Still own no Warcraft except a copy of III and a couple of the WoW discs.

Chasing Through Hell

Haunted Forest

The night under the canopy was dark except for the fires slowly appearing in the camp, yet it was as lively as the day had been. There was a hustle and bustle in the camp and the drone of conversation and snorts of beasts moved through the air along with the ever-present hum of mosquitoes. Maurus glanced up from the bottle in his hand when he noticed someone moving towards him and Mathias, who was crouched a few yards away from him.

"Are you really making a fire? In this heat?"

Arianna sounded and looked like she questioned either their sanity or her own eyes. Even after the sun had set, the air beneath the canopy of Stranglethorn remained heavy and muggy and the sheen of sweat on her face and the sodden state of Maurus' own fur were twin testaments that heat was the last thing they needed. Then again, the fire wasn't for warmth.

"Raptor's better cooked," Maurus answered, gesturing to his right, where four thin lengths of metal had been set into the ground, with chunks of dark meat hanging from them. A few yards away, Mathias rose from his crouch, revealing a small flame spreading over the kindling. Already, several fires were burning brightly in the camp around them, but the sputter and crackle of this particular flame made Maurus' mouth water in anticipation as Mathias placed a spit across the budding fire before sitting down on his right side.

"That I can't deny," Arianna said as Maurus opened his liquor bottle and poured a splash of clear liquid into his palm. When he smeared it over the long, shallow cuts across his torso, he hissed and Arianna sighed. He looked at her just in time to catch her rolling her eyes.

"Yes, I know, I should have worn the mail," Maurus said, the irritation in his voice directed more at himself than her. He'd underestimated the ferocity of the huge raptors when they came out of the jungle and he clenched his teeth briefly in annoyance at coming off like a greenhorn. Mathias' frank nod didn't make it less embarrassing.

"Though I agree, that wasn't what I meant," Arianna said. As she sat down beside him, she almost casually pulled a health stone from her bag and dropped it in his lap. "Here."

Maurus looked at the sickly green rock for a heartbeat before he snatched it up, for some reason worried about having it that close to his groin. "It's just a few scratches," he said, though he didn't hand back the stone.

"Are we going to have this conversation every time?" she asked. "You have the help of a warlock, use it."

Maurus considered the stone for a long moment, watching the dark glow twist weirdly in the stopper he held between two fingers and the bottle of liquor in his other hand. Then he closed his fingers around the rock, which crumbled to dust between his fingers and winced as he felt the magic sear its way through is arm and fuse the rents in his chest shut. He was reminded him of how he'd been able to feel Arianna's magic burn through her when they'd fought the succubi on that mountainside. Though he'd gotten a lot more used to how the magic felt, disturbingly used to it actually, he found it incredible that anyone could become so accustomed to it that they could concentrate through it and the spin of nausea.

"Speaking of help, hand me your shield," Arianna said, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked at her and raised an eyebrow, stoppering his bottle of disinfectant before putting it away. She waved a hand at him impatiently and he put a hand on his shield in a half-protective gesture.

"Why?" he asked.

Arianna pulled a small, familiar black book from her bag, along with a small, red pouch and leaned forward to drag Mathias' shield closer.

"Yes, you're welcome, thank you for asking to borrow my shield, again," Mathias said blandly, turning the meat.

"Thank you," Arianna said blithely, producing another item from her bag. It was a thin rod, gleaming in the half-light, topped with a smooth sphere and tapering off to a point at the other end. She turned her gaze back to Maurus as she put the rod on the ground and answered: "To make it better. Shield please."

Maurus hesitated another moment before he handed her the shield. She visibly strained to lift it and when she laid it over her lap, it completely covered her crossed legs.

She opened the red bag and poured a small pile of fine, silver-blue dust into her palm and carefully put the bag aside. She looked intently at the glimmering dust for a short moment before spreading the dust out over the shield with a gently puff of breath. Casting a glance at Mathias' shield again, she picked up the enchanting rod before murmuring a low, continuous stream of words Maurus couldn't understand. The tip of the rod began to glow, shining brighter and brighter until it blazed with a light that was almost painful to look at, revealing the metal to be warm gold. Very carefully, she put the tip against the shield's surface and slowly began tracing sigils into the metal.

"Never seen an enchanting before?" Mathias guessed. Maurus shook his head. He'd seen a lot of magic in his life, but he'd never seen anyone imbuing items with magic, never even had the chance to experience the shamans of his tribe enchant anything. He'd been declared talentless long before that and the shamans were secretive about that art. He pushed the thought away without effort, only feeling the barest, fleeting twitch of bitterness and watched curiously as Arianna worked. The light lingered for a moment in the wake of the rod, like frozen flame, before seeming to sink into the metal.

Maurus almost jumped when Mathias tapped him on his shoulder. He accepted the piece of meat with a nod and dug in eagerly, still watching the enchanting. Only a short time later, Arianna put down the golden rod and reached for some food of her own.

"Was that it?" Maurus asked, stabbing his knife into another bit of meat. Beside him, Mathias was gnawing on the leg of a raptor, a raw one. Arianna shook her head and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"It will take some sessions," she said. Maurus reached over and took back his shield. It was almost impossible to see any change, but if he tilted it right, the light caught in very shallow grooves.

"This is- What do I owe you?" Maurus asked, his eyes lifting from the shield. "That stuff is expensive, isn't it?"

Mathias snorted and eyed his own shield. "Like diamonds and peace."

Arianna waved a hand and smirked. "I consider it an investment. If you can handle some fire too, you'll be more use standing between me and demons."

"True. But I still insist on paying for the dust," Maurus said firmly.

"You just keep carrying the gold till I need it then," Arianna said. "I don't need the extra weight."

Maurus made low, amiable sound of agreement and for a little while they ate in silence.

"You know, Stranglethorn doesn't live up to its reputation," Maurus mused around his last mouthful of food, wiping his fingers on the grass beneath him. Arianna raised an eyebrow in question and Mathias made an inquiring grunt before sucking out the marrow of the raptor bone with a loud slurp.

"I'll admit the wildlife is nasty and I've never had such use for my tail before," he said, flicking his tail to dislodge a mosquito or two and swat another on his trousers. He wasn't sure they could sting through them, but he wouldn't be surprised if they could. "But 'Green Hell' seems like an exaggeration."

"Guess driving the trolls out of Zul'Gurub did a lot to that effect," Mathias said. Maurus couldn't help but glance to the east. They weren't that far from the ruined city, but they hadn't seen a single hostile troll, so Mathias was most likely right.

"It's hell on my nose though," Arianna said, scrunching up her face. "The jungle by itself is tolerable, but all of you don't exactly freshen the air."

Maurus and Mathias snorted in unison and Maurus reached out, pulled Arianna toward him and made a show of loudly sniffing her hair. He found himself wrinkling his nose more than he expected as he inhaled the sour stench of old sweat.

"You're not any better than us," he chuckled, letting go of her and as she leaned back from the almost overbalanced position Maurus had pulled her into, she gave him a startled half-glare. He just let out another chuckle and leaned back on his hands, giving her a look that challenged her to contradict him. For a moment she held his gaze, before she turned her head to look out into the jungle.

"I do think you might find it more of a hell if you left the road," she mused. Maurus followed her gaze to the solid wall of dark green on the edge of the area that had been cleared around the road. The half-distinct trees almost clung to each other, and thick vines hung like ropy webs where there was space between them.

"You may have a point," he admitted. He glanced at the vines that were creeping along the ground, as if trying to reclaim the road. "I think I'll be thankful that this road sees so much traffic."

"And here I thought you didn't like the masses encroaching on nature," Arianna said lightly, smiling slightly.

"I doubt the jungle needs my help," he said amiably. He lips twitched in annoyance and he flicked his tail again when something settled on his back and added: "To be honest, I don't want to be here any longer than strictly necessary."

Maurus' wish was granted. They made great time and Stranglethorn didn't prove any more dangerous on the rest of their way. The only real danger they were ever in came from the suicidally aggressive wildlife and those attacks turned out to be a convenient source of food when they got used to it.

The worst Maurus could say about the trip was that it was uncomfortable. Worse than the animals, in Maurus' opinion, were the heat and the insects, the latter in particular. Despite using his new tent, the mosquitoes got to him and the itching stings and the incessant buzzing, promising more stings, made sleep harder to find. That the mosquitoes seemed to leave his two companions alone only made it more irritating, though the heat seemed to bother them just as much as it did him.

At least, that was the case until Arianna did as she'd planned and summoned one of her other minions. The void walker didn't have any of the information she sought, but it did seem to drain the heat from the air, so Arianna kept it around, despite the effect its presence had on many of their traveling companions. Maurus had begun striking up conversation with several of the orcs and tauren, but when Arianna nonchalantly appeared with the dark, apparition-like being, Maurus' new acquaintances abruptly turned cold and curt with him. He couldn't truly blame them. He wasn't comfortable with the demon either, even if it was silent, but the rejection still rankled.

Others, however, weren't deterred by the demon. A few blood elves and the occasional orc or forsaken came down to their end of the caravan during the days and their surprisingly good company, and that of Arianna and Mathias, was one of the things that made the trip seem quicker than it was. It didn't seem like they'd traveled more than a week through the dense greenery before the heavy heat began to lessen and the jungle started changing. Slowly the plants on either side of them became less like a solid wall and the places where nature seemed to try to reclaim the road became fewer and fewer. As the land began to gently climb, the vine-choked trees around them slowly gave way to more open land, though they only left the trees behind when they climbed up into the mountains.

Finally coming out from under the canopy and, more importantly to Maurus, leaving the insects behind, made him almost giddy. It was the first place in the Eastern Kingdoms that had felt so much like home and despite the slight twist in his gut, the familiar feel of rock and dirt under his hooves put him at ease. He wasn't the only one whose mood improved during their trip through the mountains. Most of the caravan, Arianna and Mathias included, seemed as relieved as he was to be out under the open sky and feeling the wind against their faces again.

They passed over the mountains in good time and good cheer. Foreboding Duskwood, spreading out before them, didn't trouble them much, nor did it elicit anything but chuckles when the leaders of the caravan declared, at the tops of their voices, that anyone taking from farms or fields on the trip would be nailed to a tree for the Alliance to find, even though they knew the threats were completely serious.

When they entered the Duskwood however, the bleak pall covering the forest became harder to ignore. It seemed darker than it should be beneath the skeletal trees, considering how bare the trees were. The massive, twisted trees rose from the ground around the road, reaching with grasping fingers for a clear sky that seemed dull and lifeless. A musty scent of rotting leaves and crops, tinged with something rancid, hung in the air and the wind whispered through the forest like dying sighs.

Though they tried to hold on to an air of stubborn boisterousness, the bustling conversation dwindled as the days passed, though it never quite died. Even Arianna was affected and her partly serious complaints and the half-lectures that Maurus kept provoking her into gave way to wary silence.

Maurus tried to keep their spirits up, partly by insisting, both to himself and to the others, that it wasn't that different from Desolace and partly by talking with Mathias, who seemed unaffected by their surroundings. Mathias seemed thrilled with how quick their progress was and seemed utterly unconcerned with how ominous the complete lack of life in the forest was to the rest of them.

"Now that reminds me even more of home," Mathias said and pointed ahead with his sword, towards the abandoned town the road was leading too. On either side of the road were long-abandoned fields which the forest had not yet reclaimed. Enclosed by rotting fences, the rows of thin, spectral stalks swayed in the wind, rotting alongside low bushes and other weeds which filled the gaps between the stalks, turning the fields into dense shrubbery reaching halfway up Mathias' chest. Maurus noted sadly that there were only half-again as many weeds on these fields as there were on the other small fields they'd seen, and those had clearly still been in use. He was no farmer, but it seemed farming in Duskwood was a thankless profession.

The wreck of a town was the first settlement in Duskwood they were going to pass through. They'd taken the southern roads, clinging to the mountains, both for speed and in order to avoid going through the more populated areas and risking any incidents. Even if the Alliance was allowing the Horde passage through the territory, there was no reason to push their luck.

Maurus gave a vaguely inquiring grunt in response to Mathias comment and shifted his grip on his axe again, glancing out over the decaying fields as another breeze made sent waves rippling across them towards the town. Even here, a stone's throw from the shade of any tree, Duskwood lived up to its name.

Everyone was on guard despite the scouts they'd sent ahead claiming the place was abandoned. It was common knowledge that it was rare for something to stay abandoned for long and the only question in Maurus' mind was if anything in the town would be willing to attack them. If there was anyone hostile in there, they were biding their time, waiting for the tail end of the caravan, where Maurus, Arianna and Mathias were, to enter the town limits.

"This looks a lot like Brill, oddly enough," Mathias said. Maurus looked at the buildings. They'd obviously been built to last, with thick timber and solid brick, but the wood was rotting, lined with splotches of mold, the bricks were crumbling and the what color there had been had long since faded or peeled from the houses. The houses had had a surprising amount of glass windows, but none of them were intact. Only twisted window panes remained, studded with shards of glass, like dark mouths filled with small, crystal teeth and their breath was the putrid scent of rot and fetid mildew.

"If that is the state you keep your cities in, I'm amazed anyone gets out of your lands without illnesses," he said. He tried to keep his tone light, but he didn't think he quite managed to hold back a bit of disgust. He gave Mathias a half-grin to take the edge off and added: "Then again, I will consider myself lucky that you seem to be one of the cleaner forsaken then."

Mathias snorted as they walked into the shadow of one of the ruined farmhouses. "Mold isn't as bad as you people claim," he said. "And we know how to keep things apart. Can't get the plague vats and the wine barrels mixed up now, can we? I'd be murder on trade."

Maurus didn't react to Mathias' comment. The town seemed as dead as it had looked from the outside and the noise of the caravan struck Maurus as almost improper, like they were disrespecting the dead. Something slithered along his back, a warning or just a chill of fear. He glanced around, past the people around him, many of whom looked as on edge as he was, and found his gaze drawn to windows and doorways, dark, gaping holes in the buildings.

"Can you imagine the complaints?" Mathias chuckled, then lowered his voice into an aggravated growl: "I wanted that well spoiled, not spiked!"

The spark of amusement Maurus had felt at Mathias' previous comments evaporated and he frowned darkly, his stomach roiling with a mix of regret and anger. At his silence, Mathias glanced at him, then at Arianna and raised an eyebrow.

"Where'd your sense of humor go?"

Arianna was the first to speak, voice flat: "Nowhere. You're just being tasteless."

Mathias snorted and Arianna's voice got a little harder when she continued: "You'd not joke if you'd seen-"

Mathias' grin faded and his voice was as dark as the expression his features twisted into when he interrupted: "I have."

Maurus felt slight nausea and his mouth went dry as his thoughts turned to memories he'd rather forget. He remembered the guilty helplessness, the oozing stench, the frail bodies and the feeble, pained moans. It was almost as if he could still hear them.

He was shocked from his thoughts when a mournful, sonorous ringing filled the air. His eyes were drawn to the bell tower, which loomed over the town like a neglected and crumbling tombstone. He stared for a moment, transfixed by the ominous sound, then shook his head and, guided by some instinct, turned around. Several of the blood elves around him did the same, as did Mathias and Arianna and it was not a moment too soon.

"Scourge!" a blood elf paladin shouted, equal parts alarm and hate in her voice.

"Tighten formation!" Maurus bellowed, forgetting in the heat of the moment that he wasn't in charge of anything. The group around him obeyed immediately, the casters gathering within the ring formed by the fighters, a handful of warriors, shamans and a paladin. Payta, one of the tauren actually in charge, nodded curtly at him and lifted her immense shield.

From the rotten fields and the houses around them the living dead dashed towards them. Maurus hadn't seen any hostile undead since the few he'd encountered during the Third War and the sudden reminder of how monstrous they were sent a chill through his bones. The withered, rotten ghouls were bent over so low that they almost ran on all fours, spines twisted grotesquely, so they'd been too low to see when they ran through the fields. Some were naked, revealing their rotting bodies entirely, but many still wore torn clothes, tattered cloaks or dingy armor and though most were unarmed, some carried rusting blade and crude clubs. Their hands and feet were bony claws, their jaws hung open, too-wide to look natural, revealing yellow teeth and black nubs, and their eyes contained nothing but a savage hunger.

Maurus roared in challenge, trying to drown out ghouls' horrible, sickly moans and the heavy tolling of the church bell. He swept his axe out in a wide arc, slicing through the first three ghouls that reached him, and their bisected bodes slammed against his body. Before he could reverse the swing, two more ghouls leapt at his right shoulder, their claws catching hold around his pauldron and digging into his mail. They snapped their jaws at his face, and Maurus had to shake himself furiously to stop them from simply climbing close enough to reach his neck. He swung his axe again, cleaving through more of his enemies, forced to take a step back from the swarming ghouls. He almost fell over when the ghouls on him lost their grip, one falling to the ground in convulsions, the other ripped off by massive, blue-black hand.

"Burn!" Wiven hissed viciously and a group of ghouls were tossed back by an explosion of fire which made Maurus' exposed fur curl in the heat. The cold hate in the blood elf mage's voice was at odds with the levity he'd displayed during the trip through the jungle.

"Scouts have worse eyesight than our bats," Mathias said quickly. He was on Maurus' left, his sword darting out in silver arcs, slicing off hands and crippling legs and splattering thick black blood onto the ground. On Maurus' other side, Arianna's void walker stood like a wall, slamming fists almost as big as Maurus' own into the ghouls. Several ghouls faltered and crumbled, decayed flesh sloughing off from rapid corruption and turning black from the heat of demonic fire as Arianna chanted frantically behind him.

"I'd have said they should have smelled them," Maurus replied, his words coming in rough breaths as he pushed back two ghouls that were clawing at him over the handle of his axe, "but I can't say I thought about the smell either."

A smoky ball of purple-black energy passed him and knocked down a ghoul that had been poised to leap at him. He silently berated himself for the moment of inattention and shut up, just as a rapid drumbeat filled the air. A distinct rhythm, six beats for every moment, penetrated the shouts of the Horde and the groans of the undead, sounding out the order to push forward.

They moved further into the town under the clashing notes of drum and bell and the pressure of the ghouls' attack eased up slightly, despite the ghouls clambering over the buildings and racing down the streets. The flash of magic lit up the dark sides of the houses and flame, frost and lightning tore at the ghouls with as much ferocity as the steel in the Horde warriors' hands. The ghouls attacked with reckless abandon, to little effect, yet with each enemy Maurus felled, a gnawing suspicion grew in his gut.

Something sharp jabbed into his leg and he kicked out in response, only looking down in time to see a small head with tufts of black hair shatter as his hoof connected. Bile rose in his throat as he saw the tiny ghoul drop the rusty knife and crumble to the ground. He bellowed like a wounded kodo and lashed out even wilder against the next ghoul, blinking away a stinging in his eyes.

It was then the ringing of the bell stopped. Despite the battle raging on with the same fury, the sudden absence of the ringing made it seem oddly quiet and Maurus felt his fur stand on end from head to hoof. Despite the battle din, he noticed a raspy voice ring out a quick string of words filled with power, words that Maurus vaguely recognized and he saw a cloaked ghoul straighten slightly, one of several rising above the rest, and thrusting a rotted hand forward.

Out the corner of his eye, Maurus saw the ghouls rush past him, through the translucent, powerless shape of Arianna's banished void walker. The ghouls leapt on Wiven like a pack of rapid dogs and he vanished beneath them with a scream. In a desperate move, Maurus stooped down and swung his axe as low to the ground as he dared. The ghouls were knocked back, revealing a bloodied, wide-eyed, but thankfully still breathing Wiven.

Maurus didn't pause to help him up, turning back toward the attackers, just in time to try to dodge the sword stabbing at him. As the steel clanged against his mail, shouts of alarm and panicked cries rose from the rest of the regiment.

The ghoul darted back to avoid Maurus' return blow. It looked as inhuman as all the other ghouls, but the armor was intact beneath the grime and spots of rust and a glint of intelligence shone in his rotting eyeballs.

"Stick together," Payta bellowed, pushing back several of the undead with powerful shove of her tower shield, lashing out with her hammer at another armed undead, which, unlike the rest, dodged.

As Maurus obeyed, forming a ring with the other warriors around casters, he glanced further into the town and felt his stomach sink. The undead that had wounded him was only one of many who had hidden among the ghouls and the surprise attack had been terribly effective. Blood elves, tauren and orcs littered the ground, those not yet dead getting trod underfoot by the feet of the ghouls. The long, rectangular formation of the regiment had been broken and was now separated into a dozen groups of wildly varying size. They were hard pressed, forced on the defensive as the mindless ghouls threw themselves at the blades of the Horde while the intelligent ones darted forward to take advantage of the openings that appeared.

It didn't look completely hopeless though. He took heart in the sight of the kodos raging through the undead, their massive size and weight simply overpowering the tide of dead flesh. The Horde casters were doing their part, taking down the intelligent undead whenever possible and there didn't seem to be coming more ghouls to the battle, so with luck and strength, they might just be able to grind down the undead.

He pushed back a trio of ghouls clawing at him and felt another rush of heat hit him, almost painful in its intensity. He glanced to Payta just in time to see the last remnants of the fireball die against her shield, but his gaze was drawn to the ghouls maybe fifty yards from him. They were as rotted and inhuman as the rest and as varied in clothing, some wearing heavy cloaks while others were almost naked, but what marked them apart from all the other ghouls where the sickly, smoky green light that blazed to life in their eye sockets and around their hands.

"Get the necromancers," Mathias snarled urgently. Maurus almost protested, they were barely holding on as it was, but he shut the thought away and kept pace as they struggled towards forward, the warriors circling around the casters as they moved. Arianna's urgent voice rang out, in unison with the other casters, and streams of flame and shards of ice streaked towards several of the necromancers, only for most to be intercepted by ghouls that leapt into their path. Only the undead warlock who had banished Arianna's void walker had any reaction, his rotten face twisting in terror. He took a step back, before he seemed to gather himself, his mouth stretching into a parody of a smile, staring straight at Arianna.

"Fear is for the living, elf," he hissed, as some of his fellows launched fire and shadow at the group of Horde. But most of the undead intoned a chant Maurus didn't recognize, though the anxiety he noticed in those around him also affected him.

Columns of green smoke appeared around them and for just a heartbeat, Maurus couldn't fathom what happened. Then he recognized an attacking ghoul as one he'd just felled and saw, on his right, an orc rise to his feet, his intestines still hanging from his belly, turning dead eyes on Maurus.

His blood pounded in his head and his grip on his weapon tightened to the point where it should have been painful, yet he couldn't feel it. His gaze fixed on the necromancers.

"I'll rip you apart for this abomination!" he roared, his blood coursing through his veins like boiling lead. He pushed forward, taking the lead in the formation. He didn't pay any attention to the claws scraping against him, hardly noticed the swords, though he did register that Mathias and Payta were at his sides. He saw more ghouls crumble under Arianna's magic assault, heard the dragon-like roar of one of Wiven's spells and somehow felt the presence of the void walker behind him.

The undead warlock closest to them chanted something and Maurus felt something cold flow over him, a whisper of fear that sought to take hold of him, but it could not penetrate his rage. The warlock started backing away instead as Maurus noticed a rumble in the ground.

Bone cracked and limbs snapped as a kodo barreled through the undead on Maurus' right, the tauren riding it shouting in gleeful defiance, swinging a hammer at the ghouls clinging to his mount. Maurus didn't know how it had gotten the space to build up that speed, but he also didn't care. In the wake of the rampaging kodo came another group of Horde, using the opening to hack down the ghouls that had nearly been knocked back by the charge.

"Keep up," Maurus roared and followed the kodo. The undead clawed at them from the sides, trying to bog them down again, but with the room given to them by the kodo, the support of the other Horde warriors and the momentum they were able to build, it was easier to keep the ghouls at bay and the intelligent undead didn't have as much of an advantage.

Maurus stomped towards the undead warlock. He'd managed to throw himself aside from the charging kodo and was scrambling to his feet, but Maurus didn't let him get up. The heavy axe split open his chest and the flickering green light vanished from the warlock's eyes.

Maurus' gaze settled on the necromancers as he continued moving. Several of those not crushed underfoot were knocked off balance by the rampaging kodo and were quickly dispatched by powerful strokes Maurus' axe as he followed the kodo.

He spied another warlock, edging away along one of the buildings and he roared in challenge, leaping at him. A flash of cold, green energy numbed him from shoulder to elbow, but his axe was already in motion and the warlock's head went flying from her shoulders.

He hacked and kicked, his rage fueled by the sight of too small ghouls and the screams of dying Horde. It was very sudden when he realized the tide had turned. The Horde had recovered from the surprise and with the ghouls dying faster than they could be reanimated and the steady elimination of the intelligent undead, the battle was almost won. The mass of undead was thinning rapidly, and some of the more intelligent undead were retreating. Maurus ground his teeth at the thought of them escaping but the sight of a small group of wolf- and raptor riders on the other side of the undead dispelled that worry. The riders with the regiment must have hurried out to harry the undead when the attack first began.

Lifting his axe from another dead ghoul, he was surprised to see neither enemies nor allies close by. Many of the Horde soldiers had passed him, now fighting ghouls out in the fields. He spotted his own group of casters and fighters almost immediately, a little ways off, fighting a small group of ghouls of which a few were armed. Feeling exposed and guilty for leaving the group, and saddened to see that they had lost the paladin and the troll mage, he hurried to rejoin them, even though it looked like they had things well in hand.

He'd hardly finished the thought before he was proven wrong. Without Maurus and the paladin he never got the name of the fighters around the casters were spread more thinly and two sword-wielding undead pushed into the circle, raising their blades to strike Arianna and Wiven, who had their backs to the attackers and Maurus.

"Watch out," Maurus yelled, heart in his throat. He was already moving as fast as he could and he knew he'd be too late.

Mathias wasn't though. He swept in from the side, swinging his sword with blinding speed, slashing through the spine of one ghoul and skewering the other through the heart. Arianna whirled as Mathias pulled out his sword and turned fully to her and her eyes went wide and wild, her hand right hand coming alight with dark energy, a quick incantation spilling from her lips.

Maurus winced when Mathias slammed his shield into Arianna's nose. The magic coalescing in her palm instantly snuffed out as she staggered backwards and Maurus clenched his teeth, feeling a hot flush of anger as he saw the blood spray from her nose.

By the time he reached them, Mathias had circled around Arianna and helped Payta and Wiven dispatch the last ghouls. Mathias looked at him, gave him the rictus grin he often wore and said:

"Glad you joined again. Though you seemed to have your own party."

"What was that?" Maurus demanded angrily.

"I wasn't keen on feeling that spell," he said unconcernedly, bending down to wipe his sword on the trousers of a dead ghoul. He glanced over his shoulder and tilted his head in a gesture of slight puzzlement. "To be honest, I expected more control from her."

"And you had full control over that shield?" he asked, the words sharp though.

Mathias shrugged, though his grin faded a little. "Lashing out when someone aims magic at you is instinct. You should know that."

Maurus was about to retort, but bit it down and gave Mathias a stiff nod of acknowledgement before walking over to Arianna. She'd walked the short distance away and stood in the shadow of one of the houses, the void walker looming beside her, her staff leaning against the wall. She looked more worn than he'd expected, her clothing more torn than he'd noticed and cuts and scrapes could be seen where her skin was exposed. The hand she was holding over her nose was stained with blood and so was her chin. There was scowl on her face, but she wasn't directing it at Mathias. Instead, her eyes were on the dim sky above.

The blood and the scrapes reminded Maurus of his own condition. Now that the battle rage was fading and his pulse was slowing, he could feel his body ache with the beginnings of massive bruising. He licked his lip and tasted the blood from where a ghoul had sunk its claws into his cheek.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

She turned her scowl on him. Her voice sounded odd, like she had a cold, when she answered and her tone was harsh:

"Except for being annoyed that the worst injury I got in this fight was from one of my allies, I'm just fine."

"Broken?" Maurus asked, trying to keep his voice calm despite the spark of angry heat that welled up in him as he glanced at Mathias again. Arianna simply jerked her hand away from her face, revealing a nose that had been squashed to the side and Maurus grimaced.

He quickly glanced around for healers, but the sight of the battlefield, now silent but for the moans of the wounded and the shouts of the other living Horde made him give up that search with a dry swallow. Any healers here had better things to do.

"You have a stone of your own?" he asked. She shook her head.

"I used it already." She fingered a cut in her robe, about the length of Maurus' thumb. "About when you went after the second necromancer."

Maurus' gut twisted and he swallowed. "I apologize," he said glumly, lowering his axe to the ground before he fished the health stone out from the pocket he'd hidden it in. He held it out to her.

"Use it," she said sourly. "You're going to be one big bruise tomorrow from how you took those blows."

"Aren't you the one always saying I should use what I have?" Maurus asked flatly. He couldn't deny her words but he wasn't going to voice that agreement right then. He pushed the stone at her and added: "I just get bruises, they'll fade. That nose will be crooked for the rest of your life if we don't fix it. Take it."

That made her accept the stone and he grasped her chin with one hand, his fingers huge against her small, delicate face. He thought he felt the slightest tremble in her frame and for a moment he wondered if he should get someone else to do it. He pushed the doubt aside. If he could fix noses on a goblin and a troll adolescent, he could fix Arianna's.

"Deep breath," he said to Arianna, then jerked her nose back into place. He could feel her jaw clench between his fingers and the air escaped her in hiss. He let go of her nose almost immediately but not before he felt the heat of the health stone working its magic on her. It seemed she'd crushed the stone the moment he wrenched her nose back into place. He let go of her face and half-turned, ignoring the void walker, which had moved slightly closer and seemed on the verge of violence.

Looking out over the road, Maurus' eyes were drawn to the dead Horde, most of which were so brutalized that it must have been from getting cut down more than once. The few, very small bodies that were scattered here and there didn't escape his notice either and he swallowed thickly before dragging his gaze away, letting it settle on Arianna again. She had gone back to looking at the sky, though her eyes strayed to the bodies and to Mathias seemingly against her will. She looked slightly ill, paler than usual.

"Why did our favorite undead deserve a face full of magic?" Maurus asked, attempting to put in some levity into the words.

"He didn't," Arianna spat, folding her arms, still looking at the sky. Maurus frowned, tilting his head slightly.

"Should I worry-" he began, only to be interrupted.

"It won't happen again," she said, the words clipped and final.

"Arianna," Maurus said seriously, "what's eating at you?" He lifted a hand to place on her shoulder but she jerked away from him and his fingers closed into a tight fist.

"Nothing that won't pass" she said flatly. Maurus snorted derisively and folded his arms.

"Sure doesn't look like it'll pass," he said. He turned his gaze away from Arianna. It some of the travelers were getting ready to take care of the corpses. Arianna didn't answer.

"You sure you don't have something you want to get off your chest?" Maurus asked again.

Arianna blew out an irritated breath.

"Do you want to talk about your dealings with the goblins, Hero?"

Something twisted in his gut, even as hot anger rolled through Maurus. He snapped his gaze back to Arianna, giving her a glare, one she returned in full. Then he crouched down and snatched up his axe with a violent motion.

"Fine," he half-spat. "You should get your pet to do some heavy lifting too, this'll take a while."

With that, he turned and walked out to help with taking care of the dead.

Well, that took longer than I'd hoped. University is kicking my ass, so that's my excuse, though I can't claim my work ethic is perfect either. Hope this was enjoyable. Next chapter should take us all the way to the Dark Portal.

Let me know what you think. Any criticism is welcome, unless it is simple abuse.