Shadow Trails in Azeroth

The distance from the Alterac Mountains to the Hinterlands is not dazzling. Between the two mountains in different directions, there is only Hillsbrad, a hilly plain.

After a night's flight, the well-trained Wildhammer Gryphon carried Blake over Steinblade City and Icewind Hills, and arrived near the Eagle's Nest Mountain in the Hinterlands.

Wildhammer dwarves are dwarves too.

Although they call themselves children of the sky.

But they can't ride griffins in the sky all day and night. They always have to live on the ground, and their architectural style is not much different from the Bronzebeard dwarves.

In the valley of the towering Eagle's Nest Mountain, sits Wildhammer Castle. Built against the mountain, it is a large fortress and a stone city.

Apart from the lack of a great furnace, it is not much different from the Ironforge of the Bronzebeard Dwarves.

Since the death of Modimus, the King of the Mountains, two hundred and thirty years ago, the War of Three Hammers broke out among the dwarves.

After the Wildhammer dwarves lost their home in the wetlands, Grim Batol, most of their clansmen lived in new homes far away from their ancestral homeland.

The Wildhammer Prince Cardross Wildhammer who led them to migrate here has died of old age, and the Wildhammer dwarves have also adapted to their new home.

However, the Hinterland, which has been peaceful for two hundred and thirty years, is now broken by the war brought by invaders from another world.

In the early morning light, when Blake sat on the gryphon landing on the gryphon fence platform at the top of Wildhammer Castle, he looked down and could easily see the human knights gathered outside the castle.

They set up a temporary camp there, and some new recruits were training. Groups of knights left the camp and headed deep into the Hinterlands. There were also many Wildhammer griffons rising and falling.

Those were the wounded brought back from the front line, as well as many black body bags.

There are humans and dwarves.

It seems that the war in the Hinterlands has just broken out, and the fighting is already very intense.

Scout Black Shaw of the Third Fleet, formerly of the Kul Tiran Navy, come and report! Sir, this is my transfer order.

Black soon found the commander of the human army in the temporary operations hall of Wildhammer Castle. He originally thought he could see General Turalyon, the legendary Knight of the Silver Hand.

But the person who received him was just a major with a bandage on his arm.

Ah, the legendary orc killer is here! What exciting news.

The major grabbed the transfer order with several seals in his hand, and glanced at the commendation order underneath the order to prove his identity. The family seal of Marshal Lothar was very important.

The major, who was already under great pressure, suddenly beamed.

He returned the commendation order to Blake, patted his shoulder enthusiastically, and introduced to him:

The Hinterlands lack everything now, but they don't lack damn greenskins. A warrior like you will definitely be able to kill here. Oh, let me introduce myself.

My name is Fairbanks.

A vassal of Lord Mograine, he currently serves as a commander in General Turalyon's legions. General Turalyon is currently leading a team near Lake Varowen to help the high elf Lady Alleria and her rangers.

Not only were the Blackrock Orcs there, they broke into a prison camp of high elves in the hills and rescued the leader of the trolls, a bastard named Zuljin.

So now here, there is a group of Amani trolls who hate savagery to help the greenskins build a battle line.

The war was fierce, but within seven days, we lost one-tenth of our people.

The good news is that the orcs can't stand it anymore.

The bad news is, we've lost track of that bastard Orgrim!

Major Fairbanks shook his fist fiercely to express his dissatisfaction.

He led Blake to the military map in the war room, pointed to the three red crosses on it, waved his finger further north, and said:

That bastard must have left the Hinterlands and gone to Quel'Thalas of the high elves. Ms. Alleria is very anxious. She is eager to return to her hometown to support her compatriots.

But the front line has been unable to be opened, and there is nothing we can do.

The orc governor here is a very troublesome man named Varok Saurfang. He is quite cunning and powerful. He just relied on the orcs and trolls who were not as numerous as us to block our pursuit.

Blake nodded. He looked at the tactical map in front of him. It was indeed a criss-crossed situation. The Hinterlands was a mountainous area. The large armies could not form a line, so they could only fight for the front with small groups of armies.

This is the traditional sphere of influence of forest trolls.

In addition to the Amani trolls, the Hinterlands also have the very powerful Vilebranch trolls, who even established their own cities in the Hinterlands.

Its scale is no smaller than Wildhammer Castle.

The good news is that although the Vilebranch trolls are close relatives of the Amani trolls, they obviously do not intend to devote all their strength to the orcs' war.

This relieved great pressure on the combined forces of humans and Wildhammer dwarves.

I've heard your story, warrior. I know your strengths and combat methods, so I won't give you any specific tasks.

Major Fairbanks pointed to the tactical map and said to Blake:

Freely choose your hunting ground, and then help us get rid of those greenskins, the more the better!

Where are the most orc commanders?

Blake asked.

Fairbanks laughed, grabbed a simple map, drew a dozen small circles on it with a quill, rolled it up, handed it to Blake, and said:

These are the strongholds of the orc team that we have discovered so far. When you go there, be careful of the local trolls. Those guys have ambushed many of our scouts in the past few days due to their familiarity with the terrain.

Okay, I'll take a rest.

Blake put away the map, nodded to Fairbanks, and said briefly:

I need a quieter room, something to eat, and I'll set off in the afternoon.

No problem. Although this is a battlefield, it is more than enough to arrange these for a warrior.

The major laughed loudly again, called his guard over, and asked him to take Blake to rest in a stone house on the upper floor of the castle.

Full of dwarf style.

Almost everything in the house was made of stone, except for a table and a warm fireplace burning.

Blake closed the door, walked to the window grooved in the stone, and looked out.

The gryphon knights of the Wildhammer dwarves took off just at this moment. A dozen armored majestic griffins flew high into the sky, carrying the wildhammer muscular sticks with loud shouts and blue war patterns on their bodies.

The waists of these sky knights are covered with flying hammers blessed by their mountain shamans. When thrown out, they will cause thunder to dance. The destructive power is quite amazing, and it is also their specialty combat skill.

Muradin Bronzebeard is very good at this dwarf-style flying hammer strike, which they call Storm Hammer.

call

Black took off his leather armor, revealing his thin body. He then took out the unconscious little fishman Benbolba from the backpack on his waist. This poor little guy was poured with dragon blood last night.

The tender scales were covered with burns.

If it wasn't still warm, Blake would have thought it had been burned to death.

But the dragon's blood is indeed changing the life of this little fishman. Its burned scales have fallen off, and new scales have grown out just overnight.

And tougher than before.

Dragon blood enhancement has proven to be effective.

The pirate put the unconscious little fishman into the basin next to him, took out several large bottles of pungent-smelling dragon's blood from his luggage, put them under his nostrils and sniffed.

As for the smell, it's disgusting.

Hey, have you slept enough?

Blake did not drink the dragon's blood recklessly. Being burned by dragon fire once was miserable enough for him to learn a lesson. He took out the soul-inducing lamp, placed it on the table, and reached out to knock on it.

Squeak, I have something to ask you.

Sephiel in the soul-inducing lamp was obviously very weak. Under Blake's tapping, she responded in an inaudible voice:

I need to rest, a long rest. The dragon's soul may not be tougher than you humans, especially when this damn lamp shaved off half of my soul.

What are you asking?

How to use your dragon blood?

Blake asked directly:

Will it take effect if you drink it directly?

It will poison you if you drink it.

Sephiel's tone became a little more intense, but soon became weak again. It said in a lonely tone:

We bronze dragons are different from red dragons. What we control is time, not life, but time is a kind of poison, and mortal bodies cannot withstand this kind of erosion.

The blood of the bronze dragon has no effect of strengthening vitality.

It is harmful to you, and the blood of other dragons is not as powerful as you think. Bathing in dragon blood is mostly a bizarre story told by mortals and is not worth listening to.

But it does work, right?

Blake played with a small bottle and looked at the thick blood in it. He said:

As far as I know, the blood of the red dragon can strengthen vitality and expel weakness.

Blue dragon blood is the magical blood that mages crave. As for the green dragon, the druids of the Kaldorei night elves occasionally use the green dragon scales to release natural spells.

And I've seen with my own eyes the power of the green dragon's emerald venom.

So, what is the use of the blood of your bronze dragon? Seifer, tell me, be honest, you should understand that we need to help each other now.

The pirate paused and added:

If you don't tell me, I will throw you into the sea with your soul and the lamp in a moment!

you!

The young bronze dragon was furious at this threat.

But when she thought about Hell under Hela's control, the good reputation of that good place made her realize that she really had no bargaining capital now.

After more than ten seconds of silence, she said honestly:

“It allows you to cut off time and stay young forever.

If I use a special method to smear it on my body, other bronze dragons can regard it as the same kind of aura, thereby avoiding being discovered by my compatriots in the time stream.

But it's not permanent.

I am already dead.

You have to understand that the power of time in my blood will fade. No matter how hard you try to preserve it, the power in it will still disappear after a few years.

Great! I want this.

Blake chuckled lightly and said:

I just need it to help me get through my weakest period. It has taken too much energy to deal with you, and you are just a stupid baby dragon.

If another elite member of the Quicksand Scale comes along, it can easily eat me for breakfast.

Okay, you see, it is not difficult at all to establish a close relationship between you and me. Now tell me how to hide myself in the sands of time.

Sephiel was silent for a few seconds.

She made her request, saying:

I will tell you, but you cannot hand me over to Hela. Before her messenger finds you again, I must change my way of existence.

Simple.

Blake unscrewed the cap of the small bottle at hand, shook the dragon's blood in it, and said:

The soul-inducing lamp is just a device to store the soul. It just needs to be replaced with a 'small nest' for you. This thing was very rare in the era before.

But there are a lot of them in the current war.

Orc warlocks carry soul stones with them, and they only need one of higher quality to allow you to sleep in it. Also, you are in a soul state now and very weak, right?

Want some ‘goodies’?

How about I treat you to a few ‘big meals’? If only you had been more cooperative.