Corpses. Corpses lay everywhere.
There were corpses of orcs and human soldiers, and, of course, the corpses of the nobles left there earlier.
General Merrick Hass's longsword was already covered in countless nicks. He slid it back into its scabbard... They had won, because all these orcs were dead; yet they had also lost, because the king of Alterac had died in this battle too!
Dragging their exhausted bodies along, the soldiers began clearing the corpses from the battlefield.
"General, what should we do with these orcs' bodies?" a soldier asked.
"Burn them, then bury their remains as well!" After a moment of silence, the general said, "Regardless of race or allegiance, they were all the finest warriors!"
The soldier nodded and left to carry out the order.
Hass could clearly see that these orcs had been protecting someone's escape. They had blocked the snowy pass with their lives, fighting a bloody battle down to the last man... Even the most elite guards under his command could not have displayed courage like theirs on the battlefield!
But none of that mattered. What mattered was... the king was dead!
King Aiden Perenolde had hardly been a great king, and people often grumbled about him in private. But when his head rolled to Hass's feet, all Hass could feel was overwhelming pain and humiliation...
He hated himself for not arriving sooner. Had he arrived ten minutes earlier, he might have had a chance to save the king. He hated the Horde even more, those loathsome green-skinned monsters who had invaded his homeland, murdered countless of his countrymen, and cut off his king's head.
"Back to Alterac City!" He climbed onto his horse and said heavily, "Bring the remains of the king and the nobles. We're going home!"
The orange-clad army, steeped