Chapter 193 Sabotage
"Important mission? What is happening?" Dave blurted.
"We underestimated the Ash King's boldness. The undead king ordered four abyssal Knights to fortify the Red Fortress and the Undead Frontier, but the Ash King closed the zones with teleportation block spells, cutting our forces in half. Now he is advancing on the city with his main army and sieging the Dead Realm. We need to defend the Dead Realm until the teleportation gates are repaired. "
'Three days is an entire day in real-time.'
"What do you need me to do, Du'Rhaza?"
"The Ash King brought powerful cannons as siege weapons. I need you to destroy one of them. Be careful, there are a great number of demons around The cannon. Plant these [Frozen Souls] under the cannons and then return here as fast as you can."
Du'Rhaza handed him heavy pouch filled with [Frozen Souls].
"But I won't last for a minute that deep behind enemy lines."
"The legion is going to launch an attack to create a distraction so you can destroy the cannons. Just try to stay alive until then. If you meet a Sworn Stalwart, just run!"
"They brought Sworn Stalwarts?!" Dave almost panicked. There was no way he could fight a Sworn Stalwart. Even though he'd killed one of those magmatic creatures before, that was mostly due to Samael's help and a ridiculous streak of good luck.
"Kis'Shtiengbrah, when the legion's counter-strike starts, none of the Stalwarts will bother engaging with you. just make sure you accomplish your mission. Orn and Gale are waiting for you to join them outside the walls of the Undead City, Matalan will go with you too. FOR THE LEGION!"
"Follow me Kis'Shtiengbrah," Matalan said.
Outside the open city gates hundreds of thousands of undead stood in serried ranks.
In the distance, two armored Sworn Stalwarts, with chain linked to a tower behind them. The tower was as high as modern skyscraper, adorned with golden symbols scaled to fit. The top of the tower supported a broad open platform. In the middle the platform was a massive throne with a man lounging on it.
The figure was too distant for Dave to inspect, but the billboard sized red name tag, announced his identity. The Ash King.
"Do you see that?" Matalan interrupted.
Dave looked to where Matalan was pointing and saw a number of medieval looking wheeled muzzle-loading brass cannons pointed at the walls of the Undead City. They artillery guns were huge, bigger than any cannon Dave had seen anywhere, the bores could've swallowed an elephant. And every one of them had a Sworn Stalwart guarding it along with hundreds of demons.
"Remember, the cannons are the targets. We will join the battle at the frontlines for now, and when the legion charges, we will use the chance to infiltrate enemy ranks and destroy that cannon. Lords Orn and Gale are already in the frontlines, we're going to join up with them. You can ride your dunlord, but your undead units are not strong enough for this conflict, they would be slaughtered for no benefit, so do not take them with you on this mission."
"Can I bring the rest of my dunlords?"
"The number of dunlords in the legion is limited, your other dunlords were assigned to carry other powerful Undead. But you can summon your dullahan and his basilisk, he will be helpful on your mission.
Dave summoned Stinger and Dog along with the dullahan's basilisk mount.
Jumping on Stinger he ordered, "Alright, let's move out!"
Dave and Matalan made their way through the organized rear echelons of the undead. Rows upon rows of death knights, archers and casters stood in formation, ready to swap places with frontline units, replenishing the losses from the attrition of constant heavy combat.
Orn and Gale were fighting a mounted demon. The demon's mount was a two-headed rhinoceros sized lizard. One of the lizard heads spat bolts of lightning and when the other exhaled a roaring inferno of blazed out, like a living flame-thrower.
Dave inspected the rider.
General Ludwig (Demon)
Level: 550
Danger Level: ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠
Tier: EPIC
HP: 1,450,000
Damage: 200,000-300,000
DN: 120,000
MA: 120,000
Skills: ???
Demon general of the Fifth Demon Brigade
The confrontation between the demon general and the two Doom Knights had cleared the area around them, other undead were holding demons back from assisting their compatriot.
The general swung at Orn with a burning glaive. Orn sidestepped the broad blade, caught the haft and heaved back on it powerfully, pulling the general from his mount. The two headed lizard-mount tried to defend the general but Gale performed an aerial leap-and-flip attack, slamming his broken greatsword down on the lizard's back. The impact crushed the lizard's spine and cratered the ground underneath it.
Lesser demons surged against the Death Knights encircling the three combatants in an effort to aid their leader. A few demons made it through the line and rushed past the undead toward the fight. Gale saw them just as he was stabbing the wheezing lizard-mount with his broken greatsword. His arm muscles bulged as he hefted the multi-ton lizard and heaved it at the rushing demons with a roar of effort. The lizard slammed into the demons like a bowling ball and wiped them out in a perfect strike. Gale turned to assist Orn against the general, changing the battle-flow back to a two-to-one.
The demon tried to defend against the two Doom Knights but failed miserably. Demons kept trying to aid and extract him from the fight only for more Death Knights to surround them and slaughter them like sheep. A few moments later Gale and Orn slew the general.
Dave looked around, there were several other battles between particularly powerful demons and undead, but overall it looked like the undead were winning the melee part of the attack Which ke thought was only natural with that home ground advantage. The Death Heart resupplied the undead numbers endlessly. So, the undead losses could be considered null, even when the undead fell they would be revived to rejoin the battle almost immediately. And the demons were losing more and more soldiers as time went on.