Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
Silvermoon
"What?!" Illysanna asked in surprise as Agatha had just come to her again to inform her of recent developments in Kalimdor. While she couldn't care less about what happens to the mortals, she knew that they couldn't afford to let the Old Gods control demon hunter quickly left to find the other two hunters in the fortress. "Kor'vas, Vandel." she called out when she found the two of them in the middle of a sparring session
"You look stressed, what's wrong?" Vandel asked worriedly. Neither of which were in their demon form as he had already managed to retract his wings and horns while Kor'vas wanted to see if he can fight without letting his demonic powers rage out of control
"Take Anub'arak and tell Drak'thul to prepare a portal towards the Broken Isles. I'll fill you in as we go." Illysanna said. The other two demon hunters looked at each other in confusion but nonetheless followed given how urgent her voice was. Illysanna then motioned for a nearby val'kyr to inform Illidan of her plans while she left to join the other two
"Illysanna, what's going on?" Drak'thul asked. He had never seen her this stressed before which was a cause for worry
"Do you remember the Twilight's Hammer? The ones that Illidan mentioned?" Illysanna asked and they all nodded. "Well, apparently they've been on Kalimdor this whole time which is why Ymiron couldn't find a trace of them. They've infiltrated the Alliance and Horde and summoned the Old Gods' elemental servants directly in their city."
"How in the hell did our shades miss this?" Kor'vas asked in surprise
"Because the Twilight's Hammer are just regular Humans and Orcs." Agatha said as she walked over to the group. "Our shades were only keeping track inside the cities and since the Twilight's Hammer were not wielding the Old Gods' powers, they were able to pass off as regular citizens."
"There is also the possibility that they have infiltrated before we sent the shades with Nathanos." Kel'thuzad pointed out
"It hardly matters now. We have to help the mortals otherwise this would get far too complicated if the Old Gods end up controlling Kalimdor." Illysanna broke up the discussion as the reasoning the val'kyr leader had said was good enough. Drak'thul then created a portal at her request
"I'll come too. I might be able to manipulate the creatures under the Nightmare's influence to gather information." Agatha suggested while the lich and orc warlock looked at Illysanna on why she wasn't taking them
Illysanna noticed this and answered right as all the others went through the portal. "You two stay here. I have a feeling that the Old Gods are trying to split up our forces so I need someone to make sure that our strongholds are secure. Illidan is here but he's still not back to his usual self. Be very careful about the coastline as those snake creatures might attack." she ordered to the lich and warlock
"I understand." Kel'thuzad said and the demon hunter passed through the portal
At the peak, the val'kyr ordered by Illysanna has informed the lich king of her plans. Upon hearing this, Illidan, who had been busy trying to conduct a very complex and intricate ritual, suddenly jerked his head towards the val'kyr in complete disbelief
"She did what?!" Illidan asked furiously. completely dispelling what he was doing. The val'kyr was noticeable intimidated as he was not known to lose his temper like that. "Leave." he ordered and she obeyed. 'Of course Illysanna would do that. We slipped up when we didn't pay attention if any of the mortals were shady. Damn it, I shouldn't have let saving Vashj blind me to the immediate issue. Xavius is gonna kill her in that battle.' he thought to himself as he quickly jumped down to the lower levels
"Illidan?" Drak'thul asked when he heard the sound of someone dropping and looked at it
"Where's Illysanna?" Illidan demanded to know
"She has already left for the Broken Isles with Kor'vas, Anub'arak, Vandel and Agatha." Drak'thul answered him
"Is something wrong, my king? You don't usually react like this in this kind of situation." Kel'thuzad asked but there was no trace of judgment in his voice, only concern
"I was stupid. I shouldn't have just remained at the peak when I regained consciousness." Illidan said but it did not give an explanation. "The Nightmare is controlled by an old friend of ours from ten thousand years ago." he said while emphasizing the sarcasm on the 'old friend'. "He's way out of her league and as careful as she is, Illysanna simply does not have enough information to fight our old friend." he explained. "Damn it. Don't tell them that I'm gone." he cursed under his breath before opening his own portal. 'This is why I have to keep calm all the time. That damn Azshara.'
Broken Isles
Illysanna and her group have already arrived and informed their outpost on what she was intending to do
"Are you sure about this, Illysanna? If we go there now then the mortals might find out we have been spying on them." Malygos asked
"It won't matter if the Old Gods gain control over Kalimdor." Illysanna answered before turning to those gathered. "Sevis, Candrael, Olrun, you three remain here and guard the tomb. Ymiron, Maiev and everyone else, with me." she ordered and Allari looked at her curiously. "We may need your scythe to gather information, Allari, so you come with us."
"I understand." Allari said
"I'll come with you." Malygos said, aware that the demon hunter did not give him any orders as she wanted him to make his own choice for his own reasons. "Ysera is still my sister and I most certainly don't want to leave her to suffer the same fate as Neltharion."
"But you were just waiting for permission before you acted?" Maiev asked curiously
"I was. I meant what I said about working with the Scourge and I was curious to hear what your opinion would be." Malygos answered. "Which reminds me, what happened with Illidan? Is he still continuing to isolate himself in Silvermoon?"
"He is. Azshara really did a number on him if he's still not out of it mentally." Kor'vas answered
"Then let's go. We'll take a ride on the blue dragons. Ymiron, Maiev, Agatha, Anub'arak, you head towards Theramore. The rest of us will head towards Durotar. For now, the goal is simply to ensure the mortal's cities don't fall under the Old God's control. Do not launch any counter attacks." Illysanna ordered and at Malygos' orders, a group of eleven blue dragons stepped forward. The mentioned individuals got on the dragons and they split up headed for Kalimdor
"Surprising that Illysanna chose not to take us." Candrael commented once they left
"Not really. When you think about it, at least one of us Demon Hunters have to remain here and guard the Tomb at all times." Sevis pointed out
"True enough but I still find it surprising that they chose to go personally." Candrael commented
"Perhaps, but there is something neither of you two are considering." Olrun joined in and the duo looked at her. "They're Night Elves, the very same Night Elves that the Nightmare has forced out of their home. There is no doubt that they are familiar with the High Priestess and how their kind prefers to do things so by going personally, they would save themselves a good amount of time skipping introductions or anything else."
"Can't really argue with that." Candrael shrugged
What they didn't know is that Illidan was at the top of the highest pillar on the tomb. He was very careful not to show himself into the line of sight of the other demon hunters while also avoiding the shades that they had put in the place. While he could not hear what they were talking about, all he needed to know was who was going. He really didn't need to know where they would go and saw a group of blue dragons head to the west. 'So, her real goal was to gather information directly from the Nightmare's forces.' he thought to himself while the dragons left. 'There is no way that this is all a coincidence. After it was clear that Deathwing would be killed, the Old Gods must have been preparing a counter attack. They must have been the ones that forced that mist to the south to clear and split up the mortals' forces and there can be no doubt that the Old Gods knew that I wouldn't have my forces be in Kalimdor with the mortals around. They aren't aware that I have been unconscious for days and there is no way they could have spied on us. Making the mortals send some of their troops to the south would have made this easier for them. They played us.' he reasoned as he realized that the Old Gods took advantage of the fact that he has agreed to leave the mortals alone. He then flew away heading for Kalimdor. While he wasn't sure if he would be able to get there first, he didn't need to as he was going straight towards Ashenvale and not Durotar or Theramore
Theramore Isle
Everything was in complete chaos. The fire elementals summoned outside destroyed the outer parts of the city. The Alliance scrambled to defend their lands and the draenei ships as the Twilight's Hammer have launched another attack. The battle has raged for nearly an hour now with Ragnaros inflicting great amounts of damage upon the Old Gods' enemies
Kael had arrived earlier and found that most of his fire magics had little to no effect, which was reasonable given who they were fighting but it annoyed the prince to no end. Even Felo'melorn's magic wasn't of much help and Kael wasn't exactly that good of a swordsman himself. Along with Vereesa, Rhonin, the three of them tried to fend off Ragnaros himself. Falric, in the meantime, was the one who directed their forces into coordinating against the elementals. While the opening of the elemental planes didn't last too long, at least thirty seven fire elementals had made it through, all of them causing havoc in the name of the Old Gods
Ragnaros had been on the offensive against his three main opponents. He never gave a single one of them to mount an attack that he would not be able to immediately counter. His natural fiery body gave him a slight edge as it would reduce any damage just by the sheer heat and it would even melt Vereesa's arrows unless enchanted. Kael and Rhonin had resorted to using ice magics but it wasn't easy to inflict significant damage as theirs was nowhere near the level of the Scourge liches
The firelord brought down his hammer after forcing back Vereesa. Rhonin was able to teleport his wife to a safer area but the impact from the strike scorched the ground. The two came under fire from some other fire elementals but two of their mages was able to create an arcane shield around them before he dispatched the elemental
"Is this all you mortals can offer? Surrender now and the masters might show you mercy." Ragnaros taunted before bringing down his hammer again. He was prevented from doing so when Kael teleported behind him and stabbed him in the upper right shoulder. This barely fazed the elemental lord and the prince couldn't maintain it for long otherwise his legs would melt. Kael was then thrown off when Ragnaros shot a stream of fire from where his was stabbed and knocked the prince into the city walls. Some lesser fire elementals tried to kill him before he could recover but once more, the other mages and guards protected him. "This is pathetic. How the Burning Legion lost to you is beyond me." he said in disappointment. As he tried to attack again, Rhonin took advantage of his distracted state in taunting them before shooting his ice magics. It didn't do enough on its own but other mages who had killed some fire elementals aided by using any magics that isn't fire, usually lightning, water or ice
Ragnaros shrugged them all off and rained down fireballs upon everyone who attacked him. Some were killed while others managed to dodge. "Foolish mortals. I should have just killed you myself before the Legion did. No wonder it was so easy for the dead to drive you out." he taunted with disappointment once more and slammed his hammer down, causing the ground to erupt and threw away Vereesa and Rhonin, knocking them out of the fight while disorienting the remaining defenders. As he was about to finish them all off, he was shot by a powerful stream of water from the city and it caused a good amount of damage. He glared at where that came from and found Neptulon approach him from the city while water elementals aided the Alliance in fighting off Ragnaros' minions
"Enough, Ragnaros." Neptulon said after getting his attention
Rather than come up with a mockery, this turn of events surprised Ragnaros. "Well, well, you actually showed up." he said before tilting his head. "Are you siding with the mortals?" he demanded to know
Without even giving a vocal response, Neptulon shot a stream of water which Ragnaros countered with fire and clouded the battlefield with mist. The firelord was the first one who went on the offensive and threw lava in random directions. The water elemental noticed where it came from through the mists and instead of targetting his enemy, Neptulon blocked Ragnaros' random attacks and thickened the mist before firing his own attack at the general direction in which his enemy's attack came from
One of which connected as it caused Ragnaros to yell out before creating a lava storm which blew away the entire mist. "Let's see how you like this." the firelord growled out and shot a massive stream of pure lava right at the city. Neptulon knew that it would completely burn Theramore to the ground. While he had no obligation to help the Alliance, the waterlord chose to summon the waters from the sea on the far end of the city to block the attack. This greatly reduced the damage and created a another huge mist, this time in the city but this left Neptulon wide open to attack which Ragnaros took advantage off and slammed his hammer right into the waterlord's back and threw him into the city walls
"You've grown weak over the millenia. We could've gotten the world we had once more!" Ragnaros berated his fellow elemental lord before bringing down his hammer that had a large concentration of flames on it. The impact ended up completely destroying Neptulon. "Now then..." he trailed off before looking back at the battle. While the firelord was victorious, his minions weren't and they were mostly killed while the few that survived were slowly being picked off by the water elementals. Growling in irritation, Ragnaros managed to kill some of the defenders when he shot random fire balls at them
This got the attention of Kael, Vereesa and Rhonin who had since left the battle to Neptulon. While they were initially outmatched, they stood a much better chance now that their enemy has been weakened. However, that continuation of the battle did not come as breaths of frost rained down from the sky. Many of them were aimed at the fire elementals and killed them on impact. The Alliance was surprised at what was going on and looked to the sky. They found six blue dragons arrive and when they landed in different areas, a humanoid creature larger than the humans jumped down and quickly crossed weapons with Ragnaros
"There are more of the Old Gods servants attacking the Draenei's ships." Rhonin told them without hesitation
"I'll go. The rest of you, kill that thing." Maiev ordered to her companions, pointing at the dueling Ymiron and Ragnaros, and left when Vereesa motioned to follow her with two dragons tagging along
"Can't believe that the Scourge just saved us." Kael muttered in thalassian when he noticed that Ymiron and Ragnaros were even
"Hey, at least our homes won't be destroyed." Rhonin said in consolation before they began supporting the trio of high ranking undead in fighting Ragnaros
Ymiron's power was sufficient to damage Ragnaros. His icy blade was able to easily parry Ragnaros' fiery hammer
"So, you finally showed up. I was wondering when the mighty Vrykul would join the action." Ragnaros said with a hint of relief but was suddenly pierced by large protrusions. He jerked forward in pain but was met with Ymiron's blade to his face and nearly cleaved his face in two
"Unlike you, Ragnaros, we do not take pleasure in our fights." a voice spoke behind the firelord. Ragnaros turned around and saw a valkyr floating in the air. "We choose to end our battles as decisively as possible." Agatha declared before hitting him with a powerful death coil and disoriented him. It didn't last that long but it was enough for Ymiron to run him through before Anub'arak held him in place with more protrusions
That wasn't enough to stop Ragnaros as he quickly burned the protrusions and broke free, forcing the nerubian and val'kyr back. Unforunately for him, Ymiron jumped right into his body and the firelord was forced into the ground. While distracted, Agatha took this opening to ice a frost magic right on his head. In his battleworn state, Ragnaros' head was frozen solid before Kael shattered it by throwing his runeblade at him, finally killing Ragnaros
The Alliance, despite not comfortable with the turn of events, thanked the undead and blue dragons for their help
At the settlement of the draenei ships, they have been under attack by the Twilight's Hammer a few minutes after Ragnaros created a distraction. This battle was more in the favor of the defenders as despite the damage from earlier, they were better prepared for an attack. While the first few minutes the Alliance was able to easily hold them off. That was until an ogre that had eyes all over its body appeared. Upon slamming his hammer into the ground, multiple insectoid creatures suddenly came out of the ground and attacked the defenders
Caught off guard, the defenders were distracted enough that the main Twilight's Hammer forces managed to breach the defenses. With the casualties from the earlier battle, their numbers weren't as large as the previous attack but the insectoids they brought with them more than made up for that. Before the defenders could be overrun, a group of bronze dragons arrived and aided them. Despite the dragons' presence. the Old Gods' servants did not give up easily and put up quite a fight
Their leader, the ogre that had many eyes, was identified by his minions as Cho'gall, has used corrupt magics. It was enough to disorient and even kill a draenei with just a few hits. Maraad noticed this and chose to fight him, leaving the rest of their enemies to the draenei and Alliance's forces
After a while of fighting, it became clear that Cho'gall was too powerful for the draenei commander. His corrupt magics completely nullifying the effects of Maraad's holy spells. When the draenei tried to blindside the ogre when some of his own forces distracted him, Cho'gall's eyes would glow and release corrupted energies which would force Maraad back. The effects of these energies were taking a huge toll on him and he couldn't really fight effectively with his strength being sapped
The same went for the rest of the defenders. However, they were still able to fight on as Velen was using his powers to purge the corruption from them. While Maraad was outmatched, Velen's continued support magics gave him the ability to battle the ogre as an equal. As Velen was not that great in close combat, he had opted to support instead along with using his powers to kill the insect creatures en masse
Maraad blocked an attack from Cho'gall but the ogre's strength pushed him back. Before the draenei commander could react, Cho'gall shot corrupt energies at him which greatly stung and slowly sapped his strength. Knowing that the draenei would just be healed, Cho'gall released another stream of corrupt energies, this time aimed at Velen, while binding Maraad in black chains. The prophet was barely able to erect a divine shield and the continuous stream prevented him from doing anything back
Before Cho'gall could further press his advantage, a stream of frost intercepted his own corrupt energies and gave Velen the opportunity to bind him with his holy magic before healing Maraad. Jumping from the back of a blue dragon, Maiev thrust Frostmourne into the ground which released a huge amount of energy, enough to kill all of the Old Gods' minions minus Cho'gall
The former warden was surprised at this as she only expected it to freeze them solid. 'Seems like Illidan was right after all.' she thought to herself, remembering what he had said about her soul taking a toll on Frostmourne, before retrieving her blade and setting her sights on the ogre
"So, you're Stormrage's bitch, I take it." Cho'gall commented and that ticked off Maiev who quickly locked weapons with the only remaining Old God servant in the area
"Wretched Ogre. When I'm done with you, I will torture you for the rest of eternity." Maiev hissed before unleashing another wave of frost
Cho'gall was forced back by this attack but he quickly used all his eyes to shoot out his own corrupted energies. Maiev easily blocked this before shooting icicles at the ogre where only one hit. Cho'gall ripped it out of him but was quickly struck by a powerful blast of holy energy. While she wanted to make this ogre suffer, Maiev decided to end it quickly by blinking behind and stabbed him right in the chest. Not giving him a chance to react, the former warden brought down Frostmourne while simultaneously unleashing another wave of frost magic. Instead of just being cleaved in two, Cho'gall's entire body was forced apart and thrown into random directions as his body exploded from the attack
'Don't take his soul, you idiot.' Illidan's voice said in Maiev's mind right as she was about to trap Cho'gall within Frostmourne. 'We don't know enough about these creatures to mindlessly trap them. Just destroy his soul.' he ordered and the former warden wondered how he knew. 'I can see through Frostmourne, Maiev. It is an extention of my senses.' and that explained things and Maiev begrudgingly obeyed despite her wanting to make Cho'gall suffer
As Maiev returned back to the others, she suddenly heard some noise coming from behind the uneven landscaps and the chaos. She didn't want to take the chance that this was the Old Gods' minions doing something so she went to check it out. Behind one of the disrupted landscapes were two high elves. One was a male who looked to be struggling while the other was a female who was trying to keep the male from moving. The former warden approached them. "What the hell is going on here? Are you with the Old Gods?" she demanded to know, drawing her blade
"Do we look like one of the Old Gods' minions to you?" the female said in irritation as the male tried to break free
"Magic." the male muttered in pain and looked like he wanted to devour something
"Hold still, damn it." the female said as the male's struggled harder. "Can you do something here?" she asked the warden
'Is he trying to take in magic? Then that means the female isn't lying as there is no way that an Old God's servant would act like this.' Maiev thought before creating a mental link. 'Illidan, can you take a look at this? What is going on with him?' she asked before she bound the male in ice
'Magical addiction. The high elves were addicted to the powers of the Sunwell and they never even realized it. This is what happens when that addiction becomes out of control. You also went through this as well when the War of the Ancients ended but the World Tree and the Well of Eternity sated it.' Illidan explained. 'Try asking her what's going on.'
"What is happening to him?" Maiev asked
"A hunger for magic." the female replied as she knocked out the male, who was still encased in ice. "After the Sunwell was corrupted, we high elves have had a nagging feeling in us. Prince Kael said that it was a hunger for magic."
'Of course Illidan already figured it out.' Maiev thought in irritation. "And I assume no cure has been found?" she asked and the female elf simply looked away. "Who are you?"
"Valeera Sanguinar." she introduced himself. "He is Varedis Mistsoul. With each passing day, our hunger only gets worse. The night elves were able to provide us bits of magical waters from Mount Hyjal but it wasn't enough. Varedis is one of those whose hunger is concerning. A few others have already been taken to the infirmary but even the Draenei have no clue how to help us."
Maiev felt pity for them. "Do you want to come with me?" she asked, causing Valeera to look at her in surprise. "Illidan knows a lot about magic and I imagine he knows how to sate it."
"Do I look stupid to you? I would rather die of magical hunger than be enslaved for eternity." Valeera said, disgusted
'What the hell are you doing?' Illidan asked but Maiev ignored him
"I'm afraid you're mistaken about that." Maiev said with a slight chuckle. She was amused at her reaction. "The Scourge isn't about slavery now. Everyone who is with us is not at all enslaved and that includes the other death knights and undead elves or humans. Most have their souls back already and we are simply continuing to fight so we won't be enslaved by the Old Gods or the Burning Legion. Unlike everyone on Kalimdor however, we would rather kill them before they kill us. Besides, if you don't find a cure for that, then you will become slaves to your own hunger. So, which would you choose?"
Now, Valeera was intruiged at the death knight's words. She had heard that both Illidan and Maiev were once night elves so it wasn't too unreasonable that they knew what they were going through. "And what would you have to benefit by inviting the two of us to your merry band? And why don't you just speak with the prince?"
"We don't owe your people anything and we don't particularly care if you all end up going mindless because of it." Maiev pointed out as a matter of fact. "The only reason I'm even offering you this is because you are giving me the impression that you are growing frustrated with both the lack of progress with your addiction and your near helplessness to do anything with what is going on." she answered her second question. "If you join us, both of these will be remedied and you don't even have to be an undead or a demon to do so. Of course, you try to betray us, we'll kill you."
Valeera thought about this for a long time. Maiev was right. She was frustrated in the high elves' current state and there was nothing she hated more than being helpless to do anything. "Alright, Maiev, but you had better keep your word."
"Then come with me." Maiev said and broke the ice holding Varedis. When they made it back to the others, she instructed one of the blue dragons to take them away from here when no one was looking
Illidan observed the exchange through Frostmourne and was amused at his former jailer. 'I guess being the one imprisoned has changed her.' he thought
Pandaria
Alleria's group was still busy with the scouting. They didn't go that deeper inland and since they still had some supplies left, they decided it would be best to wait for the others
While the eldest Windrunner daughter was on her turn to be on patrol, she suddenly felt something was off and quickly fired an arrow at a nearby tree. A panda creature came out of the tree and looked offended at what she just did. Using a wooden pole, the panda quickly swung it at the elf, who quickly managed to dodge. WIth her bow useless at this close, Alleria drew her blades and tried to fight off the panda. However, she had severely underestimated the panda's fighting abilities as it continued to outmaneuver her and put her on the defensive
After a few minutes of not being able to go on the offensive, Alleria stopped moving which the panda used to try and attack again. The elf easily dodged this and cut the pole in half before rushing to stab the panda. Despite only having half the pole left, the panda was able to knock off her blade and kick her in the abdomen. Alleria wasn't able to recover herself as she was forced to move back when the panda tried to slam her head with the pole. Alleria dodged the incoming attack and was finally able to counter attack, The panda dodged but only barely. His nose was grazed by the blade while the hat was thrown off of him. The high elf quickly tried to stab him but the panda gripped her wrist and threw her down into the ground
"Enough." another voice said right as Alleria was about to get up and continue fighting. The voice belonged to another panda. "This is a surprise. The living is more hostile than the dead." he said almost as if reprimanding the high elf
"Dead? Do you mean that the undead are here?" Alleria asked in surprise
"They are. They told us that you would be coming here." the first panda, the one Alleria fought, explained. "This is Pandaria and our people is called the Pandaren. The area you are in is called the Kun Lai Summit. I am Zurong and that is Liang."
"And why are you attacking us? Are your people like this?" Alleria questioned suspiciously
"In case you forgot, you were the one that shot an arrow first." the second panda pointed out. "Regardless of that, for as long as you do not intend to harm us, you are free to explore but we will be watching." he continued. While that was true. the pandaren have eyes and ears in their lands and they are more than ready to fight these outlanders should they have to but their preference is still to avoid conflicts
'The undead are here?' Of course they are. There is no way they would just leave this to us.' Alleria said in deep thought. The two pandarens silently observed her and realized that her people does not have the best relationship with the dead so they just left her to her thoughts, something which she did not notice. 'I guess Illysanna really couldn't be trusted. Or maybe I'm wrong.' she thought and when she wanted to speak to the pandaren again, they were gone. "Damn it." she cursed before leaving to inform the others of what she learned
Before I go on the other notes, I wanna mention that starting next chapter, there will be no contents about the events in Pandaria. Until this part is over, the next chapters will focus more on the Emerald Nightmare. The Pandaria part will resume after the Nightmare and will pick up where this one left off. When the Pandaria part resumes, there will be an indication which events happened at the same time
With that out of the way, I decided to just kill off Neptulon in this chapter. The thing about Warcraft is that there is a shit ton of races and writing about all those sometimes gets on my nerves so I just cut a lot off from the story. That was the real reason why at the very beginning, I decided to just wipe out the Eastern Kingdoms so the story can focus more on Illidan. There will be a few characters here and there that will make an appearance but they'll mostly be those who don't have a high profile like Valeera and Varedis. Speaking of Varedis, I did change his last name because it doesn't make sense to me that his surname is Felsoul when he isn't even a demon yet
If you're wondering how Ragnaros knew about the Legion, then the reasoning is the Old Gods. I find it hard to believe that the Old Gods would keep their minions in the dark about the very thing that is hunting them down
Also, as I've said before, I don't particularly care about keeping the Pandaren part as accurate to the canon as possible. As for my reasoning, I'm not gonna mention it now. You'll find that out and so you'll have an idea when, it is about ten chapters from now
Finally, yes. This is more of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Well, that's about it for now