11-21-2010, 12:44 PM
Spoiler:
...Astus...
It was dark, as it always seemed to be in the unholy forests of Duskwood, and Astus limped carefully along the road, breathing heavily in the tattered rags that he called his clothes. He wore goggles, and long, unkempt hair of crimson color flowed down around his shoulders and back. He occasionally let out a muffled cry of pain, but all the while a wicked grin was plastered on his face.
Was it wrong? It had been so long since he had thought that. He knew long ago that the path he walked down would bring him closer to evil--and power--but he had seemed to have forgotten that. At least, he did when he turned to the dark magic that had gotten him exiled from his homelands, and again when he turned to the unholy power that nearly crushed almost all of Azeroth. It had seemed too good a power to pass up, then. But now he wondered if doing what he was about to was a bad idea. Is there a such thing as wrong, even? Don't we all do things to survive? I...without my magic I am nothing. It has saved me countless times, and I should do anything for it. But yet... His thoughts were cut off as he saw three figures walking across the road. From this distance they seemed to be well armed, however most people who weren't complete idiots walked through Duskwood with protection. Astus let out a few more grunts of anguish, his weight leaning forwards almost voluntarily until he collapsed to his side, writhing in pain. The grin from his face was gone.
The three figures broke into a run, unable to tell in the gloom that Astus was a Sin'dorei. His hair covered his ears and the goggles hid the fel-green glow of his eyes. "Sir, are you alright?" Astus grunted in response, curling into a tiny ball on the ground. "By the Light, he must have been attacked! Jared, get some water or somethin'! Plate-clad footsteps echoed off into the distance.
They had been following him through the woods on either side of the road. Astus knew they were there, in fact, Astus told them to be there. They would get there soon.
"I..." Rolling over in pain, Astus began to make a strange noise. At first it sounded like coughing, due to the ground muffling his voice, but soon it would grow into cacophonous laughter. The two men left stepped back, raising their blades. Astus laughed a bit harder, the idiots should have just stabbed him right there, but in their fear they backed away? Foolish...
The men continued to back away, trembling in their cowardice. "You humans are...too trusting." The laughter ceases, leaving the only sound to break the silence a dull, 'sschhhhhhht' 'sschhhhhhht' 'sschhhhhhht', almost as if something scraped against the ground, an eerie metal-against-stone sound. The two men were visibly shaking now, too paralyzed in their fear to flee. And yet, they were only scared because of Astus's mad laughter, or maybe it was the unholy smell of death clinging to him?
They weren't warriors, paladins, or murderers. They were probably just a group of traders heading to Stormwind from Booty Bay or Gurubashi. Maybe they were there on a business trip, dealing quickly with the goblins before heading home to show their families what meager amount of money they'd made.
"Let me be sure...do you two have families, back home?" Both of the men nodded simultaneously, causing a deep frown to crease in Astus's face. If they didn't have families, he would've let them go...
The only thing...families ever bring...is hatred, murder, and disappointment. I mean, look at the Novalight Shin'ari. What little I know about them proves me right.
Astus shook his head, not taking his eyes off of the two men.
Of course it wasn't wrong.
With another chuckle, Astus raised his hands, muttering a low incantation, the moisture in the air clinging to the skin of the men, freezing when it touched them. Soon they shook not from fear, but from cold, the bits of frost around their armor weighing them down, keeping them from moving in their heavy plate.
"I'm doing you a favor, you know. Not everyone deserves the gift I'm going to give you."
Astus, muttering another word, would call forth a spear of bone with unholy energy. It hung in the air, as if an invisible warlord held it. The armor in one man, now weakened from the rapidly changing temperatures, shattered as it was struck by the spear as it flew at him, shooting straight through his stomach and out his back. He fell over, letting out a scream of terrified agony that filled Astus with bliss. With a curse, Astus caused the wound to begin to bleed heavier than it should have normally bled.
Soon the man would begin to feel light-headed, and his senses would grow numb. "I...wh...what's ha--" Just as he began to speak a creature with rotted flesh and sinew hanging out of its body leapt from the side of the road, slamming one of its rusty-plate sabatons over the man's head, red droplets splashing onto the other man. After a last yelp of misery, his skull caved in under the weight of the ghoul, and the terrible smirk returned to Astus's face, the other ghoul walking from the undergrowth to stand behind Astus.
The living man looked from Astus to each ghoul, pulling off his helmet to reveal his eyes and stare pleadingly up at Astus. "Please...oh PLEASE! I beg you...don't kill me! Falling to his knees, the man broke down into tears. "Oh please sir, I got a family back in Elwynn an' a fine wife n' three kids. Without me they'd die, they dunno how to work, they...they...plea-hea-hease..." Astus stared down at the man, bemused at his childish pleas and whining.
"I will not kill you." The man stopped sniveling, staring up at Astus with wide, surprised yet somehow happy eyes.
"Oh th..thank you sir! I will not tell a livin' soul about what happened here! Oh thank ye for letting me live." Astus tapped his foot impatiently as he watched the man shower kisses on the bloody ground at Astus's feet. Astus's was quite annoyed, actually. The man seemed to not really understand what was about to happen to him, however Astus delighted in the irony. With a wave of his hand the two ghouls faded into the darkness of the night, and Astus smiled as the man stood.
"Just because I said...I won't kill you...doesn't mean you're leaving here alive." The man shouted in shock, stumbling back only to be blocked by the corpse of his friend, "Whaat?! Ye...ye lied! Ye said you'd let me go!" The man began to raise his sword in his rage, though it was obviously too heavy for him as he couldn't seem to lift it well or swiftly. Astus stepped back and began a soft chant, a soft violet glow enveloping him like fog. The man had to shield his eyes as the shroud of unholy energy became radiant, and like a ravenous animal the cloud devoured the man that Astus killed, sinking into his flesh, causing the body to twitch violently before lying still.
There was no sound, only the near silent breaths of the panicked man and the slow breathing of Astus. "Wh-what di-did you d-do?"
"Like I said...I won't kill you." The corpse slowly but surely pushed itself to two feet, an insane grimace plastered on his face.
"J-john? A-are you o-ok-kay?" The man was quite clearly horrified by the sight, and it seemed as if he didn't believe what he was seeing. As if he thought he was in a dream.
Foolish...
With sickening, mindless laughter, the newly risen corpse hoisted his blade above his head, easily as if some newfound strength entered his limbs, and stabbing it into the throat of the other man. Astus watched with a happy grin on his face as a river of crimson poured from the wound, and as the gurgling of the man ceased, his eyes rolled up in his head. The now three rotting undead stood in a triangle around Astus and the new corpse. With the same joy glinting in his eyes as before, Astus stared down at the corpse, muttering a few words as an unholy light filled the body.
Soon another corpse pushed itself off the ground. It remained silent, a deep gouge in its throat and eyes still rolled back in its skull. The group walked slowly into the shadowed wilderness, leaving a mess of blood and bone in their wake.
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