43 In the Face Of Death.

Riding back towards the southern gate Salem saw large streams of citizens moving towards the evacuation sites, as he rode passed they would bow and resume traveling after they lost sight of him. The massive amount of people would be a challenge to feed and house but not impossible, the food stored within the city needed to be moved quickly otherwise it would rot under the undead' management.

After arriving back at his command tent he sent a summons to the nobles who had come with him, they had spread out amongst the camp or were even in the city and it took over an hour for them to return and learn of the impending doom, he gave them as much support as he could to move the citizens and food towards Void city. He advised them to leave the city quickly and if they had any friends or family still with the city, now was the time to leave. After giving each of them the news he departed his tent and mounted his horse and rode through the gates, he would watch over the citizens until the last moment.

Though it was not out of caring for their lives as much as it was for showing them who was the true protector in their hour of need. Time slowly crawled by as the citizens moved towards the entrance to his domain. Less than half of the citizens had passed into the safety of the mountain when he felt the first of the trees shudder, he closed his eyes and saw through the eyes of his scouts that a massive skeletal warrior stood at the edge of his barrier.

The new enemy had placed its hand on the barrier, where the undead and the barrier touched flames and dark smoke would appear, the flames tried to purge the undead and absorb his soul while the black smoke was a miasma that quenched the flames before it could touch the massive undead. It pulled its hand back and roared towards the sky before marching through the barrier. A black miasma cloud was unleashed and covered any undead that was within its range, the crow scout flew higher into the air to move away from the miasma and circled above.

From this new vantage point, Salem saw two more clouds of miasma coursing through the barrier, the outer city would be filled with that deadly poison in just a few minutes and the wards would be destroyed soon after, opening his eyes he sent word for the nobles to retreat immediately. Five minutes passed and the trees fell simultaneously, through the city thunderous banging could be heard from the massive gates. The undead had finally arrived with an invitation for all to join them. The citizens began to push and shove their way towards the southern half of the city, even those who had been adamant not to leave during the civil war made for the elven fortress.

The Twins, Jenna, and Annah rode up to Salem they had felt the barrier fall away from Koftas, they were no longer human but they did care for the innocent and came to ask him to protect the people of Koftas.

He looked away from the dark clouds of miasma towards them, he could feel their compassion and knew what they had in mind. "Don't worry, I will give them as much time as I can without putting our home in jeopardy. Bring the troops into a defensive formation around the southern gate and let all the citizens through but you are not allowed to move into the city, our noble allies will do what they can but-

Crack!*

The three massive gates broke away from the walls, they fell back into the city, destroying many homes and businesses close by. A massive cloud of dust rose up and silence fell over the city, soon black wisps of miasma blew into the city, at first it was a single skeletal soldier that came out of the dust, then ten then a thousand, an endless sea of skeletons, ghouls, and horrors of the undead marched past the gates. A scream was heard shortly after and the undead charged in all directions to snuff out all life they came across.

Lurking within the sea of undead were three large skeletal warriors, each had black armor with the trim matching the livery that hung from their mounts. The warrior from the east had black and purple trim while from the west had black and gold, directly across from their defensive position was the largest of the three who had black and red armor. The black and red warrior pushed forward and his legions swarmed towards the southern half of the city, watching the undead charge Salem ordered for the wraiths to man the front lines while moving the human and elven troops to the rear.

With the troops moving into position Salem summoned his commanders to his side where they could watch over the battle, the citizens had mostly moved beyond his defensive line and were heading toward the entrance of the mountain. Loud drumming could be heard but it wasn't from the elves or the undead, shortly after a loud horn was blown that made the air tremble. The undead armies from the east and west turned back and charged back towards the outer city, yet the army from the north kept with their charge.

Curious as to what was happening outside the city he ordered his crows to head back over the walls before he could sate his curiosity however the undead slammed into his wraiths pulling his attention back to the threat at hand. His forces were sorely outnumbered but a single wraith would take dozens of undead down before their bodies were finally destroyed, after the initial collision the undead were like animals only attacking out of instinct, yet the number advantage was showing as slowly his wraiths fell one by one.

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The battle was about even, for the time being, he could hold this position for hours without the undead's other armies lending a hand, he had the thought to peek at what was happening outside the walls while there was no immediate threat to his girls. He closed his eyes and connected to one of his scouts, from a bird's eye view he could see the undead under siege surprising it wasn't a human or elven army it was an army of bare-chested, red-skinned orcs. Their warriors were covered in tribal tattoos, no warrior among them was less than six feet tall, their weapons ranged from stone, metal, and bone. There were maces, axes, and gauntlets most of which could pulverize the undead into dust.

He had only looked over the battlefield for a few moments before a wave of lightning destroyed his scouts, the backlash from the sudden destruction stung his mind leaving him in a daze for a moment, blinking away the sharp pain he tried to focus on this new development. Shaking his head and the discomfort he spoke to his girls and the human commanders.

"Orcs have invaded the undead from behind, now is the time for a counterattack, if we can reseal the gates before the orcs and the undead have finished killing each other, then we can retake Koftas. Prepare your troops for an assault if we take out that thing," he pointed at the mounted warrior surrounded by hundreds of elite undead, "Than the rest of the undead in the city will be destroyed by the sun."

Pulling his mask over his face he brought his girls and the remaining wraiths to the rear of the army, the humans and elves parted slowly while he waited till everyone was in position. The enemy he needed to destroy was deep within the undead sea and he would not be able to ride through them all, unfortunately, his true mount wasn't ready for this kind of battle otherwise he could ride straight to his enemy.

He felt a few hands lightly land on his body, he was surrounded by his girls, each one with determination in their eyes and a radiant smile on their faces. The lowered their masks and drew their weapons, from beautiful elven maidens to invokers of fear in but a moment. He could not have been more proud of these women who were so strong and caring that they would risk their lives for those who were innocent and even those who might harbor ill will towards them because they were no longer human.

Drawing his spear he began the charge, the wraiths in front of him parted when he was but a few feet away, a hole was made in the formation until he could see the undead. He smelled the stench of rotting flesh first then the crunch of bone beneath his horses' hooves, they pushed through the undead until they began to slow a quarter of the way to their target, " Push forward from here, I'll be waiting for you at the front!" Salem shouted as he stood on his saddle and leaped towards the elite undead, he swept his spear from east to west decapitating a group of undead. He unleashed tendrils of energy and destroyed the fragmented souls in the undead that had him surrounded.

Dozens of the lesser undead fell at a time, his slaughter had gained him the attention of the elite undead in a matter of seconds. They broke ranks in an attempt to be the first to kill a high-level target. Seeing the elites rushing towards him he raised his spear and let the tendrils of energy wreak havoc on the lesser undead. The first elite tried to deflect the spear, having no thought to the possibility that its enemy was physically on par with a high-level undead. The deflection failed and the spear pierced through its skull, eliminating its soul before it knew what had happened.

Salem shortened the spear to its mace form and stepped past the poor wretch as its body fell to the ground, the remaining elites paid no heed to the threat or their fallen comrade and lunged forward. Salem sidestepped and swung the mace, the skull turned into dust, and another elite hit the floor. -This is going to take too long if I have to kill them a few at a time- He thought to himself. Raising his free hand an emerald flame began to burn, beneath his mask in the depths of his eyes an emerald green sun blazed in their depths.

Channeling his energy he let loose a raging inferno that swallowed up dozens of the elites turning their bones and flesh into char and their souls devoured as they fled.

The undead commander saw the flames and felt the undead elites disappear from its command, it knew that it had come across an opponent that its master would give him great rewards if he were to capture this being, he dismounted and picked up its battle ax. Even all the elites swarming this new enemy wouldn't be able to bring it down, he moved forward while the elites in his way scattered away from the aura he gave off.

Salem saw the massive undead push his way to the front lines, it stared at him while he unleashed a blast of flames towards the commander. As the flames stuck the undead commander a black miasma seeped from the armor and kept the flames at bay. Under the mask he raised an eyebrow surprised he couldn't break the miasma. The elite undead retreated as their commander stepped forward, Salem held his mace and gripped it tight.

The commander raised his ax and let loose a raspy roar, the visor of his helmet was filled with the red glow of his corrupted soul. Salem dodged the ax when it hit the ground gave way leaving a massive crater where it had landed. Dust and debris launched into the air, taking advantage of the moment Salem rushed forward and swung his mace only to have it blacked by the massive ax. His hand went numb from the impact, he retreated quickly and elongated his mace back to a spear. He wouldn't be able best this undead in a contest of strength and he would be matched in skill, he would have to rely on speed and wit if he wanted to win but if he could tell than so would his enemy.

He gripped the spear and stabbed towards those glowing red eyes, he was blocked over and over, the undead had near unlimited stamina, even as a wraith Salem wouldn't be able to fight forever so he left a small opening and took a slash from the ax, at the moment where the ax broke through his armor he jabbed the spear up under the chin on the helmet, the helmet broke apart revealing a black skull. Cracks had formed from where the spear had pierced through, the red light had yet to vanish, the commander spoke before the last of its soul was destroyed.

"My master U'thein will wipe you off this small rock sooner or later, oh and you better duck." The undead then latched onto him, before he had digested the full message he felt something penetrate his back, and then half a dozen more slammed into him he coughed up a mouthful of blood and broke away from the corpse that still gripped him.

He moved into the crowd of the undead, using them as shields, his vision started to blur as he stumbled towards his forces, a blast of lightning ripped into him before he got very far and threw him forward crashing through the undead. He hit the ground and rolled to a stop, barely conscious he crawled toward his forces, a large orc pushed through the crowd of undead and chanted in an ancient dialect of orcish, lightning began to jump from his fingers as he took aim.

"This is where we say goodbye master, I'm leaving all my remaining knowledge with you, and good luck finding your little sister!"

The system's voice echoed in his head, he could feel the system building up all of his and its own power. He could see it take the form of the elf girl who had taken him to forge to be destroyed, the last thing he saw was her pale green form slamming into the orc and a bright light before it all went dark.

-End Volume One