The Moon Guards' movements were relatively discreet. Led by Major Delier, a portion of the unit utilized the massive frames of the Infernals as cover, quietly following behind them toward the main battlefield.
Meanwhile, the dissenting faction, under the leadership of Albert Moon-Crown, remained where they were.
Although they found their colleagues' actions incomprehensible and firmly opposed them, they had worked together for many years; Albert and the others had no intention of notifying the Burning Legion of this act of rebellion.
To buy time and create an opportunity for the Moon Guard, Andreas shifted his offensive focus, concentrating his firepower primarily on Tichondrius.
"Priestess Maiev, please come help me!"
Maiev, who was facing the Moon Guard, also noticed the faint movement in the distance. Having just harvested two Felguards, she wordlessly pointed her moon-gladius at Tichondrius once again.
"Futile struggle."
Tichondrius' right hand was temporarily unusable, but faced with the attacks of a mere two mortals, he did not take the combined assault of Andreas and Maiev to heart.
With a casual wave of his left hand, a sickly green fel shield enveloped his body tightly. Maiev's moon-gladius failed to penetrate the shield to wound his true form.
The mutated version of Wrath sent by Andreas exploded like a rapid-fire barrage against the exterior of the giant bat's shield. The continuous collision of two different energy forms left Tichondrius temporarily unable to focus on anything else.
As Andreas unleashed an endless stream of small shadow projectiles in an "Ora Ora" fashion, his mind worked at high speeds, desperately trying to recall the offensive techniques of Druids and Shadow Priests.
Druid? Forest?
Glancing at the surrounding stands of trees, Andreas gritted his teeth. Regardless of whether it succeeds, I might as well try.
While Maiev stepped in to take over Andreas' offensive, continuing to suppress Tichondrius, Andreas attempted to inject his mutated Nature power—fused with Shadow—into the grove.
As the battlefield for both sides, this once-tranquil grove had already seen many trees overturned by the aftershocks of the combat.
In such a relatively narrow combat space, the Felguards found it quite inconvenient to swing their massive weapons, inevitably bumping into things. In a fit of rage, some demons simply cut down all the nearby trees first.
As Andreas' mutated Nature power surged into the earth, the trees in this forest seemed to be awakened by fury. One by one, the seemingly ordinary trees began to gradually transform.
"...Are you kidding me?"
Andreas looked at these twisted "Treants" with a touch of speechlessness.
In his memory, Treants awakened by Druids using Nature power were supposed to look "ugly-cute"—at the very least, they shouldn't look hideous.
Yes, hideous.
The Treants created by Andreas possessed none of the honest or goofy appearance of normal Treants. Their limbs were slender and sharp, and the features growing on their trunks expressed an eternal grimace of rage.
"Sha!"
One of the largest Treants let out a bizarre cry and lashed out with its "left hand." Its elongated, sharp branches skewered five Felguards who couldn't dodge in time, turning them into a "meat kebab."
"Emmmmmm..."
The sudden appearance of these fierce Treants caught the Felguards off guard. Even Tichondrius' attention was involuntarily drawn toward them.
"Rat-tat-tat!"
A smaller Treant spat a volley of unidentified spherical objects toward the giant bat in the sky.
Unable to gauge the nature of the attack, Tichondrius flapped his wings to dodge.
Andreas watched the Treant, which was jumping around in anger on the spot, with a thoughtful expression. "Tree seeds?"
The Druidic concept of symbiosis with nature allowed them to keenly perceive the abstract emotional shifts of the natural world.
As a former Druid, although Andreas had lost the memories of his predecessor, his physical instincts could still vaguely sense the fury of this forest. This was the source of his confidence in risking the transformation of the Treants.
As it turned out, this risky move was the right one. The highly corrosive fel energy had caused severe damage to the forest.
Night Elves, due to their lifestyle, would try their best to avoid harming the plants and animals within the woods; demons, however, had no such qualms.
Naturally, the transformed Treants poured all the fury of their destroyed home onto the demons.
Although a mere twenty or so Treants could not play a decisive role in the overall battle, their appearance certainly changed several things invisibly.
The morale of the Sisterhood of Elune, and... Tichondrius' vigilance.
"Arcane Barrage!"
Just as the giant bat was angrily dodging the seeds flying through the air, a sudden whistling sound from behind startled him.
Boom!
The Arcane Barrage, representing the power of Order, collided with the fel shield of Chaos energy. The clash of the two opposing energies triggered a significant explosion.
Underprepared, Tichondrius was sent flying by the blast. He managed to flap his wings and stabilize himself just before a pathetic landing.
"Have you all gone mad!"
Tichondrius barked at the Moon Guards who had attacked him. "I, Tichondrius, represent the will of Azshara! Do you puny Highborne intend to betray your own Queen?"
"Silence!"
While some of his subordinates hesitated, Delier launched another series of Arcane Missiles at Tichondrius.
"Demon! What right do you have to represent the Queen's will? You claim to act for the benefit of the Queen and the Highborne, but look at what you have actually done all these years!"
"Territories destroyed by demons, subjects cruelly slaughtered... If there are no civilians left to rule, what is the point of our existence as nobles!"
The Highborne, who had been momentarily stumped by Tichondrius' words, regained their resolve under Delier's encouragement.
Although their starting point differed from that of the Night Elf commoners, their goal was the same: to stop the demons, who were acting with increasing recklessness.
As Delier had said, if there are no subjects, is a noble still a noble?
Flexing your status with no one to watch is like wearing fine silks in the dark—what is the point of the flex?
Major Delier pointed his staff forward and commanded loudly, "Moon Guard, attack! Reclaim the glory and dignity that rightfully belongs to us from these lying demons!"
The discipline of the Burning Legion was never particularly good to begin with. Their ability to maintain strong combat effectiveness was mainly because demons didn't fear death—after all, they would eventually be resurrected.
But not fearing death didn't mean they actively sought it. After a demon died, its soul had to return to the Twisting Nether and wait a long time to be resurrected; it was not a pleasant experience.
Caught in a pincer attack, the demon army finally began to crumble. Furthermore, the slow and clumsy Infernals were wiped out by a large-scale area-of-effect spell set by the Moon Guard during their advance. Tichondrius could already see the end of this battle.
"Very well."
After dodging a combined attack from both forces in a disheveled state once more, Tichondrius' face turned grim as he flew toward the high sky.
"I will remember your rebellious acts. Pray that you have no kin in Zin-Azshari; you will sooner or later pay the price for your impulsiveness!"
As Tichondrius finished his threats and accelerated his escape, the combat priestesses, who had just fought two grueling battles in a row, let out a long sigh of relief.
Maiev waved to stop her subordinates from chasing the fleeing demons. She turned to look at the Moon Guard standing dozens of meters away, then shifted her flickering gaze toward the relieved Andreas.
"Is this the 'reinforcements' you mentioned? Just when did you set this stage?"