The Land Full of Bad

After reaching a certain distance from the outpost the wolf riders no longer were trying to track us, they just let us go afraid or interfering with any sort of ally, they already had plenty of enemies, no point in making one more.

We were going through the remainder of the distance to the south, but we were now acting fast instead of stealthily... since I got no idea if black dragons will get word of it or not it was better to leg it out of here into the Badlands and then do our best into fiding the ruins.

The narrow pass to the Badlands was already in sight after a couple of hours, we just had to get a little further.

------

"Thansan, the orcs are coming again!" said a dark gray dwarf to his commander.

This was one of the outposts set up by the Dark Iron dwarves in the Badlands, they had already given up too much territory to the green bastards, now they wouldn't let them have even an inch.

Although not as known as their Bronzebeard cousins for their mountaineers and siege engines or as their Wildhammer counsin's gryphon riders and shamans, they still had the ingenuity and bravery of dwarves.

In fact in many things they had grown further than their cousins,this passage for example was heavily guarded, they had major breakthroughs in their fight with the orcs in their machinery, to the point where they could now mass produce golems and their new drills could reach and dig places none could before.

While on the surface they were being beaten and bruised by both Alliance and Horde alike, deep beneath the surface they had a sprawling empire that expanded by the day, many mines would be found and with their elemental masters watching over them, they had the forging capability of a industrialized nation.

Of course their elemental overlords were not kind nor understanding, they would require constant sacrifices and were responsible for ruining their lands so thoroughly that you would find to find a single blade of grass in all of surrounding regions.

They had to adapt to face the current situation, driven underground let them to relly on enchanting golems and making advanced machinery with the help of the fire elementals to fuel the industry.

There was a reason why Nefarion could not invade the lower levels of Blackrock mountain... it would be suicide to attempt to invade against an army of golems and unending traps and battlements which would allow for fire and steel to rend invaders apart.

In the future Nefarion would even have to relly on adventurers to kill Ragnaros in the lower levels, if he sent his orcs they would have just been slaughtered.

In the Badlands the Dark Iron had found alot of ruins recently... their machinery digging all around led to many changes in priority.

If they could find ancient and powerful artifacts they may be able to expel the Blackrock Orcs from their lands and reclaim their mountain.

This outpost for example had many powerful ballista and golems manning them, even if those pesky black dragons came about they would suffer under the rain of enchanted metal.

-----

Theo and his party were now above the pass to the Badlands, they were focused and alert, one mistake and many dragons may come looking for them, the disguise as a black dragon could fool some orcs but fooling another dragon was too much for my current level.

We had been flying for a while, soon we would have to rest, the Badlands only had all kinds of trouble in it, for our level anything othrr than the dragons was mildling at best.

Sure the place had lots of gnolls and some ogres, a outpost or two of Dark Iron, but as long as we kept to ourselves they wouldnt bother much.

When we could see the red dry ground, the scorching heat and only shriveled cactus, we relaxed for a bit, expecting to rest for a bit.

Of course that our arrival had our guests give a warm welcome, if not for my spiritual attunement detecting incoming projectiles we would have been killed in the first volley.

Th bolts fired at us were the size of a gnome and had enchantments which make them penetrate the scales of dragons, they were clearly hidden away at the cliffs waiting to kill dragon riders with a single volley.

Thankfully I was not a normal dragon, I had a couple of ways to avoid being skewered to death right here.

I let out a Light shield around us and made a whirlwind to slow and redirect the bolts back to where they came, they were hidden at the sides of the passage in tunnels, making it very hard to hit any of them.

It meant that it wouldn't be wise to stay and fight, who knows how far these tunnels go or how much they have in store waiting further ahead?

I then flew higher over the mountains where their bolts could not harm us anymore... this altitude was hard to maintain due to the cold and wind, it was like trying to fly against a flowing river.

But I kept at it do that we slowly but surely got past these places that could be used as ambush points.

"The Badlands sure lived up to their name... We barely got here and are already under the threat of death...." I murmured to myself.

We soon landed close to a cave, seeking shelter from the sun and to sleep for a bit.

Of course we had to get rid of a couple ogre families who saw us as delivered food in the process...