Chapter 355: A Brief Respite

Warmth is fleeting. If personal matters were to bring tragedy to the elven inhabitants of Eversong Woods in Quel'Thalas, tonight's warmth would instead become a future rift.

In fact, Alleria returned less than five minutes after she ran off, her head slightly lowered, her shoulders drooping, and her fists clenched.

"I understand the difficulty of the situation. The Horde is on its way to Quel'Thalas, and they've already outpaced us. We've lost several days. If we don't mobilize our troops soon, we'll only fall further behind!"

Duke naturally grabbed Alleria's arms with his hands: "It's highly frowned upon to suddenly rouse the army for a forced march in the middle of the night. We humans don't have the elves' [Night Vision]. Just marching would present many problems. And I also have to guard against a surprise attack from the Horde army that stayed behind."

"A surprise attack?"

"Yes, a surprise attack. I have to say, Orgrim did a great job. He knew we would come here to help the Wildhammer dwarves. So he led the main force to the north, leaving a portion to slow us down, like those orcs who feigned an attack during the day. And then there's the force lurking deep in the Hinterlands forest..."

"There's more?" Alleria's eyes widened.

She suddenly felt a chill. If Duke had indeed let the army march overnight at her request, they would undoubtedly be attacked by the Horde lurking in the forest. In the dark, the performance of the human army is poor, and if the ambush location is chosen correctly, even if they can't immediately defeat the humans, they can drag the fight into the chaotic battle that the orcs excel at.

In such a chaotic battle, the power of individual orc soldiers would be greatly enhanced, and they might even be able to defeat the human reinforcements just by dragging them into the chaos. Then, the Quel'Thalas of that time would truly be isolated and helpless.

At this moment, Alleria realized the gap between her and Duke. Perhaps she was a competent battlefield commander, but she was not good at strategy. In front of commanders of the level of Duke and Orgrim, she was simply outmatched.

In fact, Alleria couldn't imagine how difficult the task of this reinforcement army was: chasing an elite army, moving desperately while resisting possible ambushes. She just hoped they could reach Eversong Woods in time.

"What should we do? The main force of the orcs has pulled such a large distance from us. Every second we delay will indirectly allow the Horde to get closer to Quel'Thalas." Even if she didn't want to admit it, at this time, the only one who could give her advice was Duke.

"There's nothing we can do. You've come from Quel'Thalas, you're already very tired, I suggest you get some sleep first, and then..." When Duke saw Alleria's stubborn eyes, he sighed: "Alright, you won't rest until I reveal the answer, will you?"

Alleria's bright eyes stared at Duke, as if he was knowingly asking.

Duke shrugged: "This isn't a fair race in an arena. If Orgrim can send his army to harass us, why can't I send people to block them in front? Don't forget, who deduced that the Horde would take this route to advance. Alright, the hint is fff."

Fff naturally refers to Duke's flamethrower troops.

Now that it's the height of summer in May, starting a fire isn't too difficult. Although Alleria, as an elf, really dislikes this method of burning forests, the enemy is at the gates, and she's not a nature-supremacist druid.

It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat.

Because of the great battle in Silverpine Forest, Lordaeron has almost drained all the forces from the rear, and it's not practical for Lordaeron to send troops to stop Orgrim's elites. The only good way to delay the Horde's large army with a small number of troops is this one.

Alleria suddenly understood, her face becoming very animated: "Bastard, you've calculated everything in advance, then forced me to betray my homeland and become your vassal, haven't you?"

Completely disregarding everything, Alleria pounced on him, opened her white teeth, and bit hard on Duke's left shoulder.

"Ah! It hurts! Are you a puppy!?" No joke, Alleria biting really hurts, it's a kind of pain where a whole chunk of flesh is about to be torn off. Duke's tears were streaming out.

Alleria has good teeth, but she didn't bite down again, Duke felt a wet sensation on his shoulder--Alleria was crying. Turning his head, Duke caught a glimpse of the crystal-clear tears sliding down Alleria's beautiful face.

Duke was momentarily speechless.

"I know, you didn't do this on purpose. If it weren't for Anasterian and those bastards in the Silvermoon Council, you wouldn't need to be so awkward... I just feel so tired. If I know a tragedy is going to happen and I can't stop it, I'll really break down... I'm so tired, let me rest for a while, but I warn you, don't take advantage of me. Otherwise, I'll hate you..."

As she spoke, Alleria fell asleep in Duke's arms, making a sweet snoring sound.

Gently stroking Alleria's brilliant golden hair, Duke showed a faint smile.

"You've worked hard, sleep well."

Alleria was indeed very tired. Since Duke informed her of the danger to Quel'Thalas, due to the small number of Horde warships still on the sea route, it was unsafe. She first led nearly a thousand rangers on a forced march of nearly a thousand kilometers back to Quel'Thalas, then warned her homeland, and went to Eversong Woods to mobilize the people to prepare for evacuation. Finally, when she found it was fruitless, she rushed to the Hinterlands to seek Duke's help.

Since Duke arrived at Arathi Highlands, Alleria hadn't had a good rest until now. Now that her mind was finally relaxed, she naturally fell into a deep sleep.

Duke held her, gently placed her on his bed, covered her with a blanket, and then walked out the door.

As soon as he stepped out the door, Duke immediately sensed multiple gazes falling on his face.

"Hmph! If you dare to take advantage of the situation at this time, I'll definitely kill you." Sylvanas left a harsh word, then disappeared.

Duke didn't respond, just watched Sylvanas's graceful figure as she turned and left, was stunned for two seconds, then touched his nose: I knew you, my mischievous aunt, were eavesdropping, I wouldn't dare touch Alleria at this time.

Duke turned his gaze to Vanessa.

This somewhat disobedient maid immediately muttered to herself: "Ah, I'm such a busy maid. I'm just a maid, but I have to go to the battlefield. I wonder if my black-hearted master would occasionally show some kindness and give me a raise."

"Pfft!" No matter how many times Duke saw Vanessa, he always found her amusing. This girl seemed to always look at him with disdain, yet she always managed to take care of his household chores at the right time: "Alright, your master is rich, from now on your salary will be double."

"That's more like it, I can go get a new set of daggers now."

Is there a maid like you?