Lothar didn't give Duke any orders; he knew Duke would satisfy him. Trust is built through countless battles. Whether a teammate is reliable or not can be determined in just a few fights. Lothar had never seen anyone as versatile and talented as Duke before.
Lothar was very relieved.
Sure enough, with a flick of Duke's wrist, the lowest level spell, Blizzard, was cast.
There were no deadly ice pillars, only quickly descending snowflakes. The icy hexagonal snowflakes quickly covered the soldiers' burning bodies, extinguishing the flames.
Every soldier who regained consciousness looked at Duke with grateful eyes.
Compared to the middle-aged priest who was still in a daze, Duke's response was godlike.
Many soldiers holding long swords had pale faces and beads of cold sweat on their foreheads, but they all survived, even those who were fatally injured.
This outcome was clearly not enough to satisfy Prince Malchezaar, a high-ranking demon in the Eredar tribe, who never dreamed that a time traveler had infiltrated the challengers.
Duke knew most of his skills like the back of his hand!
He roared, "Mortal, do you think this is the end?"
With a wave of his hand, a black light burst from the prince's hand.
In an instant, fifteen elite soldiers felt as if their bodies had been emptied. It was a terrifying feeling - there were no muscles, no blood vessels, no blood, not even bones inside their paper-thin skin. It was as if their organs had disappeared, and they had become empty shells.
It's indescribably terrifying, almost every soldier who was hit was stunned, not even noticing the dark energy enveloping them.
Three seconds! Only three seconds!
In the instant that the evil dark energy erupted, these fifteen soldiers would forever lose their lives, and even their souls would be bound in Karazhan, the chaotic mage tower, as some kind of pitiful existence.
"Run!" Lothar didn't know what it was, but he knew that if his trusted old comrades, who had been with him through thick and thin and whom he had trained himself, didn't run, they would all die here.
Being prepared to die and actually facing death were two completely different things.
Lothar was very strong, but even he didn't have the means to save all fifteen soldiers at the same time.
On the battlefield, a split-second hesitation could be fatal. Even though many of these elite soldiers had already realized what was happening and started sprinting towards the areas outside of the darkness that had enveloped them, how far could a soldier wearing full body armor, carrying a shield and a longsword, and bearing the weight of dozens of pounds, run in three seconds?
Death had become almost inevitable!
However, just as these dozen or so elite soldiers were about to be slaughtered, Duke's hand as a mage appeared again.
With the help of 72 mage hands, they dragged and pulled, managing to get all of the soldiers who were within the range of Prince's "Shadow Nova" out of harm's way before it exploded.
As they watched themselves flying out of the dark area, and then saw the ground beneath, which had been corroded by the dark energy, squeaking and emitting an ominous smell, even a fool knew that Duke had saved their lives once again.
Before the raid on Karazhan, they had only admired one person - Anduin Lothar.
From today on, they silently added another name to their hearts - Duke Marcus.
It wasn't just Duke's unimaginable response that surprised them, but also his calmness, decisiveness, selflessness, and indescribable sense of the bigger picture that made them admire him beyond measure.
"Thanks! Sir Marcus. I owe you my life."
"When Lothar doesn't want me anymore, I'll follow you, Sir Marcus, and see if I can still handle the door."
When their subordinates were bought off, most people would feel unwilling or angry, but Lothar was moved by their efforts to save their lives.
"Well, you bastards, if I really die, you can go and hang out with Duke. Now get lost, you're not the ones who can deal with this enemy."
Lothar's elite soldiers withdrew, retreating far away from the rooftop square. Lothar twisted his neck. "Duke, do you have any good suggestions?"
"If you're not afraid of flames, you can try to lure this guy out. I bet his flame pillars are limited in number."
"If he's not in the flames, I can definitely take him down." Garona seemed angry and resentful after being forced to retreat.
"Same here." Duke shrugged.
"That's settled then." Upon hearing Duke's words, Prince Malchezaar shuddered all over, almost thinking he was having an auditory hallucination. The pressure in the air suddenly changed, and a furious breath swept like an overwhelming force. With a roar, a voice burning with raging flames shook the ground.
"Who gave you the confidence to defeat me?! The Burning Legion is invincible!"
Duke remained unfazed. "Pfft."
Both Lothar and Garona looked at Duke at the same time.
"I just laughed, didn't say anything, is that wrong?" Duke said.
"No, I just think you're braver than I imagined." Lothar gently tapped Duke's arm with her shield, then charged forward without looking back.
Lothar charged!
With every step Lothar took, his radiance shone brighter.
This wasn't just a feeling or a hallucination, Lothar was actually emitting light from his body!
For a moment, Duke almost suspected that the unreliable world of Azeroth had already introduced the Paladin class ahead of schedule.
What's more chaotic to Duke was that he saw the following lines in his system data:
"After testing, Anduin Lothar used the super-rare Titan Potion, temporarily greatly increasing his health points."
"...Lothar used the Colorful Miracle Potion, temporarily greatly enhancing his magic resistance."
"...Lothar used the Special Flame Protection Potion."
"...Lothar activated the special amulet of the Archbishop of Stormwind, gaining an unknown super-strong exorcism blessing, greatly increasing his damage to demons."
What's "progression raiding"? This is progression raiding!
Even though Lothar himself was a boss, he still brought his own progression raiding potions when raiding another boss. He didn't even ask Duke for half a gold coin as reimbursement.
And this is the number one best teammate in Azeroth!
At this moment, Duke was almost moved to tears.
Garona and Duke watched as Lothar charged forward, and with two swift strikes, he cut down Prince Malchezaar's Infernal.