asses.
But the detonation did not just shake the ground violently it caused landslides on all the hills around it. The biggest one came from the one next to the team’s second target, sweeping it and the army of demons who had rushed to protect it of the edge of the broken work and into the void. Shocked by this event the gnomes looked at each other in disbelief.
“oh, well, that was lucky,” Rascal commented. The others shook there heads and summoned their griffons down from the sky, with the telaporters destroyed it was time to take care of the Fel-Reavers on the Abyssal self.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Arakkoa seemed to be endless as they came charging out of the gorge, but despite their massive superiority in numbers they were no matched for the group that awaiting them Saku picked half a dozen of with his rifle as before they had even reached the two warriors, it seemed that they were the lucky ones in some ways as while Nyako killed the bird men she fought out right, Oathbreaker seemed happy just to wound them enough so that they were no longer a threat and moved on. The trolls hammer shattered skulls and smashed bones while the bull’s weapons hacked off limbs and disembowelled, the carnage was terrible not to mention the smell.
“Is this what you call fighting!?!“ The voices demanded of Oathbreaker. “This is nothing, these bird men have no skill, find a better challenge, or are you too weak and scared!?!“ The voices mocked him. “SCARED!!, WEAK!!“ Oathbreaker raged at the voices. “You’re the ones who are weak,” he snarled at them, and attacked his enemies with even more brutality.
Neither Oleysia nor Ruya had missed out on the action this time as there had been so many of the bird men that many had passed the warriors and attacked them thinking them to be easy targets. They quickly found out just how wrong they were, the initial three that attacked them collapsed each of them vomiting black viscous fluid while at the same time screaming in agony, the fourth one found itself staring helpless lay at Bronwena dropping its weapons to the ground, moments before an earth elemental crushed its skull in a large rocky hand. Together with their pets the duo killed a dozen of the Arakkoa warriors.
There had been casters to but not one of them got a spell off as Saku had once again shown his remarkable accuracy and sniped each of them before they could finish their casting. During the times he had to stop to reload his pet had swooped down and struck them with its lighting breath, this did not do my much damage but it really incensed them making them so much easier for the hunter to pick off. Eventually the numbers of Arakkoa dwindled to nothing and the group stopped to catch their breath, well they tried to, but Oathbreaker finished off his last foe by tearing its upper beak off with his bare hands, stabbed it into the poor creatures head, then even as it fell he roared a battle cry and charged into the gorge. The others looked at each other for a moment unsure what to do.
“Oh hell,” Nyako sighed. “FOR THE HORDE!” and they follow the tauren into the darkness.
Four Arakkoa already lay dead or dieing and Oathbreaker was butchering a fifth, in the short few seconds that it took for the others to catch up and adjust to the light difference. There seemed to be no stopping him as he moved deeper into the gorge with the other only able to fall in his wake, his battle cries echo’d loudly of the walls making them truly terrifying. The bull’s path of destruction was only stopped when an Arakkoa larger than himself leapt from a ledge and grappled with him. Both the axe and the sword flew out of the taurens hands as they fought.
“Kaww! Monster! Butcher! Mad one!” it screeched at him. “Kaww! Avenge my flock, you die, Kaw!” Oathbreaker roared and slammed it into the gorge wall then as the impact forced its head forward he head butted it. Stunned by this double hit to the head its grip loosened and he freed his hands, wrapping his left hand around its throat he pulled it down to the ground and held it there.
“You’ll avenge nothing primitive,” he snarled and began to punch the Arakkoa leader repeatedly with his free right fist. After the fifth punch though his hand caught on something which prevented him for striking again, he looked to see Nyako holding his arm back her face showing the effort it was taking just to do so.
“That enough Oathbreaker,” She stated. “We have questions and he cant answer them if he is dead,” she told him, for a instant it looked as if he was about the turn on her but, then he seemed to come back to his senses and let the unconscious Arakkoa go. Without a word he stood up and went looking for his weapons, while Oleysia and Ruya breathed a sigh of relief, neither of them noticed Saku had been aiming his rife straight at Oathbreakers heart, when the tauren move away he lowered his weapon.
“Ok start looking for the pilgrims or any sign of what happened to them.” Saku ordered as he moved to help Nyako with the prisoner. “What the hell was that?” he whispered to her when the others were out of earshot.
“If I had not seen it I would have said it was battle lust, but there was a look in his eyes that I’ve never seen before.” She whispered back. “This’ll sound insane but I swear it was not him that was trying to beat this Arakkoa into death.”
“I’ll speak to Jarax about this,” he told he, she gave him a questioning look. “I’m not sure Zujin will be too pleased his apprentice is working along side…”
“Don’t forget we owe, Oathbreaker too Saku,” Nyako interrupted him. “If there is something wrong we need to at least try and help him.” she insisted, Saku paused for a moment then nodded.
“Your right I’ll need to keep a closer eye on them from now on though,” he relented. “How is the bird man?” as the Arakkoa seemed to be waking up.
“He’ll live I managed to stop Oathbreaker before he had gone too far.” She informed him, we’ll get him back to Falcon Watch and question him there, but the Blood elves might want to take him apart if something has happened to those pilgrims.”
“Guys I think you need to come see this, we found a survivor,” Oleysia called out to them.
They had indeed found a pilgrim wounded, beaten up she lay at the bottom of a small cage, covered in dirt and dried blood. She looked warily at them as Saku broke the lock with a powerful kick and offered no resistance as he lifted her out. Setting her down gently again he supported her back with his right knee, and told Ruya to give him some water which he lightly pressed against her lips. At first she took a few sips unsure of what it was but then when she knew it was water she greedily grabbed the pouch and gulped it down.
“Take it easy, you’ll make yourself sick if you take too much all at once,” Saku told her pulling the pouch away slightly. “Ruya how are her wounds?” he asked the shaman.
“Her left leg is broken and two ribs I can heal the flesh wounds here but we’ll need to get her back to Falcon Watch to treat the bones,” the shaman answered.
“I’ll carry her,” Oathbreaker stated coming over and kneeling at her side, Saku looked at the bull in the eye for a split second then allowed him to lift the exhausted elf. “Wow she is lighter than a calf,” he joked and then began walking carefully towards the way out or the gorge. Nyako and Saku flanked the prisoner following right behind him, with Oleysia and Ruya bringing up the rear. Bronwena was as usual wandered about picking up shiny objects and looking at her reflection, until she realized that was alone and spanked her own butt before runnning after her mistress.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
He was exhausted but did not want to sleep, every time he did he dreamed of his past and he did not want to think about that. To keep himself awake for as long as possible he removed and scrubbed each piece of his armour till it was spotless, but he could not do the same for his weapons, they lay on the table where he had placed them, the blood of the Arakkoa now dried in with that of every other victim they had claimed. His dagger though was gleaming, he had not used it in a while but even when he did any gore he got on it did not stay there for long, he did not know why it was certainly not due to any cleaning of his, so how?.
“Stop thinking like this Oathbreaker,” he told himself. “You can’t put it off any longer go to sleep.” As he laid his head down on the pillow he realised for the first time, he had been calling himself by Oathbreaker now for so long that he had to actually think what his first name had been, the one he had been given when he had been born. His last thought was that tauren was long dead now.
(5 Years ago)
The Abominations though large and numerous prove little challenge for the group, especially the taurens, Oathbreaker and Naraxis made a game of it to see who could kill the most as quickly as possible with the other three faring just a well. As Naraxis removed his serrated axe from the head of the last of the undead creatures a hollow evil laugher filled the city though they had never heard his voice before all of them knew that this was Baron Rivendare.
“Well done,” he congratulated them. “But if you want to face me it wont be as easy as that, let me send some of the citizens of this fair city out, they are just dieing to meet you,” he laughed.
Rapidly undead poured into the square from everywhere, out of the houses, alleyways and even out of the sewers. Caught completely off guard by this sudden attack the group was spread out, Mitzar the orc was quickly overwhelmed and torn apart, Andrezi threw up his protective bubble and ran in the direction of Heka who had dozens of skeletal claws scratching furiously at the block of ice she had encased herself in. Oathbreaker and Naraxis however used their strength and long reached to hack and smash till they met up and then fought to the other two. Once they had all reached her and formed a protective ring, the Argent Dawn Battle Mage unleashed some powerful spells which blasted dozen of the mindless scourge minions to pieces at a time. Soon it was all over and only broken bodies and shards of bone were left.
“Oh you lost one of you number,” the baron commented in mock sympathy. “Well since you have met the simple towns’ folk how about you meet some of this city proud and staunch defenders,” once again his laugher faded away slowly as the doors to his headquarters opened slowly and a group of a dozen guardsmen walked out in four orderly lines, it was clear that they had indeed once been guardsmen. Dead black eyes looked out from behind rusting helmets while rotting hands her broken blades and ragged, soiled tabards fluttered in the wind.
Once again the taurens stepped in front of their allies weapons and shields raised, if these disintegrating warriors remembered their old skills then this would be a much tougher fight. Andrezi and Heka were low on mana so it was up to the bulls to keep these undead at bay until the magic users could come to their aid.