User:Minionman/Battle of Mt. Hyjal

The battle of Mt. Hyjal was a battle fought between the burning legion and a temporary alliance of Night Elves, the horde, and members of the alliance who would settle Theramore soon after. The burning legion, led by archimonde, attempted to capture the current world tree, both to increase archimonde's power, and to assist in destroying the world of azeroth, while the Night elves, horde, and alliance attempted to prevent this from happening. The battle was on of the largest fought in recent years, and also one of the bloodiest, with almost all of the demons, night elves, and undead being killed, and a large fraction of the horde and alliance soldiers as well. Although the burning legion successfully reached the summit of the mountain, archimonde was killed and the remaining burning legion fighters defeated soon after.

Background
The battle occurred during the second attempt by the burning legion to take over azeroth. In previous months, the burning legion created scourge had attacked and defeated the human nations of Lordaeran and Dalaran, before summoning archimonde and many other demons into the world. The burning legion than invaded Kalimdor, first using a group of orcs to kill the night elf demigod Cenarius, and than invading and corrupting the forest directly.

during the scourge invasion, a mysterious figure had convinced Jaina Proudmoore, a young wizard from Dalaran, and Thrall, the leader of most free orcs in the eastern kingdoms, to travel to the currently unknown continent of Kalimdor. the two groups at first fought, but soon were grudgingly working together to defeat the burning legion invasion. The Night elves, however, led by the priestess tyrande, at first fought these two other groups, preferring instead to gain assistance from more traditional night elf allies, such as forest creatures and sleeping druids.

As fighting in ashenvale continued, large section of the forest became corrupted, and creatures such as furbolgs and some of the ancient, moving trees, that had once been supporters of Night elves became aggressive and wild. Satyrs, corrupted night elves who had remained relatively dormant for long periods of time, now emerged and took over large sections of the forest. The burning legion, however, also suffered losses, including the dread lord's leader tichondrius.

The defeat of tichondrius had a number of effects on the war in ashenvale. Archimonde had at first planned to conquer the forest relatively slowly and carefully, using his demons to continue to corrupt the forest, conquering ashenvale in a similar manner to how Lordaeran had been defeated earlier. With the two strongest sources of resistance gone, archimonde than expected to use the full burning legion army to take over and destroy Azeroth, than move to the next world as was typical of the burning legion. However, Tichondrius's defeat scared archimonde, and convinced him to speed up his plans, attacking the center of night elf power directly, rather than waiting for the full corruption of the forest. Archimonde began preparing a large force of undead and demons to attack the world tree.

At the same time, the defeat of tichondrius convinced the Night Elves that other allies were needed. By this point the night elves had brought all the forest allies they could into the conflict, and were still slowly loosing to the burning legion's corruption. Tichondrius himself had only been defeated using demonic power. many night leaders now became receptive to allying with the horde and alliance in ashenvale, who were also fighting the burning legion. At this point, the mysterious figure, who had sent Thrall and Jaina to kalimdor, now appeared again to convince the three groups to ally.

Moonglade Battle
Many alliance and horde fighters were relieved at this alliance, and although grudgingly accepted by many night elves, most k new that they would need the assistance to have a chance to stop the invasion. Working together, the three groups managed to win several smaller battles. Their main concern, though, was the demonic presence near the night Elf capital of Moonglade. during the invasion, a small group of demons had managed to reach a bluff near the city of moonglade. The demonic group was small, and not powerful enough to defeat the city guards, so the night elves ignored it while dealing with larger threats. However, as time went on, the demonic force became larger and more entrenched. Although not particularly large, the demons were well positioned to corrupt the land surrounding the city and the Night Elves could not spare the soldiers to force them out. At first, the night elves had planned to simply abandon moonglade and move the citizens somewhere else, but with the temporary alliance formed with the orcs and humans, the three groups produced a new plan to defend the city.

The demons had prepared themselves well for a night elf attack. They had cleared the trees immediately around their position, preventing the Night elves from using the usual ambush fighting style. The forests an intermediate distance away were filled with satyrs, who could not fight the night elves out, but could warn the demons of an upcoming attack. Once any Night Elves reached open land, they could easily be defeated by the demons. The demons had also prepared to set the forest on fire should the Night Elves attempt to hide in it. If the night elves attempted to attack in the open, the demons maintained a number of corrupted ancients and corrupted vine plants, that could entangle the panther mounts of the night elves liked to use.

Although well defended from Night elves, the demonic group was not as well prepared to fight off a horde or alliance attack. However, up to this point the alliance and horde had no idea of Moonglade's existence, and had never even approached the city. When the two groups joined the night elves, however, moonglade was one of the first locations where the Night elves asked for help. The alliance and horde agreed to send small force to the area, but did not have many soldiers available themselves. As the forces were sent, the night Elves learned that the burning legion was preparing a so called "corruption artifact", a specially prepared item used to corrupt the surrounding lands. The artifact was being taken to moonglade by a dreadlord, Thacalus. The information was sent to the soldiers, but little more could be done.

When the horde and alliance reached moonglade, the demonic forces already there were completely unprepared. The alliance and orc soldiers walked brazenly through the forest, approached the demonic position, and overwhelmed the demons there with few losses. The small army than prepared for the arrival of Thacalus, hiding in nearby forests to watch for the arrival of the demons. The demons traveled in two large groups, one carrying the pedestal for the demonic artifact, the other carrying the artifact itself, and guarding Thacalus. While both groups were prepared for a fight with night elves, they were not prepared for an attack by horde soldiers and especially horsemen. both groups were easily ambushed and destroyed, including thacalus.

Although this battle involved small numbers of forces, the defeat of another burning legion leader convinced archimonde to further focu on his plan to attack Hyjal. The Night Elves, horde, and alliance now realized that their forces could be strong when working together.

Preparation for Battle
Throughout the invasion, the night Elves had suspected that the burning legion would try to attack the world tree, and as much as possible had prepared the mountain's defenses. Unfortunately the fighting in other areas had consumed much time and energy, and few resources could be spared to prepare defenses for the world tree. The night elves had managed to move some ancient defenders to the summit, and as much as possible prepared the surrounding trees and forests for fighting. Furion himself had been planning for ways to defend the world tree should the military forces be defeated. Shortly after the battle at moonglade, however, the Night elves discovered archimonde's plans for the world tree. The alliance and horde did not fully realize why the world tree was important, but did realize how powerful it was, and how dangerous such power would be in the hands of the burning legion.

As archimonde prepared his own plan to attack the mountain, the Alliance, Horde, and Night Elves prepared their own defenses. They knew that Archimonde would not risk being in battle himself, but instead would clear the way to the world tree using his other forces. Once the way was cleared, Archimonde would ascend to the world tree and capture the power for himself. Archimonde's attack would undoubtedly be large, but information beyond this was fuzzy. Based on this knowledge, the alliance, horde, and night elf leaders agreed that, rather than attempt to defeat the demonic army in a large battle, a task that might be close to impossible, they would defend the mountain until some other method could be used to defeat Archimonde. Furion Stormrage had developed such a plan, he would summon as many ancient spirits as possible to the world tree, and using its power, the forest spirits could completely drain and disperse archimonde's power. Such a summoning would take time, however, and the Night elves, horde, and alliance would have to delay the demons for as long as possible to allow the plan to succeed. As quietly as possible, Furion travelled ot the world tree to begin the summoning.

The rest of the Night elves, Horde, and alliance prepared defenses as best they could. All agreed that hit and run attacks would prove useful in delaying the demon and undead armies from approaching the mountain, and planned to use raiders and skirmishers in the forests surrounding the mountain to delay the demons. The three forces, however, still did not trust that their separate fighting styles could mesh, so prepared three sets of defenses on the mountain itself.

The alliance built their defenses on a relatively flat section of ground near the bottom of the mountain. Based on the demons preparations, there were only a few routes up the mountain, and only one large enough for archimonde's army to travel on. The flat section of ground was along this path, and was just behind a smaller choke point. Across this point, alliance masons built a stone wall as quickly as they could, with smaller defensive sections built behind it should the wall be broken. These defensive areas would be manned by riflemen, mages, and Night elf archers. Should the demons break through, the ground was good for horsemen, though somewhat cramped. A few smaller walls were added to provide further cover for riflemen and mages as well.

The horde planned its defense on a narrower section of the path. The approach to the orc defenses contained several narrow paths, surrounded by steep drops to the sides. These paths would funnel the large attacking armies in a small area, perfect targets for the wards used by darkspear witch doctors, and for the warstomps and shockwaves used by the horde's tauren fighters, and preventing the strong horde foot soldiers from being surrounded. Thrall also arranged for a goblin supplier to travel to Hyjal and mine the approach paths.

The Night Elves would support both these defensive efforts as best they could, and should the demons break through, a final defense was prepared at the top of the mountain, built in a craggy and rough area that would slow down demons and undead, but that night elves could move through more adeptly. Thick vegetation was also allowed to grow in the nearby forests, with specially prepared paths, to allow the Night elves to use hit and run fighting as effectively as possible at the top of the mountain. the hight elves also prepared messengers, should Hyjal be attacked, all night elf forces receiving the message would fly to the mountain to defend it.

Archimonde's plan of attack was relatively simple. His army would overwhelm the defenders using a mixture of all types of demons and undead. Rather than attack in small groups, the burning legion would attack in large waves, to avoid being destroyed piece by piece by the defenders.

The Battle
Five days after Furion began his summoning ritual on the Mountain, archimonde's army was ready, and bagan traveling to the mountain. Furion's ritual was not yet complete. Archimonde's movement was spotted by scouts, and messengers were sent throughout the surrounding region to bring forces to Hyjal. Within the day, surrounding horde, alliance, and Night elf forces had broken off whatever fighting they had been doing, and traveled to Hyjal to prepare defenses. Archimonde's armies took longer ot reach the mountain, and only reached the surrounding forests the next day.

Outer Skirmishes
As Archimonde's army entered by the forests, it was attacked by the defending skirmishers and raiders. Sentinels and darkspear hunters attacked with arrows or thrown weapons, and wold raiders and horsemen attacked whenever they could. The demons were also attacked from the air, with Chimeras, wyvern riders, hippogryphs and riders, and others.

Throughout the battle, these raiders did what they could to slow down demonic reinforcements, and at first, were able to kill or delay a significant number of attackers. As the battle continued, however, the demons and undead traveled in larger and larger groups that were more difficult to delay. Some raiders organized into larger groups, others focused more on killing leaders than delaying attackers, but overall, the skirmishers and raiders were not as soccessful as expected. As the battle continued, many found other paths up the mountain and assisted in the battles there. the air attacks were more successful, thousandsof demons were killed by chimera, gryphon rider, and wyvern rider attacks, though these raiders took damage themselves from the demon and undead flyers.

Despite the raider's attacks, by midday, Archimonde had reached a flat sectuion of the mountain near the main path, and prepared a base for his arriving forces. As demons and undead arrived, Archimonde would organize them, and when enough arrived, they would be sent up the mountain.

The Alliance Section: First Day
As archimonde's army approached the mountain, riflemen, archers, and mages prepared themselves on the defensive wall. Behind the wall, mortar teams assembled as well and prepared to fire on the approaching army.

Unfortunately for the defenders, the main defensive wall was hastily built, and soon began to crack under the demonic attacks. After the first three waves, the wall had been completely broken through, and it was destroyed within another two. the defenders were than forced to fight on the flat ground behind.

The first four waves of attacks mainly consisted of scourge, with some demons mixed in. Archimonde expected that the large numbers of scourge in these waves would evoke memories of fighting in Lordaeran, demoralizing the alliance defenders. Wit the threat of world destruction facing them, however, and experience fighting much stronger demons, the alliance defenders fought fiercely, easily destroying the first waves of attackers. Even as their protective wall was destroyed between the third and fifth waves of attacks, many of the archerts and riflement continued to fire, only moving from their section of the wall as it was about to be destroyed. Archimonde's first five waves were completyely destroyed, with few defending losses.

Sometime into the afternoon on the first day of battle, the alliance front wall was destroyed completely by the fifth attack wave. Although the demonic attackers had been defeated, Archimonde expected that the next wave would be easily be defeated without the wall's protection. Once again, a large wave of undead attackers was prepared to attack the human defenders. With the wall destroyed, Archimonde expected these undead attackers to easily destroy the alliance defenders as had occured on open ground in Lordaeran.

When the wave reached the alliance defenses, the burning legion commanders expected the defenders, with no more wall for protection, to run away in fear. Instead, the defending foot soldiers formed a wall, with archers firing from behind, and riflemen firing from nearby low walls. The burning legion attacked, but was unable to push through the defenders. Soon afterwards, alliance horsemen attacked, and destroyed many of the undead and most of the demons. The wave was again soon defeated.

Archimonde, not fully realizing that the defenders were no longer scared of undead attackers, sent a similar attack wave towards the defenses, but this time led by an experienced Lich commander from Northrend. This wave was once again defeated in a similar manner. As the sun began to set, another similar wave, this time led by a dread lord commander, was sent to attack the human defenders, but was again defeated.

After this last wave, Archimonde stopped his attacks for the night, partly out of fear of night elf attacks, but also to allow more of his forces to arrive, and to plan for the next day. Although large numbers of attackers had been killed, Archimonde had far more undead and demons he could draw upon. During the night, many of the trees surrounding his base were destroyed, to expand the base and make night elf attacks less likely.

Throughout the night, more alliance and nigth elf defenders arrived at the battleground. Few of the defenders slept for very long or deeply, many were expected further attacks during the night. The alliance defenders had lost very few soldiers to archimonde's attacks, but some were worried over what would happen should more demons rather than undead attack.

The Alliance: Second Day
Through the night, Archimonde prepared the attack waves for the next day's fighting. He had communicated with burning legion and scourge commanders throughout azeroth, and could now access more forces than he had before. Archimonde also realized after the failed first day's attacks that the scourge did not scare the alliance defenders, and was prepared to use more demonic attackers in his next waves. His attacking waves would also be larger. the first such wave was prepared shortly after sunrise, and made its way up the mountain towards the alliance defenses.

The attack by this first wave was much bloodier than the previous day for the defenders. The large numbers of demons quickly broke through the front lines of alliance foot soldiers, and others lept over walls and attacked riflemen. For some, it looked like this wave of demons would defeat the defenders, but the demonic advance was stopped by several druids, along with a series of attacks by alliance knights. the first attacking wave was defeated, but at a much higher cost than most of the previous day's fighting.

After this attack, the defenders rearranged their forces to better cope with these new waves. Knights were held ready to attack groups of demons, druids were mixed into the front line of defenders, and mages were instructed to use their interference spells on demonic attackers. When the next wave attacked, the defenders handled it better, but once again, took large losses.

Knowing that he now had a winning strategy for the alliance defenders, Archimonde now sent one of his most feared leaders to lead the next attack. The pit lord Azgalor led the next wave of demonic attackers. The large pit lord broke through the human defenders himself, allowing the demonic army to force its way through the defender's lines. Azgalor himself was finally killed when a group of five druids entangled him, followed by a group of knights cutting into the pit lord with spears. By this time, however the remaining demons were rampaging through the defending armies. Eventually, the demons were defeated, but so were a large fraction of the defenders. Realizing that the next wave could well finish them off, the defenders tried to reorganize themselves as quickly as possible, and as many alliance and night elf reinforcements as could be found were called to the battle site.

Archimonde was enraged at loosing one of his most important commanders, but also realized that another similar wave could easily destroy the defenders. his next attack would be led by the dreadlord Erthanal. In the afternoon, this new wave attacked. The alliance defenders did not have time to bring many reinforcements, and were once again broken through. Realizing that the defenders had little chance of surviving the attack, or delaying the demons for much longer, Jaina, the alliance leader, prepared to teleport her remaining forces to a safer location. The alliance forces continued to delay the demons as long as possible, but soon the demons had completely broken through the alliance forces and controlled a path up the mountain. Many alliance soldiers continued to fight, including Jaina's second in command, the Paladin Reginal Yrding. Only about a third of the alliance defenders survived the battle, but had delayed the burning legion for two days, and even killed about half of the last wave of attacking demons, including Erthanal. As Jaina's forces teleported away, the surviving night elves ran to the Orc defensive base.

The Horde Defenses: Second and Third days
As the alliance defenders were being beaten back, scattered demons traveled up the mountain and reached the horde defenses. Some were killed by land mines, others were killed by horde soldiers. Soon, and organized attack containing the remnants of the previous human attacking wave approached the horde base, but with half its forces and commander dead, did little damage to the horde base. As evening approached, Archimonde prepared another wave of attackers for the horde base, similar in composition to that in the human base.

Unlike at the alliance site, the horde defenses worked as planned. Archimonde's large demonic wave was funneled into the small pathways leading to the horde armies, and the demonic attackers were blown to pieces by the land mines. Weakened by land mines and spells, the demonic attackers proved little match for the horde and night elf defenders. The attacking wave was defeated easily.

Many of the night Elves and humans were worried that, in the face of overwhelming demonic forces, many of the orcs would switch sides for survival, or to gain extra power as Grom Hellscream had done. After the first few attack waves, these fears died down, as the orcs proved loyal fighters.

As with the previous day, Archimonde stopped his attacking waves at night, both to plan the next day, and out of fear of night elf ambush. More sentinels and horde defenders were brought to the mountain as well, to prepare for the next day. Land mines were also prepared and stored. Like the alliance defenders earlier, few horde defenders slept.

Archimonde at first though that the land mines were spells of some sort, and prepared his next attack accordingly. With the night elves, alliance, and horde moving their forces to Hyjal's defense, Archimonde could also bring more of his forces to the mountain, further increasing the size of the armies he could attack with. Archimonde also summoned several demon gates, allowing further reinforcement of his armies. the attacks against the horde position would now be somewhat larger.

The first wave on the third day of battle contained a number of undead spellcasters, designed to protect his demons from the supposed new spells of the land mines. these spellcasters proved ineffective, and were killed quickly by the horde defenders. The attacking wave had little success, not achieving anything more than the last wave on the previous day.

Unsure of how to protect his forces from the mysterious land mines, Archimonde tried a number of strategies with his next ways. He sent a large group of ghouls up the slope, to absorb the spells and protect his demons behind. He also sent some shades up the mountain as well, to see if something invisible was causing the explosions. Archimonde also prepared flyers for battle, to approach the horde defenses from a different direction and kill any spellcasters who appeared to be damaging the demons. Archimonde also began to worry about the time it was taking to break through the defenses and reach the summit. He did not know of Furion's plan, but did suspect that, similar to the closing of the well of eternity in the first invasion, the defenders were planning some other sort of defense for the world tree. With the next attacking wave, Archimonde wished to send more burning legion commanders up the mountain, but did not want to risk loosing another one without first finding out what the land mines were.

The first wave on the third day proves a disaster. As planned, the ghouls did absorb most of the damage from the land mines. The shades, however, were spotted by defenders and killed before they could see the land mines. Archimonde had also sent too many ghouls, and while many were killed by the mines, the remaining ghouls blocked the stronger demons behind them from reaching the orc defenders. These demons were killed or damaged with spells and ranged weapons while the ghouls in front were easily defeated by horde defenders. Horde shamans, and druids of the talon, were also skills at manipulating weather, so Archimonde's flyers found themselves buffeted, by strong winds, and killed easily by defending wyverns and storm crows.

Archimonde sent two more similar waves up the mountain. Both waves were defeated in a similar manner as the first wave, but Archimonde's shades had seen the goblin land mines implanted in the ground. Knowing that the land mines might explain the explosions, Archimonde ordered his spellcasters to use firestorms and war stomps to damage or destroy the mines. He also sent another pit lord, Morgammon, to lead this attack.

In this next attack, the demonic spells did damage the land mines, but enough remained to explode against the demons. Several mines exploded under Morgammon, blowing off three of his four legs. Morgammon was left helpless on the ground as his demons were killed by the horde defenders. Again, this wave was defeated, and after the attack, several orcs and Tauren soldiers walked to Morgammon's body, and rolled it over a cliff, where Morgammon was finally killed.

Archimonde was once again furious at the loss of one of his pit lords. For the final wave that day, Archimonde sent a large number of shades, and ordered his army to focus directly on destroying mines before attacking orcs. Archimonde sent two commanders this time, a Lich, Rage Winterchill, and a dread lord, Serthireth. if one should die, another one could take control of the army.

This attack proved more successful than previous attempts. However, Archimonde's armies were still being funneled into small paths, and still dealing with wards, spells, and the strength of the grunt and Tauren front line fighters. Archimonde's attack did more damage to the defenders than previous waves, but still was unable ot break through. After this final attack, Archimonde prepared again for the next day's attacks.

Horde Defenses: Fourth Day
Throughout the fourth day, Archimonde continued to launch waves of attacks. Archimonde had managed to contact off of his burning legion commanders, and was now bringing all of his forces on Kalimdor to the battle. the attacking waves became larger than ever, but were still unable to penetrate the horde's defenses. The attackers were still being funneled through small paths, forced to fight under the effects of darkspear wards, and being pelted by spells and forced to fight grunts, Tauren, and bear druids. The orcs had adjusted their tactics with land mines, and once again several demonic waves were damaged by mines before reaching the horde defenders.

Two Liches, three dread lords, and two pit lords were killed on this day. Thousands of scourge and demons had been destroyed as well. Archimonde's attack waves had become bigger and bigger, but still were unable to break through the defending lines. Archimonde was becoming impatient wit the time it was taking to break through the defenders to the summit.

The horde defenders, however, were being worn down by the constant attacks. At the end of the fourth day, they had lost about a quarter of their defending forces. Though Furion did appear close to completing his spell, the defenders were still worried that Archimonde would find a way to break through their defenses.

Horde defenses: Fifth day
The horde's weaknesses began to show on the fifth day. As before, a large wave of demons and undead attacked the horde's position. The large wave was fought similarly as before, but the weakened horde defenses finally allowed a few demons to break through. The horde position had few defenses behind their front line, and the demons who broke through managed to kill more than their share of spellcasters and archers before being killed. The horde defenders once again fought the last wave off, but lost far more forces than in previous waves.

Their defenses were finally broken on the second wave of the fourth day. Several groups of demons broke through the horde front lines, and rampaged in the rear. the organized horde defenses completely fell apart, and demons now controlled the pathway up the mountain. As with the alliance defenses, some horde defenders preparted ot be teleported away by Jaina, while others continued to fight the demonic invaders.

Night Elf final Stand
Unfortunately for the defenders, Furion's ritual was still incomplete, leaving the Night elves alone to defend the summit from burning legion attack. Fortunately for the night elves, their messengers had traveled throughout Ashenvale, and reinforcements were streaming in all the time. These reinforcements were hastily organized as the Night elves prepared to defend the summit. Sentinels, druids ,and dryads took cover in whatever vegetation they could find, and prepared themselves on rocky outcroppings that would be difficult for the demons to cross.

Archimonde had learned from the previous battles to not underestimate the fighting ability of the defenders. to break through the final defenses, Archimonde would unleash far more powerful waves than those used against the alliance and horde defenses. Undead, Demons, and burning legion commanders of all types were sent to attack the Night elf defenses.

The attack of Archimonde's first wave against the summit resulted in one of the most savage battles ever fought on azeroth. Faced with world destruction if they failed, and the loss of immortality if they succeeded, the Night elf defenders fought ferociously and suicidally. Defenders fought with anything available, sentinels who lost their bows or throwing weapons fought with knives, if knives broken, with fists and teeth. Many defenders would not stop fighting until they were physically ripped apart by attackers. On the burning legion side, many of the demons, both to destroy potential night elf defenses, and aggressively chasing the victory they were sure was coming, destroyed forest creatures, trees, and other features of the landscape.

The wave was led by three commanders, the Doom Guard Kaz'rogal, the dread lord Anatheron, and the Pit Lord Tynidos. Anatheron was killed by archers, by Kaz'rogal and Tynidos caused great damage to the Night elf defenders, fighting off many attacks. Kaz'rogal was eventually killed by a group of huntresses and druids who fought through the demon and undead hordes, and managed ot kill the Doom Guard before themselves being overwhelmed. Tynidos was killed when several druids entangled him, allowing some ancient defenders to impale the Pit Lord using their roots until he died.

The Defenders managed to fight off the first attack on the summit, but just barely. Out of thousands of reinforcements and survivors of previous battles who had reached the summit, only around 50-60 survived. Near the end of the battle, reinforcements could not land, and were forced to shoot demonic and undead attackers from their hippogryphs. these survivors wasted no time in adjusting their defensive plans for the summit, and prepared for the next attack.

Archimonde's second attack on the summit came a few hours later. The night elves had had a chance to reinforce, and in addition had secured the assistance of some nearby Furbolg tribes and Troll tribes. Archimonde's forces were also better prepared, and once again a savage battle broke out. The night elves were better prepared to defeat Archimonde's demonic commanders, but the demons themselves were also more willing to destroy forests and other hiding places. The night elves did survive this second attack, but once again lost almost all of their forces, with only about 30 surviving out of thousands. The trolls and furbolgs fought less desperately, but still lost almost half their fighters.

As the night elf defenders organized reinforcements and prepared to defend themselves from Archimonde's next attack, they were unsure whether they could survive a third attack. Reinforcements were still flying to Hyjal, but the surrounding furbolgs and Trolls would eventually be killed, and a lucky or better prepared demonic attack could easily overrun the defenses and reach the summit. Finally, however, Furion's ritual was completed, and the spirits of the forest were prepared to destroy archimonde once he arrived at the summit.

To convince Archimonde that he had truly defeated the Night elf defenders, instead of the defenders merely retreating and arousing suspicion on Archimonde's part, 50 Night elves volunteered to stay at the summit and defend it from the last attack. No one knows what exactly what happened to these volunteers, but what is known is that archimonde's next attack destroyed the night elf defenses at the summit, Archimonde himself ascended the mountain immediately afterwards to claim the world tree's power, and was destroyed by forest spirits as he attempted to do so.

Aftermath
Though Archimonde's destruction was a great victory, much of his army still remained at the base of the mountain. The day after Archimonde's destruction, the alliance, horde, and Night elves prepared their forces and attacked these surviving demons. Without strong leadership, the demons were much easier to defeat, with little coordination. The night elves, horde, and alliance had more time to destroy this demonic army, and could use hit and run attacks to wear down the remaining demons near the mountain.

Over the next few months, the alliance, horde, and Night elves would systematically destroy the remaining demonic and undead armies scattered throughout ashenvale. With many of their best leaders killed in the battle at Hyjal, the remaining demons proved easy prey. Though some demonic groups remained hidden for several years, most of ashenvale was reclaimed within a year.

Results of the Battle
The battle was one of the most deadly in recent history. About 2/3 of the alliance and horde fighters, almost half of the Furbolg and Troll tribes at the summit of Hyjal, and almost all of the night elves and Dryads who fought in the battle were killed. The battle on its own had killed nearly 1/4 or all Night elf sentinels, and slightly less than 1/4 of the recently awakened druids. About 1/10 of all dryads in ashenvale were killed as well. The horde and alliance suffered less in percentage terms from the battle, but still lost large numbers of soldiers.

The battle also proved deadly to the legion and the scourge. Though the defenders had lost large numbers of soldiers, they had still killed many times their number of demons and undead. Almost as importantly, many of the most skilled demonic and undead leaders had been killed in the battle. no one knows what final effect these deaths will have on the burning legion, but it is known that the demons lacked leaders after the battle to properly organize the fighting in ashenvale.

Indirectly, the battle proved a disaster for the scourge. After his summoning, Archimonde had taken control of the scourge, and placed his own leaders in charge. the scourge was than used to assist the burning legion in invading Kalimdor, and most of these scourge forces were killed at Hyjal. As a whole, the scourge may have lost about a third to a half of their forces to the burning legion's invasion. Archimonde had also used scourge commanders in Ashenvale, and the loss of these commanders hurt the scourge in years to come. To command the scourge in Lordaeran, Archimonde had left his weaker dreadlords to enforce burning legion control. The weakened scourge proved unable to resist Illidan's invasion, and took further damage from the plaguelands civil wars. Over the next few years, the weaned scourge would face attacks from many sides, and would soon face defeats from the forsaken, blood elves, and human rebel groups in the Plaguelands.

Survivors of the battle had seen just how hard the other groups would fight if facing annihilation, and had experienced death and destruction beyond anything normally seen in other conflicts. As relations between the alliance and horde decayed, these survivors would become the main supporters of peaceful relations, and would restrain efforts by more aggressive leaders to expand wars between the alliance and horde.

The huge number of dead bodies, plus lingering demonic magic, damaged the landscape surrounding the battlefield for many months afterward. Apart from scavengers, wildlife was not seen near the battlefield for some time, and the area south of the mountain smelled of death and decay. Vegetation was dieseased and damaged by fumes from decaying corpses, and a few creatures became corrupted from lfetover demonic energies. The alliance, horde, and night elves were unable ot clean up the mess for some time after the battle while they destroyed the remaining demons, but as fighting fied down, several druids, shamans, mages, and laborers travelled ot the mountain to burn and bury bodies, heal vegetation, and cleanse the land of remaining demonic and deathly energies. It took about two years ot fully heal the mountain, but evetually the landscape was repaired.

The date of the battle is a day of both celebration and mourning for the Kalimdor horde, night elves, and Theramore. On the one hand, azeroth had once again resisted a demonic invasion, and the mountain's defenders had defeated a far larger number of supposedly overpowering enemy attacks. On the other hand, most night elves, and many orcs, trolls, and Theramore citizens, lost family members or friends in the battle. Survivors of the battle are widely admired throughout their respective societies, and even in the Eastern Kingdoms, are looked up to, though less so amongst the forsaken and Blood elves who have had to fight their own battles for survival.

At hyjal, the defenders had managed to kill far larger numbers of demons and undead, even though they lost the fighting portion of the battle in the end. However, over the next several years, the alliance and horde's organization would improve, larger numbers of forces would become available, and weapons would improve. When large scale wars once again sprung up against demons in Outland, and against scourge invasion in Azeroth, the alliance and horde were both well prepared to fight back on even terms.