© Diablo is copyrighted by Blizzard. All rights reserved. All I own are the plot and these names: Kail, Moranah, Ollan, Thorn, and Nikan.
Oh, and so
might as well know, you might have noticed that all the characters already have
skills such as the Amazon with the Plague Spear, the Barbarian with the Howl
and so on, is because the story takes place in Hell Mode. Thank you. J
Chapter Three: Regrets Leaving
Kail dipped the cloth in the metal bowl and gently touched it to Moran's face. The girl stirred, but didn't open her eyes.
She looked so much like Moranah…but her personality…Kail sighed. Moran was mostly sweet, and did not work well with fire elements at all. He didn't know a lot about sorceress magic, but he knew enough that personality had a lot to do with it. Fiery tempered sorceress worked well with fire, while cool temper sorceresses did very well with ice. He didn't know much about lightning.
But, this Moran girl seemed interesting. The way she fought was quite a strategy, the way she pierced the Devilkin Shaman and brought him down on the others. He gently brushed the side of her face to get
"Ow-" She gasped as he touched the wound on her cheek.
He flinched and jerked his hand back. "Ai!"
"Oh…sorry," she gasped and rolled on her back. "Did I scare you?"
"No…no," he heard his golem and skeleton mages outside chuckle.
"Oh man," she grabbed her forehead. "Oh, what I would do for an aspirin."
"A what?" He asked.
"Medicine," she said. "My head hurts."
He shrugged. "Fresh air? The rogue cleared off a meadow with passive magic, we can go sit there for awhile."
"What about what's-her-name?" Moran sat up. "Blood Raven?"
"We don't go until Kashya reports something," he said, offering her a hand. "Maybe Akara has something you can take."
She paused before taking his hand and he pulled her up. She rolled her shoulders back and forth. "Okay, I'm ready."
They walked out, past his skeleton mages and golem. They started to walk after him but he shook his head.
"Can they actually talk?" Moran asked.
"What? Oh, you mean them?" He gestured to the creatures. "Yes, they can talk. And laugh."
"I know," she smiled. "I heard them. Where are the others?"
"Thorn's probably off with Nikan, looking through Charsi's armor and weapons," he said. "Ollan's probably off to do some praying."
"Charsi?"
"The blacksmith here," Kail said.
"And who's the other two guys?" Moran pointed to Gheed and Warriv.
"Warriv's the one who drives a trading caravan from here to the East," he said. "And that's Gheed-he doesn't like me."
"Yeah."
He led her past the rogues and out to the meadow. He could easily make out the safe boundary line-the sky was clearer and the grass greener than the other side of the Blood Moor.
"Well, you can't always say the grass is greener than the other side," Moran joked as they sat down side by side on the grass. She drew her knees up to her chest. They sat in silence for a while.
"Can I ask you something?" Moran said. "Why doesn't Gheed like you?"
"Not a lot of people do," Kail threaded his fingers through the soft grass, billowing gently in the wind. "I'm Necromancer, dealing with the dark. Raising things back to life."
"But you don't do them for evil purposes," she said. "Do you?"
"Well, my magic deals with light, yes," Kail said. "But resurrecting skeletons and cursing seems to be evil."
"You would fit well in my world," Moran said. "But in my true opinion…you're not evil at all."
He felt her head rest on his shoulder. He didn't know whether it was because she was tired, or she was starting to remember…things. He considered threading his fingers through hers but decided it would be too much.
"You know," he said. "We used to come out here a lot, when you were still Moranah."
"And what did you two do?" Moran asked. "What were you two anyway?"
"Very good friends," he said. "I miss her."
"Well, I'm probably the next best thing as close as she is," she lifted her head off his shoulder. "Sorry, Kail."
"Don't worry about it," he said. "I-"
"HELP!"
"Flavie!" He cried, seeing the rogue half walking, half limping towards them. She was about a hundred yards away, and what he could see, he could tell she was hurt badly and her bowstring was shredded. A colony of Black Rogues, all of them carrying axes were moving behind her with menace.
"Hold on, Flavie!" He cried. "Moran, stay here. I'm going to get my wand-"
"No!" She shouted. "Can't you see she's dying out there?!"
"Do you know what a pack of rogues like that can do?" He grabbed on her arm. "Stay here, Moran!"
"No, let me go!" She tore from his grip and ran from the borderline of safety.
He swore and ran after her.
"Hey! Here!" Moran cried, waving her arms and trying to call the Black Rogues' attention. They ignored her, going for the weaker, dying flesh.
"Damn!" She cried. "Kail, take her to safety!"
"What?" He panted and grabbed Flavie before she fell.
"Take her to safety, I'll take care of these mother fuckers!" Moran cried, running straight for the rogues.
"Damn…" Flavie fell unconscious and he slung her over his shoulder with difficulty, and ran for the borderline.
Panting, he slipped and managed to toss Flavie into safety. He picked himself up and ran back to Moran. He didn't want to think about what might be left of her.
"Come on! That's it!"
He felt his mouth dropped open. Moran had somehow remembered to use her Blaze skill. Running a few yards ahead of the rogues with fire dancing from her heels, she was able to roast the dark sisters as they followed her. One of the rogues caught sight of him and ran, her burnt, gray flesh flapping on her bones as she made her way to him.
"Not too fast-" He released his Den'Trag. Four, sharp teeth belonging to the Dragon Trag'Oul shot out and struck the Black Rogue, ripping through her stomach. Her soul drifted in bluish green smoke in the shape of a woman as she cried out her pain and died.
Moran walked up to him, panting loudly, grabbing onto her side. "Ow…"
He took her arm. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, but I got a stitch, hurts like crazy," she gasped for air and sat down on the grass. "Oh, having a pack full of…what do you call those?"
"Black Rogues, corrupted Rogues, Sister of the Dark," Kail said.
"-is no picnic," Moran said. "When you have a bunch of them trailing your heels."
"But you fixed them right, roasted them all," he grinned.
She laughed. "Heh, I didn't know what I did."
"You know-" He helped her up to her feet. "You're cooperating."
"Thanks, I know," she said. "Better than just sitting around while everyone kills everything, eh?"
They made their way back to Flavie who was just starting to wake up. "Ah-I hurt so much," she said.
"What happened? Why did you leave your post between the Blood Moor and the Cold Plains?" He asked. "Kashya's not going to be happy."
She brushed back a strand of red hair. "The Burial Grounds. Blood Raven-she-she's resurrecting our rogues into zombies! Zombies, can you believe it? I left my post to see what's going on when I heard those screams. She got me."
"Blood Raven?" Moran asked.
"That lightning arrow of hers, yes!" Flavie said. "Nearly killed me!"
"Come on, can you walk-" Kail winced as he saw the raw, pus oozing wound that zombies caused on her leg. He bent down and let her balance on his shoulder. "Moran-can you go alert the others? And tell Kashya."
"Got it," Moran dashed off.
With Flavie groaning every few steps, it took them nearly five minutes to reach the heart of the camp, where Thorn and Nikan were holding Kashya back. Her face was red and she had her bow out and a small, hunter's dagger in her other hand.
"Let me go!" She screamed. "Blood Raven deserves to go to Hell!"
"Kashya-stay still!" Thorn gasped. Even he was having trouble holding her still. "You can't go!"
"Why?" She writhed.
"The Rogues need you," Nikan said, struggling to hold the Rogue down. "If you die-"
"I'll die anyway!"
"All right, I can't stand this any more!" Moran shouted and slapped Kashya across the face.
Kail felt his mouth drop open as he let go of Flavie.
Nikan gasped.
"Look!" Moran grabbed Kashya's shoulders, which were looking as if Andariel had challenged her to an archery contest. "Why do you think we're here? Why do you think we're here? Too let you go get yourself killed?"
Kashya slumped as if she had just lost a battle.
"Kashya, I'm sorry," Moran whispered.
"No, you did what you had too," Kashya wiped off a speck of blood on her lip. "Go, heroes."
"You and Kail stay here," Thorn said to Moran. "You've already did your part."
"But-"
"No," Nikan said. "Rest."
Kail shrugged. "If that's what you want…"
"Wonderful," Nikan dashed off to get Ollan with Thorn trailing behind her.
"I'll take Flavie to Akara," Kashya said.
"Who'll take care of the post between Blood Moor and the Cold Plains?" Kail helped Flavie to her feet and onto Kashya's strong shoulders.
"I'll send someone," balancing, Kashya slowly walked away to Akara's purple tent.
"Well," Moran said.
"Yes," Kail rubbed his arms, which were stained from Flavie's blood. "Are you all right?"
"Of course I'm all right," Moran said. "I'm going inside for awhile-no, what do you think we go help Charsi?"
"Help Charsi?" He raised his eyebrows.
"Why not?" Moran said. "We may buy her things with our own gold, but we can help can't we?"
Kail grinned. "All right. Let me go get cleaned up first. I'll see you."
He was starting to feel his regret leaving.