Rise of the Horde

248 Chapter 24Out in the open desert, Khao’khen was leading four of the horde’s warband as they chased after the group of enemies that left the city and if they leave them be then the news of the City of Alsenna being siege by orcs would spread all across the lands of Ereia which he didn’t want to happen. He had specifically tasked Skorno, Haguk and Dhug’mhar to raid the surroundings of the city to the ground and drive its residents towards the city and not away from it and they were given an order that no one must get pass by them from within the city to the outside but from the outside towards the city, they don’t have to intervene.

Such arrangements were done since Khao’khen wanted chaos and fear to spread within the city as survivors of the attack of the trolls and orcs that trickled in inside the city would recount the tales of their survival to their new friends and the more people that gets inside the city, the more mouth that needed to be fed by the rulers of the city. Sure they were sending in extra bodies inside the city which may be use by the one in charge of the city to man the walls but it would also mean that they needed more supplies to maintain such extra troops and they are more likely to be subpar than newly trained soldiers when it comes to fulfilling their new role.

If the walls of the city can’t be breached with minimal losses, Khao’khen already had a backup plan at the ready which was to starved the people who are turtling behind the mighty walls. The more that the siege would drag on, the more advantageous it is for them since unlike their foes who are encircled and cut out from the rest of the world who had no way to get supplies since even with magic, food can’t just appear out of nowhere, well unless they had a mage who is talented in space related magic.

Out in the open desert, the four warbands under the lead of Khao’khen were moving with all haste as they were intending to engage in a fight as soon as possible to vent their frustrations. Along the way, they met up with another pair of messengers from Haguk which informed them that their targets were two hours ahead of them and according to their report, the enemies were moving slow in their march as they had some heavy carriages with them which might contained some supplies or wealth by someone in the group.

Khao’khen can’t help himself but smile, if he had to make a guess, the carriages that was being dragged along by their targets contained the wealth of some wealthy individual and he was sure of it that the person was a noble of Ereia. He shook his head as he smiled but then he caught sight of someone among the warbands that was following him, a skinny orc that was wearing the same armor as the Yurakks but his stature was clearly familiar to him and as he focused his gaze onto the certain orc, the orc averted his gaze as he bowed his head then started moving around the formation to hide himself.

“Gur’kan! I know you are there! Come out to the front!” he shouted helplessly as he can’t send him back to the camp since they were already far enough from it and since he was already here, he’ll just make use of him in the upcoming battle since he knew that the skinny orc was also already bored after doing almost nothing inside the camp but overseeing its construction and keeping discipline among their warriors. His shout seemed to have fallen onto deaf ears as the figure that he was staring at seemed to be doing his best to avoid him.

“Come to the front or do you want me to assign you more job that requires you to list and read a lot of details!?” he threatened which caused the figure that he was looking at to be stiff for a moment as he knew Gur’kan dreaded such things the most. He had complained that his other tasks should be assigned to someone else as he was already the War Chief of the Yohan First Horde and he must keep his entire attention into fulfilling it which was to led the horde to battle and assist the Horde Chief but Khao’khen knew that he was just fed up with keeping records of the horde. The figure seemed to have resigned to his fate as he moved forward and marched beside Khao’khen but what Khao’khen didn’t expect was that another figure accompanied Gur’kan and as they removed their helmets, he didn’t know if he should be surprised or annoyed.

The two War Chiefs of the horde seemed to have been bored, too bored that they disguised themselves as one of the Yurakks and wanted to join the battle and judging by the burnt marks on their armors, they must have also participated in the attempts at the enemy gates with the rams.

“Chief, scouts!” one of the riders of the Warg Cavalry shouted as he pointed at a silhouette in the distance. Khao’khen squinted his eyes to have a better look but all he could see was a cloud of dust and a blurry figure in the distance.

.....

“Should we chase them?” the rider questioned as he and his peers were preparing to give chase and were only waiting for the command of their chieftain.

“Just let them be. We will be found out sooner or later and giving chase would be meaningless since some of them would surely entangle with your group while one or two of them would make a run for it and report to their superiors with all haste.” Khao’khen replied.

“The chief is right, there are more than forty of them in total which I doubt even with your strength would be able to handle all of them and keep them in place and prevent even a single one of them from escaping.” Trot’thar joined in as he wanted to make himself useful to the chieftain.

After knowing that there were more than forty enemies in total, the rider’s excitement died down as he knew that the numbers of their enemy would be too much with just the four of them.

“Four of them already separated from the group.” Trot’thar continued while keeping his gaze on the silhouettes as he knew that he was only one who has the capability to see such details from a distance and he had to fulfill his duty bounded to his ability.

*****

More than an hour of march away from where Khao’khen and his warriors were at, the Ereian nobles and merchants were keeping themselves busy by drinking some wine to calm their nerves while their hired guards moved around with them in silence. The biggest group and probably strongest that they managed to hire was the members of the Blade Crows who were the ones leading the way as all the other hired mercenaries and soldiers knew that they were weaker than them and the rule that strongest should be the leader also applies to them as they silently followed the arrangements of the Blade Crows.

“Sir, some of our scouts have returned and they just discovered a part of the orcish army that is after us, they are probably more or less an hour of march away from us and their estimated number is more than two thousand.” One of the members of the Blade Crows reported to their captain after hearing the reports of the scouts that have just returned.

“Hmm…” the captain of the Blade Crows nodded then went silent as he was deciding if they should just ditch the Ereians and let them be at the mercy of the orcs or stay with them for the time being. He was more inclined to leave them be but if by just a slim chance that they survived then the reputation of their mercenary group would surely take a hit as their actions of abandoning their employers after accepting their request would be known to others which he didn’t want to happen and he knew that the leader of their organization would surely have his head if that happens. After some careful considerations, he finally made his decision and that is to stay with their employers and fulfill their job or until he can make sure that they would be killed by their enemies since as their assassin friends like to say “Dead man tell no tales”.

“Tell those bastards that if they want to keep their lives, they should abandon the carriages and only take the essentials with them or else the enemy army would be able to catch up to us.” He ordered as he shifted his gaze towards the luxurious carriages that was in the middle of their formation.

Sounds of complaint from the nobles and merchant soon reached his ears but he paid no heed to it as he replied to them that their lives are at their hands if they won’t obey his arrangements. Gritting their teeth in anger, the wealthy nobles and merchants mounted the steeds that was pulling their carriages as they had no other choice but to obey but they all agreed that they would send out letters of complaints to the headquarters of the Blade Crows when they have time. The captain of the Blade Crows knew that some or all of those bastards that they were escorting would soon give him problems but he would just let them be for the moment as he had other things to focus on.