The battle raged across the small orc farmstead located in Durotar, the sound of blades clashing echoing across the rugged terrain. Flames licked up the side of one of the farm's buildings, a pig pen already fully engulfed behind the advancing mixture of rebel and Alliance forces. In the center of the battle, Beckyann lead a squad of Knights forward through the drifting smoke, searching for the Kor'kron raiders that they had pinned down and that had begun a withdrawal in the chaos of the battle.
In the distance guttural shouts rose up as one of the rebel Horde groups encountered more of the Kor'kron, and Beckyann rolled her eyes, feeling a stab of irritation that she even had to be on the same battlefield as them. Managing to choke down the emotion, she gave her men hand signals, indicating they should move forward towards the open doorway of the last remaining farm building ahead of them. A cloud of black smoke drifted over them, and Beckyann saw her men obeying the order before they were obscured from sight. The stench of the smoke bothered her and her men not at all; in fact she was not even able to smell it. That gave her Knights an advantage as they plunged into the darkness of the smoke and then through it, into the dark interior of the building beyond.
Before Beckyann could regain her sight, she heard a roaring followed by the clash of a blade meeting another metallic object. There was a snarl that clearly came from one of her Knights and a howl of a creature being mortally wounded that sent a sheer shiver of delight up her spine. Grinning, she stalked out of the last of the smoke, taking in the scene beyond.
Her Knights had pushed deep into the farmhouse, searching for lurking Kor'kron that may have retreated in the chaos and confusion. Instead of encountering the enemies they had expected to find, they had encountered the orc that owned the farmstead, the creature having risen up with a pitchfork to defend the interior of his home. Predictably, one of Beckyann's Knights had taken offense to nearly being impaled, and had swiftly dispatched the orc with a return stroke of his runeblade. The orc had fallen and her men had pushed forward, cornering the last of the living creatures in the building.
There were three orc children and what must have been the orc's mate crouched protectively over them. She looked wild, her eyes wide with fear as she kept her young ones behind her. She held a dagger in her hands, her chest rising and falling with pure terror as one of Beckyann's Knights advanced on her and the little ones, runeblade raised high.
"HALT! STAND DOWN AT ONCE!" Beckyann shouted, her voice full of anger.
Full of the desire to slay, the Death Knight that she had just given the command to failed to pause, advancing on the orc as if to strike her down. Beckyann pushed past three of her other Knights, forcibly brushing them aside as she charged towards the scene, actual concern pulsing through her mind. As the runeblade came down, her own runeblade came up, and the two weapons met in a clash just above the orc's head.
The orc woman didn't know what was happening of course, she couldn't know. She did what instinct told her to do and lunged, her dagger plunging into the space between Beckyann's breastplate and the armor covering the lower portions of her body. Black blood gushed out around the wound and Beckyann rolled her eyes, snarling and using her strength to push her Knight away.
"I GAVE YOU AN ORDER! YOU WILL STAND DOWN AT ONCE!" Beckyann spit in his face. She turned, presenting her back to the orc woman who had withdrawn and once again crouched before her children. It was clear from Beckyann's actions that she was protecting the young ones, and the orc had a look of confusion on her face as she watched warily.
"We need to slay all of the orcs here!" the Knight, a Private, yelled back in Beckyann's face.
It was not the right answer. Insubordination was one thing, but outright murder that made all of the Ebon Blade look like mindless killing machines was simply intolerable. Beckyann didn't even respond, simply roaring in rage and bringing her blade down on the other Knight. He backpedaled, blocking the blow and the following blow with his own blade, shock on his face.
"She's gone mad! The Sergeant's gone mad! We have to finish the mission! Restrain her and kill the orcs!" the Knight yelled.
The other three members of Beckyann's squad paused, clearly hesitant to get involved in what appeared to be outright rebellion. The words echoed through the small structure and were quickly followed by an outburst from Beckyann that could only be described as 'epic'.
Deadly cold necromantic winds whipped around her as she slashed at the other Knight again and again, her magic beginning to penetrate his own wards and tearing chunks of his exposed flesh off. She shouted, spells lashing out at him and penetrating his armor, denting it and causing blood to ooze from between the plates. He struck at her, but her fury was far beyond his ability to handle, his blows brushed aside with her weapon as she advanced on him.
"HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY ME?! I'LL KILL YOU! YOU'LL ISSUE ORDERS HERE WHEN THE LIGHT COMES TO EMBRACE US ALL YOU SON OF A BITCH!" she shouted, continuing to advance on him.
He weakened quickly under the deluge of her blows, his own counterstrikes doing little more than denting her breastplate and scoring a gash on one of her arms. The blazing fury in her eyes and the way her magic practically leaked into the air around her told him that his time was nearly up.
The final blow was swift and fatal, her sword coming down at an angle and removing his head neatly from his shoulders. His body slumped before her, and Beckyann's rage continued, her weapon coming down again and again on the corpse until it was nothing more than a grotesque mass of gore and torn up shreds on the floor of the farm stand. All the while she raged, stamping her feet and spitting curses the likes of which some of the other Knights hadn't even heard. The rest of her squad stood silently, watching the temper tantrum come to its conclusion, one of them shuffling back a few feet.
When she was done, Beckyann looked up at them, blazing malice in her eyes. Her voice was a hissing whisper and she gestured with her runeblade, "We are done here. He fell in battle. Withdraw from the farmhouse. Now."
The other three Knights nodded, one of them snapping off a quick salute before they turned and fled from structure, leaving a still raging Beckyann alone with the orc and her children. She turned towards them, flicking the blood of her former comrade from her blade before sheathing it on her back. She looked down at the corpse of the orc before looking back at his mate, her baleful eyes locked with hers.
"I'm sorry," she said plainly. Whether or not the orc understood common was beyond her, but the woman nodded at her once, as if she understood the sentiment. There was no going back, no way to correct what had happened. It was done, and so was the attack.
With one last nod to the orc, Beckyann turned, her black cape of the 1113th whirling behind her as she stalked back out into the smoke. She could still feel the rage inside, the desire to rend and soothe the urges she felt pulsing in her mind. There was one indisputable truth in all of it though, one thing that she clutched, her very spirit satisfied in some unexplainable way.
Beckyann Eastberg would never, EVER allow a child to be harmed while she was in control of her own form. She would slay anyone who attempted such a thing, even one of her own allies. That was simply the way it was.
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