The Great Thief

Tyr’s Hand was now a wasteland, despite being quite a busy town before. Even so, the old knights of the town had managed to suppress the Undead to an extent.

Now, there was a war about to begin. Kel’Thuzad had deployed Heigan Lavender to Tyr’s Hand to clean out the area.

The cleaning, in this context, naturally meant to completely turn Tyr’s Hand into a fruit of the plague.

Heigan Lavender was once a Mage in the Dalaran. His interests were unusual, compared to the other Mages. While the other Mages would usually be obsessed with their Arcane Power and Elemental Summoning, he was instead interested in poison, micro-organisms and genetic modifications.

Dalaran was frustrated at his unethical practices. If it wasn’t for his immense talent in Dark Magic, he would have been expelled from the organisation much earlier.

Of course, Heigan knew that the organisation wasn’t happy with him. However, Arcane Power was worthless in his eyes.

Arcane Magic was powerful, but once a Mage used up all of his Magic, what else could he do? Poison was different. It could be used anytime and anywhere. Only a senseless organisation would ignore a strength like this.

Although the organisation didn’t have an excuse to limit Heigan’s research, they still secretly placed obstacles in his way.

Heigan had run out of patience and left Dalaran for Andorhal, which had already been infected by the plague. This plague immediately intrigued the ever-curious Heigan.

When Heigan was researching a cure for the plague, Kel’Thuzad found him. As they were former colleagues, Heigan only greeted him out of politeness. This was because he knew that the cause of this plague was from this dark robed man standing in front of him.

After hearing Heigan’s cold tone when speaking to him, Kel’Thuzad was not angered. He opened a portal, then invited him to enter.

After hesitating for a while, Heigan decided to enter the portal. A perfect and spacious laboratory now stood in front of him. There were countless other people, wearing dark robes, working in the laboratory while strange creatures walked around in a nursery room next door.

“Where is this?”

“This is your future laboratory. Are you satisfied? No one is here to disturb your research. No one is here to limit your potential. No one is here to take you for granted!

“It’s quite nice. What do you want in exchange?”

“Join us. This plague is not something that you can stop alone. You would only become its final sacrifice. Why don’t you join me and create a new plague? After all, aren’t poisons your favourite? You could even take down the Dalaran organisation that neglected you.”

“It’s quite tempting. Can you let me think about it?”

“Of course, my friend. You have a day to think,” Kel’Thuzad said, then gave a strange smile and continued, “The future is already beyond your control.”

The last few words were so soft that they were not heard by anyone. On the same day, Heigan Lavender died in his home in Anderhol. The plague had consumed his old life, then gave him a new life.

Heigan was hard at work in his new laboratory and countless new plagues were synthesised in his hands.

The casualties did not only include humans. Even the plants and animals of the lands were decimated by the plague. All of this was the result of Heigan’s work. The lands surrounding the kingdom of Lordaeron were already known as the ‘Plaguelands’. Therefore, his appearance in Tyr’s Hand was not surprising at all.

After seeing the familiar plague cauldrons, Lu Li knew that the Scourge had sent out Heigan Lavender.

Although he didn’t go through the proper ritual to turn into a Lich, Heigan was still a formidable foe. Truthfully speaking, he was even more annoying to deal with than most of the other Lichs. His poisons and toxins were greatly respected and also greatly horrified Lu Li. After all, Lu Li was also a poison researcher.

“May the Holy Light be with us…” the Paladins prayed.

Under the leadership of Tirion Fordring, they would soon spearhead the charge into the town while the others would follow.

The Scourge didn’t guard the place very tightly. However, since they were all Undead, they did not feel hunger or tiredness and would wander the streets of the town during the day and night. This was why Lu Li and Fordring gave up on the idea of sneaking into the town to rescue the survivors.

While on their armor-plated horses, the Paladins raised their weapons, then charged silently.

However, the Undead that came flooding out of the town were even more quiet.

Holy Light appeared on the Knights’ weapons and glowed brighter and brighter. This Light shone brightly on the surrounding areas and illuminated the whole town. It also seemed to deal great amounts of damage to the Undead as dark smoke began emitting from their bodies. There were some that had disintegrated into dust before even reaching the Paladins.

A large ‘Stitches’ appeared in front of the Knights. He threw out the hook and chain in his hands and immediately latched onto one of them.

Stitches were also known as Abominations, which were powerful infantry for the Scourge. This type of monster was created through Dark Magic and was sewn together with many different body parts. They also had magic resistance, along with increased armor and strength. Furthermore, they weren’t slow like the Stitched Giants.

The Dark Wizards also embedded maggots into these monsters’ bodies. During intense battles, the Abominations could spit out these lethal maggots at their enemies and release the infectious plague from their bodies.

Furthermore, when they were nearing death, they would also be able to self-destruct, spreading disease around them.

The Abominations that Lu Li was now seeing had been upgraded in the newest update. They could use the hook in their hands to pull their target towards them.

The Paladin who was hooked was already quite old. His hair was already white and he had many wrinkles on his forehead.

He didn’t panic and sounded out a chant, after which his whole body was immersed in a golden light. The hook was immediately rendered useless. Before the monster could return its hook, two Paladins suddenly rushed towards it as fast as lightning.

Their weapons struck the body of the Abomination and it immediately exploded.

Rotting flesh and maggots sprayed into the air, but none of it landed on the Paladins. Their bodies were all immersed in the Holy Light, so when the debris struck, it immediately disintegrated. Not even a speck of dust was left.

This was the Silver Hand!

Lu Li was deeply impressed and relieved. Paladin players weren’t even able to fight on a horse, let alone kill an Abomination.

However, the performance of the NPC Paladins greatly motivated the rest of the players.

They saw the glorious future of this class. Furthermore, these people believed that Paladins were a heroic class from the very beginning.

Now, they were behind these NPC Knights, riding their horses and charging with them. Although they were unable to join the fray, they had at the very least made the few Silver Hand Paladins look much more impressive as a whole. It looked like there were thousands of Paladins charging at once.