The Dark Arts

The rain poured down as a lone figure clambered up the sodden, muddy hill, the robes worn by the lonesome elf were drenched in rain and mud, which made moving even more difficult.

"Damn, I hate this place" thought Rakia as she slided down the other side of the hill. Stretched before her where the ruins of an old human castle, and the syndicates latest hideaway. Although not many knew, she had a special enmity towards humans, the Lich King Arthas was one of their race, and he had turned her parents against her and killed her friends. Though joining the crusade was helping her to forget and forgive, after all, the Argent Dawn's leader was a human, if an exceptional one at that. But these greed driven nobles and their servants disserved none of her mercy.

A few of the syndicate thugs patrolled outside of the ruined castle walls, the plan was to slip past these ones, she didn't want to reveal herself too early.

Soon she had formalised a plan, and one of the nearby grizzly bears would prove perfect for this idea. She drove the mind of the beast crazy, the dark energy sending the beast into a frightened rage, it charged towards the sentries, woe either ran away, or tired to fight the beast.

Rakia sprinted to the castle walls, before squeezing through a large crack in the wall. Just before she exited the small crevice, her hand began to glow a dark purple, and the green of her eyes shone even brighter.

The three guards just outside the crack didn't even have time to scream as the wall exploded, followed by waves of fel energy, the men were soon no more. Rakia strolled out of the ruined area, now there was no need for stealth she may as well do it in style.

Two syndicate watchmen turned the corner only to be met by a volley of arcane missiles, searing of the poor man’s' skin. As Rakia picked up the pace, a group of syndicate rouges dropped down from the ruined buildings.

At first Rakia was unprepared, and she barely blocked the wave of throwing weapons sent here way. As the humans charged, she lifted her hands to the sky, and the rain around her turned to molten rock. The thugs screamed as their bodies turned to ash, only a couple were skilled enough to avoid the onslaught.

Un strapping the staff from her back, she licked this staff, she had found it when on a mission with the crusade, to her it symbolised her loyalty to the crusade as much as her stark white tabard, but today it would have to get dirty.

She swung at one of the charging men’s legs, tripping him and sending him flying into the man charging on the other side of her. She fen set them on fire. There was a large group of guards heading her way, a battle she'd rather not face. Resisting the urge to sick a daemon on them, she used the power of the fel to turn her entire form black, even, although it pained her, the tabard of the Crusade, she then slipped into the shadows and began climbing the last hill to reach the inner-keep.

Blasting the doors open, Rakia entered the age old building, there was a time when she would have cared for the history, but her days in the Consortium were long gone. Flipping out her wand she sent volley after volley of fiery bolts into the rather large group of guards waiting for her in the entrance hall. All except one died almost instantly. He drew his sword and charged, she readied her staff.

He swung his two handed blade at her neck, trying to decapitate her, she blocked easily before sending a blow to his stomach, but he turned out to be a capable fighter as well, knocking the blow side. This battle continued for a while like this, exactly what she didn't want, the human had time on his side, surly a entire army of guards could turn up any moment, and the crusade would never know how she had died, or how she fought like hell to live, that was a fate she wasn't prepared to accept.

She doubled her attacks, pushing him back to the wall, he struggled to keep up, but to a testimony to his fighting skills, he managed. As she bumped into the wall, she drew her face right up to his, For a brief second his gaze was lost in her glowing green eyes, that was all she needed to gut him with a dagger.

Wiping the blood of both her weapons, she ascended the stairs to the makeshift throne room, a large hall, with a massive dining table, filled with statues of nobles past, she arrived just in time to see one of the traitor nobles escape, she snarled, and turned her attention to the other, apart from the tow guards, she could now sense running up the stairs. These were now her only target. On cowered in a chair, while the other stood up in defiance. If he wasn't a filthy syndicate human, she may of liked him.

Wanting to leave the obviously skilled noble to last, she set the wooden stairs behind her on fire, sending the guards falling to the ground. Then she casually drained the life from the cowardly noble, who had been trying to hide under the table. None of this fazed the noble, or at least he didn't show it. She was beginning to like this human more and more

"Now Rakia stay focused" she thought to herself "they were the nobles who let the scourge into Lordearan, which eventually led to Arthas becoming the Lich King, who killed.... everyone". Now her anger blazed, the drak energy swirling around her thickened to a point it almost blocked out the light of the braziers behind her, taking her staff, she jumped over the table, and brought her sword down on the noble. The noble's rapier blocked countless times as Rakia swung, with even more enersty and rage, part of her mind was worried that she would eventually over reach and make a mistake, which is exactly what the noble was waiting for, but that little voice was hardly listened to.

The the noble did something unexpected, he returned an attack with his own arcane bolt, Rakia was sent flying into a wall, and feigned death

"So a mage, that makes things interesting"

Slowly she fed on the power of his mana, at first at an almost unnoticeable rate, put as the man got closer, she began to drain more of his energy, untill she felt more powerful then she had in a long time. Just as he was about to finish her off, The room exploded around him, searing away his body as he screamed. Rakia stood amongst the steaming room, all the wood was shrivelled up, the stone bleached a dark black.

She pulled a hearthstone out of her back. "It's time to go home" Rakia disappeared.