Suddenly, a group of rather grime-covered Gan'arg engineers appeared, pushing with all their might. With their collective, grunting effort, a mountain of raw, pulsating fel artillery materialized in front of Prince Malchezaar.
Malchezaar's pupils, which were usually fixed on visions of cosmic domination, promptly shrank! He recognized it! It was the shoulder cannon of the legendary Garothi Worldbreaker from the Burning Throne of Antorus on Argus itself! Built within the very core of Argus, this war machine was designed by the Legion's chief engineer, Kin'garoth, and was equipped with weapons capable of casually destroying entire worlds. And this shoulder cannon? Oh, it was definitely one of them.
"Your Highness," a particularly greasy Gan'arg named Gorocolon introduced, puffing out his chest with an alarming amount of pride for someone so small, "this cannon is called 'Annihilation.' It's a rather new design, actually. We're responsible for its field testing this time around." He practically vibrated with excitement. "Just one shot can flatten a city! With it, we can definitely open the door to this dusty old temple!"
"What are you waiting for, you little grunts?! Move quickly! Quickly! QUICKLY!" Malchezaar bellowed, his impatience reaching cosmic levels. "I have places to be! Worlds to burn!"
"As you wish, Your Highness!" Gorocolon shrieked, commanding his band of eager engineers to push the Annihilation artillery to the designated location, then immediately began frantic debugging and charging. The Garothi Worldbreaker, in its prime, sported Annihilation on its left shoulder and Slagstorm on its right, having annihilated countless Argus rebels who foolishly coveted the Burning Throne. And now, its glorious weapon had come to Azeroth to make an impression!
"Debugging completed!" "Request to launch!" "HURRY UP, STOP FOOLING AROUND WITH YOUR INK STAINS!" Malchezaar urged again, practically vibrating with anticipation.
Gorocolon let out a sharp, enthusiastic roar: "FIRE!"
BOOM!
The cannon unleashed an Annihilation missile, a green spear of pure destruction, which slammed into the gate of the Tomb of Sargeras with the force of a thousand angry pit lords! Suddenly, flames shot up into the sky, painting the dark clouds a sickening green! The earth shook violently for a moment, causing everyone to lose their footing! For a terrifying, glorious moment, the battle on the entire Broken Shore came to a complete standstill, as every creature, demon and mortal alike, looked towards the epicenter of the blast.
Malchezaar's pupils were shaking violently. This shot! It was comparable to the infamous Death Finger of his former, much-lamented leader, Archimonde! Horror! At this moment, Malchezaar looked at these diminutive engineers with a much more pleasing eye. They were useful, after all!
The Mo'arg are a large, rather versatile race in the Legion. They come in a delightful variety of shapes and sizes, with charming subspecies including the diminutive Gan'arg (like those in front of them), the sturdy Demon Guard, the gigantic Mo'arg Thug, and the truly terrifying Fel Lord. The engineers here belonged to the Gan'arg, a sub-race of the Mo'arg. Compared to other giant demons of the Burning Legion, they were short and surprisingly weak, looking somewhat similar to glorified kobolds. Unlike their stronger tribesmen who could advance into Demon Guards, Mo'arg Thugs, and Fel Lords, the Gan'arg were apparently born with smart minds and an unfortunate affinity for bionic parts. They liked to "improve" their bodies and become craftsmen, scientists, blacksmiths, and engineers. Clearly, Lord Kil'jaeden was far-sighted (and slightly mad), making great efforts to develop the Legion's technology. Who needed raw muscle when you had ridiculously destructive cannons?
The shock gradually subsided, the smoke and dust dissipated, and the magnificent gate of the Moon Temple, which was absolutely brimming with the style of the old Elf Empire, along with its intricate magical seal, had been utterly reduced to ashes. However, the seal was only the first obstacle! A very loud, very expensive obstacle, but still just the beginning!
"ROAR!"
From the dark, now-breached Moon Temple, several truly huge creatures rushed out, followed by densely packed, slender humanoid creatures. At this moment, their eyes were bloodshot, and they were already in a state of pure, unadulterated rage, with only the sight of the Burning Legion demons in their collective vision. This was obviously some kind of rather effective, very potent spell!
"Ha! Ants! Come to papa!" Prince Malchezaar waved a hand, his voice a deep, satisfied growl. "Attack! Show them what happens when you disturb a demon prince!" Behind him, the Angry Guards who served as his personal security detail quickly rushed into the gate, waving their gleaming double swords with murderous intent.
Watching his elite troops charge, Prince Malchezaar was utterly brimming with confidence. In thousands of years of relentless wars of conquest, no creature on any planet had ever been able to stop the collective charge of the Legion's soldiers! It was simply unheard of!
As a result, half an hour later, the battle situation had not developed at all as the Eredar leader had so smugly imagined! In fact, it was the demon warriors under his command that were being spectacularly crushed by several colossal giant beasts!
Prince Malchezaar's smug grin vanished, replaced by a truly serious, slightly bewildered expression as he observed the battlefield carefully. Some of these huge monsters, resembling hulking mammoths mixed with the elegance of centaurs, were clearly not flesh and blood creatures! Although they boasted the iconic tusks of mammoths, their entire bodies looked more like sentient plants! Four giant hooves, resembling gnarled wooden stakes, supported their massive bodies, and their humanoid upper halves, made of tangled vines, wielded truly enormous oak battle axes. Every time they chopped, a large number of his elite Angry Guards went flying backward, usually in multiple pieces!
And then there were those terrifying red rock giants, whose bodies were comparable to those of the plant beasts. They possessed bulging muscles, a single glowing eye, and interlaced sharp teeth on their huge, stony heads! They waved their gorilla-like arms, casually sweeping away large numbers of demon soldiers as if they were dust motes. At the same time, they seemed to have a powerful affinity for the earth element, and could use large-scale war tramples and even summon jagged rock spikes between their attacks!
In addition, these giant beasts were bizarrely assisted by many agile humanoid creatures, so the demon army advanced at a depressingly slow pace. If Magtheridon and Kazzak were here (and not imprisoned or dead), they would have told their stunned colleague that these behemoths were ancient proto-Giants and rock giants from Draenor! Behind the hulking behemoths were the forest elves and the ogres, who were cheerfully finishing off any beast that had the misfortune of getting underfoot. The Legion soldiers suffered truly heavy losses when the two most powerful creatures in Draenor suddenly decided to join forces.
Fortunately, the army of the Legion was experienced in many, many battles. Those who survived this particular, painful war were considered elite soldiers. And even the ones who died in battle could be resurrected by the Legion's dark magic, becoming a battle-hardened, utterly terrified army. Soon, they found a way to deal with these bulky, surprisingly durable beasts.
The Eredar warlocks, seeing their chance to shine, did not skimp on the consumption of mana. They unleashed a torrent of curses: Corrosion to reduce defense, Elemental Curse to reduce resistance, and Weakness Curse to slow down these lumbering enemies. After a set of silky-smooth curses, they then bombarded the now-vulnerable giants with all kinds of large-scale spells! Coupled with the demons' utterly uninspired human wave tactics, the situation gradually turned.
After the giant beasts finally fell one by one, succumbing to the overwhelming magical assault, the forest elves and ogres assisting them were ruthlessly slaughtered. The surviving Angry Guards roared to the sky in triumph: "ROAR! NO ONE CAN STOP THE ARMY'S ATTACK! NOT EVEN A BUSH THAT WALKS!"
Seeing this scene, Malchezaar's face, however, turned decidedly sour. After this battle, the number of Angry Guards and Eredar warlocks around him was less than half of what it was before the gate opened. And the remaining engineers? They had little to no combat effectiveness, being more skilled at building destruction than participating in it. They had encountered such surprisingly strong resistance at the gate itself, and now they didn't know how many more ridiculously elaborate traps those cunning Azerothians had set inside!
But the arrow was on the string and simply had to be shot. Retreat was not an option when Kil'jaeden was breathing down your neck.
"Keep going! Don't dawdle! Complete the task as soon as possible!" Malchezaar barked, his voice filled with a fresh wave of irritation. The battle outside was still quite intense, with shouts and gun fire sounds coming from every direction. Malchezaar had no time to care about anything else and could only grimly push forward.
The vanguard entered the passage, and things happened just as Malchezaar had expected. It did not go well. In fact, it went catastrophically. This passage was absolutely chock-full of traps!
BOOM!CRACKLE!WHOOSH!
Fire, Lightning! Frost! Ground spikes, rolling stones, hidden arrows that came out of nowhere! There was nothing that Malchezaar could not think of that he didn't immediately encounter!
"DAMN IT! WHO DESIGNS THIS MANY TRAPS?!" "AGH! MY LEG!"