Greetings, friends! Welcome to the fourth installment of the Lion of the Alliance series! This story is a direct sequel to the events of Lion's Heart, and as usual I suggest getting acquainted with all my previous stories in this series before reading the new installment.
All my stories carry general spoilers warning for Warlords of Draenor. This story in particular has spoiler warnings for the garrison and legendary quest lines, as well as Blackrock Foundry.
Rated M for violence, torture, adult themes and situations.
Auriana
The air was thick with the scent of blood and iron as Auriana Fenwild cast her gaze out over Bladefury's Command. After the Burning Blade had attacked Lunarfall Garrison and stolen the Heart of Gorgorek, they had fled to the orcish fortress with the newly woken magnaron in tow. It had been two weeks since Bladefury's assault on Lunarfall, though Auriana's anger had not yet abated. She had no intention of letting Azuka Bladefury escape with her prize unpunished, and so she had rallied the might of Lunarfall to northern Talador to exact vengeance and halt the threat of the magnaron.
On Auriana's left, her bodyguard Delvar Ironfist was practically frothing at the mouth, so eager was he to throw himself into the battle raging below. Her other companion, Lieutenant Barrett Gale, stood on her right, his eyes narrowed in concentration. The three soldiers stood on a small rise overlooking the Command, where the battle between the Alliance forces and the Burning Blade had begun in earnest. If she had turned her head to the right, Auriana would have seen the forbidding gates of Tanaan Jungle, where the bulk of the Iron Horde armies now hid. Behind her, a Lunarfall gryphon stamped its feet impatiently, as eager as Ironfist or Gale for the fight.
Normally, Auriana would have been right in the thick of it, leading the charge against the Bladefury herself, but there were tactical concerns that needed to be addressed before she entered the fray. Firstly, and perhaps most worryingly, the Burning Blade had control of the great magnaron Gorgorek, an ancient molten stone giant. Secondly, they were led by the fierce warlord Azuka Bladefury, who had proven to be a clever and determined opponent in the past.
Auriana also had a personal score to settle with Azuka. She was still furious over Azuka's audacious attack on the heart of Lunarfall itself, and Auriana wouldn't be satisfied until the orc warlord's head no longer rested upon her shoulders. Lunarfall Garrison was Auriana's home on Draenor, and she loved it dearly. She could think of no greater insult than for the Burning Blade to invade her home and slaughter her men, and today she was determined to take her revenge.
"Our first priority is the magnaron," Auriana said, brushing her hair back from her face thoughtfully. "Gale, take Ironfist and have our men start moving forwards to flank Gorgorek."
"Yes ma'am! May I ask where you'll be fighting, Commander?" Gale asked curiously.
"I'm going to give you some air support," she said, nodding pointedly at the gryphon behind her. "I've got a few surprises in store for our new friend Gorgorek, but I need you in position to push in as soon as we've weakened his defenses."
Gale nodding, needing no further encouragement to join in the fight, and sprinted off down the hill to join the fight. Ironfist, on the other hand, hesitated for a moment, folding his arms across his barrel chest.
"I'm not going with ye?" the death knight asked, his raspy voice stern.
"No," Auriana said firmly. "I'll be relatively safe in the air, and I need you on the ground. I would have thought that you would have been waiting for such a challenge."
"My first job is always to keep ye safe, Commander," Ironfist growled.
"I'll be fine," she assured him, though his concern was touching. "Get going."
Ironfist frowned, but did as he was asked, leaping off down the hill after Gale. Auriana smiled ever so slightly as she watched him go. Death knights weren't exactly known for their expressiveness, and she knew Ironfist was driven by a singular need to serve the Alliance. He cared not for things like money or prestige, only victory and the thrill of battle, and Auriana was secretly pleased that he considered her of enough importance to the Alliance to defend so staunchly.
As Ironfist and Gale were swept up in the furious battle, Auriana turned her attention to the gryphon, a handsome garrison buck named Brightfeather. Although much more comfortable with two feet on the ground, Auriana was nonetheless a capable rider in the air. She did not usually deploy with the garrison gryphon riders, but she had a particular plan in mind for Gorgorek, and wanted to be in prime position for its execution.
"Shall we, boy?" she murmured quietly to Brightfeather, as she patted his sharp beak in passing.
The gryphon trilled happily as she mounted up, shifting his weight restively as he waited for her to get settled in the harness. Once ready, Auriana heeled the beast forwards, and he leapt easily into the air. For such a large animal, Auriana's weight was as nothing, and Brightfeather ascended rapidly into the bright midday sky. Auriana whistled sharply as she flew, and she was soon joined by at least two dozen other riders, each mounted on their own magnificent gryphons.
Each rider had been equipped with a forbidding arsenal of heavy bombs. Auriana herself carried no such weaponry, instead relying on her magic for equivalent firepower. She intended to hit the magnaron Gorgorek as hard as she could from the air, weakening the giant enough for her ground troops to put him down.
Brightfeather flew swiftly at the head of the gryphon pack, propelled by the powerful downbeat of his wings. He was an experienced war gryphon, and he neatly dodged the hail of arrows that arose to greet them without so much as a touch to his side. For her part, Auriana simply held on, looking forward intently to where Gorgorek awaited. From her vantage point in the air, she could see the majority of the Alliance forces closing on the magnaron's position, and she was determined to provide them with as soft a target as possible.
"For Lunarfall!" she screamed into the wind, as Brightfeather flattened his wings and dived.
Up close, Gorgorek was absolutely huge, and Auriana genuinely feared that her combined force would not be able to bring the giant down. She shook her head a second later, however, refusing to entertain such thoughts. The Alliance were strong and well equipped, and she needed to have faith that they would prevail.
As Brightfeather reached the nadir of his dive, Auriana unleashed her magic, and dropped a frost bomb of terrible power on the magnaron's head. Behind her, the other gryphon riders released their own explosives. There was a brief, breathless pause as the bombs fell through the air, before they impacted the magnaron's shoulders and detonated hard. Chunks of rocky flesh flew everywhere as Gorgorek bellowed in pain and fury, turning his single glowing eye skywards. The stone giant appeared somewhat confused by the small, flying annoyances now circling his head, but there was no denying the sheer rage in his gaze.
It was hard not to get caught up in the thrill of the fight as Brightfeather banked left and shot straight back up into the air, preparing for a second attack run. Auriana felt her heart leap as the wind rushed through her hair, and she channelled her eager bloodlust into her magic. She cast with abandon, raining frost bomb after frost bomb down upon the ancient magnaron with every pass.
From the corner of her eye, Auriana saw a number of gryphons fall to the Iron Horde arrows. Fortunately, however, the majority of the air assault were intact, and they harried Gorgorek with everything they had. The magnaron had sustained serious damage to his back and shoulders, and Auriana could see her ground troops tentatively move forwards, even as the Burning Blade orcs moved forward to defend the captive magnaron.
As Auriana steered Brightfeather into a fourth pass, Gorgorek unexpectedly leapt straight up, flailing his giant fists at the gryphons that plagued him. The gryphon immediately to Auriana's left took the brunt of the attack, both beast and rider disappearing in a suddenly spray of blood and feathers. Brightfeather reacted more swiftly, but he was unable to avoid Gorgorek's fists completely, and together he and Auriana went plunging towards the ground.
For a moment, Auriana saw nothing but a blur of sky, stone, and dirt as she and Brightfeather tumbled through the air. Somehow, she managed to right the gryphon just before he hit the ground. She threw herself free from the harness as Brightfeather impacted the dirt, rolling to the side to avoid being crushed by the beast's bulk. She sprang to her feet immediately, brushing grit from her eyes as she called on her magic. Auriana tasted blood, and her bones were thoroughly rattled from the fall, but it seemed as if she had escaped any real damage.
Brightfeather, it seemed, was also largely unharmed. The big gryphon shook his head as he staggered back to his feet, but he snapped viciously at any orc that dared to get close. Auriana took full advantage of the nearby orc warriors' unwillingness to get within range of Brightfeather's savage beak and claws, and obliterated them with a mere wave of her hand. Her blood ran hot, and there was little the orc peons could do to stop her as she strode into the fight with Gorgorek.
"Get out of here," she told Brightfeather as she passed, slapping the beast firmly on the flank.
War gryphons were valuable commodities, and Auriana wouldn't risk them unnecessarily. Brightfeather had done his part, as had the other gryphons and their riders, but now it was time for her ground troops to earn their keep. Brightfeather let out a sharp cry, but he was well trained, and he leapt back into the sky at her command. Now wary of Gorgorek's fists, he dodged to the left as he rose, and was soon winging his way back towards the Alliance staging area.
Satisfied that her gryphon companion was now safe, Auriana charged forwards, hurling ice from her fingers as she ran. She caught sight Gale fighting at the vanguard, his twin blades flashing in the bright sun as he danced around the wildly flailing magnaron. Auriana winced as he barely ducked under a particularly powerful blow, and she silently ordered him to be more careful.
From the ground, the damage to Gorgorek was much more apparent. Her troops had harried the magnaron relentlessly, taking full advantage of the opportunity provided by the air support. Auriana now added her own considerable power into the mix, simultaneously blasting Gorgorek with ice and shielding her men from both the magnaron and the Iron Horde. Even a month ago, Auriana would not have considered herself capable of splitting her magical focus so skilfully, but she had been working hard on her magic as of late. She had spent nearly every day over the last two weeks in Dalaran at the request of the Archmage Jaina Proudmoore, learning how to control both her wild magic and the reckless fury that hid in her veins. Auriana had never really cared much for studying intricate, advanced magic, but she had to admit that what she had learned from Jaina thus far had improved her already formidable combat skills considerably.
Despite the power and savagery of the Alliance assault, the ancient magnaron was not so easily cowed. Gorgorek still had a significant advantage in both size and strength, and he fought with a renewed desperation as his great stone shoulders crumbled around him. He swung a mighty fist back once more, and several of the Alliance soldiers were flung into the fortress wall. Auriana heard them hit the stone with a series of sickening cracks, and she knew instantly that these men were unlikely to move again.
"Bring him down!" she hollered, her presence spurring her men to greater efforts.
Auriana lost herself in her casting, staying safely out of the magnaron's reach as she worked. Most of her attention was focused not on Gorgorek, but rather on the seemingly endless stream of Burning Blade orcs that came to defend the magnaron. Auriana used her magic to set up a kind of choke point, where the orcs could not risk attacking the Alliance men who assaulted Gorgorek without having to wade through a whirling storm of ice and death.
Auriana could feel weariness creeping into her bones as she fought on, and she knew that she would be unable to maintain this kind of intensity in her casting forever. She was both fit and powerful, but not even the most powerful of mages could spellcast indefinitely. Auriana saw a similar weariness in her men, and she frowned in concern. Gorgorek was an important target, but even once he fell, there was still an entire fortress of orcs bearing down upon the soldiers of Lunarfall.
As several more of her men fell to the pounding fists of the magnaron, Auriana grew more concerned, though she wondered how much more punishment the beast could possibly take. His left shoulder was completely ruined, and both the creature's legs had been hacked apart brutally by the Alliance forces. His slab face had been badly burned and damaged by the falling bombs, and for a moment Auriana felt a sense of pity for the magnaron. He had been used against his will by the Burning Blade, and Auriana regretted that slaughtering the ancient beast was necessary.
Her silent question in regards to the magnaron's strength was answered mere moments later by a gleeful shout from Lieutenant Gale.
"Get back!" he yelled. "It's coming down!"
Heeding Gale's warning, Auriana blinked away, not taking her eyes off her work as the magnaron howled and tumbled forward onto its knees. The Alliance leapt to attack with renewed vigour, swarming up Gorgorek's sides to beat at his head with a variety of swords, axes, and maces. Gorgorek let out a mournful sigh as he made one last valiant attempt to throw the Alliance off, before he shuddered and lay suddenly still.
Auriana heard a cry of unbridled fury from above as the magnaron expired, drowning out even the shout of victory from the Alliance. She looked up, and locked eyes with an orc that could only be Azuka Bladefury, warlord of the Burning Blade. Azuka stood on the edge of one of the upper terraces, desperately clutching her fearsome blade.
"You!" the warchief cried, her face contorting in an ugly snarl. "You will pay for what you have done to my magnaron. I will drink your blood and feed your mangled corpse to the dogs! You will regret ever coming here!"
Auriana stared up at Azuka calmly, though inside she spoiled for the fight. With Gorgorek dead, the only thing that stood between Auriana and her vengeance was the warchief herself.
"I doubt it, though I'm willing to fight if you are," Auriana challenged. "However, you must promise not to run away this time. I thought you were a warchief, not a cowardly whelp all too ready to turn your tail and run."
Despite the distance between them, Auriana could practically hear Azuka gnash her teeth in fury, and she grinned in savage satisfaction.
"I am no coward!" Azuka screamed. "Come up here and face me, mage, and we shall see who is the greater warrior..."