บท 116: More Captures, More Lessons
5/17 afternoon
Sadie still hadn't arrived after I'd finished distributing armor. Basically everyone in the assault team whose fighting style didn't bank on agility got a suit. I confirmed through Lividia that the armor wouldn't reshape to fit a dragon; there were limits. Anyone humanoid qualified though, no matter how big they were. That meant that Stitches and the Splinterfist clan were going decked out in their new Stormwind themed duds. I even let them keep the ridiculous lion shaped shoulderpads. They weren't looking to the left or right anyway.
I sent Eva a set and it was surprisingly mild in its enchantments; most of the gear I sent her from the Varian collection provided small bonuses to strength and stamina, but nothing too exciting. Basically just making it easier to move around in the armor without exhausting yourself. The appraisal for Sadie's gear was similar; it was certainly good equipment, Mana regeneration was a difficult enchantment and it's ability to reshape was great, but it wasn't anything mind blowing. I was disappointed until I remembered that I got this free, in large quantities, just for capturing someone. I was definitely giving Anduin a necklace today; I ordered Ursula to transfer her necklace to Onyxia; Dena needed hers more for as long as I was dealing with the High Elves' situation.
I had Irma handle the logistics of getting the troops in line while I trained with Sadie and Talaada. I also noticed that Lillibeth had gotten back; I had honestly missed having my own personal ghost girl on hand. It made spot capture so much easier. She silently smiled when I thanked her for the good work; Prudence was finally captured, so I could mark that off of my to do list.
Speaking of which, new captures were coming in en masse. I went ahead and summoned Nadira, who nodded her head respectfully once she realized who I was. "Warchief." She was deferential but not worshipful. I was stronger than her, by a substantial margin. That was enough reason to be subservient for the kind of orc that joined the Dark Horde. I could work with it.
I gave her an appraising once over. She was not bad looking. A very fit body, long black hair, a reasonably pretty face, and the dark grey skin common among the Blackrock orcs. Most orcs were green these days due to an unfortunate incident involving a lot of demon blood and being enslaved to a dark master temporarily, but some groups among them had grey or brown coloration as well. I won't get into it; orcs aren't a monoculture is the short explanation and they used to occupy a whole planet.
https://imgur.com/a/NEr88jB
I kitted her out with one of Varian's suits of armor that included a face concealing helmet. It was labeled "Stromgarde Footman" and was a nice, bulky set of plate with a red and bronze color scheme. I was a bit amused to find that the suit shifted to present her moderately large breasts to their best effect. It was still covering her whole body, but it was form fitting, showing off her figure and clearly had sockets for each breast. It wasn't as impractical as some would claim; the chest was still heavily enough armored that you wouldn't want to target it over the actual weak points, but the female version of the suit was a lot more sexualized than the male. Ah devs. Don't ever change.
"You'll be joining an assault today, alongside my mate and a number of other warriors under my command. Should you distinguish yourself, you will be given your own missions. Otherwise I'll be having you stay right where you have been, in order to train Eliza."
"Yes warchief." I pulled out the axes and javelins she'd been captured wielding, and handed them over. Varian's armor didn't come with weapons, but lucky me Nadira had brought her own.
Imriss was a little bit disappointing; he was still asleep. I called for Talaada to come to me with the medallion, we were planning on some more lessons once Sadie was available anyway. That did the trick, and unlike before he actually stayed awake. He looked up at me with a fusion of fear and awe.
"What did you do? Why did you help me?" He was certainly lucid, but he seemed almost fearful of me. "Why would the Black Dragonflight try to help us?"
Ah. He could identify me somehow. "The Black Dragonflight didn't. I'm an independent agent; I'm fairly sure Deathwing would kill me without a second thought if he knew where I was or what I have done. I'm trying to help fix the Emerald Dream on behalf of the Druids. Do you know where Ysera is? I need to give her one of these amulets to protect her from corruption."
"Oh. Oh no. I don't. I'm so sorry. She'd be somewhere well defended, I'm sure, but I don't know where exactly. I've been trapped for so long. What's the year?"
"There's a calendar on your necklace. You can check that." I sighed. It's not exactly unreasonable that the first green Dragon I encountered wouldn't know where the Green Dragon President is leading the war effort from, but I had hoped. "Well, in that case I actually need you to help my troops in battle. Do you know any magic?"
He cocked his head with confusion. "No?"
"Good. The enemy has some strong anti mage abilities. I'll be sending you to assist my mate. Go along with what she commands, and tell her, in these words, to check her profile in the app. I got her something very exciting."
"Right. Yeah. I can do that. Happy to." I sent the little dragon away. I had more things to check. I considered fucking Talaada to pass the time, but decided that I'd rather not be in the middle of that when my priestly instructor arrived. So instead I turned myself into a green dragon; I wanted to test something.
I found I didn't have a visage. I tried to turn my little scaly ass into my Erich Bismark persona, and it just didn't happen. That was exciting. I could make a whole new visage for my green dragon form. I decided on a night elf almost immediately; I was planning on using this form for diplomacy with the elves and to get in the good books with the Cenarian Circle. Best to exploit elven ingroup preference.
I settled on the name Erius; Erich was absolutely not elven enough. Erius was a tall, lean kind of elf with a runner's build. Long dark green hair and light green skin. He was, after all, a green dragon in disguise. I'd definitely be more open about that with this persona. He wore simple leather clothes and tied his hair back. I was pretty happy with him. A shame I couldn't fit Otto in; maybe he'd be my face for one of the other three flights. Though at least one of those should probably be a horde species; probably a troll. I liked trolls aesthetically; the only reason I hadn't stopped over to capture one was that I didn't have time and resources to spare. Too busy, too busy.
When Sadie arrived, I put Irma in charge of gathering the troops from my list and getting them into position near the tower. Tess would be the last to arrive; I intended to talk to a certain housewife in Southshore while the assault was going on.
••••••••••
The lesson from Sadie went well. Before she arrived, I taught Talaada how to smite, using one of the undead gnolls I still had stored in the corner as a target dummy. The smites started out fairly pathetic by my current standards, but the important thing was that she learn how to use the spell at all. Strength would come with practice. Plus, I could just heal the blankly staring dog girl after each smite; no harm done.
My own lessons were quite fun. I was starting to get into more advanced techniques of holy magic. One that was particularly exciting was called "inner focus". It essentially let me cast a spell for free if I opened myself up to the light completely, frequently stronger than if I had cast it normally. She was talking about using it for a clutch heal but the first place my mind went was absolutely deleting someone with a full power smite and then continuing the fight without trouble.
She also shared with me another spell she was concerned about: one to hijack the body of another person. Well, that's a bit overdramatic; as things stood right now all she could do was look through their eyes and hear through their ears, generally experiencing the world as a passive passenger in their body. But she was sure that she could push it if she tried, possessing someone completely, like a ghost. The methods seemed obvious to her. I couldn't figure out how it would work, but I'm not the one with the company granted affinity for shadow magic.
"It seems like it would be useful; of course it could be misused, but so could anything. Look at the Scarlet Crusade; they use the light's healing to extend torture past what the body is capable of withstanding. With this magic, you could make someone wear a necklace, in which case they could be purified and turned to the service of our cause. Doesn't that sound good? It is better if someone can accept the power of Love and Beauty on their own, but any means will do."
Talaada chimed in. "I would happily use this power on my uncle, to save him. It's not so different from what we were forced to do instead, clapping him in chains." Her delivery was perfect; that was exactly what Sadie needed to hear.
"I… yes. Yes, of course. I will keep experimenting with it. You're right. We can't neglect such a powerful tool. It just feels somehow dirty. Violating."
"Any tool is acceptable in the service to the cause. I have studied the methods of summoning demons myself, and we have a necromancer as well. Purified of her dark intent, her magic is just a tool now. One to protect the faithful and punish the evil."
Sadie stood up a bit straighter at that. "Yes. If the light has granted me this insight, there must be a reason."
"Good girl! Now. You said it might be possible to use it without line of sight? That seems like it could be very useful."
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