Gyro & the Zombietaur Barbarians of the Blood Lands

There is a place in this world where the sky is blood red and no living thing can survive its harsh conditions known as the Blood Lands. In this place resides a most terrible and powerful necromancer. He has no name and surrounds himself with hordes of the summoned undead. This evil wizard is an undying lich that rends souls from their eternal rest and wills them to do his bidding. Much of which regards maintaining an ever watchful guard over his Skeletal Keep. A fortress constructed entirely of the skulls and bones of defeated heroes and monsters. From within he performs his darkest and most foul of magicks. From within he feels safe for only a fool would dare attempt an attack when his enemy is surrounded by an infinite pool of resurrectable minions. Safe until Gyro knocked upon his front gate...

As he crept up to towering gates of the Skeletal Keep, Gyro could feel the scrutinous gaze of the many undead eyes watching his every move. He gripped his sword tightly at the hilt and raised his fist to the door. Before he could rap his knuckles a second time against the bone-made barrier a small opening in the door slide away and was replaced with the unblinking attention of a pair of stern glowing eyes staring from behind. What the eyes belonged to Gyro could not tell. The beast was so large that all our hero could see was darkness within. The beast did speak, it only stared down at this unwanted visitor. Gyro thought for a moment, contemplating what he could say that would sway this guardian and allow him entrance inside.

No words came to mind though it did not matter. The creature met steel and groaned as Gyro's blade slid through bone to flesh and bone again. The shadowy figure's eyes birthed wide with shock and surprise. Soon after, a red mist began to fume from within the entrance. Gyro withdrew his weapon and jumped back and prepared himself. He knew this mist as the necromancers dark magicks wisping away from his dolls lifeless bodies looking for a new host. He heard the crumple of the guardian's mass hitting the ground within. He also heard the plodding thuds of what sounded like horse hooves barreling towards the other-side of the gate. He took another leap back as a group of massive beasts came crashing outward.

Before Gyro stood the Zombietaur Barbarians of the Blood Lands. These massive hulks are brutal blood-thirsty monsters that seek only to deliver the most heinous deaths to their enemies. Just one of these shaggy ogres could easily tear a human apart and at this moment Gyro was staring down four of the ugliest beings he had ever laid eyes upon. With the glint of flashing metal Gyro removed the head of the first barbarian. Red mist billowed from the monster's neck as the sword sliced another of the beasts in the midsection dropping it to its knees, mist escaping from the wound and vomit flowing from its throat. The remaining two zombietaurs raised their blunt chopping weapons and tore hoof to bone and gravel in Gyro's direction.

Unwavering, Gyro stood his ground and swiftly raised his blade before swinging it downward rending the first attacker fatally down the center. He effortlessly stepped to the side into a braced stance and firmly drove his free fist upward goring the last barbarian in the abdomen catching the monster's innards in his grasp. Gyro showed the beast its organs before the red mist clouded their view. As the death haze dissipated, Gyro's silhouette was seen disappearing into through the entrance to the Skeletal Keep as the opening was replaced with skull and bone and a mad man's cackle left breaking the eerie silence of the lifeless fortress.

Enjoy!