Varian watched as Krosus was in his death throes but felt intense pain as he thought of Tirion. Tirion was a good friend of his and to watch him die as he stood helpless nearby awoke his inner fury. Gul'dan will pay.

Glancing at the nearby troops of both Alliance and Horde, he took in the weary faces of both sides. Without Tirion and his shattered troops, they would need reinforcements. They had no idea what Gul'dan had waiting for them further along the path.

The bridge was completed by both sides, and the forces of both Horde and Alliance crossed their respectable bridges. Varian saw his general of Draenor and hero of the Alliance pass by and decided to call him over. The human mage crossed over and tilted his head in respect to his king. Nethar had been there since the Burning Crusade. His steadfast presence was reassuring to the forces of the Alliance and his world wide renown was only increased by slaying Illidan, Arthas, Deathwing, and others that have threatened the safety of Azeroth. He was about Varian's height with black hair and a strong jaw. He was a few years younger than the king but the age gap meant nothing to the two friends.

"Nethar, I am glad to have you by my side during these dark times."

"I wouldn't wish to be anywhere else but by your side, My King." The two walked off to the side as the Alliance forces were hurrying across the bridge.

"With the loss of Tirion and his men, we are walking into this weaker than anticipated. Scouts report many of the 7th Legion are being pinned down not to far from here. I need you to get them as we engage Gul'dan. We can take no chances and he must not get away." Concern flickered in the eyes of the mage but he only nodded and made his way toward the 7th Legion's position. He would trust his king.

Nethar flanked the cannons that had tied the 7th Legion up and destroyed them with several well-placed flamestrikes and fireballs. The warlocks turned their focus on him and began to spit out spells his way.

Creating a barrier to ward off the fel magic, Nethar countered with very quick fireballs followed by pyroblast. The warlocks did not expect his speed at casting and were caught off guard as the pyroblast injured them. They were however not trained magic users for nothing and quickly put forth more energy to deal with the strong mage.

Without the aid of their spellcasters, the demons were quickly killed by the elite 7th Legion. They were the best the Alliance had to offer and had been apart of many campaigns over the years. The warlocks realized their mistake when several suddenly were stabbed by swords. The blasted mage had outplayed them.

Nethar made his way over to the troops and looked for their captain. His searched ended with the Lieutenant approaching and introducing himself as Reth Kithbane.

"The captain is dead, Archmage. A felguard struck him down during the beach landing."

"Unfortunate but you have done well in his place Reth. Gather your men, our king needs us to fight Guldan ." The trained troops prepared quickly and left a small garrison to handle the wounded and secure the area. The rest rallied behind the Archmage and began marching over to the Tomb of Sargeras. During their march, many exclaimed in joy at seeing the gunship fly over and begin to fire upon the enemy as well as confusion as a loud horn sounded. The group was almost there as a giant fel reaver rose out of a cloud of fel fire and began to pull the gunship down.

The group doubled their pace and were close enough to see their king jump off the ladder and slam into the fel reaver, releasing the gunship in the process. Nethar's forces were mostly covered by rocks but had enough vision to witness their king jump into harm's way. The gunship flew away from the battle toward Stormwind, no doubt to bring news of the situation and repair.

Nethar and his men reached the area as the gunship disappeared from sight and looked at their king about to charge Gul'dan in a last stand. Amplifying his voice with magic, Nethar yelled out to Varian to get his attention.

"MY LORD!"

Both Varian and Gul'dan took in the newcomers, one smiled toward the group while the other growled angrily. The 7th Legion reached their king and took up defensive positions, waiting for orders.

"It's about time you got here, Nethar. I feared I was going to have to kill Gul'dan and his puppets all by myself." joked Varian grimly.

"Nobody would believe you if you said you killed them all anyway, my lord." replied the mage. They both shared a dark laugh as Gul'dan commanded his army of demons to kill them. Gul'dan shot at fel bolt toward Varian but it was blocked by Nethar. The two began to exchange magical attacks as Varian took in the situation. The demons on the cliffs were making their way down to cut them off and more spewed forth from the portal. This was an unwinnable fight.

Making a decision, he called his men to retreat and looked toward the two master spellcasters. Both Nethar and Gul'dan had looks of determination but Nethar was weary from battling his way here and Gul'dan was relatively fresh for battle.

"Nethar, we have to go!"

Nodding wearily, he cast one of the biggest fireball's Varian had ever seen and sent it toward the gap between the two forces. A crack of broken rock separated the two sides before collapsing to create a 15 ft gap. The 7th Legion's battle mages created a magical barrier around the retreating troops and began to work their way back to the shore. Varian witnessed Nethar fall to one knee from the effort. He quickly sheathed Shalamayne then grabbed his friend and threw him over his shoulder.

Varian ran with the troops but turned back as Gul'dan commanded his troops to follow and created a bridge of his own; he then turned and re-entered the Tomb of Sargeras. With demons now pursuing them from the Tomb and others working their way down from the cliffs, the group speed up the pace and made it to the base of operations on the shore. This landing site was much closer than the rest of the groups and was more heavily defended because of it. Even though the 7th Legion had won with the help of Nethar, the position was not very defendable and was close to the Tomb. Their enemy would arrive any minute.

"Open a portal to Stormwind immediately!" called out Varian. The battle mages gathered to open a portal but were shocked to see nothing appearing before them.

"What's wrong!" Varian was worried as time was not on their side.

A young mage cried out," We don't know!"

Feeling Nethar start shifting out of his group, Varian helped him down. He looked really tired but he understood the situation was grim.

"Gul'dan is using his magic to block our portals. There is no way to leave the Broken Isles. However, short distance travel is still available to us. Mages, come to me and add your magic to mine. We shall open a portal to the mainland." The mages quickly did as ordered and began to channel their magic with Nethar. The portal blinked to life and Varian sighed in relief.

"Get the wounded through first. Nethar, where is the portal going to?"

"That I do not know, my king. We are only able to open it to the mainland. Where in the mainland we will land, I know not."

"Anywhere is better than here." The 7th Legion hurried the wounded through, moving as groups at a time but a dying scream brought their attention elsewhere. The Legion has arrived at the beachhead. Dozens of troops went to engage the enemy but they would not hold for long.

As the queue for the portal disappeared. Varian called out to the remaining soldiers that went to fight the demons and hurried over to the portal. The portal began to weaken as the battlemages stepped through on the orders of Nethar. The Archmage was eventually the last mage in the area and he motioned with his head for Varian and the soldiers with demons on their heels to jump through. The forefront of the demons were only 10 yards away when it was just Nethar and Varian left. Nethar's shoulders sagged and the portal was growing smaller by the second. Varian grabbed the Archmage and went through the portal a second before it disappeared completely.

The two landed on the hard ground as they came out the other side. Varian stood up and went to help Nethar but there was already two soldiers helping him up and a priest came over to help the mage.

Reth came up to the king and told him that preliminary scout reports of the immediate area were coming in and he needed to see them. Nodding at Reth, the two made their way over to a fallen tree and listed to the oral reports of the scouts.

They were on the border between Azsuna and Suramar but were on the Azsuna side. A watch was set up and the exhausted soldiers of the Alliance rested for a few hours.

Varian woke up 3 hours later feeling really sore but he shook off the feeling and put his armor back on. Nothing was more uncomfortable than sleeping in full armor. Noting that the area was unknown, he didn't take it all off but he did take off the more heavy duty things.

He called for a meeting of his commanders to figure out what to do. Nethar walked in tiredly but he looked better than he did earlier. To start the meeting off, Nethar confirmed that teleporting out was being blocked by Gul'dan and his top warlocks so they were stuck there until the Alliance began their invasion of the Isles in a second wave attack. This was most likely not gonna happen for a few weeks as their forces were hit pretty bad during the assault on the Broken Shore. They were gonna have to be on their own for now.

A headcount of 120 soldiers was made but 30 were still too wounded to fight. They also had 10 priest and a dozen battle mages outside of Nethar. They could stay here and hold out until then but others argued that they should stay on the move to prevent the Legion from narrowing their location down. Suramar was close by and many did not wish to remain by the stronghold of the Legion. Nethar brought up thoughts of moving to Val'sharah and try to meet up with the druids in that area. Stormheim and Highmountain were also good places due to the defensive positions the mountains could provide.

What to do was on the table for many minutes but Varian made his decision and agreed that Val'Sharah would be best. The night elves would put priority on that region so it was most likely to be visited sooner than the other areas.

Reth and his sergeants saluted and made their way out of the tent. Most of the higher officers were killed in the assault and the remaining NCO's and Reth were being stretched to their limits.

Varian took notice that Nethar stayed in the glade that had become their meeting place and looked at him questionably. Nethar made eye contact and decided to speak freely with his king and friend.

"This fight may be the hardest we have ever fought Varian. What will we do in these dark times?" Nethar was starting to give into despair.

Varian went over to his friend and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"We will do what we have always done in the face of danger." Nethar tilted his head up to stare at his king.

"What would that be, my lord?"

"Survive."