Elements and Witchcraft

After several days of rest and exploration, Rend discovered a vast valley to the north. He rode Gyth to its far end and looked upon the lush green land and the faint remnants of buildings at the valley's end. That was Azshara, which meant this gigantic valley was the future Orgrimmar. Rend had not expected to be the first to find the future orc capital. After leading his troops in clearing out the small number of centaurs and harpies in the valley, he had the warriors take the centaur slaves to fetch Eitrigg and the large group of orcs waiting on the coast. Even if it was not yet the future Orgrimmar, this place was still well suited to settling the orcs.

After settling the orcs, Rend led the reorganized force of seventy thousand south to rendezvous with Thrall and Grommash.

This time, Eitrigg and his son Ariok marched with them. The valley was left to Malkorok and Vaur to defend, as both had been wounded and needed time to recover. Zaela had yet to regain even the ability to move.

The real world was far more vast. It took days to cross a single region. At first, as they headed south, there was nothing along the way but Durotar's beasts, such as scorpions and boars—not even a single centaur.

The farther they went, the more corpses and large swaths of blood they found. Most belonged to another species: quilboar.

Eventually, Rend encountered wounded Horde soldiers. They had been recuperating in a concealed cave, but came out on their own after seeing the massive army.

From them, he learned that Thrall had landed on the nearby coast and come under attack from quilboar. The quilboar had quickly been driven back, but these few soldiers had suffered grievous injuries and could not continue fighting.

Rend therefore split off part of his troops to care for them and escort them to the future Orgrimmar, while he continued south with the rest of the army in search of Thrall. Based on the direction the wounded orcs had indicated, they should not be far away.

After Zaela was injured, Rend had taken over the scouting himself, riding Gyth. He confidently handed command over to the old orc Eitrigg and went ahead to scout the path.

Before long, he spotted a battlefield. Orcs and blue trolls were fighting quilboar together. Amid the army, Rend saw Thrall standing where the elements were most active. Thrall was battling a quilboar leader. He poured the power of thunder into Doomhammer, then charged forward atop his wolf and sent the towering quilboar leader flying. Rend thought he even saw shattered teeth scattering through the air.

Judging by its size and bearing, that quilboar was certainly no weaker than the centaur chieftain. Yet before Thrall, it was nothing remarkable. Perhaps in a one-on-one warrior's duel, Rend might not necessarily lose to Thrall now. But Thrall was not merely a powerful warrior—he was also a shaman, a great shaman favored by the elements.

Elements combined with melee combat—what an explosive combination. While Rend was still marveling, Thrall shifted Doomhammer into his left hand and extended his right in a grasping motion. Beneath the fallen quilboar, an arm of rock rapidly formed, mirroring Thrall's movement as it seized the quilboar leader.

Then Thrall raised the massive hammer in his left hand toward the sky. A violent bolt of lightning shot into the heavens before crashing straight down upon the quilboar leader.

Rend's emotions were incredibly complicated. As he watched the Warchief display such overwhelming might, the image of a tall, powerful blond figure holding a hammer overlapped with him in Rend's mind.

Rend snapped out of it and immediately rode Gyth down beside Thrall to fight at his side. After Thrall dealt with the quilboar leader, he did not use any more shamanic techniques. Instead, he wielded Doomhammer and slaughtered enemies alongside Rend.

"Warchief, I'm here to help. My troops are right behind me and will arrive soon," Rend said to Thrall as he landed, though he was not sure whether Thrall, this plate-armored enhancement shaman, even needed his help.

"Thank you for your help, Rend. Let us fight side by side," Thrall replied. His humble nature made him exceptionally polite, and Rend, who had grown somewhat used to the roughness of orcs, was momentarily unaccustomed to it.

Thrall imbued Doomhammer with the blessing of wind elementals. Every strike carried the effect of lightning, and he casually bestowed a blessing of fire elementals upon Rend as well.

Rend looked at the flames dancing over Ashkandi. Every slash left behind an afterimage of fire. Never mind the actual effect—just the sheer coolness of it made Rend decide that after the battle, he would ask Thrall to bless his weapon. Being cool was a lifelong pursuit.

On the battlefield, the orcs began harvesting the quilboar in a frenzied slaughter. Unlike the centaurs, who possessed an advantage in size, the quilboar had nothing but numbers. Their combat strength was far inferior to that of the orc warriors.

Thrall and Rend fought together, one hammer flashing with lightning and one greatsword cleaving trails of fire. They were the most dazzling duo on the battlefield.

The Saurfang brothers also fought as a pair. Though they were Thrall's guards, no one in this battle could harm Thrall, so they had been sent to slaughter quilboar. The brothers had none of the flashy techniques Thrall and Rend displayed, but their efficiency far surpassed the two of them. The two veterans charged and leaped without pause. Nearly every strike claimed a quilboar's life, and every movement meant the deaths of great numbers of quilboar.

There was another pair that could rival those two orc duos: two troll warriors. One swung curved blades while the other fired arrows, and from time to time they unleashed area-wide Polymorph.

It was Rend's first time witnessing a real Polymorph spell—and an area-wide one at that. Their identities were therefore obvious: the two great powers of the Darkspear clan, Darkspear chieftain Vol'jin and Shadow Hunter Rokhan.

The battle had already been one-sided. Once Rend's troops arrived, the pincer attack drove the quilboar into even deeper despair, and they began retreating westward, the only direction not yet blocked off.

"Warchief, we cannot let the tiger return to the mountain. If these quilboar escape, it will be troublesome. Who knows whether they might come back for revenge?" Rend knew that the Barrens were still the domain of quilboar and centaurs. If they allowed these hundreds of thousands of quilboar to flee, and the old crone learned of the orcs' presence, she might gather millions of quilboar to eliminate this threat. The casualties would be far too great then.

"Leave it to me, Rend." Thrall also knew they could not let the enemy escape. Since they had the strength to wipe out this group of quilboar, they naturally could not let them go. Thrall placed Doomhammer on the ground, dropped to one knee, and began chanting devoutly.

Rend knew that the Warchief was communicating with the elements.

"Spirits of the earth, aid us. Block the path of these quilboar." At his words, a wall suddenly surged up from the flat ground to the west, appearing directly in the quilboar's path of escape.

"Great death god Bwonsamdi, bless this wall. These quilboar shall be your sacrifice." On the other side, Vol'jin, the Darkspear chieftain, immediately pleaded for the aid of the death god Bwonsamdi as well.

Rend suddenly heard an extremely sleazy yet familiar laugh drift through the air. Then the wall Thrall had created abruptly turned gray and became even harder.