Chapter 314: The Necromancer's Wrath

A wolf darted between two soldiers. One warrior turned. Too late. The wolf snapped at his wrist. He screamed and dropped his sword. Another wolf lunged toward his throat. An undead knight’s blade passed over it, finishing the warrior.

The wolves disappeared back into the crowd. Then emerged somewhere else. Another warrior fell. Then another.

The battlefield had become impossible to predict. Enemies were coming from every direction. Above. Below. From the front. From the sides. The warriors couldn’t keep track of everything.

Then the undead knights arrived. Two hundred and fifty undead soldiers advanced together. A wall of steel and bone. Their weapons moved in unison.

CLANG! A Vrethka warrior’s sword struck an undead knight’s shield. The undead knight didn’t move. Another warrior attacked. The knight stepped forward. SLASH! He fell.

Three more rushed in. The undead formation tightened. Shields collided. Weapons rose. Then came down. SLASH! THUD! CLANG!

The undead didn’t scream. Didn’t retreat. Didn’t hesitate. They simply kept advancing. The warriors of Vrethka were being pushed backward street by street.

Farther away, Dross watched.

His face had gone pale. His hands trembled. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His warriors were dying. Hundreds of them. And Darion’s undead weren’t slowing down. Not even slightly.

Dross’s breathing became heavier. “NO!” He grabbed his head. “NO! NO!” He looked around desperately. “Why did I agree to this?!” His voice cracked. “What have you gotten me into?!”

Then his eyes landed on Caef. Dross’s expression changed. Anger replaced the fear. He stormed toward him. “This is your fault!”

Caef stared at him.

Dross pointed toward the battlefield. “If you had never come to me…” His voice shook with rage. “Vrethka would still be safe!”

Caef said nothing.

“If you hadn’t come here talking about revenge! If you hadn’t told me about that Baron!” Dross’s eyes were filled with fury. “We wouldn’t have provoked this monster!”

He looked toward Darion. The Necromancer was still advancing. Still surrounded by undead. Still killing.

Dross swallowed. “We’re losing hundreds of men…” His voice dropped. “And he hasn’t even lost a fraction of his army.”

Darion saw civilians running through the streets. Women. Children. Families trying to escape the battlefield.

His eyes narrowed. “Don’t attack them.”

The undead nearest to him immediately changed direction. Darion didn’t want to slaughter people who hadn’t chosen this fight. But Vrethka was different from most settlements. Almost every man here was a warrior. Almost everyone had taken up arms. The line between civilian and combatant was becoming impossible to see.

A man ran past carrying a child. Darion let him go. Then the same man grabbed a sword from a fallen warrior and turned back toward the undead.

Darion’s expression hardened.

He couldn’t stop and question everyone. He couldn’t tell who was innocent and who had decided to fight. So he kept moving.

The battle raged deeper into Vrethka. Blood soaked the streets. Bodies piled against walls. Weapons lay scattered across the ground. The screams of dying warriors mixed with the clash of steel and the monstrous sounds of undead creatures.

CLANG! SLASH! ROAR! SCREAM!

Darion continued forward. His golden sword flashed again. Another warrior fell. An undead knight crushed another formation. A Yuimon tore through a group trying to retreat. Wolves darted between the chaos. Snakes continued moving unseen beneath the fighting. Seren’s arrows continued falling from behind the undead line.

Vrethka was breaking. And Darion kept walking. His eyes were fixed on the distant palace. He knew Dross was there. He knew Caef was there. And he knew this would end when he reached them.

Dross looked toward the palace. Then toward the battlefield. His warriors were running. Not retreating. Running. The formation was gone. The confidence was gone. Vrethka’s army had become a crowd of terrified men desperately trying to survive.

Dross turned. “We need to leave.”

Caef stared at him. “What?”

“We need to run!” Dross grabbed him. “We can’t fight that thing!”

Caef looked back one last time. Darion was still advancing. His undead army followed behind him like an unstoppable tide. Caef’s face twisted with horror.

Dross pulled him away. They ran. Behind them, Vrethka continued to collapse. And Darion’s army continued advancing through the night.

Darion’s sword flashed.

SLASH!

Another warrior collapsed. He barely looked at the body. There was no time. Another enemy rushed toward him. Darion stepped aside and cut him down as well.

Beside him, Seren’s bow continued to sing. THWIP! An arrow struck a warrior attempting to attack Darion from behind. Darion glanced back.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” She immediately fired again.

Their movements had become almost natural. Darion pushed forward while Seren covered his blind spots. Whenever someone tried to approach her, Darion’s undead intercepted them. Whenever someone tried to attack Darion from an angle he couldn’t see, Seren’s arrows found them first. They were fighting together. And somehow, it worked.

Then Darion looked up. His eyes suddenly narrowed.

Two figures were running through the streets. Dross. And Caef. They were fleeing.

Darion stopped for half a second.

Hell no.

His eyes followed them. Dross was the Chief of Vrethka. If he escaped, this wasn’t over. He could regroup the remaining warriors. He could rebuild. And more importantly… he could go to the Kulidii.

Once Vrethka obtained the power to neutralize Darion’s Necromancer abilities, they could return to Percvale with an entirely different strategy. Everything Darion had built would be in danger again. His people. His territory. The farms. The castle. The peace they had finally begun to experience.

‘I’m not letting you get away.’

Darion’s expression hardened. He had one priority now. Dross couldn’t escape.

Darion raised his hand.

He didn’t need to shout. His undead responded immediately. The massive army behind him divided.

Half continued forward. They pushed deeper into Vrethka, keeping the remaining warriors occupied. They continued fighting, kept the battle going. The undead knights maintained their formation. Yuimons continued tearing through resistance. The wolves darted between enemies. The snakes continued their silent attacks. The battle would continue without him.