Naxx took a second to register what happened, before him lay a pool of slime that was once Hem.
"HEM!" he cried out planting his hands in the dirt and digging through it in hopes of digging Hem out.
He dug, clawed and buried through the soil to no avail, the clouded sky turned darker as the first drop of rain hit a nearby rock.
He never realised how long he was digging until he realised his hands were covered in blood.
A sharp pain came from his now bloodied hands, he looked up and saw the drops of rain fall down, he recoiled slightly, not only has he never seen rain before, he was also in a good bit of pain.
In the panic he ended up pulling his hands back, falling on his back and hitting his head on a nearby rock, a burst of blunt pain was all he felt before he was knocked out by the impact.
As he lay there in the rain his mind scrambled to make sense of what happened, Naxx was a sixteen-year-old imp, a race which was hunted out of existence, not because of their strength, but because they were too weak to be worth keeping in the dungeon according to everyone he asked on the subject.
Every time a human would kill an imp, their XP wouldn't be worth keeping track of.
That aside, the churches were also pretty adamant on eradicating any demonic monsters.
He saw the images of the day his whole family was killed, he was six when it happened, the church decided to wipe out all demonic monsters including the imps.
Instead of the usual mish-mash of adventurers and nobles, a group of forty paladins and high-priests was sent in, they made sure to slaughter every last one.
And they weren't shy about their resentment of the demons, before they were killed, a paladin's hammer was used to break their ankles and elbows so the demon could only crawl away from its killers, then it was burned with "holy fire" - it was only thanks to a long-dead, green, slime that Naxx was still alive, he spent the next two years floating around in a suit of slime which helped stop his wounds from getting infected and supported his limbs until they healed enough to be usable.
His face never fully healed though, the holy fire burned him bad, and nothing hurts a demon like holy-magic does.
He was taken in by Baxx's family, with all the bandages and the skin which changed colour thanks to the slime exposure, he didn't resemble an imp all that much, at least he thought so, clearly, the rogue from before proved him wrong.
His eyes shot open, soon he was met with both sore hands and a sore head.
He sat up and looked down at his hands, they weren't as bad as it looked, slightly bruised with some small cuts.
He stood up and saw the hole where Hem was presumably laying.
He felt his heart sink a little as he accepted that Hem was gone, he moved over and used the surrounding soil to cover the hole, he placed the rock he hit his head on as a gravestone.
"Thanks, Hem..." he stuttered out feeling the warm stream of tears start to run down his face, it was a nice contrast to the freezing cold he was feeling, the rain has stopped a while ago, but he was still soaking wet.
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"I'll be going back, now." he choked out.
"Even though you died to give me a chance to get out, I have to go back and see if Baxx and the rest are alright." he clenched his mist so hard the wounds started to bleed again.
"I'm sorry..."
With that, he stood up, wiped his face with the bandages on his hand and started his slow march back to the dungeon.
From memory, he was able to return to the dungeon where he was shocked to see the doors were still wide open, but no guards were present.
He made his way closer and saw that the wet ground was still displaying footsteps leaving the dungeon, as well as several carts.
He took a deep breath and went inside, instantly he was met with the horrific scent of burned flesh, on the walls and on the ground were the charred remains of monsters, most far beyond the point of recognition.
A few human corpses also littered the ground, though nowhere near as many as the monsters.
First, he checked the mines, he found nothing except a few burned corpses, none of them resembled Baxx, though he couldn't be sure.
Then he checked the lower floors, the inn was burned to bits, a leathery hand stuck out of the ashes.
He went all the way down to the mushroom farm, Naxx gulped before he went down to the bottom.
He saw nobody at first, suddenly a few familiar heads came into view, he was horrified to discover that they were only the heads, beast-men, lizard-men, elementals not even the children were spared.
"Naxx... is that you?" asked a rough voice from the corner of the room.
Instantly, Naxx spun around to see who it was and much to his relief it was the boar-monster from before, in his hand the same dwarven hammer from before, in the second hand, a new hammer.
"It is you... I got another one!" he announced waving his new hammer around a bit before letting out a painful groan and putting it back.
"Quil!" Naxx called out as he stumbled towards him, placing his arms around him, temporarily giving the imp some hope, until he felt the warm liquid running down his back.
"A-are you-" he was cut off by the boar-monster.
"Nevermind me, boy... you need to get out of here..." he interrupted Naxx's question with an order.
"I can't - what if somebody else is still alive in here!?" he demanded as he started taking off the bandages around his arms. "Here, I'll patch you up!" he said desperately.
"Don't bother, my spine is pretty messed up..." he replied casually.
Naxx wasn't sure how to reply.
"You're dying?" he asked taking a step back.
"They wouldn't have left me here if there was a chance of me surviving," he replied with a slight chuckle.
"B-" Naxx tried to protest but was cut off.
"I need you to kill me," he replied sternly.
Naxx blinked slowly and looked the bloodied monster in the eyes, "What did you just say?" he asked meekly.
"Look here, boy! I don't know what your plan to do now! But life outside the dungeon won't be easy for a monster, not to mention an imp! You need the XP!" the boar-monster scolded him.
"I can't do it! Monsters can't get XP!" Naxx replied taking another step back before falling to the ground once again.
The boar-monster moved his hand up to scratch his beard, "Why do you think that? We were once surface races too..." he replied.
Naxx didn't reply.
"Alright, you were always like this... at least give me one of those bandages." he relented.
"Hurry but before a bleed out," he added with a chuckle.
Naxx breathed a sigh of relief as he stood up and moved to hand Quil the board-monster the bandages.
In one quick movement, one so fast you wouldn't expect it from a dying man the boar grabbed a hold of the monster's hand.
"I'm sorry, boy," he said leaning forward before pulling back and smashing his head into the rock wall behind him as Naxx tried to struggle out of his iron grasp, screaming and yelling for him to "stop" and "let go" but the boar-monster didn't listen.
"Do" A smacking noise,
"Me" A smacking noise,
"A" A smacking noise,
"Favour" A sudden crunch noise,
"Don't..." A wet thud followed by a splatter of blood that landed on Naxx's face,
"Die..." A final, wet thud followed by a crack echoed in the now silent cavern.
As the dead boar-monster slumped forward exposing the caved-in skull and letting go of his hand, Naxx saw symbol appear on his hand, it glowed a powerful, blue light, it was the symbol for "three" written in runic.
"QUIL!" Naxx cried as he tried to shake the man awake to no avail, he stumbled back slipping on some spilt blood and landing in what was previously the bunker but now resembled a pile of butcher's trimmings.
A panicked cry came from him as he stumbled back, before hearing a quiet call for help.
"Is somebody there?! HELP! Anybody!" he followed the voice like a light in the void, he reached a pixie on the ground, it was the coward from before, not that it even mattered to Naxx at this point, he was glad to see somebody who was both alive and uninjured.
"You're alive!" he exclaimed picking up the small, pink-skinned man dressed in a tiny version of a shirt and trousers.
"Thank, God! Somebody came to save me!" the pixie exclaimed grabbing hold of Naxx's thumb as if it was his saviour.