Kyliska Sunfire was jubilant. One could say that she was having the best of days, or perhaps that she was in her element. She ran gleefully across the tall grasses of the Barrens, darting through the wafting smoke, her ax in hand and the Light built up within her. All around her, a titanic clash between Horde forces and the Kor'kron of the Warchief was underway, with the sounds of combat creating a great din of noise over the plains.
Although her sister had advised her to use caution and to stay with her retinue, Kyliska had quickly set aside such a silly suggestion the moment she got near the battle. Rushing ahead of her own men, she eagerly began to cut down orcs left and right, her ax dripping with gore and the howls of her foes as they fell like music on the wind. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, that old familiar feeling of adrenaline pumping through her veins as her weapon clashed with the sword of a Kor'kron orc, the blade shattering and the orc soon falling away, another causality of the conflict.
There was literally nothing better in all the world than this moment, this feeling of utter release as far as Kyliska was concerned. Almost better than sex, the bloodshed drew her on, made her flush with the pure joy of feeling rage flow through her. Nothing could stop her, nothing could stand in her way, and if the moment was slightly soured when she heard the calls of Alliance war horns amidst the battle, signaling their arrival, it was quickly dashed aside as yet another orc fell to her blade.
Three Kor'kron ran at her and she howled at them, gleefully using the Light to blind one, slashing another and forcing him to jump back to avoid being cleaved in half, and cutting down the third one with her back swing. The foe who had jumped back slashed at her and she laughed as she used her shoulder pauldron to absorb the blow, body slamming him away from her and leaving him dazed enough for her ax to finish the job. She Judged the Light-blinded orc, watching as her magic threw him down to the ground, a smoking crater in his chest.
A larger Kor'kron ran at her, ax above his head. His size and the rank insignia on his chestplate lead her to believe that he was some sort of sergeant or squad leader, and Kyliska eagerly turned to meet him, a grin on her face. His ax came up and she prepared to deflect the blow, only to pause in puzzlement a moment later as dark tendrils of black magic wrapped around his torso and yanked him about a dozen yards away. The orc landed with confusion, stumbling and then coming up short as a runeblade was rammed through his chest, his blood staining the grasses.
As Kyliska looked on in disbelief, the runeblade was withdrawn and the dead orc fell away, revealing the golden haired death knight Beckyann Eastberg. The woman flicked the blood off her blade, turning to look for another target and leaving Kyliska fuming.
That stupid dead bitch stole my kill...
She murmured a prayer to the Light, extending a hand out. Across the battlefield, her Judgment flew outwards, striking an orc that the death knight had been about to battle. She smirked as she saw the spell slam into her target and the undead woman flinch away before turning back to find her next target.
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Beckyann's eyes widened in rage as the orc she'd been about to fight was cut down by a spell. Not only was it a spell, but it was the Light. She shielded her face as the after-image of the flash danced in her vision. With a snarl she glared across the battlefield, seeing Kyliska engaged with several orcs, cutting down her kills and ruining the bloodshed that would feed the need for agony that all death knights had deep within them.
In a rage, Beckyann stalked closer to where Kyliska fought, flicking her hand out and sending a deadly bolt of necromantic magic out, quickly following it with a second and a third.
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Kyliska gasped as dark magic flew over her shoulder and slammed into three of the orcs she was battling, slaying them instantly. Temporarily lacking foes to fight, she turned around to glare at Beckyann. The blonde death knight smirked at her, and Kyliska's fel green eyes glared daggers across the battlefield. The blonde tilted her head, the sunlight glancing down through the clouds glinting on the silver circlet she wore in her hair. To Kyliska's unending rage, the death knight had the audacity to wink at her across the battlefield!
Roaring with anger, Kyliska brought hand up, praying to the Light and consecrating the ground in front of Beckyann just as the death knight moved forward to attack several orcs. She watched gleefully as the undead woman gasped and staggered away from the Light-touched soil, her enemies doing the same as the Light burned the unholy who dared to tread across it.
A second later Kyliska's smile turned into a shout of anger as the blonde dead woman pointed and desecrated the ground Kyliska was standing on. Dark necromantic energies seeped from the soil, the foul touch of scourge magic making Kyliska physically gag as she stumbled away from that spot.
Her eyes locked with Beckyann's and with only the pounding rage left in her mind, she brought her ax up and charged across the battlefield. The dead woman did the same, her runeblade held firmly in her grip as she rushed at Kyliska.
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Blessed ax and unholy blade met in the air with a clang of steel on steel as blood knight and death knight met each other in the center of the battle. Kyliska roared, disengaging her ax and bringing it around for another strike, and then another. Her ax was met with a parry each time, Beckyann lashing out with her own blade in an attempt to get under Kyliska's guard only to find Kyliska equally skilled with her defense. Their weapons locked together and the strength of an enraged blood knight was pitted again the unholy energies of a death knight.
Face to face the two women glared at each other, staring across their locked weapons with hate in their eyes. This close, Kyliska could feel the seething energies of undeath within a hair's breath of her, while Beckyann could feel the stinging presence of one imbued with the Light way too close to her own flesh.
With a smirk Kyliska murmured a prayer to the Light, blessing herself and letting holy energies flow through her. The Light burned the death knight, and Beckyann glared hatefully at Kyliska as some of the flesh on her face reddened and flaked off. Kyliska was about to laugh at her enemy when Beckyann smiled at her, opened her mouth, and spit on Kyliska's face.
Kyliska could feel the diseased fluids running down her cheek, her eyes wide with the utter shock and disgust of having the foul liquids that were inside the death knight on her person. Although a paladin was generally immune to plague, it was still mortifying and disgusting to know she had been befouled like that. A red haze fell over her vision as she began to quake with anger, ready to hack the death knight into little pieces. For her part, Beckyann's own rage was reflected in the blazing blue scourge-light that seeped from her eyes as she struggled to crush the smaller blood elf.
And then a shadow fell over them.
Before they could move, before they could register what was happening, a Kor'kron commander assaulted them. He was an enormous orc, his thick plate armor covered with spikes and the blood of many slain Horde and Alliance. He towered over them, his great ax coming down in an arc and dashing both of the women away in an instant.
The blow had come in from the right side, and Beckyann took the brunt of the blade itself. The edge of the weapon bit deep into her armor, just below the spot where her ribcage ended, spinning her around and throwing her away. Kyliska was struck with the mass of the ax and her former opponent's body, the weight of the blow breaking a rib and possibly temporarily dislocating her shoulder. She could feel her entire right side go numb as she was thrown to the ground and her weapon tumbled away.
The orc's ax broke from the force of the blow, the pieces of metal spinning away and lost in the smoke from the battle that drifted over them. He grinned, snatching a throwing ax from his belt and tossing it. Kyliska saw the weapon spin end over end before its flight was halted as it embedded itself in Beckyann's back. She saw the undead woman tumble away, a haze of smoke drifting past her and obscuring sight of the likely slaughtered death knight. The orc snatched two more axes from his belt, looming over Kyliska with a rumbling laugh echoing from his chest.
HE JUST STOLE MY KILL! A-and...is he fucking laughing at me? I'LL KILL HIM!
Rage. It flowed like wine. It was like the air she breathed, like the pulse in her neck. It made up all of Kyliska's being as she called upon the full power of the Light. A column of sunlight slanted down through the smoke, bathing her in illumination as golden wings sprouted from her back. In her hand, the air itself took shape, a glowing hammer made of pure Light appearing there. Even as the orc slashed down at her, Kyliska rolled, the glowing hammer slamming the orc in the legs and forcing him to stumble back. Kyliska rose to her feet, ready to do battle with the orc commander.
From the smoke surrounding them, a horrific neighing sound echoed. It sounded like a dead horse being whipped, and the two combatants paused, looking warily through the drifting banks of smoke. A shadow loomed suddenly from the gray, the form solidifying into that of a blonde woman on a dead horse charging through the smoke, sword raised high and her other hand on the reins.
It was like a nightmare come to life. Blonde hair flowing behind her and cape of the 1113th snapping in the wind of her passing, Beckyann had nothing but endless fury and hate etched across her face. Her dead horse pounded across the grass, crossing the distance to the orc commander in a second, her blade biting deeply into his armor.
The orc reeled back, slashing at Beckyann only to find Kyliska's glowing hammer slamming into his arm, breaking the bones. He whirled again, slashing at the blood knight only to feel a runeblade slide in between his shoulder blades. He gasped, slashing at Beckyann and decapitating her dead horse, forcing the death knight to jump from the steed as it fell into ruin beneath her. On foot, the blonde woman stepped up beside the blonde Sin'dorei, the two holding their weapons ready as the orc attempted to regain the upper hand.
He didn't have a chance in the world.
Enraged by the battle and by each other, the two women were even more angry that their little dispute had been interrupted. Working in perfect unison, the two knights advanced on their foe, systematically dismantling his defenses as they snapped his second ax with hammer and sword. He fought them with his spiked gauntlets, attempting to punch the pointed metal tips into Kyliska's torso only to find his other arm swiftly broken by a hammer.
He roared at them, his mouth a gaping chasm and the two women pointed at him simultaneously and unleashed their magics. A bolt of Light in the form of a judgement slammed into his skull just as a death coil slipped into an eye socket. The two powers combined together within the orc's head, the explosive energy of Light meeting Dark burning him from the inside out. The charred corpse paused, staring sightlessly off into the distance before toppling over and forcing Kyliska and Beckyann to jump aside.
For a moment, they stared at the corpse that lay between them before their eyes came up and met over their dead foe. Kyliska's rage began to subside, and she could feel every movement of her armor against her broken rib, her arm still numb. Across from her, Beckyann's torso wept diseased black fluids, a similar wound on her back running down the leg of her armor. Both of them paused, the anger and battle-lust they'd felt replaced with the satisfaction of victory.
Beckyann moved first, flicking the blood from her runeblade and sheathing it on her back. She nodded at Kyliska as the blood knight released her hold on the Light, her golden hammer fading into nothing and the wings on her back dispersing. Kyliska nodded back, never breaking the hostile stare she held with the human woman. She spit on the dead orc, a grin creasing her features.
Beckyann grinned despite herself, also spitting on the dead orc. With one final nod the undead woman turned, her black cloak swirling around her as she stalked off into the smoke that shrouded the battlefield. Kyliska shook her head, reaching down to grab her sword before turning and also walking away.
It was simply shocking how rude some people could be with interrupting important business like a personal duel. Orcs these days just didn't have the manners of their forebears.
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