Day 27

I'm so tired of fighting around Thorn Hill. From nearly the moment I woke up at Far Watch it was a massed deployment to battle. After a hurried meal I got to march with plenty of veteran warriors across the foothills of the Barrens right up to the enemy doorstep. And then it was off to the slaughter.

More than five hundred of us were sent to battle this morning. One hundred men split to prevent reinforcements from the Southeast while another hundred went to meet up with a force from the Crossroads in the Southwest. I was in the assault team of three hundred intending to take one of their main camps. They outnumbered us heavily and nobody gave a damn.

The Horde displayed clear superiority over the quilboar in battle. Their warriors and beasts met us before we could reach their settlement but their lines were shattered by a catapult, arrow barrage, and a dozen wyvern bombers. Their spellcasters were putting up a nasty fight but unless something hit near me I couldn't pay attention.

I claimed several kills in the melee with my new axe after we hit the quilboar line. I wasn't quite at the frontline but honestly that just made it easier to help force a gap. Before we knew it we were swarming through to cut down everything that moved. I intentionally hunted down spellcasters over archers at this point but couldn't find a single warlock. I wanted to see if I could get the soul shard back and restore Kenny.

I followed Iskar all the way into the settlement proper during the fighting. I was more than a little annoyed with getting hit by lightning but kind of relieved to be away from curses and shit. I also damn near had a heart attack when I realized what thorn houses meant. The echoes of command across the battlefield stating "Spare the children" hadn't quite sunk into my head before I was faced with tiny quilboar.

Iskar thumped another warrior when he tried to raise a hand against a child, so I followed his lead and started clearing buildings before they were torched. I managed to round up a dozen children personally and get my own thumping in when more were captured as the main force overwhelmed the quilboar and joined us. I made myself scarce before someone could assign me to the children and started looking over the bodies before we were called to attention.

The Western forces along with the Crossroads reinforcements were delayed by heavier than expected resistance and the quilboar were gathering in the Southeast and heading for our overextended guards. More than a few of us cursed as we hauled ass to their rescue with a token force left behind for the children and wounded.

We managed to reach our other men before the counterattack but we suffered for forming our shieldwall. Shadowbolts, fire, and lightning danced across the battlefield along with arrows and gunfire. I'd swapped to my shield by this point and when a Shadowbolt slammed into it instead of my chest I was glad I did. Things really got wild however when the centaur showed up.

A dozen shaman stood behind the quilboar lines and summoned a trio of powerful earth elementals and viciously cutting dustdevils into the area. Our center collapsed under the pressure before several smaller elementals arose on our side. Three earth and a water elemental slowed what amounted to siege engines before Battlemaster Deathbringer laid a smackdown to one. The center rallied and more elementals were raised on both sides and on we went. Kill one and another takes its place and all that.

It turned into a slow bloody battle over the coarse of a couple hours as quilboar reinforcements streamed in. I'd gotten myself stuck up near the front for most of it and it was brutal. By the time our reinforcements arrived the quilboar strength had finally started to fall and I was dead tired. When our victorious Horde swept forth over the remnants of the enemy I decided to just start dragging the wounded in for healing instead of joining the hunt.

Morba found his way towards me on the battlefield and I offered him a grim nod as we set to work. We'd lost sixty-four to permanent injuries or death during the battle. Those elementals had done terrible damage to us. Another hundred were wounded enough to need time to recover. I offered up several mana potions when the healers looked overwhelmed and had given out plenty of health potions to ensure people got to the healers.

I even managed to hunt down several of the warlock corpses and take every soul shard they had on them. It wasn't much considering how many bodies I came across, only seven, but I was sure we'd avenged Kenny anyway. After gathering the warlock bodies and giving them another shakedown for anything important, I got the aid of a passing mage to light them on fire. Cleansing Evil stunk badly but at least I kept it downwind of the wounded.

Iskar tracked me down not too much later when the army camped a short distance away and the wounded were being transported. He damn near smacked me when I asked if he knew a warlock but when I showed him a soul shard and mentioned freeing them he shrugged. Old orc warriors likely don't have fond memories of warlocks, I must remember that.

Either way he brought me back before disappearing on me while I was setting down my stuff. At least I have you, eh Journal?

-Borgin