Disclaimer! I don't own WoW. Blizz does, and your soul too.
*** Capital City – Lordaeron Keep ***
I was pulled out of my slumber from light from the rising sun shining directly into my room.
"Mmmmgh..." I groaned wanting to just go back to sleep, but duty calls.
Allowing myself a full minute of gathering myself I eventually forced myself to sit up and got out of the extremely soft downy bed. This was the fourth day of our stay here in Lordaeron; King Terenas was kind enough to let us settle in and get situated before the Queen would have to make her presence known. My mind immediately went down the laundry list of things I needed to get done today.
'Damn, already?' I thought to myself as today was the day Alonsus Foal would be dropping by after I begged off during our initial meeting.
No doubt the man would have questions for me about the Light. Victoria told me of her short conversation with him, and how she handed the High Abbot personal letter to him. What it boiled down to was that Alonsus was sympathetic to what happened to our plight, but was also extremely interested in our new thoughts on the Light. Luckily, these few days of reprieve allowed me to gather my thoughts and put together a tentative game plan for dealing with him.
With my musing finished, I got out of the bed clad in only my boxers equivalent and ran a hand through my hair. Blinking the bleariness from my eyes, I turned toward the window just in time to catch the breathtaking view of the skyline. The light of the sun broke through the cloud, bathing the city in its light, as it ascended from the horizon. When it did so, the muted white walls of Capital City seemed to shimmer, and there was a sense that the old city was waking up. From my vantage point from Lordaeron Keep, I could make out the civilians in the city proper beginning their day.
Terenas had seen fit to house us in one of the tall spires inside Lordaeron Keep, something that I found out wasn't afforded to other delegates. The queen was at the very top of the tower, and with her was the queensguard, her handmaidens, and Victoria. A level below hers was the conjurers' rooms, and then there was me in the middle of the tower along with ten royal guards and the acolytes in training.
Things had been pretty awkward with Victoria's son, but his mother was a consenting adult. Thankfully, Haylea, the ex-royal guard, kept them busy enough so that we never spent too long in one another company. My presence was only required during their daily lesson regarding the Light and its usage. That basically consisted of one hour of me showing off Light spells, muddling through the explanation, and them spending the day reflecting on the 'deeper' meaning of my teaching. I winced at those particular thoughts, but with any luck, it might not be my problem anymore.
If all goes well in the meeting with Alonsus Foal later, I would finally be able to pass the buck off to the real teachers of holy light warriors. I could almost taste the freedom after having to carry on this charade for as long as I did, not to mention the guilt of teaching them incorrectly. Sure, the Silver Hand Order was being formed years in advance, but with how fucked everything was already, what was one more on the pile at this point? The important thing was getting them the true backing and teaching from the appropriate sources.
"Nggggh!" I growled as I stretched, hearing a few popping sounds coming from my muscles.
There was a light knock on my door followed by a concerned voice. "Sir Callan, is everything alright?"
I heard him pretty clearly through the door. Weren't stone walls supposed to be thicker and sound insulating? I shook off that thought and answered the man.
"Everything is fine, Sir Bane," I replied to the knights on night watch duties. "Wake the others up to break their fasts, and then consider yourself relieved."
"Sir." The royal knight acknowledged me through the door.
I looked out to the city skyline once more and decided I wanted to take a quick walk before my morning meeting with the queen. She had approved of my crazy plan and informed Terenas that I was going to visit the elves myself. The king sent a messenger in advance to inform the elves of my coming but asked me to wait a few days so he could put together a delegation that could represent Lordaeron's interest. The Queen agreed to reciprocate Terenas generosity.
I mentally shrugged at that; that would be on Terenas to get his foot into the door of the elven kingdom. Shaking my head to get rid of the thoughts, I dressed myself in casual clothes and left my room just in time to see the dayshift knights arrive.
"Morning." I greeted the two at my door who then gave me a salute. I took my arcanite sword and slung it over my back as I made my way down to the tower base. As my foot landed on the main floor, I saw the rest of the royal knights were already finishing up their breakfast and reporting to their posts.
"Sir Callan." A few of them went out of their way to greet me. I made my rounds to return the greetings before I chose two knights to accompany me out.
The moment I exited, I was greeted with a lush green courtyard. It was empty when we got here, but now, there were wooden dummies set up for training planted firmly into the ground. There were even a few bullseye boards for those who wanted to keep up their archery skills. Beyond them was the entrance that doubled as an exit on the far end, about fifty yards from where I was standing. I turned around and tilted my head up to see four Stormwind banners that were hung at the very top of the spire, letting everyone in the city see who resided there.
I walked to the exit and opened it to be greeted with about roughly twenty footmen. Four guarded our entrance, while the rest was spread throughout the entire street to ensure no delegates or merchants passed this way. I took a moment to give their armor a once over and noted that it was of higher quality than the footmen who escorted us in the city.
Their armor was plate instead of chain mail like I had seen the ones in the city wearing. The plate looked thinner than that of the knights, which made sense since knights were expected to be stronger. They were wearing tabards with the stylized golden 'L' on a white backdrop with gold trimmings. The design was also different from our Stormwind footmen, the armor of the Lordaeron footmen hugged their form while the Stormwind one was bulkier.
"Good morning, milord!" An older man, maybe in his thirties, greeted me. He had a friendly enough face adorned with a well-kept beard. "Did you rest well?"
"Well enough, sir…?" I trailed off.
The man blinked before his face flushed red. "Umm, I'm not a knight or such, milord. I am Captain Leforic; if you have any needs I've been told to see to them."
"I want to go into the city," I told the man before thumbing at the two royal knights behind me. "These two would be accompanying me as escorts. Will that be okay?"
"Oh? Of course, milord." The Captain stepped aside. "I'll send six of my men with you as guides, to ensure none of those merchants try to swindle you."
"I appreciate it, my good captain." I gave him a salute that he quickly returned. He then turned to order the six footmen to lead us out.
The walk was in silence for the most part. The footmen were probably intimidated by the higher ranked knights with me while my knights kept a paranoid eye out for anything that could be a threat to me. I wanted to tell them that the chances of anything in Lordaeron being an actual threat to me was pretty low, but vigilance was always a good thing. I know from meta-knowledge that I was safe, but the knights had no such assurance.
"This way, milord." The lead footman who called himself Reed took us around another corner.
The Keep felt like a maze with all of its sharp turns, though perhaps it was designed that way on purpose. I could imagine an invading army being turned around constantly in these complicated streets. The walk continued in silence and while others would begin to feel uncomfortable, I didn't feel the same since it gave me time to admire the architecture of the city. Unlike Stormwind whose stone walls were bright white, the colors of Lordaeron's stone were more muted; I would even say it was closer to a polished gray. The design was also quite different, showing the contrasting design philosophies between our two nations.
That thought brought me up short. Since when did I consider Stormwind my nation and not just a place that I had been reborn into? When did I call Stormwind home and mean it? Before I could give it any more thought, we arrived at the exit of Lordaeron Keep and after a quick talk with Reed, the soldiers on the battlement opened the gate.
The first thing that struck me upon exiting the keep was the smell. It was not shit like I expected like in a certain fantasy setting, but instead, the smell of freshly baked bread permeated the air. That was, of course, only the first thing that I noticed. The second thing was the hint of cinnamon, vanilla, and burnt sugar. Stormwind, by design, was more breezy and so any smells would usually be swept away. Here, in this enclosed city, the scent lingered enticingly.
"Ah, I never tire of waking up to this milord," Reed said proudly before he led us to a stall where baked goods were sold. The morning smell and sight of the fresh baked goods reminded me of my time in France in another lifetime.
I had to try it.
"One please," I said as I handed over some copper lion emblem coins to the merchant who was gawking at us when he got a good look. I took a piping hot cinnamon roll-like thing that was dotted with raisins into my hand and inhaled one final time before I bit into it.
'Fuck, that's good!' I thought as I struggled to contain a moan of satisfaction. I quickly handed him some more coins since I wanted to buy more of his baked goods to take back with me for the others.
Under orders from Reed, the other footmen took the pastries, not letting me or the other royal knights hold anything. That more, than anything, made my knight less standoffish to the footmen.
"What else would you recommend us seeing?" I asked Reed and saw the man was surprised at being addressed by me so casually, but he soon smiled.
"This way, milord." Reed's tour guide service was now open for business, it seems.
For the next couple of hours, we walked through the city street of Lordaeron. By the time we decided to head back, all of us were carrying goods. I might have gone overboard, but I regretted nothing!
Reed must have wanted to impress us some more with the city as we ended up taking a very different route back to the Keep. By the time we got back, we had so much food that I gave some to the footmen and Captain Leforic as thanks for guarding us. I had one of the knights send some of the goods up to the top floor for the Queen and her retinue before I put on my armor for the day. It was my uniform after all.
I expected to be hot wearing armor all the time, but it was actually quite bearable. Perhaps, it was a byproduct of our Titan origins. It could also explain why the armies of the Alliance could fight in freezing cold weather in places like Northrend and the hotter-than-hell fire elemental plane like the Firelands. Yet, I didn't feel any less human than how I was like in my memories on Earth. I was just...tougher.
Unfortunately, I now had to take care of the bane of my existence, paperwork, and was about to do just that when I heard the sound of metal clashing outside my window. I looked into the courtyard and saw some of my knights dueling each other in the makeshift training circle we made.
'You know what?' I thought to myself. 'Fuck paperwork.'
I walked out to the courtyard and unsheathed my sword. The two dueling knights stopped and shot each other a look before playing a quick round of rock, paper, scissors. It didn't matter who won as I had already stepped into the ring and waited for the victor. It was a younger knight in his mid-twenties who won against the older female. Emery, if I recalled his name correctly.
"I hope you are ready, Sir Callan." The man smiled as he took a defensive stance.
Grinning, I mirrored his stance as we circled each other in the ring. The rules were easy. Win by submission or force the other person out of the dueling ring. There was a small crowd that soon gathered, cheering both of us on in general. Emery's greatsword gleamed like silver. Like all of the royal knights' weapons, it was made out of mithril, but my arcanite blade shone brighter.
After the third circle, it was Emery who broke first and charged at me with a loud yell. "Hah!"
The blade swung at me fast and true. I knew this–could feel it–yet for me, ever since my string of battles with the Horde, Emery's strike seemed slow. I swung my sword and aimed at the center of his blade with enough force to ruin his swing and make him have to readjust his grip to keep his hold. It was not something that I was going to give him time to do as I stepped into his guard and swung upward like with a golf club, turning my sword onto its flat side at the last moment and striking him on his armor with such force that it made him unsteady on his feet.
Off balance, he tried desperately to fend off a flurry of overhead strikes that were aimed at never letting him regain a steady grip on his greatsword. His desperate defense left him wide open for me to 'sparta kick' him in the stomach and force him out of the circle and onto his ass. His expression showed his surprise at how quickly he lost. In reply, I looked at the other royal knights and held my arms out. It was an invitation for them to show me what they got. They all pushed and shoved each other to take up my challenge.
Some put up a better fight than others, but none of them could compare to my father. Before I left Stormwind, Lothar had wanted to see how far along my skill had progressed to see if I could adequately protect the queen and defend myself.
My conclusion of him was that he was a fucking monster!
Nothing I did got through his defense! Worse, he taunted me by saying I got close a few times, but I knew I was being played. My strongest hit was blocked by him as if it was negligible. He was faster, stronger, and much more agile than me. When I called upon the Light to help me, I managed to tag him quite a few times, but in the end, I still lost.
'Maybe I should have picked his skill set?' I thought idly as I was now facing off against two royal knights.
After my string of easy victories, they put aside their pride and challenged me to a two on one fight. I saw no reason to decline. It was slightly troubling at first to have to account for the second person, but surprisingly, the fight slowed down quicker than I thought it would. The first tag team group was the hardest and took the longest time for me to beat. The second was a bit easier, and by the time the third group came, I took the initiative to attack to break up any plans they had for me. This went on for the better part of the morning.
"I yield," Emery growled as he decided to up the ante with two more knights for a combined total of three against me. "With all due respect, sir, the Light is hogwash!"
"I didn't use the Light though." I raised an eyebrow and saw the other two knights with him looking at me as if I was a monster. "Don't you look at me like that! Face off against my father; now, there's a monster!"
This time, it was Emery who raised his eyebrow at me. "With respect, sir, it is Lord Lothar."
"Aye," another knight agreed from the sideline.
"I mean, it is Lord Lothar, isn't it?" another older knight asked in confusion as if he couldn't understand my point.
They weren't the only other ones; the other knights all seemed to agree that my father being a monster was expected.
"Sir Callan." Emery gave me a pitying look as he decided to explain. "It's expected from him, not from you."
"Why not?" I was a bit offended. Why couldn't I be good at fighting?
"Sir..." Emery made eye contact with the knights before he turned back to me. "...with our most sincere respect, you're a cleric."
There were murmurs of assent at his statement.
"And pray tell, Sir Emery," a soft female voice said from behind them. All the knights turn around, startled, to find Victoria in her battle armor. "What is wrong with a cleric being well versed in strength of arms?"
Emery's face paled. Some things hold true in reality as they did in the game. Don't insult your healer.
"My apologies, Lady Victoria but I do believe I heard the queensguard calling for me!" The man got up and gave Victoria a courteous bow before running off into the building.
'Pussy!' I mentally called after him before I turned my gaze back to Victoria who was looking at the weapon rack as if she was window shopping for a dress.
In the end, she chose a large mace and heater shield. I gave a questioning raised eyebrow at her choice, but all she did was give me a mysterious smile in return. She had been switching up her weapon choices ever since the Redridge siege. I guess she was trying to feel out what suited her best. Mara was pretty much locked onto a two-hander with a large round shield. The others were still feeling out what was best for them, but before I left Northshire, Alyson seemed most comfortable with a lance and tower shield combo.
"Do you feel up for a duel or are you too tired from playing with your fellow knights?" Victoria teased as she twirled the mace in her hand as if familiarizing herself with it. Her weapon was a crown mace, which meant it had four sharpened edges at the tip of the handle. Hit someone with it, even in a sloppy manner, and it would ruin their day.
"Are you sure you're up for the challenge?" I teased her.
"It's not like I haven't bested you before," Victoria answered with an innocent smile.
I frowned. When did she ever win against me in a duel? Then it hit me what she was implying. I opened my mouth incredulously. "I thought you said–"
"On your guard Callan," Victoria cut me off in an airy tone. Her smile was gone; her face now sported a determined expression.
'That little vixen!' I couldn't help but think, but if that was how she wanted to play, then so be it. With that, I got into a defensive stance with my sword held before me. I opted to give her a handicap by not using a shield.
"I expect full Light abilities to be used?" Victoria asked as she raised the heater shield in front of her and held the mace cocked back in a ready stance.
"Of course." I grinned and saw a matching one of her own. "I don't expect you to fight like a knight. You're a battle cleric. Fight me like one."
As if by some unknown signal, we both rushed toward each other while shouting at the same time.
"Shield!" The words of power sounded out in stereo as a translucent bubble made of light wrapped around us.
I ducked under her wide swing and swung my in a wide arc, letting the momentum enhanced my strike, before it smashed into her shield. She was pushed backward by the loud heavy blow. However, before I could follow up, she cleverly launched several orbs of penance at me, forcing me to dodge. The sound of the wall cracking behind me let me know how much she put into that attack.
Not to be outdone, I whipped my free hand forward and lashed out at her with a smite. Her eyes widened as she hurriedly brought up her shield to block the holy power. Then in a clever counterattack, she released the latch on her mace, transforming it into a flail, and swung it at me. I couldn't dodge that in time due to the range and so I brought my sword up to block.
What I did not expect was for her to have silently cast a holy power-infused strike. The explosion of the impact sent me staggering back on my feet and popped my Power Word: Shield. Seeing me staggered, she pushed her advance and spun the flail to gather momentum and strike me with it.
That was a mistake.
I recovered faster than she calculated and closed the distance between us quickly with a shoulder charge. My violent collision popped her Power Word: Shield and sent her reeling backward. To follow up, I empowered my sword with holy power making it glow golden and brought it down on her shield. The explosion of light sent Victoria to the ground, but just as I had taught her, she rolled. Ditching the shield, she got back to her feet in a defensive stance. Her flail was a mace once again and her stance mirrored mine.
I had to crack a smile at her improvement. 'Well, time to put you through the paces.'
And I did just that. Unlike with the knights, I didn't search for the quickest way to victory but instead forced Victoria to show me what she learned. I dragged our duel out, pushing her to call upon the Light faster than she was used to with the flat of my blade being her motivator. To her credit, she did get several good hits on me, but since we were using the Light, I self-healed myself, though she followed suit when I did so. For her, calling on the Light to heal was as natural as breathing, but using it in combat like this had a noticeable delay between spell usages.
One of the things I noticed my girls had been doing was infusing the Light to enhance their abilities. The hit became stronger than their normal attacks, they moved that much faster, and they could take tank hits better. Looking at Victoria and the slight golden outline around her, I wasn't sure she realized she was doing it consciously. It was like a general stat buff...kind of like Blessing of Kings now I thought about it, but with them being all female, wouldn't it be Blessing of Queens instead?
Huh. Food for thought.
In the end, after I pushed her to use her abilities, I mentally gave her a passing grade. I separated myself from her–something that she was all too happy to let me do–and stood in a guard stance, allowing her to make the next move. Victoria, for her part, was panting hard with her once pristine armor smeared with dirt from the times I knocked her to the ground. I could see the determination in her gaze as she dropped her mace, gathered holy light into her hand, and fired it at me. I was happy to see that, instead of three orbs of penance, she was able to shoot out a fourth and then, surprisingly, a fifth.
"Barrier," I spoke the power word and watched as a golden dome formed around me. It sapped the strength from the orbs, reducing their efficiency by eighty percent. To show her how much more she had to go, I let the weakened version of the orbs touch me. They were promptly absorbed by a newly made power word: shield.
I could see by the way Victoria's jaw clenched, that she was not happy with her effort. She took the mace embedded in the ground and held it in an attack stance while tensing her body. However, unexpectedly, her stance loosened as she looked past me with a surprised expression on her face. I raised an eyebrow at her; did she really think I was going to fall for the oldest trick in the book?
"Your holiness?" Victoria's question made my eyes bugged out, and I risked looking away to see if that was the case.
Sure enough, the older man was standing at the entrance by himself, his expression something between confused and shocked. His mouth opened and closed as if unsure of what he wanted to say.
I quickly checked my pocket watch to confirm that he was indeed early for our meeting. Just how much of our duel did he see and weren't the footmen outside supposed to warn us first? However, I guess being an archbishop had its perks.
"Archbishop?" I asked and quickly dispelled the golden barrier.
My question appeared to snap Alonsus out of his stupor as he composed himself and walked toward me. His eyes shot to Victoria from time to time which reminded me to dismiss her with a nod to go get cleaned up.
"You arrived quite early," I told the Archbishop. I was still preparing bullshit answers that would require self-reflection for our meeting later. I didn't want to taint the future founder of the Silver Hand's perception for what a paladin should be after all. "I thought I informed the messenger that it was this afternoon?"
"Ah, my apologies." The old man finally collected himself. "I decided to come here personally to cancel our meeting after I received some good news."
"Good news?" I asked curiously.
"Oh, yes." The legendary archbishop stroked his beard in a pleased manner. "I have businesses to attend to in Stratholme and a protégé to pick up, you see."
I did not see, but waited for further explanation.
"That's when I found out about your journey to the elven kingdom." The old man was giving me a wide smile which gave me a feeling of dread. "In the interest of saving time and for greater safety, the king saw fit to combine parties until we reach the Northpass Tower."
I blinked. 'Oh no. Oh no no no!'
Alonsus must have seen the distress on my face and quickly held up a hand. "Do not worry, young Callan, I travel light, and though I am old, I am not infirm. I'll be able to keep pace!"
'Damn it, Terenas!' I mentally cursed the Lordaeron King.
"I figured it would only be polite of me to tell you in person, but it seems I came upon..." The archbishop trailed off as his eyes shot over to the area where I just fought Victoria. "No matter; we'll have plenty of time to discuss the Light on our journey."
Fuck! How am I going to come up with weeks' worth of bullshit?!
*** Khaz Modan – Dun Morogh ***
"They're coming! They're coming!" Muradin heard the gnome currently in their latest invention, the flying machine, shout as he passed over their fortification.
"Ye heard him, lads!" Magni, in his resplendent gray armor, roared as he lifted his large warhammer. The army replied with a mighty roar of their own. "Prepare fer warrrrr!"
As if to prove Magni's words true, any dwarf worth his salt felt the rumbling of their enemy before they saw them. The invaders had chosen not to push into Dun Morogh to establish a foothold. That was a mistake Magni capitalized on by erecting a wall by the entrance. Of course, given time, it would have been a magnificent wall made of stone. Unfortunately, time was something they did not have; reinforced wood would have to do for now.
"Cannoneers!" Magni shouted as their cast iron cannons were pushed forward onto the wall to give them as much range as possible. Already the barrel had been primed and loaded with their first shot.
"They're here," Brann, the youngest of the Bronzebeard brothers, said. And he was right as a green tide of troll-like beings poured into their valley like a kicked-over anthill.
"By the maker," a dwarf on the wall said as he saw their enemy for the first time.
"Steady, laddie!" Muradin said not only to the dwarf but any within earshot. "Their numbers are great, but they need to be funneled through our defenses! We'll make 'em pay dearly fer tryin'!"
"Right ye are, brother!" Magni, who was nearby, shouted in agreement. Some of the more veteran dwarves also agreed. He then turned his gaze back and waited for the invaders to almost be at the wall before he turned to his cannon master. "FIRE!"
Like thunder cracking, the cannons all along the wall fired into the invading horde, tearing up the land and sending body parts flying. Unfortunately, after their shots were fired, the cannons had to be pulled back, cleaned thoroughly with a large brush, and reprimed with their black powder while two strong dwarfs loaded the next shot in.
"Pistoleers!" Magni shouted as the invaders did not stop but had reached the wall and were throwing makeshift ladders against the wall. However, they were soon faced with the dwarves' newest invention. It was based on their cannon design, but small enough to be held in a dwarven hand.
The new unit-type, pistoleers, crowded the walls in the hundreds and aimed the pistols down into the sea of green bodies and fired blindly.
"Urgh!"
"Argh!"
"Urk!"
And many other accompanied yells of pain from the greenskin could be heard, as the pistoleers passed their used weaponry back to the men behind them and were handed a freshly loaded pistol. They quickly emptied their payload into the greenskin horde and handed it back for another fresh one. Behind them several dwarves were hurriedly cleaning out the barrel, loading the black powder, and pushing in the ball bearing. An improperly cleaned pistol was a danger to the wielder as much as it was to the enemy.
"Augh! Mah hand!" A dwarf pistoleer screamed as he held the stump that was his right hand. He was quickly led away and replaced with another pistoleer.
Despite the greenskin losses, they ignored their dead and kept throwing up multiple pre-made ladder after ladder in sheer determination to scale the wall. That, in turn, created a sense of urgency for the pistoleers which caused more incidents of sloppiness to occur along the lines.
"Gnomish auxiliaries!" Magni ordered as he felt the rate of fire dropping off and saw greenskin climbing higher. A moment later, a dozen of their smallest allies went up to the wall with some kind of metal container on their back connected to a kind of firehose device in their hand. "Try to keep them off the wall!"
"You got it, King Magni!" Came the squeaky reply as the gnomes found a gap in the wall and unleashed a small firestorm at the enemy. Those at the front dropped in pain and fell on the ground as others continued their tenacious scaling. "Burn, invaders, burn!"
"Blast Engineers!" Magni called out next. It was a gnome division that was in charge of their newly created siege engine. Its appearance was that of a heavily augmented catapult made of metal and wood. What was different was its payload. It was a metal container the size of an ale barrel.
"Ready, King Magni!" the lead engineer shouted.
"Give us some breathing room!" Magni pointed his warhammer over the wall. "Loose!"
The augmented catapult flung their innocuous-looking barrels over the wall by the dozen. Muradin watched from on the wall as the barrels reached a hundred yards over the wall and crashed into the ground beyond. He was expecting an explosion; what he got was something else. Fire exploded forth, yes, but it spread like water. Those caught in it found themselves unable to put out the fire no matter how much they rolled on the ground or how much effort other greenskins made to put out the fire.
That stopped the tide of greenskin, but they still had quite a significant number trapped in between the walls and the firestorm.
"Keep creating a buffer line!" Magni ordered. The gnomes did not use raw strength to reload their contraption. Instead, the machine was slowly cocking back by itself while several gnomes struggled to carry another barrel to reload it.
"Wall!" Brann shouted as the isolated greenskin had finally scaled the walls.
Muradin got a good look at his first one, a half-burnt greenskin that had a mad look in its eyes.
"Come on beastie!" Muradin taunted. He held up his warhammer and axe in a challenge. The beast roared and attacked him. To its credit, the beast was fast and strong, but the sons of Ironforge were no slouches either.
Muradin met the greenskin axe with his own and pushed the surprised beast back. He then threw his hammer with all his strength at his off-balanced foe and saw it strike true, caving the greenskin's chest in. To his surprise, the greenskin was not dead but instead wheezing laboriously when Muradin went to retrieve his hammer. He put the greenskin out of its misery with his axe a moment later. Muradin quickly leapt onto the next opponent, then the next. His blood was up, and he had to give the greenskin some payback for their ambush in Loch Modan.
The gnomes abandoned the walls after they ran out of whatever was fueling their flames. The other engineers kept lobbing their liquid fire to create a wall of flame, but more importantly, to hold the rest of the greenskin forces back. That allowed the dwarven army to slowly yet surely grind down the trapped greenskins. It took hours, but finally the last of them was killed.
Muradin allowed himself a small reprieve as he saw the greenskin army behind the flame not daring to get too close to it. "We did it, brother!"
Magni nodded. "Aye, we did."
The greenskin forces were too numerous; their gnomish scouts reported at least over a hundred thousand invaders. They couldn't face that number head-on so instead, they came up with a plan to cut the greenskin army into pieces and eliminate those piecemeal. Muradin estimated that over twenty thousand of the greenskins were either dead on the walls or below it. They also took losses, at least five thousand sons of Ironforge were dead and many more were injured. They would have to rotate their soldiers to keep them fresh and treat the wounded. It would be close but they only needed to repeat what they did a couple of more times before they were certain it would discourage the greenskins from further attacks.
"Look there, brother. More of our scouts have returned." Brann's words made Muradin look to the sky to see around fourteen flying machines making their way back to their lines. It was when they got closer that they noticed that it wasn't like the one made for two people to ride on. As a matter of fact, it looked more like a boat that was being held up by a balloon.
The gnome captain who had come up to the wall to check their handy work frowned at the sight. "That's not one of ours."
Magni and Muradin exchanged a look as they realized this was the enemy. "Enemy att–!"
"What, what, what!" A smaller obnoxious sounding greenskin poked its head out from the boat and shouted down at them in a mocking voice.
"Goblins!" The gnome captain spot. "Shoot it down!"
Archers and pistoleers pointed their weapons upward and fired, but it didn't matter as the airboats sped up and angled toward the walls. The new angle allowed them a view of the goblins' boat, which was not empty but instead filled with wooden barrels. Barrels that two other goblins were hurriedly lighting fuses for with a sense of urgency.
The gnome captain turned to Magni and shouted, "Abandon the wall now!"
"Auuaaaaahhhhhh!" The sound of a mad goblin scream could be heard as the goblins' boat slammed into the wall on the far side and created a massive explosion that tore apart a large section of the wall. There was a second explosion, and then a third as whole dwarven units died in the blasts.
"Yer heard him, lad–!" Magni shouted but was too late as one of the boats of the suicidal goblins crashed into his section of the wall and caved it into itself.
"Magni!" Muradin shouted as he tried to reach his brother, but another explosion sent him off the wall. He fell down heavily into a pile of greenskin corpses with his breath knocked out of him. More explosions sounded as he gathered himself and stood back up just in time to see the wall fortification destroyed. "Brother!"
He rushed forward to try to get to his brother's last known position only to feel the hair on his back rise. Muradin turned in the direction of the ill feeling and saw the firewall that was keeping the greenskin out parted. On the other side, standing by their greenskin invaders, was an unexpected enemy: the dark iron dwarves. There were some dressed in a mockery of ancient dwarven Shaman clothes, but the majority of them were clad in their foul dark iron armor and were looking at him with a burning hatred.
"Lok'tar Ogar!" one of the greenskin shouted as he charged. As if that was all they needed, the rest followed suit.
"Death to the Bronzebeard!" the lead dark iron warrior shouted as he also ran forward with his murderous gaze locked onto Muradin.
"Ye won't be takin' the lives of any sons of Ironforge without a fight!" Muradin roared as he set his stance while lifting his axe and hammer in a challenging manner.
"Die scum!" The lead dark iron was able to outpace both his compatriots and the greenskin to reach Muradin first.
Just before Muradin could engage the tainted dwarf, a familiar hammer struck his enemy on his dark iron armored-clad body and sent him flying back, dead before he even hit the ground. With renewed hope, he turned around to see his brother looking a bit worse for wear, but still ready to fight.
"For Khazzzzz Modaaaaaan!" the mountain king shouted so loudly that his voice echoed through the area.
Behind him, Muradin heard the war cry of his fellow countrymen as they rushed past him to engage their enemy. Grinning, Muradin made sure that his helmet was on tight enough as he too ran forward.
The impact of the collision between the savage greenskin and the sturdy dwarves of Khaz Modan was so powerful that it caused the very ground beneath their feet to shake. Muradin wanted to be the second dwarf of Ironforge to kill a dark iron in over two hundred years. He had to keep up with his brother after all.
The fight became a free for all melee as dwarven reinforcements kept streaming through the gaps to push the invaders back. The greenskins, on the other hand, kept rushing forward despite their injuries. In fact, the injured ones fought even more recklessly in an attempt to take as many dwarves down with them as possible. Even the gnomes joined the fight in their large 'mechs', large metal monstrosities that stood ten feet tall. They were very effective against the greenskins who found that their axes were unable to fell the gnomish contraption in a single strike. At least half of the gnomes' mechs had flame weapons on them as they lit many of their attackers on fire.
There was a sense that the gnomes could help force the invaders to give the dwarves time to regroup and form proper battle lines, but it was soon dashed. Large numbers of smaller goblins carried lit fuse barrels on their backs and charged directly into the gnomes' mechs. The goblins' purpose was made known as they exploded, heavily damaging the gnome mechs. Not done, more groups of goblin sappers piled onto the damaged mech and its pilot to finish them off in a fiery explosion. Heart-wrenching scenes like this repeated throughout the battlefield as their gnomish allies were singled out by the foul goblins. Some dwarves had thought to intercept the goblin sappers but found themselves and those around them killed in the resulting explosion.
"Fight on, lads!" Muradin encouraged, but it became harder when the foul golems of the Dark Iron dwarves appeared on the battlefield. The giant creations of stone and dark iron wrought havoc on their lines. However, they were not invincible as a shot from an Ironforge cannon thundered and struck them hard enough to cause notable damages. More cannons followed suit and destroyed it a moment later.
Suddenly, a loud, harsh guttural scream cut across the field, overshadowing the sound of the battle and the cannons firing. Muradin was surprised to see the owner of the voice was a greenskin wielding a large axe, who was much smaller than his peers. To his increasing worry, the greenskin's eyes were on Magni and as if to confirm his thoughts, the loud beast with a group of its warriors made a beeline straight for his brother.
"With me, sons of Ironforge!" Muradin rallied a few dwarves around him. "We make fer the king!"
However, while he was pushing toward his brother, Magni and his bodyguards found themselves in combat against the smaller greenskin forces. The greenskin's attack was swift and powerful, but his brother gave as good as he got. At any other time, Muradin would not have been worried for his brother; his brother was a better fighter than even him. However, he was just caught in an explosion, and Muradin could tell that Magni's reaction was not as fast as it normally would have been.
"Push through, damn it! Push through!" Muradin killed any greenskin or dark iron devil that got in his way.
Yet, he arrived at his brother's side too late as one of the upward strikes of the smaller greenskin tore Magni's hammer out of his hand, and a reversed downward swing opened up his brother's chest and armor, from his neck down to his stomach.
"Magniiiii~!" Muradin roared in fear. Magni's body toppled onto his back as his precious life blood stained the ground red.
"The Bronzebeard usurper king has fallen!" a dark iron shouted in glee. Muradin silenced him a moment later with a well-thrown strike of his hammer.
However, the words still had a demoralizing effect on the dwarven army and, just like that, the tide turned against the defenders.
"K-King Mangi's fallen?!" a dwarf in the back cried in horror before breaking and running.
His cowardly retreat had one copycat, then two, then double, until a small stream began to run.
"Cowards!" Other dwarves, veterans, jeered at the runners.
Muradin arrived at Magni's body just in time to stop the greenskin from taking his brother's head as a trophy. He tossed his retrieved hammer at the greenskin and while it struck true, the greenskin merely spat blood from his mouth and glared at him.
"Come on, pig!" Muradin growled. "Fight me!"
Before the two could engage, pistol fire forced the greenskin to block the attacks with his axe and retreat. More dwarves arrived to engage the greenskin and his peers to further separate the two.
"Muradin!" Brann arrived, surrounded by pistoleers, and was by their eldest brother's side in an instant. "We need to get Magni back to Ironforge. Ye need to call the retreat or else, we'd all be slaughtered here!"
Muradin saw that many brave warriors were giving their lives to try and put as much space between the greenskin and his brother as possible. They were paying for it with their lives for every second for their king's safety. He would not let it be in vain.
"Sons of Ironforge!" Muradin reluctantly shouted. "Fall back!"
Brann, with the other dwarves, made a makeshift stretcher with their shields for Magni and began their retreat. Muradin sounded the horn note for the general retreat but not before hearing another horrendous scream from the same greenskin once more, but this time in triumph.
TBC…
AN: And once again thanks to Icura who did what he had to do and edit this for me, You da man!
Well, we come to it at last! Things are happening and while the dwarves put up a good fight. Well, they were always destined to lose before the Horde. I put some easter eggs in there, mainly of the dialogue variety for the dwarf section. Some /wink wink, nudge nudge in the Callan section. With that said, I'll let the rest of the chapter speak for itself Although I will say writing dwarf accent is pretty tough, had to double check a lot of what was posted in game dialogue.
Try as I might, I couldn't keep this chapter under 5k. Oh well. Thank you for the all the discussion and feedback I really appreciate it and makes me giddy before I drop the next one. Thank you again
As always thanks to the patrons supporters, appreciate it! With me being more dedicated to writing, I decided to overhaul it in the next couple of days to be more active and give updates on chapter process. As always you can find it in the sig below.
Finally and as always, Comments, reviews, and criticism are very much welcome.