In the Eastern Kingdom of Azeroth, in the past two months, a group of armed men of unknown origin began to appear frequently in the western wilderness area of the Kingdom of Stormwind, especially near the original Death Mine area in Moon Creek Town. Attack the soldiers and nobles of Stormwind Kingdom.
That strange group of thugs, they come from all races!
Whether they are humans, dwarves, high elves, goblins, trolls, or some other rare and strange creatures, their composition makes outsiders or the security forces in the west of Stormwind City feel that they are like a group that accidentally wandered into the Kingdom of Stormwind. Adventurers or some heinous criminals here?
Anyway, that’s how it was judged in the arrest documents posted by the authorities.
However, the veteran Paladin Grian Stroman, who returned to his hometown of Yuexi Town in the Western Wilds for retirement, doesn’t think so! He could tell at a glance from the other party's actions and elusive organization: they were definitely not ordinary thieves or villains, but a group of organized and purposeful hostile military forces!
This matter is actually not too difficult to judge...
Thinking about the power distribution and changing trends in the entire world of Azeroth and the northern and southern continents of the Eastern Kingdom over the years, it is not difficult to analyze the origins of that group of people. After all, the other party's methods and some revealed intelligence are too obvious. !
In Grian's view, although the other party's actions were very secretive, his methods were too childish and too direct.
This matter actually begins in the 21st year of the Dark Portal...
The one on the northern continent was founded by a mysterious and powerful little girl mage, and included all the lands in the north, including the entire Lordaeron. The one was composed of fire elements, humans, high elves, dwarves, deep sea naga, fish After the advent of the Flame Alliance composed of human tribes and a small number of night elves, the entire continent of the Eastern Kingdom was trembling under the powerful front of the Flame Alliance!
In that era when the demigod immortal Flame Queen was powerful enough to defeat Archimonde, make the death knight Arthas flee, and even easily eliminate the Scourge of the Undead, no force dared to face the north directly.
Fortunately, that little girl disappeared as early as the 21st year of the Dark Portal, and no one knows her whereabouts!
When the time came to the twenty-fifth year of the Dark Portal, the undead Scourge was unwilling to fail. The Lich Commander Kel'Thuzad even relied on the terrifying city of Naxxramas to launch an attack on Azeroth in the northern part of the Eastern Kingdom. Another strategy battle!
However, it only lasted less than a week from his appearance to his escape! The opponent's ridiculous strategy not only caused a large number of elite undead to be slaughtered by the Flame Alliance, but even the floating castle was destroyed by the Flame Alliance army and crashed on the coastal beach east of the Eastern Plagueland...
At that time, the Flame Alliance used their powerful military power and unparalleled record to declare their power to the other two major forces in Azeroth!
However, the good times did not last long...
When the Ahn'Qiraj bugs launched another attack on the Silithus Desert under the order of the ancient god C'Thun, the entire Azeroth alliance had to temporarily put aside their differences with each other. Gaps and disputes began to unite once again to gather in Silithus and collectively besiege the gates of Ahn'Qiraj!
Originally, everything went smoothly for the coalition's operations. After all, their army was a combination of three major forces.
However, shortly after they invaded the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, the fire elemental army under the Flame Alliance, for some unknown reason, except for a very few high-level beings, were suddenly collectively controlled by the ancient god C'Thun and began to become Get wild! Subsequently, most of the fire elemental troops were killed in the internal strife with the coalition forces, and caused extremely heavy casualties to the entire Azeroth coalition...
In the end, although with the help of the Bronze Dragon Legion, the heroes of the coalition successfully swept away the Ahn'Qiraj Empire and defeated the ancient god C'Thun, but...the Fire Elemental Legion, which suffered serious losses in strength, together with the Fire Alliance's The armies of other countries were jointly expelled by the tribes and the Stormwind Alliance before receiving any benefits, and they sailed back to the northern continent of the Eastern Kingdom in embarrassment.
After this battle, the military power of the Flame Alliance fell for the first time from its position as the strongest among the three alliances!
This powerful alliance that originally shocked the entire world of Azeroth, after losing most of the elite members of the Flame Legion, began to become even more fragile than the new tribe! In the end, they had no choice but to stick to the northern continent and the Saldo Bridge, temporarily losing the ability to make progress.
However, just when the Flame Alliance was about to lick their wounds, their opponents' strength increased out of thin air...
In the second year after the Ahn'Qiraj Empire was annihilated and the conspiracy of the ancient god C'Thun was shattered, and in the twenty-sixth year of the Dark Portal, a group of alien spacecraft called the Draenei crash-landed on Kalimdor. On the northern coast of the continent, they soon came into contact with the night elves and successfully formed an alliance with the Stormwind Alliance!
This accident allowed the Stormwind Alliance to acquire countless paladins and powerful priests, far surpassing the Knights of the Silver Hand in the New Kingdom of Lordaeron! If you add that powerful Naaru creature, the hard power of the Stormwind City Alliance has secured its throne as the number one military power in the world of Azeroth for the first time.
From then on, for the first time, the Storm Alliance far surpassed the newly born Horde and the Fire Alliance, which showed signs of decline, in terms of strength.
At the same time, when the Dark Portal was rebuilt and opened again by Lord Kazak, the demon lord of Outland, both the Alliance and the Horde began a new round of large-scale march into Outland! One is to smash the Burning Legion's conspiracy to attack the world of Azeroth, and the other is that they all hope to gain enough benefits from the new world.
Illidan Stormrage, the leader of the Flame Alliance at the time, ignored the strong opposition of other members of the alliance at the time and resolutely led almost all the Deep Sea Nagas and some of the elite Fire Alliance troops to begin a forcible conquest of the outer lands!
After that, I don’t know what outrageous things the demon hunter Illidan did in the outer world. Anyway, soon, the Fire Alliance was boycotted by the Stormwind Alliance and the Horde and cut off from the world of Azeroth. All contacts!
Since then, there has been no news...
At this point, after losing the main force of the Fire Elemental Legion, the Naga Deep Marine Corps, the Illidari and some of the elite forces of the Flame Alliance, they were once unparalleled in power under the command of a little girl and overcame all races in Azeroth. The Flame Alliance, which we could almost only look up to, began to gradually become embarrassed and almost never recovered!
It is about the twenty-seventh year since the first opening of the Dark Portal. In the entire Flame Alliance in the north, it is rumored that even in the Flame City of the Flame Kingdom, there are only a few fire elements left. Most of them were forced to retreat back to the land of flames! I heard that it seems that he is trying to defend against Ragnaros, the Fire Demon King, who is planning to counterattack the Land of Fire. He is busy reinforcing the space barrier of the Land of Fire?
Anyway, the remaining Wildhammer dwarves of the Eagle's Nest, the dilapidated high elves of Quel'Thalas, and the new Kingdom of Lordaeron, which had not yet had time to recover its national power, lost strategic points in the Stormwind Alliance's Northern Expedition. Sardo Bridge and South Sea Town! They can only retreat to the defense line of Tarren Mill in Hillsbrad Foothills, Stromgarde and Hammerfell in Arathi Highlands, and Ambermere in Silverpine Forest. With Quel'Thalas and Eagle's Nest Mountain and With the fire element's air superiority, they could barely contain the Stormwind Alliance's northward offensive.
But even so, anyone with a discerning eye can discover: If the Stormwind Alliance were not busy conquering the outer lands and dealing with the Burning Legion who planned to make a comeback, I am afraid that the Northern Expedition's front line would have been pushed to Tirisfal Glades...
Due to Illidan's behavior and in the face of naked interests, the nobles of Stormwind City completely abandoned the people of Lordaeron who had saved them, and classified the entire Fire Alliance in the north as even worse than the Orc Horde. Evil exists!
Therefore, the old paladin Grian Stroman, with his sharp eyes and rich experience, could tell at a glance: The small group of forces causing trouble here in the Western Wilds, the granary of the Kingdom of Stormwind, must be with the Alliance of Fire. It cannot be separated!
They just want to cause chaos within the Kingdom of Stormwind, so as to consume and disperse the strength of Stormwind City!
Otherwise, where did the humans, dwarves, high elves and a small number of fire elemental creatures that were recently active near Moon Creek Town come from? How could such an organized and purposeful sabotage assassination operation, as well as instigating rebellion and arming the remnants of the Defias Brotherhood, be accomplished by a group of ordinary thugs?
You know, he, Grian Stroman, joined Uther's army after the Second Orc War, and then worked in the holy city of Stratholme as a paladin of the Knights of the Silver Hand. and served, and miraculously survived the massacre in Stratholme.
Then, during the Scourge War, Grian followed the Knights of the Silver Hand on their expeditions in the north and south. After the death of Uther the Lightbringer in the battle of Andorhal, he finally chose to leave Lordaeron in frustration. , returned to his hometown of Westfall and has been living in seclusion until now.
Therefore, although he looks like an old citizen of Yuexi Town who knows nothing on the outside, in fact, he is a powerful paladin general who can still go on the battlefield! During this time, he had seen everything!
So, today, he organized and led a dozen armed militiamen from Yuexi Town that he had trained before, armed with long swords and shields, and successfully surrounded a black man wearing a red scarf and holding a sharp blade in an alley. Short-haired thief.
"..."
After looking at the other party up and down, Grian could easily tell: the other party should be a woman, and a very young woman at that! Looking at the other person's appearance, the snow-white and tender complexion and oval ears, there is no doubt that he is a human!
"Hmph! The red mask, the costume of a thief... Sure enough, you should be the remnant of the Defias Brotherhood back then... How many years have passed, and you have resurrected? Or maybe... you are reawakened by some people with ulterior motives. Got you?"
With just one glance, Grian roughly recognized the other party's origins.
If in another timeline, he should have started organizing the People's Army long ago! However, due to some butterfly effect, Van Cleef was wiped out too early, so he has been idle until now. He barely has a group of dozens of militiamen. As for the People's Army, it is still far away.
"Hurry up and put down your weapons and surrender! You are now completely surrounded by us. There is no use in resisting!"
Wearing plain clothes and holding a huge warhammer from his days as a Holy Knight of the Silver Hand, Grian once again spoke to the female thief who was surrounded by them and looked too young.
He knew that the other party might just be a refugee who had gone astray, and it was all about survival, or was it the past confusion of the Kingdom of Stormwind? Therefore, Grian does not want to demand too much from the other party. As long as the other party is willing to surrender and does not commit any serious crimes after being investigated, he will definitely fight for a lighter punishment for the other party.
Although most people in the Western Wilderness are not living very well now, and the kingdom imposes heavy taxes due to various military activities, as long as they can survive, rebellion is always wrong, and joining the Defias Brotherhood is even more wrong. good!
"I bother!"
"You lackeys of the Stormwind nobles! You have been oppressing and killing countless innocent people in the Western Wilderness. You once also abused the migrant workers of our Masons' Union. Do you think we will forget the blood debts of the past?"
"I can tell you: no one is here to wake us up! As long as your oppression continues and as long as justice has not been upheld, we will never give in! Although we sometimes fall silent, we are always awake. Stay! As long as the time is right, our sharp blade of revenge will slit your necks and let you bleed out those dirty blood!"
As soon as Grian finished speaking, a young and clear female voice came out from behind the red scarf, making the surrounding militiamen feel that this female thief surrounded by them was a member of the Defias Brotherhood. , seems to be only fifteen or sixteen years old at most.
"Sure enough...it's those bad things about the Masons' Union again..."
The old paladin sighed with a headache. Some things he didn't want to hear, or thought had been forgotten, would always be picked up inadvertently.
"Young people, actually... you shouldn't be so extreme. You have to know that in this beautiful world of Azeroth, there is always hope as long as there is... You shouldn't be resentful towards the Kingdom of Stormwind. Some of you should not be resentful towards the Kingdom of Stormwind. The best choice is to forget things as soon as possible... Please believe me, as long as you have hope, everything will get better slowly."
Grian sighed in his heart, and probably understood something, so he continued to persuade patiently.
That mess with the Stonemasons Union happened many years ago... Look at the age of this little girl. She looks like she is only fifteen or sixteen now. Back then, she was only a few years old at most. She's just a girl, she shouldn't remember too much.
Therefore, as long as you explain clearly some of the negative things that have been instilled in the other party, you can probably win them back.
"Hahaha! What a joke! You, a lackey of the nobles of Stormwind City, are actually... telling me hope?!"
"Hope... Is that what I should feel when I see you noble lackeys cutting off my father's head? Hope, to me, is just a vicious joke in this cruel world! Hope ...It doesn’t exist, the only thing that exists is Vanessa!”
The masked female thief loudly mocked and refuted the stupid words of the old paladin opposite with harsh words full of unforgettable hatred.
I think back then, she groped in the darkness and climbed out of the Death Mine with difficulty, and followed the traces that were difficult to identify. With her bare feet, she finally reached the evil Stormwind City after going through hardships and hardships. When she was in front of the gate, all she saw at a young age in the bone-chilling storm was her father's dead head!
At that time, he was placed in a small wooden cage and hung by the city gate by the villains...
That scene...she has never forgotten it! !
And now, this old guy, this lackey of Stormwind City, actually wants to persuade her to surrender? Haha...he is just wishful thinking!
Once upon a time, during the years when she was training on the land of Quel'Thalas, she had sworn that before the Kingdom of Stormwind was destroyed by her own hands and those filthy nobles paid their blood debt, she would never do anything. compromise! She believes that one day, she will use her pitch-black dagger to bloodbath those dirty and greedy Storm Nobles!
And this is what she secretly hid from her high elf teacher some time ago. She led a group of followers who also hated the Stormwind Alliance and resolutely took a boat south to reach the Western Wilderness to once again carry the banner of the Defias Brotherhood. , the fundamental reason for intending to complete her father’s unfinished business!
During this time, Vanessa had gathered some nearby refugees and the remnants of the original Masons' Union, uniting them closely around her, and using these people, Vanessa finally got what she wanted. The Defias Brotherhood was re-established.
Their current members have exceeded 3,000, and those who can fight have reached as many as 1,000, far exceeding the number of Stormwind City soldiers in the Western Wilderness! Moreover, they even shouted novel slogans about killing nobles, dividing their fields, and paying less taxes!
Because of this, countless people quietly choose to join them every day, and their power is growing every moment and every second.
Therefore, Vanessa believes that when the weapons they ordered from the goblins arrive, it will be the moment when their people in the western wilderness will revolt!
However, what Vanessa never expected was that when she planned to assassinate a corrupt noble official assigned by Stormwind City to Moonbrook Town today, she would be attacked by these militiamen who had been ambushing here for a long time and that damn saint. The old knight guy is stuck here.
"Vanessa... Van Cleef... So that's it... Forget it, go ahead and capture her with all your strength. If there is resistance... shoot to death!"
After hearing the other party's words and name, Grian was stunned for a while, and suddenly stopped persuading him. He just sighed and waved his hands, intending to let his men come forward and take down the young girl.
This kind of teenager, especially a guy who grew up under the influence of endless hatred, is particularly extreme. General persuasion is definitely useless, let alone the hatred of killing his father. Got it! Therefore, for the sake of the stability of Moon Creek Town, for the sake of the Western Wilderness, and for the sake of less turmoil in the Kingdom of Stormwind, Gerian decided to simply capture the opponent.
"yes!!"
Upon hearing the order, four Yuexi Town militiamen armed with wooden shields and long swords surrounded the female thief who was surrounded by them. These people are all descendants of wealthy families or aristocratic branches in the western wilderness. They are all vested interests with many industries. They will not fight with these Diffeys who have no horses, no houses, no land, and think about rebellion all day long. The remnants of the Sub-Brotherhood are mixed together, and they are even less likely to sympathize with each other.
In their view, whether they are the refugees or the remnants of the Masons' Union, they are actually outsiders who are struggling to survive and the most miserable existence in the western wilderness, and are not looked down upon by them!
"Hmph! You want to catch me?!"
Fan of knives! !
Since the other party had murderous intentions, Vanessa, a female thief, certainly did not show any mercy. She simply turned around with dozens of sharp flying knives enchanted with shadow energy in a special way and force. In an instant, they poured out wildly towards the surroundings, causing them to instantly form a violent fan of knives covering a radius of more than ten meters, pouring directly onto all the militiamen who participated in surrounding her!
Because she knows that there are quite a lot of Stormwind Kingdom militia and security forces here in Moon Creek Town, and the old knight makes her very afraid. If it really drags on, she may not be able to run away!
So, she must go all out!
Either, kill all the soldiers blocking the way and find an opportunity to evacuate; or, you will be captured by mistake and die in frustration!
"No! Disperse quickly!!"
Seeing that this female thief was so fierce in her attacks, and the weapons seemed to contain black toxins, Grian An became anxious and shouted loudly! Then, he quickly used the holy light to release a layer of sacred barriers in front of him, and successfully blocked all the knives that were shot at him!
However, those that shot out in all directions and towards the militiamen, he had no better idea.
The next moment, he saw with horror: the dozen militiamen he brought with him fell to the ground screaming! They were either dead or injured, and the minor ones had at least one or two black sharp blades inserted into their arms or thighs, non-vital places without armor protection, and fell to the ground wailing...
As for the heavy ones, their shields were simply broken, their bodies were stabbed dozens of times, and they simply lay on the ground and never moved again.
"What a cruel little girl, how dare you do this!!"
Realizing that the opponent was so ruthless and merciless, the angry Grian immediately activated the war hammer in his hand and burst out with golden light, flying towards the enemy like a furious old lion.
"Hmph!"
disappear! !
After taking a satisfied look at her victory, Vanessa sneered. She didn't pay attention to the opponent or plan to fight hard, but simply disappeared. She entered a stealth state in an instant and disappeared directly.
"it's here!"
How could it be possible to deal with thieves with a veteran paladin like Grian?
Therefore, after feeling the slight changes in his surroundings, he forced a turn in the middle of the attack, raised his warhammer filled with holy light high, and pounced in the other direction!
"Accept the judgment of the Holy Light!!"
The war hammer shining with strong golden holy light, like a small golden sun, violently smashed towards an open space without anyone or anything!
boom! ! !
When his war hammer collided with the masonry floor and debris flew, Grian was surprised to find that his attack just now failed?
"!!"
Sure enough, the enemy...is gone now...
The attack he originally thought he was aiming for would actually fail, which made Grian very embarrassed! However, he was 100% sure that the enemy was standing here just now!
But how did she disappear?
When he began to sense carefully again, he found that except for some vague shadow energy remnants, there seemed to be no trace of the enemy here.
"etc……"
"This seems to be shadow energy? That young enemy is actually a thief with pure shadow energy?!"
When Grian silently pulled out a flying knife with a dark black blade from one of his dead militiamen, he was surprised to find: it was indeed pure shadow energy? However, if you have this kind of talent, is it really good to not learn the Holy Light or become a Shadow Priest, but to learn the Path of Thieves?
He Gerian knows that there are not many boundaries between Holy Light and Shadow, just like the Ashbringer held by a colleague of the Silver Queen Knights in the Northern Flame Alliance! That artifact was said to have been forged from a shadow crystal before Scourge was defeated.
"Alas...Western Wilds, I'm afraid we're going to be in big trouble!"
Looking at the dead and injured men around him, Grian sighed heavily.
He knew that the other party must have used some kind of shadow priest method to forcefully escape from his attack.
Now, after many years, the Defias Brotherhood is back again...
Although King Varian had returned two years ago and revealed the identity of a certain countess and successfully drove her away, but...the bad things that happened back then were finally brewing in the Westfall again. As for When it will break out, he doesn't know very well...
