Chapter 2

“Militia form!!” Yelled a gruffy voice from within the town hall of Nordin. “To arms and battle lads.” A stout dwarf of muscular nature, Heraldor was a seasoned tracker of Yurilda. Settling down only a few years ago, he was accompanied by Marshal Lunash of the Odwalla Guard, and given rank of Corporal, and Militian commander of Nordin. Training over five dozen men, he is responsible for the 32 trained guards stationed around the small village.

At the sound of voice, militia raised from their seats, rushing to the arms room located within the town hall. A dozen young men stood at the ready within minutes, during which a loud bell rang at the top floor of the building, echoing warnings across the small town.

“Plagued-ones at the docks! Prepare formation!” Heraldor continued shouting orders, moving teams of fours across the roads to stations close to the dock. The make-shift soldiers held ground against the crazed monsters rapidly swaying off of the ship. A line of diseased, undead creatures moved across the wooden dock, and in the rear there was an over-sized ogre, horribly deformed with blight and disfigurations, but distinctively in command of his army. In a foreign language of grobbling, unintelligible screaming, the commander pointed, yelled, and pointed more, directing an attack across the small town of Nordin.

* * * * * * *

Two heads emerged from the surface of the open water, quietly bobbing at the hull of the ship. “This sail here,” Scalvar touched a thumb towards the top of the bow. “this is a captured ship. That’s the only way it could pass out of Aegrus unnoticed. See if there’s crew aboard.”

Gimbo nodded, and they silently swam to the life boat, gripping onto the first rail of many that created a ladder on the side of the ship. Gimbo went first, clinking his boots softly on each step, and Scalvar followed in unison a few moments after.

As his head peered over the edge of the ship’s rail, Gimbo swung a leg over, looking down to Scalvar. “It’s dead as a gr---.” Beginning to say something, he was cut off and then thrown off the ladder. Momentarily airborne, two deformed, but very much living, undead plagued creatures followed Gimbo as he slammed into the bottom of the life boat. The first minion landed on top of him, thrashing at his helm violently, but fortunately, the second overshot and landed in the water.

Scalvar drew his sword from it sheath, diving backwards off the ship, tackling into the plague-walker, feet first. Groaning under the sea, the already deformed face of the disgusting brute shattered, in which Scalvar followed up with hacking away at dry, splintered bone. Pieces of diseased tissue floated to the surface along with Scalvar, which he climbed back to the ladder to continue his venture.

Apparently, during this half-minute span under water, Gimbo had slipped away from the first monster. Then, drawing his own weapon, he proceeded to remove the creature’s legs at the knees and behead it, letting it topple into the ocean.

“Too close!” Gimbo exclaimed.

“Sh! We’ve not been seen.” Scalvar hush Gimbo quickly and this time, lead the way up the side of the ship. Both fighters climbed aboard without further issue, and split up, Scalvar to the rear, and Gimbo to the bow, crouched low.

Scalvar ducked behind the rail on the port side, closest the dock, and looked over Nordin. Thankfully, guards and creatures fought together, and the fire seen in the distance was not nearly as bad as originally thought. The town hall and a family home were aflame, and still burning brightly, but only one home of many. He snuck back to the rear of the ship, opening the cargo hold door and heading into the lower deck.

He found no enemies as he scrutinized the cargo, looking for something ignitable. Sadly, he found barrels of gunpowder littered with bodies of the crewmen, five or six he counted. Opening a few barrels, Scalvar dumped powder into a pile and ran a string of it back up to the door. He popped stoppers from vials and poured his combination onto the end of the line, and watched it catch and run slowly back to the cargo hold.

“Gimbo! Evac, evac!” Scalvar yelled, running back to the starboard side of the ship, diving into the water.

“Holy damn!!!” Gimbo jumped spastically off the bow, heavily into the water just as the rear of the ship exploded into wooden shrapnel.

* * * * * * *

The explosion was heard across Nordin, in which Heraldor looked up. “Militia! Rendezvous group two, center left to the docks!”

A dozen or so fatigued men formed together, marching past the burning town hall where women were attempting to douse the flames. They reached the wooden dock and were charged through by the commanding ogre.

Eight feet high, and half of that broad, Ku’ten swung his axe against numerous young militia, smashing two of them dead instantly. Heraldor brought his two hammers to his side, ready for a beating. Ku’ten screamed and brought his axe down onto the small dwarf, but met up with dense wood as Heraldor parried. Engaged in a flurry of movement, Ku'ten and Heraldor fought without interruption while plague-walkers and militia continued combat around them.

A dull ringing emitted from the burning town hall as the warning bell fell into the flames. A few gasped at the sight, but were quickly brought back to their duties. Men fought, women tended to the wounded and struggled to save themselves and their children. A string of townsmen were in line, desperately attempting to keep the two homes from burning with the town hall.

“Get off Ildonia!” Commanded Heraldor.

“Nevar will we fail!” Ku'ten responded, throwing his axe against Heraldor's armor, throwing him to the ground, forcing him to roll away from the next blow that pushed the blade into the earth.