Chapter 3: Pride Breaker
She had no idea how much time had passed when she finally came to. The first thing she noticed was the soreness between her legs, causing her to let out a weak groan. The second thing she noticed was the pain from her right ass cheek, where Kardris had branded her. Looking down, she saw the emblem of the Horde seared into her flesh.
Jaina almost wanted to go back to the sweet darkness of sleep again to avoid facing the reality of her situation. But ultimately, her tenacity wound up winning over her dejection and she looked around to assess the situation.
She noticed the ice that had been restraining her seemed to have melted. The archmage shuddered as that thought caused her to recall the brutal rape she had suffered at the hands of her own elemental. But determined to press forward, the archmage continued surveying her surroundings.
A few meters in front of her lay the naked form of Haromm, now back to being an orc. Her last mirror image was nowhere to be seen, and the elemental was gone as well. From his loud snoring, Jaina surmised Haromm was in a deep slumber.
Seeing the prone form of the dark shaman caused extreme anger to erupt within Jaina. The bastard had continued fucking her for hours after his partner had left them, ravaging her pussy with uncompromising ferocity. {But it looks like the pig passed out immediately after he finished his filthy task}, thought Jaina, as she realized he had neglected to restrain both her body and her mana, as Kardris had cautioned. {He will regret that.}
Slowly standing up on shaky legs, Jaina walked towards the orc's sleeping body. Once upon a time, she would never have considered murdering a defenseless enemy in cold blood, even if he was an orc. But as the archmage stood over her torturer, it was an easy decision to make.
Her mana had recovered enough while she was sleeping that she could now summon a formidable pyroblast in her hands, even without any of her equipment. She paused only a brief second, before hurling the fiery death sentence at Haromm. {Die.}
The dark shaman's back erupted in flames. The burning pain caused the orc to awake with a start and cry out in pain. Without giving him a chance to counterattack, his assailant began casting fireballs at him, one after another. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as Haromm tried desperately to crawl away from Jaina. He attempted to call for help, although even if anyone was within earshot, the smoke from the fire soon began choking him, making it impossible to scream for long.
It was less than a minute before the dark shaman stopped moving, having only managed to crawl a few feet from Jaina. His corpse continued to smolder, as the archmage looked on in smug satisfaction. {Your partner is next.}
But as much as she wanted to do the same to Kardris, Jaina realized how foolish it would be to go after her now. She was still exhausted and starving. Her mana had been somewhat restored, but she did not have enough energy to use it effectively, especially against a foe who wasn't asleep. She also didn't know how much time had passed, and when someone might be coming to check in on the human prisoner. {Better to escape for now. But I will have my revenge on all of you sick bastards.}
Pushing all thoughts of vengeance to the back of her head for the moment, Jaina closed her eyes and began concentrating on a teleportation spell. After finishing her incantation, the archmage opened her eyes to find she was still in the same hellhole as before. Her confusion lasted only a few seconds. {Of course there would be a teleportation barrier around this place. Pretty fancy spellwork, for a bunch of orcs.}
She gave a frustrated sigh as she pondered her options. There was no telling how far the teleportation barrier spread. It could be confined to her island prison, or it could be in place throughout Ragefire Chasm. The archmage prayed it was the former. But either way, she needed to find a different way off the island first.
She looked towards the edge of her prison, in the direction of the main section of Garrosh's base. There was at least a kilometer of magma that separated her from her from the mainland. {That shouldn't be too much of a problem}, thought Jaina, as she turned to look in the direction of Haromm's tethered wyvern.
The beast was asleep earlier, but its master's death throes had awoken it. As Jaina approached the mount, it let out a warning growl. Jaina had always been fairly good with animals, but she didn't exactly have a lot of experience with the standard issue Horde flying mount. Fortunately, she was also a master mage.
Using magic to calm the wyvern first, Jaina then approached it and softly pet its thick mane. The relatively weak will of the beast was easy enough to placate, and before long, Jaina had untied it from its post, and gotten on. Then, hoping it wasn't too different from a griffon, the archmage commanded her mount to fly.
After a short flight, Jaina dismounted at the edge of the lake of magma, now back on the mainland of Garrosh's base. Another teleportation attempt resulted in failure, suggesting, to the archmage's dismay, that the barrier might be in place throughout the complex. Perhaps she would have to look for a more traditional way out. Wanting to lay low, she left the wyvern and proceeded on foot. She also conjured up a full set of mage robes, not wanting to attempt her escape naked.
Over the next couple of hours, she slunk in the shadows, doing her best to avoid detection. But there were Horde soldiers everywhere, which slowed her pace considerably. She had tried teleporting a few more times, but was unsuccessful each time. Reaching a new part of the base, she began casting it yet again, hoping this area did not have a barrier. But then a distressing sight caught her eye.
In front of her were a group of Alliance adventurers who had evidently survived the raid. They all wore handcuffs, with a heavy chain linking all of them together via the cuffs. Their bruised and bloodied faces made it obvious the Horde had not been kind to their prisoners of war. They were being led somewhere by a squad of orc warriors.
Jaina knew trying to rescue them now on her own was a bad idea. It would make much more sense to escape herself, then come back in full force with a rescue party. Moreover, as a leader of an Alliance that had recently lost so many of its other leaders, her life was frankly more valuable to the war effort than this random party.
But of course, that's not how the kindhearted human liked to do things. She couldn't bring herself to leave the adventurers to their fate. So reluctantly, she began hatching a plan of attack. There were only eight orcs. That was probably too many for her to handle in her current state, but there were also five adventurers that would presumably join the fray if they were freed. She would have to use the element of surprise to the fullest, and liberate the party as quickly as possible after she made her move.
Stepping out of the shadows, the archmage cloaked herself in an invisibility spell. Then, after getting closer to the group, she took careful aim before launching five, well-placed ice lances. The expert sorceress hit her marks with exceptional precision. Five lances struck five pairs of handcuffs, freezing them instantly. With dangerous elegance, the archmage snapped her fingers, causing all five pairs of handcuffs to shatter into pieces. The adventurers were now free from their restraints and capable of fighting back.
Losing no time, Jaina started on the orcs themselves. A fireball leapt from her hands into the face of the closest one, who still wasn't sure what was going on. Her target fell back in pain, clutching at his burning face. She turned on her heel and blasted another with arcane energy, sending him flying.
"Quickly, heroes! Defend yourselves!" the archmage yelled.
The rest of the orcs were now wise to the rescue attempt, and started surrounding the human intruder. Jaina launched another fireball at one of them, but he blocked it with his shield. The orc beside him deflected an arcane barrage with his axe. They were closing in on Jaina, who was having trouble fighting at her best due to the trials of the last few days.
To buy time, she buffeted the orcs with a cone of cold, slowing most of them down a little. Unfortunately, one managed to dodge the spell, and immediately counterattacked by slamming the butt of his axe into Jaina's solar plexus.
"Uuuff!"
She stumbled backwards from the blow, disoriented and in pain. Even as she staggered, she instinctively cast a deadly frostbolt into the chest of her assailant, disabling him for the moment. Looking past him, she saw the effects of her cone of cold wearing off on his friends. Behind them, the party of adventurers seemed to still be standing there, clueless.
"What are you waiting for? Fight back!"
As she said this, Jaina continued to hurl lethal spells one after another at the approaching orcs. Exhausted though she was, her years of study and training allowed the archmage to fend off the brutes with deadly skill. Against all odds, she brought down the entire rest of the squad on her own. Yet this inspiring feat of spellwork seemed to do nothing for the adventures' apathy. In fact, on closer inspection, Jaina saw that they looked more terrified than ever.
