The Great Thief

Chapter 1759: Desolace Stronghold

Lord Mograine held the magical Ashbringer. He was the most representative and powerful, iron-blooded Paladin in the whole continent.

He was so filled with justice that even the Lich King, Arthas, praised him greatly.

“If one could combine the Ashbringer with my Frostmourne, then this whole world would tremble under my sword!”

However, the Lord Mograine was a soldier with deep-rooted values.

As one of the founding members of the Scarlet Crusade, Mograine fought at the frontlines of the plague in Stratholme. Countless Scourge soldiers charged towards Mograine to capture Ashbringer, but waiting for them was the Judgement of Light.

Mograine waved Ashbringer and stepped on the bodies of the Scourge soldiers, leading his own bloody troops to take down Stratholme Church, and establishing it as a solid fortress which stands even to this day.

As the son of the Ashbringer, Renault Mograine was shadowed by this father’s halo. Yet, he was someone who was eager to impress. He wanted to prove to his father that he was a brave and fearless warrior.

However, the great Leader did not seem to recognise Renault’s performance. He found faults with his son everywhere and often scolded him in public, which made Renault very dissatisfied. Coupled with the interference of his feelings for Whitemane, this made him extremely resentful of his father.

“Why do you not approve of me and Whitemane being together?”

“Emotions and lust will make you lose the will to fight,” the Great Leader coldly replied to his son’s question.

“How? Do you think I’m still just a child who only knows how to cry and make noises? Whitemane is also one the few strongest women here in our Scarlet Crusade. Are you saying that she doesn’t know how to control her desires?”

“Then let me ask you, if one day the Scourge stood Whitemane in front of you, would you be able to control your rage and despair?”

“...”

“Answer me, Child!”

“Father, if the Scourge took me, tortured me and then stood me in front of you, would you be able to control your rage and despair?”

“Child, I will first help release you then destroy those Scourge who tortured you. Do you understand, Renault?”

Renault lowered his head and softly replied, “I understand, Father.”

The war was still continuing. In order to satisfy their master’s wishes, the Scourge army captured the Ashbringer and surrounded Lord Mograine, Renault and Fairbanks.

Even though the soldiers were still valiant, but humans were still human. When faced with the tsunami of the Scourge army, Fairbanks fell and the Lord fell too. Only young Renault was still standing and fighting. Against the berserk and enraged Renault, the Scourge retreated.

“Help us, Renault! Help your father, Child!” the wounded Lord called for his son, hoping that he would take them back to the Church. Instead Renault grabbed Ashbringer and stepped closer to his father with a slight smile.

“Father, you have suffered enough from the Scourge, let me release you from this pain!”

“What are you doing? Renault! What are you doing?!” the Lord cried out as he looked at his son in fear.

“Fulfilling your promise Father!”

“No!!!”

The pure white Ashbringer turned into an evil green Fallen Blade as it stabbed the Lord.

Renault dropped Ashbringer in his hands and watched his father’ body become cold as tears of regret streamed down his face.

A few days later, in the depths of Naxxramas, a newly dead soldier mounted the red Undead military horse with the symbol of death. The fallen Ashbringer emitted powerful hatred in his hands.

“We are very glad that you have willingly become the Lich King’s Undead Soldier. Even though it’s a pity that the Ashbringer no longer possesses its sacred powers, we still welcome your presence.”

“Thank you, Kel’Thuzad. It is you who allowed me to understand life’s true meaning. I hope to use my power in the greater mission of the Lich King in purifying this ugly world.”

“Very well, Lord Mograine, I eagerly await your performance. Scourge soldiers! Let this world feel your anger!”

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – they were the masterpiece of Kel’Thuzad and Arthas. They were the land’s strongest Paladins.

This was the last Instance Dungeon of the 60s. Perhaps they were not as hard as Ouro or the Little Red Dragon as a single Boss, but the Bosses here all had a history, and they were all strong in their own right.

After three matches in the top 100, Lu Li and the others finally understood the mechanisms of the Four Horsemen.

The opponents in these three matches weren’t considered weak. After all, in order to get into the top 100 meant that they were reasonably skilled. Those who were too weak had no way of entering into the top 100; even throwing money at it wouldn’t work.

Ruling Sword couldn’t go easy on their opponents anymore like in the first match. It was common to lose two or three points. It was miserable in fighting the team match against Wings of Dawn – Ruling Sword lost four points straight up. Plus, they had lost two points in the challenge arena, so the score became 9:6 straight away. This meant that Ruling Sword had 9 points and their opponent had 6 points.

It didn’t matter if it was the challenge arena or team matches; killing one person meant accumulating 1 point.

Overall, there were six clubs with a full score: Blood Red War Flag, Glory Capital, Ruling Sword, Peerless City, Seventh Heaven and Azure Guard. Because Blood Red War Flag had the most number of fights, they had one more round than the other clubs, so their accumulated total was the highest.

When the top 100 competition first began, dozens of clubs had full scores, but soon some of them became stuck.

Drizzle Court and Gale Legion went head-to-head and they lost, but they earned a good score of 7 points.

The Stronghold battles couldn’t keep quiet forever. From the second week of the top 100 competition, a new map of the Desolace appeared and attracted the eyes of many clubs. It was another massive Stronghold map, even though it looked rather barren.

The area lacked resources and there weren’t many players.

Desolace was an area with mountains of wasteland and located within the plains. Legends said that Centaurs were left here by the demi-god Cenarius for his son and were mixed with an earth elemental princess to create these creatures. Even though Desolace was fortunate to not be destroyed by the evil wars, because of the Centaurs’ internal battles, the Desolace became a wasteland.

However, the Desolace had a unique point of gemstone resources.

Gems could be cut out of Synthetic Stones with different attributes, which could be inlaid into the slots of equipment. There was also a pretty high chance of seeing Strengthening Stones appear as byproducts.

A majority of gemstone mines were held by the Centaurs. Among them, they would engage in trading with humans in exchange for their expansion and living needs in weapons and materials.

In fact, there were Strongholds here for both the Horde and Alliance. Both came for the same goals, but their targets were different.

The Alliances mainly had two goals: release the soul of Zaetar, the son of Cenarius, and destroy the undead organisms that were growing in this area. Meanwhile, the Horde needed to spend a lot of time fighting against the demons in this area and the demonic followers of the Burning Blade Clan.

This was the most tempting part of the Desolace. If the gemstone mines were controlled in the hands of the Alliance or Horde, then the players could challenge each other for these resources. However, things were different with the Centaurs in control.

Perhaps some people would say that even if the players didn’t have Strongholds, they could still go and attack these Centaurs, but that kind of attack didn’t have the effect of System recognition. After a Centaur was killed, it would refresh. The Centaur Calvary will constantly attack the players and even large clubs couldn’t withstand such constant attacks.

If was different with a Stronghold. The mines won over would become property of the club.

Even though the Centaurs would still come and attack every now and then, they wouldn’t continue refreshing, and the pressure of defending would also decrease immensely.