Arthas's warhammer was virtually unstoppable after the first blow; Elemental Creatures' attacks were often shattered or their cores destroyed by his warhammer before they could even land on him.
And those gushing flames and scorching rocks, before they could land on Arthas, were either deflected by the Holy Light or struck down by Jaina's spells.
Jaina focused on the Elemental Creatures spellcasters further away from them, mostly Fire Elementals and some Fire Elements. She summoned dense ice storms and Arcane magic, bombarding the Elemental Creatures spellcasters.
Although the couple's coordination hadn't been deliberately practiced, they seemed to have a telepathic connection. Arthas always intercepted more significant threats and attacks for Jaina, while Jaina's spell support would land in front of Arthas precisely when he needed it.
"Tsk, I haven't seen him in a while, but Arthas's strength has grown again!"
Magni's fearbreaker flattened a snarling Fire Elemental to the ground. After adding another kick, he said to Thoras beside him,
"He is the strongest warrior I have ever seen… even in my youth, I was far from his equal," Thoras wielded his family's ancestral divine sword, effortlessly destroying the Elemental Creatures' bodies. "And Jaina is also the most outstanding mage among the younger generation; the two of them are indeed a perfect match."
Magni smiled. He had always regarded Arthas and Jaina as his own juniors. Then he thought of the "characters" in his own family, and his face immediately fell. He vented his frustration by smashing one Elemental Creatures after another with his warhammer.
"Why is my daughter so disobedient?"
Magni was somewhat depressed, but the arm wielding the warhammer remained unstoppable. Even the hard obsidian couldn't withstand a few blows and was shattered into rubble by him.
Thoras could only offer a wry smile in response. When it came to raising children, he was even less competent than Magni. At this moment, he could only awkwardly focus on killing the enemy, avoiding Magni's topic.
"Hey, you two, can you focus a little? This is a battlefield."
Sylvanas's arrows were also extremely lethal. If Thoras and Magni violently dismantled the Elemental Creatures' bodies, her attacks were always precise and deadly.
Years of experience battling Trolls had made Sylvanas very adept at hitting "vital points," because, in a sense, Trolls were also creatures that were difficult to kill without attacking their vital points. Every year, many Farstriders recruits were injured or killed by Trolls feigning death.
This was very similar to Elemental Creatures, so after some trial attacks, Sylvanas had almost figured out all the Elemental Creatures' weaknesses.
The sharp arrows were also the bane of those Fire Elementals. Compared to ordinary Elemental Creatures, Fire Elementals were even more fragile. Although their semi-elemental, semi-flesh form allowed them to enter the real world more easily, they also possessed the vital points of ordinary life.
Sylvanas had become Death in their eyes, because the Ranger-General's arrows were much harder to dodge than Jaina's indiscriminate area-of-effect spells. Many Fire Elementals didn't even notice danger approaching before being shot through the head or heart with an arrow.
However, Sylvanas's offensive did not continue indefinitely, because she quickly attracted the attention of a more powerful Elemental Creatures.
Soon, a giant Obsidian Elemental Creatures passed through the Elemental Creatures' formation. He raised his fist, as large as an Ogre, and slammed it down towards Sylvanas's position.
Sylvanas, who had already sensed the shadow covering her, deftly dodged, leaping out of the Obsidian Elemental Creatures' attack range. But the splashing debris that hit Sylvanas's armor still made her feel a bit sore.
The Ranger-General looked up with some annoyance, examining the giant Obsidian Elemental Creatures, "Garr." This Elemental Creatures was also one of Ragnaros's lieutenants, and he, along with Baron Geddon, had sealed Thunderaan in his prison.
Seeing his attack miss, Garr raised his obsidian fist again. He had no other powerful abilities, but his indestructible body made of obsidian was his best weapon.
Moreover, the properties of obsidian gave him strong magic resistance. Ordinary magic simply couldn't penetrate his rocky skin; some spells would even be reflected by the obsidian skin, falling back on the caster's head instead.
Seeing Garr blocking the team's path, Arthas turned to Jaina and said, "Jaina, you continue to attack the other Elemental Creatures. Don't let them get close to us. This Elemental Creatures is made of obsidian and will reflect your spells. We'll deal with him."
Jaina looked at the entirely black Garr and knew that this guy was practically the nightmare of most spellcasters. She had no intention of showing off; Arthas's division of labor was indeed the best.
So Jaina immediately changed her spellcasting mode, shifting from focusing on clearing distant spellcasters and monsters to a more defensive and blocking approach.
The chaos erupting within the Elemental Creatures Legion caught Executus's attention. He noticed that the heroes led by Arthas were rapidly opening a breach in their front line, which caused him a slight worry.
He already knew that there were several powerful leaders among mortals, and it was they who had defeated Salfuron Harbinger and Baron Geddon. It seemed that the relentless pursuit of the enemy had already led them into the underground world.
Noticing the anomaly, Executus immediately reported the situation to his master—he had no intention of dealing with those mortals himself. He knew his own limitations; there were countless Elemental Creatures more powerful than him, but Ragnaros chose him as the administrator precisely because he valued Executus's rare managerial ability and cunning nature among Elemental Creatures.
In any case, Ragnaros didn't care if the administrator had great strength, because in the entire Firelands, there was no Elemental Creatures more powerful than him. He simply needed a spokesperson to help him manage his restless subordinates.
He, of course, also knew that Executus lacked strength. Rather, it was a good thing; if Executus's power was so great that Ragnaros felt apprehensive, he would not have allowed him to be the administrator.
In other words, Executus was just weak enough, and with Ragnaros having absolute authority and power as a fallback, there was no need to worry about Executus's tendency to side with whoever was stronger.
Seeing the unfavorable situation, Executus immediately sent a message to Ragnaros, "Great Ragnaros, a group of strong mortals, with the help of Water Elemental Creatures, have broken into our front line and opened a breach."
"Hmm?"
Ragnaros's tone was somewhat impatient. First, Nefarian's forces prevented him from quickly completing his plan, then he was forced into slumber to accumulate strength, and when he woke up again, he found his lair invaded by a bunch of insects and Water Elemental Creatures!
It would be strange if the arrogant Ragnaros was in a good mood. Moreover, he was currently trying to expel the water flowing into his territory, but even he couldn't quickly deal with the surging seawater and the cracked chasm between the mountains.
With various unpleasant factors piling up, when Executus heard Ragnaros's response, he trembled all over, feeling a coldness as if he had been thrown into Neptulon's bottomless abyss.
Ragnaros's slightly murderous response made Executus freeze in fear. After a long while, he carefully said, "Great Ragnaros, your lieutenants are in a bitter struggle. I hope to borrow your power to burn those pathetic mortal invaders to ashes."
Hearing Executus's words, Ragnaros's Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros suddenly dropped, smashing into the magma pool beside Executus, splashing magma higher than Executus himself.
Watching Ragnaros slowly retract his warhammer, Executus's body stiffened. If that hammer had landed on him, he would probably have been turned into a meat patty.
Ragnaros's voice was filled with rage and annoyance, "Executus, your incompetence shocks me. Look at the good work you've done. Water Elemental Creatures have inexplicably appeared in this sacred place, and you only return with a group of defeated soldiers?
I have been merciful enough not to crush your essence! You figure out how to quickly deal with those damned mortals, or your essence will become a feast for the next administrator!"
Ragnaros no longer paid attention to the stunned Executus, focusing on expelling the seawater from his territory.
Although those damned Water Elemental Creatures and mortals were annoying, the constantly surging seawater was actually the real threat. Currently, it was entirely Ragnaros's power that was suppressing the influx of seawater. If Ragnaros were to go deal with the invaders, the seawater would become uncontrollable.
If the core of Molten Core were truly submerged by seawater, even he wouldn't be able to exert much power. He now truly wished he could crush Executus to death; if this administrator had woken him up earlier, the seawater would never have spread this deep.
Now, more than half of Molten Core's magma had been extinguished by the seawater, coupled with the deaths of several powerful Elemental Creatures and the dissipation of the runes they guarded, Ragnaros's power had actually been affected to a certain extent.
A large amount of seawater also interfered with Ragnaros's connection to the elemental plane. His old rival, Neptulon, did not merely bestow a little blessing upon his subordinates; his influence, following the seawater that poured into Molten Core, continuously weakened Ragnaros.
That's truly Neptulon's style.
Ragnaros thought with some disgust, but Neptulon still hadn't appeared in person, only sending a group of subordinates to try and break through Molten Core, which was simply wishful thinking.
Ragnaros had already found the breach where the seawater was pouring into the mountain. He was gathering strength, preparing to use high temperatures to melt the mountain above, blocking the path of the seawater.
Not long after Executus led a group of officers away, this administrator returned, looking dejected. Several of his spines were broken, and several arrows were still stuck in his arm.
After circling at Ragnaros's feet a few times, he found that he hadn't attracted Ragnaros's attention. He dejectedly returned to the battlefield.
Executus dared not disturb Ragnaros again. He knew his master's temper well; he would never warn a second time, because the second time, he would personally destroy Executus's existence.
However, the strength of those invading mortals far exceeded Executus's imagination. He sent out his fiercest hounds, his most powerful mages, and a large group of Salfuron elite soldiers.
But the result was that they not only failed to eliminate any of the invaders but also lost a large number of soldiers. And one of the two heads of the hound Magmadar was directly crushed by Arthas's warhammer, which was powerful beyond Executus's imagination.
Shazzrah was still resisting the attacks of the Water Elemental Creatures and mortals with the remaining soldiers. Ragnaros's soldiers were already few in number, and the remaining Elemental Creatures were simply ineffective.
Garr had long since fallen under the siege of Arthas and the others. His body was torn to pieces by three "savage," "rude," and "berserk" guys. Before he fell, his exposed core was even more shattered, and several of Sylvanas's arrows were still stuck in Garr's "heart."
When Executus personally witnessed Arthas tearing Garr's "heart" from his shattered body and crushing it on the spot, revealing the essence within, his own heart nearly stopped from fright.
—Is this something a human can do? Even those Earth Elemental Creatures Giants aren't that terrifying, are they?
Something's not right, very not right! Executus, after sacrificing another large group of his subordinates, finally truly realized the seriousness of the problem. Leaving aside the other mortal heroes who were just "making up the numbers" in his eyes, Arthas's strength alone was ridiculously strong.
Although Arthas might not be a match for Ragnaros at his peak, Executus felt that there were very few Fire Element Elemental Lords who could directly confront Arthas, and those few were currently still confined in the Firelands.
Ragnaros, after all, was summoned by the Dark Iron Dwarves and hadn't yet been able to gather all of his strongest subordinates. But Executus suddenly realized that the deaths of almost all the Elemental Creatures generals were more or less related to Arthas.
When Shazzrah was frozen into dust by Jaina's magic, Executus cleanly dropped his weapon, "I surrender!"
Sylvanas drew her longbow, stepping over a few Fire Elemental Creatures' corpses, and looked at Executus, who had both hands raised, with a puzzled expression.
Magni and Thoras exchanged glances, both reading surprise in each other's eyes.
Jaina even directly conjured a giant ice shard, as if she hadn't heard Executus at all, and was about to skewer him.
Arthas timely pulled back the battle-crazed Jaina, "Wait, Jaina, spare his life—this is the first Fire Elemental Creatures to surrender voluntarily."
Executus didn't feel embarrassed at all when he heard Arthas's words. Instead, he consciously extended both hands, allowing Jaina to bind him with magic.
"A surrendering Elemental Creatures, that's rare," Arthas stared at Executus. The administrator looked at the young human in front of him, feeling a surge of unease in his heart.
—What does that mean? Are they not going to accept my surrender? Don't you mortals often do that?!
He began to think of what excuses and reasons he could use to make Arthas spare his life.