Demons, Spiders and Dragons, Oh My!
Back at the camp, half an hour after Uther and Onyxia's departure. The others are seated by the camp fire playing cards, Anub'arak watches.
"Ha, I win again!" Muradin cheer as he beats the other's hands with a full house.
"Enough games!" Anub'arak roars, making everyone jump to their feet, "the longer we linger, the stronger the demons grow."
"The spider is right," Arthas said quickly, clearly bored by Muradin's luck with the cards. "We move now!" Arthas began to move west, the others watched him sceptically.
"You want to charge against insurmountable odds without a plan?" Thrall laughed, Jaina spotted Arthas' fists clench tight.
"We have a plan, we charge the front, the Nerubians collapse the cannons from below, and the dragons burn the portal into oblivion, but we need to move." Arthas spoke quickly, the adrenaline beginning to surge, "not to mention the distance between us and them, plenty of time to talk about specifics."
"We will mobilize and do as the boy says," Anub'arak rattled before disappearing down the tunnel it had arrived through. The others sighed and followed Arthas out of the camp; they left the crew with suitable defences in place to aid protect the ship against any attacks.
"So, what exactly will the Legion do if they return?" Jaina asked the priestess, the others showing interest in the hypothetical question.
"I'd rather not think about it" Tyrande said shakily.
"But say they did, where would they strike first? What would be their goals?" Muradin asked quickly, forcing an answer from the priestess, who sighed before giving an answer.
"They would first target my people, and aim to destroy Nordrassil, the World Tree at Hyjal, cutting off our immortality." Tyrande said slowly. "From there they would seek to eradicate my people to settle our ancient feud before seeking the other races that defied them in the past."
"So the humans, high elves, dwarves and orcs basically" Jaina said summarising the point, Tyrande nodded.
"They would show no mercy to your people for your defiance in the past, and this would be carried to the other races, till Azeroth is lifeless to all except the Legion, and they would move on to ravage more worlds, never ending." Tyrande took a deep breath before composing herself. "But we will stop them here and prevent their return." There were muttered agreements from the others, and the walk continued in silence until they were in sight of the demon base, across a small bridged river and a large snowy plain.
"There's the base, now we discuss a plan!" Muradin barked, grabbing Arthas' cape to stop him from walking ahead, this made the prince snarl in frustration, and they stopped on the river's edge.
"Arthas!" Jaina yelled at the prince for his primal reaction, who withered at her ferocity.
"From what I have learnt about you all, I have a plan of attack," Thrall said, as the others gathered around him. "Arthas, Muradin and myself will be the front line, Jaina, Tyrande, Hamuul and Sylvanas will be the second line, providing cover and support, the spiders and the dragons, if they show can handle themselves, sound good?" Arthas nodded and made to move, but was grabbed by Jaina.
"We go together or not at all Arthas!" she scalded him, but this time he did not wither this time, instead fronted her.
"You dare command your prince?" he said trying to scare her, but she didn't fall before his threat.
"You're no longer prince, until you regain your honour in Terenas' eyes," Jaina said quickly, cutting his threat to pieces, and Thrall added to her defence.
"And charging blindly at the demons will not redeem you, regardless of outcome. Honour is earned through bravery, sacrifice and hard work, not fool hardy actions of so-called heroism." Thrall said moving to Jaina's side. Their dispute was interrupted by a roar from above; they looked up to see Onyxia and numerous dragons swooping down to them, she landed and transformed, as did the others dragons, their forms varied between elf and human, but their aspect was represented by their hair and eye colour, Onyxia stepped forward to join them.
"Did I miss anything?" She said playfully.
"What took you?" Arthas said, shifting his anger from Jaina to Onyxia, but the dragon was not scared by the upstart boy.
"Had a little trouble with my previous allegiance, but I arrived in time." Onyxia said proudly, ignoring the former prince's attempts to put her in her place.
"Where is Uther?" Jaina asked, noting the Paladin's absence.
"He stayed behind; there was another matter that requires his personal attention." Onyxia said, her eyes meeting Jaina's, who understood immediately.
"What?" Sylvanas blurted, "What matter?" Onyxia looked around nervously.
"The dragon queen said she'd show him the Lich's gateway, the basis of his power." Sylvanas' eyes glinted, a flash of predatory opportunity dawning in her mind.
"Onyxia my dear" she said slowly, "please take me to him, I think I should be with him, if he's going to end it himself, we're bound by that monster, and I'd like to be there." Onyxia hesitated before nodding.
"What about us?" Jaina asked as Sylvanas lead Onyxia away from the others.
"You've got the dragons to help, and the Nerubians, that should be enough with the six of you, you'll be fine." Sylvanas said dismissively as Onyxia transformed, Sylvanas leapt on her back as Onyxia took off to the north east.
"You lot follow us, provide aerial support and focus fire on the portal at the heart of their base!" Muradin yelled at the disguised dragons, pointing at the camp ahead of them, the lead tilted his head before nodding and transforming and flying straight up into the air, followed by the others, till they were above the clouds and out of sight.
"Now let's move!" Arthas ordered, unsheathing his mace and jogging across the bridge, Muradin and Thrall followed close behind, with the Jaina, Hamuul and Tyrande bringing up the rear. As they came within range of the cannons again, they saw the demons moving to arm them.
"Anytime mow would be good" Arthas yelled as he saw the cannons preparing to fire, but the shots missed at the last second, the ground collapsing beneath them, the cannon balls flying safely above their heads, and they increased their pace, as a small trench opened along the line where the cannons had been. The demons readied a second line as Arthas, Thrall leapt across the trench and engaged them, Hamuul and Tyrande following close behind and covering their flanks, Muradin skidded to a halt on the trench lip, Jaina stopped behind him.
"Something wrong?" Jaina said innocently, but she knew what was bothering him.
"I don't think I could jump this?" he said deflated as he watched the others in the heat of battle.
"Need a hand?" Jaina said quickly, Muradin wheeled on her.
"Nobody tosses a dwarf!" he almost bellowed at her.
"I wasn't suggesting it" Jaina said coyly, "I don't think I could lift you" she joked and he chuckled, "just jump and I'll give you a little push."
"Alright lassie." He said nervously, he walked back the way he had come to give it a run up, before charging at the trench and jumping at the last second, he felt a strong gust of energy push him the rest of the way as he began to fall and he landed on his feet and charged into the fray. Jaina smiled warmly and sent a fireball straight up before floating effortlessly across the trench and joining the others as Nerubians crawled out of the trench on either side of them and engaged the demonic army.
"They just keep coming!" Thrall grunted as he saw more and more demons pouring out of the portal, straight into the fight with them.
"Why are you complaining?" Muradin chuckled as he sliced through two demons with one blow. "Getting tired?" Thrall laughed, but their dilemma was solved seconds later as the dragons dived from the clouds and jets of fire struck the portal's power crystal, it exploded with the heat and the fire burned into the portal, destroying it completely, leaving a charred metal ruin. The dragons soared over their heads and back above the clouds.
"Press forward, they're trapped now!" Tyrande yelled, the others obeyed and quickly emptied the camp of all demons.
"We did it!" Arthas said proudly as he surveyed the slaughtered camp. "We can return to base job com…" he was interrupted by a small burst of fire behind him, he wheeled around to see another dreadlord standing before them.
"Not yet young one!" it said proudly.
"What do you mean, your camp is in ruins, and your reinforcements are trapped in the hell you come from." Muradin said pointing at the innumerable dead demons covering the ground and the smoking portal.
"But your precious 'Lightbringer' is trapped and outnumbered, he and his elf will die, and we will return to see this world burn!" it said grinning at their panicked faces.
"Who are you and how are you so sure they have lost?" Jaina yelled at the demon.
"Oh my, I've forgotten my manners; I am Varimathras, brother to Balnazzar and Detheroc, lieutenant to the great Archimonde." It said bowing, "and I know they are doomed because they face another force, much larger than this, and they do not have the reinforcements you do, goodbye." Varimathras vanished in a cloud of flame, leaving them alone as Anub'arak surfaced momentarily.
"We heard, we will aid him." It said before disappearing again as the dragons swooped down, the lead landing and transforming.
"Are we finished here?" it asked in a rather indignant tone.
"Not quite." Tyrande said softly stepping forward, the elven dragon tilted his head confused.
"Do you know where the queen has taken our companion?" Hamuul asked, there was a brief hesitation before the dragonkin nodded.
"We would like you to take us there; he's in trouble, demon trouble." Jaina said, another pause before the dragon transformed and roared upward, five other dragons soared down from the circling group and landed, they each mounted a dragon and held off as they took off, flying directly north.
"Let us hope we are not too late to help!" Arthas yelled as they rose through the clouds.
-AN-
I apologise for the 'Nobody tosses a dwarf' line from LotR, it was too good an opportunity to miss.