Rise of the Horde

The day passed without much of an event besides the battle of insults between the two sides. Upon the arrival of darkness which concealed almost everything there was a rare silence and ease. Unlike the previous nights where the scouts from the side of Commander Barika would be able to spot units from the enemy army going about, tonight there was none.

The camp of the allied monsters and traitors was awfully quiet with just the sentries manning their post and fulfilling their duties.

The unusual atmosphere was maintained for days which confused the defenders who were waiting for an assault on the fort. Their commander had ordered them to be on the alert for the previous nights. He had suspicions that the awful silence of the enemy was all nothing but a ruse for them to have their guards down before their enemies would launch a surprise raid.

But contrary to his thoughts, no such attack came, except for the random rain of rocks that the enemy siege engines were hurling at them from time to time with no fixed time or numbers. Sometimes there would be waves after waves of those damnable rocks and sometimes there would be just one or two waves of them.

It would come at an absolute random time of the day and depended entirely on the mood of the ones operating the siege engines if they are going to throw rocks at them or not.

Barika was starting to get irritated by the actions of the enemy camp and on many occasions he had been tempted to lead his men out of the fort to launch an assault of their own against their foes. If not for the persuasion of his subordinate officers and the mages with him, he would have already done so.

It was not just him who had reservations about the current actions of their foes but all of them. They are all very suspicious that everything was nothing but just a trap laid out for them and were waiting for them to bite and be destroyed.

*****

Almost after a week of silence, Ishaq soon received the rumours about the sudden rebellion of Alsenna which was previously at the hands of the invaders. He quickly dispatched messengers and scouts in order to verify the rumours. And after a few days, he received word about the mobilization of almost the entirety of the orcish army leaving their camp and headed back towards the city of Alsenna.

“Perhaps, the rumours had some truth in them,” he mumbled and gave it some thoughts. After organizing his thoughts, he dispatched a messenger along with two thousand men to head towards the fort.

His message to Barika was to let the two thousand men be accompanied by half the number of his deployed troops to accompany them and test the enemy side. He wanted to confirm further if there were only few of the monster army left.

Early morning the next day, under the influence of darkness, a three thousand strong army supported by four hundred riders formed up outside the walls of the fort. They were divided into three blocks, the center, the left and the right with the wings being supported by an even number of the available deployed soldiers.

It didn’t take long for the scouts from the side of Khao’khen to inform them of the mobilization of their foes and the camp was quickly awakened to respond to the challenge.

“Tell the warbands to stand down, this battle will be up for the Drakhars to fight alone.” Khao’khen instructed.

His orders caused the orcs who were eagerly waiting for this opportunity to be crestfallen. They were bored and were becoming restless after many days of doing nothing but their exercises and mock battles. All the orcs were already craving for a bloody battle but no such battle came.

Unlike the orcs who were always up for battle, the Drakhars had hesitations in engagements against the enemy army. No one knew what the future holds. Nobody was certain if they will survive the battle or not.

It didn’t take long for the Drakhars to form their own battle formation. They were five thousand men strong which gives them the advantage in numbers. Khao’khen watched as the commanders assigned by Adhalia do their job. The Drakhars were deployed in a standard formation to match the enemy side. Left, center and right, the same as their foes with cavalry anchoring their wings.

The only difference is that there was a two thousand strong reserved just behind the center.

It seemed that the commander of the Drakhars knew the importance of having reserve units and not putting all his eggs on a single basket. Well, Khao’khen could understand the arrangement somewhat as unlike his army who were greatly stronger and borderline reckless when it comes to bravery, the Drakhars were humans.

After forming their lines, the Drakhars two armies began their march towards each other.

Barika who was on the walls of the fort, quickly gave out orders for a thousand more soldiers to be deployed and chase after the deployed army. He had observed that the number of the enemy army was somewhat bigger than their side after spotting the reserves of the Drakhars which prompted him to make the decision that he just did in order to somewhat even out the numbers.

The two armies slowly approached each other with cautiousness and missile units were quick to do their job. Missile units of both sides began a skirmish, trading arrows and javelins. Their few numbers didn’t make any difference as there was no clear winner but their harassment slowed down the march of the main armies and successfully disorganized their formation.

“Attack!”

The Ereian right flank and the Drakhars left flank was the first ones to clash. The missile units on both sides were deployed at the front of the two armies’ center which slowed down their marching pace during their skirmish.

It was the Ereians who initiated the clash with a charge and the Drakhars just halted in their tracks and braced for the impact of the charge. The Drakhars still had their spears pointing up as they march and weren’t in their combat stance just yet.

“Wait!”

“Hold it!”

The roaring voice of the commanding officer in charge of the Drakhar’s left flank shouted as he waited for the right moment for them to get into their fighting stance. Still unaware of the danger that they were headed to, the Ereians who saw their foes standing still got excited. They thought that their enemies froze in fear after seeing their courageous charge.

The Ereians filled with adrenaline rush forward even faster and their formation was quickly messed up by their excitement. Soldiers at the front were overtaken by those behind them who were faster and even their commander who was supposed to keep them organized was at the forefront wildly shouting his battle cry.

“Now!”

Upon hearing the command, the Drakhars went into their battle stance with spears forward. What was presented to the charging enemy was a wall of spears and with the distance less than ten meters, it was too late for them to slow down.

Those who were at the front tried their best to stopped in their tracks but those behind them who was unaware of what was waiting for them at the front kept charging forward and pushed those who were in their way.

A gruesome scene unfolded as the Ereians were impaled by the spears after being pushed forward by their comrades who were behind them. They were literally pushed to their deaths. The Drakhars just mechanically performed their attack pattern and stab forward with each step that they take.

The overall commander on the side of the Ereians quickly sent out the cavalry on their right wing to aid their infantry but would the one commanding the Drakhars just let him be. In response, the cavalry on the left flank of the Drakhars was mobilized and charged forward intending to clash head on with the enemy cavalry.

Denied of the help from their cavalry, the Ereian right flank was beginning to hard press by the Drakhars who kept gaining ground albeit at a very slow pace.

“Spread out and surround them!”

“Don’t cluster at their front! Strike their flanks!”

The Ereian commander was quick to realize that clashing head on with the Drakhars was foolish. And with his command, the Ereian infantry began to fan out and aim for the flanks of the Drakhar’s formation which were tightly compact together in their fighting stance.

Being struck at the flanks, the Drakhars began taking casualties, and the front of their formation slowly crumbed. Seeing that their attempt was effective, the Ereians pressed on and push the Drakhars back with renewed vigor.

The Drakhars were being slowly pushed back and they would soon be routed if they didn’t receive any aid. Zaraki mobilized half of their reserves and sent them to reinforce their left flank which was slowly losing ground.