"Ha!" Dave laughed, "Man, you saved my a.s.s here, yeah anytime Dagla!" Dave said in a gasp. His hope was almost crushed but thanks to Dagla"s interference, the day was saved. But Dave still had more to do.
"What is going on in here, young undead," Dagla spoke as he looked at the city. He didn"t miss the sounds of battle echoing through the city.
"I"m conquering this place. I should be able to easily take it down as long as the Qin army doesn"t use this gate to reinforce the city." Dave said.
Mercy had just arrived next to Dave, when she saw the undead that was speaking to Dave, she inspected it. Dave didn"t miss the sudden widening of the a.s.sa.s.sin"s eyes. Dagla was an arch-lich and was level 650.
"Then you don"t need to worry about that," Dagla said. He turned and waved his hand at the Teleportation Gate.
The swirl of blue plasma that enabled people to go from place to place suddenly subsided. Then it reversed its flow and turned to a darkish purple color.
"Done, only the undead could use this gate now. Beware, if the enemy reaches the gate they can change it back to how it was, you best keep it safe from a.s.sault." Dagla said.
"Thank you, thank you a lot," Dave said.
Soon, the sounds of battle sounded through the entirety of Nora. The undead broke through the flimsy and hastily made fortification or defenses of the city with ease. The Qin warriors were unable to gather in time to offer any sort of resistance to the a.s.sault of the undead.
Three death knights came to Dave"s presence to listen to orders.
"You," Dave pointed at one of the undead, "Take the gate, repair it and close it down." Dave turned to the other undead and said, "You, go to the barracks and empty them if you find any resistance break them."
The two Death Knights darted away to deliver Dave"s orders and fulfill them.
"As for you, I have a delicate mission for you."
The knight nodded awaiting Dave"s orders.
"I want all the civilians gathered here in the city plaza, get all that are inside their homes out. Don"t kill anyone but use none-lethal force to make them come out. I don"t want any unnecessary bloodshed."
"As you command," the Death Knight ran back to his brigade and ordered them to go through every house in the city.
"What are you planning young draugr?" Dagla asked.
"I can"t force the Qin Kingdom to their knees on my own, I"ll have to break them from within," Dave said.
"That"s not explaining things at all, but I understand, to each their secrets. I wish to see your plan unfolding, it"s more exciting not knowing until one sees the final results." Dagla said in a grin.
It took less than an hour for the undead to round up all the civilians. Dave ordered more undead to go through every house and inspect it for anyone hiding. But after two rounds of inspections, Dave was a.s.sured that all the NPCs were present in front of him.
The people looked terrified, afraid and most of them were shaking in their boots. The presence of tens of thousands of undead made them shudder and think of nothing but death. The undead was known to be merciless. They didn"t discriminate between man, woman or child. All that fought against them died. However, they still had a bit of home to receive a bit of mercy. The undead that called them to the town center didn"t a.s.sault any of them, unless against those that fought back. As for the women and children, they were escorted safely and were rounded up in a large circle around the Teleportation Gate.
Dave"s troops had already occupied all of the city strongholds. The barracks were emptied out and the guards or soldiers were chained up. That of course only applied to the ones who gave up fighting. As for the rest, their fates were far too grim.
The NPCs looked around warily, besides the hardly m.u.f.fled cries of children by their panicking parents, none spoke.
Dave looked at the NPCs and waited for someone to talk, there is always someone who is braver than the rest in a crowd, certainly, those were always the dumbest of people. But today"s experience made Dave doubt this cliché.
A man of middle age slowly mads his way to the front of the group of NPCs. he was still in his nightclothes and wore a robe above him. The man didn"t even have his shoes on, but ignored the brittle dirt he walked on as he walked toward Dave and Dagla.
The man stood in front of the two, he took an audible gulp and spoke in a stutter, "S-sirs, W-what can we do for you?"
Dave took a few seconds as if he was debating what he would say to the man. But these seconds felt like ages for the old man, he grimaced, perhaps thinking that his very words were the end of him.
Dave spoke up, "What"s your name?"
"I"m Ling Wan, the mayor of Nora," the man spoke.
"Mayor then, I only need you to stay here for a few days. None of you will be killed if you do not instigate any problems." Dave said.
Dave"s words gathered a collective gasp of relief from the NPCs.
"A-as you wish sirs," the mayor spoke.
Dave spoke again, "Where are your food supplies?"
The mayor was at a loss of words at first, he didn"t know what the undead would need their food for, but under the scrutinizing gaze of the bearded undead, the mayor buckled and pointed at a large building that could be seen from the plaza.
"That"s the Wearhouse, we keep our grain and foods there."
Dave nodded, he ordered two undead captains to come toward him then spoke something in a hushed tone to them. The two undead captains looked at each other in wonder after hearing Dave"s command but they didn"t argue and rushed away to complete their orders.
Dave returned his focus to the mayor, "I trust you"ll keep everyone under control mayor, if no problems happen, then it"s fine. If an issue occurs, then I"ll have to elect a new mayor," Dave spoke a calm threat that mad the mayor gulp even harder.
"As you wish sir." The mayor gave a half bow and retreated back to the ranks of NPCs.
Dave"s party soon joined him. Dante of all was exhilarated as he said, "Ha, I got to shoot a lot of guys."
"I hope you didn"t overdo it," Dave said ina wary smile.
"Nah, c"mon kid you know me. I only shot at those who shot at me. Fair is fair." Dante said in a laugh.
Samuel was shaking his head as if whatever his brother had done had nothing to do with him.
"What now?" Flanker asked, "If we stay here, it"ll only be a matter of time before the Qin kingdom finds out about us invading their lands." Flanker"s words were uttered in a low voice, it was that no NPC knew of such information. It might give them hope that help was coming. And hope could make people do some crazy stupid things.
"Don"t worry about that, I"m just waiting for Delvina."
"I ordered her to bring me something, she should arrive soon," Dagla said.
And just as he finished his words, the Teleportation Gate shone bright and the veiled woman appeared.
She handed Dagla a large parchment and turned to Dave, "My forces are at your command, Lord Doom Knight," Delvina said and gave Dave a crusty bow.
"Thank you. I need you to take the prisoners."
"You want me to convert them also?" Delvina asked.
Dave nodded, "Yes. I also need you to station your undead here. I"ll need you to do something for me." Dave said.
Delvina got closer to Dave and he spoke to her ears. The words made the woman shudder as if what Dave was speaking was madness itself.
Dave"s wide grin gave comfort to Delvina"s worries and she said, "I shall do as you say then."
"This is really interesting," Dagla laughed as he watched the whole procedure. Apparently, he overheard Dave"s words.
"Why is that?" Dave asked as he looked at Dagla.
"In my days, we didn"t need to plot, or think of plans, we swarmed the enemy with enough force, enough might and enough numbers to break their courage. Sure, it was costly, but no one can face the tide of undead charging them, what you are doing is completely unnatural to our ways," Dagla said.
"Dagla, I"m just a Doom Knight, my power is limited, but that doesn"t mean I don"t get to use my head. I"ll press any advantage I can have."
"Right, the legion should learn from you, you make a fine example, Kis"Shtiengbrah." Dagla laughed.
"Alright guys, time to move out," Dave said.
"Move out where?" Lone asked.
"We"ll capture another city, we need to take down three cities more cities at least for my plan to work," Dave said.
"And who"s gonna stay here and keep these guys from reporting what happened?" Ralph asked.
"Delvina will," Dave replied.
Delvina nodded and entered the teleportation gate, soon after she emerged with rows upon rows of undead that began spreading through the city and filling it.
"This should do," Dave said.
"Undead MOVE OUT!" Dave called, and his troops began leaving the city while Delvina"s own troops began filling their positions.
"Delvina, don"t forget what I asked you," Dave said.
"It has already begun," Delvina nodded.
Soon afterward, an explosion echoed in the distance, it was the food warehouse that Dave asked about earlier. Flames gathered and roared. The smell of brunt food soon covered the city. The warehouse had most of the food supplies the city needed to survive the winter. It was their back-up supply. Without it, many of the NPCs will die in hunger. But that was not all.
The NPCs had turned pale when they saw their food stocks and supplies burning to the ground. Then when they noticed the undead carrying food from their homes and toward the burning fire they suddenly felt weak in the knees.
The undead was depriving them of food, but for what reason?
Dave smiled grimly at the situation and summoned Grumpy to his side.
"Dagla, can I count on you for the rest of the gates," Dave asked.
Dagla nodded and said, "Use the gates to the undead frontier and I will come out to convert them to our use. G.o.dspeed, Kis"Shtiengbrah."
Dave nodded and nudged on grumpy to leave the city headed far deeper to the east.