The bane of the knightly system

As soon as the Gnome Rogue had settled in, he sent Herad word of the full-scale Orc invasion.

At that moment, the Mages of Dalaran had also run into trouble.

They had been happily looting the Mage Tower in Karazhan.

Then the Orcs occupied their route home.

The Orcs had no interest in the Mage Tower in Karazhan, however.

After discovering that the human Mages inside were not to be trifled with, they merely watched their movements from the perimeter.

This left the Mages of Dalaran thoroughly frustrated.

They certainly lacked the strength to fight their way out.

If they held their ground, there was no telling how long they would have to wait.

Waiting for an uncertain outcome was absolutely the most agonizing thing!

Herad took great satisfaction in these poor bastards' predicament.

That was what they got for overreaching!

The Mage Tower in Karazhan was at least ten thousand kilometers from Dalaran.

The two normally had little to do with each other.

Rushing over to divide up the estate the moment its owner died was downright shameless!

Had Prince Kael'thas not been one of the planners, Herad would definitely have exposed their despicable conduct.

After inwardly grumbling for a while, he still sent an airship to rescue the Dalaran Mages.

An airship could carry dozens of passengers at a time, making it the ideal vehicle for a rescue.

Rescuing them at this critical juncture, however, would be extremely expensive.

After all, Stormwind City's richest and most death-fearing residents were already asking about airship relocation services.

They were willing to pay a hefty price to leave Stormwind City as quickly as possible.

The Dalaran Mages, who had just made a windfall, naturally would not care about such a trifling sum.

They had obtained enough wealth from the Mage Tower in Karazhan to rival a kingdom, along with vast quantities of knowledge and magical equipment.

They had even acquired an artifact!

What was a little transportation fee compared to that?

If the friends and family who had left after killing Medivh knew how much wealth they had missed out on, who knew whether they would cry themselves unconscious in the bathroom?

Had they brought in troops to strip the Mage Tower in Karazhan clean back then, the Dalaran Mages would have gotten nothing.

Herad was not the least bit envious of the artifact the Dalaran Mages had taken, though.

Medivh's artifact was a hot potato, and many evil forces remained obsessed with it.

Later on, it would even draw a large-scale raid by Orc dragon riders.

Whoever took something that dangerous was courting death.

Let the Dalaran Mages happily take their kingdom-destroying artifact home.

They had to pay some price for making such ill-gotten gains.

Herad observed one second of silence for the Dalaran Magic Kingdom's first destruction, then officially set his little schemes in motion.

Large numbers of merchant ships laden with arms set sail for Stormwind City at the southern end of the continent.

It was time to make a killing off the war!

The Orcs who had drunk demon blood were indeed formidable.

But they were still flesh and blood, and firearms could certainly inflict heavy casualties on them.

As for whether shipping weapons and equipment to Stormwind City complied with Bronze Dragon law, Herad felt it should be legal.

Weren't the other kingdoms and factions shipping weapons and equipment there too?

The Gnomes and Goblins, in particular, having tasted success before, were practically itching to bring out even their most carefully hoarded treasures.

Stormwind City still lacked sufficient awareness, however, and remained hesitant about purchasing in bulk.

Without enough firearms, their impact would be limited.

After all, even the most effective weapons were needed in sufficient numbers.

And the humans did not have much time left.

The Orcs had long since finished their preparations and would not give the humans much time to prepare for war.

In just three short days, Brightwood had been occupied by frenzied Orcs and their Ogre auxiliary troops.

These invaders came in enormous numbers, advancing straight along the main roads, wiping out the feeble resistance along the way and killing every living thing that moved.

The weak armed forces in the towns along their route could not even inflict casualties on the invaders.

Every resident who fled too slowly or stayed behind to resist met a terrible end.

The name "Ogre"-man-eater-said it all!

Most residents were eaten on the spot, while a small number were turned into marching rations.

Fortunately, the evil magic of the Mage Tower in Karazhan had affected Brightwood, leaving it as dim as dusk even in broad daylight.

Residents familiar with the terrain had a much better chance of escaping.

They headed west into the vast, fertile western region, then turned north toward Stormwind City to seek refuge.

As for that flat, open western region, anyone could see that it was impossible to defend.

When the western region would fall depended entirely on when the Orcs found it and repaired the destroyed bridges.

The various regions of the Kingdom of Azeroth were all peculiar: each was separated by broad rivers, as though they had been deliberately planned and excavated.

Since the currents were far from gentle, ordinary people certainly could not swim across safely.

Even the Orcs searched along the rivers for bridges when they encountered them.

But who would have nothing better to do than build a bridge over a river more than a thousand meters wide?

People only built bridges at the narrowest points, allowing people and goods to travel between the two sides.

Destroying bridges during wartime was an excellent way to delay the enemy!

The bridge connecting Brightwood to the western region had been destroyed.

But the fleeing crowds had not had time to destroy the bridge in the northeastern corner, the one closest to Deadwind Pass.

The Orcs seized control of that bridge and, while pursuing the refugees, discovered the Redridge Mountains and Elwynn Forest, where Stormwind City lay.

The Redridge Mountains offered little meaningful resistance, and a single charge wiped it all out.

Elwynn Forest, however, was a tough nut to crack.

It was the core of the entire kingdom, with formidable armed forces!

The Stormwind Brotherhood of the Horse, numbering over two thousand, in particular left the Orcs deeply terrified.

Even the combined strength of the Blackrock Clan's Heavy Infantry and Ogre auxiliaries struggled to stop those Knights clad in heavy iron armor.

Once those Knights knocked them to the ground, even Ogres over three meters tall were doomed.

Orgrim Doomhammer, who had successfully seized power, saw his clan's most elite Heavy Infantry being ground into the dirt and hurriedly sent in the reserves already in position to support them.

After wreaking havoc, the Stormwind Brotherhood of the Horse withdrew from the battlefield, taking the bodies of their fallen Knights with them.

The Knights were powerful, and their equipment was lavish.

But their opponents were no pushovers either.

Knights died in every battle.

The Orc elites also suffered considerable losses.

But the Orcs had come with their entire people in a full-scale invasion.

Their forces were immense, nothing like the village skirmishes involving a few thousand people in the game.

They could arm several million Orcs without any trouble at all.

How long could the two-thousand-strong Stormwind Brotherhood of the Horse keep up a war of attrition?

In the palace hall of Stormwind City, Jindi, now the continent's largest arms dealer, enthusiastically recommended weapons to King Llane.

"Your esteemed Majesty, take a look at this new cannon. A single shot can blast out a large pond, and its effective range reaches twenty kilometers.

"When the High Elves attacked the Forest Trolls a few years ago, they blasted Zul'Aman's walls flat with these!"

King Llane was a powerful Warrior.

Listening to Jindi's vivid description and looking at the utterly devastated scenes of Zul'Aman after the battle that he displayed, King Llane found himself wavering.

The completely collapsed walls and the enormous craters in the ground all testified to the power of this new cannon.

But where did that leave Warriors and Knights?

Once these weapons were introduced in large numbers, Warriors and Knights would have nothing left to do.

If the enemy had already been blasted to pieces, what would be the point of charging in afterward?

A kingdom built around the knightly system would certainly face a tremendous upheaval!

What would the commoners think when they saw this?

A bunch of men who only pick on easy targets have no right to rule us.

After much deliberation, King Llane still could not make up his mind.

After all, firearms were the bane of the knightly system.