The reason the Scourge had done so much damage in the initial surge leading to the Burning Legion's invasion, Coira mused as she snuck up behind the nearest shambling corpse of a former High Elf and planted one of her daggers into the back of it's neck, was that they fought in a way that no military force on Azeroth had ever encountered before.

The move was completely silent, she even caught the corpse before it could collapse to the floor, but still every corpse in sight suddenly turned in her direction with a single mindedness that unnerved her even now. Luckily for Coira this was part of the plan, dropping the corpse and fleeing back towards the path to Silvermoon as the corpses moved with remarkable speed in her direction.

Harry had lead them into the field for the last two days with great success, building on the hard earned lessons from the Scourge attack on Quel'thalas and showing her and the ten Farstriders who had been the first to volunteer how to use the aspects of their undead opponents to their advantage. Whilst the basic undead were relentless and did not tire, they also were not aware of their environment and would usually just charge towards the living without concern for themselves.

Following the very specific path that Harry had weaved into the floor, Coira smirked when the twisting path allowed one of the pursuing undead to catch up enough to lunge towards her, only to disappear into the disguised pit trap waiting for him. There was a meaty noise from inside the pit as she followed her route, no doubt the Shambler had been impaled on one of the metal spikes in the pit, half a dozen other undead following a moment later.

It was a tactic that couldn't be considered 'honourable combat' and one that took time and effort to pull off, or at least it did if you didn't have Harry's powers to dig the pit and make the spikes for you, but given the results and lack of casualties on their side Coira was more than happy doing a little digging. As she reached the end of the area they had dug out and trapped Coira turned around to review the effectiveness of their work.

Whilst Harry made it look almost effortless, digging three trenches at least two metres deep and filling them with spikes was not an easy task to do quietly, which was why Coira had asked for Harry to let them practice with this 'sentry group' near the last of the Scourge camps on this side of the nearest of the two main rivers that flowed down from lake Elrendar in the East.

Given Harry would be travelling south in the coming days, and though she hadn't voiced it yet Coira intended to request to go with him, in that time the more the Blood Elves learned about new ways of fighting their enemy the better. As hundreds of undead began to pour towards them from the surrounding wasteland though, Coira realised that this was going to be different from the other two camps they had destroyed, where the sentry groups had been easy to lure away one at a time before they assaulted the main camp.

The Farstriders began to pick off the undead on the furthest reaches of the oncoming mob with their bows, as these were the ones that would most likely get around the pits they had dug to attack them directly. Coira thoug was watching the way the mob moved in general, and saw something they had been looking for during the last two days.

Many of the fallen High Elf soldiers still had the weapons and armour that they died in, and these undead were almost universally gathered in an organised unit in the middle of the oncoming mass, masked and protected by the screen of raised civilians and other fallen who surged ahead of them. Turning to look at Harry, who had accompanied them just in case of this event, Coira saw that he had seen it too.

"Finally. Coira, do you see them?" It was strange hearing Harry speak in Common, especially as it was mostly very basic and broken sentences, which were quite different from the eloquence he imparted when speaking with the translation rune.

Still, it made communication possible whilst Nash'ala was accessing all of the scrolls she could on his behalf, so Coira stopped her mental complaints and scanned the area even as the first of the Civilian Scourge slammed into the first pit. Dozens were impaled and trampled as they filled the pit, but their bodies provided the path for the others, who were acting more and more like a battering ram in front of the armed undead behind.

It took several moments, but she noticed some undead armed with large shields approaching far more slowly, a green glow emanating from behind the moving barricade indicating the likely identity of their newest enemy.

"Well you wanted Necromancers Harry, Light above only knows why… There, now can you help?" It was clear Harry didn't understand at least some of what she said at first, so pointing first at the Necromancers and dumbing down her words before then gesturing rather vigorously at the advancing undead, who had now cleared the second pit with broken corpses and impaled walkers in their wake.

"Yes, fall back, I will… Deal with them." If it had been anyone else, Coira would probably have protested the idea of leaving him alone, but given what she had seen him do with his magic she gestured to the lead Farstrider.

"I hope you know what you are doing Harry." The Farstriders fell back as a single unit, half of them covering the others with bow fire before retreating under the others cover fire in turn.

Harry cast her a look as she didn't move from his side, but obviously he didn't think he would win that argument as he didn't mention it, merely pointing at the approaching undead as they split in two streams to move around the last hidden pit after the last of the civilian undead fell into it.

"Need to change, going forward, too easy to…" Harry struggled over what he wanted to say, seemingly uncaring about the mass of undead that moved to surround the two of them as the wall of shields moved closer, given the risk of someone higher up in the Scourge hierarchy watching Harry wanted to send a message of intent whilst not revealing too much of his main abilities.

"Well, haven't we got a couple of brave adventurers. I imagine you have been behind the sacking of our other two corpse camps as well?" The shield wall parted as it reached the encircling wall of undead soldiers, revealing four black clad Elves armed with skull topped staves that were responsible for the green glow that she had seen before.

She couldn't help it, Coira letting her anger get the better of her as she flung a throwing dagger at the one who was monologuing like he was freaking Kel'thuzad himself.

"Traitors!" Unfortunately this particular Necromancer wasn't all talk, the knife disintegrating against a crackling shield of eerie green about three foot from the man.

The Necromancer raised a hand in response, shaking his finger mockingly in her direction as two of his subordinates grasped their staves and started chanting.

"I prefer to think of it as 'staying alive', not that you will have that problem any longer mana slut…" The man finished his statement by thrusting his staff forward at the same time as his colleagues finished their chanting, three sickly green bolts shooting toward them in a manner that still haunted Coira's nightmares.

She expected a wall of earth, or a wand cast shield, not Harry stepping in front of her protectively. Raising one hand towards the incoming spells, the other releasing the clasp on his cloak at the same time, Harry cut a surprisingly relaxed figure. As the cloak dropped though his entire figure stiffened before glowing in a dark light that seemed at odds with the sickly glow of the afternoon sun.

Coira barely suppressed the wave of terror that washed over her as Harry's magic changed, large amounts of death magic was so common in the ruins outside Silvermoon City that she barely felt it normally, but this feeling reminded her of the single worst event in her life.

Suddenly she was lying on the outskirts of Quel'thalas once more, heavy wounds to her stomach and left leg from a pair of ghouls she barely managed to fell before he arrived. The feeling of death was so strong that she thought it would kill her before he did, but he merely looked at her with those ice-blue eyes before turning his horse and riding deeper into the already corrupted woodlands, dismissing her of being worth the effort of killing…

"Death magic is such an… interesting branch of spells and rituals." Harry's voice, deeper and darker than it had ever been before, dragged her from her memories.

Looking up from where she had dropped her gaze, Coira realised he had stopped the spells in mid flight merely a couple of inches from his hand.

"A Death Knight, here? Apologies my lord we did not realise…" The lead Necromancer was quick to change his tune, and given the sheer power currently emanating from Harry Coira didn't blame him.

If Harry hadn't given her and the Lord Regent warning of what his magic would feel like unshackled, then she would have feared the worst.

"I do not understand you. Not matter, I merely have need of your tools. The spells are yours…" It was clear that Harry was still struggling with Common, but he also seemed unsure of himself, twitching his hand towards them and sending the bolts flying back at almost twice the speed they had originally been cast at.

The shields that the Necromancers had in place shattered in the wake of the energised spells, the three Necromancers screaming as their own magic now withering their bodies to husks with remarkable speed. With the death of their local 'Master', the surrounding undead reverted back to their original commands quickly enough, charging forwards with a single purpose.

"Sleep!" Harry stamped his foot and a wave of magic shot from him in a chaotic and uncontrolled manner, dozens of the remaining undead suddenly collapsing as they charged, though there were still too many…

Then the oppressive Death magic was gone, an arm grabbing hers and whisking them away in the now familiar feeling of apparation, leaving the undead to slam into each other in the few seconds took for them to realise their targets were now gone.

"That was new…" Harry seemed uneasy, even as his cloak finished clasping itself around him, his magic suddenly back to the friendly warm and earthy feel she was so fond of.

Their retreat served as a signal, the Farstriders beginning to pour fire into the remaining undead whilst Coira took stock of the battlefield.

The only surviving Necromancer, who Coira could now see was a boy probably barely into his teens, was staring at his former comrades in shock that made it clear this was probably his first foray into combat. His age made Coira's blood boil, the boy could only have been a child when the Scourge sacked Quel'thalas, and had probably been forcibly taken and brainwashed by the Necromancers in Arthas' service.

How many other children and young adults had suffered the same fate? Whilst it wasn't the same as them being slaughtered and raised as the Scourge, Coria wasn't certain which fate she found more stomach wrenching.

Luckily she didn't need to bring herself to deal with the source of her internal distress, a pair of red magic bolts flying from her right a moment later, the first breaking on the Necromancer's hastily raised shield before the second smashed through it and sending the Necromancer slumping to the floor.

"Shall we?" It was Harry's words that brought her out of her mental shock, the Terran drawing his sword from his waist and starting towards the dwindling Scourge forces, and a moment later she felt her concern over the boy Necromancer change into anger as she drew her daggers.

First she would take her anger out on these poor souls, then she would reserve the rest for when she managed to find one of those responsible for this travesty…

!"£$%^&*()_+

It had been slightly surprising for Dar'Khan Drathir, one minute he had been observing Anveena and those pesky Blues as they travelled to Aerie Peak from his throne in Deathholme, planning how to deal with them for the indignity they had heaped upon him in Tarren Mill. Then there was a burst of Necromantic magic to the North, and despite it disappearing less than a minute later, the strength of the magic was significant enough that it couldn't have come from one of those amateurs who called themselves Necromancers of the Scourge.

Intrigued, as such a strong burst of magic meant there was a new player on the board in the 'game' he was playing for the domination of Quel'thalas, Dar'Khan left the scrying stone focussed on Anveena and focussed instead on the undead in the area he had sensed. The number was dropping rapidly, though he found a shade not too far from the rapidly diminishing assault force that would be useful for this task. It was a simple matter, applying some magic through the bond that all Scourge shared with his Master and subjugating the pre-designated commands in the Shade's mind, opening 'his' eyes in the Wastelands of Northern Quel'thalas a moment later.

Drifting towards what was obviously a battlefield, Dar'Khan found himself looking down from the far side of the river Elrendar towards one of the three camps he had established for his Wretched minions to launch assaults on Silvermoon City, though judging by the field of corpses off in the distance beyond its Northern 'wall' it was soon to be an 'ex-camp'. Making sure to stay at a distance, being metaphorically killed by arrows or spells wasn't part of his plans for the day after all, Dar'Khan quickly circled round to find the source of his interest.

He expected it to be one of Windrunner's band of traitors, even after her death the former Ranger General of Quel'thalas was causing him issues on his southern front, especially since the Blood Elves had 'retaken' Silvermoon City. For all the hatred of his master for what he did to her, the so called 'Forsaken' were just as prolific with their use of necromancy and other dark and corruptive magics. Though, from what his spies in the city told him, Lady Sylvanas seemed to be wilfully ignorant of what a large portion of her people got up to.

What Dar'Khan found though was far more interesting than some Forsaken Necromancer. A small group of Blood Elf Rangers lead by a Farstrider was the norm given they were less than four miles from Silvermoon, but the human accompanying them, with a level of power similar to Dar'Khan's before he pledged his services to his Master definitely grabbed his attention. What was more surprising to Dar'Khan though was not only the fact that the Farstriders were now moving through the corpses of the fallen Scourge, stabbing every corpse at least twice with their swords or scavenged spears to make sure that every corpse was just that, they were also stripping the corpses of anything made of metal or potentially valuable.

Many races on Azeroth were for the most part rigidly against anything that could be considered 'desecration of the dead', and looting of corpses was one of those borderline very dark grey areas that was generally considered to veer on the side of unforgivable. For the former High Elves to be descending to such a level told Dar'Khan that the Blood Elves must be desperate indeed, which was perhaps why they were working with the human Mage, given the pits he could see that had been used as traps he could be a mercenary of some kind…

Moving a little closer, with the aim of listening in on what the head Farstrider and the human were talking about, Dar'Khan only noticed the arrows in time dodge one of them, the other two catching the shade in the chest and sending him back into his own body with a wince.

Still it wasn't an entirely wasted effort Dar'Khan thought, as he began the chant that would transport him to their location, whilst commanding the Scourge forces just beyond Silvermoon's closest offshoot of the River Elrendar. A fight with an interesting opponent, whilst pushing the Blood Elves back to their precious walls, would be the perfect way to distract himself from the annoyances currently winging their way to the south...

!"£$%^&*()_+

After defeating the three Necromancers defending the last of the Scourge assault camps, Harry would have loved the chance to head back to Silvermoon with their newest captive and revel in the blow they had struck against the undead, especially given how weirdly his powers had acted when he removed the cloak. The burst of power had been far stronger than it had ever been when he had been on Earth, and whereas before it had merely been an easy way to gain an extra power boost to deal with some of the more powerful demons he faced, it had almost felt like there was something advising him how to block those magic bolts from the Necromancers.

He had enough experience of such 'helpful' nudges from enchanted objects to recognise it was probably the Deathly Hallows that were the source of such instinctive knowledge. But just because he knew the source didn't mean he could trust them any further without verification, The Diary Horcrux was still something that gave Ginny nightmares from time to time. He had tried to explain what was happening to Coira, as he knew such powerful Death Magic would have put her and the other Rangers on edge, but his Common Vocabulary was still far too…

Harry felt it for a few moments before realising what had his magical senses going berserk, and then his face paled as he turned towards its source.

"Coira, take others. RUN!" Unlike before Harry wouldn't accept her noble attempts to stay with him, using a mild banishing charm to force her away from him when she hadn't moved a moment later, her anger at the manhandling was something he could deal with later if they survived this.

A portal appeared a few hundred yards away, similar to the ones he had heard about from Jaina before he left Theramore, though the magical strength of the Elf that stepped through was superior even to Jaina's vaunted mana pools. The Elf was literally cloaked in Death Magic, the dark green aura surrounding him almost black to the visible eye. Harry heard the twang of bows from behind him and cursed internally at the Rangers refusal to listen to him.

"How rude…" The Elf's voice carried in a manner that made it seem like he was stood less than ten metres from Harry as opposed to several hundred yards, the arrows not even making it within a metre of the man before they disintegrated or deflected away from him.

Harry knew what was coming next even before the Elf's magic began to form, apparating across to stand in front of the Blood Elves in the fraction of a second he had before the Elf raised his arm almost mockingly.

"Learn some #'sy#%, #£%*&!" Whilst he didn't understand everything the mysterious Elf said, Harry understood enough to know what was coming wasn't a tickling charm. Even as a beam of energy lanced from the Elf Harry was at work, an Earthen wall rising behind a overpowered Protego shield, though each of them barely hindered the beam as it careened towards them and slamming into the foot wide Protego Maxima shield he had nearly overloaded with the amount of magic he threw into it.

It was like being hit by the Hogwarts Express, the sheer amount of magic in the beam attack meaning it started to disperse around his shield and carry on forwards in the moments before the attack let up, Harry left gasping as the spell finally ended.

"Harry, it's…" Before Coira could speak any further Harry had magically turned an item on each Blood Elves body into a Portkey and activated it, sending them all spinning off to Silvermoon City, he couldn't afford to protect them from another attack like that.

Another beam came a moment later, though Harry merely apparated behind the Elf and out of the area of attack, Sword of Gryffindor appearing in his hand as he attempted to end this fight before it began. The Elf ducked the attempted decapitation with remarkable agility, and Harry barely managed to avoid a set of glowing rays of light that attempted to bind him in place in response.

"Interesting…" The Elf seemed almost pleased at Harry's attempts to kill him, a golden shield springing into existence as Harry launched his favoured 3-spell combination of a cutting curse, a blasting hex and a stunning spell, the spells causing the shield to ripple slightly but failing to unsettle his opponent in the slightest.

Harry wasn't playing to win though, mostly because he was merely buying time for the Blood Elves to retreat to Silvermoon City itself, but also because he wasn't sure if he could win this fight even if he did go all out. That first attack, as well as creating and activating that many portkeys silently without his wand, had drained him of a large amount of his magic and his opponent had more than he did to begin with.

The next few minutes were a blur of action, dodging beams and shackles either physically or by apparation, all whilst unleashing a torrent of spells to keep his opponents attention solely focussed on him. Feeling the Elf's amusement start to fade Harry knew he needed to change things up a little, and despite the effort of maintaining a spell at the same time as everything else he was doing, Harry had just the thing in mind.

It took several seconds after terminating the spell for anything to happen, but the sudden widening of the Elf's eyes as the first double decker bus sized rock slammed into the top of his shield nearly made Harry think he had succeeded, especially as another dozen boulders slammed into the ground a moment later.

Harry made a habit of carrying at least that many giant rocks on him at all times, all shrunken and lightened to the size and weight of pebbles to remain easily accessible. After throwing them in the air as part of a slightly theatrical dodge, Harry had used a levitation charm to maneuver the boulders into position before cancelling all of the charms at once, several tonnes of rock falling from almost 10,000 feet a trump card his opponents rarely saw coming.

He wasn't overconfident though, apparating out of the way of a dark purple fireball that fell from the sky a moment later that oozed Fel magic, just before his attempted finishing move exploded in a maelstrom of magic. Despite his best efforts Harry was caught by several of the smaller rock splinters from that particular explosion, though even given his rapidly depleting magical reserves he wasn't doing too badly, even if the still pristine state of his opponent said otherwise.

Rather than getting angry at the attempted burial he had just survived, his opponent still maintained his cocky smirk as he unleashed a wave of energy outward that Harry had to apparate away from, choosing to move south rather than North in order to keep whoever this monster was from getting any closer to Quel'thalas. As he reappeared though Harry found himself in more trouble than before, his senses alerting him to the presence of hundreds if not thousands of undead, clearly they had awakened the Scourge nest well and truly.

Harry was doing his best not to use his earth magic, which meant he had to resort to more 'traditional' methods of cutting down the approaching undead with his blade and wand. Though, as more and more of the undead began to converge upon his position, it became harder and harder to stay ahead of the claws and teeth that attempted to grab onto him and drag him down. Harry could feel the Elf approaching at a leisurely pace, no doubt seeing what magic he might unleash to deal with the Scourge meat-fodder he had been attacked with, and given releasing the Cloak had been what attracted the Elf it wasn't exactly much of a secret any longer.

With a thought the third of the Hallows detached itself from his shoulders and into one of his expanded robe pockets, darkness flowing into Harry's mind once more. Like before, his body acted on the 'instincts' the Hallows provided before he had even realised what they were doing. Three seconds later and dozens of the nearest undead suddenly turning on their former 'comrades', transforming what had been turning into a trap of decaying flesh into a field of carnage once more.

Harry felt the Elf's interest spike to almost unbelievable levels, but even as he continued to approach Harry was focussing on dealing with the literal swarm of undead that were already starting to overcome his turned Scourge. Focussing on the feelings from the Hallows, Harry grinned before reaching out with both hands, words he didn't recognise spilling from his lips in a way that hurt his ears and made his mouth feel like he had just eaten sandpaper…

!"£$%^&*()_+

Dar'Khan couldn't remember the last time he had enjoyed himself this much, there were very few opponents that could keep up with him in direct combat for long since the fall of Dalaran and the other esteemed Magical schools on Azeroth. Even fewer of those opponents were able to surprise him like this mercenary did with the rock avalanche from the sky, something that Dar'Khan would enjoy trying to mimic later with his own magic to see if he could pull it off as subtly as had occurred here, and then he felt the strength of the man's Death Magic.

Dar'Khan wasn't aware of any Necromancers that didn't serve the Scourge, given everyone assumed they did serve his Master he couldn't imagine them lasting long in 'civilised' society, but perhaps that was why the mercenary had found a way to shackle his connection to Death Magic so that it was undetectable. Given the way he had asserted control over so many of the Scourge surrounding him so quickly it was clear the man had a lot of power, but the way it was used made Dar'Khan think he hadn't the control that would have made him truly dangerous.

Watching the man begin to chant, though he was too far away to hear the words, Dar'Khan paused in his approach to see what the man was planning. He had already seen more new magic in the last five minutes than he had since the fall of Silvermoon after all. Then he felt the pull on his magic, specifically the Death Magic his body had learned to tolerate since he had pledged his service to the Lich King, and started to wonder whether he was standing a little too close.

With a wave of his hand Dar'Khan created a portal next to him, his defeat against the Blue Dragons in Tarren Mill had shown him the merits of an escape plan if nothing else, but after raising a shield in front of him the pull on his magic subsided so he stayed where he was for now. His gathering minions weren't so lucky, and to Dar'Khan's awe the magic animating them was literally dragged from their bodies and pulled into the growing vortex that the mercenary was creating in front of him.

Dar'Khan could feel the Death Magic in the air lessening as the vortex took the shape of a swirling mass of energy almost the size of an abomination, which the mercenary then turned away from Quel'thalas, towards the barely visible Howling Ziggurat in the distance. Watching the energy mass unleash itself Dar'Khan understood why the mercenary hadn't fired it at him, it moved at about the speed of a cantering horse and therefore would be easy to avoid even given its size. But as the mercenary disappeared in his personal form of teleportation, which Dar'Khan still didn't understand, he decided he would let him go for now.

Altering the portal's location to the base of the Bleeding Ziggurat, Dar'Khan stepped through to wait for the projectiles arrival. It wouldn't do to miss such a powerful attack after all, perhaps he could learn something from watching its effects…

!"£$%^&*()_+

Coira was seething as she stormed up to the top of the tower that Harry's portkey had deposited them in and leaving the Rangers to deal with the boy Necromancer Harry had sent with them, she had a chance to take down Dar'Khan Drathir, the traitor of Quel'thalas himself! If Harry hadn't sent her away…

Even as she reached the top of the tower her more logical side started to take over, especially at the explosions and beams of magical energy that were visible from the walls, despite the fact the fight was taking place almost three miles from the walls. The Guardians were already panicki… she meant responding by raising the alarms, ringing the large bells that were dotted along the walls to alert the rest of the city.

Coira's attention remained firmly on the distant fight as Rangers and Guardians began to filter up to the wall, the lead Ranger who had accompanied them to attack the siege camps moving up to stand at the parapet next to her.

"Farstrider, I do not mean to question…" Obviously she did, and Coira knew what she wanted to ask about given she had her own questions, but that meant answering would be difficult.

"I do not have the answers you seek Ranger Shadowbreeze, and even if I did I would not break his confidence so easily, though I can assure you that he informed the Lord Regent of his powers before we began our excursions." That had been an interesting end to the fairly relaxed meeting at the Ambassador's residence, though the way Harry had stated it at the time it should have been nowhere near as powerful as it turned out to be.

"Actually Farstrider, I was merely going to question whether we should assemble a force and sally from the walls to assist Lord Potter, facing the traitor alone is something even Grand Magister Rommath has not succeeded in without being forced to retreat." That was news to Coira, she had been out on long term missions since the Grand Magister had returned from Outland, though if the traitor had defeated the Grand Magister even with his crystals of power that explained why the attempted expansions from Silvermoon had failed up until now.

The fact she had presumed the worst of the Ranger did make her flush slightly, but Coira made a point of not letting her pride get the better of her, so she offered a short but sincere apology for her presumptions. The apology obviously took the Ranger by surprise, but she shook it off easily enough before speaking once more.

"No need to apologise Farstrider, several of my hunt have voiced the concerns you tried to preempt from me. But given the Grand Magister's use of previously damned magic to restore Silvermoon City, it would be remiss of me to judge an off-worlder for powers he obviously tries hard to suppress." This was the third or fourth time Coira had heard someone refer to the Grand Magister's magic in a way that made it sound dangerous, but every time she tried to press on the subject those who had spoken had become evasive to say the least, and before she could ask something appeared in the sky above the position of the fight.

Her eyes were not good enough to make out exactly what the thing/s were, but given their size as they fell to the ground, she felt their impact a moment later as the earth shook for a moment.

"By the Sunwell…" It was at this point Coira felt a portal open behind them, and given what had come out of the last portal she spun round with daggers raised, only to relax when Regent Lor'themar and Grand Magister Rommath stepped through.

The Regent's single eye was piercing as it swept the horizon for a moment before settling on the location where the fight was taking place, bringing a spyglass that Coira knew had several enchantments on it to improve the range and clarity of vision that the user received.

"Farstrider Lightblade, Grand Magister Rommath was just showing me to one of the most recent artefacts that Lord Kael'thas sent back to us when he felt the large surge in magical energy beyond the walls, what is happening?" Before Coira could respond there was a flash of dark light before a dome of energy appeared in the distance, the Grand Magister narrowing his eyes in a manner that made it clear he understood exactly what was happening.

"The traitor, Lord Potter is engaging him directly? I thought you were only dealing with the nearest siege camps Farstrider…" It wasn't an admonishment, more than anything the Grand Magister sounded like he would have joined them if he had thought the traitor would have appeared, no doubt looking for a rematch in which he could settle the score ALL Blood Elves had with the man who had cost them nearly everything.

"We were, but the Scourge were more prepared in their defence of the last siege camp and this forced Harry to intervene to help deal with the counter-attack, I think his use of his powers grabbed the Traitor's attention. If it weren't for Harry blocking the first attack and then transporting us here, I don't think we would have survived more than a few seconds…" The fact she had been so powerless merely amplified the guilt Coira felt, defending against such a powerful attack would have been draining for Harry who would normally have just dodged it, the cost to his magic would have put him at a disadvantage against the traitor.

"And now he works to distract Dar'Khan from coming any closer to the walls, even though it has put him in even further danger from the looks of things. Grand Magister…" The Grand Magister seemed to understand the Regent's instruction though Lord Lor'themar cut himself off part way through his order, though the feeling that washed over them a moment later had the Grand Magister pause in summoning another portal.

"Lord Potter, he is… Grand Magister can you feel it?" Coira would have dropped dead from shock if the man couldn't, the Death Magic that permeated the very air they breathed was being drawn away to the South.

Admittedly it was only a small shift, that almost felt like a lazy breeze compared to the way most mages pulled in and then expelled magic, but this was from a spell being cast from miles away! After several long moments the feeling abated for a moment, before the ambient magic around them was pulled to the south in a manner that left Coira short of breath, as if a great void had been opened and the ambient magic was being sucked towards it in order to fill it.

This in turn caused magic to be pulled in from the areas surrounding Quel'thalas to fill the space, which was a rush of non-Death magic that many of the Blood Elves wouldn't have felt since evacuating Silvermoon during the Fall. It took a moment for Coira to overcome the heady feeling this provoked, bringing her attention back to reality as the Grand Magister started speaking.

"Incredible, Lord Regent, can you see where Lord Potter is? From what I can sense he channelled the Death Magic in the Ghostlands before using it in a spell, but what type of spell that contains such power…" There was a shift in the air behind them before Lor'themar could reply, and feeling the familiar magic Coira turned with a smile on her face, the smile fading a moment later as she took in the sight before her.

"HARRY!" It was probably too emotional a cry for her to pretend it was professional, but as she rushed to his side Coira found she didn't care.

There were several bleeding cuts on Harry's torso and arms, as well as what looked like a rock shard embedded in his shoulder, but what terrified her was the blood leaking from his ears and mouth.

"Rommath, get us a portal to the Priest Enclave now, and then prepare your magi in case the traitor tries to pursue Lord Potter here." As Harry opened his mouth, no doubt to say something, all that came out was a mouthful of blood that splattered over Coira's clothes as she lifted him as carefully as she could. As someone who normally did her utmost to maintain her clothing and appearance as spectacularly as possible, Coira surprised to find herself not even slightly revulsed by the wet feeling on her chest.

All her thoughts were focussed on Harry now, and what terrible things Lady Bones was going to do to her if Harry wasn't healed in time…

!"£$%^&*()_+

Not since the rise of Kel'thuzad as a Liche in his Master's service had Dar'Khan Drathir seen such a intense display of magic, as he stared at the devastation where the Howling Ziggurat had once stood. Initially the spell the mercenary had cast was going to miss the Ziggurat by 20 feet or so, which would have been disappointing for Dar'Khan to watch given the amount of power the spell had consumed before being launched, but thankfully the idiots who manned the tower had still felt it enough of a threat to create the tower's shielding spell.

Each Ziggurat was manned by a dozen Necromancers at all times, with thirty more based in the decrepit settlement about a mile east of here to reinforce the Ziggurats in case of attack, not that the Blood Elves had gotten close to such an event occurring since retaking Silvermoon. These Necromancers were capable of performing rituals around the Death shard at the top of the Ziggurat to either attack invaders with bolts of Death magic and the souls of the Scourge, or summon a shield to protect the tower and those nearby from magic or siege attacks.

Watching the spell impact the hastily erected shield Dar'khan had expected an explosion or some other spell effect, but instead the spell merely impacted the shield for a moment before changing direction and passing through the shield like it wasn't even there, sucking in the Death Magic that the Necromancers were using to channel the shield before it touched the Ziggurat's parapet. Then something happened, the ball expanding to envelop the entire Ziggurat and a large amount of the ground surrounding it into the Dead Scar itself, and no attempt Dar'Khan tried would let his senses pierce the veil before him.

It subsided several minutes later, and where the once intimidating and commanding structure had stood remained only the bodies of the Necromancers and other Scourge that had inhabited it. As he approached, Dar'Khan found that the air was almost entirely free of Death Magic inside where the spell had enveloped, though several seconds later the inertia effect failed and the surrounding magic flooded into the area once more. Even so, the spell had weakened the amount of Death Magic in the area surrounding the Ziggurats' location, and it would take some time for the presence of the Scourge forces to amplify it once more.

How very interesting… When he had claimed the power that rested within that damnable dragon, Dar'Khan would have to 'visit' the mercenary once more. A spell that sucked in all of the Death Magic in an area, and presumably banished it back to the Shadowlands where it came from, that would be very useful with what he had planned for his Master…

A/N: I can already hear the reviews 'First earth magic, now Death Magic? Harry is too OTT!'. Well given he still lost to Dar'Khan quite handily, even with the limitations and disadvantages he had, I like to think instead he is just about right.

This is the opposite of my X-Com story, where the Deathly Hallows are just some very well enchanted objects. In this story, becoming 'Master of Death' is very much a title and power that Harry gains, and though it will be expanded on as we go, this isn't 'Harry becomes the new Lich King' or something like. It is a power he has never really used before now, between the stigmata of Necromancy on Earth and his own reservations, but given its effectiveness here he will need to start practicing.

Whereas I previously used the book 'Cycle of Hatred' as a basis for Theramore and Jaina, this chapter and the next chapter will be drawing upon the 'Sunwell Trilogy' series, though there are considerable changes that will affect that story's ending. Given the rather… Unsatisfying last book, I don't think people will mind overly much.

Let me know what you think everyone!

Defias Out