--- Roric

"Bring more arrows!"

"Shoot that ram!"

"I don't wanna die!"

Roric was sitting in a corner of the plaza, the sword rested on his left shoulder and his eyes focused on nothing in particular. The voices of the soldiers coming from the top of the wall already gave him an idea good enough of what was happening outside. It was the same as that night in the forests of the Republic. A horde of monsters that wouldn't die.

These people weren't prepared for this. I wonder if there's a limit to what Rickhart can do. It's obvious that he has some sort of trick or special power we don't know yet. Back then, Tolwin was shocked when he learned of a necromancer who could control such a huge number of undead. I can't help but asking myself if this is a battle we can win.

More than that, the young warrior hoped to be ready. He hadn't fought for real since before leaving Fradot, excluding his short meeting with the enemy the evening of the banquet, and this time was going to be much worse than anything he had faced before. What was believed to be a trivial matter by Cassidia's military could turn into a slaughter because of the ignorance of the high ranks.

Well, how could they possibly know? I told the King Rickhart was very dangerous, but in the past two years he has improved even further. The men were saying there's hundreds of corpses out there. Dead Barbarians marching towards the walls, ignoring our arrows. Our opponent is possibly the strongest spirit magic user the world has ever seen. His powers completely rewrite the rules. No, it's like he found a way to simply ignore them.

While he was pondering on the situation, the ram began hitting the gate rhythmically. Most of the defenders were ordered to line up and point their spears forward, in a desperate try to halt the advance of the abominations. From the looks on the faces of the officers, all of whom clearly lacked the experience to face a similar attack, Roric became sure that the tactic would have only been a momentary success.

He thought about the last moments when his mercenary companions were alive. They must have felt at least as overwhelmed in front of the undead. The boy had almost given up during that battle, when the monsters had crawled out from the ground and taken everyone by surprise.

Enough. This time is different. I finally have the strength to oppose this enemy.

That idea represented all he wanted to believe. Since the massacre of his native village, the young warrior had longed for the day when he could have digged his heels against bad people and stopped their rampage. Many had died on that long road, but there was nothing he could do about it. As Roric had realized, becoming powerful required a lot of training and it wasn't really a matter of patience, just of how much you could endure. Losses, defeats, frustration. They were all part of the price he had to pay in order to become a person who could protect others.

If I'm standing here, I owe it to the people I left behind. The necklace under my shirt, the sword in my hands, my skills, even this Elemental nature of mine. They are all things that remember me, constantly, of the sacrifices I had to bear. Of those who helped me.

The boy took a long breath. He had sure come a long way to reach that point in his life.

"Prepare yourselves!" yelled one of the captains. "The gates are about to give in!"

A louder slam against the wooden doors, followed by a discomforting crack, signaled that the ram had almost completed its work of destruction. Meanwhile, the fog had gotten closer and was now hugging the battlements, preventing the archers from seeing the targets. Many of them were already starting to relocate.

Rickhart is stripping the advantage of the walls away from us. Darn him and his magic! If only my powers could provide the soldiers some kind of help without leaving me so tired... I'll need to be cautious and wait until the right moment. He doesn't know I'm here yet. Sure, he might have considered the possibility, but if I blend in with the rest I'll remain unnoticed.

Roric was taking for granted that the necromancer would have shown himself, and that expectation would have probably been too arrogant under normal circumstances, but the opponent wasn't regular at all. He had bothered with infiltrating Norburg by himself only to get face-to-face with King Sebastian and kill him. If something could be said about Rickhart, it was that he liked being overly dramatic.

I'm sure he'll come once the tide turns in his favor. It's the only aspect of him I'm certain of. He likes killing too much to lose such an opportunity.

All of a sudden the head of the ram went through the wood, projecting a cloud of splinters into the plaza. It was crudely made from a huge log, and carried by emaciated warriors Roric immediately identified as undead. Who else could handle an object so heavy, if not monsters who didn't fear any weariness? In the titanic effort, more than one of them had literally ripped off the tendons of its arms. They were certainly intended to be disposable, because they were quickly trampled by the rest of the assailants.

Oh, shit. There's so many...

A crowd of at least a hundred monsters began invading the plaza, getting impaled on the spears like they couldn't even see them.

An officer right next to where the boy was roared, "Don't let them near us! Use javelins! Move, move!"

A barrage of arrows, darts and assorted throwing weapons rained among the front ranks of the undead. In a couple of seconds dozens of them were impaled, dismembered and knocked down, but at least a half rose up again.

"Their heads! Get their heads! It's the only way to stop them!" yelled Roric, trying to address the people nearby.

The area, however, was too noisy and the majority of the soldiers didn't hear that. They stabbed into the crowd randomly, more concerned about keeping the abominations away than getting rid of them. Only a group of pikemen, who were holding the center of the formation, seemed to have figured out the weakness of the walking corpses. They had already almost cleaned up the assailants directly in front of them.

We are resisting, just like last time. Rickhart wants us to feel overconfident before launching the real offensive.

Roric's eyes caught a glimpse of blue-and-white cloth on one of the undead, that confirmed his hypothesis. Those weren't the bodies of the Barbarians from the battlefield on the Sibrin. With a shiver, the boy silently hoped that the soldiers wouldn't have realized what side they originally belonged to.

Just as he expected, a second wave entered the city and pushed on, using the remains of the first monsters as shields against the spears. And the people who composed it were definitely taller than before.

There! The Barbarians! Wait, aren't they...

The attackers were alive. Or at least, a big portion of them was. They fought side by side with the putrescent, rotted undead like they were all the same. On their faces was rage, in their eyes bloodlust, in their smiles pride. The same couldn't be said for Cassidia's soldiers, whose courage was handing by a thread.

Unlike Lowan's mercenary company, the military of the South didn't rely on shield walls. Roric got away at the very last moment, avoiding the charging horde before it crushed the frontlines like they weren't there. In a matter of seconds, all the longer weapons became useless and the battle turned into a chaotic carnage. The young warrior kept stepping backwards, like the rest of the defenders. A man to his left took a huge hammer hit in the chest and his body disappeared under the stampede. Another one, who had pierced the flesh of a walking corpse, was grabbed and thrown away by it.

Are you kidding me? Their strength is unreal!

The actual, living Barbarians were equally scary. The pikemen could do nothing against a group of hulking brutes who could rip the weapons from their hands and overpower them. Some were punched to death despite the helmets.

That was the moment when Roric realized how much in trouble the soldiers were. At that rate, nobody would have survived. If Rickhart was planning to make his move, he had better to hurry or there wouldn't have been anyone left to save.

Shit! Shit! Shit! This is worse than last time! What do I do? Do I try to reach the walls and hide, until he passes by? If I don't defeat him, we'll be annihilated!

The group he had joined was isolated and pushed into a side road that led to another clearing, with a monument in the middle. Now there was no way to rejoin the rest of the defenders without walking all the way around. There were still some fresh reinforcements further back towards the keep, near a second line of barricades, but the undead were driving the young warrior and those soldiers away from them.

I need to break away, or I'll die!

It only took him an instant to find a door in a building to his right. He went for it without thinking twice, abandoning the fight. Nobody noticed him, amidst the battle, not even when he disappeared into the house, heading to the upper floor.

Please, tell me this place has windows on the other side.

Luckily, the boy found one and kicked it open, jumping out right as the steps of the undead echoed on the stairs. He used both arms to lift his body, and gained access to the top. From there it was relatively easy to reach the main street, and the bulk of Lyngard's forces.

The young warrior gave one last look to the soldiers below, trapped near the statue, then he started running between the roofs.

***

--- Elise

"Your Highness! No! You can't go! It's too dangerous!"

"Don't try to stop me, Lord Albert! My soldiers need me, or they will be run down!"

Elise had found some pieces of armour and a spear, and was about to jump on a horse to head out and rally the troops. The echoes of the battle could clearly be heard even in the keep, and they were getting closer. At least the civilians were safe for now, gathered in the opposite side of the city.

They brought so many wounded people... Things must be going badly for us. The men looked so scared.

She had even thrown away the helmet one of the officers had tried to put on her, saying that nobody would have recognized her with it.

"Please, Princess!" Albert kept yelling, panting. "Don't throw your life away! Let's seal the inner gates and wait for the King's-"

"Lord Albert!" the girl roared back at him. "Nobody will come! Lyngard will fall if I don't do something! You of all people should know, since you fought beside my father. I refuse to stay here while my soldiers are risking their lives!"

The old man gave her a sad glance. "I beg you, Your Highness... Please reconsider. He... Sebastian used to have the same attitude when he was young. Had he died in battle, at least his brother was ready to take his place, but you are the only heir. Oh, if he knows I didn't restrain you I'll be hanged or worse..."

"There won't be any punishment for you if we all die," she exclaimed. "We have to protect the people of the Kingdom. Nothing else matters."

Tears began flowing down the cheeks of the elder Lord.

"We all care for you," he said, between the sobs. "That's one thing your father was always unable to get. He insisted so much on being brave for Cassidia that he almost lost his life. I was there when the Republicans took his leg... I could have stopped him, protected him, and yet-"

I'm sick of all this. Everyone seems to think that the members of the royal family are dolls, who need to be kept on a shelf, but they are wrong. The country needs me. I have the power and the responsibility to lead it to victory. I'm going to be the one who saves our people!

"I don't want your protection, I want your loyalty!" shouted Elise. "Men! Listen to me! This also applies to you! Your friends and families are in danger. I know you are terrified. Who wouldn't be? And yet, fear won't save anyone."

It's something I've learned from a person dear to me. Now I understand the meaning of what he did.

Roric could have give in to the fear, that time in Fradot, and run away. He could have laid down at the feast in Norburg like everyone else and nobody would have blamed him. He could have stayed away from that distant city instead of running into a battle.

"Those who are fighting need us! Group up and head to the main street! Let's gather all the soldiers on the way, even the guards, and bring the might of Cassidia to the accursed necromancer!"

The troops within those walls, a few hundreds, cheered in response. Their expressions, so gloomy just a minute before, were now lit with a glimmer of hope. Elise's words seemed to have a huge effect on their morale, just because of who she was.

She turned to Lord Albert again, smiling. "See?"

He knelt, pressing his forehead against her arm. He couldn't stop crying, for some reason.

"Don't worry, My Lord," she reassured him. "I will save Lyngard. I promise."

"I... I'm not crying because I'm worried. I'm crying of joy, because I can't believe I lived this much to see Sebastian once again... And I've become too old to join him..."

"You've done enough, Albert. I appreciate your words, but I'm not my father. I aim to grow into someone even greater. With your help and everyone else's, of course."

The old man raised his teary eyes. "Your will is mine, Your Majesty. Good luck."

***

--- Roric

Leaping across two buildings, Roric finally reached a roof where he had a clear view of what was happening.

Down below, in the last plaza before the keep, the defenders were already engaging the invaders and they were losing ground. The mass of undead was now more scattered than before, but still very numerous. From the point where he was, the top of an administrative building of some sort, the young warrior could also see glimpses of red leaving the bodies of the dying soldiers and Barbarians. Nothing came out from their corpse counterparts.

That magic again. It's definitely Rickhart's doing.

The boy climbed down, finding a large terrace. He was still in the middle of searching for the staircase when all his senses were assailed by a cold feeling.

It's him!

He turned around, running to the railing and peering to the entrance of the vast clearing, where a mounted shape had just appeared. The necromancer was dressed in armour, his white hair flying around in the wind, and was heading forward. His mere presence, or more probably the fear spell he was using, permeated the surroundings.

Roric shook his head, trying to get rid of it.

I need to do something. I need to do something, before it's too late!

Yet, from the point where he stood, there was no way to get on the ground quickly and engage Rickhart. Desperately whacking his brains for a solution, the young warrior's eyes went to his hands. The only move he could think about was stopping his enemy with lightning.

Can... Can I reach him? I've never done it from this far!

He took a deep breath, and prepared to tap into his spirit.