With Stromgarde refusing to fall and its gates stubbornly remaining shut, the rabble of the Syndicate and the Stonesplinter Ogres suffered thousands of casualties and watched their morale plummet.
Lord Aiden Perenolde had promised that the gates of Stromgarde would open automatically and that taking the city would be effortless, but as time dragged on without the slightest sign of the gates opening, the allied rabble began to grow suspicious and unwilling to sacrifice their lives.
"What is Duke Falconcrest playing at? Why hasn't he made his move yet?" Lord Aiden Perenolde cursed. The Syndicate had long since scouted out the interior of Stromgarde, confirming there were only five thousand Stromgarde militia and the Ninth Rank commander Amaren, meaning Duke Falconcrest should have succeeded just as planned.
Duke Falconcrest had indeed nearly succeeded, but the Syndicate's intelligence had failed to account for Rex Doom, a Ninth Rank Paladin hiding among the refugees of the Kingdom of Lordaeron, which led to his defeat.
Meanwhile, at the rear of the Syndicate and the Stonesplinter Ogre forces, a cavalry detachment a thousand strong came thundering across the field, led by the leader of the Kingdom of Stromgarde, the Heroic Rank Warrior Galen Trollbane, who rode atop a Highland Steed.
After discovering the corpses of Syndicate and SI:7 rogues inside Stromgarde, Commander Amaren had ordered a messenger to ride one of the Kingdom of Stromgarde's few Gryphons to Refuge Pointe and alert Prince Galen Trollbane.
The Stromgarde militia were infantry and marched at a much slower pace, so to prevent any accidents at Stromgarde, Galen Trollbane had taken the lead with a thousand Stromgarde Cavalry, relying on the speed of the Highland Steed to return in just a few hours.
Prince Galen Trollbane laid eyes on the sixty thousand Syndicate and Stonesplinter Ogre troops besieging Stromgarde. He had not expected that, even after the resounding victory in the defense of the Arathi Highlands and the expulsion of the Witherbark Trolls from Witherbark Village, the Syndicate would still dare to join forces with the Stonesplinter Ogres to attack Stromgarde.
Should Stromgarde fall and be occupied by the Syndicate and the Stonesplinter Ogres, all of Galen Trollbane's previous efforts would come to naught, and no refugees would ever seek refuge in the Kingdom of Stromgarde again, ultimately reducing the Kingdom of Stromgarde back to a vassal of the Kingdom of Stormwind.
Thus, this time Galen Trollbane was utterly enraged. His eyes burned with blazing fury, and Trol'kalar, the sacred sword of the Trollbane family, sensed Galen Trollbane's wrath and grew even sharper.
A thousand Stromgarde Cavalry were outnumbered tens to times over by the Syndicate and the Stonesplinter Ogres, but against such rabble, an enraged Galen Trollbane decisively chose to lead the Stromgarde Cavalry in a charge against the enemy's rear.
Faced with the keen edge of Trol'kalar and Galen Trollbane's Heroic Rank Warrior might, neither the Syndicate nor the Stonesplinter Ogres could stem his advance, and the thousand Stromgarde Cavalry followed closely behind their prince, Galen Trollbane, plunging into the enemy's rear through the gap he had cleaved open by sheer force.
Just like that, the thousand Stromgarde Cavalry moved as if through a deserted land, cutting a path of utter devastation through the Syndicate and Stonesplinter Ogre coalition.
Watching Galen Trollbane drenched in blood and radiating that invincible posture, the leader of the Syndicate, former King of the Kingdom of Alterac Lord Aiden Perenolde, could not help but recall the days when the warrior-king Thoras Trollbane of the Kingdom of Stromgarde led the armies of the Kingdom of Stromgarde to crush the Kingdom of Alterac.
Lord Aiden Perenolde harbored a deep hatred for the Trollbane family of the Kingdom of Stromgarde, the very people who had destroyed the Kingdom of Alterac, yet he dared not face Galen Trollbane in combat; even though he himself was a Ninth Rank powerhouse, he was entirely outmatched before the Heroic Rank Galen Trollbane.
With that, Galen Trollbane led the Stromgarde Cavalry charging back and forth through the Syndicate and Stonesplinter Ogre forces, losing fewer than a hundred men while inflicting countless casualties upon the enemy.
The standard armor of the Kingdom of Stromgarde was already red, and now, stained with a vast quantity of blood, it made the Stromgarde Cavalry look like blood-red grim reapers.
"Stromgarde Cavalry, follow me once more!" Galen Trollbane led the Stromgarde Cavalry charging back into the ranks of the Syndicate and Stonesplinter Ogre coalition.
The slaughter by Galen Trollbane and the Stromgarde Cavalry never ceased until the evening glow stained the horizon. The high-intensity combat had whittled the thousand Stromgarde Cavalry down to a mere two hundred, while Galen Trollbane was covered in wounds, looking like a bloody figure pulled straight from a pool of blood.
After cutting his way out this time, Galen Trollbane did not continue the slaughter because it was already enough. During the time he and the thousand Stromgarde Cavalry had spent bogging down the Syndicate and Stonesplinter Ogre coalition, Refuge Pointe and Thoradin's Wall had each dispatched ten thousand Stromgarde militia, and they had now arrived.
"For the glory of the Kingdom of Stromgarde!" Galen Trollbane roared with a laugh, leaping down from his Highland Steed to stand at the very front of the twenty thousand Stromgarde militia, gripping Trol'kalar with both hands as he let out a thunderous battle cry.
The twenty thousand Stromgarde militia who arrived behind him looked upon their prince, who looked like a god of war, and roared at the top of their lungs, "For the glory of the Kingdom of Stromgarde!"
Having been battered by Galen Trollbane and the thousand Stromgarde Cavalry charging back and forth in a relentless slaughter, the morale of the Syndicate and Stonesplinter Ogre rabble was already teetering on the brink of collapse, and now, faced with the earth-shaking momentum of the twenty thousand Stromgarde militia, they completely lost any capacity to resist.
Rex Doom had stood atop the walls of Stromgarde the entire time, watching Prince Galen Trollbane. He too was awestruck; even if Prince Galen Trollbane might not necessarily surpass his father, the Paladin Highlord Gavinrad Doom, such a ferocious display of prowess was utterly inimitable. Without realizing it, Rex Doom had already pledged his allegiance to Prince Galen Trollbane and resolved to follow him.
Witnessing the twenty thousand Stromgarde militia roar in unison, "For the glory of the Kingdom of Stromgarde," and launch their assault, Rex Doom joined the roar, shouting, "For the glory of the Kingdom of Stromgarde!"
Following that, Rex Doom threw open the gates of Stromgarde himself, leading the Stromgarde militia from within the city in an assault against the Syndicate and Stonesplinter Ogre coalition.
Even as the Stromgarde militia launched their strike from within and without, Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver, who had joined the Kingdom of Stromgarde, brought a thousand Dalaran Kirin Tor wizards into the fray to unleash magical artillery.
Spells like Flamestrike, Blizzard, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Blast continuously reaped the lives of the Syndicate and Stonesplinter Ogre forces.
The formidable killing power of the mages was fully displayed in that moment; though there were only a thousand mages, the magic they unleashed caused the enemy to fall in vast swaths like wheat before the scythe.
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