Chapter 4: Princes and Plagues and Ogres, Oh My! –Part II

"Why do I have to be right?" Currently the company of seven, whom were trying to head further north to find the source of the plague, was forced to a grinding halt when they noticed that the bridge was completely destroyed. Taking a quick inspection and talking with the soldiers for a moment, Eidolon suspected that this was done in haste, but with full intention of slowing them down. "We're not going anywhere with the bridge out." Arthas cursed under his breath. "There has to be another way around."

"Milord?" One of the villagers behind them stepped forth a little hesitantly before continuing. "There is another way to cross, but it's not as safe as it used to be." Arthas looked to his party and nodded his head to the villager. "We have to risk it. Where can we take this path?" He pointed to a path between the trees, the grass around it being a good sign that it hasn't seen use in some time. "Alright company, let's move out."

Arthas and the soldiers took the front while the spell casters took the back formation as they began to move, sheids and hammer up as Jaina and Eidolon kept on the lookout while having a quiet conversation between them. "He's a bit of a prick, but at least he knows when not to make any moves on a lady…. For now at least. This is the guy you dated?" Jaina looked away a bit as she held the cloak closer to her. "Jaina please, you don't have to torture yourself like this. He's the one who decided that being away was for the best, leaving you alone." She frowned before smiling softly. "True, but you're wrong on being left alone; I had you." He returned the smile in kind as he patted her shoulder. "That's more like it. And if he starts bothering you I'll give him a piece of my mind, and maybe request that we try that collaboration spell again." She giggled at his positive, upbeat attitude before they continued on walking down the path.

Arthas, while he couldn't hear anything from them, could see that Jaina was shelling up for a second, but then something from the young man brought her out of it and was even giggling. He hadn't seen her do that since they split, and he was feeling a bit agitated about it but wasn't sure why.

"Slaughter them all and sack the town!" They could hear the sound of fighting up ahead and began moving in, finding that bandits had decided to attack the villagers then and there. "Save us!" The screaming villager was cut down by an axe, falling to the ground and crawling away while he still could. A foot on his back stopped his movement as the bandit intended to finish him off…. If it wasn't for a black orb that slammed into his chest and knocking him away. Looking up, the villager saw people running up to him, then past him as they pushed back the attackers.

Arthas ran up to him and, channeling the holy power under his command, began to mend the villager's wounds as a robed woman summoned forth the water elemental ((FREE AT LAST!)), while the other robed figure pulled out a longsword with weird marking on it and clashed steel with another bandit, then waving his hand that made him catch on fire. The burning bandit was flailing around before his head was removed from his person.

Eidolon could see that, despite being mere foot soldiers, the captain and his two fellow footmen were exceptionally skilled; they baited the bandits to strike the shield, bat away the weapon and earn a free hit against the inexperienced soldiers. And they covered each other's blind spots so to prevent any of the bandits from getting at there.

It took a few moments, but they finally took out the last bandit, shortly after Arthas joined the fray, and was given the credit of the whole situation. This peeved Eidolon, but Jaina managed to reel back his temper or risk exposing himself from his Fel energy fluxing. It was a good thing that Arthas had not seen him use the Shdowbolt as he was more focused on healing the wounded. A woman came up to them holding a bottle with green liquid inside. "Oh, thank you so much for saving us. Here, please take this as our token of appreciation." Nodding his head in acceptance before pocketing it and turning to the company, whom by now was fully rested. "Alright then, let's get moving then."

It was near the river where they found the path the villagers told about, finding a few patches of land visible for them to walk on to pass and… 'Oh god the bane of my very existence.' Murlocks. There were murlocks everywhere. The footmen and captain gave the warlock some space and Jaina simply slapping her hand to her forehead to reel in the oncoming headache. "Uh, milady? What's up with him?" The captain was eye the male magic wielder as he stepped forth and was starting to giggle like a madman. "He has a…. Extreme disorder that can only be sated by the death of murlocks. Like those ones."

The footmen looked horrified as they watch Eidolon laughing like a maniac cutting down murlocks that kept on rushing at him to only meet their end by Confligulation or tasting the steel of his blade. "I would advise that we let him take point from here." No one argued with that, even though Arthas really wanted to but it was Jaina's request so he let it slide.

Less than a minute, and a small band of more bandits later, they finally reached solid land and Jaina was running damage control to get her young friend to calm down from his murlock-murdering high. Up ahead however, there was more yelling and fighting. "Lock your shields and defend yourselves boys. Those arrows won't get through us!" Seeing that it was footmen against…. Skeletons? Walking, attacking skeletons.

Already Eidolon was regretting on coming along this adventure, but he'd do so a hundred times more if he could keep Jaina from falling apart being near Arthas for even a second more. "Jaina! Let's try that collaboration again." Jaina needed a second to recall how they did it and nodded her head. "Alright, Arthas I need you and your men out of the way and behind us. This is gonna get ugly."

The men that were fighting a losing battle heard a scream of 'GET DOWN!' and didn't even hesitate for a second. They were lucky they did as not a second later over a dozen shards of black ice flew inches from their heads and nailed each skeleton, some hit several times, and cleared the area of them in a heartbeat. They looked back to the slightly panting Jaina and Eidolon, both wearing a grin on their faces as Arthas looked on in shock before focusing on the two. "What was that?" They looked to each other, thinking of the same thing, then back to the knight with the answer "BlackBlizzard."

After the confusion was settled, the Sargent that was leading the band of three confirmed that skeletons had spontaneously attacked and that the village had gone mad. Whatever it was that was going on, Eidolon didn't like it as he pulled Jaina to the side for a moment, again being briefly spotted as the company took a needed break by Arthas, whom was stewing in irritation that the two of them were getting a lot closer and whispering about something.

"Jaina, something is going on here, and its not just the plague. Since when have there been free-roaming necromancers?" Jaina looked to him in shock before continuing. "You think that this is a necromancer at work?" He sighed softly before responding. "I suspect that the term may be plural, and that's never a good thing. We need more information on this." Agreeing that enough was said for now they returned to the group to wait out the break as they continued to advance.

With the break over, they continued to push on, fighting off a brief ambush in exchange for a mana potion that Jaina sorely needed then, more than Eidolon did as he admitted that her powerful spells demanded a lot of energy (much to Jaina's pleasure and Arthas' irritation). Noticing that it was getting dark, they pushed on to make camp around the local Fountain of Health. Of course it was to be short lived as Arthas needed them to get going but was shot down by the warlock stating that they had done nothing but fighting and traveling for the whole day and needed rest to recover and remain energized, or risk getting wiped out if another ambush came along.

So camped they did, with the footmen offering to take the lookout shifts so that the paladin and mages could get some rest. Jaina and Eidolon thanked them, which got them more points in the footmen's books, especially the captain with the warlocks swordplay and openly admitted that "even if you weren't a mage, you'd make a hell of a soldier." Of course he didn't take many compliments outside of his small, small circle of friends and thanked them for his input of his swordplay in real combat.

They set off again at morning's first light and came upon a most odd sight at one of the granaries. "It looks like the ground around the granary is… dying." True be told, the very earth and trees in the immediate area looked like it had been sucked dry of all life, leaving nothing more than grey if not outright blackened dead land and husks of former trees. Eidolon stepped forward and found a more concentrated spot of barren land around some the crates containing the grain. "Jaina! They all have the seals of Andorhal. Isn't that the primary distribution center for the northern region?" Arthas looked horrified at the concept of the plague spreading in such a way that it would be like wildfire.

"I really hope that's not true. Come back here Eidolon, we need to destroy this granary." The warlock complied and stood next to her. "Allow me then? I've needed to try one of my new spells, and I don't think that your Blizzard is going to do the trick on killing this. No offence Jaina." She shrugged and allowed him to charge up his spell. He flicked his hand at the granary and, seconds later, flaming rocks rained from the sky and focused on the contaminated structure, taking down the entire thing, along with the surround crates, in glorious hellfire.

"That covers that. Let's get moving then." Onward the company of nine went ((I'm not making the number up here: I'm literally going through Warcraft III as I type this out to ensure that I remain as highly accurate as possible…. Along with some of my own additions :D)) into the village remains where they finally encountered a necromancer and an army of skeletons, whom had just finished killing a villager. "Slay them all!" The footmen raised their shields and took the brunt of the attacks for the casters as they rained death upon the reanimated bones as Arthas took out the necromance, halting the reinforcements coming up from the dead villagers. After a reprieve from the battle, they marched on.

Up ahead they discovered two high elves waiting about until they caught sight of the oncoming company, noticing Eidolon amongst the group whom they gave a bow to. "Greetings to you once more, Sir Eidolon. We are priests sent from Quel'Thalas send to offer aid in healing the land and its people of this strange curse." The company was surprised, none more so then the young warlock. "Please, there is no need to bow to me. Your help, however, is greatly appreciated as the Paladin cannot fight and mend wounds all at the same time." Arthas looked miffed as Jaina playfully poked him with her shoulder. "'Sir'? I didn't know you became a celebrity in Quel'Thalas." He was left mumbling "neither did I" as the priests began to mend the injuries on the footmen, whom were greatly appreciating the magic closing their wounds and rejuvenating their strength.

One of the priests turned to Eidolon with a grimed expression. "We were sent ahead of our own company, whom is currently spread out to cover more ground and was strictly informed by our superior that we help anyone wandering about, especially you sir." This got a confused look from the young warlock which was ignored in favor of more important information. "We must be wary though, there is a granary warehouse up ahead that houses something that is, most likely, the source of the blight in the area." With a nod of appreciation the company of now eleven marched on, Arthas and the footmen infront and the priests joining Jaina and Eidolon.

They soon found more support in the form of a pair of dwarfs named Bible and Boble (First crack at temp. OCs) whom were having a blast….. Blasting away skeletons. Yea, sounds better in your head, doesn't it? ANYWAYS, they pushed though the center of town to find…

"We have been discovered my brothers, quickly, flee from this place and continue the operation." The one barking orders was a rather unique looking necromancer that made Eidolon suspicious until… "Wait, that can't be."

_8 Years ago, Dalaran_

A much younger Eidolon was struggling with understanding the unorganized mess that was the Intel provided about the known orc Warlocks when he was approached by a late-middle-aged man whom was chuckling at the boy's predicament. "Is something the matter, child?" Sighing, he looked to the man whom had approached him, and recalled seeing him that day when he was sent to The Six to decide his fate. He didn't say anything, but he definitely didn't give him a look like the guy who had it out for him. "Sort of, I'm trying to understand the notes that were provided during the First War, but it's all just bundled together, no order."

Unknown to the boy, a wave of the elder's hand was causing the papers to move around and about, actually sorting itself as he kept him occupied. "Well, the First war was something that no one saw coming, but here in Dalaran we are always learning and improving to become greater. And one day," he turned him around to show the now organized pile, even having the exact notes Eidolon was looking for in a different pile. "You will too." The amazement in the boys eyes made the whole thing worth it to him as he looked over the papers, finding them to be legit and thanking the kind old man. "Thank you so much sir…. But I don't know your name." With another chuckle, he patted the boy's head. "Well, it's good to be curious, but keep in mind that like the cat, curiosity will be the death of you. And as for my name, it's-"

"-Kel'Thuzad!" The necromancer now identified turned to the group before him, spotted Eidolon and smiled. "Well, if it isn't the young boy who was lost in a pile of old papers. And even more so, you remembered my name; I give you full marks for that." The warlock was growling, hands balled tightly as he glared at the old man. "Why? Why are you doing this!" Kel'Thuzad sighed as he walked to the side some, using the staff as a walking stick. "Now now, child, remember what I told you about curiosity and the cat?" A pack of ghouls began to crawl closer as heavy footsteps could be felt. "It will be the death of you."

Coming into view was something that may as well have crawled right out of a horror story; a huge grey colored abomination that had three arms, and a second mouth where its stomach should be, as well as emitting a horrid stench. "What is that thing?! It looks like it was sewn together from different corpses." The Abomination charged at the company with a roar and a swing of its giant butcher knife, leading the way for the ghouls and summoned skeletons. "Let's study it AFTER we kill it, okay? Everyone in formation NOW!"

Watching close by was a small creature that radiated fire from its head and body, with two sets of horns ontop of its head while it grinned like a maniac, eyeing the Warlock of the group. 'Alright then, I think I've waited long enough for this; show me what you got kid!'

Apologies for cutting this chapter supposedly short, but up next will be my biggest fight scene so far, and I may as well dub this as a Mini-Boss scenario. With the First Boss being Kel'Thuzad himself. Also, that had the only time that the inbetween content of Trips Down Memory Lane gets mentioned and will probably be the last of it.

Also, I need to explain how BlackBlizzard works: It consists of the mixing of the FrostBolt and ShadowBolt merging into black ice, which compacts the damage of one under the other, making the impact much more devastating. And the reason for the first one causing the huge explosion was because of their emotions fueling the spell, making it a lot larger than it should have been and caused a lot of collateral damage. After they worked out how it happened they managed to reduce the amount of power needed to get similar, if not more controlled, results. The ratio between Shadow and Ice is 2-3 for controlled, and 5-7 for the bigger boom. First one was 20-35, making very volatile.

I hope that this gave you people a lot of Jaina/Eidolon interaction with one another, and I'll be in the works of the next chapter soon. For now, I need some sleep. *THUD* X\ ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sincerely,

Ninetals927