"Build a shield wall! Encircle them! Encircle them!" Lothar shouted. The elite warriors of the Human Alliance once again shouldered their square shields, scarred by swords and axes, forming an impregnable defensive line.
Turalyon looked down at the distant coastline and said to Lothar, "General, the second wave of orcs has widened their lines again; they want to surround us!"
The battle-hardened Lothar had long seen through the orcs' plot, and he nodded. Then he turned and glanced at the quiet Tarren Mill; no scouts appeared on the ochre-colored path to deliver the message!
"That's right, but we can't retreat yet." Lothar's expression was grave. He looked at the densely packed orcs on the distant coastline and let out a long sigh.
Turalyon nodded, picked up his warhammer, which glowed with holy light, and returned to his troops.
After the first wave of orcish attacks was repelled, a half-hour gap remained. During this time, the entire battlefield fell silent.
But this period of tranquility was short-lived. With the massive flagship docking, the enormous and robust orcs stepped onto the northern continent. Looking around at this beautiful land, the Warchief's eyes filled with joy.
This place was far more beautiful than the barren land to the south; the orcs could establish a new home here. But first, these troublesome ants had to be eliminated.
"Warriors of the Horde, our new home lies ahead! For glory, crush the human defenses! Lok'tar Ogar!" The Orc Warchief, raising his warhammer high, roared, and all the orcs on the coastline and the warhorses on the flagship charged towards the human Alliance on the Hillsbrad Foothills.
"Raise your spears, defend! Second column, prepare to attack!" Turalyon remained calm despite the surging tide of soldiers before him, continuing to command the Alliance army's battle plan.
The orc soldiers charged forward, using irregularly shaped steel shields, resting them on their shoulders, and slamming them against the Alliance's shield wall.
The orc soldiers were incredibly strong; their powerful impact caused the silver-white Alliance walls to shake.
"Warriors, follow me!" Stepping on the shoulders of the soldiers forming the shield wall, Sir Lothar leaped into the air, his longsword, gleaming with golden runes, smashing the skulls of the first wave of attacking orcs.
Uther and Turalyon followed closely behind, their warhammers, radiating holy light and blessed, sweeping away the seemingly powerful orcs.
The orcish onslaught still encountered its strongest resistance, but the orcs weren't foolish. They slowed their advance, allowing a group of heavily armored knights, their hooves ablaze with black flames, to charge forward.
These humanoid knights wielded longswords that burned with heat, their immense strength instantly shattering the first layer of shields.
The silver-white shields shattered, and a chaotic melee erupted between orcs and Sir Lothar's soldiers.
Alleria was astonished by these warriors, more terrifying than death itself; their power instilled fear in her for the first time.
"Leylin, are these the strange soldiers you spoke of?"
"Death Knights, that's their title. Take the soldiers, Alleria, I want to see these bizarre creatures created by dark magic for myself." With that, Leylin whistled to call his mount and went back into the battlefield.
Disobeying orders again! Alleria clenched her fists; she really wanted to smash Leylin to the ground to bring him to his senses!
"Tyr'ganal, take our rangers and soldiers back to Tarren Mill. Me and Leylin will catch up with you soon."
"Understood." Tyr'ganal led the rangers, whose quivers were empty, and the wounded elves in a retreat, while Leylin and Alleria re-entered the battlefield.
"In the name of the Holy Light, punish these dark creations!" Uther, with his profound devotion to light and sound, unleashed his Holy Light, causing substantial damage to these bizarre knights. These cavalrymen seemed impervious to swords, but they feared the pure power of the Holy Light.
Turalyon and Uther were the only knights wielding the Holy Light. But precisely because of this, the twenty death knights turned their longswords towards the two paladins.
The two paladins, not yet adept at controlling the power of holy light, quickly succumbed, barely managing to resist.
However, it wasn't only holy light that could defeat these creations; magic could too!
"Khadgar, shift targets!" From the distant battlefield, a mage and a ranger returned to the fray.
Hearing the mage's voice, Khadgar raised his hand, and several bolts of lightning, interspersed with shimmering electricity, draped over the lifeless knights.
"Arcane! Khadgar, use Arcane!" Under the boost of air bending, Leylin quickly arrived and unleashed [Arcane Blast], powerful arcane energy swirling around him.
As he approached the first death knight, Leylin's arcane power instantly tore him apart. But this was only possible because he gathered quite abit of arcane energy.
Even more decisive than the power of holy light, the heavily armored warhorse and the black ghost knight vanished from the battlefield in an instant.
Leylin helped Turalyon, who had been knocked to the ground, to his feet, saying, "Rise, paladin! This isn't over yet!"
Khadgar received Leylin's command, raising his hands and gathering tons of arcane energy and casted [Arcane Missiles]. While the arcane missiles weren't as powerful as Leylin's [Arcane Blast], the dense barrage inflicted heavy suffering on the knights.
Their black cloaks and hoods were ripped apart, revealing their true forms under the arcane bombardment. Black bodies, eyes radiating a pale blue glow. No hope could be seen in these knights, only death.
Turalyon and Uther had a special connection to these creatures; the Holy Light within them strongly resisted them.
Five consecutive arcane explosions followed, and aside from one mishap, four more death knights were destroyed in the arcane energy. Khadgar was also gathering arcane energy. Although he was far from the death knights' fighting position, his spells showed no signs of weakening.
These death knights had never known danger, but they sensed it, the two mages who posed the greatest threat on the battlefield.
One mage was too far away, so they gave up. Turning around, they charged towards the mage closest to them.
Heavy warhorses pounded the ground, and a ghostly phantom, a death knight's blazing longsword, swung towards Leylin. Its spectral form shimmered with icy flames, and the weapon swung with deadly precision toward Leylin, aiming to end him in a single strike.
Meanwhile, Turalyon, Uther and Alleria, knew what they were about to do, recognized the imminent danger. Without hesitation, they moved swiftly to shield Leylin.
Their warhammers, imbued with divine energy, gathered a luminous barrier of holy light—an impenetrable shield that shimmered with sacred power.
A barrier of holy light gathered on the two paladins' warhammers, blocking the warhorses' charge.