Escape from Stormwind City

Tiffin did not know how to respond for a moment.

Judging by what these stonemasons were saying, they clearly wanted General Marcus Jonathan and the others responsible for the Cathedral Square massacre handed over. But Tiffin knew Jonathan was a loyal general, and as queen, she had no authority to make such a decision.

Seeing that their respected queen still had not given them a satisfactory answer, the armed workers below began raising a clamor.

"That's right, Your Majesty! Are our brothers just supposed to suffer this injustice?"

"Hand over Marcus Jonathan! Make him stand trial for his crimes!"

"The butcher must be severely punished!"

Tiffin panicked for a moment.

Unlike outgoing noblewomen such as Jaina Proudmoore and Tess Greymane, Tiffin was actually closer to Calia Menethil in temperament and life experience. Having spent so long secluded in the palace, she had never faced a scene like this and was suddenly at a loss.

"Your Majesty, please leave immediately," Guard Captain Meris Malagan said quietly. "These rioters are in a dangerous mood. They could attack at any moment."

"No," Tiffin firmly refused. "I know they're all good people in unfortunate circumstances. I want to stay here and persuade them." Then she raised her voice, making sure everyone below could hear her clearly. "Please go home for now, everyone. Once Varian returns, I promise he'll find a solution that satisfies you all."

"Your Majesty, you can't just brush us off like this!" The workers below grew even more dissatisfied. Anyone with the slightest common sense knew that if they dispersed now, the guild would truly be at others' mercy!

Even though Felix knew she was a good person, he would never dare entrust the entire guild's fate to someone else's kindness. If the Cathedral Square massacre could happen once, it could happen again.

"Please hand over Marcus Jonathan!"

"Marcus Jonathan must die!"

"Please stay calm and listen to me-" Tiffin grew anxious, but no one was willing to quiet down and listen to her anymore.

"Listen, my ass!" Accompanied by an angry shout, a stone flew upward.

Felix could swear that even if the objective laws of Azeroth differed from Earth's physics, this stone's trajectory truly exceeded the limits of his comprehension.

Without black dragon magic, this stone could not possibly have followed such a trajectory.

The queen tilted her head, trying to dodge, but after a stretch of Brownian motion and a sharp turn, the stone still struck her squarely in the head. Felix could not help being reminded of the droplet in The Three-Body Problem.

The queen immediately collapsed to the ground, and her golden hair slowly turned a vivid red.

"Tiffin!" Countess Katrana cried out in shock. Though she was thoroughly false, she at least looked genuinely surprised, certainly not as though she were pretending.

"You rioters must pay for what you've done! Champions of Stormwind City, avenge Her Majesty!"

A powerful Archmage suddenly appeared at the far end of the street. He raised his hand and muttered an incantation, and fireballs immediately poured forth, flying toward the workers' position. Several workers near where the fireballs landed were instantly blasted into the air.

"Damn it, I clearly destroyed the bridge! How did this Archmage get across? Who exactly is he?"

Dudmore only knew Andromath, Malin, and the others, so Dune's appearance greatly surprised him. Naturally, he had no way of knowing that the Archmage before him was actually a black dragon, and that Dune had, in fact, been waiting here for quite some time.

A lone mage was actually easy to deal with. After all, even the greatest martial artist feared a cleaver, and everyone was equal before a firearm. Whether you were the Banshee Queen, the chief Archmage of the Kirin Tor, or the king of the blue dragons, there was nothing a surprise gunshot could not solve.

But once the other side formed the warrior-mage-priest trinity, the mage serving as its main damage dealer became an extremely troublesome opponent. At that moment, surrounded by the Royal Guard and priests from the abbey, Dune was leisurely wielding his power, using flames to clear the stonemasons from the streets.

Worse still, the Stonemasons' Guild could not win in street fighting either! A mage like Dune was like a walking flamethrower tank and a heavily protected flamethrower engineer. He was more than capable of crushing any resistance inside a building.

"Retreat, retreat!" Felix hurriedly shouted. "Fall back into the sewers!"

"Do as he says!" VanCleef was clearly a sensible man-a sensible man knew better than to take a needless beating.

As it turned out, an organized guild was just as decisive when retreating. Since Thuros Lightfinger had held that street securely all along, most of the workers escaped back into the sewers without trouble.

They quickly set up some defenses there. Perhaps fearing an ambush, Stormwind City's soldiers did not pursue them inside.

At that moment, Felix discovered Vladimir already standing there, waiting for them.

"Felix, the garrison in the Valley of Heroes abandoned its position and came this way, just as expected, so we captured the gate without any effort. We can evacuate Stormwind City through there."

He spoke very quickly. "We have to leave immediately. I don't know how long the brothers over there can hold out."

"Felix, do you have any ideas?" VanCleef looked lost. He knew only that they could no longer stay in Stormwind City, but had no idea where the Stonemasons' Guild could go from here.

"We'll go to Westfall, Guildmaster. Vanessa is in Moonbrook too, and Jack and Morgan are with them."

"Jack, Morgan..." VanCleef murmured those names, a look of forlorn loss in his eyes. No one knew whether he was remembering the days of the Second Orcs War, when he had still served the Kingdom of Stormwind and fought for the Alliance.

"All right, that's settled!" All that had passed was merely a prologue; the great rebel VanCleef had no right to dwell on the past now. "Let's get out of Stormwind City immediately and fall back to Westfall!"

The guild members sprinted south through the sewers, crossed the Trade District, and finally emerged in front of the Valley of Heroes.

"Bad news, Guildmaster! They've caught up!"

At the shout, VanCleef took a closer look and noticed that the Kingdom of Stormwind's pursuing troops had already approached the Valley of Heroes aboveground and were attempting to attack it.

"Felix, hurry and lead the brothers out. I'll stay here with a few men to cover the retreat." VanCleef made his decision after only a second's thought. "If something happens to me... I'm sorry for the trouble, but I'll be leaving Vanessa and our brothers in the guild in your hands! I only hope you can make Vanessa understand that her father wasn't a coward!"