CounterStrike

Chapter 1

This is a story of a time long before The Great Loss; it takes place during the height of The Nightmare Wars. Fae-Liin, one the brightest and most noble of the Knights of Radiance, was undertaking a quest; this was not like any ordinary quest though for its completion could decide the fate of the war.

You see, the Knights of Radiance had not been doing well so far in fact we were close to losing, a rouge Knight of the Moon was in league with the Darkmares, in itself this wouldn't have meant more than that this Knight was a traitor to the Dream. But this was not a common Knight he had been an apprentice to one of the DreamStrike Masters, the Dreamers who had used the dreaded DreamStrike Offensive that ended the Dreamer Wars.

The name of this knight was Trevon Dumont. The objective of this quest was to find an artifact so ancient it had been in the Dream since the Dream itself. The artifact was a great sword, one like none other ever forged, before or since. The sword was forged from a special alloy of Radiance and DreamSteel. The Radiance that was forged into the blade imbued it with magic powers that far surpassed any know arts. The sword is capable of great goodness, but also great destruction.

Chapter 2

Fae-Liin's quest was to retrieve the sword and then use it to battle the rogue knight Trevan to the death and to destroy the mares he was in league with. For some time, Fae-Liin had been searching long and hard for the sword to no avail and he was running out of time so he decided to try a different tactic. Fae-Liin remembered one time in the town square of his home a storyteller used to tell a story about a Dreamsmith named Falinor who had once forged a mighty sword for a great Lyran King. In the story, the Dreamsmith had gone to live in seclusion in a hidden sanctuary deep within in the Albino Caves.

Fae-Liin searched for days with no luck until one day when he was meditating in the Reflective room. He noticed that on the wall in front of him was a small pinpoint of light reflected off an imperfection in the crystal in the center of the room. He walked across the room and touched the spot. As soon as he did, the crystal rose up from the floor and hovered about 6 feet from where it had been. Beneath it was a secret passage that lead down and down.

Fae-Liin followed the tunnel until he could not see the light from the room behind anymore and all was dark, he kept going but soon began to reconsider his path. Just as he was going to turn and head back he noticed a light a the far end of the tunnel in the direction he was headed, excited he ran down the tunnel and at the end he found the sanctuary that he had been seeking. Falinor greeted his visitor warmly and when he learned of the quest that Fae-Liin was on he was more than happy to help, for the Dreamsmith knew all too well what the ramifications could mean if Trevon was to go unchecked.

After a long discussion Falinor stood and started to speak an incantation in a tongue so ancient that even he did not fully understand it. As he spoke the words of power and consciousness, the winds began to gather about him swirling around the great Dreamsmith, Falinor raised his hands and wisps of flames joined the winds like fireflies in a storm, as he shouted the final word of power an explosion of fire occurred that was so bright it temporarily blinded Fae-Liin but somehow did not burn him.

When the light subsided so that he could see again, he saw a gleaming sword resting in the upraised arms of the Dreamsmith Falinor. Falinor gave it to him along with a golden belt and sheath. Falinor then told him what he knew of the mares that were in league with Trevon, there were three of them and their names were Duur, Holneth, and Rogar. And Trevon had somehow been able to train them in the dread art of DreamStrike this made them the most formidable Dark Mares ever.

Chapter 3

Falinor only knew the location of one of the Dark Mares though. Duur had been hiding in the Lost Caves, which was as deserted then as the Albino Caves are now. Fae-Liin went to the caves and inside the Lair of Teng he found the Dark Mare Duur. The battle was fierce and Fae-Liin fought with all his might but Duur was too powerful. Just as Duur was going to give the collapsing blow and then cast DreamStrike, the sword came to life in Fae-Liin's hand with a will of its own.

The sword then fluidly and easily blocked the fatal shot for Fae-Liin and thrust itself between the eyes of Duur, shattering his soul into a million fragments never to return to the Dream. That is when the sword got its name CounterStrike, for the deadly move that had destroyed the Darkmare Duur forever.

After Fae-Liin had defeated the mare, he searched through its lair and in a dark corner in one of the rooms he found a piece of parchment. Upon further study, he found it to be a detailed map of Underlight. Marked on the map were two X's, one on the Cenotaph of Dread and one on the Gloom Peaks.

Chapter 4

Fae-Liin made his way across Underlight without any major problems, an Emphant here and there but nothing to worry about; it seemed a little quiet in fact. When he reached the Gloom Peaks, he discovered it deserted and he could find nothing out of the ordinary to merit the X on the map he had. This bothered him for he expected the other Darkmares to be seeking his death for killing their comrade and so far he had not seen hide nor shadow of any mare bigger than an Emphant.

While he was investigating the Blood Falls, a bird suddenly flew from out of the top of the falls this startled Fae-Liin so that he started to attack the bird until he realized what it was. This intrigued him though, where had the bird come from. He climbed to the top of the falls and when he tried to touch the stone behind it he found there was none but instead a secret room hidden within the falls with a portal on the far side.

Fae-Liin noticed that the room pulsated with an eerie glow, he could not discover the source of, fearing a mare attack he drew the sword and was shocked to discover that the sword was the source of the glow and the closer he got to the portal the brighter it glowed. Fae-Liin determined that this must be a reaction to the Darkmare he knew must be within.

Holneth was by far not a weak Darkmare, he was very strong because he was very old and since he was so old he knew things that other Darkmares didn't, and one of his most prized achievements was his attainment of Invisibility. So upon entering the lair Fae-Liin was not immediately aware of Holneth standing in front of him.

Holneth quietly stalked up behind Fae-Liin and slashed him in the back wounding him deeply Fae-Liin spun around and swung the sword in a great arc but only struck air. Holneth repeated this tactic several times each time laughing with glee as he wounded the knight more. Once again Fae-Liin was close to losing his soul. But he remembered how the sword had glowed in reaction to the mare and he concentrated on the sword turning until it glowed its brightest then he slashed in the direction the sword had pointed.

At first it looked as if he had missed again but slowly the Darkmare came into view. As he fell to the stone floor he split into two neatly sliced pieces and then disappeared from the Dream never to be heard of again.

Chapter 5

Once Fae-Liin reached the Cenotaph of Dread he encountered a swarm of nightmares gathered around the entrance he quietly stalked up and hid behind a near by boulder as he surveyed the problem at hand. By some strange miracle of fate a Chamele alteror was sitting on the floor in the middle of all the Nightmares.

Fae-Liin picked up a rock and threw it at the wall in front of him when all the mares ran to see what mis-fortunate Dreamer was to be their dinner tonight he ran over, grabbed the alteror, and used it before none were the wiser. The mares, kind of ticked off that nothing was for dinner, started to fight among st themselves. With the other mares occupied and himself comfortably chameled, he entered the Cenotaph.

What he saw was not quite what he expected, for all the portals in the room had been warded, it was a trap! He turned around and discovered Trevon Dumont standing beside the entrance portal where he had been waiting for the Knight to enter. Suddenly, he was struck from behind when he turned to see his attacker he found it to be the Darkmare Rogar who had also been chameled.

Fae-Liin immediately went into action cleaving the twisted arm from the mare Rogar. Rogar recoiled in pain clutching the spot where his arm had been. Trevon took this opportunity to evoke paralyze on Fae-Liin, and while he was locked in place by the paralysis, Trevon and the wounded Rogar managed to collapse him.

Rogar then began to evoke DreamStrike while Fae-Liin was still stunned by his collapse, and as if in response to the evocation of DreamStrike the sword that was now lying on the floor began to glow with a Radiant light. When Rogar finished the evocation it rose up with a flash and absorbed the DreamStrike effect, as a result the sword turned a deep blood red because of the deadly powers of the DreamStrike force within.

Then as it hovered in the air, two beams of raw power shot out and incinerated Rogar and the rogue Knight of the Moon, Trevon Dumont. Ever since, the blade has retained the blood red color, and because of the courage and bravery of the knight Fae-Liin, and many more like him… The Radiance will always shine forth!!!

As told by Auger

References

• https://web.archive.org/web/20021024030741/http://euclid.dne.wvnet.edu/~por/library.html