"He was able to beat the Director!""What chance do we have?"
"Thank the G.o.ds for the shield."
"He has a nine-tails."
The panic was spreading like wildfire. With the Director not being seen since his engagement, the moral was beginning to become unstable. Yet, all the necromancer did was hold his arms out and perfume some sort of spell. Fitzy was doing his best to get his men in order and ready for whatever was coming next.
"Abby, take charge here," Fitzy instructed me.
"Got it," I replied.
He was right in why the necromancer was here, but why was Hue still staying here now? It was unsettling, and now it was a waiting game. Apart of me was half expecting the hordes of the seven h.e.l.l to break forth from wherever and smash into the shield.
Then the necromancer shot a green flare into the night sky. The green light exploded, and the fragments settle just above the city. An ominous feeling curled in my stomach. A banshee scream erupted from out of the blue, followed by the groaning of the dead.
"Where are they coming from?" I whispered.
I wasn"t the only one whispering and stirring. The entire line was looking for where the screams originated and next, silence. An unnatural silence that would make anyone go mad.
"AAARGH!"
Someone screamed right next to me. The soldier was looking down at the ground and at his foot. Rotten hands gripped his legs. The hands were so tight around the man"s legs that they were bleeding.
The ground around the man softened, and as quickly as the hands came, they and the soldier were gone underground. Suddenly the beach all around us began to stir and upturn. The undead hands sprung up, s.n.a.t.c.hing whomever they could.
We had no choice but to retreat to solid ground. We hacked, slashed, and shot the undead, but they just kept swarming the beach, taking anyone unfortunate enough. We tried to reform some sort of line of defense, but these undead weren"t like anything I had encountered before.
They didn"t move slow. The undead could counter and attack intelligently, and they were taking more men than we could kill.
"d.a.m.n him," I cursed, filling an undead with holy lead.
The creature blew into dust.
"Lieutenant!"
I turned my head to the back of me. The undead were coming out of the ground and entering the city. Screams could be heard everywhere.
Flames flashed next to me. The undead has a fire magi amongst them, and it was burning the buildings it came across. A soldier used her shield against the flame and struck the creature only to be blown up and engulfed by fire.
Two of her comrades slashed water on her and pulled her away from the fighting. Her body didn"t stir.
I was then yanked around. My hand fisted and slugged the being behind me. Unfortunately, it was Fitzy.
"Agh!"
He spat some blood out of his mouth.
"What the h.e.l.l was that for?"
"Sorry, I thought that you were a zombie," I defended.
"Well, I"m not!"
"Yeah, I got that," I protested.
"The horde is pushing hard and is flanking on both sides. We are losing more soldiers from being pulled under than anything else," Fitzy spat.
He took my hands and was pulling me to the rear.
"They are taking prisoners?"
"Not likely," Fitzy answer.
I gulped as other horrendous thoughts filled my head. We came to the center of town where the shard was housed. I swept my head around. We were able to create a perimeter around the stone with the Director, Fitzy, Emma, Nekko, and me in the middle.
Each of us coordinating a side of the perimeter in defense. Each of us barking desperate orders to the line to maybe punch a hole to safety. Each of us giving the other an uncertain look.
With even the ground wasn"t an ally. I could count how many times I had to stab at hands and heads popping up.
When was this going to end?
Then Fitzy started to scream something.
"Push! Push! Make the hole wider," he shouted to his line.
I glanced over. Fitzy was making a hallway to an exit! I pulled a few men from my line to a.s.sist, as did Emma and Nekko. Our little box shrunk to compensate, and the horde started to become more aggressive.
"Hurry up!"
"How"s the exit coming along, Lieutenant Fitzgerald?" The Director called back.
"Almost got it, there!"
We looked back and saw there was a hole to an exit. That"s when we heard something defusing. Heads turned upward; the shield was crumbling. I shot my head over to the shard. A zombie paladin was touching the stone, deactivating it.
Holes ripped across the shield, and h.e.l.l portals filled them. Horned beasts and tortured demons flooded the port.
"Everyone to the exit!" the Director ordered.
We were overwhelmed, overran, and the zombie pulled nearly every living soldier underground. The Fitzy held off a significant portion to keep the entrance open. Emma created a spiky ice fence and darted out the exit.
Then Nekko followed, pulling as many soldiers as she could with her. It was Fitzy, me, and the Director left to hold off the hordes and let the men retreat.
"Director, go!" Fitzy ordered.
"Like h.e.l.l, son!"
"We can"t lose you," I retorted.
We knew that the Director would fight till his last breath, but this wasn"t the battle for it. There came a forceful bright light blinding to the forces of h.e.l.l. The flash came from the Director.
"Let"s go!"
The flash gave us the split-second opening we needed to hit the exit. We turned and sprinted. Something s.n.a.t.c.hed my foot, ripping my footing out from under me.
My body hit the ground hard, and my head kissed something shard.
"Oof!"
Blood obscured my vision.
"Abby!"
I reached out my hand towards Fitzy"s voice, but nothing took hold. I was pulled into the ground, and darkness swept over me.
~~~
"I thought that when the city"s shield was gone, there would be more prisoners to take and torture?" Jezebel asked, looking around the square.
"And yet, I see hardly a living thing."
Jezebel turned her attention onto me. There was that look in her eye, disapproval.
My face showed no emotion as I busied myself with a corps. I closed the soldier"s eyes and wiped a line of black blood across his lips. Speaking the dark tongue of the necromancer, the blood slithered into the body, reanimating it.
The zombie rose and walked away.
"What can I say? I got greedy and took most of the inhabitants and filled the ranks of the undead army of mine."
Jezebel poked a finger on the back of my shoulder and slid it across my back, flicking its claw up off the other side. She kept herself to the back of me.
"I just thought that this would be quicker, and there would be more," Jezebel smiled, retaining her demeanor.
I turned my head to her.
"The plan was to have the Seventh divert almost all other their forces here, I take the city, and give it to you for a staging point, yes?" I questioned.
"Of course."
"Besides, for what they did to me, I want all of them; every single one. I want them to suffer under my hand," I stated, gritting my teeth.
"Mas…terrrr."
I looked forward. A few of my undead were pulling an unexpected prisoner into the middle of the square. I smiled from ear to ear at the sight of her.
Her once pristine armor was no broken and shattered. Her body, which I could only imagine that was porcelain, was bloodied, dirty, and weak. Her spook mask was gone and her long hair drug on the soiled ground.
"The once proud Right-Hand!" I mocked, raising my arms up in praise.
"The Right-Hand?"
I looked at the confused devil.
"She"s the Director"s right hand, an amazing source of information. Or at least, she will be once I break her," I chuckled darkly, lifting her head and having her one good eye meet both of mine.
Fear was set in that one eye.
"Where did you find her?" I asked my minions.
"She was trying to save a bunch of soldiers trying to make a run to the rosegate, but they didn"t make it," a demon chuckled, coming out of the shadows, lips, and claws drenched in blood.
"We were going to eat her as well, but then these things s.n.a.t.c.hed her up and scurried away," the demon complained.
"They knew that she meant far more to me alive than dead in your bellies," I retorted, dismissing the demons.
"Are you going to be easy and tell me what I want to know?" I teased.
The Right-Hand didn"t speak.
"Oh, good," I sneered.
A ma.s.sive boney, rotting hand, burst out from the ground under the prisoner. It clamped tightly around the ninja. She struggled but too weak to break free; the hand pulled her into the ground.
With her gone, I placed an hourgla.s.s on the ground. White glowing orbs began to emerge from everywhere and trickle into the top of the object. Then, the white sand that formed when the soul entered reached a point, the grains dripped into the bottom.
"We need to reactivate the shield and ready for a counter-attack," Jezebel ordered, snapping her fingers to a couple of authoritative demons.
"You, take a few with you and scout ahead." Jezebel turned to the other. "You begin to form the ranks on my horde."
"And you," she sweetly beckoned to me.
I came up to Jezebel and bowed my body respectfully.
"Yes, my lord?"
She giggled at the formality.
"You need not address me as such. We are on a first-name basis."
"I wish not to in front of the others," I hinted.
"Come." Jezebel waved her tail for me to follow her into a wrecked mansion.
She snapped her finger, and the building started to repair itself. Looking around further, and before the decorum turned more h.e.l.lish, I found that this house was previously owned by the major.
"We need to discuss battle strategies," Jezebel queued.
She touched a table, and a red, 3-D geographical map singed into the wood.
"We have a good start to the invasion, and thankfully, no losses," Jezebel congratulated me.
"Thank you," I bowed.
"Oh, quit with the formalities, Eugene, darling," Jezebel whaled.
"Sorry." I apologized.
Jezebel moved around the table and wrapped her armed around my back. She licked the side of my cheek before giving me a peck on the cheek.
"Nothing to be sorry for."
I slid my hands down her lower back, settling them at the joining of her lower back and b.u.t.t. Jezebel licked her lips at my "exploration."
"I think that we should attack that wretched academy of yours."
"They would have already evacuated everyone and moved to the mountain range, south of academy," I pointed to the map.
"Why?" she asked dreamily.
"Because it will provide another major defense for them and hurtle for us. We have no choice but to control the range."
"What hurtle?" Jezebel poked sensing something from my voice.
"It"s literally all uphill, and it"s owned by the Winters" Family, so expect a cold engagement," I reported.
"That isn"t good."
Jezebel pulled herself from me and review the map, tapping her lips and flicking her tail. She was absorbed by the calculations and odds.
"There will be major casualties on our end, but with my undead, we will gain the upper hand," I noted.
Jezebel just nodded, not fully listening.
"If you don"t mind, my darling," I spoke.
That got Jezebel"s attention.
"I have several souls to torture and break. Could I have a rain check for the time being?" I requested.
"I supposed you have earned it. Later on, I will need you to come to torture me?" she enticed, having a claw circle around her belly b.u.t.ton.
"Of course," I smiled.
I bowed and left the house. Mimiku appeared at my side as we slipped into an empty alleyway.
"You called?"
"Yes," I replied, "we are needed elsewhere."
Mimiku scrunched her face.
"We"re going to torture the souls you gathered?" Mimiku questioned.
"No," I simply stated.
Black smoke swirled around us and then disappeared along with us.