olume 23 Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Furgol Fortress
Sponsored by Ser4, TLC by Enlightened End
Otem was leading the way with the other Necromancers following him while dragging along their Undeads.
Looking from far away, the sight of large contingent of the Undead following them could be seen.
Weed and his Undead underlings also followed from the rear line.
Skeletons, Dullahans and Death knights marched with Weed, who was riding boldly on his ghost horse.
It could not be said that they had a large number but they were elite soldiers forged through difficult battles.
Elite Skeletons and Elite Death Knight bodyguards!
“Keuuu, the Lord has ordered us gather up and follow him.”
“Everyone move faster.”
Undeads were afraid of Weed.
It was not only due to his charisma and leadership but the strong will he demonstrated in battles!
It was also because they witnessed his reckless behavior in taking down enemy forces even if it means putting the Undeads in danger.
- Fear felt by the Undead contingent: 87%
Exerting just enough fear helped motivate them in battle and made them follow Weed loyally.
In large battles when one point collapsed, it could cause a chain reaction and collapsed the entire formation. Though this didn’t happen often, fear helped prevent such situation from occurring.
“Cough, the distance is quite far.”
Just hearing Weed cough caused the Skeletons to shiver like trees in winter.
Skeletons walked dragging their swords on the ground, while the Dullahans and Death Knights protected the sides and rear.
It wasn’t necessary but looking at it he judged that it would be better to move in format so he ordered them to do so.
Other variety of Undeads were scattered about or gathered around, lagging behind the others and generally doing as they please.
It was uncommon for Necromancers to drag their Undead with them.
They had set hunting grounds and did not move around far from it.
Necromancers had to focus several times in controlling Undeads.
Weed told them to gather up follow him but there were still few breakaways.
“Hurry up, get moving.”
“The lord has spoken. Do not get out of your position!”
Death Knights and Dullahans repeated Weed’s orders and commanding them.
While on the move, they spotted Furgol search party but the Necromancers poured their magic to clear them out.
“We have to save mana so please fight moderately.”
As they encountered more scout parties, Necromancers reduced their use of attack spells to save mana.
As a result few Furgols survived and ran away.
“Alert the castle about the Undead invasion!”
“They are coming!”
There were some distance between Furgols so they had to attack with them with magic.
Weed frowned while looking at the surviving scout fleeing back.
“Nothing good will come of this.”
The Necromancer’s tried to calm their worries.
“Don’t worry about the search party. No matter what we do, there is no way they wouldn’t know we were coming.”
Otem was in charge of the march.
Other high level Necromancers were riding on wagons dragged by the Undeads and refilled their mana with meditations.
Beside the quick mana regeneration, meditations also doubled the player’s maximum mana temporarily.
It could be said it was a must-have skill for using a high rank spell or preparing for a huge battle.
“When the scouts are close, send out a unit of Undead to hunt them. For now, let us save mana while on the move.”
Following Otem’s instruction, Necromancers focused on advancing with their Undeads and left the Furgols alone.
Some search party came too close and got hunted down but most of the time, they kept their distance and just watched the Undeads move.
‘We shouldn’t have let the Furgols aware of our approach.’
Weed had a bad feeling about this.
The Undead army moving right now was humongous in number.
Their advance were slow and they did not know the terrain well enough to camouflage their movement.
Even so if they prepared well it would have been possible for the Furgol Kingdom to be aware of their advance much later.
They were not humans who would light a signal fire on top of a mountain when they noticed the enemy’s advance. By hunting the scouts as fast as possible so they won’t be any survivors left, the Furgol Kingdom might not have noticed.
Letting the survivors go was something that would have never happened under Weed’s watch.
Even if the search parties weren’t that strong, once the war began they would be facing them again in the fortress.
There was no need to increase the number of enemies.
Hunting them when you can and wiping out everything, that was Weed’s method.
‘Whatever, they can manage by themselves.’
Weed just kept on following them silently.
Necromancers were competing among themselves to be the best, so the rivalry and jealousy was beyond normal.
It wasn’t a favourable time to join in and the majority of the force here were Undeads led by the Necromancers.
‘Compared to overall composition of the Undead, I am on the weak side.’
Being constantly observed by Furgol search parties, they arrived at the location of the fortress.
The Fortress wall were stacked with bricks made by baked mud, and it was situated on a steep slope making it very difficult for the Undead to climb up.
Furgol soldiers were already preparing for battle on top of the walls.
When the battle began it became clear which side was stronger.
Jeanne stopped her meditation and opened her eyes.
“Undead armies, attack!”
Following the command of the Necromancers the Undeads ran forward.
Skeletons, ghouls, zombies, Dullahans and Death Knights!
Weed’s army followed after the Undeads but never went up to the front.
It was because Weed ordered them to not fight and wait.
It’s was easy to revive Undeads but when they were revived, all the abilities developed till then would disappear.
He had to prevent losing his forces in a reconnoitring skirmish!
The arrows shot by Furgols rained down on the Undeads.
A small portion of Undeads with low life such as the Skeletons died but the rest arrived at a narrow corner leading up to the fortress.
“Kiyauu!”
“Advance!”
Undeads ran uphill.
The Furgol’s arrows were focused on the narrow path and boulders rolled down, crushing the Undead in its way.
While trying to avoid them some of the Undead fell down the cliff.
They only suffered huge casualties with none of them being able to reach the fortress.
“Forget the path, climb up the cliff!”
Jeanne screamed.
With her current leadership ability, it impossible to command the Undead army as a whole.
But other Necromancers gave the same orders and the Undeads started climbing up the cliff with their two arms and two legs.
The Undeads had excellent physical abilities and they still had a semblance of instincts remaining so it wasn’t impossible for them to climb up.
Jeanne and other Necromancers thought of attacking the fortress through the path where the enemy’s attacks was concentrated was impossible.
Even if they reached the end of the path, it would be difficult to get pass the gate without suffering huge casualties. So they ordered the assault by climbing the cliff to divide the enemy’s attack.
“Let’s buy some time so the Undeads can climb up.”
Necromancer’s casted attack spells toward the fortress.
Fireballs struck the fortress and dark smokes of black magic arose getting bigger every time it touched a Furgol, draining their essences.
The attack spells were on the weak side and it didn’t have the power to destroy the walls.
It was only strong enough to make archers in the fortress dodge for a moment and after a while continue shooting arrows again.
The black magic state was also low, stopping and disappearing after a short while later.
During this time many Undeads were able to climb up the cliff but as their hands slip or they lose their footing, they fell off the cliff crashing to the ground below.
When they fell down, they bumped into other Undeads. As they were blitzing the enemy many of the Undead were crowed below.
The defensless Undead received damages every time they are hit by arrows, when one fell down, tens of them bumped into each other, all falling down and getting crushed.
Climbing walls clearly wasn’t a bad tactic and it was worth trying agin but they just lacked the preparations.
It would have been nice if Undeads wore helmets, armours or at least a wooden shield but for Undead it was the same without it.
With all the adversity, the Undeads tried to climb up to the fortress but it was impossible for Skeletons, Dullahans and Death knights to use their bare hands to climb this tightly stacked brick walls without ladders.
They slipped a lot and when they were tried not to fall, they were hit by arrows and died.
“It’s not possible. Retreat!”
Jeanne at the end gave up and recalled the Undeads with other Necromancers.
Coming down the cliff wasn’t easy as well as the Furgol did not just stay still.
Counting the number of Undeads that came back safely, about third of the army was damaged.
Of course Weed’s unit barely had any casualties and had to take glares from many others but they were not in a situation to quibble about it.
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“Are we going to give up the Undead Legion’s quest like this? At this rate the Furgol warriors will be coming back and it will become much harder.”
“Well, we should definitely try few more assaults. But without any good plans right now don’t have any big expectations on the outcome.”
“It looks like the quest will be cleared if we have more Necromancers. Was it not enough with us?”
“Maybe this is our end.”
It was just too much to let Balkan’s Undead Legion quest to end like this.
Because it was a quest that were given to all the Necromancers, it was not a simple quest with the difficulty being that much higher.
If Necromancers grew up fast and number of Necromancers increased, it would be a lot easier than now. However, the situation wasn’t like that at all.
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