The Empires Rise

I look around and see the gatehouse is still open. We aren't ready, and the undead have started to move. I quickly head over and try to close it by myself. It doesn't budge; frantically, I call out to get help closing the gate and have all the ranged personnel on the walls as soon as possible.

My father quickly joins me, and the hunters start firing at the incoming undead. Once they are within range, the mages join the hunters.

By the time the gate is closed, there is a pile of undead outside, but still, there are at least a couple hundred more outside.

"What is going on?" I ask, "Why haven't we whittled them down faster?"

Shadow steps forward. "The hunters are hitting the enemy, but they aren't hitting the same target, so the damage is spreading out. Those who have died have been coming back up from the necromancer in the back."

I look over the parapet and see what he is talking about. A couple of the zombies fall, just for them to get back up again with the arrows being pushed out of their bodies.

"What do we do?" I ask.

"We have to take out the necromancer."

"How? He is out of our range."

"We need to send a party out to kill him," Draemish says.

I look at her, "Who do we send out? There are hundreds out there. Shouldn't he run out of mana?" I cut myself off and think about what the necromancer has been trying to do. I circulate mana into my eyes again and see that he has successfully gathered some of the death mana from the environment.

"Damnit, he is taking the mana needed for Laxreal's ritual."

"WHAT?!?" Rhenriqi shouts. "Count me in for hunting down that bastard necromancer."

"How many do we send out?"

"We must clear a path and ensure we don't get surrounded. Our best bet is to try and kill the undead inside the walls." Draemish lectures.

"Why inside of the walls?" I ask.

"If he can't see where to cast his spells, he won't have the option to bring them back."

Coming to this solution, I have to agree to at least try it. In the worst-case scenario, we kill off the enemies faster than if we let them constantly get healed or resurrected.

"Alright, Draemish, get the warriors into position. Shadow, have the ranged units focus on their ranged units; if we can keep the necromancer focused on keeping those forces up, we might have an easier time with the melee fighters." I give the orders.

They give me a salute and head out to get everyone organized.

The archers are sending wave after wave of arrows over. The undead archers have taken some damage, but like the melee units, they are healed or brought back shortly after being killed.

The warriors take a minute to get into position, and the gatehouse opens again once they are ready.

The necromancer directs the undead to the gatehouse, the skeletal soldiers in the front with their shields raised and weapons ready.

I once again cast Nature's Grasp at the gatehouse's entrance. Like before, the vines slow the undead, and some die.

The undead in the vines are out of range of the necromancer as they stay down.

"This is going to work," I call to the rest.

Several undead have started fighting in melee with my allies, and it isn't long before I have to start casting shields on people.

The warriors have formed a circle around the exit of the gatehouse, allowing a more prominent front to attack the undead.

Gibnic has been steadily casting his chain lightning into the crowd of undead, and they are dying even faster.

Everything is going well until I see the tunnel skeletons start rising again.

"What is going on?" I shout to the hunters on the walls.

"The necromancer has come closer to the walls, and he has an honor guard around him, preventing arrows from getting to him." Shadow calls back.

"Damnit," I curse again, "What can we do... Think..." Suddenly, a different idea comes to mind.

"Close the gates on the undead, force the necromancer to lose line of sight," I shout to Shadow.

A couple of hunters run to the controls and start closing the gate. Thankfully, it is a heavy door that doesn't take much to lower.

Seeing that we are closing the gate, the necromancer gets furious and casts spells at the mages on the walls. He hits one of the mages, and they cry out.

Taking cover, I see that he has necrosis spreading on his arm.

"Watch where that necromancer is casting. Make sure to leave as small a target as possible," I shout to those on the walls.

The gates have closed, and the undead have stopped rising; now, all that is left to deal with are the 50 units in the settlement.

We clear them out in short order, "Once they are all dead, move them away from the gatehouse," I instruct everyone.

A couple of people are just pulling them back behind the lines, "No, put them on the sides of the walls. Fully out of sight of the gatehouse tunnel." I scold them.

After completing That task, I tell the hunters to open the gates again. I am thankful for the arrow and flame towers. They have helped to keep the undead from overwhelming us.

I look to the walls and see a couple more people have been hit with necrosis spells from the necromancer; one person takes a heavy hit and cannot keep fighting, and the other perishes; having received the spell in his throat, the wound makes me nauseous just looking at it.

It was one of the new hunters from Troberia. For a moment, I stopped. I looked at his dead eyes. I saw resolve in them, not a hint of resentment. Then I remembered those from Troberia dealing with the undead trying to claim their world. I gave silent thanks to the man for the help he had provided.

The gatehouse opens again, and the undead outside the gate have been burned to a crisp. Seeing this, I try to guess why the undead are not being raised. Then, I look at the state of the bodies again. They are nearly burned to ash; not much remains of them. I think he tried to raise them again, but being under the flame towers caused them to die faster than if it were arrows.

Thankfully, there aren't any more undead right outside the gatehouse. We start to walk through the gatehouse, and that is when I see the necromancer pulling back with his forces.

There are still 50 undead on its side who haven't died, and its bodyguards prevent the occasional arrow from the tower from reaching it.

I look at my mana bar to see how much I have used in this wave.

Mana: 32/60

I think about it. We should be able to attack the necromancer, and I can use the next wave to replenish my mana, or Nature's Grasp has killed enough enemies to help me level up.

We head out with 30 warriors and the mages at the back, covered by shields.

The remaining undead attack once we are within range of casting spells. The towers still provide us with some ranged support, and the mages start to cast spells to deal more damage.

We get closer until we are within ten meters of the necromancer. Some of the mages cast fireballs on any undead they can to minimize the amount that can be raised again. The warriors fight the undead with shields and swords while I focus on casting shields on those about to be slashed.

It is more of a brawl, considering that some warriors don't know how to use their weapons well. I cast more spells, and finally, a hole in the necromancer's defenses opened up.

A couple of warriors charge it. They expand the hole, but right as more warriors are about to go through the hole, a wave of death passes, causing several warriors to be stunned by the foul mana.

This gives the undead an opening to start hacking at those warriors. Most of them take severe wounds and have to be pulled back from the fight while I focus on healing them. I recheck my mana.

Mana: 9/60

I have enough mana to cast mend once and one shield. Or I can focus on casting my arcane shot to try and take down the necromancer.

Looking towards the warrior with the worst wound, I cast my mend spell on him, which left me with four mana.

I can tell the mages are running out of mana as they retreat from the fight and head back to the settlement.

Some hunters have come down from the walls and are now trying to flank around the warriors to give the necromancer a hard time and split its focus.

I admire their plan and bravery. Another 15 seconds pass and the Warriors have once again made a hole. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I cast my arcane shot.

With a lucky shot, I score a hit right on its skull. It knocks it down, and the warriors make sure of the time to charge forward again, this time without getting blasted by its magic.

The hunters, without the threat of the necromancer, start picking off the other undead.

Rognar strides forward and stomps on the necromancer as it tries to get up. It grips his leg, and I get a terrible feeling. The necromancer grabs his leg and starts channeling its death mana into its hands.

It damages Rognar, but that doesn't stop him from lifting his foot and stomping again on the necromancer.

Before it can continue to damage him, I try to cast one more shield but fail as I am close to running out of mana.

Once again, the necromancer reaches to channel its mana into Rognar when an arcane bolt comes from the sky and lands on its hand, blasting it away. I look up and see Ritotorous flying above, casting down.

Seeing those two have the necromancer finished, I look to see if there is any other way I can help with the fighting.

There are only two undead left, and they are fighting my father and Draemish. The rest of the warriors are either sitting on the side catching their breath or separating the body parts to ensure the undead don't return anytime soon.

I analyze the last two skeletal warriors.

- Elite Skeleton Warrior

Level 4

HP: 5/50 -

I am shocked at how much these elite warriors have. I also analyze the necromancer.

- Elite Skeleton Necromancer

Level 5

HP 3/40 -

It has less health than the warrior, but with its use of magic, it is a deadly foe.

With the last fights coming to a close, I ask my father to keep one of the skeletons alive so we can extend our break since we don't have any option to stop the waves until after wave 15.

He agrees, pulling the skeleton out of range of the towers, and starts kiting it around since it is slow once one of its legs has been hacked off.

With the skeleton handled, the rest of the group heads inside. Draemish and Rognar stay out to make sure nothing happens to my father and take turns having it chase after them.

Once I get back inside, Vranjaya ensures everyone has started meditating. I joined in and received a notification 30 minutes later.

- Tenth Wave Cleared

Calculating Experience...

Contribution 80 Kills. 175 Experience granted.

Eleventh Wave Starting in 10 minutes -