Arthas stopped his horse and raised an arm to signal the army to do the same. In front of him was something he hadn't really expected to see. A small army of insectoid like monsters was waiting for him and his troops, eyeing them with their predatory gazes. Behind those literal insect monsters were huge blobs getting bigger by the second. Inside of those appeared to be some kind of insect swimming inside.
"What is this? Some kind of secret weapon of the elves? And where is Sylvanas?"
"Be careful." The ghost of Kel'Thuzad appeared next to the deathknight. "I can feel a strong presence in their midst."
"Well, looks like things are about to get interesting. No matter what kind of monsters the elves summon, they stand no chance against the scourge. Attack!"
As if they had just waited for Arthas to make his first move, the snake like creatures began shooting spines out of their bodies. The projectiles ripped the flesh of most of the undead apart before they could even come close to the enemy. Arthas was unfazed by this. Ghouls were replaceable. However he did make a mental note of them, as to not let his Gargoyles too close. They were rather fragile, but made it up with agility. Still, those monsters shot impressively fast. He would have to take care of them first, before calling down his air support.
He stopped his horse, deciding not to enter the battlefield too early. Instead his abominations and Nerubians took lead of the charge. The latter hid behind the larger units, until they came in range. Another thing Arthas made note of. These beasts had a fairly longer range, than his spider minions. A couple of hundred meters before his army reached the enemy post, these hound like creatures came out of the trenches (which the earlier explosions created). These dog-like things swarmed his bigger slaves. The abominations fought back with their huge axes and managed to hit and successfully kill a few of those things. But Arthas could see that these hounds were shredding the flesh of the oversized zombies faster than a pack of starved wolves.
"Nerubians! Kill those hounds immediately!"
The huge spiders obliged and focused their fire on the "hounds" closest to the heavy hitters of the undead army. The enemy bugs didn't seem to be fazed by the attacks, although they were starting to bleed. The death knight had to admit, this surprised him. And he was in for more. Sneakily Roaches had burrowed themselves through the ground and resurfaced behind the nerubians. Before any of the undead could comprehend what was happening, the spiders were melted in acid. Their screams of pain could be heard miles away.
"What the- what are these?!" Arthas shouted. Necromancers and nearby ghouls started attacking those things, but like the hounds those things didn't care. Worse, when they were about to die, they borrowed themselves back into the ground. Digging after them proved to be futile, as they were just too deep dug in.
"Damn it, this was not supposed to happen!"
"Lord Arthas! Your meatwagons are under attack!" shouted the ghost of Kel'Thuzad.
"What?!" The death knight turned around and watched in horror, as his siege weapons were melted into the ground. Somehow some of those accide spitting monsters had gone past his main attack force and destroyed the siege weapons. Arthas growled, shooting green necromancy magic at one of those things. It proved to be deadly for the monster.
"So magic still works, huh? Fall back! Regroup at camp!" the champion of the Lich King ordered. Immediately, all undead turned around and ran for the hills, where they set up the base. Strangely enough those insect fellows didn't follow the undead, but instead went back to Sylvana's camp.
Back in the safety of the Ziggurat defense, Arthas had called his lead necromancers to him. Three necromancers bowed in front of him, awaiting orders.
"Sylvanas caught me off guard with those monsters of hers, but that won't happen a second time. These insects are still vulnerable to magic and that's how we're going to crush them. You will prepare your necromancers for combat. Once you're done, I'll give you some abominations and Ghouls with you. They will act as distractions, while you take out those insects! In the meantime, I will prepare our attack for the elves' capital. Now get to it!"
"At once, Lord Arthas!" the three chorused.
"And one more thing, when you find Sylvanas, bring her to me. Alive."
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The Overmind honestly didn't expect the undead retreating this early, but it gave his buildings time to fully grow and burst out of the cocoons. He now had at least some defensive structures, with a Hatchery from where he could build reinforcements. Granted this planet had neither minerals, nor vespine gas, but the Zerg were flexible. Minerals were very simplified a lot of building material in one crystal. A lot of it could be turned via complex chemical and biological functions into biomass, when put into the hatchery. Vespine gas was normally used by the other two major races as a means to fuel their vehicles. Zerg used the chemicals for their more complex units, as for example the gas was needed to create the acid for the Roaches. The replacement for minerals, was very simple. The Zerg creep simply drained the earth underneath everything it needed. Granted this took a lot longer than conventional mining, but was better than hunting for creatures and cutting down trees for everything the Zerg needed. The Overmind needed his troops to defend the base and had no time to send them out for laboring tasks. Vespene gas was a little more tricky, but luckily the Zerebrat on this planet found a solution before he died to circumstances the Overmind doesn't know. The extractors simply drilled a tunnel into the earth, until they found a chamber filled with gas, oil or simply extracted for of the common minerals out of the earth, when nothing of the sort was available. It did limit the Overmind in rebuilding gas heavy units, as there wasn't much he could work with. Still, Zerglings had proven to be more than capable, when dealing with most of the undead, even the bigger ones. But in order for them to properly work, he needed to have the numbers advantage, so he ordered three Larvae to morph into six more Zerglings.
Luckily for him, he managed to get a short, stable connection to the Main Swarm. He was sure Sarah Kerrigan noticed this and would trace it back to this planet eventually, but she would need a lot of time to do this. The reason for the connection was to "download" the "blueprints" of the newly evolved Zerg units. He couldn't leave one of his champions at a disadvantaged starting point.
Speaking of his champion, he checked on her status and those of the other rangers. All of them were writhing in pain, their mouths open in silent screams. He could only imagine the pain of your own body being changed, muscles being torn apart and reconnect, bones being broken, entire organs replaced, all while being conscious. Not to mention the rewiring of the brain.
The enemy. One of the Overlords showed the Overmind a picture of the approaching undead front. Ghouls on the front, Abominations in the back and those energy shooting Terrans, known as Necromancers, in the middle.
A formation. The Terran noticed that he cannot simply overwhelm us with numbers. However, it doesn't appear that he realized that my Roaches can move underground. The bigger enemies might severely damage my defenses if I don't deal with them quickly.
Upon the command of the Overmind, the Roaches "swam" in a matter of speaking through the earth of the Forest, carefully navigating between the strong roots. It would have been easy to just melt them, but a bunch of trees suddenly falling to the ground certainly would have gotten the attention of the enemy. Surprisingly, these roots went very deep into the ground, which meant the Roaches were slower than they were usual, digging their way towards the opposing army. As a result, said army came closer to the Zerg base, than the Overmind was comfortable with. However it turned out to be for the better. Once in position, the Roaches unborrowed and started attacking the larger corpses from behind. The feet of the first row were quickly melted away, causing them to fall over and crash onto the ground. The rest of the army stopped, turning around as fast as possible, losing formation in the process. Some of the Ghouls were at the edge of the hive cluster, when they turned around. The defensive Spine Crawlers started at this very moment impaling the first zombies. It was a mess, to put it shortly.
The lead necromancer tried to get everything in order, but his shouts were either ignored or overheard. The Zombies mindlessly slurred towards the Roaches, while being impaled from behind. Some of the necromancers tried to revive the fallen undead, while others began casting spells against the the insect army. It only got worse for them, as the Hydralisk used the confusion to let their poisonous projectiles rain down on the enemy. The foul skin of the undead was shredded, yet unless the damage was severe, they went on. The poison was pretty useless in this situation, as undead didn't have a blood flow to speak of, to deliver the poison into their entire system.
The abominations finally came into striking range of the Roaches, but only hit the earth. The Roaches had burrowed themselves before the huge butcher knives could do any damage. The monstrosities looked around confused, searching for the little bugs. A part of the army even turned around again in order to attack the visible insect force. The Hydralisks refocused their fire on the Ghouls upfront, quickly shredding meat and bones alike apart. In a matter of seconds, there was no small zombie left. By this point, many of the necromancers had started panicking and ran away, coming right in the way of the abominations, which just wanted to smash something. More than one necromancer died due to friendly stomping on this day.
On cue, the Roaches unborrowed and spat their acid right at the necromancer, who each died instantly. It was even worse for the surviving necromancer, since they couldn't bring back their fallen brothers and sisters. There were just no bones left! The abominations started working on the spine crawlers and did some decent damage. Only two were destroyed in the end. The Roaches had broken through and did attacked from behind. In the meantime, the Spine Crawlers had found a weak spot in their enemies, namely the heads. It turned out even Zombies needed a brain to function. As such, the attack was repelled before long, a few surviving necromancers running back to the undead camp.
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"USELESS!" Arthas shouted, striking the reporting necromancer down. Frostmourne absorbed the soul of the fallen, shining just a little brighter as if the blade was smiling. "You're all incompetent fools! How could you possibly lose an entire army to a few bugs?!" he shouted at the necromancers, who cowered in fear.
"Whatever. I'll deal with the bug problem personally. But not now. We have wasted enough time as it is. We need to capture the Sunwell. None of Sylvana's troops made it towards the capital. The elves will be in for quite a surprise. Now march!"
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Unknowingly to Arthas, the Overmind had a Roach burrowed inside the camp, listening in to the conversation. This posed a problem as there was an alternate way, which the enemy army could take in order to avoid the Zerg altogether. And although his army size was growing, the Overmind's troops were still not enough to stop the full force without a huge amount of luck. Also he would have trouble catching up to the enemy, since his faster and slower Zerg needed to stay together to pose any kind of threat. The elves needed to be warned and he knew exactly how. The admittedly small Nydus Network was still there even after all of those years. If he were to fake an attack, the elves would come to high alert. This didn't mean they would win, but it certainly would slow the undead down, until Sylvanas' and her Ranger's transformation was complete. The ground shook, as seconds later the Nydus worm came bursting through. Zerglings, Hydralisks and Roaches marched inside the tunnel, while another worm burrowed itself through the earth, until it appeared right in front of Silvermoon. Before the guards on duty could even do as much as shout an alarm, Zerglings began streaming out of the mouth and ran into the city. The guards were too slow to catch any of the first group.
"Close the gates! We're under attack!"
The Hydralisks and Roaches came in next with a second group of Zerglings. The snake like creatures began shooting their spines against the walls and towers, deliberately missing any living the creature. The Roaches actually walked slower than usual, in order to not get into the city fast enough, before the gates closed. They did some half hearted attacks against the gate, which turned out to be ineffective, since the gates were reinforced with a magic barrier. Luckily the arrows of the sharpshooters proved to be just as ineffective as the attacks of Zerg and so the Roaches "retreated" without a worry in the world. The Hydralisk were sent into cover, just in case. They continued their attacks, though less frequent than in the open.
Inside the city, all hell broke lose. Guards and Arcane Golems hunted the Zerglings through the plaza. In return the Zerglings ran around and did a lot of property damage, destroying everything that just happened to come into their way, be carts, market stalls or mini arcane Golems. A lot of children swore revenge on the bugs that day. From up on the walls, the archers now aimed against the Zerglings in the city, yet none of them dared to shoot, scared they might accidentally hit a citizen. Guards on Hawkstriders soon joined in on the hunt. The Birds had it easier catching up to the Zerglings, though the riders were still careful not to ran over any citizens.
"Damn it! Stop those monsters!" shouted the captain over his mount. "Get me a mage! Freeze those things to the ground! You!" He pointed towards a group. "Evacuate the citizens! And yo-o-o-o-ou!?"
The earth all of the sudden began to shake violently, only further increasing the panic among the citizens.
"Look!" Someone pointed in one direction, where the very earth began to pile up. Seconds later a Nydusworm broke through the street, causing rubble to fly through the air and rain down on everyone in proximity range. On a silent command from the Overmind, the Zerglings retreated into the Nydusnetwork, avoiding any guards that tried to block the way. Most of them were too stunned by the gigantic insect worm anyway. There were exceptions however.
"KILL THAT THING! DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!" The captain shouted on top of his lungs, trying to get his underlings to finally do something useful. But it was too late. The archers did their best from above, but at best their arrows scratched the gigantic worm's head, before it retreated into the ground again, leaving one huge hole. The Guard Captain cursed the sun, moon and stars, before getting his deputy. "Secure the area! Someone inform King Anasterian! And get me every single soldier, be they on or off duty to their stations! Send for the priests, see to it that the injured are tended to. And finally, send the citizens to their home! Until I know what's going, this entire area is on lockdown!"
"Yes sir!" The elf saluted, before barking orders to his own underlings.
The Captain turned his mount around and rode personally to the house of mages. Right now he needed to find out quickly just what happened, what those monsters were and where they came from. Normally he would have gone to the Rangers, but for some reason Sylvanas had yet to report back to Silvermoon. This and those monsters appearing out of nowhere didn't sit well with the captain at all.
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Pleased with the result, the Overmind fully returned his attention to the increase of his army, however a new problem had shown itself. Slowly but surely he could feel himself getting weaker and weaker, his control slipping away. He needed more Overlords than usual to control the other Zerg. It was all a strong indication that he was about to leave the world of the living once again. At least the transformation of the other elves would soon be completed. Their transformation wasn't as complex as the one Sylvanas was going through, but it was just as painful. All the Overmind needed to do now, was to make sure that she and her fellow rangers had an army to fight with, when they were reborn.
In the meantime Dragonhawk Riders were sent out from Silvermoon to scout the area for any signs of the monsters, which attacked the city only twenty minutes ago. However instead of finding any signs of the insects, they found something much more horrifying. Their better vision allowed them to see their precious woods dying in a straight line.
"What in the name of the sunwell is that?" one rider asked.
"Dark magic, no doubt." another one said. "Very potent dark magic."
Another rider came back to the duo, who had been flying above the area of where everything seemingly died for no reason.
"It is terrible, my brothers!" The High Elf shouted, looking like he had seen a ghost. "Abominations...skeletons….I saw the dead walking towards our great city."
"WHAT?!" the other two exclaimed.
"Are you sure?!"
The elf nodded. "I swear that is the very thing I saw. An army of the dead is marching to our great city. I saw both dead humans and elves heading this way! Wagons filled to the brim with corpses! Monsters that looked like they were stitched together from a multitude of corpses. Huge spider monsters…" The dragonhawk rider shook his head clear. "They're all lead by none other than Arthas, the human prince!"
"Arthas?!"
"Why…? Isn't he a paladin?! Are you sure about this."
"It doesn't matter!" The first one spoke up again. "Silvermoon needs to be warned. We need to head back quickly. At this rate they will arrive at the city gates in less than an hour. Our mages need to activate the barrier!"
The other two looked at each other, before nodding. The dragonhawks squaked, flying back to their home as fast as they possibly could.
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Exactly fifty minutes later, Arthas found yet again another surprise waiting for him. When he and his army arrived, not only were the gates closed, but a rain of arrows fell upon his army.
"What the-?! Lose formation! Spread out! Make it harder for them to hit you!"
Loyally they were, the undead did as Arthas told them, but the elven archers had a keen eye. Many of the lesser undead fell to the first volley, others had their bodies too heavily damaged to go anywhere.
"HOLD FIRE!" A voice from the top shouted. The prince of Lordaeron looked up and found an elf in similar uniform to Sylvanas standing on top of the walls.
"PRINCE ARTHAS! I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU OR WHY YOU ATTACK US, BUT REST ASSURED YOU WON'T BREACH OUR WALLS!"
"FAMOUS LAST WORDS, ELF! IN FACT YOUR RANGER GENERAL SAID SOMETHING SIMILAR BEFORE SHE FELL TO MY SWORD!"
The lie seemed to have the desired effect. The elves looked at each other in shock and horror, hearing that their general has fallen.
"WHY YOU…! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES AGAINST THE QUEL'DORAI, ARTHAS! I SWEAR THAT BY MY HONOR AS CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD! 100 THOUSAND GOLD FOR THEM WHO KILLS THE PRINCE! FIRE!"
Arthas cursed, stirring his skeleton horse around and taking cover inside the trees. This was not how things were supposed to proceed! Somehow the elves had learned about their attack and fortified their defenses.
"Damn it all! Sylvanas must have slipped a messenger through somehow!"
"Not all is lost, my prince." The ghost of Kel'Thuzad appeared next to Arthas. "The elves need time to activate the spell, which will make their walls impenetrable. We still have the numbers on our side! Bring me to the Sunwell and victory will be yours!"
"That's right, the Sunwell. The source of all elven magic." Arthas nodded to Kel'Thuzad. For others it looked like he had just come up with an idea all by himself and also nodded to himself. "The Sunwell will probably be at the center of the city and heavily guarded. Necromancers!"
"Yes, my lord!" The mages immediately stood attention.
"Distract the elves. Throw fake attacks against the front gate. I will take most of the meatwagons through the woods and breach their city on the west side. As soon as their army leaves the walls to attack us, you will breach from this side."
"Understood, Lord Arthas!"
"Good. Now, let's move!" The death knight ordered. A quarter of his foot troops and three quarter of the meatwagons followed him, moving out of range and out of sight from the elven archers. Since the undead had the numbers advantage they would no doubt focus on getting the barrier up and then calling for the help from their allies. The scourge would make sure it never came to that.
It took Arthas and his army about half an hour, before they arrived at the western gates. His abominations helped out by moving the meatwagons themselves. The Prince of Lordaeron was getting impatient. So much had gone wrong this day, but it would end now. As expected there were only a couple of archers on the walls on this side. If they were quick, they could break through and finally invade the city.
"Meat wagons, fire!" On his signal, the wagons fired loads of meat against the walls and the gate. Despite what one might think, both walls and gate were being damaged by the projectiles. The elves reacted quickly, firing burning arrows against the siege weapons. But the prince was smart enough to position them out of range of the elves, who not only have better eyes, but also better bows and arrows. The elves normally didn't trade their precious wood from the Eversong Woods to anyone. As of getting an elven made bow, you had to be very high in their books.
Another salve hit the gates, make them move just a little bit. Arthas frowned, when he saw suddenly a blue light surrounding the doors.
"Elves and their damn magic." he muttered. "Forget the gates. Aim at the right wall!"
Fools. I know that it is harder to shield an entire wall, than just the gates. A ruler has to know such things. The death knight thought to himself, smirking. The first pieces of rubble already crumbled down the wall and it was only a matter of time until they would be completely destroyed. His army patiently waited behind the meat wagons, in case the elves actually decided to come out and try to destroy the siege weapons.
"Only a few more shots. Reload faster! I want Silvermoon destroyed today!"
However, instead of hearing the sounds of his meat wagons firing, he heard liquid splashing, followed by hissing with steam floating in the corner of his eyes. Confused he turned his mount around. To the Death Knight's horror, he found his weapons deformed and destroyed in a pit of acid, his army just as confused as he was.
"Hehehehehe, surprised?" An unknown voice asked. Turning to the side, Arthas found several of those acid spitting insects coming out of the ground. This time there was an elf with them. No, not an elf, not really anyway. The elf man didn't wore any armor, instead he had similar chitin plating to those insects all over his body. He also had two additional pairs of arms growing out of his body, ending in huge claws instead of hands. The elf's hair had also become rather spiky, than smooth as Arthas was used from the elves. The death knight briefly wondered how the elf managed to handle the additional arms, but mentally shook the thought off. There were other things he had to do.
"Hmph, now that's something you don't see every day. And here I thought this invasion is going to be boring." Arthas gloated, pointing his sword at the enemy. "I am genuinely curious. What kind of magic is this?"
"No magic, I assure you." The elf took on a battle stands, his claws itching. "Say your last prayers, fallen Paladin. For today shall be your last day."
"Funny!" Arthas shouted. "I was about to say the same thing!" And with those words, the death knight charged at his opponent.
