Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
Nagrand, Outland
At the demon gate, a small group of demons and fel orcs were gathering. Most of their forces were in the borders towards the Terokkar Forest to prepare a fourth point of assault. By this point, the Legion were now attacking the forest from three areas, Zangarmarsh, Hellfire Peninsula and Shadowmoon Valley. Despite being attacked from three sides, the Draenei were still holding strong
In Nagrand, the gathered Legion forces were trying to enter the demon gate. Its energy has been fluctuating. Most of the time it is too weak to allow even an imp to pass through and at other times it surges with enough to allow around four demons to pass through with the full intention of hunting down their escaped prisoners
Unknown to their forces, their spectres that they've been using were suddenly unable to see invisible creatures or anything similar. The Legion's victory over Nagrand and the amount of pressure they're been putting on Terokkar Forest has made them complacent so the spectres didn't even realize what was happening to them
In their complacence, no one realized that eight individuals suddenly entered Nagrand from the other side of the demon gate with all of them completely invisible. Before the effects could wear off, the individuals all flew up to the six gunships that were flying above
Wanting to see how his demons hunters would perform. 'Take a gunship each of you. Illysanna and I will maintain lookout. When you've gotten rid of the demons, take aim towards any Legion artillery you find and destroy them but make sure you do it at the same time.' Illidan ordered. The other demon hunters did as told without even responding
"So, you want to see how they would perform." Illysanna whispered as she flew next to Illidan
"Indeed. We shall see if this kind of power is compatible with them. By that, I mean if it would drive them insane." Illidan answered
"You should have had Kor'vas be the one on lookout." Illysanna said and received a curious look. "She's actually a better fighter than I am. She has beaten me more times than I did her when we sparred over the last few months."
"Really?" Illidan asked curiously
"It is true although having been in more recent battles than I have helped. All of the sparring sessions we had were very close though." Illysanna answered. While they have used blades that were similar in design to Illidan's twin blades, they ultimately discarded them in favor of regular swords. The only exception were Kor'vas and Altruis, both of them were incredibly proficient at dual wielding a pair of dual edged swords
As expected, Kor'vas was the first one to clear her gunship. It only took her twelve minutes to do so before she reached the control room. 'Kor'vas here, my gunship is secure.'
Much to everyone surprise, Kayn was the one who cleared his gunship next. In the sparring sessions, he was always so aggressive and goes for attacks to put pressure on whoever he's fighting. It doesn't always work against more experience fighters like Kor'vas or Illysanna but his near unpredictable movements when not defending himself gave him an edge. 'This is Kayn. My gunship is secured. How do I change where the weapons are aimed?'
'Find a control room where there is a hologram is at the center. It will only respond to individuals with fel energy so release some and a map will appear that shows what is in visual range of the gunship. Just pick your targets when that happens.' Illidan answered
Kayn followed his master's instruction and found what he needed. A few minutes later, all the other gunships fell to the Scourge's control with none of the Legion ground forces knowing what was happening
'Sevis here. I've finally taken over the last gunship.'
'Good. Kayn, Kor'vas, Allari, take aim at the northern Legion defenses. Sevis, Candrael, Altruis, take the ones to the northeast but don't fire yet.' Illysanna ordered. The other six did as they were told and reset the aim. 'Rain down hell.' she ordered when they all gave her that they were ready
The gunships in Nagrand then began raining down fire at the Legion's defenses. Some of the rounds hit the actual defensive artillery in Zangarmarsh while most merely hit the ground which sent debris on the Legion's defenses
"What's going on?!" a doom guard yelled when the gunships were raining down fire on their own forces
Illidan then decided to create a distraction before ordering the ground assault so he and Illysanna flew to the top deck of one of the gunships. He then channelled his energy into an orb on his hand before throwing it into the sky. A few seconds later, it rained fel fire right into the ground forces surrounding the demon gate. 'Varian, now.' he ordered
The demon gate then surged with energy as three death knights came out and instantly killed any nearby Legion forces. Varian, Mograine and Fordring quickly secured a small foothold before undead forces poured through the demon gate. Ghouls and skeleton warriors led the charge before necromancers and banshees followed. Liches and flesh golems were the last ones to exit the gateway. At Varian's signal, the liches turned the banshees invisible and they all went towards the borders to the north
"We are fortunate that the Draenei have been able to hold the attention of the Legion's gunships otherwise this would be a lot more difficult than it is now." Illysanna said and Illidan nodded in agreement. 'Time to join in on the battle.' she ordered after observing the ground battle for a few moments. The demon hunters then jumped off from the gunships and fired their eye beams at Legion ground forces that were trying to secure the demon gate. When they neared the ground, they extended their wings and landed safely before engaging the demons in a melee combat which they easily dominated
While the other demon hunters went to join the melee, Illidan used his necromantic powers to raise all the fallen demons aboard all the gunships into undeath. Once they were all under his control, he had them control the gunships' weapons and noticed that most of them were running low on ammo. 'Illysanna, kill as many demons as you all can. The gunships are low on ammunition and I need souls to power them.' he ordered
'You heard the master.' Kayn said on the ground as he unleashed his demon form and fired another eye beam, incinerating a lot of the demons
"Someone sure is thirsty for a battle." Allari joked after slicing a doom guard in two
"Hey, it's the first time we've used our new powers." Kayn argued back. "Don't tell me you're not curious to see what we can do with them?"
"You're not the only one." Illysanna answered while throwing some daggers. "We haven't fought actual enemies ourselves so this is our first time."
"Weren't you already demon hunters when you attacked Zul'aman?" Candrael pointed out
"We were but the trolls weren't really that much of a challenge, at least by the time they attacked us." Kor'vas said
"Shouldn't we be focusing on killing these demons instead of chatter?" Altruis said in an exasperated tone
"Call it multitasking, my friend." Sevis said and eventually, they all killed the group of demons that they attacked using small distraction spells
'Illidan, will these be enough?' Illysanna asked
'Yes, for now. Go help the Varian and the others.' Illidan answered and the other demon hunters quickly joined the main battle
In the meantime, Varian and his group were hard pressed by the Legion's forces from the north, which they identified as Zangarmarsh thanks to the two draenei. Since the Legion controlled this entire world except for one area, they had the forces to spare so they can launch a full scale counter attack
"Damn it, there's too many of them." Varian muttered when he saw the incoming offensive. The fire from one of the gunship's Illidan controlled did thin them out but it wasn't enough to kill all their attackers. 'Maiev, we need reinforcements. Send the the second wave.' he said telepathically
Not wasting time, Kel'thuzad fed the gateway energy again from Azeroth's end and this time, flesh golems, vrykuls, abominations and val'kyrs all came out to aid the their forces with Maiev at their head, Anya and Aedon accompanying her. As Nagrand was not taken over for that long, the Legion were not able to set up proper defenses which made it easier for the undead to secure grounds against them. When they had secured sufficient grounds, the undead brought in acolytes and began setting up defenses
"Our hold won't last long without proper defenses and who knows just how many minions the Legion can throw at us. We need an actual plan here." Maiev said when she rendezvoused with Varian
Varian thought about the options for a few minutes. 'Lord Illidan, what do the nearby Legion defenses look like?' he asked
'The area is too far to get a clear view from here. What I can see is in the terrain in Zangarmarsh will not be that easy to traverse. The Draenei were not lying. It is a swamp terrain. Directly to the east is a forest. I'm assuming that's where the Draenei are holed up.' Illidan responded. While he is personally involved in this war, he has grown curious to see how these high ranking humans handled command. 'However, I can't see any gunships in the swamp even on this one's scanners.'
'Most likely being used on their assault on Shattrath then.' Maiev concluded
'These Draenei's defenses must be strong if the Legion is forced to use their gunships in a direct assault.' Fordring commented
'Alright, we'll secure the borders towards Zangarmarsh first. Araj, you and the other liches and Val'kyrs focus on raising the fallen. Once we have enough forces, we'll try to take control of Zangarmarsh. Maiev, can you cover the acolytes while they setup defenses?' Varian ordered and the other two death knights did as told while Maiev merely gave a nod indicating she understood. 'Lord Illiidan, can you have the gunships cover us from the Hellfire Peninsula?'
'Yes.' Illidan replied simply before he looked behind him
"Surprising that you allowed the human to take charge." Illysanna commented as she walked towards him
"These humans were the so called 'leaders' of the Alliance so I might as well see why. Besides, you also gave command earlier. Why do you find that surprising?" Illidan asked
Illysanna merely shrugged at this as she knew that Illidan already knows why. The lich king then began walking to the top deck of the gunship. Curious, Illysanna followed and saw him looking towards an area south of the Hellfire Peninsula. Just as she was about to ask what he was looking at, the answer showed itself when a bird was flying around. It was faint to regular sight but with their spectral sight, they were able to easily see it. What was more curious was that this bird was obviously a shapeshifter, a human shapeshifter at that
Shattrath City
In the main chambers of the city, the draenei were gathered to assess the situation
"How are things going?" A'dal asked
"For now, it's a stalemate. However, the Legion uses souls to power their war machines and we will be overwhelmed eventually." the draenei commander, Maraad, said
"That's not all. Turalyon is still injured and will be out for a few days. On the other side, the Legion have also begun attacking from the Black Temple. We are surrounded." Alleria added grimly. "It would seem that the Legion is done leaving us alone."
Before their discussion could go forward, a bird suddenly flew into the room. When it landed, arcane magics surrounded it and it transformed into a human
"Khadgar." Velen greeted
"Where have you been?" Alleria asked curiously
"The situation has changed." Khadgar said and everyone merely motioned for him to continue. "As you know, the Legion have made a demon gate after taking over Nagrand. However, I have been observing them for quite some time. I couldn't get close enough to get enough of the details but what I did find was that the prisoners from Nagrand were kept in the Hellfire Peninsula. They were able to escape through the demon gate."
"In that case, they are dead, but that's not what you have found, isn't it?" Velen asked
"No. What i have found is something questionable. From the demon gate, an undead army emerged, from Azeroth." Khadgar said. As expected, everyone was surprised especially the survivors from the Alliance Expedition as the undead did not exist the last time they were home
"What were these undead doing?" A'dal asked, much to everyone's confusion
"They were fighting the Legion." Khadgar answered before realizing something. "This was the one you mentioned before when you said our salvation would come."
"A'dal, are you serious? These undead are no doubt the Legion's creation." Alleria objected with other draenei agreeing with her
"Do not judge them just because they were created by the Legion." A'dal reprimanded them. "Do not forget, none of us have any control in how we were brought into this universe. How a creature is brought in is irrelevant. What matters is what they intend to do. For now, do not provoke them. Observe carefully but be ready to fight them should they prove to be hostile." he ordered
Begrudgingly, everyone followed the instructions. In the meantime, Khadgar decided to keep an eye on the undead some more. "I'll go back and keep an eye on the undead." he said and gave a stone to Velen. "If its energy disappears, then that means I'm dead."
"Hold up, you're willing to risk your life to keep an eye on the undead?" the draenei high priestess Ishanah asked
"We're fighting the Burning Legion. This whole war is a risk in of itself." Khadgar responded simply and transformed into a raven again
"I'll go back to the frontline. We will need all the bodies we can throw at this." Alleria said and she too left
When the two Alliance members left, only the draenei were left. "Prophet, what do you make of this?" Maraad asked as the draenei too left the chambers
"I am not certain. The one thing I do know, if these undead are against the Legion, then we cannot afford to fight them. We would only play into Kil'jaeden's hands if we do." Velen answered
Nagrand
Khadgar flew back to Nagrand. While in flight, he could see that the Legion's forces in the Hellfire Peninsula were too occupied trying to secure a foothold in the Terokkar Forest. Surprisingly, the demons chose to ignore the undead. His answer soon appeared when he reached the area near where the undead arrived. The demons from Zangarmarsh were launching their own offensive. From there, it became clear that the draenei have underestimated the amount of resources the Legion used to control Outland since they were still putting a lot of pressure on the forest while at the same time, having enough forces to pressure the undead as well
While he was flying, he was suddenly encased in a cage made out of pure fel fire. When Khadgar tried to fly through the gaps, he was slightly burned by the cage and realized that he would not be able to escape. He was not even sure if he could safely transform inside the cage. Suddenly, the cage was then pulled towards one of the gunships above the demon gate. On the gunship, the cage was dispelled and a figure approached the raven
"So, are you going to transform back, human?" the figure asked. Khadgar was about to flee when the figure spoke again. "Try to fly away and I'll burn you alive."
With no other choice left, Khadgar transformed back into his human form. "Who are you, demon?" he asked
"Illidan Stormrage." the demon replied simply. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"Khadgar." he replied and chose to ignore the second question. His silence answered that question as Illidan figured it out. "So, what are you undead doing here? More importantly, are you planning on attacking Shattrath?"
"If we were with the Legion then you would be dead already." Illidan replied sharply
"Are you an actual demon? Neither me nor the Draenei have heard about you." Khadgar pointed out
"No." Illidan answered simply. Khadgar wanted him to elaborate but the demon hunter merely narrowed his eyes and the archmage got the message
"I see. What do you want to accomplish here?" Khadgar asked, sensing no need to pick a fight
"I have my own reasons for wanting the Legion dead." Illidan answered, very vaguely
"If you're thinking this will end the Legion invasions on Azeroth, it won't. This world is merely one among the many they have conquered." Khadgar pointed out
"I'm well aware. I am not here to fight the Legion for good. My war with them will come soon enough but not now." Illidan answered, making sure that the archmage could not put together any clues to what he wants. "What about you?"
"We have been stranded here ever since this world shattered. I've lost count of how many years has gone by since then." Khadgar added in a hopeful tone, something which Illidan took note of
"Well, you're home is no longer a home. It's under my control now." Illidan said and surprised Khadgar. "Now, what do you know about their forces in Zangarmarsh?"
On the ground, the undead forces were trying to push into Zangarmarsh. As ordered, Maiev was with the acolytes as they were summoning defensive towers. Fordring and Mograine led the charge, killing demon after demon but they were encountering heavy resistance. The Legion's artillery were slaughtering undead by the groups. To make matters worse, the demon gate in Zangarmarsh was consistently surging with energy, sending in more demons
"Varian." Maiev called out as she joined in the main combat. Since their defenses were finished summoning, it was safe for her to leave her post. "We won't get anywhere with this. We need to close that gateway and disable the towers otherwise we would just get overwhelmed." she pointed out
Before Varian could make a response, an eye beam was shot their way, giving them some breathing room. "We'll handle the towers." the source of the beam said, which was Illysanna. "We can't bring in the gunships otherwise the Legion would just shoot them down but we did find these." she said as she held up a bomb and the other demon hunters also arrived
"What about the demon gate?" Varian asked
"Leave that to me." Illidan said as he flew down from the gunships. "While you focus on making them detonate as close as possible to the towers, I'll close the demon gate. However, I will need some cover while I do so."
"Of course, my lord." Kayn said eagerly
"Alright. Let's move before more demons pass through." Illysanna ordered and casted an invisibility spell before flying off. The other demon hunters, including Illidan, followed her lead
Knowing that the demons would be able to see them, the demons hunters threw their extra daggers towards any spectres. The first few spectres they found were in an ethereal state and their daggers just passed right through. This ended up attracting the attention of the demons who quickly engaged them
"Guess we do this the hard way." Altruis said as he drew his blades. The demons hunters then engaged the demons in another melee battle which they easily dominated
"Look out!" Kor'vas yelled out as finally, nether dragons joined the battle and the demons hunters were forced to separate otherwise they would get cleaved in two
'Spread out. Kill the spectres first. Rendezvous at the demon gate.' Illidan ordered as he fired an eye beam at a nether dragon, which eventually killed it in an explosion and further downed two more dragons
Allari and Altruis ended up pairing together when the dragon attacked while Kor'vas was with Illidan
'The spectres in this area are all dead. Let's move.' Illysanna said and quickly went invisible. She ended up on her own as the others dispersed
Sevis and Candrael, after sneaking around, found each other and continued to sneak their way through. After a while of sneaking and killing spectres, they found a tower
"Trouble. We won't be able to stay hidden around the tower." Candrael whispered as they hid behind a rock
"I guess there's no choice then." Sevis said as he held a bomb. "Create a distraction." he said and Candrael nodded and she unleashed her demon form. This quickly got the demons' attention and they tried to kill her. Using this distraction, Sevis unleashed his own demon form and quickly flew towards the tower while it was shooting down bolts of fel, which Candrael was trying to dodge while at the same time, fighting against the demons
The tower soon changed targets and decided to target Sevis but his own eye beams met some of the fel bolts. When he saw fel bats flying towards him, he was left with no other choice. Sevis threw the bomb at the tower before firing an eye beam, creating a huge explosion which blew off the top of the tower and rendered it useless. 'Candrael, tower is down. Disengage, quick'. he said
Candrael looked up and saw the top smoking and killed the closest demons to her before flying up. She did suffer some wounds but nothing too sever. When she got some distance from her attackers, she quickly went invisible but before she did, a fel bat managed to scratch her with its claws. She soon rendezvoused with Sevis behind a giant mushroom
"Now, we just need to find the demon gate." Sevis whispered while they observed the nearby demons trying to locate them
"Look out!" Candrael said, not enough for to give away their postion, and pulled Sevis into the ground. Just seconds after, a massive barrage of destruction came. From the looks of things, it came from the gunships that were above the area
At that same time, Kayn managed to avoid engaging any demons. He came across a couple towers but was able to sneak around. When he was spotted due to the spectres, he simply created a cloud of magic to blind his enemies before killing the spectres. Kayn has also made sure to stay out of range of any towers. While he was sneaking around, he soon came across an artillery position, one which was raining down fire to another area of Outland. Since he knew it wasn't firing at Nagrand, that can only mean it was firing at Terokkar Forest. He then decided to climb a nearby ridge and saw a massive battle down below. The demons were still continuing their onslaught against the draenei. Kayn was impressed that the Legion had the forces to give the undead a lot of trouble but at the same time, invade the draenei. Since the scourge was under orders not to attack the draenei unless provoked, Kayn decided to help them out. After getting a good angle, he activated the bomb he was carrying and threw it towards the artillery position, creating an explosion and destroying most of it. This did attract the attention of the demons so he had to split
While the others were doing their own thing, Allari and Altruis managed to end up right at the demon gate and saw that it was heavily guarded
'Lord Illidan, Altruis and I have found the demon gate. It is about in the central area of this swamp. The gate is heavily defended by the Legion and more of them are pouring through every now and then.' Allari said while they hid around
'Keep hidden. We have other issues at the moment.' Illidan answered. Instinctively, Allari and Altruis looked up and saw the Legion gunships, two of them firing at a certain area of the swampy terrain
Kor'vas looked at Illidan and he nodded. She then flew to the top deck of one of the gunships before quickly killing all of the demons. While Kor'vas infiltrated one of the gunships, Illidan knew that they wouldn't be able to take over all of them so instead, he flew towards the back of one of the gunships before firing an eye beam which caused the main engine to explode and sent it crashing to the ground slowly. A swarm of fel bats and nether dragon soon tried to attack Illidan but he simply unleashed a blizzard around him which he then combined with lightning bolts. This ended up killing most of the flyers while disorienting the rest, which he used this distraction to infiltrate another gunship
At that same time, Illysanna found the demon's main base in Zangarmarsh. Having seen a gunship being attacked just seconds ago, she knew that she was on her own, for now. Deciding to throw the base into disarray, Illysanna placed her charges around some rocks near her. She then transformed into her demon form and fired an eye beam on one of the walls of the base. This quickly alerted the demons and they all went to kill her. When they got close, the explosives were triggered and it killed a lot of the demon group. This bought her enough time for her eye beam to collapse an upper part of one of the towers, which ended up collapsing the top half straight into the base. It wasn't enough to destroy the base but at least it was damaged. Knowing she would be killed if she stays, Illysanna quickly fled the scene, knowing that the gunships won't fire at her because her comrades are up there and because the demons could end up destroying their own base
In one of the gunships, Kor'vas was able to easily kill the demons aboard the ship and she decided towards the main control room. The demons who were guarding the room were killed easily when she distracted them by throwing a dagger and gave her enough time to kill them all with only a few minor cuts. Kor'vas then entered the control room and use the ship's weapons against the demons when suddenly, an explosion occured in the ceiling of the conrol room. This disoriented her and was kicked across the room by an aranasi, who hid in the ceiling, taking a huge gamble that the demon hunter won't check the ceiling, which worked as Kor'vas was distracted trying to see for any other demons. The aranasi held a sword to the demon hunter's throat right as more demons came in, surrounding her
Here is the next chapter, which begins the war on Outland. There really isn't much for me to point out as this was mostly focused on the demon hunter's abilities along with using whatever equipment they find
The one thing I will say though, and it is more of a warning, is that from this point forward, expect a lot of destruction. I would say expect a lot of battles but come on. The canon literally has the word 'war' in it so having so many battles should already be expected
That's about it for this chapter