Alleria

As soon as Yu Lin Bloodhawk entered the command tent, he saw a beautiful elf, tall and slender, with perfectly proportioned curves. She possessed a soldier's strength and resolve, as well as a mature woman's grace and composure. Every movement radiated feminine intelligence and aristocratic elegance, without diminishing the decisive bearing of a general.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk was almost instantly captivated. Even Sylvanas seemed to lack a certain maturity beside her. He silently thought, No wonder Turalyon fell madly in love with her the first time they met.

"Sister, I'm back!" Sylvanas said.

"I heard you canceled the raid on Zeb'Sora," Alleria said. "That's not quite like you."

"Yes! And it's all because of him." Sylvanas pointed at Yu Lin Bloodhawk.

Because of me? Yu Lin Bloodhawk froze. He could not understand what canceling the raid on Zeb'Sora had to do with him.

"Who is he?" Alleria asked curiously, turning her gaze toward Yu Lin Bloodhawk.

"You don't know who he is?" Sylvanas's eyes widened. "Then why did you send him to reinforce me?"

"Reinforce you?" Alleria frowned in thought, then addressed Yu Lin Bloodhawk. "Are you Baron Bloodhawk?"

"Yes, Commander!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk gave her a military salute.

"What's wrong with him?" Alleria turned back to Sylvanas.

"Do you have copies of the Rookie Ranger Training Manual and the Ranger Training Manual here? If you do, give them to him. His troops can't go into battle yet. That wouldn't be fighting, it would be suicide," Sylvanas said.

Alleria watched Sylvanas skeptically for a moment. "Why? His father was a war hero."

"His father was, but he isn't!" Sylvanas said.

Standing beside them, Yu Lin Bloodhawk thought, I'm not that bad, am I? Fighting ordinary mobs isn't the same as taking down a boss.

"What do you mean?" Alleria asked.

"Do you know what sort of people he and his company are? Recruits, every last one of them! They've only just enlisted, and there isn't a single veteran among them. How are they supposed to fight, especially in a raid?" Sylvanas said. "Are they coming to help me fight, or to make me detach troops to protect them?"

"Is that really true?" Alleria asked in surprise. "Then I'll have to ask the commander of the Golden Mist Burning Legion just what they're playing at."

"Sister, stop pretending." Sylvanas curled her lip. "I don't believe for a moment that you didn't know. You just wanted me to cancel the raid, didn't you? You could have said so outright. Was all this maneuvering really necessary?"

"So you figured it out?" Alleria smiled. "Then you came here this time to..."

"For him!" Sylvanas pointed at Yu Lin Bloodhawk again.

"What about him now?" Alleria asked. "Since the mission has been canceled, just send him back to the Golden Mist Burning Legion."

"He can't go back to the Golden Mist Burning Legion. Keep him here with you. You'd better protect him, or you'll have me to answer to," Sylvanas said.

Alleria gave Sylvanas a puzzled look, then glanced at Yu Lin Bloodhawk, waiting for an explanation.

"He's a baron now, and I've persuaded him to pledge allegiance to our Windrunner family. Don't send him back and let someone else snatch him away," Sylvanas said.

"Him?" Alleria considered it for a moment. "All right! He can stay here. I'll look after him." In truth, she did not care much about a mere baron, but she did care about her younger sister.

The sisters talked for a while longer before Sylvanas led Yu Lin Bloodhawk out of the command tent. He received both the Rookie Ranger Training Manual and the Ranger Training Manual, along with an assignment to guard the Troll prisoners.

After leaving the command tent, they headed back to their troops' camp. Along the way, Sylvanas asked Yu Lin Bloodhawk what he thought of her sister. He replied that she was very, very beautiful, truly worthy of being called one of Quel'Thalas's great beauties. Sylvanas then asked how Alleria compared with her. Yu Lin Bloodhawk did not dare answer directly, so he said they were different and could not be compared; each had her own beauty. Failing to get a clear answer, Sylvanas was indeed annoyed with him for a while. Still, it hardly caused any serious disagreement, and before long they were chatting and laughing again as they reached the camp.

Sylvanas told him to muster his troops, then took him to relieve the unit guarding the prisoners. Its officer had never wanted the job in the first place. Now that someone had come to replace him, he grinned from ear to ear and completed the handover in no time. Yu Lin Bloodhawk and his hundred men settled in without any trouble.

"One question! Does anyone here speak Trollish?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked his men. He figured that since the two sides had been fighting for thousands of years, they could hardly be complete strangers to each other's language.

Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, a dozen or so recruits reported that they spoke Trollish. Reassured, Yu Lin Bloodhawk arranged their various duties with Sylvanas's help. They chatted for a while afterward, until Sylvanas said she had something to attend to and left. Before leaving, she gave him another round of reminders.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk went into his room and began carefully studying the two books he had just received. He read late into the night, then continued the next morning with eyes as red as a rabbit's. For three days straight, he did little but study those two books. Sylvanas visited once during that time. Seeing him reading, she did not disturb him, merely checking on the camp before leaving on her own.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk put down the book in his hands and rubbed his aching head. At last, he understood the difference between a Ranger and a Hunter.

The Kingdom of Quel'Thalas had a small population, yet it had to wage war against the Trolls year after year, leaving its military manpower stretched thin. The Trolls did not have a particularly wide range of combat classes. Their main classes were Great Axe Warriors, Axe Throwers, Spear Throwers, Beast Tamers, Rogues, and Hexers. Of these, Great Axe Warriors, Axe Throwers, and Spear Throwers were the most numerous, accounting for roughly seventy-five percent of the Troll army. The remaining portion consisted of Rogues, Hexers, and a few rare classes.

The Trolls' advantage over the elves lay in their numbers. They also had strong bodies and powerful regenerative abilities. Compared with the Trolls, the High Elves were far fewer, but their own advantage was equally obvious: unparalleled ranged striking power. It could be said that the High Elves possessed the strongest ranged military force on the continent of Azeroth.

The High Elves of this era were not the frail Blood Elves who emerged after the Sunwell's destruction. They were as strong as Night Elves. Their population was tiny, yet they still had to maintain a powerful offensive capability against the Trolls.

Quel'Thalas did not raise many melee units. It selected only its finest personnel to form a force of Knights, which would later become the Blood Knights, and a force of Spellbreakers, tasked with defending Silvermoon City and the Sunwell. Most others joined either the Spellcasters or the Rangers.

Among the High Elf population, those with the aptitude to become Arcane Magic users

accounted for roughly twenty percent of the total. That twenty percent was not to be underestimated. It was measured by High Elf standards, and even then, it far surpassed humanity's one percent. Aside from a few oddballs like Yu Lin Bloodhawk, who had magical aptitude but chose not to become Mages, everyone with such talent attended Falthrien Academy to study magic and become Mages. Most of the rest joined the Ranger Corps.

Some units could be described as the foundation and bedrock of Quel'Thalas's military. Spellcasters provided its high-end combat power, while Spellbreakers and the Cavalry were the elite of the elite. Dragonhawk Riders were actually an aerial unit assigned to the Knights. As for the navy, it was practically invisible.

The Ranger Corps made up roughly seventy percent of Quel'Thalas's military. To maintain an overwhelming advantage in ranged attacks during the war against the Trolls, the magic of the Mage units alone was not enough. Large numbers of excellent marksmen were essential, because the Trolls were masters of jungle warfare. They would not foolishly gather in a clump and wait for the Mages to bombard them with magic. Most jungle battles were fought by small squads or teams, with ambushes and counterambushes, assassinations and counterassassinations, and countless other clashes.

The Trolls did not have as many Mages or skilled archers as the elves, so they focused more on developing melee classes to fight the elves head-on. When an ambush suddenly erupted and attackers and defenders became tangled together in close combat, the elven Mages' advanced magic and the archers' ranged attacks lost their effectiveness. In essence, this neutralized the elves' advantage while bringing the Trolls' own advantage into play.

Their vast population was the Trolls' only advantage over the High Elves. To prevent large-scale Troll offensives, the High Elves had to maintain powerful ranged attacks and broad magical bombardment. Yet when the Trolls dispersed into small groups and fought guerrilla battles in the forests, Elf Archers frequently faced unavoidable close combat. Thus, the Ranger Corps came into being.