Rise of the Horde-Chapter 492 -

Captain Baldred, a man whose face was as weathered as the Tekarr Mountains themselves, surveyed the scene. One thousand soldiers, clad in iron and leather, stood arrayed around the base of a colossal stone pillar, its surface etched with intricate, pulsating runes that glowed with an unsettling purple light.

The air hung heavy with an unnatural silence, broken only by the rhythmic thud of shovels and pickaxes against stone. A thick fog clung to the ground, obscuring the jagged peaks that towered above.

"Send in the men to dig," Baldred commanded, his voice a low rumble that carried across the assembled troops.

The designated work crews, a mixture of laborers and less experienced soldiers, moved forward. They began to excavate a pit around the base of the pillar, their efforts illuminated by flickering torches held by other soldiers. The engravings on the pillar precisely matched those on the parchment clutched in Baldred's gauntlet, confirming their location.

"No matter what you see or hear," Baldred reiterated, his gaze sweeping across the workers, "ignore it. Focus on your work."

Even as he spoke, a massive black serpent, easily fifty feet in length, slithered into view from behind a nearby pillar. Its scales shimmered with an oily sheen, and its eyes burned with malevolent intelligence.

It remained motionless, observing the proceedings. Baldred subtly adjusted the amulet around his neck – a simple leather cord holding an oddly shaped, purple-glowing stone – a gift from the King, supposedly imbued with protective magic.

The digging continued. The ground yielded slowly, the earth revealing itself to be unusually dense and resistant. One of the laborers stumbled, dropping his shovel with a clang.

A low hiss emanated from the serpent; its head dipped slightly. The man, seemingly unnerved, began to babble incoherently. A nearby soldier, following Baldred's orders, swiftly silenced him with a brutal blow to the head. The body collapsed without a sound.

As the pit deepened, other anomalies presented themselves. Figures, tall and imposing, clad in full plate armor, patrolled the area between the pillars, their movements rigidly synchronized.

They moved with an unnatural gait, their armor reflecting the faint purple glow of the runes. Further out, a group of cat-like creatures with multiple scorpion-tailed whips stalked the shadows, their movements silent and predatory.

A low whisper, unintelligible yet chilling, seemed to emanate from the very stones themselves, a constant undercurrent to the rhythmic digging. The air grew colder; a palpable sense of dread hung in the fog.

"Captain," a lieutenant approached, his voice strained. "We've uncovered something."

Baldred moved to the pit's edge. The workers had unearthed a large, intricately carved stone slab, its surface covered in the same purple-glowing runes. As they pried it free, a guttural roar echoed through the mountains. The enormous serpent lunged, its fangs bared.

"Protect the workers!" Baldred shouted.

Several soldiers raised their shields, deflecting the snake's attack. The creature's scales proved surprisingly resistant to their weapons. One soldier, less fortunate, was struck by the serpent's tail, instantly impaled by the venomous stingers. The man screamed as the venom coursed through his veins, before collapsing to the ground in convulsions.

Another soldier rushed to his aid, only to be snatched by the serpent's massive jaws and crushed. The sounds of combat were now mixing with the whispers and the rhythmic digging.

The soldiers fought back with spears, swords, and axes, but their efforts against the serpent seemed futile. The armored figures, alerted by the commotion, began to close in. The cat-like creatures swarmed from the shadows, their stingers finding their marks. Soldiers fell in heaps, blood staining the ground.

Baldred, however, remained focused on the task at hand. Despite the chaos around him, he continued to oversee the work around the unearthed slab. The amulet pulsed brighter as the fighting intensified. The stone slab, once removed, revealed a staircase descending into darkness.

"Into the pit!" Baldred ordered, his voice laced with grim determination. "We press onward." He moved towards the staircase, his soldiers, those still standing, following close behind.

The sounds of dying men, the hissing of the serpent, the growls of the armored figures and the whispers, formed a grim symphony echoing through the eerie Tekarr Mountains. The descent into the unknown began.

The air hung thick and heavy with the scent of damp earth and decaying vegetation as Baldred, his face grim, led the terrified workers deeper into the pit. The flickering, moss-green light cast long, dancing shadows that writhed and twisted like phantoms on the tunnel walls.

Straggling behind were the remnants of his squad – Lieutenant Gerber, his face a mask of grim determination, Lieutenant Kael, his eyes scanning the darkness with predatory intensity, and a handful of soldiers, their armor stained and battered. The rhythmic slosh of their boots in the mud and the occasional scraping of metal against rock filled the oppressive silence.

Hours bled into each other. The tunnel system seemed endless, a labyrinth of twisting passages. The unnatural glow of the moss was their only guide. One worker, a wiry man with dirt caked under his fingernails, began to mutter incoherently, his words a jumble of superstition and fear: "Cursed… mistake… grave…"

"Silence," Kael snapped, his voice a low growl. The blade of his sword, still slick with something dark, glinted in the dim light. He didn't need to raise his voice further; the threat was implicit. "Your payment was upfront. Your work is unfinished."

Gerber's bellow echoed through the tunnel. "Move!" The workers shuffled forward, fear palpable in their hurried steps.

After what felt like an eternity, the tunnel opened into a vast cavern. The air here was colder, almost frigid. At the center stood a massive stone arch, a crude, like a doorway. Each stone was intricately engraved with symbols that looked both ancient and alien, pulsing faintly with an unsettling purple light.

Baldred let out a harsh breath, his shoulders slumping slightly. "We found it."

He moved towards the arch, his boots crunching on the cavern floor. At the base of the arch, nestled amongst the larger stones, lay a smaller, obsidian-black stone. He carefully removed it, wrapping it in a piece of his rough tunic before tucking it into his bag. The purpose of the stone, its properties, remained unknown; it was simply the object of their mission, and its acquisition was all that mattered.

Hours were spent exploring the cavern, a fruitless search for an alternative exit. The only way out was the way they came in.

"How do we handle the… things… outside?" Gerber asked, his voice barely a whisper, the question hanging heavy in the cavern's echoing silence.

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"Our weapons are useless against them," Kael added, his voice grim, "And that serpent… it could decimate us in minutes."

Baldred's response was blunt. "We fight our way out. The workers go first. We follow."

The retreat began. The workers, driven forward by the points of blade and the fear of certain death, were shoved towards the tunnel entrance. Those who faltered, who slipped or stumbled, were met with the swift and brutal end. The metallic clang of steel on bone, the wet squelching of flesh, the strangled gasps of dying men—these sounds punctuated the grim exodus.

Screams tore through the night as the workers, a terrified, scrambling mass, burst from the tunnel mouth. The giant serpent, its scales gleaming like obsidian, the armored creatures, their movements almost impossibly fast, and the cat-like beings, their eyes glowing with predatory hunger, were already waiting, their pursuit swift and merciless.

"Go!" Baldred shouted, already climbing out of the pit, his face set in a grim expression. Gerber, Kael, and the remaining soldiers followed, their retreat a desperate sprint punctuated by the sounds of carnage behind them. The serpent, the armored figures, and the cat-like beings tore into the fleeing workers, a bloody feast in the darkness.

Baldred didn't look back. He didn't care. He had the black stone. That was all that mattered. The screams of the dying, the sounds of the hunt, were merely a background noise to his retreat, a symphony of death swallowed by the vast, indifferent night. The mission was accomplished; the cost was irrelevant.

Captain Baldred, sweat plastering his thinning hair to his scalp, leaned heavily on his sword. His breath hitched in ragged gasps. Around him, the remaining soldiers mirrored his exhaustion.

Fewer than five hundred men remained of the thousand-strong force that had entered the Tekarr Mountains. The ground was littered with discarded armor, a testament to their desperate flight. The stone pillars, imposing and ancient, formed a seemingly impenetrable barrier behind them.

The massive serpent, scales the color of polished obsidian, coiled at the edge of the pillar enclosure, its forked tongue flicking, its eyes burning with predatory intensity. It hissed, a sound that vibrated through the earth, a final, futile threat. The serpent remained motionless behind the stone pillars, its potential attack thwarted by the unnatural boundary.

Gerber, Baldred's lieutenant, slumped against a tree, his face ashen, his chest heaving. "We...are...finally safe..." he managed, his voice a rasp.

"Finally," Kael, the second lieutenant, echoed, collapsing onto the ground, his body trembling with exhaustion.

The air hung heavy with the stench of blood and sweat. The ground was a gruesome tapestry of crimson stains, punctuated by the scattered remnants of the fallen soldiers.

Limbs, severed and mangled, lay scattered amidst discarded weapons and broken shields. Some bodies were whole, others torn apart by the monstrous creatures they had fled. The scene was a stark reminder of the brutal cost of their escape.

A group of laborers, their faces pale and drawn, huddled nearby. They had also witnessed the carnage and participated in the desperate flight. Their numbers were small, a stark contrast to the massive force that had entered the mountains just hours earlier.

"Report," Baldred commanded, his voice strained but authoritative.

"Sir," Gerber began, his words still punctuated by gasping breaths, "We lost…we lost heavy. I'd estimate at least five hundred men. Possibly more. Many were…overwhelmed. The…the things…they were fast, strong… relentless."

"Gather the injured," Baldred ordered. "We'll assess their injuries. We need a headcount, and we need to secure this area. We cannot allow ourselves to become complacent or to drop our guard, even here."

The surviving soldiers, guided by a grim sense of duty, moved slowly, helping the injured, collecting weapons, and establishing a rudimentary perimeter around the small group of escapees. The silence was broken only by the moans of the wounded and the occasional rasp of a soldier's breath.

"What do we do now, Captain?" Gerber asked, his gaze fixed on the imposing stone pillars.

"We rest," Baldred replied. "We tend to the wounded. And then," his eyes narrowed, "Then we leave this forsaken place."

The remaining soldiers nodded silently, their faces etched with fatigue and the grim knowledge of the losses they had suffered. They were safe, for now, but the memory of the carnage and the uncertainty of their future hung heavy in the air.

They still have a long journey ahead of them as they make their way out of the mountains. Danger lurks in every corner of the wilds.

For now they rest, what is important is that they have gotten what they came here for, and wouldn't be returning anytime soon in this awful place.