Unbound Deathlord: Obliteration (The Unbound Deathlord Series Book 2)

by Edward Castle

  "If you tried to march like that in front of my father, he would almost die of shame."

  That was her best compliment yet. That 'almost' in the sentence was as good as declaring us precious family.

  Then, we began to attack players. Sometimes we would use the entire group, other times we used smaller groups that were spontaneously selected and expected to quickly carry out their orders.

  Although it wasn't easy, the zombies began to enjoy it. They could see how marching was important for them to move at the same pace when forming new units and to achieve better coordination. They also understood why an all melee group would be ineffective against certain compositions of enemies. They learned the hard way that even sneak attacks could go to hell if not executed properly.

  That specific lesson was learned when we were passing through a big group of twenty players, all of them vampires wearing at least leather armor. Daggers ordered us to walk casually, but be prepared for an ambush. That was on the second day of travel and our second to last day before entering what my map called 'Purple Wilds.'

  The passage we were traversing was a tight corridor and they walked inside our formation. When half the enemy was half way enveloped by our forces, Daggers ordered the attack without giving any specific orders.

  It was an ugly mess.

  Some of the enemies were already close to the crossbowmen and when we attacked, they hit these zombies first. The front row, intended to be our defensive bulwark fractured, half of the zombies fighting the enemies outside our formation, and the other half trying to attack the people inside.

  When the first zombie ignored everything he had learned and bit an enemy, a lot of the others followed suit. In the narrow corridor, it only made it more difficult for the rest of us to attack, especially for our ranged attackers.

  Although they were being attacked by a numerically superior enemy, the twenty players did their best to form a defensive perimeter. Their shield wall properly defended against the chaotic zombies and if it hadn't been for my healing, a few zombies would have died.

  After five minutes of disorganized brawling, Daggers managed to get them all to disengage, and then reassembled the formations for an attack.

  The enemy was wiped out without difficulties after that, mainly by our ranged attackers. Only a few melee attackers were used to surround the enemy and defend the ranged guys.

  That fight humbled the zombies to no end and was the final eye-opener for them. One of the zombies had lost an arm in the fight and someone called us the Armless Battalion.

  To my dismay, Daggers claimed the group creating a self-identity was great for morale.

  And so, the Armless Battalion entered the Purple Wilds.

  * * *

  The very earth of the corridor started turning purple as we entered the cavernous chamber. Everything in it was purple, from the soil to the stone, the walls and the plants. According to the internet, there were some minerals present here that affected both the terrain and the living beings in the region.

  It was a stone jungle. Stalagmites of all sizes rose randomly from the ground and made the place hard to navigate. The flora consisted mostly of a sparse grass and some mold, with some brush dotted here and there. All of it was purple.

  Stalactites also hung from the distant ceiling and the eyes of countless purple bats half my size shone as they rested up there. Small rodents like rats and squirrels, all in shades of purple, were everywhere and the place had a lively, almost whimsical feeling to it, as if I could expect happy purple lions to come my way at any time.

  Moisture was also a common factor, much more perceptible after the dryness in the air since I had revived. Drops of water were hitting the stalagmites and a huge waterfall was visible in a wall that must've been ten kilometers away from us. The water gushed from a huge opening in the wall, but we couldn't see the bottom because of the stone jungle around us. At least the water was more blue than purple.

  Ted exclaimed happily.

  Bear injected his sour opinion of the monochromatic tone of the place.

  Daggers pronounced.

  Melkier said simply.

  I agreed with Melkier. It wasn't as beautiful to me as Ted had said, but it also wasn't as bad as Bear claimed. It wasn't good enough for me to move there, but it would take a few days of taking in the view before I got sick of all the purple.

  Daggers asked.

  Looking at my map, I pointed at the waterfall.

  "Armless Battalion!" Daggers shouted and we all kinda unconsciously stood taller. "You stink! To the waterfall! March!"

  Their mood brightened with the interesting destination in sight, however a major obstruction presented itself: the stalagmites badly hindered our movement. Daggers wasn't one to back down from a challenge though, to the dismay of the men. More yelling and disparaging remarks followed, as she taught them how to march in the new terrain.

  Eventually, they more or less understood it. We found no players or hostile animals the entire way, and the lack of further conflict was a welcome reprieve for us all.

  As we approached the waterfall, we saw a huge lake of vibrant blue water which was a pleasant break from the monotone color of the Purple Wilds.

  The cascade was monstrous, you could have easily hidden multiple mansions beneath it The height the water fell from was also incredible, and the mist it created obscured a vast portion of the lake.

  In spite of this, the lake was large enough that only small ripples reached the shores.

  A school of an animal that I could only describe as a mix of dolphin, swordfish and shark leapt high above the surface in the distance and let out very dolphin like clicks and squeals. Right behind them followed an enormous purple Orca, devouring the stragglers.

  Ted exclaimed and for once I agreed with her. It was an impressive view.

  The only thing which marred the beauty of the place were the two tribal encampments on the shores. They were on opposite sides of the lake, but had the same fence-like metal barricades surrounding them. There were openings on the lakeward sides of each, allowing access to shoddy looking metal docks with a few boats each. The inside of the encampments were completely different though.

  One of them had big clay huts with roofs made of vegetation, while the other had makeshift rusty metal shacks. The clay-hut tribe appeared more spacious and better organized, while the metal-shack tribe looked like its denizens built whenever they liked without concern for how it affected the flow of the town.

  The final difference was the inhabitants of each. Metal-shack tribe had purple goblins while clay-hut tribe had purple... Mud people?

  They reminded me of some old anime monsters, a mix of mud and toxic waste with gaping mouth and eye holes. They moved incredibly slowly and I wondered if they could even talk.

  Both tribes had sentries watching us, but none made a move. We didn't, either.

  "Alright, you bunch of noobs, you can relax for now," Daggers yelled and a loud cheer echoed in the huge cave.

  she told me, as I looked for a good place to sit.

  I asked.

 

  She had actually paid attention? I could swear she was just randomly swearing at the guys. Yes, memorizing names was a cool trick, but it didn't mean her constant belittling admonitions to the men to 'march properly' weren't random.

  she began.

  I sighed.

  Bear and Melkier laughed at that but Ted supported my decision. she said while nodding.

&
nbsp; Daggers didn't show any opinion, she just asked:

  I said the first thing that came to my mind.

  Daggers thought for a second.

  I asked.

 

  I nodded.

  If Private Tank Two were ever to be confused with Private Scout Two I could see things would break down quickly, better to simply eliminate that possibility now.

 

  I said firmly. Numbers were not as stupid as the zombies' names, but I wasn't going to debase myself by allowing someone to call me by one.. Melkier was the only captain for now and his name wasn't dumb, so it worked out just right.

  Melkier said.

  Bear said.

  <'My name is Private Tank One. I'm under the command of Sergeant Tank Blue of Lieutenant Fighter Lion's unit.'> Ted said in a mock voice.

  Bear said excitedly.

  Melkier agreed.

  Ted rolled her eyes.

  Daggers saw nothing wrong with the suggestion, so we discussed some fierce animal names and some promotions to Sergeant for a while before the conversation got back on the reason the conversation had started.

 

  I said.

  She looked at the specter.

  The three of us asked in unison.

  Ted asked, surprised.

 

  I asked. She was level nine!

  Daggers clarified.

  That was a lousy claim. Better than the Blackguard who could turn invisible at will and for all I knew was a commando in real life?

  Ted's high-pitched, enraged voice seemed to pierce my mental ears.

  Daggers didn't even look Ted's way.

  I smiled at that.

  "Waste of time?" Ted was downright pissed now and even stopped using the mind chat. "How dare you? You- You- You male bitch!"

  After a second of startled silence, all the zombies laughed and Ted's cheeks reddened. I raised my arms in surrender while Daggers simply logged out.

 

  "I know what she said!" She interrupted me. "Are you calling me stupid, too? Unable to understand things by myself?"

 

  "But you are useless. I am not." She crossed her arms, still pissed, but at least listening to my words.

 

  "I must do nothing. I'll do whatever the hell I want to do!"

  I held back a sigh. If Daggers hadn't just claimed that Ted could become an even better scout than Daggers herself, I would just tell Ted to shut the hell up and be done with it.

  Also, I owed her.

  I said. Ted sniffed. <...but you saw how high her standards are when she drilled the zombies. And in the end, she said you can be even better than her. A woman with her standards, can you even guess how demanding she must be of herself?>

  "I don't care. She offended me." Her voice was mollified though.

 

  She didn't reply and I chose to target her ego.

 

  She raised a hand to tell me to shut up, closed her eyes, and began to move as if tapping her foot on the ground, which was a little odd as she still didn't have feet.

  I said after a long time.

  Bear explained. He suddenly raised his voice and yelled to everybody. "Daggers is gone! Skinny dipping!" Pieces of his armor began to hit to the ground as all the zombies, Melkier included, let out a roar and did the same.

  Sighing, I put Bear's armor in my ring and wished the orca would come back to eat them all.

  15. Revenge

  I watched them swim for hours before I heard Ted's voice.

  "Fine." Was all she said.

  "Great! Thanks, Ted." I called Daggers next and asked her to apologize and try to play nice with Ted. After a strained 'Yes, sir,' she hung up and logged back in.

  "What is the meaning of this?" She said as soon as she saw all the equipment on the ground and the zombies skinny-dipping.

  I invited her to the party.

  In the past four days, while Daggers had drilled the men, Bear had focused on raising morale — or at least not letting it drop to dangerous levels.

  She turned to the specter.

  Ted glared at me through slitted eyes, clearly annoyed. I raised an eyebrow and shrugged. She sighed, rolled her eyes, and followed Daggers back into the stalagmite forest.

  Without anything to do and no one I had to pretend to care about, it was training time for me. Despite having trained — although some might call it 'being massacred' — my close combat abilities and some of my magic with Daggers, I was still lacking in bow proficiency.

  On my back, I now carried my strung bow, and shield. On the left side of my waist was my sword, on the right my quiver. I took the bow and walked a little until I saw a fat violet rat eating a mushroom.

  Valia made shooti
ng bows easy, despite what I had said to Melkier about the zombies being unable to do it. However, doing it well still required putting some effort into it.

  I could shoot people well enough, but targeting specific body parts was still beyond my abilities. That was a major weakness in battles.

  Unfortunately, I didn't have any game skills related to projectiles, so I was unable to change the arrows' paths at will, like I did with my spells. This made proper aim even more critical.

  Taking an arrow from the quiver, I nocked it, drew back, aimed at the rat, and shot.

  The arrow's flight was true, assuming I was aiming at the stalagmite behind the rat. The damn pest didn't even flinch when the projectile passed harmlessly by it.

  After an hour of practice I could hit my target nine times out of ten. It was clear that the game was assisting me, otherwise things would had taken much more time.

  Just as I recovered my last arrow, I noticed a purple goblin standing close to a nearby rock. He was barely moving and since even his clothes were amethyst-colored, it was rather effective camouflage.

  Worried, I looked around but found no other goblin hiding in the area. Still, I prepared myself for battle and called Daggers to scout the area around me just in case.

  "Can I help you?" I asked.

  As if he had just been waiting for me to speak, he smiled so wide I was worried he might split his own face. "Me hopes so, great master! Me comes with lucrative asking!"

  His voice was thin, absolutely annoying, and seemed to pierce my soul. I frowned at his words; no one in the Underworld wanted to help others profit. Whatever this goblin wanted, there's no way it would be beneficial for me.

  Still, asking about it shouldn't hurt. I hoped.

  "What is it?"

  "Them dirty, filthy, messy, soiled, mucky mud people keeps stealing goblin people food!" He said angrily. "Kill them!" The anger slid from his face and he smiled again. "Me give great reward!"

  He wanted me to exterminate the other village, huh? It made sense that they had to compete for food and wouldn't like it.

  "What is this reward?"

  "Many gold! This much!" He made a 'three' with his fingers.