"So, what's the plan this time?" Finnal asked curiously.
"I do not have a plan," Salin said, then thrusted his trident outward in a practice jab.
The two elves stood on top of the wall, looking out towards the field. The flag was back in position, with Colben and a recovered Kelvin serving as the judges. In just a few moments, Colben will fire off a spell towards the sky, and the final match would begin. When Salin started the capture the flag games, he was only expecting team bonding. But now, he realized that he could very well win the whole event. Perhaps then, the other members of the Vanguard would take him seriously.
Part of his success was due to how well he could work with his partner. Unlike some of the others, who looked down on him due to his antics, Finnal didn't mind them at all, and preferred to have some joy compared to some of the more serious nature of the commanders. Salin was glad to have the aid of Finnal for the coming battles, for they worked best as a team. Colben was often too harsh on Balthar to form any trust and Kelvin treats Dal'bin as a weapon to be unleashed on his foes. The closest team that came close to matching their teamwork was their final opponents.
Salin had served under Oliktalv for some time, and Belara even longer. He understood that Oliktalv, although honorable, had a rage he kept bottled, and that undeath had turned Belara cold. They were both loyal to the Horde, and given that they had worked together before, they made for a decent team. Yet, they were nearly opposites with their methods and often had disagreements. Meanwhile, Salin and Finnal often found each other in agreement. It was that bond that would help them gain victory over Oliktalv and Belara.
"Do you want me to come up with a plan?" Finnal asked. "I was thinking you could try blinding them."
"I could try that, but there is no doubt in my mind that after they've witnessed my attack the first time, they'll be ready," Salin said and shook his head.
"Then what are you thinking of?" Finnal continued her questioning.
"I'm thinking that we're going up against two natural born leaders," Salin said and stroked his chin. "They're going to expect us to come with a plan, and they're going to want to counter it."
"And how do we stop them from doing that?"
Salin grinned. "We fight without a plan. We're going to wing it."
"I see," Finnal said, and a second later, she smiled. "They're never going to expect that."
"Indeed!" Salin exclaimed loudly. "Let's make the most of this."
A few seconds passed by before a ball of fire was launched into the air, signalling the start of the final round of capture the flag.
Salin and Finnal leaped down from the wall and rolled onto the ground. Finnal shifted into her saber form and leaped from island to island, leaving her partner behind. Salin let Finnal take the lead and chased after her, moving slowly from each island. Finnal would likely make it to the flag first, but Belara was likely quick enough to make sure the druid didn't capture the flag. A battle would ensue, with both sides reinforced by their team. The thought excited the blood knight.
Finnal and Belara were already in battle against each other by the time their partners arrived on the main island. Finnal had her foe on the defensive. Although Belara was deadly in her own right, she didn't have the proper weapons or muscle to fight off a giant cat. The druid had the dark ranger dodging each claw swing as she waited for an opportunity to strike with his dagger. Salin pointed his trident at Oliktalv with a grin.
"Well met!" Salin greeted. "I look forward to besting you, Oliktalv Warfury, at both a fight and capture the flag!"
"Enough talk," Oliktalv grunted, and charged.
Oliktalv was predictable enough to Salin. A true warrior like him never backed down from a challenge, which he would use force to meet. Salin retracted his trident back into his hands and assumed a defensive stance. A trident was not so different from his ranseur, meaning that he might be able to use some of his fighting styles. He crouched down, forcing Oliktalv to swing down low with both of his blades. Salin raised his trident to block the incoming attack with the weapon's prongs. One sword was deflected while the other was caught between the prongs. Salin quickly forced the caught sword out of Oliktalv's hands and onto the ground some distance away.
"Ha!" Salin chuckled and stood up. "You fell for the oldest trick in ranseur fighting!"
Oliktalv grunted and held his remaining sword in both hands. He swung out against Salin, careful to avoid the prongs of his trident. Salin blocked the blow with the shaft, with the metal blade clanging off of it. The brute strength behind the blow had Salin take a few steps back. Although Oliktalv's shortsword was made for fighting with one-hand, it packed quite the punch in two hands. He needed to defeat the orc, and quickly.
Salin jabbed out against Oliktalv's chest with his trident. Much to his surprise, Oliktalv dropped the sword and grabbed the trident past the prongs, holding the weapon in place just before it could strike him. Salin gulped as his opponent pulled the trident out of his grasp with ease. Before the blood knight could react, he was pushed back with a kick. Oliktalv handled the trident cautiously. Then, he surprised his opponent again by kicking the dropped sword to his feet.
"Pick it up," Oliktalv demanded.
"And why should I?" Salin asked with a smirk.
"Belara claims you are quite a swordsman," Oliktalv explains. "She said you were better with a sword than a polearm."
"She says a lot of things," Salin shrugged. "Can I have my trident back? You can have your sword back. Both of them. I won't even try to disarm you."
"I will not have one of my warriors not fighting to the best they could," Oliktalv growled. "Pick up the sword."
Salin glanced down at the ground, then back at Olikalv. He shook his head. "I think I'm going to grab the flag."
"No you're not!"
"Then by all means, stop me!"
Salin jogged forward, intending to move around Oliktalv. The orc swung the trident to block his way, but stopped halfway through with his swing. Salin ducked under the trident bar and continued toward the flag. He knew Oliktalv too well. He knew that his foe would not dare attack anyone unarmed, at least, not during a friendly game. This brought Salin a quick advantage as he grabbed the flag and pulled it free from the ground.
"Belara!" Oliktalv called out and dropped the trident. "You're up!"
Another surprise from the orc commander. Belara broke away from fighting Finnal and charged Salin. Finnal attempted to charge after her opponent when she was suddenly tackled down to the ground by Oliktalv. The druid roared out as her ambusher kept her pinned down to the ground. Finnal had proven to be able to overwhelm both Oliktalv and Belara separately, so they needed to pin her down. Now, Salin was left with an elf he couldn't hope to outrun with the flag, making the capture much more difficult.
Salin held out against Belara's offense. She no longer had to worry about dodging and slashed with her daggers with precision. He remembered his old commander's way of fighting and blocked her blows with the wooden flagpole. The blades were sharp and were slowly cutting away at the wood. A few more minutes, and Salin would not have anything to defend himself with, and each time he tried to get a strike in, Belara dodged and attacked again.
In between strikes, Salin caught a quick glance at Finnal. She was shifting between her forms, trying desperately to escape from Oliktalv, who was using all of his strength to keep her pinned. It was a smart strategy on their part. Keep the swift team member pinned down, and focus the slow team member to prevent him from fleeing. Salin had to give them credit, but the two forgot one fact that could change the battle.
Salin was the one who came up with the game, and it was his job to come up with the rules.
Salin backed away from Belara during her offense. Belara pressed forward, still trying to find an opening. He continued his retreat, growing nearer to Oliktalv. With both opponents distracted on their respective fights, Salin had quickly set up his own trap. He let Belara land two hits on him, cutting through his armor. He grimaced, but swung the flagpole into Oliktalv. The blow caught the orc off guard and knocked him into the water. Afterwards, Salin quickly grabbed the flag and pulled it off the pole.
"Finnal!" Salin called out.
Finnal didn't need to hear the plan to understand Salin's intentions. She stood back quickly and bit into the flag. She shifted into her raven form and flew away from the island, back to her team's base with the flag in her beaks. Salin dropped the flagpole and grinned victoriously. Belara held onto her daggers tightly, unsure of what to do and Oliktalv dragged himself back onto the island.
"Victory to Day and Night!" Salin declared.
"That's not right," Belara argued. "You didn't capture the flag."
"Sure we did," Salin shrugged. "Finnal's flying back with it."
"But you still have the flagpole!" Oliktalv pointed out.
"Maybe so, but the game is called capture the flag, but not capture the flagpole!" Salin chuckled. "I did say you only need to grab the flag, didn't I? I call upon the judges to settle this dispute."
"Please tell me we can ruin all of his hopes and dreams?" Colben asked, looking down at Salin.
"No, he has a point," Kelvin shook his head. "As the rules stated, only the flag needed to be captured. It is rather a clever strategy and I am quite ashamed that I did not take advantage of it myself."
"Seriously?" Colben sighed. "Damn it. I can't have anything good in my undead life, can I?"
"The victors are Salin and Finnal!" Kelvin announced.
Salin cheered out loudly and hoisted the flagpole up towards the sky. None of the others celebrated asides from Balthar, who clapped briefly, but was silenced by Colben's glare. Oliktalv grunted and went to pick up his swords. Salin planted the flag back into the ground to retrieve his trident. By then, Finnal had returned and landed on the ground with the flag. She shifted back into her elven form and dropped the flag onto the ground.
"We won, right?" Finnal asked.
"We did!" Salin answered with a grin.
"Of course we would!" Finnal grinned back.
"So," Salin looked back to Oliktalv, who was joined by Kelvin and Colben. "Perhaps now you would like to consider leaving me in charge of planning more events like this?"
"You can't be serious," Colben shook his head immediately.
"In all honesty, having these kinds of events would be good for morale," Kelvin noted.
"And I think some of us were able to find some way to enjoy ourselves," Oliktalv agreed. "Run by your ideas first before doing something like this, but otherwise, we'll leave it to you."
"You will not be disappointed!" Salin declared, followed by an elegant bow. "I am happy to provide some joy on this ruined planet ruled by a tyrant's iron fist!"
Colben sighed. "Fine. Whatever. Can we please leave now?"
"We should get back to our lodge," Oliktalv nodded in agreement. "We will have a long day tomorrow, disabling the naga's operations. I will want us at the top of our ability, for both the journey and the upcoming battles. We leave now."
That was enough to rally the rest of the Vanguard to start walking back to the Cenarion Expedition. Salin fell behind, letting Oliktalv take the lead. His friend was right about needing their energy. Already the blood knight felt exhausted from his battles, which required quite a lot of effort. Still, it was definitely worth it. Salin had plenty of fun, and hopefully, his companions were able to have their own, whether it was through battle or just watching. Hopefully, the teams know that they will need to work together to secure victory over the naga for tomorrow.
A/N: After a long hiatus, I am back. Now, it would be easy to say that the hiatus came because real life comes first, and that I had been busy with college. Truth of the matter is, that isn't the case. Rather, the lore I was seeing coming from Battle for Azeroth, it just left me disappointed to the point where I didn't feel like writing. I plan my stories expansions ahead, and seeing how the Horde had to go through the civil war plotline again, I just wasn't sure what to do, and by extension, if I should continue. Thankfully, I am going to continue. I have thought about how to best handle Battle for Azeroth's plot, and am already thinking about the potential story for Shadowlands.
I think it is also worth mentioning the real life event that is going on around the time of posting. I hope that everyone is doing well in light of this recent pandemic, which has opened a door for me to get back to a hobby I enjoyed and missed (after I finished the semester, of course). I hope that the stories I tell can provide some joy during these trying times. I hope to continue updates and get back on a somewhat consistent schedule. I won't give any dates, but I will say I have no plans of taking months to upload again.
Until next time