Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
"Ysera."
Before more words could be spoken, the corrupted green dragon raised a claw and brought it down upon her enemies, who were swiftly able to dodge. "Suffer and perish!" Ysera said before shooting an acidic breath which was barely dodged. "You will not escape!" she declared and continued her attack. Illysanna flew beside her head and tried to kill her as quickly as possible but corrupted energies was shot from a red crystal which forced the demon hunter to the ground. Since most of the attacks the others threw at her had no effect and with the other three dragons in their elven form, Ysera decided to target the demon hunter first. Ysera shot another stream of acidic breath at Illysanna but her head was knocked off course when another dragon suddenly pounced on her and forced her onto the ground
"Go!" Alexstrasza said, who has transformed into her dragon form, while pinning her sister down. Eranikus and Merithra were about to transform themselves but a hand on the corrupted aspect's daughter stopped them
"No, we should leave Ysera to the Dragonqueen." Thrall said and they both gave him a curious look. "Right now, our top priority is to take out Xavius and we need to do this before more forces come after us while Alexstrasza keeps Ysera busy."
Begrudgingly, both green dragons agreed while the dragonqueen kept her sister occupied. Thrall helped Illysanna up before Eranikus led the way to where they suspected Xavius would be
"So, you really think you are strong enough to take me on your own, sister?" Ysera mocked her sister, knowing full well that she is vulnerable to be blinded by her emotions
"I killed your corrupted flight, Ysera." Alexstrasza said as she pounced on her sister, who dodged out of the way
"But none of them were anyone that were particularly close to you." Ysera pointed out before tackling her back
Alexstrasza shrugged this off before shooting flames at her sister, who dodged by taking flight and lunged at her. The dragonqueen herself jumped up but Ysera was too quick and pushed her to the ground. The green dragon raised a foot and extended her claws. In her corrupted state, her claws extended further than it normally would with the extra length being made out of pure corruption. Before Ysera could stab her sister, Alexstrasza headbutted her and forced her off. The green dragon then took flight and her sister did the same. Alexstraza tried to grab Ysera by one of her wings but was prevented from doing so when black tendrils suddenly appeared
Since she had no defense against the corruption, Alexstrasza was forced back. Ysera gladly took advantage of this. Black tendrils appeared on the green dragon's tail and gave it extra mass, which made it take the form of a mace. Ysera slammed her mace tail right onto her sister's chest. It drew blood and the dragonqueen was quickly slammed into the ground. As Alexstrasza tried to recover herself, Ysera suddenly jumped on her and pinned her to the ground
"What's wrong, sister? That look like it hurts." Ysera said with fake sadness. "Allow me to help you." she said while raising a claw
'I'll have to take that chance.' Alexstrasza thought to herself as her sister inflicted significant damage on her. With no other choice and not confident that she had enough strength to force her sister off her, Alexstrasza transformed into her elven form
The loss of weight caught Ysera by surprise as she suddenly found herself stabbing the ground. "What?" she muttered and saw the dragonqueen trying to walk away, holding her chest as the injury was still there. "You won't escape!" the green dragon aspect growled out as she shot her acidic breath. It missed the target but it did hit the ground and it threw the dragonqueen into some dead trees. Knowing the Alexstrasza would try and hide in the trees and that her breath couldn't put someone as powerful as the dragonqueen to sleep, Ysera quickly lunged to where the dragonqueen was thrown but was surprised when she couldn't find her. "Where are you?!" the corrupted aspect yelled out. Since the Emerald Dream was fully corrupted by the Nightmare, Ysera tried to use its influence to locate her sister but found she was unable to do so. "Those damned Titans." Ysera cursed, knowing that the gifts the titans gave them provided her sister some sort of protection
In the meantime, Alexstrasza strolled through the dead trees. That stunt of transforming into her elven form while both injured and in the middle of a battle was very risky. She could have killed herself just by doing it. 'I lost her. The powers of the Titans should buy me some time.' she thought to herself. Alexstrasza was aware that Ysera could find her at any moment and she wasn't sure how long it would take for her to heal herself. 'This is still a forest isn't it?' she thought to herself and Instead, she decided to resort to using her powers over life, releasing it onto the ground. However, she didn't use it in her immediate vicinity but in as far as she could reach in her injured state. To her surprise, it actually brought some of the trees back to life
Ysera noticed this and quickly headed to where the forest was coming back to life. "There you are!" she yelled and while she was nearing the location, she shot more of her acidic breath which slowly poisoned the trees. When she arrived, she quickly tore up the area in an attempt to kill her sister. "Of course you aren't here. You're very crafty aren't you, sister?" the corrupted dragon aspect said in frustration as more of the forest came back to life
"That should buy me some time." Alexstrasza said while hiding among the dead trees. She made sure that she would be able to keep an eye on where Ysera was searching. 'She should be able to figure out that I'm only using the restored trees as bait to lure her away.' the dragonqueen thought as she tried to sneak her way to the trees she brought back to life as Ysera continued to tear it apart
The corrupted dragon aspect was still in the middle of destroying the corrupted forest when she realized something. Turning her sights to the edge of the restored trees and shot her acidic breaths or shadow energy beams at the areas. Even though she was corrupted, she still had most of her intelligence. This effort however, was still fruitless as it did not locate the dragonqueen. Instead, Ysera extended her front claws using the corruption and dug it into the ground, releasing some black tendrils in random directions
Alexstrasza took cover when her sister was destroying the edge of the restored trees and continued to heal herself. Restoring the forest took a huge toll on her powers and healing herself was draining it further. However, this was a necessary choice otherwise she would be completely helpless to defend herself and her powers were not that suited into a direct combat unlike Malygos or Neltharion. While she nearly healed the worst of the wound, the tendrils that Ysera released strolled behind her but it didn't do anything
When the tendrils finally located her, Ysera quickly shot a breath of acid at the direction. Alexstrasza barely managed to dodge this but her left leg was injured in the process. Although not fully healed, it was enough for the dragonqueen to fight an equal. Since her cover was blown, Alexstrasza gathered energy on her hands and shot fire balls into the forest, trying to take a cue from the demon hunters
"What's the matter, sister? Where's your aim?" Ysera mocked as she shot back and scored a direct hit
Ysera's acidic breath greatly stung Alexstrasza but she forced herself to endure it otherwise she too would fall under the Nightmare's, and by extension, the Old Gods' control. Shrugging off the attack, Alexstrasza shot a stream of fire at her sister, scoring a direct hit right at the head which disoriented the corrupted dragon. This gave Alexstrasza the opening she needed to transform back into her dragon form and she did not need to take a great risk like earlier
When the corrupted green dragon finally recovered after a few seconds, Ysera found the surroundings clouded in a thick fog. Instead of panicking, Ysera grinned. "I see. So, you're trying to imitate Stormrage's followers, are you? I never thought I would live to see the day you would stoop that low." she commented
"I never thought so as well." Alexstrasza's voice echoed through the fog. While she too could not see through the fog, she was instead feeling the life force to locate her sister through the fog. "However, your masters are forcing us into positions we never even consider let alone forced into." she continued right before tackling Ysera into the ground before biting into the back of the green dragon's neck
While normally this would inflict a fatal injury to a dragon or even outright kill them, the Nightmare's influence on Ysera allowed her not to take much damage from it. Ysera forced her sister off her by growing more tendrils from chest. Alexstrasza quickly recovered herself and shot another fiery breath at Ysera's head and managed to dig her claws into the corrupted dragon's chest, inflicting a deep wound
Ysera growled in pain before pouncing on her sister once more. To her surprise, Alexstrasza was now actually trying to fight her as the dragonqueen quickly rolled them over before clawing into her lower body again. Now growing frustrated, Ysera released her acid breath once more but Alexstrasza quickly jumped off her to dodge before retaliating with her own fiery breath
"Give it up, Ysera. I won't make the same mistake with Neltharion again." Alexstrasza boldly declared
"It is you who should give up, Alexstrasza." Ysera quickly retorted and grew some tendrils from the ground and forced her sister back. "I now wield powers beyond your imagination and we both know your own powers are not suited to a direct combat." she said as the tendrils wrapped around Alexstrasza's head and threw her away before using the Nightmare's power to clear the fog. "You are no Neltharion nor Malygos."
Alexstrasza hissed in pain as she got up. She expected Ysera to attack by now but she didn't so the dragonqueen looked at her sister, who was still on the way as the corrupted dragon pounced on her. 'Her movements are slowing down.' the dragonqueen noted but was still pounced on. She shot her fiery breath to get Ysera off her before slamming her tail as her sister was forced back
The corrupted aspect then scored another hit with her acidic breath. This time, Ysera was the one that managed to inflict an injury as she used her Nightmare powers to enlarge one of her front claws and slash Alexstrasza across the face and instantly caused her to bleed. Taking to the skies, Ysera grew black tendrils on her wings and pierced her sister in various areas. Some of the tendrils even intended to rip one of Alexstrasza's wings off
"You know, sister." Ysera spoke as the dragonqueen yelled in pain. "Let me tell you a little secret. Out of all the Dragon Aspects, you were the only one that the masters didn't have any plan to corrupt. Do you want to know why?" she asked but Alexstrasza didn't give any response. "Because out of the five of us, only your power had no benefit to the cause. You have the power to let life flourish and to a certain extent, even bring back the dead. However, you have no control over life aside from growing it which makes you..." she trailed off before growing another tendril. "Expendable." and stabbed her sister in the chest, barely missing the heart
Before Ysera could kill Alexstrasza, all of the tendrils vanished into thin air and she began screaming in pain. She was even forced onto the ground where she continued to scream and twisting her body. Alexstrasza, who was barely alive at this point, looked at Ysera and was confused. After a few more minutes of screaming and writhing, the red markings on Ysera disappeared. Once they were gone, the red crystals on her body dropped and her scale color slowly turned back to normal
'They've done it.' Alexstrasza thought to herself as she witnessed her sister collapse. "Yse-" she tried to get up to heal her but the pain she endured was too great and she too collapsed, unconscious
With the others
The others continued to their destination and to their surprise, there was not a single person aside from Ysera that came in their way since they arrived in the Emerald Dream. While they were running, they all came to a stop when Illysanna just stood still and observed their surroundings
"What's wrong?" Merithra asked worried
"It's odd. There's nobody around." Illysanna said while continuing to scan the surroundings. "This is supposed to be where the Nightmare is yet only Ysera is guarding it. Something's not right."
"Could it be possible that the Nightmare used all their forces in attacking us?" Thrall wondered
"It's a definite possibility. We overestimated the Nightmare's ability and we were forced to leave Ashenvale at their mercy." Eranikus pointed out. "Are you sure there's no one around?"
"I am." Illysanna said. 'Kor'vas, is there anything happening on your end?' she asked telepathically
'Aside from the battle down at Hyjal's base, no, why? What's wrong?' Kor'vas replied
'Only Ysera is here and there's still no sign of Illidan.' Illysanna replied. 'Damn it. We have to go.' she cursed as she became confused at what was happening before cutting the link off. "Let's go." and Eranikus nodded before leading the way
A while later, they came across the grizzly hills within the Emerald Dream and it was far more corrupted than the last time the green dragons were here
"This place..." Merithra lamented at the state it was in now
Eranikus focused once more and the area where he suspected Xavius might be in was still there. "I feel the place is near here. It's just over there." he pointed to a nearby ridge
Taking a deep breath, Illysanna spoke. "Let's end this." and they arrived to the ridge. Down at the bottom of the ridge, they found a place that wasn't here the last time any of the green dragons were here and its corruption was far beyond anything they have ever seen. It was worse than the corruption the Legion spread. They all jumped down
"What is this place? I've never seen such corruption." Thrall commented, very wary of the surroundings
"Me neither. It's even more unnerving with the fact that only Ysera is here." Illysanna commented. "Somehow even the Legion's corruption pales when compared to this."
"As it should be." a voice echoed in the area. All of them quickly got into a fighting position. "The Burning Legion is nothing compared to the powers of the master." the voice continued to say before a specific area in the rift suddenly cracked. That same area then began to slowly move and a room appeared. Within that room was someone everybody thought was the one responsible
"Xavius." Illysanna growled out, gripping her blade tighter. "So, you really are alive after all this time."
"And Illysanna Ravencrest, am I right?" Xavius questioned, not bothering to pay attention as he took a few steps forward. His appearance was unlike anybody ever imagined. They all expected to see a twisted elf but his look was largely different. He looked more akin to a satyr except his body was much bulkier and his tongue was hanging from his mouth reaching to his midsection. Like with the other satyrs, he had horns along with some extra appendages on his back. His skin was a very pale gray in color with red markings on his body and various areas colored black. The tips of his appendages and claws look like they were made of crystals and were glowing red in color. "It would seem that we meet again after ten thousand years." he said in a tone that was glad they met
Illysanna quickly picked up on the tone. "The feeling's not mutual, Xavius." she hissed out as the others continued to observe. "Those stupid Night Elves got a bit too cocky. You should be dead by now."
"'Stupid Night Elves' you say?" Xavius chuckled. "Why, weren't you one of them?" he mocked her
Whatever patience Illysanna had left vanished into thin air. Some time after she had became a demon hunter, Illidan had told her the truth. Xavius was the one responsible for making first contact with Sargeras and the Legion. While she was furious, she has at least made peace with the fact that Xavius was dead, or so she thought, and now, seeing that person alive completely lit up all of her remaining fuses. As much as the Legion was responsible a lot of what happened to this world, Xavius was just as guilty in her eyes. "I'll kill you!" she hissed venomously and transformed into her demon form, having no intention of holding back, before rushing at Xavius
"Illysanna, wait!" Merithra called out but it fell on deaf ears as the demon hunter was already behind their enemy
"Damn it." Eranikus cursed and transformed into his dragon form
As Thrall was about to join in, Merithra stopped him. "Thrall, don't. We can't afford to recklessly attack. That will only give Xavius what he wants. Let's hide and figure out a plan." she suggested and the went in another area of the rift
Xavius just moved the appendages on his back to block all of Illysanna's attack. He only moved when the demon hunter got furious and instead ripped off a part of it. Growling in annoyance, he morphed one of the appendages into a whip to drag her off but it didn't do any good as Illysanna simply burned it and before stabbing him. Now, Xavius was finally forced to move and used his large claws to grab Illysanna and throw her off him. The moment, he did, he was suddenly slammed into a wall as Eranikus hit him with his tail
Eranikus turned to Illysanna. "What do you think you're doing, Illysanna?" he demanded to know but the look on her face says it all
As Thrall and Merithra disappeared somewhere, Xavius completely noticed this but wasn't too particularly concerned. He was aware that Illysanna has snapped and that she was nowhere near the level of threat Illidan posed especially now that she was blinded by her anger at him making contact with Sargeras
"I know you're still alive, Xavius." Illysanna's voice called out when the Nightmare Lord refused to come out from where he was slammed into. "If you won't come out..." she trailed off and shot an eye beam at him
Out of nowhere, pure corruption came out of the ground and absorbed the attack. The demon hunter was not surprised at this considering the dream was under his control while Eranikus frowned. What did surprise Illysanna was when the corruption shot her eye beam back at her
"Look out!" Illysanna yelled and quickly jumped with Eranikus mimicking her actions
"Can you stop being so reckless, Illysanna?" Eranikus said reprimandingly
"Either that or we wait around for him to make a move. Your choice." Illysanna quickly argued back, much to his irritation as she did have a point. While the dragon wanted to blame all of what was happening on Illidan, he knew that would be wrong. All of them are at fault. The two were then forced to dodge when corrupted energies was flying their way
Xavius eventually revealed himself after his attack, completely unscathed and completely noticed the demon hunter's irritation which caused him to grin. "What's the matter, Illysanna? Weren't you and the Scourge the ones who killed Deathwing? I am sorely disappointed this is all you are able to offer." he mocked her. 'She doesn't have the same self control as Illidan does, or does he have different buttons?' he wondered to himself. As expected, Illysanna already rushed to him again, ready to cleave the former advisor's head in two
'Damn it. Illysanna's too furious to think straight. She's out for blood.' Eranikus cursed as he saw pure corruption rise from the ground again, intending to run her through. The green dragon shot his breath at it which protected the demon hunter but the distraction gave Xavius the chance to grab Illysanna and throw her into a wall before firing a stream of red corrupted energies. Now, Eranikus was the one trying to attack Xavius by trying to devour him alive. To his surprise, Xavius suddenly vanished instantly. "What?!" he asked but was quickly pierced by spikes made out of corruption coming up from the ground. The impact also threw him back
Illysanna saw this happen and she wasn't in the best of shape for this kind of fight after continuous battles and while she could have absorbed the ambient energy to heal herself, she, and the other demon hunters, chose not to. She watched and saw Xavius make no move right as he vanished. There was magical energies though and it was one she was all too familiar with. "The Well-" she said but was cut off when the wall she was slammed into collapsed right on top of her. Illysanna refused to die by simply being buried alive and quickly unleashed fel energies and destroyed the debris. She got up but that attack, as well as the previous battles, are taking her toll on her
"Correct." Xavius answered her thoughts. "With the corruption and the power of the Well, I am invincible here." he said before shooting another stream of corrupt energies at the demon hunter. "You are clever, Illysanna, but you are far too reckless and you let your emotions get the better of you. While you did make a lucky call in attacking first, you didn't have enough information to make a move and you giving in to a compromise with the mortals is what made you vulnerable. Us servants of the dark masters are in no condition to fight the Scourge but you failed to realize that. I will admit, you did force our hand. We had to expend all of our forces which is why Ysera is the only one in here." he said before raising and pointing a hand into one of the walls. A small burst of energy erupted and both Thrall and Merithra were thrown out. "As you have no doubt realized by now, you have no hope of winning. Allow me to-" he said but was cut off
Despite the pain, Illysanna looked at why he had stopped speaking. To her surprise, she saw that the power of the well has disappeared. 'How?' she wondered but instantly realized who was responsible. 'Illidan. So that's where you've been all this time.' but was quickly shot by a bolt of lightning by Xavius
"So, that's what you've been doing, Illidan Stormrage. I was curious what you were up to." Xavius muttered. He had been wondering where the Lich King was ever since he distracted Cenarius but had no clue where he was after that. 'Even with the Emerald Dream under my control he has been able to evade my notice. I am impressed. Whoever trained you must be very good.' he thought to himself before his eyes widened. "Could it be-" but he wasn't able to speak any further as Illysanna was in front of him and slashed him. "Why you little." Xavius cursed as some tendrils grew from the ground. Illysanna had anticipated this and dodged them but her movements were a lot slower. While she dodged one, the ground shot a beam of corrupt energies which scored a direct hit. "Don't get too cocky, Demon Hunter. I may no longer be connected to the Well but you are still no match for me!" he declared
Merithra then took the chance to transform into her dragon form and lunge at Xavius. She was able to grab him with her front claw and slam the Nightmare Lord into the ground a few times. The dragon then shot her breath at Xavius in the hopes that it would at least cripple him. When she stopped, a massive rock that was fully corrupted dropped right on Merithra's back which caused her to hiss in pain. Another tendril then wrapped itself around the dragon and threw her away. Eranikus was just recovering himself from earlier when Merithra was slammed into him before multiple spikes came out of the ground and pierced them both and unleashed corrupted energies which nearly killed them both
"Now then..." Xavius said, turning his sights to the only one who hasn't directly attacked him. "You know there is no point in hiding. I can see where you are." he said and turned to where Thrall was only to be met by a wolf bite to his face. Before Xavius could react, the wolf cut off half his tongue using its claws and caused the Nightmare Lord to growl. He quickly killed the wolf but was quickly met by a hammer to his face
Since the two dragons were not in their elven form, Thrall did not take the chance to attack Xavius as he was aware the the Nightmare Lord could have easily vanish so that they will end up attacking each other. However, with Illysanna and the dragons injured, the Warchief took this as the only chance he has to attack. 'I can't let him recover from that.' Thrall thought knowing he was completely outmatched in a duel especially since this is now Xavius' realm and quickly shot forth a bolt of lightning which hit right in the face once more
"You miserable Orc! You dare attack me?!" Xavius growled out, completely furious that a mortal tried to kill him and was actually able to hurt him. The fact that Illysanna cleaved a massive wound on his torso didn't help his temper at all. Just as Thrall was about to hit him again, Xavius created more tendrils and wrapped them around the Warchief. "I will crush you!" he yelled but the tendril was sliced off by Illysanna and Thrall dropped to the ground, barely scathed. "You!" the Nightmare Lord growled but the demon hunter shot an eye beam above him which caused some rocks to fall. She didn't stop as she fired another one aimed at Xavius and created an explosion
"The Well is no longer empowering him. Our attacks should have an effect." Illysanna said while trying her best to ignore her injuries
"I just hope we end him before he does us." Thrall said and tried to heal the demon hunter as much as he can while Illysanna kept a close eye on what Xavius might do
Now he was more than furious. The demon hunter refused to just die, unlike the dragons, and a mere mortal dared to defy him and his master. Deciding to end this, Xavius created an explosion of energy from where the two were standing and blasted them off. Before Thrall could get too far, multiple tendrils from different directions extended towards him and wrapped him an a cocoon
"Thrall!" Illysanna yelled but was hit by corrupted energies and was slammed against another wall, knocking her out and her demon form vanishing
"Enough." Xavius growled out as he came out of the rubble. While he was still perfectly fine, the attacks did have an effect on him. "You, Warchief. You may still be of use to the cause." he said before turning his stare to Illysanna. "But you, Demon Hunter, I will rip you to shreds!" he yelled and the appendages on his back morphed into tendrils and headed straight for Illysanna
To their surprise, the cocoon was suddenly burned in green energy while someone suddenly appeared in front of Illysanna and created a shield which also burned the tendrils. The individual then grabbed the injured demon hunter and took her to where Thrall landed, the Warchief looking a bit disoriented right as Illysanna slowly regained consciousness
"So, we finally meet once more, Illidan Stormrage." Xavius said as said individual set down the injured demon hunter
Illidan did not bother to give a response and the two merely stared at each other
The confrontation at last. I have to admit, when I was writing this chapter, it was a bit tricky for me because of Alexstrasza. When I was research what kind of powers she has, all I could find were that it is about life itself. Such as bringing the dead back to life or healing forests. Whatever I could find, all of it was not suited to battle. I also watched that small part of Cataclysm where Alexstrasza was fighting Deathwing on her own but in that part, all she was doing was manfighting him. She didn't use any of her powers whatsoever and neither did Deathwing. So I just decided to have it a classic dragon fight and instead, Alexstrasza used her powers to create openings for herself
While on that fight, I am not certain if a dragon could transform like that in the middle of a battle but I just wrote it that way because why not. I mean, after Deathwing defeated her in that skirmish, she ended up in her elven form with that other dragon that I couldn't remember. I'm not even sure if the one who rescued her was a dragon or not but that's beside the point
You may have also noticed that in the fight against Xavius, I wrote that Illysanna got worn down after all the previous battles. I am aware that demon hunters specialize in using their enemies' powers against them but I can't imagine that they don't get tired. They are still living after all
And yeah, I uploaded two chapters in one week. I've actually finished writing and reviewing the Old Gods arc and am currently writing the one after that. The one I'm currently writing won't take me too long as it is the part that I've been really looking forward to writing. So, until further notice, I will be uploading twice a week, one on monday and the other on friday, both being on my time, GMT +8