At that point I doubt the defenders will be able to hold out, but I can't think of how to stop it. The only way to stop the bodies from piling up is to stop killing the undead. The only option I can think of would be to retreat to the castle, but it won't hold the entire town.

We could try to clear a path through the undead on one of the other sides and evacuate the town. However, I am willing to bet that the leader has something planned to stop us from doing so. Since I can't think of anything I decide to go talk to Roland, he is the strategist after all.

As I cut my way towards the town I watch the fights at the top of the three ramps. I notice that the defenders seem to be having the hardest time at the middle ramp so I make that my goal. I cut my way through the army until I am at the base of the middle ramp, then I stop.

I hold my ground and kill every undead that comes near me, this allows the defenders to finish those that already went up. With me preventing more from going up the defenders are able to catch their breath and tend to the wounded. Unfortunately, I can only give them a few minutes of rest, I am fairly exhausted myself.

In the end I hold my position for about ten minutes, then I turn and dash up the ramp. When I reach the top of the wall the soldiers move aside to let me through and start cheering for me. The cheering quickly spreads all across the wall and goes on for a couple of minutes.

Once it dies down I move to the far side of the wall and find a place to sit down. Then I pull some griffon jerky out of my bag and start eating. A few minutes later I see Roland heading my way followed by Zimmy and Raindrop.

Roland says "Ash, what's the situation?"

"Two hundred or so ettin zombies, two corpse giants, and six death knights all defeated. I still haven't been able to find the leader though."

Roland says "Six death knights?!"

Zimmy says "So seven death knights in total, no single necromancer should be able to control that many! Unless...."

"Unless what?"

Zimmy says "Well, there is an old legend that talks about seven brothers, but I don't know the details. Nived might, since the legend is from the old empire."

"Do you think it is important?"

Zimmy says "I don't know. It just came to mind when I thought of seven death knights."

Raindrop says "As far as I know, even the strongest necromancer can only control two death knights at most."

"Okay, Zimmy, go find Nived and see if he knows the legend. Maybe this will give us a clue about the leader."

Zimmy says "Okay!"

Raindrop says "Ash, what happened to your armor?"

"It didn't survive."

Roland says "Just how hurt are you?"

"I'm fine, the wounds have already healed. How are things on your side?"

Roland says "Pretty much as you see. We are holding for now but at this rate we will fall in a few more hours."

"Yeah, it's my fault. I should have saved the oil for burning the undead under the wall instead of the trench."

Roland says "It wouldn't have changed much. The amount of oil used on the trench wouldn't have been enough to burn all the bodies. At most it would have bought us a few more hours."

"Have you thought of a strategy to get us out of this mess?"

Roland says "No, not yet anyway. Do you have any ideas?"

"The only thing I could think of was falling back to the castle."

Raindrop says "The castle can't hold everyone."

"I know that. But we might not have any other option."

Roland says "We would be fine if we had a second wall to fall back to."

Raindrop says "But we don't!"

"No, we don't. But maybe we could make one."

Roland says "What do you mean? How can we build a wall in a few hours?"

"By tearing down the houses and using the rubble to make barricades. It isn't as good as a wall, but maybe it will be enough."

Roland turns and looks down on the town behind the wall, he is studying the layout of the houses. While he is thinking about it Zimmy returns with Nived in tow.

Nived says "Hey boss! Good to see you!"

"Hi, Nived. So do you know this legend Zimmy was talking about?"

Nived says "Of course! It is the story of the founding of the empire!"

"Okay, can you give me the short version?"

Nived says "Well, there was a being called the emperor of ice, the seven brothers served him as his commanders. The many tribes of humans came together to defeat them and then founded the empire."

"This emperor, any more details about him?"

Nived says "There were many versions of the legend. The most popular one had him as the son of an old god of winter or something."

"How strong was the bond with the seven brothers? What I mean is, if someone raised the emperor as an undead would the knights rise to serve him?"

Nived says "I'm sorry but I have no idea. I wasn't a historian, I just remember the story from when I was a child."

"Wait, quiet! Did you hear that?"

As I stand up I stare up into the night sky because I am sure I just heard wings flapping. A minute later as a green glow blooms I can see where the sound came from. The glow illuminates a giant bat in the sky and the glow is coming from the hands of the figure riding it.

The glow moves away from the hands and starts drifting down towards the wall. Looking around before the light fades I spot one of my troops and grab his spear from him. Then I lean back as I take aim, and I throw the spear as hard as I can.

In a flash the spear crosses the distance and hits the bat, which then folds up and falls to the ground outside the wall. I am about to go charging after it when I hear a commotion coming from behind the wall. Taking a look I can see the bodies of our fallen, which were laid out behind the wall, are starting to move.

The green glow must have been the reanimation spell, and now I am torn between dealing with the new threat or going after the leader. I decide to trust Roland and the others to deal with the new undead. So I run and jump down from the wall into the sea of undead.

My landing crushes a couple of zombies and I immediately start cutting my way towards where the bat went down. I want to reach it before the leader has a chance to run away and hide again. When I reach the bat I see that it is dead, the spear went right through its head.

??? yells "Summon Death Knight!!!"