Evale and her party of elites' target was not the fort, but rather the snaking supply lines coming and going from it.
From up high, Eldrian and Ceph kept watch as Evale attacked, following the nearest supply line to find where — inside the forest and woodlands — the undead were getting all the stone.
By now, it was apparent that the undead were digging tunnels. The amount of stone flung at the border wall was enough to rebuild it twice as tall. It would be for the best if Evale could confirm this and also scout where the tunnels might lead. Even just finding the entrances would enable them to raid with better preparations.
And as the target of Evale's sortie was not to do damage but to scout, she retreated quickly after the undead moved to encircle her and those with her.
Naturally, Eldrian and Ceph's presence in the air kept the undead honest. Not only did they relay what they saw to the players accompanying Evale, they were also a constant threat.
On their first day, they had incapacitated one of the elite parties, the vampire knight brigade. And, following that, they had taken out three commanders who had rushed ahead to stop their rampage.
The loss had been a dear one that made the undead hesitant to face them in the sky. As if to mock their hesitation, the two had gone and cut down their volleys. But worse still was when the two had alighted above the trebuchets and let bombs fall from the sky.
The first time they had done so, the damage had been massive. Sadly, the undead had been quick to prepare for the next bombardment. Already proficient in blocking attacks from above.
All this simply meant that the undead couldn't ignore their presence. Forces capable of dealing both with the dropped bombardment and their rushed attack had to remain on guard.
Since the two had slain three commanders, leaving anyone weaker than a commander seemed beyond stupid. As such, Evale found herself chased only by one Tier 8 higher undead and two Tier 7s.
Indeed, the undead had far more strength to throw around. Yet, these undead were not of outstanding quality. After all, this attack was more the retribution of one lich than that of the entire undead kingdom.
Those living in the land of undeath, called by the people of Taur 'The Encroaching', never worked well together. Most who became undead naturally did so through powerful willpower, tearing their souls away passing to meet their dreams.
They would not lay down their lives for others. Liches searched for their magical desires. Draugrs sought to keep their homes safe, bound and strengthened by their place of second birth. And ghouls... ghouls only sought endless sustenance. Their hunger was a thousand times worse than that of vampires.
As for vampires. All the vampires in the land of The Encroaching were subordinate to one of the previous three.
Revenants, on the other hand, were more of errant knights on an endless quest of revenge. While there were several in the army, none of them were naturally occurring higher undead.
They had all been polluted by the magic of others, cursed with undeath. Falling to the curse, only to obey what they had once hated most of all. And while they were powerful, their artificial form of undeath prevented further growth and welcomed decay with time.
Thus, while the army had plenty of powerful undead, most of them weren't as strong as one might think. Their conflict with their nature, their wills fighting with their orders, and their curse weakening when separate from their original masters all weakened them to a certain extent.
Thus, while those chasing Evale seemed to far outclass her, they could not catch her. A few strategic arrows were all that was needed for them to make their escape.
—
This game of cat and mouse continued for five days with little progress. While the location of several caves had been found, the undead's defenses were too much to mount an attack.
While possible, the dangers were simply too great. Especially with how outnumbered the they were.
Thus, the damage to both sides was still minimal. And it was on this day that the they found their fears coming true. Counter tunnels dug under the wall with guide of the dwarves saw their use as war broke out beneath the earth.
For a while, things seemed fine. The defenses and soldiers kept at the ready reacted in time. As Eldrian wanted to rush down to help, he froze. As did Ceph, Pelaros, and Sofiera. They all turned to the sky, aghast.
"Get Evale out of the tunnels now!" Pelaros shouted in a panic, rushing to the front with his new greatsword. It shone with the colors of the rainbow as Pelaros aimed it towards the heavens. A dome of similar shining light falling over the fort. No, not just the fort. It spread from horizon to horizon.
Shortly after, the world turned white.
Sounds of massive explosions echoed from all over as the earth turned into a hellish landscape of fire. Earthquakes throwing many to the ground as a second volley entered the sky.
Pelaros' barrier had prevented annihilation of the wall. However, several locations in the wall had collapsed. The combinations of massive explosion above and tunnels below had caused the earth to give. And with the wall's collapse, the barrier protecting it disappeared.
Pelaros, he was slanted, exhausted. The drain of creating such a massive barrier was too much for him. He seemed near unconsciousness.
However, the second volley was the bigger problem. While it pained Eldrian to leave a friend behidn when they could not defend themselves, he knew what he had to prioritize. As he took flight along with Ceph, he sent a flurry of rapid fire messages to the guild and his friends.
This was clearly the undead's ultimate attack. However, those boulders, enchanted similarly to cannonballs, were too deadly. They had to retreat from the walls and weather the storm.
As the two flew into the air, their expressions turned grave. Ceph took his elven form, realizing that this would need finesse, not truth strength. While he felt he could survive one explosion, he would be left unconscious in all likelihood.
'The lich is insane,' Eldrian said to his friend as he flew to the nearest boulder. This time he did not attempt to slash it, no, that was too dangerous. The amount of mana he sensed from the boulder was close to a medium mana crystal. Probably around ten thousand. Three times his own physical capacity.
That the undead had already fired a hundred, and now a second volley. It was maddening. This show of wealth nearly crushed Eldrian's will to fight. However, he also saw this as a golden opportunity.
'There smaller than the previous boulders. But still too large to store many,' Eldrian thought as he placed his right hand, the prosthetic, on the first. Immediately it tried to rip the prosthetic from his arm, and when it held it tried to rip his arm from his shoulder.
However, that did not come to pass. Instead, a material as black as night covered Eldrian's right half, moving from his hand to the boulder as it swallowed it whole. Before disappearing the boulder from reality.
Sadly, Eldrian did not have enough space in his inventory to store more than three or four such boulders. Thus, he released it with a small pang sadness. Seeing it fall to the ground, he considered a great waste.
'Hopefully I can recover some of the materials.' He thought as he repeated the action on the next flying boulder.
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