Disclaimer-I do not own World of Warcraft, Blizzard does.
Within the course of the next few minutes, Skdive had returned to his actual size. His voice was now normal too, although Zalleen had decided he would never let the netherwing live the incident down.
Imyra's state had improved to a fair extent. She was now able to walk, although she still looked pale and tired. Even so, Emala took heart that she had more or less recovered. That made at least part of her day better.
In spite of the recent victories, the hunter didn't feel very safe. The underlying factor of the whole situation was the same-something wasn't right.
Now they seemed to be so far in that the Neferset hadn't even considered anyone getting this far. Or they themselves hadn't wanted to brave it.
A shiver ran down Emala's spine as she thought of that. Then there was a sound that made the leader instantly alert.
It was the noise of thunderous, rhythmic thudding. The footsteps of some massive creature, and it was coming toward them.
There was a rumbling shifting noise. A huge stone figure, thirty feet tall at least, came stomping down the corridor. And right behind him was a vaulted door, the hall before it lined with intimidating armed statues. They then became aware that four passages of different sizes were on either side of the group.
Emala braced herself, but neither she nor any of her companions were ready for what happened next. The stone giant stomped his foot once, and the ground trembled violently. Then a black line formed as the stone slit apart, the gap widening and continuing in their direction. On top of that, the ceiling began to crumble.
The thousands of pounds of stone rained down in sheets, dividing the group a few times over.
Emala swore vehemently, her thoughts drowned out by the collective rumbling and cracking of falling stone. Before she could even begin to think of forcing her way through the rubble with Skydive and Pierceclaw, the ground shifted under their feet. Suddenly all support vanished, and the hunter fell a few inches before Skydive grabbed her arm in one claw. Emala eyed the yawning darkness that had opened up under her hooves. Pierceclaw was hanging from the drake's other paw.
"Nice save," she muttered.
"Thank the gods for me, huh?" Skydive muttered. Another crack sounded and the ceiling began to split, showering rock dust on them. The netherwing yelped and bolted, holding his leader close to his chest as he did loops and barrel rolls, zipping between the falling stone. Emala could feel the drake's powerful heart pumping wildly from exertion and fear just between her shoulder blades.
Skydive barely cleared the last of the rock as it finally stopped falling. He performed a rough and tumble landing as a final rock wedge dropped down, just missing his tail.
For a few moments the two just laid there, panting, their frenzied minds taking the chance to calm down and see things rationally again.
The hunter was the first to make a recovery. Heaving a sigh, Emala felt a profound wave of worry. Standing, she roughly shoved Skydive's shoulder as the drake lay on his side. He grunted in response, but didn't get up.
"Move!" Emala snapped, glaring at her apparently lazy friend.
"In a minute," Skydive wheezed out. "Just gotta, not move...for a bit."
After taking a few deep breaths, the netherwing got to all four paws again. He shook his head and dazedly peered through the still settling dust. What he saw was nothing good. A solid wall of rock, broken masonry, and grit now had them holed up in what seemed to be a side chamber.
"Where'd that come from?" he mumbled. His mind was still half stunned, his thought process sluggish as a result.
"It could have been on the other side of the wall. Then that fuker out there did his little earthquake shit, and that made a gap we slipped through," Emala growled in response. Skydive swore he could see the anger radiating from her like heat rising from the surface of rocks in Durotar. "When I get back to that thing..."
"Okay, I got it," Skydive said hastily. "You're upset. Now what?"
The look she gave him almost made him sorry he had asked, and make him think he would be the target of the hunter's anger. Then she looked away with obvious disgruntlement. "Look for a way out, I guess," she sighed. "We don't have much of a choice."
Emala instantly deemed the prospect of forcing their way through the wall of rubble a stupid one. Skydive was forced to agree. He knew the hunter's judgment was sound, and that his instincts were telling him this was beyond his capabilities anyway.
After that, the search was back on, although it didn't last long. The two were able to locate a narrow tunnel, small enough to be a shaft. Skydive took on mortal form and he and Emala began to travel through it, hunching to avoid hitting their heads on the uneven roof. From Skydive's point of view, this was miserable and uncomfortable. He felt like the walls would close in on him as slight clusterphobia set in.
They finally saw the light at the end of the shaft, a light aqua blue shade that seemed highly tantalizing. They emerged into a large octagonal chamber and soon found the source. Blue crystals were inlaid in the ceiling, refracting the light in several directions. They felt as if they walked through a forest of blue, crisscrossing pillars.
Then the refracted light rays moved and shifted, creating one massive pillar of light. It began to form into the defined shape of a huge stone woman.
Isiset, as she was called, wasn't pleased. Her blue eyes sparked with the arcane energies she delved into as she turned in the companions direction. A low hum began to built-the sound of charging arcane energy.
Emala was the first to put two and two together. She jumped onto Skydive's back, yanking Pierceclaw with her"Get of the ground!" she shouted.
Skydive didn't need to be told twice. He had been ready to fly and get in his comfort zone since the giant lady had first appeared. He shot upward just as the ground lit up with a blanket of blinding white ice. The three guessed that whatever would have happened to them as they stayed put, they didn't want to know what it was.
Isiset's eyes burned. She placed her hands together and started firing arcane bolts at Skydive. The netherwing yelped and swerved, the sudden change of direction nearly throwing his passengers off. Emala gripped the drake's hard neck with her legs and drew her bow. She started firing explosive arrows at Isiset.
The projectiles set off a array of orange flares. The fire left blackened spots on the construct, but if she felt it she didn't show it. Instead she just loosed another bolt of power at them.
Skydive dove down and performed a loop, allowing the attack to miss him completely. Emala felt her stomach shift as the world flipped upside down and then rotated back to it's proper position again.
When Skydive was once again flying upright, Emala cast a glance behind them. She felt her heart stop when she saw they were being pursued.
Flying a few feet back, creatures made in a semblance to giant birds were flying. Every feather, and the eyes of the arcane birds, glowed blue with magic. Their wings left blue trails behind them as they swerved and banked, trying to get closer. On top of that, Isiset was firing at them again.
"Let me and Pierceclaw down," Emala shouted to Skydive. "We will deal with the construct. You handle the bird things."
Skydive nodded and dove. Emala and Pierceclaw jumped back to earth as the netheriwng grazed it. Then the drake was arching upward again.
He looked behind him and snarled. Those birds thought they were fast? Skydive would show them fast.
He put on a burst of speed, causing the arcane birds to fall farther behind. One screeched and released a bolt of magic, just missing Skydive's wing. He felt the searing heat and quickly swerved to avoid two more. As he did, he flipped so his back faced the ground and blew a stream of neon blue fire.
The attack hit one bird. It screeched, fanning it's wings as the drake's fire licked at it's arcane infused feathers. The other two birds avoided Skydive's quickly aimed attacks as he righted himself.
Skydive became aware of the rapidly approaching wall. He was about to turn when he came up with a excellent idea.
Instead of slowing down, Skydive sped up. The two arcane birds rose to the challenge, plunging after him with angry screeches.
Just inches from the wall, Skydive did a aerial flip and dove directly downward, grazing the wall. One of the arcane birds failed to stop in time. It slammed full speed into the wall and dispersed into nothing, while it's companion managed to slow down and dive after Skydive. The arcane bird that had caught on fire had by now batted the flames out. Still smoking, it flew at the netherwing with vengeance in it's eyes. Skydive tilted as the bird passed him, it's claws missing by a few inches as they raked at him in passing. He shot fire in return. The bird wailed as it once again caught alight and slammed into the same wall the other bird had. This one two dispersed into wisps of arcane, but with a tinge of smoke.
The remaining creature now had murder in it's eyes.
Down on the ground, Emala and Pierceclaw where now dealing with a whole host of new problems. Isiset would spray the area with arcane bolts, then fire one huge one. The sound of it imploding on the ground would ring in the ears of the raptor and the hunter, but that would prove not to be the worst problem.
At one point, Isiset seemed to become twice as enraged as she was prior to the start of the encounter. She yelled out a word of power, and a blinding flash was produced. Unprepared, Emala and Pierceclaw found their sight engulfed in white. They blinked wildly, but the effect didn't seem to go away.
Isiset took the chance in stride. The construct fired a beam of arcane magic at Emala. The hunter somehow avoided a direct hit, but the beam of magic still hit her right side. The tauren grunted as she hit the ground, her side burning.
Of all the damn things that could happen, we had to be separated from our healer, Emala thought, a surge of anger clearing her mind. She rolled to the right as the construct tried to blast her with magic again. Emala was back upright quickly enough, then saw that Isiset was starting to produce the blinding glow again.
Emala felt her eyes widen. "Pierceclaw, look away!"
The red raptor banished his surprise and turned his back on the construct, running to avoid attack. His master turned her back on Isiset as the bright flash that had previously blinded them was produced.
Much to her relief, Emala found that she could still see. With a shout of elated savagery she whirled and fired a explosive arrow directly into the forehead of the construct.
Her glowing blue eyes widened, seemingly in shock. Then the arrow blew up, scattering burnt shards of rock everywhere. The construct shimmered and crumbled, the pieces dispersing into whispers just before they would have hit the ground. Skydive was prepped to dive at the remaining arcane bird. He didn't get the chance as it evaporated into nothing with the fall of it's master.
Emala sucked in air, as she had been unconsciously holding her breath for a slight time from tension. "Well then. Shall we move on?"
Atlanta wasn't happy, for many reasons.
The first was that she was now alone with Stormwing and a weakened Imyra. The Death Knight wasn't totally convinced the storm drake wouldn't turn on them, even though he had fought side by side with them so far. If he did choose to attack, Atlanta knew she would be largely on her own. Imyra wasn't strong enough to help much. Furthermore, a impenetrable wall of rubble had removed any possibility of finding the others anytime soon.
Atlanta kept her fingers close to the hilt of her runeblade as she surveyed the darkened room they were in. The Death Knight thanked every deity she knew of that the passage put she was able to find was large enough to fit Stormwing. She had enough problems without trying to coax the storm drake into a mortal form.
"We move now," she said, her coarse voice low but seemingly loud in the silence. "Keep low. Keep quiet."
Imyra nodded mutely. Stormwing seemed to wince, although Atlanta couldn't be sure. The dim light made it hard to tell.
The three began to creep down the passage. It was all too easy for their timid minds to imagine traps, but surprisingly they ran across none. That, however, served to make them even more nervous than they were before. Their imaginations were still strongly at work, conjuring shadowy creatures and threatening noises.
Imyra stumbled a few times. At one point she nearly fell over, prompting Atlanta to snag her upper arm and hold her up. The druid gave the Death Knight a thankful smile, which Atlanta returned with a slight nod.
Atlanta peered ahead, eyes narrowing in a attempt to penetrate the gloom. She saw a faint, musty glow, defined by the sharp outline of the end of the tunnel.
I'm starting to agree with Skydive about being underground, Atlanta thought. After this, I'm going to stay away from tunnels for a long time.
The three slowed down to the point of stalking as they approached the tunnel's end. A innate sense of menace poured from it, almost seeming to lock the companion's very bones in place. Even so, they steeled themselves and entered the chamber.
It was shaped in a rigid rectangular shape. Shafted panes of dinged purple glass were placed rhythmically on the walls. At the four corners of the area sat pitch black jackal statues, all about the size of a horse. The only visible color on them was the bright red of their eyes. Atlanta suspected these were rubies.
The light in the chamber was incredibly minimal, and a perpetual haze seemed to be hanging in the air. It almost seemed as if the companions were trying to see though a bank of fog.
From one of the dark shrouded corners, narrow red eyes flashed maniacally.
The jackal headed construct was Setesh, the Chaos embodiment. For the last countless eons, he had been aware of chaos sowing beyond his chamber-and yet he was oath bound to stay. He hadn't had any fun for a long, long time.
And now he was provided with it.
Setesh spoke a word of power, and the little light in the chamber went out. The purple glass panes became glaring spots in pitch black darkness, and yet illuminated nothing. The three companions were left scrambling in the dark, to the point where they had completely lost track of each other.
Stormwing and Atlanta were lucky in the first moments. The two ended up nearly running into each other, but managed to pull back from the would be collision. Atlanta groped outward with one hand, and after a moment laid it on Stormwing's thick shoulder.
"There you are," she sighed. Atlanta might not fully trust him, but at least he was showing no signs of going hostile yet. The Death Knight wasn't sure why, but the feel of the storm drake's warm scales was reassuring somehow.
Stormwing responded quietly, keeping his voice low. "Yeah, I'm here. Now, do you have a plan?"
Atlanta felt a dash of embarrassment. "No. I've never been a leader."
She could almost imagine Stormwing nodding. He seemed about to say something else when a series of growls sounded. The ruby eyes of the statues flared to life in the dark. The stone jackals began to advance, their red eyes bobbing in the dark as if disembodied.
Stormwing seemed to snap into a different gear, one he hadn't shown until now. "Find Imyra!" he ordered. "Help her. I'll distract them."
Atlanta was hardly aware that she obeyed the orders of the drake. Without thinking she obeyed the commanding tone, beginning to run through the darkness. Behind her she heard Stormwing roar and the harsh sound of him plowing into the stone statues. Then the storm drake breathed his lightning at his enemies.
The flare of illumination lit the snarling contorted face of the fourth jackal statue before Atlanta. The stone beast lunged. The Death Knight dropped to the ground and slid along the smooth rock floor. The creature slammed down behind her. Then she heard a exited yap, and a lion roar, loud but carrying traces of weakness. The dark engulfed the combatants again as Stormwing's lightning faded away.
A bolt of realization hit Atlanta. The roar was the one Imyra had in her cat form. Knowing the druid was in trouble, she stood and drew her runeblade. The faint glow of frost magic dimly lit the scene ahead of her.
Imyra had started to fight the stone jackal. She had shifted to a bear and torn some chunks out of her enemy, but the jackal just growled and swiped back. One of it's paws slammed into the side of Imyra's head. The sharpened rock claws tore some long gashes across the druid's cheek. She stumbled and then regained her footing, roaring a brave challenge.
The beast didn't get the chance to try and punish her for it. Atlanta brought her weapon down toward it's neck. The stone jackal managed to jerk away enough for the blade to miss and tear down it's foreleg instead. The tinge of frost spread, widening the already multiple cracks in the stone limb. The beast swiped at Atlanta with the frosted limb, but the Death Knight blocked it with a slash of her runeblade.
Imyra had taken the time to recover. She charged forward and slammed her heavy paws down on the stone jackal's leg.
The rock shattered. The stone beast lurched forward and awkwardly fell to the ground. It tried to bite Imyra as it ascended, but the druid had moved out of reach.
Atlanta took her runeblade in both hands and aimed the point directly down at the beast's neck. Putting all her anger behind the blow, she brought it down in the stone jackal's neck. The form of the creature grumbled into gray dust, the ruby eyes all that remained.
Atlanta blinked as something occurred to her. She hadn't felt any surge of feeling like that in a long time. Maybe she was starting to discover these feelings again? She shoved the thoughts to the back of her mind.
With the matter of one enemy dealt with, the two peered into the dark ahead of them where they could hear fighting. The pale glow of Atlanta's runeblade had been enough to fight the jackal, but it seemed far less useful for illuminating anything else.
Still, Atlanta was starting to respect Stormwing, even though she still didn't fully trust him. In the absence of Emala, he seemed to be an adept temporary leader. Besides, in this place they needed everyone they had.
Stormwing had so far been holding his own. He had already crushed one stone jackal, but the other two he was largely fighting in the dark. Even when he used his lightning, the two enemies seemed to have found a way to avoid the light and resume attacking him from the shadows.
One jackal leaped from the darkness and barreled into Stormwing's side. They hit the ground, the storm drake pinned below the living statue. It clawed and snapped at his head, which he tilted so that the blows raked of his metal helm.
Stormwing lodged a leg under the stone jackal and thrust upward. His kick removed the creature from atop him, but it didn't stop the second from biting his foreleg. He wrenched the limb out with a angry snarl and backhanded the beast under the jaw. The stone jackal's head snapped back, and Stormwing proceeded to hit it with a blast of lightning.
The stone beast howled and charged again. Stormwing braced himself, but the thing never reached him. Instead a flash of metal was seen, and the stone jackal was lying still. A deep gash was visible on it's crumbling chest as it fell away into nothing. The storm drake then whipped about and plunged a claw into the neck of the last statue. It exploded in a shower of gray.
With that, the three fighters positioned themselves back to back.
The initial plan was to stick together. As usual-that didn't happen...
Shorter than usual, I know, but I was busy. That, and I'm nearing the conclusion of the story, so I need to think of some really good stuff.
Review, tell me how I did :D
~dharak
