Blood Shaper

“’Temporary fortifications to hold back an undead invasion’?” Meten grinned as he looked down at the ground form the top of the walls. “How is any of this temporary?”

Walls half as tall as Avalon’s which had been built with more people over a longer period loomed over a twenty foot deep and thirty foot wide moat filled with spikes and barbs. Large crenelations were placed evenly along the walls to provide areas to shoot and retreat into cover, channels had been carved to allow the defenders to pour hot oil or other liquids on the enemy, and a handful of cannons were being slotted into place as scouts reported that the undead horde was in sight. The fortifications only stretched for a couple thousand feet, which was a minuscule distance compared to the length of Avalon’s walls or those outside other major cities, but they were obviously not temporary fortifications just for one battle.

Kay shrugged but didn’t turn away from staring in the direction the enemy was going to come from. “This area wasn’t directly controlled by any one polity before all of this, it was contested between Nelam and a few cities that don’t exists any more. None of the remnants of different groups that want us to do all the work reclaiming their lands but take nothing from them have no reason to protest us building a wall here, not if they want us to keep doing their dirty work for them. If we decide we want to expand out in this direction when everything is done, this makes it less difficult. And if we decide to expand even farther east…” He shrugged again.

Eleniah shook her head. “Don’t we already have a huge swath of territory that’s only gotten a surface level of exploration and investigation? Avalon doesn’t need more land.” With the large scale preparations for intercepting the undead army complete the three peak elites that Avalon had were gathered atop the walls to wait.

“Most of the untamed area we control is to the north of Avalon City, and the capital is closer to the border than I like. If there’s more conflict coming our way I think a buffer zone between us and the rest of the world would keep any armies from marching directly to Avalon without being stopped.” Kay gestured behind himself. “We didn’t have the defenses we needed to keep out an army and people had to flee their homes. Their was pillaging and looting that ruined villages and set back people’s lives. If we push out the territory we claim, build defenses there, then build more defenses at the older border we can have two lines to hold back any enemies.”

“That sounds…” Eleniah peered at Kay’s profile. “That sounds more militaristic than usual.”

“Hmm?” Kay finally looked away from the horizon. “I’m not saying that that’s what we’re definitely doing, but I decided it was better to have the option.” He tapped his foot on the wall they stood on. “This serves, what, three purposes? Good for this fight, good excuse to push the border if we want to, staging area for if we need to invade the east.”

“Why would we do that?”

“Because it might be necessary.” Meten turned and leaned back against one of the crenelations. He took a puff from his pipe before continuing. “While it isn’t exactly the same, Nelam’s collapse is going to have many of the same consequences as when empires and nations collapse when dark ages come and the cycle of history begins to repeat itself. History has seen it hundreds of times by now. Whether the cities and towns that have managed to hold out against the vampyr become local powers, the parasites that are demanding Avalon return them to power in exchange for nothing are the ones that come out of it the best, or this entire region ends up a wasteland that people try and make new fortunes in, the result of this is going to be chaos and war. Small wars, but people will be fighting over everything of value that’s left.”

He paused when he noticed Eleniah’s incredulous look. “What? I pay attention when my daughter tells me things! I’m surprised you haven’t thought of this, miss high tier Teacher.”

“There’s been other things on my mind,” She replied, glancing quickly at Kay.

“Oh, planning the wedding, eh?” he said knowingly.

“We’re not engaged yet!”

“Good to see you’re confident.” He chuckled at her blush. “As I was saying though, there’s going to be chaos in this region. Unless…” He pointed at Kay with his pipe. “Someone does something about it, like our fearless leader here.”

Kay shot him some side eye. “Been learning phrases from Cindy?”

Meten grinned at him.

He shook his head before responding. “He’s right, and I’m sure you would get there yourself if you took time to think about it. We’ll wipe out the vampyr because they’re a direct threat on multiple levels to us, but then what? Ware and fighting on our border is just as bad as a powerful hostile state. Just leaving it all alone and letting everyone sort themselves out is too risky. The two plans I can think of right now are pushing out our borders and cracking down hard on any threats that pop up, or just doing what very few people from this area want and take it all over.” He narrowed his eyes as he looked back to the east. “Now isn’t the time to decide though, or even the time to discuss. Our quests are here.”

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Through the wetlands a line of undead monsters began to appear in singletons and small groups, until a line of them almost as long as the wall emerged, followed by more and more and more. There was no organization to them, they moved as a horde not as an army. Clumps of undead formed and split apart as they watched the monsters approach, some stumbling as they hit dips or rises in terrain, some just stopping in place for a time before randomly resuming their forward progress, and some just vanished into the deep pits and watery hazards that littered the area.

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There was no semblance of coordination as they approached and no uniformity among the undead themselves. There were mobile corpses of monsters, animals, and beasts alongside the bodies of people, some still dragging their weapons behind them. What looked like centaurs from a distance were actually hodge-podge amalgamations of bodies held together with necromantic magic. Hulking behemoths that squelched as they walked, their limbs made of corpses joined in long chains of bodies, loomed over twisted amalgams of bone that skittered up and over slower undead. The entire horde resembled nothing more than a wave of pestilence and decay formed into physical shapes like a child with no notion of what is ugly playing with clay.

A voice called out from along the wall and more followed, echoing the order shouted by General Crucius. There was a momentary pause as the swarm of undead moved closer and then another order rang out. Cannons roared and a multitude of Skills were launched all at once, a tide of devastation falling down onto the undead and wiping entire segments of the approaching horde from existence. Magic, empowered arrows, javelins thrown too far to be anything but magical, experimental cannon balls, and the esoteric and unidentifiable attacks rained down like an angry heaven punishing sinners, but the undead still marched closer without cease.

“How many are there?” Kay muttered as undead were destroyed and more than that continued to approach.

“How many people and animals were killed when the vampyr attacked, and how long has the necromantic thing controlling them had time to raise corpses?” Meten asked in return.

Kay grunted and shook his head sadly. The three of them stood there and waited for the enemy elites to make their presence known. Eleniah had helped reinforce the idea and the importance of it as strategy and tactics. Elites existed to fight other elites, not throw themselves at the rank and file among their enemies. Kay was there to kill the monsters too powerful for regular fighters and to destroy the thing powering all the zombies and other undead monsters.

A lumbering monstrosity of stretched skin and bloated limbs was the first to reach the wall and it tumbled into the moat without even seeming to notice the drop. It slammed down onto the spikes, hooks, and barbs littered at the bottom and began to drag itself forward, tearing it’s body apart as it continued toward the wall. More undead began to topple down without stopping, seemingly unable to even notice the impediment to their path.

“It’s going to fill up eventually.” Eleniah noted, “They’ll be able to walk right over the other bodies.”

“Disposable pawns of large numbers are a problem for a reason.” Kay glanced down to see one of the skittering bones amalgams dodge and weave around the spikes and start climbing the side of the wall before a glowing spear lanced out of a hidden hole as one of the defenders impaled it and sent it flying back to the ground. “Even if there’s enough of them to completely clog it up and make it solid ground it still will have eliminated a large number of them.”

An immense form surged forward from the rear of the undead army, knocking other zombies out of the way and trampling over others as it rushed forward. As it got closer Kay could make out hundreds of thin, pale arms scratching at the dirt in place of legs as a monstrous millipede shaped abomination formed of screaming corpses melded together into a disgusting hole slammed down into the moat and continued up the side of the wall without slowing for a moment. In the mouths of the endlessly screaming cadavers he could make out the barest hint of fangs.

The monster heaved itself up the wall, using it’s bulk and speed to ignore gravity for a moment as countless hands scrambled to make purchase against the top. Screaming mouths began to thrash and snap at the closest defends as it began to haul it’s bulk up until a sudden wall of gray ash pooled beneath it’s limbs and threw it off the wall. It crashed down among the sea of undeath and crushed a swathe of zombies as it struggled to get back up.

Meten stepped up to the edge of the wall and tipped his head at Eleniah and Kay. “Hope you don’t mind, your majesties but I’ll be taking the first one.”

“I’m not a majesty!” Eleniah protested.

“That thing looks like it’s made of vampyr corpses,” Kay told them both, ignoring the lighthearted bickering. “Be careful.”

“Oh? Then this might be a more interesting fight than I thought.” Meten stepped forward into midair, a platform of ash forming under his foot just long enough for him to take another step as he started sprinting downward. A rune made out of ash formed over his shoulders and began to glow with a volcanic red light as he drew his weapon and began sending burning strikes at the creaming monster that was pulling itself upright.

Eleniah pointed forward. “There’s another one.”

The next undead elite was moving with the same ferocity as the abomination Meten was fighting, but it was much smaller, almost the size of a normal person. It had the thick legs of some kind of monster joined to a humanoid torso that contained too many arms growing from it’s back, shoulders, and even from other arms. Each limb was tipped with weapons made out of tarnished gold, from spear tips and sword blades to hammer and mace heads. One more torso jutted out from where a neck should have been, this one with only two arms in their normal positions which stretched into two golden scythe blades. The silently raging head atop the monstrous body was familiar.

“Well, we can confirm that Glowl’s dead.” Kay muttered after shooting an Inspect at the thing.

[————————————————————]

Failed Experiment: Glowl - Tier IV Equivalent

- A failed experimental subject from testing for an unknown purpose. This undead monstrosity is formed of multiple bodies in varying states and may contain unknown abilities.

[————————————————————]

“I’ll-“

“No,” Eleniah cut him off. “I hate to say it, but you’re more dangerous than I am right now.” She stepped up to him and dropped a quick kiss on his lips. “I won’t let it stay like that forever, but for now, I’ll deal with that and you wait for the necromancer thing to appear.” She turned to sneer at the Glowl monster that was forcing it’s way through the other undead. “Besides, I have some aggression to take out on Glowl’s corpse, since I couldn’t hit the real thing.” She stepped up to the wall and dropped down. Kay leaned over to see her using one hand and boot to slow her descent as she slid down the wall, before launching herself out and over the moat with a powerful leap.

Roiling with frustration, Kay went back to sweeping the battle, looking for any sign of a necromancer monster shaped like a hunched old woman.