Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

1178  1177. The Odyssey Continues

"ugh, riding undead in rough terrain, my ass hurts..." the soldiers complained as they set up camp. They had suffered a lot, despite their high levels. They were simply not used to riding the undead creatures that jumped around the rugged terrain in less than smooth movements.

"I really don't know why we were even sent here. Lady Durnham should be more than enough. They even say she has 7-" "Shhh! Enough gossip! Are you trying to get us in trouble by talking about this here?" Emanuel interrupted him, putting his hand above his mouth.

Defeated he raised his hands, to signal that he understood. Although this was just a rumor, they had been cautioned to not speak of anything even slightly significant on enemy territory. Who knew who was listening? Any information the opponent gained was a loss. Or something like that. he had just finished fixing up his tent when alarms rang in the camp.

"It's a monster wave!" the guards shouted and everyone equipped their battle gear. Years of hard drill overcame the fatigue as the instinctual took formations to defend the camp. he also wore his armor, spear, and shield, standing at the phalanx with his comrades.

"So much for escaping by moving along the ground..." He could hear the other sigh and whisper, as they vigilantly stared into the dark forest. "Right if the monsters attack, maybe we will be back at the mountain tomorrow..." "Don't jinx it!"

Moments later they could hear what the scouts with night vision were able to spot from afar. The sound of feet stomping on the ground, the rustling of leaves, the breaking of- tree?! They could see anything, but it sounded like a wave of beasts was crushing the flora between them.

"Lights!" they heard the commands echo and the magician cast light spells that illuminated the surrounding woodland. They put up terrain on a slightly more alleviated terrain, which allowed them to see the trees in the distance giving away before a massive dust cloud approached them.

Ultimately, they were forced to use the Barrier Breaker to escape the trap, but it also taught them to stay cautious. Things were not as they were supposed to be and they were suspicious of Chrona, too. They also didn't exclude the possibility of some other power helping them.

"A monster wave my ass! Those are undead!" one of the soldiers with good eyesight exclaimed, spoiling what everyone got to see soon later. It was a vast mix of corpses in various stages of decomposition and damage. Quite a few were little more than gnawed-off skeletons! These were definitely undead from Gamma.

"Look behind them!" someone else shouted. Only the forerunners, unhampered by the forest were humanoids, they were followed by a wall of rotten flesh, waltzing over everything in its way. It was made of lots of beasts of various sizes, many big enough to trample a tree easily.

Size and appearance couldn't shake the trained soldiers, but the fact that their appraisal skills failed to gauge the opponent no matter how often they tried gave them a bad hunch. Still, the opponent didn't seem too strong in the context of what it did.

"Wait for them to approach! Kill the small fries quickly, before taking on the big ones in parties!"

The leaders gave simple commands, It was clear that they didn't give these run-of-the-mill undead much credit.

Rightly so! Despite resisting skills like <Observation>, they could even put a scratch on the armor. They were at best comparable to ordinary lv.30 players. Although they flattened the forest in their pat, the spatian army steamrolled them with ease.

The humanoid zombies were ground to dust at their phalanx and the undead beasts were no challenge for them. The worst that happened was that quite a few dirty their armor by puking their rotten blood and stuff all over them. At first, at least.

"Ack! Hey, watch out where you are - Urgh!" here and there people were getting surprised as the creatures they just slew would stand up again. Most didn't even have the power to get past their armor's defense, but they were relentless!

"Priests! Cleanse these creatures!" the commands were barked and the field was quickly filled with holy light as various spells of light and life were cast, the bane of all undead.

"It's not working!" he and many others cried out, seeing the undead become livelier instead of ashes when hit by holy light. Undead that didn't fear the divine? That night, they really understood the meaning of an undying army.

Still, they survived to the morning, most of them at least. In the end, the undying army did have a weakness. Two actually. They were not especially strong, so after learning that they kept standing up, they pulled back behind the barrier of the camp and fought from there.

As they slew them over and over, they found the second one. Their energies waned with each injury, with every time they regenerated until they finally stayed down. It wasn't that they were dead, but that they lacked the energy to move any longer.

He felt a deep dread when he realized that this was the only reason they didn't all die that night. If they weren't that weak, they may have broken through the barrier. Tired as they already were, how long would he and his comrades hold out? They had to mutilate just a humanoid zombie over 10 times until they finally stayed down, monsters and beasts and a bunch more...

The mood was glum as they packed together camp, still tired. Obviously, they had not gotten any rest in the night. Leaving on the back of the undead, they left behind a handful of graves and a vast field of corpses, staked to the ground, to stop them from ever getting up again.

...

"...Fuuu-" she barely managed to keep the curse inside, as they reached a certain mountain around noon of the next day. They had returned to the bane of her existence. In the distance, the Worm Mountain was towering over the flat hills, once again.

"We are using it, I don't care anymore, we have to get out of here," she made the decision to use the barrier breaker. if the last knight taught them one thing, then it was that they were targeted. There was no other explanation. if they kept dawdling, they would only accumulate more losses.

Using the artifact took some preparation. Before they could use it, they decided to get a good rest, otherwise, they would be stuck in hostile territory AND unable to use magic. No magic also meant no barrier and no flying undead.

Whether it was safe near the mountain or not, they weren't sure, but as long as they stayed in the barrier, the weak undead wouldn't be able to approach them. To make sure, Natina even placed some of her stronger subordinates in a perimeter around the camp.

Nothing would be able to get into the camp and harm the soldiers entrusted to her. Her conviction remained steadfast until late noon. She had almost calmed down when the first screams among the soldiers began, echoing through the camp.

"Gahh!" "Stop biting the zombie, Phil! Ahh!" "He's gone crazy! Help!" "Stop biting me, Emanuel!"

Chaos had broken out among the tents as members had seemingly lost their sanity and were now attacking each other. Like animals, they jumped at the next best person beside them. Many suffered serious wounds before anyone could even intervene.

"What is going on?" Natina asked forcefully, more annoyed than worried. Things just wouldn't go her way! Now her own forces were going insane. Had she known this, she would have refused the army and rather hunted a few more Liches to increase the number of undead under her.

"You forced my hand, Jimmy!" the screams kept going, as the soldiers were forced to use more drastic measures. Not too far from the command tent, a soldier had enough, and promptly Jimmy's severed head was rotating through the air, lopped off by his comrade. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

But this was not the end of Jimmy. The Chosen of Kali was close enough to witness what happened next with her own eyes. The beheaded body didn't fall back over to tumble to the ground, no. The severed neck started growing shut and at visible speed, and a fresh head was growing from it.

She didn't know who Jimmy was, but she doubted he possessed the kind of skill when he was alive. Instead, this was exactly how the undead from last night had acted and regenerated! How could this have happened?

"Could it be...? but isn't it too far south?" her adjutant mumbled something, sweating profusely. He was literally drenched within a moment.

"Stop mumbling to yourself. Out with it, if you know something!" she demanded from the man. He was momentarily stunned but started talking quickly.

"I-I think it's the zombie plague of Urth!"