Take out the Paladins

Again, I had to control myself. All of my anger called for me to break through the paladins and strangle the life out of that damn elf, but I was losing time. I needed to free my people before the alarm was fully raised. I saw keyrings on the belts of Thalia, which solidified my choice.

One brave paladin swung his blade at my arm which was still suspended in the air by the magical chain. I tore my arm free before he could land his strike and backhanded him across the helmet, which was dented inwards by the pure force. The man stumbled backwards as blood poured out of the eye-slits of his helmet. “Fine, you will die first then.”, I growled. Four paladins rushed me from all sides, crushing me between them with their shields. Thalia pointed her sword towards the ceiling and whispered a quick prayer. I pushed against the men, but my arms were pinned to my sides, so I made little progress. I saw light gather around Thalia’s blade, getting brighter by the second. The paladins grunted and strained against me. They truly threw all they had at me just to hold me for the ten seconds Thalia needed.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, I could feel the threat from the spell that was about to be launched at me, I knew it meant business. I felt my heartbeat in my ears, my muscles almost tore through my skin as I made one final attempt to break free…

Darkness

I opened my eyes in a black void of nothingness. I felt a sense of relief and comfort, like on would on the morning of a good day. In the far distance I saw a tiny red dot. I squinted and tried to discern more details… it looked like a tiny flame. I stopped squinting and to my surprise I could still see the flame clearly afterwards, better even. Then I noticed a second flame and a third. Soon there were hundreds of flames on all sides of me and I felt the heat around me rise as they came closer.

I protected my eyes and clenched my jaw when discomfort turned to pain. I was now fully surrounded by a raging fire, licking at my skin and leaving black marks behind. The heat rose, the fire rose, the pain became unbearable and then I…screamed.

Light

I was back in the room. Back with the paladins. Back with Thalia. With surprisingly little effort, I threw aside the paladins holding me and dodged the flying blade of light Thalia launched with an effortless, fluid movement. I saw fear in her eyes, and I understood why. I raised my hands up in front of my face and saw my skin was now a shade of dark red with steam rising from it. I saw the wooden floor blacken beneath my feet and the drops of sweat on the armoured paladin’s forehead. “W-what are you?”, she said while backing up. I took a deep breath and when my words left my lips they were accompanied by a cloud of hot steam, “I am an Orc.”.