Chapter 31

  The day of the attack

  Igmond the half troll half orc warlord and general of the army of Ungormoric watched from his vantage point on top of his metal beast. His siege titan of betrayed, stood perfectly still to give a better view. His army had rested long enough once they were roughly a mile in range of the adventurer town. He watched as his forces were organizing themselves in the early dawn sun. Lines forming, harpies flying off to scout ahead. From what his commanders have said so far, the guild town’s defenses were pathetic. Their walls would pose no more of an obstacle than a twig in someone’s path. But why rush the inevitable? Why not let his warriors have their fun? They have earned it after campaigning for some time. He could use some fun himself if he was honest. One that didn’t involve immediate spilled blood. His current slave had been broken a few days ago, he was due for a new one.

  “Warlord!” called his advisor, running to meet him in the clearing.

  Gragil, a coward of a hobgoblin without question and a sniveling boot licker. Luckily for the coward he was clever and a mage otherwise Igmond would have had him skinned alive.

  Gragil stopped ten paces away just as Igmond jumped down from his favorite beast. The hobgoblin kneeling with a fist on the ground and their head bowed to stare at the dirt. His robes looted from a spell caster that had been captured and tortured to death, pressed to the dirt from the position. Both were in a partial clearing with the towering trees surrounding them along with underbrush obscuring them. Making it harder for their voices to carry, especially with the wind gone.

  Igmond approached his kneeling advisor with slow deliberate steps. Purposely taking his time with a hand resting on the axe he kept on his hip. An unspoken threat of consequences should the boot licker prove to be wasting Igmond’s time.

  “Speak.” Igmond growled, looking down at the shaking coward who flinched at the command.

  “My great and mighty warlord!” Hobgoblin quickly said, “I have scried the fortunes of battle as you commanded. They make no sense…”

  That got Igmond’s attention.

  While the advisor was many things that made him useless. He was very good at scrying magics. By his sights and fortune telling, Igmond had claimed a good number of victories and found many powerful artifacts left behind by the betrayed.

  “Explain.” Igmond ordered, his nails scraping along the head of his axe.

  “The lands, the spirits, the fates, they all show the same thing again and again. Death. Steel. Fury. Monsters of metal. Creatures of twisted flesh. A metal skeleton coated in metal and burning embers for eyes. Its gaze…” The coward shuttered. “There was only hate. Unreasoning, unforgiving, maddening hate…”

  Igmond considered the coward’s words. Would this change his plans? No, it only told him to be more cautious. Not to mention there was a prize mentioned in that warning and the type of enemy. Machines and undead. He knew of the dungeon’s origins for certain and the mobs it had. There was even word of a few adventurers claiming some prize of minor magic items taken from the dungeon itself. But the adventurer’s guild using undead? That was surprising, and smart.

  The smile he had exposed his tusks and fangs at this news.

  “Fetch me the priest and ten barrels of water.” Igmond ordered, making Gragil jumped from his knees and scrambled to heed the command.

  It wasn’t a long wait. The priest was a satyr who was bound with a chain around their neck with an orc pulling it. A partial black eye that was mostly healed along with a few bruises and a few spots where his robes had rips. Maybe a little starved but otherwise unharmed. The same couldn’t be said of the nun. With them was a troll pulling a cart with the barrels of water.

  “What do you want of me, monster.” The priest said hoarsely, their eyes full of fear and disdain.

  Igmond of course didn’t care.

  “Holy man, you will bless the water.” He ordered, a sickening smile on his face as he came to stand over the priest. “It is your duty to lay the dead to rest and there are walking dead who need to be laid to rest once more.”

  “Why should I help you?” Spat the priest.

  The orc holding his chain punch the satyr in the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs and left to collapse on the ground. Wheezing to try and regain his breath.

  “Because your god would demand it of you.” Igmond chuckled, unbothered by moment of challenge from the priest. “And I feel generous today. Do it, and I’ll set your nun free. No longer to be tormented by my army.” He lied.

  “Do you swear it?” the priest asked, their eyes filled for a moment with hope.

  “Yes, by the powers to be and the witnesses here, I swear it to your gods.” Igmond stated.

  It didn’t take long for the priest to get to work to convert the water to holy water. During that time, Igmond had a chair brought to him to sit and watch as the priest did his work. Also having the nun brought over to further motivate the priest to work faster and actually bless the water. By the time the satyr was done, he was sweating hard and drained of what little strength he had left. The nun stood next to Igmond in her decrepit state. Her eyes now hollowed husks of the life they once held before being thrown to the army for entertainment.

  When the priest declared his work done and demanded that the nun be freed, Igmond nodded as he stood up from his seat. He clasped the iron collar around the nun’s throat and broke off the lock. Leaving the oppressive accessory to call uselessly to the ground.

  All who were present to witness this said and did nothing as the nun numbly reached up to touch her throat. Unsure if what was happening was real.

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  “Congratulations,” Igmond said with a comforting tone. “Today you are being freed. Thank your priest for his efforts managed to free you.”

  The priest was still on his knees as the nun had tears start to stream down her eyes. Her lips trembling while started to return to her gave. Just when she was about to say the words, Igmond pulled his axe from his belt and nearly cleaved the nun in half. Its blade sinking into her left shoulder and stopping at her right hip. What little hope she had could be seen by the priest morph into confusion, pain and despair all as she wordlessly mouthed the word why.

  The priest was too shocked to say anything as Igmond wiped off his axe and placed it back on his belt. It was only when he ordered the priest back into his pen and the body be fed to the beasts that he started to wail and sob.

  “Stop your whining goat, I promised she be freed and now she is.” Igmond laughed at the broken wails of the priest.

  With his fun done, he ordered the scabbards of his men’s weapons should be filled with the holy water. That way the coating would always be fresh for when they fought the undead. With the orders given and the men were off to do as commanded, he returned to his favored beast. Remounting it to wait for the army to be ready before unleashing them to do his will.

  ***

  Jack made his last purchases from the dungeon upgrade menu. Buying the Multilayered Dimension for three hundred points then creating a safe haven for them to stay in until this was all over. He stood in his tower on the balcony, overlooking the town that had once bustling with life just the day before. The stone structures were silent from renovations not being made. The streets no longer noisy from people debating, talking or goods being moved from one spot to another. The gardens of the mansions that were once choked with vines, weeds and ivies were once again clear. Fruits and vegetables now growing in abundance in the now well-maintained plots of land. Yet they seemed even more lifeless without the people tending to them or children playing their games.

  The workshops that Frizzy’s students would use to experiment on their own time also lacked their usual clanging and glow of their forges. The experimental labs where Omnus conducted his experiments was also uncomfortably peaceful. The usual curses, random lights, panic and cheer of experiments going wonderfully right or wrong were missed as well. The bio forges where his people passionately debated or compared notes also lacked the life Jack had become so accustomed to.

  He had to remind himself that it was all temporary. That once it was over things would go back to normal. This was not another mass extermination of his people. They were prepared, they were armed and ready, had gathering of forces at his command and tricks a plenty.

  With a flex of his will, Jack made a large twenty-foot-wide trapdoor open. Causing it to make a ramp that lead to the chamber underground where the piles of bodies he made laid in wait. That was when he activated the Reanimate Dead ability of his dungeon.

  One by one in rapid succession, the dead bodies he generated shuddered from the necrotic energies that grasped them. One by one they lifted themselves off the ground dressed in the armor that his people made them. Taking the poisoned weapons that had been left for them to take arms with before they shambled their way into the morning light. Thousands of weak zombies and skeletons made their way outside into the early morning light of day to head their master’s commands. Once outside there was three thousand all standing in a haphazard mob that faced Jack’s tower.

  Then came the mobs.

  Zombie rats and skeleton rats, tin crabs, gorebound hounds, tin constructs, copper spiders, bronze apes, ghouls, earth diving squid constructs and horrid Amalgumations of flesh and iron. All of them forming much neater rows than their non-mob counterparts. All ready and waiting, eager to hear Jack’s commands, to do his bidding.

  Behind Jack was his sentinels. Each one ready and waiting to do their part. Jack felt their emotions and thoughts through his link. Despite their clashing personalities and perspectives, they all had one goal. They were ready to do what must be done.

  Aegisthal was at the front of their group behind Jack. Armed with a shield of thick steel, a spear, a great sword, and three bottles of eye blight powder on his hip. He stood ready and resolute as always to crush the enemy and command those appointed to him. There were no doubts in his mind. Only the mission he had been tasked. He just needed the orders to begin.

  Omnus, his scholar, was examining one of the tomes he had been working on to create a new spell. He was excited as ever. Not so much for the fight, but the opportunity to test his newly develop spells on the unsuspecting invaders. He didn’t have and living test subjects to test his spells on and it would be good information to gather from this fight.

  Eorlas his spy and huntress was ravenous. Eager to sink her claws into something, to chase and hunt her quarry to the ends of the world and back. To savor the challenge and prying secrets from whoever and however she can. Waiting to be unleashed to show their enemies that she was worse than any phantom that nightmares could hope to conjure. She was holding one of her blades and using a wet stone to further hone its edge.

  Then there was saintly Halydra. She was humming a soft sweet melody as while on her knees, hands clasped together while silently praying. But despite her serene appearance, she was saddened yet resolute in what would be needed of her. She was ready to heal and mend flesh and metal of her lord’s forces. To keep them standing and fighting so that the coming usurpers and desecrators could be stopped. And if that was not enough… storm of razor-sharp dust and dreadful song would greet them. No matter how much is sadden her, she couldn’t allow such sacrilege.

  “Aegisthal.” Jack said, causing the mighty battle golem to step forwards. “Take command of the army. Do what you can to lure them into the dungeon. That way I can keep you supplied with troops.”

  “It will be done, My General.” Aegisthal confirmed, his fist striking the center of his chest before stepping back.

  “Halydra.”

  “Yes, My Lord?” she asked, opening her eyes and righting herself before taking a graceful bow to him.

  “I want you to stay at Aegisthal’s side. Do what you do best. Keep as many as you can on their feet. Especially your fellow sentinels.” He said making the ethereal sentinel smile warmly.

  “As you will it, My Lord, so shall it be.”

  “Eorlas?”

  “Yes, My Master?” Eorlas purred, the grin of her silver mask growing ever so slightly wider.

  “I want their chain of command broken. We aren’t interest in a fair fight. You see a leader, commander, or anyone that looks like they might be in charge. Get rid of them. Happy hunting.”

  Eorlas was practically drooling with her fingers flexing a bit in anticipation. Ready to put her master’s will into action.

  “Happy hunting indeed, my Master. I shall return with trophies aplenty.” She purred while sliding her blade back into his sheath.

  “Omnus. Anything fine you have in mind that I should know about?” Jack asked, now turning to fully face his sentinels.

  "There are quite a number of delightful options I could unleash, Primus Sage. I would simply need to know what you have in mind, so I may tailor the devastation accordingly." Omnus said chipperly, ready to put his experiments to practical use.

  “Shock and Awe. I want them to panic.” Jack said plainly.

  "Understood, Primus Sage. Panic will be the first mercy they are shown." Omnus said contently, quickly flicking through the pages of his tome to ready the spells.

  Jack nodded at this. Pushing himself away from the balcony to approach his sentinels. Hands clasped behind his back, spine straight and metaphorical eyes on them. Coming to stop only a few paces from his sentinels with each of them standing taller than him.

  “This is not the first time my home was invaded by assholes who think they can do whatever they want.” Jack stated plainly. “That won’t happen again. Not this time. Break them.”

  And with that his Sentinels ran to fulfill their orders. Some jumping from the balcony while others took the magic lift system. Jack for his part moved his consciousness back to his large-scale workshop. Leaving the body of his dungeon avatar behind to try and complete his ace in the hole. If they could just buy him a little time, it would be a game changer.

  I’m going to feel really freaking stupid if this doesn’t work.

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