Ethan watched as the defenses for the outpost were assembled and traps were reset. A few explosives were set around the wall and outside. The fighters and mages continued to drill and train. As predicted the undead forces came to meet them in the evening a day later. He couldn’t see another flesh golem, but the necromancers had brought something almost as bad.

Revenants walked between the wights ready to kill. The human’s turned undead held a portion of their memories and abilities before death allowing them to cast more than just death magic. The fresh undead was also armored which would help them last longer. Ethan brought Khan up to the wall and pointed out the unique undead amongst the others in the trees only a few minutes away.

“I will need you to target the revenants whenever possible. If they get too close they will bring down the walls too early for our plans to work. I will also be helping target them. Use your [Banish Undead] spell and they will die. If you time it right you can force the spell they are trying to cast to backfire and kill multiple at once.”

“I understand.”

“Good. Inform the others as well. I don’t see as many spirits as last time so focus on the wights and revenants first. Good luck.”

Ethan sent Khan on his way. He looked down from the wall and saw Eli. Eli was preparing a spell trap. He activated the spell as the undead began running out of the trees. Large flaming rocks flew from their catapults and launched themselves at the undead. Some of the wights tried to shoot the projectile down but it was too fast and heavy. With a thud half, a dozen boulders crashed into the undead forces.

The undead scattered to avoid the impacts but many were thrown into the air from the shockwave. The other undead not impacted by the rocks ignored it and kept moving forward. The mages started to activate the other traps. The wights and mages were still out of range for most attacks, so they had a little more time to make the largest impact possible.

Carter and his team of earth mages activated their trap. The timed [Sand Trap] spell activated destroying the ground beneath the undead feet. The ground turned to mush and actively tried to pull them in. The spell had been prepped and charged by Carter’s group for the past day. With the right signal from his magic, the undead forces were slowed.

Some of the undead were able to cast magic to get themselves out, namely the revenants. Ethan saw a few of them start to fly using techniques from their past life. Fire shot out of the hands and feet of one. Ice shot out of another’s hands working to counteract the [Sand Trap]. Ethan took a step off the wall and used [Mist] to meet them.

Ethan’s body turned to the grey mist, and he flew toward the nearest ones. He knew he needed to stop the ones destroying the traps first. He targeted the ice mage revenant first. His body resolidified as he prepared his spell. He floated a foot above the sand trap, so he wasn’t sucked in. The ice mage revenant started to fire icicles at him laced with its undead power. Ethan fired off the [Death Bolt] and it went right through the revenant’s chest. It fired back at him with more icicles that he was forced to block with a [Mana Shield]. At this point wights and other creatures had started to target him. He fired off another [Death Bolt] this time to the revenants head. The ice revenant collapsed.

Flames burned Ethan’s armored vest and he turned to see the fire-wielding revenant. Ethan switched tactics to his [Deathly Ghost Hands] it would be more mana costly but was more reliable. The undead had started to swarm him seeing him as an important target.

Closer to the outpost the ground soldiers stood with their shields raised and waited. A few of the better archers had begun to hit the nearing wights with arrows. Magic was thrown toward the walls, but mages rose [Mana Shield]s together to block them.

Walker and her mages worked on keeping the walls intact when magic occasionally hit them. They needed the undead forces to get as close to the walls as possible with some of them inside as well for this plan to succeed. Carter rose large earth walls with Eli to direct the ground forces of the undead towards the walls without the outpost walls being damaged. The only problems they faced were the revenants and the spirits.

The spirits directly flew to the defensive barriers and attacked inside the walls. The defensive pillars had started to crack after the last defense and were only growing worse. Mages assigned to deal with the spirits worked together to take them down before they could set fire to the explosives.

Arron joined Ethan to fight the revenants after a few minutes. He had been clearing some of the area using his [Ghost Hands] but had since stopped to focus on specific targets. Arron activated [Mage Armor] on the pair of them and began using his water magic to block oncoming attacks. Now able to focus on the revenants, Ethan began targeting them without worrying about the stray attacks. Ethan worked on his precision shots as [Death Bolt]s flew through the air. Occasionally he did miss in which case they ended up killing wights instead.

Arron had [Water Blade]s active and cut up the nearby undead whenever they got too close. As the two of them fought they retreated, bringing the undead around them towards their destination. In other parts of the battlefield revenants and wights attacked the other forces with a mix of standard zombies as well to take hits.

Lewis fought off the revenants with Rich, Lydia, and Harold. Some other soldiers helped them fight off the waves but were there to draw fire more importantly. Every attack hitting them was one not breaking down the wall forcing Walker and her team to repair the walls before they were ready to be destroyed.

Lewis threw fireballs and produced shields as magic was thrown between the two groups. Lydia used her magic to boost their energy and occasionally sent [Holy Light] at the revenant's but she wasn’t exceptional with the anti-undead powers. Harold swung his weapon and cut the heads off of nearby undead. Magic hit his armor and bounced off causing only a push of force that he shrugged off. Around them, other soldiers fought off the undead and pulled their attention so that they could all retreat. They slowly made their way back to the gates. Eli helped slow the approach of the undead and keep the heat off them as the wights and zombies group together.

Eli cast [Earthen Hand] once more at one of the chokepoints where the undead gathered. They rose out of the ground once more and pushed the undead into the walls and ground crushing them with overwhelming force. The wights in the area were unable to destroy the hands wasting their time as Eli completed his attack and the hand disappeared into the ground.

Ethan and Arron kept moving back towards the wall. They had made it to about three hundred feet from the walls. Archers assisted them from above as they fought off the wights. The revenants had gotten more aggressive and some of them knew more powerful spells. Spouts of fire shot from one of the revenant's hands trying to overwhelm Arron’s power. Next to him, an earth mage revenant fought Ethan. The revenant had used its earth magic to reinforce its body further and create difficult defenses to break. Each of Ethan’s attacks seemed to only break the first layer of many on the undead.

The revenant brought a hand up and the ground beneath Arron and Ethan shifted. Large spikes grew from the ground and tried to impale them. Arron got out of the way cutting up the growing earth in the process, but Ethan’s leg was impaled as he tried to escape. He cried out in pain as he pulled his leg free. As he exhausted himself the headaches from the last battle were growing.

Ethan coated his hands with the [Dark Bolt] spell creating a miniature [Deathly Ghost Hands] spell. He lunged at the earth revenant while putting his weight on his good leg. He struck the revenant as many times as he could with both hands. Each attack broke away small pieces of the revenant's defenses around its head. Ethan continued until he could feel its soft head which he crushed. The revenant fell limp.

“We need to get out of here,” said Ethan exhausted and worn out of mana.

“On it,” said Arron.

Arron created a barrier between himself and the last revenant and pushed it back. He turned to Ethan and created a bubble around the two of them and they rose to the top of the wall. They landed at the top of the wall and Ethan took out his communication crystal.

“What is the situation with the defensive barriers? We need to retreat. The revenants are becoming too much to deal with.”

A moment later the gnome official from the day before answered. “I am currently next to the pillar and have prepared it for demolition. Bring the last of your people inside and then barricade the walls with as much earth magic as you can. I will set it to blow in three minutes. I will not worry about how close you are to the walls at that point. Once the walls are gone you will follow us on the horses and the secondary traps will activate.”

“How is the other outpost doing?”

“I don’t have word from them yet.”

“Then I will see you in three minutes,” Ethan turned to Arron. “Spread the word. We need to get everyone out of here.”

Arron nodded and they split up. Word was spread to those on the walls first before the soldiers on the ground. Those on the walls would stay for another two minutes fighting off the attackers. The soldiers below retreated faster. Carter brought up as many walls as he could and so did Eli as he reinforced them. The two of them with the other earth mages retreated into the outpost with their mana completely drained.

Khan was firing from the walls and killed everything he could before his mana also ran out. The walls shook and holes were starting to form that could no longer be repaired. Undead began trying to get through any way they could and the soldiers under the retreat were forced to push the wights and zombies back inside the outpost. Lewis, Rich, and the others were among the last to retreat into the outpost. Lydia shot out one final blast of [Holy Light] and spread it around them killing all of the undead in a circle around them and healing some of their wounds. Exhausted and out of energy they headed towards the horses.

As the undead began flooding in the walls exploded. The ground shook as the walls facing the undead fell forward and exploded outward. The undead around the walls was thrown back or into other undead from the shockwave.

Many of the soldiers got on horses or carts and began to flee. A few mages with energy left continued to fire off attacks. As they left out the north exit they continued to flee, and the final traps activated. Whatever was left of them collapsed as the last of the energy for the defensive shield was channeled into destruction instead. Holy light charged by the light mages during the past few days activated. Every undead within the radius of the crumbling defenses burned and shrieked before turning to dust. Whatever was left of the defensive pillars fell apart. The first outpost had fallen, and everyone left was in retreat.

Ethan turned back to the outpost as he fled. The holy light created a flash of light in the dark for a few seconds illuminating the night sky. The outpost walls and many of the buildings burned and were falling apart. As they left mages destroyed the roads behind them bringing the paths back to nature and mana beast bait was thrown alerting the local creatures to the broken outposts in hopes of slowing the undead further.