Chapter 246: The Little Revenge of the Demon Queen

The entire command center echoed with the boisterous laughter of Lord Daelin.

On the eve of a great battle, this was definitely a good omen. Everyone knew the Horde's power was growing, especially with the tense atmosphere in the headquarters that had spread to the mid-level commanders. The Horde's tactics had left the already disadvantaged Alliance feeling like they had lost 30% of their morale before the battle even began.

They would never know that throughout history, the Battle of Hillsbrad on the western coast had indeed erupted. The Alliance had paid a heavy price for their victory.

"Hahaha! I'll show those damned green-skins what Kul Tiran sea wolves are all about! The long sea route is more than enough for my lads to send them all to the bottom of the sea!" Marshal Daelin Proudmoore laughed heartily, so happy that he couldn't help but pat Duke on the shoulder, "Hey, Duke, have you ever considered my daughter Jaina? She's only three years younger than you, and in a few years, she'll be ready for marriage."

"No, no, thank you, I'm not considering marriage at the moment."

In truth... Alleria didn't have much of a reaction. However, Duke's guilty glance at her made everyone else in the room think there was definitely something going on between them.

Alleria was furious!

If this hadn't been the Alliance's command center, and if Sylvanas hadn't secretly held her back, perhaps the Demon Queen would have exploded in anger. But at that moment, Alleria could only pretend nothing was amiss, displaying an elegant and dignified smile, as if there were an opera performance in the air, her gaze passing through the crowd to the window.

Ah! The sky! So blue!

Alleria felt like an utter fool!

It was all that little brat's fault!

Behind Alleria, the Windrunner family's second sister covered her mouth, stifling her laughter.

"Alright, gentlemen." Lothar clapped his hands, attracting everyone's attention, "Thanks to our Vice Commander Marcus's brilliant strategy. Let's make some adjustments to our battle plan. We've all seen the Southshore defense line, and I don't think we need all our forces to defend it. We can mobilize a considerable portion of our mobile troops to guard against the possibility of the Horde's heavy assault on the western coast..."

The military discussions continued.

To the south of the sea.

Half a day later, in the chieftain's tent of the Wetlands Horde camp, Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer received a shocking message – the Alliance had fortified the entire coastline!

"What's the problem? As long as there's enough room to deploy, weak humans are useless. Warchief, if you're afraid, you can let my son Rend Blackhand lead the charge."

Rend Blackhand – the dim-witted son of the former Warchief Blackhand. He and his brother Maim had always believed that Orgrim had used underhanded tactics to kill their father and then took the position of Warchief for himself.

Orgrim sincerely wanted to kill these two fools.

Unfortunately, Orgrim couldn't. The Blackrock clan had lost too many elites in the Stormwind City battle, going up in flames. Taking action against Blackhand's sons at this time would undoubtedly lead to further divisions within the already weakened Blackrock clan. Orgrim didn't want to see this happen, as it would cause the Blackrock clan to lose control of the entire Horde.

The cunning Orgrim was enduring.

"Enough! Rend. Humans have become more cunning than before, and the era when a single orc warrior could defeat ten human fighters has passed. Even if we don't want to admit it, we must acknowledge that humans perform exceptionally well in battle when they have fortifications to protect them. I have no desire to recklessly waste the lives of our Horde warriors."

"Do you want my Warsong Clan to take the lead?" Grom Hellscream approached, carrying his famous weapon, Gorehowl.

"Do you believe those fortresses are fake, Warchief?" At this moment, an unwelcome figure appeared – the warlock, Gul'dan.

Orgrim's face couldn't hide his disgust. Ultimately, he didn't kill Gul'dan. After eliminating seventy percent of the Shadow Council warlocks, Orgrim's loyal soldiers took control of the remaining warlocks and the freshly awakened Gul'dan.

If it weren't for Orgrim needing Gul'dan's warlocks to counter the human mages, and if it weren't for Gul'dan providing those despicable creatures when the Horde needed new soldiers, Orgrim might have actually killed Gul'dan.

Gul'dan's power had significantly diminished since his awakening. When Medivh died, Gul'dan was in the process of infiltrating his consciousness to steal something when Duke stabbed Medivh through the chest, which greatly harmed Gul'dan. Gul'dan lost half his soul because of this.

After his awakening, Gul'dan submitted to Orgrim in order to survive.

Even though Orgrim loathed Gul'dan, the venomous snake who had murdered his close friend Durotan, he had to admit that among these chieftains, whose brains were mostly filled with muscle, only Gul'dan could provide strategic assistance.

"I believe they're fake, but I'm not certain. Humans have a method to build sturdy fortresses in a very short time. I saw it with my own eyes; three days ago, there was nothing there. Three days later, a fortress appeared that couldn't be destroyed even by continuous catapult attacks."

It was apparent that Duke's concrete had caused Orgrim to make a misjudgment.

The power of a time-traveler was evident.

"Hehe!" Gul'dan sneered wickedly. "Why not probe them and find out? I can send one of my warlocks to accompany your scout ship."

"Agreed!"

Back in Southshore, Duke was being toyed with.

During a long journey to the farthest end of the western coast, it seemed as though Alleria had done something to Duke's horse. The horse behaved as if it were in heat, constantly frolicking and circling around Alleria's horse.

Duke felt like his bones were about to fall apart.

Then, as they began to climb a hill, Alleria teased Duke once more.

"Oh, really?"

"This is where my ranger squad will be stationed?"

It didn't sound problematic, but anyone would be driven to the brink of insanity if someone kept speaking in their ear, suddenly appearing to their left and right, like a ghost.

Unsurprisingly, Duke had come to genuinely understand how quickly and silently the vengeful Queen, Alleria, could appear and vanish during her time with him.

Alleria often spoke in Duke's ear without him noticing, seemingly affectionate but actually intending to startle him. Moreover, it seemed as though the sadistic Queen took great pleasure in doing so.

Initially, Gavinrad strongly opposed this behavior. First, Duke wouldn't let him drive Alleria away, secondly, speed wasn't really a paladin's strong suit, and thirdly, he couldn't stop it all. In the end, Gavinrad just obediently stood nearby like a light bulb.