Death's Breach was one of the best in Scourge garrisons. As Jacob and Angmar alighted the Scourge Gryphons and pocketed the summon whistles, Prince Valanar of the San'layn beckoned for them to come. "Deathstalker. Deathwalker. You have come, at last. Do you smell that?" Valanar sniffed the air. "Fresh meat…" the undead elf salivated. Then, checking himself, the prince looked back at the duo. "Apologies. I am sure you do not share my fine cuisine. Anyway, here is the plan. Do you see the town below us?" New Avalon was like any regular human town. "We need to thin out their ranks as much as possible. The peasants will have to be culled, for then there will be no more wood for the Scarlet war machines. The crusaders, of course, will also have to be culled. More importantly, the citizens, too, must be killed. That will truly define the first lesson in Scourge warfare: TERROR! Do you understand?" Jacob nodded, drawing his blades. Angmar simply drew his axe, said nothing.
"Excellent. But before you head off to the slaughter, you might want to check in with Orithos, Olrun and Salanar. They should have some tasks for you. Go now, kill well, brothers." As Valanar walked off, Jacob went up to Orithos, known as the Sky Darkener. A tall armoured skeleton, he nodded at Jacob and a voice issued forth from the unmoving skull. "Look here, Deathstalker. You see that we need ammunition for our warfare. However, we…umm…lost a lot of our saronite arrows. Would you fetch as many as you can and return, eh? I will reward you well!" Olrun the Battlecaller, was a powerful val'kyr battle-maiden. "Deathstalker, to remain in the ranks of the Lich King's death knights, you must prove your worth. Find and defeat 5 death knight initiates in single combat. I will ensure that they survive, do not worry." The final one, Horseman Salanar, looked at Jacob with a questioning look in his eye. "This is the newest death knight they sent? Well, I've got a task for you. Deliver any horse from the Scarlet stables to me, and I'll see to it that you receive it back as an Acherus Deathcharger."
With four tasks in hand, Jacob, followed by Angmar, headed down to New Avalon, where the killing would begin.
A few death knights had already gone down to the town. Jacob thus found the area strewn sparsely with corpses. Beyond there, about fifty meters off, there were still a large number of citizens and crusaders. "Enough for the both of us. Come, Angmar!" The two rushed down the slope from Death's Breach and charged for the nearest group of Scarlet Crusaders. They must have looked a terrifying sight to the crusaders, blades out, capes whirling, roaring battle cries and emanating dark Scourge magic. "The Scourge is upon us! TO ARMS!" one crusader managed to cry before Angmar cut him down easily. Two more were dispatched quickly by Jacob, who was getting used to the weight of the blades.
A group of Scarlet peasants were busy chopping wood in the nearby clearing. "Into the bush, Jacob! Use your Death Grip spell." As the two death knights slipped into the large bush, the peasants continued slaving away at the wood. Suddenly, the rearmost one was grabbed by a bolt of purplish energy and pulled into the bush. "Ambush! Watch out!" the leader yelled as he and his men wielded their axes two-handed and watched the trees. Another Death Grip bolt, and another was pulled into the bush. Fortunately, none of the peasants had seen it yet. All of a sudden, a red cloud dropped from above and desecrated the ground beneath the peasants' feet. As they hacked and coughed and spat blood, Angmar strode out. "See, Jacob? This is the power of Death and Decay." Jacob came out, seeing the peasants slump, dead. "Indeed, this is amazing." He looked over to the stables, where a large force of crusaders and peasants had mustered. "Let's finish the job." The two death knights strode off towards the force, weapons out and bloody.
"SCOURGE! SCOURGE! RUN AWAY!"
The panic-stricken citizens ran pell-mell helter-skelter as the two death knights approached, striking down the runners with ranged spells. Then as the crusaders surged forwards, Jacob rooted them all in place with a well-placed howling blast. As Angmar moved in to dispatch them, Jacob looked around and saw a field full of half-dead citizens, each one pinned to the ground by a saronite arrow. Jacob also saw a fine-looking stallion resting in its stall. Running for the field where the saronite arrows lay strewn, Jacob quickly pulled out the arrows of the bodies, not caring if gobs of flesh were torn from the citizens as well. Soon, he had gathered fifteen and could no longer carry any more. Quickly tying them into a bundle and strapping it to his back, the death knight looked for Angmar, who was busy chopping down crusaders left right and center. "Angmar!" The death knight turned and responded with a single nod. "I've got everything! Let's get out of here!" So saying, Jacob leapt on top of the stallion, while Angmar summoned his Deathcharger. The two tore away from the heavy reinforcements and the angry horse master. "You filthy Scourge! Get back here!"
Jacob dumped everything he had retrieved in a corner and went off hunting for fellow death knights to duel. As the val'kyr Olrun watched, Jacob found a male troll. "I be Crajin, Deathstalker! Do ya challenge me, brudda?" Surprisingly, that name sounded…strangely familiar to Jacob. Composing himself, Jacob nodded. "I challenge you, death knight!" Crajin smiled and drew his double blades. "Remember dis day, Deathstalker, for it be da day dat ya be thoroughly owned!" He lunged at Jacob, who drew his blades in time and parried the vicious two-handed strike. Jacob now shoved Crajin back and the duo battled back and forth, smiting and cleaving, showers of sparks from their clashes flying everywhere.
Eventually, Jacob slammed the handle of his right blade into Crajin's chin, sending the troll death knight stumbling backwards. Jacob pressed the advantage and slashed and hacked away, until Crajin's blades were sent spinning out of his hands. "Enough! I yield, mon!" Crajin yelled, kneeling. Jacob nodded and made a mental note. Four to go.
In no time at all, Jacob was busy reporting back to his superiors. As it turned out, the rewards were great indeed. Orithos gave him a beautifully-tailored cape, Valanar gave him his own ring, and Olrun gave him the insignia of the Scourge. Salanar, however, had one more task for him. "Deathstalker, are you feeling particularly brave? A little background information, first. Whenever we come into possession of a horse, we will send it into this realm, where our Dark Riders will kill it, and raise it as a Deathcharger. Every death knight will inevitably have to face this challenge. If you desire a true challenge, I will send you into the Realm of Shadows. There, you will slay the Dark Rider of Acherus and take his Deathcharger. Report back to me, and you will receive back the steed."
Jacob looked at Angmar, who nodded supportively. "When I was but a fledging, I too ventured into the Shadow Realm to claim my mount. You should go for it. Remember, the Lich King has control over everything, most of all our lives." Jacob nodded slowly and turned to the expectant Salanar, who was waiting for an answer. "I will go into the Shadow Realm to claim my steed, Horseman." Salanar seemed to brighten. "Exactly what I expected from a true death knight! Very well." The horseman murmured a few spells, then raised a hand, enveloping Jacob in shadow. When the death knight opened his eyes, he was alone in a shadowy plane, and everyone except Salanar was gone. The horseman nodded at Jacob, who strode forwards into the shadowy mists.
This is truly a desolate place. Jacob thought to himself as he kept his blades out, watching the cliffs for any signs of ambush from the shadowy denizens of this realm. As the death knight carefully stalked the fields, he recognised them as New Avalon's. Ghostly shades prowled to and fro, their clawed hands clenching and unclenching. One saw Jacob and rushed for him. Jacob thought his blades would just pass through the incorporeal form, but to his surprise, the shade seemed to scream as it faded, mortally "wounded" from the runeblades.
Then Jacob saw the dark rider. Or to be exact, it saw him first. Heavily armoured in scarlet spiked armour and carrying a huge runeblade, it rode a Deathcharger. The horse had black skin with blazing blue eyes, and its feet below the knee was completely skeletal. The rider let out a cry of rage, then bore down towards the death knight. Jacob got into a battle stance, then raised his blades. The air screeched as the rider's runeblade cleaved through it and was met by Jacob's blades. For a moment, both death knights strove against one another in an eerie power struggle, then Jacob sprang backwards.
Carried forward by his momentum, the dark rider was spent sprawling from his horse. In an instant, Jacob thrust one blade into the rider's leg, and the other was driven into the back. Wounded and enraged, the rider roared and dealt Jacob such a mighty blow that the death knight was sent flying back and into a shelf of rock. Jacob slumped, dazed, as the dark rider whirled his sword over his head, and prepared to bring it down for the kill.
As the blade scythed towards Jacob's head, he recovered and had only moments to act. He quickly rolled to one side, seeing the blade smash into the ground. The rider growled and drew back, then charged, blade out like a jousting knight. Jacob just had time to grab both blades and cross them together before the charging knight's long blade passed through his chest and smashed him against the rock. The pain was incredible, but Jacob blotted it from his mind. Yelling, he thrust himself forwards on the blade, and raised both his curved blades. Before the rider had time to react, both blades sliced cleanly through his helm and head. Such was the momentum that the blades cut through his body and his saddle, coming to a stop just shy of breaking the horse's skin. Jacob collapsed and lying there, issued the Horseman's Call. In an instant, Salanar was there and he quickly took the horse, clapping Jacob on the shoulder. Fortunately, Jacob already felt that his flesh was beginning to knit. Wincing, the death knight staggered up the hill back to Death's Breach and waved for Salanar to get him out of the realm. Instantly, he was sitting against a tent, letting his wounds knit and his body rest.