Prologue
April 1381
The tavern was an older establishment, the creaking floorboards and cob-webbed corners attesting to that fact. A noble sat in the middle of a large table surrounded by gruff companions who might have had one too many drinks. Arthas strode calmly across the room, purchased a few slices of bread and pork from the bartender, and sat down at a secluded table.
"Where are you headed?" the noble asked, apparently intent on finding conversation with someone who wasn't nearly drunk.
"Luskan," Arthas replied between bites.
The noble raised his eyebrows, "What business takes you there?"
"Mine," Arthas shot back impatiently.
A serving girl carried another round of drinks over to the noble's table, arousing a cheer from its mostly drunk occupants. The man nearest the girl pulled her close and whispered something in her ear that caused the girl's cheeks to blush and her eyes to widen. She wrenched herself from the man's grasp, accidentally slapping him across the face as well.
"Wench!" the man spat as he raised his bottle and began a downward swipe toward the girl's head.
Arthas upset his table to leap into the way, catching the man's hand during its descent. Arthas jabbed his hand into the back of the man's elbow directly on the golgi-organ (a/n there is a Golgi organ located on the back side of the elbow. A relatively gentle strike triggers a reflex which immediately relaxes that tendon, allowing the elbow to bend more easily in the wrong direction.) then slammed his other hand into the inside of the man's forearm, hyper-extending it backwards and causing the man to drop the bottle to shatter on the floor. Arthas whipped his knee into the man's gut, and then brought his fist crashing down on the back of the man's head to knock him, unconscious, to the ground.
Surveying the hard-set faces of the offender's companions, Arthas realized he should give them a fair warning.
"Alright," Arthas began, "We can do this the easy way and all go back to our meals and drinks, or we can do this the easy but much more humorous way and the rest of you can join your companion at the healer's facility."
"He honestly thinks he can beat us all?" one man asked his companion. "The heat of the day must have made him light-headed."
"Light-headed I may be, but I will be cured of that in less than an hour, at which point you will still be incredibly stupid," Arthas returned calmly.
The noble hastily backed away from the table and into a secluded area as his drunk companions charged Arthas, some coming over the table to get at him. Arthas's foot shot out to bash a man on the table in the groin, and a spinning grapple sent a grounded man flying into the man on the table. As the two fell into a squirming heap, Arthas struck out with the base of his palm to connect solidly with a man's forehead, sending the ruffian reeling backwards. Arthas flipped backwards over a charging man, landed lightly on the table, planted his foot in another's back, and sent him tumbling into his reeling companion. Arthas's foot flipped up a chair into a man's chin and knocked him backwards into the pile of the two already stunned men.
Arthas caught an incoming kick, smashed his fist into the top of the knee to break the leg, and collapsed the other leg with a sweep kick. A man charged from the floor, and Arthas grabbed him beneath the shoulders, swept him into the air, and slammed onto the man with a broken leg. Arthas swiftly kicked a grounded man in the face, lunged over his head, braced with his hands, and dolphin kicked into the stumbling man's tailbone. Leaping to his feet, Arthas met the final charging man with rapid but solid kicks to the groin, stomach, chest, neck, and forehead, causing the man to slump to his knees and face-plant the grimy floor.
Arthas strode swiftly to the cowering serving girl to make sure she was okay, and, after her hasty nod, stood up his table, gathered the edible portions of his meal, and sat down to finish them. The noble reclaimed his seat beside the pile of his drunk, unconscious companions and resumed the conversation in a calm tone that showed his indifference to the beating of his companions.
"You have an interesting fighting style, where did you acquire it?" he asked.
"Here and there," Arthas replied impatiently, as he just wanted to finish his meal and be on his way.
"Perhaps there, but certainly not here," the noble responded. "Don't worry about them, they've been through worse and were back on their feet after a few weeks. It'll teach them a lesson too: don't abuse the servants."
"Glad I could be of help, the Father knows I needed the entertainment," Arthas stated as he rose to leave.
"Just don't try these heroics in Luskan, you won't last a day," the noble advised, referring to Luskan's notoriety for crime and incivility.
"I intend to keep a clean record, though I have no control over the actions of others," Arthas responded. "If they ask for trouble, then I would be exceptionally rude if I didn't oblige their wishes."