LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 97: Chapter 97
As Varrus neared the top of the hill, he had a clearer view of Tha'salah.
The massive Undead World Tree, once responsible for maintaining the local balance of nature, and spreading Life energy throughout the continent was now spreading disease and plague on a conceptual level. Its power rivaled that of a demi-god, and was an extremely serious threat.
Impaled on its branches were hundreds of spectral forms crying out in agony. Their ghastly wails begged for freedom, yet no such succor was granted.
With his Mana Sight, Varrus could see a transfer of energy from the ghosts' suffering feeding the tree. Whenever these souls underwent torment, they generated Death energy, supplying a never ending feedback loop of mana for Tha'salah.
By this point, the three armies had linked up, and were ready to do battle in full.
In addition to Kael's forces, and Nightsong's loyalists, the entirety of the Convocation had assembled for this operation.
For this final push, the grand host of Quel'Thalas consisted of over two dozen Heroes, more than ten thousand Elites, and tens of thousands of Common soldiers.
Leading the Monarchists, Kael was flanked by Jan'alai, Al'ar, Dranarus, Pathaleon, Allatrocx, Aethas Sunreaver, Magister Astalor Bloodsworn, High Astromancer Solarian, and several other members of the wise, bringing his Hero count up to 12.
Varrus led House Vandercross, and was followed by Syra, Rho'dan, the Crossguard (who when working together = 1 Hero), and the four members of the Illidari Council for a total of 8 Heroes.
The rest of the Convocation: Lor'Themar, Koren, Thaladred, Tae'thelon, Telonicus, and Liadrin also assembled, each representing their own faction of rangers, warriors, paladins, etc.
For Lor'Themar, he brought with him Halduron, while Liadran brought with her 3 veteran Blood Knights, making the Convocation forces add up to 10 Heroes.
Lastly, Nightsong had with her a pair of Heroic Death Knights amongst the Darkfallen forces.
In total, the Blood Elven host had assembled 33 Heroes for this assault!
When the left, right, and center flank came to attack Tha'salah, they were met by more of those queer Elf-plant Undead hybrids.
Vines held limbs together, and bark merged with bone to create a warped creature emanating a curious feeling of Life, Death, and Arcane magic.
Advanced versions of this perverted form flew in the sky. Hundreds of 9ft tall, moss green plant monsters that were more tree than Elf hovered in the sky.
Through his Mana Sight, Varrus saw that these flying creatures held a barely perceivable tether to the tree. It was a faint, black string of mana binding the two together. From his estimates, it appeared that the flying Elf-plants (which he would refer to as Vineslaves going forward for simplicity's sake), were receiving a constant stream of power from Tha'salah.
Furthermore, the energy within these Undead abominations was resting somewhere between the average Elite, and the weakest Hero.
In effect, the tree was taking advantage of Elven biology-which allowed all Highborn to absorb any flavor of magic-and through the continuous supply of mana, had artificially created hundreds of pseudo-Heroes!
No words were spoken as all hell broke loose, and chaos erupted across the battlefield.
The remaining iron golems-numbering 4,000~ by this point-ran at the Vineslaves, only to have the majority of them get tangled up in roots and bramble.
Mages and priests followed along with Liadrin, and Astalor Bloodsworn to complete massive ritual spells.
The mages copied the spell that Rommath had once led them in against the Trolls, and conjured up a massive flaming Phoenix. Additionally, there were even more mages participating this time, and an entire host of lesser Phoenixes were called forth from the Elemental Plane.
These birds of life and fire clashed again and again with the Vineslaves in the air. Fire blasted from their beaks, and talons scorched along plagued hides. All the while, the Vineslaves replied with vicious attacks of their own. Nasty black gunk sprayed from their mouths, and their claw-like hands jutted outward with insane speeds.
Phoenixes cried as they fell to corrupting forces, only to be reborn one size smaller. The Vineslaves were not to be outdone, and every time one was burnt to ash, or feasted upon by a pack of the flaming birds, the unholy World Tree would pulse, and the tether connecting them would turn vibrant. Upon this transfer of energy, any destroyed Vineslave would quickly be reborn!
As for the priests, they had clasped their hands in prayer, and harmonized their voices into a hymn.
The otherworldly song raised Elven morale, and buffed all allies who heard it with stamina, speed, resistance against disease, and perhaps most importantly, a thin film of Holy Light that acted as a shield. It wasn't much protection, but much like a person who got shot while wearing a bulletproof vest, whoever got hit would feel sore for days, or perhaps even pass out, but they could survive one hit that would otherwise be fatal!
Besides these too tier Elites going at it, regular Darkfallen who had been reinforced by the vines were shooting arrows at the Blood Elven line made from the corrupted wood of the World Tree. These black arrows carried a nasty disease, and had a penetrating power almost as good as mythril!
Scores of Blood Elf warriors had their shields dented, and crumpling into disrepair from the initial enemy volley. Paladins found that the aura's of Light they projected constantly around their bodies did little to protect them from the Death infused arrows, and several dozen fell dead or injured due to their overconfidence in their blessings.
Lor'Themar and Halduron retaliated with focused fire of their own, and a war of sniping and counter sniping ensued between both sides.
Meanwhile, more and more treants were coming into existence as wood shavings fell off Tha'salah, spawning a new wave of enemies.
Rho'dan, Thaladred, and other Heroes amongst the warrior caste charged forward, and chopped into this wood, only to discover it was much tougher than the treants they had faced before.
Even though Rho'dan was equipped with a Master crafter thorium sword enchanted with a Grand Soul Gem, he found it difficult to cut into one of these treants crafted from a World Tree's bark.
There were about two dozen of these massive treants, each one taking a singular Hero backed by a dozen Elites to take on.
There weren't enough melee Heroes to tie them down, but that was when Telonicus's cannons, and Varrus's Dwarven turrets made an entrance.
Repositioned from their place in the towers outside Deatholme, hundreds of Elemental artillery pieces had caught up with the main host, and began to rain down hell upon these tough sons of bitches.
Wood shavings, and foul smelling lumber burned as large pieces of frothy, necrotic pulp was blown into the air.
Yet for all their artillery, it only slowed down the massive bark treants. They were only seconds away from bypassing the warriors, and were about to take on the mages and priests conducting their ritual!
When Varrus thought he would have to intervene, Tae'thelon chose that moment to make his entrance.
Piloting from within the chassis of a massive golem made from the hauberk of the Titan Keeper Tyr, Tae'thelon rode into battle from inside a relic of ancient power.
The former Headmaster, and current leader of the Reliquary, wielded a massive two handed sword affixed with an Ice enchantment, and brought it down upon the first giant treant he came across.
Ice and Death energies collided in a massive bang. Snow, frost, and plague spread to the nearby surroundings, and a light layer of black snow fell upon the land as they clashed.
A deep furrow had carved in the land due to the bright blue mana held within the massive enchanted sword, and had frozen half of the treant into a solid block of ice. One gnarled claw caught the blade when it came down for another strike.
"Die, filth." Tae'thelon's arrogant voice magically boomed from within the armored golem.
The giant ice blade jiggled back and forth, yet Tae'thelon could not get it free. At the same time, two more massive treants were flanking his left and right, their claws glowed ominously under the crimson clouds in the sky as they made their approach.
Tae'thelon now seemed to be jiggling his sword in a hurry, yet seemed to refuse his hold on the blade. Whether that was from pride or arrogance, Varrus had no clue, and had little time to intervene as he was busy countering pollen, otma constant barrage of sharpened leaves.
When Varrus thought that Tae'thelon might find his demise, Telonicus emerged from a portal, and stood atop the armored golem's head.
"Make sure to reimburse me 10 Mana Stones for this." The Royal Engineer spoke as if he was conducting a business transaction, then with the press of a button on a remote, he walked back into the portal, disappearing from sight.
"Telonicus?" Tae'thelon shouted in confusion.
"Telonicus!" He shouted again, as that confusion was quick to transform into outrage as seemingly nothing happened.
A treant managed to close the gap in that time, and was scraping at the enchantments on Tae'thelon's armor, when a white beam of pure concentrated Arcane energy poured down from the sky like a laser from the Death Star.
The treant caught in the direct path of the blast survived for a few seconds, and tried to resist the attack by raising a wooden shield to the sky.
"Raising force by 15%." Telonicus's clinical voice called out.
The beam brightened for a second, then completely ashed the treant.
Blinking spots out of his eyes, Varrus caught sight of a miniature floating platform very slowly levitating above the battlefield.
'The sonuvabitch listened to my suggestion!' Varrus internally praised.
Back during the council meeting to determine their path forward, Varrus had brought up to Telonicus the idea of creating mobile platforms. He had been inspired by the floating city of Dalaran, and if some Human mages could do it, then surely it was possible for the Elves?
Three months had gone by, and not a word from their resident Grandmaster Engineer. Then the damned lovable nerd came out with this of all things!
Varrus, having caught the situation out of the corner of his eye, was amazed by the development. The two researchers had been bleeding him dry, constantly begging for Mana Stones to conduct experiments with. If this is what Telonicus was doing in his free time between constructing Rune Stones, and manufacturing Mana Cannons, then by the Light, Varrus was pleased!
"Very good, now the other one, Telonicus!" Tae'thelon arrogantly commanded, and gestured towards the other treant closing from his right.
"The cool down period is 5 minutes, and costs 10 Mana Stones per shot." Telonicus rattled off from a safe distance as if he was discussing the weather.
Varrus choked on his spit at Telonicus's response.
"Damn it all to hells!" Tae'thelon's boomed angrily, and finally let go of his sword.
The treant flanking him was caught by surprise as the armored golem's hand took on an icy hue similar to the sword, and when they made contact, the treant was covered in patches of ice, and after a few well placed punches, had broken into chunks and pieces of broken ice and snow.
Varrus raised an eyebrow at Tae'thelon's general stupidity, and returned his attention back to the battlefield.
Kael'Thas, alongside Jan'alai, unleashed a scorching flame directly onto Tha'salah, whilst Nightsong had transformed into a massive Red Dragon, and was fighting with both flame and claw against Tha'salah's branches.
The World Tree screeched, and a wave of decay pulsed outward.
Powerful air currents moved in tune with this sonic x spiritual attack, causing Varrus to lose his balance on his flying carpet, and fall to the ground.
Casting Drop Zone, Varrus and Syra safely made a landing.
Kael and Jan'alai had also been grounded, whilst Nightsong was nowhere to be seen.
Looking up from his position, he witnessed a wide maw, and two creepy eyes snap open from the World Tree.
Untold roots snapped and cracked as the ancient awakened from its slumber. Syrup weeped from its eyes, and drooled forth from its mouth, spilling towards Varrus and the rest of the army in a tidal wave.
He was forced to deal with it by freezing the liquid like last time, however, by casting Frozen Orb a dozen times to counter this development, he was unable to aid his teammates!
He could only catch glimpses towards the wider battlefield, and he finally caught sight of Nightsong!
Within two thick branches shaped like arms, the Red Dragon-Nightsong-was battling for her life!
Sap traveled along the branches, and hardened around her scales, diseased thorns constantly poked her scales, searching for a weakness, and paralytic pollen from Tha'salah was constantly being sprinkled upon Nightsong from ominous looking flowers.
To top things off, a blood rain began to pour down from the clouds, and a boom rang out from within the nearby castle.
A massive surge of power and mana sent the earth roiling, like a rollercoaster, and the scent of blood permeated the air.
Bloody mists, and red colored fog wooshed in every direction.
Emerging from the keep, an otherworldly vampiric Elven beauty stood upon a balcony looking down. Flanking her was a similarly beautiful ranger, a handsome Darkfallen druid, and a patchwork abomination with the faces of ten thousand Darkfallen Elves stitched together in agony.
The mana fluctuating from these four beings was out of this world, and Varrus hadn't even taken out Tha'salah yet!
Reaching out to tightly grip Syra's hand, Varrus took a deep breath in worry.
The final battle for Quel'Thalas had well and truly begun.
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