The legends say that even the smallest cut made by the blade forged of such steel could turn the man insane, for it channeled the powers of Goru'noth, the entity that dwelt beneath the mountain. A dark deity that manifested as a deformed mass of flesh beneath the stone.

  The story of how he came to be is too long to be mentioned here, but what is important is that he is the incarnation of Aroseth, the god of chaos and leader of the rebellion that lost the battle against Xorael in the War of the Gods almost four thousand years ago,

  and as a punishment for his rebellion, he was sealed beneath the earth for centuries. Yet the whispers grow louder, telling prophecies of his return. The very mountain he was sealing beneath became Nal'gorah, the blackened hold.

  The cursed mountain where no man dares to trespass, where the wind whispered beneath the peaks, and beneath the mountain, there is an entrance to Tharvalok, the hellish realm of Naldir, the god of fire.

  "Nuula!“ He yelled, and his voice echoed through the cavern, and soon after, the pale shape dashed before him. It was a Gorugolm, the race simply known as the angels of chaos.

  In the war of the gods, the seven gods joined Aroseth in his attempt to overthrow Xorael, and with them they brought Alofyr, the servants of the gods, the winged immortal humanoids that were created to serve the divine. Most of them remained with Xorael; however, some of them swore their allegence to his rival's cause. They were proclaimed the traitors, and their power of flight was stripped from them; they lost their wings, and they were cast down onto the earth. Their forms were forever changed, turning them into beasts.

  Their only purpose was to serve Aroseth, and hence the name Gorugolm, simply meaning "lord's servants."

  Nuula was one of them; she was much taller than most of the men, and her skin was as pale as snow, for it had seen no light of the sun for centuries. The Gorugolm are an immortal race; they cannot die of illness or old age. But after the fall of Aroseth, the ages spent beneath the earth changed their form. Her teeth were long and sharp, resembling the fangs of a wolf, and her mouth was almost as wide as her face. Her nose was merged with her face, and her eye sockets were seemingly empty.

  Nuula's appearance was deeply unsettling, for it was a rare sight to encounter a gorugolm, even for the ur'gluns. But unlike most of them who lived deep beneath Nal'gorah, Nuula was an outcast, much like Nal'zuk.

  She often dwelt among the mortals.

  "What is it?“ She asked. She did not seem happy about Nal'zuk interrupting her.

  "Make yourself ready; there will be a battle tonight!“

  "I am ready,“ she replied, her armor and weapons were already on her during her training, which she repeated most of the time for centuries that she spent beneath the earth.

  Nal'zuk walked back towards the surface, and she followed him. The closer to the surface they got, the louder the screams and grunts could be heard echoing through the caverns as the ur'gruns beat on their drums and sounded their horns while the entire tribe sharpened its weapons.

  The chieftain stood upon one large stone and yelled,

  "Behold! My servants! This is the hour of reckoning for those who dare to trespass upon us! Mankind will lose its champion, and the forces of will reign supreme!" His shouts echoed through the mountain as the shamans burned the herbs and filled the entire place with smoke, and soon, the whole pack was ready.

  With their visions clouded, they rushed out from the mountain, chasing after the human patrol, each of them more furious than the one before him, deeply consumed by the spell-induced battle trance brought upon them by the shamans.

  Meanwhile, the men continued boldly, following Nogryl. By that time, they were already drunk and unafraid to die. Some were tired, but the tiredness was quickly cast away by the chants.

  Suddenly a sound of the horn echoed, and they followed it through the dark woodland.

  The whole group rushed behind their leader to the glade deep in the forest before the hill. And atop the hill there was the ur'glun chieftain standing and blowing the horn. The men quickly formed into a formation, and the silence suddenly prevailed.

  In front of the formation stood Nogryl with his sword unsheathed, and behind him, a group of men with spears pointing outwards in every direction.

  The leaves and branches shuffled in the woodland, and the silence was broken by the sound of growls as the beasts jumped out of the forest and rushed towards the formation of men. They ran through the forest of spears with their shields raised high and they clashed against the men.

  Many were left pierced by the longer weapons, yet the others managed to break the shield wall, and the ferocious fighting ensued.

  The flanks were overran first, and the middle of the formation where Nogryl stood remained strong, despite the whole battlefield descending into the mess. The weapons shone beneath the moonlight, and the sound of steel clashing against steel sounded through the forest as they swung to maim and kill. The air was filled with the sound of growls and grunts, the sound of armor breaking, and the blood splattering on the forest floor.

  Nogryl impaled one of the beasts in the initial charge on his sword, and before he could kick his dead body off his blade, another two rushed at him. The spear broke against his chestplate, and a swing of an axe stuck against his hip, his armor sustained the blow.

  He quickly pulled his blade from the dead body as the two ur'gluns braced their axe and a sword. Human's heavy swings would break the weapons and armor, maiming his foes on impact. He swung widely towards one of the ur'gluns, and as the blade cut through the axe hand,

  the dark iron helmet was smashed in half and the black blood was spilled. The other beast quickly leaped on Nogryl and stabbed the gap between his helmet and his shoulder plate with its sword, yet the chainmail coif managed to greatly reduce the stab.

  Bleeding from the received blow, Nogry let out a loud groan as he grabbed the monster by his shoulder and threw him on the ground before finishing him with a sword cut to the chest, nearly splitting him in half.

  In that moment, he spotted a hooded ur'grun aiming his bow at him. The dark arrow already flew through the air, but Nogryl quickly angled his body, and his armor deflected the projectile, leaving nothing more than a long scratch across his chestplate.

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  Behind him, the group of men were outnumbered by the ur'gluns, and their formation was broken. The savage beasts pierced the armor with the blows of their crude, dark weapons; the limbs were cut and the heads were rolling on the ground.

  In the middle of that bloodshed, young Henry threw his spear against one of the beasts and pulled out his sword, charging into the fray to finish him with a quick cut that nearly severed its head.

  The blood sprayed over the young man's face, but he seemed too battle-crazed to even notice. He let out an enraged roar and charged straight at the ur'glun chief, clad in full armor and taller by the head than the rest of his kin.

  He raised his shield high and roared as he charged, but the blow of an axe nearly sent him flying as he fell to the ground. The beast lifted its axe high to finish the young man, but the older guard from before interrupted it with a shield charge.

  Before the chief could turn, the man landed a blow of his sword straight to his shoulder, barely even piercing his armor. The blow was quickly followed by another blow to his chest, but the sword simply glanced off.

  The kick of an iron boot to the abdomen pushed the man off his balance as the swing of a large axe pierced his chainmail armor and went deep into his chest. The older guard was left coughing and bleeding as enraged Henry stood up and charged the beast and mounted it's back,

  stabbing it with a sword rapidly, piercing his neck multiple times as the beast fell on the floor, and Henry continued stabbing through rage until the beast stopped moving.

  From a nearby tree, a pale form in a dark cloak landed in the middle of a fight. As soon as she realized the formation is broken and the spear wall is overran by ur'gluns, Nuula jumped into the fray.

  Her body was covered in leather armor with some iron parts, and she had two dark swords. They were long and curved and pitch black in color, and they were of a much finer making than the ones that ur'gluns had.

  Their color was much darker, but they still reflected the moonlight, for such was the appearance of valkrulnal.

  As soon as she landed, she swung both her blades at the nearby guardsman, the first swing severing his arm so he could not parry, and shortly after, the second swing cutting his head clean off.

  A second guard rushed to bash her with his shield, but a kick of her boot stopped him in tracks, and a quick slice of a blade cut straight through his neck.

  He quickly fell dead, gurgling on his own blood. It was simply obvious that the common guardsmen trained for a couple of years were no match for a much larger, much stronger, and much more agile gorugolm that had eternity to train and hone their skills.

  Nogryl saw that and charged at her, swinging a massive blow towards her, but she deflected it's force with her left-hand sword, and while moving aside to dodge the blow in a quick spin, she penetrated the Nogry's back armor with another blade, barely missing his spine.

  He stumbled for a couple of steps and turned around to face his opponent again, parrying a swift swing of a sword before being stabbed in the chest with another blade. The stab broke through the armor, but most of its force was stopped by the steel, so it did not go deep into his flesh.

  He attempted to punch his foe with his fist, but Nuula dodged his attack, which was quickly followed with a diagonal swing of the sword from a human champion.

  She managed to parry it with her blades crossed, and two combatants found themselves looking at each other's faces across their blades. Nuula's face was pale, much like her white hair, but her eyes were empty. Nothing could be seen inside her eye sockets, but a thick darkness. She had no lips, and her monstrous teeth were uncovered. Nogryl remembered the old tales of gorugolm, but he knew that not many were encountered for thousands of years, that they became creatures of legend and myth, yet there was one standing right in front of him as they were crossing their blades in this very moment.

  Her head suddenly dashed forward in a quick motion, and her mouth opened wide, biting Nogry's entire helmet right off his head. Nogryl is a brave man, but what just happened left him in shock and reminded him that what he is dealing with is not an ordinary humanoid.

  He quickly jumped back and parried an incoming swing with his bracer. The blow was so hard that it managed to cut through the armor and it left his arm bleeding, but he quickly grabbed his sword with both his hands and slashed towards his opponent.

  The creature jumped back to avoid the attack, but the tip of the sword managed to cut into the exposed stomach of the beast. Her blood was pitch black, and it was quickly evaporating into a thick back smoke.

  Witnessing that, she threw a handful of throwing daggers from her waist that barely pierced the Nogryl's armor, but before he could react, she disappeared into the dark woodland.

  After the battle trance has left him, Nogryl realized that the whole battlefield is on fire. The oil has spilled from a dropped lantern of a slain guardsman, and the fire has caught the forest.

  Henry could be seen running around and spreading the flames with a torch as both ur'gluns and men scattered. The men quickly grouped around Nogryl as the beasts ran in every direction.

  After escaping from flames, the group stopped to catch a breath.

  "We must leave her, Nogryl; there is no chance to save her now,“ said Henry,

  "We lost many of our brothers in arms and left their bodies; this forest fire can cover our retreat; the ur'gluns are already searching for us,“ he explained while catching his breath.

  "Then retreat to the village walls, and I will rescue her alone!“ Nogryl replied and ran back through the burning forest.

  "Leave him, boy, he is crazy!“ one of the guards added, and the men quickly started retreating.

  Henry could see the face of his dead comrade in front of him; he could hear the words whisper and echo through his mind: "Haha, don't be afraid, kid. Drink some of this; I heard it cures the lack of bravery.".

  As he stood there looking at the fire as the men retreated, he decided to not be a coward anymore.