The Ren'dorei warlock No'lariel (with her magically-obedient sidekick, the imp demon Relpad) and the fellow some knew as Jon Chess ran through the Tradewinds Markets area of Boralus, and into the Ashvale Docks, finding and killing small groups of Irontide raiders and rescuing civilians as they went. No sooner did they locate a group of the rapacious pirates than Jon would shadowstep into their midst, using his knowledge of Shadow magics obtained from ancient forbidden Arokkoa texts to solidify shards of razor-sharp Void fragments and send them exploding into the enemy. While they focused on the threat Jon presented, they ignored the threat from No'lariel until she drained the souls from the wounded and distracted Irontide raiders. Relpad leaped and capered in joy as the imp invoked and sent balls of green balls of Felfire into any who escaped their initial onslaught.
"You seem to be in your element, No'lariel," observed Chess as the warlock pulled soul shard after soul shard from the enemy.
"Well, you humans have a saying - 'Waste not, want not', correct?" she answered, heady with the infusion of power from her victims. "besides, its a quicker and more merciful death than that which they are offering the Kul Tirans."
Jon smiled. He suspected that giving the Irontide raiders ripped by his Void spikes, poisoned by his daggers, or burned by Felfire a merciful passing was the least of her concerns/
As they entered the area owned by the powerful Ashvane Trading Company, whose owner Priscilla Ashvane was behind the invasion, they slowed; the Irontide raiders had deployed snipers armed with flintlock rifles, firing the powerful Azurite-powered bullets. Chess scouted their route, locating and removing the snipers that impeded their progress. It was from a warehouse rooftop that Jon saw that the Irontide raiders were targeting an open area nearby, and that fire teams of the invaders were converging there.
It there was something urgent enough to attract such attention, it was likely someplace that he and No'lariel should investigate. The two of them (well, three if you counted Relpad...) carefully made their way to the impacted area.
In an open area near the south end of the Ashvane Docks, Jon recognized the Irontide raider as "Chopper" Redhook from his time spent in Freehold in disguise as a pirate seeking work, while actually preparing intelligence files on the various pirate captains and crews. Redhook was an enormous bull of a Kul Tirasan freebooter who used a giant meat axe and a chain with a meat hook on the end to rend an enemy like a butcher a steer. He was not very intelligent, but his tenacity and ferocity were infamous through the Irontide forces.
Redhook was chasing a Lightforged Draenei in heavy arnor, who seemed to lithey dance before his rush. Well-muscled and fit, the blue-skinned beauty wisely kept out of reach of the pursuing behemoth while two sandworms, similar to the kind Jon had encoutered in Silithis, followed behind attacking Redhook's back if he slowed down. Off on a low wall, half-concealed by broken crates and other debris, a halfking with pink hair was loading and aiming her firearm at the swarm of Irontide intruders which were gathering to watch Redhook tear the Lightbringer paladin apart. Explosive ordinance landed in the square, giving te Irontide further incentive to keep clear.
Jon heard the paladin taunt the meaty man-mountain chasing her. "It is no use, you clumsy ox!" seh taunted. "None ever escape their fate to be absorbed by the Light, and especially not creatures who are as slow as you." She dodged gracefully to the side as Redhook cast his chain to skewer her, and Jon recognized her as one of the Knights division of the Brotherhood of Valor. her name was Zallanna, and Jon watched. He smiled - if that was Zallanna, then the halfling picking off Irontime raiders and snipers must be Bizibit, her pink-haired huntress friend.
"Jon, watch my back... No'lariel called out as she and Relpad began tossing destructive bolt after destructive bolt at the Zallanna's would-be suitor, and Jon turned, determined to keep her safe once the Irontide noticed them.
"Not my ass, Chess... watch my back, not my backside!" No'lariel teased, glancing over her shoulder, but Jon had no time to ogle her lithe form before he was engaged by pirates. Jon parried and thrust, dodged and leaped. he broke open a small packet of blind powder - a combination of crystalized cat piss, finely ground black pepper, and not quite so finely ground glass shards - and delivered it to Irontide eyes, stabbing with his envenomed daggers while kicking the wounded away with a shove of his boot.
It was during a lull in ths activity when one of the exploding shells in the cannon barrage failed to explode. From her quick reaction, it was what Zallana had been waiting for. She gracefully leaped over the unexploded ordinance, still followed by Redhook. As Redhook passed by, Zallanna cut sharply towards the same side that Redhook has used to go around the bomb, and as she placed herself with Redhook between her and the bomb, her partner Bizibit fired, detonating the unstable explosive. The blast took Redhook n the back, staggering him forward - and into Zallanna's outstretched blade. which gave him a second throat.
The Irontide raiders wasted no time in seeking other, easier targets than face the pair of the Brotherhood of Valor who had summarily dispatched "Chopper" Redhook.
Jon and No'lariel joined Zallanna and Bizibit, and the four of them continued deeper into Boralus to find more Irontide.
"You seem to be in your element, No'lariel," observed Chess as the warlock pulled soul shard after soul shard from the enemy.
"Well, you humans have a saying - 'Waste not, want not', correct?" she answered, heady with the infusion of power from her victims. "besides, its a quicker and more merciful death than that which they are offering the Kul Tirans."
Jon smiled. He suspected that giving the Irontide raiders ripped by his Void spikes, poisoned by his daggers, or burned by Felfire a merciful passing was the least of her concerns/
As they entered the area owned by the powerful Ashvane Trading Company, whose owner Priscilla Ashvane was behind the invasion, they slowed; the Irontide raiders had deployed snipers armed with flintlock rifles, firing the powerful Azurite-powered bullets. Chess scouted their route, locating and removing the snipers that impeded their progress. It was from a warehouse rooftop that Jon saw that the Irontide raiders were targeting an open area nearby, and that fire teams of the invaders were converging there.
It there was something urgent enough to attract such attention, it was likely someplace that he and No'lariel should investigate. The two of them (well, three if you counted Relpad...) carefully made their way to the impacted area.
In an open area near the south end of the Ashvane Docks, Jon recognized the Irontide raider as "Chopper" Redhook from his time spent in Freehold in disguise as a pirate seeking work, while actually preparing intelligence files on the various pirate captains and crews. Redhook was an enormous bull of a Kul Tirasan freebooter who used a giant meat axe and a chain with a meat hook on the end to rend an enemy like a butcher a steer. He was not very intelligent, but his tenacity and ferocity were infamous through the Irontide forces.
Redhook was chasing a Lightforged Draenei in heavy arnor, who seemed to lithey dance before his rush. Well-muscled and fit, the blue-skinned beauty wisely kept out of reach of the pursuing behemoth while two sandworms, similar to the kind Jon had encoutered in Silithis, followed behind attacking Redhook's back if he slowed down. Off on a low wall, half-concealed by broken crates and other debris, a halfking with pink hair was loading and aiming her firearm at the swarm of Irontide intruders which were gathering to watch Redhook tear the Lightbringer paladin apart. Explosive ordinance landed in the square, giving te Irontide further incentive to keep clear.
Jon heard the paladin taunt the meaty man-mountain chasing her. "It is no use, you clumsy ox!" seh taunted. "None ever escape their fate to be absorbed by the Light, and especially not creatures who are as slow as you." She dodged gracefully to the side as Redhook cast his chain to skewer her, and Jon recognized her as one of the Knights division of the Brotherhood of Valor. her name was Zallanna, and Jon watched. He smiled - if that was Zallanna, then the halfling picking off Irontime raiders and snipers must be Bizibit, her pink-haired huntress friend.
"Jon, watch my back... No'lariel called out as she and Relpad began tossing destructive bolt after destructive bolt at the Zallanna's would-be suitor, and Jon turned, determined to keep her safe once the Irontide noticed them.
"Not my ass, Chess... watch my back, not my backside!" No'lariel teased, glancing over her shoulder, but Jon had no time to ogle her lithe form before he was engaged by pirates. Jon parried and thrust, dodged and leaped. he broke open a small packet of blind powder - a combination of crystalized cat piss, finely ground black pepper, and not quite so finely ground glass shards - and delivered it to Irontide eyes, stabbing with his envenomed daggers while kicking the wounded away with a shove of his boot.
It was during a lull in ths activity when one of the exploding shells in the cannon barrage failed to explode. From her quick reaction, it was what Zallana had been waiting for. She gracefully leaped over the unexploded ordinance, still followed by Redhook. As Redhook passed by, Zallanna cut sharply towards the same side that Redhook has used to go around the bomb, and as she placed herself with Redhook between her and the bomb, her partner Bizibit fired, detonating the unstable explosive. The blast took Redhook n the back, staggering him forward - and into Zallanna's outstretched blade. which gave him a second throat.
The Irontide raiders wasted no time in seeking other, easier targets than face the pair of the Brotherhood of Valor who had summarily dispatched "Chopper" Redhook.
Jon and No'lariel joined Zallanna and Bizibit, and the four of them continued deeper into Boralus to find more Irontide.
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