Rise of the Horde-Chapter 440 -

Back at the rear of the Sand Palace, Zaraki and the group of the Drakhars who was with him were not having a good time. The wave of the Infested Ones threw their ranks into chaos. The rain of maggots quickly decimated their lines, with smaller shields and lower morale. It didn't take long for their lines to be broken.

If not for the timely reinforcement of the orcs and the trolls, the Drakhar's ranks would have quickly abandoned the battle. With their allies anchoring the defense, the Drakhars fought hard as if to prove that they were not useless.

It was to the advantage of the Drakhars that most of their foes were concentrated at the main entrance of the palace.

Numerous Infested Ones swarmed the main entrance. The ones blocking their advance were the 3rd and 4th warband of the horde. The orcs in their formation were blocking the advance of their new foes.

Far towards the four corners of the inner walls. The cores of the magic towers which have long been corrupted by the demonic swarm, pulsated with an unfriendly light.

The towers which have been a backbone of defense for the Sand Palace became a pillar of destruction. The corrupted cores of the magic towers opened up rifts towards the other world.

Creatures of destruction, beings of demonic origin began pouring out the newly opened rifts. The warbands which were sent to secure the towers were forced to defend themselves, as foes of the otherworld began pouring out the newly opened rifts.

"Hold your ground!"

"Don't let them through!"

"Drive them back!"

The orcish officers kept on shouting out words of encouragement towards their warriors, but it was to almost no avail. Albeit their willingness to die in battle while earning glory, the orcish lines were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of their foes.

"Pull back!"

"Towards the chieftain!"

That was the last command that many of the orcish warriors heard before succumbing to the demonic advance.

Their lines being quickly overrun by their foes in all manner. No matter how resilient or strong they were, the weight of the number of their foes, pouring out of the newly opened rifts had force them back.

"Look down below… Your master seems to be adamant in establishing a foothold in this world. He is pulling in all strings that he can in order for him to safely descend." Artanos who was observing the proceedings of the battle down below declared.

Towards the center of the city, the Ereians were still busy dealing with the aftermath of the previous battle.

Queen Elara, along with her kin, observed the ongoing situation. She was still hesitant on revealing their presence towards the new masters of the city. She feared that, she and the rest of her kind might be persecuted as soon as they were discovered, thanks to the conflict that had been going on between the elves and the orcs for generations.

She was aware on how the orcs loathed their kind, on how they hated them to the bones. And she was also aware of their kind, hating the orcs to their core. Ever since the beginning, the two races have hated each other for some reason. But the current generation was longer aware of the main reason, they were just taught to hate the other kind.

Being force to be on the passive position against the Infested Ones, the orcish land began losing a lot of ground. The advance was somewhat hard to counter, the rain of maggots kept coming, and the source of the problem was hard to counter.

No matter how many times they inflict damage against their foes, it was all for naught. Their adversaries seem to feel no pain and were not fearful of death. The Yurakks already hacked numerous of the Infested Ones into pieces, but still they kept on coming.

The leader of the new demonic swarm was yet to make his appearance upon the battlefield, but the orcs were already being pushed back.

Khao'khen was at his wits end. His trusted warriors were no opponents for the new wave of demonic wave. The physical prowess of his warriors was rendered useless by their current foe.

"Why don't we pull back towards the outer walls, to give us more time to think of a counter towards them," Adhalia suggested, her face still pale from throwing up the contents of her stomach.

The inner walls of the city had three gates, one towards the south, one on the east and the other towards the west. But the most used one was the one facing south, the other two gates were closed shut most of the time.

Khao'khen was still hesitating if they should pull back for the meantime, he and his warriors were already used to difficult to win battles, but the current engagement was something that they don't have an answer to for the moment.

"Pull back…" he finally decided. He would rather have his warriors taste a bitter defeat in the current than have them all be powerless against their current foes. The four warband that he had sent to secure the four magical towers were also being overwhelmed, and there was no way for them, at the moment to deal with their new foes.

The orcish horde, hearing the command of their chieftain began a slow retreat. The Drakhars who was at the thick of battle were also informed of Khao'khen's decision.

Both the Ereians and the orcish horde began pulling out form the inner walls.

A slow but effective retreat.

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No warrior fell against the new wave of demonic forces that had arrived. Only the number of wounded which had piled up to more than a thousand. Both the Ereians and the orcish horde had no way to deal with the rain of maggots that was being showered upon their lines.

Upon their retreat, the southern gate was safely secured by the Yurakks of the 3rd and 4th Warband while the eastern gate was secure by Zaraki and those who were with him.

As an indirect help, Queen Elara and her dark elf sisters secured the western gate. Although they were still not certain on how the orcish would deal with them, they thought that being a helping hand towards them would somehow put them in their good grace.

"How do we deal with them?" that was the question that Sakh'arran had in his mind and he wasn't to speak what he had inside his head.

"They are not fearful of death… They feel no pain nor do they fear it, how are we supposed to deal with them?" Arka'garr followed up. He was at the forefront of the battle before. He had already tried his best, riddling his enemy with holes that would certainly incapacitate or directly take them out of combat, but to no avail.

"If they are immune to damage of physical nature, why don't we try something of the magical origin." Faynah suggested. As far as she was aware, there were only two ways to injure her enemies, it was either through physical or magical means. And since their foes were resistant to physical means, they should give magical ways a try, and who knows, it might be their weakness.

The city of Ishtar, which was once the center of everything within the kingdom, was currently engulfed in destruction. The once prosperous and busy streets were now filled with survivors of the previous chaos, their faces etched with fear of the previous battle.

The once magnificent looking and towering buildings which were near the inner walls, owned and run by the nobles of the kingdom lay in ruins. The rubbles of stone and wood that littered the inner streets were a dark contrast to the once outstanding structures that were layered along the inner walls.

The residents, who were at first paid no heed to the current war that their kingdom was in, thinking that they would be safe from all the troubles of the war, had their faces etched with fear and uncertainty after the mess that they have been through. They all thought, that the capital would be safe from all the troubles of the ongoing war, but they were all gravely mistaken.

The capital had become the center of the ongoing chaos, not from the war of their kingdom against the other kingdoms that was neighboring theirs, but from the war between the races. Orcs, trolls, ogres, demons and the elusive dark elves had turned their city into their battlefield.

If not for the reminder of the Drakhars who were with the orcs, many of the Ereian would have fled the city at the earliest chance that they were given. The orcs had flooded their streets, engage in brutal combat against the demonic forces which had overrun their city, from which they knew nothing about where they came from.

Luckily, the dark elves that were active the previous night had pulled away from the battle. A clash between the dark elves and the orcs would have sent many of the residents to hopelessness, as the resulting clash would have been something catastrophic, especially after the state that they were in after the previous clash of forces within their city.