Thanks Phanjam, I hope everyone else is enjoying them too
Rumors abound of a cursed warrior-woman named DarkTails whose mercenaries are almost always slaughtered in horrific fashion. While lesser men would balk and refuse her gold no matter how high the pile, Lizardmen of all tribes have no fear of such a destiny, and gladly join her for free, in hopes of dying gloriously with their foes' entrails dangling from their jagged maw.
Newly knighted by the King of a faraway land after delivering his townspeople from the annihilating claws of a Champion Rainbow Dragon Kin of Death and Unholiness, SirLizbury's life's view of "every lizard for himself" changed forever. The former mercenary was touched by the gratitude and respect of the townpeople as they celebrated and honored him as one of their own, an act he knew was difficult for them because of the ancient bloodfueds between Man and Lizardkin.
Soon after, Sir Lizbury heard of the plight of Torchlight, of the foul deeds the creatures there committed in an attempt to ressurrect an ancient evil. He decided it was a battle that must be won by the forces of Good, so after many moons of travel he arrived at the beleaguered town and immediately seeked the woman called DarkTails to join her in the daunting quest.
Though he was late to the expedition, DT already having plunged over 30 floors into the maze of caverns, he knew the fiercest guardians awaited at those depths, and only the strongest of will and body could survive. Death was as common as the vultures that followed.
As if by Fate's cruel hand, one misfortune after another led to DarkTails taking an almost fatal poisoned hit with no means of escape after she and her weary party were pinned against the ragged walls of the underground fortress. If this woman died before she could recover, the whole of the Earth might fall soon after. They were outnumbered, outfoxed and out of time as the most brutal of abominations descended upon them like a storm of glass shards. There was no surviving this encounter.
Five Dragonkin spewed flames as two Blade Mistresses and their Priestesess minions darted at him from the right. One Mistress was enough to wreck a battalion, battling two were impossible odds.
"Take this!" cried the crumpled DarkTails from behind as she tossed her powerful shield to the defender.
"What will this charred piece of wood do against them, woman!?-"
He could scarcely finish the sentence when the Dragon Inferno licked his scaly hide. The shield was raised, and in an explosion of magic the fiery torrent was reflected at the beasts, melting eyes from their sockets and brains from their skulls, shattering the shield beyond repair.
A surviving Dragon rushed him as streams of lightning struck the stout Lizardman from a distance, but even while burned, dazed and half blind, the reflexes of an exprienced fighter prevailed and mercilessly shredded the raging monstrocity.
Priestesses dashed at the weakening warrior to pulverize his ailing bones.
"DOWN!" screamed DarkTails as Sir Lizbury rolled to the side and demonic heads were obliterated by a booming hand-cannon, giving the reptilian hero some respite.
Sir Lizbury glanced back at the usually witty woman and rasped, "What, no clever one-liners? No jokes about 'keeping one's head'?" An eyeroll showing more than simple sass was his only answer. She wasn't going to last much longer, he quietly wondered how long would he as blades sliced his chest and stomach, sending him spiraling to the floor.
"When was the lassst time we drank his kind's blood, sisster?", hissed the horned one as she licked her weapon.
"You can have him, sissster, I want the pretty one in back. I wager she tassstes devine-!!!"
"GGGRRRAAAARRRRLLLL!", emerged the gutteral warcry from the Lizardman as he rammed his spiked tail into the distracted and gloating devil's midsection. She doubled over, opening the opportunity for the warrior to chop her fanged head off.
A feral cry pierced his earholes as the remaining sister charged him. Her first slash cost Sir Lizbury a hand, the second cost her a leg, the third cost him a tail, the last cost her her life as it escaped through the gaping wound that used to be her neck.
He had bested two of this cursed world's finest warriors, but what little joy he had gained while bleeding out on the stone floor was quickly plundered by the sight of the approaching Ice Elemental.
Grimly he rose for no Lizardman has ever fought such an Elemental and lived. All have been buried alive in a frozen tomb of glaciers, dying alone and without honor. Ice was his kind's bane, it stiffened his muscles, weighed heavily on his eyelids, threatened to paralyze him at any moment, but today he would prove Lizardkin could defeat any foe, at any cost.
Sir Lizbury smeared his blade in a Mistresses bubbling blood then raked a nearby fire igniting the sword with an evil purple flame he hoped was hot enough to pierce the Elemental's armored surface. But first he pressed the flaming steel to his wounded wrist to seal the wound and infuse the wicked blood into his own bloodstream to leech the vitality need to vanquish this far superior enemy. He bolted for the creature.
Icy daggers tore at his flesh long before the Elemental was within reach, but the demon blood stitched the wounds before they became to great. Boulders and shrapnel crashed while blasts of cold magic froze the air around him, but the fire within him burned too hot to notice.
Sir Lizbury, Champion of the Innocent, Knight of Unmatched Bravery, Paragon of Ass-Beatery in All it's Forms, leaped and lunged at the horror with a soul-melting cry that neutralized even the most powerful frostbiting spells it could frantically hurl at him, and smiled at what he saw in its eyes. For the first time in history, he had shown a cold emotionless Ice Elemental what it was like to be afraid.
As the two challengers collided, blazing steel melted, slashed and crushed through layers of ancient ice, forcing its way into the monster's hidden heart. The Lizardman was first to fall and lay limply under the hovering Ice Elemental, looking at it with half-parted lips, almost in disbelief, as it tried to cling to its last moments of unnatural life. But finally, it too fell.
Of all the golden riches the Elemental's heart had spurted, the most valuable was a single Health Potion.
DarkTails woke-up after what seemed days, surrounded by a pile of dead enemies, an empty potion bottle in one hand, and a pet that couldn't remove the cork stuck in its teeth after opening the bottle for her to drink. DarkTails remembered the battle and reluctantly looked around for her friend for she knew what must have happened.
There, only a stone's throw away, she found Sir Lizbury, buried under a frozen pile of rocks.
(Hint hint from the comments of those who applied the patch the original Zealots seemed to be UBER strong so imagine my mercs...)(Still my zealots have some skills removed so they may be less strong than the original).
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