When the Wildhammer Dwarves' envoy landed in Southshore on a gryphon, the coalition's leaders welcomed the new reinforcements, but were not especially excited.
Dwarves were formidable fighters.
But their population was too small for them to provide many troops to support the coalition.
Judging by the tattoos on the dwarven envoy, their civilization seemed quite primitive, nowhere near as organized as the Bronzebeard Dwarves of Ironforge.
The Wildhammer envoy never imagined that his magnificent warpaint would be seen as a symbol of backward savagery.
Fortunately, the Wildhammer Dwarves were not good at reading other people's thoughts through their expressions and gazes.
Otherwise, the alliance negotiations might well have turned into a duel.
After some perfunctory negotiations, the two sides reached an agreement over drinks.
Sir Anduin Lothar, supreme commander of the coalition, welcomed the Wildhammer Dwarves into the Alliance on behalf of the kings of its member nations.
The drunken Wildhammer envoy thumped his chest and declared that they would send their most powerful aerial forces into battle.
At the mention of their most powerful aerial forces, Sir Lothar immediately thought of the envoy's gryphon mount.
The powerful flying beast, with an eagle's head and a lion's body, was sturdier than the few gryphons in Stormwind City and looked anything but ordinary.
With that in mind, Sir Lothar asked curiously, "How many gryphons do you have?"
Caught off guard by the question about the number of Gryphons, the Wildhammer dwarf envoy was a little bewildered.
He had never really paid attention to the exact number of gryphons.
He scratched the back of his head and said uncertainly:
"Our gryphons roam freely in the wild, so it's hard to give an exact number. But there should be five or six hundred."
Hearing that staggering figure, Sir Lothar felt his head buzz.
"You actually have five or six hundred gryphons!"
The Wildhammer envoy found Sir Lothar's reaction baffling.
It was only five or six hundred gryphons.
How could someone as important as the coalition's commander not know how to maintain his composure?
He had no idea that the gryphons of all the human kingdoms did not amount to even a fraction of those belonging to the Wildhammer Dwarves.
All seven kingdoms combined had around twenty gryphons.
Gryphons liked to nest high up on cliff faces.
They were highly intelligent and would not let their chicks out of sight for long.
That made these powerful flying beasts extremely difficult to capture and tame.
Someone trying to catch a chick could easily lose their life without catching anything.
After learning that the Wildhammer Dwarves had so many gryphons, Sir Lothar quickly moved past his initial shock and was swept up in elation.
An individual gryphon certainly could not match a red dragon in combat.
But with their numbers and agility, they should be able to defeat the red dragons through hit-and-run tactics.
With a way to keep the red dragons occupied, Sir Lothar immediately felt much more confident.
Yet he still did not understand that the Wildhammer Dwarves' gryphons were only part of their aerial strength.
The knights who fought astride those gryphons were nothing like human knights wielding spears and clubs.
The Wildhammer Dwarves' Gryphon Riders were all powerful shamans.
When fighting on gryphonback, they hurled magical hammers at their enemies.
The Magic Hammers contained powerful lightning energy and could unleash several bolts of Chain Lightning, inflicting damage over a wide area.
When flocks of Gryphon Riders appeared on the battlefield, the troops on the ground stood no chance of survival.
A single squad of Gryphon Riders sent by the Wildhammer Dwarves would be enough to secure the coalition's skies.
While everyone in the coalition celebrated the addition of aerial forces, the High Elf reinforcements arrived in Southshore aboard the enormous Iron Behemoth.
People had always associated the High Elves with powerful magic and archery.
Yet most of the High Elf rangers had already switched to large-caliber sniper rifles.
The few bows still in service were all powerful magical weapons.
Seeing that the High Elves' own troops had switched to muskets dispelled every doubt the coalition had about them.
Anything the High Elves used surely had to be reliable.
Once the warship had unloaded its personnel and equipment, it quickly left the harbor.
The penny-pinching goblin captain certainly would not leave his ship sitting there earning nothing.
He intended to take advantage of the calm before the war to make another quick profit.
During wartime, weapons were the hottest commodities.
Blinded by greed, the goblin captain could think of nothing but selling arms.
The High Elf ranger contingent that arrived in Southshore numbered fewer than three hundred.
They were by far the smallest of all the reinforcements.
Even the Wildhammer Dwarves, who had only just joined the Alliance, planned to send eight hundred dwarven heavy infantry in addition to their hundred powerful Gryphon Riders.
Still, the High Elf rangers' equipment was truly lavish!
The large-caliber sniper rifles issued to every ranger looked extraordinary at a glance.
They had larger bores than ordinary firearms, custom suppressors and scopes, and more elaborate designs.
Ordinary firearms were utterly outclassed by them in appearance alone.
The disparity in conventional weapons was nothing, though.
The forty Arcane War Machines assigned to the High Elf rangers were an even more dazzling display of extravagance.
The six-legged war machines gleamed purple from end to end, and even ordinary people who knew nothing about them could tell they were exceptional.
Their bodies glowed purple, and their gun barrels were long and thick. They looked formidable.
Amateurs admired the spectacle; experts understood what lay behind it.
The coalition's senior officers and accompanying mages were precisely those experts.
Because they understood what they were seeing, they were utterly stunned.
Accounts of the High Elf army's assault on Zul'Aman had circulated within limited upper-class circles over the past few years.
The war machines that had charged into the city and rampaged unchecked closely resembled those before them.
But these machines' gun barrels were several times thicker.
Presumably, they were more powerful as well.
People speculated about the power of these new Arcane War Machines.
Yet to conserve magical energy, the new Arcane War Machines never moved.
The Arcane Scavenger Alleria had brought had stored vast amounts of magical energy, so its movements were entirely unaffected.
It could occasionally be seen wandering around the camp.
The hulking machine was such a deep purple that it was almost black, with a rounded body that looked as though it had little combat power.
But once it entered combat mode, it could pin a powerful first-generation paladin to the ground and give him a thorough thrashing.
The first-generation paladin taught a lesson by the Arcane Scavenger was Turalyon, Sir Lothar's lieutenant.
Turalyon was a priest from the lower classes.
He had earned Archbishop Alonsus Faol's appreciation and become a capable assistant who served at his side.
Then, through a series of political maneuvers, he had been installed as a lieutenant under Sir Lothar.
He had also become one of the first five First-Generation Paladins.
With his strength and status soaring, Turalyon was naturally full of himself and felt like the chosen son of the world.
The first time he saw Alleria, he was deeply captivated by the ranger-general, who possessed both beauty and strength.
Although many people doubted his chances, he pursued her relentlessly.
Following the program Herad had set, the Arcane Scavenger launched a punitive attack on the lovesick fool.
Turalyon had never imagined that the hulking purple machine standing off to one side would suddenly attack.
After a rapid barrage of wild punches, the Arcane Scavenger pinned Turalyon to the ground and used Mana Drain to absorb the holy energy within him.
The energies of light and darkness were fundamental to the universe.
They occupied the highest tier of energy.
But Mana Drain was not picky. Even the highest-tier energy could be absorbed.
Absorbing energy of that highest tier was somewhat troublesome.
Still, as long as Turalyon was held firmly in place, a slower absorption rate was no problem.
Paladins possessed great physical strength.
But against the Arcane Scavenger, which weighed well over ten tons, Turalyon's struggles were a joke!
He could only lie pinned to the ground like a dead dog, reduced to a generous energy pack for the Arcane Scavenger.
Before you continue