Gamble for Azeroth 25 (Patreon)

The first day of the siege passed without an attack.

So did the second one. And then the third … which turned into a week without attacking. At least, not a real one.

Occasionally, there were some occasional ghoul attacks sent to the walls, too small to achieve anything real, and the occasional flying gargoyles swooping over the city, but Arvis could see that the aim was to make sure he stayed in place.

A simple plan, but just because it was a simple plan didn’t mean he had a way to solve it. He was locked in the city, at least until he could get a solution. The moment he caught away from the city, they could just move to destroy Stratholme.

He was pinned to the city, unable to act.

It would have been a horrible experience … if waiting hadn’t served his purposes as well. He knew that whatever battle the Scourge was waging westward; it wasn’t something he could intervene in, and at this point, smaller settlements would be gone, making it impossible for him to save anyone.

More importantly, a siege ordinarily would mean a drain on forces, constantly weakening them. For Stratholme, it was the opposite.

The biggest difference was their army. A week ago, they had a bunch of people who were just as likely to cut themselves as hitting an enemy. Under more ordinary circumstances, a week wouldn’t be enough to solve that problem.

His training program had multiple advantages.

The first was the motivation. There was nothing like a giant undead army on the horizon, radiating an implicit threat of death to motivate people; which led to recruits working with a dedication that allowed them to improve.

The second advantage was their training quality. His Expert Blade Weapon Mastery combined with Polymath meant that he could identify their issues and develop special training techniques to solve them, helping them to improve even faster.

Unfortunately, his attempts to teach them the Water Breathing Style had met with failure. It was potentially possible, but it required a special conceptual understanding of the element of water as well as an exceptional physique to handle the strain. They had no recruit with the potential to learn it.

Allerton could potentially learn it … after he spent a few years properly enhancing his body first.

However, even with those advantages, the physical realities of their recruits would have made the situation a challenge. The training food he had developed worked even better than his optimistic projections, allowing the men to build a body that would have allowed them to be recruited as footmen for the army.

Something that had even been acknowledged by the System during the fifth day of the siege.

[Feat Achieved! Establish a competent army of a thousand soldiers.

+1x Gold Advantage Random Gacha ticket]

[Select one!]

[Dexterous]

{Rare Trait: You are unusually dexterous, granting you impeccable hand-to-eye coordination, motor skills, and control over your body.}

[Bear Form]

{Rare Ability: You can turn into a Bear or a Bear hybrid at will. As a bear, you gain enhanced physical stats, fangs, claws, and a thick hide providing you enhanced defensive capabilities as well as any other characteristics the average Bear would possess.}

He picked Dexterous, which finally addressed his latest weakness. Previously, he had Nimble, which gave him enough flexibility to use the earlier moves of Water Breathing, but that had been it.

Dexterous elevated his fighting capability even more. Too bad no one could learn the Water Breathing Style. The same principle applied to his self-developed Retribution Breathing Style … well, almost. There was one exception.

Sally Whitemane.

Her improvements had surprised him. He'd assumed that banning her from channeling the holy light would be a challenging affair. Maybe it would have if she hadn’t watched him demolish the repeated ghoul incursions with ease. As a result, she'd thrown herself into swordsmanship with the same intensity she'd previously poured into channeling the light.

She wasn’t a genius swordsman, but she still had above average talent, and her talent with the light more than compensated for it, enough that she actually managed to learn the basics of Retribution Breathing Style, good enough for her to deliver the first attack.

Especially once he adjusted the attack, optimizing it to deliver a burst of light at a distance with a slash, helping to take advantage of her overwhelming capacity to wield the Light.

Enough that, in a few days, he might actually trust her to hold the fort for a limited time while he left the city and started harassing the undead once more.

Those weren’t the only improvements, just the greatest ones. Allerton managed to come up with a few recipes for healing salves using the holy lilies as the main ingredient, enough to slow down the bleeding and allow the soldiers to wait until the arrival of the priests.

Father Aldric had identified about twenty civilians with the correct mindset and decent aptitude for healing spells and started training them; logistic operations stabilized, and every day, the morale rose further. So much that he was willing to live through the siege.

He couldn’t help but find it ironic that the cage that the Scourge had built around Stratholme had triggered a productive period of growth. Without it, he probably would have continued focusing on destroying the ritual site and other issues.

&&&

It was the ninth day when the soldiers at the wall signaled movement once more. Three horns, blown repeatedly, signaling the whole undead army was on the move.

“Of course,” Arvis frowned as he rushed to the wall, ready to attack, only to see the soldiers looking dazed. “What’s wrong?”

“The undead, my lord…” one of the soldiers with a spyglass muttered. “They are … retreating.”

“Give me that,” he said, ripping the spyglass from the soldier’s hand, and checked the horizon, confirming that it was the case. He wondered if it was a trap…

[Feat Achieved! Withstand a prolonged siege from a far superior enemy force

+1x Gold Advantage Random Gacha ticket]

Likely not, he corrected as he received the achievement for surviving the siege. Getting a reward for it was interesting, as previously he hadn’t received any rewards for such success.

Maybe it was the size of the enemy that triggered … or more likely, the System decided the victory belonged not only to him, but also to his growing faction. Which might be a good reason for him to adjust his actions in the future.

“My lord, is it a trap?” Halford asked, rushing the wall at the alarm.

“Likely not,” Arvis replied. “Keep the scouts in place, but let the soldiers rest. They deserve it,” he said.

Halford took a step closer. “Are we sure, my lord? You don’t look too happy.”

“I don’t, because I have a feeling that they have already accomplished what they had arrived for. That’s bad news for us, especially with the direction they are retreating.”

Halford paused, raised his spyglass, and paused. “They are moving northeast,” he muttered.

“Yes. Either they decided the trolls were the most important enemy they had to deal with, or…”

“Quel’Thalas,” Halford completed. “Isn’t it good news for us? Elves have all those magic defenses, and undead would take months, maybe years to breach these defenses.”

Arvis sighed. “It should. Elves should be ready to evacuate their numbers, and even if the worst happens, the undead should lose a significant number of their forces. It’s good news,” he said.

Only, he wasn’t as confident as he was speaking. The undead attack on Quel’Thalas still didn’t make any sense. He wanted to believe that the Lich King was making an arrogant mistake, but assuming an enemy that had dismantled Lordaeron in less than a week after planning it for years was getting impatient … it was a dangerous assumption to make.

Before deciding what to do, he activated his reward.

[Select one!]

[Suppression]

{Elite Skill: You are a master of suppressing yourself, getting rid of your presence, lowering it to that of an ordinary presence or fully concealing all of your energy. You can make a presence that shakes gods into one that doesn't seem out of place with foliage.}

[Otar]

{Elite Item: Skyrim - A dragon priest mask, crafted out of Malachite and enchanted with great power. This mask, when worn, grants the user considerable resistance against Fire, Ice and Lightning elements.}

His eyes widened as he picked up Suppression. Elemental resistance was nice, but having the ability to conceal himself was exactly what he needed under the circumstances.

“Organize the council and make sure everything is going on perfectly. I’ll scout the retreating enemy and will make sure that everything is alright.”

Halford seemed reluctant about that, but Arvis didn’t let him waste his time. He just shook his head and jumped down. Instead of directly chasing the retreating army, he moved in a southwest direction.

His thinking was simple. A hundred thousand undead that weren’t confident in taking Stratholme could never threaten Quel’Thalas, meaning they must have a bigger force moving toward them. The only question was … how big.

That question had been answered quickly. He just needed to run about thirty miles, only to freeze in shock, the size of the undead army shouting. The answer to his question was … millions.

He didn’t know why the undead were committing such a great force, but regardless of the reason, it couldn’t be something simple. He rushed back to the elven border desperately, the combination of Momentum, Bloom, and Suppression allowing him to bypass not only the undead scouts, and soon, he was at the elven border … and saw that the border was crawling with elven rangers.

He approached, showing himself … only to receive several arrows in response. He dodged them easily. “I’m here to talk with Sylvanas Windrunner—“ he declared, only to receive several other arrows.

He dodged them easily as well, but it didn’t make him feel any less frustrated. “Your kind is not allowed here, human,” the ranger declared.

Arvis might have tried to act diplomatically if the tone of the elf had been fearful or stressed. But, his smug tone rankled him. “I said I will talk with Sylvanas! Send a message.”

The rangers responded with more arrows. That alone would have angered him, but then, the rangers started talking in Thalassian, which he could now understand thanks to his Linguist Trait.

They were making bets on which one of them could nail him on the balls.

“Alright, that’s it,” Arvis said. Clearly, it was not the time to be diplomatic. He rushed forward, momentum bringing him closer. His Dexterous trait, combined with his speed, allowed him to parry the arrows with his blade easily, and soon, he was in front of the first elven ranger.

He didn’t kill him.

He just backhanded him, and he flew toward the nearest tree, landing with a loud thump. The second elven ranger ended up with a painful kick to the balls, and the third one, the one that decided to make the bet, he grabbed by the throat, and lifted him against the tree. “You’re lucky I owe your ranger general a favor, pointy,” he spoke in deliberately broken Thalassian, not wanting to show just how well he could understand them.

“I’m sorry,” the ranger gasped, his eyes filled with fear, which didn’t surprise Arvis. Bullies were all the same.

“Good. It means I won’t cut your balls and feed them to you. Now, send Sylvanas a message. I have important news.”

He did, and he let him go. The trio of elven rangers retreated to a corner, glaring at him, but not daring to do anything else.

Soon, Sylvanas appeared, and her rangers immediately started speaking, spinning a tale about a human interloper who insulted their blood and their king. “Enough,” Sylvanas declared. “Leave. We’ll talk about this later!”

The rangers didn’t say anything else.

“What’s wrong?” Sylvanas asked the moment they left.

“Bad news. There’s a huge undead army approaching your position. Millions of them. I suspect they are putting everything they had accumulated.”

Her eyes widened. “That doesn’t make sense. Even against the millions, our defenses will hold.”

Arvis sighed. “Sylvanas. How confident are you in betting the lives of every single elf that this mysterious Lich King, who took down the strongest human kingdom, has nothing planned against your magical defenses?”

She sighed. “Not that confident, no matter how arrogant the council is. I think you’re right about them. There are traitors among us.”

“Traitors that can potentially sabotage the defenses from inside?” he questioned. Sylvanas’ expression stiffened, but she said nothing. “Just be ready to evacuate the elves,” he said. “If the worst happens, and the traitors don’t allow the elves to enter Silvermoon, use the fleet and come to Stratholme. We have more than enough space to host them.”

“You would do that?” she asked.

“Well, you kept me alive when I needed despite how much problems it caused you,” Arvis said. Considering the reaction of her own rangers, he couldn’t begin imagining the political backlash she dealt with just by allowing some human refugees.

However, considering how badly things would have gone without her initial help, he owed her to make an offer.

“Thank you for the warning,” Sylvanas said, looking exhausted. “I would hope that you can stay and fight with us, but…”

“The political cost of such a move is far more than its benefit,” he completed. “Don’t worry. I don’t intend to let such an opportunity.”

“How so?” she asked.

“For the first time since they started moving, their hold in the west is weakening. It’s the perfect opportunity to go around and cause some trouble.”

“Maybe even connect with Dalaran?”

“No,” he said. “I wish that it’s a viable path, but if they wanted to act, they would have. A minor noble wouldn’t change their opinion.” He chuckled. “They are almost as bad as elves about that.”

“Fair point,” she replied, the ghost of a smile blooming on her face. “What are you planning to do, then?”

"I don't intend to fight them in the open. It’s inevitable they had left many acolytes and weaker necromancers behind to replenish their numbers, targeting the graveyards and other older sources of bodies. Every necromancer I kill slows their growth, which is the best we can hope for. It would be even better if I came across some of their leadership.”

“What if you face another Nathrezim,” she asked, worried.

He waved his hand. “Nathrezim are dangerous, but without the necessity to defend hundreds of people in the process, I can always retreat from them. I’m fast.”

“That’s not a plan,” she said.

“That’s the closest thing to one we can have under the circumstances,” he replied. “It’s not like we have many options.”

“Right,” she whispered. “That’s it, then… I hope we both survive what’s coming.”

“I hope so as well,” he said, then paused, struck with a sudden fancy as he pulled his safeguard ring, and put to her finger. She was surprised enough to let him.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“A ring that deploys an emergency shield and teleports you away when you’re about to face mortal danger,” he said. “No. What I’m about to do is dangerous, but not as dangerous as what you’re about to do. Keep it.”

“You need it—“

“Not as much as you,” he said, squeezed her hand, and took a step back. “Be careful, Sylvanas.”

With that, he turned and left … wondering whether he would see her ever again.

&&&

Compared to his talk with Sylvanas, the council meeting had gone smoother. “Are you determined, my lord?” Halford asked once he had finished explaining the latest situation, including the intensity of the Scourge attack.

“I have to,” he answered. “We don’t know why the Scourge is determined to attack Quel’Thalas, but regardless of the reason, it’s an opportunity to deal with their hinterland as much as possible. Based on the undead movement, there’s a chance that other settlements exist, and I can mobilize them.” He paused. “I have to mobilize them, because without them, once the Scourge finishes dealing with the undead, we’ll be next.”

Halford was silent for a long moment. Then he nodded.

"How long?" Sally asked.

"Days. Possibly a week. Possibly longer if the situation is worse than I expect, though I doubt it’ll be longer than that.”

“I want to come with you,” she said.

“No,” he answered. “Not because I don’t want you here, but your presence is vital here. I want you to stay here, practice the technique I taught you until you can pull off the first stance flawlessly.”

Instead, he pulled the Sword of Vengeance, and passed it to her. “Use this to defend Stratholme,” he said.

“M-my lord,” she whispered.

“I trust you, Sally,” he said. To his surprise, he actually did. Now that she wasn’t drunk with the light, she had returned to the land of the sane … as far as one could be while the world around them went mad.

He couldn’t help but shiver, wondering just how bad things might have gone if she hadn’t listened to him.

She looked hesitant. “The next time, I’ll come with you.”

Arvis nodded. “The next time, I’ll bring you with me,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about me. Just focus on keeping Stratholme secure for me, understood.”

“Yes, my lord,” they answered. With that, he left Stratholme once more. The siege that wasn't a siege was over.

The war had started.