Of Beasts and Knights

*there is a of commotion going on as rosa n heigen get closer*

“Will I not?”

*heigen unlimbers his axe from his shoulder. A cloud of breath, seeps from the clenched teeth of his mask, a few seconds later, another, a second later, another. He begins breathing deeply, faster and faster. Clouds of hot breath steaming into the frigid twilight air.*

Vorstan: "You are surrounded by a warband of chaos"

“I am..not exactly my proudest moment if I’m honest, though there are worse places to be”

Vorstan: "The undead will not be spared the tide of chaos. Alongside us, you will have your chance."

At which point, they see a Bestigor thrown to the floor from a nearby allyway. Before it can get up, A stormvermin leaps out, and skewers the beast on the tip of its halberd, shreiking in victorious bloodshed

Heigen: "Rat creature! You will lead me to the Beastlord." *he advances, hot breath in the night air giving him a bestial appearance, his axe held in both hands, low, across his waist*

“Oh. I guess that’s true”

Vorstan: "Chaos is life, the gods abhor the undead."

Stormvermin: Beast-lord be dead soon, yes-yes! *cackling*

Heigen: "Your kind will stand and watch as we kill the beasts. You will learn strength."

the stormvermin, clearly not listening, just rushes back the way it came towards the sound of battle

Vorstan: "Damned ratmen! Come girl. Let us show them bloodshed, all beasts bleed tonight!"

she follows, not saying anything

“Only the undead and necromancers like the undead”

Heigen: *heigen breaks into a run towards the sounds of battle. A rumbling laugh at his lips.*

Vorstan: "even then..."

“Only when they’re useful”

they find a full scale battle going on between the beasts and rats, the beastlord and skaven warlord duelling in the center of it all

Vorstan: "Indeed."

*heigen roars, bellowing his challenge* "RAT LORD! BEAST!"

they pay no attention, due to the din of battle drowning it out. The ratman manages to parry a huge swing from the beastlord's axe before his tail hooks round the beast's hoof, and pulls it out from under him, causing the beast to stumble

*heigen roars wordlessly, and charges into the mix. He swings his axe in a wide arc, carving through beast and rat alike.*

the rat sees Heigen first, and whistles. Moments later, Heigen feels something slam into his side, hard enough to send him flying into the nearest building

*Evann looks at the house Rosa had claimed and sighed*

“So why are you escorting me back to the house?”

*a moment passes. Then a few more. Then he strides from the shattered building. A red mist surrounds him in whisps*

Vorstan: "Because rosa seems attached to you."

“I could say the same for you”

the thing that slammed into him is rather large. A rat ogre bonebreaker, huge even for a rat ogre, with two gigantic warpstone drills for hands. The skaven warlord has since hopped onto its' back.

Vorstan: "...She is... she needs guidance. I am teaching her."

*heigen charges the beast, swinging his axe overhead*

*he nods though it’s obvious Evann doesn’t believe him*
“I’ll make sure not to get between you, alright?”

Heigen seems to have forgotten the gigantic reach the creature has due to its huge arms, and as such it bats him aside almost comically before he reaches striking range

Vorstan: "Stay close to her, she values you. Should you die I do not know what she would do."

*heigen flips his axe blade around, angling it so the blow drives the curved rear blade into the beasts arm, being flung aside once more, he rides, seemingly unharmed once again.* "GIRL! KILL THE BEAST."

Rosa: you sure? you're having fun as it is

despite the gash, the beast doesn't acknowledge any kind of pain

*heigen doesn't acknowledge her response, he simply charges again. Axe in both hands.*

The beast is either cleverer than it looks, or being more directly controlled by the warlord than it appears, as it waits for him to come and swing at it, this time dodging the swing before batting him aside while he's mid swing, in a way that means he cannot dodge or counter attack.
Warlord: Why Horned-man attack Skaven? Quarrel with beast-things not you-you!

Evann: “I don’t plan on dying any time soon. Once I am healed I shall train my body and then” *he smiles* “I shall forge myself new armour and I will prove myself in your warband’s eyes. So that one day I can leave unchallenged”

*heigen digs in his heels, and blocks the blow, sliding back, but his immense strength and sheer mass holds* "THEIR BLOOD IS MINE, NOT YOURS RAT."

Vorstan: "you will learn your place in time. You will serve or be warmaster."

Evann: “The latter sounds interesting”

Vorstan: "you would have to defeat the current warmaster, and all other challengers."

Evann: “A long term goal”

"Enough blood for all! Yes-yes!"

Vorstan: "an impossible one."

Heigen: "THERE WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH."

“Nothing is impossible”

Vorstan: "Plenty of things are."

Warlord: We work together yes-yes? kill beast things together!

Heigen: "Your cowardice disgusts me. Keep from my way."

the rat just cackles. Heigen's a bit too blood rageified to tell, but the rat's basically thinking 'doesn't matter, i was kicking your arse*

*heigen rams the butt spike of his axe into the elbow joint of the rat ogres arm, and twists, dislocating the joint.* "Laugh while you can."

*he underestimates the sheer muscle mass and pain tolerance of this crime against nature stood before him, it don't give a shit*

*he wrenches the axe out, content that it's arm is dislocated. If the rat lord is particularly observant. He notices that the ogres wounds, those caused by heigens axe. Are still bleeding freely. They haven't even started to clot, continuing to drip blood. Heigen scans the battle for the beast lord, as rosa seems unwilling, he will have to do it.*

*later on...*

Heigen is sat upon an upturned cart. Surveying the carnage wrought by the previous nights clash between the rats and beasts. Blood runs down gutters, the smell of blood heavy with iron on the air. the first of the rats and flies are reaping the bounty.