Chapter 51: The Last Bastion
"Activate the stakes! Loose the boulders!"
The Knight Commander's roar was accompanied by a violent downward sweep of his arm.
Aloft on the ramparts, soldiers strained against the massive capstans. Ropes groaned under the tension, wood creaking as the mechanisms were unleashed.
Below the wall, the earth near the gate suddenly buckled and flipped. Rows of sharpened timber stakes, drenched in Sanctified Water, burst from the soil at an angle, aimed directly at the charging undead cavalry.
The lead row of skeletal warhorses couldn't stop. They slammed into the traps with the force of a landslide. The stakes punched through their calcified ribcages; the purifying power of the water hissed and sizzled against the bone, eating away at the necrotic energy.
Dozens of undead knights were upended, but those behind them didn't flinch. They simply trampled over the splintered remains of their comrades and continued the charge.
A brief, desperate cheer erupted from the wall.
"Direct hit! Again! Give them another round!" a young soldier shouted, his face flushed with adrenaline.
Beside him, a veteran remained silent, his expression grim as he loaded a heavy stone into his sling.
"Hahaha! Do you see that?! This is what we prepared for you! You gods-forsaken monsters!" the young soldier continued to laugh.
The next heartbeat, a bone spear whistled through the air, launched from the ranks below. It spun with a high-pitched shriek.
The spear entered the young soldier's open mouth, tore through the back of his skull, and detonated his head into a spray of red mist. The headless corpse swayed for a second before collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut.
The cheering stopped. The soldiers nearby stared at the body, the color draining from their faces.
"Ready the boulders! FIRE!" the Knight Commander's order rang out again, breaking the stupor.
Massive stones traced long arcs through the sky, crashing into the undead phalanx. Skeletons were smashed into fragments across the field.
But it was meaningless.
The shards of bone squirmed across the grass, knitting themselves back together. One by one, the knights stood back up. They didn't even bother to retrieve their fallen weapons; they simply condensed new spears from pure shadow energy.
A soldier's voice trembled. "What kind of nightmares are these...?"
The flood of the dead had reached the base of the wall. They carried no ladders, no rams, no siege towers.
The Knight Commander soon realized why.
The front row of undead knights stopped at the foot of the wall, using their lances to brace themselves against the stone. Then, the knights following them stepped onto their shoulders and began to climb.
One over another.
One stacking upon the next.
They were using their own bodies to construct a ladder—a rising, vertical spine of bone and steel that grew toward the battlements.
"Pour the oil! Drop the fire-logs!"
"Sanctified Water! Pour every drop we have!"
The Commander's voice was hoarse. Barrels of boiling oil and blessed water were tipped over the edge. The water produced only wisps of white steam against the heavy black armor, having little effect. The oil was ignited, and a curtain of fire swallowed the bone ladder.
Yet, the Skeleton Knights simply walked through the inferno. Ignoring the flames and the impact of the falling logs, they continued to stack themselves higher and higher.
The defenders watched this in horror. A primal terror gripped their hearts. The Knight Commander spun around, screaming toward the rear:
"Mages! Lord Valerius! Where is your Mana?!"
Valerius and his dozens of apprentices were already positioned behind the wall.
"Fireball! Continuous fire! Do not stop!" Valerius commanded.
Streams of fire roared from the mages, slamming into the bone ladder and causing parts of it to explode.
"Master... it's no use..." a young apprentice wailed, tears streaming down his face as he watched the undead reform. "They won't die! We can't kill them!"
"Then make them reform slower!" Valerius barked back. He channeled another fireball and hurled it with everything he had.
In the rear of the undead army, Skele-Wrath remained motionless, watching the siege with cold detachment. He had calculated that Jade Territory's walls would hold for forty minutes at most.
But the sun was already dipping toward the west. The battle had lasted longer than expected. These humans were far more tenacious than his simulations had predicted.
But tenacity was not a substitute for power.
"Draw your steel!" the Knight Commander shouted as a dark silhouette crested the wall. He splashed Sanctified Water across his blade. "MEET THEM HEAD-ON!"
The first Skeleton Knight vaulted over the battlement. It was met with a heavy, two-handed strike.
CLANG!
Sparks showered the stone. The Skeleton Knight was knocked back a step, a deep gouge etched into its breastplate. Away from their mounts, the skeletons' speed and power were marginally diminished.
Seeing this, the human soldiers felt a spark of hope. They lunged forward, blades ringing against bone.
The Skeleton Knight ignored the swords hacking at its frame. It braced itself and thrust its bone spear—not at the enemies in front of it, but at the mages in the rear.
The spear left its hand like a bolt of lightning, aiming straight for a young girl chanting a spell.
Valerius saw it. He was a Diviner, not a combat specialist, and his Mana was nearly depleted. He drew a thin rapier from his waist and stepped into the path of the projectile.
TING!
Steel met bone. Valerius used every ounce of his strength to deflect the tip. The spear hissed past his cheek, embedding itself deep into the stone floor behind him. The webbing of his hand tore; blood began to coat the hilt of his rapier.
Ignoring the pain, he turned to his apprentices. "Those with Mana left, KEEP ATTACKING!"
He raised his bleeding right hand, squeezing the very last drops of his Od to condense a massive, flickering fireball. It roared through the air, striking the base of the bone ladder outside and blowing a gap in it, temporarily slowing the ascent.
Valerius felt the emptiness within him. His Mana was gone. He thought of Count Barton, and the image of his back as he charged out the gate to his death.
Valerius whispered to the wind, "You truly had to steal all the limelight, didn't you, Barton...?"
With a final, desperate burst of speed, he ran toward the edge of the wall and leaped into the center of the burning bone ladder. He pressed his hand against his own chest.
"[Mana Overload]!"
BOOM!!!
An indescribable blast of white light erupted from the middle of the ladder. A massive section of the bone spine was vaporized.
The apprentices let out a soul-shredding cry. "MASTER—!"
But their answer was another bone spear whistling past their heads. Valerius's sacrifice had bought them less than a minute.
Twenty Skeleton Knights crested the wall.
The Knight Commander had just cut down one intruder when he caught a glimpse of a spear sweeping in from his blind spot.
THWACK!
The force was monumental. He was sent flying across the rampart. He tumbled over the inner edge of the wall, falling into the city streets below. The impact claimed his consciousness.
An unknown amount of time passed.
The Knight Commander woke to a cacophony of bone grinding and distant screams. He shook his head, struggling to rise.
He saw that the city walls were now draped with the corpses of his men. The ramparts were swarming with white-and-black armor. Blood had pooled into small streams, trickling toward his boots.
He stood up shakily, retrieving a longsword from the ground. He stood alone in the street, pointing his blade at the undead descending from the walls. He said nothing. He simply settled into a defensive stance.
A figure leaped from the wall, landing heavily before him. It was the Undead General, Wrath.
Wrath looked at the man. "You remind me slightly of that man, Pride," the thought resonated.
Wrath didn't draw his own weapon. He simply waved a hand toward the shadows behind him. A Centurion stepped forward.
The Skeleton Knight and the Knight Commander faced each other.
In the next instant, the Commander roared and charged. The Skeleton Knight didn't move. As the Commander closed the distance, the shadows beneath the skeleton began to churn and solidify.
A skeletal warhorse manifested out of thin air.
The moment the horse appeared, it slammed its heavy skull into the charging Commander's chest. The man was sent sprawling backward, losing his balance in mid-air.
The Skeleton Knight raised its bone spear and hurled it with terrifying force.
SQUELCH.
The spear punched through the Commander's chest, pinning him dead against the stone wall behind him.
The final ray of the setting sun touched his face.
Night fell.
The war was over.
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you