Krivax was glad Hadix had given him permission to access the Circle’s historical records because reading about the Nerubian-Vrykul Wars was genuinely fascinating.

Millenia ago, when the nerubians were not quite so isolationist and the vrykul still roamed the continent, skirmishes between the two races were common.

The first war lasted for several years and started when Azjol-Nerub began expanding into vrykul territory. The nerubians leveraged their superior mobility and ability to navigate underground to harass vrykul settlements before their Warriors could respond. The vrykul were superior Warriors in a straightforward fight, and they had tamed powerful proto-dragons, but that mattered little when confronted with nerubian guerrilla tactics.

Several times the vrykul managed to cleverly ambush nerubian forces and strike solid blows against Azjol-Nerub, but with their farms burned, their craftsmen killed in their sleep, and their civilian population living in fear, it seemed as if they would lose the war.

However, that began to change when the vrykul runeseers managed to develop magic that would allow them to map the tunnels that the nerubians used to navigate their territory. From that point on, the vrykul managed to ambush nerubian forces with far greater frequency, yet they still lacked the ability to directly attack nerubian strongholds.

Every time the vrykul Warriors would attempt to enter the tunnels and take the fight to their enemies, the nerubians would simply collapse the tunnels and quickly dig new ones with their jormungar. This, combined with the damage they had already taken meant the vrykul were still likely to lose the war.

Fortunately for the vrykul, the tides of war changed in their favor when Magnar Icebreaker discovered he could find the weak points in glacier walls and use his vrykul strength to dig tunnels directly into nerubian strongholds.

At the time, Azjol-Nerub’s military was almost exclusively centered around defeating their enemies through the use of superior mobility and hit-and-run tactics. When that advantage was lost, they hardly stood a chance against the superior combat forces of the vrykul.

The first Nerubian-Vrykul War lasted several more years, but Azjol-Nerub eventually saw that they would not be able to win the war without reforming their military doctrine, so they retreated to the safety of their underground kingdom.

For the nerubians, who believed themselves to be the greatest species in the world, this was a humiliating defeat that had immense political consequences.

The High King of the time, Anub’Zikith, lost much of his popularity with the various Underkings, Queens, and political factions throughout the kingdom. Reading between the lines, it was obvious to Krivax that Anub’Zikith only managed to hold on to power by purging his political enemies and promising a renewed war with the vrykul.

The High King whipped up Azjol-Nerub into a jingoistic zeal and focused the nerubians on reshaping their military into one that could defeat the vrykul. Interestingly, these efforts are how some of the nerubian Flyers and nerubian Skitterers managed to gain their sapience.

When the leaders of Azjol-Nerub realized they needed to develop the capability to fight their enemies in head-on engagements, they struggled to find a way to do so. Simply put, the vrykul Warriors outclassed the nerubian Warriors to a tremendous degree. After all, the vrykul spent their entire lives cultivating their strength and learning how to become better Warriors. The only Warriors amongst the nerubians who could stand toe-to-toe with the vrykul were the Spiderlords.

Understanding that they could not overcome their enemies with quality, the leaders of Azjol-Nerub instead decided to overwhelm the vrykul with quantity, a tactic their people were well suited for.

However, a problem quickly arose.

While the Queens could produce large numbers of nerubians, and those newly born nerubians were able to be trained to an acceptable level within only a few years, they still could not sustain a swarm capable of overwhelming the vrykul.

The reason for this was simply that they did not have enough food.

A baseline nerubian had significantly more body mass than a human and required more food to sustain themself as a result.

Azjol-Nerub was able to sustain a large population due to careful planning and the use of magic to significantly increase the amount of food they could produce.

In order to overcome these limitations, High King Anub’Zikith directed the Queens to create a new caste of nerubians that could be both produced in large numbers and required less substance. This was a difficult task for the Queens, given the nerubians they created still required a proportional amount of energy to sustain their biomass.

Their efforts were mostly fruitless until Queen Zilnara the Fleshwarper stumbled upon a method to modify the nerubian Flyers and Skitterers in ways that allowed them to subsist partially on magic.

Previously, these templates of nerubians had limited intelligence and were generally used for repetitive menial labor. However, after Zilnara’s modifications, these nerubians could be produced in large enough numbers to be useful to Azjol-Nerub’s military.

While Intuitive Magic allowed the vrykul to rely on the quality of their Warriors to fight back the nerubians, the large quantity of nerubians that the Queens could now produce would prove to have a quality of its own.

The only problems Azjol-Nerub faced in integrating the nerubian Skitterers and Flyers into their military were due to their lack of intelligence. While the more intelligent castes of nerubians were capable of controlling their less intelligent brethren, the non-sapient nerubians simply weren’t smart enough to execute complex battlefield maneuvers.

Fortunately, the problem was easily solved by the Queens granting sapience to the most capable members of the caste.

The newly sapient Flyers and Skitterers were not only very capable of controlling and directing the rest of their caste, but they also developed a form of Intuitive Magic that increased their strength while leading a swarm.

With this, Azjol-Nerub succeeded in forming an army that consisted of large swarms of Nerubian Flyers and Skitteres, arachnathids, and baseline nerubian Warriors. The army would quickly overwhelm their enemies with their numerical superiority while the traditional nerubian forces focused on ambushing vulnerable targets.

After reforming their military, Azjol-Nerub might have succeeded in defeating the vrykul in the second Nerubian-Vrykul War, if they hadn’t made a fatal mistake.

For reasons that remained unexplained in the historical records, High King Anub’Zikith made the extremely foolish decision to attempt an assault on Ulduar with the intention of stealing its secrets.

In a single day, a large section of the army that had been painstakingly prepared by Azjol-Nerub was destroyed by Ulduar’s defenses, and the vrykul immediately took advantage.

Despite losing a large portion of their forces, the second Nerubian-Vrykul War lasted for many years as the nerubian Flyers and Skitterers proved their worth. Powerful vrykul Warriors would find themselves covered in innumerable Skitters and proto-dragons would fall from the sky as Flyers webbed their wings.

Unfortunately for Azjol-Nerub, however, their efforts were made futile when Magnar Icebreaker entered the war with a large host of powerful vrykul Warriors.

By then, Magnar was a legend to both the nerubians and the vrykul which meant that the resulting shift in morale became a death sentence for Azjol-Nerub’s war effort.

The nerubians suffered a series of humiliating defeats against Magnar that forced them to once again retreat to their underground sanctuaries, except this time the High King did not survive his failure.

Anub’Zikith was immediately deposed and his successor instituted a series of isolationist reforms and propaganda campaigns that served as the basis for their current insular policy.

For many centuries, nerubians were completely banned from leaving the underground kingdom and all mention of Ulduar was purged from the records. The only reason Krivax knew that the location they had attacked was Ulduar, was because of his meta-knowledge. In the records, the location Anub’Zikith decided to attack is only referred to as a “place of forbidden knowledge and artifacts.”

Reading Azjol-Nerub’s propaganda was almost as interesting as reading about the war. It boggles the mind how the kingdom’s leaders were able to successfully paint the surface simultaneously as a land of existential danger and pathetic life forms unworthy of consideration.

Though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, back on Earth lots of regimes were not shy about painting their enemies as both weak and a grave danger, Krivax mused as he put away the historical documents Hadix had given him. I suppose I should just try to be grateful they’ve eased up on their isolationism enough for Hadix to get me permission to travel to the surface.

For the past few months, Krivax had been studying as hard as possible to reach the requirements Vizier Hadix said he needed to reach before he would be allowed to seek out the surface races.

While Krivax was a bit annoyed, he was still grateful he only needed to convince one Vizier rather than the city’s government.

Krivax spent the next few minutes reading the Tome of Introductory Spatial Magic that Hadix assigned him to study before he was interrupted by a loud sound coming from his chest.

Flinching at the sudden noise, Krivax looked down to see the web he’d infused with a time-delayed alarm spell glowing brightly and releasing the noisy ringing sound.

Crap! I forgot about my spar with Masruk!

His friend was generally very understanding whenever Krivax lost track of time while studying, but it still made him feel bad to leave Masruk waiting.

Quickly donning the silk robes given to all new Initiates of the Circle—it felt really nice to be able to wear clothes again—Krivax left his assigned room and made his way out of the ziggurat.

The distance between the Warrior’s training yard and the Circle of Viziers was quite large, but Krivax had set his alarm to give him enough time to travel there.

Fortunately, he was recognized and quickly let in by the armored guard when he reached the Warrior’s headquarters. Unlike the Circle’s ziggurat, the Warriors resided in a part of a city that differed from the rest of the city only in its military nature.

Ignoring the armored Warriors glancing at him and his robes in curiosity, Krivax swiftly made his way to the training yard.

Thankfully, he knew where he was going, and once he reached there Masruk was easy to find.

Krivax watched as his friend practiced spear exercises, slightly surprised at how much faster his movements had become since their last meeting. Masruk spent most of his time practicing, and it showed.

Seeing no reason to delay, Krivax skittered past the other training Warriors and greeted his friend.

“Hello, Masruk. I wasn’t late for our meeting this time,” Krivax said cheerfully. After devoting most of his time to learning so he could travel to the surface as quickly as possible, he started to really look forward to his occasional spars with Masruk.

It was nice to have an excuse he could use to socialize with his friend while also training. Most members of the Circle lacked any combat training, but Hadix insisted Krivax needed to learn how to fight if he wanted to go to the surface. As a result, Krivax decided the best way to accomplish this was by frequently sparring with Masruk.

He wasn’t complaining, Azeroth was too dangerous for him to remain helpless.

Apparently, Masruk had not noticed him, because his expression was one of clear surprise when he stopped his training and turned to look at Krivax.

“Krivax, I was not expecting you so soon,” said Masruk. Krivax couldn’t help but feel pleased that his friend had finally stopped addressing him formally, it took some convincing to get him to stop calling him “Peer” or “Initiate” after they started meeting again. “Usually you would not arrive for another half hour.”

“I know. I felt bad about always being late so I asked Vizier Hadix to teach me a spell I could use to alert me at a specified time.”

Masruk merely nodded his understanding, he was not one to care about spells or magic unless it was related to combat.

“Good. Then we have more time to spar.”

Krivax snorted in amusement and moved to take his place in one of the nearby wide-open areas set aside for spars without comment. He knew from experience that Masruk would not be able to focus on socializing until they both finished their spar.

Once he was ready, Krivax turned to face Masruk—who stood on the other side of the sparring area—and indicated his readiness.

Masruk took on a ready stance, pointing his spear in Krivax’s direction and preparing to charge while Krivax prepared to start casting as soon as the spar began. They both knew they would need to use every second wisely.

Sadly, they didn’t have a referee so they would need to use their own judgment on when to start.

After a few tense moments of staring at each other, Masruk suddenly began charging as quickly as he could and Krivax started to cast a Frostbolt.

Krivax was aware that he had very little time to cast magic before Masruk reached and quickly subdued him, but thankfully he was not without options.

As Masruk charged at him with blisteringly quick speeds and swung his blunted blade at Krivax’s side, three things happened simultaneously.

First, Krivax finished casting his Frostbolt, sending a projectile of frost into Masruk’s side. The spell did not create any actual ice, but the frost magic carried a kinetic portion that caused Masruk to stagger.

Second, a long string of silk was shot from Krivax’s spinneret into one of the nearby walls, which he promptly used to pull himself away from the Warrior.

Third, Krivax threw a ball of silk—one which he’d imbued with a spell through spellweaving before the fight—at Masruk.

Well, calling it a spell might be too generous.

While spellweaving was powerful, it was a complex magical art that didn’t just allow him to store whatever spell he wanted and use it whenever he felt like it. Learning how to weave a spell into his silk was almost as difficult as learning the spell in the first place. Krivax simply didn’t have enough for that given his other obligations.

But even if he could, the mana infused into the silk would not recuperate until the spell was unleashed. If that weren’t the case then the Viziers would have already taken over the world by machine-gunning out Pyroblasts at everything in their way.

Fortunately, throwing a bunch of arcane energy into a strand of silk and crushing it into a ball was both cheap in terms of mana and rather simple.

As Krivax was pulled towards the wall, the ball of silk attached itself to Masruk’s side. Even as he started to cast his next Frostbolt, Krivax willed the arcane energy in the silk ball to release itself, causing Masruk to be knocked down by the improvised arcane missile.

There was a limit to how much arcane magic he could stuff inside of a silk ball safely, and that limit was actually rather small. Thankfully, while his arcane silk bomb was a bit weak, it was still enough to knock Masruk over given he’d already been pushed off balance by the Frostbolt.

Krivax ruthlessly fired a second Frostbolt at his friend while he was knocked down and started casting another.

Even though he currently held the advantage in the spar due to his trick, Krivax knew he could still lose the fight. Masruk could take a lot of punishment before being forced to yield and Krivax was now backed against the wall, meaning he could not use his silk to run away again.

He’d not yet learned many spells he could cast while moving, so was forced to stand his ground and continue throwing Frostbolts.

The second Frostbolt hit, but Masruk merely grunted, picked himself off the ground, and started charging Krivax for the second time, albeit with less speed due to the Frostbolt’s slowing effect.

When the third hit, Masruk was visibly straining himself not to concede, but still he charged.

Krivax was impressed, while they were both obviously holding back since this was a friendly spar, three Frostbolts at that strength would have been enough to force a concession the last time they met. It was good to see his friend improve himself.

Just as he was about to cast the fourth and hopefully final Frostbolt, he was surprised to find his concentration interrupted as a rock crashed into his chest. The rock was not enough to actually injure him, but it did succeed in slowing down his casting.

With a burst of speed he should not be capable of after tanking three Frostbolts, Masruk quickly closed the distance and swung his spear into Krivax’s side.

Krivax winced but didn’t panic. Normally, such a blow would fully interrupt his spell and decide the result of the spar, but this time he had a trick up his sleeve.

Instead of his casting being interrupted when the blunted blade struck him an icy barrier materialized and absorbed a portion of the blow’s strength.

Krivax could see Masruk’s surprise as he finished casting the fourth Frostbolt directly into his chest.

He was also sure Masruk could see the surprise in Krivax’s eyes when that failed to end the spar.

For a moment, he worried that his friend was continuing the spar past a safe point out of a desire for victory, but he quickly dismissed the thought. Masruk was far too honest and cared too much about the safety of those around him to allow a friendly spar to become unsafe.

From there, the fight devolved into Krivax scrambling—and failing—to fight off a fully armored Warrior in melee range. Imagine how surprised he was when a lucky blast of unrefined arcane magic to the face actually resulted in Masruk conceding.

The two young nerubians spent the next few minutes catching their breath and hydrating in companionable silence. Not for the first time, Krivax wondered how the nerubian cardiovascular system functioned and how his body managed to not overheat without sweat glands.

After a moment, Krivax dismissed the matter as magical bullshit, like the rest of his body’s oddities.

Once the two of them caught their breath, they started to discuss the details of the spar and give each other advice. Krivax curiously asked his friend how he was able to withstand so many Frostbolts.

Apparently, one of Masruk’s teachers taught him how to use his Intuitive Magic to dampen incoming damage.

Masruk, don’t you know that using multiple specs is too overpowered?

Krivax had no room to complain, however. He was perfectly capable of using ice, fire, and arcane spells, even if he did favor ice.

Masruk then asked him about the Ice Barrier spell, and he explained that Vizier Hadix had insisted that he learn it.

“Krivax, what drives you to learn magic with such fervor? You have explained to me that your mentor requires this of you, but you have not shared your goals.”

Krivax shifted nervously as he considered his friend’s question. Until now, Masruk had never outright asked about his future goals and Krivax had never volunteered the information.

He would be… disappointed if his friend shared the xenophobic attitude of the rest of their people. However, he knew this wasn’t something he could hide forever, so it was best to just rip off the bandaid.

“Well, you know that I asked to be designated to the Surface World Research Division, right? I want to connect our people to the other races that live in this world because I really believe we can all benefit a lot from dialogue and cooperation. A lot of our people consider the other races primitive and unworthy of attention, but I want to change that kind of thinking”

Masruk was quiet as he processed his friend’s words. He was aware that other kinds of people existed, but he had never put much thought into them. Unless they were a threat to his home, then why should he care about them?

His friend’s interests seemed strange to him, but Krivax had always had a different perspective compared to the rest of their cluster. Masruk had long grown used to his friend's eccentricities, so he would try to show interest in Krivax’s passions.

“These other races. Do they have strong Warriors?”

When he heard Masruk’s question, Krivax couldn’t help but chuckle in surprise and relief.

“Well, I think they should. I don’t know for certain, but neither does anybody else. Seems like something worth figuring out, no?”

Krivax tried to persuade his friend to be interested in the world outside of Azjol-Nerub with stories about dragons, the Drakkari’s Loa, and foreign magic, but it was only when he started talking about the vrykul that Masruk became visibly interested.

“These vrykul, they are powerful Warriors who all went to sleep? They defeated us in a war?”

The nerubians were aware of the slumbering vrykul and generally did their best to stay away from their resting grounds. Even after many millennia, Azjol-Nerub was not interested in a third Nerubian-Vrykul War after how poorly the first two went.

“Yes, they’re very strong. They even forced the kingdom to change its military doctrine,” Krivax said excitedly. Even if their interests were a bit different, it was nice to see Masruk curious about something outside of Azjol-Nerub.

Eventually, after exhausting his knowledge about the documented feats of strength displayed by vrykul Warriors and then explaining what he knew about Drakkari Warriors, Masruk made a surprising announcement.

“I will join you when you go to the surface,” said Masruk.

“Why?” Krivax asked, befuddled. “You’ve never expressed an interest in the surface before today, why would you want to go there now?”

“The surface seems unexpectedly dangerous. If I go with you to the surface world, not only will I be able to meet the Warriors of the other races and see their skill with my own eyes, but I will also be able to protect you from these threats.”

Krivax was not quite sure how to react. Nerubians did not often express concern for one another, so he was touched by Masruk’s worry. He was not certain if Hadix would agree to allow Masruk to accompany him to the surface, but it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Over the long years of peace, the Viziers had accumulated significantly more political power compared to the Warriors. Assigning a relatively unimportant Warrior like Masruk to protect Krivax on the surface should not be too much of an issue.

“Really? I’m touched. Thank you, Masruk. I will be much safer on the surface if I am accompanied by Masruk, Defender of the Weak.”

“For some reason, I feel like you are mocking me,” Masruk said evenly.

“Why would you think that? Anyone with sense would feel safer in the presence of Masruk, Guardian of the Helpless.”

“Given you are indeed weak and flimsy, I feel like these titles are appropriate.”

Krivax and Masruk spent the rest of their meeting bantering and catching each other up with their respective training.

When Krivax left to return to his studies, he felt a little more eager to finally finish his training. He was very close to fulfilling the requirements Vizier Hadix set out for him to be permitted to travel to the surface.

Krivax was already motivated to learn as quickly as possible by the threat of the Lich King, but now that his friend wished to join him, he was feeling even more impatient to finally set foot outside the underground kingdom for the first time.

I wonder how Masruk will react when he sees the sky.