In the border region between the Elbian forest and the Alkesh desert, the knights of light were on high alert as they had gotten reports of knight outposts being overrun by an unknown enemy. They were thinking it might have been sand raiders, a group of magic users or a reawakened Alkesh titan.

They noticed a woman in a white robe approach. "Halt! Present your weapons if you have any on you." A knight said. The woman continued and said: "I am just a fair traveller, but why should I obey to the demands of an unjust knight? There are no more foolish people than the knights of light." At this insult the knights readied their weapons and said: "We wont tolerate such blasphemy!"

The woman smiled and pulled out a darksteel greatsword as well as a bottle filled with blood. She poured the blood over the sword and whispered a couple words. The sword lit up and the light travelled to the hand of the woman. In a flash the woman was behind the knights and the swords of the knights broke. "Damn! She is a magic user!" "Those swords are poorly made. Abandon the knights of light otherwise, I will come back for your lives." The woman said. One of the knights the screamed: "Never!" and readied for an attack with his broken sword. The woman sheathed her greatsword and stood there as the man approached. She began to chant in an ancient language. The man stopped, mezmerized by the song. He took his broken sword and rammed it into his own stomach, then keeled over slowly dying. "I warned you. You guys believe so much in a false light that you are blinded by it. Do not follow me or you will have a similar fate to your friend." The woman said. She then concentrated and then summoned a horse of metal and a blue crystalline light. She got onto it and rode off.

Elissa sat in her tent, the young boy underneath her squirming uncomfortably, his cut had been infected and needed to be purified and healed. Elissa whispered an ancient language to him, soothing him and making him dream a sweet story, she then stopped and fetched a bowl of clean water with which she dapped a cloth in and cleansed the young boys arm. Once she was sure it was clean, she started her chanting of the ancient tongue, a white light emit from her hands and trails of light orange and pale blue glided around the light, before flowing into the cut, purifying the corruption and healing the wound. Elissa stood up and took in a few silent breaths before stepping out into the warmth of the Alkesh desert, she stood for a bit absorbing the heat and energy of the warm sun.

She stopped as her most trusted clan members approached her, their faces grim and worried. "What is it?" The young shaman asked of her clansmen.
"Shaman, the news is grave." Her guard told her. "The Knights of Light have claimed the region, Alkesh is your safest place now."
Elissa shook her head. "No, we must free them all of them." She told the men that stood before her. "We cannot leave people to be killed for the gifts bestowed by the great gods." She returned to her tent and cared for the sleepers she had healed.

"Did you hear the news?"
"You mean the..."
"...Knights of Light..."
"Dead...."

Ella found herself in the midst of a circle of gossip surrounding the latest news. Her head head was bent down amongst her friends. The told stories of how the Knights of Light had taken another region and how perhaps this was the end for them. Ella thought of her step father and she worried for him. He was but a simple wizard who had never harmed a fly, if the Knights of Light found out about him, he was sure to be executed. After an hour or so of talk the group dispersed and Ella remained where she was thinking quietly to herself. She wanted her family to be safe, but most of all she wanted things to go back to they way they were. Everyone was stopping to talk of the Knights rather than her latest achievements.

Ella was being outclassed by Knights who caused death and destruction and that just wouldn't do. She needed time to clear her head and so picking up her bow she made a bee line for the thick woods on the edge of town and ventured deep into them. The area was a place she knew well, and so she was quick and stealthy, she stopped by the edge of a small pond and pulled herself up into a tree and waited. She knew this area to be a watering hole for most animals that lived in the surrounding area.

She waited for a long while thinking of stories to tell the villagers when she got back, of how she got into a a huge fight with mountain lion and came out victorious. That would be something to capture their attention and to turn the spot light back on her. Smiling she lifted her head as she heard a rustle off in the distance, she got her bow ready and notched an arrow.

Roland couldn't help but to smile at these ridiculous farmers so much gold for such a small task as clearing the area of large rats the pay was high of course. No job in Rolands eyes was worth less than a hundred gold or gold and something of equal trade for the farmers it was fifty coins, fresh supplies and a place to sleep if he needed it. Looking into the cave Roland gave a sigh and pulled out his short sword made from his dad so long ago he entered the cave. Inside it was poorly lighted, wet, and the smell of rotting corpuses filling his nose. Roland pulled out a torch and lit it. Looking into the darkness he saw not one, not two, but six pairs of beady red eyes staring at him swearing underneath his breath Roland kicked a rock at one of them provoking them to attack.

The first three came at him all at once, and in a bright flash of steel the giant rats dropped to the ground in front of him blood spraying everywhere. The next three came slower than the others Roland had to move and kill the last one but the job wasn't done yet there were younglings if this was the nest. Going deeper he encountered four more giant rats until he found the nest riddled with filth, and bones the nest had three large clearings where the young ones stayed. Roland looked around more and saw that there were no more adults Roland sheathed his short sword. Walking to the first clearing Roland saw the massive amount of crawling bodies most of these would end up dying or eaten by their own kind. Roland searched his bags and found what he was looking for producing a large bottle of a green thick liquid. Roland took a piece of fabric and stuffed it in to the bottle then lighting the fabric he threw it into the clearing the ground immediately caught on fire and the smaller rats caught on fire and spread the fire by running into other rats soon the clearing was a bonfire. Moving on to the other clearings he did the same for each one soon the whole cave started to smoke and burn. Roland ran out of the cave pulling out one last bottle of the liquid and poured it all over the mouth of the cave and once the contents were poured out Roland threw the torch into lighting the mouth of the cave on fire. Hearing the rats run out Roland drew his short sword and waited. The smaller rats burned and died the remaining larger ones Roland had to cut down after two hours nothing came out again. Roland studied the fire it would last another day, but anything that was alive is dead or dying in the cave from the smoke. Roland stayed just encase he was hired for a complete job and he was going to stay until the fire went out then he was going to check it.

Coming into a small town, Lessandra got off her summoned magical horse and unsummoned it. It seemed as if the knights of light had control of this town, yet she was far enough away from them to go unnoticed. Approaching two knight guards, she pulled her sword. A total of six guards were visible in town. One or two might be sleeping or inside. Out of Lessandras walk, she went to a jogging pace and then a sprint. She pierced the one guard through his back and impaled the other guard he had been conversing with, with him.

By the time she had her sword back out of the two, the other four guards were alerted. But now she had enough blood from the first two kills to summon three golems that preoccupied the guards, each golem being one and a half times the size of a guard. "Liberate this town my brethren." Lessandra said to the golems. Each guard fell one after the other as they were overwhelmed by the tireless golems. They had then dissipated, once they had fulfilled their duty.

"Townspeople! I am Lessandra Amzoen! Also known as the golem witch or the old era witch! My mission is to liberate the lands of the oppressive knights of light, save the magic users and reopen the arcane university of Kotri. If anyone wants to join me to my journey to Kotri, they can come to me. I will be here until tomorrow!" Lessandra said.

Elissa had heard many rumours about her old home town, many so unbelievable she just laughed lightly at the little runner that brought her the news. However, this runner brought her the rumour of a young witch slaying the Knights of Light in her home village. "Tell me her name." Elissa demanded from the runner, he was brave enough to cross the desert and sneak into a village that would shun him for being from the Alkesh desert never mind being a nomad and yet he was afraid to speak a young girl's name.
"It is an ill omen to speak a witch's name, shaman." He told Elissa.
"That is why you call me shaman," Elissa stated. "She must of had a title."
"The Old Era Witch." He merely whispered, as if even her title was taboo. Everyone in the tent gasped lightly before whispering to each other.
"Who is she?" Elissa asked, still unaware of certain things the nomads of the Alkesh had an extensive knowledge of.

After having the story of the Old era witch explained to her, Elissa laugh. "Likely a story to keep children at bay." Elissa mocked them, unintentionally. "Although, my mother did tell me tales of Kotri. Runner, please get back to this girl and inform her to wait awhile longer and I shall bring her good men to aid her." With that the runner ran to his horse and disappeared.

What did you call it? Hogtied? Taken prisoner, hostage?

There were voices cheering and shouting for blood and the black cloth was removed from his head. The sight of all the villagers out, shouting insults, the one that stuck out the most to Maxus as he stood on the stage was baby-killer among murderer and scum of the earth. He was still garbed in his armour though, handcuffed with his hands behind his back and feet tied, weapons confiscated of course. The executioner, a tall fat beast with a black bag over his head, and an apron stained with blood (he worked as a butcher) grabbed the handle that opens the trap door under his feet and next to him was a clean, busty sort of woman in her 30's, taller then the butcher who had eloquently put the noose around the paladin's neck.

Oh. It was a hanging.

"Any last words, scumbag paladin?" The mayor said, just then tearing the gag out from the goblin's mouth so he could speak. He was waiting for this, the moment to speak, as he was forced into silence the moment he was knocked out as he neared the village. He breathed in a great breath of air from his nose and spoke through a voice that seemed too big for his body and just a slight tad fast. After all, his life depended on it.

"I'M NOT ONE OF THEM!" He said first and foremost. "Heed my warning that they shall attack here in two days time, my monstrous brothers and sisters, and that they'll have no mercy. It is of the uptmost imperative th-"

Click.

The trap door suddenly gave away beneath the warrior's feet and everyone watched as the rope suddenly tightened around the goblin's neck.

Funny thing about hangings. There's a whole book dedicated to them, ranging on the types of knots one must tie, from the drops one must have. If there's also one little detail that a part-time executioner wouldn't know, it was not to hang children. They were tiny, little, and didn't have that much weight to them. Instead of a instant snapping of the neck, their deaths would be slow and tortuous because they'd be simply choked. As sad as it was to compare a warror like Maxus to a child, he did just that, dangle from the rope as it tightened around his neck and started strangling him. He kicked back and forth as the two above him talked.

"What the hell did you do that for!?" the woman's voice bellowed over to the executioner."
"You told me no knights of light scum don't deserve last words and to just drop 'em while he was blabbing."
"Well, didn't you hear him?"
"How do we know he ain't lying?

The audience was suddenly ambivalent about the hanging as well, divided almost, some shouting for a swift death, while some shouted to cut the rope. There was conflict in the crowd as villagers argued with their friends and family over the fate of the man dying before him and what he truly was.

"Do you remember the last two knights we had on here?
"What about 'em?"

The woman outstretched her arm as fire suddenly start to gather on her hand. With a snap of her fingers, the rope was cinched, and the former knight dropped to the soft mud down below the platform.
"They kept babbling on about their God and how He'll smite us all."

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After Maxus was invited to a private meeting with the same mayor, he explained things simply, that the knights were coming specifically to this town and that they had a few choices. Either run away or prepare for battle.
"I'd ask you to stay, but I can't guarantee your safety here, so I suggest you leave. There should another town not so far from here that you can go for rest. Your, uh, mount is outside with your weapons. Strange thing he is, didn't attack, just followed."
"Yes, well, Archimedes has strict orders not to attack someone until my say so." Maxus smiled at the memory of the loyal black wolf.
Just as he was gonna leave, hand on the door, he turned his head towards the mayor. "So, what shall it be?"
"We will fight."
[/b]"Why?"[/b]
"This IS our home."
"A home is nothing without life to foster it."
"A life is endless with no place to call home."
"Homes are endless as long as there's life to call it as."
"Look, I'm not running away."
"Then you could stay while everyone else does otherwise."

At this point, the goblin saw it fit to leave and drop the argument. Hopefully, she'll change her mind.

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Unbeknownst to Maxus himself, he'd meet the Old-Era witch in the town next, and thus the beginning of a tired and arduous journey to secure the lives of millions would soon begin.

(Hey why are so few people posting`?)