Karp
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Chapter 102
🕑 Added 2024-11-08 21:44:24 +0000 UTCVarrus had somewhat adapted to some of the absolutely putrid stenches he had come across in his time in Warcraft. He had experienced a zombie's hot breath, the fried remains of thousands of Trolls, the sticky Kobold throne, and the musky hall of the dark temple.
But the amount of blood oozing out of the sewers was like an oil spill. It colored the walkways and streets, and stank to high heaven.
The stink, however, was the least of Varrus's concerns.
When the was pooled together in such a large quantity, the conceptual weight of decay magnified.
Unlike on earth where a gallon of acid was about as toxic as 5 gallons of acid, here, magic altered the rules of the universe. The more of this acid-blood coagulated and merged together, the more powerful the effect!
Before, if the rain was a concern, then the sheer amount of poison accumulated in this lakes worth of blood was something worth going into full-blown panic mode over!
Varrus's first instinct was to reconstruct his Tower of Jenga. Getting to the high ground against a massive pool of liquid was a matter of practicality.
Whilst he cast his architecture spell, he also tossed out hundreds of Raise Walls in between the blood and the Sunfury.
As useful as Kael's army of Elites were, they would be no match for this furiously churning, intelligent body of blood.
“Cast away, Highlord, we shall protect you.” Rho'dan slapped his shield, and nodded at the Crossguard standing atop the tower next to Varrus.
“Any sight of my wife?” Varrus questioned as he began to toss out Frozen Orb's one after another.
The ice magic had proved exceptional against both the sap and the rain. Now he would test its limits against this massive blood pool.
“A scouting report has come in. She is engaging the World Tree, and reinforcing General Nightsong.” Rho'dan supplied after reading a message from his scrying orb.
“Good enough. Watch my back, and be prepared to dodge away. This tower is strong, but it still has to undergo some limit testing.” Varrus replied,
As Varrus was busy setting up his tower, Kael was nearby, and mounted upon Al'ar. He was chanting a spell to unleash the Phoenix Fire! His sword grew brighter and brighter along with his forceful words.
A portal opened up behind the young King, and the cry of Phoenix Song resounded throughout the land.
The blood quivered, and Lana'thel's voice rose to meet Kael's.
“Ishnu'Van'Anori
Des'dreth Ban'Ghes”
A tornado of sticky plasma spawned into existence, and splattered thick blobs the size of sedans in every direction.
Varrus pulled upon the Mana Stones embedded in his tower to draw the energy out of any stray shots. Over 75% of the dank substance was blocked by his first line defense. The remainder was either tanked by the enchanted bricks, or directly blocked by the Crossguards’ shields.
During this, Varrus spared a glance around, and saw Jan'alai alongside Dranarus fighting off the meatball of stitched faces.
As for Kael, he began to bring down a serious amount of fire and life-giving flame into the lake.
Blood blackened and dried, yet it seemed that there was a nearly endless supply!
The sewers gushed red endlessly. All the rain that had poured over these lands during the entirety of the two week siege had accumulated into a serious supply for Lana'thel.
The former Queen retaliated, and had tendrils of blood swinging in the air in an attempt to tentacle both Kael, and Jan'alai.
At the same time, a two pronged attack against Varrus . A surge of liquid was crashing upon his tower, and climbing upward like it had a life of its own. At the same time, it was eating away at the foundation of his tower, and decaying the soil underneath!
Frozen Orb after Frozen Orb splashed into the viscous liquid, exploding after making contact, and creating a winter wonderland of sanguine snow.
This slowed down the progress of the attack upon his building, yet the endless tide would flow over the snow, and melt that which had been frozen.
He tried out the Raise Wall spell a few more times, but it acted only as a stop gap. The stones were powerful thanks to his Spell Power, but ultimately, the decaying effect of the blood only needed to drill a small hole in the wall to make it worthless.
Varrus grimly came to the realization that his tower might collapse. Then, he would have to flee on his flying carpet. He didn't have enough room for the entourage he brought with him, so he'd probably have to yeet them away with telekinesis.
Whilst Varrus was annoyed that he might have to abandon the Tower of Jenga, he caught sight of Telonicus's floating weapons platform.
Of course! Blood Elves had levitating buildings all throughout Quel'Thalas!
Varrus had been so busy studying his Mana Crystal magic, cleansing the city, meeting with the Kobolds, and a hundred other things that he never learned how to levitate buildings!
“Telonicus! I need you to levitate my tower!” Varrus pulled up his scrying orb, and sent a priority message.
The engineer's face appeared on the orb, and he looked annoyed. His expression seemed to say ‘do it yourself, I'm busy.’
Varrus's eyebrow twitched, he had received a similar expression once when asking a coworker for tech support. But now wasn't the time to get hung up over trivialities.
“...100 Mana Stones.”
“Done!” Varrus instantly replied, uncaring to bargain over the price since he was on a timer crunch. Any delay would mean his tower could be toppled over at any time, and all the resources that went into making the enchanted bricks would have gone to waste.
“Pleasure doing business with you, Highlord.” Telonicus said in a perfunctory tone, and cut the call.
A moment later, the engineer emerged from a portal, and took a look at Varrus's tower.
“Protect me as I inscribe the runes.” Telonicus said flatly, then got to work before Varrus could even acknowledge him.
‘Math heads.’ Varrus rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut.
He'd take a single, socially inept, brilliant scientist over a hundred friendly do-nothings any day.
Telonicus was a character, that was to be sure.
Meanwhile, Varrus had one more ace up his sleeve to buy them some time.
Fortunately, the blood gave off a powerful stench of decay, and not Life energy. Which meant, compared to when he fought against Tha'salah's sap, Varrus's restoration magic was super effective!
Ordinarily, he would use his go-to spell, Infinite Light. The beam was a powerful concentration attack, and great for cleansing the land.
However, the vast pool of blood was something large, that he wanted to go with one of his less used-yet no less powerful-spells. Something that had a wider radius, and was more applicable to lay down some AOE.
He went with the Master tier Restoration spell: Star Storm.
Raising his hands high, Varrus channeled some Holy energies, and held a pose as the spell required him to constantly concentrate on the magic.
Seconds later, bright lights formed in the sky, and began to fall all around Varrus in a cacophony of violence.
The projectiles weren't any larger than a tennis ball, but they came down in the thousands every second.
Large chunks of blood hissed and sizzled due to Varrus’s attack.
Lana'thel must not have appreciated it, as several waves taller than the last came crashing down. Varrus felt the tower shake, and glanced at Telonicus, yet received no indication as to the engineer's progress.
Several more waves rocked the tower, and Varrus could see the foundation begin to almost completely come loose.
He wanted to question Telonicus, but doing so would be like prodding the bear. If you wanted quality, you never rushed a tech.
Biting his tongue to remain silent, Varrus kept on casting Star Storm, and continued to melt away at the endless lake as much as he could.
Varrus was so intune with his spell, he almost slipped when the tower jolted, and began to slowly lean towards a 60 degree angle.
Rho'dan caught him before he could fall off the edge, however, the guard was beginning to slip as well.
Varrus was about to write the tower off as a loss, and unfurl his flying carpet, when Telonicus said the magic words every tech illiterate person wanted to hear.
“It's done.” Telonicus muttered, and with the snap of his finger, the Tower of Jenga levitated into the air.
Varrus had the Mana Stones embedded within the tower pulse, and fried any of the sticky sanguine substance that tried to cling onto the tower as it rose.
“100 Mana Stones, I'll send a bill after the battle is concluded. Control has been sent to your scrying orb.” Telonicus nodded, and spoke no differently than a mechanic changing the oil. To him, it was all business.
The Royal Engineer then walked through another portal, and disappeared to another part of the battlefield.
“To charge money in the midst of a war. He has no shame.” One of the Crossguard spat to the side.
“Your magnanimous donation of weapons, armor and golems to the King demonstrate your virtue, Highlord.” Another Crossguard flattered.
“Alright men, focus. The Highlord needs silence to think out his next move.” Rho'dan rebuked his compatriots, and cut the chatter.
Varrus nodded thankfully at Rho'dan, and grinned. If only the rest of his troops were privy to the amount of money he would make from cleansing the Dead Scar. Or how many of the enchanting materials/ores he had taken for his own personal use in the name of security?
However, Rho'dan was correct, the endless ocean of decayed blood had been by perhaps 10 to 20% over the course of around half an hour of fighting.
This entire time it was being bombarded by Kael's Phoenix Fire, Jan'alai's breath attacks, Varrus Light spells, and hundreds of miscellaneous magic attacks from the Arcane Cannons, and mages in the distance.
As it stood, Varrus only had so many Mana Stones left on hand, and there was no way that the rest of the Elven forces were doing well. In fact, he had already seen several Elves fall down due to mana sickness, and a lack of energy.
A battle of attrition was not in the cards for this one.
It became increasingly clear to Varrus how important, and OP the Sunwell was to the Highborn.
Depending on Archimonde's status, Varrus decided he might have to restart the Sunwell sooner than later, because losing due to a lack of mana was unacceptable.
The more he watched Kael unleash torrent after torrent of flame, only to see it eventually become smothered was disappointing.
He knew that Kael was making progress, that if the Sunwell was around, he could easily snipe the pool, and burn the traitor out.
But instead, Kael had to take more risks, and had Al'ar perform dive bomb attacks so that the Phoenix could run his claws within the pool. All the while, the young King would slash his powerful sword into the blood, and cleanse large swathes with every swing.
This method of attack was impactful, yet extremely dangerous. Already, Varrus had witnessed the tendrils almost catch Al'ar's talons, and specks of diseased blood had landed on his feathers, forcing the Phoenix to waste mana molting the rot and decay away.
All this risk taking gave Varrus a headache, and a queasy feeling that Kael would eventually be caught.
He considered continuing his Star Storm, Frozen Orb, Apocalypse combo. To throw everything he had into the lake, however, Telonicus's floating weapons platform gave him inspiration once more.
The Tower of Jenga was levitating now too, and it was chock full of Mana Stones.
Varrus had been studying and working on the Vandercross Family Magic for a few weeks now, and had made some progress.
While he couldn't make a forest, have the crystal transform, or turn the energy into Elementals, he had been practicing the absorption and release of mana.
With the Tower of Jenga, Varrus had found a way to shoot a beam directly up, like a skyscraper shining lights into the sky.
However, ever since he had that talk with Telonicus months ago, he had forgotten all about his floating platform idea.
Now that the Tower of Jenga was in the air, not only could he shoot a beam up, but he could direct it to the ground as well!
Not only was there an incredible amount of mana stored within-some of which had been absorbed by the blood storm-but while he had been casting Star Storm earlier, he had inadvertently struck many of the crystals, and had attuned them with the Holy attribute!
Varrus adjusted the tower, and had it levitate towards the central location of the battlefield. Its movement speed was relatively slow, moving at perhaps 30mph. However, the building was an ominous sight.
Standing on high, Varrus for the first time truly felt like a Magus King from legend. The design of the tower made him think of ancient Babylon, or the pharaohs of old. Whilst he stood gazing down at the filthy ocean, he couldn't help but let the arrogance get to him. Everything he surveyed was but trash to be vaporized.
During Varrus's brief megalomaniac interlude, Kael was desperately trying to cut his way out of a tendril, and was on the verge of being caught when the shadow of a colossus shaded him from the sun.
8 stories of magically enchanted bricks shone brightly as golden hued, giant crystals lit up like the brightest of fireworks.
Varrus madly cackled, like some sort of insane scientist, as his tower sucked in ambient mana like a locust swarm devouring a farmer's crops.
A second later, a massive beam like none Varrus had seen before dropped down from his tower.
The whooshing sound was like no other.
Golden light briefly blinded Varrus's eyes as he looked on in glee.
Over 85% of the bloodwell had been vaporized!
Truly, Light magic against Death magic was just a cheat code. It was like using a water pokemon in a rock type gym.
Simply put, it was unfair!
Varrus's grin widened as he saw the Holy magic had left Kael, and any other person or object left unharmed.
The beam wasn't a concussive attack, like a Hammer of Justice. No, it was pure energy.
From Varrus's POV, it was like a nuclear firestorm that healed instead of destroyed.
It was wonderful.
However, every crystal attached to the tower had been used, and crumbled into dust. Furthermore, Varrus only had a few dozen more Mana Stones in his inventory, as he had been absorbing them like mad to keep up with his astounding expenditure.
The fight needed to end soon.
Looking down, Varrus saw that there was perhaps an Olympic swimming pool's worth of blood left.
In fact, Lana'thel had emerged from within, and was engaging Kael in melee.
Large claws constantly clashed with Kael's sword, and Al'ar's talons.
Lana'thel was fast, but Kael was surprisingly skilled with a sword. The pair of duelists moved quickly, reminding Varrus of anime characters when they clashed.
However, Lana'thel was not skilled in close quarters combat, and was only so dangerous due to the boost provided by the blood.
Already, Kael had scored several wounds on her, yet she regenerated them each time.
Even if the blood pool was swiftly diminishing, she kept going at Kael as if she didn't have a care in the world.
This large amount of self healing was annoying, and Varrus had a contingency for dealing with it, but it didn't seem necessary as the large pool had reduced in size to an average sized family pool. Lana'thel was on the verge of death.
Varrus thought his friend had it in the bag when Kael's sword pierced her heart, however, the insane witch's claw entered Kael's chest at the same time as she traded a wound for a wound.
Al'ar tried clawing her away, but she stuck to Kael like glue. Her mouth opened wide, and beastly fangs sprouted forth.
Varrus felt his breath hitch at the sudden development, and acted before thinking.
He Blinked down next to them so he could work his magic at near point blank range, then he cast his contingency plan for cockroach regenerators: Bloodseeker.
Bloodseeker: Casts a homing flare at a target. When it reaches the target, it heals or deals magic damage equal to 175% of the Health the target gained or lost while it was in flight.
Lana'thel froze for a second when the spell hit her. She looked back at Varrus in horror and fear before she evaporated from this plane.
Varrus paid her no mind, and rushed to Kael's side. He cast Dispel Magic, and a healing spell on him quick as can be.
“Kael, buddy, are you okay?” Varrus said in a hurry.
“Help me up, I must appear strong for the people.” Kael held out a hand.
Varrus hauled Kael to his feet, and patted him on the shoulder.
He opened his mouth to say something, but Rho'dan Blinked next to him.
“Report, Tha'salah has been subdued, I report, Tha'salah has been subdued!” Rho'dan saluted Kael, and Varrus.
“Subdued and not slain?” Varrus questioned in surprise.
“I do not know the specifics, but Valanar and General Nightsong worked some druidic magic, and soothed the World Tree. Lady Syra was critical in distracting Tha'salah, buying them time to finish the job.” Rho'dan shrugged his shoulders as he replied.
A moment later, Jan'alai came crashing down with the meatball in her talons. The many faced monster was damaged beyond belief, and trying to screech, but she wouldn't let it, and ripped it apart with her beak.
“It's finally over.” Kael breathed in relief.
“No my friend, it has only just begun. Quel'Thalas is just the beginning.” Varrus put a hand on Kael's shoulder, and gestured towards the mountain range south of Deatholme.
On the other side lay Stratholme, and the Plaguelands.
The true war to purify the Eastern Kingdoms was on the horizon.
Comments
Jar Jar Bingus
I think Telonicus should get a pass; throwing money at him literally results in weapons platforms and other goodies, so it's like investing in the R&D department. He did the weapons platforms within 3 months! Also he's straightforward and non-backstabby. He's not asking for money to goof off or buy a mansion, he's using it to do cool stuff that helps the kingdom
Fire_Fox2590
Hope we get a lot more maniacal laughter and moments where Varrus has 'evil genius' moments, both inspiring his allies, and also terrifying his enemies... and his allies.
Kasikan
Hope he remembers to make sure the greedy little idiots suffer once the undead are dealt with. Letting them constantly act like greedy little shits is definitely going to set a bad example for their recovering people. More so when they do it in the middle of combat.
