Karp
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Chapter 139
🕑 Added 2025-01-01 19:39:40 +0000 UTC“Tiid. Klo. Ul!”
(Time. Sand. Eternity!)
Varrus opened up the conflict by using one of, if not the most useful Dragon Shouts from Skyrim.
Even so, that only gave himself the slightest of speed advantages as Malfurion actively began to buff himself as well.
Unlike most other opponents Varrus had faced, the ancient Night Elf was a master of Nature magic, and was well versed in supporting magic as well as offensive magic.
With this literal second or two speed advantage, Varrus cast Forbidden Sun on top of Malfurion's head.
A great globe of fire spawned in the sky, and roared with the heat of a nuclear bomb as it headed towards the druid's position.
The overwhelming boost to spell power and effect on his spells almost left Varrus in awe.
But he couldn't allow himself to let up, as this opening gambit was nothing more than a distraction!
As Malfurion busied himself with countering the giant ball of fire, Varrus moved onto the next step.
Instead of casting more Skyrim spells, like Apocalypse, Varrus went with the magic he learnt from old man Vandercross's memory crystal.
He was well aware that he wouldn't be able to end this fight with a cheeky, overwhelming burst of power. So instead, he decided to play for the long con, and drain this fucker of his mana. To do that, he needed to control the battlefield in such a way, that he could get close, and either assassinate him, or utilize some of his activatables. This was an ideal method of attack, because the druid would be unable to cast any spells due to mana deficiency, and Varrus's various perks acting upon him.
Or ideally, just use Magicka Void, which swapped health percentages with mana percentages. But it was more than likely the ancient druid wore protective gear, so it would be unwise to solely rely upon this spell, hence the multi pronged attack!
Plan set in motion, Varrus dumped tons of leftover Mana Stones he had been holding in reserve in the event that the Sunwell did not work out. Now that he no longer had to feed his peoples mana addiction, every Mana Stone he generated could be used expressly for purposes of war!
Combining the stones he had dropped to the ground, a Mana Stone Forest came into existence.
Countless crystalline branches, and trees began to take shape. With his improved control of the spell after hours of practice, he added his own ideas to the spell. For example, making square buildings, pyramids, and even a few spheres the size of boulders.
The spell took a mighty strain on his willpower, stretching his imagination to the limit, but the enhanced spell power of his enchanted gear allowed him to push through, and achieve his vision.
Within the grove of Tha'salah, a couple blocks of a mega city, alongside a thick jungle had grown out of the ground, and shone brightly in the late afternoon sun.
All mana within the area began to actively be sucked into this miniature city, and Varrus hid both himself, and Rho'dan within one of the buildings.
From inside, he could view any point that his spell made contact with the outside world, as if he were viewing a monitor.
Malfurion had not remained idle during Varrus's grand spell, and cast one of his own.
Seconds after Varrus's city came into shape, a massive forest of real trees, flowers, and other plants began to sprout up on its flank.
It too began to sup on the ambient mana in the air, and both crystalline city and natural forest began to compete for that precious resource!
Tree roots burrowed themselves underneath the crystalline city, piercing holes all around, no doubt searching for Varrus. At the same time, these branches would flower, and released pollen in the air that spread throughout the rooms of the city like a disease cloud.
Blink teleporting to a rooftop of a mini sky-scraper, Varrus had a row of 20 thick slabs in front of him.
He placed down an acceleration rune in front of them, and then tipped them over with telekinesis.
Once the mana rich slabs were propelled forward, they fell deep within Malfurion's forest, and each one exploded like a tomahawk missile, forcing the earth to shake like a modern battlefield!
About 15% of the forest had been obliterated by this salvo alone.
At the same time, a tenth of the crystalline city had been overwhelmed by overgrowth, and the mana stolen from his city was used to regrow that section of forest that was lost!
Varrus calmly analyzed this rapid turn of events, and while it would be a lie to say he wasn't nettled, he had an idea on how to counter this.
Dropping 20 more slabs on the rooftop, Varrus cast the Restoration spell, Horrid Wilting on them, injecting the Mana Stones with Death magic, the counter to Nature!
Horrid Wilting: Desiccates nonmechanical targets, inflicting 12 disease damage per second for 10 seconds.
The pristine, white Mana Stones suddenly took on a dark, necrotic black color, and emitted a sinister aura.
He was likely to irradiate his own land with this maneuver, but in Varrus's mind, it was worth it if it meant getting a one up on another demigod tier opponent.
Besides, if he could power wash away the plagued land, then surely he could do the same with his own spells?
Smirking to himself, Varrus shot out 20 more ‘missiles’ with the help of the acceleration runes.
This time when the Mana Stones collided with the forest, a great cloud of plague and Undeath spread amongst the trees.
A great big bald patch suffused the land, and within it, Varrus could see the druid for the first time since they had begun slinging spells at one another.
The druid eyed Varrus with a calculating, cold look, but Varrus didn't have time to care about posturing, and readied another set of ‘Mana Stone Missiles.’
Launching them at the druid, and at various other spots in the forest, Varrus was surprised that Malfurion had opted to just stand still.
‘What is that old man's game plan?’ Varrus narrowed his eyes at the seemingly illogical decision.
As the diseased Mana Stone Missiles drew near, Malfurion polymorphed into a Faerie Dragon, a tiny blue flying lizard that originated from the Emerald Dream.
All around him, a magic shield spread out, and he began to absorb all of the mana from the explosions!
While it was actually a good play on his part, Varrus thought him insane, as they were still tainted with Death energy.
A moment later, Varrus was proven wrong with his assessment when all the mana from those missiles formed a putrid colored ring around Malfurion, and never actually entered his system.
Varrus could see where this was going, and swiftly Blinked back to the bunker that Rho'dan was in as a beam of concentrated energy blasted part of the skyscraper into smithereens!
However, as powerful as the beam was, the skyscraper was rather large, and absorbed most of the energy shot at it before ultimately losing half of its structure.
‘Damn.’ Varrus could only squeeze his fists as the druid vexed him with this transformation.
He had hoped to drain this formidable foe from a distance, but nothing seemed to be working.
If he had Syra and Nightsong here, they could be of great use pressuring Malfurion, and leaving Varrus free to snipe at the purple Elf from a distance.
The only thing was, the portal was being suppressed by Malfurion, and the forest he had conjured was acting in such a manner that teleportation in the area from long distance was risky.
‘Damn, I was expecting moderately friendly attitudes, and didn't bring Syra along because she might get jealous or feud openly with her mother. But I should've taken her and my mother along from the start.’ Varrus internally beat himself up.
Whilst he could be going up close, he wasn't exactly comfortable fighting openly in melee range.
That left only one option.
“I suppose this is the part where you want me to gloriously throw my life away in the name of House Vandercross?” Rho'dan drily intoned.
“Whaat? No, what nonsense? Whatever gave you such an idea?” Varrus waved his hand in denial.
“Probably the creepy grin you flashed my way after staring at nothing for a minute straight.” Rho'dan deadpanned.
“Well. Malfurion is quite vexing, and I do need someone to distract him…” Varrus scratched the back of his head, embarrassed at being caught.
“Say no more, just be sure to buff me before I head out, and summon some of those spirits, would you? For House Vandercross.” Rho'dan tiredly stood to his feet, and was all business as he began to head towards the exit.
“Thanks for being so understanding.’ Varrus nodded in appreciation.
However, while he would be sending Rho'dan out there, he still messaged Syra and Nightsong. While it would be cool to 1v1 Malfurion, he wasn't above ganking someone.
At the end of the day, all that mattered was victory. With any luck, he would be receiving reinforcements sometime within the next 10-30 min, as they should be able to teleport to a ‘nearby’ town, then make their way here.
Scratching his chin, Varrus moved onto the next part of his plan, and quickly perused his Conjuration spells. Due to the rules of the system, he could only have one summon per every base 200 mana.
He had recently leveled some, and his current mana was hovering at above 1,400, meaning he could have 7 permanent summons at once.
The Undead Convocation members, Starbottle and Dawnbringer took up 2 slots, so he could only have 5 out at the moment to aid Rho'dan.
Typically, he would cast Conjure Battlemage. However, he wanted some warriors to go in close, and pressure the druid. He still didn't want to summon any daedra until he had experimented with them, because while Skyrim magic had some game mechanics, this wasn't a game, and those daedra actively hated everyone else.
So that only left Varrus with a few options.
Finally, he settled on the Oathbound Guardian. It summoned a pale blue ghostly apparition to follow an ally, and looked much like the Nords who resided in Sovngarde. They came equipped with heavy armor, and were capable of the Fus Ro Dah Dragon Shout.
Casting the spell 5 times on Rho'dan, Varrus then began to buff them with his Illusion spells.
“Good luck, Rho'dan. I'll be supporting you all the way.” Varrus nodded at his faithful guardian, then began to continue the war of attrition between his crystalline city, and Malfurion's forest.
Rho'dan wordlessly slammed a helmet over his head, and began his advance.
To cover for Rho'dan's assault, Varrus began to direct his Mana Stones to encroach upon the forest in a manner that sacrificed his resources faster than he ordinarily would have in this battle of attrition.
Crystals exploded everywhere, and trees collapsed, only for new ones to sprout out of the ground like weeds in a documentary where the camera was sped up.
As Rho'dan drew nearer, and nearer, Varrus took to the skies, and began to try his hand at various elemental magics.
Frozen Orbs scattered in the sky, and emitted vast, icy effects upon the land. Afterwards, Varrus cast Volcano three times, and spawned in the mouth of three different volcanoes in three separate spots around the forest.
Fire and brimstone rained across the land, and ash covered the skies.
So many fires and frozen wastelands came into existence, that even with his ability to absorb and redirect mana as a Faerie Dragon, Malfurion had his hands full.
In fact, Varrus was beginning to think he wouldn't even need Rho'dan to act as a distraction.
Maybe he was being too cautious by opening up with the Crystalline City. Perhaps he should have gone all in on offense from the start!
However, this hope was short lived, as a rainstorm began to fall down from the sky, and was accompanied by an angelic hymn.
It was the signature spell that Keeper's of the Grove could cast, Tranquility!
Wherever the rain passed, the trees would almost instantly regenerate, the volcanoes were put out, and the Frozen Orbs melted.
This incredible storm of Nature magic swept across the battlefield, and changed the momentum back into Malfurion's grasp.
Not even the Crystal City was safe, as the Mana Stone constructs were overwhelmed by the deluge of rain, and slowly lost their cohesiveness, like a sugar cube within a glass of water.
Clenching his fist, Varrus cast Control Weather, and tried to clear the clouds. It worked for a moment, but Malfurion did not cease channeling his spell, and the thunder clouds reappeared.
Whilst ordinarily, Tranquility wasn't an offensive spell, and primarily healed, it was being cast by the foremost druid on all of Azeroth. Who knew what effects the ancient Night Elf could weave into it?
Beginning to feel a sense of panic, Varrus repeatedly cast Twister in an effort to disperse the clouds, and he saw some success, yet it too wasn't good enough.
Every second that transpired, his city grew weaker, and the forest encroached ever closer upon his land.
Thinking fast, there was one method that would clear this storm, but he truly did not want to have to resort to it.
It was the shout, Clear Skies.
The power of the Dragon Shouts was rather extreme, and he had a good feeling it would work. The problem was, he only had 5 free Dragon Souls available! If he learnt this ability, he would not be able to learn a new Dragon Shout for quite some time!
Plus, Clear Skies didn't really have that much utility outside of this niche circumstance.
However…this rain was an extremely dangerous threat, and he had to take it out. Otherwise, he would lose his position, and would have to relocate to another position if he wanted to continue the battle.
Furthermore, Rho'dan's mission would all be for naught if he abandoned this stretch of land, and Tha'salah would likely be lost.
He had to hold.
With great regret, Varrus dumped 3 free souls into Clear Skies, then opened his mouth to shout his defiance into the skies.
“Lok. Vah. Koor!”
(Sky. Spring. Summer!)
As soon as the wave of energy struck the clouds above, the rain was forcefully dissipated, and no matter how much Malfurion channeled, the sky remained clear.
Varrus then angrily began to spam Volcano all around the forest in a spite filled rage.
The tides of momentum had shifted once again!
“Let's see you counter this, old bastard.” Varrus muttered to himself as he brought a fiery hell to this once sacred grove.
Comments
MadGod
Preposterous! They should be playing Hearthstone, what if they get cancelled by Blizzard?
Karp
If you aren't a Legendary Hero like Thrall, Jaina, Kael, etc, he's going to one shot you. He is above the Legendary Heroes, but only by just a bit. If he fought an unbuffed Nozdormu again rn 1v1, he'd have a 75/25 chance of winning in a head on fight. Against buffed Murozond, maybe a 50/50. Meanwhile, guys like Telonicus, Tae'thelon, Koren, even Liadrin, they're all going to lose to MC in <1 min due to his overwhelming power.
Smitty
How strong is varus right now? Also I'm eagerly waiting for an uppity dragon to get wrecked by dragon rend
Karp
Playing MTG with each other probably. They'll get some screen time, but Malf vs Varrus is the main event.
Joey
As usual Karp good work. Oh well i guess there can only be one race of elves on azeroth at the end of the day. Time for the great druidic purge by the foolishness of Stormrage may ye be judged you ignorant treehugging savages.
Conor McGroarty
So are the other night elves doing nothing?
santhinal
I don't think Varrus himself relizes with the sunwell buffing him hes technically in Demigod tier himself now lol!
