JJ: Alright chapter 4! Nell gets her posterior handed to her and Karkon is left alone to fend for himself. Lets find out what happens ne-

Nell: OOOOOI!

JJ: Gah! Nell! w-w-where did you come from?! No! what are you doin!? NOOOOOOOOO!

Karkon: ... World of Warcraft does not belong to JJfats...Rest in piece my friend...

JJ: Noooooo! I'm not dead yet! 'cry'

Chapter 4

Karkon ducked under another slow and clumsy swing from his adversaries. From his crouched position, he lunged forward and rammed his spiked shoulder guard into the chest of the zombie. The undead head and limbs parted under the force of such a heavy blow.

All around the orc lay decapitated bodies and broken bones. The orc had slain over a hundred foes so far, but they kept on coming. Fresh corpses continued to emerge from the ground and those who still had their arms and legs even after being battered by the orc picked themselves up and renewed their attack.

The dead do not feel anything. Their senses having long ago rotted along with their bodies. They feel no emotion, no remorse, no pain. That was one of the reasons that made undead so deadly. With the inability to feel pain, an everlasting hunger for living flesh and being able to infect the corpses of their victims, the undead became one of the most terrifying enemies in the world.

Karkon did not care. He was an orc warrior. He was fearless. He would destroy every single rotting corpse who attempted to attack him. If there was one way to kill that which is already dead, it was to severe its barely functioning brain from its body. That, or to kill the one who reanimated them in the first place.

At that moment, a thought struck Karkon. Where was the wizard who was performing the reanimation? He knew that death knights were able to reanimate a few bodies but there were simply too many undead for a single knight to control while in direct combat with another person. The thought of the death knight reminded him of Nell. He risked a glance up at the peak. What he saw made his mouth fall. The orc gaped at the scene which he beheld.

With near impossible speed, the death knight brought down his rune blade in a diagonal slash, cleaving through Nell's plate armor as if it were butter. Bright red streams of blood gushed from the gaping wound left on Nell's body. She dropped her mace and her body went limp. An expression of shock was written all over Karkon's face as he saw the paladin toppled forward.

Before he could react, an arrow of greenish energy cut through the air in front of him, narrowly missing his head. The spell hit a corpse and it began to decompose at an unbelievable rate. The words left Karkon's mouth before the name occurred in his mind. "Necromancer…" growled Karkon. From the direction the spell had come from, stood a tall figure. He was clad in grey robes with black outlines. On his shoulder's sat drake skulls whose eyes still glowed red as if they were still alive. He held a great staff with a horned skull at the tip. Unlike the death knight, the wizard wore nothing to obscure his features. He was a bald human with a deathly white beard. Tattoos of the Scourge riddled his bare head.

"Bah! My age is hindering my accuracy." he spat. He studied Karkon more carefully, his eyes darted back and forth from the orc to the pile of dead bodies left by Karkon's handiwork. "A pity about those lifeless fools." he said, "but you would make a fine specimen." he pointed a bony finger at Karkon. The orc knew what was coming. He quickly rolled behind a group of undead. The necromancer's spell struck the group, causing the whole lot to catch fire. Karkon heard the manic laughter of the wizard from beyond the inferno. If he did not do something about the necromancer soon, he was sure that he would be another shambling corpse too.

Cornelius Breakwater walked over towards the still form of the paladin girl. A pool of blood was slowly growing beneath her. Cornelius prodded her with the tip of his blade and produced an grim smile as Nell's body twitched at the contact. "Hoooo...so you are still alive, I see." said the death knight. " Honestly, I was expecting more from you." Nell slowly looked up. She barely had the strength to keep one of her eyes open. Pain shot through her body and she coughed up a hand full of blood. She kept her one open eye locked on Cornelius and attempted a scowl. Unimpressed, the knight kicked Nell in the midsection and was rewarded with a faint grunt of pain as Nell coughed out more blood.

The death knight bent over and picked up Nell's hammer with one hand. Smoke began to rise from the hand which he used to pick the weapon up as the holy item made contact with his unholy armor. He brandished it and gave it a few test swings before gently tossing over the edge of the cliff, and into the carnage below. "It was a good weapon." he said. "A pity that one of my...profession does not take a liking to such abominable enchantments." Cornelius went down on one knee before Nell . " I am giving you one last chance, girl. Join me, and you will become stronger than you could possibly imagine. Or die."

Using what remained of her strength, Nell gave the death knight a hard slap. It was obvious that it would not have harmed the knight. The slap was just one final act of defiance. "I see. Your choice is made." sighed the death knight. "You are brave, girl. And I respect that. But you are also..." he stopped his sentence half way and held Nell over the edge of the ravine by her neck. "...foolish." Cornelius finished and released his grip on the elf. Her body falling lifelessly to the ground. As the knight turned around. A blast of natural energy struck him square in the chest. It was a weak blow, not nearly enough to penetrate his accursed armor, but it was strong enough to make him lose balance. Cornelius found himself toppling over the edge of the cliff as well.

The battle was not looking good for Karkon. The necromancer had him backed into a corner. The orc had no where else to run or hide from the wizard's spell. If the wizard attempted to finish Karkon off at that very moment, the orc knew he was doomed. As if in cue with his thoughts, the necromancer pointed a glowing hand at Karkon with a savage smile across his face. "I've had my fun, little gnat, but if I take too long, Lord Breakwater would punish me harshly. I guess this is good bye." As he finished his sentence, his unholy spell leaped from his fingers an sped towards the orc.

Karkon braced himself. He offered a quick prayer to the Ancestors and braced himself for death.But it never came. As if an answer to his prayers, Nell's warhammer fell from the sky. By sheer coincidence, the spell struck the head of the holy weapon and ricocheted back towards the necromancer. The spell struck a glancing blow to the side of the wizard's head and he toppled backwards. The orc stared open mouthed for a few moments, then he offered another quick prayer to the Ancestors for his deliverance.

Another thought struck Karkon. What was the girl's hammer doing down here. The orc quickly looked up and his eyes widened. The elf was falling toward the ground, trailing arcs of blood as she fell. A relatively huge part of him told him to let her fall. He never like the elf anyway, so why should he even bother to save her? But another part told him to save her. He needed her if he as ever going to complete his task, his mission. As much as he wanted to see the elf fall to the ground in one massive, gory explosion, he forced himself to move his legs towards her.

He stood beneath the falling paladin and braced himself. After what seemed like an eternity, the still form of Nellera Brightarch landed heavily in Karkon's massive arms. The impact sent a surge of pain through the orc. He felt as if his arms would give way at any second. Although the elf alone was as light as a feather, the amount of distance she fell increased her velocity. On top of that, she was in full plate armor, which added to the stress in Karkon's arms. As he knelt down to lay her on down, he noticed a shadow on the ground, growing lager with every second. He turned around to see the huge form of an abomination raising a huge cleaver to strike down the orc. Before Karkon, or the abomination could react, the death knight fell straight into the creature. The force of the fall, increased by the immensely heavy looking armor the death knight wore. caused the creature to literally explode into a disgutsting mix of blood, intestines and puss. The orc could do nothing but stare at the irony of the moment.

Karkon curiously eyes the unmoving death knight. It was obvious that no living thing could have survived such a fall, but he did not want to take any chances. He gently laid the unconscious elf on the ground and cautiously walked over towards the knight. Karkon stood over the knight, his axe in hand. He raised it high to deliver the final blow. Before he struck down the knight, he recalled what Nell had always said before she killed a foe related to the Lich King. "Redemption does not await you at the other side." muttered Karkon and swung his axe down at the knights neck.

A bolt of green energy struck the axe knocking it from Karkon's hands. The orc quickly reacted and crouched low, glancing at the the source of the spell. The necromancer was still alive, and his face looked as if it had seen better days. Although his spell was weakened by bouncing of a holy weapon, it still had some potency left. On the right side of the necromancer's face where living flesh had been, now lay a rotting, exposed skull. His eye was still fresh in its socket. The necromancer shouted in anger and pain while unleashing a storm of chaotic energy. It looked as if this was finally the end of the road for the orc.

Once again, the orc waited for a death that never came. Karkon stared as a wall of giant roots and plants grew from the ground and walls to block the spell. The hail of energy struck the wall, killing and withering the roots in front, but the wall was simply too thick to be penetrated. Just then, a deafening screech echoed through out the valley. A great brown hawk glided into the ravine and landed in front of the orc. Karkon just stared at it, confused. Then the impossible happened.

The hawk started to change shape, it grew bigger, it's wings withdrew and it began growing arms. The hawk eventually grew to a size bigger than that of the orc himself. It's head morphed into that of a bull with great horn's growing from the side of his head. At the end of the transformation, what stood in front of Karkon was not a hawk, but a tauren, dressed in green leather garments, spaulders and kilt. Karkon had heard tales of such beings before, but has never seen it with his own eyes. He thought they were just tall tales, made to impress vagabonds and drunks, but seeing was believing, and Karkon saw.

In front of him, stood a tauren druid. A shape-shifter. A disciple of nature. The tauren looked Karkon straight in the eye and gave a low bow. "Greetings traveler." He said, "I am Thorka Fangtotem, a druid of the Emerald Circle. Pleased to meet your acquaintance."

To be continued...

JJ: Phew! this was the longest amount of time it took me to write a chapter. (2 days) And we also introduce, Thorka, a tauren feral/balance druid, really named 'Clintonfaiz' in WoW.

Clinton: Hey! It's my character. I can name him whatever I want!

JJ: Yeah, I know, but...Clintonfaiz sounds as if you are trying to say Clinton fails...and...well...it kinda sounds like an insult to someone we know...

Clinton:...