Rise of the Horde

The night after the fiasco caused by Faynah

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The woman that Khao'khen describes as someone crazy, continued to lean on the shoulders of Adhalia as she silently sobbed. After a long time of considering herself to be the last of their bloodline, the sudden appearance of Adhalia lifted a lot off her shoulders.

She always needed to be cautious before with her actions as she thought that the House of Darkhariss would completely disappear with her demise. Every plan, decision and action that she took before needed to be calculated and she must always ensure that she would have a way out. And with the appearance of Adhalia, she can fully focus on dealing with the enemies of their house.

"There…there Fey….Everything is alright now, I am here for you," Adhalia rubbed her back as she comforted her. To the guards who were knocked out before by Faynah who was being assisted by their fellow Drakhars were confused of the event that was unfolding in front of them.

"What the heck…" someone among them cursed under his breath. That powerful woman who was capable of knocking them all out with one move is now in tears and being comforted by Adhalia who they knew had little to no combat capabilities at all. The woman was acting like a child that was just wronged and they can't help but feel that what was happening was unfair.

It was them that got done in easily by her but there she was being comforted as if it was them who had wronged her.

When the previously knocked out Drakhars managed to recollect themselves, Faynah finally calmed down. The leader of the guards was directing his men to go back to their quarters as there no longer any need for them to guard the prisoners because of their identity.

"Move out!" the leader of the two squads ordered and they were about to head back to their tents when Faynah quickly made a dash towards them. The soldiers flinched after seeing her making a beeline towards them and even the head of the guards unconsciously gripped his weapon firmer.

'She must be pissed since we aimed our weapons at her' that was what was running in the minds of the soldiers who had already accepted their fate. Pointing your weapons towards someone of noble blood especially someone belonging to the house that you served would only result into one thing, death.

"I will accept the punishment but please spare my men. They were just following orders," the leader of the guards quickly knelt down with both knees. He had already accepted his fate but he must try to save his men.

The words and actions of the captain halted Faynah in her tracks with confusion written all over her face. She blinked her eyes in bewilderment but then it dawned upon her. "Ah, no…no…no. It should be me apologizing to you and your men for what I did. So please stand up," Faynah bowed her head in apology which greatly surprised the soldiers.

Adhalia needed to intervene in the situation since the two sides that just fought wouldn't stop apologizing towards one another, and who knows when it will end without her interfering.

Inside her own tent or the one assigned to her, Adhalia served her cousin with snacks. She had already sent word to their best cook to make some hearty meal for their guests. The family of the baron was given a tent just a few meters away from Adhalia's to be there residence inside the camp.

"So what happened to you Dahlia?" Faynah was the first one to ask questions. She was curious on the life of her cousin and what she had experienced after the crazy prince decided to destroy their house and hunt down its members. What she was really curious about the most was on how she got acquainted with the battle craze monsters.

"Well, it is a long story," Adhalia sighed as she plopped down on the fur padding of her tent. "I was outside when that bastard and his men assaulted the castle.

After learning of what had transpired, I quickly gathered those who were loyal to the family and headed towards the castle to reinforce them but…" there were tears sliding down the cheeks of Adhalia as she remembered the scene that she had witnessed.

The road was littered with bodies, the houses were on fire, the groans of agony of those who were wounded and the cries of those who had just lost their loved ones. She directed the warriors that he had gathered to kill the bastards who were in a frenzy killing the innocent, looting and destroying the settlement.

"The men that I had brought with me managed to save the innocent. We regrouped and left those who were heavily wounded in the town and headed towards the castle but that bastard had already laid waste to the castle and were waiting for us near the gates," Adhalia grinded her teeth in anger and she began to sob.

She wouldn't forget that smirk of that damnable guy and the thing that he pridefully hanged on the neck of his steed, it was the lifeless heads of her parents. Her world crashed down during that moment and she lost consciousness.

"According to the servants who were with me that time, I lost consciousness upon the sight of my parent's heads which that wretched prince displayed as his trophies. The men who were with me engaged his soldiers while the rest escorted me away. I was left with less than twenty men," she then gave out a sigh as she remembered the valiant efforts of those soldiers to protect her.

"I then pretended to be a travelling merchant with the people that I had left while heading towards Alsenna to seek refuge there but his hounds were always able to track us down. We managed to reach Alsenna but I was only left with half a dozen of protectors and most of the servants who had weaker bodies succumbed to exhaustion and hunger," she continued.

Faynah can't help but be teary eyed after listening to the story of her cousin. Unlike her, she had it way easier since she was stationed in Alsenna when all hell broke loose for their house. And with the protection of her leader and her connections, she managed to easily evade the pursuit of the prince's men. Until the baron declared that he was to take her in as her third wife to protect her.

"We managed to stay hidden in Alsenna for more than a week, but the people of the prince managed to track us down once again. Left with no choice, we left the city in the middle of the night and headed north with enough supplies to last us a month. We thought that our pursuers would give up after learning of where we are headed but we were gravely mistaken.

They continuously tracked us down," Adhalia balled her hands into a fist.

"It didn't take long for our pursuers to corner us but we had no idea that we had already reached the orcish lands. During the skirmish, a group of orcish warriors joined the fray and the people who were with me fell one by one.

During that time I already accepted my fate but I first enjoyed the scream of agony of our pursuers as they were beaten to death by the orcs," a small smile was plastered on Adhalia's lips as she remembered the suffering of their pursuers.

"After that, the orcs took me as captive since their leader seemed to be interested in me. But it didn't take long for the tribe of the orcs to be conquered by another tribe and that was the chieftain's tribe. I don't know if it was an accident or it was fate but I had it easy after that," Adhalia ended it there.

"So how did you get them to aid you in your quest for vengeance?" Faynah quickly followed up.

Adhalia raised a cup of water to her lips to quench her parsed throat after talking for so long before continuing. "Well, I informed the chieftain of my situation and he agreed to help me seek vengeance."

"Don't tell me that he is doing it for free without any payment. I know that you are beautiful Dahlia but it is impossible for an orc to be so smitten by your beauty that he would gladly lead his army just for your revenge without any sort of payment," Faynah questioned. 'There was no way' she thought.

"You are absolutely correct. He isn't doing this for free. They would aid me in my revenge and as payment, the Burning Sands or to be more specific, Ereia." Adhalia calmly replied as she refilled her cup and raised it to her lips.

Faynah was shocked with her cousin's answer that she was rendered speechless. All for the revenge, she would offer the entire kingdom as payment.