' = Internal dialogue

ยจ= Normal speech

* = Sounds / Etc

-Chapter 24 Start-

Just as the moment passed when the giant behemoth of a demon and his forces became fully visible, the newly introduced Tichondrius was observing me with an unnerving smile, while Mannoroth was gazing right at Hellscream, who had appeared walking directly to the front of the camp.

Then Mannoroth turned to Cenarius with a green fire erupting from the top of his skull and yelled, "You useless insects had one job, and that was to gain the power I offered you! If you orcs weren't so useless, our plans would have been accomplished without failure! Instead, what do I see? All of you cowering in front of this cretin like he is your owner!? Ironically enough, you lured this annoying Demigod away from his forces, assist me with slaying him, and I will reward you with all the power you can imagine!

The orcs had no idea what he was talking about. Even Hellscream looked more puzzled than pissed, which said something about the whole situation. The orcs were still wary after hearing Mannoroth's speech; however, they now seemed more angry than afraid of the being in front of him.

Then Tichondrius stepped in with some jabs of his own, "Ah, don't blame the little orcs. Blame yourself. My agents had been observing these ones. They had not even found the corrupted moonwell we filled with your blood. I told you I could have manipulated their witch doctors, but no, you decided to take the passive approach, did you not?"

Mannoroth grunted angrily." Tichondrius did a long, drawn out, and fake sigh, then he turned towards Calia for a moment, then to me, and a slight smirk appeared on his face.

"I saw you two at Lordaeron. Somehow, you both managed to escape my assault. No wonder the three I sent never returned. My agents found no trace of their corpses or belongings. I had almost forgotten this." Tichondrius said as he stared at me with his dark green glowing eyes and continued, "You are the one who sullied our ploy to deal with the Demigod, are you not? No, don't answer that. I know this for certain."

"What I don't get is how you so conveniently are at the right place at the right time, every time, from what I heard when you were in the human city was preparing to travel towards this region almost as if you knew something was going to happen.

I had initially sent those three death knights to kill the woman beside you but decided to direct them to you instead. However, you were perfectly capable of handling them on your own. Impressive little orcling."

Tichondrius finished with an eery smile.

My response was to throw a very charged lightning arc right at the Dreadlord, he barely had time to look curiously at the lightning flying through the air before his eyes widened, and he tried to get away. Still, the arc sped up even more, slammed into his breastplate, and kept striking the same spot until that part of his breastplate melted off and into his skin, as he let out an agonizing roar until the arc flickered out of existence.

The demons observing this was stupified until Tichondrius spoke in a calm tone with barely contained fury, "Kill them."

Then all hell broke loose. The orcs on the side rushed in to meet the demons head-on, then roots came up from the ground and immobilized the demons a large amount of them, which persisted out of mostly felguards and voidwalkers.

The orcs utilized this chance to strike down as many as they could.

While this happened, Cenarius moved to Grommash and prepared to attack Mannoroth. Valeera defended Calia from a few stealthy satyrs who had attempted to flank her as she healed some of the injured orcs.

Tichondrius was charging up some spell right at me as I decided to power up a spell I had not used in months.

I put a solid amount of mana and arcane magic into both my hands; as I put my arms up and clenched my fists, a pure white vapor appeared, which was pointing toward the direction of Tichondrius and a few doomguards and even a few succubi at his side, the result was inhuman screams and wails of agony as their lower bodies froze to ice when the ground underneath started turning white in their midsts, a few seconds later the area struck the demons and most were frozen solid.

A few of them had attempted to move while their lower bodies were frozen but fell to the side. The result was their bodies broke apart, almost as if they had become fragile glass.

The ice shone with a sharp purple and blue mix. The color seemed to move even after the spell was cast as arcane energy pulsated through the ice, almost like it was feeding on the demon's corpses to keep festering the ground with freezing cold.

Tichondrius suddenly appeared right beside me in a swarm of bats. I saw his finger stick out of the swarm of insects and point right at me when I felt an enormous amount of pain coarse through me, blasting me backward and making me fly like a ragdoll away from the battlefield while I was trying to get through the pain, he had been pointing his hand up in the air as he flew after me, while looking at me hatefully.

Just as I got my focus back to Tichondrius, I saw his gaze and felt a vast amount of mana channeled up in the air. I looked up, and what I saw shocked me. A large swarm of insects glowing with a sickening green color which lit up the night sky was being amassed like an enormous cloud of death. Then I noticed his hand motion as he swung his hand down toward me, and the swarm followed his every order.

In a brief moment, I considered my options, 'Should I use one of my trump cards already? Or is there another way? Wait a moment... Should I risk it?'

As that thought came and the swarm approached quickly, I decided my following action.

Imbuing both my arms with intense purple fire, I hoped that my idea would work out; as I slammed both my hands together and with a mighty clap, a shockwave of purple fire appeared in front of me and sped towards the incoming swarm, my plan was put into motion, I did not expect it to work as it did however.

Just as my wave of fire hit the enormous swarm, it started with one of the insects dying, then another, and another, and on the fourth kill, there was a small explosion, which set off a passive proc that I had almost forgotten about...

[Flametongue has a small chance to set your target on fire, and when it dies, it explodes in fire within a small area.]

Imagine what would happen if this set off a wave of fire on its own?

Yes... I had this brilliant plan to test it against thousands of bugs simultaneously, and the result was an earth-shaking explosion and the loudest *BOOM* I had ever had the displeasure of experiencing.

The explosion was so intense that it sent both me and Tichondrius flying like cannonballs in opposite directions from away from the swarm.

Though the heat did not damage me in the least, the impact from being sent back from the explosion did, as I crashed with high speed into large trees, breaking at least ten before they could stop my flight backward.

When I finally got out of my daze, I realized I had been sent more than four hundred meters away from the explosion, which was still lit in purple flames as the trees almost instantly evaporated into ash.

When the fires had stopped, I finally managed to get myself out of the tree I was currently briefly stuck.

And as I rose to my feet, there was an annoying tingle from my ankle. Something sharp is sticking out, right between my leg armor and boots. It was a large splint of wood, and blood spewed from the wound.

I pulled the large splinter out without hesitation, the pain was manageable, and I felt the injury start healing almost instantly.

It would take some time to fully heal, but it was manageable to move around with.

As I was about to return to the fight, I saw an intense green light flash in the distance, and a thunderous *Boom* occurred right after.

'It seems Cenarius, Hellscream, and Mannoroth are going at it. I better deal with this fake vampire soon.'

'At least the fireworks will attract attention from any backup Cenarius might have... if the elves are making their way here in the first place. The explosions should have clarified that our initial assault went somewhat wrong.'

As that thought passed, I imbued my legs with air and made myself almost weightless as I rushed back into the fray.

After a moment, I sensed three powerful beings nearby, and they were heading toward the explosion's center.

I let out a small sigh of relief, as this was probably the backup we needed to handle both Mannoroth and Tichondrius.

As I flew through the air, I loosened my helm a little, 'It would be a bad introduction if they don't get to see who they are dealing with.' I thought.

Then I smiled as I flew through the air and landed beside the newcomers as they looked at me. The Orc and the Tauren looked at me with slight apprehension and fear, while the human woman looked...dazed?

{Shortly before Mannoroth and Tichondrius engaged the fight with our MC, Cenarius, and Hellscream.}

[? PoV]

I sighed in frustration, we had left a small settlement a few days ago, which had been slaughtered down to the last woman and child, my anger made me boil in silent rage at the notion of forgiving such slaughter, but after what the prophet said, I kept it to myself.

Thrall looked devastated as we observed what his mentor and friend had done to the small settlement's inhabitants, which only had a small force of soldiers, mainly farmers trying to do guard duty.

They had no chance against a force of two hundred trained orc warriors, though they had slain a few orcs in the assault on the town.

The settlement had been utterly annihilated.

Everything was burned to the ground because of one orc with a temper and a misguided path toward revenge.

We had been progressing through a mountain connecting Stonetalon and Ashenvale for several days. Thrall asked Cairne, "These *Elves* have you ever met them?"

"Rarely, they are known to be peaceful, and we have mostly left them alone, as we both want to conserve nature, and our traditions somewhat align, but make no mistake. If your friend has been corrupted by the demons as the prophet said, then it could only mean that he has or will do something which will be the point of no return with the night elves." Cairne said, then finished with a sigh.

Soon I could see that the cave was getting slightly less dark, which meant we were almost out of this forsaken cave. I look back and see my soldiers sigh with relief. They were tense, under a mountain with foreign forces on both sides.

When we finally got to the cave's entrance and stepped into the domain of the night elves, it was night, but a calm blue glow covered the sky and trees. It was a calming sight for everyone and a welcome change of scenery instead of a dull cave with stalactites.

I could hear Thrall sigh as he was very much against fighting other orcs, but if the prophet was true, he would have no choice but to fight.

Considering they were now corrupted and lapdogs of the legion unless stopped.

And the crystal I had on me would be able to absorb Hellscream's soul and save him from the legion's grasp. Even if I felt like avenging the destroyed settlement of my people.

I put that notion down and locked it up. Right now, we have a job to do, and conflict would make our strife much worse than it already is.

I did not want more conflict after what I heard happened in Lordaeron, but for the safety of my people, I would put my grudges aside and do what was best, even if I wanted to get justice for the people who lost their lives to this madman, that could wait.

After walking towards the north for a little while following the trail of Hellscream and his forces, we encountered a few orcs in the distance in a little tower, most likely a scouting post. And they did not look corrupted as the prophet described and were neither aggressive nor hostile to our approach when they spotted Thrall and his warriors.

This stupified Thrall, Cairne, and me to the point we wondered if the prophet lied to us. Still, as Thrall started a conversation with the orcs, it became clear that they had not become corrupted. Hellscream had not created a severe conflict with the elves except for a few skirmishes without casualties.

Still, Hellscream had been planning to take over certain outposts on the road, which would set the orcs clearly towards conflict with the elves, as their patience would surely come to an end after what we had heard from Thrall about their culture and the deforestation habits of the Warsong orcs.

Just as we were starting to walk toward where the scouting party of Hellscream pointed out was the headquarters of the Warsong clan, a weak earthquake occurred.

Thrall looked at Cairne, Cairne looked at Thrall, and they both looked at me questioningly as if I knew what that was. My only reply was a weak shrug, and then I froze, and I turned towards the direction I felt something... powerful, immensely so.

My eyes widened as I now recognized, due to my magic perception, a gigantic green cloud far in the distance descended downwards at an insane speed. Just as it was about to get out of my vision and drop to the ground, a loud clap was heard, then a fiery explosion like I had never seen before in the distance as the trees wavered chaotically due to the wind pressure, then were set ablaze with a majestic purple flame as they turned to ash almost instantly.

The fires did not reach us, but we could see where the explosion had impacted clearly.

Thrall and Cairne were horrified by what they saw, but they did not have the ability to sense magic as I did.

I was entranced at the sight as the trees near us swayed as the shockwave finally arrived. Most of the soldiers hunkered down.

A few even fell over. Thrall's shamans were shaking in fear, which said a lot about them.

Even when they were fighting our enemies all this time, no fear was visible on their faces, but this? This scared them immensely, and understandably so.

Just as I marveled at the pure arcane magic in the air, Thrall yelled to his warriors and, by extension, everyone, "We charge ahead!"

And then he turned to me after realizing I did not show any reaction to his yell and said, "Jaina! Are you alright!?" Which shook me out of my stupor, and I looked at him dumbfounded and replied, "Yes?" Which caused the orc to look at me weirdly as he nodded slowly and said, "Is something wrong?" I shook my head and looked toward where I had watched the explosion go off, "No, it's just that there is so much magic in the air it gave me pause." I replied.

Thrall nodded and started running toward the blast zone, and after a moment, I followed.

Cairne was behind Thrall, and our forces rushed towards the explosion's center.

I started summoning my water elementals while we were getting close. Just as Thrall and Cairne were about to walk further towards the center, they suddenly stopped in front of me as something covered in a dark gray robe flew at immense speed through the air, landing right in front of us just as I lay my eyes on the figure he meets mine. I could see a slight smile as he stopped in front of us.

Thrall and Cairne prepared their weapons instantly and were ready for a fight until the figure pulled back his cloak and made his face visible while pulling his mouth cover down his masked helmet. He spoke, his voice filled with slight amusement, "So I see the cavalry has arrived, huh? You are a bit late, Hellscream and my group is fighting in that direction."

He pointed towards the east while I was staring intently at his eyes glowing in a dark purple color, then his eyes met mine for a moment, and he smirked.

The smirk disappeared and was replaced by an emotionless face suddenly as we heard a swarm of bats behind the purple-eyed man.

As a swarm of bats suddenly formed a large Dreadlord a small distance away, he had various injuries and was missing an arm and an eye.

And a voice with barely contained hatred in its tone started talking and half yelling, "I see you survived."

The robed man did not hesitate before helmet and cloak went back to cover his head and face, his hands lit up with a powerful crackling sound.

The Dreadlord tensed up as purple lighting wrapped around the cloaked man's arms, turning them into bluish-purple claws. The lightning was so calm it was unnerving, even if I could feel the contained lightning within wanting to be pointed at his enemies. I looked at the robed man's eyes again, and they were lit up like a torch in the night. Unnaturally calm was the impression I got from his gaze, which was still on my own.

Then he did one last calm smile, which was slowly turning into a battle-hungry grin before he said,

"I think you all should leave, I can deal with this one on my own." And he muttered something to himself like after he completed that sentence.

Thrall and Cairne nodded gravely as they started turning in the direction he pointed earlier.

I just stood there staring at the stranger, his magic was surging in the area overwhelming me just by being there, just by him standing there beside him but I was soon put out of my daze when Thrall grabbed my hand and pulled me along with them to find Hellscream.

The last glimpse I caught of the man was him lunging towards the Dreadlord while the three of us and our warriors ran away from them.

-Chapter 24 End-