Inhuman groans sang like broken records as wave upon wave of metallic strikes broke their rhythm. The century old bronze shields defending their flesh were sturdy and tough, though mostly wooden tower-like ‘shields’ rested in their pale hands. They did not fight back, perhaps the humans gave them no time to do so, and it looked like a monstrous army was murdering innocent people, not the offspring of devil himself.

Half a hundred undead versus a thousand humans. It should’ve been over in moments, but the demons managed to hold off the attackers in the narrow streets of the city. They had little to no equipment and were basically nude, but that was meaningless for the beings who could ‘live’ even when decapitated. Those of course could do nothing but growl and try to take a bite out of the enemy’s feet, but nonetheless were bothersome for the less armored.

The emotionless and never tiring front barely budged against the relentless attacks of the living men, but damage on their unliving bodies gathered with every encounter, slowly wearing them down.

“Spears! Thrust!”

Dozens of spears lunged forth like metal snakes only to dig into the improvised shields or slide off the metallic surface of the other ones.

“One silver per head, men! Fight and kill them all!” A knight shouted, swinging his two-handed sword at the mass of dead. He already killed five or so of them, which was pitiful considering the number that still walked.

Against such a massive force it was only the matter of time before the undead fell.

***

A skeletal figure swiftly packed things inside a wooden chest. Dark shadows flickered under its cowl, creating a contrast with the blazing sockets. It would be scowling if it could.

It spent over a month inside the fortress city making undead and learning new things from the hoard of the living. Having no need of sleep, it read, practiced speech and even did magic training. It would’ve preferred using this time to create more of its kin, but a new problem popped up - it could only raise ten corpses per day. It felt weird not knowing why it was limited like that, thus had to experiment and learn as much as possible.

But then the humans came and ruined everything. Their enormous living presence felt annoying, like an itch one couldn’t scratch. Right now they were fighting its puppets, snuffing them out with every moment. It could feel the link between them disappear.

The wooden floorboards creaked as a massive figure walked inside the cleared out office. The undead didn't even turn to look at it, as the sheer presence of the being, and the link between them, told it that it was Colossus, the new breakthrough Magus, or so the living called it, reached. He was made sewing parts of multiple bodies together and took a lot of experimentation. Magus wished to use the most of the daily ‘uses’, as even raising a simple rat felt like a huge waste, and this seemed like the way to go. The giant was once the sergeant, or whatever the humans called him, but now had two heads, one on its back, and was literally built out of muscle. It took days upon days of work to sew it just right for it to work, but eventually Colossus came to existence.

For this Magus had to thank humanity. As it was their books on surgery and medicine that helped it. It cackled at the thought of how humans doomed themselves all the time.

“Take the chests and let’s go.” It ordered and the Colossus obeyed. He lifted four full wooden chests as if they weighed nothing.

“Where are you going?” A soft voice asked, making the undead sigh within its mind. It almost forgot her.

The woman who spoke was chained to a wooden pillar and had nothing but a sack covering her body. She was so beautiful even the unliving demon considered her as something to reference when creating undead. Her body was strong, but also soft. She had black eyes and hair, and her face felt perfect, as if sculpted by a higher being. She was big, almost as tall as Colossus. Many bruises covered her skin and due to malnutrition her once tempting body was withering with each day. The undead didn’t know why that was happening as it even fed her.

“Won’t we practice today again?” She spoke with a tempting smile, for a human that is.

Every time the undead spoke to her, it felt like something was trying to break into its skull and meddle with its... brain? It was hard to put into words as it did not possess such a thing. The solution to this was easy at least - never answer her and use her as a translator only. She knew quite a few languages after all. It was ludicrous when it thought about it as having so many of them proved quite a hassle to learn. Why would humans make it so hard for themselves?

After giving a mental command, two undead guards came inside the room. They wore full-plate armor, the only pair found in the city, and had massive tower shields. Equipping zombies was the cheap alternative of getting the most out of them. Their only purpose was to protect Magus in case of the unexpected.

Take her. It ordered mentally and the zombies lunged forth to pull on her legs in response. She screamed out of pain like a madman and Magus sighed, it forgot they were so dumb and her so frail.

Coming closer it unlocked the giant steel lock with a key and unwrapped the chains. The woman dived forth immediately, not eager to stay a slave for an undead, but was quickly put down with a tough punch from Colossus. It was so fast even Magus didn’t see it.

Her body flew for a few meters and hit the wall, breaking through the wooden planks. A normal person would’ve died from that, but the twitching of her thin black tail proved it otherwise. Magus quickly wrapped the chain around her arms and locked it with the key.

“Let’s go.” It ordered and the guards dragged her by the horns while Colossus struggled to fit under the door frame. The fighting outside was beginning to end and Magus wasn’t keen on facing the mass of living. Not for now.

In the courtyard stood a black carriage. It was pulled by two horses, dead of course. Sound of metal clashing with metal governed the outside, while the growls clearly lessened. If there was ever a time to leave it was now.

Without further ado the two guards chucked the woman inside the carriage and sat inside with the Magus. Colossus stood eagerly, his head glancing over the carriage itself, and strapped the cargo on top. Just as the horses were about to be given the order to move, a group of humans came through the front gate. There was ten of them.

“Hurry up. Let’s loot it before the comma-” The man’s voice was shut when he saw the carriage, or maybe it was the giant mountain of muscle that caught his attention. Needless to say, the undead was done with the city.

“Kill them.” It ordered behind the window of the carriage.

The stone pavement cracked under Colossus’ feet as it sprinted towards the group. First to die was the one at the front – who barely managed to pull his sword out – when the giant crushed his head with its hand. The others immediately shouted for help and began to defend themselves, which surprised the undead. Typically humans ran against such odds. Granted, it didn’t mean much, as the murderous undead broke them like sticks. Not even armor helped in this situation.

Only two of them were in decent enough condition to be raised, and after doing so, the carriage finally moved towards the second gate.

“Fools.” The undead spoke and banged onto the freshly-bent helmets. “Don’t waste this second chance.”

The interior got vexingly cramped.

***

With a crunch the last unliving skull cracked, splattering the black matter on the road. The battle proved to be quite a nuisance and took way longer than it should’ve, but the humans won without taking any casualties. Immediately, the prince ordered dozens of squads to form and spread out within the city to look for survivors or finish off any leftover undead. He did not wish for the evil to spread any further than this.

Looking around, it was surprising how much of a mess the city managed to become. Typically, undead didn’t touch anything unliving, but the lack of doors proved that something unusual took place. They were ripped from their hinges, nail marks decorating the solemn frames of these stray houses, while glass shards enveloped the roads like a crystal autumn of a fairytale.

He looked at the corpses once more. They had no armor, and even proper weapons were scarce, but all of them carried shields, some doors managed to take that place. No wonder they never felt exhaustion, carrying such weight would put any man out of commission within minutes of fighting.

Barely ten minutes passed when a knight with a few guards came back to him. His visor was raised, revealing an anxious face.

“Sir, you have to see this.”

Taking note of the man’s face he decided it was important enough to beg his attention. After giving out a few more orders to his aides, he turned the horse and beckoned it to follow. Quickly he realized that the direction they were going towards was a massive manor. Unusually so for a son of a baron to own.

The iron gates creaked as they walked into the courtyard and in response a deathly smell of iron penetrated his nostrils, suiting the scene before Eric’s eyes. His men, crushed like some dolls, lied unmoving. Blood seeped through the gaps in their armor wishing to escape their cold grip, while their white eyes twitched, rolling as far back as physically possible, almost as if trying to escape the horror they witnessed.

“What did this?” He barely spoke, never having seen such horror even in war.