It caused quite a stir among everyone when I told them I was heading out to Fairbreeze to 'relieve a Farstrider defensive position'.
Better telling them that then saying 'I'm off to save my friend, screw everyone else'. Not saying I wouldn't take the time to save anyone that crossed my path, but I wasn't going out of my way to find them.
I thought I had a good grasp on how bad the situation was from my brief time 'in the field'.
But everyone knows what people say about assumptions…
The situation was bad.
Catastrophic.
One might even say hopeless.
The air hung with the smell of death and rot. Corpses, animal and elf alike, arranged in massive piles that dotted the landscape. Bugs swarmed in vast clouds as they went from mound to mound.
Worse than the death and carnage, were the corpses.
Specifically, the ones that were intact enough for me to make out some physical traits and for my heart to sink at the thought that 'this one' was Noly's.
Of course it wasn't. None of them were.
The hair was cut too short, besides being the wrong color.
The hair was only red from all the blood.
That one might have had the right features, but her arms were covered in tattoos which I know for a fact Noly doesn't have.
And a further one might have matched Noly to a tee, but she was in clothes Noly wouldn't be caught dead wearing and clutching two smaller corpses to herself.
Yet rather than get desensitized to it all, every macabre scene made me push down the urge to vomit.
Nonetheless, I couldn't stop. Not until I knew my friend was safe!
Following the few signs still upright or otherwise legible, as it appeared destroying basic directional signs seemed to not be a strategic priority for the Scourge, I reached what I assume was Fairbreeze Village.
It seemed to be doing as well as any population center right now.
Fires burned as smoke clogged up the air. Corpses and monsters raced over one another to flood past the settlement's unbarred gates. Some climbed over the piles of bodies inclined by the walls, others still flew over any obstruction.
But that was hardly the only thing that caught my attention.
Explosions rang out across the settlement one after another, screeches of inhuman pain bounced across the desolate streets, all the while flying creatures fell from the sky one after another. Though to be honest I can catch the briefest glimpse of small things hitting them before they careened down into buildings below. Suspiciously, most seemed to drop when they approached the building in the center of the village.
Hmmm.
So the defenders lost the walls, retreating deeper into the city, and rigged everything beyond their control to blow if something got too close.
Fairbreeze was falling, that much was clear.
But it hadn't fallen quite yet.
I clicked my tongue, blinking to the rooftops I made my way to what I assume was the 'last stand' of the rangers present from above.
So many lines of defense along the main road, barricade after barricade battered and broken. Perhaps this 'breakthrough' was recent? The corpses of the defenders still looked 'fresh', unmutilated, laying where they fell in wet sanguine pools.
It only made me rush faster to the 'heart' of the action, teleporting clear over breaks between buildings to keep my running unhindered.
And lo and behold at the town center, a battle was underway. Neatly formed lines of shields holding back swarms of creatures as archers rained down scores of arrows from windows, rooftops and other elevated positions. There were even a handful of arcane constructs, the tall golem like beings swatting through ranks of foes at a time.
They were holding, but…
A ghoul reached through the shield wall and dragged a woman out of formation, pulled into the swarm to be gored and torn apart; her cires drowned out by the constant screeches and wails the undead made.
They would only last for so long.
Steeling myself, I blinked down to ground level, sending an arcane blast around me to 'clear' my immediate area of undead.
Now behind the main horde pushing against the shields of the defenders, I let loose a stream of fire into their back ranks. The trick being to burn hot enough to incinerate any monster caught, but not hot enough to burn all the way through the mob into the people i am trying to save.
It only took a few seconds of steady flames to carve a hole in the undead's line, splitting it in two. With fewer enemies to worry about, archers all around focused fire on the halves that remained. Even a few people leapt over the shields to engage in melee with the undead.
Farstriders I assume, given their armor is too light weight for a common soldier and their weapons far too varied. Polearms, axes, swords, and the like. No uniformity, though that was hardly a dig at them. It certainly didn't slow them down as they tore through the horde now that they had momentum on their side.
Soon enough, the last of the undead before them were eradicated.
Though that didn't mean anything for the next wave now barreling down the narrow streets towards the town center. Among them were very heavy footsteps.
"The hell are you doing!?" a ranger in front yelled at me. At least, I assume so given all the pointing and gesturing he was doing. "Get back in formation-"
I ignored him, and turned to face the oncoming horde. A hodgepodge collection of ghouls, skeletons, lumbering abominations, and robed figures shooting magic.
I sent a surge of arcane energy at the first part of the assault. The small, or rather the normal sized ones, shattered and splintered into dozens of little pieces as the magical energy shredded them. The big ones stumbled, but quickly regained their footing as they rushed forwards undeterred.
As the surviving fodder of ghouls and corpses spread out to hit the line, the abominations singled me out.
Getting my blade out, I readied to deal with them. As much as I want to feel like I 'know' enough to take down an abomination without too many issues, three at once was a tall order. So why not even the odds then?
As the wave of corpses hit the shields once more, arrows flying all about, a lance of ice shot out from the ground beneath two of the approaching abominations. Grasping into their pudgy feet, it anchored the pair in place while I blinked into the third still oncoming creature.
Rather than waste any time with theatrics, I just teleported myself to eye level with the thing and carve into its freshly sown head. It fell to the ground, twitching erratically, but posing no further threat.
The other two were put down with similar swiftness, just destroying the 'brain' and they fell like a sack of bricks.
But I barely had time to admire my work before I had to blink out of the way of some nasty looking magic flung at me. A cloaked figure with a boney looking staff being the culprit. While all the other undead were single mindedly charging the defender's lines, this guy seemed to single me out as a threat.
It violently twitched as several arrows embedded themselves in its side. Stumbling, it used its staff to keep itself upright, all the while it channeled another spell in my direction.
Blinking forward I swung my blade to take its head clean off, only to only nick its throat when it tried to back up.
While it still hit the ground, I noticed something odd.
Rather than the black ooze I was used to seeing from these things, my blade was drenched in scarlet vita.
The 'undead' I had just carved into seemed very vocal about his predicament. But the usual rabid grunts and cries I was now more than accustomed to, but actual words. Or close enough to them one could get without a throat. It squirmed and gasped, desperately clutching its throat as more red blood was coughed up onto the ground.
And then I saw it, a pale face with glassy looking eyes staring at me beneath the hood. Pale, but still alive.
This isn't some undead mage, this was a human. Probably a member of the Cult of the Damned.
He wordlessly moved his lips in some sort of prayer-like motion, gasping and hacking up more blood as he grew quiet. Shaking just a bit more before he finally bled out.
I…I killed him….
I wordlessly looked at the red on my blade.
I killed someone…
Sure I've cut down dozens upon dozens of undead, and probably blasted even more to pieces with magic of the past few days. But they were always that, undead. Monsters. Abominations of nature. Creatures devoid of any semblance of, for a lack of better words, humanity in them.
But not this guy.
He was a living, breathing, living, person until I…well….
I absently notice cheers beginning to ring out around me. Looking up I notice a good chunk of the walking corpses and skeletons started dropping as the magic that was animating them gave out. It gave the defenders the opening they needed to fight back. Guess this guy must have been a pretty important necromancer, or at least the local 'leader' of this attack.
And I killed him.
Yet, for the life of me, I couldn't bring myself to feel any disgust from his death or my hand in it.
It was… surreal.
I felt more anxiety of lacking any reaction. Why was it so easy not to care?
"Well I'll be damned that we had some good luck for a change," a voice called out. A man walked out from the formation, his armor similar to the rangers but with an air of authority that others lacked. "You have my thanks, Magistrix."
"Y-Yeah," I stumbled over my words briefly, still hung up on the 'killing' bit. I shoved the feelings down into the depths of my mind and focused on the ranger. "Yeah, no problem. And sorry for being blunt, but is this Fairbreeze Village? Right?"
"What's left of it at least," the man made a sour expression, holding out his hand. "Ranger-Captain Hallor Flareray."
"Syllia Dawnguard," I accepted the gesture, still trying to figure out how I can say 'where is the one person here I actually care about' in a diplomatic manner.
"Well Lady Dawnguard, might as well talk inside while we have the chance," he motioned for me to follow him inside the town center. "I doubt we'll have more than a couple of hours to ourselves. Do you know the situation?"
"Not really," follow the captain, doing my best to avoid bumping into any of the soldiers in the way.
The first thing that struck me in the interior of the building was the sheer floor space given over to bandaged people.
"Well the long version is that we started with two thousand here," he began, seamlessly avoiding the prone forms around him. "Mind you, we were hardly a uniform force. Just a mismatch of remnants of the army, rangers, militia, even a contingent of arcane constructs. Everything that could be scrounged up after these monsters battered and shattered our lines over and over again.
Every square inch not being used for something, food, weapons, potions, armor, and the like was given over to the wounded. Men and women, bloodied and battered, laid by the row on the floor with nothing more than a bundle of clothes or some cloak to cushion themselves. I could hardly go a few feet without having to step over someone's legs or head.
"As you can see, we're on our last legs here," he gestured around us as he led me up a flight of stairs to a small office on the upper floor.
"Going by the state of the town when I came in, you guys are putting up quite the fight," I mentioned as he led me in. His 'office' (waiting room?) was small. Barely three people could fit in it. But it had a small desk, a window, and maps scattered about. Good enough for an ad hoc office. "But why are you even here? Why not go to some other place with better defenses?"
That got a chuckle out of him, "this is the place with better defenses. Everything else either fell or was in the process of falling.
"That's…" disturbingly fast.
"Impossible?" He assumed that was my next word. "Well, behold the impossible. The speed is something even I can hardly believe, yet here I am. Though I will say that once you get over the shock and despair of a literal flood of corpses trying to rip you apart, these things are actually quite simple to counter."
"Simple?"
"'Simple' as in they're creative, but not inventive," he elaborated. "They have one trick, and they keep trying to do it over and over again. It worked the first few times, but it lost its punch some time ago."
"That being?"
"Attack the whole line at once, and pour through the first opening made," he groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Normally this sort of attack would melt an enemy's numbers away, but since they are already dead…"
"They just raise them again and keep on attacking," I finished his sentence, seeing him nod in agreement. "But then why stay here? Why not find some other place?"
"Interesting you say that," he grimaced again, taking a drink from his wineskin, "a magister rode into town before dusk yesterday with similar ideas. He ordered us to withdraw alongside the soldiers and townsfolk, to pull back to Silvermoon."
"And that's…bad?" I fish to figure out why he was acting so distraught from an order to retreat, doing my best to step over the wounded laid out along the floor.
"With all due respect, yes, it is," his hand slammed against the table. Oh dear, I think I accidentally pulled the pin on an unseen grenade. "All we've been doing since that bastard invaded has been pulling back. Retreating. Reorganizing. Regrouping. And every step of the way he's taken more, and more, and more of our kingdom. Slaughtering our people, rotting the very earth beneath our feet. And now, just when we've managed to turn around and hold our own, some little shits in Convocation want to just shove their heads in the sand and hide behind Silvermoon's walls?"
I mean, even when he puts it like that, I would still prefer the walls of Silvermoon over this place. Magic barrier or not.
"Well, as long as their ivory towers are nice and clean, who gives a fuck about us!?" he kept going, the anger and frustrations of a man in an impossible situation boiling over. "Damn it all, we're going to end up just giving them the whole kingdom at that point! Why even make him work for it, right!? Damn the consequences, am I not right!?"
"I'm…sorry?"
Taking a deep breath, he reeled himself back in.
"No, no, I'm sorry that was uncalled for," he pinched the ridge of his nose. "Completely uncalled for. More so given you saved us. I'm just so damn frustrated with all this, I've barely slept the past few days, but those are hardly good excuses. Needless to say, I have my orders to hold here, so here we stand."
"How long have you been fighting for?"
"Since the beginning of all of this a week ago. But that attack you just broke up? That started just a few hours ago. But they were testing our defenses all night before though."
"So…what are you going to do now then?"
"For now we'll tend to our wounded," he sighed. "With our losses as they are, I have anyone who can simply stand on their own two feet is manning the line. Like I said, magister from before didn't just recall our troops, but he took all the wounded and civilians with him as well. It has cleaned things up here immensely, but with our numbers as they are, I'm not sure how much longer we can keep going. I'll need to send for someone to-"
"Silly?"
The voice cut through anything I was thinking around in my seat, I saw her. Bandages wrapped around her arms and legs like some discount mummy outfit, skin dotted by welts and bruises, deep bags under her eyes, and her hair was all matted, but it was her. While she may have the appearance of someone about to fall over from exhaustion, she was alive.
Noly was safe.
And like that, a weight in my chest was lifted.
"Hm, ask and you shall receive," the commander mused to himself before looking at Noly. "Recruit, is there something you need?"
"... yes," Noly blinked herself out of a trance and finally addressed her commander. "Quartermaster sent me to relay a message: he requests your immediate presence in the lower storeroom."
"Why?"
"He didn't say, only that it was urgent."
"Of all the times…" he tsked, turning back to me, "apologies but I'm afraid I am needed elsewhere."
"No, no, I get it," I wave off his apology.
"We'll continue this conversation when I get back, recruit," Noly straighten up, "attend to the magistrix until I return."
"Y-yes sir," I could see Noly's mind doing a second take at the title I was addressed with.
The door shut behind him as he almost raced out, leaving the two of us just stared at each other in relative silence.
Neither of us said anything to the other for a moment. I didn't know where to begin, and she sure as hell was trying to find the right words to ask what the hell I was doing here herself.
As it turned out, she found her words before I did.
"...so…Magistrix?" she said the work like even she doubted she heard it right.
"I didn't tell him that," I raised my hands in mock defense. "I just…didn't say I wasn't."
"Uh-hu," she mused aloud, looking out the window. "So I just heard a lot of stuff happened outside in that last a mage cut almost down an entire horde all on their own? That was you?"
"I may have gone a little overboard with magic," I let out a nervous laugh.
"You don't say…" her eyes narrowed and she approached, not that there was much ground to cross given how cramped the room was.
"Look Noly, I think I know what you're going to say," I raise my hands in mock defense. "Yes this stuff is dangerous but this is a war, and we all need to do our-"
Without a hint of hesitation, grabbed me and pressed her lips against my own. My mind ground to a halt from the sudden contact.
What the….
Her forehead pressed against my own as she pushed herself against me. Despite how tightly she clung to me, it was a chaste kiss. She just held herself for what felt like an entirety. Even without being anything more than an over glorified peck on the lips, I could still taste bits of ash copper on her lips.
When she finally pulled back, I could only imagine my face was as flushed as her own.
"Noly…" I was at a genuine loss for words. "I- did I miss something or-"
"A few days ago," she started, not meeting my eyes. "I made a promise to myself. I said, 'Noly, if you survive this, you're gonna grow a damn backbone and tell Silly how you feel about her. No ifs, ands, or buts'. And…well…."
"How you felt?" There arn;t many other ways to take that, especially after that kiss. This was all happening very fast. "I- I mean. I think I understand what you're saying. But how long have you…?"
"Years," she buried her face into the nook of my neck. "I have felt like this for years. But I never said anything because I was scared."
"Noly…"
"I was scared that if I said anything, it would ruin our friendship."
"Noly…"
"I know it's stupid, but I was still so scared," she pressed her face into my chest.
"I-..." Come on brain, work! "I…always thought you liked boys. The way you talked about them…"
"I do," she quipped, muffled by my chest. "But I…also like girls….and I….I just….I didn't know if you….like them…or me…too….so I…"
"Yeah," I wrap my arms around her. "I get it."
We stood there in silence for what felt like hours.
This something I never thought I would ever deal with.
I can't say I ever thought of Noly in that sort of way before. To me, she was always just Noly. The girl with a motor mouth, the tomboy, stubborn as a mule, whimsical about the world, and my best friend. I still remember the time I had to pull her off some boy when he said something she didn't like.
I can't really remember any hint she might have given that she ever was interested in me. Either she was very good at hiding it, for fear of 'ruining our friendship' or I'm really just that oblivious to it.
Yet even then I still caught myself admiring her the last time we saw each other before the whole mess with the Scourge started. At the time, I felt embarrassed that I was basically eyeing up my best friend. She was always cute, but she became beautiful as we entered adulthood proper. Her training only aided in limbering up her lean form with taut muscles, like some professional swimmer from Earth.
And at the timeI felt like some kind of pervert for checking her out like that.
But now?
Now I'm pretty sure she would have taken it as a compliment.
"I'm not trying to put you on the spot or anything," Noly tried to reassure me. "Nor am I trying to guilt you into giving me something I want to hear, or force you into something. I just…. "
"Wanted to make sure I knew how you felt?"
"Yeah…"
"I… don't really know what to say, Noly," I begin, trying to form the right words for this delicate situation. "And I…. I can't lie to you and say I ever thought about you like that."
"...Yeah."
"I'm not against exploring this with you, or trying something out," I could feel her almost perk up at the words. "I just need time to think about this. Time not spent fighting the undead."
"Silly…"
"But no matter what I promise you this: I will never stop being your friend."
Noly didn't say anything intelligible, just muffled words into my clothes. She stood like that for a short while before regaining her composure and I saw her face again.
"Okay," was the first clear thing I heard her say.
"Okay?"
"Okay," she nodded, her sleepy eyes appearing to have a bit of a second wind to them. "We'll shelve all of this for later. And I promise that no matter how this ends, I will always be there for you."
"That's all I can ask for, Noly," I smiled, certain I had ended this conversation as good as it reasonably could have ended.
The redhead gave a sly grin and leaned towards my ear, "Just know that I don't intend to sit idle and let you slip from my grasp when all this is over. Mark my words, you'll be putty in my hands once I've properly seduced you~"
"Seduced?"
"Well, I mean, it can't be that hard right?" she leaned back with a inquisitive expression, all the 'suaveness' she tried to marshall a moment ago gone. "People do it all the time. Besides, I've read enough romance books about relationships and how they go to know the general flow of that stuff goes."
Romance books? When has she ever read a-
...wait.
"You mean those pornographic novels you have?"
"What? I've never read pornography!" then why is she flustered by the implication? "And why would I!? Only stupid boys read stuff like that!"
"You let me borrow those books, remember? They were pretty explicit from what I read."
"But they're not pornographic! They just show relationships in a more complete manner. It just happens to show the more intimate side of couples being together as well."
"Oh I see," I grin. "I guess you're right. What's pornographic or explicit about the main character completing her relationship with five men at the same time?"
"Silly….you….!" her face shined beet red at my smug expression, made even more obvious by how pale she was currently..
Then the two of us broke down laughing.
Even under these conditions, neither of us could keep a straight face over how ridiculous the whole 'argument' was.
I can only imagine how weird it would be for people all around us to hear two people randomly laughing their asses off?
We calmed down quickly enough.
"Thanks Silly, I really needed that," even as laughter died on her lips, her expression morphed before my eyes. "But now that I have all that stuff off my chest…What the fuck are you doing here?"
Oh dear, she's angry.
"What possessed you to wander out of Silvermoon while pretending to be a magistrix!? Do you not understand how dangerous it is out here right now!?"
"I- I came to help you," I quickly defended myself. "I got your message and came as quickly as I could."
"My message?"
"Well, maybe it wasn't your message, but it came from Birdy," I clarify. "It seemed like you were in trouble, so I raced over to help."
"Birdy?" her eyes widened in realization, then buried her face in her hands. "Oh you stupid, feathery, bird brain! You were supposed to go to a ranger post, not Sillys house! How did you even know where that is, but not the post you were raised in!"
Wait…it was supposed to go to a ranger post? Then how did Birdy end up in Pyrestone? Since that is one hell of a detour.
"Wait, he's safe right?" At a nod from myself, she went back into being overdramatic. "I swear when I get my hands on him, after I wring his neck out, I'm gonna take away his treats for a year. No a decade! A century! And that's not all! I'm only going to use the second rate brushes to neaten out his feathers. Same for his scale shine! And no more top shelf food. No more Miss Nice Noly!"
"Um…are you okay?" seeing Noly like this so soon after airing out everything was like mental whiplash.
"No I'm not okay," she gave an over dramatic sigh. "I haven't eaten in three days, barely slept the past two, I've been fighting literal monsters for a week straight, and the only thing keeping me standing right now are all the potions I've been chugging that are going to delay my inevitable crash, not prevent it! And to top it all off, all the stuff I had bottled up we just worked through, and then Birdy got you wrapped up in all of this! Ugh, how can I not be 'not okay'?"
"If it's any consolation, I didn't get Birdy's message in Silvermoon…I got the message in Fyrestone."
"Fyrestone?" She tilted her head in confusion.
"Yeah, it's a small town that way," I pointed out the window in the direction I arrived in.
"That way?" she pointed in the direction as well. Then twisted her body and pointed in almost the exact opposite direction. "But how, when he was supposed to go that way?"
"I have no idea-"
"Wait, why were you in Fyrestone and not Silvermoon," ah shit, Noly picked up on that.
"Well…" I drum my fingers along the table, how do I even word all the stuff that's happened? "Your commander may not be the first person I have not 'not confirmed' I was a magistrix to. And I may have ended a plot by some magister to wipe out the Convocation and bring down the whole kingdom from within which led me down a long and interesting series of events that brought me to Fyrestone, which then brought me here."
"..." she stared at me.
",,,,," I stared back.
"..."
"..."
"...you did what?"
"Apologies for that my Lady," the ranger commander finally returned, completely oblivious to the conversation the two of us just had. "Thank you Recruit, you may return to your duties."
"She can stay if she wants?" I offer, looking at Noly glancing between me and her commander.
"I'm afraid you don't have the authority to make such a request. We are Farstriders, not some military unit or magisterial retinue that you can order around." the commander countered, he looked back to Noly who nodded. Giving me one last look, the door shut, leaving me alone with the Captain once again. "Even if I was inclined to allow it, I am not in a position to spare anyone. Not when we have a chance to evacuate our wounded, thanks to your efforts."
"You're retreating?"
"Evacuating our wounded," he reiterated. "With any luck, they can follow the path you carved to a place of relative safety. I can't order you to defend them as they make their trek, but you strike me as the sort who wouldn't sit idle when there are those in need. You'd hardly be alone, I'll send some of my rangers with you, but you'll at least allow me to keep more of my people here to defend the settlement."
"Wait, why not just evacuate everyone?" I questioned. "No offense, but it's clear Fairbreeze is a lost cause, even to me. What's the point in just staying here?"
"Our orders," he answered. "Lady Windrunner ordered us to hold this position until she returned from her ranging. Though I do agree that once she returns we'll most likely have to leave."
"Wait, Sylvannas ordered you to stay here?" Wait, she was here!?
"Lady Windrunner," he corrected. "And yes. Before dawn this morning, when she left with a coterie of trollhunters to kill that human leading these things. Given the state of everything, I can only assume her attempt failed, or she has yet to commit to battle. Either way, she is set to return by early evening, you can plead your case then. Not that I think you'll find any arguments from her."
Sylvanas…fighting a human…Arthas, in the depths of Quel'Thalas.
A battle she…dies.
And the banshee queen is born…
I barged out of the office, ignoring the captain's calls. Racing outside, I blink to the highest building in sight and take in the surrounding area. Not that it helped me at all. The air was so filled with ash and smoke that I could barely see past the village outskirts.
Though, I hardly needed to 'see' someone to know where they were.
I had a spell for this sort of thing.
Well, not this 'exact' thing. It was a spell meant to pick up magical signatures at long range. Pretty useful in finding mages. Only it was pretty useless in a kingdom filled with magic users and in being in the middle of a land so suffused with magic. Sure maybe in other parts of the world it worked fine, but here it was like trying to find a specific grain of sand on a beach.
But with all this necromancy and death magic bullshit going on, and vast tracts of land 'depopulated'…
It was instantaneous when the 'color' of the world around me drained and was replaced with vistas of resplendent blue and a thick miasma of sickly green before me, and a bright second sun-like source behind me.
Three guesses where the Sunwelll is~
While the 'green' was everywhere, it pooled in a handful of locations. And one of these points, by far the largest of them all, had the tiniest speck oficy blue at its center.
It could be a necromancer using arcane magic.
It could be some brave mage trying to use a spell of such power that it shone through even all the death around it.
Or it could be a certain sword, a nexus of frost and death, wielded by a certain death knight who kills a very specific ranger.
Far enough that I'm going to have to book it, but close enough for me to reach relatively quickly. As if someone was trying to make her way back here and got cut off.
If Sylvanas is where I think she is, then I don't have much time.
For days, Arthas's patience had been tested by the elves and their style of battle. Their rangers refused to commit to a pitched battle. Always skulking about, always poking and prodding for weakness.
It annoyed him to no end.
But now?
With a group of them, led by their fearless leader, arraying themselves before him?
It made things satisfyingly simple.
He cut them down. One by one. Until only their General remained.
"Finish it….I deserve…a clean death…." even now, the woman used what little strength she had left to make demands of him. The fact she was surrounded by her fallen troops doing nothing to temper her mood.
Arthas dismounted Invincible and strode over to the dying elf.
"After all you've put me through woman, the last thing I'll give you is the peace of death," Arthas stood over the fallen elf, grinning he raised Frostmourne above her.
Realizization flickered across her face as she saw his blade, having seen its power first hand several times already. "No! You wouldn't dare!"
After all, what better fate for such a nuisance than for her to become the very thing she so desperately fought against. What more befitting fate could he grant her, then to not only see the land she gave her life to save, only to dirty her hands in laying waste to it herself.
Yet as he moved to skewer the elf upon Frostmourne, a force pushed the blade off its course. He still cut into the woman, her subdued snarling was evident of that, but it was hardly the impalement he had intended. Nor was her soul torn from her flesh.
Arthas looked to the interloper who decided to interpose themselves
Hardly surprising, it was another elf. Though younger than the general, not that he could really tell with elves. She was armed with a blade and light armor, though magic flared across her. A battlemage then? He'd seen plenty of their kind during his visits to Dalaran. Annoying, but hardly a concern.
"Be wary my Prince, this one is…different." the ghostly form of Kel'Thuzad whispered into his ear. "I can feel it."
"As if that matters," he said aloud, uncaring if it confused the girl before him. He moved to quickly finish the general before dealing with this new headache. Angling his blade yet again for a killing blow so he could give this new elf his undivided attention.
Yet the girl raced towards him as he readied the blow, her own sword at the ready, phasing in and out of existence as she approached. Crossing the distance between them with speed that took him partial by surprise, she attempted to parry Frostmourne with her own blade.
Of course her sword shattered like brittle glass as the runesword, its path undeterred.
But before his blade could tear into the fallen elf, the mage raised her hands, bathed in some sort of condensed mana, and pushed Frostmourne off track. She didn't have the strength to stop the strike, just to push the blade off its course so it dug into the ground beneath them.
Growling in frustration, Arthas swatted the girl away with a blow from his fist, only for the girl to reappear before him less than a moment later. Her face bloodied from the backhand of his gauntlet, she raised her hands and bathed the death knight in a steady stream of fire and arcane magic.
The sudden heat forced the death knight to cover his face and take a single labored step back, and the magic gnawed at his skin. Were the prince still a mortal man, the flames would have surely killed him as much as the arcane magic would have flayed him.
But he has long since transcended such weakness.
Though blinded by the heat, he swung the runeblade in front of him in an effort to swat away the elf. Though the fire and arcane barrage stopped after his swing, he realized Frostmourne cut through neither plate nor bone.
His sight returned, he saw that the general and the elf girl were both gone. Though not without a trail. In the field before him, every so often there were now gaps with bloody flowers crushed by an unseen weight.
Clearly the girl teleported away with the general when he was momentarily blinded.
"It would appear that the General has evaded you yet again," the necromancer chimed in.
"Thank you for stating the obvious," Arthas growled, sheathing his blade as he returned to Invincible.
"Oh? You're going to just let her go?" the specter mused aloud.
"I have more important things to do than to go out of my way to chase down a single elf," no matter how much he wanted to after all the annoying antics that woman subjected him to.
The Elves were putting up a stiffer resistance the closer his forces got to Silvermoon. Disorganized units and frightened masses were giving way to regimented blocks and prepared lines anticipating his attack. By the time his forces reach the walls, even without their vaunted barrier, his host would be faced with a proper battle where the elves held all the advantages.
Not that such odds deterred him. It simply delayed the inevitable.
"Why do you care anyway? Worried you'll rot away before we take the Well?" The other annoyance Arthas had to deal with. The necromancer's remains were being kept preserved by his acolytes behind the main line. But their magic would only keep the man's remains 'fresh' enough for so long.
The necromancer had wanted to use a special kind of urn used by his family to perverse their ashes to keep himself fresh for the journey to Quel'Thalas. Annoyingly, the crypts were bereft on any urn to speak of.
The urns of hundreds of royals across countless centuries, all gone.
Did some one arrive to spirit the remains away?
Were they taken by Uther or his father when they fled?
Or perhaps it was something as mundane as one of the dreadlords just screwing with him for slaying Mal'Ganis.
It all seemed like a bad joke.
"I have every confidence in your abilities and our inevitable success," the spirit chimed in. "I simply wish to commend your outlook of pursuing business before pleasure."
"Shut up you damn ghost," Arthas gave the necromancer a glare before urging Invincible forward, back to the main army. Nothing was going to stop him from taking that Well.
Even if he had to put every elf to the sword to get there.
AN: Ah yes, things are changing quite a bit are they not?
Also, Noly scene was actually super hard for me to write. Not because I thought it was bad or anything, but because I kept overthinking it lol!
And no urns to shove Kel'Thuzad in? Hmmm. Probably just an oversight on the writer's part~
For the next chapter, there shall be payoff for not only this, but some other stuff to derail canon even further!