Rise of the Horde

300 Chapter 30For almost an entire month, the Irthakash town’s repairs was finally completed. The soldiers the Baron Husani had offered for him to make use of and those recruited by Adhalia among the folks of the town were already more than a week into the grueling training. The Skallsers and the Drakhars alternated in assisting Khao’khen with the training of the fresh bloods since they also went through such training before and they knew of its hardships.

The first month which was comprised mostly of physical training caused a quarter of the total numbers of the trainees to give up on the training but what amazed Khao’khen was that, not even a single of the soldiers that the baron gave him surrendered as they continuously endured the training. He even witnessed some of them collapsing due to exhaustion and needed to be aided by those who were assisting him in their training but just after a good night’s rest, they would be back onto the field once again.

Khao’khen was in awe of their persistence to continue with the training despite its difficulty. After two months of taxing physical training, the formations and drills came next as the new bloods trained in the old-fashioned phalanx since they would supplement the lacking numbers of the Drakhars.

At the City of Alsenna, the defenders were having a hard time in maintaining their composures as the shortage of food and the frequent riots in the city was exhausting them far beyond what they normally endure. Commander Lars was so stressed with their current situation that he had not much of an appetite to eat which caused his body to thin out a bit. Aside from the shortage of food, illnesses began cropping out among the residents of the city and with them being trapped inside the confines of the city walls, the contagious illnesses ran rampant around the city even claiming the lives of some.

Commander Lars launched a few counter-attacks but none succeeded so far. Every single time that he attempted to attack their foes, they would quickly run away before coming back to maintain the encirclement of the city with the exception of those to their north which was the enemy main camp was at and those who he sent out to seek aid would always be hunted down. Trapped and with no way to get help, he didn’t know how much longer they would be able to hold on with how low their food supplies were now. They even had to sacrificed some of their mounts and had them butchered to be served as food.

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Inside the throne room, King Gyassi was smiling from ear to ear as he received guests nonstop who were offering him gifts to earn his favor. The bait that he had thrown out worked quite pretty well as nobles and merchants began trickling to the palace to offer him their gifts. He had been making use of the wealth that he had received to recruit more and more soldiers and even went as far as sending one of his trusted aides to venture out and hire mercenaries to fight for him. King Gyassi became by far the richest king of Ereia in existence as wealth came to him nonstop in form of gifts.

To the east, the army that was sent to hold off their enemies under the command of Commander Nassor was able to strangle the forces of the Kingdom of Alberna as they occupied the City of Desa and trapped the Albernans who were manning the Tortuga Fortress with no supply line. Commander Nassor had the camp slowly shifted to the east until it was then positioned in between the fortress and the city.

Robbed of their supplies Count Mero had to frequently send out foraging units into the wilds to replenish their food supplies which was becoming harder and harder as the time goes by since their surroundings were almost stripped clean by them already in the past few weeks. The distance that they had to cover just to be able to forage became bigger and bigger which also increased the risk of them being ambushed in the wilds.

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Despite being annoyed by the current situation, Count Mero still strictly followed the order that he was given which was to not let the fortress fall into the hands of the Ereians. Since they still have control of the fortress, the Ereians who managed to occupy the City of Desa by some means would still be cautious about their presence.

Count Mero and his soldiers were trapped in the Tortuga Fortress while the Ereians were also trapped there with them in the region. Despite the odd situation that they are in, the task that was given to him was still fulfilled which was to hold off the Ereians at the fortress and deny them of freely ravaging the kingdom which was what was happening since the Ereians remained at where they are with no plans to venture deeper into the territory of Alberna.

Commander Nassor was lounging in the City of Desa and enjoyed whatever the city had to offer. He and the other commanders alternated among themselves on who will be at the helm of the camp which was at a standoff with their foes. With his arrangements, they managed to turn the wall that was supposed to halt their advance into a prison for their foes.

The old commander had no plans to inform that king of theirs that they managed to occupy the City of Desa since he was certain that he would make some ridiculous requests after he learns of their success. He and the other commanders had agreed that they would send letters asking for food supplies and other necessities to make their king think that they are still stuck and are struggling with their foes. They have all decided that they would make peace with the ruler of Alberna if he offers agreeable terms with them and perhaps they would go under his rule depending on the negotiations.