Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
Pandaria
Later, the forces of the Alliance and Horde have settled among the Pandaren. At first, they were met with untrusting stares but after getting to know each other, they started to get along albeit the mistrust was still there. It was mostly due to Taran Zhu who was mostly convinced by the Windrunners. For most of their time when they weren't on patrol, the Kalimdor inhabitants were enjoying the view
In the meantime, their commanders were given a far more detailed explanation about the landscape of Pandaria, specifically about the Serpent's Spine, a massive wall that separates the Mantid's territories, the Townlong Steppes and the Dread Wastes, from the rest of Pandaria. They noticed some areas of the great Pandaren wall were cracked
Patrol groups which were made up of the Kalimdor inhabitants and Pandaren guarded the areas outside the wall. In every few hours, the Mantid would try to breach through the walls but with more of the defenders, they were consistently pushed back
While they were in the settlement, another member of the Shado Pan suddenly rushed towards his leader. "Taran Zhu. It's the monastery." he called out
"What's going on?" Taran asked in a worried tone
"I have no idea. Everyone on the monastery suddenly began attacking each other over minor disagreements." the Pandaren explained
Taran's eyes widened in surprise. While he wasn't one hundred percent sure of what was happening, the description given was reminiscent of the powers of one of the Sha. 'Could it be?' he thought to himself
"You know what that is, don't you?" Baine noted upon seeing Taran's expression
"I'm not fully certain but it matches the legends of our lands. That kind of power belongs to one of the Prime Shas, the Sha of Hatred." Taran answered before grabbing his pole and leaving
"Wait." Turalyon said but the Shado Pan lord was already gone. "Damn it. Do these people just leave others hanging?" he complained as he followed along with Dranosh and Baine. "Nathanos, stay here." he ordered. Taran gathered a small group of the Shado Pan right as the three outsiders he talked with arrived
"What's going on?" Jaina asked curiously as she and Arthas walked up to them
"Are you two on patrol?" Taran asked and they both shook their head negatively. "Would you mind helping us? One of the Prime Shas, the Sha of Hatred, has taken over our monastery."
"Of course. Lead on." Jaina said without hesitation and the five of them along with the Pandaren quickly travelled towards the monastery
On the way there, they encountered some more of the lesser Shas. While they had hoped to avoid any conflict on the way there, that soon faded into non existence. Now there was no doubt that whatever lurked in the monastery would be ready for them. What they didn't know is that while they were fighting the lesser Shas, some of the Mantid manage to sneak their way through the patrol and flank them. Fortunately for them, Anya and Zeliek found the Mantid first before they could move against the Pandaren. However, their little ambush did make some noise
Rokhan quickly tilted his head in the direction of the noise, something which all of his comPanions noticed. "Ya hear dat?" the troll asked and Taran quickly motioned for three of the Pandaren to check it out while giving an order for them to hold position
Anya and Zeliek quickly heard footsteps coming their way. "We need to move." the dark ranger said and they quickly fled the scene, only leaving behind a small rustling of the nearby vegetations as evidence that someone was in the area recently. When the three Pandaren found nothing, they returned to the rest
"Found anything?" Taran asked
"Nothing but dead Mantids." one of the Pandaren said and surprised them
"Dead Mantids? But who would...?" Baine trailed off
"It must be the undead." Dranosh said in realization
"What the Windrunners said is really true." Taran Zhu commented as he knew that none of the other Pandaren killed the Mantids. "But why keep it a secret?" he wondered as even though he wasn't that trusting of the outsiders, it would be far more effective if they coordinate their efforts
"That's just how the undead operates." Arthas answered him. "They do things at their own pace and they completely disregard anyone that might get caught in the crossfire." he said and the Pandaren frowned before they all continued moving
At the same time, Kayn and Altruis were invisible and flying above the other side of the Serpent's Spine. They observed the Mantid gathered below, all of which were completely clueless to the demon hunters' presence and some of them were still trying to break through the wall. The night elf then motioned for them to get a closer look. They expected to be noticed but to their surprise, the Mantid were still clueless
'This would be too easy.' Kayn commented mentally, referring to how easily they could cripple the insectoid creatures
'I know. I can't even tell if they're pretending to ignore us or not.' Altruis responded while they hid among the red leafed trees. 'Let's see how far in can we go. I don't see any potential traps here.' he ordered
'I meant to ask, what did Illysanna say?' Kayn asked while they were moving
'We're on our own for now. They've got their hands full with the Emerald Nightmare.' Altruis answered. 'It is entirely possible that the Old Gods wanted to thin out the ranks of the mortals so they can take over Kalimdor.'
'Then that suggests that they don't have the means to start a full scale war against us.' Kayn concluded right before they came across the coast. On the other side, they saw what appeared to be a minor settlement. Kayn looked behind them and noticed that the Mantid were still unaware of their presence. 'So, should we check that out?'
'Let's just fly above it and while we're at it, let's check the other islands.' Altruis said before flying in said direction with Kayn following him. In two of the islands, they found that it was completely overrun by Mantids while the other islands seem to be slowly taken over by something else which they figured was the Sha
'Altruis, Kayn.' Anya called out to the demon hunters. 'We've manage to gather some information on the Sha. From the way the Pandaren were talking about it, the more powerful of the Sha seem to be able to amplify negative emotions. Be very careful with what you do and you might run into one of those things.'
'Alright, thanks for the heads up.' Altruis said
'One more thing.' Anya said. 'The other Death knights have found something else. These Mantids are located in areas called Townlong Steppes and Dread Wastes. The Steppes is on the western area and the Wastes are just to the south of it.'
'We'll check it out.' Altruis replied and cut off the connection. 'You heard her. Let's scout the Dread Wastes.' he ordered and the two demon hunters left
In the meantime, Taran Zhu's group finally arrived at the monastery. Even though it was already expected, they were horrified to see that nearly all of the Pandaren in the area were corrupted, evident in their nearly black skin which mirrored that of a Sha. The uncorrupted Pandaren were immediately noticed and along with the lesser Sha, their corrupted brethren quickly attacked. While the uncorrupted forces had no issues in destroying the Sha, they were heavily torn on whether they should engage the corrupted Pandaren, something that greatly put them at the disadvantage
"What do we do, Taran Zhu?" Jaina asked as they were pushed back. "Do we kill the other Pandaren?"
"You don't have the balls!" a medium sized Sha declared right before Jaina destroyed it
Taran Zhu was silent. This was the Shado Pan monastery and if they kill whoever was corrupted, then it would only weaken them. The Kalimdor inhabitants could realistically fill the gap but the only question is would it be enough. He didn't fully trust them but he was left with no other choice. "Kill them." he begrudgingly ordered, now leaving everything up to chance if whether or not his new allies are being true
In response, Jaina quickly incinerated all of the corrupted forces in the immediate area. Her harsh attack and her being near Taran Zhu sent a silent command that the other Shado Pan were free to kill the corrupted forces. Turalyon and Arthas were rather surprised that Jaina, of all people, would resort to immediately killing when usually, she would try to find another way
'This war must be taking its toll on her. I can't really blame her with all the insanity since the Scourge made itself known.' Arthas tried to reason with himself and he liked Jaina being far more aggressive
It didn't take them that long before they finally killed all the lesser Sha in the area. Most of the corrupted Pandaren were also killed but there some that survived, albeit barely. The two human paladins tried to heal one of them but to their surprise, their holy powers instead inflicted pain upon them
"I have never seen anyone react to the powers of the Light like this." Arthas commented and stopped trying to heal
"I have." Turalyon said grimly. "While not as severe as this one, the demons would also suffer a similar effect but not to this extent."
"If that's the case then the Scourge was right. These things are far worse than the demons." Arthas said in realization while the others observed. The human prince then looked towards the Shado Pan leader. "Taran Zhu, what is our next move? Immediately attacking the inside of the monastery would be out of the question, would it?" he asked
This time, it was Jaina who was surprised. The memory of Arthas demanding to chase down Mal'ganis immediately after Stratholme was still very fresh in her mind and even to this day, if Uther had not destroyed the ships, she doubted that she would have been able to convince him not to go. 'Thank the Light you are thinking straight, Arthas.' she thought to herself. "I think we should wait for reinforcements first. We don't know what awaits us inside." she suggested
"Agreed." Taran Zhu said before looking at one of his subordinates. "Send a runner requesting reinforcements as soon as possible." and the subordinate in question nodded before moving to leave
"I'll come wid ya. Der might be more of dose Shas out dere." Rokhan said and accomPanied the Pandaren
Nearly half an hour later, around seventeen troops arrived which consisted of warriors from the Horde, Alliance and the Shado Pan. Among them were Rexxar, Khadgar and a Pandaren they weren't familiar with but was soon introduced to be Chen Stormstout while the Windrunner sisters took command of the Shado Pan who were still guarding the Serpent's Spine. To their surprise, not a single Sha has attacked them to and back to the settlement. While this would usually relieve them, when it comes to the Old Gods, nothing was certain and they were not like the Scourge who can predict the movements of their enemies with such accuracy thanks to their familiarity with them
"We need someone to stay out here and maintain watch." Taran said and something everyone agreed with. "Turalyon, Dranosh, would it be alright if you two maintain watch."
"Of course." Turalyon said and looked over to the orc who simply nodded in agreement even though he really wanted to fight
"Then let's move." Taran said and quickly kicked down the main gate to the monastery.
Immediately, they were greeted a a large number of lesser Shas. Even though they were outnumbered, the two mages with them gave them a massive advantage as they would destroy multiple Shas at once. Before too long, all of the Shas were killed with no casualties on the Pandaren side. They only suffered injuries which Arthas quickly tried to heal
All of a sudden, a voice suddenly echoed. "Well, well. For a race so obsessed with peace, that was impressive." it spoke with a voice so reminiscent of a serpent and there was no doubt that it had a malicious intent. Having been informed of Taran's suspicious, nearly everyone had an idea on who it belonged to but it was nothing compared to what they imagined. This was something that was picked up on by the source. "That's right, Shado Pan Lord. I am the Sha of Hatred. I am at the central building of your precious monastery. Come face me, if you dare." the Prime Sha mocked
"This is a trap, no doubt." Khadgar said
"I know. Split up into four groups and secure the towers first." Taran Zhu ordered and the other Pandaren understood that they need to take point. The number was specifically chosen because of the four main towers in the monastery. "Once the rest of his minions are killed, we'll take out the Prime Sha." he said but some of his subordinates looked at him questioningly. Taran understood what they wanted to hear. "Yes, it's fine. Just try not to damage the structures too much." he said and with that everyone split up
Baine and Rexxar wound up fighting close to each other along with some of their forces. Upon entering one of the buildings, corruped Pandaren and the Sha quickly attacked them. There were only seven of them in the group, including those two, and three of them were quickly killed in the ambush. Seeing they were outnumbered, Rexxar summoned a few beasts to aid in the battle.
"Do not falter warriors! We must not allow the Old Gods to win." Baine said after smashing down three Shas. After a prolonged fight, the corrupted forces were defeated although only two others along with Baine and Rexxar survived, all of them injured
Naturally, Arthas and Jaina paired up together into one of the towers along with a few others from their forces. The paladin went in first and as expected, the corrupted Pandaren attacked him. Arthas slammed a few of them until he was surrounded. Instead of being worried, he instead grinned. "Jaina! Do it!" he yelled right before erecting a divine shield around himself which completely blocked any incoming attacks from both the corrupted Pandaren and the Sha
The female archmage knew this would be a very risky move and she cursed under her breath when Arthas just recklessly charged in without giving her a say. While Arthas was still holding their enemies off, Jaina began charging up a pyroblast spell. "All of you, stay back." she said to the rest of the group. After a few minutes, she fired the spell right at Arthas, whose shield blocked the pyroblast and was absorbed. Jaina then quickly created an arcane shield around them as Arthas deflected all that energy across the room, which instantly killed all the corrupted forces. Unfortunately, all that energy also damaged the tower's structure and slowly caused debris to fall down. "Arthas!" Jaina called out and teleported her lover out of the immediate area before more debris could fall
"Thanks." Arthas said as he got on his knees only to get slapped in the face. "What the hell was that for, Jaina?!" he demanded to know
In response, Jaina slapped him again. "What were you thinking, Arthas? Have you even considered the possibility that your shield could have been broken?! We don't know enough about the Old Gods to make those kind of rash decisions and you are not Illidan." she said in a reprimanding tone
While the group that were with them watched with amusement, one of the Pandaren walked up to them. "Alright, that's enough. Perhaps you could settle this later?" he asked politely
"Yes, we should." Arthas said, glad that someone came to his rescue but Jaina continued to glare at him
Rokhan and Chen joined up in another one of the tower. The one they went into was the least defended so their group did not suffer a single casualty but they still got injured, some having near fatal ones which forced the troll to use his magics to try and heal
At the same time, Khadgar and Taran Zhu secured the final tower. With the help of the archmage's water elementals, they killed the corrupted forces. Unlike Rokhan's group, everyone except Khadgar and Taran were killed in the attack as the Sha caused the entire tower to collapse. When they were forced to move out of the tower, some of the group were picked off and a few Shas even kept Khadgar busy so he couldn't teleport them out, which resulted in the rest of the group being slaughtered
Taran Zhu then quickly pulled Khadgar out of the way when a piece of wood fell from the upper levels right after the archmage killed the last of the Sha
"Thank you." Khadgar said gratefully after realizing that if the Pandaren hadn't done that he would have been crushed
"This isn't over yet." Taran reminded him. "Now, let's head to the main building. Let's go from the upper levels."
There was only one entrance to the central hall of the building and they regrouped. Upon opening the door, the source of all of this awaited them, the Sha of Hatred. "You finally made it. Impressive." it complimented in a mocking tone
"Your insidious kind is real." Taran said warily and everyone who is still alive felt shivers sent down their spine
"And yet, you still came." the Prime Sha mocked before summoning medium sized Shas. "Kill them all!"
Another battle quickly broke out. Given the vicinity and their current opponent, the two archmages were forced to be careful otherwise they could end up bringing the whole building down. Most of the non commanders were either killed or incapacitated by the Shas. The Sha of Hatred even joined the battle by amplifying all the negative emotions, mainly hatred. This led to the group doing reckless actions whenever they got injured. Rexxar's beasts were the greatest victims and ended up injuring Baine and Chen, forcing them to sit out the fight. Jaina and Khadgar summoned water elementals after the two were knocked out in order to kill the Shas and calm down the beasts. While they were successful, they left themselves open to attack which the Prime Sha took advantage of by sending a stream of corrupted energies
"Jaina!" Arthas said in anger before recklessly charging the Sha of Hatred. He tried to slam his hammer but the Sha simply walked away and let its lesser minions deal with the paladin
"Arthas, be careful or he'll..." Rexxar said before three medium sized Shas run him through. All of the Shas were quickly killed by Rokhan when the troll shot a few lightning bolts but the mok'nathal was injured
Knowing that the battle would be lost if they keep giving into their anger, Rokhan decided to turn the tables and summoned magical serpentine wards which attacked the Prime Sha while he decided to heal the injured archmages, which the darkness fired by the Sha was draining the energies of the mages
The Sha of Hatred was hit a few times and growled in pain. "It would seem that a mere troll has these kinds of tricks." it mocked before it was suddenly slammed by Taran and forced onto the ground. The Shado Pan lord tried to attack again but was pulled off by another lesser Sha before the Prime moved away
Taran Zhu eventually killed the lesser Sha before glaring at the Prime. "Get back here!" he demanded and chased after the Sha of Hatred. He caught up and slammed the corrupted creature into a wall. Still under the influence of the Prime Sha's power, Taran ruthlessly slammed his pole again and again. He managed to miss a few times and before he could kill the Prime Sha, it shot a stream of corrupt energies and forced the Pandaren back. However, Taran quickly recovered before slamming his pole again, this time successfully breaking the Prime Sha in two. "I'll kill you!" the Pandaren yelled
Instead of reacting negatively, the Sha of Hatred continued to dodge its enemy. It couldn't do it as easily as earlier and its body was slowly being hacked apart. 'Just a little bit more.' the Sha of Hatred thought to itself right as Taran Zhu finally cornered him
"Before I kill you, tell me everything about your corrupt kind." Taran Zhu demanded to know
Because the Pandaren did not go for the kill immediately, if the Sha had a face, it would have grinned. "You should have just killed me." the Sha mocked before it completely destroyed its body
"What?!" Taran said in surprise as the Sha transformed its body into black gas which engulfed him. The Shado Pan lord began to cough as the gas began suffocating him. Unfortunately for him, it was not an ordinary gas as it was the essence of the Sha itself and since he breathed it in, the Prime Sha ended up possessing him. Like with the other Pandaren, his body turned into a much darker color and his own clothes reflected that
Everyone who was still alive were curious about what was happening. None of them were even slightly familiar with the Sha but given how Taran Zhu was reacting, they can only assume that he was possessed by the Sha of Hatred. Their assumption was soon proven true when the Shado Pan lord suddenly threw bolts of shadow energy at them although every single one missed
"Taran Zhu?" Arthas asked with uncertainty
"Taran Zhu is dead!" the Shado Pan lord declared before charging at Arthas
The paladin parried the Pandaren's attack but was immediately forced back when Taran suddenly released more shadow energies. The Pandaren then struck the ground with his pole and three ring appeared, all of which began releasing shadow energies over a few seconds
Rokhan observed what was happening and noticed that all of the lesser Sha were gone. The island troll realized that if the Prime Sha was possessing someone, then all of its lesser minions will disappear. It was also around the same time when he finished healing the archmages
"What happened?" Khadgar asked with a groan, taking a few minutes to recollect the events that had transpired
"It's da Sha of Hatred. It has taken of Taran Zhu's body." Rokhan responded before looking at the others who had been injured
Jaina's eyes widened in surprise as she was well aware of how vulnerable to anger Arthas was. "Arthas!" she called out as she observed him engage the corrupted Pandaren. "Khadgar!" she called her fellow archmage
"I know." Khadgar responded before summoning some water elementals. "Rokhan, how are the others?"
"I am not certain, mon. Der injuries are pretty bad but I haf my doubts if it would kill them." Rokhan responded
"We'll help Arthas. Can you focus on keeping them alive? At least until we deal with the Sha?" Khadgar asked and the troll nodded. "Jaina, let's lure that thing into a trap."
"What do you have in mind?" Jaina asked and Khadgar explained his plan. They soon got started on clearing the rings on the ground
In the meantime, the duel between Taran and Arthas was still on going. The prince was constantly on the backfoot because his own anger was blinding him and he has been slammed by the Pandaren's pole a few times. He didn't even try to heal as he couldn't think straight. Right as Taran Zhu jumped up and tried to slam him again, Arthas brought his hammer up and threw the Pandaren into a wall. Not giving him a chance to recover, Arthas threw his hammer and nearly crushed Taran's left arm but the Sha's power protected him and shot another blast of dark energies which greatly weakened the paladin
"You will join the slaughter, you miserable human!" Taran Zhu yelled and fired another blast of energy, hitting Arthas again. Before he could do anything else, he was suddenly gripped by arcane chains. "What?!" he asked in surprise right as the ground directly below him was ignited in fire and he was completely incinerated. Taran Zhu's body was completely destroyed and the Sha was forced out. Seizing the opportunity to end all of this, Jaina shot another pyroblast at the Sha, which destroyed it
Upon the Sha's destruction, all the anger Arthas felt suddenly vanished. "What's going...?" he asked and realized what had happened, the Sha had amplified his own anger. "Damn it." he cursed right as he lost consciousness due to the energy blast
First major battle in Pandaria. In all honesty, this was a bit tricky to write. I mentioned that this was the Sha of Hatred but the problem is, both hatred and anger as so closely related that it isn't easy to distinguish them from each other. That's why some parts would mention anger instead of hatred and it's also why I decided to deal with ths Sha of Hatred first
Aside from that, the way that the Prime Sha's, all seven of them, powers work is by amplifying the emotion that they represent. So, if it's the Sha of Hatred then it will amplify hatred and so on. The more of these emotions are present around them, the more their powers grow. I'm also unsure if a Sha is even capable of possessing someone. When I was reading about Taran Zhu, wowpedia mentioned how he got possessed but never mentioned how so I just decided to make my own
Lastly, don't think too much about how the monastery looked. I'm not particularly keen on that kind of details so I just wrote it with a central building and four towers. Just think of it like one of those buildings from Korean shows in ancient times or something like that
Well, that's all I wanna explain for now