Make Azeroth breathtaking

"Buzzing..."

Behind Tannis, several drones, each adorned with flame or snowflake symbols, took off and hurtled towards the stone giant. These deadly bombs rained down on the stone giant's head. The rapid alternation of cold and heat caused the cracks created by Vol'jin's voodoo magic on the stone giant's body, unable to withstand the expansion and contraction, to gradually widen, with pieces of debris peeling off its body.

However, despite his body being covered in shocking cracks, the stone giant continued to fight the three orc warriors with unhurried punches, each punch sending sparks flying and each kick causing the earth to tremble.

"Great Chieftain Thrall, concentrate your forces. Let's break one of its legs first to weaken its mobility."

Realizing that simply using thermal expansion and contraction wouldn't cause much damage to the stone giant in front of her, Tannis flipped her wrist and picked up a weapon that looked ominous.

"I understand."

Thrall nodded, closed his eyes, and focused on communicating with the elements. As the elemental spirits responded to his request, a tricolor ball began to swirl in the air between Thrall's hands.

"Get out of the way!!"

Upon hearing Thrall's voice, Grom turned Bloodhowl and used the tail of his axe handle to block the stone giant's next punch, using the impact to quickly retreat. The Saurfang brothers worked together to block the stone giant's other fist with their axes, also using the force to leap backward.

"Take this!!!"

The instant Grom and Saurfang left the firing axis, Tani pulled the trigger without hesitation. A missile with a skull symbol on it was fired from the anti-tank gun, and Thrall pushed his hands out, sending the elemental sphere hurtling towards the stone giant.

"boom!!!"

The missile and the elemental impact struck the stone giant's left leg one after the other, creating a huge hole. The stone giant, which was more than half destroyed, could not maintain its balance and knelt on the ground.

"And then, another one!!"

Tanis discarded the cannon barrel, which had become a burning stick, and pulled out another anti-tank gun, locking onto the stone giant's other leg. Just as she was about to pull the trigger, a sense of dread flashed through her mind.

In a flash, Tani didn't hesitate to channel her inner energy into her feet, kicking, bouncing, and rolling away from her original spot. Less than a second after she left her position, a huge rock spike burst forth from the ground.

"This ability... Thrall, are you sure this is just an ordinary Earth Spirit?"

Having narrowly dodged the fatal blow, Tannis turned her right hand, put away the anti-tank gun that needed aiming and locking, and released a swarm of small robots through her mechanical assistant. Sensing the threat of these things, the stone giant shook its body and threw down a shower of rock fragments. In Tannis's horrified eyes, these fragments transformed into small earth elementals that could move freely. These galloping earth elementals quickly met the pursuers that Tannis had thrown out, detonating them in advance with their own explosions. With the collision of the two, clouds of smoke and dust rose from the ground.

"Manipulating the earth...summoning secondary elements...this stone giant might be the earth spirit of this island...how utterly depraved must the merfolk be to desecrate such a being?"

Thrall, having dodged the towering rock spikes, braced himself with his right hand on the ground, looking at the scene before him with overwhelming grief. He could now clearly hear the cries of the elemental spirits emanating from this island!

"Therefore we must let it rest in peace, return it to its purity, Great Chieftain of the Orcs."

Vol'jin's eyes blazed with fury as he gripped his weapon. Although the trolls' faith seemed bloodthirsty and barbaric, blasphemy was a taboo even among the savage trolls!

What should we do?

Tanis, having released a ring of robots to temporarily distract the stone giant, landed back beside Thrall. She knew that Thrall was the expert here in communicating or fighting with elemental spirits of this level.

“I will do everything in my power to appease its anger, suppress its fighting spirit, and seek its prayers. Grom, Saurfang, brothers, I will trouble you to hold it back until I have accomplished all this. Miss Tanis, I entrust the task of providing cover fire to you, Vol'jin! Use your voodoo magic to assist them! Don't let them lose their fighting ability too soon!”

“Lok'tar Ogar!!”

Grom roared with deafening fury, his muscles bulging as he burst through the still-exploding battlefield like a cannonball. Bloodhowl shrieked sharply as he slashed a deep gash across the stone giant's thigh.

Behind Grom, the Saurfang brothers quickly followed. Although their weapons were just ordinary steel battle axes, in the hands of battle-hardened veterans like them, even a wooden stick could be used with the utmost precision.

"Crack!"

Almost simultaneously, the two battle axes cleaved into two noticeable cracks in the stone giant's body. The Saurfang brothers exerted their strength at the same time, and fueled by their fury, the axes penetrated even deeper into the stone giant's flesh. Then...

"Splash!!"

A large amount of rock debris was pried off the stone giant by the two enraged orc warriors, revealing the undamaged area below.

"Roar!!!!"

The Saurfang brothers shouted again, using their remaining strength to spin their battle axes, the handles crossing and striking another wound on the stone giant's leg, knocking down a large pile of rocks and dirt.

"Rumble..."

At this moment, the stone giant, slowed to react by a fraction of a second by Vol'jin's voodoo spell, began to retaliate. But just as it raised its fist, several cylindrical flying robots appeared beside its arms, their intensely focused beams mercilessly slicing through its joints. Molten lava dripped onto the ground, solidifying into fragments of rock.

"Roar!!!!!"

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!"

"Crack! Clang! Bang!!"

The three orc warriors, now fully engaged in battle, let out a fierce battle cry. Their battle axes left streaks of metal in the air, each axe strike sending sparks flying across the stone giant's body and tearing away pieces of its husk.

"Waaaaah~~~~"

Suddenly, a strange, low, and inexplicably compassionate voice rang in everyone's ears, like the weeping of the earth. With this voice, the stone giant's damaged left leg began to recover rapidly, and sharp spikes began to sprout from its body.

"Protect Sal!!"

Without Tani's prompting, the three orc warriors, recognizing the stone giant's appearance as a potential area-of-effect attack, stomped their feet and charged back into the crowd, standing in front of Thrall and rapidly spinning their weapons. Tani also recalled the G3 Predator, creating an electric net in the air. Vol'jin, meanwhile, planted a totem—a totem he'd somehow carved out with murloc blood and some incomprehensible patterns—in the center of the crowd and began a mystical dance.

Less than two breaths after Tannis and her group had taken their defensive stance, a barrage of stone spears rained down on them like a drizzle. However, when they were about 20 meters away from the group, the stone spears slowed down noticeably—they went from shooting like arrows to crawling like tortoises.

"Volkin, your voodoo magic is very effective!"

Grom exclaimed in admiration, picked up his axe, and began hacking away at the group of stone spears in the sky. Tannis also changed the form of the G robots, switching them from G3 Predators to G2 Thunderbolts, to help Grom destroy the stone spears.

In less than half a minute, the overwhelming stone spears were completely destroyed, and the stone dust, shimmering with a strange spiritual light, fell in a flurry, like snowflakes.

A flash of inspiration?

Before Tanis could even understand what this inspiration was for, Vol'jin's urgent voice rang in her ears.

"Everyone, spread out! Quickly!"

Trusting the professionals, Tannis channeled her inner energy, covered her head, and rolled on the ground in one fluid motion. When she stood up, a halo of earthy yellow light burst forth from her waist, spreading in all directions, turning even rocks into dust in its wake.

"It's a kind of magic that's harmless to the target but can destroy objects around them?"

Before Tannis could even catch her breath, a swarm of stone spears erupted from the stone giant's body, while a large number of minor earth elementals spawned beneath its feet. Instantly, she understood the tactic this thing was trying to use...

"I&……*(……&……%&*!!!"

"Focus! My Voodoo Barrier isn't over yet!"

So Tanis rolled back into Vol'jin's barrier, releasing a large number of pursuers to intercept the exploding earth elementals...

——————————————After three cycles——————————————————

"Huff... Huff..."

Tanis, covered in dust and dirt, knelt on the ground, panting heavily. The stone giant, now silent, had shrunk to about 90% of its original size and stood quietly in the dust.

"Alive."

Grom picked at his front teeth and raised his Bloodhowl, but he was stopped by Thrall as soon as he took his first step.

"The Great Chief?"

"Leave the rest to me..."

Thrall slowly walked towards the now-quiet Earth Spirit, gently placing his hand on its head. As the golden sand collapsed, the Earth Spirit returned to the embrace of the earth.

Watching the sand scatter from his palm, Thrall, who already knew everything that had happened to the earth spirit, silently raised his right hand and watched the last grain of sand return to the earth.

"Let's go, everyone."

26. Enemies from the Tide

A merman corpse, missing most of its head, lay on the beach, its blood soaking into the earth. Grom contentedly wiped his axe with a linen cloth, gazing at the mountains of corpses and seas of blood around him.

Thrall, having retrieved his weapons in the murloc camp, wearing black armor and carrying the Doomhammer, walked up to Grom.

"The Saurfang brothers have confirmed that our ships have been punctured by the murlocs and need repairs before we can set sail again."

When will the large fleet arrive?

"tomorrow morning."

Sal plopped down on a rock, picked up a blade of grass, and chewed on its stem.

"In other words, we have to get through this night, but those damned fishmen definitely won't let us get through it in peace."

"That's right, but the good news is that Miss Tannis has managed to procure some materials and finished products for building a temporary defensive line, which will allow us to fight the merfolk more safely."

Thrall spat out the blade of grass from his mouth, and Grom paused in wiping his axe.

"Excuse my bluntness, Great Chieftain, we've become a bit too reliant on Miss Tannis lately, and according to her asking price, we owe her a large sum in addition to the supplies we have."

“I know what you’re thinking, Grom. Perhaps sometimes we should solve problems in a more orcish way. However, Miss Tanis didn’t ask for a price we couldn’t accept, and the Horde is confident it can pay off its debt to Ratchet.”

"Ha... You are the Great Chief, what you say makes sense."

Grom continued wiping Gorehowl, while Thrall stood up to discuss the price of the defensive line with Tannis.

Although he was confident he could pay off the debts, he would still appreciate any amount less...

——————————————Late at night, 3 AM————————————————————

Behind a simple fence made of wood, sea sand, and some stones, small campfires flickered in the sea breeze. Beside each campfire, several orcs or trolls slept soundly, snoring loudly. The bright moonlight shone on the shimmering sea, and everything looked so peaceful.

"Splash..."

Small waves rolled in the ocean, and one after another, fish-men, armed with weapons made of coral or rock and clad in seaweed armor, rose silently from the sea and crept onto the beach. Their eyes gleamed with a frenzied joy, a mad thrill at the prospect of killing.

Then.....

"Crackling and popping!!!"

A series of lightning bolts suddenly erupted from the wet beach. In the blink of an eye, the vanguard of the merfolk fell like wheat being harvested, their limbs twitching, clearly on the verge of death.

Immediately afterwards, several flares exploded in the night sky and slowly fell to the sea. The orange-yellow light and the moonlight complemented each other, completely illuminating the figures of the fishmen.

Before the fishmen could react to this sudden turn of events, several drones roared over the fishmen and dropped their ammunition before the fishmen spellcasters could attack them. Clusters of lightning mixed with muffled sounds surged among the fishmen, and when the lightning dissipated, the beach and the sea near the beach were littered with fishmen corpses.

"That solves it?"

Grom rubbed his fangs in annoyance; his Bloodhowl was already itching for blood.

"We only dealt with some cannon fodder. We tinkerers may not be as good as other professions when dealing with some powerful beings, but when it comes to the speed of clearing cannon fodder, we are second to none."

Tanis sat on her motorcycle, leisurely monitoring the battlefield via drone.

When are the guys coming?

Thrall, having completed the four elemental totems, spoke in a deep voice.

"It should be soon..."