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Lich Lord, Chapter 161
🕑 Added 2023-12-25 17:00:09 +0000 UTCAs I spun the wheel, the noise from the door grew louder, my eye never leaving the drawbridge, Come on, Raven, I thought. If the drawbridge did not fall, this would be pointless.
The door burst open behind me. I was out of time. The portcullis was raised only a couple of meters off the ground, that would have to be enough. I threw the latch that would secure the wheel in place, and turned to face my assailants.
Two guards in front held swords and shields, while a third wielded a bow. But he wasn’t pointing at me, he was pointing up towards the pendulums.
The guard fired as I leapt. My clawed hand reached out and barely clipped the arrow sending it off course. My lunge left me extended and exposed and the guards lunged for me as the archer knocked another arrow.
My precognition warned me, and I contorted one of my legs avoiding a strike that would’ve probably disabled it. The small claws of the foot dug into the man’s shoulder and I used him to propel me. This body was not meant for sustained melee combat, it was meant to strike from the shadows if it was seen at all.
Before the archer could loose another arrow, I had dove past the front two, twisting myself to lessen the damage their swords would do. My long arms reached the bending bow of the archer and severed the shaft in an explosion of splinters. A heartbeat later, I ripped the archer’s throat out. Near the door now, I could see more guards coming towards me.
I dodged to the side, a bolt of magic searing its way through the doorway and striking the mechanisms behind me. The portcullis shook. They didn’t even need to destroy the pendulums they just needed to break the mechanism. I whirled, my claws slashing. I was not going for killing blows just trying to disable. The guards went down fast, clutching at wounds in their bellies. I slammed the door shut, my strength sending a rushing cleric flying back as the door hit him in the face.
I glanced around the room, looking for something to wedge against the door. I move the desk, still looking for more. I grabbed a chair, and another desk. But still, I needed more. Then I saw the guards and said to myself, That would work. The body of the archer was already piled in front of the door and shortly the guards followed. I felt a little bad that I had not killed them, but I was running short on time.
I braced against the door. One of the guards began to hit at me with his sword, seemingly accepting his fate. His blows were weak. They were shouting as well, and I wondered why. Then healing magic filled them and I understood. At that point I did take the time to kill them and braced with all my strength to hold the door shut.
It bucked under an explosion, briefly knocking me off. I scrambled to push back against it. The blows from the other side ceased, and I braced myself. From the light coming around the doorjamb I questioned whether or not I could stop it.
There was a massive cracking sound and I glanced through the small window to see the drawbridge had finally fallen. The chains used to lift the drawbridge continued to roll out. Raven must have destroyed the mechanisms they wound into. She dashed down the drawbridge right as an explosion of magic tossed me back from the door.
The door, the furniture piled in front of it, and the bodies were reduced to splinters and gore. On the other side, a priest glared at me. Guards surged forward. I couldn’t stop them, but I could buy just a little more time.
I focused my precognition on stopping blows that were aimed at the mechanisms or the pendulums. Accepting dozens of attacks to my constructs body.
An explosion of fire ripped past me, destroying the pulleys and ropes of the portcullis. I whirled, looking out the window—if that gate closed, it would slow my army down. Relief flooded me. The portcullis was held up by logs that had been placed by Abimelech, and an advance force containing our two tanks, bone guard, life thieves, and the flesh golem’s were already sweeping below it.
One pendulum crashed down. The magic of the gate would’ve stopped them, but they could get under it now.
Screams came from deeper within the fort. A snap drew my attention, and my precognition showed me what was coming, there was no avoiding it. This body had given all it could. It wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyways before I ran out of energy. The second pendulum crushed me beneath its bulk.
***
I opened my eyes in my tent. Stepping out, I found De’Barak and a platoon of bone guard around me. “Let us join the fun,” I ordered walking over to where Shadow was waiting.
By the time we reached the fort, the outer section had been completely overrun. Jepthen and Ehud had opened the gate for my forces the second the alarm sounded inside.
As they had been waiting the two of them had been wiping out as many guards as they could. Ehud’s method of fighting allowed him to dart in and out of shadows striking with hexes that would prevent an alarm from going out as his curses tore apart his victims. Jepthen’s ability to rapid-fire streams of arrows allowed him to take out groups of soldiers before they even knew he was upon them. The black death arrows he conjured invisible in the night.
The bone guard and zombies swarmed over the outer section, killing all of the guards there. Tola and Izban had already raised all the fallen as zombies and sent them pouring into the inner section under the control of the controllers.
Now a half of my bone archers were out front with E’lon, dueling with the archers on the wall as a chaotic melee took place beneath and around the gate. “You two stay here,” I ordered Tola and Izban who I saw were heading for the gate. “Support E’lon, I will take care of the front.”
They nodded in acknowledgment as I raced forward. Music from Maxwell reached my ears, he was playing something by Rob Zombie, which I thought was very fitting, I think it was called “Dragula”.
Though the garrison was on average stronger than my bone guard, my army was still holding them at bay. The horde of mindless undead that had pushed ahead of them amplified by Maxwell’s music gave them the edge they needed.
Othniel and Jair were being fed power by the elemental zombies, enabling them to hold the magic back from the priests and wizards as they struck out with their own spells.
With the magical defenses and offenses taken care of, I cast a spell as I raced towards the gate. I leapt off of Shadow and ducked under the gate as I finished my spell. Slamming Mercy down, a wave of death magic flooded out from me. The spell took 2500 mana, basically all of my mana pool, leaving me with around 300, but it was worth it.
The regeneration aura I just cast was immensely potent. A bone guard that had been laying on the ground got back up as the hole in its chest closed. Pulling out a mana potion, I drank it, already building the framework of another spell.
Some of the elemental zombies began to pour their power into it, directed by Othniel. This was a pure death magic spell, but I also channeled death energy into it. While I was out of the tier 2 power, my reserves of the first tier of death energy had regenerated.
The spell completed at a rapid rate, and I fired it out over the battlefield. An orb exploded and black mist flooded out. The magic infused the fallen bodies of the guards and hampered the holy magic being cast. Soon, more zombies joined the fray.
My Terhaim strode into the chaos that unfolded. Samson charged, flanked by three of the other Terhaim. He burst through the guard lines, and the four of them plowed through the guards, leaving behind broken and bleeding men and women. The priest they were targeting reacted just a little too late to save his life.
Samson in particular took blow after blow. The berserker’s hammers covered in blood as he gave as good as he got. They turned and rushed back towards my lines, entering the regeneration aura and their wounds began to close.
A powerful aura pushed out across the battlefield and my attention snapped to a man in glowing plate. I focused on him, getting a small description.
Knight Paladin of Olattee
Level: 136
Knight Paladin of Olattee have taken the second oath to the god of purity. They are only allowed to do this if they have walked a path he has approved of. They are now one step away from becoming a true paladin in service to the god.
The paladins of Olattee are powerful. The God of purity is very picky about who he elevates and allows to take the oath to become a paladin, first requiring them to spend years in service and have taken a prior oath to him. The result is their faith and power is amplified.
Despite the resistance my undead had to holy magic, the man’s very aura was suppressing and causing the mindless undead to decay. I was low on mana, and had used a large portion of my death energy, still I moved to engage him.
