What had been a muddled slurry of darkness moments ago was quickly coming into sight. As the guards opened the gates to let the riders back in, I found that I could begin to make out the individual soldiers within the horde.
Skeletons and ghouls, stomping toward us under the command of liches. There were bone knights riding zombie horses and reanimated goblin corpses bearing pikes and axes.
Moving slowly among their numbers were more than a dozen tall, rolling siege towers, their wooden wheels creaking as the undead soldiers pushed it toward our defenses. Each one was easily tall enough to send their undead soldiers right up onto the battlements.
Somewhere overhead, in the darkened pre-dawn sky, I could hear the sound of a single wyvern squealing, like some kind of ghastly battle cry.
I scowled down at the approaching horde, realizing that this was just the beginning of their army. Though two or three thousand undead creatures were flooding toward the castle, there were easily ten thousand more coming up behind them.
Yeah, ten thousand more if we were lucky.
The undead horde stopped just short of the area that our arrows could reach. They paused, moaning and hissing and growling as we stared them down.
“FIRE ON MY COMMAND AND NOT A SECOND SOONER!” Sir Lucien called out. His voice seemed to boom across the entire city and all other voices promptly fell silent.
I drew my Dayfire blade. Duke Gladios unsheathed his weapon, as well. Along the wall, the blood mistresses sparked fireballs over their palms.
The wyvern roared again, closer this time, and I looked up and saw its darkened form against the sky, now growing purplish as dawn drew near. It was much larger than the others I’d seen, and no wonder.
It needed to be a large creature to accommodate its rider.
Lord Blackfyre came down upon the wyvern’s back, gripping the reins tight with gauntlets made from rare obsidian armor. He sat up straight, showing that he was easily ten feet tall. His skeletal face was blood red, with glowing eyes and a long, black beard. His dark robes were draped over his full suit of obsidian armor, making him look nearly as large as the Necromancer himself.
The lich lord drew his deadly longsword, raised it high overhead, then slowly lowered it until he was pointing it directly at us.
“KILL THEM ALL!” Lord Blackfyre cried.
His ghoulish minions roared and hissed as they charged, and an undead wave rolled right toward us.
“ARCHERS, FIRE!” Sir Lucien roared.
The sound of several hundred bowstrings rang out as a deadly volley of arrows rained down on the incoming undead horde. Seconds later, they hit their marks. The archers were using the silver-tipped arrows from Silverton, so that first volley easily took down several hundred undead, minor and major alike.
The apprentice lich lords among the undead began hurling fireballs at the wall. Most bounced harmlessly off the stone surface, but up and down the wall, I heard the painful shrieks of soldiers that had gotten burned.
Despite the horde storming toward us, I was still focused on Lord Blackfyre, watching as his minions charged. He knew that I’d be gunning for him the first chance I got. I doubted he’d be coming within striking distance, the bastard.
He pulled back the reins on the wyvern and the beast took flight. If he were a bit closer, I might have been able to use my TK blast to bring the wyvern down, but I had no such luck yet.
Though our archers rained their arrows down on the horde, the undead forces rushed on without fear. They had no sense of self-preservation, they had no emotions other than rage, and they only served their master’s will.
That meant our archers could hardly fire their arrows quickly enough. The moment the undead at the fore were shot down, hundreds more came stomping forward over their motionless corpses.
I pulled up the TK force bomb spell, channeled my energies into the Soulguard, and hurled down the telekinetic blast. I grunted in satisfaction as a cluster of twenty-odd skeletons were blown to pieces.
MYSTICISM SKILL INCREASED +1
I held off my next TK attack until the archers launched another volley. Though we had plenty of silver arrows for now, it wasn’t like our supply was unlimited, and I wanted to make sure that each one counted.
After their next volley, I followed up with another force bomb blast, this time knocking a squad of bone knights from their undead horses.
A dozen yards to my left, I looked down and saw a surging force of reanimated goblins rushing toward the city gates. The archers’ volley took down half their numbers, then Felaxia and the blood mistresses fried the rest with fireballs.
Though our defenses had taken down most of their advance forces, I recognized Lord Blackfyre’s strategy immediately.
This mob of undead was merely cannon fodder to overwhelm us until those lumbering siege towers could be rolled up to the wall. They were coming slowly, but persistently, and our arrows couldn’t do much damage against their thick wooden fortifications.
I hurled another TK force bomb down at the undead then rushed over to Felaxia. I pointed to the siege towers slowly rolling toward us, seeming to get larger and taller the closer they got.
“Felaxia, the moment those towers are in range, get all your blood mistresses to focus their fireballs on them,” I said. “Try to burn them down before they can reach the wall!”
She nodded confidently, all while she rained fire down on the zombie goblins down below. “I’ll tell my mistresses at once, Gamelord!”
“LADDERS!” Sir Lucien shouted.
Down below the wall, the undead were raising huge ladders, easily tall enough for them to scale the wall.
“Fuckers,” I said, then hurled a TK blast at the group of undead goblins attempting to raise a ladder nearby. The force hit the goblins and shattered their zombified bodies, but more undead took their place to raise the ladder again.
I looked up and down the wall. This was happening everywhere. The archer captains ordered small contingents of their men to focus their fire on the undead trying to raise the ladders, but the quicker they dropped, the more came to replace them.
The Homehold soldiers ran to the edge of the battlements as the ladders came up, with the undead soldiers scampering up the rungs without fear.
As I downed a restore mana potion, the undead had finally succeeded in raising the ladder I had kept trying to knock back. Growling to myself, I hurried over to it, then cut down the first ghoul attempting to climb onto the battlement.
With my mana recharged, I unleashed another TK force bomb, this time right down the middle of the ladder, shattering the rungs and causing dozens of skeletons to smash down to the ground.
“Eat that, you ugly bitches!” I shouted.
MYSTICISM SKILL INCREASED +1
Hardly a second later, a huge fireball sailed right past me, missing me by inches. I glared down at the apprentice lich that had hurled it, then returned the favor with a powerful TK blast that knocked him to pieces.
But the damage had been done. Behind me, I heard four soldiers screaming as they were set aflame. One of them, burned the worst, went flailing off the wall then fell down to the ground, dead.
Quickly, I pulled up my new heal allies spell and cast it on them. They gasped in relief as the fires went out, as my minor healing magic restored most of their burned skin. They’d be in quite a bit of pain, no doubt, but at least those three would live.
RESTORATION SKILL INCREASED +1
Just as the notification filtered through my Second Sight, I heard more screaming behind me, this time coming from the soldiers near Duke Gladios and Sir Lucien.
Another ladder had been raised and the dead were spilling over it. The archers fled so the sword-wielding soldiers could take them on. The soldiers tried pushing them back, but a group of ghouls and skeletons frantically surged onto the battlements.
“Fuckers,” I said, growing concerned that we might be overwhelmed so early.
Leaning off the side of the wall, I hurled another TK force bomb at the ladder�
�s center mass. The ladder shattered and the thirty or so skeletons and ghouls clinging to it went crashing down below.
Then, rapid footsteps behind me.
I spun around just in time to parry the bone knight’s strike, as the high-arc swing from its iron claymore sparked against the Soulguard. I ran it through with the Dayfire blade then pivoted backward, just as a lich sent a fireball my way.
However, I wasn’t exactly trying to avoid it. Instead, I caught it with the Soulguard and hurled the fireball right back at the undead prick.
The lich exploded into a pile of bones and fire, but there were still almost twenty ghouls troubling the soldiers around Duke Gladios.
Duke Gladios was still a soldier at heart. He could have been hiding safely in his chambers, but here he was, trying to force back another raised ladder before the ghouls could climb onto the wall.
With one big push, Duke Gladios and Sir Lucien shoved the ladder backward, but now those twenty ghouls were getting the better of those soldiers.
I rushed to their aid, slashing the Dayfire blade in a wide arc, hacking through five of them right off the bat.
LONG BLADE SKILL INCREASED +1
When those soldiers saw me slashing through the undead, they cheered and roared, heartened by the sight, and helped me take down the rest of the ghouls.
“Gamelord!” Felaxia cried out from over the city gates.
She thrust her finger ahead, toward the siege towers that were coming in faster now. I nodded to her, loaded a TK force bomb, and cast it toward the tower closest to me.
The giant rolling tower shuddered at the impact, with some of its wooden armor splintering. For a moment, the tower even rolled back a few feet, but the ghoulish soldiers pushing it along roared and started its forward momentum again.
“Fireballs! Lots of them!” I shouted.
Of course, Felaxia and the blood mistresses were already on it.
I was just about to hit the tower with another blast when I felt a sharp impact on my back. I looked back and saw a skeleton with an iron spear, having just tried thrusting it under my ribcage.
One-Armed Rus’ armor was already paying off dividends, because the iron spear hardy scratched the glass armor.
I took the skeleton’s head off and tossed the corpse back over the wall, the way it came, and that was when I see the siege tower closing in.
I saw there was an extending door at the top of the tower. Through the cracks, I could see skeletons and ghouls writhing inside, itching to attack. I frowned, as another TK force bomb wouldn’t do any good.
But I had another idea.
I cast a quick fortify strength spell, but this time, I tried to focus the magic exclusively on my leg muscles.
“Earthman, what the hell are you planning to do?” Duke Gladios said.
“Something that will turn out to be either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid,” I said, then, with all the strength I could muster in my legs, hurled myself off the wall, right at the face of the siege tower.
Chapter Eighteen
Luckily, I hit the mark just the way I wanted to, and I landed on the roof of the siege tower. Beneath the roof, the skeletons and ghouls howled at me, and began stabbing up through the roof with their weapons.
I stabbed the Dayfire blade downward, not so much at the enemies beneath me, but at the structure itself.
Because below this first wave of undead under the roof, there were no doubt a hundred or so more clamoring within the siege tower, awaiting their turn. Well, I figured they could come rushing up to a towering inferno, for their trouble.
It didn’t take me long. Just a few quick stabs, hacks, and slashes from the Dayfire blade’s fire enchantment had the roof of the tower about to go up in flames. Before the fire could really start to rage, I hurled myself back onto the wall.
Behind me, the siege tower lit up, killing the undead that had just been about to come storming out, and the fire quickly ravaged the tower, until the whole thing was threatening to go up in flames.
Duke Gladios stabbed a ghoul through the heart, threw his head back, and laughed. “You’re truly insane, Earthman!”
“Then I fit right in with you!” I answered him.
With that siege tower compromised, me, Sir Lucien, and Duke Gladios went racing down the wall to help deal with the others.
There was a massive melee going on a few yards ahead of us, with a squad of Homehold soldiers taking on a mob of skeletons and ghouls. The soldiers were putting up a good fight, but many were fighting wounded, and it wouldn’t be long before the undead overtook them.
I pulled up my heal allies spell and cast it toward them, killing two birds with one stone. The spell healed many of the soldiers’ injuries while weakening, or outright killing, the undead.
RESTORATION SKILL INCREASED +1
Me, Sir Lucien, and Duke Gladios swept through to help them mop up the stragglers, then we continued down the wall toward the next closest siege tower approaching the area adjacent to the city gates.
Felaxia and her blood mistresses had hurled enough fireballs at the moving structure to spark some fires, but not nearly enough to fully set it ablaze.
A bone knight burst over the top of a ladder and slashed its iron claymore down my way. I parried it with the Soulguard and, the moment I pushed it backward, Sir Lucien lopped its head off with his silver longsword.
“Nice assist,” I told him.
Sir Lucien grunted, grinned, then we all hurried toward the siege tower, moments before the top opened and a small undead horde swarmed onto the battlements.
Felaxia was no slouch when it came to destruction magic. Her skills had improved since the last time I fought by her side. She stepped in front of the soldiers and other blood mistresses and launched a gout of flame that incinerated that first force.
A second round of siege towers was being pulled in our direction. While still fifty yards off, give or take, this time the soldiers had the trebuchets prepared. Up and down the wall, they released their ammunition, showering the incoming siege towers with heavy stones, destroying all but a few of them.
All around us, everyone let out a cheer.
I jumped to the front of that open siege tower and hacked down every creature that tried emerging from it. The tower itself created its own natural choke point, given its construction, so I only had to take care of roughly three or four ghouls at a time.
LIGHT ARMOR SKILL INCREASED +1
LONG BLADE SKILL INCREASED +1
BLOCK SKILL INCREASED +1
As I handled the foot soldiers, Felaxia and the blood mistresses flanked me and continued to light up the tower with fireballs. To my rear, Sir Lucien and Duke Gladios helped keep the undead from attacking me from behind.
Within moments, the siege tower became an inferno. The undead still inside it howled in frustration as the entire structure collapsed, crushing them under tons of wood and steel.
Everyone cheered again, even Sir Lucien. I raised my Dayfire longsword and cried out along with them, because despite my initial fears, the defense of Homehold was going better than I could have hoped.
Up and down the wall, our side was beating the undead horde back. There were casualties, to be sure, but I made a quick save point before the tide could turn against us.
Now, the sun was beginning to creep over the horizon. While we were still mostly in the dark, the sky was a lighter shade now, and I could see Lord Blackfyre wheeling around in the sky atop his large wyvern.
“Come closer, you fucking coward!” I shouted up at him.
In response, his wyvern squealed.
I’d get him sooner or later, somehow.
“Fire at their center mass!” Duke Gladios suddenly shouted.
I looked down at the newest incoming undead. There was a heavily armored group of reanimated goblins and bone knights charging up through the center, heading toward the city gates.
The archers unleashed a volley of arrows, but the incoming force had shields raised up and
down their line, and hardly any of the arrows struck paydirt.
I joined Felaxia and the blood mistresses in hurling fireballs and TK force bombs down at the approaching menace, but their numbers were packed together too thick for even our combined magic to have much effect.
I growled. They were going to reach the gates, and now they were sprinting, creating a huge undead battering ram.
“Brace the fucking gates!” I shouted, then hurried as fast as I could down to the ground level. My mana had been drained, so along the way I opened a bottle of restore mana and chugged it.
Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get there in time.
The undead battering ram slammed into the towering gates. The soldiers who’d been bracing it were knocked back by the impact.
Making matters worse, all the undead that had reached the battlements were now bee-lining down to this position, likely trying to keep us from bracing the wall, or even just to help destroy it.
Outside, the undead battering ram slammed against the gates again, weakening them further.
It wouldn’t hold for much longer.
“Everyone, around me!” I shouted. “Keep these fuckers off of me until somebody can repair the gates!”
The soldiers flocked to me, keeping the approaching ghouls at bay.
Yards behind me, I saw One-Armed Rus along with a few of his apprentices racing toward the gates. They had wood and steel beams that they could use to brace the gates, but they wouldn’t get here in time.
I grit my teeth. I cast a fortify strength spell twice over, stacking my strength stats, then screamed as I braced the gates with my shoulder.
Just before the undead could ram the gates again, I cast a TK blast spell, then used it to counteract their impact the moment they rammed against the gates.
“FUCK YOU!” I shouted as I took the brunt of their impact into my shoulder. My glass armored boots squealed as I dug in my heels to keep the gates up.
Rusticus arrived with his apprentices and they immediately got to constructing a brace. “Give me just a few minutes, Earthlad!” Rusticus shouted as he began hammering away.
“Hurry!” I shouted, because I had to cast two more fortify strength spells, along with another TK spell, which all but drained my mana.
Monstergirl Quest Book Two Page 15