With the ‘Tier 1 Undead’ now having been rendered obsolete by the advancement of the Black Library’s research and the construction of a few more buildings, the forces of Darksol began to phase out the weaker, more numerous Low Tier Undead by sending them into the thick of combat. This would hopefully cause much more damage to the Knightly Junta’s Loyalist forces as the undead were no longer as valuable (not that they were very valuable to begin with). Before, as long as a single member of the unit made it back the unit could be reinforced back to full, but the need to micromanage each formation and make sure that each one would have at least one survivor proved to be more than a single Necromancer could handle. Now that the lower tiered undead were being phased out they could be thrown at the foes in front of them with no care for if a formation was fully destroyed.

After all, there was a steady stream of new formations pouring out from Darksol’s territory and while the ones who controlled the undead were under orders to keep their armies at peak operating capacity as much as possible, they soon realized they could get an immediate replacement if they ‘lost’ a formation or two. This changed immediately when the Dark Emperor himself led a five-army strike force out of the quickly shrinking Gallows Woods. Like spotting the boss walking down your aisle in an office environment, all those who were thinking of abusing the trust of the Abominable King quickly fell in line.

There is nothing like the presence of a God who is known for obliterating anyone who crosses him to make people think twice about goofing off or abusing the system. And it didn’t help that it soon became poignantly clear that the undead that had been under the control of necromancers and generals had acted as Kain’s eyes and ears. Kain made sure to let them know perfectly well that he was always watching and that their every order was known to him. They would get the replacements and reinforcements, but now they would get them slower than those who did not abuse the system.

“If you lose all your formations, do yourself a favor and charge the enemy yourself so as to spare me the trouble of disciplining you personally.”

That one sentence summed up his annoyance with them. True; he had thought they would be smart enough to avoid making such blunders, but humans will be humans.

…

“A shame that some people think they are above and beyond the order of things. Such is the arrogance of humans to think that the rules do not apply to they themselves specifically, yet they apply to everyone else. I can tell they are ranting and raving; if not out loud then in their heads. I used to be that way. No, I must be honest and say that this applies to myself as well. A ‘God’ though I may be, I myself am far from perfect. I am not as far removed from humanity as others would believe…”

Kain mused to himself as he rode a Zombie Dragon down one of the many overgrown cobblestone roads that crisscrossed Teutonia. True, he could order the unholy draconoid to fly him to his destination, but while that would be impressive and would certainly intimidate the defenders in the festungs he was aiming to conquer he would end up leaving his forces far behind.

“Not that I need them to aid me anyways, but I really want to field-test a full Tier 2 military force.”

Kain gazed into the distance as Berlin Defense Festung West seemingly grew in size as his forces drew closer. Truth be told, he expected this fight to be a trial by fire for his new undead. There was no doubt in his mind that the die-hard fanatics that held up in the North, South, East, West and Central Berlin Defense Festungs would make him (or at least his forces) work for every inch of ground. He was not going to divide his forces and try and take each one of the fortress cities with a single army. That would be an invitation to disaster, and the last thing he needed was a failed siege. Such a thing would boost the Junta’s morale and lower the morale of his own living forces. He was counting on using his ace in the hole to deal a significant blow to the westernmost defense line of Berlin, a pawn he was sure they were all ill prepared for.

Next to his Zombie Dragon, mounted on an Undead Pegasus, was his ace. If it were not for his extreme resilience and extreme regenerative factor, Kain would likely have been dead by now due to the absurd cold that had put the surrounding area in a state of deep freeze. Yes, the once great Hero from ages past who fell in battle against his wife now rode alongside him. Piotr, the Formerly Living Ice Age, marched towards the fortress alongside his master, his half-skeletal face showing naught but a stoic countenance. His one skeletal socket held a blue flame that seemed to suck the warmth from everything around him while his one good eye still held a glimmer of the madness and insanity that had gripped him when he returned to and lost everything on Earth.

“Piotr, direct your aura at a specific place in the fortifications. I trust you remember how to do so.”

“Da.”

Piotr focused and forced his aura to change from a wide range area of effect to a single cylindrical line. This greatly extended the range of his aura but made it so that only a (relatively) small area was actually affected. The line of deathly chill began to supercool a single point on the wall which caused the stone that had been exposed to the summer sun for hours to immediately begin to crack due to the rapid temperature change. It was a small point compared to the vastness of the winding wall, but it was big enough that the damage was not insubstantial. As soon as the damage was done, Piotr moved the point of effect to another part of the walls and caused yet more of an effect as some of the lower parts of the ramparts began to crack and fracture. A few good hits from a trebuchet and those sections would crumble to rubble.

The myriad siege implements began to form up behind Kain’s armies which had assembled on a small hill outside the Western Fortress. Kain didn’t even need to say a word or make a movement as the undead siege weapons took aim and loosed their messengers of doom all on their own. The sounds of heavy objects slamming into stone could be heard even from Kain’s position, but only the trebuchets were firing, leaving the ballistae to remain silent. The undead advanced as one, moving up a bit to allow the ballistae to get in range. Acting as a pseudo mortar, the undead ballistae aimed high and let fly a volley of casks filled with various substances. The first volley from the ballistae flew over the battlements and burst open behind the wall, sending viscous black oil mixed with certain irritants splattering over the area behind the Junta’s defenses.

The second volley fired more of the mixture, as did the third, fourth and fifth. The sixth volley’s casks did not burst open in the air and instead slammed into what was behind the walls and ignited the oil that had built up. In no time there was a raging inferno quickly spreading out of control behind the ramparts, sending billowing black smoke high into the sky. At the same time this was happening, the trebuchets continued to pound the areas near the damaged sections of the walls. If they were black powder artillery, they might have had better accuracy, but the fact that they never ran out of munitions more than made up for the inaccuracy of the weapons.

“Focus fire on that part.”

Kain made a non-verbal command to his undead siege weapons, and they began to all hammer a single point. The damaged wall could only take so much, and cracks turned into fissures which eventually saw the wall begin to collapse. This was not like a game, however, and the damage done to the wall would not mean that it would just fall to nothing. The wall began to collapse in on itself, but that still only left a pile of rubble his troops would need to climb over. He could forget trying to send his cavalry to try and rush over the breach, even the infantry would have difficulty fighting their way over the jumble of various pieces of debris. If he wanted to have his cavalry sweep through the city, he would need to open a gate, and that required him to already be inside.

Kain had his artillery focus on each individual weakened point that Piotr’s aura had assaulted, slowly opening more breaches in the wall. Kain grumbled to himself and sighed.

“This could take a while…”