Taylor was not happy to have the man-at-arms Jean du Artois under her service. In fact, to say she was rather peeved at the young soldier would be the understatement of the millenia. Once the party had escaped Slaanesh's domain and were back into the dead Chaos Wastes, Taylor had taken it upon herself to test Jean and see what quality of warrior he was. And quite frankly, he was pathetic.

Holding up his shield in a stance that covered up far too much of his own vision, Jean charged at Taylor and swung a mighty chop downwards. It was a slow, sloppy attack that lacked any precision or grace. Taylor watched and even debated on how to react. Deflecting the attack with her own shield seemed like overkill, since the attack wouldn't even scratch her armor, but then again she should react appropriately in a training session so both she and Jean didn't build up bad habits.

So Taylor raised her shield, knocking aside Jean's strike, before she counter attacked with her own. Rather than slashing down, she used the pommel of her sword to strike at Jean's collar. Unbalanced from Taylor's parry, Jean was too slow to bring his own shield up, and cried out in pain as Taylor struck him. He dropped to his knees and clutched his shoulder. Taylor sighed. She was pretty sure she didn't hit him hard enough to break anything. He needed to stop being a baby.

Dashed were the hopes Taylor had that a replacement for Lukas had fallen into their laps. Instead, Taylor was left with this, honest to God peasant that she could easily out duel.

"Come on Jean, get up. We don't have time for you to wallow around."

It took Jean a few seconds to respond as he gritted his teeth. "Sorry, my Lady," he forced out as he slowly stood up. "I shall endeavor to do better this time." Jean looked at Taylor with a focused, honest, and earnest expression which just made Taylor feel like a bitch.

It wasn't like Jean was lazy, or untalented. He was honestly trying his best, learning from every strike Taylor inflicted on him. But at the end of the day he was just too inexperienced. He was just too weak.

Taylor sighed again. "Just… Just remember to keep your shield arm up at all times. There's no point in carrying it if your arm flails every time you throw a strike. Now again."

Nodding his head, Jean's face became determined as he said, "I am ready, my Lady."

Without saying anything back, Taylor lunged forward slashed with a wide, horizontal swing from her right, this time with a bit more force. Jean raised up his shield, and to Taylor's annoyance, flinched as he did so, closing his eyes.

Seeing this, Taylor twisted her forearms, circling the blade behind her head as she reversed directions, now attacking with a backhanded slash from her left. The flat of Taylor's blade smacked Jean on the side of his head, stunning him. Confused by what just happened, Jean stumbled back, and Taylor continued forward, driving her shield forward and into him. Jean was immediately taken off his feet and sent to the ground, groaning in pain as he landed.

Taylor looked down at Jean, her face impassive, but simmering with anger underneath. "Don't close your fucking eyes," she hissed out, before forcing herself to calm. She squatted down near him so she could look him in the face. "Look Jean, I'm not trying to abuse you. I'm not having fun hurting you. I'm trying to make you better."

At her words, Jean cut off his moans, and looked back up at Taylor, giving her a pained smile. "Of course, my Lady. I know that you only have my best interest at heart. Why, these lessons are only half as bad as those I had with Sir Guy back in Castle Artois. He was the knight assigned to train us men-at-arms, and by the Lady of the Lake made me who I am today."

Taylor frowned, unsure of what to think of this… complete blind trust Jean seemed to have in her. She stood and decided to change topics. "This Sir Guy. What kind of training did he put you through?"

Standing, Jean shrugged. "Oh you know, my Lady, how to be a proper warrior! In the mornings, we would wake up to clean the stables and weapons in the armory, after which he'd give us an hour or two of instruction in the sword, spear, or bow. Afterwards, we'd be set to completing various tasks across the castle or camp, like building fortifications or patroling. The work is hard, but pays far better than any wage I would make on the farm!"

Raising a brow, Taylor asked, "So you were well compensated?"

Laughing almost sheepishly, Jean said, "Yes well, the initial pay was very generous indeed! But after the payments for my equipment and armor, then food and housing fees, and of course tithes to both the Duke and to the temple of Shallya, there was not much left. But while my coin purse was more often than not empty, I was always more than happy to do my duty for Artois and the Lady of the Lake."

At the mention of the Lady of the Lake, Taylor swore she could hear cackling laughter in the back of her mind. Unsure of what to think of that, Taylor recalled what she knew of the goddess and asked, "Yes, the Lady of the Lake, the patron goddess of Bretonnia, correct?"

Jean beamed at her with a smile filled with religious joy that bordered on near ecstacy. "Yes! The Lady is the one who protects Bretonnia, blessing our great lords and knights with their divine rights and powers, and righteously smiting down any foes who dare threaten our great lands!"

You mean she protected Bretonnia, Taylor insidiously thought as she recalled how the Old World that contained Bretonnia no longer existed.

Looking at Jean with a gaze that was half pity and half contempt, she eventually said, "Just… you know where we are Jean. This is not Bretonnia. There are no knights, no heroes, and no Lady who can come here to save us." Her voice became harder with each word. "The Realm of Chaos is no place for the weak. You cannot be a sheep here, some weakling prey. You must become a true warrior, a true predator, or become a meal for something far meaner than I."

Jean looked down, thoroughly admonished. "I am sorry, my Lady."

"I do not need you to be sorry!" Taylor snapped, patience completely gone, tired of his constant apologies. "I need you to be strong." When Jean wilted under her gaze, she sighed. "We're done for now, pack up, we're going to get moving again."

Jean's face still downcast, he said, "I… yes my Lady."

The slightest narrowing of her eyes at Jean was enough to send the boy scampering away full of apologies as he moved to gather his belongings. For the third or fourth time in not even a minute, Taylor sighed again.

"I must say, you are brooding far more than usual, love," Cereza said from behind her.

Glancing at her companion, Taylor glowered. "I don't brood."

Cereza cocked a brow at her. "Darling, besides berating the Advisor and making googly eyes at me, I feel like all you do is brood."

Taylor flushed at Cereza's comment, but before she could respond, Cereza scowled at Taylor, and set her mouth into a deep, cartoonishly-exaggerated frown.

She then spoke with a rather accurate imitation of Taylor's American accent, just at an octave down from her normal voice. "I'm Taylor. Life is so unfair. I just want to go home."

Deadpanning the pirate, Taylor said, "Life is unfair and I do want to go home."

"There! That's the brooding I'm talking about!" Cereza exclaimed as she threw her hands up.

Rolling her eyes, Taylor chuffed out a small laugh.

"And there's that smile." Cereza teased, glad she was able to lighten Taylor's mood. "I was afraid your face was stuck in its scowl for a bit."

Stifling down any further laughs, as she refused to give Cereza the satisfaction, Taylor began walking forward through the Wastes once more. "I've just… had a lot on my mind."

Cereza moved to keep pace with Taylor. "Is what's on your mind tall, blonde, and worthless?" She asked in a low whisper.

Taylor winced. "Jean's not worthless. He's just… inexperienced."

"And that inexperience makes him worthless," Cereza flatly said, her voice devoid of its usual mirth. "He's slowing us down, Taylor. We already have to stop twice as much to let him rest and sleep. He's not like us. He hasn't accepted the gifts of the Gods. He does not have the strength of will to survive out here, and will only hinder us."

Tilting her head at the pirate, Taylor muttered out, "You know, I had my suspicions, but you never outright said you serve the Gods."

Cereza shrugged. "Serve is a strong word. I ask for their aid and kill in their names, but I don't have their gaze like you do. But like you, I remember the day I died. It was during the End Times of my world. You see Captain Saltspite had earned the ire of many Norscan captains during her time on the seas, before the death of my world, a great armada of Norscans allied to bring us to heel." Cereza once more became pensive as she recalled her past. "We fought with all the piss and vinegar the saltiest crew of sailors could, but eventually we were overrun. I lost track of how many Northmen I killed that day. So much blood ran down the deck and down myself, I lost myself in it. In the slaughter. All I could think of was more. More blood."

"And more skulls," Taylor finished, staring down at the ground in front of her. After a moment, she looked back at Cereza. "I would've expected you to follow Slaanesh, not Khorne."

"Slaanesh wasn't who I needed to call upon that day. Honestly, I find calling upon all four to be more useful than dedicating myself to any one of them. When seduction or guile is needed I ask for aid from Slaanesh or Tzeentch. When blood must be spilled, my own or the enemy's, I pray to Khorne or Nurgle. But we've become diverted. Let's focus back on the topic at hand."

Taylor nodded. "Jean."

"We should leave him behind." Cereza's voice had no trace of empathy or mercy.

Taylor turned to turn and blinked in surprise. "I know you dislike him, Cereza, but that is cold blooded, even for you. You didn't leave me behind when we first met."

Cereza snorted. "Unlike him, you could carry your own weight. Jean there? He needs someone to teach him how to wipe his own arse and jerk his own cock."

Grimacing, Taylor shook her head. "Thank you for that visual Cereza. Have you considered a career as a bard once we get out of here?" She sighed again as she refocused her mind on the topic. "We keep him for now. Yes, he's slowing us down, and I want to leave this place as fast as we can, but… I can't justify leaving him. Not after so many people left me." She looked forward at the horizon, resolute in her decision. "Not to mention he did help us defeat Junia. We owe it to him to try and help him."

At Taylor's words, Cereza's own expression softened. She sighed. "You're a good person, Taylor." She then leaned over and planted a kiss on Taylor's cheek. "Don't let it get us killed."

Taylor immediately flushed red and snapped her head towards Cereza to say something, but Cereza increased her pace and began walking ahead of her, ending the conversation.

The party continued this pattern of moving, training, and resting for several more days throughout the Wasteland, covering half the distance Taylor had hoped. Jean was an interesting enough companion, learning of his past and his homeland, but the pace she was forced to set for him continually irked her.

Currently, the party once again walked through a jagged wasteland of red-clay dirt. But this time, they were flanked on their sides by rocky crags and desert bluffs that rose several dozen feet into the air. While there was no sunlight in this realm, instead everything being a general low hue of red all the time thus rendering the need for shade irrelevant, the rock formations instead gave them natural cover they used to hopefully mask their travels through the Wastes.

As was their past time during these long hikes, they spoke of their old worlds as they walked.

"So yes, my Father was a huntsman before he eventually settled down and took over my Grandfather's farm," Jean explained as he hiked after Taylor and Cereza. "Who inherited it from my Great-Grandfather, who in turn was gifted custodianship of the land by a knight he saved during King Charlen's errantry war, perhaps 80 years ago!"

"A farm he was gifted in return for the cost of eight-tenths of the share of your crops in perpetuity?" Taylor said, disbelieving of what she was hearing. That was insanity. She wasn't a scholar of medieval history, but she was pretty sure the peasants in her Earth's middle ages were never treated so poorly. It pretty much equaled slavery, as they could only keep enough food to sustain themselves.

Jean nodded. "Aye indeed. Rather generous terms too. Most others in our village had to pay the Chasseur estate nine bushels of wheat for every ten! It was something that many of the others were rather jealous of!"

"You seem to have a remarkably positive view of this Sir Chasseur," Taylor deadpanned.

"Indeed! Sir Chasseurwas a great hunter, and I hear he often accompanied Duke Chilroy on his hunts through the Forest of Arden for orcs and Beastmen!" Jean said proudly. "It was an honour and privilege to serve both of them both as a serf, and as a footsoldier when they called upon me!" He then blinked and then rather sheepishly added on, "And serving you, my Lady, is just as great an honour! If not more so!"

Taylor suppressed a wince as Jean talked. He was just so… docile and submissive. He was part of generations of manipulation and abuse, in which the entire peasant class of his kingdom was bullied into a culture of Stockholm Syndrome towards their knightley masters. It was pathetic, if Taylor had to be honest. Seeing Jean was like looking into a kind of sick mirror that reminded Taylor too much of the bullying victim she used to be. And she hated it.

Luckily for Taylor, her musings were cut off as they crested another rocky hill, and on the opposite side saw blackness. Beneath her, the hill crested down to a steep cliff face that descended into a canyon. Taylor had only ever seen pictures of the Grand Canyon, in its awe-inspiring, all-encompassing glory. And even that marvel of nature seemed to pale in comparison to the width and depth of the canyon before her.

Taylor wasn't sure if it was just the lack of sunlight, but when she looked down, deeper into the canyon, she couldn't see anything. No light penetrated the inky void beneath.

"Where have you led us?" Taylor growled towards the Advisor.

However, rather than his usual, mirthful expression, the Advisor looked pensive as he looked down into the abyss as well. "I… had not anticipated us reaching this place so soon."

The naked apprehension within the Advisor's voice slowed Taylor's anger, instead increasing her concern. "What is this plane in front of us?"

Pursing his lips in thought, the Advisor said, "That, my dear Lady, is the Valley of Gibbering Horrors."

Jean whimpered at the name while Cereza grimaced, muttering, "Sounds like a lovely place."

"It is anything but," the Advisor flatly said. "Of those who serve the Ruinous Powers, there is no fate that all fear more than that of becoming a Chaos Spawn. Those who fail the Gods often find themselves overcome with mutations, devolving into mindless, undulating masses of teeth, claws, eyes, and tentacles. Many of these creatures are kept in the armies of the Gods as pets or cannon fodder. Those that have been lost to the Warp however, have been herded here, where they congregate and multiply."

Taylor grimaced. "How do we cross it?"

The Advisor thought for a moment, before he shook his head. "While I would relish challenging yourself in such a way, I know of your capabilities, and I believe the valley will be too much for you. While we would lose time, we should find a detour around."

Thinking to herself, Taylor frowned as she came to a conclusion. "Okay. We head along the canyon. If we find a shorter distance, maybe I could fly us across."

Taylor's musings were cut off when the sound of war drums stopped her in her tracks. Why can't things be simple?

Taylor said as she spun around to the source of the sound, behind a bluff away from the canyon, from where the party came from, and put on her helmet, "Form ranks everyone, we have guests."

Cereza was by her left in an instant, rapier and pistol in hand, while Jean fumbled drawing his sword to her right. Rolling her eyes, Taylor ignored her follower, and focused on the mountain where the racket of drums came from.

"We should go for the peak, Taylor," Cereza said, her voice low and gaze sharp. "If we secure the high ground we'll have the advantage."

"That's a really long hike though," Jean said, his voice quavering.

Taylor wanted to call him out on his whining, but Jean had a point. It was probably a solid 500 feet between where they were and to the bluff closest to their enemies, and then they would have to climb it as well. Meanwhile the sounds of drums were growing louder, and were soon joined by what sounded like… wolf howls.

"Luckily we won't be walking then," Taylor grunted as she grabbed both Cereza and Jean by the scruffs of their necks.

For the first time, Taylor saw panic in Cereza's eyes as she realized what she was planning. "No wait Taylor don't!"

Any further cries were cut off by an explosion as Taylor focused her pyromancy in her feet, casting her Fire Walk once more. The trio flew through the sky to the sound of Cereza's and Jean's screams, easily surmounting the distance and height, between them and the peak of the bluff as Taylor landed.

Both Cereza and Jean dropped to all fours, practically clutching the rocks around them in death grips.

Taylor rolled her eyes at them as she moved to see the host approaching them. "Oh come on, stop being babies."

"If humans were meant to fly, we would've been born with wings," Cereza gasped out, doing her best to catch her breath.

"I must agree with Lady Cereza," Jean whimpered as well.

"Glad to see you two are finally getting along," Taylor groused out as she looked down from the cliff she was on. "Now get up, we have a rather large group of visitors we need to deal with."

Slowly, Taylor's companions made their way to her, and saw what she did. Approaching the rock hill they stood on, was a Chaos warband. Perhaps 20 or 30 fur armored barbarian marauders, covered in blood and gore marched forward. They were armed with a variety of weapons, mostly spears and axes with shields, but a few were wicked looking berserkers that wielded two axes. Running alongside the right flank of the army, bounding along all fours, was a pack of half a dozen werewolves, slobbering and foaming at the mouth as they sprinted full speed for Taylor's party.

The horde was led by a heavily armored Chaos Warrior. However, unlike Taylor's own black iron armor, this Chaos Warrior was dressed in crimson armor with brass trimming, and wielded two similarly colored axes. This was an army of Khorne if Taylor ever saw one.

As Taylor looked down upon the warband, the Khornate Warrior raised one of his axes and pointed at her. He bellowed out a roar, and soon all of the Marauders around her broke into a sprint towards the bluff.

Igniting her hands, Taylor said, "I'll thin them out as best I can, but once they get close I'll need you to keep them off me so I can fight their leader."

"Aye aye," Cereza nodded, while Jean just gave a nervous nod.

Her companions ready, Taylor channeled the weave of magic into her hands, and in front of her, a massive, Burning Skull of pure fiery destruction appeared. The skull cackled as Taylor flung it forward, the spell leaving a path of burning embers in its wake as it flew for the mob of Northmen.

The most agile of the Marauders, who probably retained the most sanity as well, flung themselves to the side to dodge the spell. Perhaps about half of the group of Marauders were swallowed up by the flames, screaming in agony as their skin burned and fat melted. While Taylor burned through a good amount of the barbarians, to her annoyance, the warlord simply waded through the flames as if they weren't there.

Taylor charged up another fireball to throw at the champion, but the sounds of barks below her drew her attention instead. The werewolves were moving fast, bounding up the bluff with agile jumps and leaps. Shifting targets to the more immediate threat, Taylor flung her fireball at the closest lycanthrope.

The wolf was consumed by the inferno, howling in pain as the stench of cooked meat and burned hair hit Taylor. But Taylor was only able to kill one of the approaching wolves as the rest of the pack reached their position.

The first of the werewolves to reach Taylor lunged at her, its maw of dagger-like teeth snapping for Taylor's head. Raising her arm, Taylor punched forward and actually ended up shoving her fist into the open mouth of the wolf. The wolf bit down onto Taylor's arm, but wound up only shattering its teeth against the Armour of Morkar.

Her fist now elbow deep inside of the werewolf, Taylor smiled as the beast had nowhere to run from her more than point-blank fireball. Opening her palm within the beast's gullet, Taylor summoned a massive fireball that cooked the monster from the inside. The werewolf whimpered, trying to pull away, but Taylor grabbed by the back of its head and kept it close as her magic grew. The wolf struggled, flailing in sheer panic as it tried to escape, but Taylor finished charging up her spell.

With a mighty explosion, the werewolf detonated as the fireball went off inside of it. Taylor smiled as chunks of charred flesh rained down around her. Now this was a proper fight! No putrefying stench, or seductive illusions to get in the way. Just her and some things she needed to beat the shit out of. Around her, the remaining skin wolves hesitated, baring their teeth at her, but stood trepidatiously, tail's very close to being tucked between their legs as they were caught between their desire to kill her and their natural instinct to fear her.

"Everchosen!" A voice from below shouted at her. Taylor glanced down and saw that the Khornate Warrior and his band of Marauders had made it to the base of the cliff and were now climbing. "Khorne demands skulls! And your's shall make the greatest skull upon his throne! And in return, I shall be granted immortality!"

Taylor turned her grin towards the champion. Khronate's really were her favorite. They were just so lovably dumb. They weren't perverse or disgusting. All they cared about was who could hit harder, and Taylor could hit very, very hard. And so, despite herself, Taylor decided to do something rather out of character for her. She decided to ham it up.

"Your God sends you on a fool's errand!" Taylor roared back drawing her sword and raising it to the sky. "You think Khorne cares about the petty ambitions of a maggot like you? He sends you to me as a gift! To feed me on my journey to become the true champion of the Gods! And he will laugh as I swirl your blood within your upturned skull!"

Rather than return any kind of witty retort, the Khornate berserker only roared and sprinted up the hill with the rest of his army. Taylor grinned and hoisted her shield off her back and onto her left arm. Glancing around her, she saw the werewolves were backing up, trying to circle around them and flank her party while the humans charged from straight on. Taylor's gaze turned to her allies, who had their own weapons drawn already and were formed up behind her.

"No need to wait for my command to fire Cereza," Taylor said as she pointed her sword down at the approaching Marauders, charging up a fireball in her offhand.

Nodding her head, Cereza walked next to Taylor, but not before she said to Jean, "Keep those puppies away from us" Gesturing to the werewolves.

"I'll try, m'ladies." Jean tilted his head towards them as he turned around to protect their backs from attack.

Taylor had to hold back a snort of amusement as she flung a fireball at the marauders, joined by the cracks of Cereza's pistols. Another handful of Northmen died as Taylor heard the werewolves crash into Jean behind her. Every millisecond counting, Taylor and Cereza fired off another volley at the marauders. More died through lead and fire, leaving perhaps a dozen of the original thirty still charging, led by the very angry champion.

Grinning, Taylor shouted out, "Handle the small fry for me!"

Without waiting for a response she then leaped down from the bluff, falling right towards the warlord. Taylor's tactic of just falling on top of the warlord must have caught him off guard, as he watched in disbelief as her foot stomped on his helmet. Kicking down, Taylor forced the champion to collapse, crashing to the ground supine as Taylor stomped on his head as she landed atop him.

The rest of the marauders turned and gaped at her, at the sheer brazen madness of her attack and utter disrespect she showed to their warlord. Some even seemed to consider turning around back after Taylor, when another crack resounded through the air and another marauder was put down by Cereza's unerring marksmanship.

Watching the Marauder die however, distracted Taylor long enough that the Khornate champion retaliated. With her foot on his face, it was easy for him to grab Taylor by the ankle, and using his own infernal strength, fling her away. Despite her own mass and weight, Taylor flew through the air, smashing into a few rocks. It didn't do any damage to her body or her armor, but the impact did wind her.

Shaking the attack off, Taylor only had a moment as she looked back up and saw the warlord barreling right for her. Biting back a curse, Taylor shot up and grabbed her tower shield from her back to block. Not caring at all, the champion tackled Taylor, smashing his shoulder right into the shield.

And the champion was strong. Ridiculously so. While Taylor wasn't taken off her feet by the hit, she was unbalanced and stumbled back, her shield dipping low from the force. Capitalizing on this, the Warlord unleashed a flurry of ax strikes, the first hits slamming into Taylor's head and upper torso.

Taylor's head rang from the impacts, but none of them were able to pierce her armor, leaving at most just some bruises underneath. Nothing she couldn't handle. Taylor brought her guard back up, letting the champion wail upon her with a rain of strikes. When the warlord threw a wide right swing, Taylor saw her opportunity.

Stepping back out of his range, Taylor thrust her sword forward, able to sink the tip of her blade into the gap of the Khornate warlord's armor between his right shoulder pauldron and his breastplate. The champion grunted in pain as Taylor drove the blade deeper, slowly cutting into his iron-hard muscles. Taking a moment to glance at the sword lodged into him, the warlord then returned his gaze to Taylor and howled in rage.

Despite the fact he was impaled by a sword, the warlord pushed himself deeper onto the the blade, getting him close enough to strike back. Swinging the ax in his left hand, the crimson blade smashed into the side of Taylor's head. The impact made her see stars, but she held on as the berserker reared his left hand back for another strike.

Snarling, Taylor pulled her sword out of the champion's shoulder and moved to block the ax strike. But as she did, she swung her own shield forward and thrust the edge into the warlord's helmet, shield bashing him back.

This time, it was the warlord's turn to stumble back, and Taylor's to capitalize. However, a cry stopped her from charging forward.

"Aarrgh! Help! By the Lady, please!" Jean's voice sailed across the air.

Glancing back up to the peak, Taylor saw Jean overtaken by the werewolves. One of the beasts had knocked Jean to the ground. His sword was impaled in the torso of one of the werewolves, the creature spasming in its death throes, but it seemed the others took advantage, and knocked Jean down before he could withdraw his weapon.

Now disarmed, Jean fought the remaining beasts back with his shield as they pounced on. One bit down on his foot, shaking his leg and puncturing through the thick leather of his boot with ease. The boy screamed as a second lycanthrope dropped on top of his shield, seeking to sink its teeth into his throat.

Taylor acted on instinct, doing something incredibly foolish. She threw her sword. The blade sailed through the air, impaling itself in the torso of the werewolf standing right above Jean. Jean had a moment to look stunned at the sudden infernal intervention, before he sat up and ripped the sword out to defend himself from the remaining wolves.

That was all Taylor had time to see before she was bowled over by the full weight of the warlord. Taylor landed with a grunt as she tried to raise her shield and interpose it between them. But the warlord was too close, and batted away Taylor's shield, disarming her completely as he climbed atop her, fully mounting her.

With the dominant position, the warlord began raining down blows upon her. The axes pummeled Taylor, pinging off her armor, some strikes finding purchase between her plates and tearing into her flesh. Gritting her teeth, Taylor cursed herself for her stupidity. What was the point of trying to save that asshole Jean, if it was just going to get her killed?!

Raising her forearm to block another ax swing, Taylor snarled as she came across a very aggravating conclusion. This man was physically stronger than her. If she continued to fight like this, he'd overpower her and kill her. As much as it vexed her, frustrated her, she couldn't fight him on his terms. She'd have to use her other gifts.

Snarling, Taylor called upon the Mark of Chaos upon her forehead, and as it bled she felt the magic of Chaos overtake her. Her hands burst into flames as her eyes gleamed with crimson hellfire.

"You insult Khorne with your witchcraft!" The warlord snarled as he dropped his axes and wrapped his fingers around Taylor's throat.

"RAAAGH!" Was all the response Taylor had as she unleashed her full magic on him.

From the heavens, a tornado of flames descended, engulfing Taylor and the Warlord. Taylor's own scream was joined by the howl of the Warlord, and any nearby Marauders as well as they were all engulfed.

Taylor's screams turned to cackles as she seared all those around her alive. All would burn before her! Fire was her domain and she would leave a path of ash and ruin in her wake! Lost in her fire lust, Taylor didn't notice that as her Fire Storm burned away her enemies, the ground beneath them began to shake and quiver, the explosive force of the spell causing the cliffside they stood on to crumble.

Before anyone had a chance to yell at her to stop, a thunderous crash echoed as whatever rocks supporting their section of the canyon they were on crashed down into the Valley of Gibbering Horrors. Taylor only had a brief moment of clarity to register what was happening, before gravity took control and started a massive rockslide that sent her and everyone around her into the depths.

Taylor groaned as she pushed herself off the ground. Blinking her good eye, she waited a few moments for her vision to come back to her. However, when it didn't, she panicked that she might have lost her only remaining eye as well. But she soon noticed shapes and figures appeared around her, darker shapes that she quickly identified as rocks as her vision adjusted. She wasn't blind, no the area around her was just so dark she might as well have been.

The blindness she had faded rapidly as she felt the warpstone in her left eye socket warm. While her natural sight was still obscured by the unnatural umbra around her, she began seeing the multicolored scintillating flows of Warp magic around her, flowing through the air and around the environment. There were so many colors that Taylor could make out the valley around her, giving her some kind of magical, echolocation.

To her left, Taylor was at the edge of the valley where the cliffside had collapsed around her. Around her were large boulders and piles of rock and stone that had fallen with her. A few armored bodies lie near her as well, some partially buried or strewn above the rocks like she was. Luckily enough, Taylor saw her tower shield there amongst the bodies. She picked it up and continued her observations. While the area she was on was relatively flat, extending for about fifteen more feet to her right, afterwards it sloped towards further, into what looked like a dried out riverbank.

The riverbank was wide, easily a hundred feet in width, and extended far both ahead and behind her, with many smaller branches as well creating a natural maze that she'd have no way of navigating without help. Peering down into the river bed, she saw more bodies and boulders that fell down from above, and to her shock, she saw two unmoving forms she instantly recognized.

Skidding down the slope, Taylor quickly made her way to the bodies of her companions, not caring about the clanking of her armor on stone. Of course, Taylor rushed to Cereza's side first.

Slowly she checked to see if Cereza was still breathing, careful not to disturb her neck or back. Placing her ear next to Cereza's mouth, she felt and heard shallow breaths, and saw the slight rise and fall of the pirate's breasts. Content that she was alive, Taylor lightly grabbed Cereza's shoulder and shook her awake.

Cereza groaned as her eyes fluttered open. "Bloody Hell, what hit us?"

Taylor let out a nervous chuckle and she helped Cereza up. "Not sure. Maybe they had a wizard who wanted to wipe us all out, even if it meant killing his own friends." Cereza returned a flat look, which made Taylor look away. "Let's go check on Jean."

Without waiting for a reply, Taylor stood and moved to the foot soldier's prone form. To her surprise, next to him was the corpse of a werewolf, with her sword sticking out of it. It was the same beast she killed to save Jean earlier. Instantly, she felt her good mood from seeing Cereza alive fade away.

With an annoyed grunt, Taylor moved to draw her blade from the werewolf's body. Cleaning off the blade on the pelt of the werewolf before sheathing it, she couldn't help but blame Jean for the fact that they were here right now. If he wasn't so useless, she wouldn't have had to disarm herself to save him. If she wasn't disarmed, then she wouldn't have had to use such powerful magic to win against the Khornate Warlord, and the cliffside wouldn't have collapsed. A small, rational part of her brain knew that she wasn't being fair to Jean, but she wasn't feeling very rational right now.

"Jean, are you alive?" Taylor called out, causing the young man-at-arms to groan and writhe on the ground for a moment.

Obviously in pain, Jean pushed himself up. "I am, my lady." As he moved to stand however, he collapsed as soon as he put weight onto his right foot.

Taylor caught him by the crook of his arm. Looking down, she saw his right foot was bloody, where large holes from the werewolf's fangs punctured through his boot. Crimson fluid oozed out and poured onto the dirt beneath them. "Shit," Taylor muttered.

Looking down as well, Jean grimaced as he tried to look at his foot, testing putting weight on it, before he looked back up at Taylor with a weak smile. "Just a flesh wound, my Lady. I'll be fine."

Giving his foot another look, Taylor nodded and pulled Jean up so he could stand straight up. "Alright then. We need to find the Advisor. He's probably the only way we can get ou-"

"EVERCHOSEN!" the roaring howl of the Khornate warlord echoed through the canyon.

Spinning to her left, Taylor looked down further the ravine, and perhaps about two hundred feet away, the Khornate warlord roared in fury. His anger seemed to be so powerful that his two axes were engulfed by flames, lighting the immediate area around him and turning him into a beacon in the darkness. Taylor pursed her lips, a little annoyed that the warlord called her out for using magic when he apparently himself had access to such powers.

Now the only source of light within the darkness of the valley, Taylor saw other surviving marauders gather around their lord, bloody but ready to fight. Grabbing the hilt of her sword to draw, Taylor was about to meet the warlord's challenge, when a hand grabbed her shoulder from behind and pulled her down.

Jerking back, Taylor saw that it was Cereza, with the Advisor behind her, who had stopped her from going out and confronting the warlord. Taylor opened her mouth to say something, but Cereza immediately put a finger to her own lips in a shush-ing motion.

Frowning, Taylor nodded, even though she wasn't sure if Cereza could see the motion, before crouching down to watch the Khornate warlord. Around him, his warriors all roared in anger together as well, bellowing in hate as they sought Taylor out.

A deafening roar overtook any noise the warriors of Chaos were making. It was almost like a warbled lion's roar, bestial and powerful, but mucousy and wet. All of the Chaos warriors stopped their howling when the roar hit them. Immediately they lost their wild, unrestrained fury as their heads jerked all around the darkness, looking for what made that call. Thanks to the power of her eye, Taylor saw what was approaching, and her jaw dropped in silent horror.

There was a second sound from further, a clicking sound, like the rapid tapping of crab legs atop its shell, or even the noise the alien made from that old Predator movie franchise Taylor watched with her parents once. It was a primal noise, almost sounding like what was making it was laughing at the warrior, before the clicks turned into another ear wrenching screech from behind the marauders.

The marauders spun around, ready to face the new creature as well, when a third, then a fourth roar joined the others from above them. The warriors were now looking around them frantically, no idea where the threat was going to appear. Unsure, the Khornate Warlord glanced around, but rather than let fear take control, he roared in rage back at the abyssal dark.

His warcry was cut off when an undulating tentacle flew out of the dark, wrapped itself around the warlord, and pulled him in. His axes still alight, he revealed what ensnared him. It was a bulbous, mutated creature. It was vaguely bipedal in shape, revealing its once humanoid origins, but the rest of the monster was distinctly inhuman. It had swollen, oversized asymmetrical muscles and with randomized teeth and bony spikes protruding at random parts of the body. While its right arm was a bulky, clawed arm, the left arm was atrophied to a normal human size.

What drew everyone's attention however, was not the the creature's arms, or the open maw of razor sharp fangs of its head, it was the fact that out of its massive stomach, was a divide that opened up into a gaping, snapping maw from where the massive tentacle emerged. Immediately, everyone was able to put a name to the creature they saw. A Chaos spawn.

Without waiting, the other Chaos spawns that Taylor saw approaching the Marauder warband all attacked as well. No two spawns were alike. Some were muscular monstrosities with more demonic features, faces and horns similar to Khornate Bloodletters, while others were more writhing masses of tentacles and insect-like legs, and even more were putrid, skin-stripped flesh monsters oozing slime and phlegm.

Now finally face to face with his enemy, the Khornate warlord gave another battle cry, and swung his ax down on the tentacle, cutting through it and freeing him. The warlord dropped to the ground, and immediately rolled to the side to dodge a heavy downward swing from the Chaos Spawn. Still screaming, he charged right into the Chaos Spawn, hacking off chunks of flesh.

As the marauders rallied and took the fight to the spawns, Taylor watched as more and more spawns began crawling their ways from nearby caves and crevices, attracted by the sounds of violence. It wouldn't be long before these handful of spawns turned to dozens, and from there, even more. Turning to her allies, she spoke in a harsh whisper. "Let's leave. Now"

"A wise decision," the Advisor drawled as he stood and walked through the ravine, unimpeded by the darkness. "Follow me. This shall be the fastest path out of this foul pit."

Taylor immediately moved to follow, but when Cereza and Jean slowly stepped forward, unsure of where to go, she had them grab onto her plate armor as they walked. They had to go slow, not only because of the darkness blinding Cereza and Jean, but because the battle between the marauders and spawns drew more and more of the monsters to the area. Taylor didn't think their numbers were in the hundreds yet, but there were far too many for her to even consider fighting.

None of them knew if the Chaos spawns could see within pitch blackness around them, but whenever a spawn passed nearby, it seemed to not notice the party as the creatures moved towards the far more active prey of the marauders. For about half an hour, Taylor's party continued a pattern of slow moving advances, broken up by hiding from nearby spawns behind various rock formations. Most were easy to avoid, fat lumbering things that plopped about within the darkness. Others however, seemed better adapted to the canyon, moving and crawling along the nearby cliffs like massive spiders with long talons that dug into the rocks.

By the time they approached the opposite side of the ravine, the entire Valley of Gibbering Horrors was now in an active frenzy, hundreds if not thousands of Chaos spawn prowling for a quick meal. She could see at least 2 blindly searching the 50 feet away between them and the cliff. Taylor looked up at the new cliffside in front of her. It was steep, and probably over a hundred feet tall, but she could see enough hand holds and outcroppings that the climb wouldn't be too difficult.

Taylor thought about rocketing her way up with her pyromancy, but she had no way of knowing how good climbers the Chaos spawn were. Her display of magic would attract all the awakened monsters in the area to them, of which she knew there were many.

With a shush that was near silent, Taylor quietly led her party around the two spawns as they approached the rockwall. But when they were only about half way there, the sound of a great crash made Taylor's heart sink. Turning behind her, she saw Jean's horrified expression as he lay prone on the ground, his bloody boot causing him to slip on the ground. While Jean wasn't wearing plate armor, he was still wearing a long hauberk of chainmail that made a loud rattle on the ground, which combined with the other rocks sliding across the ground caused both of the spawns to look directly at them.

Without wasting a second Taylors summoned a fire bolt and flung it at the closest spawn.

"Run!" She shouted, creating a small flame to allow them to follow her.

Cereza grabbed Jean and yanked him up, and they all broke into a sprint towards the cliffs. A pair of roars reverberated in Taylor's body, letting her know that her fire bolt did not put down the spawn she hit. By the time they reached the valley wall, they heard the roars of the several more spawns, joining in on the hunt.

. They needed to escape, but climbing was pointless. The spawns were faster than them, especially the ones who could climb, and they would barely make it up a few feet before they would be overtaken. She could fly them out with her Fire Walk, but Taylor knew that if she did that, the spawns would follow, and they'd have to gamble on trying to lose them on the open ground of the surface. And with how fast the spawns moved when they attacked the marauders, Taylor didn't bet on the fact that they'd be about to outrun them. Taylor found that her options were disturbingly limited.

"What do we do!?" Jean screamed, breath heaving and panicked. "By the Lady we're doomed!"

Taylor's head snapped to Jean, teeth bared in a rictus of fury. Jean… It was all this fool's fault they were here. If he were stronger, able to actually carry his own fucking weight, they wouldn't be in this situation. If he just wasn't so weak he wouldn't have been mauled by that werewolf, and they'd have been able to sneak out. And if she wasn't so weak, she wouldn't have kept him around. Taylor wanted to kick herself.

But rather than that, Taylor opted for the second thought that came to her mind. Her face fell flat, etched with contempt and barely restrained hate. Snuffing out the light of her pyromancy, Taylor drew her sword.

Jean didn't have time to ask what she was planning to do, as Taylor's arm shot out, her sword making a clean cut to the back of Jean's wounded leg. The man at arms screamed as he collapsed to the ground, Cereza backing away from him in surprise.

"AARRGH!" Jean screamed as he clutched at his bleeding leg. "My- My Lady! What are you doing!?"

With a face as cold and hard as granite, Taylor sheathed her sword. "My last command Jean, is for you to try and last as long as you can so we may escape," she said as grabbed onto Cereza and the Advisor.

Jean's face fell in horror. "Wha- Wait no!" he cried out. "You can't leave me here! I… I saved you! We'd all be prisoners of Junia if I hadn't helped!"

Taylor froze at his words, and gave him a half glance back. "Yes, you did save us. And you shall do so again." Without waiting for a reply, Taylor felt the magic of fire burn in her feet as she took off into the sky, rocketing towards the top of the valley.

Vaguely, she could hear the pleas of Jean from below her, cries of fear that turned into feral screams as the gathering spawns all pounced upon him and Taylor made her escape.