A day after Arken's departure
The real rampage is a broken heart.
PSHAWWW!
CLAMOR!
CLAMOR!
Sounds of clashes electrified the whole northwest parts of Ambrenia, the most closest to the dungeon where the rampaging monsters were barely being held at bay.
What stood between them and the utter destruction of the town center was the hurriedly assembled commoners alongside established adventurers, with many more scattered around the fronts.
In the midst of them all Kalni hopelessly stared straight at the glaring hordes of monsters, who were trying to break through the embankments of broken carriages, food sacks and dead bodies.
"Hold! Hold on for your life!" She screamed at everyone both behind her and beside her as she clutched her sword tight in her fist, before a softer tone came from her throat saying, "please."
Her voice cracked and she sounded tired but she couldn't back down. Not when the people with her trusted her after their...lord had left them.
It had been a headache to gather the slum dwellers from the initial chaos and confusion. Only to be suddenly pulled out of their areas by the soldiers and the apostle knights of the Temple to act as a meat shield for the city.
Only one question was on all their minds the entire time they struggled and got beaten into submission by the nobility's stooges.
'Where's our leader? Where's our lord?'
Despite how helpless and angry she was with the treatment being meted out she didn't dare tell them the real reason about Arken's disappearance.
How could she, when she was the sole person responsible for all this in the first place?
Only now could she understand a little about the levels of desperation she had within her to resort to any means necessary that would fulfill her revenge.
'I'm becoming more like him at this rate.'
She had practically thrown herself at Arken with blind obedience but it was not for no reason. Back in her quaint abode, the whispers and the stories of Arken's challenges to the unassailable Temples had been nothing short of mythical.
Here was a boy of her age going head on with the most powerful and ruthless organizations that even Kingdoms dared not defy. And seemingly succeed at some despite the losses.
For the nobles of course he was something akin to a threat to their hegemony over people that rallied to him almost too easily, despite countless efforts to demonise him or belittle him by citing his age.
Yet as a noble herself who had seen the worst of aristocracy in her formative years, Arken was like a secret call to rebel. Rebel against her family for the injustices of being born a female, by an unworthy stepfather.
During the last few days as she spent time with him in close quarters she realized a lot of things. Some bad, some good.
It was like he had two battling personalities that someway or the other overlapped in their working to remain unseen to the distant observer but to Kalni it was obvious.
He had this soft side that let him sympathise with the slum dwellers, talking with the kids and engaging them to know their troubles. And then his other, darker side used the same harmlessly obtained information to twist it into a method of silent radicalization that would further suit his beliefs.
His so called cult.
He didn't explicitly hurt them, hell he even went so far as to give them food for free. Roping in the highly reclusive monastic orders into his schemes for the same.
But everything seemed like they had a price. Not necessarily monetary. Some required the heavy price of loyalty to his cult, while other families sent their children to work in his 'extortion' gangs.
And yet the parents, the general populace of the slums didn't mind. Almost like they were entranced by his charisma.
That was clearly an ever-present attribute Kalni had personally experienced. With the way he interacted sometimes, she felt he would make a decent plotting aristocrat.
Now here they were, at the mercy of the soldiers who almost laughed as they pushed them forward, their protection lost from their cult lord.
'Did he really leave us?'
She shook her head and breathed heavily. Now was not the time to give up.
The priest brothers Som and Kor stood beside her, blades out and ready. But a little unsure.
"Has the Lord still not returned?"
She shook her head. The people around were tired. The gangs Arken had formed had melted into them, on the ready to fight for the people.
☆
"How long are we supposed to hold this place by ourselves?"
When the soldier's voice fell on Ong Irat's ears he glared at him, stopping midway from getting into the carriage he had hurriedly assembled to smuggle his family out of the city once news of the rampage had spread.
"I don't give a damn how long it takes or how many men, women or children you put," he spat as he pushed his wife forward to get into the carriage.
"My family built this house, this great monument as a symbol of our greatness. One scratch on it from anyone or anywhere and I'll see to it you and your families will face the wrath of our house."
The guard lowered his head but trembled helplessly with rage. "The commander will hear of this."
Irat was in the midst of furiously apologising to his wife whose dress he had ruffled when he turned with a smirk, "did you hear what he said Hanna?"
His wife, a rotund female with cherubic cheeks fanned herself as her husband supported her ascent to the carriage, "oh please dear. This is no time for such jokes, just tell him our house finances the very undergarments they ration out in the barracks."
The mayor laughed and covered his mouth, "you heard my lady so cut the bullshit and do as I say." He turned to his son whom he had been waiting for.
"Father! I'm going to help too," Rogid, an eager lad of about twentyish bounded with heavy golden armor and a sword dangling by his waist when he was almost slapped by his father.
"Father?" The boy cowered like he has actually been hit.
Irat grit his teeth and slapped his own head in frustration, "foolish, foolish boy. I can't even hit you as I fear denting your beautiful face."
"Oh," Rogid made his face fall knowing full well what his father was going to berate him about.
"How many times do I remind you that as my sole heir, my own blood cannot go into battle. What is to happen to the house if you get injured or worse? Huh? Here let me look at you...and by the Gods why are you wearing this now? This was meant for festive purposes to woo the ladies..."
"But father—" Rogid began to pout but his mother interjected by leaning out of the carriage.
"No ifs or buts darling, listen to your father. It is but an extension of our ancestors wishes so get inside and don't be a baby. One measly dungeon will not eat away our rightful glory," she settled back as her son reluctantly sat opposite to her, "that is for the lowborns to deal with."
Ong Irat sighed heavily, glad that he had secured his family. He looked up at their mansion and then at the servants outside who were desperate to leave.
"Couldn't the bloody monsters have picked the slums?" He heard his wife's exasperated plea, "coming and disturbing the real working class people who run the world. Pathetic really."
"All of you," Ong Irat pointed to the servants, "must stay put and keep any intruders be it monsters or vagabonds away. We might not be here to see it, but when we return either the house should remain intact or you should know better to live despite the shame it will cost us upon its ruin."
SCREEECHH
HEELLPPPPP
His head snapped to the sudden eruption pf noise from the direction of the rampage and he got in to the carriage.
It moved away in a fraction of a second, dust clouds masking its way.
The soldier who had been dispatched to know of their orders had already begun to rush back on horseback, while looking on at the panicking nobility who were getting ready to evacuate the city.
The garrison gates fell open immediately and he ran in his dated armor towards the commanders office.
He burst in without preamble and gasped at the seated figure in the bright room, "sir! Bad news! The mayor has left. And so have the rest of the nobles."
Commander Komsor looked up from the papers on his desk and groaned, rubbing the scar that traveled down his forehead.
He stood up and adjusted his battleworn armor, reaching for his scabbard.
"So they're abandoning us, huh?" He said through clenched teeth as he tightened his belt to his waist and stepped out.
All the soldiers who were busily working stood in respectful attention to the man as he passed them.
"I'm guessing the old bastard wants his house protected at all costs, despite him already gone with his fat arse."
It was no secret that the local force of the kingdom, especially the commander did not see eye to eye with the mayor for the countless interference of temple authority in matters of public administration.
So his subordinate didn't flinch at the remark.
"We have our orders. West gate battalion is being reinforced by the others but in a sporadic manner as many are still under contract to escort nobles and temple loyalists."
Komsor sucked in his teeth and chewed his lips, his broad shoulders straining against the metal, "how much do you reckon we can expect in terms of casualty by today?"
The soldier flinched, "not sure sir, but it will be in large numbers. The monsters are incessant and continous."
Komsor stayed still. "Unacceptable. These nobles only find my men to toy around with."
A sly grin decorated his jaw and he asked, "you don't have any family in the slum do you?"
☆
"What—what's happening? Mom?" A child shrieked in terror as he was dragged and pushed forward by the blunt ends of the spear towards the mountains of barricades against the rampage.
His mother fell to the ground pleading and tearing her clothes but the soldiers merely laughed as the vacated their posts upon new orders and shoved the gathered slum dwellers into the first line of defense.
"This is madness!" Kalni yelled and pushed her way through to the soldiers.
"This will be a massacre, do you even have shame?"
"Cantankerous bitch," a soldier popped before being pushed aside as more people were pushed right into Kalni who struggled to breathe.
"Careful, Careful," she eased away people from getting tangled and glared at the soldiers.
By now everyone in armor had fallen back while defenseless peasants were in the front of the onslaught as goblins grabbed a few unlucky ones.
"Is there no one left to save us?!"
A cry halted her and she watched a man fall face front then being prodded with spears.
It was the same all along the line. Helpless. Needy. Desperate.
A fear crept into her mind.
'No, I can't die here. Not when I haven't avenged it all yet....no,' she tried to break out of the crowds but was only getting smothered the more she made her way through.
'Ah this reminds me so much of him,' she mused as her sword fell limp and she let herself be forced to the immediate front by default of the crowd's movement.
A sharp taunt from her back stung her, "this is why noble ladies belong back home!"
"You're gonna die nameless!"
In her desperation to seek her personal vendetta against her family she had believed in an ideal of a person. Someone she felt was going to make everything right for her.
If this boy, this little leader from her childhood could win against the Temples and Nobles combined, can't he deliver a simple girl's revenge?
But maybe she was wrong. Maybe all of it was wrong. Meaningless. He was just a boy like her in the end, with ideas too vast to implement and a mythos too powerful to be real.
Maybe she just wanted it to be real. Just like the people of the slum who had eagerly and readily accepted him as theirs not by making speeches or promises. But by aiding basic necessities like food, clean water, employment.
RAAAH
A goblin lunged for her after scrambling through a gap in the embankments and she rushed forward, killing him with a straight stab to his neck.
She kicked his body aside and went to the gap to push the leaning wall of barricades from falling over. Her hope of being helped got dashed when she only saw fearful eyes staring back.
That aid was for the desperate. The desperate will seek any refuge in the moment to ward off an immediate struggle like hunger and the person who does that silently, earns implicit trust. She understood it only a little too late.
Som and Kor were the first to stand with her and shoved their blades through already existing gaps but the fall was inevitable.
She grit her teeth and yelled. "Aaagh!"
"You people want Arken back? Right?"
They stayed quiet, a few darting their eyes away and wincing as the crowds behind them were pushed forward by the soldiers.
"Well he's not here. He's probably not coming back either. I know...ungghh..." her eyes flicked to the brothers who put their shoulders back and she thanked them with her eyes before turning to the people, "I know it's tough. It's scary. I'm scared."
"I have a lot to do and I want a chance to fight for the future in hopes I get to do that. Maybe no one really helps us, some try and they are like Arken," their eyes twinkled upon his name, "he gave us hope. He fed you. Without question, but if you rely on others to fight for you, I'm sorry to say but you've already lost."
"I just don't want to die losing."
The crowd began to quieten more and more, till only the sounds of growling and provocation from the soldiers reverberated.
The first ones to step up were the Scarves, who left their mother's arms and gathered around Kalni, pushing their weight against the sacks.
Then the men followed, some able bodied, some too old to remember their ages but they arrived at the spot.
They weren't certain what was to happen but when their tired faces looked back at the weakest of them, the women who didn't come, the children that held onto them and beyond them all the cruel soldiers who still kept prodding them like cattle they raised a loud cry of angst.
"Push! Push! Push!"
They shouted in unison as if finally realizing what they were even fighting for in the first place.
Many grabbed Kalni's shoulders and jostled it in a show of spirit, making Kalni glad she wasn't alone in this path of her life.
"Hey...heeyyyy???!?!! What the hell is that up there???"
They turned to watch the soldiers who had a horrified expression plastered on all their faces as they threw their spears and fell into a scuttle as they tried to run backwards.
"Fucking cowards!" Some of the commoners yelled but then they too felt it. The large looming shadow dawn upon them from above and then it appeared. A large black creature with clicking noises echoing through the sky.
Kalni flinched when she heard a voice boom from up above, "did you miss me Ambrenia!!!"
And for the first time in a few days a genuinely relieved smile reflected in Kalni's eyes.