Rise of the Horde - Chapter 355:

Among the Troll Skirmishers, there were orcish warriors who seemed to be waiting for something. They only have their pair of swords with them and were wearing little to no armor at all. The task that was given to them was to disable the powerful war beasts of their foes which were a huge threat to them.

“I see the giant creatures on their rear… Prepare to join in the fray.” Trot’thar spoke while glancing towards his comrade and enemy at the same time. The slim orc was also lightly armed like the warriors that he will lead. He was given the task to lead some chosen Rakshas to deal with the mighty cavalry of their enemies.

“You heard him! Enough slacking! And make preparations to join in the fun!” Gur’kan shouted with excitement. Unlike the other warriors under the chieftain who were almost always involved in battles, he missed out a lot of the fun because he would either be making arrangements for the horde or doing some other management tasks. Trot’thar can’t be counted on in doing such things since he would always be on sentry duty and his eyes were irreplaceable because nobody else was gifted with the same powerful sight as him.

The War Elephants trumpeted loudly to announce their arrival upon the chaotic battlefield. Both battle lines no longer resembled a proper battle line because of how messy the fight was getting. Some warbands dug deep unto the Ereians battle line while some were being held back by a determined defense of the Ereians.

“What’s that?” an Ereian soldier near the rear of the center of their battle line asked his fellow soldiers after hearing the loud trumpet-like sound from way behind them.

“By the sands! Get out of the way! Move! Or we will be squash to death!” he was panicking as soon as it dawned on him that they were on the path of that their mighty war beasts were taking. He knew that those creatures were heavy and strong but he had no plans of finding out by how much as he shoved a few of his fellow soldiers by his side to get away from the dangerous location.

“D*mn it! Where do you think you are going soldier?” an officer who was shoved aside by one of his soldiers screamed at the top of his lungs in anger. He was arranging a counter-offensive against their foes when he was suddenly pushed aside and almost fell towards the ground face first.

dα- |m

The soldier didn’t give a reply and just pointed towards the rearmost of their formation.

“By the sands!” the officer exclaimed then joined the soldier in scampering away.

“Quick! Move!”

The two of them frantically shouted as they headed towards the left flank. Confused by what was suddenly happening, some soldiers stopped on whatever they were doing and paid attention towards a few of their fellow soldiers along with one of their officers who was escaping towards one side in panic. ‘What is going on?’ that was the question that was going on inside their heads and right on cue as if to answer their confusion, the loud trumpeting cry of the War Elephants came.

Many unlucky soldiers who were too late to realized the danger that they were in got squashed to death by the giant creatures. Commander Trakaros himself gave the order that the heavy cavalry must barrel their way towards the enemy lines as soon as possible, he no longer care out the friendly casualties that they might sustain.

The path taken by the War Elephants was littered with squashed bodies of their allies but the handlers of the giant beasts paid no attention to them as they focused on commanding the hulking creature under them to charge at their enemies.

The orcs finally spotted the War Elephants that was heading for them and they were quick to react as they spread out to avoid direct collision with the powerful creature. But some orcs were still unlucky as they were grabbed onto by the animal and thrown somewhere far away, while others got hit heavily by the tusks of the enormous beasts with their wild swings of their heads while charging forward.

The assault of the War Elephants was a huge success as their charge opened up the center of the orcish battle line. Although their solid formation was broken, the orcs were still formidable opponents for the Ereian soldiers.

While the heavy cavalry of the Ereians were wreaking havoc among the orcs, a few figures dashed forward and quickly jumped up to climbed the body of the giant creatures. Some made use of the trunks of the creatures, others used the tusks of the beasts as a springboard to go higher and the others made use of ropes or worked together to throw one of them towards the back of the giant creatures.

“Take out their tamers!” that was the command given by Gur’kan before he headed towards one of the giant beasts. One by one, the handlers of the War Elephants were dispatched and with a mighty tug upon the reins that was used to control the giant creature, it halted in its advance.

The reason that the enormous weren’t scared of ramming towards a wall of spears was because their eyes were covered. They rely on the commands given to them by their handlers through the reins that were attached to them and since they don’t know what was exactly in front of them, they weren’t frightened even if they were charging towards their own demise.

“Lead them away!” Gur’kan shouted as he signaled the other orcs who had taken control of the mighty war beasts of their foes with a hearty laugh. The orcish battle line quickly made way for their allies to take away those giant creatures. Without the presence of the War Elephants, the Ereian soldiers were quickly demoralized.

Arriving at the location of the Troll Skirmishers, Gur’kan had a proud grin plastered upon his lips as he looked down upon his fellow War Chief atop the head of one of the elephants. Trot’thar just clicked his tongue in reply then gave out the command towards the trolls to fire a few more volleys.

It didn’t take long for the Ereian camp to go up in flames as the Verakhs did what they were best at, striking when they were least expected and sabotaging their enemies. The blazing fire quickly spread inside the camp of the Ereians and a raging inferno could be seen from a distance away.

The sudden illumination of the dark caught the attention of the Ereians. Trakaros was quick to glance behind him when he noticed the unexpected light. “His Grace!” he shouted in panic and took off with great speed towards their camp. Although Trakaros had a different reason which is why he sprinted towards their camp but his soldiers didn’t see it like that, what they saw was that their commander fleeing the battle.

“The commander fled!” a soldier cried out as he pointed at the fast figure that was dashing through the sands. Trakaros halted in his tracks after realizing the mistake that he had committed but it was all too late, his troops began a mass retreat.

The Ereian battle line quickly collapsed after hearing the news of their commander fleeing the battlefield and their camp being consumed by a raging fire. Even the officers joined in the mass retreat as they knew that the situation was already out of control.

“Hold! Don’t give chase.” Sakh’arran gave out an order. They have already won the battle and gotten rid of the supplies of their enemies. There was no need to tire themselves in pursuing them. The desert would do the job for them. Exhaustion, lacked of sleep, no food and water all together accompanied by the harsh nature of the Burning Sands would surely spell doom for anyone. Perhaps the only ones who would survive the journey would those who had wills stronger than iron or those who were powerful enough to resist the harshness of the environment.

Another victory was added to the list of victories belonging to Yohan First Horde and this time they made quite a good haul as they manage to snatch away the powerful war beasts of their foes, well some of them. A few of the giant creatures run amok after realizing that the one leading them was no longer their original handlers and were put down. The trolls were quick to turn them into porcupines with their javelins and only the obedient once or those among the elephants that didn’t care about who was leading them were left alive.

The first rays of the rising sun began illuminating the battlefield and Khao’khen who was observing from the rear stood face to face with one of the War Elephants from their foes. The beast was intimidating by its presence alone that it was projecting which didn’t exist from a dead one. Khao’khen was awed by its sheer size which was way bigger than the ones that he had seen before in his previous world.