((Author's
Note: A little diddy inspired by World of Warcraft.
Liathano and Anri are two of my characters (Thorium Brotherhood and
This
story is rated T for minor swearing and violence and such.))
Swinging
Chickens
A
World of Warcraft fanfic
By
Kristin Renee Taylor
Part
Five -
Two points of burning red in what was left of the ruined
face. The undead soldier, a huge hulking skeleton in scraps of metal, tore down
the door to the Swinging Chicken and took it first step inside the tavern. Twin
axes in its hands reflected the firelight. It fixed its gaze on the lone female
human that stood in the middle of the empty commons.
One axe pointed at her. "Kill her."
The space behind the soldier boiled and burst as, with a
hair-lifting wail, the Scourge surged into the tavern.
As the rush of ghouls and skeletons swarmed towards her,
Liathano moved.
Her sword was a blur of light in her hands, and where Alennius passed, limbs flew and bodies
crumpled in severed heaps. As the first wave crashed into her, she held her
ground but, slowly, she begin to lose ground.
A ghoul, flesh peeling in strips from its rotting body,
leaped for her. She sidestepped, spinning away in time to cleave the wrist from
a soldier aiming a sword at her face. The soldier's shield caught her under her
jaw. She stumbled to a knee, spitting blood, and barely parried a knife blow.
She turned the blow away from her, rising and cleaving the soldier completely
in two.
She shoved the body into two of its fellows, followed with a
quick decapitation. A flicker of movement resolved into sword blade. She ducked
away, too slow. Felt the blade draw a line of heat over her
right eye. Blood flowed down her face, into her right eye, blinding her.
She caught a brief glimpse of Anri as she disabled her
attacker. The lithe thief had been pinned against the stairs by a rotting ghoul
almost twice her size. With one hand and a badly bleeding arm, she kept the
thing's claws away from her face.
Hot pain exploded in Lia's shoulder as something heavy
slammed into her blind side. She staggered. Fell. And was
immediately buried in walking death.
Liathano was swallowed by absolute darkness, smothered by an
ice-cold weight that made it impossible to move, to see, or even breathe. Small
things, wet and slimy, squirmed against her clothing and writhed against her
exposed skin. The only thing keeping her from screaming in terror was the
thought of those things getting in her mouth.
A muffled, high-pitched roar of outrage.
Something struck the crush of bodies on top of Lia. The
quality of the darkness changed. Weight shifted, not a lot... but it was
enough.
Lia surged upwards with strength born of terror and horror.
The mass broke. She burst free from the tangle of cold bodies, scrambling
across the floor. She flailed madly at her body as she stood. Scores of small
black things, like some weird maggot-leech crossbreed, clung to her skin and
clothes. She knocked them off frantically.
"Liathano!"
She jerked to the side. The axe blade whistled past her face
and thunked into the wood behind her and stuck,
handle quivering. The blow to her jaw came from her blind side. She staggered
back and fell hard to one knee, spitting blood.
Dirty boots, skeletal toes poking through holes in the
leather, entered her vision. She followed them up to see the massive skeleton
standing over her, its other axe raised and poised to strike.
She reached for her sword, realized she had lost it in the
pile of bodies, and threw herself backwards to avoid having her head split
open. Her hands came across something heavy and weighty, and she snatched it up
as she came to her feet-
-holding a somebody's hacked off
leg. She dropped it with a yell of revulsion. Ducked a swing
from the soldier's axe. She spun, wrenched the first axe free of the
wall, and whirled back to face the soldier.
Not her weapon of choice, but still much better than a
severed leg...
The two axes clashed together, haft locked against haft. Lia
was strong, but the undead had the advantage of not feeling pain or muscle
fatigue. She strained against it, teeth gritted, every muscle rigidly defined.
Inch by inch, the soldier's axe blade crept closer to her face.
Green and black blurred past her face. A heavy mace smashed
into the side of the soldier's knee, obliterating the joint. Lia shoved hard.
The skeleton tumbled backwards, flame-red eyes bright with astonishment. It hit
the floor. The mace came down on its head, crushing the skull. It twitched once
and went still.
Lia looked to her savior. "Fizzlethork!"
From head to foot the goblin was spattered with black ichor. Beady black eyes glared around suspiciously. He
gripped a large mace in his hands.
Liathano looked around. The commons was clear, save for the
two of them. Bodies and severed limbs, many still twitching, lay scattered
about the floor. The door to the tavern hung askew, knocked off its hinges.
"Where's-"
Glass shattered. Several thumps as something or somethings large hit the ground on the floor above them. A short, high-pitched scream of pain.
Lia rushed towards the stairs. "Anri!"
The thief was gone from her position.
"GET BACK!"
The front of the tavern exploded.
The explosion knocked Lia off of her feet, flinging her
against the stairs. She hit hard enough to stun her, all air driven from her
lungs. Fizzlethork vanished under a wave of fire and
debris. Obsidian and emerald fire plowed through the tavern's front wall,
literally tearing it clear of the rest of the building.
Coughing, Lia struggled to her feet and squinted through the
acrid smoke, eyes watering.
True night had ended. Pre-dawn light tinted the world
outside a universally dull blue.
An Infernal tossed away the now-flaming section of wall it
held. It turned back towards the tavern. It shrieked and reached into the tavern
with one flaming arm.
Lia rolled forward, narrowly ducking away from the flames.
Fire scorched along her back, singing her hair. She ignored the pain. The Infernal's explosion had knocked away the bodies covering Alennius. She grasped the hilt as she rushed
past the Infernal's arm, sprinting outside and past
the thing's legs.
The entire front of the Swinging Chicken Tavern had been
torn away, exposing the rooms inside. Shapes flickered in the upper story, lit
by the Infernal's fire and the tavern's growing
flames. Anri and Gorthad, back to
back, fending off an assault of dark winged shapes. Gargoyles.
The Infernal rose up to its full height, obscuring the
battle behind it with its body. It swung around to face Liathano.
She lifted her sword into a ready position. She barely came
up to the thing's knee.
It shrieked again, green fire erupting from under the
animated chunks of obsidian rock. It tried to crush her. She leaped back, the Infernal's fist smashing into the ground. Green fire
spattered across the earth like drops of water, igniting anything it touched.
She brought Alennius down on the
section of rock that made up its hand. The blade skittered across the surface
of the rock and didn't even leave a scratch.
The Infernal made a strange chuffing noise. It was laughing
at her.
Lia backed away, thinking rapidly. A movement caught her
attention. She glanced towards it.
Anri stood at the edge of the tavern, unconcerned with the
flames that licked dangerously close to her feet, threatening the stability of
her position. She called out, "Lia! Get the 'lock!" She pointed
behind Liathano.
Lia spun. Spotted a small, hunched shape
slide into the shadows of a building. The warlock,
rabid red eyes glowing fiercely, lifted a desiccated finger towards her and
begin chanting in a raspy, thin tone. She ran forward, Alennius held in low in both hands. The
sky above her erupted, balls of flame hurtled towards her. She threw her weight
forward, lunging, and stabbed the warlock through its chest. Alennius plunged clear through the husk
of the body, nailing it to the wood behind it. She wrenched the blade out, then plunged it through the undead magician's head,
silencing it forever.
The Infernal screamed.
Lia spun and immediately dropped to the ground to avoid a shaft
of flaming timber as it crashed into the house, demolishing it.
The demonic creature threw its head back, roaring in fury.
Anri sprinted forward and launched herself off the second
story, towards the Infernal's back. One hand jerked a
short sword from the small of her back; near-blinding purple energy exploded
into existence along the length of the blade.
Wielding the sword over her head in a two-handed grasp, the
thief brought the glowing blade down on the Infernal's
shoulder. It screeched, a sound of stone scraping
against stone. Staggered away from the tavern, arms flailing
at its back. Anri was flung away, flying through the air to strike the
ground some distance away. She didn't move.
"Anri!" Lia ran towards
the fallen woman.
The Infernal cut her off. Jagged cracks had formed in its
chest, originating from the sword in its back. It dropped to its knees. Its
shriek scaled upwards, rattling the ground and air. It thrashed mightily. And exploded.
Lia through up her arms as thousands of razor sharp shards
of stone flew past her, each drawing sharp lines of pain along her body.
One shard slipped past her arms. Pain erupted in Liathano's
throat. The storm of stone ended as quickly as it had begun, leaving an
unearthly stillness in the air.
Lia pawed at her neck with frantic fingers. She couldn't
breathe. Her throat was rapidly growing slick with blood. She could feel the
stone inside of her, working its way deeper with every desperate breath she
tried to take.
She didn't want to die. Not like this!
Anri coughed weakly and rose, groaning. Her movements
dislodged a small shower of black shards. She stood slowly, right arm dangling
uselessly at her side. She coughed out a laugh as she surveyed the ruins of the
battle. "Holy hell, that was some awe-" Her
eyes landed on the struggling warrior. She paled. "Lia?"
Liathano staggered. Through a roaring in her ears, she heard
Anri shout "ALEXY!" And then she was pitching forward. Her body hit
the ground.
Everything went black.