Disclaimer: There's no place for two in this world. Only one. Only one can survive. Survive what? I don't know. I also don't own Naruto or World of Warcraft.
Here's the next installment of The Legend of Uzumaki Naruto!
"My lord."
"What Is It?"
"They are all ready—your generals have been massed, the Flight has been roused, and they are all awaiting your command. We can attack at any time, and surely destroy those who face us b-below."
A pair of eyes like heated iron enveloped the man in red, noticing how he shook slightly, trembling like a child.
"You Are Afraid?"
"No my lord, not of battle."
"Of Me?"
"Yes, my lord."
There was a great, rumbling laugh. "So Honest, My Enemy. That Is Why I Keep You Closest."
"Thank you, my lord."
"Do You Want To Kill Me?"
"Y-Yes, m-my lord."
"But It Hurts?"
"So much, my lord."
A Cheshire grin.
"Good."
Victor Nefarius turned, his cloak billowing like smoke behind him, and walked to the end of the balcony he stood upon, which may have once been a throne room, and now was only a floor jutting out from beneath a cave in the mountain. It was the very highest point, fitting for the one who ruled such a heaven as him. Behind him, he could hear it all—the sound of his children bellowing and roaring for blood, the light beating of their wings, the gnashing of their teeth, their feet and claws upon the cold floor ringing like steel on stone—and he smiled ever wider. He turned his eyes downwards then, upon the earth and beyond, where nothing escaped him, not a single futile movement by the Elemental's army he did not see, did not hear; it was like watching an ant at toil, where it took but a single gesture to destroy everything it had ever known, to undo it's entire meaning in life.
"Are You Ready?" he said aloud. "Fool?"
He stood, and waited, for the answer to come.
The trail of golems did not seem to end. They continued on, lumbering in a great herd down the giant tunnel. Shikamaru and the others had moved farther from the marching behemoths, down a passage going in a similar direction, which according to Neji would eventually cross the giants' path. He couldn't see their destination, however—it was somewhere within the blocked off area, where his Byakugan couldn't reach.
He kept an eye on them every waking second as they descended into the core, and at the same time concentrated around him, too, on everything else. He sought smaller passageways leading up, or holes of some sort, anything that could help them get up and out of this place. But he saw nothing of the sort, save for small cracks that only went up a couple hundred feet or so.
They saw nothing else, however, and soon it became clear that wherever the giants were going, everything else was already there.
"Could there be a seal there?" Tenten whispered to the vexed boy, as the group moved around another corner, heading slightly towards the trail of giants—which was gradually growing smaller and smaller as they disappeared into the black void.
Neji's eyes moved to look at her, as in the past she had often complained that it was rather rude of him not to focus the majority of his three hundred and sixty degree vision on her when they talked.
"Maybe," he said. "But it must be a very powerful one to block my vision—and I can't even see how it works, which is unusual."
In the back, Shikamaru kept one eye trained on what was happening before him, and one eye on the small dwarf at his side. Thauraan had not spoken since the discovery of the giants, and Shikamaru had been trying his best to work out what they were going to do next, as well as trying to work out what was wrong with this child. He kept wondering how Naruto did it—how the boy knew people, inside and out, just by looking at them. Was he just a faster thinker than Shikamaru, or were their problems just more readily apparent to him? Did Naruto even think about what he said, or did he just act on what he felt? Shikamaru couldn't see how it could be the latter, but the former didn't suit Naruto at all.
He glanced at the boy. His guts told him very different from what his mind said.
They finally reached the edge of the darkness that Neji couldn't see through—to everyone else it appeared to be nothing more than another wall. Tunnels went in either direction from where they reached it, and Neji said they curved around slightly, at the very edge of his vision—it was a circle, he guessed.
"Where are the giants entering, Neji?" Gai asked, staring down the immense gaping mouth of the tunnel, where the distant rumbling footsteps could be heard.
"About half a mile from here," said Neji.
"How?"
"A large hole. I can't see through it, however."
Gai nodded. "Lee, come with me. We'll go on a scouting mission. We'll find out what's going on. Everyone else, stay here and out of sight."
Everyone nodded. When Gai passed Shikamaru he turned and looked into the boy's eyes, and then flicked them down to Thauraan; Shikamaru briefly nodded back, trying to restrain any visible signs of frustration. He was not looking forward to the talk, no matter how necessary it was.
But Gai smiled at his nod, and then dashed with Lee down the hallway, disappearing quickly into the noxious blackness.
Everyone returned to the smaller passage, taking seats near the wall, barely secluded by a pair of large stalagmites. Thauraan sat away from everyone else, withdrawing into his small ball, wracked by a few coughs as he did. Everyone else was coughing too, and everyone was finding it hard to breath.
"I don't think I'll be able to move after this," Ino wheezed, glancing sideways at Chouji. She was sweating and her eyes were half-closed in fatigue. Her breath was ragged. Chouji was no better. He merely nodded, slinking back and trying to slow his breathing, while he clutched his wounded stomach.
"You two okay?" Shikamaru asked briefly.
"Stupid question," said Ino.
Shikamaru barely smiled. "True enough." He turned and looked at Thauraan. The dwarf did not move, or meet his eyes, so he crept closer.
"I want to ask you something," Shikamaru said, in a bare whisper. He drew nobody's attention—whether because they recognized his discreetness or were simply too tired, he didn't know.
The boy glanced up, meeting his eyes squarely. "What?"
"Why don't you care?"
"About what?" said Thauraan.
"Your parents, of course."
Thauraan didn't answer.
"They're dead." Shikamaru said.
"I know!" the dwarfling snapped back.
"Don't you care?"
"Why should I?"
"They're your parents?"
"How so? Do you even know what kind of parents they were?"
"Not really," said Shikamaru. He leaned back against the stalagmite, which seemed oddly cool now, maybe because he had already gotten so used to the heat. "So tell me."
"Why should I?"
"What else are you going to do?"
Thauraan opened his mouth as if to speak, but did not, and closed it a moment later. He shrugged. Shikamaru nodded, and waited for the dwarfling to speak.
"My mother was his tool," he finally said. "My father's, that is. She wasn't really in control of herself. She did everything he wanted her to do, and didn't question it. He enjoyed it, though I don't know why, probably because it was the only thing he had control of. The Firelord did everything, and he lived in fear always."
Shikamaru watched the boy. There was still nothing in his face. His words were adult-like and his sentences perfectly formed; there was no child in that little body.
"Did you hate him?"
Thauraan didn't answer. Shikamaru nodded briefly, and then asked, "Did you hate her?"
Again Thauraan didn't answer, but this time Shikamaru didn't say anything after, letting the silence be filled with the distant rumbling and groaning of the earth around them, and the hissing of fire and hot gas from cracks in the walls, and the ever-present rainfall of molten rock dripping from the ceiling. Shikamaru stared in front of him, his mind in no particular place, as he waited for the boy to answer. It was a few moments before he did, speaking in a soft, slightly cracked voice, like a few pebbles tumbling from a rocky cliff.
"Y-yes."
Shikamaru turned to him. He had noticed the stutter, though it was slight. Thauraan then continued.
"I hated her because she wasn't my mother at all. I didn't know if she took care of me, or did anything without my father's command. She couldn't. What kind of mother is that? She was the only one I knew, but I read a lot, and I know mothers aren't supposed to be like her, that people aren't supposed to be like her, or him, or anyone down here. People aren't supposed to follow what others tell them. They're supposed to think for themselves. Right?"
Shikamaru was very quiet, but he gave a little nod to show that he was still listening, and urging the boy to go one. But Thauraan didn't, and once again they lapsed into silence, but this time Thauraan was staring at Shikamaru the whole time. Shikamaru knew he wanted an answer, one that he most likely already knew, but it always helped to have someone confirm it. But he couldn't confirm it, because it wouldn't be right to say something that didn't apply to him.
Shikamaru supposed he had free will, more so than Moira, more so than most of the Dark Iron dwarves, but he wasn't sure. It didn't make sense, because what exactly was he, then? He was a shinobi.
He was a tool.
So how could he possibly have the freedom that Thauraan wanted?
Gai and Lee were both hidden behind a tall rock at the edge of the tunnel, a rock that was large enough to have still hidden them if two shadow clones of Gai had stood on Lee's shoulders on the tips of their toes, but was still puny in comparison to the rock-covered, lava-oozing giants that were not ten yards before them. They were funneling into a cavern that Neji would not be able to see, which was large enough to accommodate only two of them at a time, but which was still big enough to fit roughly three dozen men standing side by side, each at arm's length apart from each other. The giants were so broad that neither of them could see much of the chamber beyond. But the way the giants spread out near the end, moving in opposite directions; and the sounds coming from it—all the natural sounds of the deep earth, roaring as one, echoing so loudly that Gai could not even hear the giants' steps, suggested to him that it was huge chamber, and probably the last one.
For a moment, Gai could not help but admire the truly futile aspects of their situation. They were hot, on the last few drops of water, and the smoke and gas were blackening their lungs and burning their eyes, and would soon make them unfit to fight, and then even move. Their lives hinged on what lay behind the impenetrable black wall, and from what he could see it was no exit. The giants were not massing to leave this place, he decided.
They were massing to battle.
He could think of no other reason—it was time for the battle to begin, the battle against what all of the Dark Iron dwarves seemed to fear—the "black things". It was likely going to be a battle that would tear the world around them apart—wars always did that, but this was different. It was a battle led by a monster older than time, and likely an opponent—the leader of these "black things"—that was no different. It would not be a battle, then, that any human could survive, and one that they had found themselves caught up in at the worst possible time.
Gai loved life.
For all its inequality, he loved life so much that he couldn't bear to think of what came next. It was why he liked to think himself still as young as he used to be, because he knew that old age brought one closer to death, and he didn't like to think of that (though, he sometimes had to admit that he was no longer in his prime). Death was a stranger to him, and always would be, because Maito Gai loved life to the point where he could not even look past it to what lay beyond.
Sometimes, though, Gai saw beyond it regardless.
Sometimes, it was hard not to. He had been in many situations that had seemed like he would not survive. He'd been one of the few shinobi to fight the Kyuubi head-on and survive, which few could claim—not even the Yondaime Hokage had. Before that he'd survived the war against the Hidden Stone by the skin on his nose, even when all of his teammates and his mentor had met their ends honorably in service to their village. Life hadn't treated him fair. It rarely treated anyone fair, and though Gai knew he had to accept that, it was hard not to scowl at it sometimes; especially when some had not even begun to experience it.
That was why he did it.
That was why, even though he knew they all stared Death in its chilling, bony face, he would make sure they survived.
It was not his own instincts for self preservation, which had served him too well in the past, but his desire to make sure that not a single one of the next generation—his students and their friends—died in this place, facing an enemy that no human should be forced to face.
"Ah!" said Gai suddenly, "Something is happening."
Lee stuck his head out slightly farther from behind the stalagmite. "What is it?"
The tail of the giants' marching line had finally arrived—and the final one was the largest of them all. It stretched so huge and wide that its head scraped against the ceiling, and its arms brushed the sides of the tunnel with each step it took. The ground shook and both Gai and Lee needed to use chakra to make sure they didn't fall over from the tremor each movement made. The entrance into the battlegrounds seemed to widen at its approach, so that even though the other giants had just barely made it through, this final one did as well.
In its wake trailed a group of creatures neither golem nor dwarf, nor anything they had seen before. They were small, only as tall as a man, and resembled them to the waist, where instead of feet there was only as single, snake-like tail. They slithered on sinuous yellow-orange scales and kept so close to each other that the long, rod-like spikes protruding from their shoulders, backs and heads sometimes clacked together, drawing hisses from creatures involved. The biggest of them was in the middle, and though it appeared no different from the rest save for its size, Gai could see it commanded the most authority, from the wide berth the others gave it.
Gai frowned as the creatures slowed to a stop before the cavern. The smaller creatures moved aside, allowing the bigger one to move to the mouth of the entrance and raise one of its large, scaly claws—where it clutched something—and begin to speak in a guttural, deep growl, far from the hiss Gai had been expecting.
The cavern began to collapse.
It did not fall apart, but seemed to simply fold in on itself, growing rapidly smaller in a medley of rocky crashes. The creatures were still, even as Gai leapt to his feet, and hurtled himself towards them with a speed the ancient depths had never seen.
As soon as the rumbling started, Shikamaru and the others became alert. It lasted only a minute or so, but the echoing continued for a while after, though blended throughout were sounds that did not match the falling rocks or the hissing of released gas, but that were too indistinct to identify.
"We should probably check on Gai," said Asuma. "It sounds like it came from his direction."
Neji stood. His eyes grew wide and white with the Byakugan, and then wider, as his vision fell on the scene before him.
"Move!" he shouted.
They ran, hurtling down the passage without regards to caution. Thauraan did not run, but waddled, and Shikamaru stood by him, even though he wanted furiously to join the others. He didn't know what was happening, but Neji wouldn't say something so urgent without reason. He shouldn't have to be here, taking care of this bratty little kid, while his comrades were in danger!
"Let's go!" he snapped to Thauraan.
The dwarfling stopped a moment to glare at him. He seemed to be about to speak, but Shikamaru decided not to let him, and instead picked the child up and picked up his pace; he flew down the tunnel as fast as he could, carrying the dwarfling over his shoulder as if he were a sack of rocks. He caught sight of his companions ahead of him, and triumphant, put on a burst of speed even as he realized that they had stopped. He slowed, and stopped, panting, with all the rest, staring at the scene before them.
Gai and Lee stood in the midst of a mound of creatures nobody had seen before. Both were hardly worse for wear than when they had left—save for a few more burns— and both had bright, shining grins on their rounded faces, which against all odds continued to sparkle with an unknown sheen (at least Gai's did—Lee's still had a ways to go in comparison, it seemed).
"Yosh!" roared Gai. "THE FLAMES OF YOUTH STILL BURN WITHIN ME! CAN YOU NOT SEE IT, LEE?"
"I CAN, GAI-SENSEI, I CAN!" Lee roared, pumping a fist into the air.
"What happened?" Asuma said, stepping forwards. "Were you attacked?"
Gai leveled a cocky stare at him, and flashed an even wider glittering smile. "No! 'Twas us who did the attacking, was it not, Lee?"
Though now that the battle had ended, and the feeling of exhilaration had begun to fade, Lee seemed no less sure of his answer, and gave a confident, enthusiastic nod.
Shikamaru dropped Thauraan, and advanced. "Why?"
"No need to raise your voice, Shikamaru-kun," said Gai, with a smile. "It was not without reason."
"You had no idea of the consequences!" said Shikamaru. "Do you even know what these things are?"
Gai stuck out a thumb, up-turned, exchanging a quick glance with Lee. "Of course not!"
Undrig had knelt down by one of the creatures, and was staring at its grotesquely distorted features, mangled even more by a blow from either Gai or Lee. "I think," he said, "I seen one o' these in a book once. They're flamewakers. Nevah seen one tho' in real life, they usually stick ta' the Elemental Plane."
"You could have—" Shikamaru began, but Gai cut him off, not with words, but with a sudden gravity in his look.
"Shikamaru-kun," he said. "I acted as was necessary for the situation. There are times when we must think, but there are also times when thinking becomes pointless in comparison to action. Had I gotten in over my head, I would have retreated, but I had the element of surprise, and, of course, the power of youth!"
"Yes, but…" Shikamaru said.
"But nothing!" said Gai. "Unless I am mistaken, we have all had enough of this place, and to stay here any longer would bring nothing but death. In situations like these, Shikamaru-kun, it is sometimes better to let our natural instinct to survive take hold. There is nothing futile in our actions in a place like this when any moment death could fall upon us—and I don't intend to die down here, nor do I intend to let anyone else die down here. You are the future of our kind, Shikamaru-kun, and to let people like you perish would be pointless! All of you…" he gesture around him, to all his students and their friends, "are the future of Konoha, of the world, even, and I for one cannot let such important people die here. My prime, Asuma's prime, have past…"
"Oi, oi," said Asuma. "I'm still young."
"…and our time has long since passed that we could change the world with our actions and our beliefs. But yours is just arriving, and it has never been so important as now! To die here would be pointless, and detrimental to the future! You are already changing things with your beliefs, your actions—did you not decide to come here yourself, of your own free will, to help this boy?"
Shikamaru was quiet.
"You are changing the world," said Gai, grinning. "And the world always needs changing. In my time, such free will with shinobi was considered to be against the law—it is exactly what separated us from the missing-nin. They had it, we did not…they were villains, and we were tools to destroy them. Yet the times are changing, and free will, no matter what, is deserved by all people, and all people have it, regardless of whether they choose to use it or not. Some have it taken from them, and we shouldn't blame them, but those that take—they are worse than the worst trash rotting in a landfill." His eyes shifted, very briefly, to Thauraan.
Thauraan had gone very white.
"Shikamaru-kun, I will not let anyone here die like this. Not when all of you have what is most needed for the future, even if it means that I myself must sacrifice my life. The world, especially now, needs people like you, like all of you." He turned around, and looked at everyone, meeting all their eyes—even Undrig's—and smiling with a mixture of pride and triumph.
Shikamaru noticed Thauraan's face most of all among his comrades—whose faces were filled with both wonder and—he guessed his was too—relief; because that's what he felt most of all. But the dwarfling's face was closed again, but only as much as a window could veil light from a room. It made Shikamaru wonder if this was what Naruto always saw in people. Did he always see it so easily, or was it even easier than this? It was so clear now, that he didn't know how he could have ever missed it.
For all his annoying mannerisms, Shikamaru suddenly had a new respect for Gai. He didn't know if Gai had intentionally said what he'd said, especially when it echoed the very conversation that Shikamaru had had with Thauraan.
Gai, having finished his speech, was now inspecting the wall opposite them, keeping his face carefully hidden, not wanting his blush to be seen. Though everyone saw this, he seemed to have other intentions that just hiding his embarrassment.
"Gai-sensei," Shikamaru said. "What are you doing?"
"The larger one of those things," Gai said, waving at the heap of flamewakers, "had this, and used it, I think, to seal the entrance into the next passage. I am not sure how it works, however." He turned, and then strode over to Undrig. "Perhaps you can make something of it?"
"Give it here, then," said Undrig, taking the object from Gai's hand—it was a circular pendant, made entirely of a black stone, and depicting a complicated symbol on the front. The dwarf turned it over a few times in his hands, frowning at it. "Runes," he said. "Definitely runes, so I think I can figger out a way to release 'em, and break the seal. Course, when we do, we're gonna get noticed pretty quickly inside, if that's where everyone is going.
"It is," said Gai. "They are massing an army. I believe that the battle is about to begin."
Thauraan suddenly looked up, the placidity of his face shattered in an instant. "No!" he said. "Not now!"
"It'll be easier for us," said Shikamaru, "in the long run. If they start the battle, then it'll be easier for us to escape."
"It'll be too dangerous!" said Thauraan. "When the 'black things' come, we won't have anywhere to go! If we go in there we're going to die for sure!"
"As will we here," said Shikamaru. "We don't have a choice."
"But…!"
"Hey," said Shikamaru, bending down, staring straight into Thauraan's eyes. "Regardless of what you're parents did you, regardless of what has happened in this past, I cannot believe that you want to die here, and if you don't want to die, then there is only one thing you can do."
Thauraan stared blankly in his eyes.
Shikamaru took a deep breath.
"You can try your hardest to live, especially when you're needed so much."
Thauraan shrank away at the words, but it was less from fear, as his face showed confusion more than anything. He didn't understand, but Shikamaru knew he would eventually. He was a genius, or at least appeared to be.
Shikamaru's stare did not linger, and he cast it to the tunnel wall.
"When it opens," he said. "We're going to have almost no time to get in. We don't know what's in there, or what the chamber's layout is, or even if there is a way out in there, but we're going to have to try. I want everyone to stay together, to move as fast as we can, and to stick to the edge of the walls at all times. We have to be silent and fast, and nothing else, because that's all that we are at this point. This is not our battle, so I want no fighting to take place. Flee from every encounter, and find whatever means possible to hide. Use the stones if we get lost. Neji, I want you to keep an eye on everything. You're going to be our key for getting out."
"Of course," said Neji, with the barest of nods, and the slightest of smiles.
"Whatever these 'black things' are, whoever leads them, it doesn't matter. They may also be our key to getting out. If they can get in, they we can get out."
"Unless they can fly," said Chouji.
"If they can fly, all the better," said Shikamaru. "That's where you come in, Ino."
"I was wondering when you'd say that," said Ino. "Glad to be of service."
"How could they get in?" Lee asked, frowning.
"I don't know," said Shikamaru. "They might not—we might be meeting them. Either way, at some point, we're going to be outside, or they're going to enter from the outside, so there is sure way for us to get out.
"Everyone else, I want to form a group around Thauraan. Protect him with your lives, because he's the reason we're here, and there is no point in letting him die here. We're shinobi of Konoha, and we're good enough to get out of this place alive, in fact, we deserve it for getting this far."
"Ho!" said Gai, laughing. "You have quite a voice, Shikamaru-kun! You might be an even greater leader than Tsunade-sama!"
Shikamaru shrugged, flushing. "Just doing what needs to be done." For some reason, excitement began to course through his veins, and the fear began fade from his stomach, and even the air seemed clearer and easier to breathe in. He turned to everyone. "Is that alright?"
"Better than I could've done," said Asuma, grinning, and nodding along with everyone else. "Though you'll never beat me in shogi."
"Right then," said Shikamaru, ignoring the jab, and turning towards the wall. "Let's go."
"Hold on there," said Undrig.
"What?" said Shikamaru.
"I dinnae got this thing figgered out yet. Sorry ta' put a damper on yer speech an everythin'.
Shikamaru looked a little put out. "Oh. Right."
For some reason, Ino broke into a fit of giggles, followed by everyone else, and once more laughter rang throughout the fiery underworld, though it would be the last time in history.
"Done," said Undrig a little while later. "It ain't as 'ard as I thought it was. You just gotta say the names o' the runes and use some chakra. This thing'll do the rest. My guess is tha' those things were gonna seal everyone inside there, and tha's gonna be there battlefield. If tha's true, then it's gotta be big enough to fit all o' us in."
"Pretty much," said Shikamaru, who was growing nervous again, and was trying to stop himself from shuffling from foot to foot. He kept glancing down both ends of the tunnel, and then towards the wall.
"Calm down," said Ino. "We're going to need you to be clear-headed."
"I know," said Shikamaru, "but for all that I say, It'd be stupid to assume that we're all going to get out of here alive for sure, especially when we don't even know what's going on in there."
"Try not to think about it," said Asuma.
"Right," said Shikamaru.
"And it isn't so far-fetched as you think," said Neji, in his customary softness. "Impossible things occur all the time."
"Such as?"
"Gai-sensei told me he had a girlfriend once."
That was a sobering thought, and for a moment Shikamaru forgot his nervousness and wondered just how that had been possible.
Neji nodded in agreement. "I thought so too."
Shikamaru shook his head. "Fine then, is everyone ready? This is the only chance we're going to get. I want…" he swallowed. "I want everyone to get out of here. I want to live. We're all entitled to that, and this war that isn't even ours to fight isn't going to stop that."
Behind the wall, there was a violent trembling. Gas hissed more often from the crevasses, the trickles of magma became steady streams, and rocks began to fall around them as the tunnel shook like a wagon over rough terrain. It occurred to Shikamaru, however, that this had all been present before—the horrible smell, the noxious air, the tremors—but suddenly it was so unbearable that none of them could suffer it any longer. They moved into a formation, without words or fumbling, each taking a place where they knew they would be best. Neji and Gai stood in front, with Lee behind them, and Thauraan behind him. Shikamaru stood just behind the young dwarfling, flanked by Ino and Chouji, and Tenten and Asuma beside them, and Undrig in the rear.
"Fine then," said Shikamaru, looking around. "Stick together, and we'll get through this."
Everyone but Thauraan nodded. The dwarfling's emotionless face was slowly cracking again. Shikamaru laid a hand on his shoulder and bent down. Thauraan turned and looked at him. There were tears in his eyes.
"I don't want to die," he said, softly.
Shikamaru could not offer any words, because at the sight of the tears, they failed him. Instead, he offered the only thing he could manage at the time.
A smile.
Still gripping the dwarfling's shoulder, he stood up and stared straight forwards.
"Let's go."
Undrig raised the pendant, and shouted in his language of consonant sounds, bellowing throatily three times until a fiery symbol exploded into being on the wall. It lasted only for a moment, and then the wall began to open wide, and time seemed to speed up, and it seemed that all it took for the world to end was only a few seconds.
The black cloak billowed, and Nefarius thrust it aside as he raised his hands into the air, and crying in a voice that no longer seemed human, a voice that no other sound on earth could match, because it was something greater than that, higher and more mighty than any earthly being. He had heard the answer, heard his enemy's challenge, and now it was time.
"Earth, Open Up Your Great Maw, And Let He Who Is Worthy Enter, To Extinguish Your Fire!"
The earth answered, and with a thundering that shook the world, it split. The Burning Steppes burst apart in a tremendous cloud of stone and ash, hurtling a devouring black plume into the air, which then sunk inwards into the ground, into the cavernous mouth that was opening, and revealing to Victor Nefarius his goal and his enemy. He lowered his hands, and roared again.
"My Children! It Is WAR!"
The spire above exploded. Clouds of black with a deep, colorful shimmer embedded within spread out into the air, and the roar of the distant earth was drowned out by the horrible wail of the heavens, which spread out to engulf the scorched sky. It was like judgment had come. The cloud made of shimmering black scales and gleaming metallic claws then went down, thousands of eyes of all different shades staring with hatred at their enemy beneath the earth.
Nefarius watched his children take flight, watched their wings beat and their scales shine and their teeth gnash in fury as they descended, further and further into the earth, and then he took a step off the ledge, and dropped from the heavens, an angel without wings.
His small, puny, fleshy form changed, becoming larger, stronger, truer—he shed the skin as naturally as a snake would, and soon Lord Victor Nefarius did not exist.
And Nefarian, son of Deathwing, Lord of Blackrock Spire and Enemy of the Earth, suddenly did.
The world did not so much end as it did not even begin.
They caught merely a glance of the room they had entered—a vast, circular arena with a dome-shaped ceiling and a bowl-shaped floor, dipping all the way into a lake of fire in the middle at least a mile wide, all seen through the cracks of the giant golems that stood in their way, half turned as they heard the sound of their door opening—before everything seemed to disappear.
There was a roaring so loud that every bit of Shikamaru's confidence was blown away, and the carefully considered but desperately risky plan was shattered like a vase knocked by rowdy children. The ceiling descended, blown away into a shower of rocks and a veil of black dirt and ash that soon descended on the room like night. Their formation was broken, and soon the only person Shikamaru could see was Thauraan, whom he clutched tightly in his hands and was now running with. Ahead of him, he caught glimpses of Lee's green outfit, but soon even that vanished in the smoke and ash.
The battle had begun without any warning at all. He could not even hear it begin, through the roaring and crumbling of falling earth. Around him, all he could see giant feet of rock moving and stomping and kicking as he ducked and weaved between them, still clutching Thauraan. Above him, he could sense movement, and dark shapes would swoop in the dusty cloud, smashing into the towering golems, knocking them over or shattering their clumsily shaped heads, and causing them to crumble and fall into heaps of black rock, which gushed fiery blood. Fire bloomed above him, as well as flashes of light that resembled lightning. He heard bellows around him, from the golems, and hisses from their snake-like attendants, and roars above, from whatever they fought.
Thauraan was screaming, but hung limp in Shikamaru's hands, totally in his care. Shikamaru did not slack his grip on the young dwarf, holding him under his arm as he ran, desperately searching for his friends. He did not stop running however, not once, because if he did he knew he would die or be caught up in a battle that he didn't need to be in.
The ground shook and rocked and Shikamaru had to use chakra to keep himself from falling every second. Far stronger impacts than falling rocks shook the ground, and Shikamaru could hear them in the distance, or see them just out of the corner of his eye in explosions of rock, though he never stopped to see what they were.
He didn't know where he was going, either, but he knew that he couldn't stop.
Somewhere else in the haze of battle, Ino and Chouji ran alongside each other. Ino was shouting desperately into her communication stone, but she didn't know if anyone could hear her through it. They didn't even know what direction they were moving in!
Though she had never been one to accept defeat or give in to fear, Ino was quickly considering simply stopping, and letting it all end. They hadn't prepared for this, they couldn't, it was all going to end, it was—
Something smashed into the ground before them, halting their progress.
"Get back!" Chouji bellowed, grabbing her by the cloak and pulling her back, because he knew she wouldn't hear. "Ino!"
Ino did not hear him, but stopped anyways. The thing that had landed before them was not something she could have conjured in her darkest nightmares, because things like this had never scared her until now. It was huge, black, and vaguely humanoid, but the most frightening thing about it was that she could feel its power, like a wall in front of her, so even if Chouji hadn't grabbed her, she would have been able to go no further from the sheer horror of being near it. Even her scream was halted in her throat.
It had a reptilian head set on a humanoid torso, with thick, meaty arms and wings that stretched out in both directions as long as two men laid in a line. From its waist down were four legs as thick as logs with claws as large as kunai, and colored like bone nearly stripped of flesh, as well as a long tail studded with similar barbs that grew increasingly longer as they ran up its spine and to its head.
It rose, sinuous like a snake and dark as a shadow from the earth, pawing the ground and cocking its great head like a bird, taking in the scene before it.
Its eyes met Ino's first.
"Humans?" it rumbled. "In this battle? What is this?"
Ino twitched, stumbling back, terror in her eyes; Chouji remained steadfast, moving in front of Ino, with fire in his.
"Waste of time!" the dragon-beast roared. "You're a waste of time! I did not come here to kill humans!"
It advanced one step, fury in its eyes, and then stopped again. It licked its chops, greedily, and cocked its head again, as if listening to something other than the roar of battle. It then snapped its chaws, grinned, and spun around as a plume of fire burst into being at its left, growing huge and taking the vague shape of an upper torso. Its eyes were a bluish flame, and its grin bright red.
"My…first…opponent…!" it exploded.
The dragon beast now totally ignored Ino and Chouji. "Firelord spawn! I am Razorgore the Untamed!"
"Then…die…black…spawn!"
Ino was shaking, unable to stop, unable to move. White, blank fear had replaced everything she had ever known. She did not feel Chouji shaking her, telling her to go.
She just watched, as heaven and earth warred.
"Gai-sensei!" Lee shouted, not two feet from his mentor, whom he could hardly see in the blackness. "Where are we going?"
Gai didn't answer for a second, as he glared at the communication stone he held, damning it silently for not working properly. He growled. "Neji, do you see anyone?"
"No," shouted Neji. "I see everything else, however!" And he did. All around him, the most impossible of battles raged worse than a maelstrom. He could see creatures that only a week ago he had difficulty believing existed, let alone being in the quantities there were here. There were too many of them. He couldn't find anyone in the gloom, his mind too distracted by the vicious battle; Neji had seen people fight, but never like this. This was not a human war, but a war more primal, ancient, violent. It was like a natural disaster, a flood, a fire, or an earthquake of the greatest proportions. Had he not been in the dead center of it all, he probably would have thought it beautiful in a way, like staring down a gorge from the top of a high mountain—a sublime feeling. But at that moment, he wanted nothing more than to get away from it.
Neji rarely lost his nerve.
But he had never been so close to losing all sense of control, than right there, among thousands of dragons and golems, each fighting for the dominance of a place he never wanted to see again. His body shook a little, and it took him a few moments to rein the growing fear, which was quickly seeking to overcome him like a deadly pathogen.
He didn't know how long he'd be able to restrain it.
Until, something caught his eye.
"There!" he roared. "That way!"
They ran.
"Come on!" Undrig bellowed. Tenten and Asuma followed his voice, and the gleam of his hammer, as it swung in powerful, blurred arcs, clearing a way through the field of flamewakers and dragon-men—great, scaly beings that stood on two legs and looked like men, but covered in black scales that shimmered rainbow and possessing leathery wings that dragged behind them like cloaks, totally useless in practice. They hardly noticed the humans and dwarf among them, so focused were they on destroying their reptilian brethren. The flamewakers fought with metal rods and swords that hissed when they bit into flesh, cauterizing wounds as fast as they made them. The dragon-men fought only with tooth and nail, and a variety of deadly breaths that froze, burned, electrocuted, scalded and dissolved their opponents, sometimes all at once. Their movements were erratic and unnatural, and too fast for words. It was Asuma, Undrig, and Tenten's luck that they did not choose to rid themselves of the humans among them.
We have to find Neji, Tenten thought, desperately as she ran. We have to find him, because he's the only one who can get us out of here. He's the only one that can see!
She wanted to leave, as fast as she could. She couldn't stand being here one more minute. Her courage was failing her. This was not something that she had trained for. This was not something that she could do. She was a kunoichi, not a monster hunter, not somebody who was supposed to be in a situation like this!
She did not control herself. She did not even bother to hide her fear, her desperation. She was close to tears, but she didn't care. She was not meant to do this.
In front of her, something huge entered her field of vision, and stopped. Asuma grabbed her by the arm, stopping her from simply running faster, past it, away from it. He shouted something at her, but she couldn't hear it.
It was a giant, but it was not the like the humanoid ones she had seen previously, nor was it solely made of rock. Its skin was black and red and resembled the rocky floor of the Molten Core, and it stood on four legs like a dog and had two thick, barrel-shaped heads, each as big as a large wagon, each snapping and yowling as constant streams of liquid fire poured from them, flung in every direction in a fiery rainfall with its maddened writhing. Each step it took shook the earth like a meteor's impact, and its roars were deafening.
Asuma shouted for Tenten to get going. It hadn't noticed them yet, because all its attention was focused on something above it that they couldn't see, something that it was fighting, and appearing to lose against—all along its side were great, bleeding gashes. She saw streaks of red above her, and felt a presence so much huger than the rest that she found it difficult to move. Asuma yelled at her, grabbed her, and ran with her, but she didn't even notice. A feeling of primal terror had awakened in her, and she couldn't stop it.
The dog giant twisted, and stepped towards them. One of its feet landed right near Asuma, shattering the hot ground, showering them all in dust and rock. The heat was unbearable—the creature burned as hot as magma. It roared above them, a deafening blast that jarred Asuma into senselessness for a moment, unable to move or think. Undrig, however, seemed fine and held his hands out, producing a golden shield of chakra that hovered around them.
"Oi!" he bellowed to Asuma. "Look lively, an' get that girl's wits in shape! We'll need 'em!" His desperate shout only half-reached Asuma, as he struggled to get his own mind in order.
"We have to find someone," Asuma wheezed. "Anyone. We can't get anywhere just stumbling around like this."
"Fuck no!" shouted Undrig. "So get the 'ell up at make sure that girl's got her mind in order so we can get goin'! That thing isn't gonna keep ignorin' us for long!"
There was nothing around them but dead bodies—flamewakers and dragon-men, scattered in heaps in varying states of togetherness, and piles of rocks lying in pools of cooling magma, once golems—and the fighters that still lived gave them a wide berth, creating a whole area around the battling dog-monster. It gave them time to think, true, but at the same time it made them painfully obvious, and that became clear when one of the heads caught the shimmer of Undrig's shield in its eye, and turned full to face them.
Its other head continued to flail and roar, spitting vast quantities of fire into the air at whatever assailed it from above, as this head inspected this new threat with interest. It opened its baleful maw in a wide grin, and vomited a stream of liquid fire large enough to cover them all in excess.
Undrig roared at them to move, but Tenten couldn't, and Asuma did not move fast enough.
But Shikamaru did.
Coiling shadows sprouted from the ground, wrapping around Asuma, Tenten and Undrig's legs, and yanked them out of the fiery phlegm's path, depositing them at Shikamaru's feet. The hound snarled at this disruption, and moved towards Shikamaru, but he had already started moving back. He had Thauraan in his hands and in the other he was shaking Tenten, telling her to get up, to get moving.
Tenten stared at him, blankly. The terror in his eyes, the desperation in his voice, made her want to move so much that she began to tremble. But she couldn't move. She didn't know if it was fear, because if it was, she didn't know what kind. She'd been in life or death situations before, so why was she so scared now?
"Please," Shikamaru whispered, glancing up every few seconds at the demon hound. It was finally turning, somehow having shaken off its winged pursuer, and now had its full attention on the puny little humans before it. Tenten didn't know why it was bothering with them. They had to be nothing more than ants to it.
"Tenten," Shikamaru said, and it seemed softer, even though he was still shouting. "We have to go, now!"
Tenten glanced up at him. "B-but…"
"I know why you're afraid," said Shikamaru, "It's like a nightmare, isn't it? Like what you'd expect to find in hell. They're bigger and stronger than us, but that doesn't matter anymore, you know? This isn't our war—we just need to get out of here, and we're going to need your help to do that."
At that word 'help', Tenten's body seemed to react. She shook herself, and let Shikamaru help her to her feet. The fear was still there, but it was less now, and she knew that he was right.
The beast leapt forwards and lunged with both its heads, but Shikamaru and Tenten, having grabbed Thauraan, were already running, joining Asuma and Undrig as they bolted towards the crowd of flamewakers and dragon-men. The beast turned, each step it took disrupting their flight by nearly knocking over Tenten and making Shikamaru and Asuma stumble, while Undrig seemed unaffected. The hound roared, and opened both its mouths, sucking in a great breath of air that inflated its massive body even larger. The sound drew Shikamaru to look back at it, gasp, and urge everyone to run as fucking fast as they could because they weren't going to—
Then something hit the hound from above—a monstrous red shape, blurred as much as an arrow in flight, slammed into the creature's back, shattering the rocky scales it had on its back and creating a bone-shaking crack that must have echoed throughout the entire chamber. Its back broken, the beast gave a horrible gurgling wail, and collapsed, liquid fire spilling from its mouths—still agape—and setting the obsidian ground aflame around it.
Shikamaru could hardly believe it, and for a half a second his hope was renewed, until he saw the hound's destroyer and knew that they were in no better a position than before. It was a monstrous red dragon, though only half as big as the hound, somehow seemed a thousand times fiercer. Its scales were the color of coagulated blood and were dented and cracked in a few places, most notably a large part of its chest and neck. Its eyes were very black, tinted with orange, and were so prominent against the color of its body that Shikamaru found himself solely fixed on the dragon's eyes, and was unable to draw them away.
"HUMANS…" it said. Its voice was masculine, deep, and sounded so clear that it couldn't have traveled through the chaotic air to reach them. "WHAT ARE HUMANS DOING HERE?"
Shikamaru was already running, and Tenten and Asuma had joined him. Undrig had not. The dwarf was staring up at the red dragon with astonishment.
"Wha'? Wha's the Red Flight doin' 'ere, with all these black ones?"
The dragon heard him, somehow, through the roar of battle.
"I AM NO LONGER OF THE RED FLIGHT, DWARF," it said. "I OBEY ONLY LORD NEFARIAN, LORD OF THE BLACK FLIGHT AND THE CHROMATIC FLIGHT. YOU'D BEST LEAVE NOW, DWARF—THERE IS NOTHING FOR YOU HERE."
"N-Nefarian? Bloody 'ell!" growled Undrig. "Tha's who they're fightin'? The bloody son o' Deathwing?" He turned, and bolted, to where Asuma, Shikamaru and Thauraan, and Tenten had gone.
Vaelastrasz watched him go. He growled at himself, and everything around him. They were not meant to be here, he thought, and yet something in him was telling him that he should help them, that he shouldn't fight for this stupid war or his greatest enemy any longer, and his Flight needed him.
But that was crushed by a louder voice, deeper, more familiar to him now. It told him to forget them, they would die anyways, and told him to continue his battle—destroy everything that Ragnaros had created, and make the entirety of Blackrock his lord's, and his lord's alone.
Vaelastrasz nodded to that voice, and took flight once more, as the other voice died away and was forgotten.
Chouji and Ino ran stumbled along as fast as they could, the heat, the noise, the shaking, the black shroud of dust, and their own dehydration, exhaustion, and wounds preventing them from sprinting as they would have liked. Behind them, the battle between the dragon, Razorgore, and the towering flame elemental raged on. All around them, golems had dispersed to let the two battle; each time they clashed, Ino's legs turned to jelly from the force of the chakra, and Chouji's entire body seized up in unnatural fear. Why was he so scared, why? He hated it, but at the same time, he could hardly control it. It was like dream-fear, unnatural and primal, and he couldn't get rid of it.
Up ahead, they spotted more elementals—like bright beacons in the black smoke— in battle with more of the four-legged dragon-beasts, as well as smaller, two legged dragon-beasts that resembled men. Above them swooped black dragons proper, snarling as they crashed into the huge, rocky heads of the golems they warred against, or shrieking as they were plucked from the air and thrown to the ground, their wings crumpling against them, before they were silenced forever by a single stomp from a golem.
Ino knew that they wouldn't be able to get out by just running, but the sight of the horrible Razorgore had destroyed every shred of confidence she had in her Shintenshin no jutsu. If she tried to take over any one of the dragons that surrounded her, surely her mind would be torn in two by the viciousness of its mind, which she could feel saturating the air wherever they went. But the killing intent of the dragons seemed more horrible than she could imagine. It was totally unnatural, like black fire.
"Ino!" Chouji wheezed, from her right, shouting against the din. "We need to get out of here! Remember what Shikamaru said!"
Ino swallowed. They did not stop running. "I-I c-can't," she said. "They're n-not…"
From above, a dragon swooped low, and landed with a crash in front of them. It was far bigger than the rest, and its scales did not have the rainbow shimmer that the others did, and were bright orange around its chest and near the top of its head, matching its molten eyes.
"TO THE EASTERN SIDE!" it bellowed. "LORD NEFARIAN COMMANDS IT! GO!"
The dragon-men moved, and the smaller dragons took flight, leaving the flamewakers in pursuit until the larger dragon coated them in magma, and then tore into their ranks with its claws and tail. The rest scattered, hissing, and totally ignored Ino and Chouji as they fled. The dragon let out a triumphant, echoing roar, and spread its wings in preparation to fly, but as it did, its head turned to the side, and spotted Ino's golden hair, which shone even through the dirt.
It turned fully, growling, and stretched its neck down to get a closer look at them, while Ino and Chouji quickly backed away.
"HUMANS AMONG US? WHAT IS THIS?"
Predictably, neither Ino nor Chouji responded, and instead they quickly turned and fled backwards.
The dragon licked its lips. "BUT HOW FORTUNATE. A NICE SNACK."
It lunched towards them, covering the distance they had managed in only a single bound. Ino screamed, a short bleat of emotion that was cut off almost immediately by the dragon's roar, and what happened in the following seconds.
A torso-sized fist barreled into the dragon, lifting it clear off its feet and onto its back, howling. Chouji, owner of the fist, wheezing like an old train engine, grabbed Ino with his other hand as his fist shrunk back to its normal size.
"Let's go, Ino!" he roared.
Speechless, Ino allowed herself to be dragged back into the gloom, as the dragon righted itself, roaring madly. It sucked in a mouthful of air and exhaled a sphere of magma as large as a beverage cart. Chouji felt the heat behind him, and turned, ready to accept death if it meant protecting his teammate.
But he didn't have to.
A white-hot blur rushed by Chouji, coming from the opposite direction of the fireball. It slammed into the ball, creating a firework of molten rock, and then even continued past that, streaking towards the dragon with speed like a wrathful hurricane assaulting the coastline.
'Hachimon: Keimon'
Maito Gai delivered only one strike with the power of the Sixth Gate: The View Gate, but that was all that was needed; the technique he had devised was perfect for dealing with opponents with large bodies, and it was made a thousand times more powerful when used in conjunction with the Eight Gates.
'Yari Renge!'
He thrust both hands forwards, palms out, driving them into the dragon's forehead; normally it would take extremely durable and well-made weapons in order to pierce a dragon's scales, usually weapons crafted of dark iron or adamantium, but in Gai's case, those weren't needed. The force of the Yari Renge was strong enough to shatter layered steel shields and even crack diamonds. It focused all of the power of the user's body into a single, focused blow, and that was easily enough to annihilate even the scales of the true black dragon. The blow shattered even more than that, however, and continue on, striking the beast's skull and going through even that so that Gai's hands sunk all the way up to their elbows in the dragon's brain.
Dead without question, the dragon fell, as Gai ripped his hands out, gasping and landed a few feet away. His body shook, most of all his hands, which were now covered in blood and slimy grey matter.
Lee and Neji moved in beside Chouji and Ino. Ino, white-faced with both horror and joy, hugged both of them in turn.
"T-thank you!" she cried.
"No time," said Gai, though he offered her a quick smile. "We must go. We'll need to find another one of those, and Ino-chan, you must be prepared to do what is required of you."
Ino shook. "I can't, they're too strong. If I try, they might—"
"If you do not try, then we shall never escape," said Gai. "You must."
Ino, still shaking, managed a nod. Gai turned, gritting his teeth.
"I'll make do on my promise—I will not let any of you die here. We must find the others—Neji, have you…?"
"I'm looking," said Neji. He suddenly turned to the right.
"There?" said Gai.
"No…" said Neji. "It's something else. Something's happening over—"
He did not finish, because the world exploded.
It was as if the sun had fallen from the sky and landed in the middle of the Burning Steppes, illuminating everything inside it as a terribly black shadow—for one instant, they could see everything in the entire land: every dragon, golem, and snake-man in the midst of battle, illuminated in a silhouetted puppet-show frozen in time and space. In the very center of this light, for that moment, there was nothing but a black, empty space, larger than anything else, towering half the height of the chamber, formless as a cloud. Sound vanished, replaced by silence, and even the oppressive heat of the battlefield was somehow lost in those few seconds, in which the entire battlefield stared at the very center of the world.
In that silence, there came a voice, a plethora of roars like all the sounds of a volcanic eruption.
"COME…MY ENEMY…FACE ME…!"
And there was an answer, each word like a god's infallible decree:
"Good, I Was Beginning To Wonder If You Were Afraid! I Shall Snuff Your Candle's Flame, Forever, Firelord! Blackrock Shall Become MINE!"
At the last word, the world vanished in sound and heat.
The shockwave of Ragnaros' summoning blew across the entire battlefield, knocking everything that had feet from them, and causing dragons in flight to be thrown to the ground alongside their golem enemies. The blast sent Ino, Chouji, Gai, Neji and Lee all flying back, the noise, the heat the flames disorienting, the light blinding. Shikamaru dove in front of Thauraan, shielding him from the light and heat, while Tenten clung to Asuma for dear life and Undrig covered his face with his dirty gauntlets and clenched his eyes shut so tight that he should have seen only darkness, though even then it was as if he hadn't shut them at all. The sound deafened them, threw them off balance and out of sense, and it seemed as if the world had ended once more, though in fire and light now, instead of dirt and darkness.
In the middle of the battlefield, Ragnaros rose. Its summoning had cleared all of the dark dust from the area, but it hardly would have mattered, as its fire burned so brightly that it seemed to be a piece of the sun on earth. Ragnaros rose so huge, too, that it could have crossed the area in three or four strides if it had had legs; instead, below a humanoid torso composed all of the brightest white-yellow flame, there was a tornado of fire in perpetual motion, gathering the magma in the middle of the area up around it in a protective shield. Its arms were formed by thick columns of flame, surrounded by two bracers made of ancient, golden stone. Its head was a giant, deformed skull, crowned with a wreath of flames of all colors—black, blue, green, red, orange, yellow and white. With one of its hands, it drew something from the lake of fire—a monstrous hammer made of fire and stone, adorned with stalagmites and black jewels as big as horses, which it then pointed upwards.
It spoke again.
"I…SEE…YOU! TASTE…THE…FLAMES OF…SULFURON!"
Above him, circling the area was a great, black dragon, the biggest of them all. Where previously the dragon's scales had shimmered, or had been soot-black adorned with fiery orange, this dragon's scales were so black that they seemed to steal the light around them. By contrast, the scales on its stomach were such an orange that they seemed to be forged of Ragnaros' fire. The dragon's most prominent feature, however, were its eyes, which gleamed as bright as Ragnaros' body, though in the middle they were a cold black, like its own scales, and as cunning as Ragnaros' were hot.
Gleefully, at Ragnaros' words, it dove.
"Let Your Fires Be Dimmed, And Your Weapon Fall Heavy, Ragnaros, Lord Of Fire! You Shall Not Defeat Nefarian!"
Its roars seemed to make Ragnaros' fire less bright, and as Nefarian finished his words, the Elemental Lord dropped its weapon slightly, as if it were heavy. But that did not stop it from being swung in an upwards arc, seconds later, to meet the oncoming dragon.
Nefarian did not dodge. The impact was like a bomb exploding, and with it, the battle around them began anew.
Shikamaru barely managed to stand, glaring wildly around him as the battle raged. Everything was clear now, but his eyes hurt and his vision was blurry and white, and his ears rang; even though he felt he should be hearing a chaotic din, all he heard were distance sounds, as if the battle that was happening not feet from where he stood was miles away.
Thauraan was standing, next to him, and was staring white-faced at the risen Elemental. His body shook, because to him the creature was not simply some malefic monster, as it was for Shikamaru—for him, it was the closest thing he had to a God.
Shikamaru grabbed him by the arm. He shouted something that he even he couldn't hear, but Thauraan looked at him anyways, wide-eyed with fright and despair.
We're not going to get out of here, his eyes said.
Shikamaru hoped his response was clear.
Yes, we will.
Jesus that was a chapter in a half. I won't explain much here, mostly because I'm tired and I still have to finish the next chapter, which should be out in two days or so. This chapter is the result of a split between this and the next chapter, which I had at first intended to make into one chapter, but it got far too confusing for even me to follow, so I think I wisely chose to split them up. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter, and see you in a couple of days where I can accurately explain why the HELL I've been so late with this chapter. I shouldn't do this to you guys.
In any case, see you soon!
General Grievous
Bingo Book (Because It's Necessary):
Nefarian (Dragonkin)(Boss): The Lord of Blackrock Spire and the only surviving son of Deathwing, the Earthwarder. Ambitious, cunning, and ruthless, he seeks to overturn Ragnaros and take all of Blackrock for himself. His plans after that are unknown, as are his powers, which are no doubt numerous and deadly.
Ragnaros (Elemental)(Boss): The Elemental Lord of Fire, who was summoned to the earthly plane millions of years after his imprisonment by the Titans in the Elemental Plane. His goals, as of yet, are to destroy Nefarian and take over Blackrock Spire, though due to his nature, it is likely he will continue to expand after that, until all of Azeroth is under his burning hand.
Magmadar (Elemental/Beast)(Boss): One of Ragnaros' favorite pets, and the patriarch of his elemental monstrosities known as the core hounds, which have haunted the Molten Core since it's beginning 300 years ago. It is huge and possesses nearly indestructible scales, unless you're a dragon.
Vaelastrasz the Corrupt (Dragonkin)(Boss): Once a member of the Red Flight, sworn to hunt the remnants of the Black Flight until the last, but now a member of that same Flight, as Nefarian's slave. Immensely powerful, though some semblance of his older self remains within him, as he fights Nefarian's control.
Razorgore the Untamed (Dragonkin)(Boss): A dragonspawn general of Nefarian, whose brutality in battle is unmatched by any of the others. He is master of the Hatchery, as well, and thus is responsible for educating the newborns in their life as Nefarian's brood. Is susceptible to mind control.
Ebonroc (Dragonkin)(Boss): A black drake, and one of Nefarian's generals. Commands a substantial portion of the chromatic drakes in Nefarian's army. He is greedy, and loves the taste of human flesh. He is slain by Gai, due to his incompetence and underestimation of humans.
Flamewaker (Elemental)(Elite): Servants of Ragnaros from the pits of the Elemental Plane, they are like naga in appearance, though they are much different. Eternal flames surround their bodies and their weapons conduct this heat, which can burn through flesh in but seconds. Their leader is Majordomo Executus, though he is a coward by nature, and leaves most of the governing to the five other flamewaker generals—Baron Geddon, Lucifron, Gehennas, Shazzrah, and Sulfuron Harbinger.
Drakonid (Dragonkin)(Elite): Created by Nefarian, are variants of the dragonspawn and incredibly quick and vicious. They possess chromatic capabilities, that is to say, they possess the ability to use all of the powers of each flight—black, red, green, blue and bronze.
Dragonspawn (Dragonkin)(Elite): Creatures suspected once to be human or otherwise, having been corrupted or created by dragons to serve their needs. They are foot soldiers in most cases, though they can become generals, such as Razorgore.
Golem (Elemental)(Elite): Giants made of rock, created by Ragnaros and his minions. Their method of animation is unknown. Are extremely dangerous, and very powerful.