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1185. Undead at the Walls
🕑 Added 2024-09-29 16:40:56 +0000 UTCAl'Zalsar had vanished with her date, but the moment of surprise was gone. The siege cannon installed in the walls of Delta was now aiming at the immobile Skeleton Dragon stuck in the portal. However, it made no visible impact. Ignoring their attacks, the skull was preparing for its next breath. They were desperately firing the cannons when new shouts and calls raised alarm on the walls.
Having directed their attention to the skies, portals opened all over the vicinity of the district. With the Iego System defending the air space above, Spatia judged the walls surrounding Delta were its greatest weak point. Since Chrona was their collaborator, they had all the plans and blueprints they could ask for. Except for the Iego Project and recent additions, they knew Delta's defenses inside out.
The settlement was massive and the walls had only recently been added by Chrona to defend against the invasion of monsters. The walls had various weaknesses and loopholes and in many places were only built as an anchor for the city shield.
Most important of all, the walls were incredibly long. According to their information, Minas Mar didn't have the manpower to properly defend the whole length of the walls. Their scouts brought back news that the forces left by Chrona had joined them, but even then, they were far from enough to man the many dozens of kilometers of the city's circumference.
When they finally realized what was happening, it was too late.
“They are using artifacts to break through the barrier!” those on the wall cried out, as the troops of Spatia approached in places where the walls were sparsely manned or inconsistent because of cliffs and valleys at the edge of the city.
As if these mongrels could have foreseen this genius play. The technicians of Spatia installed various devices that opened wide gaps in the overarching defense shield of Delta, allowing her undead troops to enter with ease and approach the city walls. The living would stay back and leave the battle to her undead. She had already lost too many, to risk losing even more.
Under the cover of the attack from above, Natina's servants marched toward Delta, aiming for the weak points in the defense to infiltrate the city and sabotage their defenses from within. It was a quick attack separated by several heavy hits following each other in quick succession, aiming to breach Delta before Minas Mar could react.
The dragon breath would destroy Iego and the soldiers would breach the shield. Ultimately, she wanted Delta defenseless. Then doom would rain onto the city and its populace! Originally, they intended to force Minas Mar to reveal their cards, but Natina was too agitated for that plan. She just wanted to crush their hopes step by step and enjoy their despair.
A smug smile played on Natina's lips as the flames of dragon fire traveled up the beast's non-existing throat. The next attack was ready!
...
“MOOOH!” the loud bellowing of a bull echoed across the whole of Delta. Simultaneously, the skull of the dragon about to attack was hit by a girthy laser beam, that choked out the attack and pushed the skeleton back in the portal.
The city was suddenly rocked by a very special announcement. In the sky, above even the portal, two long shadows had appeared. The bright beam of light was fired by one of them. Lightning shot from the sky, crashing into the undead forces of Spatia. Their shields were damaged, but they withstood the attack with little more than a shock.
“You are witnessing the Beasts of Calamity, haha.” a childish voice said, reinforced by magic for everyone to hear.
~ Kneel before Puffles the Mighty, and shiver in fear!~ a dark, powerful voice echoed in their minds. The shadows that had appeared started firing beams and lightning and other spells at the troops of Spatia on the ground.
“Attention to all commanding officers on the wall. Focus fire on the approaching troops. Do not concern yourself with the sky,” Leana's voice finally sounded from their communication devices.
Their minds instantly calmed down, finally having someone take the lead over the situation. With the aerial support, the players, guards, and Oathguards on the walls quickly changed gears, aiming for the undead knights and soldiers of Spatia.
“There you are, you Worm! Have forgotten what my Nidhog did to you? Nobody will save you this time!” Natina's voice could be heard from the portal. The next moment, more creatures appeared from the portal.
Nidhog was the name of the bone dragon that the necromancer had used during the Evaluation in Keväti Kuinen. It had fought and overwhelmed Puffles to the point that Seth had to help his pet. Now it wasn't just one bone dragon that appeared from the portal, but three.
Serpent-like beast, with bodies, wings, and limbs completely shaped from mountains on bones. The hearts of the appraisers on the walls sank as they witnessed the levels of these beasts in shock. They were prepared for the skeleton dragon, but how was someone able to rear such massive Bone Dragons?
Despite being high above in the air, their presence weighed heavily on the people of Delta.
“Just what is their level?! Appraiser!” a leader on the wall called out, for someone with a high appraisal skill to take a look. However, his answer only lent itself to lowering their morale as he called out the names and levels of the three dragons.
<Nidhog lv. 175> <Reign lv. 168> <Grafvit lv. 170>
But that wasn't all. Natina didn't offer them a break. From the portal that was no longer blocked by a dragon head, several dozen massive undead beasts followed the dragons through the gate and landed on the various peaks floating around Delta, where they started attacking the still-glowing hot mountain peaks.
Were they trying to destroy the enchantment on the peaks, that formed the Iego System?! Originally each peak was protected by their own shield, but they had been destroyed by the previous breath attack. The peaks themselves were not protected by the energy net, only if the creatures got too close to the energy notes, would they be blasted by the power of the installation.
<Putrid Hell Hound lv.167> x2
<Festering Abyss Monkey lv.178>
<Corpse Shrieker lv.157>...
All of them were in the middle to late 100s! The morale of the normal players plummeted. These creatures were not something they could deal with! Barely any of them were above lv.70, only the remnants of Chrona's army standing a little better with an average level of 80.
Would the cannons even work? Despite being the same kind of board cannons Epsilon's fleet used, they did jack-diddly to the shields surrounding the enemy army, quickly approaching their positions. But it seemed like Spatia was not yet done with them!
As if the appearance of the bone dragons was a sign, waves of black magic rocked the walls. The various enchantments across the structure barely stopped the damage, but the people on the wall all heard the same announcements.
<Ding! You have been cursed by “Territory of Death”. All attributes are lowered by 10. Your stamina is depleting 15% faster.>
<Ding! “Domain of Undeath” acts upon this area. You are 25% more susceptible to be afflicted by status anomalies like Fear and Panic. Your Willpower is reduced by 20.> ...
Many dark curses and debuffs rained on them as new units appeared among the people of Spatia. Or rather, they finally revealed their presence on the battlefield.
“Aren't those..?” “They are Liches!” “The enemy has Liches!” the scouts shouted, seeing the arcane undead among the enemy army. Nobody needed an appraiser to know how dangerous they were.
In the command center located at the embassy, Leana cursed. A lich was a magician that turned into an undead, but not any mage would be able to be turned or turn themselves into a Lich. They needed a certain amount of strength, talent, and ego unless they became a brainless undead who was able to use magic. A lich was easily comparable to a lv.130 mage player.
The pictures and reports from the battlefield also showed that there weren't only necromantic Liches. It would have been wrong to assume that all Liches were just necromancers, or that was all they specialized in. They were mighty magic casters before they became undead.
This many Liches, at least 40 and still counting. Natina must have been really busy in the time since the evaluation, considering the army she had amassed with the help of the Skeleton Dragon. E
Especially the Bone Dragons. Weren't the levels of these creatures dependent on the raw materials? How many high-level creatures would the creator have to have hunted to create such creatures? Considering the swarm of beasts, she had really abused her undead power pet to-
WROOOM!
A blazing pillar of light descended from the heavens, burning a hole through the cloud cover. It came down between the floating peaks and crashed into the ground right outside the city walls. On its path, the roaring attack swallowed one of the bone dragons to the point that it vanished in the glistening light and purified one of the spatian units marching toward the city together with their shield.
~ You dare bring up this one's dark past!? That was then and this is now, you cunt!~ the Ivicer proclaimed righteously, proceeding to fire his solar breath at Nidhog. The beast withstood the beam initially, but the unrelenting power of the sun burned through the shield, bones, and dark magic holding it together, completely disintegrating the bone dragon into a rain of bones.
~Bone Dragons cannot touch this mighty one's rear!~ he announced, after proving that he could eradicate them, even with his normal beam attacks. This also made it overwhelmingly clear, that the rage of the sun was a pure fit of rage and not necessary for Puffles to deal with the current situation.
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Beggar of Freedom
Divines bless your kind heart!
