Corvus squatted at the edge of the sheer precipice that gave Halfpeak it’s name, far far below there was a darkened camp guarded by creatures with blue flames where their eyes should be. He’d counted ten patrolling guards but there was probably five times that amount laid out in unmoving rows around a hulking dark shape in the middle of them.

He cleared a path with Air manipulation to sharpen his eyesight but it didn’t do much, something was shrouding the camp in thicker than normal shadows.

If he wanted to see anything more he’d have to get closer.

He studied the forest around the silent camp until he spotted what he was looking for, a huge tree that had fallen and would give him somewhere out of sight to teleport to, hopefully far enough from the camp that he wouldn’t be noticed.

Appearing in the sheltered behind the fallen tree he immediately bolted away toward a small rise he’d seen from Halfpeak, that was the problem with Air based ports they were noisy and bright.

Crouching down behind a boulder at it’s peak he peered around it at the camp, from here the shadowy darkness was thinner and he could see details.

These undead were very strange he could see the bindings that animated them but they were tied off and unavailable to meddling by his necromantic skills. They were also strangely made, tied and woven in a way he’d never seen before done by anyone, there were some similarities to other of Valard’s constructs but they were not exactly the same just similar enough to pick it as Valard’s work.

He heard a snap behind him and whirling his sword rasped from it’s sheath as his shield snapped on around him… his bright golden shield that glowed brilliantly with it’s own light.

The Fae with blue burning eyes that had snuck up on him said, “Corvus, I seee you.”

He frowned and shook his head, he didn’t know this Fae.

Chuckling the Fae said, “Oh no, not that husk… us over here. Turn around and see.”

Keeping the Fae at the corner of his eye he looked back toward the camp, where every body had risen and was now looking at him with eyes of flame. The huge black bulk in the middle of the camp waved and a small bright light appeared above it’s head showing him Evesian with Lynoba’s head sharing his massive shoulders.

Oh well, that was a problem.

The Fae behind him said, “Hello! We are Harcur, Master gave us a new name along with a new purpose… aww not going to wave back? You are a rude one, but I insist we have a chat.”

He saw the Fae behind him move toward him and his sword took it’s head clean off it’s shoulders. By the time he’d glanced back toward the camp there was a sea of blue flaming eyes heading his way. Time to get out of here.

He teleported back up to Halfpeak and watched the swarm of undead bodies wheel around and head toward him, when they reached the base of the cliff he hurled a gout of lightning into them. Shields appeared around them, what?! Undead never kept their magic.

A clotted dual throated voice taunted him from the darkness, “Hahahaha little Fae, do you like our husks? Master taught us well and now we’re coming for you.”

He saw the goblin heading toward the cliff itself as the burning eyed undead reached the cliff face.

He could handle the undead easily enough, none were that powerful but this Harcur he had no idea what it could do and this was not the time to find out.

So as it continued to cackle madly and the undead began to climb he teleported away. It wasn’t likely that any of the undead or the abomination could track him through a teleport but it wasn’t an unknown skill so he reappeared far from both Halfpeak and Boghole.

Sitting down on a handy log he started thinking through what he’d learned while he waited to see if anything had followed him. Evesian had been a brute so this creature made of his body would be very tough but that wasn’t too much of an issue, he’d beaten the goblin before. What Lynoba brought to the union was unknown and the unknown was both terrifying and dangerous.

One thing he had picked up on, every single one of those ‘husks’ had a thread tied directly to the abomination so if he could take it down they would all likely go with it. But he’d have to get through them to get to it.

He needed something to keep the undead busy while he killed Harcur.

It was going to take days to move enough of his people into position to intercept Harcur if they could even work out which site he would aim for next, Grao Tree or Olive Grove were closest to where Harcur and his undead were camped now so one of them would be the next target and he didn’t have enough troops to defend both.

It was time to use the dead. He’d have his living troops go to Grao Tree and he’d cover Olive Grove with the corpses from the mine there. May the rest of his people forgive him.

Sighing he teleported back to Boghole to give the orders.

Four and a half days later he had two hundred and twenty three Fae set to reach Grao Tree two days before Harcur’s undead if they turned that way and he had two hundred and ninety four undead raised and laid in snowdrifts around and within Olive Grove waiting if he turned toward it instead. Now all he could do was wait and patience was really not something he was proficient in.

He had four times as many corpses still laid out in the tunnels but to raise them would take weeks because the working would be much larger and more intricate. He didn’t have the time, not right now.

Corvus really wasn’t looking forward to fighting the abomination, not out of fear for himself, without being arrogant he was certain that the creature posed little threat to him. No he was hesitant and surprised to find that he was hesitant because Evesian had been used as part of the creature and he’d actually felt grief when the monstrous goblin was put down. He had been a brutish, unintelligent and incredibly dangerous monster true but he’d also been friendly and almost sweet in his own way.

He just wished Valard had been just a little less diligent, he had seen the necromantic bindings the animated Harcur but Valard had layered them so heavily behind defenses that they were completely unavailable to meddling. Otherwise this would be a much shorter fight when it came. The animated dead he probably just put down their defenses were negligible but not while they were being actively defended by a Necromancer and Harcur was a brutally strong Necromancer.

A day later he knew, Harcur’s mob of dead was heading toward Grao Tree. The Fae were going to have to fight, more death.

Corvus appeared with a crackle in a darkened forest camp drawn to the beacon carried by the Ultimete of the Rebel forces.

Even before he was finished teleporting in a voice said, “Identify yourself!”

Two Fae in battered looking mail had him covered with crossbows while a third unarmoured but carrying a shield held it up and her hand crackled with lightning.

“Corvus. I am expected.”

The crossbows dropped and the lightning faded as they snapped to attention, the woman inclining her head toward a nearby tent said, “You are, Nelfem’s in his tent.”

Corvus nodded and walked to the indicated tent and entered, a tall thin Fae with a horribly scarred face and only one eye looked up from the writing he was doing and said, “Commete, glad to see you.”

Shaking his head Corvus vehemently said, “Those titles are stupid.”

Nelfem grimaced and said, “Yes, they are. But the troops chose them to differentiate ourselves from any other Fae forces and I must use them for morale… so you can suffer too you bastard. Letting them choose was your idea.”

“I didn’t expect them to pick something so, so, stupid.”

Nelfem grinned and said, “You know you made certain of their adoption when you let Gader hear you complaining about them don’t you?”

“But he doesn’t have one!”

Grinning wider Nelfem said, “And I’ve seen the smug grin he gets every single time you wince when someone uses them.”

“Hmmph, anyway we ready? Harcur will hit Grao Tree in four days, we’ll be there about midday tomorrow. He and his dead are moving much slower than I expected, I thought he’d move with an undeads disregard for fatigue but they’ve been stopping to camp every night. Either the special undead need the rest or Harcur himself does, doesn’t really matter just means we have plenty of time to prepare.”

“We do and we’ll make good use of it. The fields and forests around Grao Tree will be a particularly unwelcoming place for this army of the dead.”

Corvus said, “Sounds like a plan.”

The next couple of days were very busy, digging trenches and pits, burying fields of stakes under a shallow layer of dirt and leaves and setting traps. Then they settled in to wait.

As dusk was falling one and a half very boring days of waiting later, one of the scouts reported in that the army of undead was almost there.

Corvus stopped where he’d paced a groove into the dirt floor of the barn they’d taken over as a headquarters and said, “About time! Harcur is an insult to all undead commanders, you use the dead because they never need to stop!”

Nelfem looked at him and just shook his head, then said, “Kergaime, run to the Setimetes and tell them to form up. Corvus you’ll be taking on the monster once we flush him out. You need to get on him quickly because that goblin alone let alone whatever that dead Fae Chanar can do, will wreck our warriors.”

“That’s the plan.”

They moved out into the darkness.

It wasn’t long until the Fae troops hidden in their trenches saw blue flaming eyes appear coming out of the forest and up the road, then abruptly whole sections of those eyes disappeared as they met pits and spikes. Eerie in the total silence it happened in, not a single scream.

Then more appeared as ice and earth covered all the earthworks they put in place and the undead moved forward again, but this time at a run, still in dead silence.

Discipline was good Corvus had to admit, as he watched the troops in their trenches wait with an army of blue eyes undead bearing down on them. They waited until the undead were just about to overrun their trenches, then spears flashed from behind shields as they stood and walls of roaring fire sprang up along the thrown up earthworks.

Shields flared on both sides and soon the battlefield was lit by the flashes of spells. The undead fought in perfect silence amid the grunting and screams of his troops.

Corvus waited, looking for Harcur but hadn’t seen him when he heard that dual throated gurgling voice from the darkness, “Corvus! I know you’re here somewhere Fae! Show yourself!”

Igniting his golden shield he walked forward toward the fighting where the voice had come from and in an extremely bored tone he said, “I’m here, how about you show yourself rather than skulk hidden and afraid in the dark.”

Standing in a golden glow in full view of a small army of undead spell slinging minions was a great way to attract their attention but his shield didn’t even even momentarily flicker. The break in their concentration and focus allowed his Fae to put down even more of the flame eyed dead as the pressure was reduced.

Harcur suddenly appeared just behind his minions, he’d either teleported in or been invisible or something. Corvus didn’t know or really care.

“Ah, Fae. So glad you could make it.” Corvus was taken aback by how animated the monstrosity was, “You look surprised, you really thought Valard had me tied and controlled? Pfft, when it comes to mind magic he is but an amateur. My mind is my own and has been since very soon after we met the other day, I just played along because his aims matched my own. The idiot goblin was meant to be in complete charge of our shared body while I was to be a mere magical tumour but, there was not much mind inside that misshapen grey skull and it took only moments to crush it.

Lynoba’s eyes narrowed and his head tilted, “I have a proposition for you, Valard’s damnable necromancy does control this body’s ability to remain active and I have no skill in Necromancy myself.” Corvus glanced at the flame eyed undead surrounding them, Harcur said, “Oh them, Valard was smart enough to not give me control of this body’s magic directly. I must use the idiot goblin’s mind as a translator for our power. I am asking your aid in cutting the final controls and safeties Valard has if he were to face me he could put me down with a word. I find that intolerable. Can you do it?”

Corvus shook his head slowly and incredulously, “I… likely can, but no, I will not.”

The abomination also sounded puzzled, “Why not? I’m asking, not telling you as is my right. I’m humbling myself here by asking for your help.”

“That’s why. You can’t see the problem here in asking the leader of a rebellion against the Fae Chanar for help in keeping a Fae Chanar around. You call Evesian ‘the idiot’ but you think I’ll help you?” Corvus just shook his head again as he drew his sword and it ignited in golden light. “I'll be taking your head instead.”

As one the burning blue gaze of every otherwise empty eye-socket turned to him and the minions ignored his troops to attack him in earnest, they capitalised on the distraction by tearing them apart.

Corvus barked words of power, thrusting out his off-hand, and crackling grey bolts of soul energy crawled over the blue eyed minions.

Soon he could see the threads that animated them fraying.

An icy corona lit around Lynoba’s head and Corvus could feel someone reinforcing the threads and fighting off his destruction of them. Whoever it was was strong but unskilled, they didn’t really need to be skilled for this sort of conflict though.

Dropping his attempt as he felt the power flowing back toward his own soul along his soul threads he changed tactics.

Slashing his hand toward the rushing undead, a wide beam of bright green Life realm energy hit Harcur and every other undead between them, his minions fell as the soul energy constructs keeping them animated failed under the touch of the purifying and natural forces of decay. Some of the older corpses even starting to rot as they fell.

Harcur flinched backward but he was safe, his bindings too well protected. Corvus hurriedly dropped the touch of Life as quickly as possible already fearing the uncontrolled growth that might come from holding it too long.

Corvus strolled casually forward, ignoring the odd spell that splashed off his shield from the few remaining minions his Fae were mopping up.

Lynoba’s face held an expression of shock and more than a little concern under it’s icy halo.

Evesian's head just looked the same as always, slightly bored with a dopey looking grin. The dual throated dark gurgling voice was shocked as it said, “What?! How?!”

Corvus said not a word, he just kept walking.

Half a dozen rock spikes coated in ice tore themselves from the ground and hurtled at the slowly walking Fae.

His sword flashed, deflecting all but a couple that shattered on his shield.

The fear on Lynoba's face became abject terror at the same time a Evesian's face lit with joyous excitement. The heavily muscled upper arms and shoulders flexed as his feet shuffled, setting themselves and steadying his stance.

Corvus dashed forward swinging his sword in a flat arc at Harcur, the creature jumped back but he was slow and only barely avoided the swipe of the blade. Evesian's head was trembling and a low guttural growl came from his mouth, but he was not looking at Corvus as he growled in anger his gaze was fixed firmly on Lynoba's head.

Corvus struck again, this time the golden light of his sword was dimmed by black blood as it tore through one of the lower arms and the heads grunted in pain.

Evesian had never been this slow, Corvus had fought him dozens of times in the past.

The whole body trembled, fighting to reach out and attack Corvus but also trying to flee and instead freezing itself in place.

“Bit scared there are you Fae Chanar? Want to run? You should.” Shaking the blood from his blade he said, “That's just the start, so much more of your blood will stain the ground and blacken my blade. You will be down and rotting before we're done here, your head taken, for the second time. You should be afraid, very afraid.”

Lynoba's face was twisted, fear etched into every sharp edged plane of his features as with wild eyes he looked for ways to escape. A growl of pure rage emanated from Evesian but his anger was still aimed at Lynoba not Corvus. The massive body trembled as though afflicted with a palsy.

With the suddenness of a snapped branch the body turned and took two huge steps, fleeing for it’s life. The second step was undirected by any intelligence because as he'd turned Corvus’ greatsword had taken both it’s heads off in a smooth sweep of his blade.

As the last few flame eyed undead dropped like puppets with their strings cut he fell to his knees beside the fallen behemoth and laid his hand on Evesian’s forehead. Sadly he said, “Sorry friend, ending you was all I could do for you.”

Standing, he sighed. Evesian had been a monster but he had also been an innocent. Just one more innocent death laid at his feet, he had no doubt there would be many more.