Chương 182: Chapter 182: Biting Off a Chunk of Flesh
On the Horde side, Orgrim was troubled.
He had been unable to break through a crucial pivot point in his plan.
The pivot was Garona, the female half-orc who had been unexpectedly captured by Orgrim. Perhaps due to her slave upbringing, Garona had an unimaginable tolerance for pain. The straightforward orcs were not adept at torture, and all their interrogation methods were still based on simple violence.
Orgrim needed to find out the location of the Shadow Council from Garona, but he couldn't kill her. Garona was not only incredibly resilient, but she also seemed to possess a mysterious power within her. Whenever her life force dropped to a certain level, she would become enveloped in this power, rendering her immovable even by Orgrim's mighty Doomhammer.
When her life force and strength recovered to a certain level, Garona would once again become a captive ripe for the slaughter.
This situation drove Orgrim mad.
He was indeed eager to overthrow the despicable Warchief Blackhand and avenge his friend Durotan, but without capturing the Shadow Council or Gul'dan, defeating the Warchief would only be a superficial solution.
The thought of the curse-like power the Shadow Council wielded from the shadows made Orgrim's scalp tingle.
The only good news was that the humans were starting to falter. Each day, more than one wave of orc assault teams broke through the moat, even climbing the city walls at times. If not for the humans forming an elite emergency team, using counter-charges and numerous ranged attacks to suppress the orcs' assault, the city might have already been breached.
Orgrim was still conflicted. Conquering the capital of the first major foreign kingdom they encountered beyond the Dark Portal would be an unparalleled honor. If this honor was achieved by the current Warchief Blackhand, most of the orcs in the Horde would still remember his merits, even if Orgrim successfully challenged him later.
Even if he achieved greater victories after taking the reins, the simple-minded orcs would still feel that he merely stole Blackhand's accomplishments and followed the path of success laid out by Blackhand.
All these thoughts left Orgrim feeling frustrated.
As a future Warchief, Orgrim's greatest traits were his formidable personal strength and his intelligence. He was one of the few orcs who possessed foresight and was cold-hearted enough to be almost utilitarian.
Without absolute certainty of controlling everything, he would choose to be patient.
However, on the 25th day of the siege, Orgrim sensed that the humans' strength had finally reached a critical point.
"You say there are no more than 100,000 humans in Stormwind City?" Orgrim had mixed feelings about the scout's report.
"Yes, during peaceful times, the humans can evacuate about 10,000 people per day. But there were several days of storms, and the human evacuation efforts nearly came to a halt," the scout captain reported.
Orgrim felt a pang of pain. If the humans didn't have so many tricks up their sleeves and only had their low walls, the Horde could have breached the city in two or three days. They would have captured hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, not the fewer than 100,000 they had now. The Horde wouldn't have lost more than 20,000 warriors and 70,000-80,000 orc laborers during this period.
With this thought, Orgrim felt incredibly frustrated.
The humans had gone from being utterly defenseless to being well-versed in both offense and defense, causing the Horde's losses to mount.
Although the simple-minded members of the Horde still saw the humans as weak and easily crushed, Orgrim knew better. He was well aware that if too many humans escaped, the Horde would likely have to pay more than double the price to eliminate them later.
He couldn't wait any longer!
No matter the cost, they had to annihilate the remaining human forces. If they couldn't truly crush the humans' fighting spirit, this battle-hardened force would become the Horde's biggest headache in the future.
With this in mind, Orgrim had no more hesitation. He would advise the Warchief to launch an all-out attack tonight.
Meanwhile, in Stormwind Keep.
The few individuals who held the fate of Stormwind Kingdom gathered together.
Duke calmly said, "The Horde's all-out attack will be tonight."
King Llane raised his head abruptly, "Are you sure?"
"The Horde scouts that infiltrated past my defenses to observe Stormwind Harbor were intentionally allowed through," Duke said with a casual tone, giving the impression that everything was under his control.
Lothar took a deep breath, "Indeed, these last fifty thousand people are the absolute minimum needed to defend the walls of Stormwind."
Barathen looked up suddenly, gazing at Duke, then turning to King Llane, "Your Majesty, I still strongly recommend that you leave with the last batch of ships this evening! You are the king of Stormwind Kingdom, you..."
"Enough! Barathen!" King Llane interrupted his loyal servant, "Since Duke has said that he can ensure our escape at the last moment, what more do we have to hesitate about? I cannot accept leaving my people behind like a coward! If you want to make sure that Stormwind Kingdom has a king, Varian has already been sent to Southshore."
These words were heavy, almost heart-wrenching. Barathen had nearly risked his life to advise against it, and his words were undoubtedly a vote of no confidence in Duke, who had yet to reveal his final plan.
"I'm sorry, Duke. Barathen is just..." King Llane reprimanded Barathen, then immediately apologized to Duke.
"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't have involved Your Majesty in the plan."
"No—Duke, you're not wrong! You've fully explained the risks I may face. If it comes down to it, I'll die for my kingdom as a defeated king. No, I should say, if this plan fails, I would rather die for my kingdom than beg for mercy like a beaten dog from those people."
King Llane suddenly looked up, staring directly at Barathen and his other loyal subjects. Each one of them saw the resolve to die in Llane's eyes.
Wise and great, these had always been Llane's labels.
But few had ever thought that Llane would be so unyielding and steadfast.
Many might think that losing to the powerful orcs wasn't so disgraceful, yet they overlooked the feelings of a king who aspired to achieve greatness but was forced to abandon his capital and the legacy of his ancestors.
Duke couldn't help but feel a sense of awe. In 'history,' it was because Llane had been assassinated and Stormwind had fallen that Lothar had been forced to flee with Prince Varian.
Now, 'history' had changed slightly, but the orcs' dominance hadn't. If it weren't for Duke, Llane might still have died here.
"Alright, as long as you all listen to me, I can guarantee that even if Stormwind falls, we'll still be able to take a hefty bite out of those green-skinned monsters."
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