Rise of the Horde

Amidst the cheer of his warriors, Khao\'khen felt that something wasn\'t right, he turned around quickly to see if there was something behind him but all he could see was the endless swath of sand that extends far over the horizon till his vision could see. Turning back around to face his celebrating warriors, he felt it again, like something was looking at him and waiting for a chance to strike.

Khao\'khen turned around once again and as he turned around, his eyes caught sight of huge pincers heading for him. Out of reflex and surprise, he grabbed onto the dark black pincers and kept them away from reaching his face and chest. He was thrown back and along with him was the creature that suddenly jumped at him from underbelly the sands.

"Ugh..." a groan escaped his lips as his back crashed against the rocky body of Ulfrus. His armor took most of the brunt of the impact, but he still felt some pain as the back portion of his armor crashed against his own back. Khao\'khen\'s vision was a little blurry, but he could still see the figure of the one that ambushed him. He was holding for dear life unto the pincers that kept producing snapping sounds right in front of him. There was no hell way that he was going to let go of his hold on the pincers.

"The chief!"

"Enemies!"

"Prepare for combat!"

Shouts replaced the celebratory cheers as the warriors who were with Khao\'khen waved their weapons to attack their new foe. Dughmar led his steed a distance away to gain some momentum in their charge as the rest of the Rhakaddon Cavalry followed after him quickly.

"Charge!"

Dughmar shouted as he pointed his sword at their enormous foe that was covered in pitch dark black color. Its dark carapace shined as the moonlight strike it and revealed its true form. It was an enormous scorpion that stood over seven feet tall and had gigantic pincers which were trying to snap the head of their chieftain.

The clan chief of the Rumbling Clan dropped low and stayed close to the back of his steed and tightened the grip of his legs unto the back of his mount in preparation for the incoming impact.

"Skrrrr....."

A nasty cry sounded from their new foe as it suddenly spun around and used its giant stinger on its back to swipe at Dughmar and the Rhakaddon riders. Dughmar leaned to one side of his mount to shield himself as his steed lowered its enormous head even more to counter the swipe of the colossal scorpion.

"Bang!"

"Crack!"

A resounding crash sounded as the tail of the enormous scorpion was met with the bulky horned head of Dughmar\'s Rhakaddon. The left horn of Dughmar\'s steed had its length reduced by almost a half as its sharp end was hurled away by the impact somewhere among the sands.

"Skrrrr... Krrrrr..... Skrrrr....."

The huge scorpion thrashed around in pain, which hurled Khao\'khen away as his grip on its pincers loosened while being hurled around as their foe trashed around. Khao\'khen controlled his body after regaining his sense of balance and shook off the dizziness that was plaguing his senses. He skidded a few meters after he landed on his feet, then proceeded to tumble backward uncontrollably because of the momentum of him being thrown away by their foe.

Khao\'khen stood up and clutched his temples as his vision was spinning around. He didn\'t know how many times he had tumbled, but he was sure that it was over ten. He planted his legs firmly on the ground to steady himself and looked towards their opponent, that was still squirming in agony as it spun and tossed around.

The Troll Skirmishers lined up a good distance away from the giant scorpion as they started hurling their javelins at it. A continuous train of javelins soared in the air in an arc before dropping down on the enormous creature that wasn\'t paying attention to its surroundings anymore.

Khao\'khen moved his gaze further away and saw Dughmar\'s steed repeatedly stomping its front hooves on the torn part of their foe\'s stinger as it tried to crush it further. Dughmar atop his steed was trying his best to calm his mount and regain control, but no matter how hard he tugged on the reins of his Rhakaddon, all he got was loud snorts from it as it continued on its outburst of stomping.

Khao\'khen shook his head as a helpless smile crept up to his lips after the thought of Dughmar\'s Rhakaddon being angry at its might being tarnished and challenged by their foe as a portion of one of its horns was broken due to their clash.

It took Dughmar a few moments before he finally managed to regain control of his steed, but he could still hear its unsatisfied loud snorts as it peed on the now buried torn part of their foe\'s stinger.

"Don\'t waste your javelins?" Khao\'khen shouted towards the trolls after noticing that their missiles weren\'t doing any damage to their enemy as the javelins just ricocheted off the thick and dark carapace of the enormous creature. After fully recovering from his state of dizziness, Khao\'khen sprinted towards his steed to grab his weapon.

He unstrapped his crescent-moon spear from the back of his steed and brought it to his side. A sudden gust of wind just blew by his side and he caught sight of a brownish creature that was traveling at a breakneck speed. He didn\'t need to identify what he saw, as its distinct roar was enough for him to identify it.

Ulfrus pounced on the enormous creature with its paws and jaws wide open. The summon of Draeghanna rammed its body against their foe as its paws swipe at it and its jaw clamped down on one of its pincers. It was a slugfest between the two mighty creatures as they slammed their paws and pincers against each other and producing a resounding boom as rock meets a metal hard carapace.

Despite Ulfrus now keeping their new foe busy and at bay, Khao\'khen still approached their enemy and positioned himself on its left side. He looked for a safe spot where he won\'t be on the way to Ulfrus\' attacks. Khao\'khen heaved his enormous weapon up then behind him before swinging it with all his strength forward and slamming it on the side of their opponent.

"Skrr!!!!"

The ear-piercing cry of the enormous scorpion came again as green gooey stuff leaked out of its shattered carapace that Khao\'khen just hit with all his strength. Satisfied with his work, Khao\'khen was about to go for another strike when the stingerless tail of the giant scorpion came swinging towards him, which forced him to lie down on his belly against the sands.

He managed to evade the tail swipe, but Ulfrus wasn\'t as lucky as him as it was sent flying away by the attack and crashed amidst the Rhakaddon riders who were waiting for a chance to charge forward. Beads of sweat accumulate on the forehead of Khao\'khen and a nervous smile was on his lips as the enormous scorpion turned its gaze at him. Its dark eyes that were giving off a reddish glow reminded Khao\'khen of the many enemies that he fought before who also had the same glow in their eyes.

Khao\'khen quickly rolled to the left to evade the pincers of his enemy that tried to clamp him down in place. He continued to roll away despite feeling a little dizzy already. \'It\'s better safe than sorry,\' he thought.

The giant scorpion chased after Khao\'khen, who was rolling away, we were which was what the Rhakaddon riders were waiting for.

"Charge!"

"Charge!"

"Charge!"

They shouted one after another as they took the initiative to launch an attack.. Dughmar also joined in the charge as they rumbled towards the giant scorpion that was now busy trying to clamp o e of its pincers on their chieftain who was rolling side to side to dodge.