The Ruins of Suramar - Broken Isles

  Vereesa Windrunner was close to finding her sister. Or so she believed. The Huntmaster was finally free to pursue Thas’dorah, and while the ancient bow of the Windrunners was valuable, even necessary for the war effort, it was no secret to anyone what the leader of the Silver Covenant hoped to find at the end of this trail.

  “Alleria is just as valuable to the war as the Bow.” The Huntmaster of the Unseen Path murmured as they surveyed the Legion controlled section of the Broken Shore. “We will find her.” There were few living hunters on the shore, just bodies surrounded by dead demons, and their pets..

  Without lingering, they moved, and their pet followed after them at a pace that was just as quick. Arrows flew from seemingly thin air, taking out scores of demons before they even knew there was an attack. Then, the pets reached them. A bear drew their focus, while several wolves and a Nightsaber tore into them from behind. Their hunters meanwhile, watched for more targets, reinforcements, and scouts who could signal for large forces. In minutes, the area was littered with demon corpses, and the hunters had one of them singing about where they’d taken Thas’dorah. The bow was apparently secreted in a cathedral on a Legion world known as Niskara.

  Ranger Orestes and a group of hunters had managed to secure what was apparently a portal to Niskara, and the home base of a Legion organization known as the Inquisition. It was they who had the bow, and supposedly Alleria. The Huntmaster rolled their eyes as Orestes tried to guilt Vereesa into admitting this was a personal hunt, and eventually, they interjected.

  “It doesn’t matter if her goal is the bow, or her sister, Orestes. Just watch the portal, and make sure we’re not flanked on both sides by Demons.” The Huntmaster nodded at their resident Sind’dorei mage then, who activated the portal. The green doorway to elsewhere yawned wide before them, and in the distance, the hunters tensed as they heard demons reacting to the sudden surge of Fel magic.

  “I’ve never been very good at following orders.” Orestes quipped, before dashing through the portal. “See you on the other side!”

  “Imbecile! Stop!” The Huntmaster ordered, but the idiot elf was already through, alone, without even a pet to guard him.

  Vereesa snarled in frustration. “Now we have two allies to save. Let’s move!”

  Despite following right after Orestes, he was long gone by the time the Huntmaster and Vereesa materialized. Th Huntmaster frowned. Time was not on their side, and it sometimes got weird in portals to unstable spaces. Niskara absolutely fit that description, an entire landscape of green, gray desolation broken up only by the Fel forms of demons in the distance. The demons blocking their path fell easily to their arrows and the efforts of the Huntmaster’s pet. For the Huntmaster, this was pretty standard as encounters with the Legion went. Some herald of a higher power implying their imminent doom, only to die immediately. Seemingly endless patrols, that weren’t hard to dodge completely, and of course, an eerie end area where the higher up, in this case one High Inquisitor Qormaladon, was performing their dark deeds.

  They found Orestes just before the cathedral, wounded and dying. The Huntmaster stayed silent as Vereesa grieved. The idiot had dug his own grave by jumping into a Legion portal alone and not even having the sense to wait for backup. Some people called this natural selection, but the Huntmaster knew it would be rude to point that out.

  A new voice rolled out from the cathedral the Inquisition was taking residence in. “You mortals have endured so much to rescue your precious Alleria. Come forth, and reap your reward!”

  “Oh someone will be reaped, alright!” Vereesa roared dashing ahead. Arrows flew with every step, and the Huntmaster struggled to keep pace with the Windrunner, at least until they reached an area that seemed like the demons used it for interrogations. A sphere of impenetrable green magic surrounded Vereesa as she charged in, and a demonic gurgle that passed for a laugh echoed through the area.

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  “Thus the Hunter is baited into becoming Prey." The inquisitorial demon grinned a wide, unnatural grin. "Another Windrunner for my collection…oh, the things you’ll confess to me…such useful information…as for you, Mortal… Rejoice. Your pitiful existence is at its end, and your pathetic struggle is finally over.”

  “Forget about me!” Vereesa ordered, “Just save Alleria!”

  The Huntmaster ignored her. It was time to stop playing around. They sheathed their bow, and reached into their bag, to retrieve a spear. It was, of course, not just any spear. Talonclaw was as old as the Tauren of Highmountain, and blessed by the Wild Gods. The Huntmaster did not needlessly call upon their powers, both to conserve them and to keep Talonclaw from being taken or lost, but in this instance, its ability to inflict a slow, painful death with a thousand cuts was exactly what this Inquisitor deserved.

  The Huntmaster was a blur, slicing through eyes, dancing out of spells, in his fury, the High Inquisitor focused on the hunter’s pet, instead. But that only lasted a moment, as the poor creature was entrapped in ice and then promptly smashed free of it by Talonclaw a moment later.

  “We did not expect…the High Elf would bring…such a persistent ally…” The demon growled as started flinging spells, only for the Huntmaster to slice through them with Talonclaw. Its curses were doing damage, but Talonclaw was doing more, faster.

  The Huntmaster smirked. “Didn’t ‘foresee’ that, did you? Even with all those eyes?”

  The demon caster roared, sending a new horde of floating magic eyeballs of doom at the Huntmaster, only to be met by a murder of crows, summoned by a magical (and quite common) item favored by hunters that needed space between them and their targets. The birds tore the eyeballs apart, before Talonclaw was driven into the thin caster’s demonic heart.

  The demon gurgled as it died, laughing at the futility of the mortals before him. He decided to impart to them a half-truth, as he expired. “Another…will take…my place…” With a final rasping chuckle, the High Inquisitor died, and the magic holding Vereesa disappeared.

  Shaking her head free of the demonic magic, Vereesa focused. “We can’t stop. We need to know if Alleria was held here, or if all of this was just…a ruse.”

  The Huntmaster put a hand on her shoulder as she started charging forward again. “Together, this time. Let’s not run into any more obvious traps.”

  The elf’s ears drooped slightly, but she nodded in agreement, and together, and once more wielding their bow, the two hunters advanced quickly and quietly. Only two Eredar guards had been in their way, the room beyond revealing its prize: Thas’dorah, Legacy of the Windrunners. Two arrows between the demon’s eyes sent them to death, and the two mortals approached the bow.

  “Alleria was here. This is the proof. But she must have escaped…and the Inquisitor was attempting to lure her back by trapping me. Go ahead, Huntmaster. Take the bow. It belongs in the hands of a Hero, like my sister.”

  The Huntmaster stepped towards the unholy altar, gripped and examined the bow, then turned and offered it to Vereesa. “This is the legacy of the Windrunners, Vereesa, and I have a Windrunner right in front of me. Take up your family’s legacy. Use it to end the Legion. Permanently.”

  “Me? I…” Vereesa looked at her own weapon, then nodded. The Huntmaster already had Talonclaw, Hemet Nessingwary wielded Titanstrike, and now she would represent the Windrunners in this ‘raiding force’ Archmage Khadgar was forming. “Alright. Until the Legion’s end, or I next see Alleria…I will wield Thas’dorah.”

  Another demonic voice echoed around them. “Find them! Rend the flesh from their pitiful bodies!”

  Vereesa smirked. “And that’s our cue to leave. After you, Huntmaster.” She conjured a portal back to Krasus’ Landing, and just like that, they were back.

  The Huntmaster blinked. “Some day…you need to tell me who taught you portal magic.”

  That statement seemed to make Vereesa quite sad, and that sadness lingered, as she looked around the landing named after Archmage Krasus. A warm breeze ran through her mane of silver hair, and she met the Huntmaster’s gaze evenly. “Rhonin taught me…and Archmage Krasus taught him.” She snapped back to the present, as one of her Silver Covenant approached. “I will inform Khadgar of what happened. Take an earned rest, Huntmaster. And thank you.”

  The Ranger General of the Silver Covenant strode off then, drawing the eyes of every hunter she passed as they saw Thas’dorah was once more in the hands of a Windrunner.