Chapter Four:
Three months after the second battle of Light's Hope Chapel…
Tavin buried his face further into his canvas undercoat, trying to block out the chilling wind that had risen up in the past hour, sending a light snow and more cold frost towards the Argent Crusade's new foothold in Icecrown.
Three months… Tavin mused to himself.. In those months, the Crusade had made tremendous progress, having traveled to Northrend, crossing all of it to the very domain of the Lich King himself, Icecrown, and then proceeding to plant their foot firmly in the area, Tavin was surprised honestly at the quickness and aggressiveness of the Crusade's new tactics, but on the other hand; he was beginning to enjoy person behind all this was certainly not faltering in any way, shape, or form.
Tirion was pressing on vigorously, training sessions continued daily, bolstering the strength of the Crusade's forces, and amazingly, new recruits were coming in every week by the handfuls, and Tirion took them too under the Crusade's wing, training to become an unstoppable hammer of retribution against the Lich King.
In the few months, Tavin himself had risen slightly in the ranks of the Crusade, earning him command of a quarter of the men in the Icecrown encampment, but he had not only grown in rank, but also physically and mentally; from extensive training, muscles now rippled across Tavin's body, surprising even him with his new found strength, but also, his faith in the Light had certainly grown stronger, to the point where he even felt it; a illuminating aura pulsing inside of him, which despite the frigid coldness, filled him with a radiant warmth.
Likewise, his other two friends had grown much like him.
Byron was now Eligor Dawnbringer's lieutenant, Eligor himself having risen to become the supreme Commander of the Brotherhood, which had traveled to Icecrown along with the newly formed Crusade.
Byron now resided in Wintergarde keep: once a spectacular fortification in Dragonblight, was now being besieged by multiple Scourge forces… coming out of Naxxramas itself, which to the displeasure of the Alliance and Crusade alike, had appeared directly over the set of fields in front of Wintergarde, now named the Carrion Fields… and for a good reason, their namesake was.
Aydeline, whom had converted to the Argent Crusade, after watching the practical destruction of her faction, the Scarlet Crusade, was now under Tavin's wing, as he guided her in faith and combat, becoming almost a pupil of the sort, but Tavin hardly wanted to be any form of mentor, giving that most of the people in the Crusade bested him by at least half a decade in age.
It was now her that stepped up beside Tavin as he quietly surveyed the land, the morning sun just beginning its summit in the sky, its molten glow casting a shimmering sparkle across the powder white snow.
"What are you doing out here so early?" Tavin asked, glancing at her.
It was barely before dawn, only a few men were awake at this time; the guards patrolling the walls, the officers in the center of the encampment, himself, and most likely Tirion, whom despite his age was very energetic and never seemed to stop moving for even a moment.
Aydeline merely shrugged, "Couldn't fall back to sleep…" she murmured, burying her own face into her coat as another ripple of wind blew their way.
Tavin nodded silently and shifted his gaze back to the land, glancing at the canyon that lay directly ahead of them, which was in fact their current objective at this point in time; securing that small canyon that allowed access to the better part of Icecrown.
"We're moving to secure that canyon today, hopefully" Tavin said with an eager smile.
"Long has been the path to our salvation, young ones" a strong voice said gently behind them, causing both of them to wheel about, finding the Highlord standing behind them, The Ashbringer humming vibrantly at his waist.
Tirion smiled and stepped up to the rampart, "We have fought across continents, worlds even, to reach this point." he swept a gauntleted hand towards the land. "Now we face our greatest challenge: the destruction of the Lich King and his Scourge."Tavin nodded in agreement, "Do you believe we will be the ultimate fall of the Lich King?" Tavin asked.
"I know, we will be" Tirion said, a small grin tugging at his lips. "But, we must take small advances and steps to reach that point my young Lieutenant, and I believe you have discovered our first move on the Lich King himself; Securing that canyon"
Tavin and Aydeline nodded together.
"Are you both ready, then?" Tirion asked, glancing at them.
They nodded.
"Then report to Commander Entari." he said, dismissing them.
Tavin and Aydeline started to move away, but as Tavin began to walk past, Tirion suddenly grabbed his arm, bringing his and Tavin's eyes level with each other.
"And remember Tavin, Honor above all else." he said.
Tavin nodded, "Yes, Highlord"
With that, Tirion released them and they ventured up to the flat plateau in the middle of the encampment, which provided officers and soldiers a very good view of the whole encampment, as well as the areas around it, making it a perfect staging area.
In the center was a burly man with dark skin, wearing bulky golden plate armor.
"Lieutenant!" Entari exclaimed as Tavin walked into view, Tavin nodded and snapped a salute at the Commander, who was one rank above him, Aydeline doing the same.
"Commander, the time has come, has it?" Tavin said.
Entari nodded vigorously, "When our first wave of soldiers poured into here, only a week or so before your men arrived, we had great success, pushing through that small canyon with ease… however we encountered a section of land occupied by the Scourge on the other side of that wall, their accursed ziggurats' planted all along that stretch of land, and naturally, we encountered very heavy resistance, so much to the point that after several days of fighting, we had to pull back and we began raining artillery down on those skittering creeps, this of course held them back for awhile… until the afflicted things began using our own men as living shields just recently… So as you've noticed, we've had to stop the shelling in fear of hitting our own men out in that field" Entari pointed our across the small expanse of land between the encampment and the canyon.
"Take several of your men, and go free our crusaders trapped on the field outside the base." Entari said.
Tavin nodded, "Very well sir" with that, the two left.
Tavin quickly paced down to the row of tents that lined the inner back side of the encampment, where all of the men slept, and Tavin swerved into the first row of tents, where his line of men were placed.
He counted off the first four tents, where his first squad of men were placed, which included eight men out of his whole thirty-two he commanded.
He walked to each tent, poking his head in and saying, "Saddle up boy's, leaving in five minutes!" briskly moving through each tent, before making his way back to the head of the column of tents.
In moments, several men poured from each tent, fully dressed in sparkling plate armor, ready for battle, their weapons holstered in their sheaths and their bucklers clamped to their vambraces.
Tavin did a quick head count, then began relaying his set of orders to his men, "Command needs us to pull every trapped man out of that field before we can advance any further through that canyon! Move in sets of two, and clear every cocoon you see, pulling each and every brother out of those webs!"
"Yes, Commander!" came the unison of replies from the alert soldiers.
Tavin nodded and shouted, "Move out!"
With that the small group of ten began trudging through the snow back towards the northern entrance of the encampment, which lead straight to the field that contained their objective, or rather objectives.
As the set foot on the field, Tavin gave the signal, and instantly the whole squad dispersed into sets of two, moving carefully out onto the field.
Thankfully.. No nerubian's, a ingenious species of arachnids that were in service to the scourge, were in sight, but Tavin knew better to let his eyes guide his judgment, especially in Icecrown.
Dotting the land were scarce trees, of which next to lay blobs of moving figures encased in white sticky silk; practically sitting targets if the nerubian's decided to surface.
Tavin and Aydeline moved over to the nearest one and quickly hacked open the webbing, thick globs and strands sticking to their swords as they sliced through the hindering material.
From within the milk white coccon stumbled a blinking and confused Crusader, parts of his armor missing, his tabard in shreds.
He blinked his eyes furiously, trying to adjust his eyes to the light, but as he adjusted, his eyes widened in relief as he saw two fellow Crusader's standing next to him.
"Light bless you…I thought I'd never see daylight again." he muttered.
Tavin knelt down, "Can you make it back to the Vanguard well enough soldier?" he asked.
The man nodded, "I-I believe so s-sir"
Tavin patted the mans shoulder and nodded, and with that, the man began making his way gratefully back to the Crusades encampment.
Tavin glanced at Aydeline, and nodded, before they moved onto the next one.
The next hour was spent clearing the field of cocoons', cutting them apart and freeing the confused Crusader's inside.
However… as only a few more were left insight, Tavin heard a rustling sound…
He froze instantly, his hand tightening around his blade.
Suddenly- The frozen ground not two paces in front of him exploded in a plume of snow and dirt, dark figures erupting from the new sinkhole.
"NERUBIANS!" Tavin roared, jumping backwards as one of the spider-like creatures charged out of the whole towards him.
Tavin deflected a swing from the creatures from limb, razor sharp talons on the end of the limb whistling toward him dangerously.
Tavin growled and swung his second blade around, lopping the Nerubian's limb off, green ichor like blood spraying into the air.
The creature hissed and clicked its hardened mandibles together, before it swung a second limb at Tavin in a blind fury.
Tavin ducked and with one blade chopped the limb clean off, with the other blade he lunged and shoved his blade point first into the dead of the creatures chest, where a soft- unarmored spot of skin resided.
The creature screeched in pain, scrabbling at its chest with useless limbs, before shriveling up in a dead and useless heap.
Tavin glanced around, seeing more and more sinkholes springing up over the area.
How many of them are there… Tavin thought grimly as a second nerubian spotted him, clicking over to him, its fierce limbs raised aggressively.
Tavin sidestepped the attack and brought his blade around, slicing the creatures unarmored neck with precise skill, ending the pitiful things life instantly.
He glanced back to see Aydeline battling another Nerubian, and she was quickly gaining ground on the beast, her skill with a blade was quite adept, Tavin had noticed.
He returned his attention to the battle, both killing several nerubian's himself, and seeing his own men moving through the waves of creatures with ease, their newly found skill and strength no match for the nerubian's weak frames.
However… Tavin did notice the one aspect the creatures had on them; numbers.
They poured out of the numerous sinkholes, unending as they began to overwhelm the Crusader's small band of men.
At this point… Tavin knew they couldn't win the battle, due to the sheer fact the nerubian's were beginning to overwhelm them.
"Fall back!!!" Tavin roared, dodging several failed attacks from skittering nerubian''s men began quickly receding, angry and vicious nerubian's eagerly taking the gained ground as the Crusader's retreated back towards the base.
With the afflicted monsters nipping at their heels, they were about halfway back to the encampment, Tavin could already see a line of Argent soldiers forming to defend the encampment as numerous enemies approached.
But suddenly, Tavin heard several thunderous booms, and seconds later, Tavin heard whistling sounds streak overhead before explosions ripped up the line of scourge behind them, thick shells ripping the frail creatures to pieces.
The bombardment of artillery gave the Crusader's enough time to dash ahead of the hindered wall of nerubian's and join the wall of men, watching in awe as thick volleys of shells slammed into the surprised nerubian's, quickly decimating their numbers as large explosions ripped along the line, spraying snow, limbs and dirt alike in the air.
But…
Suddenly through the smoke and carnage, loomed an even larger figure, and as the smoke cleared, Tavin gaped as he realized what had just emerged from a newly formed, and bigger, sinkhole.
"Crypt Lord!!!" Tavin heard a marksman scream from up on the ridge.
Tavin watched as the artillery men on the artillery cannons quickly readjusted their fire, raining score after score of thick shells onto the lumbering Crypt lord, who was at least seven to eight times larger than himself.
But to everyone's dismay, the creature merely grunted in evident anger as the shells merely dented his thick chitin, before dropping to the ground uselessly.
Tavin glanced over the Crypt Lord's stature, trying to spot any form of weakness in its defense, much like the several soft spots Tavin had utilized when fighting the nerubians only moments before.
His eyes scoured over the thick hull of the Crypt Lord, but all his eyes found was layer upon layer of thick impenetrable armor, leaving nothing open for a clear shot.
But as his eyes traveled up, he saw it-
Every time the creature swung its claws to deflect an incoming shell, a sliver of skin exposed itself.
"The chest!" Tavin yelled out, pointing at the Crypt Lord's chest. "Every time it attacks!" Tavin yelled again to one of the marksman on the ridge.
He glanced through his scope, and watched as the small sliver of skin became visible.
His eyes widened as he nodded, dashing over to the battery of artillery cannons.
Tavin watched as he shouted some orders to one of the dwarves artillery commanders, pointing at the evident spot on the creatures chest.
The dwarf nodded and ran to each cannon, pointing the spot out to the artillerymen.
Tavin returned his attention to the Crypt Lord, who was now advancing rapidly on the encampment, his enormous mandibles clicking furiously at the small humanoids who were causing him so much strife, his claws reaching out.. Ultimately exposing his weak point..
A barrage of fire rang out overhead suddenly, a line of perfectly aimed shells slamming into the creatures chest, ripping open his chest in an explosion of painful fire.
The abominable creature roared in pain, clutching his chest as he fell down to his knees(if that was possible)
Tavin watched in awe as the expert artillerymen fired volleys of cannonballs into the creatures face and chest;
And finally.. With a last volley of fire.. The creature fell to the ground defeated.
A roar of triumph and cheer erupted from every Crusaders mouth as they pumped their fists and weapons into the air with victory.
Tavin grinned and glanced back, giving a thumbs up to the dwarves artillery commander, who already had a frosty mug of ale planted in his hands.
Dwarves and their ale.. Tavin thought humorously.
Commander Etari appeared in front of the men, "Very good job men!! Our other forces will begin taking the Canyon now, you boys fall out and go have some down time!" he grinned and clapped a few of the men on the shoulder as they walked by, weary from the past several hours of battle.
"Nice job Lieutenant" Etari said, as Tavin stepped up to him.
Tavin smiled wearily and pointed a thumb back towards the circle of artillery on the ridge behind them.
"All I did, Commander, was free some men from cocoons, the real hero's are those artillerymen."Etari smiled "You had your share of fighting too, everyman got back safely although thanks to your small squad."Tavin nodded gratefully, and Etari clapped him on the shoulder, "I think you've earned some rest my friend, go on."
With that, Tavin sighed in relief and walked back up the hill, heading to the edge of the wall, which was covered in shadows… and offered a perfect spot for a nap.
Tavin grinned to himself and sat down, pulled his helmet low over his eyes.. And drifted into sleep.