Rise of the Horde

Upon shifting his gaze towards their huddled opponents, he noticed the same strange light that was coming from their enemies and reaping the lives of the Skallsers who were adamant in breaking their formation trading wounds for an opportunity to strike at them. “Blade energies…” he remembered Adhalia telling him this before and even demonstrated a bit of it to him. Knowing that the Drakhars would just be easy fodder for their foes, “Drakhars! Pull back! Let the Skallsers fight them!” he shouted, he didn’t want to lose more of the Drakhars meaninglessly as he knew that they are clearly rendered useless against such strong foes that can strike you down from a distance and in close combat and their tight formation would just turn into a favorable big target for their foes to attack.

The sound of rapid footsteps echoed through the streets as the Drakhars began pulling back from the fray but some of them were still engaged against opponents that were pinned down in the back alleys of the town and they had some success in suppressing their foes since their adversaries were weaker than the ones that their chieftain was staring at. “Ikrah! Pelko! Have the wargs assist the others!” his voice thundered successfully reaching the ears of the father and son duo who were in command of whatever resembled a cavalry in the group that he had brought along from the City of Alsenna. If the Rhakaddon Cavalry, was he brought along, they would easily hammer through their foes and outright take out the buildings close by with the prowess of the Rhakaddons but casualties would certainly be inflicted upon them but it would be lesser than what they have sustained now. But he can’t pull them out from the encirclement of the city knowing that their mere presence was enough to make their opponents inside the city cautious of taking the route that they were guarding and could easily come to the aid of the two sides when needed due to their mobility.

With the wargs under the command of the two, the Ereians were having more trouble than before as the giant wolf like creatures jumped from the walls of the nearby buildings to go airborne and attack from above while the Skallsers were pressing them hard from all directions from down below. “This is crazy…” a man trying his best to fend off the fangs and claws of a warg cried out as he stumbled backwards to avoid the sharp claws of the creature that was aimed for his torso, he had no plans in testing whether his armor could endure the claws of the giant wolf or not. His back made contact with his peer behind him and when he ducked down to avoid the bite of the warg, the unlucky fellow behind him got his shoulder bitten which earned an agonized screamed from the poor fellow as a huge chunk of meat was taken away by the animal that just took a bite of his shoulder.

“Quickly take them out!” the woman equipped with daggers roared while slicing and dicing the warg that was in front of her inflicting numerous wounds upon the creature which whimpered in pain after her furious assault, the warg limped back while its gray ash fur was stained with its own blood. Ikrah came forward and comforted the bleeding warg but he knew that the wounds that it had sustained were too much and it won’t take for long for it to bleed out. He stroked the head of the warg which was already lying down on the ground after its strength was drained fast by blood loss. A few moments later, the warg that was on its last breath raised its head towards the sky and gave one last howl before slumping down on the ground. The howl of the dying warg was echoed by the other wargs and they began furiously assaulting the Ereians with more viciousness than before, they were frantically diving towards their foes with abandon.

Ikrah himself was confused of the situation since the wargs were no longer listening to his commands, “What happened? What’s wrong with the wargs?” a voice came by his side and the sound of heavy breathing soon followed. When he raised his head, the face of his exhausted father came into his view, beads covering his face and blood staining his body and there was even a piece of metal that was lodged on his chest which looked like a part of a blade. “I don’t know, it howled before dying then the rest followed…Then this happened.” Ikrah tried to explain to his father what happened and when his finger pointed at the body of the huge warg with gray ash colored fur, Pelko’s face changed. “That’s… Proudfang…” Pelko finally understood the reason why their wargs had gone out of control. Proudfang was the mother of many among the wargs that they had and with her death, her children were now hellbent for vengeance.

The Skallsers soon noticed the changes of the wargs as they would even shove them aside or rushed past them just to get to their enemies which caused some of them to lose their footing and almost stumble. “Hey! Watch it!” an orc shouted towards the warg that just went pass by him but the warg just turned its head towards him then snarled revealing its sharp fangs while saliva was dripping out of its mouth and its eyes were vastly different than any warg that he had ever laid eyes upon.

Khao’khen was observing the progress of the battle and soon took note of the huge behavioral change of the wargs, he spotted most of them with their furs and ears standing up, froth leaking out from their snouts and the vicious glare from their eyes which made them resemble that of a rabid dog. He tried looking for Ikrah and Pelko since they were the leaders of the handlers of the wargs and he caught sight of them heading towards where he was at. “What happened to the wargs?” that was his opening words as he was puzzled of the huge change upon their wolf like friends, “I think they have gone crazy…” he continued while still maintaining his gaze upon the battlefield.

.....

“Well, if your mother was killed in front of your very eyes, you would also go crazy chieftain…” Pelko answered as he took position just right beside Khao’khen who was still observing the battlefield. After learning of the reason behind the madness of the wargs, Khao’khen gave it some thought then agreed with what Pelko had just said, he would no doubt also go crazy just like the wargs. “Can you still give them commands?” he asked the two to which they responded by shaking their heads since the wargs were already out of their control but thankfully they can still distinguish their friends and their foes albeit they caused a lot of nuisance to their friends.

“Alright then…” Khao’khen nodded his head then began ordering the Skallsers to pull back for the moment as it would detrimental for them to continue trying to get to their enemies when the wargs are in this state. They would just be in each other’s ways since the wargs clearly have no intention in cooperating with the orcs unlike before, the Skallsers were confused but still heeded the command of their chieftain and gave room for the wargs to perform whatever they were planning. The Ereians thought that they were going to have an easier time after noticing that the orcs were pulling back away and only the wolf like creatures were now fighting against them.