Rise of the Horde

While on his way back towards the central tent, Khao'khen heard a voice from behind him, "Where are they?" and as he turned around he saw Adhalia's face filled with curiousity. "You mean the captives?", he promptly replied to which she nodded her head in response. "They are being led to the makeshift cells and the interrogation will be continued tomorrow morning.

Why do ask?", he was also curious what caused her to be interested to those who they have caught who claimed to be refugees fleeing from the war. "Maybe I know someone among them and I might get them to talk because of who and what I am," Adhalia replied.

Khao'khen was lost in his thoughts after listening to the words of Adhalia. True as woman they might loosen a bit of their vigilance against her and would be more comfortable talking to someone who is of the same gender as them instead of grizzly soldiers and her identity as the new leader of her house might prove to be useful.

"Let's go," he beckoned for her to follow him as he led the way towards where the makeshift cells were at.

Near the edge of the camp where one of the quarters of the Drakhars was located, a tent was quickly vacated to serve as a holding place for the captives. The tent was brightly lit from the outside by four cauldron torches in all corners and there were two squads standing guard near it as a precaution.

Khao'khen made good use of the black sludge that was abundant throughout the Burning Sands and became a useful fuel for their torches. The identities of the people that they have captured who claims to be refuges were yet to be verified and being cautious about the possibility that this was just a ploy of the enemy commander to infiltrate their camp and gather information.

The leader of the guards on post greeted the two and raised the flaps of the tent to allow them to enter. Adhalia squinted her eyes and scanned the faces of the captives but failed to identify any of them with her eyes as they were covered in dirt. "My name is Adhalia Darkhariss, current leader of my house, what are your names?" she questioned after introducing herself.

Her question was greeted with silence as the captives huddled together in one corner but there was one among them who was staring at her as if trying to discern if she was speaking the truth.

After more than a few full breaths, a reply finally came. "The House of Darkhariss has long been destroyed; I think you made a mistake in choosing a noble house to impersonate as that house is no more," the one who was staring at her clicked her tongue after giving her reply. "What kind of monster are you to be able to impersonate a human perfectly?" she continued.

"Monster?" Adhalia was greatly confused by the words of the fearless woman, "Do I look like a monster to you?" she was a bit insulted as this was the first time that someone called her as a monster in all her life. It would have been great if she was called a monster because of her strength but she herself knows that she was not even stronger than a common soldier in her own army.

"Then what are you? You came to our lands with an army of monsters in tow. I don't know what you did or said to those Ereians outside to convince them to join you and your army of monsters but you shall not succeed," she gritted her teeth as the face that she was staring was all too familiar to her.

A crystal tear escaped the edge of her eyes as she started to exert her control over the shadows and a spike suddenly came out from out of nowhere to strike her. Khao'khen who has always been wary of her was quick to react and parried the attack.

[Shadow Spike]

"Tsk…pesky monster", the woman snorted then she controlled the scattered shadows to gather into one and swung it at the huge orc who she deemed to be greater threat than the other monster whose face was so familiar with her.

[Shadow Strike]

"F*uck!" Khao'khen's eyes dilated as he saw the black mass come at him with an incredible speed. He didn't expect that the huge thing was able to be swung at him that fast and he was slow to react to it and left with no choice he decided to parry it once again. The clash threw Khao'khen a few meters away and destroyed another nearby tent.

The tent that served as a temporary holding cell was forcefully uprooted by the chieftain's body when he was thrown away.

The guards who were responsible for guarding the captives were shocked by what happened. They were positioned a few meter away from the makeshift cell to avoid being sneaked attacked upon and the illumination coming from the torches on four corners of the tent would disable any attempt of the prisoners in escaping by using the cover of the darkness.

"Alert the others!" the leader of the guards shouted then directed the two squads to encircle the captives who seemed to be making an attempt to escape. Spears at the ready, the Drakhars slowly edged towards the lonely figure who was staring at them with fearless eyes.

They were moving with caution since the leader of the house was just a few meters away from the enemy and would be able to reach her faster than they can.

"Stand down! I repeat stand down! Or else we will be force to take you down," the leader of the guards shouted at the enemy, "Take me down?" she chuckled then those who were closest to her were quickly taken down by their own shadows that took the shape of a chains to choke them.

[Shadow Bind]

She was still not certain if the Ereian soldiers were actually humans and not monsters which is why she knocked them down without any fatal injuries. Moving her gaze towards the woman whose face she knows very well, her eyes getting cloudy as tears started sliding down her cheeks.

"Farewell Dahlia" she whispered then manifested a giant spike to end the impostor that was in front of her. Instead of seeing fear in her eyes, the impostor that she was about send to its demise stared at her with a smile. The smile confused her, she made a quick scan of her surroundings as caution but she failed to sense any danger.

She then controlled the huge spear and aimed it at the impostor who still had a smile on her face. The sound of piercing flesh that she anticipated never came and her attack just went through the impostor who was still smiling at her but now with tears sliding down her cheeks.

[Shadow Spear]

The powerful woman then fell down to her knees as it dawned upon her that the one in front of her was not an impostor but the real one. Shadows are the friends of the Darkhariss and anything that originated from the shadows shall do no harm to any of them. That is one of the oldest and most brutal way of the Darkhariss to discover one of their own.