Gabryell could not command everyone, but he could command the ten raid groups from Fearless and Madhouse.
Ten raid groups meant four hundred players. With four hundred players moving in formation, any scattered Horde group would be crushed the moment they ran into them.
"We have the Mage advantage. Everyone, push the Horde back into Silverpine Forest."
The Alliance defensive line was solid as a rock, leaving the Horde unable to advance even half a step. The Horde inside Tarren Mill had been scared so badly they no longer dared to come out, shattering their dream of attacking from both sides.
Gabryell personally led the Mage group in the charge, sweeping away everything in their path. Imagine more than a hundred Mages Blinking in together and spamming Arcane Explosion. The force was like a bomb going off. Whoever got caught in it died instantly, and entire waves vanished in seconds.
At last, the Horde could not hold on any longer. After many players chose to take rez sickness at Tarren Mill, the Horde main force began retreating toward Silverpine Forest.
"Do we chase?" Dreamshade asked.
Silverpine Forest was not contested territory. It was Horde territory, so chasing them there would put the Alliance at a disadvantage.
The saying "never chase a cornered enemy" did not apply in games. Beating down fleeing enemies was half the fun.
Gabryell ordered, "Everyone, chase them into Silverpine Forest. Don't let a single Horde player get away. Drive them back to Undercity."
The Horde players had no time to let their PvP flags drop. Any Horde player who had taken part in the Battle of Hillsbrad Foothills would not be protected by Silverpine's Horde territory rules.
"Group up and advance slowly. Don't overextend. Silverpine Forest is Horde territory, and we don't have a graveyard there. If we die, we'll have to run all the way back from Southshore."
Gabryell stopped the players who were about to rush ahead. Charging too quickly would break formation and give the Horde a chance to counterattack.
"Our graveyard situation is that bad?" Carlos was a Warrior, so corpse-running was already part of daily life.
Gabryell said, "Westfall doesn't have a Horde graveyard either, but Westfall has no contested objective worth fighting over. Since we're going into Silverpine to hunt the Horde, we need to be ready for a long corpse run. Once we reach Tirisfal Glades, there'll be a graveyard there."
Alliance players could rez at the graveyard outside Scarlet Monastery in Tirisfal Glades. Silverpine Forest only had one graveyard, at The Sepulcher, and the Alliance could not rez there. If they died, their ghosts would return to the Southshore graveyard.
"Then let's kill the Horde all the way to Tirisfal."
Carlos was not afraid of a long corpse run. A Warrior without corpse-run awareness was not a qualified Warrior.
Gabryell could not restrain the other Alliance players. He only needed to keep control of the ten raid groups from Fearless and Madhouse. With coordinated movement on their side, they continued suppressing the Horde in Silverpine Forest.
The Horde retreated again and again, all the way to the area outside Shadowfang Keep.
"Everyone, fall back to The Sepulcher. The Alliance has no graveyard in Silverpine Forest. They can only corpse-run all the way from Southshore. As long as we hold for a while, their numbers will shrink the longer this fight goes. Then we counterattack."
Windwalker encouraged his demoralized guild members. Losing this badly in a thousand-versus-thousand battle had hit them hard. Some had even begun to question whether choosing Horde had been the right decision, and thoughts of rerolling Alliance started creeping in.
In truth, Windwalker knew very well that the moment the Horde retreated to The Sepulcher, it meant they had already lost the great battle and the contest for control of Hillsbrad Foothills.
The Sepulcher was the Horde's final foothold, with the advantage of a nearby graveyard. If The Sepulcher fell and they were forced to retreat to Undercity, then the Horde would have lost completely. The server would most likely become Alliance-favored.
"We can't let morale break."
Even if they had to fight until the final moment, Windwalker would not lead Hall of Fame any farther back. The Sepulcher was their last line. If they retreated again, the Horde on this server might never recover.
"Strange. Where are Freedom's people?"
Carlos died yet again. While running back from Southshore, he asked, "Have any of you seen Freedom?"
"I think I saw a few," Igor said.
Carlos said, "That makes no sense. Didn't Freedom say they had three or four raid groups? There's no reason for them not to show up for a battle this big."
Gabryell was just as puzzled. Freedom's main force not showing up did not fit their usual showy style.
Dreamshade gave them the answer. "Our contact inside Freedom sent word. While we were caught up fighting the Horde, Freedom's main raid slipped out through Durnholde Keep and headed into the Hinterlands."
Gabryell instantly realized where Freedom's main raid had gone. "They went from the Hinterlands into Western Plaguelands, then corpse-ran their way into Tirisfal Glades?"
Dreamshade said, "That's right. Based on the timing, they've probably already reached Tirisfal and are advancing toward Undercity."
Freedom was clever. They knew going through Silverpine Forest would alert the Horde, while going through Alterac Mountains had no nearby Alliance graveyard and would make corpse-running from Southshore far too painful. So they chose the Hinterlands route through Aerie Peak, the Alliance outpost there.
Durnholde Keep was behind the main battlefield, so slipping away into the Hinterlands would not be easily noticed. From the Hinterlands, corpse-running into Western Plaguelands was not far. Once they reached Western Plaguelands, they could corpse-run to Chillwind Camp, rest there, then continue.
By corpse-running all the way into Tirisfal Glades, they could avoid the Horde's line of sight and launch a surprise attack on Undercity right under their noses.
"Holy crap, there probably aren't many Horde players in Undercity right now. Are we really going to let Freedom swoop in and steal the glory?"
Igor was furious. They were fighting to the death on the front line, while Freedom was trying to sneak around and take credit.
Take Undercity at their current level? Impossible. Not even a fantasy novel would dare write something that ridiculous.
Gabryell sneered. "Undercity is one of the Horde's capital cities. How could it be that easy to take? Any random guard there could wipe half a raid of level 30 players."
Of the Horde's three capital cities, Undercity was the hardest to raid because of its layout, followed by Orgrimmar, with Thunder Bluff being the easiest. That said, almost nobody bothered attacking Thunder Bluff. Like Darnassus, barely anyone was there, so raiding it didn't feel satisfying.
The hardest Alliance capital city to raid was Ironforge, followed by Stormwind, then Darnassus. Ironforge was difficult because nine out of ten Alliance players gathered there. With that many players around, breaking into the city was incredibly hard.
"Undercity also has Lady Sylvanas Windrunner holding it down. At our current level, even a hundred raids wouldn't matter. Sylvanas alone could wipe them out easily."
Even as an Alliance player, Gabryell couldn't help thinking Sylvanas was too good to belong only to the Horde. If he could, he'd trade Jaina for her in a heartbeat.
"Freedom is walking straight into a suicide mission."
Gabryell still had one question. Freedom's guild leader, Merciless, was a beta player. There was no way he did not know that Undercity could not be taken at their current level. Why would he make such an unreasonable choice?
"They don't need to actually take Undercity."
Dreamshade's words snapped him awake. "They only need to enter Undercity. They don't have to go down. They can take screenshots from the upper level, then claim online that they captured Undercity. That would fool countless Alliance players who don't understand Undercity's layout, letting them wash away the shame of The Stockade and become the Alliance's hero guild."
The upper level of Undercity was completely empty. The real Undercity required taking an elevator down, but many Alliance players did not know that. If Freedom took screenshots in the upper ruins and claimed they had captured Undercity, they really could fool a lot of uninformed Alliance players.
"What a scheme."
Gabryell had to admit that Freedom's move, at a time when most players still did not understand the game, really could pass off a fake victory as the real thing.