Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Spine growing cold, Antieeld did not show her fear as the overwhelming presence of Nosferatu appeared on the battlefield, she continued shouting orders left and right, boosting morale through usage of both her inborn talent and learned arts, her eyes and attention darting all over the area put under her command, over her shoulder as well.

"Brace!" she yelled out, all soldiers hearing her clearly, bodies moving on their own to prepare for something they had no idea about, a shock went right through the area, the first blow thrown out by the one of foetid blood, striking hard against the shield of Bough, the man's most bizarre laughter rang out from within his helm, absolutely thrilled to have been moved from his position, Antieeld assumed.

'Freaking lunatic, it's not a good thing!' indeed, this was just the first punch and it was already clear that Nosferatu had the firepower to contest against Bough's obscene defences, many had gotten to test themselves against the shieldmaster, and none that had tried had even been able doing anything, it was like a mosquito trying to drink blood from a rock, with their face-needle broken. Stay tuned for updates on My Virtual Library Empire

"Hold the line!" she bellowed, having no time to care much about a gravelord and the copper knights, she had no place to give those guys orders, they knew best how to handle such an enemy, she had to focus on maintaining her soldiers standing and fighting, many had died already, many had been injured and had to be dragged back in the be attended to by various healers and surgeons.

After giving that orders, another volley of projectiles came from the side of the living, the undeads were not ceasing their fire, mages under Antieeld's command had been put to barrier duty and nothing else since it had all begun, soldiers had been caught arts meant to be used as a collective, reinforcing their defences, and mostly that of ally barriers nearby, allowing them to progress without being slaughtered by the rain of attacks.

Even then, advance was slow, the tide of rank and file soldiers of undeath was never ceasing, and the barriers had to be attended to regularly, mages had to switch post with another to recuperate, the life mist was of little effect, a lot of Tamaris strong warriors had been dispatched to deal the final blow to Loimos, the communication device in her ear was silent, signifying that even then, it was not an easy task.

After realising that Loimos, the vilest of the dead, had been the one to kill Gelter, that he had been the one under the name of plague knight, she would have wished to be present, to be the one to give the final blow, to the putrid carcass that dared to wear Gelter's armour as his own.

But no, she had to control herself, she was a commandant, she had to lead the troops, she had to bring back those brave warriors back to their families, if they perished, they their remains shall be buried with dignity, with their names written upon gravestones, for the generations to come and pay their respects to those who faced off against the vile dead, so that they all may be given the honour of standing as champions and heroes alongside all else, even if after their passing.

The evil serving under King Nitok wouldn't even allow this much, bodies were torn apart, and allowed to be decayed unto nothingness, or their bodies made into mindless servants, joining the ranks of soldiers of eternity, made to fight and kill, fight and kill, fight and kill, over and over, again and again.

Made to wage a war without honour or rest, made to turn their honed blades against their own, against friends and family, there is nothing more loathsome, whatever death they pretended to follow and worship, she refused to believe it to be the real thing, death is the end of life, not the beginning of undeath, one should not be made to continue on existing after their death.

Yes, she was not leading a futile resistance, Antieeld would not allow herself to think of it like this, even if impossible, she would lead to win, to eradicate all undeads from the face of this world.

'Bethome is right, they are all abominations, all that should remain of a person after death is… Their memory and fighting spirit…' preparing to shout another order, she noticed the confrontation between the copper knight and Nosferatu escalating rapidly.

Lacking interest in the shieldmaster, he knocked him way back and engaged halbardier into a fierce face-off, Pierre-Ornée pointed on finger upward, sign that he was going to take this fight away from here, an idea that the gravelord did not mind in the least, as they both disappeared in the distance, probably fighting through the mountains.

'Pierre-Ornée will be gone for a long while for certain, is another one of them going to show up?' another powerful undead would surely come to pick off Bough, who might have been made to budge, but was still unhurt.

"Maintain formation! Cleanse the area!" she ordered to stop advancing, in favour of securing what little ground they had gained, and even then, only the same sort of foot soldiers were showing up from the side of the dead, she knew very well that they had every sort of unit, there was no questioning that.

The sheer variety they had access to was staggering, but it seemed like they were content with just those simple undeads for now, even though a dragon could come down at any moment to eradicate the soldiers, none even spared a glance.

"Antieeld here, what is the situation on the other fronts?" she asked through the communication item.

"Terrible, we can barely take a step out of the barrier"

"Half of our soldiers were crushed by a cavalry of dullahans"

"Some sort of giant just swiped the great majority of our forces there"

"Clerics of the dead have been casting curses on use through the barrier here, we can't do anything"

"The greater soldiers of two minor lords are ravaging my men here, the lords are just hanging back for now, we need support"

"Another minor lord on my end, he is ploughing through here on his own, I suspect that he is trying to lure out strong warriors from us"

"In the underground tunnels, we are just running for our lives back to safety, we are getting blinded and devoured alive"

"Our attempts to disturb the flying undeads is miserably ineffective, it all misses or does nothing"

Although all maintained their calm, it was clear that the situation overall was terrible, the undeads were absolutely walking all over Tamaris's forces without even throwing everything all at once.

'Then what the hell is with here? Was Nosferatu supposed to stay here and massacre the troops? No- No, the undeads are fiercely loyal, there has to be something else…'

Thinking this, she looked off to the left, noticing that some of the wounded soldiers were behaving abnormally.

Like an idiot, the realisation clearly showed on her face, tensing up, each and every of her lean muscles snapping into action right as the retribution for understanding this nauseous ploy fell.