Rise of the Horde

275 Chapter 27Commander Lastam arrived the center of the town and his expressionless face showed a bit of confusion after noticing the numbers of people gathered there. He knew that they didn’t suffer that much casualties for their numbers to become so few, “Where are the others?” he directed at the closest hound member to him as he wanted to find out what was going on. “They might not have been informed yet sir and the messengers also are yet to return.”

The commander of the hounds clicked his tongue in annoyance as he headed towards where his elite members were at to join them. His men found a nearby tavern and liberated its supply of booze as they waited for the others to arrive at the assigned gathering point. “Boss!” one of his oldest companions greeted him while offering him a mug of booze which he gladly received after dismounting from his steed. “Here boss! Sit here!” someone offered him a seat around the biggest table which had the most booze.

Lastam joined in with his elites as he enjoyed the booze with them while the new bloods who joined them were left there standing as they watched with envy while gulping down their saliva as means to ease their drying throats who were thirsting for some booze. “There is still a lot of time… Give the newbies some booze to enjoy.” Commander Lastam commanded which garnered cheers from the men who joined their group.

Booze was distributed among those who were gathered in the center of town and more alcohol were soon freed from the nearby taverns as they made their way in the hands of the men gathered there.

Captain Kertakk and few of his sergeants were snooping around close to the center of the town as they observed the movements of their enemies. He was soon relieved after noticing that their foes don’t have plans to resume their attacks just yet, “Get all the archers to retreat back to the castle… You and you… come with me. We will go and search for our comrades who might be still hiding in town after missing the runners.” The captain didn’t want to miss a single soldier of his if he can since they would every single one of them in the defense of the castle when their foes will finally decide that they had enough celebrating for the meantime and continue on with their assault.

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The sentry who lighted the beacon and survived the attack of the hounds since he was still asleep when the happened attack buried the remains of his comrade near the foot of the tower where the beacon was at. He knew that heading towards the town would be suicide which is why he decided not to go there and instead opted to head towards the City of Alsenna where he might be able to start a new life. Everything that was of value that he found, he took it with him in his journey as he also took those who belonged to his fallen comrades after convincing himself that the dead had no use for such things. With a small fortune in his possession, he was confident in starting a new life and so he began his journey to the north after thanking Faerush for keeping alive.

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Khao’khen and his group noticed the wrecked gate and the dead bodies at the entrance to the town which prompted him to halt their advance since he wanted to find out first what was going on. “Please… Don’t be let it be the trolls.” He was now more worried than ever after seeing the sight of the corpses that was all over the place and when they got closer to the previous battlefield, he felt relief after seeing that there were no trolls among the dead which meant that it wasn’t the trolls who attacked the town but humans.

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Adhalia frowned after noticing that the attackers were also her fellow Ereians judging by the quality of their gears and their skin, “What’s going on with the kingdom?” she was confused on what would be the reason for her own people to fight with each other. She hoped that the new king wasn’t crazy enough to do what she feared which was to slaughter all those who didn’t obey his wishes.

Pelko and the riders with him requested permission from the chieftain for them to enter the town to try and find out what was happening to which Khao’khen agreed since he really needed to grasp such information in order for him to know how to proceed. With the permission granted by the chief, Pelko and four other riders entered through the destroyed gateway with caution. He decided that they should be in such a small group as to not be easily spotted by those who are participating in the battle.

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Atef’s group made the first move as they charged forward with their weapons raised while infusing their bodies with their battle energy, their sheer number managed to overpower the momentum of Lishtal’s group as they focused on defending. Loud cheers broke out among the audience as the fighting finally began, Lishtal was infuriated by the actions of the audience as he felt that he was reduced into a fighter in the arena who had to fight in order to please the audience.

He and the other hounds maintained a tight circular formation as means to protect each other’s rear and flanks since their enemies started encircling their group and even those who haven’t awakened their battle energies among their foes were giving them pressure as they would strike out of nowhere while they were busy fending of an attack from someone among their foes who had awakened their battle energy. Annoyed by their actions, Lishtal began targeting them and sent blade energies after blade energies towards them as means to cut down the number of their foes quickly but Atef didn’t let him do as he pleased as he protected his members from the attacks of Lishtal while maintaining a mocking smile on his face as he repelled his attacks with his own blade energies.