Chapter 409: The Heavy Price

This was a valley.

To be precise, it wasn't really a valley, but more like a small pit in the mountain, about 6 meters wide and 5 meters deep. The surrounding rock walls shielded it from the outside world, forming a perfect shelter. This was probably why it was chosen as the meeting place.

Orgrim Doomhammer, along with his two most trusted and powerful guards, hid at the edge of the pit. His troll subordinates had covered him with leaves and odor-eliminating substances. Despite the Warchief's distaste for such things, he and his guards endured it all.

Before long, he heard a sound.

Following the direction of the sound, Orgrim saw a creature about the size of an orc peon clumsily moving towards the bottom of the valley.

Orgrim gently gripped his Doomhammer, cautiously watching the newcomer.

The figure leaned against the rock wall, panting heavily, then stood up and looked around.

"Hey..." the cloaked figure called out softly.

"I'm here," Orgrim responded. He stretched his body, crawled out from the pile of leaves, and moved to the open area at the bottom of the valley.

The mysterious figure straightened up, his breathing noticeably quickened as he approached the Warchief of the Horde. Orgrim also noticed a short axe hanging at the figure's waist, a far cry from the crude weapons of the trolls. It was well-crafted and showed no signs of wear, indicating that the figure had never used it.

"Are you... are you Lord Doomhammer?" the figure stuttered, involuntarily shrinking back, "Can you speak Common?"

"I am Orgrim Doomhammer, leader of the Blackrock clan, Warchief of the Horde, and I understand your language," Orgrim replied in near-perfect Common, "And you, are you the one who sent me the secret message?"

This was a clandestine meeting, theoretically, no third party should know about it.

Unfortunately, this so-called theory was as clear as a lighthouse in the night to a certain shameless traveler.

In the hastily constructed Northern Fortress, Duke sat in the highest room of the tallest tower. People of this era generally lacked the concept of ventilation, and only at high altitudes did Duke feel comfortable.

Feeling the cool breeze that was almost forcibly squeezed in through the shooting holes, Duke gently tapped the table with his index finger. A cool breeze brushed past Duke's back, and without looking back, he knew who had arrived.

"Well, dear, how was your day?"

Alleria's face turned red, and she pretended to be indifferent, "Hmph! Who's your dear?"

Duke held his forehead, wondering why a mature and beautiful woman like Alleria had suddenly changed her demeanor to that of a tsundere.

"But looking at your expression, you had a good day, didn't you?"

"It was okay, I killed a few two-headed ogres with my double arrows. Now they've all retreated into the mountain path."

Two-headed ogres were very difficult to deal with. Not only were they thick-skinned and meaty enough to withstand ordinary swords, but they also had two heads and three hearts.

You either had to take out both heads or pierce all three hearts, otherwise, the ogre wouldn't die.

Duke had seen with his own eyes an ogre whose chest had been pierced by two crossbow bolts, still struggling to break the bolts with a large wooden stick, charging towards the human side for over a hundred meters, before being surrounded by a large group of soldiers wielding long spears with steel tips, and being stabbed dozens of times before it finally died.

Only someone like Alleria, who had stepped into the realm of heroes, could easily deal with two-headed ogres.

"Good job, the more you kill, the easier it will be for us in the future."

"Hmph! It's your fault for not letting us sisters attack."

Duke laughed helplessly, "I'm just afraid that if you kill all the Horde inside too quickly, I won't be able to ask Terenas for more troops."

Duke's approach was a bit like raising rogues for his own use. It was precisely because of the substantial threat of the Horde that Duke and Terenas could jointly force the lords of the eastern part of Lordaeron to contribute money and manpower. You should know that these bastards knew that Silverpine Forest was under threat, but they were procrastinating, trying not to spend money or contribute manpower.

Now that the Horde was almost at their doorstep, these guys panicked and hurriedly conscripted and paid money. Duke had people and money here.

Unfortunately, these lords mobilized for war too late. They cobbled together more than 40,000 people to come over, but Duke found that only 1,000 were professional soldiers, less than 5,000 were militiamen who had received basic military training, and the remaining 30,000 were all farmers who had just washed their feet and started farming.

The only consolation was that Lordaeron was really rich, and they actually provided 50,000 sets of armor and swords as soon as they were asked.

These days, Duke had sent any of his subordinates who could train soldiers to train these farmers.

Alleria didn't care, she spent every day with her sisters and more than 500 elven rangers, making the Horde in Zul'Mashar howl in pain. Only when the Horde deployed their dragons did they retreat a bit.

Hearing Duke say he was afraid they would wipe out the Horde, Alleria was not happy, "Hey, aren't there more than 50,000 Horde main forces inside?"

"Orgrim has already run away, there's nothing inside except for no more than 3,000 elites."

"What!?" Alleria exclaimed, then her expression became serious, "Then why aren't you pursuing these Horde?"

"It's not that I don't want to, it's that I don't want to." Duke took out a very formal official letter.

Alleria quickly scanned it, "King Aiden believes that Alterac is not threatened by the Horde's military front and refuses to allow Alliance troops to enter? The Horde's main force is in Alterac!?"

The ranger heroine was instantly excited, "Damn! Why won't Aiden let us in? Is he a fool? Is he as arrogant as those damn Silvermoon council members? What gives his small mountain country the right to be so arrogant?"

Duke didn't say anything, he just played a few magic images for Alleria.

As soon as Alleria saw them, she immediately covered her mouth and said in a lost voice, "So terrible..."

"Yes, it's terrible!"

The images showed the tragic scenes from various parts of the continent of the Eastern Kingdoms.

On the desolate land, everything was silent. The earth was intoxicatingly green, but there were no signs of birds or beasts anywhere. The image showed a once large human town. Now, a large number of scavengers were feasting.

Vultures, crows, wild dogs, maggots...

In the large town, not a single wall was intact, let alone a roof. On the walls, the bodies of Alliance soldiers were nailed everywhere with crude spears. Judging by their armor, they had all died in battle. However, their bodies had been desecrated. It was clear that the

Horde's orcs had nailed the bodies up after they had died.