Starting tomorrow, 11.01.2016 I will do a GUARANTEED 1 chapter a day and maybe manage to sneak out a second chapter aswell. Since I write, edit, proofread the story myself, I don't want to pump out chapter after chapter in a fast pace which will inevitably turn the story sh*t. Thank you for your understanding.
Anyways, enjoy!
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Chapter 14: Charging through the passage
As they entered the passage, everyone was quiet. The passage was pitch black but everyone's eyes got used to the darkness in a few minutes. The passage was around 3-4m high and 5 meters wide. For a group of 700 people going through an underground secret passage, they did surprisingly little noise. The secret passage was approximately 4 kilometers long and was mainly underground.
There were only a few sections where they could be seen. Almost all of those sections were underneath the fortress. This passage wasn't know to Nadin soldier's, otherwise they would have blocked it or atleast posted guards there.
The adventurer's team consisted of 33 people including Nalser. They were spread out so: 10 in the from of the group, 10 in the back and 13 were mixed in with the group in the middle. The setup's point was this- If the enemies are infront the 10 will push through with force, if they come from the back, then the 10, who guarded the back, will keep them at bay until the big group could charge forward. The adventurer's understood this far but didn't understand why 13 had to be mixed in with the crowd. Not knowing, whether these guys had brains or muscles for brains, Nalser had explained to them.
"The 13 in the middle will relay the current situation when either the front or back runs into trouble. Their second objective is, if we should be discovered and they start pouring in from the middle of the group, they will deal with them. Also it puts the people more at ease if they know that mixed in are people who can deal with the soldiers if they turn up." After Nalser had explained in detail, everyone understood clearly, that every person in this formation had a specific task. This world was primitive, most of the people who thought of battle formations, were either nobles taught from day one or very experienced commanders. Simple folk like these guys, only used the more common battle formations that were widely know, intricate ones like these were an utopia for them.
By the time they had passed through the 2 and a half kilometer mark, they hadn't been seen yet. The hardest part had arrived now. They were currently right under the fortress. Should they make too much noise here, they would be seen and all hell would break loose. Everyone knew instinctively that should they mess up here, the worst case scenario will come to life, so they all made as little noise as possible. Right when they had passed the fortress, something unexpected happened. A guard, that was doing who knows what, suddenly fell through the ceiling of the secret passage. Since all the people had already passed that place the only ones the soldier could see, were the adventurer's in the back. When that person fell through the ceiling, everyone were dumbstruck, they froze where they were and no one even dared to breathe.
Hearing the noise, Nalser quickly dashed to the back from the middle of the crowd and cursed inside, "For the love of, what friggin god did we piss off to have luck as crappy as this?" Before anyone could even react on what to do, Nalser had arrived in front of the soldier, who was about 60 meters away from them. Nalser immediately slit his throat with Dreamer.
Then Nalser looked up through the hole and saw what room it was. When he saw it, he's face paled, it was a mess hall for soldiers and currently it was dinner time. He shouted in a loud voice, "F*ck this, everyone run like the Hell Hounds are chasing you, now!"
That sentence brought everyone back to reality and everyone started dashing towards the exit. Nalser backed up towards the group a bit and stood his ground. The back line defence sqaud immidiately rushed to his side, ready to fight to the death with him. "You guys go. If they know, where this passage surfaces at, the group is gonna need you guys more, than i do. I'll hold them off here but i can buy at most 10 to 15 minutes."
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Everyone hesitated, finally the captain grit his teeth and said, " Fine but you have to catch up soon." "That may be a problem though but anyways, tell Thomas, the commander, that the little thief sends his regards." Nalser had a wry smile on his face as he said that and handed the captain a letter. The captain and his team reluctantly started running towards the group soon catching up to them.
"What the fuck am i doing? I left the palace because I didn't want to be a friggin Hero on the front line but here i am now..." He sighed to himself quietly with a helpless face. Although, he didn't give a damn about being a Hero, he had a feeling on of being in debt to these people, who lost their homes due to the rebound of the summoning. He always had a strong sense of responsibility and he felt that, it was his job to at least get these people across the border to a better place than this hell hole. "Njaa, this is the first time and last time i'm going to play a Hero in shining armor."
As he shook his head, he saw that at least 50-60 soldiers had already descended to the passage. When he saw that number, he felt his scalp going numb. He instructed Curo, who was by his side, "When the situation turns completely hopeless, run." Curo looked at him with a sad face, seemingly full of refusal. He then turned his size up to the maximum he currently could.
When on all fours, he was a head taller than Nalser. Since in the passage only 5 fully armed soldiers could walk side by side, he was perfect to block their path. As he stored Dreamer's scabbard into the Spacial ring, his eyes turned cold and he completely entered combat mode.
***
Meanwhile at the Nulan border fortress. Thomas was currently on the wall, his eyes were glued to where the secret passage would surface at. All the soldier's had already been briefed about the current situation and all the soldier's were in full armor already lined up to move on a moments notice. Thomas noticed, that the fortress across the no mans land got extremely busy all of a sudden.
"Don't tell me they were seen." as that thought ran through his mind, he noticed that from the secret passage a lot of people started pouring out and were making a dash for the Nulan border fortress. Seeing the situation, Thomas knew that the worst case scenario had happened.
"Open the gates! Infantry escort the wagons to pick them all up. Cavalry, you are to ensure their safety and guard them on the way back. Move out! His Majesty said that our utmost priority is to get these people across the border safely." Thomas roared in a loud voice and everyone started rushing towards the people that had emerged from the secret passage. Thomas ran down from the wall as well and mounted his horse.
"There's no way in seven hells that im going to let innocent people die here." as he thought that, he had reached the front end of the soldier's already and was personally leading the charge. When they reached the people they loaded everyone on the wagons and escorted them back to the fortress. Not seeing Nalser anywhere, Thomas asked the closest adventurer, "Where's the little thief?" The adventurer's looked with a gloomy face and then the captain approached Thomas with the letter Nalser had given him. When Thomas read the letter, his face changed and forced through his grit teeth, "Seal the entrance and return to the fortress!"
On the letter it stood: " Seal the entrance! If i survive, i will most probably go through the fortress but seeing as you have this letter, the situation is probably too crappy to be salvaged. The priority should be to get these people into Nulan."