AN: You can also read this chapter (and all the previous ones) on ptr on, at /grumpywolf, for free, for the pics attached to them (if you are interested in that).

Chapter 7 - Lament of the Highborne

Previous chapter

'I'd have to leave Quel'Thalas and live in exile. I'd have to watch out for the assassins they'd send after my head for decades. . . but that's still better than dying.'

However, just as the elven Magister was about to make a run for it, something akin to a meteorite landed in the middle of the troll army, and what appeared to be a massive tail of red energy swept dozens of trolls away, sending them flying and screaming.

Then, a shout in a language that neither the elves nor the trolls could understand reverberated over the battlefield:

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin on Jutsu!"

⁂

An immense curtain of white smoke covered the battlefield for a few seconds. When it vanished, the 'sea of green' consisting of Amani trolls was tainted by red and yellow as nearly 1000 human boys identical to each other appeared seemingly out of thin air.

A loud battle cry erupted from Naruto's chest as he clenched his hands around the thick handle of his immense war axe and swung it violently at a troll.

Enhanced by Kyuubi's chakra, his swing was so powerful that his axe cut through the tough tusks of the troll and sliced his body in half diagonally.

Both the trolls and the high elves were in shock at Naruto's unexpected arrival. It was unthinkable for a human child to be there, in Quel'Thalas, and even more shocking to see someone as young as him on the battlefield.

His shadow clones did not stay idle either, and they lunged at the trolls, hacking at them with their war axes too. Not even one minute passed from the clones' appearance, and 100 trolls had already been slaughtered. It was a massacre.

Alas, the rest of the trolls quickly got over their surprise and started fighting back, filled with rage.

A troll shaman let out a scream, and a Chain Lightning spell burst from his hands. The lightning bolt was so fast that not even their shinobi reflexes and Kyuubi's buff could help them dodge. Five clones were destroyed instantly.

It was not only the shamans who had success. The troll hunters also fired a rain of poisoned arrows at the human children, and their mountain lions and giant lynxes lunged at the clones too. However, it was the troll warriors that surprised Naruto the most.

In his memory, the trolls weren't as strong as they were currently. Even before, his shadow clones couldn't contend with trolls in a one-on-one scenario, but these clones were now empowered by Kyuubi's chakra, yet they were still not gaining the upper hand. Naruto did not know it, but the Bloodlust spell that a shaman had cast on the army before his arrival was still active, empowering the trolls.

Filled with adrenaline, the troll warriors transformed into whirlwinds of death as they rotated with their weapons violently, not caring about whether they hit a friend or foe.

Three minutes after the trolls started fighting back, half of Naruto's 1000 clones were already destroyed.

'Kurama, it's not enough. They're killing my clones too fast.'

He hated the fact that he did not have any destructive jutsu. He hated the fact that Kakashi had not taught him anything other than tree walking after half a year of being his sensei.

"So what if they're destroying your clones? Don't worry about chakra, Naruto," Kyuubi's deep voice rumbled from within. "Between the two of us, we have enough chakra for you to make another 5000 clones or more. And even if they were to destroy those future 5000 clones, you'd just have to make more. My chakra regenerates fast enough for you to never run out of power. Put your trust in me. I won't let you down."

Emboldened by Kyuubi's promise, Naruto and his clones threw themselves at the trolls more wildly than before.

A troll warrior swung his two-handed broadsword at him, but Naruto parried it with his war axe, and a shadow clone attacked the troll from behind, chopping his head off.

A troll rogue teleported behind the shadow clone and Ambushed it, shoving his barbed dagger deep into the clone's back, making it dispel in a plume of smoke. The smoke had yet to clear out when Naruto chopped with his axe vertically. He cut through the troll's skull savagely, and the blade of his enormous axe sank even deeper, going down into his torso and ultimately splitting the troll into two halves.

Blood and gore splattered all over his face and clothes.

It was not the first time Naruto had killed someone, far from it. But this was the first time he and his clones had caused such a massacre. It was his first time on such a large-scale battlefield.

There was so much troll blood on the ground that it pooled up to his ankles, with troll limbs and body remains strewn all over the street like a carpet of mangled flesh.

Momentarily, he froze, the axe in his hands trembling as he stared at the macabre sight before his eyes. It was a sight of his own making. In mere minutes, he and his clones had massacred nearly 300 trolls.

It was a bloodbath.

Four trolls lunged at him at that moment, roaring as they swung their broadswords and daggers at him, and an axe-thrower flung a hatchet at him.

The high elves' arrows happened to kill the troll warriors and rogues who attacked Naruto, making them fall before they could strike him, but the elves couldn't do anything about the hatchet that the axe-throwing troll had thrown at Naruto.

The hatchet's blade sank deeply into the right side of Naruto's chest, breaking through his ribs and puncturing his lung.

"Wake the hell up, idiot! Wake up or we're both going to die!"

"You're feeling pity for these animals? Did you forget how they hung you over a fire and started burning you alive? Did you forget how they were going to eat you alive?"

"Look at all the corpses of the high elves lying on the ground, innocents murdered by the trolls."

"Remember the torture they put Liadrin through, Liadrin, who has taken care of you almost as though she were your mother!"

If his words were not enough, Kyuubi also flooded Naruto's and his clones' bodies with a massive amount of his chakra.

Doubt, guilt, hesitation, and even rationality—everything vanished.

Rage. A rage like Naruto had never felt in his entire life suddenly took over him. It felt almost alien; it was overpowering.

His body was covered by a deep, crimson-red cloak of chakra. The hatchet fell off from his chest, and the gruesome injury he had suffered healed up like a miracle.

Then, his human appearance disappeared, and with it, all of his shadow clones were dispelled in a puff of smoke.

Only one demonic-looking being remained. It was hunched over and standing on all fours, bearing the shape of a crimson-red humanoid fox with three tails.

⁂

The forest trolls were fearless in front of death. They were savage, violent, and bloodthirsty. But even these tribal cannibals had things they feared.

"Loa!" "Loa!"

Loa was an all-encompassing term that the trolls used to describe things they worshipped, such as spirits and gods, or things they feared and could not understand. . . like the creature in front of their eyes.

Such cries burst from their chests when Naruto was overwhelmed by Kyuubi's rage and entered the second version of his jinchuuriki cloak.

The demonic fox roared and a pillar of red, malevolent chakra shot up in the air; dozens of trolls dropped their weapons and fell back, running for their lives.

Faster than anyone could react, the demon fox vanished. His body appeared like a red blur as he threw himself at the closest shaman, his fierce claws ripping the troll's body in five parts, like confetti, splattering his blood messily all over the place. Then, he targeted the next closest shaman, spewing a large fireball from his demonic mouth at him.

As for the few trolls who were brave enough not to run and tried to attack him, their broadswords and throwing axes could not even pierce the demonic cloak. They all lost their lives fruitlessly, their bodies torn beyond recognition.

While the Kyuubified Naruto wreaked havoc in the troll army's ranks, the high elves took full advantage of that opportunity. They did not know who the human child was or what the animalistic form that he had turned into was, but they did understand one thing: he was extremely powerful, and he was on their side.

The rangers that were still alive began shooting two or three arrows at a time. They shot until their fingertips bled and their arms started to give out. When they ran out of arrows, they started running at the corpses piling up on the ground and pulled their arrows out from them before shooting them again.

Dar'khan too fired Frostbolts and Arcane Volleys unceasingly. It was unlike him to endanger his own safety like that. He was not the self-sacrificing type, nor was he the brave and heroic kind of high elf. However, he was caught in the moment. Having braved such a brutal battlefield and survived, he could not bring himself to abandon his comrades now. The magister fired spells until his face became as pale as a sheet and blood started pouring from his nose.

⁂

Uzumaki Naruto's arrival had completely turned the tide of the battle against the forest trolls. He was a one-man army, killing hundreds of troll warriors and hunters with his clones.

However, it was only after he turned into a crimson-red demonic fox that the trolls finally experienced true despair.

Watching his fellow shamans getting slaughtered so viciously, unable to even retaliate, an old troll with a head full of feathers and a belt filled with human skulls dangling at his waist screamed in rage.

Most of the Amani Trolls worshipped four Loa. There were four powerful spirits of the forest: the Bear (Nalorakk), the Eagle (Akil'zon), the Dragonhawk (Jan'alai), and the Lynx (Halazzi).

'Our gods can't help us here,' the old troll steamed in helpless rage.

The high elves' Runestones heavily gimped the trolls' ability to control the elements and their connection to the spirits. The Four Amani Loa were not powerful enough to bring them victory.

Three warriors and one rogue who tried to attack the demonic fox at that moment were mauled and ripped apart viciously.

The old troll closed his eyes. When he opened them, his sclera turned blood-red.

"Hakkar the Soulflayer!"

"Heed my call!"

The trolls around gasped when they heard his words and scattered away from him in all directions in terror.

Hakkar the Soulflayer was an abomination even by the standards of the savage and cannibalistic forest trolls. Hakkar was a cruel, malevolent, insatiable Loa. It was a Loa that the Amani trolls did not worship.

However, in his darkest time, while the Four Amani Loa were impotent because of the high elven Runestones, the old troll turned towards the only god that could help him: Hakkar, the Soulflayer. The Loa of Blood.

He unsheathed a ceremonial bone dagger from his waist and let out a scream of pain as he stabbed himself in the chest.

Due to the trolls' racial ability to regenerate their injuries, even though he had dealt himself a fatal wound, the old troll did not die instantly. Blood poured out from his chest and burst out from his mouth too. However, despite all that, the old troll started running towards the Kyuubified Naruto.

Surrounded by hundreds of trolls from all sides and hearing their death screams and battle cries, it was impossible for the Kyuubified Naruto to take note of the old troll specifically.

It was only when the old troll got within three meters of Naruto and let out a cry that he finally took note of him.

"My blood for the Blood God!" he screamed.

"My life for Hakkar!"

Consumed by rage as he was, Naruto didn't think twice before swiping his claw at the old troll. At the very last moment, right as his vicious claws were about to tear the troll to shreds, his body exploded.

A geyser of blood burst forth from the old troll's body, splashing everything in a 10-metre radius.

The chakra cloak of the second version of his jinchuuriki cloak had been able to withstand any magic and physical attack that the trolls had thrown at him until then. Broadswords, hatchets, daggers, arrows, Chain Lightning, Lava Burst, nothing could pierce his skin.

However, when the blood of the old troll splattered all over him, his chakra cloak evaporated!

A blood-curdling scream erupted from Naruto's chest, a scream that sounded like a mixture between the scream of a child and the roar of a beast.

He started rolling on the bloody ground, howling in agonising pain as the blood of the old troll started burning his skin and melting his flesh.

"It hurts, Kurama! It hurts!" Naruto screamed in pain.

"I'm trying! Damn it! What's this! Why won't it heal?!" Kyuubi shouted.

"Make it stop! Aarrgh! Make it stop! Please!" Naruto continued screaming and started tearing at his own body with his bare hands, trying to rip his flesh apart. He was going mad.

Kyuubi was beginning to feel desperate. He was pumping the maximum amount of his chakra that Naruto could withstand into his body, yet he wasn't healing. No, his melted flesh was being regenerated, but every time it was healed, Naruto's blood would start boiling and melting his flesh again.

It was worse than being burnt at the stake. It was as if he was swimming in molten lava, unable to die. Kyuubi's healing did nothing but prolong his torment.

⁂

When the dragonhawks they were riding finally arrived at the Dawnstar Village, Kael'thas did not know what to expect.

If the human boy's words turned out to be the truth and there was an army of over 500 trolls, he had expected Dawnstar to be razed to the ground and all the defenders killed.

However, Dawnstar Village was still standing, and a handful of elves were still alive. Furthermore. . .

"By the Sunwell!" one of the royal guards gasped.

The streets of the once beautiful and peaceful village were flooded with blood, and troll corpses and body parts were lying in piles all over the place.

And in the midst of it all, a human boy was thrashing on the ground and letting out agonising screams.

"Your Majesty!" the royal guards cried out in shock when Kael'thas suddenly jumped off his dragonhawk, letting himself fall from a height of over 50 meters.

But the elven prince was as calm as always. Having cast a Slow Fall spell beforehand, Kael'thas floated down slowly, at a leisurely pace.

He wove another spell with his fingers before he aimed his palm at the human child below:

"Dispel!"

Like a miracle, the Blood Curse that had been torturing Naruto until then, driving him to the point of wanting to commit suicide just for the pain to end, suddenly stopped. Regardless, the aftershocks of the blood-boiling torture were still making him spasm uncontrollably. He could not consciously move a muscle.

Noticing the levitating mage, the troll hunters fired a rain of arrows at him. But none of them could even touch his clothes. Dozens of arrows bounced off Kael'thas' translucent mana shield as if they were nothing more than harmless pebbles.

A magic circle encasing a triangle appeared in front of Kael'thas's hands, and a much larger hand of golden light was conjured in the air. The large golden hand flew at Naruto below, grabbed him from the trolls' midst, and levitated him at the feet of the Elven Rangers, who were just barely holding their own against the trolls who started attacking again after the demon was defeated.

"You did well, human child," Kael'thas mumbled to himself.

A Lava Burst spell flew from one of the troll shamans below, and Kael'thas' mana shield rippled from the powerful attack.

"My prince!" One of the royal guards who had already landed on the ground shouted. "We cannot protect you while you are flying!"

As on cue, six more Lightning bolts flew at Kael'thas at that moment. Having recognised his identity, the Amani Shamans went feral in their efforts to kill him.

The prince clicked his tongue and controlled his Slow Fall spell to quicken his descent. As soon as his feet touched the ground, his royal guards raised their tower shields and surrounded him from all sides.

The elven rangers who had been fighting before their arrival also joined the Royal Guards, crowding around the prince.

"Your Majesty, you shouldn't have come here!" the Lieutenant of the Farstriders said in a hurry. "Your life is too precious. It's too dangerous!"

"When even a human boy went to battle and put his life on the line, how could I, the prince of the high elves, turn my head the other way when my people are dying?" Kael'thas said. "Everyone, buy me some time. Protect me while I'm channelling my spell, and I will annihilate all these miserable wretches myself."

Until then, nearly 600 trolls had perished at the hands of Naruto and the Farstriders, but hundreds of them remained; they still greatly outnumbered the high elves.

"Why have the Farstriders' reinforcements not arrived yet? Their Enclave is only a few dozen kilometres away!" one of the royal guards asked while using his tower shield to block a hail of troll arrows aiming for the prince.

The Farstrider Lieutenant notched an arrow in his bow with a bloodied, trembling hand as he replied bitterly:

"The only explanation is that they're probably under the trolls' attack too."

At that moment, another dragonhawk landed, and an old man jumped off the flying beast with the agility of a teenager as he started running towards his fellow high elves.

"High Priest Vandellor?!" the others recognised him immediately.

A holy, golden light fell upon the high elves, and their exhaustion seemed to vanish like a miracle. The injuries that they had sustained against the trolls closed up, and their spirit and their vitality were reinvigorated.

Instead of replying to their questions, High Priest Vandellor continued praying and casting his Light magic on them. Shields of Light encased the dozens of still-surviving selves and the royal guards simultaneously.

The trolls were 20 times more numerous than the elves, but, despite their numerical superiority, the Amani just couldn't break the royal guards' blockade.

No troll warrior could charge past them. No shamanistic spells could overwhelm the anti-magic enchantment of their tower shields. No troll hunters' arrows could penetrate their enchanted breastplates. The elite high elven warriors, wearing enchanted armour and baptised by the blessing of the powerful High Priest Vandellor, had become unkillable.

Four troll rogues were brave enough to Shadowstep behind the prince, in the midst of all the elves, and thrust their daggers into his back to Ambush him. . . only for their attacks to bounce off as though they had hit a rubber wall. High Priest Vandellor had cast the strongest shielding spell he knew on the prince to protect his life.

A split second later, the four rogues were impaled by the royal guards' glaives, their enchanted blades piercing through the trolls' tough muscles and bones like a hot knife through butter.

Beads of sweat appeared on the High Priest's wrinkled forehead as he poured his entire faith and will into his spells to protect his comrades. Holding onto his large white staff with both hands, he raised it high in the air above him.

A deep and harmonious voice came from his mouth as he sang a Divine Hymn. Then, the holy light exploded in brilliance, and a Holy Nova burst from him, washing over all the rangers and royal guards in front of him.

It was only after seeing that display of Light Magic that the trolls realised their mistake. Blinded by their hatred for Kael'thas, the prince of the High Elves, the trolls had forgotten one of the most basic and most important rules of warfare: always take out the healer first. And now they were paying the price.

Thanks to High Priest Vandellor, the royal guards and the rangers managed to protect Prince Kael'thalas until the end.

At last, the mage finished chanting his spell.

As he raised his arms in the air, a powerful wind blew over the battlefield. It was dry and searing hot, and everyone who was not protected by the Light coming from High Priest Vandellor felt as though their face was going to catch on fire.

Thanks to the High Priest's healing spells, Naruto had regained some of his bearings too. His consciousness returned just in time to witness a sight that he would never forget for as long as he lived.

It was around noon, but the light of the day disappeared as a curtain of pitch-black clouds covered the sky.

A powerful wind started blowing, and the moisture in the air disappeared.

The pitch-black sky began flickering with deep red lights, and the clouds started rotating quickly, like a maelstrom.

A moment of deafening silence was instilled. . . and then,

*BOOM*

A massive column of fire burst from the ground, from the middle of the troll army, instantly vaporising two dozen trolls.

Kael'thas let out a shout, and his body started glowing with an intense light as he drew upon the power of the Sunwell.

It was a spell that would normally take dozens, if not hundreds, of regular human mages to cast. It was a spell that even he, an Archmage, would be unable to cast in normal conditions.

However, he was in Quel'Thalas now. Empowered by the Runestones, and bathed in the limitless arcane energies of the Sunwell, at that moment, Kael'thas broke past the limit of mortals and stepped, for a brief moment, into the realm of the demigods.

The wind howled, the earth quaked, and the sky burned.

A massive tornado of fire took form in the midst of the troll army.

⁂

Nearly one thousand Amani trolls lost their lives in the battle at Dawnstar Village. It was a crushing blow for the forest trolls, all the more so because not only had they not been able to reach the Isle of Tribulations and destroy the Runestone Tordralis, but they had not even been able to conquer Dawnstar Village.

By all means, it was an overwhelming victory for the high elves. . . however, unlike what one would have expected, the days following that battle were not days of joy and celebration. They were days of gloom and sorrow.

Less than 30 high elves had lost their lives in the battle at the Dawnstar Village, but that was not the case for the Farstrider Enclave.

The Amani's plans had been as such: the main bulk of their army would assault the Farstrider Enclave, which was the central point of the High Elven military, creating a diversion while a secondary force of nearly 1000 elite trolls would attack the Dawnstar Village and rush to the Isle of Tribulations in order to destroy the Runestone Tordralis.

With that being said, nearly 200 high elves died in the battle at the Farstrider Enclave, under the siege of the forest trolls. The number of trolls who perished was more than three times higher, but the elves could hardly find solace in that fact.

Now, Naruto was dressed in red clothes, a red cape, and red shoes, standing next to Lady Liadrin, High Priest Vandellor, and Grand Magister Belo'vir who were wearing funeral robes of the same colour.

The four of them were not alone. Thousands of high elves were standing on the shores of the Elrendar Lake. Magisters, nobles, alchemists, rangers, priests, tailors, carpenters, leatherworkers, merchants, and so on - regardless of their social status, profession, or level of education, they were all standing together, as one, dressed in red.

Despite the fact that she had just given birth only two days ago, Lireesa Windrunner walked in front of the large crowd clad in red ceremonial leather armour.

One by one, she started reciting the names of the Farstriders who had lost their lives in battle and saying a word or two about them.

"Relas Swiftblade. We used to call him Hawkeye thanks to his tracking skills. . . "

Other than Naruto, there was not even one person among the thousands of people there who was not related to at least one of the deceased high elves. The High Elves lived for thousands of years, and it was also not uncommon for them to have 4 siblings or more. By the time they hit their middle age, they would have hundreds of cousins and other relatives.

With every new name that Lireesa spoke, more and more people started shedding tears.

"Lori Ammaranth. She was a master with twin daggers. She left behind four children. They don't have a father anymore either. The trolls took away both their parents. . ."

"Cerylia Sunrose. She was a new recruit, not even two months into the service. Her life was cut short before she could fully bloom. . ."

Lady Liadrin started crying silently too, and Naruto felt a pit appearing in his stomach. He had never been to a funeral before. He had never seen so many people die. He had never seen so many people in mourning.

Furthermore, now that Kurama had shared his abilities with him, the intensity of the sorrow he could feel from the people around him due to his Negative Emotion Sensing was overwhelming.

Sorrow, anguish, despair, anger. All those emotions coming from the thousands of elves around him were too much for him to bear. Out of his own volition, his eyes filled with tears too. He was not the type to cry easily, and he did not know any of the people who had lost their lives, but, for the life of him, he could not stop his tears.

As though she could sense his emotions, Lady Liadrin took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently as she channelled the power of the Light.

"Don't despair, Naruto," he heard her soothing voice in his mind. "They have returned in the embrace of the Light."

Eventually, the Ranger General finished reciting the names of the deceased and stepped off the podium. Now, High Priest Vandellor walked in front of the people and spoke:

"[...] They have fought bravely [...]"

"[...] Their sacrifice [...]

The old high elf held a speech to honour the sacrifice of the Farstriders who had lost their lives, but his words didn't register in Naruto's mind. His eyes were pinned on the hundreds of corpses lying on the very large bed of Bloodthistle petals. Many of them were missing limbs or were disfigured almost beyond recognition, but none of the elves turned their heads from the macabre sight because those were their heroes. They were the Farstriders who had sacrificed their lives to protect Quel'Thalas, to protect their home.

At last, the High Priest's speech ended, and he said one last prayer.

He raised his arms in the air, and a special type of holy fire appeared in his hands and spread like fireflies to all the lifeless bodies on the bed of petals. The corpses started being consumed by the holy flames, but there was no smell coming from them.

Watching their loved ones being devoured by the flames, the thousands of elves in mourning all opened their mouths, and, as one, a song came from their chests.

Anar'alah, Anar'alah belore
(By the light, by the light of the sun)

Sin'dorei
(Children of the blood)

Shindu fallah an
(Our enemies are breaking through)

Sin'dorei
(Children of the blood)

Anar'alah
(By the light)

Shindu Sin'dorei
(Failing children of the blood)

Shindu fallah an
(They are breaking through)

Sin'dorei
(Children of the blood)

Chills travelled down Naruto's spine, and he broke into a cold sweat as he heard the elves sing that funeral song. Thousands of people, singing the same song, united by sorrow.

It was the Lament of the Highborne.

AN: "Lament of the Highborne" is a real song. Sylvanas sings this song in the game when you bring her a locket that used to belong to her and her sisters. When you give her the locket, she tells you that she is dead (literally). That Alleria (her elder sister) is a long-forgotten memory and she does not care about her anymore.

However, after you confirm the completion of the quest and seemingly you leave, Sylvanas starts singing this haunting song. It was proof that even after becoming an undead who roamed the world for the sake of vengeance alone, she still loved her sisters. You can look up the song on youtube if you are interested. There is a version of the song without vocals, just celo. It's really good. World of Warcraft has some of the best original soundtracks of any video game.