Rise of the Horde

*****

Commander Lastam and his men were busy enjoying themselves with the booze the seemed to have no end as more and more establishments were broken into in search of liquor by his soldiers. He was busy laughing at the joke of one of his old-time companions when a member of the hounds arrived, the man was clearly in a hurry and his face was drenched in sweat. “Commander, Sir Lishtal and the rest of my group is being confronted by a group of our former allies who are disobeying your orders to gather.” He reported in one breath. Intoxicated with alcohol, Commander Lastam quickly flared up after hearing that his words were being disobeyed by someone and the elites of his hounds also reacted to the information that they heard.

“What! Disobeying orders!”

“Allow us to teach them a lesson, commander!”

“We ought to teach those bastards a lesson that they won’t forget!”

The elites of the hounds all stood up from their seats and directed their gaze at their commander as they waited for his permission to act. “Let’s go!” Commander Lastam headed towards his steed and mounted onto it in one hop, his drunkenness didn’t affect his movements by much. His old-time companions let out cheers of excitement and followed after their commander who was being led by the messenger towards the place of conflict.

Those who were gathered at the center of the town turned their gazes from the drink in their hands towards the group of their commander and his elites. Murmurings soon broke out among them then they soon learned of what was the cause, the busybodies took a last swig of their booze and followed after the commander intending to watch the spectacle. Just like that, the previous noisy center of the town became silent with only the scattered barrels, mugs, tables, chairs and trash remaining.

.....

Atef and his group began pressing in against the group of Lishtal after they managed to cut down their numbers to only just five and the remaining five weren’t in full power as their battle energies were also almost spent just like them but they had the advantage in numbers and they can overpower them when battle energies are not in the equation of the fight. He had a smug grin on his face as he continued in with his frenzy of attacks and successfully inflicted serious injuries to two of their foes who remained.

Lishtal was hesitating if he should use the last magic scroll that he has in his possession and risk being punish by the commander for wasting it without his command. “Screw it! I’ll just accept punishment.” He was about to make use of the scroll when he heard shouts coming from the direction where the runner he sent went towards.

“Make way! Make way!”

“Move!”

“Get out of our path!”

Different voices came from that direction and when Lishtal turned around, he saw the enraged face of their commander and the elites of the hounds just behind him. He eased his gripped on his blade and loosened his hold onto the magic scroll that he was about to use. Atef was overwhelmed by fear and worry after seeing the angered face of Commander Lastam, “Re-retreat!” he swallowed his saliva then scampered away first heading towards the direction of the destroyed gate.

The members of Atef’s group moved slower than their leader but they too soon began withdrawing from the area before the reinforcements of their foes came upon them. Some headed towards the audience and mixed themselves in the crowd but the spectators clearly had no plans of being involved as they kept their distance from them. Exposed, those who tried to mingle themselves with crowd cursed under their breath as they chased after their comrades who directly headed towards the only exit of the town.

Commander Lastam hurried his steed after seeing the disobedient bastards fleeing away from the scene, he had no plans in sparing them as he sent out attacks towards those who were within his range. Those who tried to hide among the spectators were the first ones to be struck but those who only watched the duel between the two groups also got hit by the attacks. “Watch it! We are not with them!” shouts of complaints echoed out among them as they began scolding the one responsible for the attack.

The face of the commander darkened a bit more after he was scolded by the nobodies in the crowd. He knew that they weren’t involved in the confrontation with his second in command but they are still guilty of disobeying his orders and he can’t have that. It wasn’t a valid reason for them to stay there and spectated in the conflict. “Kill them!” his shout filled with anger reverberated as he pointed his blade towards the group of spectators who were the noisiest. “Oh shit!” some cursed after seeing the elites of the hounds heading for them with their weapons drawn.

Commander Lastam joined in the fray and began a slaughter. Fights broke out all over the place with some opting to flee rather than get entangled in a fight. Some fled while some wanted to flee but can’t as they were being pressed hard to defend themselves or else, they might just die right there and then. Those who successfully fled further away than the others were glad that they managed to get away faster and felt that they were already safe but little did they know of the danger that was waiting for them up ahead at the gateway of the town.