Chapter 4 - Archmage Arugal

Uylena and Elithia have confessed their love for one another. Now they must dispatch the Archmage Arugal and return his head to Dark Lady Sylvanas Windrunner in The Undercity.

Once Elithia and Uylena arrived at the Sepulcher, Alexandros and Deadlyrush were waiting on their horses by the flight master.

"Hey guys!" Uylena smiled happily something they hadn't seen due to the circumstances a few days back. Deadlyrush looked down at Elie who looked embarrassed with her hands behind her back prodding the ground with her foot.

Uylena's eyes trailed to where Deadly was staring. "Oh! Guys..this is Elie! She's....my friend." She looked out of it and then smiled again wrapping her arm around Elie's shoulder. "So are you guys going after Arugal too?" Uylena's voice returned to its serious tone. Deadly spoke up first this time. "Yes. We figured you would be going there since you were in the Undercity so we decided to wait." Uylena laughed which ended up in being given a weird look by Alex. "I mean I hope you weren't waiting long, boys." She sarcastically bowed at Alexandros. "Well.." Uylena climbed on her charger while Elie summoned a fel steed. "Shall we?"

The four rode south to Shadowfang Keep where the Archmage Arugal was hidden away.

Alexandros stopped Uylena from going into the keep. "Wait!" Uylena looked surprised and stumbled backwards. She was sure she would have fallen off the bridge leading up to the keep if Elie hadn't caught her and helped her regain her balance. "What the hell Alex! You trying to get me killed?!" Uylena looked ticked and held her arm paranoid of being on the drawbridge now. "I'm sorry but I just wanted to inform everyone to stick together there a lot of worgen in this keep and I don't need anyone getting hurt." Uylena scoffed. "Something wrong Uyl?" Alex asked sternly not looking too happy with her. "No I agree I don't want anyone hurt either." She flashed him a sarcastic smile and then smiled sweetly at Elie.

When Alexandros headed in the keep with Deadly following she paused to say something to Elie. "Gosh he thinks he's all that." She rolled her eyes. She gave Elie a quick, soft kiss and grabbing her hand, pulled her inside the keep.

On the inside Alex and Deadly were fighting a small group of worgen. "What took you so long to walk through a damn door Uylena?!" Alex was always bitching about something wasn't he? Rolling her eyes she motioned for Elie to summon her imp as she judged one of the worgens on Alex. Elie's imp took out one to the left of Alex while Deadly killed the one that was on him. Alex walked up to Uylena placing his hands on her shoulders. He was a bit taller than she was. Maybe three inches, she wasn't too sure. "Look. I'm sorry I've been giving you a hard time but I can't easily trust someone who recklessly tried to take down a powerful necromancer on their own." Uylena was hurt by that but showed it through anger. Glaring at his hands on her she brushed them off of her. "I don't care if you trust me. Let's just get this crap over with." Alexandros sighed knowing he'd never get through to her. Deadly just shook his head. "Come on let's do this."

They made their way through the keep killing off worgen and specters. In order to reach Arugal they had to defeat a wolf master and a few other foes. Once at the final chamber of the keep they had to take out one last small group of worgen. Ascending the final staircase they heard a loud voice.

"Who dares to enter my keep and kill my children?" Alex laughed. "I do." Arugal gave him a once over and then burst into laughter. "You..haha you think you can defeat me.." Deadly stepped out from behind Alex showing himself to Arugal. "Oh there's more?" Arugal looked amused but not intimidated. Uylena jumped across the ledge from the entrance to be directly behind Arugal while Elie stayed at the entrance sending her imp in to confront Arugal. "Oh ho ho this looks like fun. Come then if you wish to die." Alexandros pulled Arugal to him while Deadly and Uylena judged and struck him with their weapons.  

"Your resistance if futile!" Arugal then ported himself across the room. "Elie use your imps fireball and curse him!" Her imp continuously cast fireballs at Arugal while Elie placed a curse and other burning spells that would periodically damage the archmage. After a couple minutes Arugal ported to where Elie stood and knocked her unconscious.

"ELIE!!!" Uylena screamed jumping across the gap in the staircases to attack Arugal he struck her in the ribs causing her to dart back to the previous ledge holding her side. She went to limp back near him but Alexandros put his hand out to stop her. "No..don't be reckless. Deadly!" Deadly judged Arugal convincing him to go after him. When he did Alex prepared to strike."Arugal you've caused enough trouble, your life ends now." Uylena tossed her axe with all the stength she had at his back causing him to groan in pain. "You will pay for this!!" Arugal yelled before Alex struck with his sword decapitating the Archmage. Deadly pulled out a cloth sack and put the head inside.

"Elie..Elie.." Uylena limped to warlock. "Baby..please wake up." Alex over heard what she had called Elie. Alexandros put his hand on her shoulder and leaned down to pick Elie up. Uylena's eyes widened and then formed a menacing look as Alex held Elie but she just blushed and turned away. 'Elie....please..' She said to herseld. "Uylena she'll be okay..don't worry too much." Tears fell from Uylena's eyes, trailing down her cheeks.

Back in the Undercity, Uylena sat by Elie's side stroking her hair and talking to her, waiting for her to wake up. Deadly and Alexandros returned to the Royal Quarter to give the head of Arugal to Sylvanas. "mmm.,.Lena?" Elie mumbled stirring awake. Uylena gasped and moved closer to the warlock. "D-don't move baby you're still hurt. Sheesh, I was so worried baby...I don't know what I'd do without you..I would've blamed mys---" Elie put a finger on Uylena's mouth. "Ssh. sweetie, it's fine. It's not your fault. You didn't know that would happen." Elie sat up with Uylena helping her. Uylena sat on the bed with Elie cuddling up to her.

"Thanks Lena for waiting by my side. That really means a lot." Elie smiled which caused Uylena to burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably on Elie's shoulder.

Alexandros knocked on the wall to notify Uylena he was there. She quickly wiped her eyes and turned. "Yes? What is it?" Alex approached them both. "Deadly and I have been called on a special mission so you too are welcome to head home to Silvermoon to rest and re-cooperate. Uylena smiled at Elie. "Okay thanks Alexandros." Standing up momentarily, Uylena bowed to Alex. No traces of sarcasm in her voice. Alex smiled. "Farewell, ladies," He bowed slightly backing out of the room retuning to the hallway with Deadly. When they disappeared Uylena turned back to face Elie. She held her hand and gazed into her eyes. "Well baby looks like we can return home. What do you wanna do first?" She planted a soft kiss on her lips. "Maybe we could go for some ice cream? I'd love that." Elie smiled at Uylena hugging her. "Yeah...ice cream..we'll leave in 30 minutes baby."

Reviews

[Sir Aphid]

Ah! Much better! that's what I'm talking about! A lot of action, drama, and a touch of romance to keep things interesting. You also leave things off with a suggestive line, which is great! It's sexy, but not obscene. It definitely fits the tone of the story better than a straight up sex scene.

You are develeoping your characters very well and showing many different facets of their personality. I've now learned that Uylena doesn't like to be helped, which is a flaw. She is quite flawed actually, but also has many great strengths, and some of her flaws are strengths as well. All of this makes her a very interesting character.

Some criticism:

You could develop the plot a bit more. You are doing very well with the relationships between characters, but the plot is very vague. I understand you are just following quests from in the game, but be creative! Go into more detail about the character's reasons for fighting evil and undead. Perhaps some of them are vengeful towards the scourge for destroying the sunwell.

Another thing you can do is develop the villains more. Give them personality, motivations, even relateable traits! Why waas Arugal making werewolfs? What motivated him to succeed? Sometimes it's good to just have baddies to kill for the sake of action, but it will get boring after a while. Villains need realistic goals that make sense, so that the good guys have something serious and dangerous that they must overcome. Otherwise, you will jut be fighting stronger and stronger villains and the conflict will be limited.

Remember, conflict is what makes a story interesting, so create all kinds of conflict! You are doing a great job of creating interpersonal conflicts between chaarcters though, I must say. Perhaps that is the focus of the story?

anyway, good job! much better chapter than the last. Thanks for writing!