Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
Ashenvale Forest
"Illysanna, are you sure about this?" Shandris asked with uncertainty. All the remaining able bodied fighters have gathered some distance outside Ashenvale but not at the main entryway into the forest and with a Scourge necropolis and an army from both factions
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Illysanna asked in irritation. Not checking on Xavius years ago was still on her nerves and the fact that the others asked that she not bring that large of the Scourge with them only irritated her further. She just relented because that was easier than having to deal with the Nightmare and the mortals at the same time
'She's really ticked off about this.' Shandris noted to herself
Everyone had a bad feeling about this. When they were planning what to do earlier, almost all of them, minus the Scourge members, immediately disagreed with launching a full scale counter attack but Illysanna had a good point about how the Old Gods forced them into a corner, wait around as the Nightmare slowly replenishes its forces or attack them head on. Since the Scourge was going to do it their way regardless of what they agreed upon, the others have no choice but to join. One thing that really caught their attention was how Maiev seemed to be avoiding Naisha
"Illysanna, you need to calm down. Yes, we made a mistake years ago but there's nothing we can do about it now." Tyrande said and surprisingly, it calmed her down
"I'm still concerned about this. We are going in completely blind." Kael commented
"It's not like we have a choice, Kael'thas." Maiev answered while walking beside him. "The Nightmare have ways to lock us out. Thrall's powers can't scout inland and we can't even go invisible to gather the information ourselves." she reminded him before looking at Illysanna. "They're going to be ready for us and we'll only have one shot at this. If we fail, then we'll have to use the gunships and necropolises to wipe out the Old Gods' forces."
"Ysera, Malfurion and Cenarius will also be there." Alexstrasza added grimly
"Then we kill them." Kor'vas said and all nearby night elves looked at her incredously. Raising an eyebrow, she decided to rephrase that. "Or at the very least, incapacitate them." she said
"All we have to do is kill Xavius right? Then we should just keep them off our backs while we head straight for the Emerald Dream." Vandel pointed out
"But they're most likely going to have traps for us. As Maiev said, they will be ready for us." Thrall added
"We're wasting time. Let's do this." Illysanna said. After mentally giving an order, the necropolis gained altitude. Taking a cue from the Legion, the necropolis rained down corpses directly into Ashenvale Forest. Like with the Legion gunships, some of the corpses were actually flesh golems fire in a similar manner as the infernals or fel reavers
While the necropolis was still raining down corpses, Malygos quickly froze part of the forest before shattering the ice, sending icicles into the forest. Taking point, all four demon hunters quickly charged through the gap and used their fel fire at random directions. As expected, even though they weren't attacking at the main entrypoint, the Nightmare's forces were ready for them. The forest came to life but unlike when it happened before, the treants were completely corrupted, having a stench of death with them. Satyrs were shooting shadow bolts at them while corrupted ancients threw rocks at them. A few green drakes were stationed there and they shot their acidic breaths
However, none of these attacks has phazed their attackers. The demon hunters countered by igniting the forest while the others used their various magics. As they were moving in, they were caught up when vines came out of the ground. Kael used his fire magics to slowly break them free while Malygos created a shield around them to protect them from the incoming projectiles. Another army of corrupted spiderlings soon erupted en masse when they neared the Nightmare outpost
"Foolish mortals. You still dare to oppose us?" a large satyr said mockingly and slammed his weapon into the ground, releasing a powerful shockwave. "You will-" he said but was cut off when Kor'vas rushed behind him and decapitated him. Surrounded, she completely disoriented the Nightmare by creating a fel fog that clouded everyone's vision but the demon hunters
Knowing the the others, including himself, couldn't see through the fog, Malygos reacted by giving the others vision that allowed them to see through the fog. While it was not as good as the spectral sight and it won't last forever, at least they will be able to fight this battle. With this tactic, the Nightmare's forces were completely slaughtered as they could not see through the fog and only inflicting minor casualties upon their attackers
"That was surprisingly easy." Vandel commented, this only being is second true battle
"Keep your guard up, Demon Hunter. It's never that easy." Vereesa said, a little surprised at the reaction and something that Vandel noted
"It was but I doubt it would work a second time." Kor'vas added, assuming that the Nightmare would be able to adapt to it. A small rustling sound was then heard which was slowly getting louder. Not wanting to take a risk. "Ambush!" she yelled out and shot an eye beam at where the sound was coming from
Everyone reacted quickly to her word and just a few minutes later, more of the forest came to life. Several keeper of the groves and dryads appeared along with fully grown green dragons coming from the sky. Alexstrasza and Soridormi quickly engaged the green dragons while Malygos focused on aiding their allies
"Stay put." Illysanna ordered when Eranikus and Merithra were about to engage their corrupted brethren. Both dragons looked at her in confusion. "We need you as unscathed as possible. You're the only ones that know how to navigate the Emerald Dream." she clarified and understanding, the two green dragons focused their efforts on the ground forces
More and more Nightmare forces continued to pour in but despite their numbers, their attackers held strong. Tyrande summoned another starstorm which greatly hindered the Nightmare's forces by killing most of the lesser satyrs and spiderlings. Illysanna, Kor'vas, Kael and Rhonin protected her from anyone trying to take advantage of the distracted priestess with the prince creating a ring of fire around her to ensure that vines would not be able to interrupt. Shandris, Vereesa, Maiev, Vandel and Allari tried picking off the children of Cenarius. Thrall, Cairne and Vol'jin all used their magics to support their allies by providing healing
Eventually, the Nightmare had too many forces and were slowly overwhelming them when Tyrande's starstorm stopped
"Oh hell. These guys seem to be serious about killing us." Allari commented before she and Vandel unleashed their demon forms. Left with no other choice, Illysanna decided to trust their newest demon hunter that he won't lose control otherwise
"When are they not?" Vereesa said dryly before drawing her blades
Follower their ally's lead, Kor'vas and Illysanna mimicked Allari's actions and quickly transformed into their demon forms. Aside from Malygos, no one have ever seen them in action in their demonic state and they were impressed at how their fighting abilities increased. With a little help from Malygos and Maiev's magics, they were able to fend off the Nightmare and turn the tables. The Nightmare however, did not relent and summoned even more treants
"Their goal is not to kill us." Thrall realized after fighting for nearly half an hour. "They simply want to exhaust us."
"They might attempt to use the same thing that corrupted Lady Ysera." Eranikus added
"And we still have to fight her sometime soon." Maiev said before freezing solid most of the treants
Taking advantage of the situation, the demon hunters quickly rushed around and killed the remaining children of Cenarius. When they were finally dead, the former warden shattered all of the ice, killing the remaining minions. A few minutes later, corpses of corrupted green dragons fell from the sky, signaling that Alexstrasa had stopped them. The other dragons quickly landed and the dragonqueen tried to heal as many wounds as she can
When one of the corrupted green dragons revealed itself that it wasn't dead. Noticing this, Allari used her scythe to extract some more information
"Surprising that you're still alive." Allari commented as the dragon writhed in pain. The others just watched. "Where are Ysera, Malfurion and Cenarius?" she demanded to know
The dragon tried to resist but it was futile. "Stormrage is... Felwood... Cenarius is in... Hyjal... Ysera in... Emerald..." it said before yelling in fury as it continued desperately to resist
"Well, that settles it. Seems like we are finally on the other end when a war happens in these parts." Kor'vas commented, referring to the invasion of the Burning Legion
"Do we still go through with this?" Rhonin wondered with uncertainty
"We do. Velen, Agatha, and Anub'arak are keeping an eye on Ahn'Qiraj. They should be able to hold the line from the gunship they are on." Illysanna answered
"Demon Elf mon, but why ya not go after da Old God in Ahn'Qiraj?" Vol'jin wondered
"For one thing, their minions are still here and we would just leave ourselves wide open if we focus on the Old God but leave the Nightmare alone." Maiev answered for her. "For another, we don't have the necessary resources to destroy the Old God and it is far more feasible to kill their servants first since the Old Gods themselves are still imprisoned."
"That makes sense. Leaving them vulnerable like that." Vereesa commented
"Then I guess we better get ready to push forward." Thrall said as he summoned some spirit wolves and sent them out
"Don't raise them." Illysanna said when she noticed one of the liches about to raise their fallen enemies
"Pardon, Lady Illysanna?" the lich, Cho'nammoth wondered curiously and with the others sharing the sentiment
"We don't know enough about them to raise them." Illysanna answered much to the others' slight surprise. "If we reanimate them, it could have some unexpected consequences."
Maiev was reminded of Illidan's instructions when she had killed Cho'gall just recently with both of them having the near exact same reasoning for not doing anything to the Old Gods' minions. 'Illysanna and Illidan are so alike it's scary. It's almost as if he had raised her himself.' she commented to herself before realizing something. 'Could it be...?' she wondered the possible reason on why Illidan was out of it since he has reawakened. She was brought out of her thoughts when Kor'vas waved her hand in front of her face. "What...?" the former warden asked
"Snap out of it. Now's not the time to dwell on your thoughts." Kor'vas said as the others were already moving. "We're moving towards Felwood and incapacitate Malfurion." she said
Maiev merely tilted her head, knowing full well that wasn't what the demon hunter intended to do but the look on her face said that she only worded it like that or the night elves would make a scene out of it. Drawing her blade, Maiev followed the others while Kor'vas hanged back
'Ymiron, get down here. Watch our flank. We're heading deeper into the forest.' Kor'vas ordered and a few minutes later, the vrykul king dropped down from the necropolis with a small undead army. Along with some of the Alliance and Horde warriors, they began creating a defensive line
'Alright. We've got this side. Go.' Ymiron replied as the acolytes began summoning some ziggurats
A few minutes later, Kael made the first contact with a very large base of the Nightmare's forces in felwood. The elven prince used his runeblade to shoot a stream of fire at them. To his surprise, some vines blocked most of the flames and some goo splattered on the ground, unleashing more spiderlings
"They're here! Kill them!" a satyr called out. In response, some green dragon whelps used their acidic breaths to attack them
While the spiderlings forced them to stop, Malygos created a pillar of ice at the satyr's base. It was shattered a few seconds later by Malfurion himself by growing a single massive vine. The former archdruid tried to slam the blue dragon aspect with it. Before it made contact with the dragon, the vine was destroyed by fel fire. The four demon hunters were about to quickly fight Malfurion but some satyrs stopped them in their tracks. The surrounding hillsides also suddenly came to life and revealed mountain giants but were completely corrupted by the Emerald Nightmare
"The hell? The mountain giants are real?" Vandel said in wonder but maintained focus by dodged and killing a satyr that tried to take advantage of the distraction
"I am surprised." Malfurion said and stopped the fighting. "After you ran like cowards, I am surprised that you Night Elves still returned to this place."
"Malfurion please, fight the corruption. This is not you!" Tyrande begged pleadingly
"Foolish priestess. The Malfurion you knew is long gone." Malfurion declared before summoning more massive vines from the ground and the battle was joined once more
Kael and Rhonin tried to use their magics to burn as many of the surroundings as possible. The demon hunters, Maiev, Vereesa, Cairne and Thrall all joined the very thick of the battle while Vol'jin used supporting spells. With the large number of combatants, Tyrande summoned another starstorm to strike at random. Corrupted green dragons swarmed the sky along with their younger kind which were quickly fought by the other dragons
The Nightmare's forces, now joined by the very sturdy mountain giants, began inflicting significant damage. At the same time, the night elves and their allies were able to breach the main perimeter but it became clear that the mountain giants gave the Nightmare a clear advantage as all the dragons could not aid in the main ground battle
In the middle of the battle as a lot of the Nightmare's forces were killed by the starstorm, Malfurion summoned an acid rain, which was painful to everyone that wasn't a dragon or undead. The demon hunters were also unaffected by the acid rain and they continued slaughtering the satyrs and other Nightmare forces. Vol'jin and the other trolls quickly used their healing magics to minimize its effects, summoning some healing wards. With the starstorm still raining down, Malfurion summoned another vine to attack Tyrande. Vandel barely managed to get her out of certain death but the vine managed to pierce his shoulder and it forced the starstorm to stop
"Thank you." Tyrande said as the demon hunter grabbed his arm in pain. Since the Horde warriors were covering them, the priestess took this chance to heal Vandel's arm which was nearly ripped off
What everyone did not expect, including Malfurion himself, was Maiev being the one being the first one to fight the archdruid. Just about everyone thought that Tyrande would be the first one to engage him. Unfortunately for him, Maiev's powers just froze all of Malfurion's minions near him solid, leaving him vulnerable. Desperately summoning more vines, Malfurion was barely able to block Frostmourne but the vine was slowly being frozen. Being forced in such a situation, Maiev forced the archdruid to stop the acid rain, much to the relief of their allies. Malfurion was constantly forced on the backfoot as Maiev easily sliced vine after vine and instantly freezing any lesser minion that would try to help him
After Maiev managed to run Malfurion through and was about to kill him, a lot of vines wrapped around the death knight and forced her into the ground. The vines were a result of another corrupted keeper of the grove covering Malfurion however, the keeper was killed when Kael teleported Vereesa and Thrall in its immediate area. Vereesa sliced off one of its arm while Thrall bashed its head and forced it into the ground. The Warchief summoned wolves to cover them as they became surrounded by the corrupted treants. The two of them fought back to back with Thrall launching lightning bolts every now and then. Allari soon came to their aid and carved a path for them to safety with her eye beams while the other female demon hunters covered her
At the same time, while Maiev was forced onto the ground and before she could freeze her way out, a mountain giant moved to crush her underfoot. Even she would not be able to freeze the vines that quickly with so many vines wrapped around her. Malygos, in the sky, noticed when the acid rain stopped and when he saw that Maiev was going to be killed, he quickly grabbed a corrupted green dragon and threw it into the mountain giant. The impact caused the giant to lose its footing and staggered back. This gave Maiev the time she needed to break free of the vines before blinking to the mountain giant's head and thrust her sword. Frostmourne slowly began to freeze the mountain giant solid. Once it was fully frozen, the giant shattered and the death knight was forced to fight more of the lesser Nightmare minions
After Malygos threw the green dragon, he left himself open and was taken advantage of when two other green dragons bit into his wing and back. Reeling from the pain, the blue dragon aspect was forced into the ground. 'If I'm going down, I might as well make it count.' Malygos thought to himself and directed himself to crash to where Shandris was fighting Malfurion, who was clearly reeling from the former warden's attacks earlier. Kor'vas noticed this and quickly killed the two satyrs attacking her and rushed towards Shandris. The demon hunter inflicted a deep wound in Malfurion torso
At that moment, Kor'vas was sorely tempted to kill Malfurion and get this battle over with so they can move on to Mount Hyjal. However, that would without a doubt unnerve all of the night elves and cause unnecessary trouble. Malfurion was also greatly injured by her and Maiev's attacks so begrudgingly, Kor'vas chose to save Shandris and flew her out of the immediate area right as Malygos crashed into the ground
The two dragons still continued to attack Malygos, that was until Alexstrasza dove down and killed one by biting directly into the neck while user her tail to slam the other one. Soridormi ensured that no other dragons would attack them
The mountain giants still proved to be a problem however, just like the battle in the second defensive line in durotar, rock golems appeared from the earth and quickly engaged them and the corrupted ancients. After the first rock golems appeared, a much bigger brown rock golem with violet gemstones on its body and floating around it
"And just who in the hell is that?" Illysanna asked, preparing to fight the newcomer
Cairne saw this and quickly stopped the demon hunter as he recognized who the newcomer was. "No, she is a friend. That is the earthmother herself." he explained
Illysanna then told all of the undead not to attack the newcomer before creating a telepathic link. 'Agatha, there is a large rock golem with some sort of violet gemstones on it. Is this Therazane?' she asked
'Yes, it is. She is also being true to her nature. Therazane is not one to just join battles for the sake of joining it. She is the most reserved of all the elementals.' Agatha answered
'You could have mentioned that sooner.' Illysanna replied in annoyance
In the meantime, Tyrande and Malfurion finally met face to face after the chaos of the battle just escalated when the earth elementals finally joined the battle
"So, you finally have me cornered, Tyrande." Malfurion said, bleeding from Maiev and Kor'vas' attacks and coughed up some blood. "What are you gonna do?"
"Malfurion, please." Tyrande begged once more, ignoring the rest of the battle. "Don't make me do this."
"You won't..." Malfurion said while getting up. "And you never will." he finished and wrapped more vines around her. Unlike the ones he used earlier, these vines were instead slowly sapping her strength. "You aren't strong enough to do what is necessary, Tyrande, you never was. This is why despite everything, I still have some respect for my brother, because he doesn't hesitate to do what is necessary."
Tyrande was writhing in pain as her strength was slowly sapped away but eventually, found the strength to fight back. "You were right." she said and Malfurion tilted his head in confusion. "I may not have been as strong as Illidan, as you so put it, but I will not let you or our people be enslaved by the Old Gods." she declared and her eyes glowed white. A huge burst of Elune's energy soon erupted, freeing her from the vines
Caught off guard, Malfurion was helpless as Tyrande summoned two glaives that were similar to Illidan's in the way it was wielded and slashed him across the torso, further accentuating the injury that Kor'vas inflicted upon him. No other Nightmare forces were able to interfere between the two of them because the priestess' allies keeping them all occupied and those that tried to move away would leave themselves open to attack from another. The archdruid continued to move back, desperately trying to dodge the priestess' attacks but he knew that he was losing. In desperation, Malfurion summoned some corrupted treants but in his injured state, Tyrande was able to kill them fairly easily. When she did, she quickly knocked him into the ground and put her blade on his neck
"Enough, Malfurion." Tyrande said while trying to fight back tears. "I really don't want to do this. Fight the corruption!" she said
"That is why you are weak, Tyrande." Malfurion said with a smirk. "Even though the Malfurion you knew and loved is gone, you still cling onto the hope that he might return. I don't blame you. I would have done the same and since we are being honest here, that is why Illidan is the single most dangerous individual in this world. He is the only one that can keep his emotions in check. Neither you, nor me, are able to do so at the level he does." he said before parts of his wounded body glowed red
Tyrande knew that whatever was happening with Malfurion was not good and quickly moved back. To her surprise and confusion, red gemstones came out of his body and landed in random areas, each of them further corrupting the lands. She looked at what was going on and saw Malfurion twisting his body for reasons she was not aware of. Eventually, from the wounds on him came out some tendrils made out of pure corruption
"You should have just killed me when you had the chance, priestess." Malfurion said however, his voice was twisted and it sounded like it wasn't him anymore
'It's almost as if...' Tyrande thought before realizing in horror what was happening. Inflicting significant injuries on him and not finishing him off. "He's completely possessed by the Old Gods." she said in complete horror to which Malfurion merely grinned
"Correct. You really should have learned your lesson. After all, Illidan Stormrage was your childhood friend." the being possessing Malfurion said before with a wave of his hand, four spikes as tall as she is appeared around her and bound her in chains, preventing her from moving. Like with earlier, her energy was being sapped only this time, it was much more painful. "Now you suffer." Malfurion said with his voice echoing
Out of nowhere, the entire battle was thrown into further chaos when powerful waves of fel energy was shot from a direction that was not in anybody's line of sight. Three of these fel energy blasts hit Malfurion head on and created an explosion. Of all the Scourge members, only the demon hunters and Drak'thul had the ability to fire such powerful fel waves. However, the demon hunters in the area were all occupied with fighting while Drak'thul was not suited into direct battles and was not present. That only left
'Illidan? He's here?' Illysanna thought to herself but found that she could not locate him. 'There's no time for that now.' she thought to herself upon seeing the explosion and saw Tyrande bound. Rushing to the area, Illysanna used on of her blades to run Malfurion through before used the other to inflict another injury from his lower to the upper torso with both attacks infused with fel energy, enough to actually knock Malfurion unconscious. Turning her sights to Tyrande, the demon hunter freed her and destroyed the spikes and helping the priestess to get on her legs
"Was that...?" Tyrande asked weakly, as she knew for a fact that it did not come from any of the demon hunters with them
"Maybe. I'm not exactly sure. I can't find him." Illysanna answered and motioned for two of blue dragons to ensure that Malfurion could not move. A red dragon also accompanied them as this dragon checked if he was still alive. 'Illidan, if that was really you, what is going on? Why are you only fighting now?' Illysanna thought to herself while she took the priestess to where Vol'jin was
Here's the next chapter. It begins the counter attack and is the beginning of the end of the Nightmare arc. I'm not sure if Malfurion was corrupted by the Emerald Nightmare in the Stormrage book and if he was, I don't know how Tyrande reacted. I just made my own and with the corruption, some secrets about him. The part about him being completely possessed by the Old Gods is just another thing I made up
Also, about that fel fog thing. That's just the Darkness ability of the Havoc Demon Hunters. I just changed it from Darkness to Fel since the Darkness magics is of the Old Gods and had it conjure a fog that blinds everyone. Another thing I forgot before is that when Maiev killed the Twilight's Hammer forces except for Chogall in one strike, that was Fury of Frostmourne, just significantly weaker. I think that if Maiev as a Death Knight, she would be stronger than Arthas but definitely weaker when Arthas was the Lich King
There's really not much else to talk about since this chapter is straightfoward as is. So, I guess that's it for now