~*Author's Notes*~
Ichiniess toned down for those who don't like that kind of prose. Condensed details (rapid fire scenes) to practice a less dialogue-heavy style of writing which conveys scene without spending paragraphs describing things that happened in the space of several seconds. I'm either a "slow it way down" or "skip all the details" type of writer and I'm trying to learn to write between those lines.
~*~ Chapter 54 ~*~
The necromancer is reanimating the undead, using a powerful spell which would pull them all back together in a matter of seconds.. A volley of arrows, both from Sylvanas and the scout bounce off an invisible shield. Nekov rushes, scythe swinging at everything that moves. He cuts a path to the half-grown human necromancer. Upon reaching the girl she simply glances at him and he flies backward, away from her. She continues channeling the spell. The army is coming back to life.
Kayas, not wanting to fight that army all over again, shifted into her bear form and charged. The necromancer's shield was not strong enough to withstand a headlong skullbash from a bear druid fully stacked with rage and vengeance. Five different voices called out after her to stop. The necromancer bowls over onto the pile of writhing bodies. Kayas bounds away, not wanting to get caught by a stray, half-formed skeleton.
"You little brat!" The necromancer got to her feet. "I would enjoy watching mistress' pet feed your soul to widower, were he still her pet."
Who to the what? Was 'widower' suppose to be someone's nickname? The pet her mistress kept, perhaps? Kayas ran back down the hill, opting to get distance before she tried that stunt again. Her brains rattled in her skull and her scalp was numb.
More arrows found their way to the necromancer. These the shadowy shield absorbed, dissolved into nothing. "You'll get my druid when you pry her from my cold, dead hands!" Sylvanas drew one of her red glowing swords and pointed it at the girl. From hidden corners several shadowy trails of energy converged on the spot. Within seconds the shield had absorbed it's full capacity of magic and burst, sending tiny bits of shadowy energy into the air.
Startled, the necromancer threw her hands up to stop the onslaught, effectively resurrecting a second shield. "You have no idea how many of your champions I have already acquired by prying them from cold, dead hands!"
The commander shook his head, a sarcastic grin on his face. Looking pointedly at the necromancer and said, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that. I can't hear your statement over the" he looked pointedly at the Dark Lady, "irony of it."
The Banshee Queen seethed. Of course the wench had to use almost her exact words on her, and of course she knew there was only one way to reintegrate a free-willed undead into the ranks of the Scourge. Everyone hated Death Knights. Except Arthas, who thinks they're just the Plague's gift to humanity.
The rattling remains of the undead army were pulled halfway to their former state by now, some of them even tootling off without their legs, using arms to drag their rib cages and spines around. Without a direct link to their Master they had no direct. None.
One of them reached for the necromancer and was blocked by the shield. About this time the rest of them noticed the closest living thing to them was that same necromancer. She shrieked when they turned around and headed for her.
The Dark Lady laughed. "In case you haven't noticed dear, we have an advantage over the mindless lot you so graciously raised. Bearing the plague, as you know, makes them chase and kill anything that is alive. You're mistake. May it be your last!" Nekov and the Commander stood back, using their weapons to hack apart anything that had chosen them over her.
"No!" The shield stopped them from getting to her but it would not hold forever. The tip of the Dark Lady's sword went up, back down and again the streams of dark energy slammed into the shield, rocked back the girl and proceeded to bring it down in seconds. "Nooo!" The move mass of undead converged, even coming up under her barely booted feet. "Get back! The Master has given me command of you! Get back!" They did not. Using necromantic gifts, as she did when entering the compound, she pushed the corpses back and charged down the writhing ramp of rotted bodies and strait at the little Druid.
The RazorWing Angels reacted faster than the bear did, forming a solid wall between the raving necromancer and their charge. She had run between Nekov and the Commander, who know turned heels and sped after her. Right before she was about to reach the line of bodies, a chain of black energy snatched her off the ground. She screamed in rage as she was pulled backwards all the way out of the fighting and onto the wall.
"By the Sunwell, we have Death Knights!" The Dark Lady's voice rang out sharply amongst the clashing of weapons and hollering of engaged fighters. Indeed, atop the wall the necromancer was struggling to put distance between herself and a man wearing impressive black and silver, skull themed armor. The style and amount of skull and spikes – not to mention the lack of rot on a face which housed two harsh, glowing blue eyes- bespoke his rank and affiliation.
A collective inhale was taken by every living think. Most of the Forsaken also inhaled, due more to muscle memory than anything. The Dark Lady was over by the wall withing seconds and yelling up towards the area the white-haired priestess disappeared. "By all that is holy and undead, you have to get that shield up now or I won't waste the arrows keeping the Scourge from eating you alive! Get it up now!"
The little druid didn't see his arrival, though suddenly he was there. The Forsaken who found the Scarlet priestess conversed with his Queen in short, bursty sentences. They argued in that guttural language of their race, the Dark Lady making gestures with her hands to the Death Knight and necromancer on top of the wall. That pair too was having a heated argument in their own language. Possibly, the Druid suspected, about not rushing headlong into battle wearing nothing more than yesteryears strip teas attire.
Something fantastic occurred then: the Dark Lady lost the argument she was having with her minion, shaking her head and walking away from the distraught henchman She made gestures as if to say, 'Fine, whatever.'
The Scarlet priestess rushed out of hiding, snatched one of the Dark Lady's arrows, drew it across her palm and threw it in the air. It caught on a nether wind and flew as if released from a bow. The Scout watched it soaring, making several mental notes to have to learn that trick himself. Kayas made a disapproving noise and caught his attention. He furrowed his brow and turned his palm up questioningly. Only if you want to join the ranks of the satyr. She had never seen a Kaldorei turn satyr but knew it still happened on occasion if they dabbled too much with dark magic. The weak amongst their race did the job of weeding themselves out.
The arrow caught one of the huge spider legs in the joint. A sound issued forth from the other side of the wall as if stones were being tumbled in a wooden bowl. The Druid backed up behind her wall of small guards and headed back to the relic stand. Something from her childhood had once made a noise like that and it was the last time she saw her mother alive. Whatever that was, she became content to let the rest deal with it.
Suddenly a head and thorax of an enormous spider-like creature clawed it's way over the wall. Though it had been given the instructions to stay where it was until needed the attack brought out it's instinct to defend itself. Without a link to the Lich King it was obvious the thing intended to get to work on the living. Curious, the druid noted the one who broke the link was now doing something else and yet the link had not reasserted itself. What did this mean?
The Scarlet priestess hailed it down, drawing it's attention as she ran barefoot through the mud and organic muck. Off in the distance Mr. Meows was still playing 'kitty' with the second abomination. The giant spider was over the wall and down into the remains of it's brethren in seconds, hissing and clacking giant glistening mandibles in time with the rumbling of it's thorax.
The Scarlet priestess glanced back at the Forsaken soldier who found her; the two shared a glance, then she went back to work. The spider-thing raised it's two front legs, long hairs glittering in the firelight, and charged. The little druid expected it to end badly, as they all did, and even the Dark Lady seemed to be holding her non-existent breath. The upper body, somewhat human in appearance and very, very alien, shimmied as it charged, causing long trails of tainted spit to splash left and right from it's open maw.
Something had come over the priestess, some sinister thing inside her had taken hold. Maybe she had ingested the plague with the rest of the traitor priests? Ducking under one upturned leg she dodged another, grabbed a hairy spine and swung herself up. Landing firmly on it's back she took hold of the spines on top of it's contorted face and pulled back. It's back did not bend like that and this much hampered it's struggles lest it break it's own spine.
"I'll give the Scarlet clergywomen this," the Banshee Queen said, "they certainly are not afraid of taking the Scourge by the horns and riding them to victory."
Though the beast kicked and screamed -and the druid backed further and further into the shadows of the relic stall to hear it – it could not dislodge the woman. In a former professions she surely must have dealt with unbroken horses or perhaps champion strider riding. Either way the bolts of golden light eventually steered the thing into the wall. It's front appendages raked at the stones for a full ten seconds before it got the idea to climb and try to shake the woman off.
Upon getting to the top she swung down and with one eye-blinding crack of Light sent it flying off the ledge. It's pieces rained down on everything below. "Close it up!" Commander Hillburn ordered the living to close eyes and mouth and hold their breaths lest some bloody mist infect them with the plague. Everyone obeyed, having done this drill hundreds of times in the years since the Scourge Wars started (1).
The priestess vanished over the edge of the wall the same time the second spider climbed over, intent on getting the pray it's brother missed. Big sister was a better hunter anyway; she'd feed well tonight and priestess was her favorite. Skittering strait across one wall it came to the corner and skittered strait up the next. It almost made it to the place where both priestesses were hidden from view when a golden light exploded from the location, stunning every undead thing in the compound and burning the little druid with the intensity. Her plague-tainted flesh did not like that one bit.
Two seconds latter the light receded and a soft humming sounded. Another second it spread out along the edge of the wall, flowing quickly outward to every second of the compound. When it reached the Death Knight he grabbed the necromancer and barely leaped out of sight off the wall and into the outward darkness before the golden shield rushed through where he had been standing. The necromancer's wails of protest could be heard over even the sound of the undead screaming in protest. Even the Dark Lady and her Forsaken were struggling against the power of it, though they had the sense not to make a fuss about it.
After all, they had known this would happen.
The shield finished a few seconds latter, a golden haze hanging in the air over the compound. The next instant there was a scream and a wet thrashing. The blinded figures below looked towards the holy figures above. The crypt fiend had made it over the edge of the wall. The white haired priestess appeared, panting heavily and very weak from her ordeal. Another holy shield expanded outward from her being, drawn from the last reserves of her power, pushing the cracking corpse away from her. It fell from the edge of the wall. It's black, dripping jaws held the dead Scarlet priestess. Everyone looked away as the wet flesh of both hit the ground several stories below.
~ End Notes ~
(1). There isn't an official name for the war the Scarlet/Forsaken are waging on the Scourge (that I know of), but I know for certain that if I spent 20+ years fighting in a war then I'd certainly deem to give it a name.