With this volley of arrows, several dozen zombies have been destroyed or rendered useless. But worse, Aleric felt that there was still Light in the quivers of the archers.
They were preparing to fire another volley, and it would be as dangerous as the previous one. Aleric’s only saving grace was that there weren’t many archers on the wall to begin with.
Now Aleric knew that he would have to be extrely careful using the Ghost Blade until the inquisitors were dealt with, or it would be destroyed in monts. Without a body, it had no defense.
There was nothing he could do except grit his teeth and bear this all!
His soldiers continued to charge. The archers had ti to release one more volley into the army before the undead soldiers began raising the ladders.
Although the archers continued to shoot, they had to disperse among the other defenders now or move to other sections of the wall, and the flight of arrows was temporarily stopped. However, the damage was already done.
Aleric estimated that he had lost at least a hundred zombies, at least temporarily. But not all of them were undead servants—there were a lot of simple zombie slaves as well, and the archers just shot anything that wasn’t a skeleton.
The best zombie servants, at least, had so armor. Many arrows have tried to strike down Samuel, but most have missed, and the rest were just deflected by his armor.
In the sa way, many other zombies were protected by the salvaged armor they wore. Only balliestas could harm them, but only one of their shots has hit soone important.
Now the zombies waited for the first skeletons to climb the ladders and tire out the city’s defenders, while defenders began throwing rocks at approaching skeletons.
This was much more effective than arrows, but there were more skeletons than prepared rocks! Climbing the walls was just a question of how many of them would be spent on it.
’With my improved mastery of magic, regaining any losses in skeletons would’ve been incredibly easy. But I already know that the local graveyard has already been consecrated...’ Aleric thought in frustration. ’Next ti, my zombies will have to soak these projectiles instead."
With these thoughts, Aleric led his horse toward the wall.
The darkness would hide him from the archers, and the amount of undead nearby hid his aura from the inquisitors as long as he didn’t use Dark magic. He also avoided so fires that were still burning in the grass from the thrown-away burning clothes and shields.
Soon, he reached the parts of the field where the second volley of arrows hit his soldiers. Corpses were lying here and there, so of them still trying to stand up, but failing.
Aleric approached one of them: one of his lieutenants, a zombie in scale armor. It didn’t save him from an arrow to the knee, which burned off his entire leg.
Worse, the Dark magic in the zombie was barely holding on. A little more, and its soul would be lost to Aleric.
He ordered his horse to kneel nearby and reached out with the Spine Staff. Dark magic poured out, refueling the spell and stabilizing it.
The zombie imdiately beca more lively. He sat up, then scowled at the stump instead of his leg.
"Blasted thing... Thank you, Master Fenn! I’m going to... keep on fighting. Where’s my damn squad?"
Using his spear as a crutch, the zombie stood. He wasn’t even the most shambling soldier in Aleric’s army, but the way it was about to climb the walls with only three limbs remaining sohow felt more pathetic than the rattling of the most broken-down skeleton.
"Stand down, soldier. Return to the camp followers and get yourself a peg leg before you return to the fight," Aleric said.
"Aw, shucks. Sure thing, Master Fenn! I will be like one of these brigands now, eh?"
The zombie hobbled away, while Aleric ordered his horse to stand again and looked around. There were still plenty of other zombies that could be recovered with a bit of his help. Many of them were wounded in parts that were much less necessary for fighting, like torsos or heads. And he didn’t have to approach each of them separately to fix them.
He began gathering Dark energy for the next zombie when the one-legged soldier walked into a ring of light created by a shield burning on the ground.
In the next mont, Aleric heard a swishing of an arrow above.
Aleric reflexively ducked his head, but the arrow wasn’t aid at him.
It struck the neck of the one-legged soldier and imdiately exploded with a flash of Light energy, burning through flesh and Dark magic at once.
The soldier’s head flew off. His body blindly grasped for it, then lost its balance and fell. The mont it hit the ground, Aleric’s Dark magic gave out, and the body went entirely limp.
Nothing was animating it anymore.
Aleric spun to see where the arrow ca from and saw one of the inquisitors holding a bow and already pulling out another arrow. The other three were near, still not taking part in the fighting directly.
What Aleric hadn’t noticed earlier was that Inquisitor Farlan started shooting arrows at the sa ti as Inquisitor Maria blessed the arrows of the city’s archers. Unlike these archers, all of Farlan’s arrows found their mark.
However, after seeing the zombie fall, Farlan scoffed in frustration at himself. From that far away, and in the dark, he didn’t really see what he was aiming at.
"I thought that was him finally stepping into the light. Holding a staff and near that surge of Dark energy..." Farlan muttered. "The necromancer is sowhere down there. If the archers shoot more fire in that direction..."
"Would be as much use as their attempts to whittle down the other undead," agreed Inquisitor Irkan. "I will tell the commandant. anwhile, we should prepare to fight on the wall. The defenders are growing too tired to push the ladders away in ti."
The other inquisitors nodded grimly.
anwhile, below the wall, Aleric ordered his horse to run faster, and not away from the wall, but toward it.
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