"Boom!"
The ogre's massive body crashed to the ground, creating a small earthquake, allowing the Stromgarde commander to see the "person" who had saved him, and his eyes widened.
"orc, an orc?" he stammered.
Eitrigg wiped the blood off his axe with a piece of cloth from the ogre's body, grinned at the human commander he had saved, revealing a mouthful of yellowed teeth, especially his two prominent tusks.
Then he raised his weapon and charged towards the other ogres, continuing his battle.
The Stromgarde commander wanted to rub his eyes to see if he was hallucinating: when they were facing despair, an angel, an orc, a paladin, two mages, and a troop of cavalry had saved them.
This group of reinforcements seemed so powerful that the angel alone killed two ogre mages and three ogre warriors who had caused them great casualties.
The rest were quickly dealt with by the others, and when he wanted to help, he found that the only thing he could do was clean up the battlefield and treat the wounded—even the main force in treating the wounded was that angel and the paladins.
Fortunately, he finally found someone he recognized among these reinforcements.
"You are Lord Commander Tirion Fordring!" The Stromgarde commander greeted the old paladin after he healed a wounded soldier.
He had too much gratitude and too many questions to ask the paladin lord.
"It is I." Fordring glanced at him and continued to use the Holy Light to heal other injured people.
The commander knew that now was not a good time to chat, so he ordered his soldiers to provide full assistance to these people, and sent a portion of them to escort the uninjured refugees to the safety of Refuge Pointe.
By the time they finished, it was already evening.
Winter days darken quickly, and in at most an hour, if they couldn't find a place to settle down, they would have to camp in the wild.
At this time, the Stromgarde commander finally got a chance to speak with Fordring.
"Lord Commander Fordring, on behalf of Stromgarde, I am extremely grateful for your timely rescue.
If it weren't for you, I'm afraid most of us would have been buried under the ogres' pursuit."
"It is what we should do," Fordring said modestly, looking at the relatively young Stromgarde commander, who seemed somewhat familiar.
"Do you recognize me?"
"Of course, you are a hero of the Alliance!
During the last war, I had the honor of seeing you when I was by my father's side."
"Oh—" Fordring looked at the burly man and finally knew why he looked familiar.
"You are King Thoras's nephew?"
"Yes, I am Danath Trollbane," the Stromgarde commander said.
Fordring said, "Then it is indeed a coincidence."
(T/N : I am so confused, Galen reappeared , but I think it is Danath so I changed it)
No one would have thought that the person they happened to meet on their mission would be the heir to the Kingdom of Stromgarde.
Then Prince Danath roughly recounted his experiences: recently, because the Stonemaul Ogres were frequently active, the nearby human settlements were no longer safe, and with the threat of the orcs nearby, Prince Galen was ordered to assist the people here in evacuating to Refuge Pointe.
Danath and his soldiers had already escorted two groups of refugees; this was the last group.
Unexpectedly, they encountered ogres who came out to rob them during the retreat, and nearly twenty ogres were mobilized at once—such a number was impossible for Prince Danath's troops to resist.
You must know that these ogres are all thick-skinned and naturally strong, and when they run, it's like an earthquake.
One ogre can easily deal with a squad of human soldiers, let alone nearly twenty at once!
The human soldiers were unable to resist, so the retreat turned into a rout.
If Aiden and his party hadn't provided timely support, then these soldiers and refugees would have suffered even more serious blows.
"Then—your group?" Prince Danath cast a suspicious gaze over them.
Fordring said, "We are envoys of the Alliance, going to negotiate with the orcs.
You should know that King Terenas invited King Thoras to rejoin the Alliance, but your father refused because the orcs threatened the rear.
We are here to eliminate the threat of the orcs for Stromgarde."
Prince Danath looked at the old orc who had saved him and suddenly understood: "You are going to negotiate peace with the orcs?"
"Yes."
Danath hesitated, but still said, "I think my father may not be satisfied with this result."
"We expected as much," Fordring said with a helpless smile.
"Actually, when we entered Arathi, we met your cousin, Prince Galen, and he seemed very dissatisfied with our actions.
(T/N : I am vindicated)
I think your uncle should already know now."
"I'll put in a good word for you when I get back," Prince Danath couldn't help but look at Eitrigg again.
The old orc was talking to a black-haired human mage, and the angel was also there.
It seemed that these people did not hate the orc, but were friendly enough to him, which somewhat subverted his usual impression—how could orcs and humans live in peace?
Aren't they all savage and bloodthirsty beasts?
"Then thank you very much."
"Uh, your team is really peculiar, that angel—that's an angel, right?" Danath was a little uncertain.
Although he did see this angel descend from the sky, wielding a burning longsword and killing an ogre mage in the air, and later showing great power by fighting many enemies alone, who could be said as their savior.
But he had only heard of such creatures in legends.
He never thought he would see one with his own eyes this time.
Fordring nodded and said, "That's the Judgement Angel, Lady Kayle, the bodyguard of that black-haired gentleman beside her, Aiden. Aiden is the leader of Valoran. I know you haven't heard of that place. They came from another world and have now joined the Alliance. They are stationed in Durnholde. In fact, you are neighbors now."
Danath digested this shocking news and mocked himself, "It seems our kingdom is too closed off, completely unaware of such things."
Fordring looked at the sky; the sun was almost setting. "So, what are your plans next?"
"What are your plans now?" Prince Danath asked in return.
"We plan to camp nearby. We'll set off early tomorrow morning and should reach our destination by afternoon."
"Then, do you mind if we injured join you?"
"Of course not, you are most welcome. I remember this is Stromgarde territory!" Fordring laughed heartily.
In the evening, Fordring introduced the Stromgarde Crown Prince to Aiden and the others, and by the campfire, he told him about the threat of the Scourge and the Alliance's preparations for the crusade. This prince was obviously more aware of the general situation than his brother. Danath immediately stated that he would do his best to persuade his father to rejoin the Alliance after returning.
This was, of course, good news for Fordring.
Early the next morning, Refuge Pointe sent troops to meet Prince Danath , help transport the wounded and supplies, and ensure their safety. Danath should have returned with the team, but after much consideration, he finally changed his mind.
He asked the arriving guard captain to be responsible for the escort and informed his father that he was with the Alliance envoys and would return to Stromgarde with them later to meet King Thoras.
Then he joined Fordring's team with only a few personal guards.
"After all, this is a matter for our Kingdom of Stromgarde, and as a prince, I cannot but participate," Danath said to Fordring. He was very clear that this was a peace talk initiated by the Alliance to eliminate future troubles for Stromgarde. As one of the parties involved, how could they not have someone participate?
Fordring patted him on the shoulder: "Then I welcome you!"
In fact, even before Thrall became the leader of the Horde, a group of Orcs were active in the Arathi Highlands. They were united under the banner of Grom Hellscream, chieftain of the Warsong Clan, continuing their confrontation with the Alliance. In fact, it was more of an exile than a confrontation, because Grom had very few people under his command. They occupied Stromgarde's abandoned Hammerfall and quietly built a camp here.
After Thrall began the liberation of the Orcs, the previous Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer gave his family's legendary weapon, the Doomhammer, and black plate armor to Thrall before his death, and appointed this young Orc as the new leader of the Horde. After that, Grom's Warsong Clan also recognized Thrall's position and obeyed his leadership.
So, after completing the liberation movement, Thrall led his people to Hammerfall. This place could no longer meet the needs of the rapidly growing number of Orcs, so he ordered the Orcs to expand outward and begin reclamation on a piece of land called Khaz'goroth in the southwest. At the same time, they competed with the Kobold trolls entrenched here for forest resources.
Their actions alerted the Kingdom of Stromgarde, and the two sides broke out into many battles on the line between the northwest of Khaz'goroth Farm and the Hillsbrad Foothills.
Although Stromgarde had not taken the initiative to attack recently, and the Orcs had not fought humans for a long time, there were still a quarter of the Orc warriors deployed in this area.
Aiden and Fordring's team quickly entered the Orcs' defense line.
When the Orcs saw a team of human cavalry entering their sphere of influence, they immediately began to mobilize their soldiers. But to their surprise, although these humans were very vigilant, they did not launch an attack before they gathered. What was even stranger was that they found an old Orc in the crowd.
"It's up to you, Eitrigg," Fordring patted the old Orc on the shoulder.
Eitrigg grinned: "You will see that we Orcs are also a race that keeps its promises." He took the package Fordring handed him and walked towards the Orcs. The package contained a letter to Thrall, explaining their intentions.
The Orc soldiers picked up their weapons and surrounded them, and after Eitrigg walked towards the Orcs, two Orc warriors quickly ran over and pulled him into their camp.
Eitrigg found the commander of this unit and said directly: "I am Eitrigg of the Blackrock Clan. I want to see Warchief Thrall. These humans are here to negotiate, not to fight. Don't point your weapons at our guests!"
"I've heard of the name Eitrigg, but I don't know you." The Orc commander was a little unsure. He looked at the old Orc and found that he had not been abused. "I'll take you to see the overseer. He is from the Blackrock Clan."
Then the Orc commander ordered the warriors to continue to surround them, but not to attack, and then took Eitrigg to see the Orc overseer on this front.