“I think we’re winning!” Bella yelled into Liaena’s ear where she lay prone on the floor. Apparently afforded far more bravado with her reasonably sheltered hiding place in Liaena’s cloak, the little priestess stood on tip toe to peer over at where Sevarian and Serphia were engaged in a very real duel to the death. “That reminds me…wait a sec”

Fishing around inside her robes, Bella finally produced a miniature gnomish camera as she angled the mirror on one side and squinted up at the mayhem and destruction through the small foggy lense. Click. Click.

“…What’re you doing?” Liaena muttered finally as she pushed herself up off the floor to crawl onto her hands and knees. The ghosts that had been screaming at her had abated considerably, but every time a gaseous form caught her eye she had to resist the urge to cringe.

“You ruined my last one” Bella scowled at her, before tilting the camera towards her again to inspect it. “I’m supplementing my allowance with twenty silver per good shot, that’s what I’m doing. Ten for the so-so, if I play my cards right”

“Kitty!” Liam gasped as he darted forward to where Alissah was half leading, half dragging Kathlin towards the door. Pulling one of her arms over his shoulder, the priest took some of the girls weight as he helped Alissah propel her towards the back wall.

“We need to leave now, don’t we? There’ll be reinforcements!” The boy cried as he took a glance behind at the Night Elves, who were laying waste to the room under no uncertain terms. Alissah afforded him a tight nod, before she grabbed Kathlin by the other shoulder and pushed her out of the door.

Bella clutched at Liaena as the girl paused to look around at where Serphia and Sevarian were duelling. “Liii! Let’s just go! You heard what they said!”

“…….”

“….But to try gank the dark mage is so tempting…”

“LI!”

Liaena shook her head, before finally turning to dive out of the wrecked hole that passed as a ‘door’ as another ripple of unholy energy emanated from Sevarians staff. The other three were immediately outside, sheltering against the corridor wall as Alissah reloaded her pistol. “There’s still that death knight following me. He’ll be here soon, I expect”

"Yeargh!" Sevarian growled as he slammed his staff around to block yet another of Serphia's blows! As the abyss black base of the saronite staff met with the Captain's sword, it created a magical shockwave of purple magic that pushed Serphia backwards!

"My powers are beyond that of any backwards wood elf!" Sevarian spat as he used the small opening to start summoning a dark spell.
"You will find that death is but one of my lesser gifts!"

But as Sevarian attempted to cast his spell at Serphia, Sharon had conjured an arcane blast of his own that intercepted the dark mage's shadowbolt mid-air, causing the two spells to explode in a mix of dark and purple flames that gushed out to the side instead!

An arrow came flying through the air from one of the sentinels in the back, but it glanced off Sevarian's silver white armor. From the sideline, one of the few remaining troll ghouls came scrambling towards Sharon and Serphia, its claws raised and jagged maw ready to bite! But just as the ghoul was about to come within range of them, Sevarian cast a spell of his own.

All of a sudden, the ghoul erupted in an explosion of gore, harmful shadow magic and fragments of bones that flew around like bullets in the ritual chamber!

Sharon succeeded in quickly conjuring up a temporary barrier that was annihilated by the corpse explosion, but succeeded in shielding Serphia from the worst of the damage. The explosion had left a blinding cloud that was dark as night around them.

A frantic battle cry could be heard from somewhere through the cloud, as a green bolt suddenly flew towards them, coming straight out of the cloud! Sharon had tried to raise his hands to deflect it, but was too late. Fortunately however, Serphia seemed to already have noticed it, the large Night Elf, surprisingly agile for her size, dodging out of the way just in time!

But while she may have dodged the necrotic bolt, Sharon soon noticed a figure appearing in the shadow before them...

*Fwhoom!*

A gust of burning fire flowed out from Sharon's staff, hitting Sevarian straight in the face as the dark mage came out of the blinding mist. The mage reeled back in pain, letting out a cry! All the while, Sevarian's failed sneak attack had become apparent to Serphia, as the Captain swung around to bury one of her swords right into the side of the dark mage!

A shock expression now haunted Sevarian's face, now partly scorched, the rest covered in blood and grime.

As Serphia retracted her blade, he stepped back, dropping his staff before falling over; his armor clattering as he fell to the floor, red blood gushing out of the side of his mouth.

"You... i-insignificant vermin!" Sevarian uttered through his shaken voice, struggling to speak as his lungs filled with blood as he looked up at Serphia and Sharon with eyes full of hate.
"You... hnngh! you are already dead! Through your very own flesh and blood, I will have my revenge!"

Sharon merely looked down at Sevarian from where he stood on Serphia's shoulder. There seemed to be no resentment in the ocean blue eyes of the High Elf. Instead, it could almost be taken as an expression of pity.

"I hope you find peace." Sharon simply replied, seeming unphased by Sevarian's hateful last breath.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Outside the ritual chamber, Liaena's group were met by a surprised Smokey as they barged out of the door.

"We're leavin' already?" Smokey asked, the dwarf having stayed behind during the fight. Although he received no initial answers at first, the dwarf looked at them and soon guessed what it would be.

"That's great! I've had enough of this blasted place! Let's get outta here!"

The Dwarf said as he turned to begin running down across the corridor.

But as the dwarf had run a couple of yards down the corridor, a loud bang as from a musket could be heard behind Liaena and the rest of the group, a snapping past them to hit Smokey right in the back. The dwarf fell forward, losing his blunderbuss as he crashed onto the ground as his heavy backpack fell on top of him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!"

The dwarf was quick to repeat as he scrambled to get back onto his feet, turning around to look back at Liaena and the party who were further back in the corridor. The dwarf seemed completely fine, his backpack having absorbed the bullet.

"Get a move o,-"

His backpack that was filled with dynamite.

*BOOOOOM*

Without a warning, Smokey's backpack exploded with an eye shattering boom! The blast stormed through the narrow corridors like a crushing wall, knocking Liaena, Alissah and the rest of the party completely off their feet. The ritual chamber was shaken, with rocks falling from the ceiling and a cloud of dust and rocks gushing in through the entrance!

The entire passageway that Smokey had once stood in had completely caved in. As for the dwarf himself, there was no sign of him. If there had been anything left of him after the initial explosion, it was presumably buried beneath multiple tonnes of solid rock that now blocked the passage. A thick carpet of dust and smoke now filled the corridor, making it difficult to breath for anyone in it. With the collapse of one of the tunnels, only two opposing hallways now remained, one running off to the north, and the other one; south.

"An adequate shot. It suffices." Sounded a familiar voice emanating from the southern hallway.

Emerging through the thick cloud of dust was a group of humanoid figures. At the front stood Sherpa, the High Elf staring towards Liaena and her group that lay on the floor outside the ritual chamber. Behind him stood his White Hand mercenaries, alongside Rae'liel in bonds and magical chains.

The High Elf nodded to a White Hand musketeer who was currently in the process of reloading his weapon, apparently in approval of his previous shot against the dwarf.

"How convenient for my brother to decide to come all the way over to my own house." Sherpa remarked with a satisfied smirk.

In the other corridor on the opposite of the one Sherpa and his crew had come from, a lone set of footsteps could be heard from a pair of heavy steel sabatons. Emerging out from the cloud of dust was the Blood Death Knight from earlier, his chestplate still carrying the heavy dent from Doin's axe, and the armor around his shoulder still cleaved in half from Rae'liel's own strike, yet his decomposing body was stitched together. The Death Knight clutched his Runeblade tight in his glove as he stared silently towards Liaena's group as well.

As Sevarian finally fell, so too did the fighting in the room subside. Whatever cultists had occupied it now lay dead side by side with their ghoul minions. Serphia, standing over the dying dark mage, threw her right hand blade up in the air to catch it once again in an underhand grip; aiming the tip of her blade down towards Sevarian.

"Defiance without substance - you have lost everything." She commented dryly, glaring down at him with a cold and unforgiving gaze cast by her shimmering silver eyes.

But before she could perform any execution move against the dying mage, the entire room suddenly shook from a violent tremor outside. A loud bang almost knocked Serphia off her feet as dust filled parts of the room, coming from outside.

"What was that?!" Serphia yelled out through the dust that had now filled the room.

"An explosion, mistress!" Rithrynn called back as the sentinel was standing closer to the doorway,

"No shit!"

"Wait, where is Li?" Rithrynn suddenly asked, as the Sentinel had noticed the peculiar lack of midgets in the room. She looked around to her sisters, most of whom shook their heads.

"They ran out!" Vashi noted, motioning towards the door.

"But that's where the explosion came from!" Rithrynn exclaimed, before the Sentinel immediately turned and rushed towards the exit. It would not surprise her if the explosion was the cause of Liaena, the short black haired ex-priestess having a notorious record for blowing shit up without necessarily having any good reason to do so other than to satiate some wicked mental need to wreathe the world in cool and devastating explosions.

As she peered out of the ritual chamber, Rithrynn squinted with her eyes as she tried to see past the thick cloud of dust that now covered the entire corridor, and one of the passages now having been completely blocked off by a cave in.

"There you are, Li, I.. oh.. " Rithrynn said as she noticed Liaena and the rest lying on the ground by the wall, but as she looked up; she also noticed the new arrivals, Sherpa, Rae'liel and a cohort of White Knight mercenaries.

"Crap... "

"Mistress! Mistress!" Rithrynn yelled as she retreated back into the ritual chamber, hugging the edge of the doorway leading out as she looked back at Serphia who was standing in the middle of the room.

"The White Hand reinforcements are here! One... no, TWO Death Knights are with them!" Rithrynn exclaimed!
" ... ohh, and they got that Blood Elf you beat up earlier as well."

"What?!" Serphia called back, her surprise being directed not so much at the White Hand reinforcements as it was at the mention of Rae'liel being with them.
"What is that useless, green eyed magical crack whore doing here?!"

" ... I don't know! Why don't you ask her - preferably AFTER we have dealt with the White Hand?!"

Serphia gritted her teeth, before she turned to look down at Sevarian who was still coughing blood at her feet.

"You are coming with me, ape!"

Sheathing one of her swords, Serphia bent forward to pull Sevarian to his feet, spinning him around as she held him close to her body and placed the sharp edge of her blade against the unprotected skin of his throat as she walked him towards the exit to the room.

"Prepare the wounded and be ready to leave on my command." Serphia said to one of her soldiers who were tending to those sentinels that had been wounded in the fighting.

Outside in the corridor, Serphia, carrying the bleeding Sevarian, emerged from the doorway. Rithrynn followed closely behind her mistress, bow and arrow in hand and at the ready.

"Stand aside, humans! Or your commander will become one head shorter!" Serphia called out with a threatening voice as she faced Sevarian towards Sherpa and his White Hand mercenaries. Serphia's eyes narrowed as she spotted Rae'liel in the back, tied and bound. What was the Blood Elf doing with them?!

As the Night Elven Captain stepped out of the ritual chamber with the limp body of Sevarian in her arms, Sherpa's eyes opened as he noticed the condition of his darkmaster.

"Or your commander will become one head shorter!"

"Captain."

"Do not think me a liar!"

" ... Captain."

"ONE MOVE AND HE'S DEAD!"

"Serphia!"

"What?" Serphia finally seemed to react to the lesser voice coming from the High Elf standing on her shoulder, the Captain turning to glare down at Sharon with her silver eyes.

"I believe he's already dead." Sharon commented quietly as he motioned towards the pale faced; more pale than usual; dark mage in her grip. Sevarian's head was hanging limply to the other side, whatever remnants of blood dripping out of the side of his mouth as his eyes were closed shut. The man seemed to have finally succumbed to this grave wound.

"I do not know what your plan is, but I don't think you are going to get very much out of a dead hostage." Sharon quietly said to Serphia as he inched slightly closer to her cheek, the High Elf throwing a highly worried look towards the White Hand mercenaries and Sherpa who now stood before them. He also noticed Rae'liel among them, and gently motioned towards her with an arm.

"Whatever happens, Serphia, I much need the Blood Elf alive if you wouldn't mind."

"Assuming WE survive in the first place."

“….Ow”
Liaena shook her head to try clear it of the deafening ringing in her ears as she slowly raised it to look around. Around her, Liam, Kathlin and Alissah was sprawled on the floor in varying states of consciousness. Bella was…

!

A few moments of frantic rummaging on the floor coated in rubble and dust was enough to locate the mini-priestess, Liaena stuffing her back into her pocket as she crawled onto her hands and knees. It only took a glance up and down the corridor to make their dire circumstances clear, as her eyes narrowed in hatred at one of the new arrivals.

“I swear I’ll kill you for this”

Despite the futility of their situation, Sherpa appeared to be no hurry to finish the job; the High Elf Death-Knight not-so-subtly being in full gloat-mode. Liaena crawled over to Alissah to produce a vial and dribble a few drops of liquid into her mouth. The effect was immediate as the assassins eyes shot open; Liaena narrowly escaped being shanked as she held a hand over the womans mouth, before gesturing with her eyes towards the corridor the big Death Knight was looming from. “That way”

“What?”

Liaena shook her head in exasperation at the moment of confusion she invoked in the assassin. “….Oh never mind”

Sliding a small vial out of her sleeve to hold carefully between finger and thumb, Liaena whirled around suddenly to throw it with all her strength against the wall, where it smashed into a thousand pieces. The effect was immediate; with a rapidly expanding balloon of white shimmering smoke blossoming forth, filling up the corridor and rapidly obstructing all visibility in a grey mist. As the first tendrils reached the living White Hand guardsman, the men suddenly broke out in hacking coughs as the horribly corrosive gas invaded their lungs.

“Whhha…?” Liam mumbled groggily as Liaena yanked him up and back against the wall, bedlam rapidly commencing as the Night Elves took advantage of the low visibility and their immunity to the mist. “What happened?”

“We’re leaving. Give Kitty this for the smoke!” Liaena hissed as she thrust a vial at him, the other girl already hacking up her lungs at his feet. “Get up! Death Knight incoming!”

“What?” Liam muttered as Liaena spun around at sudden movement from behind. Automatically bringing up her rifle to defend herself, she fired two gel rounds into the shadow that suddenly loomed from the smog towards them.

As the white gas rapidly spread through the confined space of the hallway, Sherpa and his mercenaries allies in the White Hand, including Rae'liel as well, would soon break out into a violent series of coughs and tearful eyes.

On the other end of the corridor however, the Death Knight blocking the other way seemed completely unaffected by the gas.

The Death Knight came through the white mist and out towards Liaena and her group like a vengeful wraith cloaked in the gas. As Liaena fired off her rifle, the first gel round was sliced in half mid-air as it approached the Death Knight by his bloodborne Runeblade. The second round however, was caught mid air by a dark telekinetic spell from the Death Knight. Instead of heading towards the Death Knight anymore, the gel round now flew straight back at Liaena, showering her with the sticky green, gelatinous substance that quickly bonded to the lower portion of her body and the floor, leaving her stuck.

Yet as the Death Knight raised his sword as he charged for the now immobolized Liaena, he was suddenly intercepted by a truesilver crossbow bolt that traveled past Liaena and hit the Death Knight right in the exposed, necrotic flesh around his shoulder where Rae'liel's blade had carved through his armor earlier.

For Alissah, her ears were ringing to the point it was hard to hear anything that was being said, and her body was pulsating with pain from the tremendous explosion; as if she had been charged head-on by a rampaging kodo! But even so, she knew that she had to fight on lest the Death Knight would make mince-meat out of Liaena!

"The dart I gave you, now would be a good time!" Alissah called out to Liaena who was stuck in the gunk, as the woman sliced her shortsword in a low arc down at Liaena's feet, cutting up a good portion of the tenacious gunk before running off to face the Death Knight that now howled in a guttural roar through its mask.

The truesilver bolt seemed to have done some damage to the Death Knight, but that did not prevent it from swinging its Runeblade around in a ferocious strike against the incoming Alissah.

Alissah immediately stepped to the side, her cloak and coat flowing after her as the Runeblade swished through the air where she had once stood. Grabbing a pin on her coat, she suddenly threw it off and at the Death Knight, disorienting him while revealing the auburn leather armor that she was wearing beneath it, which was strapped full of knives, bolts, bandoliers and vials.

Raising her flintlock pistol, she fired off a bullet straight through her coat that now covered the Death Knight, an audible plonk emanating from his head as the bullet buried itself in the Death Knight's mask.
But as she tilted her blade to close in, the Death Knight suddenly tore through the coat with his Runeblade, cutting it in half before the dark visors of his mask turned to face the incoming Alissah. With surprising speed, he turned his blade around to strike in a sudden upwards strike against Alissah, cutting through her leather armor with his cursed blade as if it had been nothing around her lower chest and causing the woman to fall to the ground with a shriek of pain!

"I believe he's already dead."

Serphia's gaze immediately shifted from the tiny High Elf on her shoulder, and onto the now very-dead Sevarian who was now hanging in her grip.

"Are humans really THAT fragile!?"

Releasing the dark mage, Serphia let the man fall to the floor in front of her with a thump and clatter from his armor. Gazing up at the line of White Hand mercenaries standing in front of her, she bit her lower lips. A fight seemed imminent, a very one-sided fight as they were both outnumbered, as well as some of them wounded and shaken.

Now what?

...

The sound of a vial being shattered made the Captain spin her head around, almost knocking Sharon off her shoulder, as she turned to look towards a mist of white gas that was spreading through the hallway. Alarmed at first, she soon realized that the gas seemed to have no effect on her, but left the White Hand mercenaries all coughing and complaining. This difference was not a product of natural elven biological superiority however, which the Captain might first assume, as she soon realized that while the White Hand humans were stunned by its effects, the priestesses and midgets of Liaena's party were also unaffected.

"At least the half dwarf has some use!"

"Rithrynn, take the group and get out of here!" Serphia called back to Rithrynn who was standing behind her.
"I'll take another route and distract them."

"What?"

"Go, NOW!"

"O-of course, mistress!" Rithrynn quickly said, before she called into the ritual chamber, and soon the rest of her sentinels came out and followed her and Liaena's group as they headed in the opposite direction of Sherpa and his men, running down the other corridor beneath the shroud of the white mist.

A female shriek however gained Rithrynn's attention, as when she came closer, she saw Alissah just as she was struck down by the Death Knight blocking their path! With the human down, there was no longer anything keeping the Death Knight distracted. Realizing that she could not ignore the monster and let it run unopposed, Rithrynn quickly aimed an arrow and fired it at the Death Knight, which glanced off the side of its chestplate before finding its way into the side of its shoulder beneath its shoulderplate.

"Kill it!" Rithrynn called out as she threw her bow around her torso and unsheathed her sword. While one of her sisters carrying two sentinels who had been wounded passed alongside the other end of the corridor, Rithrynn charged at the Death Knight with the help of two of her sisters. She blocked the first blow from the Death Knight, deflecting his blade aside. One of her sisters had already jumped behind him, where the Night Elf rammed her two handed saber with all her might into the back of his chestplate, penetrating through and burying it into the creature's body before rapidly pulling it out again!

"She better be worth it." Serphia noted to Sharon as the Captain would sheath her sword at her hip.

In the meantime, Serphia had charged forward towards the disoriented and incapacitated White Hand mercenaries and Sherpa who were blocking the path ahead of her.
As she approached the group, she was first met with one of the White Hand knights standing in the front row. The man was still coughing through his helmet, barely managing to rear his weapon when he saw the incoming Night Elven Captain! But before he could do anything, Serphia had already kicked her greave into his foot, swiping his leg out from under him and causing the man to fall. Sherpa was the next person she met as she charged into the group, the Captain clenching her fist before she sent it flying into the High Elf's face as she passed him by and knocking him down!

Lastly, Rae'liel who stood in the back of the group could barely gasp as Serphia came out from between the chevaliers to charge at her like a bull! Any and all air in the Blood Elf's lungs was pushed out as the Night Elf crashed into her, the Night Elf crouching down as she collided into the Blood Elf to catch her with her shoulder. All the while, the tiny Sharon would end up being sandwiched between Rae'liel and Serphia as the Night Elf ran off with the Blood Elf on her shoulder, having passed the White Hand mercenaries and was now sprinting like the wind away from them!

"You have a lot of explaining to do once we get out of here!" Serphia said to Rae'liel as she ran as fast as she could to get away from the mercenaries, with Sherpa and his men soon disappearing behind them as the Captain turned a corner and kept on running up a small flight of stairs, easily scaling three steps at a time!

“The dart I gave you; now would be a good time!”

“Really!? You think!?” Liaena screamed back in a slightly higher pitched tone than normal as she struggled against the gunk binding her legs to the floor (Hester was screaming bloody murder in her satchel). Concluding that trying to free herself required more time than she had under the circumstances, the girl drew her dart gun instead to try and aim it up at the Death Knight as it clashed against Alissah. Aiming for a chink in the creatures full plate-mail was no easy matter; and it was not helped by the smog impeding her vision.

“Note to self: acquire laser scope”

-SLASH-

“AHHHHHHH!”

Liaena froze in the middle of her random musing, as a severely wounded Alissah landed with a quiet ‘splat’ on the floor next to her, Death Knight looming ominously overhead. “….Oh crap”

“KILL IT!”

Annoying though they might be, Liaena was occasionally forced to accept that Night Elves, even Rithrynn, had their uses. Now was definitely one of those times as an arrow, then a sabre, buried themselves into the chest of the Death Knight. It merely looked annoyed. But then again, it was not looking annoyed at herself or Alissah.

“Please don’t move around! You might make it worse!” Liam cautioned in a terrified whisper as he eased Alissah back towards the wall to shift the rogue away from the pitched battle that was now taking place.

“…Or puncture a lung” Kathlin noted weakly as she eased the ripped edges of leather away from the wound so that she could see the severe injury. Leaning over to hover just within Alissah’s eyeline, the girl bobbed her head at her meekly. “Thank you for the rescue, Ma’am. I’m sure it’s a work in progress”

“I…don’t like my odds with this”

Liaena thought grimly as she again tried to aim the dart gun at the Death Knight through the scrum. Giving up, she twisted the barrel around to eject the dart and vial into her hand, reaching up to shake it within her fist at the Night Elf, who had backed away for a moment to draw her bow again. “RITHRYNN! Stick this in that thing!”

“RITHRYNN! Stick this in that thing!”

"This is not the time for cheap innuendos, Li!" Rithrynn called back as she dodged away from the Death Knight just as it flailed its Runeblade around in a sweeping arc around him, the Night Elf still keeping her eyes on her opponents. She had fought a number of different creatures and entities before, but this Death Knight, ironically enough, seemed to just refuse to die!

"Light! I didn't mean like that!"

"I am in a fight here! Can we do it later?!" Rithrynn yelled back at Liaena as the Sentinel was about to reach for her bow.

"You big, fu... god-dammit! Just CATCH!"

"What?!" Rithrynn turned around just in time to see the shorter human girl as Liaena tossed a small dart towards her. Letting her hand leave her bow, the Night Elf immediately reached out to catch the incoming object in her glove to give her a look. Now lying in the base of her palm was a small, rather innocuous looking dart.

"I'm going to need something bigger... " Rithrynn muttered, turning to give Liaena a look as the human jumped up and down(or at least as much as she could with the gunk immobilizing her).

"IT'S BIG ENOUGH!" Liaena roared back, her voice reaching a volume that was quite surprising for the human's otherwise small frame!

"Hmpfh, fine!" Rithrynn gazed at Liaena for a moment, before turning the dart around in her hand to hold it in an underhand grip. Moving her attention back to the Death Knight, Rithrynn's eyes met with those of her battle sister Aleena who was doing most of the melee fighting with the Death Knight on the opposite side.

"Danin el Faror im'lel(Give me an opening!)!" Rithrynn called to her in Darnassian, and Aleena nodded in return. The Death Knight, who seemed indecisive about which Sentinel he should attack first, soon turned to Aleena just as the Sentinel launched herself at him in a savage strike with her saber.

As the Death Knight turned his back to Rithrynn, the Night Elf dashed forward to approach the Death Knight from behind! But as she was less than four feet behind him, the Death Knight suddenly spun around with his Runeblade. It was pure instinct that made Rithrynn immediately dodge as she saw the Runeblade come around in a spinning attack, the blade passing mere centimeters above her ears and hood as the more than seven feet tall Night Elf made herself shorter than the six feet death Knight in the blink of an eye!

The Death Knight's decision of switching targets was immediately punished by Aleena as the Sentinel brought her two handed saber down in a heavy strike against the corner of the Death Knight's neck, cutting through what little armor was there and burying her elven blade into his flesh!

The Death Knight reacted immediately, spinning around in yet another strike against Aleena, but Rithrynn's sister had already moved back as the Runeblade came for her. Instead, now it was Rithrynn's turn, as the Night Elf had already set herself a target on the Death Knight's body; the large gap in his armor from where Rae'liel's blade had almost carved through him.

With a fast and dextrous arm movement, Rithrynn rose to her feet, before neatly ramming the dart into the opening of his armor with such force that she almost crushed the dart in the process, and buried both the needle tip of the dart, as well as a small portion of the base of the dart as well, into the Death Knight's flesh!

Rae'liel - The Not-so-Honored Guest.

Silence followed her as blood still seeped outward from her wounds. Staying conscious was becoming an ever-increasing labor, her breath began to draw shallow while she was lead along like a prize of war. Sherpa was sure to taunt her, followed by the ominous chuckles of those who followed him behind her. The door opened and a scene was being played before her while her world continued to spin.

Her already pale skin had reached an even purer shade of white. Blood loss was continuing to take its heavy toll, and the Paladin could do nothing about it. Magically and physically exhausted, the urge to collapse over and sleep was a rising thoughtin her heart.

Even though she knew that such a urge was the creeping fingertips of death that began to settle heavily upon her shoulders.

And then there was movement. She sensed it long before she saw it, as a giant behemoth of a Night Elven kind came charging through the Humans' midst and crashed into the Paladin. A cry of pain caused blood to spatter forth from her lips and crimson to trickle down further from the corner of her lip due to her debilitating injuries.

Serphia, of all people had saved her. That accursed Night Elven captain had picked her up and ran. Demanding that she would deliver a response for her need of rescue soon enough upon the advent of their escape. Sardonically, the Paladin smiled.

They would soon see why inevitably anyway upon their departure. Half of Sherpa's fortress was literally gone. Carved from the earth.

Perhaps her sacrifice would have been worth it, perhaps she would have the chance to see it. That is, if she received the medical attention to survive soon enough.

" ... I would at least have expected a ´thank you´, let alone ´my hero!´or something like that." Serphia commented between her breath as the Night Elf raced through the numerous corridors and hallways that littered the belly of the reef below the castle. The Night Elf ran with long strides, covering a large amount of ground with each step!

"Typical Blood Elves!"

...

However, after having sprinted for almost almost an entire kilometer through the ascending corridors and stairs, the Captain became suspicious of the lack of noise or complaints coming from either Rae´liel or Sharon!

Finally, in a more darkened hallways, Serphia would slow down to a walk. Although she was in top physical shape, the constant interval running up through the ascending corridors had made her start to pant a little.

"What´s going on with... oh." Serphia asked as she turned her head around to look at Rae´liel, before she realized that the wet and warm sensation she had felt all the way from her arm was in fact due to a stream of bright red crimson blood that ran all the way down from her shoulderplate and down along her arm and to her side. The Blood Elf was bleeding like a stuck pig!

"That´s... a problem."

Although Serphia knew little about Blood Elf anatomy or biology, she knew that as a general rule, all living things could only lose a certain amount of blood before passing out - permanently.

Looking in every direction to make sure that they weren´t being followed, or that there were no more White Hand mercenaries coming in their direction, Serphia would lift Rae´liel off her shoulder. In that process, she also found the missing High Elf, Sharon, now plastered to Rae´liel´s armor and clothes around her belly area.

"So that´s where you went." Serphia said with an almost a-hah expression as she noticed Sharon, the tiny High Elf now literally drenched in Rae´liel´s blood. It was a rather macabre sight, or at least could be considered to be. Though it seemed more or less to simply amuse Serphia, who was no stranger to blood.,
Turning around after unplastering the disheveled High ELf from Rae´liel, she placed Rae´liel along the wall in a sitting position. Finding a dagger, the Captain went down on her knees next to the Blood Elf and quickly went through the buckles and leather strips holding the Blood Elf´s armor together, cutting them apart before she started to tear off her plates and ripping the padded clothing beneath apart until she found the bleeding wound in the Blood Elf´s upper abdomen and lower chest.

"She definitely took a hit!"

"Fire, I´ll need fire... " Serphia muttered to herself, before she looked to Sharon whom she had placed on the floor next to her.

Putting her dagger back into her belt around her hips and unsheathing one of her large, curved swords instead; she held the side of the metal blade down towards Sharon who was standing on the ground.

"Heat it up, High Elf. I need to close her wound before we lose your fel addict!" Serphia instructed Sharon as she motioned towards her blade.

While waiting for the tiny mage´s response, Serphia would move the palm of her hand over Rae´liel´s mouth, realising that the pain her planned medical procedure would produce would probably produce a painful scream as well!

"You will thank me for this later!"

It was a liberated groan that escaped from Sharon as he was finally released from being trapped between Rae'liel and Serphia, two women notiably much larger than himself in his current size, and the latter probably so even in his default size. It was comparable, to put it short, to be between a rock and a hard place.

As he was dropped to the floor by Serphia, Sharon staggered around for a moment; almost tripping over himself as his muscles raced to reastablish an equilibrium.

"By the light." Sharon said under his breath as the High Elf noticed how he was completely covered in blood, now infusing his robes. Indeed, his blue robes had now turned to a crimson red color, and his armor was splattered with blood in every corner.

"Blood... it's even worse than wine. I'll never be able to use these robes again!"

"Next time, could you please use your other shoulde,-" Sharon began to talk as he turned around to look up at Serphia, but when he noticed that the Night Elven Captain was in the process of stripping Rae'liel of her armor, the High Elf soon turned back around and looked the other way out of respect for the Blood Elf's decency.

It was not until Serphia pointed with her sword at him that Sharon turned around to give the large weapon, relatively speaking, a glance.

"That'll be easy. Just give me a moment." Sharon noted as the tiny mage raised his hands, leaving his staff levitating in the air next to him as he focused on Serphia's sword.

Soon, a pair of fiery globes were spawned in the air around the Captain's blade. Slowly but surely, the ice cold steel of Serphia's blade started to gain a bright-red glow after about half a minute as the metal became superheated!

"Now, mind the touch; you don't want to burn your fingers. That thing is hot!" Sharon explained as he motioned towards Serphia's blade which was almost on fire.

A burning blade in the hands of a fearsome warrior like Serphia; quite a terrible combination indeed the High Elf thought to himself.

----------------------------

An unnatural roar came from the iron mask of the Death Knight as the dart was plunged into his exposed flesh.

The creature dropped to its knees, his grip going limp and causing him to lose his Runeblade to the ground. A white puff of smoke was now rising from his back where the dart had entered his skin. The necrotic flesh around the dart was literally bubbling as if it had been splashed with acid, and emitted an absolutely foul stench as it went up into the air in the shape of white mist.

Now defenseless and seemingly stunned by the pain, the creature was unable to defend itself as the sentinel Aleena brought her large saber down against him, effectively decapitating his head in the process! As his helmet fell forward and landed onto the floor, a pale faced, blond haired head of what had been a young man rolled out of it and onto the ground. Its features had long since started decomposing, though the decrepit face seemed to be embalmed with various sticky oils that kept it from rotting further. The golden hair had gained a green taint, and whatever youthful vigor the face may have once held was long dead.

In the meantime, Sherpa was lying with his back on the cold stone floor.

The High Elf reached to his nose, ensuring that it was not broken. It felt like he had stood in the tracks and taken a facefull of the deeprun tram head on!

Leaning up and staggering to his feet, he saw no sign of the Night Elf that had run over him. But he had seen the small figure of his brother, Sharon, sitting in her cowl as she had passed him. And the suffocating white mist that had once filled the hallway was now dissipating through the underground ventilation.

"Are you alright, sire?" One of the chevaliers asked as he reached to give Sherpa a hand, but the High Elf pulled his arm back spitefully.

"Get that ogre of a Night Elf!" Sherpa yelled at his men, pointing in the direction that Serphia had run off with Sharon and Rae'liel.

"But the intruder-"

"I will deal with the intruders!" Sherpa said again, reaching for the hilt of his sword that rested at his hip. The chevaliers around him took a moment to look at the snow-haired High Elf, before nodding and ran off in the direction that Serphia had taken.

As his men disappeared through the dust and remnants of the white mist behind him on their pursuit, Sherpa turned to look towards Liaena and the rest of the group now standing in front of him.

As the elf unseathed his blade, it soon became apparant that past the silver ornaments in the shape of a falcon at its handle, the rest of the blade was a Runeblade, a series of cryptic runes etched alongside the spine of the blade. As the cursed weapon escaped its sheath, it was as if the temperature in the corridor dropped with multiple degrees. A faint whisper could be heard through the air, as the runes on his blade began to glow in a haunting, dark purple light.

"The game ends here." Sherpa uttered as he pointed towards the grip with his Runeblade, his darkened blue eyes narrowing as he spoke.

As her blade gained a red tint in the fires of Sharon's magic, Serphia would lift the blade back up and hold it up to her face to inspect the now glowing red blade. The heat that now filled the blade radiated through the air to the point she could already feel her skin becoming warm as she merely held it close.

"This will do." She concluded after inspecting the blade, before turning to look to Rae'liel.
"Now be a nice girl and sit still!"

Serphia said, before the Night Elf reaffirmed her grip around Rae'liel's mouth with such strength that her head was effectively pinned back against the wall.

Without a shed of remorse, Serphia brought the searing hot blade down to Rae'liels abdomen where the gashing wound still played host to a stream of blood. But as the super hot metal of the blade came in contact with the blood, a loud hissing sound could be heard as an excruciating pain shot through the Blood Elf's body. Though whatever the Blood Elf's instincts may have urged her to do, she still found herself unable to move her head as Serphia still held it pinned to the uncomfortable stone wall behind her!

The torment continued on for an agonizing ten seconds as Serphia prodded around on her wound with her glowing hot blade, during which Rae'liel produced at least a dozen of different facial expressions! Finally, Serphia released the Blood Elf's head as she retreated her blade back.

The bleeding had stopped, as Rae'liel's wound had been seared shut. Resting the searing hot tip of her sword against the floor next to her, Serphia sat on her kness in front of Rae'liel as the Night Elven Captain gazed down at the Blood Elf with a curious gaze.

"Feeling better?" She asked with a smile, not looking sorry in the slightest for her recent medical procedure. If anything, possibly even proud!

Rae'liel - Not-so-Honored Guest

The world was fading rapidly, it was an odd sinking, floating sensation. Once she had known pain and agony, but such a feeling had rapidly faded in the face of death's shadow as it gradually came for her. Darkness grew deeper, light faded, and the pained expression she once held grew into a serene smile. She was finally going home to him. Before her an endless field of tall grass grew, and she could see him, the tall elegant figure that he had always been. In both the fading life she held and the dream within her arm slowly rose to reach forward to touch his shoulder.

And then there was a flicker, a fickle flame that subtly burned the sky in the distance. It was befuddling at first, until other murmured voices began to shout and yell. Unable to understand them, her eyes searched frantically in a perplexed expression about her as the heat from the flame grew.

Then, a hand clasped against her mouth. Rendering her unable to move or scream as her dream faded away. Her paradise had left her again. Closed eyelids shot open to see Serphia holding a white hot blade just inches from the long cut inflicted upon her abdomen. Blood loss left her in befuddled wonderment as to what the massive behemoth of a Night Elf was going to do until the blade touched her skin. Suddenly, very suddenly, the Sin'Dorei screamed in muffled agony as the cauterization took place. The agony by which only deepened further as the blade touched her thrice more times.

Almost mockingly, the half-troll nitwit asked if she felt better.

Though her internal injuries were severe, and shock was settling in from the agonizing burns that line her stomach, Rae'liel was still able to crack a sardonic, morbid grin.

"You should have let me die, you fools."

Serphia raised a brow at the suicidal Blood Elf, studying her grime covered face with her silver eyes. But soon a grin formed around the Captain's mouth, meeting that of Rae'liel's own.

"That would have been too easy." Serphia answered as she reached down to pick up the tiny High Elf next to her, before placing him on her shoulder and reaching out towards Rae'liel.
"Besides, the one providing us with free food and drinks asked you be saved. I wouldn't want to do anything to sabotage our good arrangement."

Serphia explained as she motioned with her head towards the tiny High Elf, Sharon, who was now standing on her shoulder. Reaching out for Rae'liel, the Night Elf would pick the smaller Blood Elf up and hold her in her arms before standing back up on her feet.

"You can get a new set once we get out of here." Serphia mentioned as she looked at the remnants of Rae'liel's armor that lay on the ground.
"Right now we need to get out of here alive first!"

And with that, the Night Elven Captain, with Sharon on her shoulder and Rae'liel in her arms, continued her sprint up through the numerous and maze like set of corridors and hallways of the reef. She had little clear idea where she was actually going, which lead her to take some awkward decisions into dead ends and decorative rooms that forced her to turn back.

Finally however, she reached a familiar corridor; the one leading up to the spiral staircase to the barracks that they had used to enter the reef. But as she approached the stair room, she suddenly heard the clattering of feet as a small squad of White Hand mercenaries were heading down towards them. Without a second of hesitation, she swung into a corner behind a small statue. The chevaliers passed her, none of them turning to look behind to see the Captain. They were apparently in a hurry, perhaps to join the battle at the ritual chamber.

Waiting for them to turn a corner and disappear, Serphia emerged from the shadows of the statue to run up the stairs, passing through the barrack which was empty and out onto the battlements outside.

Perhaps the first thing she noticed as she passed out onto the battlements of the fort was a distinct smell of burning wood and scorched metal, and a couple of large, dark clouds rising from fires across the fort. A number of the battlements, towers and bastions also carried deep scars, with chunks of rocks having been blown away or collapsed in certain places. The entire castle did indeed look noticeably much worse for wear than it had done previously.

Serphia noted the devastation as she ran in the shadows of the battlements, passing through the smoke of remaining fires to stay concealed and dodging the occasional White Hand mercenary or castle steward that ran around in the courtyard and on the battlements.

"It almost looks like the Fourth Great War just started right here." Serphia commented while crouched in the corner of a hallway as she waited for two white hand mercenaries to pass her, as she glanced at one of the towers; part of which was charred black.
"It wouldn't surprise me if this was the work of that midget Rithrynn keeps dragging around."

“Move, dammit! Who thought that making this stuff so sticky was a good idea!?”

Liaena thought as she kicked furiously at the remains of the gel around her legs, the damn stuff proving stubbornly resistant to her efforts. “Get moving, you lot, would you! They’ll be after us in a moment!”

“They’ll be here faster if you shout”

Kathlin observed as she bent down to rip strands of the gunk from around the girl’s legs. Liam was straightening up with Alissah floating next to him, apparently unconscious but no longer bleeding profusely. The young man, as usual, looked extremely pale as he glanced down the corridor, the shielding mist dissipating rapidly. “I’m inclined to agree with Rune, for once…who is that?”

“……”

Hiding within Liaena’s collar as the girl suddenly fell silent, Bella reached up cautiously to bring her camera up to focus on the elf stalking towards them.

-click-

“Get yourself and Liam back up the corridor now”
Liaena hissed in a strangled whisper as her hand crept towards her satchel. Kathlin gave her an odd look as she pulled one of Liaena’s arms over her shoulder to try and drag her out of the goop. “Sure. You can come too”

“Go!”

“Can I go with them?” Bella enquired in a nervous high pitched tone as Liaena slid her truesilver blade out of a compartment of the bag. Rithrynn by this point was coming over to investigate, her jaw dropping noticeably as she took in the man before her. “Sher—“

“The game ends here”

“Go fuck yourself”

Liaena spat out as she sliced neatly through both straps on her satchel to free it, twisting her arm around to throw the entire bag through the air to land with a CRASH of breaking glass a few feet in front of Sherpa. There was a moment following where nothing at all seemed to happen, as though everyone there was holding their breath.

-BOOOOOOOOOM-

The explosion that rippled through the corridor was on par, if not greater than the one that had recently occurred with Smokey, as everything dangerous, acidic, explosive or highly flammable inside Liaena’s satchel detonated all at once. Sherpa vanished from view in the blink of an eye as a bright purple ball of fire expanded rapidly to tear into the walls and ceiling of the corridor and sending another volley of broken rock tumbling to the ground to completely block that section of the corridor. The castle groaned audible and the entire reef appeared to tremor slightly under the strain.

For the Night Elves and humans, the explosion seemed just about to tear into the little group when Kathlin flung out her arms and a shimmering shield manifested around them. It immediately flexed and buckled under the force of the blow, on the verge of disappating, before Liam stepped forward to raise a hand and the gold glow redoubled in strength.

“You are a moron!”

Bella hissed into Liaena’s ear nastily before she also added her strength belatedly to the shield that was protecting the group from the horrendous blast. Liam appeared to be muttering a prayer repeatedly as the fires finally shrank and diminished.

Kathlin finally lowered her hand as she stared at the destruction before them. The group were now faced with a corridor yet again piled high with broken rock, the only exit remaining being the one right behind them. “Wow. You really didn’t like him”

As they ran up towards the surface of the castle, Sharon's thoughts were still trapped in the reef itself as he thought of Liaena and the rest whom they had left behind.

"She's a small target, and as resilient as a dwarf. I'm sure she'll be fine."

Sharon thought to himself, as he tried to remember if Liaena had bothered to wear the chainmail that he had bought for her. It was ironic to think of how the stripperific Night Elves were sometimes even more armored than Liaena. Unfortunately however, Liaena was not anywhere near as agile as the former, but perhaps just as stubborn.

"It almost looks like the Fourth Great War just started right here."

"What?"

It took Serphia's remark for Sharon to wake up and look around him. The castle did indeed look quite weathered, as if a massive explosion had just occurred! It was a cloud-free twilight above Honor's Watch. The night had passed, and dawn was approaching. Although still some hours until morning, the added lighting made the damages to the settlement quite visible!

"By the light, what happened here?"

"You... don't know, by any chance, what happened here, Rae'liel?" Sharon inquired as he looked down from Serphia's shoulder and down to the Blood Elf in the Captain's arms.
"I'm pretty sure this area was a little more pristine when last I saw it."

-------------------------------------------------------------

The entire tunnel reverberated by the tremendous explosion produced by the complete sacrifice of Liaena's bag-of-crazies. Another carpet of dust bulged out in every direction through the tunnels and corridors, this time with a host of colored tints from the released chemicals contained within Liaena's bag.

On the other side of the caved in rubble, everything was silent short of the distant clattering of small rocks and sand that fell from the ceiling.

But as the dust began to settle, a faint, green light could be seen through the blinding dust, followed by the shape of a male High Elf. Sherpa stood with his blade held in a forward position, surrounded by a green, unholy shield channeled through his Runeblade. The elf had been pushed multiple feet back through the corridor, but his protective shield had blocked most of the damage.

As he discontinued the spell and allowed the shield to dissipate, an audible chink could be heard as a crack appeared on his blade next to one of the runes, causing a weak, purple mist to drift out from the blade.

Sherpa took a deep breath as he looked at the rubble that was now before him, completely blocking his path. Had he reacted a split second later, it would have surprised him if there had been anything left of him. The corridor around was otherwise pitch dark, the only source of light being the faint light illuminated by the purple runes on his Runeblade.

"A valiant effort, little girl."

He lowered his Runeblade, taking his left hand off the handle of the blade. Staring ahead at the rubble, he took a moment to inspect it. It was clear that he would not be able to get through it.

"But I am not alone." Sherpa muttered, holding his Runeblade horizontally in front of him as he muttered in an intelligible guttural language. Faint and spectral figures began to appear on the edge of the blade, as two gruesome wraiths were spawned by the Runeblade. As the spectral abominations left the blade, another rune on Sherpa's Runeblade was extinguished, its purple glow vanishing with the ghosts.

"The prize is on the other side of this obstruction." Sherpa spoke in an eerily calm voice to the two cloaked spirits that now floated in front of him, one of them holding a spectral scythe, the other one a pair of dual scalpels.
"I will not restrain you any longer. Kill them. Torment them. Tear their souls apart. Do whatever you want, but do not let them leave this keep alive."

The specters simply gazed back at him through their ghostly hoods, their hollow and empty eyes studying the Death Knight before them. As a cold wind blew through the tunnel however, the first one turned around towards the cave-in, and soon the second one followed. The incorporeal beings melded into the rock, the mundane physical space of the world meaning little to them. All they saw was the current of souls, alive and dead, passing through the world and to the next. Their world was bleak, short of the trace of the living, and their appetizing prospect for pain.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

On the other side of the cave in, the first specter emerged; little more than faint glimmer of a humanoid shape escaping from the rocks in the darkened corridor.

Sensing the proximity of its prey, it reached out with one of its skeletal hands carrying a scalpel; its arm seeming to stretch far beyond that of the rest of its body as it zoomed in against its nearest prey!

Rithrynn had no sooner gotten a glimpse of Sherpa as he stood in the hallway, pointing his Runeblade at the group, before Liaena had promptly decided to blow up the entire corridor!

As rocks and dust flew in every direction, Rithrynn was left coughing in the thick cloud of dust that now filled the corridor. By the time she could see anything, there was nothing but a heavy wall of rubble ahead of her where Sherpa had once stood.

"Elune!" Rithrynn emitted with a shock and covered her mouth in dread with her hands, though quickly changed her tone when she realized that others were listening.

"Look! Look! Look what I found!" Sounded the cheerful voice of Aleena, as through the dust, the Sentinel could be seen holding up the Death Knight's runeblade triumphantly in the air over her.
"I killed a Death Knight! I killed a Death Knight!"

"Well congratulations... " Rithrynn muttered as a reply to the celebrating Aleena, who had wasted no time in taking all the credit for the kill. The tales of Alissah's dart or Rithrynn's help had apparently long since been forgotten.

"And no one take his head; it's mine!"

Aleena warned as she picked up the Death Knight's head that had fallen out of his helmet, which she began to strap to her belt as a savage trophy. This was all of no consequence to Rithrynn however, as the Sentinel's attention had long turned to Liaena and her peers that were standing closest to the rubble.

"Li, are you alright?"

Rithrynn asked as she neared the group. Despite looking a little disoriented, Liaena seemed to be in one piece, standing next to Kathlin, Liam and a floating Alissah. The Night Elf cast a quick glance at Alissah, remembering how little she actually knew about the human female. In fact, Rithrynn couldn't even remember her name, but the fact that she now laid wounded made her feel a little bit guilty for forgetting it!

"Li, we need to,-" Rithrynn said as she approached Liaena, but just as her eyes fell on the girl, she also noticed something behind her. A pair of ghostly arms were approaching Liaena from behind, carrying a set of scalpels, both aimed at Liaena's unsuspecting neck.

"GET DOWN!"

Rithrynn shouted, stabbing a hand forth to push Liaena down just as a set of scalpels sliced above her head in a scissor-like movement. Not taking a second to even contemplate the near-death-experience of her friend, Rithrynn had already taken her arms around Liaena as she pulled in the human with all her strength to release her from her own gunk that was tying her to the floor.

The process of releasing the human from the gunk was anything but pleasant to the girl, and probably not much more for Bella who was squeezed into Liaena's chest by the Night Elf's arms. A series of cracks could be heard coming from Liaena's skeleton as her feet were torn out of the gunk, a process in which Liaena also grew by a couple of inches in height as well!

"Ghosts! Ghosts! Move it!"

Rithrynn screamed as she succeeded in pulling Liaena out of her own self-made gunk, and no later began sprinting down the corridor in the opposite direction of the incoming specters, leaving Kathlin and Liam in the dust behind! Aleena had no sooner seen Rithrynn storm past her with the gunk-covered human in her arms, before the sentinel also followed suit, carrying her saber in one hand, scavenged Runeblade in her other and with the Death Knight's head hanging from her hips!

"Wait for me!"

The rest of the Night Elves were already ahead, and soon found Rithrynn rapidly catching up with them at an alarming pace!

Rae'liel - Not-so-Honored Guest

Being carried along by a Night Elf that had practically tried to almost kill her a few days prior was something that Rae'liel didn't expect in the least. Each massive, jostling lunge that the behemoth of a half-troll took caused a stabbing pain to run agonizingly through her system, a light grunt of pain behind grit teeth following each one. Especially now that she had no armor to at least pad the majority of the impact.

At long last, she could feel the morning sun.

Cherishing its warmth, the Paladin still remained vastly uncomfortable in the arms of the Night Elf; but at least she could feel something nice for once.

Then as she tried to make herself at least a little less pained, the Night Elf made a comment that denoted the destruction she and her troupe had caused outside. Almost as if sensing that it was her fault, Sharon instantly turned to question the gravely wounded Sin'Dorei if she knew anything of it. Sardonically, a wry and weary grin crept upward on her lips as she looked towards the massively damaged structure.

A literal massive sphere was carved out of the fortress, and a sputtering, stifled laugh still lined with crimson rippled forth from her lips.

"Through intelligence reports I found out about your...impending infiltration. I knew that you would have issues with facing reinforcements, so some friends and I made a distraction. We attacked with an airdrop using Gyrocopters. One of them that intentionally crashed into the rooftop was carrying a rather large bomb. Hence...what you see now."

Her tone saddened however, when she thought of the brave Blood Knights that had made the ultimate sacrifice to do grave damage to Sherpa and his fortress.

"I am the only survivor...I had almost completely defeated that vile Death Knight before I was struck down. You should have left me to die, I could have bought you more time."

Although the expression on the Captain's face had for a moment been one of sympathy as she heard about Rae'liel's loss, however subtle; Serphia's face soon turned into a more serious expression as her eyes shifted back and forth between the large, new crater that had carved out a big chunk of the castle and the very reef itself, and back to the Blood Elf in her arms.

"You WHAT?" Serphia suddenly exclaimed as she looked down at the Blood Elf.
"You could have blown us to pieces! There was no way for you to know,-"

"Who's there?!"

Suddenly sounded the voice of one a chevalier as a patrol of two White Hand mercenaries had been just passing under the archway. One of them had apparently heard the beginning of Serphia's rant, and was looking towards the corner in which the trio were hiding.

Serphia bit her tongue, her eyes glaring out to her side as she spoke softly to Rae'liel.

"We will speak of this later... " She said with a foreboding tone, before the Captain would rise to her feet and rush out from her hiding. The chevaliers reached for their swords when they saw Serphia suddenly emerge from the shadows, but couldn't draw them in time before Serphia had already ran right into the first one! The eight feet tall Night Elf, carrying Rae'liel in her arms, easily ran right over the chevalier who tumbled back and fell into the pavement. The second one drew his sword, but by the time he could swing it, Serphia had already dashed ten feet ahead and was sprinting away!

"Alarm! Alarm! I found the intruder!" Shouted the chevalier, but soon lost track of Serphia as the agile Night Elf dashed around a corner and up a set of stairs leading to the walls surrounding the castle.

Seconds passed as Serphia stormed across the battlements. Voices could be heard below, but no White Hand mercenaries could be seen. That was at least until the sound of musket fire filled the air as bullets whizzed past Serphia and Rae'liel as the former sprinted along the walls. Out of the guard tower ahead, a chevalier emerged wielding a halberd. Spotting the incoming pair of elves, he rushed forward to meet them. But as he swung it to strike at Serphia, the Captain jumped to the side and atop the merlons, balancing between the wall and the steep drop below. The halberd swing missed, and before the chevalier could swing again, Serphia had already passed him and jumped back on the wall behind him as she continued running!

It was not until she reached the south eastern end of the castle that Serphia rushed towards the edge of the wall, where one could gaze out across a gorgeous view of the harbor and the canal separating the reef from the mainland, and more importantly; an extreme drop straight down!

Without hesitation, or listening to any warnings, complaints or objections from either Rae'liel or Sharon, who could only sense what she was about to do; Serphia dashed forward, jumped onto the merlons, and jumped straight off the wall of Honor's Watch, leaving solid ground behind in favor of a drop more than two hundred feet straight down.

"You said you had a spell in case I fell." Serphia yelled to Sharon who was holding on to her cowl, as the trio began to fall at a steadily increasing velocity down to the smaller reefs and canals below.
"I hope you weren't lying, or by the goddess I swear, I'll kill you before we hit the rocks!"