Rise of the Horde

“Hey! What are you doing here alone!? Where are the others!?”

Someone shouted behind Bakrah which stopped him in his tracks. He just stood there without saying anything. The darkness that still lingered on covered some of the features of Bakrah and the Ereians mistook him for someone of their own.

“You do know that you could be punished for straying away from your group.”

Another person sounded behind him, Bakrah tightened his grip on the blade of their chieftain which he just retrieved a few moments ago while his other hand was moving towards the hilt of his own blade. He listened carefully to the sound of the approaching footsteps to determine how many foes are there behind him and judging by the sound of their footsteps, there are four of them.

“Didn’t you hear us? You have been caught red-handed already. And what do you think are you going to do with those camels, especially the ones that belonged to the Lord. You are thinking of deserting the army.”

“Good luck trying to make a run for it since we are currently under attack ” another voice sounded which ended with a dissatisfied snort.

.....

The four Ereians approached closer to identify who the lone figure was and their leader reached his hand on the shoulder of Bakrah to make him turn around and let them see his face. He grabbed ahold of the shoulders of Bakrah and forced him to turn around but he can’t make him move. Using all his strength, he tried again but with no success. He was about to scold him when the lone figure turned around and all the profanity that he was about to spew out got stuck in his throat.

Mean face, scary eyes, wolf-like ears, and two tough-looking tusks that protruded on its lower lip. There was no mistaking it, he was facing an orc and an annoyed one at that.

“Nakam’sabarr... (You guys are noisy...)”

They heard the orc mutter those words but they had no way of finding out what it means, especially the one who tried to make the orc turn around as he felt a sharp stinging pain in his abdomen. Looking down towards his stomach, he saw something that the orc was holding which was buried through his stomach. He didn’t know how long that thing was nor what it was exactly as he only saw the hilt of the weapon and blood-covered hand of the orc. ‘Probably a sword’ he thought before another round of pain assaulted his senses as Bakrah retrieved the length of the blade and gave the man a strong kick and sent him flying towards the other three.

While his opponents were distracted by the body of their comrade which he sent flying towards them, Bakrah brandished his blades and pounced on them without mercy. He slashed with all his strength at the closest one to him using the blade of their chieftain and severed the head of his target with one strike before stabbing his other blade forward and impaling the back of the head of the one who turned around and was about to flee. His blade went through the back of his victim’s head and out of his mouth while the severed head flew up in the air for a few feet before falling in front of his last opponent who was staring at him with fear in his eyes and was trembling.

Bakrah focused all his attention on the last man and his menacing aura made his opponent piss himself before falling down on his bottom as his legs buckled. “Tsk! Kuru! (Weakling)” he snorted then effortlessly ended the man with a flick of his hand and separated his head from his neck.

He took a look around if there was anyone who noticed or was alerted to what just transpired and luckily there was no one around who witnessed what just happened. Sheathing his blade then strapping the blade of their chieftain on his crossbow, Bakrah grabbed the corpses of his victims by the legs then dragged them towards the biggest tent that he saw to hide them. After dragging the bodies inside, he went back to where the fight just happened and grabbed the two heads and covered the blood-covered sands as he mixed them up to cover the traces of the battle.

With the two heads in his hands, he went back towards the tent then nonchalantly tossed the two heads inside. He was about to turn around when he heard a grumpy voice from inside the tent.

“Who dares disturb my sleep.”

Baron Husani was annoyed after his rest by disturbed by something hitting him in the head and the other landing on his stomach. This was one of his most comfortable sleep for the past few days but it just had to be disturbed. He threw away his blanket and stood up with his nose flaring in anger and grabbed his blade without even bothering to find out what exactly hit him. He headed towards the entrance of his tent with heavy steps and in the corner of his eyes, he saw the mother and daughter fearfully staring at his angry stature.

“It’s alright. Everything will be alright.” Helena softly stroked the hair of her daughter who was trembling in his embrace as she trailed her eyes after the Baron who was fuming in anger. She heaved a sigh of relief after seeing that monster in human skin disappear from inside the tent and headed out as she started thinking of ways for them to escape from this place. She didn’t know how much longer can their bodies handle the abuse from the Baron before giving in which is why she decided to take her chances in trying to escape with the opportunity presented to them right now.

She scanned the surroundings to find anything useful that she could use to break their chains and there she saw some blunt weapons among the weapon racks near the bed of their Lord. Carefully, she moved towards where the weapons were at and stretched the chains that held them in place.

“Just a bit more...” she softly muttered as there were only a few inches of distance between her hand and the closest weapon but the chains that held them in place tightened against her neck as she tried to reach further. She was anxious that the Baron might return any moment now and she had to figure out a way to escape fast. The others may not have noticed it but she did, there was a battle going on somewhere in the camp as her ears picked up the sound of metals clashing and the noise of the ensuing fight.

Baron Husani angrily surveyed the outside of his tent, wanting to find out who grew some balls of steel to dare and disturb his sleep. There were several torturing methods running in his mind already which he would apply to the bastard who dared but he wasn’t prepared for what he saw, it was a foot, an enormous foot that was headed for him.

“Ack!”

He groaned in pain as he was sent back inside his tent and crashed against the weapon rack near his bed before falling on the side his bed knocked out cold from the kick.

Helena was busy trying her best to grabbed one of the weapons on the weapon rack when she heard the sudden raising of the flaps of the tent and saw their Lord flying. The weapon rack was destroyed and the Baron was unconscious. She was wondering who had that kind of strength to throw the Baron’s huge frame like that. Her attention was on the entrance of the tent as she wanted to find out who did it. There was a mix of worry and excitement inside her as she waited for the one responsible for knocking out the Baron while covering her daughter with her body as she stroked her back.

*****

“Don’t do anything stupid. After destroying these things, we will quickly retreat.” Kroth muttered while his eyes were still in his squad members who were busy destroying the supplies of their opponents. “Did you hear me?” Kroth questioned after hearing no reply from the one who he wanted to talk to but there was still no reply. He turned his head towards where his brother was standing and saw not even a shadow of him around.

Kroth surveyed their immediate surroundings to locate that troublemaking brother of his but he couldn’t find him.

“Did any of you see Bakrah or where he went to?” he questioned his squad members only to be replied by a synchronous shaking of heads indicating that they haven’t seen him or have any idea where he went to.

“Sh*t!”

Kroth can’t help but cuss at his brother.