Up until now, Onyxia's identity hadn't been truly exposed. Although she had displayed magical strength that surprised many, it wasn't uncommon for human nobles to learn magic. Countess Katrana Prestor had more than enough resources to enhance her magical abilities.
Moreover, Katrana Prestor had built an extensive network of connections within the kingdom. Now, a large number of nobles in the Kingdom of Stormwind stood on her side. When Varian suddenly sought to deal with the Countess, it was hard for these nobles not to suspect that His Majesty the King was simply looking for an excuse to target them.
The Kingdom of Stormwind was not a place where the king's word was absolute. Varian's orders weren't guaranteed to be carried out just because he gave them. Beneath him were many nobles who held significant power within the kingdom. If he couldn't convince or control these nobles, his commands might not even leave Stormwind Keep.
This was why Windsor, even after learning that Onyxia was a black dragon, still insisted on retrieving the tablet that could break her human disguise before returning. Only by making Onyxia's identity as a black dragon absolutely certain could the Stormwind nobles connected to Countess Katrana Prestor be left without excuses, and the dragon-slaying battle truly begin.
As long as Onyxia maintained the appearance of Katrana Prestor, the incident could easily be twisted into an internal power struggle within the Kingdom of Stormwind.
Now, due to Ethan's intervention, whether Onyxia chose to reveal her black dragon form to break free from the inconspicuous chain in Ethan's hand, or waited until she was completely bound by the chain and then exposed her true form under Ethan's control, she could no longer conceal her true identity.
"Damn mage, you'll suffer the wrath of a black dragon!"
Onyxia couldn't tolerate becoming a human mage's mount, nor could she simply watch herself get captured by a magic chain. After hearing Ethan's words, she hesitated for only a moment before releasing even greater power.
Her pupils turned into golden vertical slits, and a pair of dragon wings appeared on her back. One of the wings slammed down forcefully on the chain, shattering the magic chain Ethan had just created.
This item could eventually bind Onyxia through a sustained process, relying on the complex magical methods within it. However, it wasn't inherently sturdy and could be easily destroyed before completing the binding. The original plan had been to beat Onyxia half to death first and then use this item to capture her.
But after Varian showed his resolve to kill Onyxia, Ethan no longer cared much about the item. Although his effort had been destroyed, forcing Onyxia to reveal part of her true form wasn't a complete loss.
The violent magical fluctuations stirred up a strong wind, causing everyone to instinctively take half a step back. Onyxia fixed her gaze on Ethan. It was this mage who had suddenly appeared and ruined the plan she had spent so long devising, humiliating her in the process.
From every angle, Ethan was someone she had to kill, but this despicable mage actually managed to escape!
Ethan wasn't an idiot, nor was he some hot-blooded teenager with delusions of grandeur. His mission was to make Onyxia reveal her identity as a black dragon. He had no intention of directly facing the wrath of a black dragon, even if she hadn't yet unleashed her full power.
"Just revealing a pair of wings can release such terrifying power. How powerful will she be in her full dragon form?"
He had the leisure to think about this because, now that Onyxia had revealed her identity, Bolvar no longer had any reason to continue pretending to be dead. He picked up the only weapon at hand and shouted angrily, "Shameless black dragon, disguising yourself as a human noble and sneaking into Stormwind City!"
Without waiting for others to react, he was the first to charge forward, launching a full attack on Onyxia.
He had no choice. If he didn't want Varian to kill him along with the black dragon once the battle ended, he had to make his stance clear and regain the trust he had gradually been losing in the king's eyes. Even if it meant dying here, he had to protect the status of the Fordragon family in Stormwind.
Besides Bolvar, Valeera, who had been hidden all this time, also suddenly appeared. The moment Onyxia revealed part of her power, the blood elf emerged from the shadows, grabbed Prince Anduin, and quickly retreated into the ranks of the Stormwind soldiers.
"You've worked hard, Valeera."
Seeing his son safely rescued, Varian thanked his blood elf comrade who had fought alongside him all this time.
Afterward, he entrusted his son to another comrade, Broll, to look after him. He would have preferred to get Anduin out of this place, but Jaina had already reminded him that this space was sealed by Ethan. No one could leave for now. This was to prevent Onyxia from escaping.
So Anduin couldn't leave either. All Varian could do was assign his trusted companions to protect his son, because he wouldn't have the energy to care for Anduin's safety next. He was going to give everything he had to fight Onyxia.
"Die, evil black dragon!"
The familiar battle cry of a righteous warrior echoed in the space as Varian, dual swords in hand, charged at the black dragon almost simultaneously with Bolvar.
Unlike Bolvar, who charged alone, Varian's charge was like a signal. The Stormwind soldiers, who had been confused and uncertain, quickly rallied behind their king and charged at Onyxia.
Among them was Marshal Windsor. Before coming here, the Marshal of Stormwind had received a full set of equipment from Jaina. His original gear had been left in Blackrock Depths, and when Ethan rescued him, they didn't waste time retrieving it.
Fortunately, Theramore, as a neutral trading port, had access to almost any resource. Finding new gear for Windsor was easy. Now, the Marshal—who had suffered greatly because of Onyxia—unleashed his full combat strength… only to be blasted away by a lightning bolt cast by Onyxia.
In the original story, Marshal Windsor was struck dead by lightning after revealing Onyxia's identity.
It seemed he was destined to be hit by lightning once. But this time, it didn't take his life. The power of an angry full-force spell was very different from a distracted, hasty one. After being knocked down, Windsor just lay on the ground for a while before getting back up and rejoining the fight against Onyxia.
In reality, Onyxia not transforming into her full dragon form allowed her to avoid being completely surrounded. In her half-human, half-dragon state, she could still handle multi-directional attacks quite well.
Also, her size wasn't large, so only a few could truly surround her. Among them, only Bolvar and Varian remained persistent, but they couldn't deal fatal damage to the black dragon princess.
"Weak and pathetic humans, all your efforts are meaningless! The Kingdom of Stormwind is destined to be destroyed by me!"
While blocking Bolvar's heavy strike with her staff, Onyxia casually knocked Varian's weapon from his hand. Shalamayne spun through the air several times before landing far away. It was then picked up by the blood elf Valeera, who threw it back to Varian after he dodged one of Onyxia's arcane missiles.
Real combat didn't follow game mechanics or dungeon raid rules. Onyxia wouldn't foolishly focus only on warriors. She naturally realized that the real threats weren't the two pests in front of her, but the few mages who had been standing still in the distance.
Even though Ethan hadn't launched a real attack, he had already drawn enough aggro. Even while fending off others, Onyxia kept glancing his way.
The other mage who had caught her attention was Jaina Proudmoore.
Since the battle began, Jaina had stood still and silent, seemingly planning to stay neutral once again. But Ethan knew she was gathering arcane energy to analyze his mirror dimension.
Jaina had her reasons. To kill a black dragon, the arcane energy within her body alone wasn't enough. She needed to draw energy from the outside world or summon elemental forces to cast spells strong enough to truly hurt Onyxia.
This required her to connect with the outside world while within the mirror dimension, which wasn't easy. Even with her exceptional spatial magic talent, Jaina couldn't achieve this in a short time.
As for why Onyxia could cast spells freely without being affected by the mirror dimension—except for teleportation spells like Blink—it was because she was a black dragon and possessed extremely profound magical power.
"I'm going to cast Blizzard. Don't block the elemental energy I summon."
Following Jaina's sudden reminder, arcane light shimmered around her, and a massive magic circle formed at her feet. She found that casting spells in this space was far more difficult than usual.
However, Jaina succeeded. A large wave of frost energy appeared in the sky above the mirror dimension, transforming into meteor-like energy clusters that rained down on Onyxia in sheets.
(To be continued.)
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