I present to you Chapter 7 of Rise of the True Death God. This chapter took a lot less time to plan and write than the previous one because it started as one chapter that I had to split into two for both plot and pacing reasons. Some of you might be wondering if Ichigo will just be adventuring through Azeroth and being involved in various quest lines during Vanilla WoW. The answer I have to you is yes and now. While he will be involved in various quests and battles that might seem eerily familiar to those of you that are well-versed in Warcraft lore, his presence on Azeroth can be described as a 'for want of a nail' situation. Ichigo's arrival on Azeroth changed everything and will continue to do so, whether he wants to or not.
Important news! I have been bouncing ideas for Ichigo's zanpakuto's name and powers off my beta reader and we have a new (and original) zanpakuto ready for him when the time comes. I have given the first vague hints about it in the chapter so kudos to anyone that spots them. I spent a lot of time making sure his abilities wouldn't be overpowered because, let's face it, if Yamamoto's bankai was unleashed on Azeroth against someone like the Lich King, it wouldn't be that much of a fight. He only lost to Kil'jaeden because the eredar demon lord recognized the danger the shinigami possessed and immediately went all out and still almost lost.
A virtual congratulations for General Zargon for beta reading my chapters. I don't know if anyone can find more grammatical errors and mistakes than him.
I give a virtual salute to the following people for reviewing Chapter 6: digitalgremlin, crankiestnebula, Shinkicker, Rc1212, Last of the Ancients, TeninChwang, xbox432, lioness2000, Diana, Kazaru13, Takei Daloui, Guest #1, Guest #2, Soulbrow109, Impstar, Zehel2010, ultima-owner, Thantoss413, plums, and JIMMYJAMSTER728.
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Rise of the True Death God: Chapter 7
Kovork lazily adjusted the crude iron helm on his head while scratching his back. He was bored out of his mind. Sniffing and picking up his battle hammer, he ignored his instincts telling him to go and join his brethren in fighting the humans.
The question that had been plaguing the ogre's small mind was why he needed to take the keep in the first place. To Kovork, defensive walls meant nothing more than something to rest one's back on or sleep against. The funny hooded man with the raspy voice had told him that the humans would not be able to get help if he surrounded their city and had the trolls help. Kovork had felt right away that the funny man wasn't normal and ordered two bruisers to kill him. When the funny man avoided their attacks and touched the bruisers on their skin, Kovork watched as they decayed into a pile of green sludge and bones. The funny man had then turned to Kovork and promised the same thing would happen to him if Kovork did not do as he said.
Kovork might be stupid, but he wasn't as stupid as other ogres.
Scratching his back once more and assuming his ogres would eventually crush the humans, Kovork's mind wandered as it usually did when he was bored. Once he dealt with the humans, his ogres would have nothing left to fight. Perhaps he could attack the orcs next? Kovork really hated orcs.
A fly was insistently buzzing around his face, causing Kovork to absentmindedly swat it away. As he finally managed to get the insect to leave, a loud bang came from the west. Turning towards the source of the noise, he saw a large light burst up in the air. While he marveled at the pretty colors Boulderfist Outpost, the system of caves his ogres and trolls had so painstakingly built into the hillside to the west, imploded as Stromgarde engineers and rogues snuck inside and detonated goblin explosives inside the various passages. Dozens of trolls and ogres were trapped inside behind tens of feet of rubble and rock and to a slow, grisly fate of death by asphyxiation.
Of course, Kovork didn't know that had happened. When he felt the earth shake after the pretty light went off in the air, he knew something had gone wrong but simply thought it was an accident or perhaps a fight between one of his mages and a troll warlock that got out of hand. As he was about to force several of his ogres to go check it out, a low collective roaring shifted his attention to the south. As his dullish eyes looked around, they spotted hundreds of humans running at his ogres from the surrounding hills.
Without waiting to find out what was happening, Kovork raised his hammer and shouted. His fellow ogres, lazing about or sleeping, took a few moments to realize what was happening. Before they could even begin attacking the humans back, the humans had already cut a lot of them down and began pushing their way around the hill. That would not stand. Turning to one of the two bruisers that always guarded him, Kovork grunted and said, "Tell ogres to fight back. Humans weak and tired."
The bruiser nodded and ran towards the fray, but not before getting the other guard to help him. Kovork had promoted the two bruisers to where they were based on their strength, not intelligence. If the two of them put their empty heads together, Kovork had one average ogre.
Kovork watched the tide of the battle shift back and forth for a couple minutes before he began getting more and more restless. His ogres were not winning, and that was annoying him greatly. Humans were small and weak, weaker than even the orcs and trolls. Ogres should not have trouble fighting. Grabbing his hammer and working out a kink in his shoulder, Kovork was about to go join the battle personally when his acute hearing picked up something rapidly approaching him from the side.
"Huh? What's-"
Something slammed into the side of his face with enough force to knock Kovork's helm clear off his head, exposing his pale yellow flesh and single cracked horn. Stumbling back, a bruise already forming on his cheek from the force of the blow, Kovork rubbed his sore face and turned towards whoever had attacked him.
"Who are you?"
It didn't take more than a second for him to realize his attacker was a human. This human, unlike the others he had fought and killed, wore fancy and shiny armor. Perhaps when he was done here, Kovork would take that shiny armor as a souvenir.
Ichigo watched Kovork gaze at him and massaged the knuckles on the hand he had punched the ogre with. It probably hadn't been the best of ideas to try and punch someone in the face who was wearing armor, especially with a running start. The substitute shinigami watched a couple of emotions pass across the ogre's face, ranging from confusion to glee, before it settled on simply angry. It seemed Kovork was upset that Ichigo had hit him in the face. Well, that was just too bad for him. Sliding his right foot back and clasping a hand around the zanpakuto on his back, Ichigo waited for the inevitable.
"It not matter!" Kovork slammed his battle hammer into the ground in anger. He didn't care that this human attacked him nearly as much as he did the fact that he had been hurt. Many humans had tried attacking him in his life, all of which had met grisly and messy deaths at the hands of his hammer, "Me crush you!"
Ichigo braced himself as Kovork ran towards him. He knew it would hurt, probably a lot, if that hammer hit him. So instead of letting it, he decided to do the next best thing. As the ogre swung his weapon down, Ichigo pivoted to the side and out of the way.
"Huh?" Kovork looked down at the ground. Where was the bloody body of the human he had just squashed? He was sure the human had been standing here just a second ago, so where could he have gone?
"Looking for me?"
Kovork swung his hammer through where he had heard the human's voice mock him, but Ichigo easily ducked under the powerful, but slow, attack.
When Ichigo leapt back slightly to avoid the crushing blow from his hammer, Kovork was just about ready to lose it. He had lost track of how many times he had attacked the human and missed, but it definitely had been more than five times. The ogre's normally dull and bored eyes stared at Ichigo, full of anger, with the unspoken promise of pain and suffering if he should ever catch the human. Taking a moment to catch his breath after swinging his heavy weapon around, Kovork took a step towards Ichigo and had his jaw nearly shattered when Dathanor slammed his shield into his face.
"That hurt!"
As he stumbled back disoriented, Kovork couldn't remember when he had felt this much pain in his life. With the large amount of pain he was feeling distracting him, Kovork was forced to swing his hammer around randomly while his other hand gripped his face like a vice, as if simply holding the wound would make the pain stop.
"Are you alright Ichigo?"
"I'm fine," Ichigo answered the captain while dodging to the side as the hammer came crashing through the air, "But this guy's attacks were a lot easier to avoid before you smashed half of his face in."
"I would apologize…" Dathanor ducked under a swing. He may have a shield but that would do little to protect him from an ogre's attack. It might stop him from being killed, but his arm would shatter in the process, "…but usually that works out better than this. Kovork is really as tough as he looks."
"This not fair!" Kovork shouted upon seeing a second human alongside the first, his damaged jaw giving a slight slur to his speech. Stomping his feet angrily on the ground, he said, "Me even odds!"
Ichigo and Dathanor shared a perplexed look at Kovork's words, but both of their eyes widened as a series of loud and heavy footsteps rushed towards them. Thanks to his shinigami-assisted reflexes, Ichigo managed to avoid the fist slamming into the ground but was forced to use his zanpakuto as an impromptu shield to deflect the follow-up punch. As Ichigo sailed backwards through the air unharmed, Dathanor was not as fortunate. While he had managed to avoid the initial killing blow, he was unprepared for the ogre's fist slamming into his chest and throwing him through the air.
Landing back on the ground, his feet skidding to a stop, Ichigo watched the captain sail through the air, "Dathanor!"
Ichigo pushed off the ground and sprinted towards where he had seen Dathanor crash. He hadn't expected a second ogre to come so quickly, and Ichigo wasn't sure the captain could take on an ogre all by himself. As he ran across the grass, Ichigo sensed something approaching and dodged to the side just as Kovork's weapon sunk into the ground where he would have been.
"Shiny human no interfere," Kovork slurred out. While an ogre usually bowed in submission to someone who had bested them in a contest of strength or size, Kovork's intelligence demanded that he never submit to a human or orc. He was only following that funny sounding hooded man's orders because if he didn't, Kovork would die and Kovork did not want to die.
Ichigo was about to charge forward when a familiar voice shouted, "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Taking care of Kovork is the one thing that matters!"
With a pained grunt, Dathanor used his shield as a crutch to get back onto his feet. The captain had taken some damage from the ogre's attack but it was nothing he wasn't used to. As long as he didn't willingly get hit again he would be fine. Spitting out a wad of blood, he drew his sword and stared at the ogre bruiser. The ogre glared at the captain for a second before screaming and charging. Dathanor waited until the last moment before twisting to the side, allowing the ogre to pass by harmlessly while, at the same time, burying his sword deep into its side.
"I'll be fine Ichigo!" He shouted to the orange-haired youth. Ducking beneath the enraged ogre's fist, Dathanor was forced to block a second attack with his shield, the protective metal visibly denting from the intense force, "Focus on the objective! Nothing else matters!"
"Damn it!" Ichigo cursed as he tried to think of a way to help the captain without having to deal with Kovork first, but nothing came to mind despite his efforts. Realizing what he had to do, he rushed at the ogre, "I guess I just have to go through you first!"
Ichigo pushed off the ground as Kovork's hammer quickly occupied the space where he had just been. The ogre was quite fast for his size, but it was nothing that Ichigo couldn't handle. Spinning around in midair and using a technique that Tatsuki had used on him more than once, Ichigo tried to plant his foot in Kovork's face, more specifically his broken jaw.
"Not going to work!" Kovork gloated while bringing his hammer up to stop Ichigo's foot.
Realizing he was running out of time, Ichigo grit his teeth, "Like hell that is going to stop me!"
As soon as his foot touched the ground once again, Ichigo pivoted around and swung upwards with his zanpakuto, cleaving straight through Kovork's weapon. It took the ogre a couple of seconds to realize what had just happened but when he did, Kovork looked like he was about to cry.
"You broke hammer…" Kovork sulked at the loss of his weapon. That hammer had been his for so long that he could barely remember what it was like before he tore it out of the cold and dead hands of the previous chief of the tribe. Now that same hammer was in two pieces, each clasped in a different hand. Gritting his teeth in rage, he tossed both pieces of his weapon to the ground and charged at Ichigo, "Me crush you!"
Kovork's anger must have boosted his speed because Ichigo was unable to react in time before the ogre's large hands closed around his body. As Ichigo struggled to get free, Kovork raised him off the ground and began squeezing in an attempt to strangle the life out of Ichigo.
"Ha ha, me crush tiny human!"
Seeing that struggling wasn't working, Ichigo thought of another idea. Leaning backwards and swinging his legs up, Ichigo drove the points of his knees directly into Kovork's chin with a bone-jarring crunch. The ogre, who had already suffered two injuries to his face, let loose a howl of pain and released Ichigo in order to grab his throbbing face.
"Damn human," Kovork's speech was barely legible by this point, the many injuries his jaw had sustained finally catching up to him. While Ichigo strained to understand what Kovork was saying, the ogre wiped away a thin trail of red drool that had been dribbling out from between several of his misshapen teeth. Swaggering around for a few seconds while his sense of balance slowly returned to him, Kovork eventually picked up the top half of the splintered remains of his weapon and slurred, "I kill you!"
While Ichigo was well prepared for anything Kovork could throw at him, as long as it wasn't another ogre or two, he was distracted by a nearby shout of pain. Dathanor had quickly recovered from the initial surprise attack and was putting up one hell of a fight against the ogre bruiser, if its' many bleeding wounds meant anything, but it was clear that he was slowly but surely losing. The shield on his left arm, the one that had the emblem of Stromgarde emblazoned upon its shining polished surface, had been discarded and lay off to the side, a misshapen lump of metal that had been unfortunate enough to block one of the bruiser's attacks. He may have been smarter and more agile than the ogre he was fighting, but he did not have the strength or the endurance to keep up his current place for much longer.
"I don't have much time. Dathanor's on his last legs," Ichigo glanced back at Kovork, who he noticed was reaching for the top half of his weapon, which had been thrown on the ground earlier. Realizing he had no choice, Ichigo reached over his shoulder and gripped his zanpakuto. Slowing pulling the large blade out of its sheath, he took a calming breath to steady his nerves; "I don't have time to stall. If I don't kill this guy, Dathanor will die. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about what I need to do."
Kovork charged at Ichigo, all the while roaring and spitting out blood and saliva. When Ichigo didn't move in response, his head hanging downwards and shadows covering his eyes, Kovork became confused and, for the first time, slightly worried. He couldn't understand why the human, the only one to ever hurt him using nothing but physical strength wasn't doing anything. He couldn't comprehend this but, in his injured state, all he cared about was causing as much pain and suffering to Ichigo as he possibly could.
"Die!"
There was a loud crash accompanied by a cloud of dust as Kovork swung his weapon with enough force to shatter stone. He didn't become chief of the Boulderfist ogres just because he happened to be smarter than everyone else. His arm trembling from the force exerted, Kovork wiped a trail of blood on his forearm.
"That teach tiny human…huh?"
There was something wrong. Instead of blood and guts splattered everywhere on the ground, he felt something blocking his hammer from moving. As the smoke and dust cleared enough for Kovork's eyes to finally see what was going on, he saw that Ichigo had blocked his hammer with just the blade of his zanpakuto, his head facing downwards and orange hair covering his eyes.
"I'm sorry…" Ichigo tilted his head up and looked at Kovork, who noticed his brown eyes had begun to glow with a faint blue light, "But I can't hold back any more."
Kovork didn't know what was going on, but when he involuntarily shivered as a stiff breeze suddenly came into existence, his instincts were screaming at him to flee from the human in front of him. While his instincts were telling him to do that, his mind was doing the opposite in trying to convince him that Ichigo was merely another human, probably a paladin or something, and was not that much of a threat. Steeling his nerves, and ignoring the sense of danger that he felt, Kovork took a step back and raised his hammer above his head for another strike. This time the human in the shiny armor won't be able to stop it.
A faint sheen surrounded Ichigo zanpakuto, giving it a soft white appearance. As Kovork brought his hammer down, Ichigo swung upwards with his zanpakuto. The blade easily bifurcated the ogre's weapon like it was nothing more than paper before continuing on and cutting through Kovork's flesh from shoulder to hip in a spray of blood
"Guh!"
Pain. Kovork felt nothing but pain as Ichigo's zanpakuto carved through his flesh. Weakly stepping back, one blood-covered hand held over his wound, Kovork was lucky ogres were covered in a thick layer of muscle and fat. The wound may have looked serious, but it had failed to damage any of his organs. Raising a shaking free hand at Ichigo, Kovork took a few steps forward to kill the human when he felt something pierce through his stomach and out his back.
"What…this?"
Kovork stood there, with his arms outstretched, and looked down. Ichigo was standing in front of him with his zanpakuto skewered through the ogre completely up to the hilt. In his weakened state, Kovork had failed to notice the shinigami approach him before it was too late to do anything. The Boulderfist chief looked down at the human and tried to say something, only for a gurgle of blood to come out of his mouth. A few seconds later Kovork toppled backwards onto the ground with a loud crash, his last thought being why he felt so cold.
Ichigo stood there, his zanpakuto still extended away from his body and covered in Kovork's blood, for several seconds before lowering his blade until it rested softly on the grass. Something had felt different about his last attack. He did not understand why, but something had happened when he slashed at Kovork. There had been a faint voice, what gender it was he couldn't tell, that had whispered to him to kill the ogre as quickly and efficiently as possible. Thoughts like that made Ichigo nervous but in the end it had come down to either him or Kovork and a lot was riding on the outcome.
"That voice though," Ichigo frowned when he noticed Kovork's wounds weren't leaking blood, as they should have been. If anything, the blood seemed to have coagulated much too quickly to be normal, "I couldn't tell who it was, but it somehow sounded familiar, like an old friend."
"I see you…managed to kill Kovork…"
Ichigo turned and saw Dathanor slowly making his way towards him. The captain had certainly seen better days. His armor was covered in dents and his left arm hung limply at his side. Spitting out a wad of bloody spit, Dathanor glanced at Kovork's corpse before turning to Ichigo, "Nice job."
"You look like hell."
"I'm fine for the most part, but thanks for your concern," Dathanor chuckled before grimacing in pain. Roughly sitting down on the hillside, he began fiddling with the straps of his armor, "Did you think an old man like me couldn't take on an ogre by himself?"
"Well…" Ichigo scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. Turning away from the captain, Ichigo noticed that the ogre that had blindsided them earlier was lying dead on the ground with its head several feet away from its body.
"Ogres are strong but incredibly stupid," Dathanor finished fiddling with his armor and, with a relieved sigh mixed with a grunt of pain, unbuckled the armor on his left arm, letting the protective steel plates and gauntlet fall to the ground. While examining his broken arm, he continued speaking, "The moment they think they've won, they begin gloating. It took me a while but eventually that bastard made the mistake of underestimating me. The results, well, you can see for yourself."
Ichigo was impressed. He had thought that a normal human couldn't fight an ogre, but Dathanor had proved him wrong, "Do you need a hand or something?"
Dathanor shook his head in the negative, "This isn't my first broken arm. A quick trip to a priest and I'll be good as new by tomorrow morning, but if you really want to offer your assistance, you can help me get to my men. I'm sure they're beginning to wonder if I'm dead or not."
Ichigo nodded and grabbed the captain's good arm before wrapping it around his shoulder. As they slowly made their way across the hills, Ichigo realized that the sounds of fighting were beginning to abate. While just a few minutes ago he could hear people shouting and ogres roaring, a quiet and semi-peaceful silence had moved in, only broken apart by a random ogre being put out of its misery.
As they walked through the battlefield, Ichigo took a moment to look over the dozens of ogre corpses interspaced with soldiers that had sacrificed their lives to stop the Boulderfist from destroying everything. Ichigo watched as several Stromgarde soldiers carefully walked through the field of corpses, investigating every ogre corpse before moving on.
"It looks like I might have been wrong about you."
"Huh?" Ichigo turned around and looked at the captain, "What are you talking about?"
Dathanor grimaced as pain lanced through his arm, "The death of Kovork is the first major victory Stromgarde has achieved since its fall. With the ogres and trolls defeated, we can begin the process of reclaiming the highlands and taking vengeance on those that would see us destroyed."
Ichigo hadn't expected Dathanor to just flat out apologize to him. He was left speechless for a moment before he asked, "What is going to happen to the ogres?"
"They will be executed," Dathanor's eyes glanced over and saw a perplexed and confused look adorning Ichigo's face, "Do not get me wrong Ichigo. I am not doing this out of some perverse pleasure. The Boulderfist, and all ogres in general, respect one thing above all else – strength. If we do not kill them all, they will see that as a sign of weakness and continue to harass us, even if they do not have the numbers to do what they have done today. The harassment will continue until they eventually gather more allies like the Witherbark. Our safety and prosperity is dependent on the Boulderfist being wiped off the face of Azeroth."
"I guess I understand," Ichigo saw the logic in Dathanor's explanation but that did not mean he liked it, "But I-"
"Captain Dathanor!"
Several soldiers, fresh off the battle and sporting various wounds of their own, were running towards them. Adjusting himself on Ichigo's shoulder so he didn't look quite as pathetic, Dathanor suppressed a groan of pain and asked, "What is it?"
One of the soldiers snapped a salute and responded, "I bring you word from both Commander Amaren and Captain Ariana."
Dathanor's shoulders stiffened and he pushed himself off Ichigo, "What do they say?"
"The Witherbark resistance to the east has been completely crushed with minimal casualties," the soldier answered enthusiastically. It appeared to the captain that this was one of the newer recruits, one of the youths that had come up from Stormwind in the last year to help fight against those oppressing them, "Commander Amaren is on her way back to the capital but the captain is staying back to get her wounds treated."
One of the other soldiers, seeing the captain's unanswered question, spoke up, "The captain's face was hit by a warlock's curse. The priest attending to her wounds reports she will be fine but was unfortunately unable to save her eye. The captain…didn't seem too upset about being told she would be wearing an eye patch."
Of course she wouldn't. Dathanor knew that Ariana had always thought eye patches were, as she said, cool. To actually be forced to wear one after a major battle like this must have made her day, "Thank you for the update. What is the situation with the Boulderfist?"
"Most of the ogres have been neutralized, as per standard procedure," the same soldier answered, "Several have been seen fleeing into the surrounding hills but teams have already been sent out in pursuit. It shouldn't take more than an hour for the remaining ogres to be dealt with."
The pain in Dathanor's arm, which up until then had been relieved by the amount of endorphins rushing through his blood, suddenly doubled in intensity, "I thank you for your report soldier but, if you do not mind, I need to see a priest about my broken arm."
...
"Who is this Ichigo?"
From where he was currently sitting, Dathanor tore his eyes briefly away from the large map of the Arathi Highlands to reply, "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Commander Amaren arched a single eyebrow at the answer, or lack thereof. One would expect someone of her rank and experience to be a little more anxious about a potential spy or assassin in the city but Amaren was never one to show anything besides annoyance. While her features remained schooled and her face locked in an expressionless mask, she was actually quite upset, "What are you implying, Dathanor?"
"There is very little we know about Ichigo other than his name," Dathanor paused to readjust the sling his left arm was in. While the priest had healed his broken arm, he had been ordered to keep the limb in a sling for the rest of the day as a precaution. The downside to healing broken limbs was that, while the bones were easily repaired, the nerves weren't. Even if the arm was perfectly fine, the nerves in the limb would continue to report the slightly bit of pressure as an intense pain for at least twelve hours, hence the sling. Though, Dathanor shrugged his shoulder in an attempt to adjust the sling, he really wished it wasn't made of wool.
"Surely there is more to this man?" Amaren circled around the central table in the old church until she was standing right in front of the captain, "You said this Ichigo arrived from the west, which means he could only have come from Hillsbrad."
"And he carried the Commander Redpath's official seal," Dathanor finished for her, "Ichigo might not have said anything about himself but, if we assume everything he carries is authentic, he is quite well-travelled."
Commander Amaran leaned back against the table, "Someone like Ichigo, who possesses the strength and endurance to fight a fully-grown ogre like Kovork single-handedly doesn't appear out of nowhere. There has to be records of someone like him. Perhaps the Stormwind archives might hold the answers we seek. Have you considered sending a rider to Southshore to verify the validity of the seal?"
Dathanor nodded, "Of course, I sent one as soon as Ichigo met with the prince and myself. Unfortunately, the distance to Southshore and the forsaken presence in Hillsbrad will prevent the scout from returning until late tomorrow morning, which presents a problem. Ichigo is insistent on leaving as soon as possible."
"What did you tell him?" Ichigo's insistence on leaving Stromgarde was not that suspicious in and of itself, but the circumstances surrounding it made Amaren curious as to his motivations. Ichigo had killed Kovork, there was no doubt to that claim, but someone like him, who crippled the Boulderfist tribe nearly singlehandedly, to want to avoid praise and accolades was unlike anything she ever expected.
Amaren was glad she was back in Stromgarde and away from Refuge Pointe. The Light help her if she had to listen to another group of adventurers trying to brown nose her in order to join the battle for the Arathi Basin. It was disappointing to see members of the Alliance, day in and day out, more concerned with fighting the Horde over a scrap of land than helping Stromgarde take back the highlands.
She considered herself fortunate that Maximus was more than willing to take up control of the League of Arathor. The league was originally founded by a group of surviving Stromgarde soldiers, Amaren among them, to take back the highlands. Over time, with the forsaken pushing from the north and the Horde taking over Hammerfell, that goal shifted towards the strategic Arathi Basin. At the time, the basin had both fertile fields and rich mines to exploit. Whichever faction could take permanent, or even temporary, control of the basin would gain valuable resources that could be used to push the other faction out of the highlands entirely.
But now, after nearly eighteen months of constant fighting, the basin bore little resemblance to what it had once been. Fertile fields were replaced with pockmarked landscapes created by magical clashes between the Horde and Alliance. The mines, the same ones that had produced tones of gold, silver and mithril, were destroyed, buried by gnome engineers determined to prevent the Horde from gaining those resources. Still, despite having no more value, the League of Arathor continued to imply to the Alliance that the basin was of strategic importance to the fight against the Horde. Amaren was starting to get sick of their hypocrisy and therefore, left the league the moment Stromgarde had fallen back into their hands.
"The truth, of course."
With a small amount of effort, made all the more difficult with the use of only his right arm, Dathanor pushed himself out of his chair. He really hated feeling as weak and helpless as he did at this moment, "Actually, it was more of a half-truth. I informed Ichigo that even with the Boulderfist defeated, it would take at least the rest of the day and most of the night to send soldiers out to as far away as the Thandol Span and clean up any ogre and troll stragglers. With how late in the day it was, I offered him the chance to eat and sleep before leaving tomorrow morning."
Amaren brought a hand up to her chin, as she tended to do when deep in though, "The Thandol Span…Ichigo must be going to the Wetlands."
Ichigo had come from Hillsbrad, so unless he felt like climbing over the mountains to the north to get to the Hinterlands, the Thandol Span was the only place he would want to go. The only question remaining was Ichigo's endgame. He kept saying he needed to go to Stormwind but when anyone tried to get anything else out of him, he shut up or changed the subject. Ichigo was hiding something, but Amaren did not know what it was.
"Captain, what is your take on his story? Do you believe this Ichigo possesses no ill-intentions?"
"Are you asking for my opinion on the matter?" At Amaren's nod, Dathanor paused for a moment before answering, "I'd be surprised if everything about Ichigo turns out to be a fabrication. I don't see someone like him waltzing into a potentially hostile environment with such a flimsy story unless it was the truth. I agree that Ichigo is hiding something from us, but I don't think we'll find out what it is unless we ask him."
"I see," Amaren seemed perturbed by the lack of an actual answer more than anything, but the commander seemed to quickly get over her irritation. The matter of Ichigo's affiliation, while an important topic, would have be put on hold for the moment. That did not mean she was going to let him have free reign through Stromgarde. As commander of all Stromgarde forces, she had authorized several rogues to keep tabs on Ichigo at a safe distance. The boy had already demonstrated the ability to detect rogues at close range. Amaren hoped his perception didn't extend much further than that.
"Have you received the latest updates on Captain Ariana's progress against the Syndicate forces in the city?"
Dathanor hadn't heard anything about it. He had assumed they wouldn't move against the Syndicate until at least the morrow, "I thought Ariana was resting after losing her eye."
"Captain Ariana specifically requested being put back on the front as quickly as she could be healed. Unlike your arm, her eye was unrecoverable," Amaran trailed off as the subject of discussion became more somber, "I knew how much you wished to take part in this operation, but you and I both know that the Syndicate needs to be cut down at the first opportunity. The Syndicate expects us to have the bare minimum amount of soldiers you have been forced to work with. They will not expect an entire army to descend upon them."
While Dathanor was annoyed he had not been informed of the assault against the Syndicate, he understood the commander's reasoning. The Syndicate, for all their faults and treacheries, would have found out the outcome of the battle against the ogres and trolls by the next morning. They would have known just how strong Stromgarde had become and would have prepared accordingly. To not act when the element of surprise was at the greatest would be folly.
Amaren noticed the conflicted emotions passing across the captain's eyes and said, "If it is any consolation, the latest reports indicate the assault is moving along on schedule."
She passed a folded message to Dathanor across the table. The captain picked it up with his good arm and quickly read through it, "I see she already took back the old residential district with minimal casualties."
The old residential district had been one of the first sections of Stromgarde built and had become a stronghold of the Boulderfist and Witherbark trolls. With both groups decimated to nearly the point of extinction within the highlands, the district had emptied out, allowing Ariana and her forces to quickly move in and occupy it. Only a slight scattering of curious Syndicate rogues had been present but they had been easily dealt with.
As he read through the report, Dathanor noticed something missing, "Strange, she doesn't mention anything about the state of the Syndicate."
Amaren reached over and tossed a sack to Dathanor. As the captain tentatively reached out to grab it, she began speaking, "I believe this will answer your query. While Ariana secured the residential district, Captain Nials moved against the Syndicate in the central keep. We must have surprised them to a greater extent than we thought, because we came across someone really special just after breaking through their front lines."
Whatever the commander was saying was lost to Dathanor, who had drowned out everything around him as he opened the bag and stared at the contents within. Sitting inside, with a perpetual expression of pain and terror, was the head of the chief bodyguard of Falconcrest and murderer of dozens of good men and women, Otto.
"So the bastard is finally dead."
The hatred Dathanor held for Otto was deep and had a long history. Falconcrest, the self-styled 'lord' of Stromgarde, hadn't always had the foothold he possessed. When the Syndicate first moved into the city, their position was very weak with the front lines between Syndicate and Stromgarde-held territory shifting by the hour. Dathanor, a lieutenant at the time, had been in charge of an anti-Syndicate mobile squad. They were to go after targets of high importance, such as Syndicate leaders, strategists, and assassins, and take them out before they could do the same to Stromgarde. Back then Falconcrest had been the third or fourth most important target on his list and Dathanor had been sure the bastard would be captured soon.
One day, an anonymous report arrived from a proclaimed Syndicate defector. The report said that Falconcrest would be attempting to leave the city to head into Hillsbrad for reinforcements. Without thinking of whether the report was a fabrication, Dathanor had gathered his unit and proceeded out. He only had one shot to take Falconcrest out. While it was most likely a trap, Dathanor had gotten a rather good grasp of Falconcrest's mind and knew the bastard would be there regardless. Unfortunately for Dathanor, while he expected a trap, he hadn't expected a traitor to be the one to plunge the dagger in his back.
Major Otto, one of the staunchest opponents of the Syndicate, had betrayed Stromgarde for the very people he was supposed to hate. The bastard had killed half of his squad before Dathanor knew what was going on, leaving Dathanor to barely escape back to Stromgarde territory with his life.
"We hit the Syndicate far faster than they could have anticipated. Nials reported that he came across the bastard as they pushed up towards the central keep. The traitor tried to flee inside but several archers managed to cripple him before the captain removed his head from his body. Unfortunately, Falconcrest remains holed up tight in the central keep with an unknown amount of his men protecting him. With most of the city back under our control, we are planning to take our time in taking out Falconcrest but I expect his head to be mounted on a pike outside Trollbane Bridge by the end of the week."
"While I'm relieved Otto has finally paid for his crimes, I find myself surprised it took so long. How many times did Nials ask adventurers to take care of him and Falconcrest for us?"
"Too many to count," Amaren sighed with a tired shrug, "I don't know whether they were simply unable to accomplish the task or gave up, but in the end Otto is dead and the Syndicate is about to be crushed. There is a slight problem though. By tomorrow, word will no doubt reach the rest of the Syndicate forces in the highlands about what has happened in Stromgarde. I do not doubt that they will try and infiltrate the city to take back what they believe is theirs. Captain, I want you to gather up our men and send them out to known Syndicate holdouts. If peace and stability is to return to Arathi, we must take no prisoners."
"What about the Horde?" Dathanor leaned on the table and covered his mouth with his hand; "I do not think the Horde in Hammerfell to the northeast will take kindly to our renewed strength. The forsaken, in particular, have a vested interest in a ruined or destroyed Stromgarde. How many times have we caught undead rogues and assassins trying to sneak into the part of the city that we controlled? I don't think we have more than a day, maybe two if we're lucky, before the Horde is fully aware of what has happened."
"Actually, it's much worse than that," Amaran responded solemnly, "I didn't want to raise the alarm, but nearly an hour ago a sentry spotted a forsaken rogue attempting to enter the city. While he was summarily executed, it is safe to assume that the forsaken are fully aware, or will be soon, of what has transpired."
That was possibly the worst news Dathanor could hear. Reconstruction would be difficult enough on its own, but with the added trouble of the forsaken actively trying to kill them, or worse, they needed to act fast.
"If there is one thing I have learned about the forsaken, it is that most of them are cocky and arrogant when it comes to the living," Amaren paused for a moment as she rifled through several papers scattered on the table, "They will not think twice about a human being able to spot them while they're stealthed. We can use that arrogance to our advantage."
"What about Hammerfell?"
"I have discussed the matter at great length with our lord," Amaren answered, "And he said that as long as the Horde does not work against us, there is no reason to go after them. The forsaken however, there can be no quarter for the undead. Actively trying to improve the plague that wiped out most of Lordaeron…have they lost the rest of their minds? Our lord has ordered us to leave all members of the Horde, apart from the forsaken, alone for the moment."
Amaren turned away from Dathanor and back to her plans, "You should go and get some rest captain. You've had a long day and, quite frankly, you look like shit."
Dathanor chuckled and walked out of the old church and onto the streets of Stromgarde. Stopping a few feet from the building and looking around, Dathanor could tell that everyone was in high spirits after the day's events. With the ogres routed and the Syndicate almost defeated, it was as if the morale and life had begun to return to the area. He remembered when the streets used to be full of happy and worry-free people and it looked like those days would be coming back soon.
...
Silana dismounted the vampire bat, a specially bred mount specifically made for dark rangers, and immediately breathed in the damp air that drifted down from the Alterac Mountains and clung to Tarren Mill throughout most of the year. Closing her eyes and letting her senses expand through the surrounding forest and town, she walked passed the bat handler, who was shocked at seeing a dark ranger of Silana's standing in front of her, and towards Tarren Mill.
There was something about Tarren Mill that made Silana feel at home. She remembered vividly the high elven architecture of Quel'thalas and Silvermoon, but years of life in the Undercity had gotten her used to more drab settings. Walking around the town, ignoring the stares and whispers from the forsaken around her, she made her way towards the old church. The building had once been a bastion of the Light but now it was nothing more than a structure to house the darkness. Silana found that quite ironic.
"Well, if it isn't the great Silana herself, here to grace us with her presence," A raspy voice mocked from the shadows, "What brings you out to this little slice of paradise?"
Silana ignored the quip, "Don't be coy, Darthalia. You know quite well the reason why I am here."
"True," Darthalia held her arm out and gave a mock curtsy. As the two women, one a deathguard and the other a dark ranger, entered the former church, Darthalia grimaced, "This is about that human that somehow managed to permanently kill Frederick, isn't it? While Frederick was a tad unhinged, even for a forsaken, I find myself disturbed by what this human can do. Just the thought of being killed like that sends a chill through my bones. But before I tell you what you want to know, I have a question of my own. Tell me, what happened to dear old Marco when he reported his failings to the Dark Lady?"
Silana frowned within the shadow of her hood, "Despite allowing the Alliance to gain knowledge and possession of a potent sample of the New Plague, the Dark Lady has allowed him to live."
What was it about Marco that had the Dark Lady's interest? Silana had spent weeks following him when he was in the Undercity, hoping to witness some ability or power that would allow her lady to constantly spare his meaningless life, but time and time again he didn't show anything more than what the average forsaken could accomplish.
"That is such a shame," Darthalia said sarcastically. She would have liked nothing more than to see Marco Ghoulstomper tied up before being dismembered, lit on fire and beheaded, or the victim of any number of other heinous tortures. Some would say she was a sadistic bitch who took pleasure in the pain and suffering of others. To those that do, Darthalia would politely thank them for the compliment before stabbing them in the heart.
"I would have paid gold to see him die. But look on the bright side, eventually his favor with the Dark Lady will run out. One can only deal with failure so many times. When the day comes that the Dark Lady moves on from Marco, odds are you'll be the one to kill him."
"I suppose," Silana muttered before getting back onto the topic at hand, "What do you know about this human? I have a feeling Marco wasn't exactly forthcoming to the Dark Lady with information."
"Honestly, nothing more than what you already know," When Silana's eyes narrowed in anger, Darthalia quickly continued, "But do not fret. I think I know of someone who does. A couple of hours ago a group of adventurers arrived in town. By their ragged and bloody appearances, I say they had a nasty run in with the Syndicate to the south. I would have simply ignored them like I always do, but one of them mentioned something odd. It was an offhand remark, one that I wouldn't have caught if Marco hadn't said the same thing. As they passed by, one mentioned something about a human with orange hair."
So there was an actual witness. Hopefully they were still in Tarren Mill, "Where can I find these adventurers?"
"The last I've heard, they're in Shay's inn down the street," Darthalia answered and turned away from the dark ranger, "Now if there is nothing else you require, I need to go prevent Lydon from destroying the town. I swear by the Dark Lady, ever since that human stole Jorell's notes on the plague he has been preoccupied with revenge but if that damned apothecary blows up another building, I'll tear his damn arms off."
Silana nodded politely to Darthalia and left the confines of the church. Walking down the street, her hood pulled over her head in order to cast her face in shadows and hide her identity from anyone curious onlookers, Silana approached the inn. Unlike the rest of Tarren Mill, the inn was the only building that the living visited with any real frequency. With the town the last stop before the Undercity and the Plaguelands to the north, the other races of the Horde tended to stop and stay for the night before leaving in the morning.
Pushing open the door, Silana walked inside and immediately the rambunctious and loud atmosphere quieted down. Apparently every member of the Horde knew the reputation of a dark ranger. Smirking coldly from within the shadows of her hood, Silana turned away from the main crowd and walked towards the bar, where an undead was busy serving drinks to several customers. One of the customers, a tauren, turned around and saw Silana making her way towards them. Nudging his friend in the shoulder, he and everyone else at the bar quickly moved out of the way.
"A dark ranger, huh?" the undead behind the bar grumbled as he cleaned a mug, "Every time one of you show up, business drops off for the day. The name's Shay and, if I may ask, what brings you to my lovely inn?"
"Lovely, yes," Silana repeated sarcastically and sat down on one of the now empty stools, her toned legs crossed over one another and her bow, a gift from Lady Sylvanas, placed carefully across her lap. She had always found sitting with a bow strapped to her back highly uncomfortable, "While I would love to chat, I'm here on official business of the Dark Lady."
Shay's attitude quickly changed. Slowly putting down the mug as well as the rag he was using to clean it, he asked, "In that case, what can I help you with?"
"Several of your more recent patrons have been heard talking about a target of interest of the Dark Lady. It would be beneficial for you to point them out for me."
"I'm afraid I can't do that," Shay shook his head in the negative, "I don't really pay attention to who comes and goes. All I care about is whether their gold is good or not."
Silana was quiet for a moment before whispering, more to herself than to Shay, "I see…"
What followed next were several deafening seconds of silence, each of which made Shay increasing nervous. While he didn't believe every rumor that happened to pass through his inn, he knew, more from experience than anything else, that an angry dark ranger was a terrible thing to behold. If someone got on the wrong side of a dark ranger, the chances of them living another week were quite remote. While Shay was quite certain he hadn't done anything wrong, Silana's line of questioning implied that this human had wronged the Dark Lady in some way and he did not want to find out.
Fortunately for Shay, and his inn, Silana had no intention of taking her frustration out on him. She had a much better idea, and it would get her much more reliable results. Spinning around on the stool and standing up, she turned to the rest of the inn, "Somewhere around here is a human that has caught the attention of the Dark Lady. I have been sent by her to deal with him personally. He is described as being fairly young in appearance with vibrant orange hair. If anyone has information that leads to his death or capture, you will receive a reward from Lady Sylvanas herself. Fifty gold if your information leads to his death and one hundred if it leads to his capture."
While Silana let her words sink into the patrons of the inn, her eyes were already looking around. While she would have preferred someone speaking up and saving her the time, she didn't need them to. Thanks to years of training as a ranger, she was able to read facial expressions of every race, except taurens. Something about them always made it extremely difficult to tell what they were thinking. A quick glance showed an orc's eyes drop ever so slightly at the mention of the human's hair color.
"Well, well, well…what do we have here?"
With a sly and knowing smirk, Silana walked across the bar towards the table. With her face still hidden by her hood, she looked around at the two trolls and orc sitting down, "You look like you might know something about this human I'm searching for."
"A human, huh?" Taruk grunted, unperturbed by the threatening aura Silana was emitting. Leaning his head back and finishing off the rest of his Southshore Stout, Taruk wiped his mouth off and looked Silana square in the eye, "Say I do know something about this human. What do I get if I tell you what I know?"
Silana smiled coldly under her hood, the shadows helping to accentuate the expression. Adventurers were so predictable. All one has to do is offer them enough gold and they'll do anything you ask of them. It was almost pathetic, "Like I said, you will get a reward of gold if-"
"I don't want gold," Taruk interrupted, much to Silana's chagrin, "I have enough gold. I want something more tangible."
"Very well," Silana ground out without raising her voice, "If your information pans out, I will return and negotiate the terms of your reward."
Taruk seemed to mull over the terms for a few seconds before shrugging and slamming his mug down on the table, "You got yourself a deal, elf. I've seen this human you're talking about. Bright orange hair, a permanent scowl on his face, and the largest set of-"
"Spare me the details," Silana interrupted, "Just tell me where he went."
"Huh, you must have a weak stomach," Taruk chuckled and motioned with his hand for Shay to refill his mug, "We ran into this human at Durnholde Keep. Didn't get along with him but, since he helped us out of a tight spot, decided to go our separate ways without killing him."
"You let him go?" Silana asked in surprise, her glowing blue eyes trying to bore a hole through Taruk's skull, "I would have thought an orc like you would have killed him for being a human."
"I have honor and pride," Taruk countered gruffly and with annoyance, "An orc doesn't stab those that help him in the back, no matter what race they are. If I had turned around and killed this human, the honor of my family for the next three generations would have been tarnished."
Taruk stopped for a moment as Shay quickly brought over a new mug of Southshore Stout. Taking a swig from the beverage, he asked, "So, what did this human do?"
"That's none of your business," Silana warned, "If you are toying with me…"
"Yeah, yeah," Taruk waved her threat off before continuing, "This human, when we parted ways, mentioned something about heading into the Arathi Highlands for some business. That's all I know."
That was all she needed to know to begin tracking down this human. Smirking in anticipation of what was to come, she turned around and moved towards the exit without saying another word to Taruk. She didn't know what this human with the frighteningly similar power to Arthas was heading into the highlands for, but she wasn't about to let that stop her.
"So, Marco lied to me about where this human was going. Did he think I would simply take his word at face value when he so helpfully tried to give me a location this human was going to?" Silana stepped outside and oriented herself. For what she was about to do, she would need to do so on foot. It was late in the night, which meant the human was most likely asleep. Without a moment to waste, she took off into the nearby forest at a brisk speed. If she was lucky, she could reach Thoradin's Wall by dawn and be in the Arathi Highlands soon after.
Back in the inn, Maji watched the dark ranger strut out of the inn and disappear into the night before turning to Taruk, "Dat be mighty cold of ya."
Taruk quirked an eyebrow and took a swig from his drink, "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Sellin' out Ichigo like dat," Maji's tone was brisk and accusatory.
"Please," Taruk scoffed and leaned forward, until his eyes were inches away from Maji's, "If you think that elf will be a challenge to Ichigo then you must be going senile."
"Taruk has a point," Zulrea spoke up. While nearly half a day had passed since escaping from Durnholde Keep, she was already looking better, "Ichigo be lookin' like a human, but he be possessin' a supernatural strength I've never seen before."
"You're sister's right, Maji," Taruk grunted and stifled a yawn, "I don't think we've seen the last of that human. I have a feeling that we'll meet Ichigo in the future, most likely on the battlefield. In any event, I think I've found our next job, if Maji feels like getting his head out of some old ruins."
"Just tell us already," Zulrea ordered.
"Humph," Taruk grunted and leaned back in his chair, "A friend of mine in Ogrimmar passed along some interesting news. About a week ago, grunts in the Barrens reported coming across several empty silithid hives. Apparently, the bugs have been leaving their hives in droves and heading further south."
"Headin' south?" Maji's mind raced at the possibilities that could mean. As the history of the silithid passed through his mind, his eyes widened in shock, "Silithus…"
"Yeah," Taruk nodded as a large girn spread across his face, "Something big is going to happen very soon."
...
Thousands of years ago, soon after modern humanity arrived from Northrend, the quel'dorei had established outposts and minor towns through what would eventually become Lordaeron and Stromgarde. While the ever-present threat from the Amani Empire prevented the high elves from establishing large settlements outside the protective barrier surrounding Quel'Thalas, some hardy elves nevertheless did exactly that despite the dangers. While many lodges were founded through the now Horde and Alliance lands, none were as famous as Quel'Belore or "High Sun" in the common tongue. What started as a simple high elven ranger outpost soon began to draw thousand of high elves a year to witness the sun rising over the Arathi Highlands. No one knew how or why, but every morning at dawn, the sun rose over the highlands in just the right way that it bathed the rolling plains and fields in a golden glow that was reminiscent of the magically induced perpetual spring in Quel'Thalas.
Even though Ichigo did not know any of this, as he stifled a yawn in the early dawn, he would have whole-heartedly agreed if he weren't half-asleep on his feet.
"Why did I get up at this ungodly hour?"
That, of course, was a rhetorical question. Ichigo knew quite well why he had decided to leave so early in the morning. All last night every soldier he had walked past had saluted or thanked him for the assistance he provided in taking down Kovork. It was quite unnerving to the shinigami to be thanked so much for something he cared so little about. Actually, Ichigo was glad Kovork was dead. He just didn't feel like celebrating the fact that he killed the ogre, thought it wasn't as if he was upset about doing the deed. Some of the things Dathanor said Kovork had ordered or done had sickened Ichigo to the core.
The only downside to him leaving Stromgarde so early in the morning was that his thoughts, no matter how hard he tried to stop them, drifted back to his world. As much as he realized or wished otherwise, Ichigo knew everyone he loved or cared about back on Earth was dead, killed at the hands of the Burning Legion.
"Damn demon bastards…" Ichigo muttered angrily.
A strange feeling washed over him at the mention of the Burning Legion and Ichigo looked over his shoulder to his zanpakuto strapped on his back. He honestly did not know what was going on. Ever since the battle yesterday against Kovork and the Boulderfist, he had been feeling as if his zanpakuto was responding to his thoughts.
That was a stupid notion, zanpakuto are simply weapons used to slay hollows and help souls pass on to the afterlife. If they were anything more, Ichigo was sure Rukia would have told him. Ichigo stopped for a moment as an idea came to him. Rukia had been rather forthcoming with information concerning the Soul Society and shinigami in general, but she had tended to only tell him what he needed to know just moments before it became vital for him to know it. Could Rukia had kept information concerning his zanpakuto secret from him for some reason? Another, much fainter, feeling pulsed through his body and Ichigo sighed. This was a problem but his focus was elsewhere. He would deal with whatever is going on with his zanpakuto eventually, but for the moment he needed to get to Stormwind. The chances of someone in Stormwind that could help him was one in a million, but Ichigo didn't have any other choice.
The familiar clip-clop of a horse snapped Ichigo out of his deep stupor. Quickly stepping to the side, he watched as a procession of Stromgarde soldiers, led by a cavalryman on horseback, marched by him. When a few of them noticed Ichigo and snapped a respectful salute, Ichigo forced himself to repress the sigh threatening to well up and escape. The cavalryman, noticing his fellow soldiers' distracted attention, saw Ichigo.
"Sir Ichigo! I did not see you there."
Ichigo waved him off halfheartedly. Hopefully people would forget about that stupid title Galen had given him soon, "It's fine."
"Your assistance yesterday was very much appreciated," the cavalryman said, "Though I fought with Captain Ariana, the rumors I have heard about you are quite impressive. If I may be so bold as to ask, is it true that you took on Kovork singlehandedly?"
"No," Ichigo answered without hesitation, "Dathanor managed to shatter his jaw. I don't think I would have been able to finish Kovork if he hadn't been as injured as he was."
"Strong and humble," the cavalryman muttered. When his horse whined in agitation, forcing the soldier to calm his mount down, he turned to Ichigo, "I thank you for your time but I'm afraid we must be going. My men and I have spent the night rounding up members of the Syndicate and are anxious to return to the capital to see their families again. Some haven't seen their wives in months."
Ichigo glanced down the road and noticed, in the middle of the procession of soldiers, dozens of bound and gagged members of the Syndicate, their orange scarves and facemasks pulled down and exposing their once hidden faces. As they were forced to walk past Ichigo, several of the rogues and warriors turned towards Ichigo and stared at him with enough venom and hatred to make a lesser man flinch. Ichigo, however, simply stared back with narrowed eyes. As much as he found the idea of execution abhorrent, they deserved what was coming to them.
How anyone could be so evil as to burn several children alive while laughing just to send a message was beyond his understanding.
The next hour or so passed relatively uneventfully for Ichigo. While he passed by two more detachments of soldiers, each with dozens of Syndicate prisoners, the highlight of his journey were the several earth elementals that had decided to attack him out of the blue. Dathanor had told him offhandedly that elementals did not have a liking for mortals and would attack at the smallest provocation, or sometimes just randomly out of the blue. Although he had wanted to just go and attack the earth elementals, Ichigo didn't know if his attacks would work. How do you kill something that is composed of nothing but magic and rocks? After a couple of them began pooling their powers together to summon a boulder larger than his body, Ichigo had wisely decided to run away. It was too early in the morning for him to deal with a bunch of living rocks.
After five minutes of non-stop running to make sure he lost the earth elementals, followed by another hour of walking, Ichigo found himself in a conundrum. While he had expected to simply follow the road to the Wetlands, he hadn't thought there would be a fork in the road. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out the map Marcus had given him. He damn well wasn't going to take the wrong road. If he did, and with his luck he would, he would encounter something that would start yet another adventure that he wanted no part of.
"Let's see," Ichigo muttered to himself. Some of Marcus's directions were helpful but for others, Ichigo couldn't make heads or tails of what the man had written.
According to the map, he was at the major crossroads running through the Arathi Highlands. If he continued to follow the road to the east, he would pass by the Go'Shek Farm before reaching Hammerfell, both of which were deep in Horde territory. For the moment, Ichigo decided he was going to play it safe and avoid the Horde. While Maji and the others hadn't been so bad, there was no telling what the rest of the Horde was like and with the forsaken and their Dark Lady after him, he needed to stick to areas where he was safe, relatively speaking.
Ichigo's eyes widened as he realized something he shouldn't have forgotten. Marcus and the others had mentioned that the Dark Lady or Sylvanas would have sent a response to his presence in Hillsbrad by yesterday evening. As much as he wanted to believe that some bureaucratic nonsense slowed down the response, he needed to act as if it was the worse case scenario. If he assumed that Sylvanas was royally pissed at his interference, then he might just have someone pursuing him at this very moment.
He needed to keep moving.
Tucking the map back into his bag, Ichigo turned right and began heading south. According to the map, this would take him through the only gap in the mountains, across the Thandol Span, and into the Wetlands.
Ichigo walked at a brisk pace. If he travelled too fast, he risked tiring himself out but if he moved too slowly, his pursuer might catch up to him. While he was confident in his power and abilities, Ichigo had no idea what someone like Sylvanas would send after him. If half the things he heard about her were true, Ichigo expected a large abomination that spit in the face of god to track him down.
As he got closer and closer to the Wetlands, Ichigo began to feel the humidity rising and was forced to constantly step around and avoid large holes in the road. With the fall of Stromgarde, basic civic services had quickly vanished. After carefully stepping around every hole in the ground, along with one or two close calls when the ground near a hole collapsed, Ichigo turned around a bend in the road and stopped.
"That's…impressive."
The Thandol Span had been one of the more ambitious dwarven engineering projects outside of the creation of Ironforge. The span had been built upon the remains of three old bridges, lost during the First War, and connected Lordaeron to the north with Khaz Modan to the south. The initial designs of the Thandol Span had been for the quick and effective mobilization of a large army between the continents, but that quickly backfired on the dwarves when, during the Third War, the Scourge attempted to push through the highlands and south into Khaz Modan. While the abominations and other massive undead creatures would normally be unable to make the journey, the Thandol Span had easily been able to support their weight. The battle that followed was costly to both the dwarves and Scourge but, even after the span suffered major structural damage, the undead had been repulsed.
Ichigo stared at the Thandol Span. When he first heard about it, he assumed it was something simple like a bridge. He hadn't expected to cross something as massive as this. His initial amazement was tempered by the fact that something had happened to the span in the recent past. While two large roads had been built to allowed passage between the two continents, one of them had been destroyed, leaving nothing more than several broken pylons and one platform perching precariously hundreds of feet above the water below.
A fierce and stiff wind blew up from the south, carrying with it traces of salt and dampness. Ichigo looked around the horizon before starting towards the span. He might have looked calm on the surface but he was quite anxious as to what he might find once he gets there. His journey though this world hadn't exactly been quiet and boring. He wasn't sure if it was his luck or just bad timing, but every time he travelled somewhere new, he was dragged into a battle or quest. It was getting annoying and he just hoped he could reach Menethil Harbor without anything interesting happening.
The path through the pass in the mountains descended sharply down in order to level off before reaching the Thandol Span, forcing Ichigo to walk sidestep the entire way if he didn't want to trip and fall. The slow pace, while methodical and safe, was also boring, allowing Ichigo to once again have time to think.
"That Medivh bastard," Ichigo nearly tripped over an overturned rock in the road but quickly caught his balance, "If I ever see him again, I'm going to deck him for leaving me here without any help."
Ichigo didn't hate Medivh. As much as he was a condescending bastard who seemed to have the answers for everything, he did help Ichigo get to this world. But for the man to just leave him in the middle of nowhere without any assistance was idiotic. How was he supposed to know where to go after being dropped off in the middle of a damn forest?
Stepping around a large hole in the road, Ichigo stiffened as a strange feeling passed through his body. He knew it hadn't come from his zanpakuto and quickly leapt to the side as a rather jagged bolt of lightning slammed into the ground where he had just been standing.
"The hell?"
Backpedalling several meters down the slope, Ichigo gripped the hilt of his zanpakuto and looked around for the source of the attack. Since it was a clear day, which meant natural lightning was highly unlikely, the likely source of the lightning was someone trying to attack him.
A second bolt cracked through the air and exploded against the ground mere feet from where he was standing. As he covered his eyes to protect them from dust and dirt that had been kicked up, Ichigo could have sworn the lightning had been a disturbing mix of black and white palettes. A prickling sensation on the back of his neck alerted Ichigo to something behind him. Turning around and looking up, Ichigo's expression quickly dropped.
"You have got to be shitting me."
He hadn't noticed it earlier, due to where it was, but hovering hundreds of feet above the ground was a swirling vortex of crackling black and white energy that seemed to be trying to both explode and implode at the same time. Ichigo looked around the vortex and noticed that the early morning sky, still a mixture of a blue and faint yellow, seemed to lose its color the closer it got to the strange vortex until it took on the same colorless hue.
"That can't be good," Ichigo took a step back when he witnessed another crackle of lightning shoot out of the vortex and across the sky. A flock of birds that had been flying nearby avoided the electric strike for the most part, but one bird was unfortunate enough to be struck. To Ichigo's concern and horror, instead of simply dying, the bird seemed to decay right before his eyes until nothing was left but several bones falling to the ground.
Ichigo only had a moment to contemplate what he saw before he was forced to dive to avoid another bolt of lightning. Crouching behind an outcropping of rock, Ichigo peered around the edge at the vortex, a grimace on his face, "That's not fucking lightning."
The storm lasted barely a minute before abruptly abating. Risking a second glance out from where he was hiding, Ichigo was nearly blasted off his feet as something emerged from the vortex accompanied by a rather large sonic boom.
"Damn it," Ichigo cursed as he tumbled backwards. Thinking quickly, he drew his zanpakuto and planted it in the ground, bringing his momentum and body to a stop mere feet from the edge of the cliff.
"What the hell was that?"
Letting out a ragged breath, Ichigo peered over the hilt of his zanpakuto. The first thing he noticed was that the vortex had vanished almost as if it had never existed in the first place. The second was that there was a thick column of smoke rising from a crater just to the west of the road.
Ichigo took a few steps towards the crater before quickly stopping himself.
"Wait a second, what the hell am I doing?"
For what possible reason would he go investigate whatever came out of that strange, and also very dangerous, vortex? Just a few minutes ago he was hiding in fear for his life but now, here he was, going towards whatever had come out of the vortex. Either his courage ran far deeper than even he thought or he was completely and utterly insane. Hadn't he just promised himself to try and avoid any adventure that happened to come across his path?
Ichigo stood there, torn between leaving and finding out what had crashed into the ground. Eventually his curiosity overwhelmed his caution and he reluctantly began walking up the slope towards the crater.
Reaching the edge of the newly created pit in the ground, Ichigo pulled himself over the lip of the crater and peered inside. At first the smoke and dust in the air made it impossible to see. Coughing and covering his eyes, Ichigo waited a few minutes for the smoke to begin clearing away before looking again. As his eyes managed to pierce what smoke remained, Ichigo noticed something lying in the center of the crater. Although the smoke initially made it impossible to see what it was, as it cleared, Ichigo's eyes widened when saw a person lying unconscious on the ground.
Setting aside the implausibility of someone surviving such a devastating impact, Ichigo leapt over the lip of the crater and slid down the walls until he came to a stop near the person. Bending down and turning them over as gently as possible, to not aggravate any injuries, Ichigo nearly tripped over his feet when he realized the person was a girl.
She was about his age, maybe even a few years older than him, with black hair that fell to just below her shoulders. The girl wore what might have once been an expensive crimson robe that hugged her figure but, much to Ichigo's eternal relief, still managed to cover her modesty despite its currently torn and burnt state.
Carefully prying open one of the bloody cuts on her sleeve with his fingers, Ichigo was surprised to find no trace of a wound. Frowning, he looked at several other tears that seemed to have been the site of deep lacerations but found nothing but pale and flawless skin.
"What the hell happened to you?" he muttered out loud, more to the currently unconscious girl than himself.
Despite the fact she showed signs of having recently been in battle against something, Ichigo could not find a trace of a cut anywhere on her body. The only injury that he had been able to find had been the most obvious. Something with an intense heat had hit her stomach, burning away the crimson robe to the point that the jagged edges of the robe were colored a brittle and dark black. The same heat had also burnt her flesh, covering her stomach with an angry and blistering red along with several patches of completely burnt skin. Ichigo scrunched his nose slightly as the smell of burnt flesh finally hit him. Unwilling to let that stop him, Ichigo examined the burn a little more closely.
Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it looked. If there was one thing his dad had taught him, aside from making sure anyone he wanted to marry passed a psych evaluation, was that burns always looked much worse than they actually were. The girl's stomach, despite its raw state, had a mixture of first and second-degree burns. That was good. If she had third-degree burns, she would require someone with actual medical training, which meant Ichigo would be forced to carry her back to Stromgarde.
Reaching over his shoulder for his bag, Ichigo quickly began rummaging through the contents for anything that would help him. Letting lose a sigh of relief when he found the flask containing the mage water, Ichigo carefully uncorked it and slowly began running the magically cooled liquid over the burns. While the large spasm from the girl's body indicated that she had felt that, Ichigo knew he couldn't stop. While it wouldn't work as well as ice, the cold water should work to help reduce the inevitable swelling that would soon come from the burns. A little pain now would be a good trade off for a reduced recovery time.
Pulling out the roll of bandages that Marcus had insisted he take, Ichigo began removing the girl's robe from around her abdomen while being careful not to tear too much away. As he wrapped her stomach and back in the sanitized gauze, while making sure he wasn't getting any dirt or dust trapped under the bandages, Ichigo noticed one of the girl's fingers begin to twitch. Casting his gaze away from her stomach and towards her face, Ichigo was slightly unsettled when he noticed the girl's piercing amber eyes. Focused solely on him. After several awkward seconds of eye contact, he decided to break the ice and dissipate any unnecessary questions she might have for him, "You shouldn't move. You have some rather severe burns and I just finished wrapping them."
For a moment Ichigo thought all was well and good but when the girl opened her mouth to speak, instead of answering with words, she let loose a shout of anger and rage that didn't sound like it came from a human. Quickly sitting up without any trouble, which Ichigo thought to have been impossible given the locations of her burns, she reached towards him and placed a hand directly on Ichigo's armor.
"Hey!" Ichigo said in surprise and tried to grab her wrist, but found her strength to be shockingly high, "You need to calm down. I'm here to help you."
The girl didn't seem to hear Ichigo and narrowed her eyes at him. Just as he was about to try another method, Ichigo felt an intense heat beginning to emanate from where her hand was touching his chest. Looking down, he noticed tongues of black fire snaking out from between her fingers.
"What the hell is this?"
His question was answered as, with a primal shout, the girl released the black flames and enveloped Ichigo's body in a torrent of fire.
