Having witnessed its power multiple times now, I still couldn’t help but marvel at Flametail’s destructive prowess. As an area-of-effect weapon, it truly had no equal. Unfortunately, those flames of hers immolated souls as well…in other words, the moment Numila slammed her spell into the crowd, not only were our opponents wiped out, a sizeable portion of our spoils were destroyed as well.
However, with the situation as it was right now, we really didn’t have a choice either. There were simply too many bone pillars to the point where brute physical force wasn’t an option.
Truly, life was an annoying experience. A lot of matters ended up coiling around us like a tireless tendril, just like what we were experiencing now. Thinking back on our experiences, the moment we stepped into this strange pocket dimension, we were set upon by a horde of skeletons. Thankfully, our warriors were significantly stronger than the skeletons.
After that initial tug of war with the skeletons, we managed to gain some minor reprieve and split our rations. Thanks to that, our energy was able to recover somewhat. Sending in a new batch of lizardmen to take over, I had the demonic werewolves and medusas gradually retreat to the backlines in order to feast and recover some strength.
Throughout all that, the sea of fire erected by Numila continued to roar in the background. Because it was so massive, it managed to cut off a sizeable portion of the skeletons. However, even these brainless undead knew not to jump mindlessly into the fire. Clearly, their fear of flames had instilled an instinctive reaction in them.
With that in mind, we hurriedly finished off the remaining skeletons on our side and rotated our troops between feasting and fighting. By now, the battle had gained a semblance of order unlike our initial foray.
With time to spare, I turned my attention onto the sea of fire. Originally, I wanted Numia and Eugenia to expand the sea of fire even more in hopes that it would wipe out all the skeletons, however, I soon found that it wasn’t an option because there was nothing flammable nearby. Given how massive the sea was, maintaining it with just magic alone wasn’t viable. At most, the both of them would only be able to maintain it for two minutes.
Since that was the case, I saw no point in having Numila continue like that so I had her stop channelling mana immediately. It wasn’t like those skeletons were an actual threat anyway. It was merely their numbers that gave us a headache; the pressure itself wasn’t much. Furthermore, my plan to rotate the troops seemed to be working out. The power of the lizardmen wasn’t something to scoff at after all. In a fair normal, the average skeleton found it extremely hard to breach their stalwart scales.
As long as they held out till Numila and Eugenia were done resting, the two harpy witches could easily roast these skeletons with another sea of fire.
Or so I thought. Once more, just as I thought that I held within my grasp, the greatest killing machine and that their numbers was no longer an issue, reality viciously slapped me in the face once more.
The moment the sea of fire calmed down, the bone pillars erupted once more. This time however, it wasn’t just skeletons, there was a sea of zombies as well.
That’s right, zombies. Those detestable undead with a sturdy body that moved sluggishly but possessed a titanic strength.
At the beginning, these zombies were hidden from view as they laid firmly within the core of these bone pillars. Now however, they were out in the open for us to see.
Being known for their formidable defenses even amongst the undead, these zombies were slightly higher levelled than the average skeleton. Not only that, they carried a corpse toxin within themselves that was able to convert any race with low resistance to it into zombies.
Truth be told, the appearance of zombies took me by surprise. Ever since we stepped into the Prison of the Dead, the only we undead we encountered were skeletons and more skeletons.
It seemed like I wasn’t the only one caught off guard either, judging by the looks on some of my devils’ faces. Even those who had lived in the Prison for so long, like Mo En, had never seen an undead other than a skeleton appear within the Prison. Thus, it had always been the assumption that only skeletons could appear, till now at least.
Honestly, the sudden intrusion of this new species was nothing but a headache for us.
Thankfully, devils had an innate resistance to being zombified. Unless they died, there was basically no way for them to turn into zombies while alive. Plus, these devils were all equipped with my masterfully crafted equipment. Under normal circumstances, they should be able to maintain some distance from the zombies.
What’s not so fortunate was that other than my devils, the other races didn’t possess a naturally high resistance to corpse toxins…in other words, the lizardmen, werewolves, medusas, demonic half-orcs, dogmen ,etc. , would mostly likely turn into zombies after being clawed by one. Thus, the bulk of our fighting force would have to come from the devils.
“To think there were actually zombies here…” Truly, their addition was like icing on the cake. Turning towards Harlow who had just finished his break, I couldn’t help but voice my growing headache. “Harlow, you guys need to be careful here, just leave the zombies to the devils to handle.”
“Don’t worry, us demonic werewolves have a sturdy constitution. The usual corpse toxin won’t affect us at all.” As he said that, he thumped his chest and grinned a broad lupine smile that was supposed to put me at ease. Honestly, looking at those fangs of his, it didn’t put me at ease in the least bit.
“Us medusas as well, in terms of poisons and toxins, we are the experts here.” Basically stuck onto Harlow like a shadow, Majosha nodded at me before continuing: “We are about done resting now, it’s time for us to take to the battlefield. I’ll leave the commanding to you.”
“Mhm, leave it to me.” Although I said that with a slight tinge of guilt in my heart, I knew not to show my unease right now. More than anything, I needed to put on a strong front now. Only by downplaying the gravity of the situation could I give everyone the sense of security they needed. Only then would they have the confidence to tackle this predicament. Without a doubt, should I falter now, the army morale would drop and even cause us issues in the battlefield.
Harlow himself had the strength of a three-star and shouldn’t fare badly against these undead. Even so, I couldn’t help but worry as the unexpected tended to creep up on you when you least expect it.
Time passed and an hour ticked by just like that. By now, the bone pillars were about done with their eruptions and had filled the battlefield with countless zombies. While there weren’t many variations in the undead they spat out, that didn’t mean that their levels remained static. A certain portion of the newly minted undead were four-stars.
Of those four-stars, one managed to leave a scratch on Harlow’s arm. Trying to fend it off with an attack of his own, Harlow swiped at the offending undead. However, instead of dodging the attack, the zombie leaped onto Harlow instead and gave him a bear hug. Jaws creaking wide open with a sickening crunch, it then bit down on his shoulders…
“AHHHHH…” Screamed the werewolf. Yet, if he was going to extricate himself from this plight, he only had himself to rely on. Because of the hotblooded nature of his demonic werewolf bloodline, an uncontrollable bloodthirst overtook him the moment the battle started, spurring him to rush into the very front of the army where Majosha was situated.
Yet because the advent of the four-stars was so sudden and with such numbers, Majosha ended up being tied down herself and wasn’t able to look after Harlow.
As a proud warrior of the demonic werewolves however, he merely roared to suppress the burning pain and even drew strength from it. Knuckles cracking and claws bared, he raked into the skull of the zombie with a violent jerk, tore into the undead’s head and actually severed it right there and then!
Throughout all that, black blood oozed from his ghastly shoulder wound and yet that didn’t faze him in the least as he continued with his relentless onslaught. The undead who dared to stand before him were summarily tore apart in a frenzy of claws. It was almost as if he was a berserker.
However, their numbers didn’t seem to drop in the least bit and while we held the advantage in terms of combat strength, we were still living beings after all. In a drawn out slugfest with the undead, there was no way our stamina would hold out. With no other choice left, I ordered a shipment of souls to be sent to Numila and Eugenia in order to prepare for a second sea of fire.
For the most part, the skeletons were extremely brittle, falling apart with merely a swipe from our warriors. Ironically, that ended up creating problems for Elena who was tasked with collecting the soul flames with her harpies. Barely touching ground for a second, she immediately had to fly off in another direction to harvest the new soul flames.
“Numila, Eugenia, I want the both of you to immediately cast that sea of fire the moment you two are done replenishing your mana. With that many undead arrayed against us, a physical slugfest would only end badly for us.” Right after I said that, I had Elena ship the souls to them before turning my attention back to the battlefield.
As I did so, I so happened to witness the scene of Harlow tearing apart that zombie and also the fact that his shoulder was oozing black blood. He seemed to have been infected. Majosha, noticing this wound as well, rushed to alleviate the pressure off him.
“Evilin, have the dogmen bring Harlow back, quick. If he’s not willing to do so, then…ah, there’s no need for that, Habona has already left.”
Having entered a battle state of her own, Habona had worked herself into a frenzy from all the killing. Before her, these lowly undead were nothing but fodder to sharpen her claws and yet in the midst of all that, she didn’t forget her responsibility as the strongest fighter in our army. She made sure to monitor the situation of those around her at all times.
Thus, the moment she saw her little brother get bitten by that zombie, she immediately rushed off towards him in order to forcefully separate him from the fighting.
Unfortunately, Habona was a step too late and the toxin had already spread throughout his body. Although the demonic werewolves had some resistance towards zombification, it wasn’t, at the end of the day, at the same level as the devils. Furthermore, his furious activity only accelerated the infection rate of the toxin.
As she forced dragged her brother out of the battle, a noticeably shaken Majosha slithered behind them. Being the first to notice his bite wound, her worried self wanted to whisk him away as well but the battlefield being what it was, left her no say in the matter. Her strength simply wasn’t at the level where she could interject herself and extricate him.
The moment they arrived in the safezone, she lowered him onto the floor.
“Harlow, how do you feel right now?”
As his wife, her concern for Harlow trumped even that of Habona’s. As she held him in a tender embrace, her tail coiled circle after circle around the injured werewolf.
“I’m…fine…” Though his body was wrecked with pain, he managed to force out a reassuring smile in a bid to try and calm his wife instead: “Don’t worry, my body isn’t that weak.”
“But the toxin spreads really fast and your body…”
Perhaps she still hadn’t noticed it yet or perhaps she merely feigned ignorance but the Harlow right now reeked of death. It was the unique stench of decomposition that assaulted my sinuses as I looked at the fallen werewolf.
“We need to drain his blood, immediately!” Without wasting another second, Habona gorged out the wound on his shoulder before making a tiny incision on the artery on his wrist. Immediately, the black blood within Harlow gushed out followed by a pained grunt from the werewolf. Perhaps he didn’t want to seem weak but right after that grunt, he bit down on his fangs and forcefully stifled any further expressions of pain.
“If you drain too much blood, he might die instead, we need to transfuse some blood immediately.” Looking at the water hose that was his wrist, I was struck with an ominous feeling in my heart. “Losing that much blood now might worsen his injuries and even…”
Just like before, this warning came too late. Harlow’s pupils suddenly widened and soon his body began to stiffen up. ‘Was there no hope now?’
“Harlow? Harlow? HARLOW?” Majosha continuously yelled her lover’s name but there was no answer to be heard. As of this moment, Harlow was like a statue. No matter how much she yelled, he wouldn’t answer. All he did was stare ahead with his eyes wide open and body motionless.
It was then that I had no choice but to conclude that…that’s right, there’s no hope. Harlow was…dead.
