Gold's point of view

We just wait in this hidden room until the fighting dies down. It should be over by the end of today. The remaining army will have retreated and I doubt they will make another attempt at killing us after such a heavy loss. No matter how prepared they are. A single scratch, a drop of blood from an infected body can turn them against their allies. This fight is my victory no doubt.

My blood knight had asked a series of stupid questions… It gives me the feeling that he just doesn't understand what I am trying to do… Perhaps I should kill him sooner than I planned to… I'll do it after the fighting is over… Waiting is rather boring though. If I could yawn from boredom as a lich, I would be doing so often. I look over the room again.

Inside this specially prepared room is 100 corpses I plan on controlling if anyone finds it and tries to enter. There are also barrels upon barrels of blood for the human to use as well. He might still be able to help me if anyone enters… As incompetent as he is. The process for turning him from a blood knight into a death knight is a long and drawn out one. I think about it as we wait until the fighting has died down.

First, I will have to kill him. Taking special care to not injure him too badly as his body will no longer be able to heal wounds. Poisoning would be the preferred method of death. I will then carefully cut his heart out of his chest and replace it with a blood crystal he had already prepared in advance. This will give him life even after death and increased powers at the loss of his morality, the entire process shouldn't take more then a days worth of hard work. It is worth it as well because death knights are very strong beings. Able to command the undead, it gives him similar enhancements to his blood knight skills just as lich does with necromancy. He would be a huge help to my cause of becoming ruler of the world. I should also put some of my diseased meat in him beforehand, so I can manipulate him mentally.

The room is sealed off. No one should be able to tell that there is even a room here. One of the reasons I have made the main building so confusing and maze like is because it would be very hard to tell where the doors are to a certain rooms. Several hidden rooms like this one are scattered throughout the building. This just happens to be the biggest one, so that is why we are using it… Thinking now, it would have been smarter to bring a few books with me… I'm dreadfully bored by this process of waiting… I found that my love for books has diminished since I've become a lich… Perhaps it is because there isn't much left for me to learn. It would be a hassle to read a book and not learn anything from it.

I hear some of my humans rushing around outside this room. Then I hear panic… Then I hear screams… Then I hear nothing… Silence fills the entire room as the outside is no longer loud… Enough time passes for me to think that whoever made the ruckus is gone… That is when the wall is destroyed in a single attack. Who is it?

A smile forms across my face as I see one of the humans I still love has shown himself. Or one would if I had a face to smile with. The red headed man has brought himself to me to be captured so I can drink his mana… He feels… Different somehow. Blood covers his entire body as if someone dumped several barrels of blood onto him. He must have gone through dozens of my men to get here. None the less, I start the process of drinking his ma-. GODS WHAT IS THIS!? If his mana tasted amazing before, it is tenfold better right now. I cant' get enough of it. I slurp up as much as I can before he finally speaks.

“Go ahead, drink as much as you can. It will be your last meal. I've brought you some blood for your man to use. Go ahead, I'll allow you to make the first move.”

I go to start raising the dead, my husband runs over and starts tipping barrels upon barrels of the blood over… Wait a second… Why is he making a shield out of them? He looks far more afraid for his life then he should… What is wrong with this situation… That shield is easily the biggest shield I've ever seen him make. One of half that size could stop a boulder shot from a cannon. What an absolute waste of blood. I go to yell out to not kill this person because of his delicious mana. I will capture him and drink from him until he dies of old age. The man doesn't give me a chance to say anything.

Cutting through the 5 corpses I raised like they were made out of paper. He moves so quickly it is hard to keep track of him. Flying into the shield at a speed almost unfathomable of a human to move at, he cuts through it! In a single instant he has my blood knight dead. He was wearing full plate armor but was still bisected by the attack. The man pushes over the top half so it topples to the ground. His legs still standing their as if they hadn't realized the top half is now missing. I start to feel something… I feel something I haven't felt since becoming a lich… I feel fear. He begins to speak again.

“I only have 3 minutes left until I can't play with you anymore… I would have liked to torture you for at least a few hours but this is all I can do right now. Now, let's get back to business… I said you can make the first attack. You should throw everything you can muster at me. Raise all of these corpses as you have 3 minutes to last before I disappear.”

Panicking, I listen to him. Even as strong as he is, it will still take him at least 3 minutes to destroy all these corpses. The corpses slowly rise… I expect him to rush around the room the moment they all start moving but he stands still for a few seconds… He is waiting for something. He speaks again.

“I said attack me… If you are wasting my time like this, I might as well finish this up then.”

Almost too quickly, the man extends his sword to the size of three people standing on each others shoulders. An impractically large sword like that would be impossible to pick up, let alone use as a weapon. He throws this weapon and cuts 10 of my corpses in half as it flies through them. I expect it to hit the wall but as if it is being guided a gust of wind forms around it and moves it around. Cutting the hundred corpses I had prepared in a matter of seconds… The feeling of fear has now turned to terror and dread. This is not a human. It cannot be a human. The man… No the thing speaks again.

“All you had to do was not hit Leaf… You could have taken his arms… His legs… All of his intelligence. The only thing he would feel is sadness. You could have killed dozens… No, hundreds of his men and he still wouldn't have been this mad. You gave me enough time to find and kill you and for that I thank you… I still have 2 minutes left to play with you before my time runs out.”

His neutral face now forms a smile. I can't! This can't! Why does it have to end here? NO! It will not end here! I can still try something. All of his mana!? I had drunk a huge portion of mana. I have to rely on this. I need to do something amazing to live through this. I have to think quickly… The parts of human still on the ground… That is it!

As I think that thought, the human parts almost crush together. The room slowly loses every sight of corpses… Now instead a flesh monster is being formed. It is too big, it bursts through the roof of the building. I don't care! It continues to grow. The flesh monster is now a dozen feet tall. More corpses! Bigger! Stronger! I can no longer see the top portion of this thing. With this, I can hold out of the last minute. The man had only stood there watching it all unfold. This is my last ditch effort and should buy me just enoug-. A fire bursts from the man.

I've never seen a fire this intense. I'm easily 10 feet away from him, hiding in the corner of this room. The fire bursts through the concrete roof, so hot it burns everything it touches… I've only heard stories of how hot fully grown dragons breath can get… This is something on a similar scale to that. The giant monster I had made is just gone… A few feet of it's meat legs are the only thing that is left of it… How!? He turns towards me. PLEASE! PLEASE NO! He speaks almost laughing now.

“I still have a minute to play with you.”

“NOOO!!!!”

Leaf's point of view

We are pushing back the waves of the ghouls now. Some attempt to jump the walls we've created but the bulk are rushing at the only opening that they can see. The opening is still fairly big and the ghouls are relentless, even if you think they are dead, they still attack. Dozens of men have been bitten and fall back as more take their place. Hundreds of ghouls are still alive… None of the pirates know what to do. They only look on at our fight as the ghouls rush at us. Wave by wave the crash against our troops.

It looks like they are checking their downed comrades… Noticing that they are most likely alive. Some of them have realized that they are on the wrong side now… They have been serving a lich, a monster from the beginning. All of that propaganda has paid off. We continuously lose more and more men to the attacks. A single injury can result in one of our men turning… If they get bitten in the wrong spot they are doomed to turn without us being able to stop it. Getting bit on the arm or leg is fine but… Some people have been bitten in the chest near the heart and neck.

Some men just can't be saved… Everyone has been brave in the face of their mortality… Rushing out to face them or killing themselves… I don't want to think any of us would be able to kill our own men if it came to it. 22 people have died this way. Hundreds have been injured in the process of defending. Hundreds of the ghouls have been killed… This is a losing battle if it keeps up. As more and more people get injured and need to be treated, the odds that our healers will get overworked and not be able to save everyone increases. Even with my extra familiars healing and treating the wounded, we still might start having men change to ghouls in our back lines… As I think this I hear a odd sound. The ground shakes as I look behind and see what is making that noise.

Someone is piloting the black turtle and having it walk onto land to help fight. The black turtle slowly moves forwards, many of our own men would have been crushed if it wasn't so loud. Cannon fire opens up on the back line of the ghouls now as the turtle moves forwards. Who is piloting it? Whoever it is, they just saved dozens if not our entire armies lives by doing so.

The ghouls start behaving oddly… Slowly but surely they become less coordinated in their attacks… It is as if the person leading them is under heavy mental strain right now. As I think that, a crashing of noise comes from the main building. I look at it… It is barely noticeable as the second floor that was recently added is blocking most of my vision… But I see something pink and red popping out of the building. Within seconds I realize it is a giant monster forming out of the building.

The monster continues to swell in size. Pushing through the shoddy roof of the second floor… It is now completely visible to everyone. Everyone besides those defending against the ghouls stare at it in awe. The creature is easily 30 feet tall… I'm not sure what it is though… From this distance it just looks like a pink fleshy monster… SHIT! Was this thing summoned to fight against Kite? Even he wouldn't be able to defeat it by himself. I call out over the slime connection and towards the black turtle. I also have a telepathic link with Purple to Kite's other pets.

“We need to help fight the mon-.”

BOOM! In an instant, the entirety of the monster is engulfed in fire peaking upwards of 40 feet… The flames so intense everything in a 10 foot radius is melted. Parts of the cloth roofing has been caught on fire as far away as 40 feet. The attack is so devastating by the end of it the monster is gone… The ghouls all stop in their movements after this… Sitting their as if waiting for orders that just aren't coming. Around a minute of the quiet the ghouls start moving again…

With no sense of teamwork, all of them scatter in different directions. Most heading back towards the pirates who start to try and fend them off. In an attempt to save as many lives as possible, I call for the army to assist in the process of killing all of the ghouls. This is the end of the conflict… With no leaders, seeing the ghouls attack them and us coming to their aid… The pirates have no reason to continue to fight against us.

I don't exactly understand what has transpired in that building… I just know for a fact that the fire had come from Kite… The fire was too strong though. Their would be no way possible for a normal human… No, even Kite shouldn't be able to do attacks of that scale… In a matter of seconds, a giant 20,000 pound monster was turned into ash… No person… That is on the scale of a demigod in power… I start to worry if he is okay after attacking with such a large scaled attack… 10 minutes elapse before I see someone exit the building.