Claudia and Gianna visited Merry Winterwind that morning.

Merry lived 3,000 years ago in the time of Soladin the Great and was one of the first mages of mankind.

Soon after Soladin the Great unified the human tribes, the elves, who had been beaten by the trolls, found the humans, hoping to gain human assistance in exchange for the magic they had taught them and the eternal pact between the two races of the elves.

Eventually, the trolls were defeated by the human elven army, and the elves trained the first hundreds of mages in the war, and Merry was the only one of those mages to survive to this day.

It's not for nothing, Merry was the first undead to be recorded in history, which is why he had such a long lifespan.

In the Troll War, Merry was killed by the trolls and died, fortunately, his companions snatched back his body, which saved him from being eaten by the trolls, and the war was extremely urgent at that time, Merry's level of archmage was a valuable combat force, so Merry was re-given a second life with forbidden psychic magic, and has survived to this day.

He lived for more than 3,000 years, witnessed the rise of humanity, witnessed the collapse of the Arathor Empire, witnessed the establishment of Dalaran and the Tirisfa Council, and befriended Egwene as the founder of the Tirisfa Council, and became good friends with Egwene, witnessing Egwene's glory days.

Gianna and Claudia, who were in possession of Egwene's token, met the legendary archmage without incident, perhaps because of Egwene, he was very friendly to Gianna and Claudia, and happily agreed to Egwen's request to make his hand and invite him to visit Stormwind, and before leaving, Merry pulled out a strange staff from his secluded house and spoke to the staff:

"Elunis, it doesn't look like it's necessary to send you to Dalaran, your master Egwene has returned to this world, and she needs your strength."

"Egwen?" The staff suddenly let out a scream: "She's still alive? No, no, no! Don't send me back, I'll never let her tie me up again!" ”

Merry shrugged: "Sorry, the protest was ineffective. ”

Claudia looked at Elunis curiously, "Is this the weapon that Egwene once had?" What a powerful artifact. ”

In Claudia's opinion, Elunis's strength was significantly stronger than that of the Silver Hand.

Claudia's voice caught Elunis's attention, and after Elunis's consciousness swept over here, he instantly became excited: "Hey, hey, those two children over there, do you want to understand the true path of the arcane?" Do you want to weave the world in the language of the arcane like the Creator? Do you want to tear open the void and open portals to other planes? As long as she can help Elunis escape from Egwen's clutches, Elunis is willing to impart to you great knowledge and lend her power to you. ”

Both Claudia and Gianna are currently considered Egwen's apprentices, so it is naturally impossible for Elunis to agree.

Gianna smiled and shook her head: "I refuse, I will not betray others for power and knowledge." ”

Claudia also made an excuse: "I already have my own path, I have another artifact, and you are not suitable for melee combat, I have not learned how to use a staff to knock people." ”

Elunis didn't react to Gianna's answer, but after listening to Claudia's answer, it let out a mournful cry: "Oh, the ignorant bear child, you want to knock people out of Elunis, this idea is terrible! You're even rougher than Egwene, look at the kid next to you, cast a spell with a staff, that's what an elegant lady should do! ”

After hearing Elunis's words, Claudia was a little embarrassed, Gianna burst out laughing, and Merry shook her head and changed the subject:

"I'm ready, let's go to see Egwene now, I haven't seen her in twenty-four years."

Gianna nodded, and teleported away with Merry and Elunis, but Claudia did not follow, but teleported back to the army in Nighttown, as the commander of this expedition, she didn't want to give outsiders anything to gossip, such as the fact that women can't let go of children after all.

Nightshade wasn't far from Lakeside Town in Redridge Mountain, and there was an easy stone road between Nighttown and Lakeside Town, so Claudia's march north went smoothly, and she and the royal knights arrived at Lakeside Town in Redridge Mountain the next evening.

In Lakeside Town, Claudia takes a short meal break and learns about the latest military information.

According to the latest military information from the militia, in the last few days, the Blackstone Orcs have swept through the small territory of the Stormwind Kingdom in the Burning Plains, and yesterday successfully broke through the northern checkpoint of Red Ridge Mountain, and are currently struggling through the rugged and long mountain roads in the northern part of Red Ridge Mountain.

Once the Blackstone Orcs have stepped out of the rugged mountain paths of the Red Ridge Mountains, they will be able to step into the plains of the central part of the Red Ridge Mountains and plunder the human villages and towns on the shores of the Zhishui Lake, inflicting great losses on the civilians, which is difficult for Claudia to accept, and the rugged mountain valley roads themselves are more conducive to the defense of the humans.

So in this kind of battle situation, the form is very urgent, it is a matter of time, General Jerichta and her sailors who arrived in the early stage have already gone north to reinforce, and Claudia has not done much rest, after finishing the meal, she hurried north with the royal knights.

After a night's march, Claudia finally reached the exit of the northern mountain trail of Red Ridge the next morning, and successfully rendezvoused with General Jerichsta.

After the forced march, Claudia had unconcealed tiredness in her eyes, and asked the black-haired female general Jerry Star, who was sitting opposite her:

"So, General, do you think it's better for us to have a sniper battle with the Blackstone Orcs at this point?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, this is the most suitable place for us to fight, which can effectively play to our strengths and avoid weaknesses." General Jeresta nodded, pointing to the map and explaining:

"Our strength is that we have strong ranged firepower and spellcasters, but our weakness is that we don't have much melee power except for royal knights, while the strength of orcs is that they are very strong in melee combat, and a strong orc warrior can even change three sailors after close range."

"In this case, the terrain at the exit of the canyon is the most suitable place for us to fight, where the strength of our ranged troops can be fully utilized, and although the powerful melee troops of the orcs are numerous, they can only fight with a small number of orcs and our melee troops at the same time, and if they want to attack our ranged troops, unless they can break through the defense line of the royal knights."

"It makes sense, so do it." Claudia nodded, the soldiers of the Human Standing Legion are naturally not so weak in the face of orcs, but the sailors are not a class of troops set up for land combat after all, the weapons of the sailors are only flintlock pistols and sailor knives, they have no plate armor, no spears, and no shields, so the exchange ratio that General Jeresta said is actually very normal.

"In addition, according to the agent's report, the orcs will still have three to four hours to arrive here, Your Majesty, please go and rest for a while with the other knights, and the performance of your melee troops will be the key to the victory or defeat of this battle."

"Okay, I'll go rest," Claudia agreed, and then she ordered Shirley, the mage who accompanied her, "You contact Gianna and ask her to lead the other mages to the battlefield in two hours to prepare for battle." ”

"As you wish, Claudia." After receiving the order, the elf girl walked to the divination crystal ball and began to contact Stormwind City.

Two and a half hours later, Claudia woke up from her short sleep, Gianna and Merry, two archmages, and several Stormwind High Mages had arrived, along with Elunis's staff, which was being held in Gianna's hand.

"What's the matter with this staff?" Claudia asked.

Gianna's pretty face showed a look of hesitation.

"Egwene seems to have made some kind of deal with Elunis, and she lent me this staff."

"Well, the agreement says that I will be obedient for this time, and I will be free in another thousand years," Elunis added, "Egwene is so pitiful, I didn't expect that the strongest mage in the past would now be as strong as this." ”

Strong on the outside and dry in the middle?

Claudia was silent.

Elunis is not wrong, Egwene's current state is indeed strong on the outside, although every inch of her skin is filled with powerful arcane fire, she can still release the powerful magic of the guardian level, but she can't use it easily, because it is those arcane fires that maintain Egwene's life that has long been exhausted, once these arcane fires are used, Egwene is about to irreversibly age and die.

In fact, just twenty years ago, the thousand-year-old Egwene was still as young and beautiful as sixteen, but in order to resurrect her son Medivan, she took the initiative to consume a part of the Arcane Fire, and finally Medivan was able to resurrect, and she became the gray-haired person she is now because of the consumption of the Arcane Fire.

Claudia and Gianna's exchange was brief, and was soon interrupted by Everena, who brought a message from General Jeresta: the Blackstone Orcs were close and they were still half an hour away from reaching their designated position.

Gianna took her leave and said, "In that case, I'll go and prepare for battle with the other mages first, and I'll see you later, Claudia." ”

"I'll see you later, Gianna." Claudia then turned to Everena: "You go and inform General Jeresta, I'll go over right away." ”

Ivrina took the order to leave, Claudia was the only one left in the tent, she slowly held Sdomka, let out a sigh of relief, suppressed her nervousness, after all, today's battle was different from the battle with the trolls a few days ago, and she didn't have much confidence because she didn't know how to command the battle with the burden on her shoulders.

However, no matter how confident she is, she has to go out to meet the soldiers after all, and she has never liked to escape.

"The cowardly have nowhere to hide, but the brave survive."

Claudia whispered the teachings of her father as a child, her eyes sharpened from confusion, and she took Stamma and walked out, her expression returning to its former calm and resoluteness when she reached the outside of the tent.