American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

"Damn it!"

Sylvanas Windrunner lowered her bow and cursed softly in her heart.

Those brown-skinned orcs were surprisingly agile in the forest, displaying an agility that was completely opposite to their clumsy and sturdy bodies. In particular, their utilization of the environment was astonishing. Even though it was their first time in the Silvermoon Forest, they moved through the forest with ease, as if they had lived here for thousands of years.

Often, just as she aimed at them, their figures would disappear from sight. The trees and environment of the forest became their best cover and shelter.

Even though she knew this forest like the back of her hand, and even though her arrows had enough penetrating power, relying solely on memory and feel to determine the direction for shooting often didn't achieve the desired effect.

So far, they hadn't been able to stop any of the orcs in front. If she didn't have decent tracking skills and familiarity with this area, she would have lost them long ago, given how slippery those orcs were.

Even now, she was struggling to keep up with them, trying not to let them completely shake off their pursuit and leave.

"Have reinforcements not arrived yet?" Alleria Windrunner, one of the three sisters, asked. Their team of elves moved quickly through the forest with their tall figures, only occasionally stopping to observe the surrounding environment, identify the traces of orc activity, and follow from a distance.

The orcs were even cunning enough to create false trails to lure them into the wrong direction. But this behavior could not fool the Windrunner sisters. They could always quickly detect the deception, then return to the original spot, re-identify the direction, and track again. After several attempts, this method of misleading them had completely failed.

The orcs later obviously realized this, so they simply abandoned this method, putting all their energy and time into retreating.

"I'm sorry, in order to not fall for the feint again, those lords are now most concerned about the Sunwell. Unless they confirm that the Sunwell is not a problem, they won't be able to take care of this side in a short time," one of the elves in the team said.

"Maybe they think we can solve these invaders," another elf added.

"How did they go all the way to the Sunwell without alarming the barrier?" Sylvanas, one of the three sisters, expressed her incomprehension. The entire Quel'Thalas was covered by an elven barrier, and they did not welcome the disturbance of outsiders. Normally, those who entered without permission would be expelled and attacked by the elves. But these strange invaders, if the anomaly in the Sunwell hadn't been discovered by the elven mages, the orcs who had driven straight in might not have been discovered until they left.

"Catch up with them, and we'll know everything," Alleria ordered, "Keep up!"

...

"They're hauntingly following again. Can't you give me some time to take care of them?" Ner'zhul sensed the elves following again from the elements, frowned slightly, and informed Grommash Hellscream next to him. Grommash touched the Gorehowl axe on his back and couldn't help but say.

The reason they were able to avoid the elven pursuers so smoothly and sneakily was because of his ability to forcibly communicate with the elements here. He could obtain the other party's movements and distance from the elements and nature, which allowed them to change their course in a timely manner based on the information and avoid the pursuers.

Ner'zhul even used the knowledge he had mastered from the high priest to make the elements in the area they passed through chaotic, to prevent the pursuers behind them from having elves who could communicate with the elements and use the elements to track them.

But after two days, the other party's relentless pursuit still made Ner'zhul angry.

"Of course, I also want to solve them, but Grommash, our mission has been completed, there is no need to fight them here. Although we brought elites, this is not our territory," Ner'zhul whispered.

If the elves weren't so powerful and didn't have so many mages, then he wouldn't mind Grommash going on a killing spree or something, but obviously the other party was not easy to mess with. Fighting them in their territory would not be a good result no matter how you looked at it. If it was not unavoidable, Ner'zhul didn't want to start a battle here that would lose troops and be doomed to lose.

However, Ner'zhul also knew very well that Grommash might not listen to him now, so he had to bring out Huld. He whispered, "Think about the High Priest, she is still waiting for us to go back and report the news."

Sure enough, after hearing Ner'zhul's reminder, Grommash's high fighting spirit was quickly suppressed. The team once again changed direction under Ner'zhul's guidance, and ran wildly towards the outer exit of the Silvermoon Forest.

...

"How is the Sunwell?" Anasterian Sunstrider, the monarch of the Quel'Thalas elves, asked again. He had asked this question no less than ten times in the past two days, but there was still no accurate answer.

The only thing that could be determined was that those damned invaders threw something into the Sunwell, and it was this unknown thing that caused the Sunwell to mutate.

You must know that the Sunwell is the most important source of power for the Quel'Thalas elves. The elves need the energy of the Sunwell to restrain their magic addiction. Once something happened to the Sunwell, it would be a disaster more despairing and uneasy for the Quel'Thalas elves than the explosion of the Well of Eternity ten thousand years ago.

Of course, this was just the worst idea. The direction of things may not develop in the worst direction. But in any case, Anasterian must ensure that the Sunwell returns to normal, and if possible, take out the thing that was thrown in.

"I'm afraid we can only get some accurate information from those invaders," Grand Magister Rommath said softly, "The energy concentration of the Sunwell is still decreasing, and the speed of the decrease is more obvious than the previous two days. If it maintains this rate of decline, then soon, the Sunwell energy that covers the entire Quel'Thalas barrier will continue to shrink."

Anasterian Sunstrider's face became even more unsightly when he heard this. He understood the undisguised meaning in the Grand Magister's words, and because he understood, his face became so unsightly, and more anger arose in his chest.

The energy of the Sunwell is spread throughout Quel'Thalas, which is covered by the entire barrier. If it shrinks, it is undoubtedly equivalent to a reduction in the covered area. If there is no improvement, in the worst case, it may only be possible to vaguely absorb the energy of the Sunwell next to the Sunwell. As for the point that the energy of the Sunwell is completely sealed, Anasterian is unwilling to think about it.

Suddenly, the elves' eyes looked to the sky, a gryphon circling in the sky. Sharp-eyed elves even spotted the person on the gryphon.

After some tossing, the gryphon landed with a gust of wind. A messenger from Lordaeron handed the letter in his hand to the elves.

Anasterian opened the letter with the seal of the Lordaeron royal family, written by Terenas himself. The letter described the changes in Dragon Towers, the invasion of the orcs, and hoped that the elves could send a support army to attack the invaders from both sides, drive them away, and seal off the stable large legion portal being built in the Dragon Towers area.

Looking at Terenas' description of the invaders' forms and appearances on the letter, Anasterian couldn't help but think of those brown-skinned invaders who had caused the Sunwell to change. Comparing the two also made Anasterian understand the origin of the invaders and no longer be confused.

"Has the Windrunner Ranger not been able to catch up with those invaders yet?" Anasterian asked the elven mage in charge of message transmission after putting away the letter.

"They are very cunning. We cannot lock their position through elements and magic, and mysterious powers have been immunized by them." The elven mage was also encountering this situation of magical failure for the first time. He was now even having difficulty communicating with the Windrunner sisters.

"Maybe we should send someone to Lordaeron. I believe they should have more information about those invaders in their hands at this moment," Grand Magister Rommath said.

Although the elves lived in seclusion and were unwilling to participate in any wars and storms in the human world, but when it came to the Sunwell, no matter how you looked at it, they seemed unable to stay in Quel'Thalas and remain aloof as they had in the past.

Anasterian heard this, pondered for a while, and nodded slowly. This was not a war between humans, and it concerned the elves, so they could indeed send people out to investigate.

...

Uther, covered in shackles, was tied to a towering totem pole. Above the totem pole was a statue wearing a gold and white robe with six golden wings on its back, like an angel, full of compassion, but with an unclear face.

He had been tied here for more than two days. Except for Durotan who came to see him once and brought him some food, no one else had come here to pay attention to him.

Uther was initially worried about being humiliated by the defeated, but from the time he was captured until now, no one had even paid attention to him. Even the interrogation he thought was inevitable, such as various information about Lordaeron and Stratholme, food, troops, personnel, war reserves, and other important information, no one asked about.

Uther, who had been prepared not to reveal any of this information even if he died, became a little dazed as time passed.

Was he forgotten?

Or did the other party not know who he was? Or did they not even think that they could ask him for this information?

Of course, this idea only flashed in Uther's mind and was suppressed by the vigilance that he had constantly brainwashed himself with. He still believed that this was the other party's strategy to deliberately make him careless and relax.

Uther did want to find a way to escape, but the shackles on his body were magical shackles. Under the restrictions of the shackles, he could not leave the area ten meters away from the totem in the center. Once he exceeded it, a thick wall of holy light with heavy patterns would appear in the air. It was the same in all directions, only the sky Uther had not tried.

When no one was around, he would occasionally observe the surroundings, especially the totem pole, which seemed to be the core hub of the cage, was the most important thing he paid attention to.

Through an experiment, he was surprised to find that in this cage, the holy light power in his body had actually increased by at least nearly half. It seemed that only holy light power existed here, and other elements and mysterious powers were suppressed to a low tide or repelled. But priests who practiced holy light were like fish in water here.

If Stratholme Cathedral had such a treasure land, the number of believers and priests who could comprehend the holy light and master the power of the holy light might increase by at least several times.

Without a doubt, what caused all this was the strange totem pole in front of him. And the statue like an angel also made Uther curious.

He had felt the power of the totem, and it seemed that a continuous stream of some kind of power similar to faith was collected into the totem, and then after the transformation of the totem, these were transformed into pure holy light power, and then maintained the existence of this cage.

If he could destroy this totem, it would be equivalent to destroying the core of the cage, causing it to lose its energy hub, and then the holy light walls on all sides would disappear due to the destruction of the totem. He could also gain initial freedom.

But if he made any movement, he could quickly alarm the nearby orcs. At that time, he would not be able to run away at all. The combat power and elite level of those orcs were enough to make him completely dispel the idea of resisting to the end after being discovered.

Can't beat them.

So many orcs, can't beat them at all!

What's more, the totem itself also had the protection of holy light. If he wanted to destroy it, the simplest, most direct, and most effective way was pure brute force destruction. Energy would instead be absorbed and transformed by it.

The only thing Uther could do was to use this environment to absorb and master a little more holy light power as soon as possible, increase his strength, and if something unexpected and opportunity really appeared, he also had the strength to grasp it.

It was just that he did not realize that as he absorbed more and more holy light power into his body, he vaguely had an unknown connection with the statue on the totem. The holy light he believed in was slowly twisted into the statue displayed on the totem in his heart and mind.

An invisible conceptual energy was given a physical form.

And throughout the whole process, Uther did not notice anything unusual, and even did not realize that the holy light he believed in and comprehended had been transformed into faith in the six-winged human figure on the totem, just like a believer worshiping a god.

PS: Thanks to the reward from Shiguang Baizhou.