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The Seige (Catalia's Account)
Catalia stared gape mouthed at the slaughter. Hordes of skeletons marched forward. Some shot makeshift arrows and others wielded arcane fire but much of them simply advanced with whatever they could muster as a weapon. It wasn’t an efficient army by any means, but it was an effective one.
She watched as Dadelian, one of Suncrown’s elite swordfighters, became engulfed in a mountain of bones and clanking metal. He killed, if that’s even the right word for this, one hundred skeletons; or was it two hundred. It could have been two thousand and it still wouldn’t matter. His mangled body rose up to fight against the lives he was just earlier defending.
Catalia had tried earlier to resurrect her fallen brethren; she wasn’t quick enough. Arthas’ necromancers were raising the fallen more quickly than even the most skilled of elven priests could resurrect them. Now she simply stood, watching, unable to speak or even move.
“Catalia!” screamed Luthias from across the battlefield. She could not answer him. He repeated, “CATALIA!” The line of warriors keeping back the tsunami of bone and rotting flesh was faltering. “We need healers, now!” he screamed again. No one could answer the call. Every second seemed like an eternity to Luthias. He had waited nearly three quarters of an hour and had to make a decision. “Ophilia,” he said, searching around. “Ophilia!”
A small, white haired woman pushed her way through the ranks of archers. “I’m here, I’m here!”
“I need you and the other ice mages to prepare for our escape. We have to fall back. We wont survive another push without a strong group of warriors holding them back,” Luthias said.
“What do you need us to do sir?”
“Everyone that can, summon as many water elementals as possible. Send them into the front line and release their energy. Create a wall of ice. I want everyone we have down there frost warded first. Any mages left over, have them start casting ice storms and blizzards on top of the retreating troops.”
“But sir, the wards will reflect back to us, we’ll all be taking damage.”
“We’ll be retreating back to Lucian’s group around the Sunwell. We can all restore ourselves there. We must give the warriors time to escape.”
“Very well,” Ophilia resigned.
Soon two dozen plus water elementals gushed forward, crashing into the skeletons. In a single bright flash almost an acre of flesh and bones was frozen solid. Ice rained from the sky on ally and enemy alike. Only a handful of warriors climbed out of the mess. The mages fell to their knees, cringing as ice formed around their bodies.
“Everybody, fall back to the well! Warriors, carry the mages. Rangers lay ice traps and cover the retreat,” bellowed Luthias. Everything seemed to be working. The ice held back much of the advance and the rest wandered in confusion. He looked across the battlefield, searching for any remaining troops. Catalia stood frozen even as her allies pushed past her trying to escape the impending doom. Luthias yelled once more, “Catalia! You have to fall back!”
She stared out, past any visible object into the sky. He ran, scooped her up and looked one last time at the enemy line. There he spotted a glinting. A mithril bracer with the Suncrown house symbol in sapphire at the peak stuck out of the mass of ice. Luthias couldn’t make out the body, so he ran with the rest of the troops back to the Sunwell.
Lucian met them there, embraced his brother and said, “You did all that you could brother.”
“It was horrible Lucian. Bodies everywhere, allies rising from the dead to fight their brothers. Where were the priests and mages?”
“We lost much of them to their damned machines; rattling carts flinging diseased corpses. We had to fall back to the well.” Luthias sighed.
Catalia, wide eyed and pointing wildly over the hill screamed, “Iluthias!”
Luthias turned to regard the object of his daughter’s attention. “What, no honey. I don’t see your brother. Wait, where is Iluthias?”
He began to look around but was interrupted by Lucian, “No brother, look.” Luthias did look. He stared long and hard at a specific skeleton, carrying a folded mithril blade, a reinforced mithril shield with the familiar Suncrown house crest in red and wearing a glinting mithril bracer also with the house crest upon it.
He ran towards one of the ballista. No one could react quick enough to realize what he was about to do. Tears filled his eyes, but he could still see enough to turn the aiming wheel down and pull the firing lever. The bolt exploded in a torrent of iron and splinters, shattering not only the intended target but also a dozen more skeletal troops behind it.
He stared up at the sky and screamed, “Iluthias!”
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Lucian stopped the zombie's blow with his arm, kicked it onto it's back and screamed, "Luthias, you have to fall back, leave me and escape with the family."
Luthias, tears in his eyes, replied, "No, I wont leave you here to die."
Another wave of skeletons rushed over the distant hillside, bones rattling and armor clanking. Lucian stepped back several paces, trying to take a more steady stance. Luthias stood only feet from the Sunwell with the rest of the remaining elves huddled around it.
"Fire!" bellowed Lucian. A dozen fireballs arced over the Sunwell and left the approaching path crater pocked. The skeletons not hit directly by the blasts were thrown backwards into other battalions, leaving a mangled pile of bones.
From beyond the hill, out of sight of the defenders, came a dark, sinister laugh. "Fools. I should thank you for clearing the way for me. I wasn't quite sure how I was going the rest of my army over that hill with all those dead elf skeletons walking around."
Moments later the crunching and cracking sound of bones shattering filled the air as eight giant masses of flesh advanced.
Lucian cried, "Abominations!" Luthias rushed forward, but was stopped by Lucian's arm. "My time here is done, brother. You must fall back and escape. You have to protect the family. You have to protect your daughter." He threw Luthias backwards. Luthias caught himself and leapt forward, again Lucian caught him and looked him straight in the eye. "Don't allow your son's death to be in vein! Leave this place and save your daughter! Save the Suncrown family!" Luthias, unable to speak, freed himself from his brother's grip. He turned to the remaining survivors and thrust his arm forward, "Let's go!"
They ran. Men, women and children ran. Some of the sorceresses of the House Crescent tried to move forward, hands glistening with pearls of frost. A single look from Lucian stopped them; then they ran as well.
The priests and priestesses had visions that night; visions of a dozen plus abominations dead at Lucian's feet. Others had a different vision; a vision too horrible to mention.
Arthas corrupted the Sunwell that day. Some say with it the heart and soul of the Elves as well.
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