The archers guarding the camp suddenly raised the alarm with sharp, piercing cries.
Lainera, who had been teasing Shandris just moments ago, immediately retracted her playful expression. She leaped into the air, her body transforming mid-flight into a sleek, graceful black panther.
"Growl!"
Sensing the invisible pressure emanating from the surrounding jungle, the black panther's fur bristled. Shandris, gripping her bow, scanned the perimeter with sharp, focused eyes.
Whoosh!
A short javelin, appearing out of nowhere, sliced through the stagnant air and thudded into a massive tree. As a slight commotion began to ripple through the mission guards, Volta took the lead and stepped out from the main tent.
"Hold your positions! Do not let your focus be divided!"
After calmly issuing the command, Volta walked alone to the javelin to inspect it. His expression gradually turned grave.
There's a strange ripple of magic on the javelin. This is... Troll Voodoo?
At that moment, a group of uninvited guests armed with various weapons burst out from the dense rainforest on both sides of the temporary camp. These lean, dark-blue-skinned humanoids possessed long tusks, and their upright frames stood even taller than the Night Elves.
"Taz'dingo!"
The leader, a male wearing golden spaulders, shouted a unique war cry in a booming voice while forcefully hurling two short javelins toward the camp.
The spearheads, glowing with a grey light, gave off an eerie feeling. The combatants of the diplomatic mission immediately pivoted to dodge the projectiles.
Thwack!
The javelins pierced the lush, verdant grass. Centered around the two spears, a peculiar energy ripple began to corrode the nearby ground, causing the once-green wild grass to wither at an incredible speed.
Volta's expression shifted, and he immediately shouted orders, "Those are Troll Voodoo javelins! Everyone stay clear of where they land! Archers and mages, prepare to counter-attack!"
Encountering trolls on this journey was not outside Volta's expectations. Passing through Zuldazar without alerting the local Zandalari trolls was nearly impossible. As this mission was of vital importance, every escort member assigned to the mission was an elite.
Though they had been caught off guard by the trolls' silent ambush—aided by their home-field advantage—the Night Elves' counter-attack was quickly organized under Volta's command.
"Fire back! Suppress their ranged units, don't let them attack freely!"
"Spellswords and warriors to the front! Do not fear contact with the enemy! Remember the troll characteristics I told you before we departed: never try to trade wounds with them!"
"Mages, prepare for combined spellcasting! Target their rear ranks!"
Volta Moonscar was over 3,000 years old, a true veteran of a hundred battles within the Resistance. He had been stationed in the city of Shandaral for centuries, during which he had fought numerous battles against the Drakkari trolls of Zul'Drak. To this day, the trolls' "cheating" self-healing abilities remained vividly etched in his memory.
While trolls could not manipulate arcane energy as freely as the Night Elves—who had evolved through the baptism of the Well of Eternity—their physical constitutions were stronger, and they possessed a unique, ancient form of primitive magic: Voodoo.
As the Night Elves launched their counter-offensive, arrows and javelins flew back and forth through the air. Occasionally, a Night Elf would be transformed into a comical little frog by a Troll Witch Doctor's hex, hopping around helplessly and in panic, croaking on the ground.
Shandris was not idle. As a priestess of the moon, she used her arrows to snipe the trolls charging at the front while simultaneously casting Purge on her afflicted companions, using the power of moonlight to help them break the forced transformation effects.
This was not Shandris' first battle. Though still young, she had already fought fiercely against the demons of the Burning Legion many times. However, at this moment, Shandris felt a sense of ease and freedom that was entirely different from when she fought demons. This mindset allowed her to exert her strength more composedly.
Shandris' effortless performance surprised her fellow sisters in the Sisterhood. This young apprentice priestess had previously tended to overexert herself in battle, often leading to avoidable mistakes.
Whoosh!
An arrow pinned the left shoulder of a troll captain wearing a wooden mask. Seeing that the enemy had no intention of stopping, Shandris leaned her upper body back to dodge a horizontal slash, using the momentum of her flip to kick the shield in the troll's hand.
Leaping backward using that momentum, Shandris adjusted her balance mid-air and fired three consecutive arrows imbued with moonlight at the shielded troll.
The first two arrows were blocked by the troll's raised shield, their sharp tips gouging two small pits into the hardwood under the empowerment of moon power. But at that moment, the third arrow—hidden behind the others—snaked its way precisely past the shield's defensive area, grazing the edge and burying itself directly into the troll's right chest.
"Ugh!"
With a groan of pain, a fist-sized hole was blasted into the shielded troll's chest.
Landing on the ground, Shandris did not stop. She closed her eyes slightly and prayed to the Moon Goddess Elune, and a pillar of concentrated moonlight immediately appeared above the shielded troll. The moonlight enveloped the troll, whose movements had slowed due to injury. The seemingly gentle light caused multiple severe burns on the troll's body in a short time, and the warrior captain soon found himself unable to stay standing, sinking to one knee.
Shandris' performance drew the attention of both sides on the battlefield. Seemingly certain that this raid would not achieve its intended effect, a sharp whistle sounded from the rear of the troll lines just as the battle reached a stalemate.
Tweet!
Hearing the whistle, the trolls immediately ceased their attacks. The front-row warriors raised their shields in a defensive stance, slowly covering their wounded comrades as they retreated. The troll captain injured by Shandris was also helped up by his companions and taken to the rear.
Once out of the moonlight's reach, Shandris could see the burns on the troll's body rapidly scabbing over, and even the hole in his right chest had stopped bleeding.
The trolls' self-healing ability? Truly as formidable as the legends say.
Seeing that the trolls intended to retreat, Volta immediately ordered his troops not to pursue. Both sides maintained their vigilance, allowing the distance between them to widen until the group of roughly 200 Zandalari trolls vanished into the lush rainforest.
"Pah!"
The black panther that Lainera had transformed into had blood on its claws and the corners of its mouth. She spat out a piece of flesh and returned to her original form after Volta gave the order to stand down.
"What was that about?"
While using Rejuvenation to treat her injured left arm, Lainera walked over to a pensive Shandris, looking puzzled. "They just retreated like that? I thought we were in for a brutal fight today."
"Hmm..."
Shandris was still savoring that feeling of effortless flow from the battle. She suddenly remembered the warning Andreas had given her before they left.
"Do not let hatred blind your reason; try to maintain your sense of self in battle... was it?"
Wrinkling her cute little nose, Shandris curled her lip in slight defiance. That Andreas... he clearly lost his memory, yet he still tries to act cool and teach me what to do. I'll definitely give him a piece of my mind when I get back.
Though she instinctively grumbled in her heart, Shandris' mindset had indeed undergone a shift after experiencing this "normal" battle against the trolls.
Hearing Lainera's question, Shandris snapped out of it and nodded thoughtfully.
"True. Rather than a premeditated ambush, this felt more like... a probing attack by the trolls."
"The question is, why would they go through the trouble of a probing attack that gains them nothing?"
"Since they've already discovered our tracks, wouldn't it be better to launch a large-scale offensive to wipe us out all at once? Isn't this the Zandalari trolls' home turf?"