The fire produced so much smoke that the riders had to make their gryphons climb higher. The thick black smoke also obscured most of the airborne Gryphon Riders' view, leaving them unable to see exactly how much damage they had done.
When dropping incendiary bombs, they could only rely on their flying skills to steer their gryphons clear of the smoke as best they could and aim for places that were not yet burning. A single incendiary bomb often set a large surrounding area ablaze. Some places were never bombed at all, but sparks drifting through the sky fell and ignited them anyway.
As the fire grew, the wind picked up with it, causing more places to burn even faster. None of them could accurately estimate how many orcs had burned to death, but they believed no one could emerge alive from such a blaze. Even those who escaped the flames would choke to death on the thick black smoke.
At midnight, the fleet landed on the coast south of Menethil City, and the elves disembarked with their armored battle pets.
Sylvanas led the soldiers of the Bloodhawk Burning Legion, while the others remained under Alleria's direct command. Yu Lin Bloodhawk once again found himself utterly idle. He was left aboard to guard the ships with the Hinterlands sailors.
Twenty of the Gryphon Riders aboard the ships accompanied the landing force, providing long-range reconnaissance and aerial strikes. When necessary, they would also fly back to the fleet to request air support.
The southern coast was all murloc territory, and the murlocs here were indeed extremely dangerous. They frequently attacked passing ships and travelers, punching holes through the bottoms of vessels to sink them before slaughtering the people aboard.
These murlocs never turned their noses up at anything edible. Raw fish,