Trial of Sacrifice: Rona'zae

[Rona'zae]

((Hello all! I wanted to do a bit of a different format for this report, to give some people a chance to be included in the story if they so choose. I didn’t just want to take control of other people’s characters, I’m making it a bit more open ended so others can react to the story as it’s happening, instead of just recounting the story via the letter’s words Enjoy!))

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The following letter, contained within an envelope simply marked “Rona’zae’s Trial” in a familiar, blocky text, details the events of the Shadow Hunter’s Trial of Sacrifice. While the report itself is short, memories of the challenge spring to life, a vivid retelling of the conflict playing in the reader’s head…

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The blazing, relentless sun beat down upon the dried plains of The Barrens in western Durotar. A wide open area, just west of the small encampment known as The Crossroads, held a series of cages, along with a few members of the Horde in trapper’s leathers. A male Orc and Goblin each eyed the cages, covered by sheets to hide the contents within. Of course, they could not hide the savage sounds of beastial protest errupting from the confines of each of the steel prison boxes. The Goblin flinched away, his eyes trailing to the nearby group of gathered Horde members, eyes locking onto a female Troll, kneeling in what appeared to be meditation.

The Shadow Hunter known as Rona’zae did not often take the time to commune with the Loa. She thought it pointless, because they were always there, watching, judging, offering their blessing to those who earned it through their actions. But today, there was one Loa who she thought it best to reach out to. She whispered words in Zandali, the language common among the Troll people, a prayer of pleading with the Loa of Death, Bwonsamdi. Whether the trickster could hear her words from the far reaches of Kalimdor, she could not say. But, she offered her whispers, regardless. The message was simple; see her friends safely to the Other Side.

She stood up, exhaling deeply through her nose, eyes of blazing orange focusing on the cages straight ahead of her. Her head turned to look the group behind her, the dusty winds of the Barrens causing her azure mohawk to sway slightly with its touch. The members of The Grim who had an interest in seeing her Trial of Sacrifice, watched on in silence, expectant looks on some of their faces, and perhaps boredom on others. She nodded swiftly to them in acknowledgement, and returned her fiery stare forward. This was not a time for her usual banter of jokes and inappropriate commentary.

Her bare feet carried her forward, while at the same time she reached onto her back, unbuckling her favored spear from its holster there. It was a lance of wood and bone, adorned at the top with the skull of what appeared to be a combination of a boar’s tusks and a reptilian beast’s head. Other, smaller skulls adorned the weapon, and a counterbalance of True Iron rested at the butt of the shaft. Now her eyes were locked onto the set of cages, set a few dozen yards ahead of the group. Her heart grew heavy for a moment, and her stomach twisted into knots of anxiety. But, she did not falter. Not for a moment.

Eyes of shimmering orange locked onto the Orc trapper. They exchanged a wordless dialogue, and he nodded, moving into position by the first of the cages. With a swift motion, he yanked the cloth from the cage, revealing the prisoner within: a shimmering blur of buzzing wings and glistening carapace the color of snow. Multifaceted eyes darted around wildly, taking in the environment while it hovered in place. A wicked pair of scythe-like claws flicked here and there, as if testing something in the air, and a sharp, poison-tipped stinger dripped a small bit of its venom to the floor of the cage.

“Zinsha.” the Shadow Hunter called. The Silithid wasps head shot around quickly to the direction of the call, and its buzzing increased, becoming a maddening hum beating against the arid air of The Barrens. It rushed forward, slamming into the bars of the cage, its maw making chattering sounds of furious, unbridled hatred. The Orc trapper, giving one final glance towards Rona’zae, moved to the front of the cage, and tugged on a lever at the side. With an ominous crash of shifting metal, the cage door flung open from the mechanism, and without hesitation, the Silithid wasp blurred forward, its form becoming nothing more than a sharp contrast of white against the brown of Durotar’s desert foliage. Within seconds, it was upon the Darkspear Troll, and the Trial of Sacrifice began in earnest.

With practiced, predatory motions, the Silithid assaulted Rona’zae with a series of slashes and bites from its claws and mandible. Its wings beat in fury, darting in random directions, aiming for any sort of weakness in the Shadow Hunter’s defenses. But the Huntress was matching the wasp’s attacks with deft use of her spear. Each bite, each slash, collided with the powerful wood of the skull-tipped weapon, each impact ringing over the plains of Kalimdor like a thunder clap.
The wasps strategy shifted suddenly in the middle of an exchange of blows. It faded backwards, wings nothing but a solid blur of silver, gaining some distance between the huntress and itself, before it took to the sky. The trolls eyes followed, watching its ascent, hands gripping tightly onto her spear. The silithid moved to position itself in front of the relentless gaze of the sun, obscuring its form as it shimmered forward once more, diving with ferocious speed to strike at the supplicant. Against the rays of the sun, the glistening white carapace of the silithid became as a mirror, reflecting the blinding beams down to its target. It readied its stinger, and chittered madly, preparing to land a finishing strike.

The two collided with a crash. The furious screeching of the wasp shifted to something more panicked, more anguished. Rona’zae knelt down before the form of the creature, her arms extending her spear pointed at an angle towards the sky. The wasps form twitched and shuddered, impaled upon the end of the huntress’ weapon. Its stinger was extended, and was just a few inches from piercing the exposed skin of the supplicant’s stomach. It buzzed furiously one last time, attempting to free itself from the dooming sting of the spear, but green ichor spilled from its wound, released by the insectoids protest. It chittered again, and slumped.

Rona’zae lowered her spear, and with a swift, practiced motion, removed the weapon in a single stroke. Her vision blurred for a moment, but she inhaled sharply, stepping over the corpse of her former companion, the silithid still twitching every now and again, but never enough to be a threat. The pair of trappers starred, jaws agape. She didn’t bother to look at the reactions of The Grim behind her. They were not important at the moment. A swift nod of her head signaled the Orc trapper once more, and he moved to remove the second sheet from the cage.

This time, a deafening roar in two different octaves pierced the still air of the Barrens. A monstrous form, with aspects of a lizard, a lion, and a bat, was already focused intently on the huntress. A pair of heads at the end of long necks, each covered in rock hard scales, hissed and screeched towards the Darkspear troll, and it slammed its bulky form against the entrance of the prison that held it. The Orc moved much swifter than before, slamming the lever down. A familiar, mechanical sound boomed, and the cage was open. The Goblin trapper, meanwhile, cowered near the third cage as the Chimera roared in challenge. It burst from its confines, lumbering forward, two pairs of jaws gnashing and foaming, eyes glistening with a feral bloodlust.

Rona’zae spun her spear once into a defensive position, focus locked on the approaching beast. The creature roared again, using its winged arms and powerful legs to propel itself forward at the speed of a Direhorns charge. The very ground it stomped across seemed to buckle and give just slightly at the sheer might of the Chimeras stride. And then, without much warning, the pair of heads opened the jaws wide, each letting out juts of breath, one of flame, one of frost, towards their target. The trolls eyes widened in surprise. Moving one of her hands from her spear, she quickly reached into a pouch at her hip. With a single, well practiced motion, she flicked a small sphere towards the oncoming cascade of Frostfire breath. The Wildfire Grenade connected with the conflicting elements, and burst into a cloud of flame and shrapnel. Bits of metal were flung in all directions, and were not very picky about who they struck.

A pair of pain-induced screeches erupted from the Chimera’s throats. The huntress winced, stumbling back a few steps, her hand over her exposed stomach. Lacerations dotted her armor, and trickles of lifeblood ran down her arm and stomach. A piece of metal stuck straight out from her leg, though it wasn’t large enough to be a real threat to her life. The Chimeras enraged blast of Frostfire breath was so intense, that it appeared to have deflected much of the sharpnel away from itself, though it wasn’t entirely unscathed. The lumbering form of the enraged beast rolled forward through the remnants of the explosion, and its lashing heads stretched forward to rip into their former companions hide.

The Shadow Hunter lept backwards with surprising agility, removing a small, bolt action crossbow from her side. A single bolt sailed through the air, colliding with the tough, scaled hide of her prey, the venomous projectile sinking into its flesh just enough to deliver its potent bite. But the Chimera didn’t falter in the slightest. It continued on, its eyes nothing more than pinpoints of pure, dark, blood-crazed madness. It was upon the huntress again, striking with an intensity that shook the very ground they stood upon. Razor-like teeth lashed here and there, but the master of the spear blocked and parried blow after blow. She was forced to back up with each strike, however, and she would not be able to keep up the pace forever.

And then, a high pitched scream echoed over the din of the battle. Rona’zae, focused entirely on the fight with her Chimera, could not spare the glance over at the sound of the wail. But the sound of another beast, this one more maddened and ravenous than any of the other beasts she had offered in her Trial of Sacrifice, cascaded over the plains. Screeches and roars and cries and screams, accompanied by the sound of flesh pounding against metal, caught the attention of the Orc trapper. He rushed to the sound, and upon realization of what was happening, opened the final cage in a panic.

The sound of a lithe form carried by sharp, talon tipped feet could just barely be heard over the dying gasps of the source of the agonized screams, the Goblin trapper. He lay at the side of the cage, mauled and beaten and savaged, no doubt by the inhabitant of the final cage. A rush of red scales kicked up a trail of dust clouds behind it, and the shrill of challenge of one of the most dangerous predators on Azeroth, a raptor, echoed over the sounds of struggle between the Chimera and Rona’zae.

The slender, powerful form of the raptor leapt through the air, carried several yards by its powerful legs, and landed squarely on the back of the attacking Chimera. The raptor roared, and began goring the back of the beast it stood upon. The Chimera, its attention now away from the huntress, roared in agony, and its heads whipped around to attempt to get the attacker off of its back. But the bloodthirst raptor was clearly the more adept predator. It raised its jaws to fend off the Chimeras defensive strikes, while its razor tipped talons continued to rip chunks of rock hard flesh from the two-headed beasts back. The struggle was brief, and savage. The Chimera, exhausted by its fight against Rona’zae, could not stand up to the unbridled fury of the crimson scaled raptor. It gave one last roar of protest, and fell to the dirt below it, the heavy form of the beast kicking up dust clouds all around it.

The Shadow Hunter stared, wide eyed, at the spectacle. Blood continued to run down from her numerous wounds from the shrapnel. She stood tall, eyes narrowed at the Raptor, who had now completely shifted its attention from its prey, to the challenger that stood before it. A harsh wind blew over the battlefield. The Raptor was breathing heavily, saliva dripping from its freshly bloodied maw, reptilian gaze locked entirely on Rona’zae. The Darkspear troll did not move. The slightest of smiles played upon her lips as she stared down her former companion.

“Lash an’ Gash was s’posed ta be my kill, old friend. Ya know I can’t be lettin’ ya get away wit dat, now.” she said to the Raptor. The predator narrowed its own eyes, and let out a hiss of challenge at the troll. Rona’zae began to move, strafing slowly to the side to try and get herself a bit of distance, as well as a favorable position against her maddened beast.

“I nevah did give ya a name. Didn’ feel right, ya know?” she said, her set of blazing orange eyes locked onto the Raptor’s yellow, cat-like focus. “Ya were too savage. I don’ even think I really eva tamed ya, seein’ as ya were da first of me friends. It was more like… a huntin’ pack, den a friendship, wasn’ it?”

The raptor hissed again, though softer this time, as if in agreement. It moved from the back of the Chimera, stalking slowly towards the troll, its breathing intense and fast. The Shadow Hunter spun her spear around to a defensive position once more, and she smiled to the nameless companion before her. What felt like an eternity of the two simply watching one another passed, before they moved at almost the exact same instant. The blood-crazed raptor moved forward in a blur of speed, becoming a streak of red against the blue, midday sky of the Barrens, while its opponent covered ground in a similar sprint. Dust burst from their wakes, and within moments, the two collided.

The raptor began savaging the troll, using every sharpened tool at its disposal. Claws raked, jaws snapped, tail lashed. But the supplicant was delivering similar blows at every turn. Strike after strike was parried by either side, their weapons meeting in thunderous crashes. It seemed that every pair of eyes in the immediate area was locked on the conflict, from prairie dogs to stalking lionesses, even a pair of zevra watched as the two struggled to land a solid blow against one another.

The nameless, blood-maddened raptor, apparently aware enough to note their stalemate, shot back into the air with a powerful push of its legs, propelling itself a few yards away from the Darkspear. But, she was ready for this tactic. With a mastered motion, she spun her spear once, moving it to buckle back onto her back. Halfway through the movement, she began to turn as well, and was already reaching for a chain on her belt. With a flick of her wrist, the chain unwove itself from its bundle, and at the loose end of the links, a simple harpoon was attached. While she finished the movement, she hurled the harpoon with a surprising amount of force, and it screamed as it pierced the air, closing the distance between the huntress and her prey in a breath.

Suspended in mid air and at the mercy of the forces of gravity, the raptor was unable to avoid the well-aimed harpoon. It struck home, sinking deep into the scaled hide of the target. The mechanism of the harpoon activated almost immediately, and with a tug of the chain along with a pull from Rona’zae’s end, both Shadow Hunter and alpha predator were pulled towards one another. She angled herself, retrieving her spear from its holster on her back, and spun it deftly as she traveled to meet her former hunting companion. The beast screeched in protest, its lithe form twisting in agony as the metal protrusion forced it down towards the Huntress.

Their eyes locked, one final time. The hunter was upon her prey.

A screech of agony. A cry of pain. A thud into the dusty earth.

And then, silence.

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...the letter ends, with a simple statement: “Peace through Annihilation”. Along with the letter, a package was included. It was heavy, and large, big enough to fit a tauren in. Opening the package, addressed to one “The Cold Hand, Inquisitor Khorshah”, would reveal a set of trophies; a pair of monstrous skulls, similar in shape and structure. A glistening head of a white insectoid, segmented eyes locked in a distant, soulless gaze. And finally, the recognizable shape of a medium sized, reptilian creature, its jaws lined with savage looking blades of teeth.

Along with the package, a single note was included on the inside of it. In Rona’zae’s simple, blocky script, it simply read: “Delivered, as promised.”

[Qabian]

Qabian had arrived late and left early for Rona'zae's sacrifice, but he had watched some of it, what he thought was enough. He had killed his fair share of beasts over the years, but he had rarely had reason to consider doing so a challenge, rather than a chore.

He supposed there was some sense to the troll's choice. The animals a hunter had trained to fight alongside them were probably those most likely to prove a challenge. Why bother training them otherwise?

But when he'd asked for Khorshah's help, the tauren had put his mark down to watch the Shadow Hunter, so Qabian left the details of the sacrifice's sufficiency unargued.

As he sorted through a pile of books left in the hall outside what would be his new office, Qabian noticed Rona'zae's package of trophies, and decided to read her report out of nothing more than curiosity. The magic around the words provided a different perspective than the one he'd had from his time outside the ring, an enlightening one, yes, but he was more impressed with the magic itself and wondered where and how Rona'zae had managed that.

The tale that played out made adding his mark to the letter seem pointless and possibly risked interfering with magic he didn't understand, so Qabian left the pages unchanged as he replaced the report in its envelope. Khorshah had already given his approval. The deed was done.