Introduction
Many things are happening all at once! We might be re-configuring how these follow on with one another in the final book... but here goes!
The last part of the story is here: Mortis Custos Part 89 by @lex-zaiya.
To start at the beginning of the story please see the links provided at the end of this post!
Viewer discretion is advised due to gory violence! Undead! Swords! Death! Beware!
Part 90
The Necromancer gestured and a battalion of his Skeletal Archers formed a semi-circle around the position where Temolach and his growing fleshy masterpiece stood.
This was the first day of the assault. The troops that had thus far been sent towards the walls were truly only fodder, fit only to tire out soldiers and to make the enemy waste their arrows.
This platoon of archers was a durable, though costly asset in his army. He did not have a lot of things that could throw damage toward the enemy at range and were to keep for the second or third day.
He had not thought he would have needed them so soon in the battle.
The harpy and the dragon were coming.
With his mind and his gestures, he ordered the archers to engage.
There was a loud thump sound and Helga dropped the two large stones that she had been carrying in her talons as she rolled through the air out of the aerial path of a hundred or more arrows.
Luckily, the skeletal warriors shooting at her were too perfect and grouped in their aim and she had a wide gap below the shot to duck into. If it had been ordinary soldiers then she would have been wounded by a stray arrow since not all arrows got to the intended location.
She cursed to herself. She had meant to drop the big rocks on the Necromancer's head. That would definitely have stopped the evil spellcaster. But no such luck now.
She hoped that Derric and Lucien had a better way of dealing with their enemy.
The shapechanger dragon that flew beside her had flown upwards at the first volley instead of ducking in beneath the wave. Again, because of the unnering unnatural aim of the skeleton archers, there were no stray shots to worry about.
Swooping down immediately into a dive, Lucien was unseated and held on with his arms only, the Life Drinker's body flowing out above the neck of the dragon. Derric roared yellow and orange flames and this gushed over a large portion of the archers, their dry preserved bones catching alight fast.
The dragon landed in the midst of the skeleton archers and with powerful swipes of its tail and slashing from its claws, it crushed dozens of skeletons.
Helga saw the lithe figure dismount from the Dragon in a leap. When it was clear that the dragon would not immediately bathe the area in flame, Lucien dashed out from the phalanx of archers. He beheaded a few of the undead as he went, just enough to carve a path outwards for himself.
It was clear that he intended to rush the Necromancer and assassinate the man. Helga remained in flight. Harpies were not suited to sustained combat. She merely waited for an opportunity to strike or to help. She considered her options.
It seemed that the undead had forgotten both about herself, as well as the lifedrinker. All attention was on the dragon. She considered the Necromancer, a shrivelled and shaggy figure situated slighting behind a wall of undead creatures that were consuming one another, the heaving mass of dead flesh growing into an unholy abomination.
The Necromancer too had not seen Lucien and was directing his forces against Derrick instead. All the while, ranks of the unloving marched and broke themselves on the wall of the city. A blur of dark motion caught the attention of her avian gaze.
Dreadthings were charging back towards the Necromancer. There were many of them. Usually they had only needed to deal with one or two of these creatures at a time. Now nearly a dozen of these things were charging towards the Dragon.
Though Derric was giving Lucien the opening he needed, if all the Dreadthings caught Derric then even as a dragon, he would be ripped apart! She dove through the air towards where the dragon fought. She needed to warn him!
“Derric!” She yelled, but the roars of the Dragon drowned out her voice.
The archers had begun firing at the dragon. Eerily, despite their haphazard state of being thrown around, those that still stood fired simultaneously. Majority of the arrow bounced off the dragon’s thick scales. A few found weak spots and stuck into flesh. It did not seem to slow the dragon. If Derric felt hurt or discomfort at the arrows, he showed no sign.
The first Dreadthing would get there before Helga did. It crashed through the skeleton ranks, not heeding its allies that it threw into the air. It clearly had a mind that was communicated with, but not controlled directly by the Necromancer.
“Derric!” Helga screeched.
The Dragon whipped around just in time to meet the thunderous charge. The Dreadthing, though a huge foe to a human, was quite smaller than the dragon Derric had become. Derric’s dragon form was a lot smaller initially, but he seemed to have gained the ability to grow.
Derric’s fangs sunk into the Dreadthing as it lept through the air and with a toss of his massive serpentine head, flicked the Dreadthing through the air.
A heartbeat later, a second Dreadthing arrived and tackled the Dragon around the waist and bit into the dragon. Derric roared. This was definitely a painful wound. Two more Dreadthings had arrived and each grabbed another part of the dragon and attempted to restrict its movement. The dragon slashed out with claws and teeth, ripping a Dreadthing apart and throwing its remains around the area, black putrid blood spraying over the area.
Helga could not help in this fight. She turned in her flight and looked toward where Lucien was charging. The Necromancer still did not seem to have noticed but the moment Lucien came within a dozen paces a mass of necromantic flesh shot out and captured the life drinker. The mass of undead had stopped feasting on one another. One mass had formed. Two massive legs of grey decaying flesh held up a massive body and muscular arms – With one fist holding and crushing the vampire Princeling.
The back of the beast was open and had a mouth-like look with bony points jutting out from the sides of the opening.
While Lucien was pinned by that massive fist, the Necromancer walked over to the massive creature. He stepped up on its back, his feel seemed to be held by the flesh as it moved and changed to accept his feet. The Necromancer stepped into the opening and the flesh and bone knitted itself up around the Necromancer’s body.
Power washed out from this new Avatar of Death in sickly waves that nearby caused Helga to lose consciousness. It roared and a chill dripped down her spine.
Another roar sounded, that of a dragon in pain. A shrill cry also sounded from the life-drinker being squeezed by the undead construct.
Then the most terrible thing happened…
Over the sides of the wall of the castle they came, ghouls leaping and bounding down the wall, half crawling, half falling. The ghouls were abandoning their defence of the city. Their future King was in trouble!
On the other flank of the wall, shadows seemed to flow down the other wall. The life drinker army was also leaving their posts, to sally forth in the aid of their princeling.
The city would be defenceless on both flanks! The human defenders began to fan out into a thin defence that did not manage to cover the whole area.
Initially the waves of the Unliving were slowed as the two armies sallying forth and crashed into their ranks. But the ghouls and vampires merely sought to come to the aid of their lords. To help. Thus they did not fight long, they just cut their way through the hordes that stood in their way. Many were left behind.
Instead of pursuing the ghouls and life drinkers, the Unliving continued their advance on the City, whose defences were now very thin.
There was no way that Mary’s army would be able to hold them out…
Wrapup
Well... things are a proper mess now! Let's see @lex-zaiya's reaction!
Here is an explanation of Chain Stories and the current Chainstory Library
Mortis Custos Parts:
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