It had been a year in the planning, then months in preparation. The supplies had been gathered, the potions brewed, bandages made and so much more. All that was need now was the troops.
Deep in the heart of Azeroth surrounded on all sides by hostile elementals, dark iron dwarfs and twilight cultists, was the remote outpost of Thorium Point. It was the headquarters of the Thorium Brotherhood a group of powerful Dwarfen Blacksmiths.
Today however the outpost served as a gathering point for a large group of horde mercenaries who now waited for their leader, what their purpose was they would not say. Soon a troll female arrived and the mercenaries all nodded respectfully to her.
She approached a group that stood a little apart from the others and seemed to carry some authority. A dark skinned orc who wore a crimson hood to cover the many scars on his face, next to him stood a forsaken female who looked just as deadly, but with mad looking straw like hair.
Beside these assassins stood a tauren with a large white wolf which he frequently patted and stroked. The last member of the group dwarfed the others; in his hands he held a flaming orange hammer.
“Are we all ready to go Greenpiggy?” the troll woman asked.
“Yes Hecavria we are ready,” The tauren responded. “They await only your word,”
“Thank you I think it is time we told them what they are here for,” Hecavria decided, and turned to face the raid.
“Warriors of Maligned,” she called out, all eyes turned to her. “I thank you for answering the summons and hope you are all well and rested, it is time I told you the reason for why we are all here,” the silence that fell over the raid was almost deafening.
With a single blue finger she pointed towards the massive black mountain in the distance. There were a number of gasps and almost every one’s eyes widened. They knew the core had been ‘extinguished’ and neither the depths nor the spire needed this kind of force. That left only one area.
“That’s right today we storm the final bastion of power in Black Rock Mountain, the heir to Deathwing’s legacy the dragon known as Nefarian,” she said loudly. “The dragon however is not alone however, with him are many of his most powerful minions but I have total confidence that they will not be able to stand against the might of Maligned.”
With a massive battle roar the forty members of maligned surged down the hill and through the cauldron. Everything scattered before them, and soon they entered the once impregnable but now shattered Dark Iron Doors.
Inside the once mighty fortress of dwarfen power the now decaying underground city was clearly visible in the hot red glow of the lava below. Rokash the largest of Maligned’s warriors spurred the charge forward and fell upon the hapless orcs that had been posted to guard the path up towards the peak of the mountain.
The raid’s footsteps and battle cries echoed through the corridors to an almost painful volume. So much so that the orcs who were not in the raids path but could have come to their kin’s aid chose to flee instead. Those guarding the entrance to the spire prepared themselves for the onslaught that was to come grimly preparing to face death with as much honour as they could.
Instead the sound of the raid abruptly stopped and all fell deadly quiet. For a few moments the orcs were unsure about what was had happened, then as one they moved forwards attempting to find out. Soon it had all become clear, the store house was over run and the quartermaster along with all of his guards lay dead in rapidly growing pools of their own blood.
What was more the crates of supplies had been smashed and thrown away, not looted. The orcs saw that hidden behind them had been an ornately designed orb which rested on a winged golden pedestal. As they looked on the orcs all knew what had happened, the lair had been beached.
* * * * * * *
The raid force was now totally silent as it waited within the tight confines of the corridor that connected Black Rock Spire to the Lair. They were preparing for the fight that was to come and they knew it would be a hard one. Hecavria moved among them to make sure they were prepared.
“So we are finally here,” an orc commented from behind her, she turned to see Zujin one of Maligned’s most powerful warlocks. He grinned at her as he produced a demonic looking skull which he set atop his head and secured with a purple cloth that radiated with dark magic.
“I knew I could not keep you in the dark for long, my friend” Hecavria smiled.
“Damn right what with all the supplies you have been moving through the guild store.” He then produced a purple glowing sphere and gave it too her, “Here I want you to take this.”
“A Soul Stone,” she commented as she looked down at it. Knowing that it would store her soul should she fall in battle, she placed it in her bag. “Are you and the others prepared for this?” she asked
“As you ordered, we have stocked up on shards and are ready.” He informed her as he activated what appeared to be a black diamond that had been infused with magic, it pulsed once and a large purple creature appeared. “Not that I need them for Krakthak here.” He added with a smile.
She moved off to talk with the other healers, passing the shamans who had prepared their totems for the coming fight. The need to discuss who was healing who took only a few moments for them to decided. Now all that was left was to assign the groups to cover the entrance ways that could allow reinforcements enter the first battle.
“Ok your have your targets begin to move up,” the high priestess ordered, and slowly through the shadows the warriors of Maligned crept.
As their spies had reported the first room had two raised platforms, one on each side. On the right stood a one of the largest leader cast of dragonkin that had ever lived and was legendary for the chaos and death he created on the battlefield, Razergore the untamed. The huge beast however looked remarkably placid and seemed to be very lethargic.
The reason for this seemed to have something to do with a blue beam of magic which connected his chest to an orb that stood on the left hand platform. Focused on this object was a powerful orc was known as Grethok the Controller.
The room itself was filled with eggs that were as high if not higher than a tauren. The spies had also identified that these eggs were part of Nefarian’s plans to make a chromatic species of dragons that would be more powerful than any that had come before, they had to be destroyed.
It was decided that Rokash would take on Grethok, while ‘The Groo’ and Gnaven would take on his bodyguards. They waited hidden in the shadow’s looking out onto three orcs ignorant of their pressance. Once everyone was in position Hecavria gave the signal to attack. The three warriors rushed forward out of the darkness and attacked the orcs on the left platform.
“Intruders have breached the Hatchery!” Grethor yelled. “Sound the alarm!”
Moments later he and his bodyguard were dead they never stood a chance against the might of the raid force. However the beam which connected the orb to Razergore was broken, the mighty Dragonkin was free and he attacked the closet members of Maligned.
This had been expected and the tauren warrior known as Velan had positioned himself between the raid and the dragonkin. He held him up long enough for another member of the raid, the orc assassin Whistler placed his hands on the orb, and found himself looking through the eyes and controlling the actions of Razergore.
Survivors of previous attempts on the peak had told of how powerful magic protected the eggs from all types of attacks so a being of great power was needed to destroy them. The leaders of Maligned figured who better than Razergore himself.
The attack had not gone unnoticed however and orcs began to pour into the room from every entrance possible. Some of these were mages who as the entered the room began to cast fireballs and arcane explosions at the raid, hoever they were quickly slain by the members of the raid who were specifically told to target them.
Along with these mages came legionaries; that wielded massive two handed axes they charged past their spell casting kin to engage the raid head on. But this had been planed for as well and the shaman of Maligned such as Bloodoath, Bloodsnout, Bowgart and others had set up an elaborate trap for these orcs.
As the legionaries entered the room they were hit by frost shocks. This enraged the rather stupid orcs and they chased the shaman who had thrown them. However they ran straight into the grounding totems set up in a ring around the centre. Unable to catch up the orc’s mindlessly gave chase as best they could.
Orcs were not the only foe that maligned faced draognkin crashed through anyone that got in their way and attempted to kill members of the raid. Again there was a plan for dealing with them, just as one loomed over Whistler who was helpless as he was in control of Razergore it suddenly fell asleep its massive arms dropping to its sides. Rurik who stood not far off smiled as he turned to cast a heal on a near by maligned mage.
Another dragonkin took a swipe at Bowgart who saw the blow at the last moment and dodged to side. Snarling in anger the monster tried again, however just as it was about to attack it reared up screaming in fear and fled the other way. Zujin ran past his fellow orc and with a laugh chased after the lizard, which was running around wildly in a state of panic.
All of the dragonkin who had not been slept by the druids or feared chased after agile hunters, such as Greenpiggy or Faunus. They dodged around all the other combatants and shot back at the lizards to keep there attention on them as they ran about the room.
All in All it was a truly incredible sight; Legionaries trapped in the totem trap and pursuing the shamans, ten dragonkin either feared by warlocks slept by druids or totally focused on chasing Hunters they could never catch, and lastly any of the small number of orc mages who were being cut down as quickly as they entered the room.
But these were all delaying and distractions so as Maligned could accomplish its real goal, which was too destroy the eggs. The magic protecting them was powerful but it was no match for Razergore who took them out one by one.
As soon as the last egg was gone however the control orb shattered, and Razergore was not only free once more, but even more angry. It was too much for the orcs whether they were mages or legionaries and the fled from the room as did all the dragonkin that were not slept by the druids.
With a mighty roar Razergore cast a volley of fireballs that hit many of members of the raid before attempting to attack Whistler who had made him destroy the eggs. He was intercepted however by Rokash.
Razergore was becoming more enraged with every passing moment, so he conflaged Rokash and attempted to attack the more vulnerable parts of the raid. However he found himself fighting yet another Maligned warrior called Azog. Bellowing in anger he stomped on the ground stunning everyone close by and once more made for the main body of the raid.
Now though Rokash who had survived the conflag was in Razergore’s way, again. All this time mages and warlocks had been casting spells such as shadow and frost bolts, while any damage that the dragonkin did was negated by the healing given out by the healers.
In the end Razergore the Untamed just could not out damaged the heals cast on the warriors and could not stop the damage from the other members, with one final roar he reared up and fell dead on the floor.
The raid looked on the body of the slain dagonkin with little emotion, other than the satisfaction that he was now dead. However though this was a great victory in itself it was merely the beginning.
“Rest up for a moment everyone,” Hecavria called. “We have arranged to meet Vaelastrasz of the red dragon flight in the next room and with him at our sides we will over throw Nefarian.”
* * * * * * *
They only rested for a short time, too ensure all wounds were healed and mana restored before heading towards the next room. However as they drew near they heard shrill goblin cries.
“Master Nefarian, the black fire has been infused into the dragon,” one called.
“Yes soon it will take hold and then we can begin to heal the injuries you gave him,” another added.
Hecavria raised her hand and gave the signal for every one to be silent. Slowly they all moved till they were just outside the room but still out of sight. They saw four goblins manipulating strange machines around the massive and helpless body of Vaelastrasz the red dragon. Holding him the once proud creature in place was a green force field thats source was none other than Nefarian himself.
“Attack!” Hecavria yelled and Maligned surged forward.
The goblins squelled and attempted to flee to the gate on the upper levels but hunters had given there parties aspect of the pack and the caught up with the fleeing technicians. The fight was short and while his minions were dying and calling out for him to save them, Nefarian filled the room with his powerful voice. He told the raid how he had bested Vaelastrasz and now had now he would turn on them.
“Get up now little red wyrm, and destroy them,” was the last thing Nefarian said before he vanished
Vaelastrasz however remained where he was, the room filled now with his laboured breathing rather than Nefarian’s voice. Some of the raid thought that there still might be hope but this was dashed as soon as Hecavria called out to the red dragon.
“Too Late, Friends,” he cried out.
In an act of final defiance before his mind was consumed by the black fire Vaelastrasz called out to Alexandria to give his allies the aid they would need to slay him. His was heard and suddenly every member of the raid felt the power of the red aspect surge through their bodies.
It was not a moment to soon and Rokash was already fending off the first of Vaelastrasz’s attacks. Then Maligned began to fight back, the rogues surged forward and hacked at the red dragons rear flanks, frost and shadow bolts began to fly from the hands of the mages and warlocks. Shamans, druids and priests used the power to cast heal after heal with no mana cost.
But the problem was that the power of dragons was not meant to be for mortals and the every member of the raid began to suffer from the side effects of the surge. Wounds from the previous fight began to open and then ones from further back still as well as completely new ones.
Added to this Vaelastrasz was able to infuse the black fire in to the mana users and the tanks that he was fighting. Seniath a forsaken warlock with a rather unnatural fascination for the Outlands, suddenly found his body burning with adrenalin. He could cast his spells without even saying the words and he blasted the dragon for all he was worth, and then when his body could not take any more he felt the power explode out of his body and he fell to the ground.
He was not the only one, Vaelastrasz infused two casters and then the tank fighting him. As soon as Rokash was hit by this Burning Adrenalin all the rogues vanished for a moment so that ‘The Groo’ could take over from Rokash as the massive tauren was felled. After that they Maligned held nothing back and hammered the red dragon for all they were worth.
Bloodoath, Greenpiggy, Sluggish, and a host of other casters were infused by Burning Adrenalin all succumbed to its effects just as the tanks did one after another. But in the end the damge put out by the raid was for Vaelastrasz like Razorgore too much and finally he could take no more and he collapsed to the floors and did not move again.
There was however no time to celebrate as the surviving priests and shamans rushed to resurrect the fallen members of the raid before it was too late and their souls passed on. Seniath came close to being lost forever but in the last few seconds his fellow the female priest Raspi one of his kindred Forsaken pulled him back to the realm of the living.
After the intense fight against their former ally the dragonkin who had taken up home among the massive mead barrels were not much of a fight. While the druids Rurik and Bullit slept the female spell casters the males were systematically singled out and slaughtered. Both packs fell to the raid with little effort on the part of Maligned, now the way was clear to the suppression rooms.
* * * * * * *
Bronze, Green, Red and Blue dragon whelps filled the room from end to end; Nefarian and his agents had clearly been busy stealing eggs from all the others aspects. The young dragons were not alone however, orc taskmasters and dragonkin overseers moved about checking strange devices that had been set at specific points around the room. It seemed that the closer the whelps got to those pillars the slower they became, some had fallen to the ground and were unable to fly into the air again.
This was the sight that greeted the members of the raid as it gathered at the entrance to the first room. Now fully healed, refreshed and ready for yet another fight. With a nod from Greenpiggy the troll hunter Ravenblood moved forward and shot at the closest group of orcs.
He missed but the attack enraged the orcs and they chased him back to where the others waited. The fight lasted as long as a three versus forty tend to do, and soon Ravenblood was firing at the nearest dragonkin, this time not only did the overseer chase him but a large group of the whelps who seemed to respond to the large creatures call.
While ‘The Groo’ kept the overseer busy the rest of the raid dealt with the whelps, Warlocks and mages cast area of effect spells, while the rest killed individual targets, soon they were all dead. However other than ‘The Groo’ no one else approached the dragonkin as it was casting a dangerous spell that over time built up and did more and more damage, this though was not a problem for range attackers.
In mere moments the raid stepped over the bodies and began to fight through the room under near constant attack from whelps. As they progressed they systematically killed any orcs or dragonkin they came across. Finally they entered the upper room and saw in the distance the massive from of the Broodlord.
They could tell that he had seen them but he was prepared to sit back and wait for them to come to him, so they did and killed every thing that got in their way. With each step they took the powerful drakonid seemed to become more and more enraged at the minions under his control. Soon it was only him that stood between Maligned and the Blackwing laboratories.
“You should not be here!” Broodlord called as Rokash led the charge against him. “You have doomed yourselves.”
The warriors moved past him and put their backs to the large gate to which he held the key. While the broodlord’s attention was focused on the warriors the warlocks were able to position their imp pets in a spot where they could boost the power of the tanks with blood pact.
The broodlord may not have had the power of Vaelastrasz, or the complications needed to kill Razergore but he did have a few tricks of his own. For one he was incredibly physically strong and had been known to kill his enemies with a single blow, this strength allowed him slam one of his huge feet into the ground and knock back any opponent that got to close.
His knock back however was partially negated by the fact that the maligned warriors had their backs very closely to the wall. However the rogues did not have that luxury and many were tossed through the air like rag dolls when Broodlord slammed a foot into the ground.
Caster and hunters however were to attack from outside the range of this ability, however this meant that they needed to be very careful that he did not turn to focus on them.
The fight was going well until the Broodlord who was focused on Rokash slammed his foot into the ground and in the next instant turned on Azog. The healers were not ready for this and in a single mighty blow the drakonid killed the orc warrior.
This while being rather painful for Azog was not as fatal as it first appeared however. Swifthoof one of Maligned druids used what was commonly called a ‘battle-res’ to bring the fallen warrior back to life. Heals and buff quickly followed and Azog was back in the fight.
For all his strength Nefarian considered the Broodlord a failure, due to his inability to resist magic, and it was due to this fact that Maligned eventually won the day. With one last howl of pain as Rokash finally thrust his sword through the drakonid’s scales the creature fell.
As everyone took the time to catch their breath Hecavria stepped forward and found the key that the Broodlord had guarded. The lock was easy to find and with one swift turn the dark iron grate creaked open and the Blackwing laboratories were vulnerable.
* * * * * * *
“What do you see?” Hecavria asked Hideia
“Orcs, goblins, more of those drakonids like the Broodlord and bloodelves,” the forsaken reported. “And one of the biggest black drakes I have ever seen.”
“That must be one of the three brothers,” the priestess commented. “Those packs looked dangerous however we’ll have to deal with them first. Go tell Greenpiggy to come up here, I think we’ll need some pretty fancy skills to split them up.” She ordered.
The tauren hunter did not disappoint, with a skilled shot that took out one of the goblins with a shot to the head, he got the attention of the other goblins and the two orcs. As soon as the orc got near the raid however they cast volleys of shadowbolts.
“Their Warlocks!” Hecavria called burn them.
Suddenly a portal to a demonic plane opened next to each warlock and the raid saw the demons moving towards the portal from the other side. Knowing they had very little time every member of the raid doubled their damage output and the portals closed before the demons got through. As for the goblins they were cut down one after another where they stood.
After that Greenpiggy got the attention of the rest of the pack which consisted of the Drakonid and the blood elf with a few more goblins. Unlike the Broodlord this drakonid was basicly invulnerable to most magic types, except frost.
“FROSTSHOCK!!!” yelled Bloodoath as he cast his ice attack at the creature which combined with the warlock’s curse of elements which had lowered the Drakonid’s resistance to elemental based damage even more did a great deal of damage. It was almost on par with the mages who also were using frost attacks. The relentless attacks of the shamans and the mages brought the beast down in short order.
As for the blood elf it was immune to all magical attacks but not so melee. So the warriors and rogue hacked them to a bloody pulp. Though a few of them however found out how a squirrel saw the world, for a short time before the polymorph was dispelled.
In the end they needed to clear three of these packs before there was a clear enough area for them to fight the Black Drake known as Firemaw. He was the oldest and most powerful of the three drake brothers Nefarian had infused him with the ability to breathe Shadowflame a very dangerous fire attack and a powerful aura known as Flame buffet.
This aura served two purposes; the first was to hurt Firemaws enemies every time it hit them. However the second was by far the more deadly as it made them weaker to fire attacks as well. This meant that not also would Shadowflame hurt more, also each time the buffet was stacked it did more and more damage itself.
Knowing this the raid warriors were still eager to attack and ‘The Groo’ was chosen to tank the black drake. Since the aura only affected enemies that Firemaw could see it was decided to use the lair itself in slaying this monster.
While ‘The Groo’ controlled Firemaw the rest of the raid would remain behind a wall and periodically enter line of sight to attack and them drop back to allow any buffets they had taken to fade away.
Firemaw and his brothers had one last trick they had learned to use their wings to push a tremendous amount of air forward in one powerful thrust and blow even enemies encased in heavy plate armour away from them. To counter this Gnaven another of Maligned’s orc warriors would taunt Firemaw so that the drake would push him back rather than ‘The Goo’.
Once every one knew their roles Greenpiggy got Firemaw’s attention, and the drake surged towards the raid. Despite all his power the beast was not that smart and therefore ‘The Groo’ easily got his attention and soon the two were exchanging heavy blows.
While the drake’s more deadly attacks were dangerous they could also be anticipated and as Firemaw reared back to use his wings Gnaven yelled out a loud taunt and as predicted he was pushed backwards into the wall where his armour tore deep gouges into the stone. It was the same for the Shadowflame attacks; every time ‘The Groo’ saw one coming he called out and warned everyone else to take cover.
The plan was going well, except for the fact that the flame buffets were beginning to build up on ‘The Groo’ and the healers were having real trouble keeping him healed. Then three quarters of the way into the fight Firemaw got off a lucky or rather unlucky from the raid’s perspective shadowflame and the tauren warrior went down.
Things could have got very bad if at that point Gnaven had not moved to stand where ‘The Groo’ had been, while Rokash moved to the orcs old spot. So the fight went on with Gnaven between the raid and Firemaw. Soon the eldest of the three drakes was slain.
After ‘The Groo’ was brought back to life the raid prepared for the last group of hostiles that stood between them and securing the next room. Unfortunately these were a group of three Drakonid’s and another one that was double the size of the others.
Each warrior was given a target, Rokash as lead warrior was assigned the bisggest. The four monster were pulled and quickly split up. The large Drakonid however was more than just resistant to all but one from of magical attacks but had the power of different aspects as well. This one was green and vulnerable to shadow magic, before Rokash could warn the others he was put to sleep.
This was unfortunate for another member of the raid, the warlock Seniath. Just as Rokash was slept the forsaken cast a shadowbolt which power was enhance by the shadow infused gear he was wearing. The damage it did was enough to focus the attention of the Drakonid on him.
“Oh crap,” the warlock muttered just before the massive creature one-shoted him then turned back to Rokash.
Not long after Seniath’s death the other warlock’s Curse of Dooms activated and the Drakonid died. By the time it was the other tanks had the time the needed to build agro on their own targets so they could not be pulled of them like had happened with the first one, and the fight was over quickly.
Now that they knew what to expect the rest of the ‘Trash’ went very fast and pack after pack fell before the might of the raid. Soon they stood at other end of the room from the second of the drake brothers Ebonroc.
* * * * * * *
Like his brother Ebonroc had been infused with the Shadowflame and could use his wings to knock back his foes. However he did not have Flame buffet but another power call Shadow of Ebonroc. When he put this on a target and hit them the drake could heal his wounds.
With a nod from Hecavria the raid charged forwards and engaged Ebonroc. Once more it was ‘The Groo’ who grabbed the drake’s attention and moved him so the casters and healers were behind their enemy.
To counter the Shadow of Ebonroc all the tanks except Gnaven moved to the drake’s right side. As soon as they saw Ebonroc cast his debuff on ‘The Groo’ one of them taunted the drake on to them. However one taunt was not long enough and so another tank taunted right after the first. This allowed the spell to run out and stopped the Drake from healing.
Gnavan’s job like before was to take the knock back from those powerful wings. This ment that he had to stand on Ebonroc’s left away from the others. As for the rogues their job was simple they moved behind the drake and attack from the back just like the casters.
It was a longer fight than the one against Firemaw but not a difficult one. In the end it had come down to doing more damage to Ebonroc than he could heal back from when he got the chance.
“Ok everyone move back to the spot where we fought the Broodlord,” Hecavria ordered the raid. “We’ll fight the last drake there.” The others started to move down.
* * * * * * *
Flamegor had been enjoying his favourite past time, sleeping when the sound of barking reached his ears. With a quick glance upwards the drake saw a white wolf that was running towards him. He looked at it quizzically as it tried to bite his leg before he killed it with a single blow.
He would have liked at that point to go back to sleep, but he knew that he should find out where that dog had come from so he began to make his was through the laboratories. As irritated as he was the drake failed to notice that the area was completely empty of any life even his brothers. However when he neared the Broodlord’s rooms he saw a group that should not have been there, as he flew closer to investigate their presence, they attacked him.
‘The Groo’ was the first to engage the drake that now moved towards them, Rokash and the others stood nearby ready to help their friend. It was basically the same fight as the one they had against Firemaw, except there was no Flame buffet. Instead Flamegor could enrage and do large amounts of spike damage and a rather weak area of effect spell.
This enrage however was kept under control by the hunters who used a special shot that tranquilized the drake and kept his mind foggy and unfocused. This time ‘The Groo’ did not die and the fight was the most straight forward of the entire raid.
Now the only thing between Maligned and the Lord of Blackrock Spire was his watch dog Chromaggus.
* * * * * * *
Zujin stood above the groaning forsaken on the ground. He could not help but laugh as his fellow warlock had made the same mistake again. The three drakonids that guarded the release lever for Chromaggus
“Damn shadow vulnerability,” Seniath complained. “I thought dying the first time was painful.”
“I can’t believe you did that again,” Zujin laughed.
“Oh shut up and give me the healthstone that’s in my bag,” the forsaken complained, Zujin laughed some more and found the stone.
The rogues were all rolling their dice to see who would be the one to sneak in and release Chromaggus from his pen. In the end it was Zend who won/lost the game and so after the caster all hid them selves so that where the fight began they would be behind the huge hound the lone rogue made his way to the lever.
There was a massive series of creaks and groans as Zend used all his strength to move the huge mechanism. Then with a loud clanging noise that echoed through out the lair the gate which Chromaggus was kept behind opened.
Zend knew that if he remained where he was he would most certainly be consumed by the monster so he did what anyone would do, ran for his life. This time his stealth ability worked and he was able to escape being spotted and made it back to the rest of the raid.
Another hunter pet was needed for the pull and since Greenpiggy’s was no longer available it fell the Ravenblood and his bat – Bloodmuffin. Once every one was ready the troll sent his bat to attack the two headed hound.
Needless to say the flying mammal did not last long but as soon as Chromaggus was done eating it, he came straight for Ravenblood who moved to stand next to Rokash. As the hound barrelled past their hiding place the casters and then the melee that were not tanking moved into position.
Chromaggus was the most powerful of the chromatic experiments that Nefarian had created and as such had many powers from all five broods. He could randomly place a brood affliction on any and all members of the raid, even if he could not see them.
Rokash began to hammer into Chromaggus with all his strength to make sure the both heads were totally focused on him and left the rest of the raid alone. Suddenly the left head began to glow brighter and brighter. Then the tauren warrior found he could not move, he was Time Lapsed.
Luckly for the raid ‘The Groo’ was out of sight and so was able to keep Chromaggus away from the less well protected casters. For a few moments he and the healers were the one ones of the raid that could move. Then as suddenly as it had happened the Time Lapse was gone and every one was able to move again.
Then it was the turn of the right head to glow and build up to its special attack. This time though the entire raid but for Rokash made sure they were out of sight. Abruptly creature released its attack and the tauren suddenly felt very cold and his limbs became very hard to move. So now the raid knew what special attacks the heads had it was simply a matter of dealing with them and the brood afflictions.
Of all the afflictions that Chromaggus could use the worst was Bronze as it could stub its target for a few seconds where upon they would be unable to do anything. Blue drained mana and reduced the speed that they could move at, red was a stackable dot that when it killed you healed Chromaggus. Green was a poison while black meant that the sufferer took double the damage from fire. However if a raid member received all of these then they would be turned in to a Drakonid and kill their friends. It was fortunate then that every one was on top of their game and kept the afflictions to a minimum on each other.
Lastly like Flamegor, Chromaggus could enrage and deal more damage, this meant that he was needed to be kept tranquilized at all times by the hunters who set up a rotation for who would be firing the shot next.
This was by far the toughest fight to date but the raid wore down the beast and eventually Chromaggus succumbed to the massive amount of damage being inflicted upon him. With both heads roaring in agony the huge hound died.
Now with the guard dog dead the way was open for the raid to confront the mastermind behind it all Nefarian.
* * * * * * *
Even Hecavria was surprise when the raid found Nefarian sitting on his throne un-phased by the fact that they had slaughtered his minions as they had stormed through his layer. He was even smiling slightly in amusement as they walked towards him.
“Greenpiggy take half the raid and cover that darken entrance near the exit,” Hecavria ordered. “I’ll take the rest and cover the one near the throne.”
As the raid fanned out Hecavria stepped forward to speak with the lord of the spire. He seemed to talk in riddles about time and how to him it was and ally while to the mortal races it was an enemy.
“You have lost your grip on reality,” Hecavria accused him.
“Well let me put it in simpler terms.” Nefarian smiled and stood up. “Let the games begin.” He laughed and vanished.
Just as Hecavria had expected the two darkened entrances suddenly were filled with Drakonids. From the right near the exit to the rest of the layer came dark green ones and from the left next to the throne crimson red.
The raid surged forward and pressed the drakonids back into the doorways in an attempt to control the fight. The officers after listening to a suggestion from ‘The Groo’, while Hecavria had been talking to Nefarian had split the raid up into smaller teams each assigned to help out a warrior kill one enemy at a time.
It worked and the Drakonids were cut down as they attempted to charge out on to the plateau. The greens started to use a short term sleep ability while the reds used a more powerful damage over time spell, but neither of these were enough to turn the tide of the battle. All the while Nefarian was teleporting around the area casting shadowbolts both singular and volleys at the raid.
As soon as thirty five of the drakonids died however he once again vanished and this time appeared in his true form, that of a mighty and powerful Black Dragon. It was not hard to spot him and once he had been Rokash and ‘The Groo’ broke away from the Drakonids and raced to the spot where he was about to land.
Just before he landed Nefation flamed the plateau in an attempt to kill off the raid. But they all wore cloaks made from the scales of his own sister Onyxia and these protected them from his attack. So it was that the last of the Drakonids died and the true battle began.
Onyxia had specilized in using a powerful fear to render her opponents or prey helpless, Nefarian while he did have a similar ability it was much reduced in range and all but the melee could remain out of range. The warriors knew how to handle this and whenever the dragon attempted to fear one of them would always be ready to resist it and hold the huge monster in place.
However Nefarian had a few tricks of his own, one was his shadowflame which did not just burn a target once but would remain there and continue to harm them long after, this dot however was very quickly removed by the healers. The other trick that he had was that he could use his opponent’s strengths against them.
As Rokash was hacked into him with his sword Nefarian laughed and suddenly the tauren groaned in pain, the healers spells which had been healing any wounds he had recived were now hurting him instead. By the time they realized this and stopped the dot had stacked three times, but the warrior gritted his teeth and pushed past it.
If they thought the healers call was bad then the raid had seen nothing yet, next Nefarian turned on the rogues. He knew they were at their most deadly at the back and he also knew that they had incredible agility. Suddenly every single rogue found themselves teleported in front of the dragon and unable to move. He could have killed them all in a single cleave, except he continued to focus on Rokash deciding that he would get back to the rogues in a few moments.
Next to here their class call was the mages, Nefarian taunted them telling them they knew nothing about the powers they attempted to wield and offered to show them. Not knowing what to expect the mages that could, encased themselves in ice blocks for protection. Then they watched as many of the raid were polymorph into animals. Immediately they broke their blocks and began to counter the spell.
As for the shaman Nefarian had always wondered what their totems were like as none of his orcs seemed to be able to control the elements no matter how hard he tried to make them. Suddenly the shamans found that there totems were no longer helping the raid but the dragon they were fighting. Needless to say this did not go down well with the rest of the raid and all but the warriors and healers smashed the totems into splitters.
Warlocks were casters who had gone over to the darker side of magic, how they annoyed Nefarian, what right did they have to think they were better than him. So he decided to show them what true demon mastery was. The best way to do that was to summon not one but two infernals each down onto their heads. When the demons landed they could have been a real threat to the raid, expect what the dragon did not know was that these demons while being able to dish out the damage could not take it and so they were destroyed very quickly.
Nefarian was becoming frustrated now every time he tried to counter the raid they adapted. So now he decided to turn up his damage on the tanks, he lashed out with his mind and touched theirs ever so slightly and pushed them into a blind seething rage. Yes they did more damage but then so could he. The problem was that the healers were able to keep pace with the injuries he was inflicting on Rokash and soon the taurens mind cleared as did the others.
Things were getting bad Nefarian was beginning to feel the pain of his injuries and the idea began to form in his mind that he might actually lose this battle. He had to come up with something and fast.
His focused switched to the druids; he knew they could shift forms and that they could not heal when they had done so. The dragon lashed out with his mind and forced all the druids into their cat forms, now the raid’s healing was significantly reduced. However almost immediately he realized his mistake as the cat druids began to bite and claw into his already injured hind legs. His attention began to waver and the tauern were able to return to their natural forms.
The last class call he had was against the hunters, Nefarian knew that this one was not as affective as the others but he was out of options. With a show of defiance he sent out a wave of magic to break the hunter’s weapons, to his horror one of them called out a warning and they all dropped their bows/guns to the ground and so his last call failed.
Now he really was desperate and so he called on a spell that he knew was his last resort, he called his dead Drakonid’s back to life. The entire plateau erupted into chaos as the raid suddenly found them selves fighting both Nefarian and his now undead minions.
Seeing his last chance at victory the black dragon thrashed his tail into the casters. Hecavira saw that Babylon a small forsaken girl who many considered to be the guilds mascot was injured and could not dodge the huge limb, without hesitating she pushed her out of the way, but she herself took the blow and was sent sailing over the edge of the plateau.
There leader gone the Maligned began to falter, for a moment it looked like Nefarian was about to snach victory from the jaws of defeat, then the raid heard a voice calling out that refocused them and turned their grief into a blood thirsty rage.
“Hold The Line!” Greenpiggy bellowed and fired his crossbow at Nefarian’s wing. “Fight on avenge Hecavria, Slay this Foul Monster!”
It was at this point Nefarian knew he was doomed and attempted to escape but the shot from the tauren hunter had taken out his right wing and he was unable to fly. Then with one last roar that was audible for tens of miles in all direction the heir to Deathwing, creator of the Chromatic dragons, and Master of Blackrock Spire collapsed to the ground.
Maligned were victorious but they had paid a very high price for their victory…
* * * * * * *
Zujin finished polishing the Soul Stone that had become one of the most important items he possessed. As he pulled the mooncloth he had used away he saw the smiling face of Hecavira, he could not help but smile back.
After the battle was over and the rest of the raid had slipped through portals back to Orgrimmar he had sent his imp Ruppad to find the purple sphere he hoped had survived.
The small demon had been less than enthusiastic about this until Zujin explain what he would do to the creature, if he did not do this. Grumbling the imp obeyed and returned with the stone which had miraculously survived.
With great care he placed in on a stand in the middle of a high shelf, as he stepped back he felt hands wrap around him and a scent he had not smelled in years filled his nostrils.
“Is that her?” a female orc asked resting her chin on his shoulder.
“Yes,” Zujin answered. “It was her that provided me with help when I needed it the most.” He added
“Well then I guess I owe her as well then.” She replied then they were both silent for a few moments.
Eventually though she spoke up again, “Come on we are going to be late for the ceremony and your sister will kill us,” she warned, he laughed and taking their cloaks left the house. However he paused for a moment and turned to look at the orb once more.
“Till we meet again, old friend,” and then the room fell dark as the door closed.