A dark mist covered a large portion of the allied forces that stood solid using several rows of heavily armored soldiers to protect the walls of the outer city. It was the Darkness domain of Akira that was boosting the morale of the soldiers it covered while blinding the enemy and disoriented the basic infected that wandered in.

These rows of allied soldiers were all that stood against the flood of Molten onyx Infected.

If they let just one of the Infected pass and it managed to get into the outer city or one of the puffers started coughing out smoke...

This was one of the reasons they had chosen not to hide behind the walls, the other was the fact that if they withdrew from the battlefield they would be stuck inside and the cramped city would be surrounded and cut off from the inner city and any allied forces. This was why they needed to keep a foothold outside.

It was several times more dangerous for the fighting soldiers but it was the best option they had to make sure that the civilians inside the city did not become infected.

Wave after wave of disoriented infected slammed into their defensive wall. Thousands of the special arrows and hundreds of the special large blunt bolts had been fired at the mass of Infected to help lessen the strain the warriors were under.

Unlike the day before Klyn was not on the front line battlefield and instead he was commanding the other Shaman from the walls alongside Prince Gobbers and the archers.

When a wave of infected had been smashed once again Akira watched as several brave soldiers rushed out onto the battlefield to gather the bolts and arrows that could be salvaged before quickly retreating back behind the shield wall.

With the shamans constant buffs and the holy shamans holy light combined with the [Darkness domain] the allied soldiers had been able to hold back the infected.

The fight they found themselves in was nothing like the fight from the day before where they had won a quick battle.

They had been fighting for almost the entire day. The winter daylight was now fading away as the sun descended to soon be replaced by the moon.

Akira scanned the trampled snowy battlefield and was and was happy to not see any of the special infected he had fought before. This also worried him that he could not find where they were.

“AWOOOO!”

A howl from the east fort rang out over the noisy battlefield reaching Akira's ears. It was a request of what to do as they were having a hard time holding back the swarm of Molten Onyx infected.

Each of the fort's three land-based walls were being hammered on by several hundreds of infected at the base of each wall. Even more Molten Onyx infected clambered on top of each other trying to climb up the solid stone walls.

The Orc and werewolf warriors inside the fort were frantically knocking the climbing infected off the walls into the swarming mass of stone bodies below.

Whenever one of the infected managed to climb into the top of the wall they caused mayhem. Luckily a large Orc officer was able to rush towards the troubled area and use his large two-handed warhammer to hit them in the stony stomach, sending them flying off the wall.

The Holy shamen that had been stationed in the east fort were ineffective against such a large swarm. Their holy light was like a drop of water in the ocean.

The forts had proven they could withstand a large beating and possibly the skills of the demigods, but the enemy right now was not the demigods who were small in number.

Akira could see the fort would not be able to hold out much longer with such an unusual force fighting to take over the fort.

“Give the order to abandon the east fort! Have them head to the ships and join the others in the west fort!” ordered a gruff Akira, his voice almost gone as he had been constantly howling out commands all day.

Tanner, who was guarding Kodria's flag standard which had been stabbed into the ground near the gates, placed the war horn to his lips and with a deep breath, blew into it giving the order as commanded.

Burruurrr! Burrr! Burrrruuuu!

Akira cursed under his breath as another wave of Infected came forward. Today was only the second wave and they had already lost one of the forts.

They couldn't let this continue.

***

“Look! They are retreating from the fort!” said Tibia as she watched the fights from the rear.

“Well planned. We can now use it as our base for this siege until we hammer them out of existence,” said Bonestringer.

Rechee glared at the two as his wounds were re-bandaged by one of his army's only surviving medics.

He had escaped the allied army attacks with over 3000+ warriors alive... but while retreating, some of the infected had attacked his soldiers leaving him with a total of 1776 survivors.

More than 90% of his army had been killed by either the allied army or the Infected.

Tibia and Bonestrigner ignored the deadly sharp glares of Rechee. He knew they had done something to him but he was not sure what it was.

“Why are the minions stopping at the river and lake?” asked Tibia.

“I'm not sure...” said Bonestringer, as he watched the infected in question.

“Order them to chase them, a little water is nothing,” said Tibia.

The clamoring infected received the order and mindlessly flooded into the river.

Step by step they moved forward.

“Somethings not right...” said Tibia as she watched.

It didn't take long to see what it was.

The infected started to slowly disintegrate and fall apart as they moved deeper into the water. The clear flowing river water was turned into a dim gray as it was washed down the river heading towards the ocean.

“What is this?” asked Tibia.

“I think there was something like this in the history scrolls, some sort of holy chant melded with the water.”

“Whatever... we can just send in enough to pollute the water to negate whatever they have done. Keep going, we will take the river and lake!”

Tibia, Bonestringer, and Rechee entered the conquered east fort and took up positions on top of one of the fort's walls to watch the waves of infected throw themselves into the river to be melted away.

Wave after wave of infected rushed into the water slowly turning the river gray but were still not able to make a dent in the lake.

“This pointless...” said Tibia after over a thousand infected had melted away.

***

Akira watched in shock as the infected moved into the water. He was apprehensive but soon that faded as he watched the infected disintegrate.

Ding!

The second wave of enemies has been repelled!

The third wave will start tomorrow.

Akira looked out in front of him and found that the infected that had been pushing forward were now retreating towards the east fort.

“I don't like this one bit,” said Akira as he watched the infected that were now just mindlessly milling about near the east fort.

“Why did they stop their attack?” asked Zundar.

“Some type of mind game?” asked Varbu.

Akira turned to Klyn who was leaning on the wall nearby. He had only recently come out to make sure Akira was okay.

“How are the holy shamen holding up?”

“I am ashamed to say we're already running on fumes. It's great that they have pulled back allowing us to recover... but we won't last if they decide to keep attacking non-stop. The good news is that Grandfather reported that he and the others protecting the inner city are still at full strength.”

“You did well today. With your help, we were able to hold them off and deal significant damage to the infected. Our losses today are far smaller than if we were to not have the holy light buffs and attacks.”

“It is fine today, but if we keep losing soldiers at this pace we will be bled dry,” said Varbu.

***

The next several days were the same as the second wave.

During the early dawn, the infected would start to move and launch a full-wave attack against the outer city wall. At night they would recede back to the base of the east fort.

The west fort was quiet and did not engage in any fights with the East fort as they were unable to cause a dent in the enemy forces. All they could do was keep an eye on them and make sure they were not up to any funny business. At the first sign of trouble, they would report to Akira.

On the 5th night as the wave of infected receded, a tired Akira's eyes were stuck on the dark-robed figure that stood on top of the fort's wall holding a golden goblet.

They had been there the past several days always drinking as they watched the show unfold before them.

Noticing Akira's gaze, the dark-robed figure raised the golden goblet in salute to Akira before taking a sip and disappearing back behind the walls.

Akira had already tried to have the archers of the west fort, the naval ships, and the busters shoot the dark-robed figures, but every time they did, several of the Molten onyx infected would immediately stand in front of the figures to receive the attacks.

“I'm starting to really hate that person,” said a panting Mileena next to Akira.

“They are really getting on my nerves. It's like they are taunting and playing with us every night by pulling back and attacking again the next day.”

“Yap!” said Fluffball who had been fighting as fiercely as anyone could.

“Don't let it get to you. It could cause you to let your guard down which may be their intention. We'll need to keep the Night watch at full strength again tonight. Rotate in those who have the most energy left from the battle. Klyn you and the other shaman need to rest up,” ordered Akira as he held his helmet and whipped his forehead.

Akira had no idea how long this siege would last and was starting to get worried that they would run out of supplies.