Chapter 34: Mal'Ganis's Plan

"We shall wait until dawn to move; that is when the camp changes guards, and the watch is at its thinnest."

Thassarian leaned against the window, staring at the moon and gauging the time. Met, meanwhile, stood guard over his daughter, filled with trepidation and unease.

Seeming to notice Met's nervousness, Thassarian said, "You need not worry so. Once we slip out of the camp and into the woods, they will find it difficult to track us."

"I know, but I just..." Met stopped, unable to finish his sentence.

"It seems you have little faith in me." Thassarian did not mind. Though he possessed decent skills, he was a raw recruit who had only been in the army for a few days. Had Met not been left with no other choice, he certainly would not have sought him out.

"In truth, I have even less faith in myself." Met sighed. He had followed the Alliance and taken part in the Orcish Wars, personally experiencing many major battles, but none had been as dangerous as this.

When the Alliance fought the Orcs, the disparity in numbers was never so vast, and the tactical situation had always been a back-and-forth affair. But now, with only himself and Thassarian, and his young daughter in tow, Met truly did not know where to find confidence.

He did not doubt Thassarian's character. The fact that the young man had returned for him upon discovering the state of the camp was proof enough that he was a man of his word—a kind and brave soldier of Lordaeron.

Met said nothing more. He and Thassarian took turns keeping watch, and the room remained silent until the sky began to pale. Thassarian checked his gear one last time and nodded at Met.

The two slipped out through the window. Met held his still-sleeping daughter, following closely behind Thassarian.

"Wait."

Before leaving the cover of the building, Thassarian gestured for Met to stop, cautiously peeking out to assess the situation.

To Thassarian's surprise, the camp was completely empty. The patrols and sentries had vanished, leaving the entire area with an eerie, deathly silence.

Seeing this, Thassarian did not feel relieved; rather, his instincts as a warrior told him the camp had become even more dangerous.

They had neither the time nor the opportunity to investigate the others. Thassarian urged Met, "Hurry!"

Met and Thassarian traversed the most dangerous stretch of the path quickly, but just as they were about to reach the side gate to exit, Met’s expression turned to horror.

"This..."

Thassarian froze as well, his mind reeling from an indescribable shock. His comrades were standing outside the camp, clad in armor, but their posture was no longer upright, and their skin, mottled with lividity, made it clear they were no longer among the living.

Upon seeing Thassarian and Met, these undead let out terrifying shrieks and raised their weapons to surround the gate. There was no escape; every exit of the camp had become a gateway to hell.

"It's necromancy!" The knowledgeable Met realized it immediately. This was identical to the reanimated knight corpses he had seen during the Orcish Wars.

Despite having been dead for some time, the undead soldiers moved no slower than normal warriors. In the brief moment the two men stood stunned, sharp blades slashed toward Thassarian.

The young warrior reacted with lightning speed, raising his greatsword to parry the attack while shouting at Met, "Run! I’ll hold them off!"

Met did not move. Run? Where to? The number of undead was a hundred times their own; the path out of the camp was blocked solid!

"Hehehehe!"

A grating laugh echoed behind Met. He felt as if he were standing beneath a massive shadow. The physician stubbornly shielded his daughter and turned to look behind him.

"Did you truly think you could leave this place? The game has only just begun. Bring this lovely little girl onto the field..."

In his final moments of consciousness, Met saw a towering monster encased in runic armor, its tone light and mocking, as if it had done something immensely pleasurable.

Seeing Met collapse to the ground with Sally, unaware of whether they lived or died, the father still shielded his daughter with his own body, refusing to let her suffer any harm. Sally, as if unable to hear a sound, lay quietly in her father’s arms.

"Damn monster! What have you done to them!"

Fueled by surging rage, Thassarian unleashed a swift and lethal flurry of sword strikes. Several undead soldiers were beaten back. Just as he stepped away to return to Met's side, his center of gravity failed, and he crashed to the ground.

He looked back to see that the undead he had just severed at the waist was still moving, its cold right hand gripping his ankle tightly.

The rest of the undead swarmed them, pinning Thassarian to the ground. Despite his desperate struggles, he was no match for the weight of dozens of undead. He could only watch helplessly as the towering monster hoisted Met and Sally up.

"Aahhh!"

Thassarian let out a roar of rage, but his vision faded into total darkness.

...

In a daze, Thassarian heard voices.

"Your Highness, he is unconscious and severely wounded!"

"Soldier! Wake up, soldier!"

"Damn it, his body temperature is dropping—Jaina, use magic to build a fire!"

Your... Highness? Before losing consciousness again, Thassarian felt a warmth, as comfortable as the bright sun on a clear day in Tirisfal.

After drifting in darkness for an unknown duration, Thassarian finally opened his eyes. He saw a knight clad in black armor tending to him.

The death knight noticed Thassarian regain consciousness and hurried to report to Arthas.

"Am I... saved?" Thassarian leaned against the makeshift stone backrest, struggling to believe he was still alive.

Arthas approached Thassarian, checked his condition, and asked, "I am Prince Arthas. Soldier, what happened? Why were you found unconscious by the road?"

"Your Highness... I am Thassarian, a recruit of the First Legion's southern camp. Our camp... was attacked by strange magic. Everyone... everyone turned into the undead." Thassarian endured the pain, struggling to explain.

Thassarian? He had not expected to encounter this man here.

Arthas looked with surprise at the young man, barely in his twenties. When his scouts found him by the side of the road, he was covered in wounds and eroded by a thick, necrotic aura, as if he had crawled out of a pile of corpses.

In fact, he was not far from the truth; Thassarian had indeed crawled out of a pile of "corpses."

Though he hadn't climbed out himself—the "monster" had thrown him out of the camp. After he was knocked unconscious, the undead had not killed him, but instead discarded him several kilometers from the southern camp.

It was fortunate that Arthas’s men happened upon him and recognized the insignia of the First Legion of Lordaeron. Had they not, his wounds alone would have killed him.

"The southern camp has completely fallen... the three hundred soldiers and their commander, Vessley, have all become puppets of necromancy..." Thassarian’s voice was low. He regretted not believing Met sooner. If he had, perhaps Met and Sally might have lived.

Why had the monster and the undead spared only him?

"I have failed Dr. Met and little Sally..."

"Dr. Met? Little Sally?" Jaina noted the two names Thassarian mentioned specifically. "Were they the companions who fled with you?"

Thassarian nodded. "Dr. Met was the first to notice the anomaly in the camp, and he was the one who warned me... but... he and his daughter Sally could not escape. I do not know why they let only me go."

Captain Falric found this highly unusual. "Your Highness, this sounds very strange. The situation at the southern camp may be far more complex than we imagined."

Jaina agreed with Falric. "Given this warrior’s account, it is likely he was released by the demon Mal'Ganis on purpose to lure us in..."

Halfway through, Jaina paused, sensing something amiss. If the southern camp was a trap meant to lure Arthas and his troops, why release Thassarian?

"It is a trap, indeed, but not meant to destroy us." Arthas had already deduced Mal'Ganis's intent. "He is forcing me to go—Dr. Met and little Sally are likely still alive. Thassarian was merely sent to deliver this message."

Arthas easily reached this conclusion because he knew Mal'Ganis’s ultimate goal. Working backward, it explained why Thassarian was left to survive and why Met and his daughter had not been corrupted from the start.

Mal'Ganis could not have failed to hypnotize or convert a simple physician with basic magical knowledge. This meant Mal'Ganis had done it intentionally, forcing Arthas to walk into his trap.

It seemed the great demon had already devised his plan, using the blood of two innocent people and an entire camp of soldiers to bait Arthas onto the path foreseen by him and the Lich King.