Kel'Thuzad gazed at Magok, who was bound by runic chains, his shoulder blades locked with special magic spikes, and his limbs pinned down, his inner boredom finally dissipating.
"This truly is a perfect biological form—no, perhaps it shouldn't be called biological; these big guys are like our constructs, but their flesh and rock form a delicate balance."
Lothar couldn't stand Kel'Thuzad's long-winded speech and only knew that this Gronn was of immense value in all aspects, whether used as a weapon or as research material.
Not even the dragon bones had excited Kel'Thuzad this much, but thinking about it, it was normal; although dragons were rare, they could be said to be ubiquitous in Azeroth, it was just that ordinary people rarely saw them.
However, the number of Gronn might be even rarer than dragons; even in the original Draenor, the number of Gronn was extremely limited, existing only in a few regions of Draenor, and most of them were smaller Gronn.
Not to mention Magron; every Magron was equivalent to a walking disaster, and even the hot-headed orcs were unwilling to provoke them, as Magron could be considered a completely rock-based creature, with habits entirely different from Gronn.
Catching a living Gronn, even for Orc warriors like Ogrim and Grommash, would be a glorious feat to boast about for a lifetime. Unfortunately, both of them were now dead, so such a feat had no boasting value for them.
"Your Majesty is indeed wise and mighty; he anticipated the value of this thing early on, which is why he had us capture a living one. Once my subordinates and I have thoroughly researched him, this will leave a profound mark on the magical history of all Azeroth!"
Upon hearing this, Lothar couldn't help but feel a little ashamed. Kel'Thuzad was probably overly excited. If those orthodox Dalaran mages saw him in his current state, it would be good if they didn't gang up and beat him. And he still wanted to go down in history?
"Calm down a little, Archlich, our mission is far from over, and capturing a Gronn at this time will likely alert those Ogres and other Gronn."
"Hmm… that is a problem," Kel'Thuzad temporarily shifted his gaze from Magok, he floated around in the Scourge camp's temporary laboratory, "The collection of black dragons actually doesn't require alarming the Ogres in the more central areas. I've already sent scouts to check the black dragons there, and they've mostly been torn to shreds, with no value for utilization."
"So you mean our mission can end earlier than expected?"
"If everything proceeds according to plan, yes, that's right, but His Majesty said to have us capture Gronn and mine apexis crystal, these two tasks have indirectly extended our time in Blade's Edge Mountains."
Kel'Thuzad's pale skeletal finger tapped on his own hand bone, "The Ogres have suffered our attack, and before we scare them off, they certainly won't let it go. And if more than two Gronn appear simultaneously, our troops might be able to deal with them, but at a considerable cost."
"And if Gruul himself appears, we will probably have to abandon the stronghold established here," Lothar said with a grave tone.
"There's no need to worry about that," Ogrim walked into the laboratory, seemingly having overheard Lothar and Kel'Thuzad's conversation, "Given the Gronn's habits, let alone losing one or two children, even if all of Gruul's offspring die, Gruul will not easily leave his lair."
"Even so, we still have to worry about the Ogres and Gronn moving out simultaneously."
"Well, actually, there's no need to worry about that either. If the Gronn and Ogre's movements were truly so coordinated, the Dota Ogres would probably have already claimed the entire Blade's Edge Mountains," Ogrim scratched his face, explaining another one of Lothar's concerns.
"Gronn are inherently creatures that prefer to live and hunt alone. Even if Gruul is the leader of this tribe, he generally doesn't care about the lives of his sons. Only when he feels his territory is being invaded will he leave his lair to deal with invading enemies, just like those black dragons hanging on the mountain."
"And now it seems these stubborn Ogres have taken the Gronn as their boss and guardian, which makes the Ogres choose to obey the Gronn's command. However, with the intelligence level of Gronn, they might not even be as smart as some clever Ogres, so arranging troops is truly difficult for them."
"So as long as we don't actively provoke the Gronn, it's basically impossible for two Gronn to appear before us at the same time. As for the Ogre ruler and Gruul, they are deeper in the Blade's Edge Mountains; we might not even see them."
Ogrim's words eased Lothar's worries, but this good news hadn't made Lothar happy for too long before Kel'Thuzad came to a rather unpleasant conclusion.
"My Necromancer sent me a message… they said they read the whereabouts of those black dragon souls from this Gronn's simple mind." Kel'Thuzad walked over with a dark expression, "They saw a Gronn, a Gronn using Warlock magic, and a group of Ogre Warlocks, absconding with those black dragon souls."
"A Gronn using magic?" Ogrim nearly dropped his jaw, "Can Gronn even learn to use magic?"
"You'll have to ask that Gronn named Skuloc," Kel'Thuzad was displeased with this answer, as the Scourge's resources had fallen into the hands of a group of Ogres and a Gronn who only understood rudimentary spells, "This fellow, nicknamed soulgrinder, is also much more cautious than ordinary Gronn; he rarely leaves his lair except for hunting food."
"A group of Ogre Warlocks using magic, and a Gronn using Warlock magic, huh, there really are a lot of strange things in this world," Lothar shook his head and chuckled, "So it seems we must go and meet the members of this Warlock gathering?"
"The Ogre Warlocks' magic almost all comes from Gul'dan; their strength should not be underestimated. It's likely that this group of Ogre Warlocks taught this Gronn magic."
Ogrim, who had dealt with Warlocks the longest, quickly deduced the possible situation, "It's only these strange Ogres coming together that could come up with the idea of teaching a Gronn magic. I don't even know whether to call them smart or foolish."
"Perhaps they are truly smart," Kel'Thuzad said indifferently; he didn't want to figure out who taught the Gronn magic, as this was not as important as the fact that "Gronn can learn magic" itself.
However, the Gronn's predecessor, Magron, itself seemed capable of using certain runes to attune its connection with the earth, which could also be considered a way of utilizing magical power. It's just that this ability had completely degenerated in the Gronn, and it's not a fantasy for a Gronn to relearn magic through external forces now.
"I will send people to find out where this soulgrinder's tomb is. Once our collection work is finished, we will reclaim him and the souls in his possession. After that, we can leave Blade's Edge Mountains and proceed with the next step of our plan."
Ogrim stated his plan; the Dota Ogres had already been driven a certain distance by the Scourge, and there was no need to fight them to the death in the canyon now. Clearing the surrounding Ogres and cutting off their idea of retaking the area would suffice.
The Bloodmaul Ogres had been almost completely annihilated by the Scourge, and the land that originally belonged to the Bloodmaul Ogres was now entirely owned by the Scourge. As for the Ogre zombies, some were thrown into the mines to dig, and some served as Scourge soldiers fighting the Dota Ogres.
As the few of them were conversing, a rumbling voice entered their minds, "The new floating fortress has been built. Do you need to move it to Blade's Edge Mountains?"
"We'll have to wait a while, Anub'arak. This astral teleportation requires a lot of energy, and the Sunwell water is limited. Until we learn how to utilize the energy within the apexis crystal, we temporarily cannot move the new fortress over."
Kel'Thuzad took a medium-sized crystal from his experimental rack. This was a purified apexis crystal. Although he could feel the magical power contained within it, the Archlich still didn't know how to maximize the utilization of its energy.
"Then let's leave it at that for now, Archlich. Oh, Doomhammer, the Dota Ogres' new wave of attack has arrived. They've already walked into my children's traps. Have your knights deal with them."
"Coming, Crypt Lord." Ogrim and Lothar exchanged glances, nodded to each other, and Ogrim left the camp, returning to the front lines.
....
The soulgrinder felt extremely agitated; although he had learned some soul-related spells under the guidance of a group of Ogre Warlocks, enabling him to control the power of souls for his own use, lately, for some unknown reason, he had been constantly restless.
Even the delicious food brought by his Ogre subordinates held no appeal for him.
The Warlocks' magic allowed him to imprison a large number of souls in a separate space, where he could torment them and extract energy. This power awakened some abilities in the soulgrinder that were different from those of ordinary Gronn.
Gronn inherently possessed terrifying intuition, a primal instinct as predators, and the soulgrinder's sensory abilities were even superior to his brothers'.
However, generally speaking, this intuition of the Gronn rarely proved useful because, in Draenor, they were already apex predators at the top of the food chain, with no natural enemies or rivals; mountains, grasslands, and snowfields were all their hunting grounds.
At most, after the Orc Horde was infused with fel energy, these creatures sensed something amiss and found a place to hide, while the orcs, eager to invade Azeroth, abandoned these Gronn who could not be used for their purposes.
But now, this rarely occurring premonition constantly made the soulgrinder feel uneasy and uncomfortable. This emotional torment made him very uncomfortable, and his mood became a bit more irritable.
The Ogre Warlock responsible for looking after the soulgrinder, and also the one who taught this Gronn magic, Ogre Wim Goul, also noticed the soulgrinder's agitation, but he did not know why the soulgrinder was behaving this way.
"The soulgrinder seems a bit restless lately. Does he want more souls again?" As an Ogre Warlock, Wim Goul's intelligence far surpassed that of those dull, ordinary Ogres. The reason he practiced magic made him behave no different from a normal human.
"Did we feed him too much?" Wim Goul's subordinate scratched his belly. He, on the other hand, felt that the soulgrinder had eaten too much, and Ogres who ate too much would also feel uncomfortable.
"Idiot! Those souls aren't truly all devoured by the soulgrinder. Most of them were swallowed by the soulgrinder. How much reaction could the soulgrinder have?!"
Wim Goul angrily rebuked his foolish subordinate. The longer he stayed in the clan, the more he felt his "kindred" were as stupid as wild boars. Their bodies always moved faster than their brains; they were useless at everything except running the fastest when it was time to eat.
"Eat, eat, eat! All you know is eating. Half of your rations this month will be deducted and offered to the soulgrinder."
Wim Goul's subordinate stared blankly, seemingly unable to believe what he heard. "Boss… Boss, half deducted?"
"If you talk back again, I'll deduct another half!"
Hearing this, the Ogre scrambled out of Wim Goul's dwelling. The Ogre Warlock snorted disdainfully and spat on the ground. "What a complete idiot. Even a Gronn is smarter than him."
After scolding his subordinate, Wim Goul reconfirmed that the soulgrinder's condition was not problematic; it was merely an emotional unease. Since that was the case, there was nothing more Wim Goul could do.
Although he was the Ogre who taught the soulgrinder Warlock magic, Gronn would not talk about teacher-student relationships. Now, all the Ogres in Auchindoun obeyed Gruul and the Ogre King Mogar, who relied on Gruul.
Even if Wim Goul was a thousand times unwilling, he dared not dictate to the soulgrinder, unless he was tired of living.
At this moment, not far from Wim Goul and the soulgrinder's lair, a ghost was observing every movement in the camp. It dared not approach the camp too closely, as there were evil Warlock magics everywhere, and if it got too close, it might be discovered.
However, the necessary information had been collected. After seeing everything that happened through the Ghost Eye, the Necromancers quickly reported their findings to the Archlich.
"We found the soulgrinder's lair. There are many Ogre guards there, and a few Ogre Warlocks."
"Have Ogrim lead people over, and call Anub'arak and his Nerubian. As for Hellscream… let him continue to wear down the Ogres on the front lines." Kel'Thuzad nodded, "What do you think, Marshal Lothar?"
"No problem. However, are you sure there are the souls we need at the soulgrinder's place?"
"Of course. I have stationed Ghost Guards throughout most of Blade's Edge Mountains. They are our eyes for monitoring this area. Throughout Blade's Edge Mountains, Apart from those areas still occupied by demons, the soul fluctuations from the soulgrinder's lair are the most obvious."
Kel'Thuzad analyzed, "With such obvious soul fluctuations, those Ogre Warlocks certainly haven't destroyed the souls of the victims. However, storing this quantity of souls is not easy. I think we might even have some unexpected gains."
Ogrim and Anub'arak didn't make Kel'Thuzad and Lothar wait too long. The soulgrinder's lair was relatively secluded, and they didn't take much effort to bring the entire area under control with their forces.
But this time, Ogrim did not return unscathed. The armor on his right shoulder looked as if it had been crushed by some kind of millstone, almost completely deformed.
He threw the half-ruined shoulder plate onto the ground and rubbed his shoulder. Although there was no pain, his body suddenly deforming was not a particularly pleasant sensation.
Fortunately, the special undead body resurrected by Arthas could regenerate under the inducement of dark energy, otherwise Ogrim might not have been able to continue fighting for a while.
"How did you get that shoulder?" Lothar looked at the saronite shoulder guard, crushed into scrap metal, and frowned, "Did you encounter a troublesome opponent?"
"Not really. I was just a bit careless. I didn't expect that Gronn to have a strange contraption in addition to a few crude Warlock spells." Ogrim took off the other half of his shoulder plate, making himself feel more balanced. "A… very strange thing. I almost got ambushed by it. Fortunately, Anub'arak pulled me away."
If the Crypt Lord hadn't timely pushed Ogrim out of the contraption's attack range, Ogrim would have suffered more than just a shoulder injury; half of his body would have needed to be reassembled.
"I sensed a powerful magical energy," Kel'Thuzad said, looking at the second Gronn added to his collection, nodding with satisfaction. At the same time, he also noticed something, "Was that the thing that injured you?"
"Exactly, and it seems to have a special suppressive ability against souls and the undead, otherwise I wouldn't have been in such a sorry state," Ogrim said. "Anub'arak's Nerubian wrapped that thing in a web and dragged it behind."
Soon, Anub'arak's Nerubian moved the object that had injured Ogrim in front of the Archlich. The Archlich's soulfire in his eye sockets even paused for half a second. He said in astonishment, "Where did you find this thing?"
"It must have been found by those Ogres and Gronn, right in the soulgrinder's lair. It was still entangled with a large number of souls. The soulgrinder used it to attack me when he was desperately fighting."
Ogrim answered the Archlich's question, then asked, "What, have you seen this thing?"
"I've seen something similar, but this shouldn't be the case. Could it be that… those beings have also been to Draenor?" Kel'Thuzad's tone revealed uncertainty. Lothar and Ogrim were both surprised, as the Archlich rarely spoke this way.
But soon, Kel'Thuzad adjusted his demeanor. He waved his hand, "Nothing. I once read books in the Dalaran Library that recorded similar things, but perhaps it's just a coincidence, after all, its energy properties are completely different from what I've seen. Let's put it away for now, and I'll study it when I have time."