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The Kh't'ri Fortress had been built thousands of years ago, by an unknown race of beings. It covered thousands of hectares, and was made from a strange black stone. Four pyramids stood at each of the Fortress' four corners. They were made from normal stone, but were covered in strange markings and symbols. At the entrance to each one, two obelisks stood, also covered in the strange writings. Embedded within the stone from which the obelisks were made, there were many red gems. The Fortress' exterior was far different to its interior. Inside, near the entrance, there was a massive room. Its floor was covered in the same markings that adorned the pyramids. From the floor, arches extended up and over the room and they too were covered with writing. Straight ahead from the entrance was were the Grand Corridor started. Its dimensions were massive; it was easily a kilometer tall and it stretched as far as the eye could see, and beyond. Huge arches, designed to take the weight of the roof, were spaced every few hundred meters. Everything seemed to be covered in the same script. Even though people had been living there for hundreds of years, it still wasn't all explored. There were rumours of strange creatures inhabiting the lower levels, but no one took them seriously. Even the lowest class rooms were covered with gold and gems. It was a magnificent structure. Then came the Dark. When they attacked twenty years ago, nothing stood in their way. The Kh't'ri Fortress' mighty walls collapsed under the onslaught. The Grand Corridor was reduced to blackened stone, and thousands died there alone. Only the pyramids survived the first attack, but the second destroyed them completely. Against the Dark, nothing could survive. Fortunately for the Death's Head Strike Force, there didn't seem to be any Fallen still here. The Death's Head Strike Force was a fanciful name for the motley band of Light troops that wandered the lands, destroying the Fallen whenever they were encountered. Even though they were a bit low on troops, the ones they had were hardened veterans. No one in the Strike Force had less than fifty kills. "We'll camp here for tonight," called ko'Angski, the leader of the archer contingent and the Strike Force. The rubble of The Kh't'ri Fortress provided a perfect camp site. The few remaining walls were high enough to see the surrounding land, and there was so much rubble on the ground that it was impossible to walk without being heard. The sentries were organised, and everyone was just drifting off to sleep. Suddenly, the sentries horn sounded, signifying there was something alive here. Everyone was awake in an instant. ko'Angski squinted, and could barely make out the shapes of thrall, lumbering towards them. "Everyone get ready!" ko'Angski called out. "There won't be just thrall." The words were barely out of his mouth when out of the corner of his left eye he noticed several soulless moving stealthily towards the camp. "Soulless coming. Get them!" he bellowed. The archers took aim at the closest of the floating nightmares, and fired. It fell almost immediately, the foul magic that kept it alive dispersing into the air. A second hail of arrows rained down, destroying another of the soulless. Meanwhile, the berserks were struggling with the thrall, in danger of being overwhelmed by the thralls superior numbers. The warriors, led by Captain Azrael, charged into the thrall formations flank, cutting a swath through the foul creatures. After losing several of their number, the slow witted thrall finally woke up to the fact that they were being attacked and some of them turned towards the warriors. Turgeis and his berserks charged into the fray, their claymores no more than silver blurs as they struck down thrall after thrall. One of the dull witted thrall swung its axe clumsily at Turgeis' head, but he ducked it easily and swung his claymore backhand at the thrall's chest. It hit, and cut the thrall cleanly in half. There were so many thrall that a swing that killed one turned into a block that stopped an axe cutting off a head. The sea of thrall kept coming, and Turgeis and his men kept cutting them down. There wasn't really any contest; between the berserks driving a wedge into the front of the thrall formation and the warriors cutting through the side, the thrall quickly fell. While they were fighting, however, no one had noticed the stealthy approach of a squad of myrmidons. One of the warriors screamed, and the others turned towards the source of it. At least thirty or forty myrmidons were running towards the warriors. "Over here!" Azrael bellowed to the berserks, then dived into the sea of myrmidons. As they didn't know what was coming, several myrmidons fell to the claymores of the berserks, before about half of the foul creatures turned towards them. Azrael swung his sword at one of the foul myrmidons but was blocked by one of its two Gridaksma Blades. He saw the other one coming in at his chest, and swung his shield up to block it. The myrmidon's blade hit the shield with a dull thud, and Azrael swung it back down, and brought his sword down to cleave off the myrmidon's head. The Kithless tried to block Azrael's blow, but was just a hair too slow. The decapitated corpse fell to the ground, disintegrating as it hit. Azrael ducked another's wild swing and brought his blade up to strike the myrmidon between its ribs. "Get the rearmost Fallen, you're less likely to hit our men!" ko'Angski ordered the archers. The rain of arrows shifted to the rear of the myrmidons formation, and ko'Angski caught a glimpse of the bodies of several Kithless on the ground before the dust from their corpses rose up to engulf the scene. Behind him, one of the archers screamed. ko'Angski whirled around, just in time to see a ghol finishing off one of the archers. ko'Angski reached down to his boot and brought out a long, curved blade. He flung it at the ghol, and hit it in the eye. It screamed and went down. ko'Angski walked over to retrieve the blade when he heard a sound being him and turned. A ghol was standing over him, meat cleaver in hand ready to strike. The ghol brought the cleaver down, and ko'Angski rolled out of the way. On the way through, he punched upwards, hoping to hit the ghol. His hand met something solid, and the ghol growled. ko'Angski got to his feet and noticed his roll had brought him to the ghol which had his blade embedded in its eye. He yanked it out and turned around. Again, the ghol swung its cleaver down, and again ko'Angski rolled out of the way. But this time he rolled underneath the ghol and jabbed upwards with his blade. The ghol screamed, and collapsed on top of him. Breathing heavily, ko'Angski got to his feet and looked around. The berserks and warriors were still in combat with the myrmidons, and several ghols seemed to have joined the fray. Deciding the ghols posed the greatest threat should they come over to where ko'Angski and his men were, he ordered his archers to concentrate on the ghols. Most of the arrows hit, and several ghols went down. So far, the battle seemed to be going reasonably well. As Turgeis finished off the last of the myrmidons, he looked around. The carnage was absolute. The thrall were covered in a thin layer of dust from the myrmidons, and the myrmidons themselves were nowhere to been seen, as they had disintegrated. Sweating, Azrael and the captain of the berserks, Turgeis with Burning Steel, walked over to where ko'Angski and his archers were. They raised their eyebrows, as if asking "What now?". "We'll have to move," ko'Angski answered their unspoken question. "The only place where the Dark haven't gotten to yet are the Cloudspine Mountains. We can't go over the trails, so we must forge our own path. Get the men packed up and ready. We leave at first light." Azrael and Turgeis nodded and called out the orders to their men. By dawn, they were trudging along up the Cloudspine Mountains. Already it was noticibly colder, and the trees of the lowland had given way to small shrubs, and then simple grasses. By the time they reached the summit, snow covered everything. Fortunately, it was a clear day, and they could look al the way down the Mountain's other side. As it was too dangerous to light a fire right on the top of the Cloudspine, the scouts found a cave that was reasonably well protected from wind, and could easily fit the other men. Everyone was silent as the fire was lit. Soon after, they were all talking and feasting on small mountain cats. To be Continued...

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