Xzorn walked on, his armor clanking, sweating profusely as Arthas' platoon worked their way to Hearthglen. He saw a stream of smoke rising in the distance, and sighed with relief. They would soon arrive in Hearthglen.
The townspeople cheered as the platoon made their way into the small town of Hearthglen, and a footman jogged up to Arthas. "Welcome to Hearthglen Milord. As you can see our soldiers are training and ready to aid you."
"Excellent, soldier. Wait, what was in those crates?"
"Grain from Andorhal Milord. Don't worry, it has already been distributed to the villagers."
"No... To arms!"
The people's eyes closed momentarily, and when they opened again, they were glazed over. They had become zombies in service to the Scourge. The footmen charged and slew the zombies, but were shaken. Arthas spoke once more to the captain in of the town guard. "Tell the villagers not to use the grain!"
"Yes, Milord"
Arthas sniffed the air, and muttered grimly, "Undead. Defend the town!" The footmen went to defend the southwest gate, a force of ghouls, led by a necromancer, were attacking the guard towers. Arthas roared and charged, as did the footmen.
Xzorn charged at the nearest ghoul, swiftly running it through with a shortsword. He stumbled back as a skeleton rose from the ghoul's corpse, charging him with a bone sword. He dodged to the side, chopping off it's head. The ghouls fell before the footmen's resolve. The necromancer began a spell, but was slain by an explosion of light. Xzorn looked to Arthas, who had been the one who cast the spell.
He was left with little time to think, when Arthas shouted, "Undead at the Northwest gate!" The footmen charged the next force, roaring battle cries. Once more the undead died swiftly. Xzorn turned to see Arthas speaking to a messenger. He yelled out to the troops, "The undead are sending an unholy caravan to plague the villages to the North. I must go to stop it!"
Arthas left with a large portion of their troops, leaving only ten footmen to defend the town. The next Scourge attack was from both sides, Northwest and Southwest. Xzorn and four other footmen went to defend the Southwest gate. This time the force was much larger, consisting of eight ghouls, an abomination, and a pair of necromancers at each gate. Three footmen went to make their stand at the Northern guard tower, while he was left to defend the Southern one with a black haired footman. As the undead approached, Xzorn asked, "Tell me, who am I honored to fight alongside?"
The man replied, "I am Saidivh Bedwyr."
"Heh, glad to meet you. Incoming!" said Xzorn, just before four ghouls charged them, with a necromancer not far behind. He slew the first one, slicing it in two. Another one crashed into his shield, while Saidivh fought the other two. He felt a stinging pain as a necromancer's bolt hit him in the side, he shoved his sword through the ghoul, and ran at the necromancer, pulling his sword from the ghoul. He arrived at the necromancer only to have a skeletal warrior stab him in the side. He spun in time to see Saidivh smash it with a shield bash. Xzorn nodded in thanks, and whirled around, killing the necromancer. They rushed over to aid the other footmen who were having trouble fighting the abomination. Together with the other three footmen, they slew the abomination. The first real wave had been repelled. But one of the other footmen had fallen. The remaining four stood together in a defensive stance, awaiting the next wave of undead.
A cheer from one of the footmen announced the arrival of reinforcements. Another squad of footmen accompanied by a priest. Now they had nine footmen. And a priest.
The next wave of undead was foretold by the shuffling, scratching, and the stench of rot. Soon the enemy came into view. One footman cried out in anguish, "A score of ghouls at least! And abominations!"
And that was not the least of their troubles, for to augment the force were a good number of necromancers. And, something worse. A creaking of wood, and clank of metal, the stench of rot still greater as the monstrosity slowly wheeled into view. A meat wagon had arrived. A silence came over the troops.
After a few seconds of deathly silence, a necromancer fired a green plague bolt at the south tower. Xzorn looked up just in time for an archer to come falling upon him, knocking him to the ground.
A few battle cries resounded, and Xzorn pushed the archer off and rushed to join his new comrade, Saidivh. The warrior was in combat with a trio of ghouls when he finally arrived.
Xzorn launched himself onto the ghoul on the far right, knocking it down before he drove his sword into its skull. Saidivh had already finished the other two. With a nod from Saidivh, they both launched themself at a mob of four ghouls, who were feeding on a downed footman. But the ghouls saw them coming, and three launched themselves onto Xzorn. He raised his shield, and one ghoul landed on it with a sick thud. Another ghoul was impaled on his sword. But the third jumped late, and managed to knock him down. It raised its claw. But it never got any further, because its head was chopped off by a fellow footman's sword. Xzorn got up and thanked Saidivh before they rushed to help two of the remaining footmen tackle an abomination.
Three footmen stood their ground bravely in defence of the priest, who was on the ground, wounded. Each one stoicly fought a least three ghouls.
But then, a sickening THUD the meat wagon fired. A chunk of meat fell upon the footmen, killing two of them. The other was quickly ripped apart by the ghouls, and the force charged at the last four footmen.
The northern guard tower war overrun, and the four footmen scrambled for the shelter of the southern tower.
At the top of the tower, the three archers loosed arrows at the necromancers, and two were hit, and died. The last pair of necromancers hissed, and with a wave of their staves, they fell to the ground dead as well. But the five dead footmen raised fromt he dead first, and charged the tower with the rest of the undead.
The first ghouls arrived at the entrance to the tower, and as soon as they entered they were engaged by Xzorn, Saidivh, and the other two footmen. The ghouls were quickly slain, but the footman could not even so much as draw a breath before the five undead soldiers rushed in. They were engaged again.
Atop the tower, the one archer yelled and pointed down. Two abominations were shambling towards the tower, and the meat wagon was turning to face them. They loosed their arrows into the first abomination, but it had no effect except perhaps to enrage the beast.
A thud, and bricks fall from the tower wall, accompanied by rotting, wriggling meat. Xzorn rushes over to kill whatever in the meat was alive, and another footman fell, along with an undead soldier. More thuds, and a few more bricks fell as the abominations slammed the tower. One of them chuckled horridly, the wall about to cave in.
-To Be Continued-