Part VI: Escape
"…What the… where am I?" Wuten muttered, still dazed. He tried to rub his head, but he was stopped abruptly by some force. He looked toward his hand, his vision slowly returning, to see that he had been chained up against some table.
"That's right, when we were overwhelmed…" he began to recall what had happened. The ghouls, instead of tearing him apart right then and there, took him somewhere deep within the citadel.
"Ah, so you're awake, hmm?" a voice came from across the room. Wuten turned his head to get a better view; however his vision was still blurred, unable to fully see the figure, save for a moving outline across the room. "You were out for quite a while, but now that you're awake, we can finally begin!" the voice exclaimed. "Now, the Lich King didn't want me to kill you quite yet, oh no, he wanted to see how well you fared in combat before deciding whether to kill you or not." The figure glided over to a nearby table, taking two vials of something Wuten believed to be some kind of plague, and mixed them together, causing a smoky explosion to escape the vial.
"I'm not about to let myself become the Scourge's test subject," he thought to himself. "But I can't get myself out of these chains…"he was running out of options. The figure brought the vial around, almost spinning in an insane dance, before coming to the table that Wuten was chained to.
"Now, don't struggle, you'll spread it even faster," the figure explained to him. Wuten's vision had since slowly returned to him, and he could now clearly see features on the figure. He was bald, with dark purple hair coming down the sides of his face. He wore strange goggles, one eyepiece larger than the other, and his lab coat was stained green with holes and various other decaying spots. His body was also badly misshapen, entire parts of his limbs were nothing but bones and some marrow dripping from between them. Strangely enough, he had no lower jaw, so the sound was coming directly out of his windpipe. Wuten wondered how he could verbalize words without the jaw, though it was the least of his worries at this point; he needed to escape. But how?
"What is that there?" Wuten nodded toward the vial that the mangled undead was holding.
"Why, this is just a new plague that I've developed myself!" the undead spoke in a cheerful, almost bubbly tone.
Wuten figured that he wasn't a malevolent evil bent on destroying the world, but more like a mad scientist who loved his work.
"Great," He thought to himself.
"But this here is even better than the plague currently being used, it increases the mass of the imbiber's muscular system, making them even stronger!" the undead laughed in his insane pleasure of the idea. "Isn't it great?"
Wuten grinned, looking up at the mad scientist. "Well, being sort of a scientist myself, I find that very impressive," he tried to coax the scientist. "But why use it on me? I'm not nearly strong enough to handle something like that."
"Oh, but you are!" the scientist looked down at him. "Why do you think you've survived up to this point? Seen the Lich King yourself, and yet lived to tell the story? He's picked you and your partners to become strong agents of the Scourge! You'll be just like us!" the scientist cackled wildly. "And the best part is that you will bring in a whole new era for the Scourge!"
Wuten grinned, the scientist unknowingly giving him enough time to pick the locks holding him. His hands now free, he took the vial from the scientist, and tossed it into a table of various substances, causing a large explosion and covering the area in smoke. "You're right; I will bring in a new era. But it's nothing like you expect," he unlocked his legs, knocking the scientist to the ground before escaping the room. "I'll kill Arthas myself if I have to; he'll pay for what he did to my home."
He exited the room, finding himself in a long hallway, the walls themselves large and unnerving, but Wuten had no time for this; he had to find the others. He took the hall to the left, running along the side of the hall to avoid making much noise. "Where are they…" he thought to himself, turning a corner to another room. He peered inside, seeing a large group of geists passing the door, but they seemed determined to get to some location. He cracked open the door, peering inside. A large fireball flew past the door, followed by loud grunts coming from the other side of the room. Wuten turned his eyes toward the grunts, where he saw Thordrity -who somehow escaped the Scourge from earlier- fighting off a group of geists and ghouls with various fire spells. He rushed in, knocking a geist back in the process from hitting the door, and pulled out his two swords, slicing at the undead between him and Thordrity.
"Where'd you come from?" Thordrity asked, surprised to see him here. "I thought the undead took you away like the others."
"I was about to ask you the same thing," Wuten grinned, slicing at the undead around them. "Where are the others?"
"I'm not sure, I haven't heard word of any of them since they were taken," Thordrity replied, shooting flames out of his palms, setting anything in front of him ablaze.
"Let's get out of here, it's too dangerous here now," Wuten pointed his sword at the door he entered from. "This way seems to be a way out." Thordrity nodded, and the two of them began slowly pushing their way towards the hallway, before closing the door behind them, sealing it shut using Thordrity's flames.
"Alright, so where to now, Wuten?" Thordrity asked him.
"Well, there's only one way to go, and that's forward, right? Let's keep moving, see if we pick up anyone on our way." Wuten walked in front of Thordrity, who followed him down the hallway. Suddenly, a geist leaped from a high point on the wall, to in front of them, letting out a shrill cry before Wuten cut its head off. "Damn, now we've got more to worry about." The two began sprinting down the hallway, as geists began leaping at them from the wall. "Thordrity, you think you can take some of them out with your flames?"
"There's too many, I don't think my flames could handle it!" Thordrity exclaimed, trying to keep himself in front of the geists that were closing in fast on the two.
"Maybe not on their own, but…" Wuten grinned, his eyes becoming fierce. "When you have the Flame Warden with you, there's nothing holding your fire spells back!"
Thordrity raised an eyebrow at him. "What're you talking about, Wuten?" He held his hand towards the geists, and suddenly his flames grew three times the size they were before. His eyes widened, then he grinned, the two of them halting in the hallway with Thordrity's arms outstretched, launching large fireballs every-which-way at the geists, sending them in awkward directions, like chickens with their heads cut off. "How are you doing this, Wuten?" Thordrity asked, looking back at him. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, but how are you strengthening my flames?"
"I spent a lot of time in Nagrand when I was sent off to the Outland," Wuten replied, "You learn a lot of things from the elemental lords there. Though I'm not a shaman, I have a natural affinity to the elements, though not nearly as strong to use them myself effectively."
"Makes sense," Thordrity nodded. The flames died away, and the two of them kept running down the hallway. They were soon met by a large door barring their way.
"Where do you think it leads?" Wuten asked.
"If my map is correct, and it should be," Thordrity began, pulling out the parchment from earlier. "We should be here, on the eastern wing of the citadel. Since the other two ways were dead ends, it most likely leads into the heart of the citadel." Thordrity tucked the parchment away, and then held his hands up. "You might want to stand back," he told Wuten, who nodded and stepped back a few feet. Thordrity closed his eyes, focusing large amounts of energy to his hands, and then launched them all at once towards the door, crashing into it and causing a large explosion, covering the area in smoke.
"Gah, did it work…?" Wuten coughed, unable to see due to the smoke.
"I think so, let's go!" Thordrity replied, the both of them running forward.
Into a giant door.
The two of them both ran into the hard, metal surface of the door, knocking them back as the smoke cleared, showing the blast to have no effect at all.
"You idiot, you said it was clear!" Wuten glared at him. "It's not moved a damn inch!"
"It's not my fault, I couldn't see anything! I assumed with the giant explosion that it would have been destroyed!" Thordrity retorted, and then let out a sigh. "Either way, the door isn't open, so we'll have to find another way in."
"Out of my way, I'll get it open," Wuten walked up to the door. "Open, damn it!" He took hold of two points on the door, and tried lifting it with all his might. He gritted his teeth, pulling even harder on it. The door suddenly began moving upwards, and Thordrity's eyes widened, watching him lift it. "There we go!" Wuten yelled between his gritted teeth, though the door kept moving even though it had passed up out of his reach.
"I don't think that was you," Thordrity looked at the door as it continued to rise without Wuten's help. "But look, I was right; this is the heart of the citadel."
Wuten turned around to find a large room, circular in shape, running up higher than he could possibly imagine, with Val'kyr spirits patrolling the entire area. "What the… It's huge! Much larger than it looks like on the outside…" He looked around, there seemed to be three other entrances at opposite sides from each other. He pointed to the one to the left of them. "There, let's go that way," he said, and both of them began to move along the outside of the room, careful not to draw attention from the Val'kyrs.
They reached the entrance, slipping past it without making a sound. They looked around the room, until their eyes locked on one certain individual in the room, and then the three elves around him, channeling some form of spell at him, causing him to brace himself on his knees.
"That's Sargerre!" Thordrity exclaimed, but Wuten covered his mouth, pulling him out of sight.
"Do you want them to see us?" Wuten muttered. Thordrity shook his head, Wuten still covering his mouth. "Good, then stay quiet, while I—" He began, but was cut off by loud groans of pain as Sargerre got to his feet, and a rift opened above him. From the rift, there were large tendrils pouring out, gripping the three elves by the waist, lifting them into the air while crushing them.
"You shouldn't have dropped your guard, fools," Sargerre grinned at them. "Now you're nothing more than food for my pet here."
"Who do you think we are, warlock?" one of the elves exclaimed. "We are the San'layn, the three Blood Princes! Such attacks won't do anything to us!"
"Is that so?" Sargerre gave them a clever smirk. "Then go ahead, escape from my beast, if you can."
The elf grinned, conjuring a large mass of shadow energy in his hands, before firing it at Sargerre. The tendrils moved to protect him, absorbing the blast, channeling it through the tendrils back to the elf, sending the effects back to the elf. "You… no attack Master…" A disembodied voice spoke to them.
Sargerre laughed. "Good pet! Now, you are free to do what you wish, I'm leaving them to you." He began walking away, the tendrils pulling the elves into the rift, before it closing behind them. "You two can come out, I could see you two coming in." He smirked at them. "Shall we find the other two?"
Thordrity nodded, standing up. "Kassaris is still nowhere to be seen, so is Kaigen." He pulled out the parchment once again. "We've already checked the eastern wing, and you were here, so all that's left is the northern wing, since we came in here," he pointed at the west side of the citadel. "Our best bet is to go the same way we came, and go further to the other hallway."
Wuten nodded, but Sargerre was reluctant. "What if one of those things sees us?"
"You're too late," a voice echoed around them. "My Val'kyr have already seen you." The large battle spirits began encircling them, lifting them off the ground, carrying them in the air.
"Arthas…" Wuten muttered angrily, unsheathing one of his swords. "I'll kill you before you have the chance!" He slashed at the Val'kyr, but the blade merely passed through the spirit.
"There's no point in struggling," the voice continued. "Your blades are useless against the might of the Scourge."
The spirits halted suddenly, and then dropped the three of them down, into the depths below the citadel. The three humans kept falling, but with Thordrity's quick thinking, softened their landing in a large, circular area.
"What is this place?" Wuten wondered aloud, looking around the area.
Suddenly, a voice came from above them, slowly getting louder until something slammed down on Wuten, knocking him to the ground.
"Ack! What the…" He looked up, finding that it was Kassaris who landed on him. "Well, looks like the gang's all here again," he sighed, before being smacked in the back of the head as Kassaris stood up off his back. He got up, stretching after getting landed on. "So what happened to you?"
"I'm not sure." Kassaris looked at him. "Before I knew it, I was being picked up by a Val'kyr and dropped into some giant pit to my death. Guess their aim was a bit off," she smirked, before lifting the mask off her head, flipping her ponytail out of the cloth.
Wuten smiled, but then his expression turned more serious. "Watch out everyone, I don't think we're out of the woods just yet," he turned towards the room. On the opposite side, a large garrison opened up, and out of it walked an abomination like Wuten had never seen before.
"Kill… humans…" the abomination muttered as it stomped, the garrison closing behind it. It was poorly sewn up; four legs, two heads and three arms, and various organs were hanging out of holes in the body. "Must… kill…"
Wuten peered at one of the heads, it looked familiar; it had similar features to…
"Those bastards!" He glared at the abomination. "That thing was made using Kaigen!" The other three stared, wide-eyed, at the hulking mass of undead moving towards them.