Legendary: Darkness Awakes

Chapter 17- Struggle for Yashakiro

The sky was pure black with smoke, the road was littered with chunks of the ruined gate and the town was burning beyond it, its glowing embers rising to the heavens as the town was being consumed by flames. Those were the first things Daniel saw when they had entered what was left of the eastern gate of Yashakiro, it was a scene only recognizable in a nightmare, and he could only hope his home wasn't suffering the same fate. Agronach stopped the horse at the beginning of the road "Are you sure you want to go on alone? You will be facing many enemies for the country you once knew as Yashakiro has been turned into a war zone." He asked with concern as Daniel dismounted.

"Yes Agronach, I'm sure. I have to do this alone, and besides, I used to be a bounty hunter, I'm used to the hunt in both roles. You don't have to worry about me." Daniel reassured him "But what about you, will you return to orc territory?" He asked.

"No... I'm afraid I'm not welcome home anymore... The orcs don't think kindly to those who've allowed themselves to be captured. They also don't like our kind accepting help from a human nor giving it, I wouldn't be returning to a warm welcome party. They all probably think I'm already dead. No, I'll return to the Outlands and stay close to the Arcanian Mountain, give myself time to think." Agronach explained as he looked to the sky. "If you ever need me, you know where to go."

"Thank you Agronach, thank you for everything."

"And thank you, Daniel, goodbye and good luck. I hope to see you again in the future." Agronach then mounted the horse again as he waved his final goodbye, dashing back out of the eastern gate's rubble. Daniel was now on his own in the fiery chaos that was Yashakiro in its final struggle as he found the sky to be emerging a new day.

He just barely entered the overwhelmed city of embers when he came across a couple of demons who had an injured human soldier pinned "Hah, you thought you could kill one of our own and get away with it? You're as good as dead!" One of them said to the human they were closing in on.

Daniel dashed at one of the demons, impaling them with a single, powerful strike that ripped completely through their chest "What the-?!" the other demon shouted before pulling out his pistol. As he fired, Daniel jerked the stabbed demon in front of him, using the corpse as a shield in his charge. Once close enough, he threw aside the body and filled the remaining demon's gut with lead.

The demon collapsed and Daniel went to check on the human soldier, who was covered in cuts, dirt and blood "Are you okay? What happened, what's the situation?" Daniel asked, removing his sword from the demon and cleaning it, placing it back in his sheath.

"Th-they all attacked...th-three armies at the same time...*cough*cough* First Sanctum attacked from th-the east, destroying the eastern gate... Yashakiro's forces fought hard against th-them before the Cyclopean Empire a-and the Orcs destroyed the southern gate... It was- it was just too much...most of ou-our forces were wiped out, but the last I-I heard they were heading to Shira and Halstrom next..." The soldier struggled to explain as he wasn't in good shape, his head was bleeding profusely and he was covered in cuts, his uniform left in shreds.

"Okay, thank you for bringing me up to speed. Now let's get you somewhere safe so I can keep you from bleeding out." Daniel said, helping him up on his feet, arm over shoulder.

"P-please, we have to head to HQ...there is a large number of Yashikiro's military force hole up there, i-including my friends... S-some of them are injured, I-I can't just leave them..." The wounded soldier pleaded.

"I would normally agree with you, but Yashakiro is crawling with enemies, and we can't do it by ourselves, you're injured and I'm still not at a hundred percent from coming back here in a rush. We will save them, but the HQ will be a large target for our enemies, so we'll need a bigger fighting force to actually have a shot." Daniel told him.