World of Warcraft: Burning Skies

by Blackdrag-rose

Suramar: Tormented Guardians

Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies took a few minutes to rest and recover after the battle with Il'gynoth, even if it had been far easier than when they faced Nythendra, though once everyone was ready to go, and Spitfire was sure of that since she wanted to make sure no one was exhausted, they got up from where they were sitting and headed over to one of the other portals that were resting around the Iris that Malfurion was working on, where the heroes, once more, waited for her to pick a destination and head through it, despite the fact that they were more experienced at this than she and Rainbow were, as this was their first 'raid', as some heroes called it. Spitfire, in the end, picked out the portal that would take them to the corrupted version of Mulgore, the province of Kalimdor that Baine Bloodhoof and all of the Tauren people, not counting the Highmountain Tauren, called home, where it was easy for them to see that there were a lot of Nightmare vines growing out of the ground and reached multiple areas, along with a path carved into the ground that appeared to be heading towards the area that their next foe rested in, which they noticed was a trio of large rock pillars which had been connected by a large amount of spider webs. The sheer amount of webs meant that whoever or whatever was in this area had to be a spider, a form she and Rainbow knew wasn't one that the druids could take on and that, in turn, revealed another individual that had been corrupted by the Nightmare, something no one was surprised by since this was the Emerald Nightmare, before she noticed that the webs looked like they might be strong enough for them to walk or run on, though at the same time it was easy to see a few creatures who had been tainted by the Nightmare, as a few plainstriders happened to be walking nearby, flightless birds who were hunted for their meat, who didn't care about them. Of course they knew that there had to be a few more creatures resting throughout this part of the Nightmare, since the corrupted version of Un'Goro Crater happened to have a couple of foes for them to fight, to which Spitfire, Rainbow, and everyone else kept their guards up as they started to walk down the path that was in front of them, as it was time to hunt down their target and cut it down, to give Malfurion a better chance of overcoming the power that was resting on the Iris and open the way to Moonglade.

That was when they spotted a large spider creature, a blacked beast with red energy dancing around its body and limbs, who seemed to be walking on six legs and had a torso with the other two limbs, arms and scythe blades for hands, but it seemed to be ignoring everything that was around it and that was fine with Spitfire, since this would give them some time to clear the area of enemies before they approached the powerful being that was guarding this portion of the Nightmare, even though her thoughts were interrupted as the creature turned its head and seemed to stare at the area that was all around it for a few seconds.

"Betrayers! Liars! Murderers! Has Hamuul sent his lapdogs to fetch the knife from my back?" the creature shouted, almost as if it, or rather she since it spoke with a twisted feminine voice, actually knew that they were there and that it was just waiting for them to come over to where she was waiting, which happened to be the furthest platform from the location of the portal they had used to reach this place, but it was also possible that she was being paranoid and was just talking to pass the time as she waited for Xavius to give her some orders, "Do you remember murdering me? Or have you grown so used to slaughter that my cries of agony are long forgotten? I recall my final moments surrounded by those I had trusted, and hearing your satisfied sneers as I drew my last breath!"

"I don't think she's talking to us... rather, it looks like she might be under the impression that she's speaking to whoever brought about her demise," Vytheril commented, where the rest of the heroes nodded their heads to show that everyone agreed with the thought and that none were questioning what he had said, though at the same time they decided to take a moment to observe the spider creature as she moved around the area that was her domain, even though there was a secondary reason for this, as their connection to Malfurion would allow him to see what was going on right now and that meant he might be able to offer them some idea as to who this might have been.

I'm sorry, heroes, but I have no idea who this creature might have been before coming here, Malfurion spoke up, as he was taking a moment to distract himself from trying to force open the Iris and focused on what they were currently looking at, though while he said that Spitfire had the feeling that the spider had been a druid before her demise, a rather powerful one at that, and Xavius had twisted her spirit into a guardian for the Nightmare, granting the Nightmare Lord a bit more time so he could further his twisted plans, but I do know that she has been twisted into a terror that Xavius has positioned outside Thunder Bluff, awaiting her master's order to unleash her corruption on the spirits of the Tauren so more can be twisted into servants of the Nightmare... I would ask that you bring her down, both to eliminate her flow of power to the Iris and to free the spirits of the Tauren from the lingering threat.

"For now, let's focus on taking down her minions, before we worry about her," Spitfire remarked, though she did like the fact that Malfurion was willing to speak with her and Rainbow, given their nature as demon hunters and happened to be following in his brother's footsteps, and inform everyone as to what was going on right now, as the couple of Tauren that were with them seemed annoyed that Xavius was trying to corrupt the souls of their ancestors, but once she said that she drew her blades once more and resumed walking down the path in front of them, with Rainbow and the others following not a few seconds later.

The first foe they encountered was a large corrupted bird, blue feathered with a crazed look in its eyes, that tried to peck everyone to death when they approached it, showing that it was, in some manner, under the sway of Xavius and that they were definitely on his list of enemies to take out, given the fact that they had taken down two of his main minions so far, hence the reason Rainbow went on the offensive and swung her Warblades at their foe, blocking the peak attacks while making sure to open its defenses so that the melee heroes could attack its sides while their ranged allies loosed a couple of blasts at the same time. Spitfire, however, focused on observing the spider creature for any potential weaknesses as she quickly moved around the upper part of her corrupted domain, an area that none of them would be able to hit easily since there didn't appear to be a pathway leading up there, though she and Rainbow could fly up there and lure her down to the area their allies were in, but for the most part it didn't seem like the spider had a weakness, meaning they might find one during their battle with her or just bring her down by overcoming her attacks and whatever tricks she might have to throw at them when they stated to fight her. In addition to that there were a few smaller spiders, like the small spider demons in terms of size, which joined the battle and tried to bring them down, though in the end it didn't matter as Rainbow and the heroes brought down the massive bird, plus its allies, which granted them access to the two paths that were open to them right now, where it looked like they were going to have to take out every enemy that was lurking in this place before even being allowed to fight the massive spider that was partly ignoring their presence. With those foes defeated the group came to the decision to head over to the right and carefully walked on the thick webbing that was in front of them, since none of them knew if it could maintain its form as they walked on it, but, as Spitfire and the others quickly discovered as they did that, was that the webbing held and that everyone was able to reach the second rock pillar that their enemies were just wandering around in, waiting for their master to order them around or for intruders to reach them, before they found that the next group was foes was just a bunch of spiders, with one slightly larger one no doubt being a leader of sorts, which was followed by them lashing out at their foes without delay.

With the second group bested the heroes marched over the next bit of webbing and headed over to the third pillar, which was followed by the spider creature dropping down from where she had been waiting not a few seconds later and glared at all of them, as if she still felt that they had betrayed her at some point in the past, before her death anyway, even if all of them knew that the spider creature was wrong and that no one here was behind her demise, but that didn't stop Spitfire, Rainbow, and their allies from readying themselves as they prepared to face another powerful creature that was under Xavius' foul control.

A few seconds ticked by before the spider screeched at them and rushed over to where they were standing, even though Rainbow rushed forward this time around and swung her Warblades at her foe, clashing with the spider's scythe limbs as the heroes lashed out with their weapons, spells, and arrows, intending on doing as much damage as they could to their foe so they could move onto the next part of the Nightmare, and the next powerful foe that might be waiting for them, but as that happened the spider shrieked and looked some webbing at some of them, which appeared to stick her targets to the ground and might have been designed to deal a bit of damage to the mage and rogue she struck. In response to that attack the pair broke out of the bindings as one of the priests made sure to mend their wounds, even if they were light and didn't go too deep, since it was just webbing and not one of her scythe limbs, something that prompted her to start a new tactic, which happened to be lobbing bits of poison into the air and letting them land all over the top of the pillar they were fighting on, scattering poison and reminding the group of what happened during their battle with Nythendra, hence why all of them avoided the new pools of poison while focusing on their foe. Another thing the spider did was try and make a number of them into poison bombs, as in her power allowed her to transfer some of her poison over to those she picked as her targets, to spread more of her poison to the rest of the area they were fighting in at the moment, where those that were inflicted by such a condition actually spread out and made sure that when the pools of poison were dropped none of them would be near where the group was fighting, showing Spitfire and Rainbow just how experienced the heroes were and let them understand a few things in the process. Of course there was another trick to this, the spider actually let out a sound that informed the group that she had to be calling on reinforcements, as some of her brood, which happened to be the smaller spiders that had been in their way earlier, dropped down and rushed at the group as the main spider took a few seconds to retreat to the ceiling of her domain once more, showing them that she might be a bit cowardly and didn't want to die in her 'quest to get revenge', or whatever lie Xavius was feeding her.

While the heroes dealt with the spiders that were around them, taking down the main spider's brood before focusing on their main foe once more, Spitfire and Rainbow decided to tackle the massive spider and raised their hands, Spitfire going with her right and Rainbow with her left, where they combined both of their Fel energies into a single attack that took the form of a sphere that had both fire and lightning attached to it, something that shook the area as they loosed it right into the area the massive spider was in, blasting her right in the area below her and knocked her down onto the ground, near all of their allies, allowing them to lash out at their spider without delay... which was followed by Nightmare power surging around the spider as it transformed into a creature called a roc, a massive bird that looked like a raven, before she lashed out at all of them again.

That confirmed something in Spitfire's mind as the roc headed over to the first pillar, the main one that was connected to the path that had brought them here, which forced everyone to follow after her so they could continue the battle, and that fact she came to understand was that they were definitely dealing with a fallen druid, a powerful one that took on a couple of shapes that none of the others had taken on in the past, though it was hard to tell if these forms were forbidden to the rest of the druids or ones granted by the power of the Nightmare, but right now that didn't matter as everyone caught up with their foe and lashed out at her when she turned to face them once more. The roc turned her attention towards them as such a thing happened, swinging her wings at them to knock any of them off of their feet and pecking at those who got too close to her body, though everyone knew that those weren't the only abilities that she had access to and made sure to keep up their guards as they waited for her to reveal one of her new attacks, since her spider form had possessed a good number of powers and that meant this one had to be the same. Sure enough the roc spread her wings at one point and started to channel the power of the storm as she focused on them for a few moments, a blackened storm that would do a bit of damage if it was allowed to come into contact with the heroes, hence why Rainbow pulled away from the battle for a few moments and rushed around the attack in question, using her innate peagsus powers to calm the wind and force the storm to die down, much to the shock and surprise of both their allies and their enemy, though the latter was great since it allowed them to bypass some of the roc's defenses once more. That didn't stop the roc from spreading her wings for a few seconds and swung them at everyone that was in front of her, where she was sending out what appeared to be a fair number of sharpened feathers that were designed to do harm to whoever they came into contact with, and while most of the group dodged the attack, without getting hit in the process, a few had to tank the feathers and the healers made sure to mend their wounds, allowing them to rush back into battle and strike the roc before she had a chance to flee, though that attack wasn't all the roc was capable of.

In addition to all of that their foe had the power to create smaller dark tornadoes with a swing of her wing, ones that could form faster than the big one she tried to form a few moments ago, with the speed making it much harder for Rainbow or Spitfire to break any of them apart, but for the most part the heroes just avoided the incoming attacks and lashed out at the roc, knocking her to the side for a moment as they dodged her incoming talons, which showed them how desperate she truly was to win this battle, but that was when Rainbow rushed forward and spun as she swung her Warblades right into their foe's chest, cutting two long diagonal gashes into the roc's body and dropped it to the ground, where it stopped moving after a time and caused everyone to calm down a little.

"That's another twisted guardian defeated," Vytheril commented, though he was pleased by how things were going at the moment, something that he knew Spitfire was thinking about since she had been considering their fights with Nythendra and Il'gynoth, but before anyone could say anything else a surge of power rushed over the roc's body and they responded by shifting their stances in case the battle wasn't over just yet, something that pulled away a few seconds later and let all of them stare at the body of a fallen female Night Elf, a green haired individual who was wearing the attire of a druid, not that they had questioned such a thing, which had been twisted by the Nightmare, "at least she is now free from Xavius' grasp and can move onto her next life."

Her name was Elerethe Renferal, a powerful Archdruid who was like a sister to me... and whose loss I felt deeply when I heard the news of her death, Malfurion commented, speaking to them in their minds once more, even though they could hear the sadness in his voice as he remembered the day he learned of Elerethe's passing, where many were sure he wasn't the only one who felt sad and angry over her death, but they remained silent as they listened to what he had to tell them as each of them offered a silent prayer for the fallen druid in front of them, she was ambushed and murdered by the cult known as the Twilight's Hammer, who had disguised themselves as members of the Horde during the days before we were struck by Deathwing's world changing Cataclysm, though it appears that she was lead to believe that the one who was responsible for her death, and the death of the other Night Elves who had been with her, was Hamuul Runetotem, and that thought infested her spirit with such a powerful anger... something Xavius used to twist her into the shade you just fought, to bring ruin to those she felt had betrayed her. Elerethe, my old friend, you had a deep love for the lands of Alterac... I vow to rename the vale in your honor and tend to it in your name...

Spitfire wasn't sure where Malfurion was talking about, as in the vale since she had an idea of where Alterac was located, but for now that wasn't important as she and the others took a few moments to rest up and regain their strength for the remaining battles that were between them and Xavius, since there were two more portals to go through and that meant there were two more powerful creatures for everyone to contend with, not counting Cenarius once Malfurion broke the magic that was preventing the Iris from opening. She could, however, tell that most of the druids were angry about what they were seeing right now, as in everything from the Nightmare Lord corrupting the Dream, twisting the guardians into his personal toys to be thrown at anyone who tried to set things right, and forcing his will upon the spirits of the dead, to turn them into angry tools to spread his foul corruption, and honestly she couldn't blame them for feeling angry, as just staring at all the corruption, after hearing about how glorious the Dream was, made her dislike Xavius, especially when she thought about all the pain he was forcing everyone to feel. A few moments later everyone group up from where they had stopped and headed back up the path that had brought them to this place, allowing them to return to the area that Malfurion was working in at the moment, before Spitfire headed over to the portal that would bring her, Rainbow, and all of their companions to the corrupted Dreamway, as she felt like facing whatever was on the other side first, leaving the powerful creature in the Nightmare's version of Grizzly Hills as the last guardian of the Iris, before she refocused on what she was doing. It didn't take her or the others long to pass through the portal and reappear in their new destination, which was a twisted path with Nightmare roots, one that looked more like a path one might find while they were heading to one of the settlements the Night Elves lived in or to one of the ancient ruins that dotted Azeroth, though in front of them stood a decent sized group of enemies that were all corrupted by Xavius' power, with three beings who looked like the union of a female Night Elf and a fawn, since their lower bodies were the bodies of a fawn and their upper parts were a female Night Elf who wasn't wearing anything save for a bra made out of leaves, with two others looking like male versions of the ones she had spotted first.

According to the others these enemies were dryads and keepers of the grove, the former being the females and the latter being the males based on what the druids told her and Rainbow, though since each of them had been corrupted into mad minions of Xavius the only thing that could be done for them was to slay them, hence why everyone rushed forward not a few seconds later and lashed out at their enemies, surprising the dryads and keepers in the process as they tried to raise their magics to defend themselves. Behind this group of foes happened to be a decent sized dragon, who was roughly one and a half times the size of Spitfire and the others, Rothos according to what Malfurion was able to tell them, who was, as everyone suspected, corrupted by the Nightmare and had twisted red scales over his body, in addition to the blackened nature of the Nightmare, that seemed to be guarding the wider arena that four larger dragons, who happened to be as tall as Nythendra had been before her death, were resting in, waiting for enemies to reach them. As such Spitfire nodded for a moment and watched as Rainbow flashed through the air not a second later, where she crashed into Rothos and knocked him to the ground, giving the others a chance to topple the dryads and keepers that were in front of them, even though that was when Malfurion informed them that this place was sacred to the green dragonflight, or at least that was the case for the Dream's version of this area, and that the four dragons in front of them were the guardians of four portals which connected Azeroth to the Dream, while their names were Ysondre, Emeriss, Lethen, and Taerar, not that such it mattered since all four of them looked identical thanks to the Nightmare's corruption. The first thing they did was make sure Rothos was slain, freeing his soul so it would no longer be under of Xavius' control and be forced to turn against everything he had sworn to defend prior to his corruption, though once that task was complete the group advanced into the large area that the four dragons were waiting in and started the battle without delay, where two dragons took off and headed into the air not a few seconds later, to which Rainbow burst into the air again and followed after them, leaving Spitfire to turn her own attention to the pair that were in front of her while allowing the heroes to either focus on blasting the dragons in the air or focusing their efforts on the ones in front of them.

One thing all four Nightmare Dragons, as Spitfire was going to call them, shared was that their breath attacks had been, as she and the others expected, corrupted by the power of the Nightmare and empowered to some degree, given that one of them fired it right at her and she loosed a blast of her own flames to cancel it out, while Rainbow forced one of her foes to fire their attack up into the air as she hacked into the chest of her main target, giving the others a chance to open fire on the other dragon that Spitfire was currently fighting, showing that they wanted to take down the ground foes before even worrying about the other ones. Based on what happened next Spitfire came to the decision that each Nightmare Dragon had their own powers, where she suspected that the one called Ysondre seemed to have the power to channel the power of the Nightmare into blasts that would damage whoever she was fighting and cause dread to flood the area everyone was fighting in, Emeriss had the power to inflict a terrible infection to the surrounding area and attempted to burn everything that was around her, Lethon used his twisted powers to try and tear out fragments of the heroes so he could boost each of their powers and weaken their foes, while Taerar seemed to have the power to use his shadow as a second him, like a diversion or something, to attack someone from two directions. It was rather interesting fighting against enemies that had access to all of those skills, at the same time no less, instead of focusing on them one at a time and switching once one fell to the ground, but as far as Spitfire could tell the two she was fighting with Vytheril, Scarlet, and the other heroes were the ones called Ysondre and Emeriss, leaving Lethon and Taerar for Rainbow to deal with in the sky, something she was doing without needing any backup, which impressed their allies whenever they noticed what she was doing, where it didn't take her long to blast the pair of dragons backwards before rushing at Lethon and swung her Warblades at him as she kept the pair distracted and away from everyone else. Everyone was fine with that, since it allowed them to focus on the dragons that were their targets and not have to worry about those that were in the air, hence why Spitfire stayed in her demonic form and slashed into the sides of her foes while avoiding the Nightmare empowered blasts that were coming at her, even if she gathered her own flames into a single large fireball and blasted one dragon in the face, causing it to pull back so she could focus on the other one for a few moments.

Something that surprised her and the others was that no additional enemies rushed into the area to do battle with them, nor did any of the Nightmare Dragons reveal any new powers that might change the course of this battle in their favor, to which Spitfire focused on taking down Ysondre and Emeriss, where her allies hacked into the scales of both dragons as all of their ranged heroes blasted or fired arrows into their sides at the same time, before she was able to hack into Ysondre's neck and dropped her to the ground, before Scarlet shifted to the Blades of the Fallen Prince once more, as at one point she had switched back to Frostmourne, and severed the head of Emeriss, which was followed by Rainbow landing as both Lethon and Taerar crashed into the ground behind her, with both of their heads severed as well.

"They were strong, I'll give them that, but not enough to bring us down," Rainbow remarked, as it had been quite the fight and had to wonder what would have happened if she had faced all four of them at the same time, something that would have been quite a battle based on what she had seen from the other two Nightmare Dragons, but for now she knew that Spitfire was more interested in heading through the final portal and deal with whoever the last guardian was, before they went through the Iris and figure out where Xavius was hiding.

Malfurion, of course, spoke to them once more as they took a moment to rest after the battle with the Nightmare Dragons, revealing that it was quite unfair for the four of them, who had been corrupted at one point, by Xavius' power in the past and freed from the weaker version of it, only to be twisted by his power again and sentenced to death for their actions, all while their actions had freed their spirits from this torment, to which they focused on what was going on right now, just to get some energy back before they moved forward. Once Spitfire was sure that everyone was ready to move forward again, which took a few minutes to figure out, they returned to the portal and headed back to the area that Malfurion and the Iris rested in, where everyone turned not a few seconds later and walked over to the final portal, which took them to an area which looked like it might be leading to a World Tree, up on a cliff of some kind that was above a forest, where she had to assume they were above the area called Grizzy Hills and noticed the Nightmare lingering in the air once more, just like all of the other regions they had been in so far. Sure enough there were a number of tentacles, born of the Nightmare's foul power, though the other enemies that waited in front of them happened to be a number of tainted eagles that the hunters fired upon to clear the air, along with some bipedal bear-men, furbolgs based on what the others told them, that were in their way, who happened to be hunters and warriors, hence why the ranged heroes and several melee heroes stepped up to face them as Spitfire and Rainbow focused on any additional enemies that might be in this area, all while listening to the statement that Malfurion had to give them about this area. What they learned was that this was the domain of Ursoc, who was the corrupted Wild God that Xavius had captured at some point in the past, where Spitfire recalled it was after the first battle for the Broken Shore, meaning his corruption had to be complete and was now forced to serve Xavius, meaning they were going to have a grand fight on their hands and that seemed to make Rainbow eager to see what happened next, as in when they found Ursoc, which had to be at the end of the path that was in front of them, leading to the World Tree, or at least a massive tree that could pass as a World Tree, which might be the felled one in Grizzy Hills, only it had been restored to its full glory in the Dream.

Either way that didn't stop Vytheril and the heroes from engaging their enemies, this time choosing to have both Spitfire and Rainbow save their energy for later, as in for when they found Ursoc and drew him into battle, since he was no doubt tainted to the point where he couldn't see friend from foe and would attack anyone Xavius saw as an enemy, and given all of the power that the pair had he, Scarlet, and everyone else felt that allowing Spitfire and Rainbow to engage him was the best course of action. Fortunately it seemed like their enemies were either weaker than the guardians of the other tainted creatures they had faced so far, or cutting down three of the four Iris guardians had cut into all of the foul power that was coursing through the regions of the Nightmare, weakening those that had fallen under Xavius' control, but either way none of them were about to complain about the situation they were in, choosing to focus on the enemies that were blocking the way forward and making sure no one ran off to grab more than they were comfortable with. Spitfire noticed that Rainbow was a little annoyed about not being able to fight, not until everyone reached the area that Ursoc was resting in, though at the very least she didn't do anything stupid and stood near her the entire time, though of course there were a few eagles who tried to fly away and Rainbow knocked them back down to where their allies were waiting, allowing them to finish the birds off before they moved deeper into the region of the Nightmare that the portal had brought them to. Of course that was when Rainbow told Spitfire that there were massive tentacles all over this part of the Nightmare, ones that came close to where they were standing right now, so they didn't have to worry about a terrible foe coming up on them at some point in the very near future, allowing them to focus on watching Vytheril, Scarlet, and everyone else blast and slash their way through the furbolgs, eagles, and all of the smaller tentacles that were up here, before reaching an area that contained a decent sized opening that seemed to lead into the heart of the corrupted tree they were on the outsides of, to which both of them stepped to the front once more as they raised their weapons, since Ursoc had to be near and they wanted to be at the ready for when either of them spotted the Wild God in question.

It didn't take them long to reach the center of the tree, which was where they found a large arena of sorts inside the tree's hollowed center, though that was when they spotted their target, a massive bear that was easily twice as tall as Spitfire or Rainbow were, and that included their transformed forms, whose fur was blackened and had red tips that had to be the power of the Nightmare, which had been forced upon him after Xavius captured him, who growled for a moment, which showed that he was definitely aggressive, before Rainbow stepped forward and held a hand out, as if telling everyone else that she was going to take over from here.

"Don't be mad, but I really want to fight this Wild God on my own," Rainbow stated, as while she knew she was strong, due to all of the power she had accumulated since they were freed from the Vault of the Wardens, most of the enemies she had faced so far hadn't been a decent enough opponent for her to gauge just how strong she truly was, and with Ursoc being under the sway of Xavius' power, granting him a power boost in the process, he was far stronger than what he had been before being captured, even though she assumed Cenarius and Xavius were on a level or two above him, which was when she turned her head and faced the angry bear.

Spitfire was tempted to say something, to stop Rainbow from doing something incredibly stupid, though before she could do so Ursoc roared and charged right at the area that her friend was standing in, which was when Rainbow shifted into her demonic form not even a second later and replied in kind, charging right at the incoming bear before raising her hands for a moment and gripped onto the pair of large fangs that were growing out of Ursoc's mouth, one on each side, using all of her strength to stall the corrupt Wild God as her clawed feet dug into the ground as well. What surprised everyone, both the heroes and Ursoc, was that Rainbow's strength was more than enough to stall Ursoc for a few seconds, as in he came to a stop and stood there for a moment, something that caused Spitfire to gesture for the others to back up and give Rainbow some space, hence why they returned to the passage which connected the inside of this large tree to the outside, though she stood in front of everyone else in case Ursoc changed course and came for them, showing them that she was leaving this to Rainbow, even if it was a bad idea in her mind. Once that was done Rainbow focused on what she was doing and found that Ursoc was trying his best to overwhelm her, so he could barrel through her and tackle the druids that were behind her, since she figured Xavius wanted to kill them first so their souls could be stolen and added to his corruption, though she wasn't about to let that happen as she summoned all of her strength and lifted Ursoc off the ground for a few seconds, allowing her to turn and hurl him into one of the wooden walls, not really doing any damage to the wall in question as the Wild God bounced off of it. The instant that was done she pulled out her Warblades again and rushed over to the area that her foe was resting in, swinging her blades to counter the incoming slash attacks that he sent her way, where she found that his claws were definitely stronger than what she was expecting and was thankful that her blades were able to take the attacks in her place, since she was sure that each attack would have torn through her armor and dealt some decent damage to her body, so for now Rainbow focused on making sure none of Ursoc's attacks reached reach and picked when to lash out at the Wild God.

Along the way she discovered a few more things, such as the fact that Ursoc tried to barrel into her several times, to deal a good bit of damage and knock her out of the way so he could focus on the others, but for most part she was able to move off to the side as such an attack came towards her, allowing her to swing her Warblades at him and hack into his side as he attempted to bring her down, though the more interesting skill he showed off was when he let out a mighty roar and a red tinted image of him appeared nearby. The reason she was even remotely interested in such a thing was thanks to the fact that the Nightmare Shade could either stay still and just roar occasionally, usually when Ursoc did the attack and that would cause another one to spawn in another corner of the hollow they were fighting in, or the Shade could move on its own and it would rush over to her location, hence the reason that Rainbow readied a few bolts of lightning to blast any of the Shades that dared to move towards either her or her allies. Of course there was another reason behind her taking out all of the Nightmare Shades when they started to approach her, as they seemed to spread a dark mist or something that would no doubt damage whoever came into contact with it, so by eliminating each Shade it prevented them from reaching Spitfire and the others, since it appeared that those enemies might have been tasked with wiping out those who weren't taking part in the battle right now, though thanks to Ursoc's corruption it was hard to tell if he was pleased that she had stopped her allies from taking damage or if he was annoyed by her actions, the latter being due to Xavius' hold over him no doubt. Regardless of what opinion Ursoc had on the Shades being destroyed in such a way, since Rainbow didn't care all that much, he did seem to enjoy charging at her in an attempt to knock her down and open up the path so he could fight everyone else that was watching them, something Rainbow wasn't about to let happen as she spun around to use a few swings to block the incoming attacks once more, a small number even passing through to cut into his sides, especially his head, but for the most part it looked like Xavius had twisted him to the point where the Wild God had no concept of pain and just attacked without a care in the world, as if dying for Xavius was more important to him.

Of course, when it became clear that he might be losing this battle, as Rainbow had, against all odds, taken no damage so far and he had taken a beating thanks to everything she had done since they started fighting each other, Ursoc roared not a few seconds later and seemed to gather all of his Nightmare energy into the area right in front of his mouth, like he was planning on firing a powerful blast to take everyone out at the same time, to which Rainbow banished the Warblade in her right hand for a second and started to gather her own power, creating a lance out of Fel green energy that was shaped like a lightning bolt. At first she honestly wasn't sure if this would work, since she hadn't tried creating something like this since she gained her elemental powers, but based on what she was seeing the weapon looked like it was stable and that meant it could be ready for what she had in mind, to which Rainbow pulled her arm backwards for a moment and then hurled it straight at Ursoc, intending on either catching her foe's attack before it could be completed or cancel it out and make her foe suffer the detonation of both attacks. The lance rushed through the air and collided with Ursoc's incoming blast, as the Wild God had been preparing to fire the sphere he had been readying, where the tip struck the attack and seemed to push it backwards, even though it did look like his Nightmare power might be pushing it away from him, but Rainbow smirked for a moment as the lance smashed its way through the sphere and struck Ursoc in the side, as he turned the instant his attack started to break, something that was followed by a powerful surge of wind that erupted when the lance detonated and they watched as a large crater was blasted into the ground. Ursoc, despite his nature as a Wild God, staggered out of the crater and huffed for a moment, showing that the damage must have been more than what he was suspecting, which surprised the heroes of Azeroth when they noticed all of the cuts and bruises that had been dealt to Ursoc, especially since one of his fangs appeared to have been broken, like the lance had struck his throat or something, but before he had even a chance to do anything Rainbow summoned her other Warblade and flashed through the air, delivering a number of cuts and slashes to the corrupted Wild God's body, before landing on the ground behind him, where she and the others heard a sigh of relief as Ursoc collapsed on the ground and the life seemed to fade from his body.

Despite the recklessnes of her decision, to fight the Wild God alone, whose power must have been compromised by all of Xavius' power and torments, Spitfire smiled for a moment as Rainbow reverted to her base form again, as this meant that they might not have to worry about facing an all powerful Nightmare infused Cenarius, though at the same time she knew he would be stronger than Ursoc had been and would take all of their power to bring down, not to mention the same had to be said for Xavius, though they watched as Ursoc's soul departed from his body before they headed back to the Iris, as it was time to bring an end to their venture and save the Dream from Xavius' foul grasp, all while gaining the Life Essence they needed to save the Arcan'dor.

Comments

[badninja]

Dash you got very lucky, very lucky.

[zachary12]

nice work

[PrismStrike]

the return of the lightning lance, just less explody than in the last series.

[Xarmar13]

The reason she was even remotely interested in such a thing was thanks to the fact that the Nightmare Shade could either stay still and just roar occasionally, usually when Ursoc did the attack and that would cause another one to spawn in another corner of the hollow they were fighting in, or the Shade could move on its own and it would rush over to her location, hence the reason that Rainbow readied a few bolts of lightning to blast any of the Shades that dared to move towards either her or her allies.

It makes me smile when you showcase some of the mythic abilities that these bosses have as I feel that that difficulty level is where the bosses actually show off their true power.

[Blackdrag-rose]

10951301 Mythic difficulty is, interestingly enough, the canon level that each boss is fought at, but I'm glad you do like some of the fights that are going down in the story.