Chapter Seven: Hero of Daluram

"Beast Boy!" Starfire shouted as she watched her friend hit the ground hard after being struck down by a monster of a right hook. He was knocked senseless by the sheer power of the massive Tauranton. The two accompanying Balor knights hadn't even stepped into the fight yet, letting their walking tank of a companion do all the dirty work for them. After all, the Tauranton were built for fighting so might as well send them to do the dangerous jobs. Starfire ran to her friend's aid but there was little she could do with the three demons looming nearby.

"Now will you be smart enough to surrender or shall I have to 'convince' you as well?" the Tauranton gloated as he stepped towards the much smaller Tamaranean. The two Balors in the back just chuckled as they watched their comrade move in on Starfire. The fight hadn't even been going on for more than a minute and Beast Boy was already KO'd by the Tauranton and the demons were expecting an even shorter fight from the girl. Like most opponents, they underestimated Starfire's strength and resilience – their mistake.

"I will not go quietly with those who harm my friends," Starfire growled in response, her eyes flashing green before firing a beam into the Tauranton, catching him by surprise. He growled in pain as he stumbled back, giving Starfire plenty of room as she flew straight up to him and showed him what a real punch was like with a powerful uppercut. The mighty Tauranton was toppled over like a domino. The two Balor knights stared dumbfounded at their defeated comrade before one unsheathed his weapon.

"Insolent little worm!"

"Hold it, I shall handle this," the other knight stopped his companion and stepped forward. Judging by how promptly the other conceded Starfire had a feeling that the one she was dealing with now was of a higher position than the other. "Impressive young one…not many people can defeat a Tauranton that quickly. You are much stronger than you appear."

"Yes, I have heard that many times already," Starfire waited for the other warrior to make a move before she did anything. His stride, his posture, and how high he held his head up told Starfire that this demon was extremely confident in his abilities and most likely more dangerous than the Tauranton.

"What is your name?"

"Starfire."

"Starfire…" he repeated, as if just testing the name out. "I shall be certain to remember that name. I am Necrosis, Praetor of the Kargora province. Now the formalities are out of the way…" The demon unsheathed his sword, which was slightly larger and wider than the other knight's blade, and closed the gap between them with a single bound. Starfire dove to the side just in time to avoid becoming skewered on his sword, which instead drove straight into the ground.

He pulled his blade out of the ground and pressed the attack, swinging and thrusting his sword with speed and precision. Starfire was just barely managing to keep one step ahead of his attacks but she worried how long she'd be able to keep up the dodging without having an opportunity to counter-attack. Their movements were like a well-choreographed dance routine – neither one missing a step as their bodies twisted and curved around one another in this contest of might. The only time Starfire managed to actually strike back at Necrosis was during a very close encounter that had both combatants side-stepping in tight circles around each other trying to get a strike in from behind. All she could must was a relatively weak strike to the chest, but it was enough to force him to back up and give Starfire a chance to recover. She doubted it even hurt her opponent considering it was a blow straight into the armor.

"Not bad at all, though you have yet to really attack me," Necrosis replied. She could dodge his blade and hit his body, but she had yet to prove that she could actually hurt him or beat him.

"You should be wary of what you wish for," Starfire warned as she gave him what he wanted and launched an attack with a pair of starbolts. However, it seemed that Necrosis was more prepared for it than she had initially anticipated. He brought his blade up at a shallow angle and used the flat side of his blade to ricochet the starbolts away from him. She let the starbolts serve as a distraction then as she quickly flew into and began to swing away at her opponent. It was similar to moments ago except with the rolls reversed as now Necrosis began weaving through Starfire's attacks and using the flat side of his sword to occasionally block Starfire's punches and kicks.

When he finally saw his opportunity, Necrosis began his counter-attacking. The warriors began a more even battle, exchanging swings and evasions but neither succeeding in scoring a hit on the other opponent with the exception of the occasional shove to put some distance between them. Starfire knew she would have to disarm him if she were going to beat him – his sword served too well as a shield and a weapon in his hands and he were using it to deflect her starbolts with little difficulty. However, any attack she aimed to try and disarm him, his grip upon his blade was firm and unbreakable by her attempts. She figured he already knew her strategy of attempting to disarm him and was consciously limiting her opportunities to try and knock it out.

But nobody was perfect and Starfire was beginning to notice a bit of a pattern in his method of attack. A horizontal swing was typically followed by a thrust if she avoided the first strike by jumping back. She would bait him into thrusting by presenting him with a prime opportunity to do so, jumping back to avoid a horizontal swing. Almost like clockwork, he thrust his blade forward and Starfire caught him by surprise by jumping up instead of to the side. A short hop and she landed on the flat side of his sword, almost as if to just taunt a little bit, before blasting him square in the chest with an eyebeam. Necrosis was toppled over with the precision blast and his sword fell to the ground Starfire's feet.

"Ugh…very impressive," Necrosis groaned as he slowly got back to his feet.

"I would recommend that you leave now before I am forced to hurt you further," Starfire warned as she stepped closer and began charging a starbolt in each hand.

"You haven't won yet."

"You are unarmed and I have the advantage of strength and range. You cannot win," Starfire warned once again, taking another step, which forced Necrosis to take a few back himself. She could see he was on the ropes but he was right in that she wasn't victorious just yet. When cornered, people became even more dangerous than before.

"Quite the contrary Miss Starfire," Necrosis said as he just outstretched one hand towards Starfire. At first, she was expecting him to launch some sort of energy attack at her but nothing happening right away nor was there any sign of him charging up some sort of projectile. Of course, she also couldn't see behind her and that he was actually calling to his sword, which flew off the ground and the handle struck Starfire in the back of the head as it flew back into Necrosis' hand. She was KO'd in one hit. "Take them back to the citadel…they can join the others."

"Quite an odd pair aren't zey?" Starfire could just barely make out an unfamiliar female voice with a mild French accent mixed into it. Her head was throbbing and she felt very, very weak at the moment – too weak to even open her eyes just yet. Was she even conscious though? She couldn't quite tell…she could just be dreaming.

"Well the jailer who brought them in was grumbling something fierce about them, so they're probably pretty strong to have survived this long," another distinct voice spoke; it belonged a young man and had a slight German accent with it. "It's a nasty hit on the back of her…hopefully she doesn't have a concussion because of it."

"Could zey be of assistance?"

"I hope so. They look vaguely familiar but I can't quite put my finger on it just yet…"

"Oi! Ze green one ees starting to come around!"

His eyes slowly fluttered back open to find himself in yet another set of surroundings. However, instead of grass and trees, he was staring up at a carved stoned ceiling and surrounding on three sides by stonewalls. The surroundings weren't important to him at the moment as he saw a teenaged girl kneeling down beside him along with a young man standing close by. They both looked to be in their late teens and likely a bit older than Beast Boy or Starfire. The girl had short brown hair with a red leather vest and a white sweater underneath it. Black leather trousers and knee high white boots finished off her rather unusual wardrobe but the bright smile on her face kept Beast Boy calm for the moment.

"Bonjour, welcome back to ze world of the conscious," she grinned brightly to him.

"Ughh…oooohh…what happened?" Beast Boy groaned lightly.

"You got your butts whooped by some demons that's what. Now you're stuck here with us," the young man answered. His dress attire was even more unusual as he had some robes overtop of some polymer armor padding and a tactical vest. A large gold cross was imprinted onto his chest armor and several empty pockets and slings on the leather straps over his body suggested that a significant amount of his equipment was missing at the moment. Unlike his compatriot, the young man had a much more stern vigil to him…very, very serious and somewhat reminded Beast Boy of Robin in a way. His hair was a platinum blonde and cut extremely short and he stood with a sort of authority that Beast Boy was curious about.

"Where am I anyways?"

"This is the Shankrisha citadel…and you're now being held prisoner along with us by the demons," the young man answered.

"Okay…who are you and how do you know my name?" Raven asked, still keeping herself ready for more violence just in case this particular person wasn't friendly either. Sure she had no reason to suspect that he would have hostile intentions against her but when you are in an unknown realm you had to be extremely cautious. The person before her just chuckled softly as he relaxed his posture and took a few steps towards Raven.

"A young girl of your stature does not just pop into a person's realm without going unnoticed," the person spoke, though it didn't serve to answer any of Raven's questions yet. "I only know you by reputation, daughter of Trigon…" Raven mentally sighed when she heard those last three little words. Her heritage was not something that she was particularly proud of nor did she like having to be reminded of who her father was. Of course, now it begged the question as to how he knew that fact, since it wasn't common knowledge to anybody except those from Azarath or those that had served Trigon in the past. Since this person was definitely not from Azarath that left little options left for her.

"And how do you know my father?" Raven spoke, her suspicions quite obvious in the tone of her voice.

"Does the name Napharak Trnorbane ring a bell?"

Raven's eyes widened at the sound of the name along with her jaw dropping for an instant. "Y-you're Napharak Trnorbane? The Napharak Trnorbane?"

Napharak just chuckled once again to himself, getting exactly the response that he was anticipating from the young girl. He simply nodded his head slowly. "As you can see you know me just about as much as I know you. In fact, I am fairly certain that you know me better than I know of you."

"Of course I know of you. You…you're the only other person who's ever gone up against Trigon and won."

"I wouldn't exactly call sealing your entire planet and star in an alternate dimension to be a victory but I suppose that is how the history books wrote about it," Napharak replied with much modesty, even though said history books described him as a somewhat cocky fellow who was very much an opportunist.

"Wait…does this mean I'm actually in Daluram? I thought you sealed this dimension off so nobody would be able to invade."

"Well I did a long time ago. Once I heard about Trigon's defeat I didn't think there would be any need to keep such a seal up and we can start being a part of the universe once more. Unfortunately, it would seem that somebody has our address and has been dumping people into my realm. Now as interesting as this chat is I'm afraid that if we linger any longer we might end up attracting more rizzaks. Would the lady care for an escort to safer territory?"

"Um…a-alright," Raven replied a little nervously. When she was younger, Napharak was mentioned numerous times in several books that she still owns. The tales of the hero of Daluram was one of her favourite stories actually, mostly because it kept her hopes up that one could defy Trigon and live to tell about it. For her, this was basically meeting a childhood hero of hers and he was certainly every bit that she had imagined him to be. If it weren't for the circumstances of her arrival in Daluram and the necessity of finding her friends, she might have actually enjoyed spending some time in this realm. However, finding her friends was priority but perhaps Napharak could help her with that…or at least she hoped he could.

"If I may be so bold, may I put my personal residence for your use during your stay in Daluram?"

"I suppose that would be better than staying out in the wild. But…um, I came here with some friends and I don't know where they are. I really would like to find them and perhaps find a way to get back to my home."

"Then perhaps I could be of assistance but I digress…let us be off," Napharak bowed politely before motioning for Raven to follow along with him. Raven was grateful for her stroke of luck in finding somebody who was hospitable and she hoped that her companions were having luck in finding each other. Who knows, they may have already gotten together and were now out looking for her. Napharak lead her along a small path through the woods for a short distance where his steed was waiting for him. It was similar to a horse with the same general body shape though it was slightly larger and actually had an extra pair of legs. It also didn't look as friendly as a horse, having two long horns running down the side of its head. But with a world filled with so many hostile beasts, it made sense that the creatures here were built primarily to fight and defend. Napharak mounted his steed before offering a gloved hand out to Raven.

It was strange…the whole situation felt like something out a fairy tale - a very dark and twisted fairy tale but a fairy tale nonetheless. Here was Raven lost and alone in the wilderness of a strange land, rescued by a lone knight in not-so-shining armor, and now being offered an escort back to his 'palace'. Perhaps if she were into those sort of things, she might have found a sort of romantic undertone to this whole situation, but right now she was more interested in figuring out how to find her friends and get home. She placed her lithe hand into his much large palm and he promptly pulled her up onto the horse between himself and the reins. Taking hold of the reins, Napharak gave his steed a slight kick of his heels and it began a steady trot along the path.

"Tell me Raven, how did you end up in this realm?" Napharak asked with curiosity. Raven sighed lightly…she wish she knew. She had her suspicions but she couldn't confirm them. She explained what happened lately to her and her companions – their encounter with the man known as Kronos, the ensuing fight, and then how she woke up in Daluram. "Hm…yes, I see. An interesting situation," he nodded his head after listening to her tale. "If your friends are in Daluram, we would do well to find them soon. As I'm sure you are aware, there are many dangers in this land and they only get worse when the night falls upon these lands. The most dangerous beasts are nocturnal and it is too dangerous to even send patrols out at night."

"Then we will have to find them before then," Raven said with a bit more urgency in her voice. "I mean…um, I would…really appreciate it if you could help me find my friends."

"And I shall lend what assistance I can. But unfortunately, Daluram is very large and I can only spare so many patrols. Not to mention that any patrols I send for them would have to wait until tomorrow morning – nightfall is almost upon us. But…if your friends are as strong as you have made them seem, I have nothing but confidence that they will be able to find safety until tomorrow morning."

"I hope they're okay…" Raven sighed to herself.