Was going to post this about a week ago but lost Internet for 9 days. But now I'm back and with a new chapter! Thank you for reviewing, it really makes me happy to see people enjoying this story!
Kil'ruk's harsh gaze seemed to go unnoticed by the smith. Yet the Wind-Reaver did not have the time to teach him respect. Instead he turned to his Wakener again. "I will bring you to the Clutches," he said reluctantly. It was the will of the Klaxxi that he kept a close eye on this creature, no matter how little he liked the idea he couldn't argue, just obey. After all he lived to carry out the will of the Klaxxi.
The Wakener nodded in acknowledgement and he motioned to his back. Noting the frustration she tried to hide and the ever-present hesitation in her gaze he moved to throw her onto his abdomen, but she stepped back, an act that made his antennas twitch in irritation. Her gaze changed, as though she noted the gesture and went to climb up.
He didn't waste a second; as soon as he felt the strange creature's weight and her hands gripping about his carapace, he took off with great speed, aiming for the skies. A gasp escaped her and he could feel her slender fingers gripping harder. He couldn't help but to grin. How helpless she was with her soft, wingless body. How did she even manage to defeat the adjunct without having her limbs torn off?
The question remained at the front of his mind during the entire flight. Yes, how did she survive all that she was put through in his weakness? She was no warrior, her body was far too frail for that. Sonic manipulation was out of the question; there was no way the lesser beings would ever be able to learn that. So what was her art of war? As they closed in on the palace – or rather the area outside which the Klaxxi had grown to call the Clutches of Shek'zeer – he decided to stick around to find the answers.
Allowing his gaze to wander over the tainted ground he couldn't help but to grimace. How could this have been allowed to happen?
He took note of a chamber built from one of the sprouting roots of the mighty Krypari the palace was built from. Outside stood two guards, both armed with amber swords. Their bluish color proved them to be untainted by this "sha", however neither did they need to be tainted, only their Empress had to. The way their heads tilted almost in sync as they listened to their Empress displayed the power of the Her songs. Pitiful creatures, Kil'ruk mocked in his mind. Not even aware of the corruption that has befallen their precious Empress.
Once he had been like them; helplessly listening, blindly obeying, but no more. He heeded only to the Klaxxi, no one else. He was above those petty bladesworn, above all of the swarm, just as all the other paragons before and after him. But this was not about him, he reminded himself. No, the tasks were placed upon his Wakener and they were hers to do... if she survived.
Coming in range for the sonartower he spoke, "The tower is just there." He pointed towards the oddly silent structure and he could feel the Wakener moving, maybe to gaze over his shoulder. "I... will cover you from the sky," he hesitantly added. "Be quick." With those words he grabbed her from his back before she was able to comment on what he just said, and, without a warning, he tossed her towards the bladesworn at a speed that left the three more or less stunned.
Of course he did not simply launch his Wakener at such a speed without protection, even if the sight could've been pleasing after such a long encasement. No, as he had launched her he had put up a sonic barrier around her – a trick he learned from his time before he himself became a paragon, a trick he learned to decimate mogu. As the Wakener hit the ground the barrier exploded from the pressure, taking the damage she would've taken, and cutting through anything around her. In this case the bladesworn.
Kil'ruk enjoyed the sight of their limbs parting and blood soaking the ground around the blue creature. She sat there for a while looking around her before she shot him a dangerous gaze. The Wind-Reaver allowed himself to grin in amusement as he soared over her.
The Wakener got on her... hooves and brushed dust and dirt off her black and blue and greyish garment before heading towards the sonartower. Digging through the sack by her hip she brought the crystal Kor'ik, the tower maintainer, had given her.
A thought struck Kil'ruk as he watched her look between it and the tower; had Kor'ik assumed her, a lesser being, to understand how their technology worked? Had he really expected her to succeed?
Kil'ruk's thoughts were dispersed when the tower gave a soft hum but then silenced. Turning his attention back to the Wakener he found her seemingly pondering before turning the crystal and holstering it in place in the tower. So, she wasn't entirely stupid. That's a relief.
Her hands suddenly clutched to her head as she sank to her knees, seemingly in pain. Descending to the ground Kil'ruk carefully watched her as she seemed to struggle. "Stop resisting," he snorted as he touched ground beside her, assuming the Klaxxi was trying to use the tower to communicate with her. But her face remained twisted in pain and her fingers curled as the pain seemed to increase. Why was she resisting it?
The Wind-Reaver said nothing, only watched her struggling against the invading voice until she finally opened her hardly pressed eyes, a string of sweat running down the side of her face. He took a step forward and slapped her head. It wasn't hard but for her much smaller body it seemed to be for her head jerked to the side and a groan of pain came from her before her blue eyes blazed angrily at him.
"What was that for?" she hissed behind gritted teeth.
"Disobedience," he answered dryly. "You disobeyed the will of the Klaxxi by trying to shut them out."
"It wasn't a Klaxxi'va," she snorted as she stood. "It was that little one who gave me this task to begin with."
Kil'ruk clicked his mandibles when she fell silent, gazing over the Clutches as though she was looking for something. "Speak."
"He said the Klaxxi sensed a paragon east of here," she responded catching his full attention.
Another one? They wanted two of them for this? This must be worse than he thought. Leaping from the ground he soared just above it to search for this new one with more curiousity than he would admit.
"Some Clutch-keepers were trying to pollute him," she continued. So it was for the case of saving him, not that they necessarily needed him. No matter, to have a paragon turned against them would be catastrophic to say the least.
What she said next however made him stare down at her in disbelief, "He asked me to awaken him. Through me the Klaxxi would somehow free him."
"You?" Kil'ruk exclaimed before managing to get a grip of himself. Why would they use her for such an important task? Yes, she awakened him but that was nothing more than an accidental incident that the Klaxxi should be avoiding. Using her for another awakening, and one where they would whisper through her...
Kil'ruk took a breath, gathering himself. This was the will of the Klaxxi, they had their reasons. But to use one that resists them, resists their whispering. "That will be your death," he stated. Not that he cared about her life, but to risk this new paragons life...
"I awakened you," she retorted, annoyance clear in her voice.
"You used the fork," he snapped giving her another hit, this one only to make himself feel better. "Have you already forgotten that you just tried to block out the Klaxxi from communicating with you?"
"I told you it wasn't -" A third slap from him cut her off and she hissed in pain and anger as she placed her hand on the back of her head where he just hit her. "I'll manage."
"I doubt it." He took to the skies to search for his brother's encasement. Flying high he eventually found it, his heart sinking as he saw the Cluth-keepers already channeling their corrupted magic at the encasement, trying to break the outer layer. They must be stopped!
Turning his gaze to where his Wakener had stood his antennas twitched as he didn't see her. Quickly he searched the area and found her just below the hill. It seemed she too had spotted the paragon as she sat by a claw-shaped structure, studying the path toward the encasement. However she hadn't gone unnoticed; Kil'ruk noticed a bladesworn standing on top the hill, carefully watching her before jumping down only a few paces away from her. How did she not notice that?
Kil'ruk cursed as the Wakener seemed completely oblivious of the situation. As the bladesworn raised his sword the Wind-Reaver dove. Their weapons clashed. The sword of the bladesworn had only been inches from the Wakener's neck when one of Kil'ruk's sword had caught it, the other burried deep in the bladesworns neck.
Pulling his blades free, he turned to yell at his Wakener but she was gone. Raising his gaze he found her several yards away, running for the paragon. Kil'ruk was still for seconds; how had she gotten there so quickly? Had she known he would dive down at the enemy? Impossible! She couldn't know of his ability, not yet anyway, he had never shown her.
Clenching his fist around his blades he could feel anger building up. Anger that he didn't know, anger that she... that she... anger against her. His eyes narrowed as he finally got an answer to his previous question. Around her fingers he caught a glimpse of something purplish before she turned and magic shot from her hands, wounding one of the bladesworn chasing her. Mogu magic. He was damn sure that was what she was using. His Wakener wielded the same magic as those he was sworn to slay so long ago. The mere thought made his antennas curl in rage.
Bladesworn and swarmborn assaulted her as she tried to reach the paragon, and he was close to letting them tear her apart. But the Klaxxi needed her, and no matter how little he liked her she was his Wakener, they were bound together.
Cursing, Kil'ruk threw himself towards the enemies, his blades quickly finishing off the swarmborns. The bladesworn weren't as easily outmatched; they parried his assaults and attempted to counterattack him. However he was faster than them and dodged each and everyone of their attacks.
Throwing a quick gaze at his Wakener as he parried a strike he saw her going for the clutch-keepers. A hint of relief came upon him as she did... something that interrupted their foul spells. His fellow paragon was safe for now.
With high speed Kil'ruk slashed his swords around him as he spun. The injuries the unprepared bladesworns received was enough to send them hemorrhaging to the ground. Without further attention to them the Wind-Reaver leaped to one of the three clutch-keepers. As his swords severed the mantid's head from its body and pierced its carapace at the same time the other two fell to the Wakener's magic.
Kil'ruk turned and looked upon his Wakener as she wiped some blood from her face with her arm. The thick energy around her sickened him. Though it was little like the sensation of the mogus' magic, he forced himself to realise, it resembled enough to make his blood run hot.
She looked at him for but a moment, as to ensure he didn't want to say or do anything before the procedure, before she turned to the amber-encasement and placed her hands upon the surface. Even though the Wind-Reaver stood beside his Wakener, only watching the process, he could sense the whispers of the Klaxxi as they went through her. The grimace on her face proved that she was still resisting, but obviously at a much lesser degree. Why was she even attempting to keep them out?
A noise caught Kil'ruk's attention and he looked around. His eyes widened as he took notice of what they had so carelessly missed during their hurry of reaching the new paragon: eggs, hundreds of them. They were laying all around the structure of which they now stood in the center of, and they were hatching! The sound of cracking egg shells and hundreds of little mantids starting to move rang around him in a silent threat. A strange ooze of similar color as the one of the sha ran down the sides of them.
The clutch-keepers must've been working on the hatching, and pollution, when they discovered the paragon, and now they were mature enough to hatch. They must be hearing the Klaxxi as well and sensing the coming threat.
Kil'ruk cast a glance over his shoulder at his Wakener who still struggled with aiding the Klaxxi in awakening the newfound paragon. "Stop resisting!" Kil'ruk snapped. "You'll have us all killed!"
Just then a newborn leaped at him, tearing and scratching his mask in an attempt to reach his face. Kil'ruk hastily tore it away before breaking its neck. Damn this blue creature! Why did she have to be the one chosen for the task?