Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Anubrekhan watched in fascination as the charging line of orcs collapsed under a volley of gunfire. Their bodies were quickly trampled over by the orcs that followed behind them as the Horde launched their latest attack against the Alliance forces in Hillsbrad Foothills. This battle, however, was already anticipated to be the largest land battle of the war so far.

Anubrekhan had already realized from the first time he heard of them that these guns would be potent tools of war, but it was still something different to see them personally.

From what he could tell, their power was not meaningfully different from an enchanted crossbow, but their ability to be produced in large numbers made them a formidable force multiplier.

Anubrekhan began to muse on the feasibility of integrating these weapons into Azjol-Nerubs military.

It would ultimately be the responsibility of the Circle of Viziers to design a gun fit for nerubians and the Weavers to handle the manufacturing. Still, it would be his assessments that the High King would use to determine how much of a priority constructing these weapons would be, and if their effectiveness against the Horde was any indication, Anubrekhan felt like it should be a fairly high priority. They were doing much to help the Alliance compensate for the Hordes superior numbers and greater physical abilities compared to the humans.

Though will it be enough?

Despite the consistent volleys of incoming gunfire, the Hordes warriors remained undeterred. Even as a large number of the orcs were killed, many of them simply ignored the projectiles tearing through their bodies and continued their reckless charge forward.

Damned monsters. The humans are filling them with holes, and the beasts are just ignoring them!

Anubrekhan glanced down at the agitated figure of Trixie Tinkwrench as she used her gnomish goggles to observe the ongoing battle from afar.

After learning that Anubrekhan and a team of elite nerubians intended to capture a Death Knight during the next skirmish, Trixie had immediately offered to assist. Anubrekhan had not seen any particular reason to refuse the gnome given that she seemed competent enough to not jeopardize their efforts.

Currently, they were waiting for the Death Knights to enter the field while hiding away in an area that had been warded by the Kirin Tor against casual observation. After all, this would be Anubrekhans first time joining the battlefield against the Horde, and he very much wanted to surprise them.

Their ability to ignore pain and injury is commendable, although their reckless tactics are worthy of disdain, said Anubrekhan, turning his gaze back to the battlefield. The human gunmen were beginning to fall back as the Alliance replaced a line of guns for a wall of shields and spears.

Why do they keep trying to attack head-on? I get that the orcs arent the smartest, but they arent stupid either, said Trixie, her expression one of confusion

According to the intelligence gathered by Alliance, these creatures consider such tactics to be honorable, said Anubrekhan, not bothering to hold back a scoff. A concept that their current leader seems to value highly.

Honor?! How could the orcs ever consider themselves to be honorable?! Trixie spat out in outrage. Where is the honor in genocide?! Damned hypocritical bast.

Anubrekhan tuned out the gnome as she began letting out a stream of curses against the Horde. Personally, he considered the concept of honor to be a useless one, even if he agreed with Trixies contempt for the Hordes hypocrisy.

The only thing that nerubians had that even vaguely resembled the concept of honor was their devotion to the defense of Azjol-Nerub.

Anubrekhan knew that when pushed to the point of desperation, sapient beings wouldnt hesitate to cross any line and throw their honor away, much like the Horde had. Since that was the case, why even bother worrying about honor in the first place?

Be glad that the Horde is foolish enough to limit themselves, said Anubrekhan once Trixie finished. Not only are the orcs much stronger than the humans, but they are also more numerous. The Alliance must exploit every advantage that they can find.

Trixie continued to grumble but didnt bother to argue. The Hordes long charge was finally about to collide with the Alliance shield wall and neither of them wanted to be distracted.

Had they actually managed to freely impact, the orcs natural strength would have given them a good chance of breaking the human lines. Unfortunately for them, it was hard to breach a shield wall when you were being ambushed from below by a swarm of arachnathids.

Anubrekhan felt satisfaction flow through him as the orcs charge was broken by the unexpected attack. Arachnathids began emerging from the ground in large numbers and threw themselves at the Horde without the slightest bit of hesitation, tearing at them with their massive claws and injecting them with lethal venom. The Horde was eventually able to recover, but whoever was controlling the arachnathids simply ordered them to fall back.

After a moment, the Alliance army began pushing forward spear-first in an attempt to take advantage of the Hordes broken momentum. Any orc that approached was quickly impaled on the humans' spears, and any weak points in the human formation were swiftly reinforced by highly mobile arachnathids. Mages from the Kirin Tor created localized firestorms throughout the Horde ranks whenever they could, and the few elvish archers that fought with the Alliance killed orcs with pinpoint accuracy.

The superior armaments and tactics of the humans allowed them to fare much better against the Horde than they would have otherwise, but Anubrekhan knew this state of affairs would not last for long.

Looks like the Horde finally got tired of the Alliance tearing them apart, Trixie said with grim satisfaction. Theyre finally sending in their ogres.

Anubrekhan turned his gaze to the back of the Horde forces and saw that Trixie was correct. Pushing their way through orcs without any care were two dozen ogres, each wielding massive wooden clubs and crudely made shields. Anubrekhan did not find the creatures particularly intimidating given that they were still much smaller than him, while also being incredibly unintelligent.

Several of the humans opened fire on the ogres with their guns, but the creatures had even less reaction to the bullets than the orcs.

The Alliance needs to increase the power of their firearms, said Trixie, frowning as she closely observed the ogres with her goggles. Even if the orcs were crazy enough to ignore the pain of being shot, the guns were still doing a lot of damage to them, but these damned ogres barely seem to care at all. The bullets are punching through their armor, but it's slowing them down enough for their thick muscle and fat to protect their vital organs.

It would be better if the mages focused their efforts on the creatures, preferably with fire, said Anubrekhan, his tone thoughtful. Muscle and fat will melt all the same, even when it is thick. I wonder if the ability of these creatures to ignore pain extends to being cooked alive.

Anubrekhan noticed Trixie turning to look at him strangely, but he ignored her and continued to watch the battle. Despite the Hordes underwhelming performance in terms of tactics, Anubrekhan found himself slightly concerned about the natural abilities of the orcs and the ogres.

As if to punctuate that thought, one of the ogres viciously swept its club through the human shield wall. Several soldiers were turned into a gory mess as the ogres immense strength smashed through their armor, instantly killing them and creating an opening for the orcs to exploit.

Several arachnathids leaped forward and began crawling up the ogres body, but their claws and stingers had difficulty harming the creatures significantly.

If Azjol-Nerub goes to war with the Horde, our forces will need to be instructed to aim for the ogres vital spots, Anubrekhan mused to himself. The arachnathids would be much more effective if they aimed their stingers at the ogres vulnerable parts, such as the eyes or the groin.

It was likely that whoever was controlling the arachnathids was smart enough to reach a similar conclusion, but they simply didnt have the ability to control the arachnathids so minutely.

This is bad, the ogres are going to completely destroy the Alliance formation! Trixie cried out in worry before turning to Anubrekhan. I know were supposed to be waiting for the Death Knights, but a lot of people are going to die to those monsters. Shouldnt we help them out?

Unnecessary. The Alliance is more than capable of responding to this, said Anubrekhan, pointing toward one ogre in particular. Observe.

Just as it was beginning to look like the Alliance line was about to collapse, a long figure glowing with the Light stepped forward. Anubrekhan could instantly see the effect that Uthers presence had on the human soldiers as their morale was bolstered and they began zealously fighting off the Horde.

The ogre bellowed at the challenge and attempted to bring its club down on Uthers head, but the paladin neatly dodged to the side and swung his hammer into the ogres knee. The creature immediately fell with a cry of pain as its knee was obliterated by Uthers Light-empowered strength before its skull was swiftly caved in by the paladin with a single blow.

Anubrekhan felt a wave of satisfaction flow through him at the display. He looked forward to testing the Lights ability to augment his own abilities, as it did for the paladin.

Trixie let out an appreciative whistle, Those paladins are a lot stronger than I expected. Still, I dont think theyll be able to handle all of the ogres before the human lines collapse. There are a lot of the beasts left.

Before Anubrekahn was able to respond the entire battlefield seemed to stumble as the ground began to shake and the ground beneath one of the ogres seemed to fall in on itself. Anubrekhan chuckled as he heard the tell-tale screech of a jormungar before the beast revealed itself by slowly emerging from the earth and spitting out the lower half of the ogre that was unlucky enough to become its first victim.

The Horde had proven themselves to be brave and reckless warriors, but even they couldnt help but waver as the jormungar began rampaging through the battlefield, devouring orcs whole and crushing many beneath its massive weight. Before the Horde could organize an effective defense, the giant worm quickly burrowed itself back underground.

Anubrekhan had been surprised when he learned that the Alliance had successfully managed to produce someone capable of controlling the jormungar. It was a skill that typically took much time to learn, jormungar handlers being a specialized occupation, but he was glad that he was being given the opportunity to study the jormungars combat effectiveness against the Horde so soon.

He could already tell that Azjol-Nerub would learn much from this war.

Well, thats more than a little terrifying, said Trixie, her eyes wide as the jormungar tore apart another ogre and threw the Horde ranks into chaos. What are you even supposed to do against something like that? The thing just disappears back into the ground before anyone can do anything about it!

Its likely that the Horde will be forced to deploy their Death Knights in response, said Anubrekhan. They cannot afford to sustain such losses for much longer.

The presence of the jormungar seemed to further invigorate the Alliances morale. Anubrekhan had heard the human soldiers commenting about how glad they were to have their own monsters to throw at the Horde on more than one occasion.

The Horde commander must have agreed with Anubrekhans assessment of the situation because it wasnt long before the moment that he had been waiting for finally arrived. Flying toward the battlefield was a sight that sent a ripple of dread through the Alliance forces.

Urgora!

Anubrekhan didnt understand his enemy's words, but he couldnt really bring himself to care, Does your rotted flesh feel pain, Ragnok Bloodreaver? If so, it would be in your best interest to surrender.

Honorless beast!

Likely knowing that he had no hope of achieving victory after being maimed, the Death Knight pointed his single remaining arm at Anubrekhan and desperately released a concentrated stream of death magic. The Spiderlord grunted in pain as the magic began rotting and eating away at his carapace.

Focusing on his conviction and desire to serve Azjol-Nerub, Anubrekahn channeled the Light and summoned a radiant shield between him and the Death Knight. Fortunately, Ragnok seemed to be unable to sustain his magical attack for very long.

Are you done with your futile struggles? asked Anubrekhan, still glowing with the Light as he approached the collapsed Death Knight. The difference in strength between you and I is simply too large to be overcome; the outcome of this battle was already decided from the moment that you crashed into the ground.

Everything that Anubrekhan said was the truth as he saw it. He had learned much from fighting the undead warrior, but he was one of the most powerful Spiderlords in Azjol-Nerub and simply far stronger than his opponent.

Ragnok Bloodreaver glared at him hatefully as he responded, Im not done yet, creature.

Anubrekhan was taken by surprise as a stream of dragon fire crashed into his left side.

Ah, I failed to notice that it had succeeded in struggling out of its webs. How careless of me

The stream of fire was higher than he had expected, as in there was a chance that it might actually overcome his powerful defenses given enough time. Anubrekhan had no intention of actually giving his enemy that time, however, and immediately charged through the fire at his highest speed.

The Spiderlord crashed horn-first into the undead dragon and used his immense strength to push it off balance. From there, it was a relatively straightforward process to pull the creature apart, starting with smashing apart its skull and then moving on to destroying its wings and rib cage. It was actually much quicker than dealing with the Death Knight because the dragon lacked the ability to avoid his blows.

Anubrekhan only stopped once the bright red glow faded from the undead creature, signifying that it had died its second death.

The Spiderlord turned his gaze back to the Death Knight and saw it looking back at him with an expression filled with both shock and fear.

Are you done now?

It turned out that he wasnt, but the Death Knight wasnt able to adjust so quickly after losing an arm, so Anubrekhan subdued him relatively easily.

Turning away from the limbless figure that continued to glare up at him with hate-filled eyes, Anubrekhan began to assess the rest of the battlefield. He could tell that most of his Dread Stalkers remained uninjured, though one of them was fighting unevenly due to having a broken leg.

How careless. He shouldnt have been injured while fighting the Hordes common warriors.

Anubrekhan was relieved to see that Trixie seemed to be uninjured, although he could tell that she was beginning to grow tired. He watched in curiosity as the gnome nimble ducked between the legs of an orc and used one of her inventions to shoot him with a beam of energy that turned the orc into a chicken?

He had heard Trixie mention her so-called Poultriyizer, but seeing it for himself was even more ridiculous than hearing about it.

The rest of the battle did not last for very long, mostly due to the collapse of the Hordes morale after watching Anubrekhan and his elite warriors tear through their army and defeat one of their most powerful warriors. The Horde lost many warriors in their retreat, but not as many as Anubrekhan was hoping.

Supreme Commander Lothar refused to chase after them for very long, fearing that his forces would become overextended.

Despite losing the battle, the Horde still far outnumbered the Alliance, and more of them were crossing Baradin Bay every day.

So this is one of the Hordes Death Knights, said Trixie as she approached Anubrekhan and the limbless Ragnok. Ive got to admit, they live up to their reputation. Whyd you even want to capture one of these monsters aliveish?

My kingdom has reached an agreement with Dalaran to study the Death Knights so that we might learn more of the Hordes magic, Anubrekhan explained calmly, ignoring the flash of fear that he saw in Ragnoks eyes. Not even the Light could compel him to feel sympathy for the creature after witnessing the Hordes actions firsthand. According to what Ive been told, Archmage Kelthuzad is quite excited to work alongside our Viziers to discover the Hordes secrets.

Trixie looked to be slightly disturbed by this information, but she seemed to shrug it off after a few moments, Well, glad Im not him I suppose.

Something in the gnomes tone caught Anubrekhans attention and he turned to examine her expression, I expected you to be more excited. The Alliance has achieved victory today, and the Horde is much less likely to succeed in conquering the Hillsbrad Foothills.

Its a bit hard for me to be happy about this when the battlefields still littered with corpses, big guy, said Trixie, her voice filled with sadness.

Anubrekhan looked around and suddenly became aware of the many humans that were moaning in pain and mourning over their fallen allies. Before Trixie drew his attention to it, the sounds had been nothing more than idle noise to Anubrekhan, but he now found it difficult to hear anything else. The battle itself had filled him with a feeling of exhilaration and fulfillment, but the aftermath was decidedly less pleasant.

He couldnt quite tell whether or not the feelings of sorrow that the sounds evoked were caused by the Light, or himself.

Bring the Death Knight back to the Alliance camp, Anubrekhan said to the Dread Stalkers, hoping to distract himself by focusing on his duties. Remember to retrieve all of his limbs, and bring the dragon bones as well. Vizier Crinis should be waiting to transport the materials to Dalaran.

The walk back to the camp was devoid of conversation, as neither he nor Trixie was in the mood for it. Once they arrived, Trixie informed him that she intended to go elsewhere to clean herself of the orc blood caking her body, and the two of them went their separate ways.

Most of the humans were too busy with their own affairs to pay him or the Dread Stalkers any attention as they made their way to the portion of the camp set aside for the Kirin Tor. Anubrekhan was glad to see that Vizier Crinis and the Kirin Tor had already opened a portal and were waiting for them.

Finally, said Vizier Crinis as soon as they were within speaking distance. Im glad to see your mission was successful, Spiderlord. The Circle of Viziers has been growing increasingly anxious to uncover the Hordes secrets.

Anubrekhan acknowledged the Vizier with a nod and directed the Dread Stalkers to take the materials through the portal. There was no particular need for him to follow after them, as Vizier Crinis was more than capable of leading them to the Violet Hold. That was where the Circle of Viziers and the Kirin Tor intended to conduct most of their experimentations.

Once the last Dread Stalker was through the portal, Anubrekhan began to turn away only to be surprised when he was unexpectedly stopped by Vizier Crinis, Spiderlord Anubrekhan, please wait for a moment, I believe that theres something that you need to know.

Anubrekhan withheld an annoyed grunt at the Viziers continued refusal to refer to him without his title, What is it, Vizier Crinis?

I think it may be in your best interests to return to Dalaran for the next few days, Vizier Crinis said with uncharacteristic hesitation. Ive been informed by Vizier Hadix that he and his student will be traveling to Azjol-Nerub to meet with the High King.

What? For what reason? Anubrekhan asked in genuine surprise.

I dont know. Vizier Hadix refused to explain no matter how many times I asked, said Vizier Crinis. However, Ive recently been hearing strange rumors from my colleagues in Enkilah. Nobody Ive talked to knows exactly what is happening, but there have been whispers that something considerable is going to happen soon.

Something considerable? Anubrekhan dubiously repeated. How is it that your colleagues can know that something noteworthy is about to happen while not having any idea of what that something is?

Again, I dont know. Ive been told that many of the kingdom's powerful Viziers have begun acting strangely, but nobody has any idea why. Thats all I know about the subject.

Anubrekhan was tempted to dismiss the Viziers words, but the fact that Hadix was traveling to meet with the High King added a lot of credibility to the rumors. After all, the High King had explicitly ordered him to pay particular attention to Vizier Hadix.

The Vizier was a rather suspicious figure who had recently been inexplicably injured while investigating some kind of conspiracy that involved mind-manipulating magics. Now Hadix intended to meet with the High King and he was refusing to explain his reasons to anyone?

Anubrekhan could tell that something big was going to come of this.

Very well. I will return to Dalaran after a few days, said Anubrekhan after a moment of consideration. Although he wouldnt be able to return to Azjol-Nerub without explicit orders from the High King, Anubrekhan very much wanted to hear the news coming from the kingdom as quickly as he could. There are just a few matters that I need to attend to before I do so.

Vizier Crinis nodded her understanding and made her way through the portal.

As soon as she was gone, Anubrekhan turned to head back into the camp, his mind fully absorbed in wondering what changes would soon be coming to his future.The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at N0v3l.Bin.