Chapter Two: A First Time for Everything

"Remind me again, why are we doing this?"

Atzen frowned, but the Barbarian had a point; they have been walking for about two hours across the moors, and still nothing came to their sight; neither man nor demon.

By this time, they had already been able to substantiate some sort of moving formation; Te'eva, the Druid took point, because of his amazing sense of smell. Closely behind him were Atzen and Tark, sword and axes ready to be drawn and clash against an opponent. Behind them; Brianna, Fiorina and Owl, the Necromancer. Curare took the rear, her Blade Talons still hidden inside her gloves.

Normally, each of the warriors would have stopped to lye down on the wet green grass and rest for a few short minutes. With the sun slowly breaking from under the tall undergrowth in the east, it was a pastoral sight.

But now, it was annoying; the sunrays bounced off the wet grass, blinding everyone with piercing flashes of light, the sound of birds could destroy one's concentration within seconds and the smell of the moors drove the Druid's nose crazy.

"I think we should stop here!" announced Tark and sat down next to a dead tree, leading the group to a halt. Te'eva frowned and was about to say something when Atzen's voice came to his ears

"Tark has a point. We've been walking for two hours with no results, a little rest would do us good" he said and sat down next to the Barbarian

"I suppose…" said the Druid and rubbed his chin, also sitting down "But what about the Den?"

"Don't worry yourself, Te'eva. I'll keep looking for it, just give me the map" said Brianna. Te'eva looked at her with one eyebrow raised

"Fine, but take someone with you, I don't want anyone walking alone" he said

"I'll go! I'll go!" jumped Fiorina "I'll watch over her!" Brianna smiled

"But who'll watch over you, young sorceress?" said Tark and chuckled.

"I can take care of myself!" she raged, her cheeks red.

"I'll go with them" said Curare "I could use a workout after the whole poisoning thing" she was about to get up when Owl grabbed her arm

"Be careful" he told her. She nodded.

(S)

"My feet hurt!" announced Fiorina and sat down on the wet green grass. Kri and Brianna looked back at her

"That's what you get for walking barefoot" told her Brianna in a motherly voice

"You stay here and take care of her. I'll move ahead" said the Assassin and moved through the undergrowth

"Ways to describe this place: stupid, ugly, mushy, too hot, too many bugs, smelly OUCH! Painful. Why did I come here anyway? To kill some demons? I should've stayed back at the clan. At least I didn't have to deal with Tark back then" she thought, mentally talking to herself as she went through the bushes, using her Blade Talons to rip through them with ease. She came across a human figure, it was hidden in some shadows. She approached it

"Hey you!" she said, coming closer to it "Do you know where's the-" the figure was visible to her now, she gaped in shock; whatever it was, it wasn't human. It looked like an adult male, a dead one; the rotting brown and black flesh was dangling in pieces above the bleached bones, parts of it falling as it started walking towards her. It didn't wear anything and it's face was the most horrifying; rotted, eyes sunk in their sockets, mouth dangling freely as the lower jaw muscles were missing, all hair was stripped from the walking corpse, which kept coming closer and closer to Kri. She was petrified, unable to move, she was trained to fight humans, not the undead. The abomination came closer and closer to her, her training kicked in. she twisted into a roundhouse kick, sending her red spiked knee high boot into the creatures right cheek, twisting its head a half spin that was accompanied by a sickening sound of bones snapping. It didn't bother the thing, as it kept walking towards her. With a single motion, she drove her left hand Talon through the zombie's chest, to where the heart is supposed to be. It roared with anger and tried to grab her, she pulled the blades out and with a single swipe from her right hand Blade Talon, cut the thing's head off. She got sprayed with blood, which didn't bother her.

"That's good for a start" she said and was about to move on, when she saw five more of those things approaching her

"The more, the merrier" she said with a grin, and charged towards them with great speed. The fight didn't last too long, Kri jumped in between the group and sliced them in seconds, those things, whatever they were very slow, providing Kri with an advantage; speed played a key part in her attack, those creatures didn't stand a chance

"Anyone else wants some?" she bragged while standing over the bodies of the zombies that were just slain. As if by answer, hands burst out of the ground beneath her; more zombies, they grabbed her ankles and began pulling her down towards the muddy ground. As she came lower and lower, more hands joined dragging her towards the earth. She kicked, and sliced, but in no avail, when only her head was above the ground, and the hands grabbed her head, her bravery was lost, she opened her mouth and filled the air with a fearful scream that sent birds flying in every direction

"HELP!"

(S)

"Did you hear that?" asked Brianna, Fiorina shot up

"Yes, it sounded like-"
"A cry for help" she said. They both looked at each other

"Curare!" they said and unison and set towards Kri's path. It was easy to follow her steps through the undergrowth as the claw marks on the sliced branches in her path. They reached the place where she encountered the Zombie; Fiorina tumbled over the resurrected warrior's body and screamed in terror when she saw what caused her to trip. Brianna helped her up and tried to calm her down by taking the young woman into her arms and holding her

"Don't worry, it's dead" she said and brought the sorceress' head to her own shoulder. Fiorina was breaking down in hives; she never saw a body before, and she didn't quite think that's going to be the way she's going to see the first one.

"At least we know Curare had been here" said the Amazon, Fiorina's grip of her body although, did not change, still tight, her arms stretched across the female warrior's back. Brianna placed her head on her companion's shoulder and began chanting something; it distracted the sorceress from her crying. She turned her head towards Brianna's

"What are you saying?" she said and snuffled

"When I was scared, my older sister used to sing this to me. She said it grants the person it's being sung to the power to overcome each and every fear"

"And did it help?" asked Fiorina. The Amazon smiled

"Yes little sister, yes it did" she said and felt the sorceress's head sink into her shoulder, it felt warm, and nice.

Few minutes passed before the young woman got up and took her staff into her hand.

"You're right" she said "It did help" she still looked scared, but Brianna admired the sorceress's inner courage

"Than I think we should be looking for Curare, don't you agree" the thought of walking through the moor and the chance of seeing more Zombies petrified Fiorina, but she bit her lip and nodded

"Good" said her companion "Then let us proceed" the two women got up and walked further into the undergrowth, thinking that maybe after her encounter with the Zombie, their Assassin comrade did not use her Blade Talons any more, to cover her tracks. The Amazon gave one more look back, something in the ground didn't seem right, it was…uneven, as if someone turned the ground over. She quickly shook those thoughts away; she had bigger things to take care of, like her terrified companion. As they were walking through the undergrowth, so tight to each other, Brianna couldn't help feeling closer to the young, scared woman, mentally speaking, she dared to consider her as a friend; Brianna didn't have too many friends. She enjoyed that feeling of having someone close that you can guide, just like her elder sister did to her, and as she walked, bow first, arrow ready to be fired, she was only paying attention to her young companion, to keep her from trouble .

("Death's Advocate Approaches")

"The blow should come from above, not diagonally, if it does, the axe will pierce through the armor's weak spot. Now, if you use a sword, then you should swipe like so…" Tark pretended his hand was a sword and hit Atzen's armor where the waist should be

"It's common knowledge that the shielding around the chest is heavier than in other parts of the armor, plus, you'll have to penetrate the ribcage to cause any actual harm" he concluded. Atzen sat in front of him, rubbing his dark chin and looking all around astonished

"Amazing, how do you know all this?" he asked

"They say our clans are 'less sophisticated' than others, but we have mastered ourselves in the control of weapons for ages now. These tactics are passed on from father to son for us to use in case of war, or worse" said the large Barbarian in his deep, rumbling voice

"Your clans aren't stupid" said Owl, who had just finished speaking to Te'eva about various uses for the herbs that could be found around there

"Some people simply interpret your passion for battle as stupidity" he continued

"Well I'll be damned… A Necromancer speaking in the good of a Barbarian, now I've seen everything" said the druid

"My belonging to the Necromancy clan doesn't mean I support all of their opinions, just like you didn't support yours when you set out on this journey instead of letting nature take its course" replied Owl

"Even nature needs help sometimes" said Atzen. Te'eva chuckled

"And what about you Paladin? Why did you not stay at Zakarum?" asked Tark. Atzen lowered his head

"When Diablo was again released into the world, he woke his elder brother, Mephisto from his sleep. The Lord of Hatred used his black powers to corrupt Zakarum, along with the entire great land of Kurast, I am one of the few lonely who had survived" he said. Tark was about to make a comment when the loud sound of a scream reached their ears

"I knew I shouldn't have let them go alone, come on!" commanded Te'eva. The four got up and were about to leave towards the direction of the scream when they heard another voice, behind them

"Youuuuuuu'rze not goingzz anywherezzz" it went along in a raspy tone. They turned around to face a pack of twenty or so small creatures; they were about four feet tall, their skin colored red and they were wielding an array of weapons, traveling from small knives, to large broad swords, to pieces of sharpened wood. The creatures had dog-like faces and yellow snake eyes. Pieces of cloth were used to cover their intimate areas and were secured by black strings to their place. Their leader, who looked just like them, only covered in white war paint, stepped forth

"Youuuuu will givezzz uzzzz your gold, and maybezzzz we will spare your livezzzz" he said and grinned, exposing two rows of yellow sharpened teeth

"We will do no such thing" said Atzen and drew his sword. The four feet blade was the size of the creatures, but they did not seem intimidated

"If you want our gold, come and get it" joined Tark and drew his mighty axes from his back. Both Owl and Te'eva stoop behind the two fighters. Owl's wand was at hand, and was glowing in a menacing blue light. The Druid held his palm towards the creatures, but did not move.

"Bazko!" screamed the leader "Bazko olf Ragadishu!" His likes responded, charging towards the four men with a mix of battle cries

"To arms!" screamed Atzen back and the creatures and charged forward, Tark close behind him.

The two groups met, and blood started flying. One of the creatures jumped towards Atzen, his small two-sided axe ready to slice flesh and bones, but instead met the Paladin's shield; the axe was jabbed into the large yellow and white shield and the creature's head met the other side of the axe, smashing it in two in a display of gore. Regardless, Atzen kept running forward, further into the group and swung his sword just the way the Reaper swings his scythe, with similar results; the of the creatures were cut in half, the sword's steel blade slicing through the soft flesh of their waist. They collapsed on the green grass in bloody puddles, only to be stomped on by Tark's heavy boots. The Barbarian lunged into the air and came down like a hawk towards its prey, axes first. He crashed into a group of the creatures and slices through them with ease.

After that attack, only five of them remained; four warriors and their leader. The four looked at the hacked bodies of their former friends with terror, and then raised their eyes towards Atzen and Tark, they were terrified.

"It seems you were beaten" started Atzen "I would recommend you to flee before we cause any more deaths in your ranks" the creatures, though struck in fear, readied their weapons for another attack

"GO AWAY!" boomed Tark's voice. It sounded like an explosion of some sort that sent every animal within hearing range, including four of the creatures, into a mad dash, to get as far away from the source of that scream. Only the leader was left standing

"Mazzter Ragadishu will havezz your skullzzzzz!" he hissed, turned back, and set after his fellow creatures with a scream

"Ickio olf tigi!" echoed his voice. (A/N: I bet you could guess what that means )

"That was quite invigorating" said Atzen while helplessly trying to peel of the smashed body of the creature from his shield

"We better get going, it's better if we found them before night falls" said Owl, Te'eva nodded in agreement.

"Do any of you have a bag of some sort?" asked Tark. Te'eva handed him a large brown crude fabric sack

"Why would you need that?" he asked. In response, the Barbarian bent down and broke one of the creature's legs off its body with a sickening Crrrrrack sound and put it inside the sack

"We found dinner"

Whew! Another chapter done! I've been getting a whole lot more reviews than I expected, THANKS GUYS! - Hopefully you liked this chapter as you did the first one.

Review and let me know what do I have to change to make it better!

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