Chương 84: Chapter 64: Max - Death March

By the time they had crossed half the field, the dead were close enough for Max to make out what remained of the men they had once been. A dented Valdarin breastplate hung over the chest of one corpse, while another wore a torn Kharvosi leather coat reinforced with scavenged plates. Mail, straps, buckles, and patched armor had been fitted back over bodies that no longer cared how badly they sat, some of it clearly cut apart and fastened again after death. Max slowed and raised one hand.

"Line." The others spread out without hesitation. Max and Borin took the center, while Cass drifted left toward a shallow depression where the morning light had yet to fully reach the grass. Elias settled a few steps behind them with a clear view across the field, and Alina moved to the right with her bow already in hand. Rulon joined her flank, spear held low as he studied the undead, with Alex and Thomas forming up just behind him.

Thomas settled into position easily, shield forward and spear resting close against its edge. Alex copied him a heartbeat later, though tension kept working through his stance, shifting his weight from one foot to the other before he finally forced himself still. Rulon caught the movement without looking away from the dead ahead.

"Don't get eager. You're here to hold the flank and cover openings. Let them do the killing unless something gets through."

"Yes, Captain," Thomas said. Alex tightened his grip on the spear.

"Understood." Max let his attention settle on the waiting line. None of the dead breathed, shifted their weight, or made the small adjustments living soldiers would have made while standing armed in an open field. All eight remained exactly where they had been when the group left the gate. He drew a slow breath and used Identify.

[Undead Raider – Level 11] Health: 170/170 | Stamina: 100/100 | Mana: 0/0 [Undead Soldier – Level 10] Health: 160/160 | Stamina: 90/90 | Mana: 0/0 [Undead Raider – Level 12] Health: 180/180 | Stamina: 110/110 | Mana: 0/0 [Undead Soldier – Level 11] Health: 170/170 | Stamina: 100/100 | Mana: 0/0 [Undead Raider – Level 10] Health: 160/160 | Stamina: 90/90 | Mana: 0/0 [Undead Captain – Level 14] Health: 260/260 | Stamina: 140/140 | Mana: 40/40 Max checked the remaining Raider and Soldier as well, dismissing each window once he confirmed neither carried Mana.

His attention returned to the Undead Captain near the center of the formation.

"Captain's the only one with Mana."

"Forty," Elias said. Borin gave a low, dissatisfied grunt.

"The Abomination had Mana too." Max remembered the thing exploding across the field outside Stonebridge, then launching itself clean over their line before any of them could stop it.

"Then we assume this one has something nasty in store for us." Rulon lowered his spear slightly toward the Captain.

"Noted." The undead still hadn't moved. Elias looked across the open ground between the two lines, then toward Max.

"They're giving us time." Max followed his attention.

"Use it." Elias stepped forward and drove his staff down." Earthsplit!" Rulon shifted instinctively at the name, Alex and Thomas taking a step back with him even though Elias was aiming well ahead of their position. The field between them broke apart with a hard crack. A jagged fracture tore across the open ground, heaving earth upward in uneven ridges while other sections collapsed into churned hollows. Elias barely paused before sweeping his free hand toward the other side of the approach." Frostsheet!"

Frost raced across the grass in a glittering sheet, spreading beside the fractured earth and glazing another broad stretch of ground in slick ice. The undead remained motionless. Across the field, the Undead Captain finally made its move. It turned its head, raised its weapon, and all eight dead began advancing together. Their motion was stiff and wrong, but controlled, their spacing holding as they approached the terrain Elias had prepared.

Soldiers and Raiders adjusted around the broken earth and slick frost rather than simply stumbling through it, slowing where they had to and shifting toward the cleaner routes. Max drew a breath and let Battle Focus settle over him. The wind thinned. The distant sounds from the wall faded. The spacing between the dead, the line of each weapon, the broken ground beneath their feet, all of it became clearer. Elias stepped close behind him and touched two fingers to Max's blade." Frostfire Edge."

Pale blue ethereal fire sprang to life along the steel, cold and hungry. Elias moved immediately to Rulon and did the same to his spearhead, frostfire curling around the point in a thin ghostly flame. Borin followed a heartbeat later, murmuring a prayer beneath his breath as Bless rolled outward over all eight of them, warm and grounding, steadying breath and grip alike. Then Borin placed one hand against Max's shield, and Stone Ward settled over it.

A heavy, earthen strength sank into the metal, the shield seeming to brace more firmly against Max's arm.

"Thanks." Max raised it as the dead worked their way through the last of Elias's broken ground.

"Get ready. Here they come." The first Raider cleared the final ridge with its sword raised, and Max stepped forward to meet it. The blow crashed against his shield with enough force to jar his entire arm, but Stone Ward held and Max stayed planted. He stepped through the impact and cut across the corpse's ribs, frostfire flaring along the blade as it bit through leather and caught against the mismatched armor beneath. The Raider staggered, immediately recovered, and swung back, its sword rising toward Max's head.

He slipped aside, felt the blade pass close to his cheek, and drove forward as Adrenal Surge flooded strength into his limbs. His shield slammed into the Raider's weapon arm and knocked the sword wide, but the corpse barely reacted. It twisted toward him again, forcing Max to catch another heavy strike before he could answer. This time he shoved hard, opening the guard just long enough to bring his sword down.

Frostfire flashed across the steel as the blade split through the Raider's battered helm and into the skull beneath. The corpse collapsed at his feet and a small chime echoed in his head. To his left, an Undead Soldier drove its spear against Borin's shield in a relentless series of thrusts. Borin caught one against the rim, knocked the point aside, and answered with a hammer blow that caved in part of the corpse's breastplate, but it recovered quickly and thrust again.

The spear scraped across Borin's shield as one dead hand reached around the edge and caught briefly at his shoulder. Borin tore himself free, hammered the corpse across the ribs hard enough that Max heard something break beneath the armor, then shifted back as the spearpoint snapped toward his throat. This time, he stopped giving ground. Yellow light gathered around his hammer.

"Back to the earth with you!" Hammer of Faith struck the Soldier across the side of the head, and radiant force burst through metal, bone, and rotten flesh together, twisting the corpse sideways before it dropped heavily into the frost. Another Raider was already advancing over the ice when Elias extended one hand from behind them and fired a Mana Bolt into its shoulder. The impact spun it half sideways, but the corpse shrugged it off and kept coming.

Elias struck it again in the chest, and Alina added two arrows from the right, one punching beneath its collarbone while the other buried itself along the side of its throat. The Raider staggered beneath the accumulated damage but remained upright. Rulon surged forward before it could recover, planted his lead foot, and hurled his spear. The frostfire-wreathed weapon crossed the broken ground with terrifying accuracy and punched through the exposed neck, carrying the corpse backward before pinning it to the frost.

A cheer rose from Greenglade's wall.

"Good throw!"

"That's it, Captain!" Rulon was already running to reclaim the spear as the remaining undead closed around him. The Captain angled toward his position, two Soldiers pressed left toward Cass, and the last pair of Raiders began shifting across the field toward Alina. Max started toward Rulon while Borin moved with him, but the Captain was already closing before either of them could reach the other side of the broken ground. Cass moved to meet the Soldiers before they could box her in.

She slipped away from the first strike with Evasion, the blade passing close enough to stir her cloak, then snapped one dagger toward the corpse's face in a Distracting Feint. It didn't so much as flinch. Cass's mouth twisted.

"Right. Undead." She started to turn the second dagger toward its throat, but the other Soldier was already closing from her flank. Its sword swept toward her ribs and forced the decision for her. Cass vanished, Shadowstep carrying her into the shadow behind the first Soldier and clear of the incoming blade. She drove her dagger into the base of the corpse's skull before it could turn, but even that wasn't enough to put it down.

The Soldier jerked beneath the strike and began twisting back toward her, forcing Cass to wrench the blade free before its sword could come around again. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"Of course," she muttered, ducking away from the returning strike. The second Soldier had already pushed through the opening her disappearance created. Two Raiders were moving with it, all three angling across the field toward Alina.

"Right flank," Thomas called, shifting his shield toward them. Alina turned her bow in their direction while Elias started across the field to support her. Cass glanced toward the three undead as well, but the wounded Soldier pressed after her and cut across her path before she could disengage. Near the center, Rulon reached his fallen spear just as the Undead Captain closed on him.

He ripped the weapon free and brought the haft across his body, catching the dead man's blade before driving the frostfire-wreathed point beneath its ribs. The Captain staggered, but Rulon gave it no time to recover. He pulled the spear free and attacked again, thrusting high, then low, forcing the creature to keep turning its blade aside. Max was almost on them when the Captain trapped the spear against its sword.

Its free hand snapped upward as violet light gathered between its fingers, and a rasping, inhuman growl dragged itself from its ruined throat.

"De... ath Ma... rch." Max lunged before it could finish. His frostfire-wreathed sword cut toward the Captain's raised arm, but the corpse twisted and knocked the strike aside. At the same moment, the violet glow split into three narrow beams and crossed the field. Each struck one of the undead moving toward Alina, sinking beneath gray flesh in thin threads of light. For a heartbeat, their pace didn't change.

Then all three surged forward, their stiff, measured movements vanishing as dead limbs drove them into a charge. Boots tore through frost and churned soil as they raced across the field with a speed none of them had shown before. Thomas saw them accelerate.

"Right! Right!" Alina loosed immediately. Her arrow struck the leading Soldier in the shoulder and knocked it half a step sideways, but the corpse barely slowed. She reached for another and abandoned the motion almost as quickly when she saw how fast the three were closing. Max turned toward the sudden charge, but the Captain gave him no chance to move. Its sword came across his path and crashed against his shield, forcing him back into the fight while Rulon recovered his spear.

Elias reached the broken edge of his Earthsplit at the same moment and had to angle around the worst of the fractured ground rather than cross it directly. Cass tried to cut toward Alina from the opposite side, only for the wounded Soldier to come after her again. She caught its weapon arm with one dagger and slashed deep across the wrist with the other, weakening its grip without stopping its advance.

"Elias!"

"I see it." A Mana Bolt crossed the field and struck the Soldier high in the chest, knocking it backward and buying her a few precious steps. Elias was already working his way toward Cass through the churned ground, but neither of them was close enough to reach Alina before the other three undead crashed into the flank. Alina dropped her bow and drew her short sword just as the first Raider reached her with an axe.

She turned the blow aside and stepped with it, keeping her feet beneath her, but the second Raider arrived before she could fully reset. Its sword hammered against her guard from the opposite side, rattling her arm and forcing her half a step sideways. She recovered just in time to see the Soldier coming. Its shield slammed into her shoulder while one leg swept behind hers, taking her feet out from beneath her.

Alina went down hard, turning with the fall and rolling backwards across one shoulder before coming back onto her feet with dirt and frost clinging to her coat. The Soldier gave her no time to recover. Its sword was already cutting toward her before she could bring her own weapon back into position. The blade tore diagonally across her chest from shoulder to hip. Hardened leather split beneath the strike, and the steel bit deep enough to wrench Alina half around.

She cried out, but the sound broke short as the air seemed to vanish from her lungs. Blood spread almost immediately beneath the ruined leather, running over the hand she pressed instinctively against the wound. Max saw it happen and drove forward instinctively, trying to force past the Captain, but the corpse met him with another slash that hammered against his shield and stopped him cold. Rulon attacked from the other side, keeping it from pressing Max farther back, but neither of them had room to disengage.

Alina stumbled backward and dropped to one knee. When she tried to breathe, only a shallow gasp came. The Soldier was still coming after her. Alina forced herself upright, swaying as she brought her sword back up, but Alex reached her first. He threw himself between them and raised his shield just as the Soldier's blade came down. The impact buckled his arm and sent his boots skidding through the frost, but he caught himself and drove forward again with a wordless shout.

Thomas arrived beside him a heartbeat later, his shield catching one Raider's blade while his spear turned the other aside. He snapped the weapon low into a knee, pulled it free, then thrust toward a hip before either corpse could work its way around them.

"Back!" Alex shouted.

"Get back!" Alina managed several unsteady steps while the two guards closed the opening in front of her. Her sword lowered as another breath caught painfully in her chest, and then her legs gave out beneath her. She hit the ground behind them with one hand still clamped over the blood-soaked tear in her armor. Greenglade's wall erupted.

"Alex!"

"Hold them!"

"Come on, lad!" Alex drove into the pressure, battering the Soldier backward with his shield before stabbing around its edge. Thomas stayed beside him, spear moving constantly as he gave ground only when the three undead forced it from him. Farther left, another Mana Bolt struck the wounded Soldier fighting Cass and knocked it sideways. She used the opening immediately, slipping behind the corpse and driving a dagger beneath its ribs before twisting free ahead of its answering swing.

It staggered, but still refused to fall. Cass glanced toward Alina, then toward Elias as he finally reached her side.

"We need through."

"I'm aware." The Soldier came at them again, forcing both of them to turn back toward it. Max caught only pieces of what was happening around them now. The Captain had driven Rulon backward beneath a succession of tight, deliberate strikes, and every time Max tried to work around its flank, the creature turned just enough to keep both of them occupied. Borin stepped in beside him.

"Let's finish this." He brought his hammer around in a heavy arc, and Hammer of Faith flared as it crashed through the Captain's damaged helm. Radiant force drove the corpse down onto one knee, its sword dipping toward the ground as Rulon pulled his spear back for another thrust. Then the Captain's head snapped up, and a wet rasp dragged itself from its ruined throat." De... ath Su... rge."

Violet light erupted beneath its skin and raced through its neck, shoulders, and arms, pulsing through dead veins as the corpse surged back upright.

"Back!" Borin shouted. The Captain moved before Rulon could reset his spear. Its sword whipped across his guard and tore through the edge of his armor, biting deep into his shoulder before ripping free. Rulon stumbled sideways with a grunt, blood immediately darkening his sleeve, but the Captain followed instead of giving him room to recover. Rulon caught the next strike on the haft of his spear.

The impact drove the weapon back against his chest, and before he could regain his footing, the Captain stepped inside its reach and slammed a shoulder into him. Rulon went down hard. A shout rose from the wall behind them as Max moved in. He stepped between the Captain and Rulon with his shield raised just as the dead man turned. The first strike crashed against the shield hard enough to numb Max's arm.

He absorbed it and tried to step forward, only for the Captain to reverse the blade with an unnatural quickness and slash across his exposed forearm. Max jerked the arm back, caught the third attack against the upper edge of his shield, and shoved hard. For an instant, Max stopped it, his shield braced against the Captain's advance. Then the violet glow pulsed beneath its skin and the corpse drove forward with enough force to tear him from his footing.

Its shoulder crashed into his shield and hurled him six or seven feet backward. Max hit the ground hard, but instead of fighting the momentum, he tucked into it and let one shoulder take the impact. He rolled cleanly through the fall, came out onto one knee with the shield still strapped to his arm, and planted a foot beneath himself while Adrenal Surge continued burning through his limbs. He was already driving himself upright when the Captain turned on Borin.

Borin met the first strike on his shield and gave a step beneath the impact. The second came from the opposite side before he could answer, forcing him to wrench the shield across his body, and a third followed almost immediately.

"Persistent bastard," he growled. He caught the next cut against the shield's rim and sent his hammer toward the Captain's ribs. It twisted just far enough that the blow scraped across damaged armor instead of landing cleanly, then stepped into Borin and drove him backward again. Steel rang across the field to their right. Alex and Thomas were still holding the three accelerated undead away from Alina, though barely.

Alex caught the Soldier's sword on his shield and nearly lost his footing beneath the impact, while Thomas kept one Raider at spear length and shifted constantly to deny the other a path around him. Blood ran from a shallow cut along his forearm, and another dark line had begun spreading through the cloth over his thigh, but his spear never stopped moving. Behind them, Alina was still down in the frost, one knee drawn beneath her more for support than any attempt to stand.

One hand remained clamped over the blood-soaked tear across her chest while the other braced against the ground, her short sword lying where she had let it fall beside her. The wounded Soldier cut across Cass's path again before she could break for Alina, one hand hanging badly from the damage she had already done to it. Elias fired a Mana Bolt into its chest as he crossed the churned ground toward her.

The impact knocked the corpse back a step, and Cass tried to use the opening to slip past it toward Alina, but the Soldier lurched across her path once more before she could clear it. Cass's mouth flattened.

"Again." The next Mana Bolt struck high in the shoulder and spun it partly around. Cass was already moving before it recovered. She slipped behind it, caught the damaged hand just above the wrist, and drove her dagger into the base of its skull. When the corpse still twitched beneath her grip, she wrenched the blade sideways, nearly severing the neck, and whatever held it upright finally gave way. Cass tore her dagger free and looked toward Alina.

"Move." Cass and Elias started toward the right flank, but Max caught only a glimpse of them before the Captain filled his attention again. It had driven Borin back several more steps, hammer and sword ringing together as Borin struggled to find room for a clean swing. Max charged before the Captain could press the advantage.

It began to turn toward him, but he reached it first, slamming his shield into its sword arm and knocking the weapon wide while Borin stepped forward and buried his hammer into the opposite side of its chest. Metal buckled beneath the blow, and the Captain staggered between them long enough for Max to cut toward its neck. The corpse caught his blade on its own and shoved it aside, then kicked hard into the center of his shield.

Max slid backward and stumbled through the grass for a few steps but stayed upright this time. Rulon came back in from the other side, blood covering most of one sleeve and the wounded arm held closer to his body. He shortened his grip on the spear and drove it mostly one-handed now, giving up reach for control. The point punched beneath the Captain's ribs hard enough to twist the corpse toward him, and when he tore the weapon free, Max closed again from the opposite direction. The three of them pressed together.

The Captain knocked Rulon's spear aside, turned immediately into Max's next cut, then swept its blade low enough to force Borin away before his hammer could land. Violet light continued pulsing beneath gray skin, driving the ruined body through movements it should no longer have been capable of making. Rulon thrust high, but the Captain slipped aside and trapped the spearshaft beneath one arm. It hauled hard enough to drag him forward, then cracked the pommel of its sword across his face and sent him reeling.

Max attacked before it could follow. The frostfire flared as his blade carved across the Captain's exposed side, biting through a gap in the scavenged armor. The corpse turned on him with a rasping snarl and brought its sword down, only for Max to catch the strike on his shield as Borin's hammer slammed into its back. The combined impact pitched the Captain forward. Max drove into it with the shield at the same moment, forcing the corpse several steps away before it regained its footing.

Another roar rolled down from Greenglade's wall.

"Keep on it!"

"Captain!" Max barely registered the voices. The Captain was already coming forward again. Max took the first strike on his shield without trying to answer back. Rulon attacked from the side, forcing the corpse to turn its sword to block the spear, and Borin stepped through the opening with his hammer aimed at the already damaged ribs. The Captain twisted away, but the movement carried it straight back toward Max. He met it with the shield, causing it to stumble slightly.

Rulon's spear followed a heartbeat later, punching through the Captain's thigh and out the other side before he tore it free. The corpse stumbled again, only a single step, but this time the violet glow beneath its skin didn't immediately drag it back into balance. Borin moved in to take advantage, but the Captain lashed out before his hammer could fall. Its blade struck his shield and knocked him sideways, buying enough room to wrench itself around toward Rulon.

Rulon gave ground and thrust from farther out, forcing the corpse to catch the spear against its sword while Max closed again from behind. His blade cut across the Captain's back, frostfire crawling briefly through torn flesh before the corpse spun and drove an elbow into the edge of his shield. Max staggered but stayed close, denying it enough room to turn fully toward either him or Rulon. A shout from the right pulled at the edge of his attention. Alex was being driven backward by the Undead Soldier again.

Thomas stepped forward before it could follow, caught the next strike on his own shield, and drove his spear into the corpse's stomach. The wound barely slowed it, but it turned toward him long enough for Alex to recover. Cass and Elias were finally close enough to interfere. A crossbow bolt struck one Raider high in the back as it tried to circle Thomas, followed almost immediately by a Mana Bolt punching into its side.

Neither attack put it down, but the Raider twisted toward the new threat, giving Alex and Thomas a few precious seconds to close ranks again. Behind them, Alina remained on the ground with one hand clamped over her chest. Even from where Max stood, he could see how much blood had soaked through the ruined leather. He had no time to look longer. Rulon attacked again, driving his spear toward the Captain's head.

The corpse turned its sword to intercept, and Max came in from the opposite side, slamming his shield into its weapon arm and pinning it across its chest. The Captain jerked violently and nearly tore free. Rulon stepped in and jammed the shaft of his spear across its other arm, pinning it against the corpse's chest with his good side. For a moment, the Captain was trapped between them. Borin was moving in.

The Captain saw him and twisted desperately, violet light flaring beneath its skin as it strained against Max and Rulon. Borin brought the hammer down with both hands. There was no flare of any Spell, only the full weight of the blow behind it. The hammer crushed through the already damaged helm and drove straight through skull and bone. The Captain shuddered once between them. Violet light flashed beneath its skin, then vanished as its weight sagged against Max's shield and collapsed into the grass.

Another chime echoed in Max's head. Across the right flank, all three remaining undead faltered. It lasted only an instant, a tiny break in movements that had been unnaturally precise until now, but Max saw Alex and Thomas react to it immediately. Cass was already raising her crossbow again, and Elias turned his staff toward the opening. Behind them, Alina sagged lower and collapsed into the frost, one hand still pressed desperately over the blood-soaked tear across her chest.