Rise of the Horde

Behind the fleeing Ereians and their hired guards, Khao’khen wanted to order his warriors to hasten the march but after seeing the silhouettes of their targets, the Yurakks sped up their march and nearly broke into a sprint with a wide grin on their faces. Shaking his head, Khao’khen just silently followed along with his warriors as he ushered his Rhakaddon to keep up with the pace of the Yurakks.

“Chief” a call came behind Khao’khen which made him turn his head around and upon seeing the person that called to him, he can’t help but be surprise. He didn’t know where she came from, when did she join them nor how did she manage to catch up to them but she was now with them riding atop her summon Ulfrus who is furiously stamping its heavy paws on the ground.

“I may be able to slow down the enemy army which would allow us to catch up to them faster.” Drae’ghanna now was riding side by side with Khao’khen as her steed released a low growl after taking a look at the massive Rhakaddon that was running beside it.

After giving it some thought, Khao’khen allowed Drae’ghanna to do what she wanted to do. If she can somehow manage to slow down their targets which seemed to have quicken up their pace then it would benefit them greatly and the sooner that they finish this skirmish, the faster they would be able to get back and continue sieging the city.

With the acknowledgement of the chieftain, Drae’ghanna summoned Akwilah and headed towards the skies with the reminder of Khao’khen for her to be careful. High up in the sky, Drae’ghanna quickly caught up with the fleeing Ereians and she began casting her spells to begin her venting. She was still frustrated by the fact that she didn’t manage to cause a simple scratch on the mighty walls of Alsenna and she needs something to vent on and those who were directly below her were unlucky.

A faint whistling came which caught the attention of Varus as he directed his attention towards the sound and he quickly notice the balls of flame that was headed towards them.

“Malik, barrier now!” he shouted as he halted in his tracks while unsheathing his blade and pointing it towards the sky. Malik the mage of their group didn’t see what caused their captain to shout such an order but he followed the given command as he erected a magic barrier around them. With Varus halting so abruptly, their formation was thrown into chaos with some straying away from the group.

.....

After the magic barrier took form, the rain of fire came and crashed against it creating some small explosions while some which were off the mark impacted the ground sending grains of sand flying everywhere. Those who strayed away from the group were unceremoniously bathed in flames as some balls of fire directly landed on them while the luckier ones only suffered varying degrees of burn after not being directly struck by the balls of flames that came from the skies.

Varus kept his attention at the sky as he noticed the enormous bird like creature that was circling above them. He didn’t know what creature it is exactly but he was certain that it wasn’t friendly since it just attacked them for no reason at all. He was estimating the distance between him and the creature as he was preparing to strike back.

The captain of the Blade Crows was waiting for an opportunity to attack as the creature was still out of his range and Malik who had more range than him needed to maintain the barrier or else they will surely bath in fire like their unlucky comrades who were rolling around the sands as they screamed in pain trying to get rid of the fire that latched on them.

After a few moments, his chance finally came as the creature dived down probably preparing for another attack. Varus jumped up into the air, his body a few feet above the ground as he prepared his attack. He swung out with full force, embedding his battle energy unto his swing with full power intending to get rid of the ambusher with one attack. A blade out of battle energy materialized and headed towards the creature that was still on the dive, the creature suddenly stalled in its dive as it tried to veer to its left but it was too late, his attack might not be able to hit the intended target squarely at center but it would surely cleaved a part of the target which was already a success since the creature was in the air and crashing down towards the ground from that height would be fatal.

Varus had a triumphant smile on his lips as he watched his attack homing towards the target but suddenly a spear made out of fire emerged from behind the creature and collided with his attack. Blazing sparks and a loud explosion followed the collision of the two attacks and the flying creature was sent spiraling down towards the ground. The captain of the Blade Crows thought that the enemy would certainly crash on the ground after spiraling down uncontrollably but it turned to skies when it was less than twenty feet from the ground.

“Tsk… almost” he clicked his tongue and waited for another opportunity but the flying creature seemed to have no more plans to make an attack and is just circling around above their heads. He moved his gaze of their attacker a bit as he was about to tell Malik to remove the barrier and they should resume their march when another rain of fire was headed towards them but this time it was more scattered than before with less than ten of the fireballs landing on where they were which were negated by the power of the barrier. Their attacker seemed to have given up on the accuracy of the attack as more and more of the rain of fire were way off the mark which proved that the counter-attack of Varus scared their foe as it maintained a safe distance away.

The Ereians were staring at the figure in the skies and the rain of fire that was harmlessly falling towards them as the barrier of Malik shielded them from it. Varus was having a headache as he noticed that the orc riders which were also keeping their distance away from them before were now stationed in one place as they watch them stuck where they are as the rain of fire kept them in place.

“Malik can you maintain the barrier while on the move?” he directed his attention towards the only mage in their group. They really needed to keep on moving or the enemy army that was behind would arrive.

“It will be difficult since it would consume more of my mana but I’ll do my best.” The young mage replied.

Varus nodded his head and their group resumed their march and as they resume their march, the orc riders that was ahead of them also continued what they were doing before which was staying ahead of them.

“If I only knew that this would happen, I wouldn’t have accepted such a job.” The captain of the Blade Crows grumbled in annoyance as he stared at their employers who were being protected in the middle of their formation. He was blinded by the amount of gold that their employers offered him and their request wasn’t all that hard since they just needed to escort them to the next town and the pay was a hundred times than the amount that was supposed to be paid for an escort mission.