“Damn, these fuckers are lucky…” Kain grumbled as the siege towers and man-portable siege ladders grew ever closer. “You would have thought with seven different types of minefields all occupying roughly the same area that there would be more explosions or at the very least a few feet blown off. But there was only that one anti-vehicle mine that went off, nothing more! Stupid ‘Kingdom Management Tool’.”

Kain looked over the assembled forces on the northern wall from the vantage point of the ‘Sky Eye’. He could even see the defenses and troops manning the eastern, western and southern walls under the command of Alexis, a collection of necromancers and Alistaira, respectively. This first wall was not meant to fully push back the enemy, rather it was to force them into a brutally long and terribly costly grind of a battle that would whittle down their numbers while giving them little if anything to show for their efforts. Even when they seized it, which they would according to the previously established plan, that would not be the end of things.

Those cannons mounted on the wall were a combination of magic and technology. As long as they were mounted on the wall itself, they would have a near infinite supply of mana from which to draw on in order to generate and fire magical blasts of death and destruction. The magitech cannons were dormant now, but once the outermost wall had been taken and the assault on the middle wall had begun, the magitech cannons would spring to life and fire at the enemy camp which likely would have moved up so as to quickly send troops and supplies to the next attack.

The reason for only Tier 1 undead formations being on the wall was not that the newer Tier 2 undead were not available, but that the 1st wall was supposed to be taken, and at great cost to the followers of the Luminas Church. As the siege towers finally got up to the wall and the siege ladders latched onto it, Kain ordered his Skeletons to pull back just enough so that the invaders could get a slight foothold. Since there was not enough room for him to dual-wield his twin halberds, Kain cracked his knuckles and took a stance. Since he couldn’t swing his weapons with reckless abandon, he would have to make do with good old-fashioned fisticuffs.

After all, he didn’t need a weapon because he WAS one.

…

Even two hours after the first man had clambered onto the walls of the dark city of Necrograd, the fight was still ongoing. Thousands of men had lost their lives, but even more undead had been dispatched. The kill/death ratio for the Luminas Confederacy and Church was roughly 7/1, but no matter how many of the undead were destroyed there always seemed to be more. The men assaulting the city were beyond tired, but they could not halt for even a moment. If they did, they would be at the mercy of a foe that knew no fear and did not need to sleep, drink, eat or breathe.

If only the undead had not set the catapults alight with their flaming shot. At least then they would have some decent artillery coverage. There was also the issue of their own archers to think about. Arrows poured down from above, but the undead were unfazed and mostly unaffected. The living, on the other hand, were certainly not interested in being hit with volley after volley of friendly fire. And then there was the issue of the caltrops that covered the floor of the wall. Undead could ignore those things but living beings could not. You not only had to watch for friendly arrow fire and the attacks from the undead, but also look where you stepped to avoid hurting your feet.

But at least there was no sign of the Abominable King or his lieutenants. Yet.

“Come on! We can win this! They are just a bunch of bones! Smash them to bits and we can win! We don’t need to worry about their devil of a monarch! He is hiding from our righteous wrath in his throne room, afraid of facing the might of the faithful like the coward he is!”

A cry from a powerful War Priest brought renewed vigor to the servants of the Goddess. He was right; The evil Abominable King was nowhere to be seen. He was too fearful of the good, noble men of the world to show his face! And, if that was true, they could most certainly win thi-.

“Surprise, motherfucker!”

The air behind the senior War Priest rippled as a massive figure in a mix of black leather, chainmail and plate armor appeared from seemingly nothing and drove his fist through the back of the clergyman and out the front of his chest.

“Gahk! Agh!”

The now most certainly doomed old man of the cloth sputtered as blood poured from the hole in his body and from his mouth and nose. The massive man behind him had something in his hand and he lifted the mortally wounded priest into the air.

“You were courageous. In fact, I can feel your spine. Something like that is a change from the norm. Most of your people are spineless, but you seem to have been uniquely gifted with one. How fitting that the moment when you show it, it gets removed…”

The colossal man withdrew his arm from the old man’s chest and let his body fall limply to the ground. With that one action, almost every man on the wall soiled themselves. The Abominable King looked at the cowering men of the Confederacy, those who swore that they would no know fear and conquer the demonic capital of the evil empire.

“Pathetic.”

That one word sent shockwaves through the good men of the Confederacy. It was over. If this monster decided to stick around, everyone was finished!

“This battle bores me, and these frail constructs embarrass me with their pathetic display. I do not suffer such things. Please do fight harder. It would be quite the disappointment if you do not manage to entertain me.”

The air rippled as the Abominable King faded away. The undead, despite having the perfect opportunity to do so, did not attack the terrified men and merely waited for them to regain their courage. Such a thing would have to wait until tomorrow, however, as the routing of a single man triggered a chain reaction. Men and women, devotees of the One True Goddess, those who swore up and down that they would never break, all turned and fled down the siege towers and ladders as fast as they could and across the open field.

As they ran, the ground would occasionally erupt into flame as explosions went off under the feet of the fleeing men. Some lost part of, even all of one of their feet while others were set alight with burning liquids or nearly shredded when objects seemingly jumped up to waist height from the ground and exploded. It was a terribly, terribly costly rout, but there were still more than enough men left alive both having fled back to the siege camp and already stationed there to eventually mount another assault.

The losses were high, but they were still low enough that a second attempt at taking the first of the three walls could be accomplished. It would take a day or two to rebuild morale and reconstitute the infantry forces, but they had, at least, made a dent in the number of undead. Despite the loss, the spells and blessed weapons had sent a great number of skeletons to their final, permanent rest. They would not be able to be raised again, thus putting the evil overlords of the Greater Darksol Empire in a potentially perilous position.

By the time that they had routed, the living had reduced the defenders on the wall to merely a tenth of what they once were. The next battle would be far easier, and they would most certainly win it. After all, they were only facing a few monsters and a bunch of skeletons and zombies. It wasn’t like there were more powerful undead waiting in the wings. Yes, the only real threats were the Abominable King, his vampiric whore of a wife and that damned Necromancer bitch.

A rest was needed, a moment of respite before the next assault. There was nothing to worry about, because if those monsters showed up the Heroes would defeat them. Yeah, there was absolutely nothing to worry about whatsoever.