As the battle aboveground raged on, down below, there was an entirely different battle happening.

Fleshy creatures with sharp claws dug through the soft dirt in an attempt to tunnel into the fort. Normally, human bastions had their foundations protected by the roots of the Hands of Humanos, but the Hand of Humanos in Exarchi’s fort was still a mere sapling.

The creatures, more resembling oversized skinless moles than man, seemed almost unopposed on their way towards the fort until they reached an obstacle - hard, gray, and spanning the entire castle ground, it was almost like someone had decided to make a wall belowground!

The undead tried to claw and bite through the stone-like foundation, but it was too tough for them. In an attempt to find a way around, the monsters had somehow found a few openings. They swarmed into the gaps only to be crushed without warning. The stone ceiling dropped onto the monsters, crushing the creatures into blood and gore, before shortly raising itself back into the ceiling.

The witless undead didn’t care that there was a trap ahead and went through the same route, copying the fates of their predecessors. As the falling trap chewed the undead by the dozens, similar traps were placed everywhere. Some sides had spike traps, others were filled with shock drones.

Any creature that somehow managed to get past the traps were promptly destroyed by warrior drones. With full confidence, Exarchi estimated that the drones could keep the undead from tunneling the fort indefinitely.

Unfortunately, what Exarchi couldn’t indefinitely keep at bay were the undead forces above. While the drone expedition had packed ample supplies to create enough landmines to last for weeks, that estimation only accounted for non-undead foes.

The undead continued to fearlessly throw their bodies into the defenses set up by Exarchi, and just two days after Lord Tanne’s failed attack, the landmines were all used up. Fortunately for Exarchi, the organized undead were still hesitant to attack.

But why?

‘Given the performance of the last major attack, if the undead attacked in full force now, they should be able to swarm the humans at least…’ Exarchi estimated. ‘Calculating probable events and calibrating current battle plan…’

[Notification: Human designated AGRIANOS at ]

Exarchi looked at his video feeds and saw the human archpriest with a group of his ilk. The old man had a worried look, and was pacing in a circle in front of the inner section’s entrance. He jumped in shock when he suddenly heard a loud crack in the sky.

A trebuchet had overshot into the courtyard, but its stone shot was intercepted by a ballista.

“By Humanos, these Varangians are truly inhuman!” Agrianos exclaimed.

“What was that about my kind?” Exarchi asked as the gates opened suddenly.

“GAH!” Agrianos screeched before fixing himself. “Ahem. General Exarchi, I’m here to inform you of a recent development.”

“Go on.”

“The Hand of Humanos is acting strange and we do not know why.”

“So? Is it dead?”

Agrianos motioned his hand in a circle then explained, “The holy tree, gift given by O Holy Humanos, is growing slower than usual, but other than that, it’s fine.”

“In conclusion?”

“We might have to hold the undead longer than one month, I’m afraid.”

“Ah. I see.” Exarchi nodded and was about to close the gate when he was interrupted by Agrianos.

“Wait! Wait! Are you not concerned? We will not be receiving reinforcements, and I’m wondering if your forces can hold the undead longer than one month.”

Exarchi gazed at Agrianos with his faintly glowing red eyes and asked, “Out of curiosity, why won’t the other bastions send help?”

“Look around, general. The grass has been replaced with the dead! Even if all the bastions mustered all of their forces together, it won’t be enough to challenge a quarter of the Church’s forces!”

“Noted. Rest assured, reinforcements are coming and yes, the Varangians can hold this ground. Goodbye.”

Agrianos wanted to say more, but the gates closed sideways. This left the old man speechless and anxious. The humans stared at the gates for a good minute until someone broke the silence.

“Sliding gates are quite fascinating, aren’t they, Your Lordship?” one of Agrianos’ priests remarked.

“Quiet! We must return and tend to our duties!”

“But, my lord, what was that about reinforcements?”

“If the warlord says there’s reinforcements, then by Humanos, reinforcements will come!” Agrianos proclaimed.

From a distance, Exarchi could see several black clouds approaching his fort fast. The inner keep became busy as drones prepared themselves, not to repel the newcomers, but to welcome them.

Squads of fresh new aerial drones arrived from the west and landed wherever they could to be refitted. Almost half of the aerial drones had their bomb bays removed and were refitted with a hacksaw at the front.

[Exarchi has opened communications.]

‘Why aren’t there any bombs in these bomb bays, Princeps?’ Exarchi asked in the local hivespeak.

‘Reply. Production of explosive weapons reduced due to the alarming rate of consumption of resources designated as HOLY WATER,’ came the reply.

‘Affirmative. Understood.’ Sadly, there wasn’t much Exarchi could do. With the upsurge in the number of his aerial drones at his disposal, he was hoping he could run a suicide attack to blow the liches up into oblivion.

[Alert: HOSTILE entities within 50 METERS (164.042 FEET) of perimeter.]

“The humans are getting sloppy,” Exarchi thought out loud as he switched to his video feeds.

Because of the amount of dead covering the ground, hills and trenches were formed, giving the undead a crude form of protection against the constant barrage of arrows, javelins, lead, and stone. Undead workers began digging through the ground and bodies, creating safe passages towards the front, making it harder to push them back.

Even as the mages tried their best to clean the bodies from afar, they were already working triple duties. Overexertion had already taken the lives of a few mages, and Agrianos had forbade the mages from working themselves any further.

New flocks of undead birds appeared as well. Either out of sheer incompetence or ignorance, the flocks threw themselves at the castle once more. The result didn’t change much from last time, though the outer section experienced greater damage because the mages were already too busy to act as a bulwark against the flying undead.

Many of the undead birds fell onto the streets, and the drones collected them all.

“Oi, gray boys!” a Vyssian warrior shouted at a group of drones. “Don’t you know their meat is tainted? I know we joked about eating ‘em, but you can’t actually eat ‘em without gettin’ your guts torn apart.”

The lead drone stared at the human before promptly returning to their work.

“Those bloody fools!” the warrior cursed.

“Cheer up, lad. Maybe they just want to clean the place. They could be tossing the bastards off the wall, you know?” his friend pointed out.

“Bah. Let’s go. It’s our turn on the stone pits.”

Despite the approaching undead horde, the humans still kept their strict schedules up. The defenders were replaced on time every few hours, and supplies were shuffled to wherever needed. But many leaders still couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

Oyuf scowled at the Church’s army as he observed them from the ramparts. He rubbed his head then scratched his chin with his axe before saying, “You see that large horde of whoresons at the back?”

Agrianos rubbed his dark eyes then groaned, “Yes.”

“Those bastards are up to somethin’,” Oyuf declared.

The archpriest nodded his head lazily in response. “And what would they be up to, Warlord Oyuf af Kentfeared?”

“I’ve spent me time long on these ancestor-forsaken lands, and I’ve ‘eard rumors of a weapon the Church is hidin’ up their arses.”

“Ah, yes. The rumored ‘Weapon’. We are still unsure about the nature of it.”

“Why not?”

“Because there were no survivors to recount the battles, Oyuf af Kentfeared,” Agrianos answered with a raised brow.

“Ah. 'course, I was just testing you.” Oyuf coughed as he rubbed his chin, pretending to be profound. “But the Varangians...Do you think their plan will work?”

“I hope so. By moving the Rhanks out before the siege, we’ve lost a sizeable chunk of elite troops.”

“Come now, Your Lordship. Those bloody bastards can’t hold a candle to fierce Kentfeared warriors! At this rate, we won't need those Aviognese bastards!” Oyuf boasted.

“I do hope so,” Agrianos answered before leaving the ramparts.