“Contact.”

Valkus stopped and dismounted, his spear held steadily within his hand, while the rest of his squad spread out along the bone buildings, some going in, others going up, and the rest taking up positions on the outside. Valkus’s forces only just managed to set up when a tall and limber bone mecha covered in thrusters appeared in the distance, accompanied by a horde of skeletons.

As the skeleton troop rushed towards Valkus and his party, Valkus studied the mecha approaching him at a high clip.

Oh? No swords, guns, or staves? This should be a fun fight.

The whole skeleton unit, including the mecha, were only armed with spears, yet they were also outfitted with heavy armor made out of bone and metal. However, Valkus noticed that beneath the armor was some form of black energy that came together to give these skeletons dark, pulsating muscles.

Valkus smiled as he began walking forward, cracking his neck as silver energy started to gather around him.

…

On the other side of the battlefield, Joy and her team moved throughout buildings to dodge the bombardment of spells being rained down upon them by a floating bone mecha. Skeleton mages had even created a mana shield to keep the dwarven forces from damaging the mecha.

“Weak. Weak! Is this all you vermin have? Bleed and die for me!”

Unlike her previous meek attitude on the wall, Vatara’s switch seemed to have flipped as she watched the dwarfs run and dodge for their lives.

As her hunter squad ran around like headless chickens, Joy used her lance to block an energy beam.

“Hey, hey now. Who do you think you are, calling me a vermin? Just for that, I, Joy the White Lance, will be claiming your head!”

With one eye half closed, Joy’s aura exploded forth, covering her body in white light.

“Prepare yourself.”

...

Urist's army marched forth, enveloped within his flames of war and preparing themselves for a heated conflict. There were no more tricks, no more plans, no more scheming.

Now was the time to kill or be killed.

Before long the coalition would confront the undead army.

There were no words. No pauses. No compassion.

Only bloodlust-filled roars and battle cries sounded as mana shifted with the rise of emotions and tore through the air in a fury.

The moment Urist’s coalition entered the skeleton gunner's effective range, Robert gave the order, “FIRE!”

The front row of skeletons dropped to their knees, allowing the row behind them to join in and fire a thick wall of over a thousand bullets into the dwarf’s frontlines.

“Earth wall! Wind wall! Water wall!”

The mages worked in tandem, having learned their lessons from previous battles to combine their defensive magic. Some iron death balls were thrown off course, others slowed within the water, and those left were stopped in place by the wall of earth.

“Body experts Di, Don, Da, and strength type fox-kin, would you kindly return their gifts? Mages, help them.” Snorri ordered as she moved her forces into position.

Di chuckled, “You heard the lady. Let’s show them what we can do!”

“OHHHHH!” The warriors roared as silver light gathered around their fists.

“Combine! Harden! Freeze! Swift! Enhance! ”

The mages first turned the remaining earth wall into a wall of mud before breaking it into massive dirt balls. The balls were then hardened and frosted over. Expending a fair amount of blood crystals, two blood mages strengthened the warriors standing behind the massive boulders.

The body experts’ aura exploded forth in unison as the three mechas charged at them.

“PALM STYLE - HIGH IMPACT!”

Buffed by flames, spells, and blood, they infused Qi energy into their hands and sent the boulders flying at high speeds into the skeleton army, dismantling a good chunk of their forces into nothing more than crushed bones.

Lexie took the vanguard, charging right into the hail of boulders and using her giant battle axe to smash the frozen earth into dust as Robert and Ritter followed behind her.

Lexie roared with cold determination, “YOU FUCKING VERMIN! I’m going to kill you all and avenge my family!”

Behind her Ritter, the Sword Mecha, began speaking in tongues as his two green staves lit up with green fire and coated his mecha in flames.

The Black Mecha, Robert, followed after Lexie, stomping along in his enormous gorilla shaped mecha. Unlike the two mechas by his sides, Robert’s mecha held no weapons in its massive hands, for they were weapons in and of themselves.

Snorri the Slayer laughed when she sighted the massive black mecha.

“Oh, I can’t pass up this challenge. Helga, you're in charge of our army! Go all out and play with that glowy one over there. This black one is… MINE!”

Helga rolled her eyes as she gathered her mana.

Meanwhile, jagged black tears tore along Snorri’s body as she rushed out before the mages could begin crafting their fortifications, charging straight towards the lumbering death machine.

When Urist saw her move out he sighed to himself.

Guess that leaves the pissed off battle axe wielding banshee for me.

“Master Mo, we’re moving out. Bishop and the rest of the mages will give us cover. Uria, defend us from any ambushes.”

Master Mo, the Fisherman, gave a gin and patted Urist on his shoulder, “Let’s go, disciple.”

Bishop held out his hands and began to apply formations on the two, increasing their speed and attack.

“Try not to get killed out there, King.” Bishop cautioned as he finished buffing the pair.

“Kick her ass!”

“W-what sis said!”

The sisters Aqua and Vesi chimed in, wishing them good luck as Urist and Mo moved towards Lexie.

Flames spread around her as Uria put her hands together.

“I pray for your safe return, Urist.”

Urist shot her a thumbs up as he rushed towards Lexie with Mo in tow.

His eyes were filled with conviction and Urist showed no fear as he neared the frenzied mecha.

“I AM URIST, KING OF THE DWARFS, FOX-KIN, AND RAT-KIN! I SHALL BE TAKING YOUR HEAD FOR MY PEOPLE, TO BRING LIGHT TO OUR FUTURE.”

“YOU VERMIN KILLED MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS! IF I DON’T FEED YOUR BLOOD TO THEIR SOULS AS REVENGE THEN I AM NO NORKIN!”

“ORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

“AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

Urist and Lexie screamed at each other as they closed the distance, with Master Mo silently trailing behind Urist with unperturbed eyes.

Green fire lit up along Lexie’s battleaxe as she drew it back to her side, shifted her weight, then unleashed a swing that brought about a blinding beam of light along with a storm of wind and bone chunks torn right off the floor.

“SINS BEHEADER!”

Urist met her wave of destruction head on by gathering a large fireball within his hand and chucking it into the beam’s path, not stopping for a moment. When the two forces were about to meet, Urist snapped his fingers.

“BOMB!”

The ball of flame exploded, not only neutralizing Lexie’s move but also spreading sticky orange flame across the ground that quickly began expanding its territory.

Field set.

“DIE!”

Urist’s eyes widened for his explosive flames had not only blocked the beam but also his sight, leaving him unable to see that the enemy mecha had leaped into the air with a flip, intent on splitting him in half with her battle axe.

I was careless! I didn’t think they could move like that!

“Boost! Second Strike!” Mo’s calm voice rang out.

Wrapped within water and flames, Mo appeared in midair, smashing his spear into the mecha's battleaxe, halting it inches from Urist's face and forcing it off course.

Urist didn’t stay still however, for he saw one of the mecha’s hands lashing out towards Master Mo, who was still in the air.

“BOOST! FIRST STRIKE!” Urist shouted.

Water mingled with flames as Urist sent his spear forth into the mecha’s hand, causing its forearm to splinter and break.

Urist was stunned but kept moving forth to open up space.

My spear has gotten strong enough to crush through their armor? Oh man, this is going to be way—

Urist stopped mid-thought as he saw the bones covering the floor below the mecha crawl up and replace the hand he’d just broken.

Harder. Fuck.