Herald of Steel

"Close the gates! Quick! Close the gates!"

And seeing the mass of men rise from the slope of the hill and approach them with menace and purpose, immediately the order to slam the doors shut went out, as the soldiers then began to brace against the door to act as a human barricade.

*Bang*

*Slam*

*Crash*

And a few moments later the Tibians made a thundering contact with the closed wooden structures, smashing against the back door with their shoulders, delivering powerful kicks to break it down, and even putting their shield in front and running at the door like a makeshift human ram.

All of which made the door groan and creak in pain, its cry getting louder and louder with each strike.

Because these doors, though relatively sturdy, when compared to the challenging foes they were facing, proved to be too thin and fragile,

So the poor two-paneled oak door leading to the back yard, which would have been called adequate any other time found itself buckling and splintering under the heavy attacks, and soon parts of the door began to be literally torn off by the attacking enemy, with many of the soldiers using their bare hands to break open the solid wood piece by piece.

All while from the other side, the men let out menacing threats accompanying their crazed howls and forceful grunts,

"Come and fight fuckers cowards! What are you afraid of?"

"Huh! Why are you hiding now? Weren\'t you having fun killing us just now?

"You think this flimsy piece of shit will save you? I will gut every single one of the motherf*ckers with my bare hands you swine!"

"Be good and open the door! I promise to take good care of your wife and children, hehe!"

"I heard your lord\'s women are soft as pillows. Hadn\'t ever had a high-class pussy like that!"

"Hey, if you open up, maybe we will let you have a go after we are done, hahaha!"

All sorts of curses and taunts and even enticements were uttered by the Tibians.

White with each passing moment, they themselves seemed to be getting more and more impatient and the increased ferocity of attacks seemed to reflect that, while at the same time, all the barriers holding them were beginning to disintegrate bit by bit.

It was only a matter of time before they breached through and started slaughtering everyone inside, and the men inside the manor knew it.

And their only way of getting out of this alive lay in the hope that Menes could get here on time.

"Dammit! Have you still not found Mistress? Look again! Check the servant\'s quarter! Maybe they hid there! Go!"

While Juminus, he was much more anxious over the fact that they had not yet found any trace of the lords and more importantly Cambyses.

\'Where could they be?\' He raked his brain, hoping to find them before the enemy broke through, and so sent small groups of women and children to scour every single of the few hundred rooms in the manor looking for any of their traces.

As for what he would do after he found them, how he would protect them from Perseus, well the man had not thought of it so far.

For now, he only concentrated on getting to them first.

Though unbeknownst to him, the twenty or so men and one woman were long gone from anywhere near the vicinity of the manor, having already left via one of the many escape tunnels present.

"To think such an elaborate tunnel existed beneath the manor? Truly impressive" And as they traveled through it, Harun could not help but let out a praise of admiration at the sturdiness of the narrow route, as his hands felt the walls being made of granite.

But the thing Harun perhaps found most impressive was that there was very little water or even dampness all around, which was a remarkable feat for any underground tunnel given all such structures tended to leak rainwater.

But since it did not, it went to show just how much care Muazz and his family had put into its construction.

Which also might not be all that surprising given the fat lord\'s love for life.

But anyway, as Harun marveled at the architecture, he also could not help but reminisce about how they entered here, through a small, inconspicuous iron door barely wide enough to let in an adult man.

In fact it was so narrow that the portly Muazz might have even not been able to fit himself even if he wanted to do.

And this rust-covered, dull, unimpressive door looked so old that it seemed to almost mesh with the rest of the old stone wall, with the poor lighting even making Harun miss the thing entirely on his first glance.

Cambyses on the other hand spotted the gate instantly and with powerful steps approached it, only to see it being locked with a heavy lock.

This was of course natural given the nature of the door, and something Cambyses had expected.

So without having had the time to fetch the keys, she then asked some of the men to use the pummels of their swords to smash it open.

*Clang*

*Clang*

*Clang*

And surprisingly it only took a few solid hits to do so due to the age of the lock and also the primitive designs of these mechanisms.

Following which the soldiers quickly pried open the small door, it producing a low, painful creak as the rusted joints proved unwilling to cooperate.

But ultimately the entire door was made ajar, and immediately after, everyone was greeted with a gust of aged, musty aged air that had been trapped there for so long, the smell of which made everyone wriggle their nose with discomfort.

And then they laid eyes upon it.

Thier ticket to freedom.

A passageway, almost as narrow as many\'s shoulders, smelling of mold, and shrouded in pitch-black darkness.

Honestly, it was pretty scary to think they would have to go through it.

\'What if the walls collapse?\'

\'What if the passage is blocked by something?\'

"What if there are dangerous insects or snakes?\'

\'What if we get stuck at any point?

The narrow walls and absolute darkness permeating out of it certainly produced a very oppressive, almost claustrophobic environment that sought to bring out the worst fears in most men.

Harun particularly seemed to be having second thoughts.

While the others did not even pay any attention to him.

Instead, under Cambyses\'s guidance, several nearby torches, kept there for this exact purpose were lit by the soldiers, and with them taking the lead to tackle any bugs, insects, or dangerous reptiles, the group silently entered the tunnel.

They even remembered to slam the door shut behind them to prevent anyone from easily finding this was the exact door they escaped through.

And this was how the group made their way through the tunnel, in complete silence, both because it was quite tight and everyone wanted to concentrate on not grazing against the walls, but also before such tunnels were echo chambers which carried any words spoken a long, long way.

So if any enemy had managed to enter the tunnel they might be able to detect them.

There was the further precaution of preventing anyone from hearing from above as these tunnels were usually built relatively close to the surface.

With all these in mind, the close to half an hour walk was a quiet affair, with the only real sound being the rhythmic tapping of the feet as the group made their way forward, each engrossed in their one thoughts.

Or perhaps mostly one affair, the burning room they had left behind.

Because before setting off, they had made pretty sure to set that section of the manor well and truly on fire, both so that the enemy could not, or at least had a difficult time chasing them through it, but more importantly to make the manor burned from there.

And to ensure that a relatively hard-to-burn piece of property like a stone manor was set alight properly, the soldiers had only left once the carpets, the curtains, and even furniture were properly on fire, one that resembled a bright inferno rising into the sky, or ceiling in this case.

\'Oh such a shame to destroy such beautiful and expensive decoration,\' And seeing this, many of the soldiers felt this way, knowing that they were setting fire to things they would not likely be able to afford even if they worked their whole lives.

But it was a command from their lords, and hence they obeyed, only leaving the place once the heat coming from there started to make their skin sting, and the dense smoke filled up the rooms to make many choke and cough.

But even after they had already left that burning time bomb long behind, as many reminisced what they had done, subconsciously they felt they would smell that distinct burning smell stick to them even now,

And it was not a pleasant smell.

And it was among these thoughts that suddenly a sudden, needle-thin ray of white light hit the leading soldiers, who quickly ran forward to its source.

"It\'s here! It\'s here!" And upon approaching it he shouted, for the end of the tunnel was a small cave entrance at the southern beach.