Rise of the Horde

291 Chapter 29After killing most of the Ereians who fled from Baron Masud’s onslaught and capturing a few of them, Khao’khen ordered for his warriors to march forward towards the sound of battle up ahead. The sounds of explosions could be heard by them right where they are and the clouds of dust that rises from time to time was clear for them to see near the castle of the town. ‘What the hell is happening there?’ Khao’khen’s mind was in a state of puzzlement on what might be the cause of those things.

The hounds were fighting the toughest battle that they have ever partaken in and they suffered in this fight more casualties than they have sustained in all the battles that they have participated in ever since they went under the wings of the new king. A single person, only a single person was able to damage their numbers to such a degree that they were quivering in fear.

The elites among the hounds were able to tie the feet of Baron Masud albeit only for a short time. Baron Masud knew that he doesn’t have time on his side which is why he evaded being entangled with the stronger foes that were flocking towards him to try and contain him. He would distance himself from them in every chance he got and aimed for the weaker ones among their enemies and gave them a gruesome death.

“Sh*t! How strong is this guy?” Lishtal didn’t know how many times had he already cursed and wondered on how far can their monstrous foe could go. Of the many times that he had struck at the baron, he only landed four hits on him but the monster just shrugged his attacks of like the they were nothing but an ant’s bite. Helpless and infuriated, he tried to contain the baron by going toe to toe with him which he now deeply regrets as his left hand was mangled to such a degree that it would be difficult to recover even with the help of magic. With the damage that he had suffered, his combat prowess was more than halved and he was no longer capable of even trying to aid the veterans of the hounds in trying to minimize their casualties.

Baron Masud gave out one thunderous roar after blasting away seven hounds who tried to grapple him to the ground with their bodies in order for their allies to be able to land their attacks squarely and put the beast down. The baron chased after them and brutally smash them to sorry figures beyond recognition, his savagery started empowering him as a crimson aura became visible surrounding his very being. “Get back!!! Inside the…castle!!! Rah!” a deep roar escaped the lips of the baron as he gave his last orders to his subordinates while he was still have a shred of clarity in his mind.

The baleful aura soon became even more intense as the eyes of the baron turned bloody red, his canines started to grow longer, his body bulged by a few inches, scales started emerging on his arms, legs, face and torso, a single horn protruded right on the center of his forehead while a whip like tail grew out on his back.

“A d-de-demon…” a hound dropped his weapon and started sprinting away, the only thing that was on his mind right now was to get away as far as possible and as quickly as possible from the creature that resembled that of a demon. The baron’s head snapped towards the direction of the fleeing man and he quickly chased after him, in no time he caught up with the escaping person and clapped his hands right on his head. Blood and brain juices flew as the head of the man exploded because of the clap, “T-this is m-m-me?” Baron Masud questioned after staring at his hands which was very different than what he remembered with all the scales and spikes covering it and the disgusting matter that was all over his hands. He was in a state of confusion, a subtle voice was echoing in his mind “Kill…kill…kill…” which he couldn’t get rid of.

The baron turned towards the sky and gave out a beastly roar while clutching his temples with both hands trying to shake off that voice that kept repeating the same word again and again. “He is disoriented! Take him down now!” Lishtal sprinted towards their monstrous foe who had his appearance greatly changed. He gathered all the battle energy that he could squeezed out from his body for his next attack, he wanted to deal as much damage to their foe as possible while he was in such a state where he was open to attacks. The remaining veterans did the same thing and focused everything that they had in their next attack while their foe was in no state to defend himself.

Upon seeing their lord changed his appearance and turned to something like that of a demon, Captain Kertakk knew that they must stay away from him now while he was still holding on what little sanity he had left in him. “Back to the castle!” he roared towards his soldiers who quickly turned tail and headed for the castle, the captain couldn’t blame them for their actions since anyone would be scared if a man suddenly turned into the appearance of a demon right in front of your very eyes. Demons were always frowned upon no matter where you go except for those who dubbed in dark arts who sees them as their teachers and masters to learn from.

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Commander Lastam saw the situation that unfolded and he too joined in in the attack to take down the demonic beast that had just spawned. He left the fleeing defenders and got in a distance where he can strike the confused foe with his attacks. Myriads of battle energies shone and headed towards the baron who was in his new form, all the members of the Ereian Bloodhounds opted to use a range attack with their battle energies since no one among them was foolish enough to get within melee distance of the monster.

A deafening blast occurred which sent a powerful shockwave everywhere, dust and dirt billowed up high into the sky after all the attacks simultaneously landed on the baron who was still clutching on his temples. “Did we get him?” one of the veterans among the hounds had his breathing ragged like many of his allies after participating in an intense combat before then had to launch all his power next.

“I don’t know…Let’s wait for the dust to clear.” A reply came from a man beside him.

“Have you guards up! We don’t know for sure if that was enough to put down that demon!” Commander Lastam shouted while maintaining a defensive stance. For as long as he doesn’t see the dead and unmoving body of their foe, he won’t let his guard down.

“Ah!”

“Help!”

“No!”

“Ahh!”

Shouts of panic came from among the hounds, amidst the cover of the dust that was yet to settle, a swift figure shuttled around and dismembered the bodies of his victims with his claws. “Defend yourselves! That beast is still alive!” Lishtal shouted then dropped down to the ground and laid beside the corpse of his fallen comrade while covering his body with the blood of the dead. He was aiming to disguise himself as one of the dead to avoid becoming a target of the beast that was roaming around the cover of dust. His battle energies were already spent and he clearly knew that death would be certain if their foe would target him since he was in such a weak state and was in no way capable of defending himself.

Lishtal laid there on the ground unmoving but his heartbeat was thumping against his chest furiously because of nervousness. He was now gambling with his life on the line, he was motionless but his ears were focused on trying to locate where there foe was at. The screams of his comrade rang out from time to time which he was sure that it now belonged to one of the deceased. Footsteps…heavy footsteps, he could hear them from somewhere nearby. He was panicking but he decided to remain as still as possible and even started taking in silent, deep and slow breaths to calm his furious heart.

The screams continued to came but he was thankful that he could no longer hear the heavy footsteps which would mean that the beast was nowhere near him now. He patiently waited for the dust to settle and he even closed his eyes to focus only on his sense of hearing to make out what was going on around him.

‘Thud…thud…thud…’

The heavy footsteps were there again which threw his mind in turmoil, ‘Go away… please go away…’ he prayed in his mind but the footsteps just kept coming and coming and it even started increasing. Lishtal’s eyes went wide after realizing that the footsteps didn’t belong to only one creature but a lot of them ‘Don’t tell me…’ he was in distraught of what his hearing was picking up.