As slowly as the undead army moved, the Border forest was not all that big. By dusk, when hunters that returned from the guerilla-style raids had finished resting, the undead army was near the edge of the forest.

However, the reports showed something strange…

In an open meeting in the center of the coliseum where leaders of the city militia and the hunters gathered, one of the hunters was shouting at a guild employee. The employee, a normal civilian with little magical ability, quivered under the overbearing presence of the hunter. Unable to watch, the vice guild leader stepped up.

This time, she was properly dressed in a suit that marked her out as something more than just a regular worker. However, the hunter was not intimidated.

“What do you mean the numbers are wrong?” the hunter shouted. “How can there be so little of them? Did you really count the numbers correctly?”

“I’m sure we did. We even counted the heads you and your colleagues brought back, and even ascertained the strength the undead should have in life. In total, the heads of twenty-seven jack-class undead were brought back.”

“And how many are at the edge of the forest?! How many are attacking?!”

The vice guild leader shifted a few stray strands of her tied up hair. “The reports estimate there to be around two hundred greater undeads in total. Among them are six lord-classes and no king-class.”

“No king-class… So where the hell did it go?”

“It’s reasonable to assume that the king-class decided to remain in the forest along with a significant portion of its troops. There is a point of interest in the forest in the form of a white tower… the possibility is high that the king decided to stay there for some reason.”

Before the hunter could shout something else, the captain of the militia, a tall, reliable-looking vampire with a square jaw banged on the table to catch the attention of the meeting. “Enough with the yelling and settle down! This isn’t the place! All I want to know is what we’ll be facing… and what we’re supposed to do against them?”

Compared to the free-spirited hunters, the militiamen were much more disciplined, even if they were less experienced in combat thanks to the long-lasting peace that Dianene experienced. Whereas the gathered hunters often talked amongst themselves, there were much less instances of that happening among the militiamen.

The vice guild leader nodded toward the captain. “We’ll get to that right now. It appears that the total strength of the invading force is less than expected at eighty-thousand lesser undead, two hundred jack-class undead, and six lord-class undead. Still a significant amount.”

“And what of their tactics?” the captain asked. “Surely something more came out of those raids…”

Aside from aiming to reduce the enemy’s forces before they clashed for real, the raids were also meant to scout out the enemies’ strengths and weaknesses. Lucienne blushed a little— while the Fleeting Leaves managed to take out four war potentials, the information they brought back wasn’t worth very much.

On the other hand, some of the other parties ran into much harder targets and had to retreat without managing to take out a single jack-class, but they managed to bring back valuable information about how the undead fought. 

Lucienne knew that in the long run, it was information that would have a much higher impact on the outcome of battle, but it wasn’t their fault the enemy was too weak and was eliminated before any cards could be shown.

Better to fight a quick battle and win than drag it out and get wiped out, as some parties did during the raids. Some of the hunters present were survivors of encounters with lord-class undead. Lucienne did not want to be like them.

Luckily, her own party’s lack of information was made up by the other less fortunate hunting parties, and the vice guild leader quickly summarized the intel that was brought back, painting a picture of what they might expect to face.

Powerful bombardment capabilities from the liches; excellent large-scale deployment of soldiers; machine-like precision from warriors. At the top, acting as commanders and the centerpiece of the army were the dreaded lord-class undeads.

The lord-class lich could level a patch of forest with a spell, while the lord-class warrior moved almost too fast to track and could sunder even reinforced shields and armors in one blow. Additionally, at that level, both the liches and warriors had become less specialized. 

Lord-class warriors had magic on par with jack-class liches, and the lord-class liches had strength on par with jack-class warriors. 

With obvious weaknesses eliminated, they were a headache to face.

“...I knew that lord-class undeads were powerful, but not that powerful,” Lucienne whispered to Eva. “Even where I was from, lord-classes were considered nearly legendary…”

“That doesn’t sound good at all. Hopefully they’re stupid and decide to stay back until all their subordinates are dead. That way, they’ll be easy pickings.”

Lucienne almost laughed at that. “Somehow I doubt it. They’re not dumb, but I guess we can always hope!”

As she joked with Eva, the meeting continued, and in the end, it was decided that they’d continue with the plan to remain on the defensive. Although it was tempting to try and wipe out the undead army while it was split in two, attacking was too risky.

A raid was small-scale enough that lesser undead could almost be ignored as long as they continuously retreated, but once the number of enemies increased by an order of magnitude, the threat of being surrounded and trapped within enemy lines was too high, since they had to penetrate too far in order to reach valuable targets.

Defense of the city was simple: activate the bloodstone powered barrier and bombard the enemy army from the walls. If the enemy dared come close, then they would sortie outside the walls and deal as much damage as they could.

Once the number of lesser undead has dropped low enough, they’ll be able to counterattack and wipe the enemy out in one go.

On paper, the plan would work, but Lucienne still had an uneasy feeling in her stomach. It seemed too easy… as it ignored a huge portion of the enemy’s strength.

The missing undead king… Lucienne doubted that it would leave its army without a very good reason for it. Undead at that level were terrifyingly intelligent, which is why she feared the consequences of ignoring such a huge variable.

Even if the safest thing to do was to stall on the surface, it may in fact be a grievous mistake…

 

Though it was usually off, the coming crisis made it necessary to turn on the barrier generator around the city. When bloodstones were put into slots made specifically to accept power sources, the array of barrier formation embedded beneath the city’s walls began to glow with power. In seconds, a semi-translucent barrier rose up from just outside the walls of Dianene, reaching up into the sky and enclosing the whole city within its protective dome.

To test its durability, a few bombardment mages sent a few blasts of magic at the barrier. No matter how long they gathered power, no matter how much they focused on one point, the barrier held. 

From within the barrier’s umbrella, Lucienne looked up at the rippling film with a hint of jealousy. “If those cities from back… home had this barrier, they wouldn’t have fallen so easily, right?” She paused at the word home, but didn’t change the word, because although Moltrost was no longer her home, she felt she should at least pay it some respects.

“Who knows? This barrier takes so much mana that I doubt those people back home can afford to use it. Bloodstones are so valuable even here after all…” Justin replied. “But with this, I think we can hold out…”

“But is it a victory if we hold out? You’re concerned about where the undead king is, right?”

Justin nodded, but neither of them could do anything. Neither of them had the power to launch an expedition to search for the king, and they weren’t strong enough to go off by themselves. To do so was suicide.

They exchanged a few words, but since Lucienne wasn’t very familiar with Justin, and they were different kinds of mages in the first place, they didn’t have much to talk about. On the other hand, it would be awkward to just leave.

In the end, it was a loud bell that could be heard from all over the city that saved them.

“Enemy attack!”

“Let’s go!”

Despite her words, they went off in different directions. Justin went to join the other mages on the walls so they had a clear line of sight and line of fire, while Lucienne went with the close-ranged fighters at the gates. The houses closest to the gate had temporarily cleared out to provide housing quarters for the gathered warriors, so they didn’t have to go very far before they joined their respective divisions.

Spotting Eva, Lucienne raised her hand and voice in greeting, and received a warm hug in reply, their arms clanking together.

“Are you nervous?”

“A little.” Eva laughed. “I’ve never taken part in something so big…”

“Me neither…” Lucienne put a hand on her chest, feeling the fluttering of her heart. Well, it was more like pounding, and Lucienne was sure that Eva could hear it from where she was. It felt like her heart was going to break out of her rib cage. “Always a first time, I guess. Are you ready?”

Eva shrugged. “Have to be. Don’t really have a choice otherwise, don’t we?”

“We have a bit longer. The militia is going first, remember?”

“Ah… the first to die…”

At that, they both began to laugh. Laughing at what exactly, they had no idea. The joke was so grim yet was laced with truth, and it wasn’t that funny in the first place… but perhaps the laughter was the only way to shake off the nervousness they both felt.

Behind the walls, unable to see anything, they could only rely on their other senses to make sense of what was happening.

Soon enough, the mana of the mages gathered above them roared to life as they began to cast their magic at the incoming targets far away.

Although none of them could detect the enemies’ mana, the mages had line of sight, and line of sight far outranged the range at which mana could be sensed. 

Magic and after magic was fired at distant enemies while the barrier shook with dark return fire. The exchange of fire will last for a while yet, as neither side will run out of mana. At least, their side won’t. 

Lucienne knew because she had personally given up at least half her bloodstone savings to Justin, and in her spare time, she had squirreled away some of her spare mana inside the bloodstones. Now, those bloodstones act as banks of mana that will enable Justin to cast his destructive magic for a long, long time.

Her lips pulled in a small smile as she imagined the enemy being reduced to cinders.

Perhaps, just maybe, this could all end soon, if they eliminate the enemy here…