Chapter 44:

The Battle of Black Port (Part 1)

The Children of Eris


Before the army arrived at Black Port, the undead were already barrelling towards them, screeching madly.

Most of them were armed only with a single weapon, but others were using the same equipment that had once belonged to members of the city watch.

The Holy Legion halted their march and shifted into formation.

The soldiers on the frontlines stood shield to shield, swords drawn, and the pikemen behind them pushed their weapons far out in front of the formation, ready to skewer the attacking horde. Behind each of those formations along the Legion’s line were a company of archers and mages, ready to unleash volleys of missiles down on the undead.

When the undead got within a hundred metres, the missiles flew at them, destroying dozens at a time. Then, when the undead smashed into the frontlines, they were torn apart by the strong, coordinated attacks made by the Legion’s vanguard.

On the flanks, the cavalry and Paladins charged into the sides of the horde with more archers and mages at their backs, hastening the destruction of the undead horde.

From the rear of the lines, Prince Julius looked on and smiled.

It was clear to him, and his generals, that the undead horde was struggling against their forces.

For every man that died, more than eight undead fell.

“General Pontus, any word from our lookouts?”

“No, your majesty. It would seem that the entirety of the undead horde hit us from the front, just as your majesty suspected they would.”

Julius grinned and turned his focus back to the battle. “Excellent. At this rate, we’ll be done long before midday. However!” Julius thrust his arm out for emphasis. “We cannot start acting arrogantly or foolishly, even if we’re currently winning. For all we know, our opponents want us to let down our guard and strike.”

The generals all nodded around him. “Send word to our lookouts to-”

“Your majesty! Look over there! Right above the horde!”

All eyes turned and found four liches hovering above the undead as they started flinging balls of fire at the Legion’s lines, killing many soldiers with every blast.

“Send word to the Paladins and mages immediately! Focus fire on the liches and destroy them at once! Soldier, is that all of them that you’ve seen?”

“It’s all our men have seen, your majesty!”

“Only four liches?” General Pontus whispered. “Then, that means-!”

Julius clicked his tongue. “The rest of the liches must be where our allies are. Send reinforcements to the Shadow Tombs immediately!”

***

The adventurer’s, including Connor’s team, and the garrison from Cliff’s Edge had found a thousand skeletons and six hundred zombies waiting for them at the Shadow Tombs.

“Don’t falter! We can handle this!” Connor cried.

In small, coordinated groups, the adventurers engaged the undead whilst the garrison soldiers tried to fight them one on one. The undead weren’t particularly strong, and most of the adventurers could handle five or six at once, but the battlefield was chaotic and unpredictable.

The terrain was rough, there were many blind spots and there were undead waiting beneath the ground to strike whenever someone stepped over them.

As Connor’s team dispatched wave after wave, the screams of anguish and sounds of blood being spilt increased.

By the time silence fell upon the tomb again, all of the garrison soldiers were dead, as were a handful of adventurers.

“Really wishing Kella was here right now,” Tiergan chided.

“Yes, you’ve mentioned that. Still, this feels…unnatural.”

“Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many undead gathered outside the tombs at once,” Alisa said. “Do you think there might be a few liches here?”

“Maybe. Best be on guard.” Connor then addressed the others. “Listen up! Due to the high number of initial undead we’ve encountered, we believe there could be several liches here. There could be even more so stay in your groups, stay alert and stay safe.”

With Connor’s team leading the way, they entered the Shadow Tombs.

They fought their way through the passageways, losing more adventurers as they cleared each room, until they arrived at the great doors to the central chamber where they suspected the liches were.

However, inside, they discovered that there weren’t just a few liches.

There were sixteen.

“Dodge!” Connor cried as a wave of fire was launched towards them.

Half of the adventurers did so.

Others put up magical shields to deflect the attacks, but a few of them were incinerated by the flames, leaving only ashes behind.

“Welcome, foolish adventurers of Themis,” the Lich King taunted, his voice echoing throughout the chamber. “You chose the wrong day to come visit us, I’m afraid. However, fear not.” The Lich King began to laugh. “Once you’re dead, we’ll bring you right back to-”

Alisa thrust her palm towards the Lich King and two rock pillars burst out of the walls and zoomed towards him with great speed. One of the other liches pushed the king back and took the attack head on; it reduced him to dust.

“I really don’t give a shit about what you’ve got to say.”

The liches began generating shields and launching fireballs as the rest of the adventurers started to attack.

Arrows and magical bolts flew at and collapsed against the lich’s shields as the melee adventurers, led by Connor, charged them.

The Lich King growled at his fallen comrades’ remains and thrust his staff towards the adventurers. A stone wall shot out of the ground, sending three unfortunate adventurers skyrocketing into the ceiling, crushing them into paste.

An adventurer with a massive war hammer roared loudly and smashed his weapon through the stone, shattering it into pieces. Once the wall was gone, a wave of fireballs shot at the adventurers again, burning the war hammer adventurer to ashes, but Alisa and the other mages managed to protect the rest of the melee adventurers with their magic.

Connor charged forward and cut a lich in two before rolling out of the way of another lich’s lightning bolt. Tiergan fired enchanted arrows at the liches, but they kept being shot out of the air. Alisa manipulated the stones beneath the feet of the liches and had massive stone pillars shoot out at them, but the liches had learnt from their comrade’s mistake and dodged them.

However, by doing so, they left themselves vulnerable to the other adventurers’ attacks.

As one lich fell, three or four adventurers lost their lives.

Despite their high losses, the adventurers knew that they were winning.