The Crusaders initiated hostilities across the Barrens. Fangtooth dispatched elemental transmissions, urging rapid reinforcement and accelerating the advance of various armies against the Crusaders.
At the border between the Northern Barrens and Stonetalon Mountains, Aragorn was already engaged in battle with the centaur. In Stonetalon Mountains' Greatwood Vale, centaur armies were densely packed. The Grimtotem camp, originally stationed there, had evacuated to Magatha's newly established Hunter's Hill outpost. Centaur swarmed throughout Greatwood Vale, deploying troops in a manner reminiscent of worker ants in an anthill, their numbers appearing to be no less than a hundred thousand. The centaur soon redeployed, preparing to assault Honor's Stand's walls, which guarded the hillside. The centaur had attempted this three times that day. Despite the inherent unsuitability of cavalry for attacking a city, they charged Honor's Stand repeatedly. Even after being repulsed by musketeers and turrets, they did not rout. Instead, the main force regrouped in Greatwood Vale, readying for another attack. Meanwhile, the first wall of Honor's Stand had been damaged by centaur prophets' spells. It seemed likely to fall after a few more assaults, as it was built from unreinforced Stonetalon Mountain boulders. The second wall was incomplete, which would force the Crusaders into melee combat with the centaur if the first wall fell.
"These centaur are savage and brutal," Aragorn said, lowering his engineering telescope. "They relentlessly sacrifice themselves for the wall's destruction."
"These centaur are cruel and mindless, driven only by a lust for killing," Magatha, the Grimtotem matriarch, said beside Aragorn, her eyes bloodshot with the memory of the tauren's suffering and the loss of her father and tribesmen.
"Calm yourself, Lady Magatha," Aragorn said. "We must consider the greater good. The Tauren have found a safe home, free from the centaur's depredations, where the next generation can thrive. We will avenge your people. I swear the Crusaders will help you settle this blood feud, to the death."
Aragorn's words calmed Magatha, who respected him for his equal strength, his status as a Legend, and the fact that, under his command, no Crusader had died while the centaur had lost at least ten thousand. She considered the Crusaders to be powerful allies and briefly reflected that Cairne had, for once, made a wise decision. Then, she and Aragorn prepared for battle, knowing that the tauren warriors would need to intervene once melee combat began, as the human infantry's defenses were not as robust as their own.
Meanwhile, on the banks of the Ragefire River, another army of Bristleback quilboar from the Eastern Barrens had arrived. Amal and Durin had established a camp on the cliff, south of Thunder Bluff, to await them. The cliff overlooked a wide slope leading to the shoal plain on the Ragefire River's west bank. This plain was even gentler and wider than Ratchet, but the river's middle and lower reaches were unsuitable for a deep-sea port. An ambush army of over three thousand Dark Iron dwarves and three thousand musketeers, commanded by Durin, lay in wait on the plain. The Dark Iron dwarves would engage the enemy head-on, while the musketeers provided ranged support. Gandalf's mortar team was also hidden nearby, in a rubble pile beneath the cliff. After deploying them, Gandalf had disappeared.
The Ragefire River, the longest and widest on Kalimdor, originated in southern Mount Hyjal and flowed into the Great Sea. In reality, it was much larger than its depiction in games, reaching seventy or eighty meters wide and nearly three meters deep at the shoal, with a slow current. Wooden stakes, possibly placed there long ago by the quilboar, dotted the riverbed.
As the quilboar arrived, their vanguard began to cross the river, tucking weapons into their waistbands, tying them to their backs, or carrying them in their mouths as they swam.
The first thousand-strong contingent reached the Northern Barrens bank after half an hour. Their chieftain, noting the unusually shallow water and the presence of large stones, led them ashore and sent scouts to the uphill entrance to the west.
The scouts were immediately killed by ambushing Dark Watch members.
As the second and subsequent contingents crossed, Amal, judging the time was right, signaled the mortar teams.
Ten teams of twelve mortars each, 120 in total, unleashed a barrage, having pre-adjusted their firing angles using the riverbank boulders.
The quilboar chieftains, hearing the strange sound, looked up to see a swarm of small black objects flying towards them. Mistaking them for arrows, they ordered their warriors to prepare for defense.
The objects grew larger as they approached, revealing themselves to be something other than arrows.
A chieftain swung his axe, cleaving a mortar shell in two.
The first shells exploded, causing widespread casualties and sending quillboar flying.
"Gunpowder! Goblin gunpowder! Scatter!" an experienced chieftain yelled.
The survivors dispersed as the second wave of shells rained down.
The main quilboar force on the opposite bank, startled by the explosions, began to retreat, but their chieftain ordered them to cross the river quickly. He knew that stopping would doom the ten thousand warriors already across, who would be caught between the ambushers and the river.
Broken Spear, the legendary-tier chieftain leading an army of seventy to eighty thousand, did not want to suffer a major defeat so soon after arriving at the Eastern Barrens border.
"Charge across! Charge west!" he roared.
His leadership rallied the panicked quilboar, who began to run west, escaping the bombardment.
Of the initial ten thousand warriors, less than half remained. Huddled together on the shore, over five thousand had perished in the explosions and subsequent stampede.
The remaining four thousand, under their chieftains' command, regrouped and cautiously advanced west, while the second echelon began crossing the river.
Seeing this, Amal ordered: "Adjust the range and bomb the river!"
Shells fell indiscriminately into the water, killing many and stunning others, who risked drowning.
At this moment, Durin and his Dark Iron dwarves charged.
"Follow me to kill the enemy!" Durin roared, leading the stout dwarves into battle.
Despite their short legs, the heavily armed dwarves moved surprisingly quickly.
The musketeers, following closely, fired a volley, targeting the quillboar front line. They found that fighting alongside the dwarves allowed them to fire with confidence, as the taller quillboar made excellent targets.
Broken Spear, unwilling to concede, continued to send troops across the river, believing the enemy mortars were running out of ammunition.
When the third wave of quilboar entered the water, the mortar fire did indeed cease. Broken Spear, elated, urged his troops to swim faster.
Suddenly, a deafening roar echoed from upstream. Broken Spear looked up, his face paling. A massive wave, several meters high, surged towards them, with blue giants visible within.
Gandalf's water elementals! Gandalf, it turned out, had gone upstream to gather water. Galen knew that the Ragefire River had flooded after the Cataclysm, submerging Thunder Ridge. Gandalf, combining a large number of water elementals with the river's abundant flow from Mount Hyjal, was about to unleash a devastating tidal surge.
Broken Spear despaired. His thirty thousand troops were doomed.
The floodwaters swept away the quillboar warriors in the river, who cried out in terror. Even the strongest chieftains were unable to escape.
Gandalf had added rocks and sharpened logs to the flood, increasing its destructive power. The faster swimmers who managed to reach the shore quickly fled the flood and sought to support the four thousand warriors ahead.
"Kill! Charge!"
The main force of the Scarlet Crusade, hidden on the cliffs, emerged. Two legions of infantry charged towards the Dark Iron dwarves and the surviving quilboar, intent on wiping out all the invaders.
The second wave of quilboar reinforcements was destroyed.
The third wave, an army from the Deadskull tribe of Razorfen Kraul, arrived next. A cavalry regiment of heavily armed quillboar riding giant boars led the way, followed by countless warriors, displaying the might of the Barrens' overlords.
But Cairne Bloodhoof and Hamuul Runetotem, arriving from Thunder Bluff, were waiting for them. Deployed along the Taurajo Camp line, they were poised to inflict a heavy defeat on the arrogant Deadskull tribe.
On Thorn Ridge, the battle was ending. After Tuskarr's arrival, Galen, to minimize casualties as promised, ordered a full-scale assault. The terrain allowed Galen to deploy all five infantry legions.
The Scarlet Crusade warriors, having practiced the procedure, efficiently captured more and more quillboar warriors.
Tuskarr, riding his raptor, quickly caught up with Omar and Heaney. His Scarlet Crusade attire reassured them.
Their lord duke, they mused, had recruited yet another strange warrior.
They were getting used to it.