4. Come to the dark side of the plutonium
A/N: Don't ask about the plutonium. Not much humor in this chapter. Sorry. Next chapter will be the first one without a fight and more actual story.
Garithos' destroyed (or rather melted) base
"An invitation?" Claire asked titling her head, while looking at the paladin. Uther nodded. "My king Terenas wishes to speak with you and your companions, so we would be able to make an alliance together."
"Well...now is actually bad timing. I need to organize some things in my swarm. And is your king sure about that? I mean just look at my Zerg. They're not exactly tamed wolfs or anything. What would your current allies think about this official invetation?"
She looked around, seeing the human forces trying to collect themselves.
"You shouldn't worry yourself about such thinks. I am sure my king can guarantee your safety and those of your friends."
"Well, as I said, I don't have the time right now. Am not sure when I'll find the time actually. The capital is a little away from here and I wanna make sure this the only dead people in this place, are fast asleep in their graves. Speaking off, if you have any undead bothering you, just tell me. I'll send an Overlord to your place, when I finally find the time."
"I see. It is rather unfortunate. Again I apologize for Lord Garithos' behavior."
Claire sighed. "Again, that's not your fault. If anything, then I should have held my troops back." she replied. The sun was as good as set. "I'd normally invite you to sleep in my place, but I doubt you'd like to sleep on something that is actual alive." She winked at the man.
Uther bowed politely. "This is not a problem young queen. I will give your message to king Terenas. Goodnight."
"Hey, wanna have some escorts for the trip? It may be all a mess, but I can afford some troops."
"No thank you, but I appreciate the offer."
Claire shrugged. "Meh, whatever. Night and have a safe trip."
She casually waved her hand, as she entered the Overlord, which flew back to her base. Uther stood there a while, looking after the strange creature. "How does it fly?" he wondered aloud. He sighed a little relieved as he went into his tent.
He had seen what the Zerg did to Garithos' troops and he had taken the greater part of his private army with him. Many men had lost their lives in a single afternoon. The Zerg were not to be underestimated, so much he had learned today.
From the reports he got from Garithos' men, he could gather the following story: convinced the Zerg were demons and most likely a great part of his hurt pride played a role in everything, Garithos' prepared his troops in order to rod out the Zerg. From Morlune's report they all had known Claire commanded at least 1000 Zerg and the Zerg Queen Rose. Of course Garithos' was ready to face more Zerg, but he wasn't ready to just how many he was about to face. The plan was simple. In the woods, the Zerg would have the surprise on their side, so aggravate them on three different fronts, so they would split up. Seeing as Claire was between 15 and 17 years old, he didn't expect much tactic knowledge of the girl, so she would split her troops. It worked, but it worked too good. The Zerg had a greater number, than Garithos expected, but not only that. They showed units, Morlune hadn't seen himself. The snake like Hydralisks, which shoot poisoned arrows, which on top of all things break through metal. Next the acid spitting Roaches, which can bury themselves and walk underground. The Zerg were not brainless, feral creatures. They foresaw a direct attack would cause too many losses, which could be the turnabout in the battle. So they sneaked inside with the Roaches, melted the towers and the rest was pure slaughter.
Or as I like to put it: A-click, aggressive march to the end of the map.
Uther decided to sleep over it a night, knowing the Zerg could kill him anytime they wanted, but he had faith in the young Claire. It was a long ride and there was still the issue with Arthas. Maybe the paladin should convince the king to send a messenger with orders the prince and his troops may return.
With these uneasy thoughts, Uther drifted off to sleep.
XXX
Claire's base
Ray was sitting on the rock, Shotgun next to him, both looking at the stars above them.
"You cannot see the stars this good back at home. City light and all."
"Screech, screech, screech?"
"Better." Ray touched his shoulder. "Rose got some awesome healing abilities."
"Screech, screech. Screech?"
"It was...something else. But nah, only if it is really necessary. You have to be human to understand. We like our privacy and if you lived your whole life alone in your mind, well for you it would be considering giving up the collective."
"Screech." Shotgun shrugged. "Screech, screech, screech. Screech, screech?"
"I know Claire since kindergarten. We never had many friends, because ...let's just say the two of us are a little unique for human standards. We had quite the normal life, going to school, meeting up with the few friends we had, getting scolded by our parents every now and then. God, I miss my sister. Must be the same for Claire and her older brother and little sister."
"Screech, screech."
"You didn't know? I thought since you're all connected you all know everything about each other."
"Screech. -Screech..."
"I guess it's something she's trying to come over herself. We don't even know how to return, since in this is a different universe, it means we have a different earth here. Who knows, maybe the one who gave Claire the power knows how we get back. You don't come to happen to know who it was."
Shotgun shook his head. "Too bad. Hey, don't make this face, Claire won't abandon you guys. I know her good enough to say this."
"Screech."
Shotgun wanted to resume looking at the stars, when suddenly that one smell, which had bothered him back with Morlune, was in the air again. He held his head up and sniffed the air like a dog and followed the scent.
"What's up bro?" Ray asked. Seeing as the ling was too occupied following the scent, Ray followed him. He wondered whether lings had better senses as dogs or not. He read in one book a Zerg queen experimenting with a dog and created a Roverlisk. Every Zerg and Protoss died on the planet because of some kind of Xel'Naga creature, which absorbed both species or rather their DNA. It did the same with Terrans, but spit them out again in one piece, leaving them deserted for a few weeks on the planet. Fun fact, the Terrans awakened that thing with nukes, the thing absorbing the energy of the explosion. It was General Duke by the way, who lost the battle and went for the nukes.
Ray was brought out of his train of thought, when he suddenly noticed he and Shotgun weren't on the creep anymore. "Shotgun, where exactly are we heading?" Ray asked. Shotgun looked around and finally noticed himself they weren't in the safe zone anymore. But the smell was at strongest at the point they were standing. Yet neither of them could find the source. This was highly unnerving.
"Let's go back. Don't wanna run into any surprises, especially not in the dark." Ray said to the Zergling. He had a fireball lit, which was flying above his palm and right now he was waving the only light source around, nervously.
Shotgun had better eyes, than the human, but couldn't make out the source of the strange smell. It was close that much he knew, but the shivering human next to him was irritating. "Can you at least tell me what exactly we're looking for here?"
Shotgun hissed, telling the human to shut the fuck up. There was something and he didn't like it one bit. The scent was moving, but only a little and five seconds later it stopped. The scent had to be a living being, humanoid. It was no troll. Shotgun memorized the smell of those guys a long time ago. No this smell, he couldn't actually identify, but his DNA told him he knew it already. But what exactly was this 'it'?
"We should at least call some reinforcements. I'm gonna set the entire forest on fire at this rate."
Ignoring the human, Shotgun pinpointed the smell. He positioned himself, still acting as if he was still trying to find the source. The next moment he charged some energy and only a split second later, with the little energy he collected, he jumped.
His head got stuck in a tree.
"Fail..." Ray sweatdropped. He lit out the fire, went over to the Zerg, took two legs of the ling and tried to pull him out. "God damn it! You seriously need to make a diet. Okay, one more time. HMMMMM!"
At the fifth try he finally managed it, the Zerg landing on his face.
"Mmmph, mmph!" (Get off!) He punched the Zerg on the sides.
Shotgun finally stood up and Ray took several breaths before he got up himself. "Let's go home. I had enough craziness for one day."
XXX
Jim's Viking; the next morning
The rebel leader wondered what crazy things would happen today, as he went to the river, to splash some water onto his face. With a teen like Claire leading the local Zerg, something was doomed to happen, although she had planned to take it slow and increase the numbers of Roaches and Hydralisks first.
Although the creep area was considered to be safe, Raynor took the risk and always wandered upstream where no creep was inside the water. He still had some shots for his pistol left, but maybe he should consider learning swordfight. He didn't have any special abilities like the rest and there was no way in hell he'd get infested.
As he and his troops had been stranded on Char, they at least had more than enough ammo to last for two years. Happens, when you bring over 300 men and less than 50 survived the trip.
He looked down at his own reflection, wondering how his men were doing, if Mengsk already knew he was 'dead', would Valerian still try to attack Char? Even if Matt wouldn't work with the prince of the dominion. He had seen it after all in Ray's laptop. Valerian could try alone, but it was incredible how the rebel leader's absent could turn the tides.
These days Raynor often thought of Kerrigan. He noticed the nightmares he kept having stopped, after he landed or crashlanded on Azeroth. Maybe Sarah had been sending the dreams again, like during his time on Char. If so, she must have noticed his absents and maybe she was curious enough to look for him. Hopefully it wouldn't cost the lives of his men.
A Zerg patrol crossed his way, again not bothering the rebel leader. This time two Hydras and a Roach were with the five Zerglings. It still felt alien having so much Zerg nearby and they have no intention in killing you. He watched as the small group disappeared in the bushes.
"Strange indeed."
Raynor jumped around and took out his pistol, after hearing a voice inside his head. It took him only a second later to recognize it, before the dark templer decloaked himself.
"Zeratul."
Raynor was surprised and happy to see his old friend on this planet. "Haha, wow. Didn't expect to see you ever again, after I crashlanded here. What are you doing here?"
Zeratul seemed to sigh. "Fate seems to have a twisted sense of humor. My ship was damaged, as I encountered a Tal'Darim patrol, while investigating an old Xel'Naga temple. I managed to flee from the planet, but due to the damage, I wasn't able to jump to the coordinates I originally tended to, thus leading me into a black hole."
"You too?" Raynor asked. Zeratul raised an eyebrow. "My boys and I showed the Terran public what Mengsk had done to Kerrigan 4 years ago, along with a few sentences he probably regrets ever speaking in his life. While we were on Korhal, we stumbled some secret documents about some workers getting 'fired'. The documents pointed to a facility in Castanar, officially just used to storage a bunch of stuff. As we found out, Mengsk somehow created his own Hybrid."
Zeratul's eyes widened, but he kept silent waiting for Raynor to finish his story. "We decided to blow everything up, releasing the Hybrid in the process. While we ran for it, we found an old transporter. I wanted my men to get out first, but it left me with no time to enter. As I looked for another way out, I found a Viking. Maybe I would have made it, if I actually knew how to fly that thing, but the shockwave of the explosion pushed me into a black hole. I woke up on this planet, meeting the local Zerg and their...queen."
Zeratul nodded. Knowing the Protos, he had observed Raynor and the Zerg for the past days. It wasn't his style to openly introduce himself, not before getting a picture of the situation he was in.
"You can't leave either?"
"Indeed. As for the time being, we have no choice but to stay and live through the conflict the locals have."
Raynor let out a sigh. When he saw Zeratul, he'd hoped this was his ticket off the planet, but his hopes were crushed in a matter of seconds. Raynor looked over the way towards the Zerg base. "So" he turned his head to Zeratul "I don't suppose you're going to come with me to the Zerg, right?"
"Actually, I've hoped you could introduce me to their young queen."
Raynor was surprised to hear this from Zeratul of all people. The Zerg had done many things to his people and especially himself.
"I am rather intrigued by her actions. It seems the Zerg are mirroring the actions of the girl."
"What do you mean 'mirroring'?"
"The young Claire doesn't seem to be interested in neither destruction of the other races, nor conquering entire planets. She has a sense of family and seems to see the Zerg as her family, thus making the Zerg less hostile, but still very protective."
Raynor couldn't disagree. In actual battle, the Zerg were as he remembered them. But outside it was a completely different matter. Those Zerg who are not on patrol duty or anything, spent the time differently. Running around, climbing trees, some went swimming or played with the larvae. Shotgun liked break dancing in his free time and more than one time he saw him holding a conversation with Ray. How the boy understood the ling without being connected was far beyond Raynor. After the battle the other day, Ray cut the connection with the swarm again, leaving him a bit dazed for 10 minutes.
"Well, I guess it can't hurt." Raynor said shrugging.
He expected Zerg to come immediately as they entered the creep carpet and they came. Different kind of Zergs, eyed the Protos who was with the Terran, but they kept their distance. At the clearing Shotgun, Rose, Ray and Claire were already waiting for the two to arrive.
Claire had her regular smile on her face and seemed rather excited in the good way. The rest seemed agitated by the presence of the dark templer, knowing dark templer were the only people who could kill any Zerg for good, which included Claire.
"So uhh..." Raynor began, scratching the back of his head "this here is Zeratul, dark prelate and one of my best friends. He wanted to meet you, Claire."
Rose immediately stood protectively before Claire, before Zeratul had the chance to formally introduce himself. Her wings twitched at the mere presence of the templer. Shotgun was growling dangerously.
"Guys, keep it down." Claire softly scolded the two. "Nice to meet ya Zeratul. The name's Claire, but I guess you already know about us. I sensed you a couple of times, just didn't know it was you." she explained.
Zeratul was mildly surprised at how developed the senses of the young Terran were. Or could he call her already a Zerg? He himself bowed and stretched his arm, opening his hand, a sign of peace. "It is a pleasure to meet you young Claire. And I'm sorry for my actions."
"No need." Claire winked. "So what brings you here? Don't tell me you crashlanded, like Jimmy-boy here."
Zeratul simply repeated his story. Ray whistled as he heard the Protos got sucked in the same black hole as Raynor. Turned out Zeratul already knew, Ray and Claire new everything about him and what was supposed to happen on this planet. Claire immediately created more drones to increase the amount of detector units. Too bad she didn't have access to the Overseer yet.
"Well, welcome aboard." She held out her hand. It took Zeratul a second, but he shook her hand. Her smile grew even wider. "Alrighty. I need to take care of some things. Laters!"
Claire skipped over to the evolutionary chamber. "Ray Silvers. Get ready for some crazy days." Zeratul raised an eyebrow and looked over to Raynor. "You'll see soon enough."
"I am Rose and I will keep an eye on you templer."
"SCREECH!"
"That's Shotgun. And what he said, I better don't translate." Ray sweatdropped.
"You understand him?" Zeratul asked. Ray shrugged. "When you spent most of your free time with Zerg, you get bored and try to hold a conversation with them." Ray answered. "You don't happen to stumble over mineral fields or vespene geysers?" Zeratul shook his head.
"Too bad. Oh well, I might as well inform you about Azeroth."
Claire meanwhile experimented on some Zerg strains. Her new body allowed her to interact with the chamber and what she saw was simply amazing. Her old human brain would have collapsed, but suddenly it all made sense to her. "Wow, Abathur sure is a genius handling all this stuff."
She decided to try something simple first, but even with simple things, she was limited on the things she could do. She needed the stage 3 strains for what she planned or new DNA. She already combined Troll regeneration with Roach regeneration. The result was pure awesomeness. It only took quite a lot of bio energy to involve it into the swarm. At this rate her swarm wouldn't grow as planned.
She frowned. Terenas surly informed the other races already and there was a high chance the Zerg would be attacked again. And when the actual mages came into play, the next victory wouldn't be that easy. Throwing another defense upgrade in, she left.
"Rose, I'm gonna look around for some DNA we might use. Make sure no one loses his or her cool around Zeratul."
"My queen, are you sure it is wise to let the dark templer so near to the swarm cluster?" she asked. Claire smiled genuinely. "Don't worry. Zeratul ain't one of those fanatics. His skills as a dark templer might come in useful in the future and even he can't destroy us all alone."
Zeratul meanwhile felt the gazes of multiple Zerg on him, as he was looking around the environment, the Zerg had claimed their territory. Those Zerg here showed signs of individuality. Instead of the mindless killing machines, those showed clearly emotions like distrust and anger. He couldn't blame them and it would be a lie to say he didn't felt the same way towards the Zerg.
The Zerg queen Rose picked his interest. According to James Raynor she was hatched like a normal queen. He could feel the potential of Rose. It didn't reach the potential of Sarah Kerrigan, but he had little doubt the queen was able to reach it one day. If that is the case, what kind of potential must Claire Nights wield, controlling all of the local Zerg? She detected him while he was cloaked, but Kerrigan was able to do so as well. Yet Claire still looked like a normal human, which could easily be explained through the Zerg sequences keeping up a disguise. Still he wondered...
XXX
Capital City; Terenas' Castle; several days later
"You can't possible negotiate with demons!" shouted the elf ambassador. Elves are known for keeping their cool for a long time, even getting on the other races nerves with it sometimes. This must be record time an elf ambassador loses his cool.
"If you have problems with a demon invasion, why didn't you tell us sooner?!"
"I told you as soon as I heard of these Zerg appearing in my lands." Terenas replied, keeping his cool. Somehow the situation was reversed to what normally happened when Elf and Human talk together and one of them loses his or her cool.
"So far they only helped my people against the undead and did nothing to aggravate us. They're lead by a human girl, who-"
"You can't possible belief this! Surely your men must have fallen for some kind of trick!"
"If you're so convinced, then why don't the two of us talk personally to them?"
The elf ambassador was scandalized hearing this. Before he could reply something, a soldier entered the room. "Forgive me for interrupting, but Lord Uther has returned." Terenas nodded. "Bring him here."
The soldier bowed. "You may be interested in this as well, ambassador."
Uther came in only a few seconds later. He bowed before his king and greeted the ambassador in the normal respective way.
"Lord Uther, report."
Terenas wanted to know exactly what happened during the battle between Garithos' troops, who invaded his own lands in the process, and the Zerg swarm. The last days Uther gathered as much information from the surviving men as he could and had now a clear, horrible picture about what happened.
Underestimating the Zerg, Garithos used a simple tactic a beginner could have fallen for. Well the Zerg did, only they had far greater numbers than anyone expected. Each assault group had been lead by a different commander. An oversized Zergling, although Terenas had still no idea how one looked like in the first place, a Zerg queen and a human boy, supposedly the friend of the 'Queen'. She and her companion James Raynor firstly tried a diplomatic approach. As Garithos gave the order to capture the two, the Zerg attacked. It was pure slaughter from there on out. The outpost had been overrun quickly. The main base had better defenses and before the Zerg attacked, Uther himself heard Claire giving Garithos to save the rest of the lives of his men. Terenas already knew the answer. What was more, the Zerg showed new units, spitting acid and snake like creatures shooting poison arrows through metal.
At the end Terenas had a good idea of what the Zerg were really capable of. The elf ambassador had a hard time believing it and in the end he blamed the human commanders arrogance for loosing the fight. Surely the Zerg couldn't be that strong.
Well he was about to find out, because the next day the Zerg were literally knocking at the front door.
XXX
A few days earlier; near the coast
The scouting Overlord Clair had sent ahead found the undead base under siege of the humans. So far neither side made any progress, so she decided to help out. It took one more day, than she thought, seeing as how many more Overlords she needed to transport the units she needed.
10000 Lings
2500 Hydras
2500 Roaches
2 Drones (you'll see next chapter)
Her swarm was growing each day, she didn't save anything for evolving into the next stage, but she made a third Lair, meaning it wouldn't take long until her swarm reached the size of her personal set goal of 50000 Lings and half amount the other units. Enough to even be a threat to the Capital City, but not Dalaran. Too many mages at one spot. She wondered which was harder Silvermoon or Dalaran. Meh, whatever. Today it was bashing the undead.
Luckily the first three months nothing happened or her swarm wouldn't be as great as it was now.
The Overlords landed a good way off the undead base. Claire, Rose, Ray, Raynor, Shotgun and Zeratul took position on a hill, looking at the flesh masses.
"At this rate, there won't be any space left for the others." Ray shuddered. "How the hell do you guys fight the Zerg being that hard outnumbered?!" he asked Zeratul.
These were most of Claire's troops, being a complete overkill. Her home base was only guarded by 1000 Ling and each 500 Roaches and Hydras plus defensive structures. She was totally showing off.
"Maybe we'll see the Protos one day in action. Whatever, let's see if those guys down there got a little more skill, than the last." Claire put her fist into her palm. Ray rolled his eyes and opened his laptop. This time they didn't have a complete view on the enemy base, because the Gargoyles would simply shoot down the Overlords.
"There's a Lich down there this time. And they have way more troops than last time. Seriously are those Zombies all from Northrend?" he asked being a little skeptical. The rest saw a group of undead attacking the human base, but most were killed by Mortar Teams and canon towers even before they arrived. Still there was enough to do for the rest, humans swinging their swords, dwarfs using their guns and axes. Knights were there too, their horses trampling over the smaller undead. The attack was replied after some minutes.
"Same tactic as last time?" Ray asked. Claire shook her head. "They might have those stupid ghosts around."
As if on cue, one of the magical enchanted towers made the Scheme visible in blue light and the thing was taken out by a priest with holy light. "So much for being sneaky."
"Well we simply do it the old way." Claire shrugged. "The old way?"
"Head on through the wall."
"Oh man, I don't want to die."
Claire gave order to the Lair's to revive every Zerg that would temporary die today. There was no way they'd ace this battle.
She gave a mental order to 2000 Zerglings to become Banelings. She'd love to use the Overlords as bombers, but the Gargoyles made that difficult. Too many losses before they reached the defensive towers. Her Overlords couldn't fly into space, as long as they weren't at least stage 3. Just for the info, only drones, larvae and buildings could survive without an atmosphere including the lords and her. She needed stage 4 to really explore universe. She noticed daydreaming wouldn't help with her current problems.
Neither Raynor nor Zeratul had better ideas. The Zerg were born to overwhelm their enemies and with the collective no one needed to fear death.
The Lich was another obstacle. In WoW, they were no easy enemies, in fact officially it is recommended to fight them in groups. With two exceptions: you overlevel them or you're a pala. Bubble on, attack, heal, bubble. At least that was the way she made it. She didn't remember all the changes of Cataclysm and afterwards she was tired of buying another expansion.
She noticed everyone was looking at her, waiting for her command. She shook her head clear. "Sorry, guess I'm thinking a little much."
Zeratul shook his head. "It is often better to think your own strategy thoroughly, than to rush things."
She laughed. "Well, Zerg are famous for their rushes, but in that case I guess we're already overtime. They're a little occupied with the humans, so we should attack before they notice us."
Her Overlords took over the command of the Zerg. Actually Zerg and Humans didn't have that much difference in military hierarchy. A single commander couldn't handle a whole army, he needed lieutenants, captains, sergeants, and even during training they had so called recruit sergeants. Raynor had been one of them during his time in boot camp.
"Alright, let's give the humans a hand. Catch me a few necromancers, while you're at it."
It didn't go unnoticed by Zeratul and Raynor how she didn't consider herself human anymore. Ray was used to it. "As long as she's herself, she can be a zombie in my book." he replied to the two.
XXX
Human Base; Commander's Tent (I don't know the actual term)
Morlune should have taken the day off or something. The base was more properly guarded, than expected. Luckily there was no more reinforcements form Northrend, for whatever reason. Along with him there was a high elf mage. Her name was Delil (thanks WoW name generator). The two were looking at the map, both letting out sighs of annoyance. It was a frustrating situation. They couldn't attack head on as it would be suicide. The attacks of the undead were only there to keep the allied troops of elves and humans at bay. Since their enemies didn't get any more reinforcements, they must be either planning or waiting for something.
In either case it couldn't be good. They needed to break through somehow. Ships were not available at the moment. They'd have to wait for another week. But who knows what will happen in a week.
"My lady! My lord!"
Or in the next seconds. His second in command stormed into the tent. "What is it?"
"The *pant* Zerg *pant*...they...*pant*"
Morlune's eyes widened. "The Zerg are here?" the paladin echoed. Delil had spent the last few months around humans, meaning she of course heard the rumors around humans. The Zerg were the newest one, oversized insects, which helped evacuating a few civilians. According to said civilians they were lead by a human teenage girl. Well today she would see how much of this was true. She waved back her red hair, her green eyes focusing on the second in command. Her skin had more color, but luckily was just a little red instead of sun burnt or completely brown, like most people got from being so long out on the field. She missed the gardens of Dalaran. At least her red/white robe was still clean, thanks to magic of course.
The second in command finally had his breath back. "Indeed sire. This time they're here in greater number and they have Zerg with them, we haven't seen before. The young Ray awaits you."
Morlune nodded and headed out, followed by a curious Delil. Oversized insect was actually a pretty fitting description. There was one of those maybe dog like creature with the boy? The only thing that was off with him, were his strange clothes. 'This space is unoccupied' she translated in her mind. At least he had humor.
"'Sup bro, sup sis."
Did he really call her 'sis'? Short for sister?
"Claire just sent me over to tell you guys, we're going to help you out."
"Your friend is bored again?" Morlune asked. Totally taken off guard, Ray and the Zerg next to him erupted into laughter. "Dude, you already spent too much time with us." he snickered between the lines.
He shook his head. "We wanted to get rid of the undead. And I think Claire wants to show off with her swarm. By the by" he turned to the elf girl "Ray Silvers. And you?"
"Delil Sunwave." she replied. He blushed and looked away immediately. She sighed. Another human falling for her beauty. "A-anyway." he shook his head clear. "Do you guys have a map?"
Morlune nodded, but first he turned to his second in command. "Prepare the troops."
"Sire!"
The three went inside. Ray took a quick look over the map, while placing his laptop on the table. Delil was fascinated as she saw the object showing the image of the battlefield.
"Shotgun is leading a little distraction on the Westside. Meanwhile the Banelings are charging or rather rolling to blow up the defense on the Eastside."
The two saw round insects filled with some kind of green liquid positioning them, while Zerglings and two other units he hadn't seen charged at the Westside. Ray quickly explained the functions about the other units.
"Okay, from which way do you guys attack?" he asked.
Morlune and Delil looked at the map. She pointed her finger at one point. "When we attack from south, we'll force them to split their army even more."
Morlune agreed to this plan. Ray looked down at the Zergling who stared a few seconds into space, before nodding. "See you on the field." he left the tent, riding on the ling to the battlefield.
He was not really eager to return, but he kind of had no choice in that matter. When he arrived at the field, the battle already was going on inside the enemy base. The Roaches melted the enemy towers, although it took longer as with the human towers back at Garithos' base. A few Zerg fell as the Spirit and Nerubian Towers shot into the masses. Unlike in the game, they did damage on multiple enemies. No surprises here, but it didn't help the undead anyway.
The Zerg were now stronger and it took more than one shot to kill even a ling. The enemy magic users were the bigger problem. The Zerg had yet to adapt to magic, so the necromancers were the bigger problem. They even knew some attacks from WoW, like the Shadow Bolt. Speaking of, Ray never tried using light or darkness as an element. He made a mental note and decided this wasn't the time for experiments.
He wanted to freeze the Necromancer, only to notice he had an ice shield. And there was only one person he could have gotten from it.
"Insolent creatures! No one can defeat the Scourge!"
"Seriously dude? Look around. We're winning."
Okay maybe Ray should have shut his trap, 'cause unlike Claire, he couldn't be reborn. The Lich turned towards him. "A kid? Whatever, you will all perish!" The Lich shit a Frost Nova, freezing Ray and every Zerg around him. Ray had never felt this much cold in his life. He wanted to scream, wanted to shout, wanted to run or even use a fire spell, but he couldn't move and couldn't focus. The Zerg around him were dead and the only reason he survived, was because the ling he'd been riding had taken most of the hit.
"Winning? Hahahaha! Don't worry. You will be a good servant as a Ghoul. Good-ARRGH!" The lich was thrown away by the explosion of a psi-bomb. Rose had fought her way to Ray and was now using Transfusion on him.
"So cold..." he muttered "I owe you." he said. Rose helped him up. "You should consider becoming one of the swarm." she told him. Ray hung his head. "Yeah, I'm weak, huh?"
An explosion caught their attention. The Mortar Teams started shooting the towers on the North side. "Grrr..."
They turned towards the source of the voice. The Lich had regained his composure and was now glaring daggers at the Queen. "This guy is finished." Ray lost his cool and started charging up a fireball in his hand. Rose unleashed a psi wave, finishing multiple zombies and skeletons. The Lich was thrown away a bit.
"How do you like this?"
Ray threw the bigger fireball at the Lich which exploded and set the area on fire. On the downside, Ray's stamina was gone for good, as he knelt down on the ground. The Lich was still alive, as alive as an undead can be.
In the meantime Delil and Morlune were busy organizing their troops. Every now and then Delil would cast a blizzard to kill multiple groups of undead. All in all she had the feeling she and her forces weren't needed. The Zerg did a great job themselves. Some buried themselves underground, only to pop up at a different location. The Hydralisks unleashed a deadly rain of poisoned spines and the Zerglings were too fast for the remaining towers to hit them.
Delil had, like any mage, a sense for magic and she noticed magic being used at the main Zerg front. As an agent of Dalaran, she had to investigate every magic the enemy uses. She quickly informed Morlune and didn't even ask for his permission as she took off.
She soon found the source of the feeling she was getting. She found Ray, the Lich and a Zerg woman facing off. Around them were the bodies of several dead Zerg, but even more undead had been eliminated. The Lich was the problem at the moment. Deciding to help their...'allies' Delil prepared a fire spell, which set everything around the Lich on fire. Rose and Ray turned their heads. Ray nodded and turned back to the Lich, only to notice a group of necromancers came to aid their master. When Ray fought he focused on dodging, keeping distance and shooting spells. However it was impossible for him to dodge all the spells and he got hit several times. Delil was surprised he didn't turn to ashes or died, but he let out a scream and was on the ground, shaking with his entire body.
What was he thinking anyway? Delil mentally sighed and prepared a blizzard, which would take care of the necromancers, only to be distracted by at least a few thousand of Zerg who ripped the enemy mages apart. Looking around she found out there was no undead left, aside from the Lich. She could feel Morlune's aura of light and another one, one way more aggressive and it wanted to see blood.
Rose mentally cursed. She had failed and now her queen was angry. The Zerg prepared a path for their queen. Delil would have doubted that human girl really was controlling those monsters if not for her glowing blue eyes and the aura she felt coming from her. A man was keeping Morlune on distance, it must be the other ally of the Zerg queen, the paladin told the high elf about.
The Lich stood up, from the outside unfazed, but he was surprised the undead had been overrun. He was more surprised by the pissed off girl, about the amount of power she was showing. Claire was mad. She didn't think she acted on instinct, using all the power and her own bio energy. She lifted the Lich into the air. Before he could question what she was doing, he felt pain going through his body, a lot of pain. He screamed as he felt the energy inside him being twisted, his mind invaded. He was a human again, went through his own life again.
His parents abandoned him at the age of 4, showing signs of being capable of using demonic magic, how none of the kids at the orphanage would play with him. The local priests were fanatics, not helping him, but trying to exorcise him with old methods, which were already being proven to only inflict pain.
How he was one day found by a necromancer, being taught to hate the living, although there was not much to teach, how he became one of the undead and finally a Lich.
Claire let the Lich go through the painful memories of the orphanage over and over again, while twisting with what was left of his body inside him. She would have gone on for longer, if not for the fireball, which finished the Lich' existence.
Claire looked around ready to tear Delil apart, when she heard a voice.
"That was for the fucking Frost Nova."
Claire's eyes returned to normal and she felt exhaustion waving over her. She was supported by two Hydralisks, while Rose performed another few transfusions on Ray, trying to make up for what she thought was her mistake. Ray finally lost consciousness. He never thought there was something more painful, than the lightning strike back at home.
