Strong Opposition

King Haroldris leads a group against the undead swarming around them.

16.

Strong Opposition

(Haroldris, Lute, Zeatt, Alvis, Aeric, Davit & Celathon)

 

 

The plan of King Haroldris had been simple, but difficult.   They would take a force of forty soldiers, the handful of knights they had with them, the surviving Clerics and Wizards and try to battle their way through the hoard of undead, to Valliex and hopefully to slay him.   Sir Celathon and Sir Davit joined Sir Alvis, Sir Aeric, Zeatt, Lute and King Haroldris to lead the men in the assault.

 

They were slowly fighting their way through the zombies and assorted reanimated undead when Valliex leapt up and soared over them, to attack the Queen, Siris and Alis.   But before they could turn and rush to their aid, they were completely overwhelmed by a legion of the Anthrodracoi from the front, the Reapers of Torvus Messorem from the right flank, Wraiths and Spectre’s from the left flank, and from above, a large number of the Wyverns.

Zeatt responded first, quickly raising her hands to heaven and asking Yesh to turn the undead away.  

Immediately the Wraiths and Spectres went incorporeal and vanished, but the turning did not affect the living Dragonmen.   The three Clerics near Zeatt tried the same action against the Reapers, and then Sir Alvis and the King also tried.  

About 20 of the Scythe wielding skeletons crumbled to dust at the Clerics’ words, while nearly 30 more turned and fled.  The other Paladins, the royal soldiers, and their captains focused their attacks on the Anthrodracoi, and the four wizards did likewise.  

Lute also brought his huge axe down on one of the Dragonmen.   Yet none of them fell to their blows but they returned the attacks by each breathing fiery clouds at them.   

From all around came the screams of the soldiers, knights and wizards as fire engulfed them.   The Reapers also attacked, swarming around the King, though he kept them at bay.  

Alvis was hit twice by their Scythes, but did not die from their touch.   They also rushed Zeatt, but though she was hit by one of their blades, she too did not fall dead.  

 

The other Clerics of Yesh also seemed divinely protected, for none of the Reapers were able to harm them.  

 

Zeatt turned her attention to the Reapers and prayed for their destruction.   Ten of the creatures crumbled to dust immediately.  

The soldiers fought savagely against the Anthrodracoi while the Clerics desperately tried to destroy any of the Reapers attacking them.   Only one of the Wizards remained standing and he was seriously injured.   But it did not stop him from throwing a lightning bolt at the Dragonmen attacking him; injuring seven of them. 

 

Sir Davit and Sir Alvis managed to destroy two of the Reapers each, as did the King, while Lute nearly killed a Dragonman with one blow of his axe.   The Anthrodracoi again breathed flames against the soldiers battling them and 24 of the King’s men burned to death.  

One of the King’s Cavalier Knights also fell dead to the fire of the Dragonmen.     The injured Wizard was consumed by the fire of those he had hurt with his lightning.  

 

The Reapers continued their attack on the Paladins and the Clerics.   Sir Davit was nicked by the blade but fought on with determination.  Sir Aeric also was hit by a scythe, but though seriously cut, did not die. 

Sir Alvis was now being coated with ice from his magic sword, Helke and was untouched by the Reapers.   Zeatt had a moment’s rest, having destroyed her attackers, so she rushed forward to assist Aeric.  

Lute’s opponent was too weak to breathe fire, but weakly struck with a great sword, which Lute easily avoided.  

 

King Haroldris’ Reapers could not get past his defenses and he stood his ground.   He killed two of them just as those that the Paladins had caused to flee, minutes ago, returned to the battle.   Zeatt cried out to Yesh to destroy them and 13 of the undead dissolved to ashes as they charged forward to attack. 

The four Paladins were prepared for the Reapers onslaught and killed five of them as they approached.   The three young clerics of Yesh also attacked the skeletal creatures, but only managed to injure two of them.  

 

Meanwhile, Lute was in a desperate battle with the Anthrodracoi.   His axe chopped through one of the Dragonmen, while the three surviving knights fought along side him.   Together they managed to kill another one.  

 

Only ten of the royal guards that had joined them in the assault remained and they also fought on with the desperation of men with no other option.  The Anthrodracoi once again belched forth fire on the guards, killing six of the ten, and seriously burning the other four.  

The Reapers attacked the three Clerics, who put up a valiant defense.  One fell dead to their scythes.

 

The three knights were breathed upon by the Anthrodracoi facing them and two were consumed by the flames.  

 

Zeatt, Celathon, Davit, Aeric, Alvis and the King were attacked from all sides by the persistent Reapers.  Zeatt was cut in her upper arm by one of the skeleton’s blades.   Celathon was badly injured by cuts to his legs and back, but still fought on.  

Sir Davit kept his opponents at bay, but Sir Aeric was wounded again, though their death magic again did not effect him.   Alvis’ ice encased form now resisted the blows from the scythes, but the King was not so lucky.

 

A scythe caught him in his face and immediately he disappeared as an autocaster ring he wore was activated.   There came the sound like a loud trumpet and the six Reapers attacking him dissolved to dust from the effect of the activated Holy Word.  

Lute saw the King fall from nearby where he was battling the Dragonmen and at his pause, one of the reptilian creatures breathed fire on him.   He roared in agony, but swung his axe at his attacker, delivering a serious wound to the Anthrodracoi.

 

Zeatt divinely turned eight more of the Reapers, who, as the others, crumbled to dust.   Sir Alvis struck down one of the Reapers opposing him, and Sir Davit’s Vorpal sword cut the head off one of his foes, ending his threat. 

 

Sir Aeric and Sir Celathon together damaged one of the Reapers, but were unable to bring it down.   The two terribly injured clerics were unable to destroy any of the Reapers standing against them.  

But some of the Royal guards that had been battling zombies and ghouls had seen the King fall and disappear, and immediately broke off their fight, to run to assist those with the King.  This encouraged the four remaining soldiers and sole surviving knight to fight on as the 20 guards joined them.   

Yet their enemies received reinforcements as well, for the Wraiths and Spectres that Zeatt had caused to flee by divine turning, now returned to the fight and would not be turned again.   Even worse was the attention the Wyverns began to pay to the group, and handfuls of the terrible flying reptiles dove down to ambush various guards throughout the melee.

Three Wyverns dove at the Royal guards and soldiers, but halfway in their descent, one of the Wyverns was hit by arrows coming from somewhere behind them and fell dead to the ground.   The other two swooped in, but the first one missed snatching up a guard.   The last Wyvern missed with its claws, but its poison stinger tail snagged a guard, killing him.  

The Wraiths manifested themselves around the poor surviving knight and tried to touch him with their life-stealing hands, but he generated a small field of protection from evil around him that kept their attacks from being successful. 

The three Spectres went after the two clerics, hitting one with their own vampiric touch.  But it was one of the two Reapers also attacking him that killed the poor cleric, who fell lifeless to the ground as soon as the Scythe touched him.

Four Reapers encircled Sir Celathon, who tried desperately to fend them off.   Yet the blade of one of the skeletons cut through his armor and he fell dead.  

Sir Davit avoided his four attacking Reapers, but cried out in horror upon seeing Celathon die.  

Sir Aeric was hit by one of the Reapers that he fought, but he did not die from the injuries.

Sir Alvis was untouched by the animated skeletons, protected by a thick ice coating.

The Reapers struck at Zeatt with a fiendish vengeance, two of them cutting her legs.   She stumbled from the serious wounds, but did not die and fought back.

 

Lute and the newly arrived guards were very surprised to find that the Anthrodracoi did not breathe fire upon them, but instead attacked with long, curved great swords.   The Half-Ogre could not defend against six of the Dragonmen and fell to the earth, critically injured and unconscious.

 

Amazingly, none of the royal soldiers who had joined the Half-Ogre were struck by the Dragonmen, and two of them pulled Lute backwards while their companions covered them.

 

Reviews

[Elina]

"They would take a force 40 soldiers..." It looks like "of" was left out, here. Also, you may want to spell forty out.
"...so rushed forward to assist Aeric." I think this should probably be changed to either "...and rushed forward..." or "...so she rushed forward..."
"...remained that had joined them in the assault and..." This may sound better as "...that had joined them in the assault remained and..."
"A scythe caught him in his face and immediately he disappeared as an autocaster ring he wore with spells set in it the same as the others, was activated." This is a somewhat wordy sentence. You could probably do away with "with spells set in the same as the others," as we've already seen the effects of the auto caster rings that the others are wearing.

[Eddie Davis]

Thank you Elina, all of them were good suggestions and I edited the chapter to reflect your suggestions.