Karp
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Chapter 86
🕑 Added 2024-10-17 18:57:16 +0000 UTCVarrus had cast Shroudwalk on himself when he left the ziggurat, and stepped out into the pouring rain to be met with a pleasant sight.
He looked on in satisfaction as the eastern ziggurat was targeted by the Lich he had mentally dominated. Large purple concussive waves of Death magic shot forth, and crossed the plains in an instant towards the other hillside.
Apparently, the eastern ziggurat lacked any kind of warding, or shielding, and was soon destroyed due to the western ziggurat’s heavy bombardment.
As Varrus stepped outside, he sidestepped a dozen Elite Darkfallen. They ran in a hurry, and Varrus could spot panic on their faces.
“Hurry up, will you?!”
“Damn it all to Hell, have the Lich's betrayed us?”
“Damned Humans.”
The group of Darkfallen muttered and cursed at one another as they ran inside.
Varrus softly chuckled to himself once they passed, pleased with the chaos and suspicion he had sewed between allies.
However, he didn't allow himself to grow complacent from a job well done. Syra was still in danger, and she was his top priority!
Scanning the area, Varrus spotted a giant, headless gargoyle's corpse bleeding out, and a dozen other Elite corpses on the plains closest to the hillside that he was on.
A pair of Heroes-a Lich and Darkfallen warrior-were fighting one another in a desperate, no holds death match, yet there was no Syra!
Varrus felt his heart jolt, however, just because he couldn't see her, didn't mean he should assume the worst.
Closing his eyes, Varrus focused on the affects of the binding magic, and felt a pulse.
‘There!’ Varrus thought to himself, snapping his eyes open and staring at one spot in particular.
What he saw was the Lich blasting ice magic repeatedly, and the Darkfallen either slicing it apart, or Blinking to the side.
After a moment of high speed combat, the Lich had created a shield made of ice, and caught the Darkfallen inside. However, the shield was slowly cracking, and this stalemate seemed to be on the verge of collapsing.
Varrus saw this as a chance, and made to run towards them, intent on stabbing them in the back, and investigating Syra's whereabouts.
It was at this moment when Varrus had closed the distance, that Syra dropped out of invisibility, and cleaved the Darkfallen in two from behind.
The enemy Hero never saw it coming, and was caught completely unaware.
Disgusting red-black blood squelched out from both halves of his body, and bloody tendrils tried to reform, and reattach the left and right sides of the Darkfallen's body.
When he tried to reform himself with the aid of blood magic, he was quick to find that Syra's Void infused weapon was super effective. Bright purple veins lit up like LED lights across his arms, legs, and torso.
The Darkfallen twisted around, and gave Syra a look of horror, as he realized that he could not regenerate. His two jaws worked wordlessly as he collapsed to the nasty mud down beneath. He then melted like paper mache in a rainstorm, mixing with the mud as if he had never existed in the first place.
Syra's blade sang as it continued on its path, and pressed forward into the already damaged ice shield.
The powers of Ice, Death, Light, and Void clashed with one another, creating a harsh squealing sound, like iron scraping on iron.
“I knew it! That fool was so smug, so sure of himself, yet I knew there were rats lurking about!” The Lich crowed.
“Of course, now that you are locked in the same place, you can share his fate!” The Lich taunted as he finished a spell.
A second later, icy chains erupted from the ground in a 100 ft radius. They acted like they had a life of their own, and homed in on Syra from all directions.
Syra flashed the Lich a bright smile, and flicked her hair.
The Lich's eyes glowed menacingly. Reacting to Syra's odd behavior, he jerked forward, and reached behind himself with a frozen hand, however he grasped at nothing but air.
“Phah, you aren't as clever as you think you are, girl.” The Lich growled, and redoubled the power on his ice shield, gripping tight onto her buster sword in an effort to lock Syra in place.
Syra blew a kiss behind the Lich.
“I'm not falling for that a second ti-” The Lich admonished, yet caught a dagger to the back of his skull mid-sentence.
With his death, the icy chains vanished like ice on a summer's day.
“You are a bad boy.” Syra said, and pulled Varrus close for a rough kiss on the lips.
After a moment, Varrus breathlessly pulled away from her, then gave her a tight squeeze on the arm to wordlessly voice his displeasure. At the same time, he lovingly stroked her hair, letting her know that he still loved and cared for her well-being.
“And you are a reckless girl. I think I got a gray hair or two from what you did back there.” Varrus pursed his lips, and shook his head in displeasure.
“Sorry.” Syra said in a small voice, and looked down at the ground.
“Haah, what am I going to do with you?” Varrus said to himself, then lifted her chin, and examined her for any scratches or scuff marks.
After a moment had passed, Varrus blasted Syra with a Restoration spell for good measure, then gripped her by the shoulders. Staring into her eyes, Varrus found her smiling at him.
‘What an unreasonable woman.’ Varrus looked away.
“By the way, we should probably get out of here soon.” Varrus said, realizing that the Elites in the ziggurat would be activating the trap he left for them any second now.
Syra wordlessly nodded along, and followed Varrus as he began to run in a sprint.
They had traveled a few hundred feet when a sonic boom resounded throughout the land.
“Nice work.’ Syra gave Varrus a double thumbs up.
“Acting cute won't make me forgive you so soon.” Varrus grumbled, and bopped her on the head.
It was at that moment, that the shockwave from the blast came upon them, and Varrus stumbled into Syra's arms. However, Syra twirled out of the way, like a ballerina, and dropped Varrus in the mud.
“Oops.” Syra grinned.
Varrus wiped the mud off his face, then tossed a clump at his wife.
Syra stood completely still, and watched as the mud flew way off to the side.
She arched an eyebrow at him, and covered her mouth, barely withholding a giggle.
“Tch. We don't have time for this. There is sure to be a reprisal for our actions. I suggest we enter stealth, then flank the enemy force. When they commit everything on Tranquillien for a final push, then we'll strike from behind.” Varrus outlined his plan.
“Mm hmm, I want to pluck a few flowers along the way~” Syra excitedly skipped across the mud, then turned invisible.
Varrus caught sight of her rain slicked robes right before she disappeared from sight, and the way they tightly clung around her ass sent his mind to the gutter.
‘Fuck.’ Varrus thought to himself, and released a pent up sigh of exasperation.
Ever since he had set up the Covenant with the Kobolds, he hadn't gotten any! Then these asshole Darkfallen had launched a full scale assault on Tranquillien as soon as he had finished business, blue balling him again!
Clenching his fists, Varrus took a deep breath then relaxed. Making love was nice, but Syra's safety was number one. If she could continue to joke around like that when they were deep in enemy territory, then he knew she was good.
“Come on~ I want to pluck some heads already~” Syra poked Varrus in the side, slightly startling him such that he almost slipped on the mud again.
“You're such a spoiled brat.” Varrus replied, reaching out into the air until Syra placed her invisible head underneath his palm.
Varrus rubbed her hair for a second, enjoying the warmth they shared.
He could practically feel her pout when he finished after just 30 seconds.
Grinning to himself, Varrus tossed an Invisibility spell over himself, and began to take the long way around the plains, with the intent to avoid any more patrols whilst they flanked the enemy.
During this journey in which he was circumnavigating the battlefield, Varrus noticed a massive movement coming from the plains.
Half of the Scourge forces split off from the siege, along with a large contingent of Heroes and Elites. A large shadow blotted out the sun, and a Dragon's roar echoed through the air, heralding the Undead's march.
Their destination seemed to be north, straight into Eversong!
Varrus stayed out of the army's way whilst they marched forth. Once the Scourge had completely passed them by, Varrus pulled out his scrying orb to warn Kael’Thas.
[Roughly 100,000 Scourge are marching towards Eversong. Be ready.] Varrus messaged.
Varrus felt some tension as Kael’Thas took his sweet time responding. He had experience getting/giving the cold shoulder via text, but lives were on the line! Every second of delay meant that the Sunfury could be ambushed, or that the Scourge might even bypass Kael’Thas, and sack Silvermoon!
Kael was taking so long to respond, that Varrus had arrived at the enemy's flank by the time he received a message.
[Then we shall hold them where the river splits the provinces.] Kael responded.
[Be wary, Undead have no need to breathe, the gentle currents of the river won't pose much of an issue to them. Their mages could also freeze the water, eliminating the choke point.] Varrus cautioned.
[Then we shall burn them down! The passage is flanked by large hills on both sides. We will strike the stain of the Scourge from this land. But enough of this, how goes the defense of Tranquillien?]
Varrus glanced up from Kael's message, and saw that the Scourge's renewed offensive had yielded results. One of the gatehouses had collapsed, and the town shield had retracted to the city proper.
Whoever had taken command of the siege must be someone different, because they were much more effective.
[We are holding, however, I am needed. I have to go.] Varrus finished.
Varrus motioned towards the backline of the Scourge army, indicating that he and Syra should attack.
Silence greeted him, and Varrus remembered he was invisible, making his gesture pointless. He slapped his head in annoyance at the rookie mistake.
“Is that the signal to attack?” Syra whispered.
“What? Oh-oh, yeah. Let's hit the backline hard, and fast.” Varrus whispered back.
“Good! I bet I can get more stealth kills before we are discovered than you!” Syra boasted.
Varrus rolled his eyes, knowing his silly wife must be grinning from ear to ear. This was a serious situation, every second delayed could be a life on the line!
A beat passed, and Varrus beheld the endless line of Undead rushing towards the broken gatehouse, eager to enter the city.
Varrus stroked his chin in thought, if they were truly on the brink of collapse, Rho'dan would message him. Besides, the damage done to the rear would act as a destabilizing factor, this operation could be nothing but a net positive for the defenders.
“Alright, let's set some ground rules. Common soldiers are 1 point, Elites are worth 100, and Heroes 10,000.” Varrus offered, as he was caught up in her excitement.
“Sounds good!” Syra replied with a joy-filled laugh.
“I look forward to tasting the fruits of victory.” Varrus teased back.
Instead of a verbal response, Syra replied by becoming a whoosh of air.
A second later, an entire row of 100 Common skeletons had their bodies bisected twice.
Syra briefly became visible, and shot Varrus a smug, confident look before she reentered stealth.
Varrus spat to the side. Her ability to silently clear trash mobs was simply unfair! If only he could bring down the Forbidden Sun, or Infinite Light, then they'd see who the real master of AOE was!
Shaking his head, Varrus quickly scanned his spell list for a solution. He needed something swift, yet surgical. It had to be something silent too, so no fire, and no lightning. Because even though the perk Silent Storm made spells silent, a fireball still exploded, and lightning was bright as Hell!
Browsing his spell list, Varrus found what he was looking for.
‘Perfect.’ Varrus smirked, then equipped the Adept level Destruction spell, Ice Shiv.
Ice Shiv: Jagged shard that deals 30 frost damage to Health and Stamina. Targets hit from behind take x3 damage.
The damage wasn't anything special, but with his Spell Power modifier, 3x damage buff, and other stealth buffs, he figured this baby might be capable of one-shotting an Elite.
Watching Syra decimate another dozen skeletons, Varrus felt his chances of victory slipping away, and began to hurl Ice Shivs into the enemy line with precision.
Jagged shards of ice pierced on Undead after the other. Varrus tossed them so fast, he quickly scored over 50 kills.
“Tch.” Varrus scowled as he realized that his method was much slower than Syra's.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they were revealed, or noticed by a Hero.
‘I might as well go all in while we still have the element of surprise.’ Varrus thought to himself as his Ice Shivs claimed 200 lives compared to Syra’s 1,200+.
It's not like Varrus was a sore loser or anything. It was simply logical to attack with the strongest method from the start. Weren't all those supervillains in comic books who only used a fraction of their power at the start the ones in the wrong? If anything, Varrus was being respectful to the enemy by going all out!
Varrus nodded his head as it was all coming together.
Thanks to his Mana Sight, he was able to zero in on the strongest amount of energy condensed in this area, and spotted a Lich.
‘Sorry bud, but it's nothing personal. You're just my ticket to winning this thing.’ Varrus thought to himself as he prepared a Master tier spell to drop on top of the Sorry bastard's head.
