Rise of the Horde

Chapter 14

After such a triumphant victory in their first battle, Xiao Chen grinned widely. He had racked up a lot of points and his missions now done.

MISSIONS

Availability Missions

[

*Establish your territory (Completed)

Reward: 1000 points

*Train and build your first army

(Must comprise not less than 400 combatants) (Completed)

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Reward: 3000 points

*Win a battle with your army with less than 50% casualties (Completed)

Reward: 5000 points

Failure: Deduct 20000 points

: host will experience the demon’s curse for an entire day

]

The orcs under his command were all really proud, shouting their lungs out as the Galuk Tribe resistance dissolved. The battle was won, but the war with the Galuks wasn’t over yet. They still had the numerical number even after suffering such a disastrous defeat and Xiao Chen knew it won’t be long before they rally again to attack.

*****

An hour after the First Xin Infantry Battalion won their virgin battle, Xiao Chen had them take rest but still will be on high alert ready to form for battle at a moment’s notice. The Arkhans proudly march to the campsite erected by the logistics unit under the lead of Kul’tha and as promised, Xiao Chen distributed the expected prime beef which the Arkhans and his officers were keen to savor again.

Despite costing him 420 points, Xiao Chen didn’t go back on his words and gave what he promised, 420kgs of prime beef. He had a total of 12737 points after finishing his missions and the points he received from the ‘Commander’s Share’. Taking out 420 points, he still had a whooping 12317 points which finally allowed him to buy the things he wanted to help the Arkhans development in all aspects.

An hour after the sun’s peak, the Galuks finally rallied together and formed a messy battle formation.

With the sound of the war drums, the First Xin Infantry Battalion sprinted out from where they were at towards the gathering point and slowly formed in their organized battle line, all tightly packed together shoulder to shoulder, 70 brave orc warriors formed a single horizontal line and five to seven orcs deep.

The First Xin Infantry Battalion battle line wasn’t long by any means, but against fellow orcs that knew no strategy or formation in battles, it proved their compact formation effective courtesy of their recent victory.

“They have come back for more!!! Then we give them more!!!”

Gur’kan bellowed, assuming the position of a morale booster to which they passionately replied to him

“Awooh!”

“Give... nothing... take... everything...”

“Awooh!”

“For the Chief”

“Awooh”

“For honor and glory”

“Awooh!!! awooh!!!”

Xiao Chen, at the most rear, can’t help but marvel at what influenced that little skinny orc to be like what he is now. Looking at the enemies who were just standing there staring at them, Xiao Chen can’t help but feel that something was wrong, something was very wrong. They should have charged forward already.

Spreading his gaze around the battlefield, on the leftmost flank of the enemy, there is a little movement there. Xiao Chen strained his eye to focus as much as possible to get a clear glimpse of what was going on, but to no avail.

“Trot’thar!”

Xiao Chen shouted, and quickly Trot’thar responded:

“‘Here, chief!”

Trot’thar yelled back, raising his shield high, then sprinted towards where Xiao Chen is at.

“The left most flank of the enemy, tell me what you see...”

Xiao Chen worriedly said as he returned his gaze back to where the enemies were moving suspiciously.

“By my ancestors!... Shamans!!!”

“They are shamans, my chief, and four of them”

Trot’thar exclaimed, his face full of worry as he saw the enemy shamans invoking their powers. Xiao Chen was shocked, yes there were shamans among orcs and he forgot to consider that the Galuks might have one, but what he was mostly shock of was that, there were four of them together.

The clouds soon turned dark, and quick flashes of light occasionally peaked out of the black clouds along with the deafening roar of thunder.

“Shit...”

Xiao Chen can’t help but curse as he helplessly stared at his men get struck by lightning bolts and their formations getting broken.

With each lightning bolt that struck, the Galuks cheered loudly and wildly, celebrating the First Xin Infantry Battalion’s casualties. Opening the system store, Xiao Chen quickly scanned for any counter measure he could find against the lightning invoking shamans that are decimating his troops. He scanned through the items of the system store as fast as possible since, by each passing minute, his troop’s casualties were steadily rising.

“Got it”

Xiao Chen muttered as he finally found a counter-measure, a 10-meter-thick long metal rod or commonly known a lightning rod, he bought seven of each costing him 500 points per rod. Handing over some to Trot’thar, he blurted.

“Impale them in the ground, a good distance from the army but not too much”

Xiao Chen pointed to their left flank as he bolted to their right flank to impale to the ground the remaining lightning rods. Trot’thar watch his chief bury one tip of the metal rods to the ground and he quickly learned what to do, quickly hurling them to different areas surrounding the army. The lightning rods were soon placed.

The flashes of light and deafening roar of thunder continued, but this time, like goblins to shiny things, the lightning bolts struck the lightning rods instead of Xiao Chen’s troops.

The First Xin Infantry Battalion were amazed at their chief’s odd actions, redirecting and using lightning bolts were only known to be done by shamans and mages, but their chief, despite not being a shaman nor a mage, accomplished such a feat.

“Hail to the chief!”

Gur’kan bellowed to uplift their morale, which took a beating after the lightning strikes and they passionately replied to him.

“Awooh”

The enemy shamans, upon noticing the strange behavior of the lightning strikes, soon stopped what they were doing. It completely drained them of mana and can’t take part much longer in the upcoming battle. Retreating to the rear, the Galuk warriors soon started shouting while madly rushing forward.

‘Boom... boom... boom’

With every beat of the war drums relaying certain commands, the First Xin Infantry Battalion soon restored their tight formation, the non-combatant units pulling out their disabled combatant allies to the rear to be treated.

Throwing spears soon decimated the Galuks once again, but they bravely or stupidly continued on their mad rush. Observing the development of the battle, he soon found some of the Galuks pouring more to their left flank, trying to overrun the formation.

Signaling Xor’tharr to relay the command, slowly the Black Tortoise group shifted from a horizontal, slowly panning counter-clock wise to deny the flanking Galuks of any chance of overrunning their formation.

Satisfied with Black Tortoise’s execution, Xiao Chen continued observing the battlefield, panning his gaze left to right slowly again and again. With the absence of the Galuk shamans, their warriors were at the mercy of the First Xin Infantry Battalion. They were slowly being mowed down by the outrageous long spears, long before they could even get the wielders within their own weapon’s reach.

The Galuks pouring to the left soon met with a dead end, a formidable wall of long spears and with no proper chain of command they spread out, some went to other locations to find a place to attack while the others bravely or stupidly assaulted the tightly pack wall of spears.

The Galuk warriors soon broke at the right flank while the rest continued on to try to breaking the phalanx formation. Telling Xor’tharr to relay orders, the Vermilion Bird then panned counter-clockwise slowly and attack the exposed left flank of the oblivious Galuk warriors, and just like that the Vermillion Bird mowed through the unaware Galuk warriors, pinned from the front and left, they were all mercilessly stabbed by the outrageous long spears.

The maneuver soon proved to be successful as the remaining Galuk warriors broke away from battle and retreated, their numbers merely in the high hundreds or barely in the thousands.

“Victory!!!”

“Awooh”

The First Xin Infantry Battalion passionately yelled in unison as they have yet again won the battle against enemies, outnumbering them ten to one or maybe even more.

Xiao Chen can’t help but helplessly smile at the actions of his army. Despite having losses among them, they are still in high spirits. Drae’ghanna slowly approach him as soon as she noticed Xiao Chen’s downcast look.

“Don’t feel guilt nor remorse, dying in a battlefield is an act of honor and bravery to orcs. Numbed yourself of this feeling, my chief...it won’t do well if your army sees your down casted look after such a victory...be proud that you have trained such powerful warriors that can win against more many enemies”

She said to him. Xiao Chen thought Drae’ghanna must have been worried about him and tried to cheer him up, but her words seem to be a little rough and crude.

With head held high, Xiao Chen marched towards his exhilarated troops who were loudly yelling the name Drae’ghanna had given him again and again while stomping their right foot on the ground and banging their shields with their spears.

“Khao’khen!... Khao’khen!... Khao’khen!...”