"CENTAURS! CHAAAARGE!" The Centaur Khan, a hulking brute, swung the long-handled battle axe in his hand like a very enthusiastic, very deadly windmill. His four black hooves pounded the earth, kicking up dust and demon bits, as he led his people on a thunderous charge directly into the screaming, bewildered ranks of the demons.
The Centaurs, for all their rough edges, were the most powerful of the Crusaders' vassal races. None even came close. And this particular group of Centaur warriors, hand-picked and selected to participate in the glorious (and very messy) Battle of Broken Shore, were the elite among the elite. Each Centaur had somehow reached a high level of strength, their muscles rippling. With a height of over three meters, any one of them could easily act as the terrifying, axe-wielding leader of wild monsters in a good old-fashioned Warcraft III game.
Not only that, but the Crusaders' notoriously strong financial resources also meant that each Centaur warrior was equipped with gleaming, ridiculously heavy armor. This, combined with the Centaur Chief's natural durability aura, was like adding rocket boosters to a rampaging, armored tank. They were unstoppable. Soon, most of the fel crystals the Centaurs encountered on their brutal march were unceremoniously pulverized. After losing their energy and their demonic positioning, the void rifts above them gradually, mercifully, closed. The endless, nauseating flow of the Devil's Sea on the west coast had finally, gloriously, been contained.
"The devil seems to have built a city here!" Aegwynn remarked, her gaze fixed on a truly hideous black spire rising defiantly among the rocks in the hills ahead. It was less a city and more a particularly ugly tumor.
There was a massive rift, more than ten meters wide, separating their current location from the hideous black demon city. Green fel magma, bubbling ominously, flowed at the bottom of the rift, effectively blocking the advance of the Western Alliance. Aegwynn was intimately familiar with the Broken Shore, having been there, done that, and gotten the T-shirt. More than 800 years ago, after the guardian Aegwynn (herself!) gloriously defeated the incarnation of Sargeras, she had used her considerable magic to raise this long-sunken island from the sea. Then she'd carefully sealed and stored the very large, very dead body of Sargeras's incarnation in it, sinking it to the bottom of the sea again. At that time, there were no disgusting spires on this island, just the charming ruins of the former Great Moon Temple in Suramar. This new demonic architecture was simply in poor taste.
Behind Aegwynn, Shandris Feathermoon, Baine Bloodhoof, and the others gathered, their expressions grim.
"This invasion is truly unprecedented," Shandris said, her gaze also fixed on the unsettling spires. "I'm afraid we're going to have many, many fierce battles."
"These spires seem to have sprung up from the ground in an instant," Baine rumbled, swinging his rune spear for emphasis. "And they can spew out hundreds of demons in the blink of an eye. May Mother Earth protect us from this relentless onslaught!"
"It doesn't matter," Aegwynn scoffed, waving a dismissive hand. "There is no building that cannot be destroyed by one shot. If one shot doesn't work, we just shoot again!" She then waved the staff in her hand, and a shimmering stream of white water instantly wrapped around her whole body, swirling like a mini-hurricane.
Water Flow!
The Broken Shore, already filled with the stench of fel and the cries of battle, now found itself suddenly drenched in water vapor. The gushing white water quickly grew from the thickness of an arm to a massive five or six meters wide, a veritable river of pure liquid power. With Aegwynn's mental guidance, the water flow twisted and reformed, turning into a magnificent, roaring water dragon that surged across the rift.
"FROZEN!" Aegwynn bellowed.
With another roar, the majestic water dragon was instantly frozen solid, transforming into a sturdy and surprisingly spacious ice bridge. It was a bridge of pure, condensed awesome.
"Wow, that's convenient," Shandris sighed, genuinely impressed. "I still did not agree with Master Tyrande and Lord Malfurion's baffling decision to banish arcane magic. Look at this! So much easier than walking!" Tyrande and Malfurion, in their infinite wisdom, believed that practicing arcane magic had caused great disasters, so they'd forbidden the elves to study it. Little did they know that after the High Elves went into exile, they established the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas, and they were doing just fine with their magic. As expected, it was Brother Galen'thremar (Galen, that is) who had foresight and preserved the arcane heritage in Eldre'Thalas. He was just better at everything.
"CHARGE!" Baine, seeing his opening, roared with excitement, taking the lead and thundering onto the ice bridge, leading his mighty Tauren forces into a glorious raid on the demon's black city!
"Hey! Let's go too! And show our allies that we are the true devil nemesis!" Shandris waved her hand, and the Claw Druids roared, raised their hands, and, with a powerful surge of shapeshifting magic, slammed onto the ground, transforming into colossal, enraged giant bears and chasing after the Tauren with surprising speed.
Krosus!
Wow! Wow!
An hour later, the combined landing troops had advanced a brutal ten kilometers inland.
"Damn, there are endless numbers of them! They just keep coming! Do they reproduce in the Twisting Nether?!" a weary warrior yelled, wiping sweat and demon ichor from his brow. Although there were sufficient preparations for the landing, with logistics and medical stations set up at regular intervals to minimize the coalition's troop losses, the sheer, despair-inducing number of demons was simply overwhelming.
"It's those fel crystals! They can locate and tear apart space rifts, allowing more demons to enter Azeroth through the rifts!" Aegwynn, having entered the Broken Shore from the ship, looking as fresh as if she'd just had a spa day, announced. She brought new forces with her, because apparently, she had an endless supply. "As long as we get close to those crystals and destroy them, we can relieve the pressure! Let's go smash some crystals!"
"Do you hear me, warriors of of the Sun? Let us carve through these demons! To the crystals! For the honor of the Earthmother!"
"Hey! Don't steal our night elves' jobs! We were just about to do that! We specialize in carving demons!" Both Shandris and Baine, despite their weariness, still wanted to continue fighting, fueled by pride and a deep-seated desire to destroy more demons.
"No, no, you guys take a break," Aegwynn interjected, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "I'll let the Centaurs attack! They're particularly good at smashing things!"
"Now it's the Crusaders' turn to perform! They've got some very large, very heavy implements they'd like to introduce to those crystals! And they're itching for a good show!"