Orc Wars 2 : Lazarus

Chapter 62 - Aftermath

Lazarus stood in the middle of his courtyard and looked around at his destroyed city. It looked like nothing from before. Rubble from the remains of his city was all he could see. Some of the wreckage was still smoking, the huge intense fires dying out slowly.

There was nothing left.

All the buildings were gone. All the food was burnt along with the barns that had held them. His warehouses storing the other Resources were also gone.

The gatekeeper let out a small sigh as he surveyed the ruin which was once the Keep. He closed his eyes in pain. He could not bring himself to walk through the whole city. He had made a quick survey before he had logged in. Nothing prepared him for the scale of destruction. It was one thing to see the damage on screen, scrolling and enlarging for a better look. It was quite another to be standing in the midst of all the debris and the remains of his once prosperous city.

Lazarus shook his head in defeat.

"It will be alright, My Lord. We can build again," his Battle Master said comfortingly.

"I know. It's just that ..." his shoulders slumped as words failed him. I don't have time.

Rebuilding of this scale would require massive amounts of Resources. Production rate was zero. Manpower to gather resources were minimal. It was going to take time, lots of time to gather Resources to rebuild, recover and recoup his losses. He needed his city to be self-sustainable before he left for the orc realm. He would need his city's resources to draw on when he was over there. Meanwhile he would fade away to being useless.

"C'mon lad. We have been through worse."

Lazarus shook himself. Snap out of it.

"Yeah. Go get the Keeper, we need her input and experience. Then we will discuss survival tactics, meanwhile I will try to, to think of something."

"I will do that and get the soldiers to go out. We need to gather what Resources we can while repairing the farms, mines and town houses."

"How many left?" Lazarus asked as he thought of their thousands of troops that perished in yesterday's battle.

Dimitri shook his head apologetically. "Out of the over eighty five hundred odd soldiers we had, only fifty seven survived."

"Fifty-seven?" Lazarus winced. He felt like he was just punched in the stomach. "Okay, you do that. I ... I need a moment alone."

His Battle Master nodded and turned smartly on his heels. The boy needed time to digest what war did to homes. He had lived his whole life in war times under the orcs and had only come to now peace when this young Lord had appeared. He was still attuned to the hard times. The Keeper too would understand.

"Don't fret too much lad. We are a tough bunch. I will talk to the Keeper and get things going."

The minute Dimitri was out of sight, the gatekeeper sank gracelessly to the ground.

"Chosen! You are still hurt!"

"It's nothing. I just need a minute to catch my breath," he said as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"Catch your breath? But we were not running."

Lazarus breathed in a shuddering breath. The pain in his chest had spread. Now his whole body ached whenever the poison acted up. He needed to restore his City quickly and get his ass over to the orc realm. He did not know how long he would last. He had wasted too much time levelling up and gathering the orbs. Now this. What a setback, he thought glumly.