Chapter Seven - Troubles
Lich King's POV
My lips formed a satisfied smile when I watched over Jaina and her group. Like usual, I was sitting on my throne and regarded everything from there. I was able to see almost everything what happened in Northrend, only a few places weren't visible for me because the mortals covered them with powerful spells. Wyrmwrest Temple was one of them. I had sent a group to investigate the area around the temple because I wanted more information about it before I would attack it.
The scouting group had been killed except for an undead night elf which seemed to be very important to Jaina. I didn't know why the dragons had spared her, I didn't really care if she survives or not but for Jaina, I would rescue her because Jaina because she was important for me.
Currently, my army was besieging Wyrmwrest Temple. The siege had begun two days ago, still, no considerable signs of progress had happened. The dragons defended their temple very well against my army which was led by Tirion Fordring. It would be boring if our victory would be too easy. I expected that the dragon will hold out against my army for a few weeks. I was sure that the battle will be over very quickly as soon as Jaina, Selania and the greatest heroes of Azeroth, I had slain and raised on top of Icecrown Citadel, join.
At this moment, Jaina and her group were sabotaging the Blue Sky Logging Grounds in the north-east of Grizzly Hills. It was not their mission to sabotage the wood production and processing but I was glad that they did that because this would mean that the mortals would have fewer recourses, which they could use to fight us. The logging camp was also on their way to the base of the furbolgs, which made it a perfect target for a small sub-mission.
I watched with pleasure as one of Jaina's sharp ice-splinters pierced through the heart of a dwarf who guarded this place with several other members of the Alliance. Jaina turned around and froze two humans before they had been able to hit her. She shattered the ice blocks around these humans, which meant immediate death for them. Selania, on the other hand, slaughtered everyone who dared to approach her.
My most favourite servants and their group managed to take out every guard and worker of the logging ground. They set the wood and the entire construction on fire before they continued their journey to Grizzlemaw, the capital city of the furbolgs.
I turned my head a little as I noticed the approaching of a familiar person.
"What do you want Kel'Thuzad?" I asked the lich and looked at him interested.
"Nothing really important. I just wanted to know if Proudmoore and Commander Wildreaper are making progress.
"Lady Proudmoore" I corrected.
"What?" asked Kel'Thuzad and looked at me with a confused expression.
"She still has the title of a Lady, so don't leave it out" I said and gave him a look which told him that I was serious about this.
"Alright, are Lady Proudmoore and Commander Wildreaper successful?"
"Yes, they are. They convinced the Drakkari to join us. They even sabotaged an important source of resources on their way to Grizzlemaw" I told.
"So, they destroyed the Blue Sky Logging Grounds? That's perfect" he commented and looked at me satisfied.
"They set it on fire. Soon, it will be completely destroyed"
"That is really important for us"
"Indeed, it is"
"I have to say that I have underestimated Lady Proudmoore. I didn't expect that she would become such a useful tool"
"She is more than a tool... at least for me" I whispered quietly, not knowing to what I was referring to with this statement. Kel'Thuzad didn't seem to have heard it or at least he pretended that he hadn't heard it. He just looked at me as if he was waiting for new orders.
"Are you waiting for something?" I asked.
"No, not at all. There is nothing I could really do right now so I thought that you could give me new instructions, master"
"Hm, you could...You could keep the Green and the Bronze Dragonflights busy. It would be hard to conquer Wyrmwrest Temple when the other Dragon Aspects and their sick children are around"
"As you wish, my master" he said and bowed to me. He turned around, as soon as I had told him that he was dismissed, and walked to the teleporting platform, disappearing through it.
Jaina's POV
We arrived at the capital city of the furbolgs which was larger than I had expected. Basically, it was a gigantic tree trunk which was partly hollowed out so that the humanoid-bears could live in there. The huts of these creatures had been built on different levels which were connected through a spiral staircase which went along the innermost circle of this tree trunk. At the beginning of the staircase, at the very bottom of this trunk, was a little growing tree which was surrounded by water and a little landscape covered by grass and flowers. A few of these furry creatures sat in front of this tree and seemed to pray.
We stood on the first level and regarded these creatures who were observing us suspiciously. These bear-like creatures had brown fur, they were very tall, taller than most of us and they looked pretty strong. They carried spears, axes and bows, looking at us threateningly. But they didn't dare to attack us. I saw it in their eyes that they feared us. They may outnumber us but they feared us so much that they didn't attack us. The furbolgs really loved the nature and its beauty. We were the entire opposite of natural which was a thorn in their eyes and the reason they feared us.
We followed the course of the stairs until we reached the highest level. We spotted a few furbolgs in front of a very large hut. There was this one furbolg which stuck out of this group. It was a taller, elder male with a walking stick. His fur was brown with a slight grey touch. He wore a necklace made out of tiger teeth and he had only one healthy eye. I was pretty sure that he was their leader.
His greeting wasn't polite and sounded more like a threat. "You should know that your kind is not welcome in this land. Wherever you go, you leave death and destruction behind you. We don't want you here. You would like to kill us all. Go away or someone may get hurt"
"Well, it doesn't have to end this way. You could join us and nobody would die, which also means that we don't have to destroy anything" Selania replied self-confident as always and stared at the old leader.
"Is that a threat?" one of the younger furbolgs asked angrily and made a step towards Selania. The older furbolg lifted his walking stick a little, signalizing the young one to shut up.
"My name is Baergar Brownpaw from the Redfang tribe and I tell you this for only one time. We don't want to have the Scourge in our lands, neither we want to deal with you or even join you. Go away as long as we let you pass unscathed.
"We could help you fight against the Frostpaw tribe and you could help us with our campaign. We could help each other and form a powerful alliance" I replied, ignoring his threat.
"As I have said, we don't want to deal with you and we will be able to deal with the Frostpaw tribe on our own. We don't need your help" he responded.
"Yes, we don't need the help of such disgusting creatures like you" the one young said and gave us a dangerous look.
"Disgusting? Look at yourself in the mirror and then tell me again who looks disgusting" hissed Selania and made a step forward. The young one mimicked her action and built himself up in front of her. He was about three heads taller than her but this didn't seem to be enough to intimidate her.
"At least I'm not a corpse fucker like you" he responded.
Ah damn, he shouldn't have said that. I knew that something bad was about to happen because Selania was a very aggressive and violent person. It was so easy to insult her and make her lose her mind.
"Say that again and I will tear your fur from your body. I will skin you alive, you sick animal"
"Broown, don't you dare to attack her. As your father and leader, I order you to..." Baergar started but was not able to finish his sentence because the loud roar of his son interrupted him. His son tried to hit Selania with his massive left paw but she was faster and duck beneath his attack. She didn't hesitate and drew one of her swords from her back and separated his left arm from his body. The furbolg howled out and stumbled backwards, looking at his separated arm in disbelieve and shock. His eyes showed fear and pain but also fury and rage. The furbolgs growled aggressively and charged at Selania.
Selania smiled as she jumped forward and beheaded three of them with one strike. The other six furbolgs stopped in their movement and regarded the bodies of their fallen race members which made loud noises then they dropped to the ground. Broown howled out in anger and was about to charge at Selania again but his father stepped in front of him at the last moment and stopped him from wasting his life. He glared at us, showing us his gritted sharp teeth.
" You killed three members of my tribe and you crippled my only son! Are you happy now?" Baergar shouted and stared at us furiously.
"Not really" responded Selania and gave me a signal. I lifted my staff a little and raised the fallen furbolgs, turning them to our servants. The three headless undead furbolgs stood up and walked to their former tribe members, who looked at them in shock and horror.
"You spawn of pure evil! What are you doing to them? You are dishonouring them and our traditions. You are defiling their corpses and the life in general. Get them Redfangs!" he cried out and tried to pull his son back but Broown resisted him and charged at Selania again, this time she finished him by separated his bear-head from his furry body.
Baergar cried out as he saw the corpse of his son dropping to the ground. Selania didn't hesitate and jumped over the group of furbolgs and landed in front of their leader. She showed no mercy and beheaded Baergar in the next moment. With their leader gone, the furbolgs were still furious but less motivated. They were scared, angry and furious but they were no match for us. We killed all five remaining furbolgs and raised all of them, even those without a head. The other necromancers and I stuck their separated heads back onto their bodies so that they were able to see clearly while they fought for us.
Our actions weren't unnoticed by the other furbolgs in this tree trunk. Loud alarming bells were hearable and hundreds of these furry creatures were rushing towards us from every level. I lifted my wand and performed a quick spell, summoning a massive and very large water elemental. Unlike the water elementals I had summoned in life, it had a different colour. Unlike the bodies of the other water elementals, which colour was similar to the light blue colour of the sky over the Eastern Kingdoms, the body of my elemental had a very dark blue colour.
The water elemental summoned a massive wave of dark water which washed the first wave of incoming furbolgs away. I sent arcane techniques and frost techniques at the second wave while our archers, mages, shamans and other spellcasters fired everything they got at them. The warriors, led by Selania, charged at the second wave and decimated them quickly, this time without needing to behead them. We decimated our way to the lowest level of the base until all members of the Redfang tribe were dead and served us.
I stood in front of the little tree and regarded everything from below. The raised members of the Redfang tribe were spread over the levels and looked down at me, waiting for orders.
"What should we do with this city?" one of the of mages of our group asked.
"Burn it" Selania commanded.
"Please don't do this" a quiet voice said.
I turned around and noticed an elder furbolg. Unlike the dead furbolgs, he had white fur. Behind him stood dozens of furbolgs with the same fur colour.
"I didn't know that the Forstpaw lived so close to the city of the Redfangs that they could reach it within a few hours" I shouted and regarded the elder. Like Baergar, he was carrying a walking stick.
"We came to assist you as soon as our spies told us that you were attacking the Redfangs. Unlike them, we want to cooperate with you" he said.
"How do we know that we can trust you? You could only say that so that we spare you. You could only say that to earn our trust. You could betray us later and attack us"
"We wouldn't have come to you if we don't want to cooperate with you. We could just have left this territory after we had noticed that all Redfangs were gone. We could have looked out for another home instead of trying to cooperate with you but instead, we took the risk and came to you" he spoke and looked at me. His eyes told me that he was an honest person, I knew that appearance can be deceptive but somehow, I trusted him. I knew that the furbolgs were intelligent creatures, he wouldn't risk that his tribe would get slaughtered if he wouldn't want to work with us.
"Why do you want to cooperate with us?" Selania asked. I didn't overlook the mistrust hidden in her voice and in her facial expression, neither did the leader.
"You killed our archenemy, the Redfang tribe. We fought against them for decades for this city, but we never won a battle against them. They were hunting us over the past years, trying to completely annihilate us. You saved us from them. Without them, our families could live in peace while our warriors will be at your service if you chose to work with us"
"You know that we didn't kill them with the intention to rescue you, right?" I asked.
"I know but we are still thankful for your service" the leader answered.
"Why don't you hate us like the Redfang tribe? They called us unnatural and disgusting creatures. They told us that our presence insults the beautiful nature and the life in general. Why don't you share the same mindset?" asked Selania.
"Well, we don't like the undead either but we would do our best to work with you as long as you spare us and let us alive. We will help you with your campaign no matter against which opponent" the elder said.
"That's good to hear. What is your name?" I asked the elder.
"My name is Brenow Snowclaw and I'm the leader of my tribe. These few dozen furbolgs are the only warriors we have. Unfortunately, the Redfangs had killed a lot of our warriors over the past decades. Our families are waiting in a hideout. If you don't mind, we would get them and bring them to this place. We want to live there, that's why I asked you to not burn this city. We don't have a real home nor do we have a lot of supplies. We would be thankful if you would let us live there. Our warriors will fight for you whenever you will need them. As long as you spare and protect us" he told and walked to us, stopping a few feet in front of me.
"Why shouldn't we kill all of you and make you to mindless servants? You wouldn't be able to resist us under our control" asked one of the necromancers.
"Because, with a permanent residence, enough supplies and no rivalling tribe which would threaten us, we could reproduce over the decades and become a very large tribe with a lot more warriors than we have now. We could give your more warriors over the next few decades then you would get now if you kill and raise us all"
"He is right. They would become more useful over the time" I commented and looked at the necromancer and then at Selania, who gave me a small nod.
"Fine, you can live there. We will send a group of ambassadors to you as soon as we need your warriors" I told.
"Thank you" Brenow said and bowed to me. I gave him a slight nod and told my group and the undead furbolgs to follow me. I said goodbye to Brenow and lead the little army out of Grizzlemaw.
Wyrmwrest Temple. What a lovely place it was. I always had loved to visit this place before my transformation. I had visited the Dragon Queen Alexstrasza often and had trained under the guidance of her consort Korialstrasz. They had always been friendly to me and had done their best to make me stronger.
Now, this didn't mean anything to me anymore. The dragons had Vissia as their prisoner and I will do everything to save her, even if that means to kill every dragon in this realm.
I arrived at our base which had been built two miles away from the temple. I noticed war machines which were arriving through portals, followed by other reinforcements. I looked at the Wyrmwrest Temple and noticed even from afar that a magical violet barrier protected the entire temple. Our catapults stood in the middle between our base and the temple and were firing, by magic strengthened, missiles at the barrier, weakening it with each hit. Our frost wyrms fought against the dragons which tried to destroy our catapults. The harpoons throwers and the wyrms did their best to protect the catapults by killing more and more dragons.
Most of the dragons of Alexstrasza's flight were too busy to burn the bodies of their swarm members, meaning that our necromancers were able to raise most of them. I regarded the happening at the front for a while through a magical sphere. Our siege engines were able to heavily damage the barrier which prevented that we could storm the temple. The Red Dragonflight, on the other hand, managed to destroy half of your catapults but a lot of them lost their lives and were brought back as frost wyrms by the necromancers and val'kyries. I was pretty sure that the barrier will fall within the next few hours.
A skeletal dragon landed next to me, telling me that I should climb on its back. Judging by the sound of its voice it was a female. She told me that her name was Avigosa and she would enjoy fighting with me. I responded that it was an honour to meet her. I climbed on her head, freezing my feet to her skullcap so that I wouldn't fall off accidentally, then I told her that I was ready. She nodded her head and rose in the air.
She overcame the distance within a few minutes. I shot arcane bolts and frostbolts at the members of the Red Dragonflight, hurting a few of them. Avigosa opened her jaw and spit fireballs out which had a blue colour instead of the natural red colour of dragon fire. She hit a lot of Alexstrasza's dragons, killing a few of them immediately.
I couldn't see it on their faces but I was pretty sure that these dragons weren't surprised to see me. Everyone knew that I was not really dead and that I served the Lich King because Rhonin had spread the news after I had spared him.
The dragons focused on me, having selected me as their priority target, knowing they couldn't stop the catapults from destroying the barrier. Fortunately, Avigosa was a very fast dragon and avoided most of the dragons' fiery breaths, fireballs and other fiery missiles. She got hit twice but these fire techniques weren't strong enough to seriously harm her.
Avigosa froze the head of a dragon and bit through the neck of another while I hit the belly of the third one with dozens of super sharp ice-spikes. The dragon howled out in pain but didn't flee. He continued to attack us until a sharp harpoon hit one of his wings, forcing him to land on the ground where he was attacked and quickly taken out by five death knights and hundreds of ghouls.
I noticed that humans, night elves and even orcs rushed, in large numbers, out of the temple and ran towards our troops which were guarding the siege engines. They met our death knights and ghouls at the halfway and fought against them. I told Avigosa to get closer to the foot soldiers. She obeyed me and brought me close enough to the fight at the ground that I was able to send hails of ice-splinters at the mortal reinforcements, killing a few of them immediately. A smile appeared on my lips when I noticed that the mortals recognized me and pointed at me. Their archers and spellcasters changed their targets immediately and fired at me and Avigosa.
My wyrm had no problem dodging the attacks of the living. Unfortunately, Avigosa was so busy with dodging the numerous missiles that she saw the incoming fireball too late. A load painful roar slipped out of her jaw when the fireball hit her in the chest. I turned towards the attacker, recognizing immediately who it was. It was no other than Korialstrasz. He spat another fireball out, hitting Avigosa again then he flew to her and rammed her with all of his weight, causing that she lost her balance and fell to the ground.
Not even the ice which froze my feet to her skullcap prevented that I fell off her when she crashed onto the ground. I tried to stand up and flinched when I noticed that my left leg was broken. I performed a quick necromancy spell, healing my leg.
I stood up and walked to Avigosa as fast as possible. She was not defeated but a lot of her bones were shattered, meaning that she wouldn't be able to move or fly without the help of a necromancer. I had never treated an injured skeletal dragon so I didn't know if my spells would be enough to help her. I recognized that she was suffering. She may not feel real pain but the unpleasant feeling produced by the wounds was enough to make her suffer. I hated to see her like this but I wasn't able to do anything for her, at least not alone.
Fortunately, a small group of necromancers noticed us. They went away from the battlefield and rushed to us. I looked in the sky and noticed that Korialstrasz was busy fighting against three frost wyrm at the same time, meaning that he had no time to finish Avigosa. Korialstrasz managed to shatter the skull of a smaller frost wyrm with his jaw before he was forced to flew back to the temple because more frost wyrms had started to attack him from afar.
Together with the necromancers, I managed to fix Avigosa's broken bones so that she was able to stand up and fly again. I climbed back on her skull, this time using thicker layers of ice to freeze my feet on her. She rose in the air and fly towards the barrier which was about to dissolve. She spat large blue flames out, destroying the fragile barrier. The corner of my lips formed a small smile when I noticed the shocked faces of the mages who were standing on top of the temple and did their best to hold back the incoming swarm of undead dragons.
Unfortunately for us, they got more reinforcements, this time, not by the mortal humanoid creatures. Hundreds of Dragons from the Green and Bronze Dragonflights came out of nowhere and attacked the swarm of frost wyrms. The frost wyrms didn't hesitate and fought back, meaning that no one was attacking the temple. I spotted the mighty green dragon Ysera, the green Aspect and Lady of Dreams. Next to her flew the bronze dragon Nozdormu, also known as the Aspect of Time.
I knew that this wasn't looking good. The Lich King had promised me that Kel'Thuzad would be able to keep the Green and Bronze Dragonflights busy for a while. His failure meant that we had a huge problem. We would have been able to win against one Dragon Aspect and her dragonflight but three Aspects and three dragonflights were too much for the army the Lich King had given us.
I ordered a death knight, on top of a frost wyrm, to fly back and come back with reinforcements. He nodded and commanded his dragon to move but before the dragon was able to get away, he was hit by a very large fireball. The fireball consumed the wyrm and its rider, leaving nothing but ashes behind.
I looked around and searched for the one who had created such a powerful fireball. I found out that it was no other than the Dragon Queen Alexstrasza who had turned the two to ashes. I noticed that she was glaring at me with furious eyes. She seemed to be very angry that we were attacking her temple and were killing a lot of her children.
I was wondering why she hadn't shown up earlier. Maybe she had thought that she could not win this battle alone and had waited for reinforcements from the other aspects. Maybe she had travelled to the other dragon temples and had personally asked for assistance. I didn't know what she had done, I only knew that our current situation was not looking good for us.
I didn't really care if we would win this battle. My only mission was to save Vissia. Maybe, I could enter the temple and look for her while the frost wyrms keep the Dragon Aspects busy. This would be risky but I saw no other way to free Vissia.
The only question I was asking myself was: Where am I supposed to start looking for her?
The temple was so tall and had so many levels that it would take a while to look through every level, not to mention that each level would be guarded by humanoid dragons and allies of the dragons.
I was only sure that she was in this temple because Arthas had smuggled one of his best rogues in the temple. The rogue had contacted Arthas through a magical sphere and had confirmed that Vissia was held in the temple. Unfortunately, he hadn't told us in which level she was because he had been detected and killed before he could have finished his explanations.
I commanded Avigosa to fly in circles and dodge the attacks of the dragons as best as she could, as long as I tried to figure out what to do. She obeyed me and sent several frozen fireballs at the incoming dragons while I continued to think. I would like to save Vissia but the risk was too high. There was no guarantee that I would come close to the temple, not when so many dragons were flying in front of it. I had to get back to the base and ask for reinforcements. Without help, we won't be able to achieve a victory over the dragons.
I still couldn't believe that Kel'Thuzad had failed his mission. I didn't know how he had planned to distract the other dragonflights. I only knew that his plan had failed and we had to deal with the consequences of his failure. I was wondering if he was defeated or if the dragons hadn't been able to kill him. He would come back no matter what because nobody else knew the location of his phylactery
I didn't care what had happened to him, I had other problems at the moment. The dragons were outnumbering us, killing our frost wyrms one by one and burning their skeletal bodies. The death knights and ghouls were burned by dragons, the siege engines were getting destroyed and dragons flew to our bases, wanting to leave it in burning ruins.
I commanded the frost wyrms and other winged creatures to retreat. They obeyed me immediately and fled back to our base. A lot of the remaining flying creatures managed to reach the base, the others were taken down on the way. Avigosa landed on the ground in front of the base. She was heavily injured, one of her boned wings had caught fire, a lot of her bones were shattered because the largest members of the Red Dragonflight had rammed her over and over again during the flight. Still, she had managed to shake them off and bring me to the base safely.
I didn't hesitate and ran towards the still opened portal. I almost reached the portal as it suddenly closed right in front of me. I turned around, wanting to find out who had closed it. I spotted Rhonin who was sitting on top of Korialstrasz's head. He was giving me an angry look. He seemed to not have forgiven me for what I have done to Dalaran and its citizens. He was still furious with me, even after months. I had expected that he would show up in this battle. After I had driven him out of his city, he and his family had found refuge in the temple of the Red Dragonflight. The Dragon Queen had allowed him to live with them because he was the student and friend of Korialstrasz.
Korialstrasz changed his appearance to his humanoid form as soon as Rhonin had gotten off his head. The mighty dragon took the shape of a very tall, blond blood elf. I was wondering why Korialstrasz had changed his form, maybe he and Rhonin didn't want to kill me. Maybe they only wanted to capture me. Korialstrasz was weaker in his humanoid form, meaning the chance of accidentally killing me would be lower.
"Give up Jaina and we will guarantee that we will spare you and find a way to free you from the Lich King's grip" Rhonin shouted and lifted his wand, starting to perform a spell.
"You don't need to fight us, Jaina. It is over" Korialstrasz, who was known as Krasus in this form, shouted.
"I will never give up!" I shouted and sent an ice blast after them. Rhonin created a small fireball which collided with the ice blast and melted it. Krasus hit me with an arcane shot which was so strong that I was pushed to the ground. I got hit again after I had finally managed to get up which had taken a lot longer for me than usual. This time an arcane and a frost technique hit me.
This time, I managed to stay on my feet.
I countered Rhonin's next spell and avoided Krasus' arcane missiles by changing my location through instant teleportation. I appeared behind them and created a hail of sharp ice-splinters which rained down onto them. Krasus created a flying ice wall which protected them from my missiles while Rhonin sent several arcane abilities at me.
Together, they hit me over and over again with techniques without getting hit by many of my spells. They managed to force me to freeze myself in an ice block which protected me from their spells. I could do nothing except watch them preparing more spells which they would send at me as soon as the ice block expires. A powerful arcane shot hit me in the chest, causing that I staggered backwards. I felt the same unpleasant feeling, I usually felt when I was seriously hurt.
I knew that I couldn't win this fight. Together, they were too powerful for me. I decided to try to buy some time by running away. My plan was to try to hide from them so that I could disappear through a portal. Unfortunately, my plan failed when I stumbled over a small rock and fell, my head hit the hard and icy ground. My vision blurred, darkness overwhelmed me and I passed out after a few seconds.
