The Game of Hate

[TheGamingFre]

Nektulos Forest, cursed wood of Innoruuk, one time proving ground for the newly trained forces of the Teir'dal, a dark deadly wood that feeds upon the living to give fuel to the undead denizens that roam it. Those few Teir'dal who, in the days before the gods turned away, survived its trials called it one other thing. A playground. Nestled in a shadowed alcove created by twin jutting expanses of rock upon the near vertical face of short cliff Korinth watched the beaten dirt path below him, secure in the knowledge that none below would ever see him unless they too had grown up in the deadly twin environments of Neriak and Nektulos Forest. In the centuries that have come and gone this place was one of the scant few that had changed so little that it could be said that it had not changed at all. Even on the brightest of days the woods were cloaked in a perpetual gloom that bleached and dulled all color with in its boarders, giving all of the plant life a sickly dark gray-green hue accented by the fact that from the lowliest blade of grass to the most ancient of trees, all were twisted and malformed. It would seem to many who came here that sound, when there was any, was muffled but they were only partially correct. Living creatures, what few there were, had learned that sound was a poor thing to make for it often drew the attention of the ever present hordes of undead or other living things, so twisted by hate, that could not stand to know that other things still lived. In Nektulos Forest, even sound could be deadly. This knowledge was obviously lacking to the group of light-huggers that he was waiting upon, for they stomped and clanked down the path, currently twisted behind a bank of trees thus currently unseen. Unseen, but far from unheard and as they came around the bend of the path, and finally into sight he saw them once again for like fools they did not vary their approach or the time of their self called patrol. The one in the lead strode forward along the path, oblivious to any dangers that lurked off the beaten trail with the unbridled arrogance he had long come to expect from the worst of the scum of Norath, a human paladin. He seemed to be fairly typical of his breed; neck length hair with just a hint of curl to it framed his blockish face made less appealing by the rough, thick beard and mustache that adorned it and all of it of a shade that many would call golden but simply reminded him of rancid urine and did little to complement his common blue eyes. The human's skin, what he could see of it, had been over baked by the sun, giving it a dried mud look that so many humans found attractive. Across his back rested a massive two-handed sword that shown even in its sheath with the power of the enchantments that had been laid upon it. This light in turn made his over polished plate armor shine like a lighthouse beacon, advertising his presence to anything that so much as glanced in his direction in the preternatural gloom that permeated this land. Following a few steps behind, and thankfully much quieter was a sight that nearly made Korinth abandon his plans in favor of charging in and butchering, a koada'dal female in the vestments that proclaimed her to be a templar for the goddess Tunare. She stood nearly a head taller than the human and was also with out her helm, thus letting her waist length, raven black hair spill out behind her that contrasted the true-blue color of her eyes quite nicely and softened the light tan of her skin. Her armor was nearly as bright as her paladin companions. But instead of a silver shine, hers gave off a slightly bronze hue and was softened by a tabard with the symbol of a green tree upon a rich cream-brown background. At her hip rode her mace, a simple looking weapon made of smooth curves and silvery metal. Simple, unless one looked at it carefully for like her paladin companion her weapon was heavily enchanted as well, but while his tried to outshine the sun, hers simply glowed. Across from her mace rode a holy symbol dedicated to her goddess and forged of silver etched with runes to enchant it as much, if not more, than her mace. The last of the trio was difficult to notice in contrast to his two shining companions and traveled with a bit more care to what may be lurking in the shadows and brush along the trail. With heavily curled leaf-brown hair with several feathers tied into it and tribal style tattoos upon his face it was easy to tell even at a glace that this was a feir'dal, a wood elf. The deep tan of his skin and the brown and black colors of his leather armor made him blend a in with the surrounding plant life far better than his two companions and with his bow in hand with an arrow resting against its string he showed himself to be a bit wiser as well. A new predatory smile crossed his lips as he watched them; he knew which one he would strike first. The deliberately caused sound of metal scraping upon stone was the only warning he gave the trio as he lunged towards them and it was with satisfaction that he saw their eyes widen in shock as the shadows that had hidden him from their weak sight half way followed his charge, flowing over his armor and back between the rocks like black oil. With only the faint sounds of his feet upon the beaten path his charge carried him to his first victim in span of a heart beat and with an upward thrust he drove the tip of the massive, spell bound claymore streaking towards the heart of the templar like a massive arrow. Her cry of warning turned to one of pain and shock halfway threw its utterance as the magically sharpened blade pierced her breast plate as easily as soft cheese followed soon by its slicing into her heart and nicking her wind pipe before emerging out of her back by two feet. Foaming blood escaped with her next cry of pain as he used the force of his strike to lift her up off of her feet and pin her to the twisted trunk of a tree behind her as if she were a new butterfly in a collection. Even as he began to turn, abandoning his sword, he caught glimpse of her trembling hands coming up to pull weakly at the blade, trying to pull it free, and only succeeding in slicing her palms upon the blade. This did not bother him for he knew that she was already dead but the speed of her death was simply to fast for her body to understand, she was no longer a threat. Granted neither was his next foe. As he turned to face the ranger an arrow bounced harmlessly off of the chest of his armor, flipping around to harmlessly land in the brush along the road as Korinth charged towards him, one hand out stretched for his throat. Instinctively the ranger dropped his bow and grabbed the threatening arm by the wrist with both of his hands as he smiled. As Korinth smiled, hiding behind the visor of his helm, the rangers smile turned to one of fear and pain just moments before throwing his head back and screaming in pain as necrotic energies ripped threw his body starting at his hands from where Korinth had twisted his wrist so that his fingers could touch. Rapidly the power of his death touch devoured the rangers body from the inside out, turning him from a elf at the prime of his life to a shrunken, withered corpse in the span of a few heart beats. Ripping his arm free of the limp grasp he began to sprint as fast as he could, not even looking back to see if the paladin was giving chase for he could hear him crashing threw the brush and giving wordless cries of rage behind him. Laughing faintly he leapt over a pile of rubble and spun around, his hands sweeping threw arcane symbols and in moments he could feel a portion of the hate with in his own soul being ripped free to join the essence of hate from the paladin to summon a skeletal warrior into being that charged the paladin, its massive rusted blade swinging wildly as the paladin managed to finally utter words in his screams. "Traitor! Betrayer! Murderer!" Laughing, Korinth watched the paladin battle the hate forged skeletal warrior. The outcome was never in doubt, the undead warrior was not a sturdy combatant and the power that crafted it was fleeting. Just moments before it was struck down into a heap of dissolving bones, the essence returning to those who housed it, he turned away and once more began to run, leading the paladin deeper into the unforgiving woods of Nektulos Forest. Time and time again he would turn to summon forth another skeleton warrior and time and time again he would turn away to resume his run just moments before the paladin destroyed it. Laughing each time, rousing the paladin to new heights of fury, taunting him with his refusal to battle him directly. Leaping down from a small embankment he slipped quietly as a shadow into a patch of brush and crouched down, calling upon his own innate powers to pull the present shadows about him, becoming part of the very darkness in a manor that would unnerve all but another Teir'dal and gazed out into the clearing he had come to. Perhaps at one time, and he held a faint memory that it did, the clearing was where one of the few, small, settlements of Nektulos rested, for the clearing was more or less square in nature and covered only by grass and a few stunted plants. More telling was the small "stump" of carved stone that had collapsed in on its self, possibly the remains of a fireplace. Seated upon those stone ruins were two more deluded followers of the light. The first was a young human wizard wearing robes of a deep dark red etched with black arcane symbols over its surface. The boy, and boy he was, was barely old enough to shave, his self styled beard little more than a few thin wisps of brown hair and with his hood raised up over his head there was little more he could see of him. However it was his companion who interested him more. Seated next to the human wizard, and laughing quietly at something that had been said, was another Teir'dal.... No, not a Teir'dal, a dark elf, for if it were not for the darkness of their skin he would be no different than any of the other foolish elves that were so adored by the goodly races no Teir'dal who had forsaken their true nature, by choice or misfortune of birth deserved to be called a Teir'dal. This dark elf wore armor of a very similar style that he too was wearing, dark gray in color and made of heavy plates of metal and thick sections of chain to allow freedom of movement, a simple visored helm sitting next to him was also very similar to the one he still wore. The empty scabbard across his back would have been home to a large claymore sword had he still possessed it but at his hip was a scavenged short sword, no doubt taken from one of the many undead. Little did the young elf know that his prized blade, stolen in the night by an unseen thief, now resided threw the chest of a koada'dal woman and in turn pinning her to a tree no so far from here but far enough away that the unnatural properties of this forest kept him from hearing of it. No where near as graceful, the human paladin fell over the edge of the embankment, sprawling face first into a patch of mud and rotted vegetation, a humiliating position for such a proud warrior of light such as he and only made worse as he looked up to see the pair looking back at him in stunned silence. Now the real fun would begin. With apparent calmness the paladin regained his footing and stood up, his own two-handed blade held loosely in one hand as he wiped a bit of plant matter off of his face with the other. However, his words proved him to be much less than calm. "Our order took you in when you had nothing, housed you, cared for you, trained you, gave you purpose when you had none and this is how you repay us! With vile treachery and murder? By turning your back upon the ways of the paladin and embracing those of vial shadowknight? You shall pay for your treason!" With a wordless, hate filled cry the paladin began racing towards the stunned pair. The young dark elf paladin had been physically rocked by the words of the human and now stumbled and staggered backwards in shock as one of his own order charged him with the intent of killing him. The wizard, while stunned by the human's words, was able to act, but not near quick enough to do anything at all. While his hands were still moving threw arcane symbols to enact a spell the paladin reached him and with a single swipe of his massive blade he removed those hands and sent them sailing into the brush around the clearing. Ignoring the pain filled screams of the collapsing wizard the paladin continued his charge towards the young dark elf who had finally regained enough of his wits to draw his battered blade in time to deflect the first blow from the paladin. "But I haven't..." "SILANCE! You will not ruin their memory farther with your lies!" The venom and hate in the paladins voice was enough to shock the dark elf into missing his stroke to block the paladins sword as it came in low towards his belly. In a near identical manor that had seen the templar's death the paladins inscrolled blade bit into the armor of the dark elf, but where the sword that had slain the templar had been magical sharpened to unnatural keenness the paladins blade was empowered to release a pulse of divine power that blasted apart the dark elf's armor and let the blade bite into the unprotected flesh of his belly. Twisting his blade down the paladin continued his thrust, but now up threw the dark elf's body, the blade erupting in another blast of divine might from the middle of his back. With no tree to be pinned against the dark elf collapsed, dragging the impaling sword with him but not pulling it from the grasp of his killer. Having moved quietly threw the underbrush as the fight; brief as it was, had progressed Korinth was in a prime place to see the look of stunned shock and disbelief on the dark elf's face slowly turn to one of unbridled hate. As limp hands suddenly tightened upon the blade that had run him threw he looked at his killer and spoke with blood stained lips. "I ... killed ... no one ... but ... by Innoruuk ... I ... wish I ... could kill ... YOU." With a sneer the paladin placed his foot upon the dark elf, Teir'dal in his final breaths, and violently twisted his sword back and forth, electing cries of pain from the almost dead Teir'dal, until he was able to pull his blade free. With a last hate filled gaze at each other the light of hate slowly faded from the Teir'dal eyes as death claimed him to be judged by Innoruuk. The sharp sound of metal striking metal made the paladin spin around towards the source only to have him snap his head back in utter shock to see if the dead Teir'dal still lay where he had been slain. When he looked back towards Korinth, clapping his hands slowly together in applause, his helmet tied to his hip, his face was contorted with renewed anger. "Yes, I must congratulate you on your splendid performance even if the final act was cut so short! A masterpiece demonstration of your skill and trust in your fellow members of your order!" "You! It was you! Not him, you!" The mocking smile that graced Korinth's lips only stokes his anger higher, as he had planned. He knew that the paladin would not attack yet; he was still trying to twist events in his own mind so that he could place his own blame upon others. Until he finished lying to him self, there was no threat of attack. "Me? I did nothing here! It is your sword that is stained by their blood. I don't even have a weapon." "You tricked me into fighting them, lead me here, used me!" Yes, he was almost done twisting events in his own mind to make him seem an innocent in the slaughter. Slaughter it was for those two had no chance against him. Any moment now and the chase would begin anew. "You and your dark magic deceived me, made me believe my own apprentice could possibly be responsible for such a vial act as you committed!" Yes, this was it, Korinth could sense the coming charge, the final words coming that would let the paladin believe that he was innocent of his own willed actions were coming! With out seeming to he shifted his stance slightly, preparing for the next enjoyable leg of the game. "This is your fault! It is your fault that they are all dead! You shall pay for this!" The paladin was running towards him even before he finished speaking, however Korinth was running a moment before that, his laughter filling the forest with his shear mirth as they both sprinted threw the woods towards the next part of the game that was planned. Back at the clearing the wizard was just barely able activate the spell that would spirit him home, a spell that required no use of hands... oh his hands!... to enact. Pain and shock clouded his mind, numbing his senses and left him little to hold on to. Little other than the fact that they had been attack by one of their own order, butchered in his own case and in the case of his friend being, slain by his own teacher. He had to inform the others, tell them that one of their own had embraced the darkness they so strove against. Had fallen to Hate.