"I, Yrel, drove back the Iron Horde. I destroyed the Dark Portal with a single blow of my hammer. I rescued Khadgar and Thrall too. Stormshield on Ashran was built under my guidance and supervision. Those are all my great accomplishments."
"Without me, Yrel, would you be living here in spacious, bright seaside villas, leisurely enjoying Shadowmoon Valley's warm sea breeze? Don't forget, even the land beneath your feet belongs to us Draenei."
"All I did was stay in your chieftain's suite. It would just be sitting empty anyway, and only this reasonably luxurious suite is barely worthy of my noble status."
Yrel spoke with such conviction and detail, neither servile nor overbearing.
This was Yrel, all right—the one who had made Chiana Moonshadow, a Night Elf Druid who had lived for eight thousand years, willingly back down. No one could match her thick skin. Robbie had almost believed her.
"Yrel, you've fallen. You're a disgrace to the Holy Light."
Robbie wrung his hands and sighed, shaking his head. "Look at you. What have you learned? Sponging off others, staying at an inn without paying, and talking a load of nonsense. Couldn't you have learned something better? Humility, honesty, compassion, valor, justice, sacrifice, honor, and spirituality—have you forgotten the eight traditional virtues of a Paladin? Why couldn't you learn from others and uphold light and justice?"
"Uphold light and justice? Do adventurers like that exist?" Yrel asked with a sneer.
Did they exist? Probably... they did.
In any case, most had been eaten by others, bones and all.
You took on the traits of the company you kept, so Yrel couldn't be blamed entirely for becoming the way she was today. What Yrel had done was merely what most adventurers dreamed of doing but couldn't.
All one could say was that the world was at fault.
"Ahem, ahem, that's not important." Robbie decided to lay his cards on the table, stop dwelling on right and wrong, and let strength do the talking:
"Eating and lodging in our brotherhood's fortress without paying means you're crossing me, Defiler Kapol. Yrel, pay the price for your greed."
"Fist of Justice!"
Robbie struck first to gain the advantage.
"Hoof of Justice!"
Yrel immediately struck back.
Fist of Justice was a Paladin's signature skill, capable of stunning an opponent for a short while.
But what was with "Hoof of Justice"?
Robbie learned firsthand what it meant for an arm to be no match for a leg, and a fist to be no match for a hoof.
Two beams of Holy Light collided in midair. Clearly, the light of Yrel's hoof was stronger. The light of Robbie's fist lost out and dissipated in the collision, while the hoof's light landed on top of his head.
Robbie felt waves of dizziness.
Yrel leaped high into the air, her right leg whipping up with a rush of cold wind. Her hoof kicked viciously at the stunned Robbie.
Unable to worry about anything else, Robbie hurriedly cast Divine Shield to protect his reasonably handsome face.
Divine Shield was a Paladin's invincibility skill. In this world, Robbie had come to deeply appreciate just how unreliable it was when facing a true expert.
The power of Yrel's hoof probably couldn't match Garona's. After all, Garona used a dagger, and with a different contact area, the force naturally differed as well.
A pronounced dent appeared in the Divine Shield. Yrel's hoof rapidly grew larger before Robbie's eyes until it was only 0.01 millimeters from the tip of his nose.
Robbie broke out in a cold sweat. She truly was Prophet Velen's prized disciple. The power of those kicks alone was beyond anything an ordinary adventurer could imagine.
"Awooo!"
Hogger let out a tremendous roar from the side. His head had grown a full five or six times larger, like the head of a tyrannosaurus. The uneven teeth in his mouth resembled sharp short swords.
Hogger had finally unleashed his true strength.
Years ago, Hogger had crossed the Great Sea and landed in Dustwallow Marsh. Passing through the Stonetalon Mountains and enduring countless hardships, he had entered Feralas to study the Gnolls' path of the Druid.
The Gnolls' limited natural aptitude made it difficult for them to learn a Druid's shapeshifting. So some clever sages had altered the art, abandoning the goal of turning into animals and seeking only to increase their size.
Even so, merely growing larger was still too difficult for Gnolls.
So they pared it down again, seeking only to enlarge parts of their bodies.
What Hogger had learned was Head Enlargement.
Using Unarmed Disarm while Head Enlargement was active multiplied its power. This was Hogger's true trump card.
Against ordinary opponents, Hogger only used Unarmed Disarm.
Only a true expert could force Hogger to use his signature skill.
"Yrel, you little hoofed wretch, give me back my purse and gauntlets!"
Hogger opened his even more terrifying, bloody maw. His sharp teeth scraped against the air with a piercing sound as he bit down on Yrel's hoof.
Yrel had nothing to push off of in midair and couldn't dodge in time. His bite landed squarely.
"Good! That's Hogger for you." Robbie was just about to clap and cheer.
Suddenly, Yrel's hoof burst with scorching light like a little sun, nearly blinding Robbie and Hogger. Intense heat came with the light.
Hogger's eyes rolled back, and he fainted. His head returned to its normal size, his tongue lolled far out, and his mouth hung open as wisps of smoke rose from it. The aroma of roasted meat spread through the air.
Seeing this, Robbie hurriedly hoisted the unconscious Hogger onto his shoulders and ran. Hogger's bite had been no light one either, and with her leg injured, Yrel didn't pursue them.
Robbie immersed Hogger in the fortress pond and cast Holy Light on him repeatedly. Hogger finally woke up. The fellow was tough and thick-skinned, so he was otherwise unharmed, but he lay at the edge of the pond and vomited profusely.
"Why are you throwing up? Were your internal organs injured?" Robbie asked in surprise.
"It stinks, it stinks!" Hogger's brow furrowed deeply, and his face twitched. "Do Draenei never wash their feet?"
Robbie: "..."
"Brother, has my handsome face been disfigured?"
Hogger cared a great deal about his looks.
After being burned like that, disfigurement was unavoidable.
"You look fiercer than before," Robbie said tactfully.
"Really? So I've gotten more handsome." Hogger took out a small mirror and admired himself. "I really have gotten more handsome. I didn't expect it to have that effect. I'll go get Yrel to kick me a few more times."
Robbie couldn't understand the Gnoll sense of beauty at all. He could only grab Hogger and say:
"If you go like that, Yrel will easily mistake you for a masochist. Besides, it wasn't her kicks that did the trick. It was my healing."
Hogger fell silent. Recalling Yrel's brilliantly glowing hoof, he said in fright, "What skill was that? It felt like I'd bitten into a red-hot iron ingot."
"It's a long-lost Paladin skill. An ancient school of Paladins refused to use weapons and fought with only their fists, so they invented Fist of Radiance." Robbie paused. "When Yrel uses it, it should be called Hoof of Radiance."
"She's a tough one to deal with." Hogger was troubled too. "Since the two of us are no match for her, let's call a few more people and gang up on her. You can call on these officers of the brotherhood. There are quite a few skilled fighters among them."
Robbie held up three fingers. "My Mass Cleanse can only dispel magic on three people. Yrel knows Mass Mercy, so it won't matter how many people we bring."
"If Mass Mercy is that powerful, doesn't that make Yrel invincible?" Hogger asked.
"Not quite. Mercy isn't very effective against enemies who want to kill you." Robbie was lost in thought as well. Yrel's strength had exceeded his expectations. He only had himself to blame for not investigating properly beforehand.
How could Prophet Velen's prized disciple not have a few tricks up her sleeve?
Yrel's kicks replayed frame by frame in Robbie's mind. Suddenly, he noticed something and ventured an analysis. "Yrel's kicking technique is excellent. As a human, I can't kick like that."
"We Gnolls can't kick like that either. What are you getting at?" Hogger muttered.
Robbie suddenly realized something. "She can kick like that because Yrel has something I don't. If that's the case, I understand now."
"Is the extra thing a woman's..." Hogger pointed at his chest.
"What are you thinking?" Robbie's forehead filled with black lines. "Her tail."
"Because she has a tail to balance herself, Yrel can use those sharp hoof techniques," Robbie analyzed seriously. "By the same token, her tail is her weakness."
Hogger had plenty of combat experience. After considering it, he saw that Robbie was right and bared his teeth in agreement.
"Next time, don't bite her hoof. I'll draw Yrel's attention from the front while you focus on biting her tail. That's sure to win us the fight," Robbie proposed.
"That's a good tactic." Hogger thought for a moment. "No, that won't work. Yrel must know how important her tail is. What do I do if she throws a whirlwind spinning kick?"
"Well..." Robbie scratched his head. He didn't have any good ideas either.
"We need two people working together." Hogger patted Robbie on the shoulder. "Brother, it's time I taught you true power: the Gnolls' closely guarded secret, Unarmed Disarm."
Beneath the fortress waterfall, Hogger stood with his head held high and his chest out, his expression solemn, like a grandmaster of martial arts.
"Unarmed Disarm is a closely guarded secret created by Jiafang, an ancient leader of our Gnoll race, based on our people's characteristics. It takes painstaking training to achieve anything with it. Back in Elwynn Forest, I practiced gnawing bark until even a tree spirit's bark was no match for my mouth. I also practiced catching fish in the cool river water until even the craftiest fish could hardly escape my teeth. Only then did I master these skills with my mouth."
When the Kingdom of Stormwind was first established, the Gnoll Jiafang's Redridge Tribe had gradually grown stronger and united the Gnoll tribes, large and small. Countless Gnolls had attacked Stormwind City. Had the king of that time not taken a dangerous gamble and struck straight at the Gnoll stronghold in the Redridge Mountains, it would have been hard to say who would have won.
Hogger was utterly vicious, but compared with the Gnoll Jiafang, he was merely a small-time lackey.
"Listen carefully. I don't pass Unarmed Disarm on to just anyone. You humans have mouths that are too small and teeth that aren't sharp enough. Your natural aptitude is extremely poor. But you have the power of the Holy Light. Strengthening your teeth with it can barely make up for your lack of aptitude. Forget about using Unarmed Disarm, but biting a tail won't be difficult. A tail can't compare to a weapon, after all."
Robbie opened his mouth as wide as he could, imitating Hogger's wolf howl.
"Pay attention. You need to master the timing of your bite. Too early or too late won't do. Once you've judged the moment, bite down hard. Never hesitate."
What would be a suitable name for using Unarmed Disarm with teeth empowered by the Holy Light?
Teeth of the Holy Light?
Robbie thought that perhaps he was the real disgrace to the Holy Light.