The Black Hound Rises(Rank Up)

Darkness rushed past as Korroth fell for what felt like an eternity. He did not feel himself hit the ground, but the impact knocked him into an infinity of darkness that swirled around him. Hours later, maybe, sunlight carressed the black hound's armored form, and he drifted into semi conciousness. Alive, for now, it seemed. Luck had been on his side, for the bottom of the ravine was dry but for a trickle of water tinted red with blood. Darkness surged forth again, and not until voices roused him, did Korroth stir again. Like nats, they buzzed about him, unknown faces blurring into vision. Someone touched his helmet, and Korroth let out a low growl. The stranger, a woman, jumped back. "He's still alive!" She said, looking to a comrad. A second face appeared. "Na'Kora's cunt he must be one tough bastard. Hargrave will want to meet him. Gonna go..."

Voices faded as Korroth rejoined the darkness. When next he woke, he was no longer in the dry riverbed, but a dark room. His armor was gone, his slowly healing wounds bandaged. He shifted in the bed and realised his hand was still missing. He growled in annoyance and
tried to move but passed out. Later again he awoke to a voice. "You will restore his hand, or I will kill you and leave you for him to eat, and find somebody more willing." A low feminine voice said. "Of course, please. It will take time is all." Someone touched the stump of his arm, and Korroth surged up with a roar. A hand grazed his shoulder and in the next instant he was in darkness again.

It was dark outside when he finally woke up again, and this time he felt more alert. Looking to his hand, he flexed the new appendage and slowly tried to rise. As he sat up right the door opened and a woman bustled in with a tray bearing a bowl, bread and a small jug. Korroth surged to his feet and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her from the ground with his newly restored choking hand. The tray hit the ground with a load bang and splashed soup across his feet. He noticed that she turned red rather quickly and loosened his grip slightly. "Where am I?" He growled, his red eyes burning into the human. She shook her head. "P-please I'm just a servant."

Another woman appeared in the doorway. "Now now Sir, there is no need to murder the staff. Let her go nice and easy." The woman said. "Its alright, no one will harm you." She said showing she had no weapons. After several tense minutes he dropped her. "Ha. As if you insects could harm me." He grumbled, and say on the bed. "Tell me where I am before I lose my patience and paint this room with your blood." The woman chuckled, ushering her servant out and leaning against the door frame. "You're in Karem. We dragged you out of that ravine and brought you here to heal. That was five days ago." She said. "I'm Lina Hargrave. From one legend to another, it's a pleasure to meet you Korroth Vex." She said.

Korroth shrugged. "That name means nothing to me." He said. If she was offended, the woman didnt show it as she smiled across the room at him. "I suppose you wouldn't. A mighty heanta has no time for the likes of lowely old me." She said. "Do not try to flatter me, wench." He warned. "Where is my armor and weapons." He said, standing up. "Safe. I had you're armor repaired." She said. Korroth took an unsteady step towards the door. "Bring me to it. I must depart." He said. She stepped back and nodded.

Ten minutes later, Korroth was back in his heavy plate, and though he felt weakened from his ordeal, the presence of his armor was a comfort. Heafting Empress' ruin he turned towards Lina. "I am leaving now. Move aside." He said. "Wait just a moment and hear me out please." She said. "If is reward you seek, then accept you're life as payment and count yourself lucky that I do not leave this building a bloody mess." Korroth said. Lina smiled at his threat. "Amusing, but no, I do not seek reward. I have a proposition for you. I would see you treated better and valued properly, for you are wasted on your warlord." She said. Korroth's eyes flashed. "Be careful what you say next, wench. I am loyal to the warlord." He said.

"Of course. But is he loyal to you, Korroth? An entire week you've been with us, and no one has come looking. Not the heanta you came here with, not any others and certainly not your warlord. They have abandoned you, cast aside like a-." Korroth let out a roar and grabbed the woman by the throat, lifting her off the ground. She stared back into his rage filled eyes and smiled. "Cast aside like a lame hunting dog. I would give you so much more than paltry scraps, Korroth." She fiinished with a slight smile. Korroth roared in her face, but she didn't flinch. In the end he dropped her, and stormed from the building, knocking aside a runt that had come running to see what was going on.

Practically kicking the door down, he surged into the streets and stormed towards the gates, but as he left the city, he couldn't help but hear her words repeat in his head. He made it only so far from the city, as he stopped in a small clearing and in a moment of reflection that turned to rage, he began to smash up the clearing, cutting through trees with his bardiche and punching wood to pulp as he raged against the world and the weakness that had likely lead to him being cast aside.

While the monster raged at both his own circumstances and the circumstances of his injuries received from the Eldari, a dark figure watched from a nearby brush. The stranger smiled beneath his hood as he assumed a shape that would garner the most attention from the ranging beast. Reading the beasts thoughts, the stranger grew to around six-and-a-half feet tall, his body becoming muscular but also athletic in build. He also conjured up a greatsword of an eerily similar design to the one that had claimed the beast's hand. The stranger grew long silver hair, tied back for combat, and looked up to reveal yellow eyes. The stranger stepped forward, making no effort to hide his approach. He stopped around 20 ft from Korroth, waiting for the beast to notice his approach before he spoke.

"I do not believe those trees will offer you sufficient challenge, Heanta." The stranger waited for the Heanta to make eye-contact before reaching up with one hand and lowering his hood to reveal his silver hair and his pointed ears. The stranger smiled with a smugness that was designed to enrage Korroth even more. He raised his weapon and assumed a combat stance, smile not breaking for an instant. "If I may. I believe I can present an appropriate challenge. Do you believe you can avenge your humiliating defeat at my hands?" The stranger's smug smile turned into a predatory grin. "Well? Will you fight me? Or has your defeat rendered you a coward?"

Korroth stilled as a voice spoke behind him, one he recognized but why he wasn't sure. He turned slowly to face the voice, his muscled rippling with rage. The stranger lowered his hood, and Korroths eyes flashed Red with hate as he recognized the Eldari that had cut off his hand. The man offered Korroth a second shot at him, and though something didn't sit right with what Korroth knew about the Eldari, he huffed out a growl and stomped a foot, widening his stance.  He had come back to finish the job, but his mistake was thinking that Korroth would so easily be overcome again. Last time they had faught, he was already damaged by the Hornless and Shor runts, and the knife eared fucker had caught him by surprise, but he was back at his peak now.

Still, Korroth hesitated, something he never did. He considered for a moment, that blind rage may not be the way to deal with this bastard. Atleast, that was his thinking until Eldari the proceeded to insult him. Korroth let out a howl of rage in answer to the mans challenge as fear emanated from him. "You cut off my favorite hand!" he roared as he charged across the clearing towards the Eldari. Korroth swung his Bardiche down aiming to cleave the man in half, but instead of letting the weapon hit the ground should the bastard refuse to die, he would pull it in and lower his head and sweep his horns towards the man's face. He had cut foes open easily with such a move.

Korroth wasn't done however, and aimed a slash towards the Eldari's legs. He would cut them off, and pin the fucker to a tree with his own sword to die slowly! He would chop him to in pieces, making sure that he didn't die until he had suffered the most excruciating agony. Korroth followed the low swing of his bardiche by releasing one hand an driving an uppercut upwards to the chin with his steel clad fresh hand.

The stranger continued to smile as Korroth seemed to stew on the the realization of who was taunting him. The Heanta's eyes seemed to glow with sheer rage as he recognized who the stranger appeared as, and he stomped the ground threateningly. Before Korroth attacked, however, the Heanta hesitated initially. But when the stranger offered the last insult, any hesitation the Heanta displayed disappeared in an instant as he howled with rage, bemoaning the loss of his hand. The stranger then turned serious as he widened his stance. "Well, at least you are symmetrical again."

Korroth charged in, aiming a devastating downswing with his bardiche. The stranger smiled and spun to the side. "That's more like it." Korroth then attempted to deface the stranger with his horns, and he responded by leaning back to avoid the horns. The stranger then jumped over the low sweep that followed, before raising his blade to block the uppercut with the flat of the blade. A shockwave was sent out as the force of the punch met the force of the stranger's defence. The stranger peered over his blade and smiled. "Not bad." The stranger leaped up into the air and dropped a heavy downward strike towards Korroth's dome. On landing, he used the momentum of the blade to carry through his attack and spun the sword around his head into a vicious horizontal slash. He then reversed the momentum and thrust hard with the blade towards Korroth's throat. He then jumped back, firing an ice orb toward Korroth as he leapt. He landed out of range and awaited the Heanta's response.

Korroth did feel momentary pain as the bastard blocked the sword with his new hand. Unlike his old hand, it lacked the calluses and scars from years of pitfighting. Soft. He hated soft things. The other Warrior jumped and slammed downwards with his big sword. Korroth gripped the bardiche inside the ring created by the first and second connection of the blade, and met the greatsword blade to blade. Before the weapon could slide, he then pushed it to the side, and then slammed the mace end towards back towards the bastard's knee.

Steel flashed as he spun the otherway, blade swinging around to hit Korroth's side. Korroth could not escape the attack, and backing up was never his way, so he stepped forward so that the lower end of the blade hit armor and most of the impact was nullified against the steel. It hurt, but he barely noticed. The heavy blow pushed him to the side and he stepped with it to avoid loosing his balance. The bastard was strong. When he reversed momentum and thrust at korroth's throat, Korroth, and as he did Korroth noticed that while he was faster than Korroth, he was not as fast as Korroth remembered. In the moment, he didn't pay much attention to it.

Moving his body to the side, metal sparked as the blade ran against the chainmail protecting his Neck harmlessly. The man jumped back and threw an ice orb at korroth. Korroth barely gave the bastard a second to retreat, and charged after him. He smacked the ice orb aside with his forarm, cold energy rippling across his armor and biting at the skin but doing little to deter him. As he closed he slammed the handle of his bardiche forward to unbalance the bastard so that he could hopefully break him with his follow up. Keeping a wide grip on the weapon, one hand still in the blade loop, he attacked with a blow from the head down towards the right shoulder, using his size advantage to push down harder, then brought the mace up towards his foes ribs on the left. He finished by roaring, letting out a blast of energy in a cone towards the man. it would deal weak damage, and weaken him. (Strength by one for 2 posts)

Korroth seemed to wince slightly when the stranger blocked the Heanta's punch with his blade. The stranger smiled, knowing that Korroth dealing with his new limb was all part of the trial. The momentary discomfort did not seem to deter the big Heanta for long, as the stranger expected. The spectre of Rowan Aratris was met in his downward strike by a firm and unyielding two-handed block. The stranger's weapon was pushed aside, but he simply turned with it and raised his leg into the air to avoid the mace strike to the knee, before continuing with his momentum reversal to bring his blade back across for his first horizontal swing. Korroth foil this by stepping into it to break the attack at its source, nullifying the impact considerably. It was still a solid hit, but Korroth's movement ensured that it was weakened enough that his armor could deal with the rest.

The stranger smiled as Korroth moved to the side to foil the second swing, before pressing the attack and charging straight towards the stranger, punching through the ice orb with indifference and moving in. The stranger braced, countering the handle smash with a standing block, not giving an inch. Korroth then followed up with a strike down on the stranger's shoulder, which the stranger turned and smashed to the side away from him with a disdainful shove from the flat of his blade. The counter nearly caught the stranger out, just about getting his blade back up in time to black the mace hit to his ribs, though the force smashed the flat of his blade into his and
the impact reverberated throughout his body. He then looked up to see Korroth open his mouth wide to let out a roar. The stranger activated the Energy Barrier spell, repelling the blast that came out of Korroth's mouth.

Giving no time to Korroth in return, the stranger immediately counterattacked. He lunged forward and smashed his sword towards the man with a ferocious overhand down strike, stepping forward with the attack to close the distance to his foe. The stranger then turned as the blade finished its downward arc and suddenly brought the pommel up sharply, aiming a brutal shot to the throat of Korroth. The blow probably wouldn't cause any lasting damage, but it would at least cause the Heanta to recoil if it hit. The stranger then immediately followed the pommel strike through with his blade, using the potential opening to swing hard for Korroth's neck again. before finishing by reversing the momentum of the blade and swinging hard and low at the Heanta's leg joint before jumping back out of range.

The stranger dealt with Korroth's onslaught well, though he nearly caught him out with the mace attack. He then threw up an energy shield, blocking korroth's blast. Then the stranger unleased a counter attack. Korroth raised his bardiche, catching the strike on his blade. He felt the difference in strength as he deflected the strike, mild as it was. The stranger aimed a pommel strike at Korroth's throat, and Korroth leaned slightly, letting it hit his shoulder to glance off. As the stranger followed up with a neck strike, Korroth activated his brutal defense abilty. The blade struck his neck and bounced off harmlessly, and gave Korroth time to block the low sweep that followed by swinging the mace end of his bardiche into the blade.

Immediately following that, Korroth brought the handle up thrust the mace end towards the strangers gut. He followed it with a swing of the blade towards the neck. Assuming he didn't take the man's head clean off, korroth released the top of the bardiche, letting the weapon swing wide as he grabbed the handle of his Long Knife, ripping it from it's sheath to slash several rapid times at the man's torso, before following up with a thrust towards the throat.

Korroth dealt with the stranger's counterattack deftly. The Heanta blocked the first strike with his blade, before leaning back to avoid the pommel strike, the blow glancing off the massive man's pauldron. The follow-up strike to the neck was dealt with in more direct fashion. As the stranger's sword connected with Korroth's neck, the weapon bounced off the man as if he was made of solid divinium. Korroth was then able to deal with the low sweep handily by meeting the stranger's blade with the mace on the end of the handle. Korroth then pressed immediately, catching the stranger out with a sharp mace thrust to the gut, which winded the stranger and forced him back. The stranger ducked the follow-up swing at his neck, before raising his blade striaght up in front of him, flat of the blade facing forward. He then moved his weapon from side to side to black the rapid longknife strikes. When Korroth finished with a violent thrust towards his throat, the stranger stepped to the side away from the bardiche, raising his blade quickly as he moved. The stranger thern brought the sword down aggressively, aiming to sever the Heanta's hand from the arm, just to see how Korroth would react.

Assuming the stranger failed to 'disarm' his opponent, he jumped back out of range of a retort and rubbed his gut with a smile. "Not bad. But surely, you can do better?" The stranger then shot forward, leading with an almighty sword thrust towards the Heanta's heart, one-handed in order to maximize range. He then spun the sword around his head to gain momentum as he sped in and swung viciously at Korroth's belt-line, before reversing the momentum of the swing and thrusting his weapon's pommel at the Heanta's faceplate and following the pommel thrust through with a two handed slash across the neck, before stepping back.

The stranger tried to severe Korroth's arm, but he wasn't about to be caught out again. He flicked the long knife up into the sword, blocking it and pushing it aside. The stranger jumped back and jabbered at him but Korroth was not in the mood to engage in worthless banter and lunged after him. This almost led him into taking a direct hit to the chest from a thrust, and the blade would have passed right through him had he not turned slightly. It hit the chest piece of his armor and diflected, sliding over the plate and catching under the pauldron. Steel rent as the sword ripped through metal. The stranger spun and swung at his otherside, and his wreckless charge forward paid off as his proximity meant when the stranger closed Korroth was too close for the swing to be effective, even as it clashed into Korroth's armor with a screech and the impact bruised.

He followed with a pommel strike to the face and Korroth moved his head enough that it missed, and brought his bardiche swiping around to knock away the strike to the neck as he used rage to increase his strength (+1). With a spin he lashed the bardiche around one handed in an attempt to smash the man from his path, and followed up with a punch from the hand holding his long knife. He threw his arms into a wide stance and attempted to tackle the man then, and if he happened to catch him he would wrap his arms around him in a crushing grip. If he missed or the man moved out of the way he would follow up by throwing the long knife with deadly accuracy.

As the stranger expected, Korroth made very sure not to suffer the same fate that had brought him here in the first place, flicking his weapon up into the strike to deflect his blade away from finishing its terminal dive towards his arm. The Heanta had apparently decided that the time for words was over, and simply charged at the stranger. This nearly resulted in Korroth running into the stranger's thrust, but the big Heanta managed to turn just in time to divert the thrust away from his vitals, the blade simply damaging armor and nothing more. The follow-up slash was dealt with in a similar fashion to before, with Korroth stepping in to dampen the force of the blow by moving inside the arc of the swing. The swing would have caused a bruise or two, but the brunt of the force was nullified. The Heanta moved his head out of the way of the pommel strike, before bringing the bardiche around to deflect the final neck slash.

However, there was far more strength behind this swing than what Korroth had displayed to this point, and the stranger was nearly knocked off balance by the sheer power of the block. Korroth followed up with a big swing to try and clatter the stranger out of his way, which the stranger dealt with by using his blade to tip the bardiche up over him as it swung past. This left him open to the punch from Korroth's other hand, the blow connecting with his face and knocking him back head-over-heels. He quickly flipped to his feet before leaping over the charging Korroth as the Heanta attempted to tackle him and flipping behind him and rolling to gain distance before he turned around. The stranger was struck in the shoulder as he turned while still crouched, and he looked down to see Korroth's longknife sticking out of his shoulder. The stranger smiled as he stood up and pulled the knife from his shoulder and assessed the lack of mobility in his left arm that this wound inflicted. "Not bad. Now you are getting it."

Discarding the weapon, the stranger activated his Tempest Blade. His sword was covered in a tempestuous aura that pulsed and changed wildly. The blade would weigh twice as much to anyone but the wielder, and a random elemental effect would be inflicted on a hit. The stranger charged forward, sliding low and aiming a passing slice at Korroth's knees as he slid past. He used two hands, though his power with his left was diminished from his injury. The stranger then swung at Korroth's belt-line again with all of the strength he could muster, stepping back at the same time in order to try and prevent his opponent from stepping in again. The stranger then suddenly sprung forward and attempted a double-leg takedown, leading with his good shoulder. If this failed the stranger wouldroll through and away to appraise the situation. If he managed to actually take Korroth down, he would drop a savage stomp on damaged area of his cuirass, aiming to drive the air out of his opponent, before stepping back again.

Korroth hit with the thrown sword, and the man took a moment to remove the blade from his shoulder before tossing it aside and activating a strange effect on his weapon. The man charged and tried to strike Korroth's knee's with a sliding slice. Korroth blocked the attack with the butt of his Bardiche, turning as the stranger swung low at him again. Korroth tried to close but the man was one step ahead of him this time and stepped back, resulting in a terrible screech as steel bent and tore. Korroth was forced aside as pain shot up his side and electricity jolted through him. He knocked the strangers sword away and took a quick glance at his side. His sheer size had saved him from lethal damage, and the armor stopped him from being bisected, as it was he ended up with a six inch rent in his armor and a cut that was atleast 3 inches deep into his side.

The stranger was on him again and grabbed both of his legs. His bardiche was knocked from his hands as Korroth slammed an elbow downwards as the stranger lifted him with great strength and tossed him onto his back. He quickly followed up with a stomp to Korroth's chest. Korroth caught the foot with one hand, then his other hand shot up to grip the back of the man's calf vicelike. If he did manage to secure his grip, he would roll, throwing the man to the ground before rising enough to surge forward and slam down hard with an elbow towards the man's chest.

If the man slipped out of his grip Korroth would roll to the side, pushing himself up to his feet before spinning around and attacking with a haymaker. Surging forward he would attempt to knock the sword from the man's hand before closing the distancing and unleashing a flurry of heavy punches on the Stranger.

Korroth dealt with the low strike deftly, checking it with the butt of his weapon. He was unprepared for the stranger's next attack though, and the adaptation of his tactics resulted in a solid hit that bit into the massive Heanta's side. The stranger knew that it was not as decisive a blow as it would have been were he facing a normal-sized foe, Korroth's armour and sheer bulk limiting the damage to a large rent in the man's side, deep enough to be felt but not deep enough to be fatal. The stranger had more success with his takedown, his tackle causing the huge warrior to come crashing down hard on his back. However, that was where the good fortune ended.

The stranger's attempted stomp was stopped dead in its tracks when Korroth caught his foot and lower leg with a vicelike grip, before rolling and hurling the stranger down in a heap. The Heanta tried to follow-up with a vicious elbow drop, but the stranger rolled out of the way and to his feet. Korroth was a step ahead though, and the stranger's vision blurred as the Heanta's fist collided hard with his head and sent him careening across the deck. Before he could gather himself he then found himself under intense attack as Korroth blitzed him with punches in bunches. The stranger was parrying rapidly, but he was losing ground.

Once the barrage stopped, the stranger found himself trying to catch his breath as he backflipped away to create some kind of separation. Once landed he used his Tempest Breath, launching a breath attack with wildly changing elements at his opponent, before following it in with a heavy down swing.

After Korroth's violent collection of punches, the winded warrior backflipped away creating distance. Korroth watched as the man's throat glowed, and he opened his mouth to unleash a blast of fire, cold, lightning and air swirled into a violent tempest. Korroth threw up his arms and crouched, lowering how much of him would be in the direct path of the blast and let the violent mix of energies wash over him. The force shoved him back and he braced himself with a foot to the back to stop himself falling and taking more damage.

As the energy subsided, Korroth rose to his feet. He now knew he did not face the Eldari from before. No, this creature was something different. Somehow, this made him feel better, as he shook off the damage from the blast and met the warriors eyes. The man lunged at him with a downward swing and Korroth side stepped it, letting the blade hit the ground. Then he threw a backhand with his gauntlet towards the stranger's face, while stomping on the blade with his foot in an attempt to know it free from the man's hands. If he did, he would snatch the handle, and attempt to cut the stranger in half with his own sword.

The stranger was unsurprised when Korroth managed to weather his latest barrage. The massive Heanta simply braced and reduced his profile to withstand the damage of the breath attack. When the attack subsided, Korroth was shaken but still upright, and there was a glint in his eye that conveyed a sense of understanding, as if the Heanta finally realized that he was not simply fighting the Eldari who had severed his hand before. The stranger continued with his attack, lunging forward with a downward attack. Korroth sidestepped the swing, and the stranger found himself ducking a backhand from his opponent. This left and opening however, and the stranger found his weapon being stomped out of his hand. As the stranger recoiled, Korroth picked up the weapon and swung savagely, aiming to bisect his opponent via the midriff. The weapon shimmered and faded out of existence, though it was clear the stranger would have been sliced in twain if it hadn't. The stranger smiled serenely as he too faded from existence, his voice echoing like a sound in the distance. "That's what I needed to see. Yet another barrier you have destroyed. Farewell... Hound of Kyrias." The stranger faded completely, leaving Korroth alone.

The weapon in Korroth's hand vanished before it touched its owner. Korroth relaxed himself as the man told him he'd seen what he wanted, and vanished. Korroth knew something had changed. His last strike had felt faster, more forceful. He could feel the black stone that was his demon matrix humming with power. His gaze turned North, toward Kyrias. Where his warlord waited. Or what had once been his warlord. The mighty warrior who had given Korroth a place, was no longer the same. Paranoia and fear had crept into him. He was not the same man, worthy of Korroth's loyalty. Korroth could not stand weakness. Korroth turned back towards Karem. No. He would not go back to Kyrias. It was time he made his own path.

It didn't take long to find his way back to the house he'd left in a rage. The door was back on its hinges just about, but that didn't stop him from kicking it down as he walked into the house. "You're back." Lina said from the first room inside the door. "Change you're mind?" She asked as Korroth stared at her. "No. You're offer is insulting. I won't work for you." He said. She frowned. "Then why are you-." She started but Korroth cut her off. "Partners or nothing. I kill for myself now. No one else." Lina gazed at him for several minutes, then nodded. "And I thought you were just a brute. Very well, Partner. We're going to turn this place on its head." She smiled, a look that promised chaos to the world. And Korroth found himself smiling back.