' = Internal dialogue
¨= Normal speech
* = Sounds / Etc
-Chapter 70-
As I continued to fall for several minutes, I studied the tunnel. I was in voluntary free-fall mode when deciding to go along with whatever was happening.
The area seemed to have been dug out recently; fresh green roots sprouted from the recently dug-out earth, and by something with claws that drastically narrowed the enemy's identity. Only a few creatures who were experts in making tunnels like these came to mind, but one I now realized was the most likely one.
Namely, the Nerubians, or in this case... the undead variety, the Crypt fiends; they are one of the factors I had not taken to mind, as I thought they were strictly in Northrend or by now... maybe in Lordaeron, inside the dungeons and from what I could recall was the so-called Instances, like Stratholme or Scholomance.
But that did not matter when I finally reached the bottom, where I was greeted by a swarm of arachnid-like creatures who seemed to be in an unsurmountable number as their numbers covered as far as my eyes could see, which in this case was slightly further than maybe a few kilometers.
'If these wannabe spiders think they can take me on with numbers...' Was all I thought as my body lit the entire underground area ablaze with an intense white-colored flame that covered my whole body from head to toe, and I could only smile at the upcoming slaughter that was just about to begin.
'I should calm myself whenever I see this many enemies closely packed together... Nah... who am I kidding...'
"EXPLOSIONS!" I roared as I willed my revolver into my left hand and fired at the largest and meanest-looking undead Nerubian I could see.
And with a grin, I could practically see realization inside the dull mind of the undead settle inside the Nerubian's dead insectoid eyes as it screeched a retreat while frantically clicking its mouth in an attempt to signal the other smaller mindless drones around it.
But it was to no avail as a wave of white fire now made its way like a fuse being lit, leaving the ground scorched and the earth underneath to turn into charcoal; as it rapidly closed in on its location, it did not even have time to screech in pain as its form melted into a puddle of green goo into the recently dug out earthen ground.
I had decided to save the large explosions for when they needed to be done. However, thousands of small firecrackers going off were still quite loud. They made the entire cavern quake as stalactites dropped from the ceiling and impaled several of the undead crypt fiends, making them frantically wave their limbs around before finally being ended by a flame that could be at the same level as the holy light against undead with how efficient it seemed to purify the dead… from this world utterly.
Hundreds of explosions still went on, it was almost like an insane drumbeat, but all of a sudden I felt something rapidly flying at me as I turned my head to the right where a glaive, maybe around twenty meters long, was spinning through the air directly at me like a goddamn vertical boomerang, aiming to cleave me in half from top to bottom.
Deciding to see if this weapon was any good, I let it hit the layer of white flame. To the sender's surprise, the glaive seemed to phase right through me before it fell in two pieces, and with a dull clang, the cursed glaive made of impressive material hit the ground.
"YOU DESPICABLE INSPECT! HOW DARE YOU OPPOSE THE BURNING LEGION!?" The hoarse and ugly voice that sounded like Mannoroth shook the cavern walls.
'Well... that's ironic. It's not like the so-called bad guys have original quotes anyway. Seems to be a pattern in the Burning Legion…'
The now visible Pit lord seemed to have a furnace on top of his head glowing an ominous green, long fangs extending from the side that bent upwards, his eyes reflecting how fel infused the Pit lord indeed was.
He conjured a new weapon as a dark green portal appeared between his arms. As he pulled it open, shoved his hand inside, and grasped at something, he grinned at me, almost like he had forgotten the fact that I had just stood still as his previous weapon melted upon impacting my barrier made of a new kind of fire and arcane magic weaved into one another.
"AAAARRRGH!" The pit lord yelled as he rushed toward me. The cavern floor shook with each step the twenty-meter-tall pit lord took.
His new glaive now shone putrid green as it flared its demonic magic while he held it in one hand as it started to spin rapidly in his grasp.
Deciding to humor the pit lord momentarily, I turned off the barrier. I imbued my right arm with hardened earth while making the floor into ice as I stomped my leg into the now green and blackened mud that was thousands of insects just moments ago.
Watching a twenty-meter-tall pit lord stumble around like a deer trying to skate was something I was not prepared to see to this day, but here I was, almost laughing out loud as the pit lord now sailed toward me with his previous momentum turned against him.
But just as he was going to impact me with his spinning glaive, I shot it with a heavily infused projectile made of lightning, making his glaive miss me as he slashed it downward, aiming yet again to slice me in half.
I then warped slightly upward to reach his face, watching enemies that always seem to underestimate their opponents never get old; the pit lord's eyes widened as I brutally slammed my now enlarging arm into its chin. *BOOOOOM*
The pit lord couldn't get out a word before it was thrown into the wall with some of his limbs bending the wrong way; props to the pit lord, though, as he was only stunned for a moment before his limbs and neck bent themselves back in place with an instantaneous wet crunch.
He then charged at me right away, but this time with a glint in his eye that turned out to be vigilance the next moment as I shot an empowered projectile made of fire and lightning directly at his forehead, but in the last moment, he blocked it with his glaive that still ricochets back into his head from the impact. *CRACK*.
"AAARGH!" the infused Pit lord screamed in anger as his glaive fell from his hand while he reached for his head in reflex as green blood flooded down his furnace-like head.
I took this opportunity to warp behind his head and wound up my arm, which was instantaneously three times the average size due to the hardened earth; the makeshift gauntlet had lines of white, with a layer of lightning buzzing menacingly around it as I swung it into the back of the Pit lord's head, making his entire upper body crash into the ground with an audible crunch which made it hard to know if it was its bones or the ice underneath. Still, I was leaning toward the prior as I could hear a choked gargle from the now-stuck Pit lord.
In a moment of what I could only think was its survival instincts doing their thing, the Pit lord's body swelled as it gained an eery green outline, and the beating of a heart could be heard as it shook before lifting itself off the ground with hands, albeit quite slowly.
"...HOW?! YOU ARE A MERE INSECT; HOW DO YOU HAVE SUCH POWER!? NO MATTER, I, AZGALOR, WILL BRING YOU TO THE DEFILER." The Pit lord seemingly talked to himself all the while I casually powered up my revolver, which was currently amassing more and more of my mana as I supplied it with my fire and lightning, making it gain a shining hue that lit up the entire area while making the crushed ice beneath the Pit lord shake.
"A villain's last words are supposed to be about how much I will suffer due to my actions of going against you, but I have to admit this is a first, a Pit lord speaking of himself in third person while promptly ignoring every single sign he is outmatched…" I replied, shaking my head before pointing my revolver at the now-named Azgalor, the Pit lord.
Then I continued as my finger was on the trigger, "I have wasted enough time on you. See you next time, Azgalor, simp of the Defiler."
*THUMP* *BOOOOOOOM*
In front of me, the result of the explosion was clear: the pit lord still stood on his four legs, though something seemed to be missing.
The torso was still there, but the projectile was so powerful that it ripped off the majority of its upper torso in the process. Leaving behind four legs, two arms that had fallen to the ground without having a reason to stick around, and a deathly silence.
'It's getting easier using Titanstrike each time I wield it in a fight, though I must admit… I am not the biggest fan of guns, but having this for long-range combat will prove valuable down the line…' I thought while imagining that I still had to see if the weapon would grow alongside me.
That consideration came from the fact that I popped up my notifications and saw that I had finally reached the required attunement to advance my levels.
—
[Ghoul (Level 55-60) x1271 Slain]
Skeletal Mage (Level 52-60) x358 Slain]
Skeletal Warrior (Level 49-57) x693 Slain]
[Crypt Stalker(Level 89-125) x473 Slain]
[Crypt Fiend(Level 70-102) x967 Slain]
[Azgalor, Commander of the Burning Legion (Level 165)Slain]
—
-Attunements: Current Limit: IV(4)]
- Fire – 72% [Tier IV] Fire – 100% [Tier IV]
-Water – 49% [Tier IV] Water – 69% [Tier IV]
-Earth –97% [Tier III] Earth – 12% [Tier IV]
-Air – 98% [Tier III] Air – 12% [Tier IV]
-Arcane – 100% [Tier IV]
—
[Excess experience gained: 7 Levels]
[Excess total experience: 62 Levels]
—
Tier Cap Reached – Level 100 {ADVANCE UNLOCKED}
-Do you wish to use all excess experience? Yes/No
—
After brief consideration, if anything could go wrong, several prompts asked me to spend 5, 10, or 15 levels of experience at the time in a small note under the part that said: use all. Still, in the end, I decided to press the Yes prompt for all excess experience; what could go wrong by gaining every single level I had seemingly saved up for a while, all at once?
Probably not much, but after reaching an entire tier over a limit, you could only see and now feel? Well, that was a whole other story as my attunement to fire and arcane hit [Tier V] simultaneously as my stats went haywire in a fraction of a second.
I was left breathless when I felt it. It was like someone opening the lid on a high pressurized valve; I lifted my hands shakily toward my face and stared at them in fascination; the air trembled around me while, whenever
I breathed; I saw purple-ish white-colored mist escaping toward my hands, lit up with purple and white lines before seemingly seeping into my body, almost like an additional layer of skin.
Without thinking much about it, I waved my hand to the side, and an immense wave of fire crashed into the remains of the Pit lord and evaporated the entire corpse into nothingness. Of course, it did not stop there.
The wave continued directly into the wall on the side and continued without signs of stopping as I frantically tried to get my control back; after it had continued for roughly a hundred meters, I finally managed to stop its continuation of breaking down the soil as it left hardened scorched earth in its wake.
After managing to stop the fiery wave of death, I took a step back and felt the tunnel shake as my foot came into contact with the dirt. As roughly half a meter around the foot was now hard-pressed into the dirt while dust rose from around it, I gulped when I realized something else was happening, opened my notifications, and felt my jaw drop.
—
-[Class: Enhancement Shaman] Evolved Into [Class: Primordial Shaman]
-Values changed{Previous}: +2 Strength, +1 Intelligence, +3 Agility, and +2 Stamina per Level]
-New Values: +4 Strength, +2 Intelligence, + 5 Agility, +3 Stamina per Level]
—
[Class: Primordial Shaman]
Description: Your grasp over the elements has reached a new unknown threshold and can no longer be compared to before, as you now wield the elements as if they have become your own.
-You have reached a milestone most shamans would kill for; self-sustained elemental powers are now in your grasp, not even if another source of elemental might try to force their will upon your own will they be able to control your elemental attunements.
{Personal MP Infused into Attunements: Fire/Water/Earth/Air, will enable close to perfect control over said Attunements.
(Calculated by = Overall Attunement Tier.)}
—
-Attunements: Current Limit: [Removed]
-Fire – 100% [Tier IV] -Fire – 1% [Tier V]
-Water – 69% [Tier IV]
-Earth – 12% [Tier IV]
-Air – 12% [Tier IV]
-Arcane – 100% [Tier IV] Arcane – 15% [Tier V]
—
Level: 162
HP: 204,710
MP: 96,460
Strength: 684
Agility: 845
Stamina: 1,177
Intelligence: 855
Spirit: 523
—
My health and strength had practically tripled, while my agility had quadrupled, and it all felt… so fucking good; my body vibrated in joy at the current euphoria that was telling me I was invincible and could take on anyone.
I turned my gaze to the tunnel ahead, and it seemed that whatever operation the Burning Legion had going on here was officially ruined.
With that in mind, I conjured two orbs of intense white flames that danced around in my palm as the air around it visibly got pulled into the flame; it was like a miniature vortex of ever-feeding flames in my very grasp, then I added arcane as a layer around it which seemingly forced the fire to compress, but the intensity did not dim in the slightest, it was hidden through the veil of purple, sometimes escaping through the figurative cracks as if almost alive and wanting to peak out into the world.
But I was brought out of my current experimentation when I heard chittering from my side. Suddenly, the wall crumbled and fell with a crash, only to reveal another horde of undead Crypt Stalkers and Crypt Fiends.
'No rest for the wicked, I guess…' I thought, and before I knew it, I was in their midst with a giant grin plastered on my face, and my entire body was enveloped in an intensifying white flame while my limbs were covered in a hardened metal-like layer of ultra-dense earth. I then started my systematic pest extermination on the way to what I presumed was the way out of this underground area after sensing Jaina's presence far above in that direction flare up momentarily.
—
—Jaina PoV—
—
After Medan opened the small gap in the barrier to let me and the blindfolded night elf through, I felt the earth tremble and realized that our little quest to assist the night elves against the Burning Legion might start quite chaotic.
Standing here in the tunnel in utter silence was apparently what the night elf liked the most, or so I was made to believe until he said while gazing toward the tunnel where a sliver of light was visible with his glowing green orb-like eyes underneath his blindfold "I thank you for your assistance, but this is where we part ways."
I nodded as I realized after Medan and Illidan's quarrels so far that Illidan had no good-will for his fellow elves as he complained every time we had made our stops on the way here with the excuse of preventing casualties in the upcoming conflict outside of Mount Hyjal.
Honestly, it was a relief to no longer follow the stoic night elf around; something about him just… felt wrong. But I figured, as long as Medan is not saying anything about it, then it shouldn't be a problem.
It turns out I was mistaken when suddenly his body shifted, and I felt something appear behind me; without hesitation, I conjured a barrier of ice with sharp spikes extending outward in response to a coming attack.
After a dull *DING*, the ice barrier waved slightly in response to a sharp glaive trying to make its way through but was instead met by a sharp lance of ice into the palm of the wielder's hand, making him release the glaive for a brief moment before it suddenly jerked into the dark tunnel that was previously lit up by a small flame in my hand,
"...So you both are monsters… even Archmage Rhonin cannot measure up to your magical expertise regarding ice magic, but do not take this attack personally; if you were any weaker, I would have simply killed you at the behest of someone I owe a temporary favor, but with your specialty in magic at this level... I will retreat… because, for now… I have more important matters to deal with. I wish you and your mate good luck in dealing with the machinations of the Defiler. Goodbye." Illidan said, and before I even realized it, he was gone.
'What the…' I was surprised at his hasty retreat but did not let down my defenses as I was fully prepared to unleash an icy hell upon the elf before realizing he was already escaping.
After two minutes, I realized the tunnel was void of anyone or anything as I conjured several small flame orbs to light up ahead.
I sighed as I exited the damp and moss-filled tunnel and finally reached a beautiful, lush forest, or so I thought. The sight was soon turned into a nightmarish landscape of fire and decay as I gazed further into the lush decaying forrest; corpses littered the ground, demons, elves, undead, slaughtered like insects as far as the eye could see.
'Are we too late?' I thought, but then I heard the signs of intense fighting further up in the valley, which I now recognized as the path toward the top of the world tree.
As I blinked repeatedly toward where the sounds were coming from, I heard the familiar shouting of the ones I had fought alongside upon arriving at Kalimdor; Thrall and his warriors were just ahead, fighting with some muscular demon with wings and hooves.
My eyes widened when I saw that the one they were fighting with was going at it alone versus the combined might of Thrall, his warriors, night elf sentinels, and the warmongering orc that I still held grievances against, Grom Hellscream.
Without hesitation, I conjured three gigantic water elementals with the help of a lake on the side, which saved me the MP to conjure the enormous amount of water required.
These elementals reminded me of the one I managed to conjure back on the beach when the hydras were being attacked; my link with them made me think they were one step away from being truly aware and not wholly subservient to my will.
As the three turned toward me while waiting for their commands, I pointed toward the giant demon in the distance, cackling with glee while decapitating several orcs.
Thrall roared in anger as thunder escaped his hammer and impacted the demon's chest, making it skid backward slightly, and then just brushed it off and laughed as it swung its gigantic orange glowing sword, which was outlined with black and had a clear steel edge, in all honesty, it's weapon were the size of its own body, making the demons reach immense.
That did not stop Hellscream from leaping at the 15-meter-tall demon with his axe while practically screaming his lungs out with bloodshot eyes and a manic grin plastered on his face.
Somehow, Hellscream even managed to push the demon back, who attempted to retaliate by swinging his sword from the side, aiming to cleave the reckless orc in half.
I made my three elementals prepare to ambush the demon from behind to perhaps save the orc from being cut in two, although I delayed it slightly on purpose as I had no reason to risk being discovered just because of that one orc, not because I was harboring any negative feelings when it came to Thrall's friend, nope, not at all… though maybe a little.
But in the end, it turned out not to be needed as Thrall raised sharp earthen spikes from the ground, which shot toward the demon, who stopped his swing and sidestepped the spike aimed at its left arm with surprising agility and then yet again used the momentum to do an overhead swing toward Thrall.
Now, this one I could prevent in good time; just as it was a few meters away from cleaving Thrall in half, I mentally ordered one of the elementals to make an ice wall while I ordered the other to strike the demon from behind as it conjured a trident of animated water and threw it directly toward the demons's back.
'Well.. that's new…' I thought and was quite pleased to see the strike come through as the demon now had a five-meter-long trident sticking out of his shoulder while its blade missed its initial target by a wide margin as it slammed its weapon violently into the wall of ice that made chunks fly in all direction
What I did not expect was the demon's reaction at being wounded, "BWAHAH, PUNY INSECTS BELIEVE THEMSELVES ABLE TO FACE THE LIKES OF THE BURNING LEGION! HOW LAUGHABLE!" Then its mood turned 180 degrees as it reared its head to the side to catch a glimpse of me and my elementals while shouting, "CRY FOR MERCY! YOUR MEANINGLESS LIVES WILL SOON BE FORFEIT!"
It was then I felt the mountainside shake intensely for a brief moment, only to reveal a manacing putrid green whirling portal in the distance behind me, but that was not the end of it as the skies turned white as it began to snow. I heard an unholy screech coming further down the mountain as something enormous flew into the sky, hidden behind dark clouds. Blue dragons the size of three-story buildings now started to descend.
In contrast, hooded skeletal beings stood on their backs with manacing weapons pointed toward me, and I could swear the skeletal being smiled at me for a moment.
Enough hesitation, I blinked behind Thrall and Hellscream as my elementals crashed into the ground, only to reform at my side shortly after, and as I was going to warn Thrall to start retreating, I paused.
It was then I noticed that the fel barrier… was gone. Usually, that would be a good thing, but considering our current situation, it was the opposite.
Now, the enemy had units in the air while our own was still a full day away from assisting us.
After realizing that our reinforcements would only be the elves coming down the road, I concluded that we should have a proper place to retreat in case things went awry; I could even sense some barrier further up the mountain road but was uncertain of its use.
I decided to gamble as I could see the waves of enemies storming towards us.
I slammed the brunt of my staff into the ground while shouting, "RETREAT!" Then I mentally grasped the humidity in the air and made it as cold as possible with minimal preparations; this blinded the orcs who had yet to start retreating and the giant demon currently using his sword to chop down the wall in front of itself.
*SCREECH* Then several skeletal dragons and their riders smacked into the ground as their mounts lost control over their wings, resulting in some shattering into thousand pieces upon impacting the ground.
"Jaina! I am delighted to see you in one piece! Our encampment are further up the alley where the elves currently are resting! The druids have erected their own barrier and should be ready to receive us!" Thrall shouted as he dodged a spear racing through the air toward his face, then ordered his warriors and even Hellscream to retreat.
I nodded and was going to put up several large walls of ice to hold off the incoming cavalry when I saw a 5-meter tall flesh creature that seemed to be stitched together from thousands of different skin colors while areas of its flesh were rotting; it's one functional eye stared at me with longing as its voice reached me somehow, "MoMmY?"
In what seemed to be innumerable different voices of young children all at once, this managed to chill even me to the bone as I looked it over with my newly enhanced mana senses, which made my eyes widen when It clicked, an ethereal cloud-like shape was hovering around its body, and I felt myself grow sick.
In that being…, there were at least 600 different mana signatures and had been transformed into some curse-like state of being, and the majority of them… were young children no older than five from what I could tell from the signatures of mana.
'What kind of sick being would do something like this!?' was my reaction as I decided to start helping with the retreat after tearing my gaze away from the tragic being who now wailed in sadness at being ignored while also swinging its meat cleavers into the ice in front of it frantically to reach us.
As the chaos down the slope-like area descended further into even more chaos as the putrid green portal remained open while supplying the forces of undead and demons with even more monstrous creatures, we managed to take the wounded. At the same time, Thrall had to physically pull Hellscream away while the latter screamed, "Let' me at them!".
How that orc had yet to die in combat was beyond me.
"INCOMING!" A night elf sentinel shouted in panic as her eyes gazed upward into the skies behind us as we continued further into Mount Hyjal.
*BOOOOM* *BOOOOOM* *BOOOM*
Three large projectiles made of ice bombarded the shield I hastily cast above both Thrall, Hellscream, me, and the sentinel, who now pulled out her bow and aimed it toward a figure in the sky that was slowly coming into view from behind the mist that had appeared.
Up in the sky stood a figure I least expected. I felt myself tremble in anger at what the Burning Legion had done, 'How… dare they…'
Up in the sky stood… Antonidas, my old mentor, now turned into some undead with translucent chains enveloping his purple Kirin Tor robe, a destroyed bottle hung from his belt that he used to give out to his apprentices whenever Mana-sickness struck them from pushing themselves too much.
His arm held a staff made of ice in his left and an orb of pure fel magic above his right palm that he held out to the side while gazing at the sight below with a gaze devoid of any of the previously known warmth the man was known for.
His beard swayed in the cold wind as he released the hold of his staff that stood firm on whatever kind of platform levitating 100 meters above in the sky, and new ice-like projectiles started to take shape directly after.
As I was about to pull out my mount, I felt a hand on my shoulder; Thrall choked on his words as he saw my eyes gazing into his and decided to say what was on his mind before an eventual ice tomb took his place.
"Don't let them get you out there alone against their forces. We need to retreat further into the mountain for now." Thrall said soothingly.
After a brief pause, he continued, "You told me about that mage once, or at least gave me a general description of him; he wouldn't want you to rush head first to release him from the enemy's clutches if it would put his apprentice at risk… please." Thrall said rather calmly as his teeth chattered; he was visibly freezing up from my emitting cold aura.
And just as Antonidas was almost finished with yet another cast of improved Blizzard, which was more like a frost-comet spell, I looked his way. I lifted my arm in his direction and cracked down hard with a counter-spell, briefly making his spell spiral out of control, shattering the platform he stood on with a *CRACK*.
I knew this would only stop the Archmage briefly, but it would have to do. I then nodded at Thrall, who sighed in relief; then we rushed through a narrow path in the mountain while I put up several walls of ice along the way with the help of my elementals, pushing their cores to the extreme to fulfill their duties.
Yet, after managing to retreat without further surprises, I could not get the face of my previous mentor out of my head. My anger toward the Burning Legion and the Scourge had reached new heights, and all that held me back… was knowing that with Medan's help, we would get our vengeance for the atrocities they were causing in due time.
-Chapter 70 End-