As the dozen Alliance footmen and their commander slogged through the half frozen mire of tundra, Sarah could swear the others shivering increased. Their armor clinked and groaned gradually louder, until it seemed the armor sounded like a bad orchestra of broken instruments. The howling wind only added to their suffering, wailing like a shrieking banshee. But they were so very far, it seemed, from the next camp, and the fresher recruits slowed them down, stumbling into the ground every mile or so. The couple dwarves in the group grumbled in dwarvish, giving the fresh recruits frequent looks of scorn or scoffs of disgruntlement.
Still several miles from the Borean and Dragonblight border, the commander yelled for the company to halt. The footmen peered in the distance as the top of a ziggurat poked over a hill, a new sight to the few that have been through before.
"Hey, that wasn't there before," an aging man gasped. The company murmured worriedly, most eyeing their commander as if afraid of what it may mean. "Are there undead nearby?" "Undead? I'd be more worried of the bugs. The bugs!" "Bugs? Hah, it's the San'layn you'd really need to worry about, I hear..."
"Silence!" The commander growled.
The ground shook beneath them, turning to wet and soggy quicksand under four pairs of feet, swallowing the poor victims in a moment. Most of the remaining footmen panicked, some screamed the names of their swallowed friends. The commander roared orders, but only three came to his side. The other five humans ran as fast as they could from the direction they were coming from.
Sarah gulped hard as nerubians appeared and rushed the fleeing footmen. One was cut in two at the waist, another was grabbed and eaten, the third was plucked up by a flyer and the other two vanished beneath the ground. Sarah figured it was from a tunnel directly beneath the path, with waiting nerubians.
With the fleeing footmen dead, the nerubians set their sights on the remaining company: Sarah, the commander and two footmen. Sarah and the dwarf she had grown to respect gave each other a quick glance and nod, their fear so thick it could be cut with a knife.
Before the fight could even begin, a voice boomed. The voice was so cold, it felt like it pierced Sarah's heart, and so powerful, it made Sarah feel like her very soul shivered. "Feast slowly, nerubians. Savor their flesh and drink slowly of their blood." The nerubians halted and suddenly surrounded the four, their clattering and clamoring rising in a near deafening cacophony. Then silence so still, it felt as if time itself had been put on pause.
Finally, the commander exhaled, "Come to me, Lich King, I will end you!"
He replied with such a cold laughter, Sarah felt as if the warmth drained from her body, "Such big talk. Show me your strength, and you just might serve me as my servant."
A large nerubian clacked it's mouth parts and screeched as it moved forward. It resembled a praying mantis. The commander roared and rushed forward, swinging his large sword as one of it's long arms slashed down at him. The arm went strait through the man the split second that his sword hacked through the insect's arm. As he fell backwards, dead, the nerubian screeched loudly. With it's loss of limb, the nerubians swarmed the injured friend, and the fallen foe. In a moment, there was nothing but a pile of dented armor and a cracked sword.
Another nerubian clacked and growled hungrily at the remaining three, approaching the two humans and dwarf.
"I'll not let ye die like this, lass. I swore it then, I swear it now..." the dwarf stepped forward and yelled a dwarven battle-cry. Sarah felt sick to her stomach as he was struck down after a few minutes of intense battle. She watched the light leave his eyes and she just broke down. The other human lasted almost as long as the dwarf did as she dry-heaved.
"It is over, little girl," his voice boomed over her. He stood over her, Frostmourne held high, poised to strike her down.
"Never!" Sarah stared hard up at the Lich King. He laughed at her and she continued, "I will NEVER give up. You hear me? NEVER!"
She raised her longsword in a defensive strike. She pushed with all her strength, though the Lich King seemed to be only amused by her effort. He leaned into the strike, forcing her back to her knees, "You've got spirit, I'll give you that."
Sarah heaved, she started seeing starbursts streak across her vision, pushing everything she had into parrying the heavy strike. She knew the Lich King allowed her to do so, and when she swung with what little she could muster, Frostmourne met her blade, cracking the weaker metal. The next thing she knew, Sarah was thrown, landing hard next to the slain dwarf.
She pulled herself to her elbow, looking down at him with tears streaking down her face. His necklace, a worthless trinket they had won at the Darkmoon Faire, poked out from under his hand.
"Perhaps you may have some use to me..." his heavy footsteps approached her. In a quick motion, Sarah grabbed the necklace, threw the chain around her head, and rose with her broken sword in her hand.
"I will... NEVER," Sarah started to spin around for a desperate strike, but Frostmourne slid right into her side, slicing through her heart and a lung. She choked, dropped her sword and grabbed his large bracer. Sarah blacked out...