Chapter 9: Preparation for Breakthrough

We came back from the forest expedition without delay and reported our success to the Duke. Our small victory somewhat boosted my soldiers' morale.

The Duke relayed the message to the Druid. “

Druid, we have taken care of your problem. Let us pass.”

Druid: “Certainly.”

The Druid raised his hands slightly. The path to the south border suddenly opened. “You can come back here anytime. I think I like the undead more than humans now.”

The druid was a weird person, but if he means it, that’s good news. I believe he also won’t let the humans rampage their way through the forest recklessly. After bowing to the druid and the trees, we marched towards the path. After marching for two hours, the end of the path is already in sight.

We decided to camp here in the meantime while we plan for the breakthrough. You could still feel the aura of someone watching our group. A good note to self would be, "Trees have eyes."

Our camping spot has a good view of what we were about to break into.

The barricade has thick walls, filled with Spear Vanguards and Marksmen.

Luckily, we are resistant to piercing attacks, but recently all the weapons of their military have been enchanted.

So, if a fire or holy element enchants the weapon, that means we're screwed. Damn it. The barricade's marksmen also carry exploding and holy arrows.

Duke then proposed a plan.

“Since you guys are only around 20 or so, we will make a huge distraction in the main gate. You use the commotion to sneak past the gate. We will try to draw the enemy as far to the gate as we can by bombarding them with long-range spells.”

Then after that, he explained the formation, and we are going to be split into three groups: the leading group, the decoy group, and the exodus group.

I looked at the reliable general that is the Duke. He has this aura of reliability that would make you listen to him once he started speaking.

Even though I begged the Skeleton Duke to help us, I still don’t understand why he went this far to help us. If you look at it from his perspective, we are nothing but cowards.

He might have been planning to attack this point, or he might have other plans. Still breaking the southern border would be a massive blow to the humans since this is the wall that keeps the creatures from the deadlands out.

My only wish is that there are no heroes stationed here, or it will be catastrophic.

Forget about escaping; we should worry about our very existence if that happens. I want to help the undead army here, but we are nothing but minions.

I apologized to the Skeleton King by offering a silent prayer. . . .

While waiting for the night to come, I practiced spells from the book with the assistance of the skeleton mages.

They taught me how to wield my negative energy properly. It is treated like mana, the source which humans use to produce spells, but in our case, negative energy is also our health.

I learned how to produce lighting by using . It produces small but multiple damaging sparks that are good against numerous packed enemies. The damage and size depend on how much negative energy I expend. I also learned .

I already know how to focus negative energy into my hands when using . I only need to force it out through my fingers.

Again, if I put a lot of negative energy into my hands, the damage and size would increase. This spellcasting thing is all well and good, but my N.E. (negative energy) is not huge, so I need to be conservative on using these spells.

I practiced my skill by sparring with my brothers. I can dodge up to three consecutive attacks coming from three different attackers.

I can also dodge hits from behind even when I don’t know where the attacker is. This skill gives me a warning when an attack is about to hit me.

That’s the reason why it’s useful. I had a practice spar with the Duke. Of course, he wasn't using his full power.

I tried evading an attack from the Skeleton Duke, but his attacks were being made based on his prediction. When he sees that I will dodge to the left, he will fake an attack then redirect it to the position I will be after I dodge. For an hour, I keep failing to dodge, but after that, I was able to avoid 2 out of 10 attacks. It was a good experience, and I hope this will save me in the future.

Next was formation practice. I trained my men to form a small phalanx when engaging in group combat. We will create a diamond shape shield wall and will prioritize blocking first and then counter-attacking; such is the essence of the shield and spear technique.

I honed my step-ins with the guidance of Skeleton Duke to further increase my damage with spears. And in the process, I learned and .

The carts of equipment and bones were also put in sacks because they can't carry all those things while making a run for it.

While the time to attack is gradually approaching, I went and meet with my group. I also got to learn from Duke, so I am now able to speak.

He explained it to me. It was sending messages through negative energy. If I focus and try to form a message with my energies and send it to a person, it will be understood.

“I’ll make this quick and simple, brothers don’t think of anything else but escape and evade. We are not going to fight unless it is necessary. Our allies here are much stronger than us, and they will be the ones who will do all the fighting.”

After saying a few more instructions, Bon went up to me and nodded as if to relay that they understand.

The Duke called. “Assemble!”

The dread knights and mages went into their formations. The decoys also wore cloaks. They will follow the main force carefully and will pretend to be high-value targets.

The formation is so neat that you wouldn’t think an undead army made this. The dread knights made a few roars and tapped their shields with their huge swords.

The mages made a gesture of warming up by manipulating their energy on their hands.

The battle is about to start. Night falls, and the Exodus begins.