Gromar fell to sleep almost immediately after being told they were to set up camp. He was exhausted from the march and that suicidal battle he had been part of earlier; almost half the army was wiped out charging through lines towards a single skeleton. And when they finally killed him, they were encircled by the thousands of their raised, mindless comrades.

He had to kill quite a few of his favorite patrons, though he doesn’t really believe he’ll survive this war, especially each battle is as brutal as the last.

Sleep came easy to him, and haunted him with the jarring memories of slackjawed friends drooling for a piece of him. The vivid dreams of him hacking away at their skulls, brains splattering over him seemed almost real to him. He could feel blood spatter across his cheeks and seep into his mouth, tasting musty and fungal…like the blood of a troll.

Blasting his eyes open, the black castle walls loom over him with arrows blotting out the crimson sun and a troll, headless and stumbling around almost knocks into him.

Although his mind is shocked by the sudden reality of the situation, he roars and charges towards the walls with reckless abandon.

His body is not his own, he is but a puppet charging into certain death.

…

Lith chuckles as she sees the mind controlled monsters charge towards the castle in their sleep.

The rest of the camp, seeing the reckless charge is lured into joining it, with the help of a few more mind controlled idiots screaming to charge of course.

Although the leading one thousand are all surely dead by now, they had the desired effect: The guards were unprepared as they saw the camp settle down for the night. No one was prepared for a thousand monsters to jump up from their sleep and start charging towards the walls. Much less for the rest of the camp to join in almost immediately.

The shouting of the enemy and the tolling of their bells was quite the music to her ears.

Soon the larger monsters reached the walls, bristling with arrows but charging all the same.

A hydra uses its seven heads as ladders for the smaller ones while ogres start bashing on the walls with their trees.

Thousands created ladders with their bodies and thousands more climbed up battling fiercely on the walls, dying and falling to the ground below with a thud.

It all seemed to begin well, as she could spot numerous enemies dying, even if it was one death to twenty at the moment.

Though Lith wasn’t satisfied; she had too many allies left.

Turning to the twins they both smile and tell her to have patience.

Huffing she looks back at the battle and a wide sadistic smile spreads across her face.

…

A kobold with clammy grey skin lunges towards Gromar, who swipes his axe down, biting into its head splattering brains across the bloody ground.

Wrenching his axe it, it meets a set of claws from another risen dhampir. Kicking it away slightly, his axe lobs the head off letting his enemy rest once more.

This is what he was afraid of, what he knew would happen once that battle began; all who get to the walls will be bit before they are killed, and will rise again as dhampir.

With a moments rest to glance around, he sees hundreds of dhampir pouncing upon unsuspecting allies and soon the ground beneath the walls run red.

The hydra remains silent as its heads are stabbed and its body bitten by the multiple dhampir below, Gromar fears its dead, but it’s pleading eyes tell a different story.

Another dhampir attacks him from behind, only scratching him before he dispatches it too. Though at least eight more rear his way after ripping a lamia to pieces.

Grimacing, he charges towards the hydra, jumping on the back and joining the slithering line of monsters that run across the heads towards the walls.

He has a choice of dying below or dying above. At least he can kill enemies not undead allies this way.

…

Upon the mass dhampir rising a few start to retreat in face of the savage carnage below. But soon enough those who turn to run, turn back, jumping into the dhampir, and stand there as they are ripped to pieces.

No more retreat after a few dozen die this way as they all understand the only way out of this nightmare is forwards.

“Seems motivation is high” Ïllïtir chuckles

“Well fear is the best motivator” Ritïllï replies too with a chuckle

“Seems like we are losing now though” Lith analyses as she notes the dwindling number of forces

The once twenty odd thousand large army had dwindled to around fourteen thousand. To think there would be close to six thousand casualties in less than an hour is a terrifying fact to most of the illithid who are watching the battle unfold.

Although Lith can see the enemies on the walls are numerously less.

She turns towards Bariaxüs with a hungry glint in her eyes “Bariaxüs, shall we join in?”

With a look as if he was given a present, he nods and unsheathes his battleaxe.

Turning towards her newly trained ogre, she whispers in its ear.

The roaring sound of the ogre as it charges on all fours with all abandon cause quite a few of the illithid to cheer and send their slaves out too.

This ogre charges through the melee and into the wall, slamming a shoulder into it, causing the wall to shake.

Quickly retreating, the ogre returns to Lith’s side covered in arrow wounds and scratch marks.

“Again” She says to him

Turning round, it bellows and charges again, this time as many bows as possible trained upon it but the small pricks of the arrows do not matter to the ogre as it pummels into and through the wall.

A portion of the wall collapses and immediately a swarm of monsters pile through, stepping over the dead ogre.

Lith and Bariaxüs begin charging along with the rest of the army.

…

“MY LORD DACUL” his right hand minister Yeron barges into the room, spotting his lord lie in a blood soaked bed unmoving

“MY LORD”

He rushes over ripping away the covers and sees the open chest of his lord.

Crying profusely he leaves the room, feeling the heavy weight of authority and responsibility to keep his people alive.

Yeron ran to the keep veranda to spot the once dire situation become a cesspit of doom; the wall collapsed in front of his eyes along with the intruding ogre. But thousands of monsters swarmed inside, rushed up the stairs and quickly boxed the defenders on the walls, slaughtering them mercilessly.

“Its all over…and I don’t even understand how this came to be. I am a fool, a waste. Ah if only Windshaw was here, he could sort things out like he always used to. But I cannot, all I can do now is choose my own death”

With tears streaming down his eyes, he leans over the veranda head first into the ground.

…

Lith breathed a sigh of relief as she wiped away the fresh blood of the many vampires she just slaughtered on the walls.

Quickly following the bulk of the army, she makes it to the courtyard in front of the keep.

Her army now swarms the courtyard, watching a pair of ogres use a tree as a battering ram against the doors.

Walking into view, she commands the ogres to stop and immediately has the eyes of everyone in the courtyard on her. Not many seem friendly.

Heading towards the veranda, she steps on a headless body with find garland robes. Chuckling to herself, she looks up towards the keep.

“I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME INSIDE THE KEEP. IF YOU SURRENDER, I PROMISE YOU YOUR LIVES. IF YOU DO NOT, YOU WILL BE CAPTURED, TORTURED AND SUCCINTELY KILLED WITHOUT MERCY.” She shouts towards the keep, in hopes that someone is listening.

Silence ensues for over five minutes causing nothing but the low grumblings around her to increase in anger as they look towards her.

She reckons they aren’t pleased about the bloody siege, about the fact that half of them lie dead upon the walls and the ground.

But they fear her too, that and the fact that her own, personally loyal army is the same number as them, and fresh too.

They can do little but grumble.

Within a few minutes more, the gates finally open revealing Skelor and most of his retinue.

“We give you this castle, and the head of Dacul” Skelor drops the severed head of his supposed ally to the floor

Raising a tentacle in confusion she struts towards Skelor.

“What are you playing at Skelor?”

“…Lith?” Skelor rubs his eye sockets few times in believable shock.

“Yes it is me, now tell me why you’re giving me Dacul’s head” she replies impatiently

“Ah, well a messenger brought us news that he had stolen our cargo which was meant fo-“

*SLAP*

The sound of her palm on his bone cheek resounds through the courtyard.

“Skelor you know not to fuck with me, your shipment arrived, empty of nothing but insults”

“I’m telling the truth Lith” he pleads

“Right, and now you’re going to tell me you killed Dacul in combat right? Because we both know he’s the best fighter out of all of us. So just how did you get his head?” she jabs at his ribs in clear displeasure

“I didn’t kill him Lith, someone else did”

“…what?” her shock is apparent as she expected him to confess to killing Dacul while he slept, but to say something so unbelievable is believable in this situation, especially since he seemed sincere in his plead for truthfulness.

Turning away from Skelor, she grabs Dacul’s head and busts it open, encasing the brain with her tentacles.

Suddenly the memories flood into her mind.

She is removing her armor, and being asked if they could help by a child vampiress. She recognizes it as the one who visited her shop. Though she did not expect the child to bite her, causing her to drop to the floor unmoving.

Less did she expect for the child to transform into a man with crimson coloured eyes, clammy grey skin and sharp nails. The Blood Drinker which she had seen in the harvest tournament a short while back.

“Did you really think I liked an old fart like you?” He spits on her “Now Windhsaw told me you probably kept your key around here”

Jolting away from the memory she drops Dacul’s head into a messy pulp on the floor and lunges at Skelor.

“How much blood did you send, HOW MUCH?” her eyes wild with terror bore into his sockets

“About half, what did you see Lith?” He responds quickly, the terror infecting him

She whips around and screams at someone to search the vaults.

The illithid sprints away, only to come back a few minutes later reporting them to be empty.

Skelor looks at Lith in dreaded curiosity.

“He’s done it again, that hellbent ghostly fucker. He’s done it AGAIN” She shakes Skelor violently

“Windshaw?” He exclaims in horror

“That FUCKER…he comes to mine, plays me like a fiddle to get me to attack you and…SHIT” She lets go of him suddenly and whips round once more to her army

“RUN TO MY CASTLE, OR WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE” She screams at the top of her lungs

The illithid start moving, but the rest of the monsters do not

“Why do we have to take orders from you now, we’ve fought for you, we’ve killed the enemy. Let us live in peace now” Someone shouts from the crowd

She turns towards where the voice came from.

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, OUR GOD IS ABOUT TO DIE, AND IF HE DOES, WE’LL ALL DIE WITH HIM”

The words sunk in, and slowly brought out the screams of terror from all; since if a god is to die, their dimension will be destroyed. And all inside with it.

In unison they all madly charge to the outside of the castle and back to the House of Lith. Little did they know that in the crowd was one smug Roland waiting with bated breath for the rise of his God.

…

“ANKORR COME OVER HERE” Windshaw’s voice boomed unnaturally as if inflated with power.

Although it was not only his voice that was inflated with power; his body pulsated with dark energy and was over twenty metres now. He was no longer a normal wraith that much any could see.

The crates of blood were but pebbles in his large skeletal hands and he popped them inside his gargantuan jaw like snacks.

He wailed in pain as the blood forced him to grow, his head reaching the low parts of the canopy in the forest.

Ankorr reached the ever growing clearing and both marveled and feared the new being that was Windshaw.

He dropped the single crate that he was carrying and produced Dacul’s vault key.

“Windshaw, here’s what you asked for, now tell me how to get out of this god forsaken world”

Windshaw bends down, blotting out the sky and takes the key and crate, pointing to the west.

“GET TO THE END OF THE WORLD AND JUMP OFF, THAT WILL TAKE YOU TO YOUR WORLD”

Ankorr bows and begins to walk west.

“WAIT…DID YOU REALLY ONLY BRING ONE CRATE?” He leans over towards Ankorr

Stopping and sighing slightly, he turns back to Windshaw.

“No, I’ve got more, but you have to tell me the truth about how to get home”

Windshaw chuckles, making the ground quake slightly.

“FINE” he produces a stone with a pulsating red carving on it “USE THIS AND IT WILL TAKE YOU TO YOUR WORLD. GIVE ME ALL THE CRATES YOU HAVE AND I WILL CONFER THIS STONE TO YOU”

Ankorr slowly takes the crates from his inventory, dropping them by the dozens on the floor.

“Now for the stone”

“HA, I WILL MISS A PAWN LIKE YOU, BUT I DO KEEP MY PROMISES” he points the stone towards Ankorr uttering unspeakable words causing it to pulsate brighter and more energetically than before.

Rest mist seeps out from the stone and envelops Ankorr, clouding his vision and mind as he feels himself being sucked through something of great force and little size.

Windshaw chuckles to himself as he watches Ankorr become sucked through the portal along with the dissipating binding stone.

He thinks I’m done with him, HA! I’ll let him rot in that dungeon for a while to teach him what happens when he tricks me.

With devious laughter he picks up the new crates, and pops them into his mouth…but nothing happens.

Nothing happens for Ankorr had only given him empty crates, keeping the stacks of blood in his inventory.

“ANKORRRRRR” He roars angrily to the air at the loss of so much blood.

Lith and her army heard nothing but a lout guttural roar of a most pissed off creature.

“I fear we may be too late” She whispers to herself.

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Author's Corner:

HEEEEEY it's been literally forever.

Yeah, life's a literal s#@!storm right now so when i say i've got deadlines coming out my ears, i mean it. like i've got 3 this week ,jesus.

Anyways, i finally got some freetime and wanted some good destress, and a reallly useful and great person told me to get back on track with this so yes! I did it!

I wont promise much, but i'll be finishing this arc by the end of next week at latest.

After that, i've got more exams and then i'm finally free for a summer boatload of fiction for youse!

If you're reading this then hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for remaining loyal to reading this :D

-TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD