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The Hunter and the Templar	By : BurneHazard Category: +A through F > Diablo III Views: 6471 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Diablo III (3) and all content therein is the property of Blizzard Entertainment. This story is for entertainment purposes only and I make no money from writing it.

Chapter List
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            Cain is dead at Maghda's hands. The cursed witch was two steps ahead of us and not only secured the third sword piece, she captured Cain, Leah and the stranger. Although whatever power Leah possesses overcame Maghda's minions, it was too late to save Cain's life. His final act was to restore the sword to its proper form. His suspicions and mine were proven true. The stranger is an angel, and he has been taken by Maghda to a cursed place.
            While I do mourn Cain's passing, I find myself more concerned with Leah's reaction. There is a strange darkness to her pain that leaves me wondering about myself. My darkness is always with me, but it is guided and controlled. I use the very tools of demons against them. My hatred was borne of fear and I turned it into my power. My rage only fuels it. But even then it took me years of training to be able to control it and focus that power so I did not become what I hunted.
            Leah...is such a gentle soul that I admit a little apprehension about what path she may take. Chaende is well enough to take care of her--even if I am not certain about the wizard's motives, it is the better of two evils. As it is, Leah agreed to aid me in searching Cain's journals for any additional information that may keep us ahead of the growing shadow. Without his presence, she can only turn to his findings.
            The templar and I returned to Wortham in pursuit of the witch. Everything is oddly...silent. Still. It is too quiet. While I may not always know a trap when I see one, this cannot be anything but a lure. But neither of us will back down. This witch will pay for Cain's fall. And once she is dispatched, I will hunt down her master, Belial. I will leave worrying for the stranger to the templar. My hatred must remain focused on my prey.

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            The ravings of the old hermit faded behind as the darkness of the caverns engulfed them. A pale light shimmered over their heads, courtesy of the wizard enchanting a small gem to carry in their packs that would help light their way in darker places. It was dim enough for them to see without being bright enough to blind them to the shadowy shapes around them. That and it moved off to one side rather than shine straight on them like a beacon.
            As they moved down the eroded steps to what seemed to be a path, Killashandra took a deep breath. The air was musty and smelled old. She caught the sound of something scrabbling in the distance but it also gave her the idea that there were many tunnels ahead--and many places to fall off the path into black pits. The templar moved past her down the last steps. His armored boots hit something that gave a squelching crunch.
            Looking down, Killa added just enough power to the arrow notched and ready on her long bow so it glowed. The glow was caught by something near them and it caused a chain reaction. Strange sacs of some material lined the corners of the path along the sides of the drop-off. Most moved in pulsing motions as if they were alive. And the templar had stepped directly onto one of them.
            He moved back, disgust twisting his features as he found he was tangled in trailing gunk from the thing. Leaning forward and bending her knees to sink down and get closer, the hunter examined the broken thing. Inside the brittle outer shell were several orbs larger than two fists clenched together. A few were larger, some were smaller. And as she prodded one, a shadow moved inside the pliable shape.
            "The air hangs heavy with the scent of terror. This does not bode well,"(1) Kormac said while trying to scrub the webbing off his boot onto the ground.
            Bringing her head up, the hunter regarded him intently. There was something extremely closed about him now, even if the grimace was gone from his face. His eyes were moving around, looking at the glowing sacs on the ground and on the ceiling over them. It was a dim but good source of light for them to make their way but...that was not why he was looking.
            "What ails you Templar?"(2)
            "Ah, my apologies,"(3) he said, tearing his attention away from the glowing sacs to look at the crouched hunter. "I hade a nightmare like this once."(4)
            Straightening, Killa continued to study him intently. Finally, she tilted her head to one side as it clicked. "Is that why you always kept a distance when I conjured my spider?"
            "What? No, not at all!"
            Fighting the smile away, she moved a little closer to him as he shuffled and turned to move onward. When he noticed she was not following him in that direction he paused and slowly looked back as if dreading what he was about to see.
            "I think that the scent of terror...is too fresh to be part of this place, templar. Are you certain you're all right?" she needled a little more.
            Clearing his throat, he snorted and hefted his shield before turning away. "I'm fine, let's get going."
            Amused regardless of the weight of their task, Killa moved to follow him. She was careful not to step on the spider eggs she had been studying. Bow rising, she did pause as their talk reminded her of something. Focusing, her lips moved silently to form words. Shadow gathered near a cluster of egg sacs ahead. Kormac jumped backward when a screech rose, almost falling off the narrow path he had been walking along.
            Instead of a spider, a dark bat fluttered upward to circle him and dart back to the hunter. Landing briefly on her shoulders, it nuzzled her black hair then took off to fly along another path. While the spider might have its uses, the bat extended her own perceptions further as it circled to scout for trouble. Kormac just shot her a black glare and almost stormed forward--almost since there was no guarantee the ground under foot would withstand hard impacts like that.

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            Another spiderling's carapace crunched under her foot. The ground had been made slippery by their spilled innards but as long as they moved carefully and kept near the edges of the webbing sprayed onto the stone, they could continue. So far they had only come across swarms of the dog-sized spiders, cocooned bodies typically little more than dust and bone pieces, and egg sacs. The latter, Kormac had taken time and small delight in eradicating.
            So far there had been nothing too difficult for them to handle. And he had managed to overcome his own unease of the place so he was acting his normal, arrogant self. The deeper they pressed into the caverns though, the more a sense of something waiting for them grew. It was making Killa uneasy as nothing had yet been sprung. Not until she was suddenly aware of her bat returning quickly.
            Moving around to face the direction it came from, she narrowed her eyes and peered into the gloom. In a moment the fluttering shadow did appear and made a line straight for her. No racket, she knew its alarm and urgency already as it circled and readied for whatever it had disturbed to arrive. Bringing her bow up, she waited as the templar worked to yank his spear from the webbing snaring it to the floor.
            Her eyes caught motion. It was blackness against shadow, but just enough to give her an idea of shape. And of size. The hazel eyes widened a little as she lifted the bow higher, igniting the arrow with hungry fire while waiting for a definite target.
            "Templar..."
            "Almost got it," he replied without looking up.
            "Templar--"
            "One second!"
            "KORMAC!" she shouted as her gaze darted around to the motion that had surrounded them from above but had yet to reveal itself to the light near them.
            Head snapping up at the same moment his final jerk freed his spear, he looked to Killa then snapped around to follow her current line of sight. What he saw made him freeze, color draining from his skin and resolve fleeing him momentarily. It was no simple spider that dropped from above but a nightmarish monstrosity armored in spikes and thick plates of exoskeletal growth.
            Killa fired the bolt at it and drew another arrow. But she could not focus on the vile green nightmare descending on Kormac. The bat screeched a warning as it attacked one of the other attacking creatures. These were half the size of the first and more white and black than green and black. Moving as sprays of webs came her way in attempt to snare and slow her, she focused on those nearest her. Hungering arrows and freezing arrows flew in no conscious order.
            Reacting on instinct and training, she fired as needed, letting the cold arrows slow those behind and unleashing burning bolts into those nearest. Dropping a caltrop every time she moved, several of the terrors were snared for easier kills. The bat helped to blind and distract those intent on her while evading her own attacks easily. Then Kormac screamed.
            One final shot into the glistening eyes of her current attacker caused it to explode into a splatter of shattered exoskeleton and gore. Turning, she stepped onto the webbed ground to move with more precision back toward the templar's location. Two of the smaller terrors were dead near him but the large green one was still there. It was missing a couple of legs but the rest had Kormac pinned against the arachnid's body.
            Webbing had trapped the lower half of his body to the floor and effectively snared his weapons as well. The nightmare had fastened itself to his arm and shoulder and the mouthparts were buried deep into his armor. A sickly green venom was trickling over the armor, attesting that the fangs had not yet pierced the metal. Taking all of that in with a second's glance, the hunter brought her bow up and fired a rapid volley of arrows that burned great holes into the twisted exoskeleton every time they struck.
            Maddened by the pain and attack, the creature released its captive to charge over him toward the hunter. In that moment, the bat attacked, blinding the beady eyes and making the thing hesitate and rise to strike at the small assailant. It left the creature's belly and chest exposed to Killa who wasted no time in reducing the thinner under-armor to ruin. Gore and innards splattered over the floor as the thing shrieked and collapsed to the side.
            Spinning back to the remaining attackers still caught in her traps, she dispatched them and made her way toward Kormac.
            "I...cant...move!" he strained to say even as he thrashed and struggled against the webbing with all of his strength.
            Lowering her weapon, she got in closer to study the webbing. It was then she saw how the sticky stuff was dissolving beneath the flow of the arachnid's venom where it still oozed down the templar's armor. Turning away, she went to the large terror's corpse and gave it a hard shove to roll it over. A messy but swift search revealed the venom sac she sought. It was damaged and leaking but held enough venom for her purpose.
            Returning to Kormac, she poured the venom over the webbing encasing him. A putrid smell rose as hisses came from the dissolving webbing. In a few more seconds, the templar broke free and staggered to the side only to crash to the ground gasping for breath. Tossing the depleted sac away, the hunter wiped what venom and gore had clung to her gloves off on the still-sticky webbing left.
            Putting her bow aside as the bat landed on the rock above them to take up sentry duty, Killa grabbed some of the rags left after an unfortunate victim had been reduced to dust in the caves. Using them, she cleaned herself up and set to work on the broken armor on Kormac's chest. It would not do to leave such a viscous venom clinging to the twisted metal now lest it accidentally get through.
            Nothing was said. After a few moments, Kormac had collected himself enough to get himself in order. Leaving him to the task, the hunter took up her bow and rose to scan the area around them for further threat. The silence began to grow heavy from where Kormac was sitting.
            "Are you ever afraid in battle?"(5) he finally asked.
            "If I have ever felt fear, it has been consumed by my hatred,"(6) she responded without looking at him.
            The silence returned for a moment. Glancing over her shoulder, she looked to Kormac as he went still. He was staring at the ground but the way his eyes were unfocused, he probably was not seeing it. Frowning in thought herself, Killa turned slowly to face him once more. He did not show any sign of noticing as she moved to sink to one knee at his side.
            "My faith...armors me against fear..."(*) he mumbled finally.
            Although she should have remained silent, there was a sense that he wanted her to say something. It took him looking at her before she finally gave in and voiced the thoughts that were probably plaguing his mind.
            "But you are wondering why it did not work this time."
            He nodded slowly and his eyes fell again.
            "No one is perfect."
            "You are. I haven't once seen you falter in battle regardless of what we've faced," he said with a tone of self-recrimination.
            Killa sighed and shook her head. "I've been training for over twenty years to kill demons and control my emotions. Hate is all that I let myself know." Rising, she turned and moved away. "It's an easier path than faith. So don't be discouraged when you stumble. Yours is the more difficult path."
            Behind her, she heard the templar gather his weapon and shield and rise. His steps were slow but steady at her back as he again followed her. The bat chattered as it swooped over their heads and returned to scouting their path through the caverns. Neither of them said anything more as they pressed deeper into the darkness.

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Author's Note:
            Again, direct quotes from the game are marked by number. The last one is a (*) because although it is a quote, it's not the full quote nor is it direct as it was used in the game. I altered it a bit. And the chapters are coming more quickly because I went back through the acts and am writing as I play to flesh out the ideas I'd jotted down. In a couple more chapters I hope to give you SILENT readers a little candy.
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The Hunter and the Templar