Chapter 24: Pyrewood Village

"I wonder where these hidden supply chests are," said Kelrian and looked around. He stood in the middle of the market square of Pyrewood Village and was surrounded by the remains of the Scourge minions that had been slain and burned. The ground was covered by ashes, lots of building bordered the square.

The buildings were made out of solid wood and stones, the roofs were covered by grey tiles. Even though nothing but debris was left of several buildings, the village was still very beautiful. It wasn't as devasted as other villages in Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas. No inhabitants were living there, they had been evacuated a long time ago. Pyrewood Village was a ghost town.

Kelrian could only hope that there were no undead creatures left. He was tired of fighting the undead. The Alliance resistance and the night elves had fought them for days and killed hundreds of them. They had mainly encountered ghouls, skeletons and undead humans. They had also fought against abominations, gargoyles and liches but they hadn't met too many of them. They had killed all undead they had met but they had lost five soldiers in total. Two blood elves, one human and two night elves.

Most of the other soldiers hadn't been injured during the skirmishes and battles. Those who had been wounded had been healed by the priests and paladins. The night elf priestesses had also been able to treat the wounded but they hadn't used the power of the light to do that. They were worshipping the Moon Goddess Elune who had given them the power to heal wounds, just like the worshippers of the light.

All of Tyrande's men were pretty powerful and had lots of experience. They were physically much stronger than the sin'dorei and the humans. They could kill more undead with heavy blows and powerful spells than their newest allies. Unlike the sin'dorei, the kaldorei weren't lacking a source that constantly provided them with power. They didn't feel weaker nor did they have to deal with withdrawal symptoms. They were able to use their full powers.

They were much more effective in killing the undead than the humans and the blood elves. Most of the undead had been killed by their hands. Without their aid, Kael'thas would have lost too many soldiers before he would have reached the village with his men.

He was grateful that Tyrande and her warriors were helping them. He didn't want to imagine what would have happened if they wouldn't have accompanied his unit. Kael'thas had promised the high priestess to help her hunt down Illidan once they would have brought all supply carriages to the nearest base of the Alliance resistance. He intended to keep his promise and help Tyrande whenever he could. He always kept his promises. He was a man of honour.

Kael'thas and Tyrande came to Kelrian. "The supplies must be somewhere. We just have to find them," said the elven king and let his gaze wander around. "I wonder where it is."

Kelrian shrugged. "It's most likely hidden somewhere. Maybe in an attic, in a cellar or somewhere else."

"Seems we have no other choice than to search everywhere. We have to find the supplies and bring them to our base. Then we can follow Illidan's tracks," said Tyrande.

Kael'thas agreed with her. "We should split up and start searching. Don't forget to watch out for undead. I assume there are still many of them hiding in some buildings. Always expect them to come out of nowhere. Be prepared for everything."

Together with Tyrande, the elven king divided their men into ten groups. Kelrian and Elena had insisted to be in a group with Dolfron, Fanomar, Valerie, Marcus and Vandiril. Vissia, Velsana and four other night elves had been chosen by Tyrande to join them. Two archers, a priestess of Elune and a huntress with a spear and a white tiger as her companion.

Their task was to search the large town hall. They were already there but they didn't enter the massive building yet. They weren't excluding that there might be many undead creatures in the building, so they decided to have someone scout it out. Vissia volunteered to do it and nobody said something against it. Not even her lover. Velsana knew that Vissia was a very capable rogue, so she was not worried at all. She knew Vissia could walk through the building without being seen by any creature.

And Vissia did that. She vanished into the shadows and entered the building, returning ten minutes later.

"What did you see?" Velsana asked as soon as Vissia appeared next to her.

"Dozens of undead. There are twenty on the ground floor and much more on the first floor. I didn't manage to explore the second floor because one of these spider-like creatures blocked the way. I could have tried to sneak past it but I had the impression that it had noticed my presence somehow, so I didn't risk anything and just returned to you. I didn't spot any chests yet. Maybe they are in the rooms on the second floor."

"We have to kill the undead and check the second floor," said Vandiril.

"Ye are right, lad," Dolfron said. His dwarven accent was clearly hearable.

Velsana, who was appointed as leader of the group by Tyrande, looked at Kelrian. "Try to kill the undead without using fire techniques. Like all the other buildings, the town hall is made out of stones but also out of wood. We don't want to set the entire building on fire, so we have to kill the undead in the traditional way. Behead them, cut through them or beat them until they stop moving. We can burn them later."

Kelrian nodded to her. "My specialisation is arcane, so that wouldn't be a problem."

"Good," the night elf warrior said. "Is everyone ready?"

She received nods from everyone. "Alright, let's go in." Velsana pulled her massive battle-axes from her back and walked to the door. She saw no point in sneaking into the building because the undead would notice them sooner or later. She kicked the door open and entered the building. The group followed her, coming into the entrance hall.

There were seven ghouls and three undead humans at the end of the hall. Thanks to Velsana advance warning, the undead were already aware of their presence. They stared at the living for a few moments before they started to move.

They were pretty fast but half of them were frozen to the floor by Kelrian. Velsana cut one ghoul in half and beheaded another one. Arrows killed three of the non-frozen undead, limbs of other undead were cut off by Fanomar, Valerie and Vandiril. Marcus wrapped a golden barrier around Valerie and protected her that way. The ghoul, which claw had come in contact with the barrier, cried out in pain as the light burned its flesh. The noises it made sounded horrible but it was silenced a few moments later. Dolfron's wolf had jumped at it and torn its head apart.

The dwarf praised his companion, shooting at the nearest undead human. Their head exploded, blood was splashed and the body fell and remained motionless on the floor. Kelrian noticed that one of the undead humans was casting a spell. He focused his power to counter it. He succeeded but there was no need for him to kill the human because Vissia had already taken care of him. She had appeared behind the male a moment later and rammed one of her daggers through his neck. She had pulled the dagger out forcefully and beheaded the undead sorcerer that way.

The rogue had drawn the attention of one of the few remaining undead on her. It turned around and rushed to her but Velsana stepped in front of her lover at the last moment and repelled the ghoul's attack. The ghoul was dead before it could attack again. Several arrows had pierced through its head that had been separated a second later by one of Velsana's battle axes.

The remaining undead in the entrance hall were dispatched quickly but more were waiting for the group in the next room. Undead humans, undead elves, skeletons and even members of the Cult of the Damned. The necromancer gave the group a hard time but they were killed eventually. Vissia had been slightly injured by the rusty sword of a skeleton but the kaldorei priestess had already taken care of the wound. The others had surprisingly remained unharmed.

Kelrian had already spent too much mana for his liking because he had had no other choice than to counter the necromancers' attempts to raise the fallen undead. The fight would have been a lot more complicated if the undead would have been raised again and again.

Elena walked to him and asked him if he was alright. Kelrian drank a mana potion and told her that he was fine. He looked exhausted but Elena didn't want to argue with him, so she just gave him a nod. The worry in her eyes was noticed by him but he didn't comment about it. He put his spellblade back on his belt and took his bow from his shoulders. He wanted to save his mana for the nerubian, so he would use the bow as long as no necromancers would be in the next room.

Fortunately, the next room was empty. No creature was there nor in the last room on the ground floor. The group left the last room and came to two stairs. One led to the first floor and the other to the cellar. Velsana decided to check the cellar first, so the group went downstairs, killing the seven ghouls that were gathered there.

There were lots of wine casks on the right side of the huge room and lots of shelves on the other side. The shelves contained cheese, meat, fruits, vegetables and other food. But most of the food was no longer edible because it was already mouldy.

Even if they weren't, no member of Velsana's group would eat anything. They couldn't know if the cultists had used spells on them. It was not unlikely that consuming the food would turn the humans into undead creatures.

"We should burn the food and pour away the wine after we have killed all undead creatures. We cannot risk that refugees who might come into this village would eat that food that might be contaminated," said Velsana.

"You are right," said Kelrian. "Not burning the food might have fatal consequences."

The night elf nodded. "We will exterminate the food but first we need to kick more undead asses. Follow me, guys."

The group followed her to the first floor. They came in a wide and long corridor and could already see the undead at its end. Arrows flew, killing half of the undead before they had realized the presence of the living. The other half was killed rather quickly. The group went through the rooms on the first floor, killing every undead creature they spotted.

They came to the second floor, spotting the nerubian Vissia had mentioned in the first corridor. It was much bigger than any nerubian the group had ever met. Its six legs were very long, thick and long spikes came out of its knees. Its abdomen was much thicker and spiked as well. Its skin was as white as chalk and each of its six eyes glowed bluish. It had two strong arms and two fingers with sharp and very long fingernails at each claw.

The Nerubian was alone but the group knew they shouldn't underestimate it. It looked pretty powerful and it was not unlikely that it was also a spellcaster. Velsana ordered the group to wait. She allowed the archers to draw their bows and aim, Kelrian was ordered to prepare a spell to freeze the creature's claws to prevent it from casting any spell. The kaldorei priestess should shield the melee fighters who would attack the big spider thing as soon as Kelrian, Dolfron and the archers started firing at it.

Velsana told Marcus to use the holy light to weaken the nerubian while Vandiril should try to stop any of the nerubian's spells in case it would manage to free its hands somehow. Vandiril was not only a Silvermoon Guardian but also a spellbreaker who had been taught in countering spells effectively. The training of spellbreakers had begun after King Kael'thas had renamed the high elves to blood elves. In case Vandiril wouldn't succeed, it was Kelrian's task to counter the creature's spells.

The plan was good but not everything went as planned.

Kelrian created an ice blast and threw it at the nerubian, expecting that its hands would be frozen. But it didn't work as he had hoped for. The spell was absorbed by an invisible barrier that was wrapped around the creature's body. A loud hiss escaped the creature's lips, its six eyes narrowed and landed on the living. Arrows and a bullet flew through the air but the barrier protected the nerubian from these missiles as well. At least the group could notice that the barrier dissolved after it had blocked the last missile.

The nerubian was no longer protected but that didn't make it less deadly. It cast a spell, knocking away the melee fighters who had started to run towards it. The shields that had been cast on them prevented them from being injured as they collided with the walls. The nerubian cast another spell but Kelrian managed to counter it at the last moment.

He noticed that two of the creature's eyes rested on him while the others rested on his comrades. The nerubian was taking a closer look at him because it had realized that Kelrian was a thorn in its side. It considered Kelrian as the biggest threat, so it aimed its next spell at him.

Kelrian was hit by an arcane blast and thrown away. The barrier hadn't been strong enough to absorb the entire damage that would have been done by the spell. Kelrian's upper body hurt, his uniform was damaged but he was neither bleeding nor was any bone broken. The spell could have been more devastating if the barrier wouldn't have been there to protect him. He was glad that he had created the barrier before they had entered the second floor. He didn't want to imagine how badly the spell would have wounded him if the barrier wouldn't have absorbed most of its power. The nerubian was much stronger than he had expected.

He got up and tried to prepare another counterspell in case the nerubian would cast again but it didn't work. Kelrian was wondering what was going on. He assumed that the nerubian had been faster and cast the same spell on him, preventing that he could cast any spell for an unknown amount of time. Kelrian had no other choice than to draw his bow from his back and shoot arrows at the big undead spider.

Velsana and the other melees had reached the nerubian in the meantime and were fighting against it. It managed to kick Marcus away and block Vandiril's attempt to make it unable to cast any spell but it didn't manage to avoid Velsana's attacks which resulted in the loss of one of its legs. The creature howled as its left foreleg was separated, blood splashed and stained the warrior's armour. She even got it in her face and in her eyes but fortunately for her, the blood was neither poisonous nor corrosive. She was just blinded for a few moments but her vision returned quickly.

She noticed just in time that the nerubian tried to hit her with its right foreleg but she blocked it with her axes at the last moment. The nerubian roared out angrily as Vandiril rammed his sword in its torso. It kicked him away, tried to hit Velsana again and the warrior tried to block it. The attack had been so powerful that the blade of the axe in her left hand shattered. If Velsana was surprised, she didn't show it.

She bit her bottom lip and dropped the axe, taking her second axe in both hands. It was large enough that it could be used as a double-handed weapon. The other axe had been as large as this one, meaning she had carried double-handed axes in both hands before one had been destroyed. She was much stronger than she looked like.

More arrows hit the nerubian. One of Elena's arrows hit one of the six eyes, causing that a painful cry escaped the creature's lips. The nerubian was distracted for a moment, allowing Velsana to cut the other foreleg off. Four legs remained. Marcus used the holy light to hurt the nerubian, paralyzing its body. The nerubian broke out of the paralysis faster than expected, spitting a purple liquid right in the paladin's face. The liquid came in contact with the human's skin but nothing happened at first.

The melees were keeping it busy while the archers and Dolfron were aiming at the nerubian's eyes, destroying two more. Dolfron's wolf buried its sharp teeth in one of the nerubian's remaining legs, Velsana picked up Vissia and threw her in the air. The rogue landed on the nerubian's head and rammed her daggers in the three remaining eyes, making the undead nerubian totally blind.

Another painful roar escaped the nerubian's mouth, it went wild and tried to hit anyone around it. Fanomar and Valerie were thrown against the walls but they managed to get up quickly. They joined the other quickly and helped to cut off the remaining legs before they separated the nerubian's ugly head.

Velsana regarded the dead nerubian with a satisfied smile on her lips, then she took her girlfriend's hand and helped her climb off that massive thing. She stared into Vissia's eyes, put a hand on her cheek and rubbed it. Vissia returned her smile, blushing a little.

The warrior pulled away eventually and looked at her group. "Is everyone okay?" she asked. Her gaze fell on Marcus whose skin colour had changed. It no longer had its natural pink colour but a light purplish colour instead.

"That doesn't look good," said Kelrian.

The kaldorei priestess walked over to Marcus and regarded him worriedly. "He is poisoned."

"Can you help him?" Kelrian asked.

The priestess shrugged. "I have no idea. I never dealt with nerubian poison before. I doubt that an antidote for spider venom would help."

"There must be something we can do for him," said Elena.

The priestess' gaze fell on the dead nerubian. "I could try to use its poison to make an antidote but that would take some time. I don't know how much time he will have nor do I know if it would work."

"You have to try it, Melysa," said Velsana.

The priestess nodded. "I will."

Velsana's gaze landed on the huntress and on one of the kaldorei archers. "You will guide them outside as soon as Melysa has extracted the poison. Protect them from any undead creature." The women nodded and walked to Marcus and the priestess. Velsana pointed at the other end of the corridor. "The rest will follow me."

They did as they were told, walking through the corridor. They came into the next room, spotting a dozen undead. Although four soldiers were missing this time, they had no problem killing the undead in this room and the next. They cleared the rooms on the second floor one by one, arriving in the major's office eventually in which they found five skeletons and a big abomination.

The skeletons died quickly but the abomination refused to die within the first ten minutes. It took hard blows, got hit by many arrows, bullets and spells but it died eventually. It would have been much easier to take it down if Kelrian would have been allowed to use fire techniques but the risk that he would have set the entire building on fire would have been too high.

They separated the abomination's body parts in case there were still necromancers somewhere in the building. They threw the head out of the nearest window, knowing the abomination wouldn't be able to do much without it if it would be raised again. Kelrian had witnessed how necromancers had put separated body parts together before they had raised creatures that had been cut into pieces. He knew that cutting off its limbs and head was not a permanent solution but it was better than nothing for the beginning. They would burn the abomination with the other slain creature once they were done with everything.

Kelrian looked around for any chests in the mayor's office. He spotted one but nothing but personal objects, that had belonged to the mayor, were inside. They didn't find anything until Elena spotted a secret door switch. She had accidentally come in contact with a candelabrum, that was hanging on a wall, and moved it a little.

A secret door next to the candelabrum opened, Dolfron and Kelrian were ready to shoot at any undead creatures that would come out. But no creature came. Elena and Velsana entered the room carefully, their weapons were drawn in case any undead creature would jump on them the moment they would step in.

Fortunately, there were no creatures in the room. Except for a huge chest, the entire room was empty. The chest was made out of solid black wood and locked by a massive padlock.

"Seems we need to find the key," said Kelrian.

Vissia walked over to the chest and regarded the padlock curiously. "We may not need it. I think I can crack it," she responded and pulled a set of picklocks from her belt. She fumbled around with picklocks of various sizes while the others had walked back to the office and were looking for a key in case, she couldn't crack it.

But the rogue managed to crack the padlock, informing everyone that she had done it. They came back in the room and regarded the chest expectantly. Vissia opened the chest, revealing that it was filled to the brim with blue crystals. Crystals from which the blood elves could drain the arcane energy that they needed so badly.

"I wonder why the mayor of a human village has so many of these crystals," said Valerie thoughtfully.

Kelrian shrugged. "Who knows? I don't really care why he had them because I'm glad he did. These crystals can sustain us for weeks if we divide them carefully."

"I would suggest you examine them first before you drain power from them. Who knows if a smart member of the Scourge spotted them and manipulated them somehow? Everything is possible these days. I would be careful if I were you," said Valerie. "It's not unlikely that they found the key, opened it and did something with the crystals before they locked the chest again."

"You are right," responded Kelrian and got closer to the chest. "I should have enough mana left to examine them but it wouldn't be thorough enough. We should bring them to Silvermoon and let the magisters take a closer look at them."

"Alright, let me carry the chest," said Velsana and closed it.

"Alone?" Kelrian asked surprised.

"Why do you sound so surprised? I'm able to wield two two-handed battle-axes with no problem, so it shouldn't surprise you that I'm able to lift up a chest full of crystals."

"But the chest is huge and I bet it's pretty heavy."

Velsana put her axe on her back, kneeled down and lifted it up. She smirked as she saw the surprised expressions on the faces of the humans and blood elves. "I'm stronger than I look like. Many do the mistake to underestimate me. They think I can't lift such heavy things because I'm a woman. You are not the only ones I proved wrong. It's always a pleasure for me to amaze others."

"I didn't intend to underestimate you but I would have never expected you to be so strong. I never met a woman who was as strong as you before. I mean, your body is pretty muscular but your muscles still look natural. If a person could lift that, I would have expected them to be much more muscular. Their muscles wouldn't have looked natural then. They would have looked like they were on steroids," replied Kelrian.

"I know what you mean but I don't need to be on steroids to lift something heavy like that. Lots of people can't explain how I'm able to do that and I cannot even explain it myself. I'm just very strong since I was a little girl. I was born that way."

"Seems your goddess gave you a unique gift."

Velsana chuckled. "I'm not a very religious person. Vis is, but I'm not. Vissia prays at least two times a day but I only pray to Elune the day before a huge battle. I doubt that Elune blessed me or gave me a special gift. I'm just an ordinary woman, nothing more."

"As the son of a paladin and a member of a family full of priests and paladins, I used to pray to the Sunwell every day but since its destruction...I don't know what I should pray to."

"I'm sorry to hear that. What happened?" Velsana asked.

"The Sunwell has become corrupted, so we were forced to blow it up. I will give you the details later and tell you what exactly happened if you want. We don't have the time for storytelling. We should get out of the town hall and help the other groups," replied Kelrian.

Velsana nodded. "You are right about that. We have to check on Marcus and then search the next building."

The group didn't meet any undead as Velsana guided them out of the town hall. They left the building and spotted Melysa, the two other night elves and looked a bit better but his skin colour still hadn't become natural again. He was still poisoned.

"How is he doing?" Velsana asked worriedly.

Melysa looked up at her. "I haven't fully neutralized the poison yet but at least he is no longer vomiting."

"He vomited?"

The priestess, who was kneeling next to Marcus and casting a spell on him, nodded. "What about the antidote?" Kelrian asked.

"I gave the extracted poison to a human alchemist who is currently working on it. I have no idea if he will finish it in time. I have no idea how exactly this poison works. Marcus may look fine but we don't know if he actually is. I have had patients in the past who had looked fine but their innards had been slowly decomposed by a very special and rare poison. Let's hope that's not the case for him."

Kelrian put a hand on the human's shoulder, looking into his brown eyes. "Everything will be alright, Marcus. Do not lose hope."

A weak smile appeared on the human's lips. "Don't worry, I will never lose hope. Losing hope is the worst that can happen in these dark times. We always have to stay positive and find a way to survive. We must stay strong and endure in these dark times. We can only hope that our lives will get better one day."

"You are right about that. We have to stay positive. Always. Hold out, my friend."

"I have no other choice," Marcus replied.

"Captain Wildlance," a male voice suddenly shouted. Velsana turned around and spotted one of Tyrande's fellow warriors. "What are you doing here, Jazmend?"

"The High Priestess sent me and others to inform you and the other groups about the approaching undead."

"The undead are approaching? How many?"

"Our scouts spotted several hundred creatures."

A grim expression could be seen on Velsana's face. "That's not good. What are the High Priestess' orders?"

"She wants you to bring the supplies to the caravan and bring it to the town's east. But you have to hurry because the Scourge army is pretty fast. The undead will arrive soon."

Velsana nodded and turned to her group. "You heard him. Hurry guys. We have to reach the caravan as soon as possible. Go! Go! Go!"