The First Lich Lord
Chapter 188

“We were surprised that we couldn’t,” Aaron said. He was riding with me, Raven, Maxwell, and Tellkin in the early morning. “Icarus told us that it was because it could tell we were planning on attacking the city, so the fast travel is disabled. There are ways you can bypass it with small forces, but there are too many of us for that to be possible.”

“Icarus, like from that group that we fought with?” I asked. I would’ve preferred a night attack, but we were working with the friar, night was worse for them than day was for us.

“Yes, Livia hired his entire guild,” Aaron explained. “Between him, our guild, and our allies we have around a thousand players. Though many of them are not strong enough to help overly much.”

“I don’t know about that,” I explained. “Raven reported back this morning that there is chaos through the city. It’s why she took so long, but she managed to sneak in. There is fighting between regular zombies and, unfortunately, blood zombies. So even the weaker players will be great for mopping up the fodder.”

“How did you get your zombies inside the walls already?” Aaron demanded.

“He didn’t,” Raven said. “The zombies in there are—” She looked at me, and I nodded for her to a tell him what she’d found. “The zombies in there are turning those they kill into more zombies—there’s a zombie plague. Our somebody snuck someone infected with Zeke’s zombie plague into the city.”

“Who would’ve done that, or how would they of, and what are blood zombies?” Aaron asked.

“I have my suspicions,” I said. “I don’t know for certain though. They probably snagged it from the battle by the lake. As far as getting in the city, with the number of people that have been shoved in there over the last week, it wouldn’t have been hard to hide it within the crowd. As for blood zombies, they are nasty creations of blood magic, and harder to kill than zombies. Unlike zombies they react to pain, but they also have pretty big regeneration.”

“Hopefully we get there before they wipe out the zombies,” Aaron said. “The chaos will be nice.”

“We should,” Tellkin spoke with the confidence of a commander. “If they were regular zombies, then you would be right, but zombies carrying a zombie plague are a little different. Your forces shouldn’t worry about cutting them down if they get in your way, we don’t control them unless they come close to us.”

“Perfect,” Aaron said. “I need to get back to Livia then and let her know the timing.” He turned his mount, a large lizard-creature similar to what the Dread Thirteen rode, back the way he had come from.

The player army was between mine and the friar’s armies. We were timing our advances so we would all hit the city at the same time. We’d already worked it out between the friar, the addition of the players just meant they needed to make up the difference. Since they were likely the most mobile force, it should be no issue.

***

Beams of eldritch power tore into the air, knocking down incoming magical projectiles. Dark barriers above my army flared as holy magic bombarded them. We were marching on the city walls.

The previous night, Othniel and I, assisted by Freya and any of her troops that had the knowledge, worked to create the ritual I had used at the lake. It was carved into a large cart pulled by two of the flesh horrors. Now the same ritual was being pulled near the front of the army and was knocking down incoming attacks.

Plumes of smoke rose from inside the city, evidence of the fighting. We’d hoped the walls would be abandoned, but they had known we were coming. As soon as we entered the range of artillery, the bombardment had started.

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We were focused singly on defense. While we could’ve fought back, there was very little point, we needed to get inside the walls. Othniel and I were using a series of rapid-fired bolts of eldritch power to try and pull down spells. Most of the rest were focused on defensive barriers.

The most powerful defensive barriers were not mobile, so they were being cast out in front of us so the army would be undercover as we marched through. The clerics and necromancers worked together. The necromancers layering in their more rapidly cast, weaker barriers which attached to the undead to fill in the gaps where the more powerful clerical barriers left openings.

The unfortunate fact was we had far too many to be completely shielded. Our defenses were focused around the core of the army, protecting the monsters, constructs, living dead, and line infantry. Much of the horde of the undead was protected as well, but the edges weren’t. Something our enemy had yet to realize, as they were concentrating on me.

That was the other point of the ritual, it was a very obvious target, and though we had hoped they would be distracted by the chaos inside the city, we had planned for them not to be. I stayed near the ritual. The elemental zombies all marched around the ritual powering it as we went.

Power swirled around me as I funneled it into Mercy. I was pressing the capacity of the weapon to its absolute limit. Othniel had also poured power into Mercy, at a loss of mana due to a small conversion process and a general resistance issue since it was not his weapon. But we needed as much power as we could get.

Looking to the south, I saw the players rushing towards the walls. Almost every player had their own mounts or rode on the back of others. Their mounts were a chaotic mess of horses and other creatures. They were players, they were disorganized, but that did not mean they were undefended.

The rapid approach was seen as more of a threat as more magical attacks hammered down on them. The holy city wasn’t only garrisoned by religious classes, there were also standard wizards and mages. While exclusively holy attacks were aimed at us, a mixture went after the players.

Constant barriers being torn down and rebuilt by different clerics and wizards among the players had the sky above them full of exploding magic. I swore when I saw the front of the players suddenly collapse as a series of explosions tore them apart.

Then there was a flicker and I realized whoever had cast the illusion at the lake was with them. The players weren’t actually where they appeared to be, they were offset about twenty yards. Enough that their defenses were still holding and the concentration of magic at their head had only hit a couple of unfortunate players.

The illusion had done its job though and they reached the walls. A wave of grapple hooks was thrown up, and the players scaled the walls a moment later.

In the distance I could see another clashing of magic as the friar driving his cart ahead of his forces closed in. The magic being thrown at them was almost exclusively arcane, but I did note a mixture of blood and dark magic in the air.

The defenders were doing their best to focus magical types on the three different armies that would be most likely to do the most damage. Even though all the undead in my army, living and mindless, received benefits and resistances from my order, we were still the weakest to holy magic, at least of this variety.

Suddenly, buffing spells spread across the entire force. As soon as the players had been within a handful of meters from the wall, the necromancers started casting overlapping area of effect speed buffing spells. We surged forward.

The giants thundered past with the juggernauts flanking behind them. Not only had they received the area of effect buffs, but clerics had targeted the hulking monsters individually with powerful speed enhancements.

“You’re up,” Tellkin said in something that wasn’t quite an order. “My lord.”

I didn’t mind and spurred Shadow forward. The Dread Thirteen came in around me as Raven hopped onto the back of Shadow. Maxwell lumbered behind us on Snappy, which was moving far faster than the snapping turtle should have been able to. It looked a little ridiculous with its thick, short legs pounding the ground so fast. Maxwell was playing a song, and we caught up to the giants and juggernauts, soon passing them.

Holy bolts of white light attempted to slow us down, but we were moving fast enough that many missed. Those that didn’t deflected off of barriers long enough for us to get past. I began reshaping Mercy, the amount of power in it making the process slow.

We were then within the shadow of the gatehouse, and eldritch power swirled around Mercy as I passed Gideon and Shamgar. Mercy was now a long spear. I held it out with one hand near the back of the shaft so it was ahead of Shadow, after all it was not actually a lance. We entered the arch of the gates and Shadow slammed on the brakes. I launched forward off his back.