Disclaimer: The story this is based on does not belong to me. It's an awesome story, but I don't own it.
To TheAmazingTechincolorRingWraith: Thanks for that. I thought of it one afternoon after playing for about two hours. I hope it turns out as well as it is in my head. Anyways, gotta get to the story.
Chapter 3: Barbarian's Awakening
This next Chapter contains information about the Barbarian. He was actually one of the smarter Barbarians. Of course, that could have been because his father was the leader of the council. He always had the knowledge and the strength, proving what a powerful line he had been born of. He was, of course, reluctant to go out and fight Diablo. All barbarians are reclusive and do not take kindly to the outside world. Read ahead, Brave Adventurer.
Lance was walking just outside the city Harrogath, his father's city. He called it such for the reason that his father was the Head of the Council. He smiled when he thought of his father: kind, compassionate. Just the kind of father a man should be. This day, though, Lance wanted to go out the gates, even though the demons had finally started organizing again. It didn't matter to Lance because they would all soon be killed by the Barbarian Guard that Quel-Thalak led.
He was walking outside, though, because some of his friends had told him to meet them there. They had just recieved their first proof of adulthood: a skull of hellspawn. He smiled as he looked down at his belt. The skull sat there, laced to his side, what looked like a grimace still on the face, even though it no longer was controlled by its master's face. Lance smiled as he fought the Quill Rat and definitely was one of the more gory killers. He was enraged when a quill hit him in a sensitive point on his arm.
He immediately rushed the rat and tore the head off of it, incidentally pulling out the spine as well. The spine twitched for a little while after exiting the Quill Rat's body, but Lance broke it in half and threw down the spine. He held the skull up and yelled out in victory. He remembered his father looking approvingly at him, smiling the whole time. He also remembered his teacher telling him about how much the training had done. Because of the training, Lance now knew over a hundred different ways to kill various demons.
As he was brought back to reality, he noticed the cave his friends had been talking about. He walked into the cave, and smiled as he heard his friends scramble around. "Relax, guys! It's just me!" He yelled into the cavern. Immediately, he saw three people stand up and walk toward him. He smiled at his friends and they sat down on the ground. "So then, Lance, what's been going on since you won?" The first of the three, Darius, asked Lance. Lance just smiled and said, "Well, I've not been doing much killing, that's for sure." They all laughed at this, and the second one, Garrath, said, "So then, what shall we do about that?" Lance looked confused until he noticed that his third friend, Torrath, got up. Torrath and Garrath were twins, so many people often confused them with each other. Lance and Darius had been with them all their life, and just like any other who has spent their life with twins, they could tell them apart easily.
Garrath shouted from the mouth of the cave, "Lance, come on out! I've got you a demon!" Lance's face lit up as he jumped up and ran outside. Once out, he saw a few goblins. He thought about the quickest way to defeat them, and decided on using their magic against them. One of them grinned then teleported, melting the snow around him as the fiery magic heated up the air. As soon as it appeared where it wanted, it was surprised by the fact that Lance was already standing there. He grabbed it by the head, viciously slamming it against the ground until it went limp.
He turned to the other imps and smiled before saying, "You know, when you guys teleport somewhere, you lead off where you're going by shifting your eyes to look. That's all someone like me needs to kill you." He ran to the other two, who had abandoned the teleport idea, and instead hurled fiery spears of bone at him. He rolled under the spears, getting right to where he could reach them. His hands shot out and both of them lost their hearts as his hand plunged into their chest and pulled out their demon hearts.
After the four had skinned the three skulls, Lance tied them on and began to show his intelligence. "I wonder why the demons have awoken once again. Last I knew, they all quieted down the moment Diablo was defeated by that wanderer." Lance said, but then reverted back into his barbarian thought process by saying, "There's a guy I want to fight. A guy who could defeat Diablo all alone. I wonder how hard it was."
Suddenly an echoing voice said from behind them, "The adventurer lost his soul to the Lord of Terror." All three of them turned around, expecting it to be some demon commander who would slaughter them all. Instead, all they saw was a person wearing a robe. Lance snickered at the robe and then said, "Oh, so then, how have you come by this knowledge? If you know the adventurer, then perhaps you can fight. If so, then I want to fight you."
"Well, I must admit that it's been an age since I've had to wield a sword, but I suppose I can do it for a challenger." Suddenly, the old man's robes changed to that of heavenly white armor, and ribbony wings appeared, flowing out of the stranger's back. A hood covered his face, even though Lance somehow knew that if he glanced at the face under that cowl, then he could quite possibly go insane. But Lance found himself doing something he never thought he'd do: back-pedaling. He was starting to edge away from the being.
"I trust you know what I am?" The being said, a bit of humor in his voice. "An angel?" Lance said, tactfully controlling his voice to sound amused, or maybe even haughty. "My name is Hadriel. I take it that you know why I'm here." The angel said, nodding his head at the previous guess. "Well Hadriel, to be quite frank, I think it's because you want me to go and take on Diablo. But I don't want to!" Lance said, his face starting to look rebellious. In an instant, the angel sheathed his sword and was upon Lance, grabbing him by the upper arms, to hold him still, and said, "You are the only barbarian capable of such an undertaking. You should consider yourself blessed!"
Lance just stood there and listened to the angel. When the angel finished, Lance's face had made a change, and the angel didn't doubt that the man inside had matured immediately. "All right then. I'll go." Lance said, as the angel let him go. Lance went right back to Harrogath, grabbed all his things, left a note on parchment for his father, and then went back outside the town where Hadriel still was waiting. "Now then, Lance. Go through this portal," He indicated the red portal, "and you will begin your quest." Lance didn't even look back as he walked into the portal.
AN: This chapter took longer than the other two because I had to reinstall my Windows Home Edition. It still doesn't work exactly right because it's not reading the sound card, but that's okay.