PSE - 08 - Part 1 - For Glory

As the sun rose from the west Ubel sat at his desk, drinking a hot cup of tea while he looked over his plan one last time. He went over every detail and contingency he could think of, making sure he was as prepared as he could be in order for them to win this final battle. 

Once finished, Ubel looked out the window to see Volt, who was still deep in meditation with his aura fluctuating like a heartbeat. Before Snorri left she had informed him that Volt was in the final stages of his breakthrough. Usually this wouldn’t be a concern for anyone, but since Volt had sworn an oath, that made his attempt at a breakthrough become much more complicated. 

“He might die, turn crippled, go insane, or forever be stuck at the wall created by that oath... With him straining against his chains you never know what’ll happen. But if he can break through while under such an oath that man is a monster.”

Ubel rolled his eyes in exasperation.

Useless, even now. He won’t even wake up in time for this realm’s final battle. Still, I accounted for that.

“Are teams G1-G4 in position, Reaver?”

“Team three is running late, but should be in position in two minutes tops.”

“Acceptable. What about Team M?”

“They are on standby and ready to launch at any time.”

“Good, and the main force?”

“Urist has split them up under your orders. He’s currently waiting to be given the signal to begin his rallying speech.”

“Excellent. Are our enemies reacting as expected?”

“Lighter than we assumed. However five bone mechas have taken position along the outer walls of the castle, so it’s within your predictions. They also placed around two thousand gunners and warrior skeletons on top of this wall closest to our army. They only have minor forces stationed on the other walls, so I guess they don’t think we plan to stage an ambush. There are also some necromancers within their ranks, but they seem weaker than the ones we assassinated.”

“Wish they were stupid enough to put all of their forces on one side of the wall. Too bad for them, they still fell for the bait. When G3 is in position, give the order. Let’s end this.”

“Understood.”

...

The dwarven forces had positioned themselves far enough away that they could avoid getting shot at, yet close enough for them to stage a quick charge. 

On the off chance that the necromancers and their undead army would charge at them, they had made fortifications in order to easily crush such an attack. Although Ubel had assured Urist that there was a 90% chance that their enemies weren’t stupid enough to do so, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Urist, dressed in his flaming battle robe, sat atop of the massive white tiger, Rex,  and stared at the castle of bones in the distance, his forces lined up behind him in a loose line formation. 

As he looked at the walls littered with guns he felt no fear, but behind him he could feel the nervousness of his people. 

I would also be scared to charge at those walls if we didn’t have a way to stop the gunfire. 

“Rawr.”

Rex growled at him and snapped Urist out of his thoughts.

Urist looked over and patted Rex’s large head with a smile only to see it tapping its paw three times.

Ah, time to put our lives on the line.

He pulled on Rex’s reins and turned to his army, trying to look as heroic and majestic as possible. 

“Brothers and sisters! This battle is where Dwarven kind, Fox-kin, and Rat-kin will be bonded together by the fires of war! Look to your sides! The ones by you are the men and women who will cover, bleed, and die for you! 

“We will crush the undead under our feet, sever Malous’ head, and place it on a stick for all to see! We will rescue our captive brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, and march into our future with our heads held high!

“FOR GLORY! FOR OUR FUTURES!” Urist shouted, raising his spear towards the skies.

“FOR GLORY! FOR OUR FUTURE! FOR GLORY! FOR OUR FUTURE!”

The army behind him roared at the top of their lungs, chanting for victory.

As the maelstrom of voices cried out, Urist lowered his spear, pointing its blade towards their enemies. 

…

Ubel leaned back in his chair, lazily nursing his cup of tea as he spat out an order.

“Blow it.”

...

“The Commander says to blow it!” A voice called.

“Those undead are so fucked, keke.” An earth mage laughed, deep within one of four half collapsed tunnels as he finished securing a bomb to the tunnel’s ceiling.

Once done he moved away, collapsing the rest of the tunnel as he went, and eventually joined up with the earth mages from the other three tunnels. Their group quickly moved to a safe distance before pouring their mana into the bombs’ triggers.

*Click* *Click* *Click* *Click*

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” One of the mages shouted.

...

The bone walls in front of Urist’s forces exploded. A good portion of Urist’s army was blown off their feet by the sudden blast and fell on their asses as a shockwave swept over the area. Some of the weaker fighters and mages in the army were even sent tumbling and rolling before eventually a few times before stopping with dizzy heads and bile rising from their guts.

Those with high strength, such as Valkus, weren't affected by the shockwave and just stared the massive explosion in awe. They watched as the undead, the necromancers, and even the bone mechas were shredded by bits of wall fragments moving at a high velocity. The force was so immense that when two mechas were struck they detonated violently, creating yet another explosion that blew those who were just picking themselves up right back down onto the ground. 

They watched in a daze as massive chunks of bone wall shot across the field and up into the sky, as flames crawled along the destruction and reached up towards the sun, causing the air to twist and warp from pure heat. Bones burned to a crisp as fragments large and small scattered through the land. A few pieces even launched in Urist’s direction. The mages quickly got to their feet however, and were able to prevent the large pieces of debris from crushing anyone.

It took a full minute before the flame covered fragments stopped falling. Urist ordered the wind mages to push the dust and clouds away to reveal the sun. 

By the time the light appeared once more the rest of Urist’s forces had picked themselves up, though some of them were still dazed and confused, not knowing what had happened.

They knew Urist and Ubel had had a plan, but they didn’t expect anything like this.

Urist was also somewhat dumbfounded at how well Ubel’s harebrained scheme had worked. The four combined explosions had created a massive hole in the wall that could allow an army five times their numbers to pass through with ease, shoulder to shoulder. 

Well now. Ubel did say not to worry about the wall, but to just punch a hole through with some stones... I would say that it’s unexpected, but this is Ubel we’re talking about. 

Urist quickly put an end to his musings and infused his voice with mana.

“CHARGE!!!”

Rex gave a roar before rushing forth, leading the way with Urist on his back. The leaders of the army followed suit, roaring to charge as they shot after the pair.

Those still dazed by the explosion snapped back to attention, picked up their weapons, and charged towards the enemy, their spirits anewed with vicious bloodlust.

PSE - 08 - Part 2 - Opening Gambit

Unicy, dressed in leather battle gear with her iron bow slung over her shoulder, rode atop a large black tiger named Rama. Unicy’s brilliant brown eyes shone with a fierce light, her long brown hair fluttering in the wind and her feet secure within the stirrups of Rama's saddle as she leaned forth to get that little bit of extra speed.

To her sides were Valkus and Joy, riding upon Rain and Rocka. The three led the vanguard as they tried to keep up with Urist, who had charged forth like there was no tomorrow. The other powerhouses were mounted on the backs of tigers or scaled wolves and raced after them.

The infantry marched at the back in a loose formation, trying to make themselves smaller targets as they sprinted across the field. Those with strength to spare carried the less physically able mages, allowing them to avoid exhaustion and keep their wits about them. 

However the first ones to reach the collapsed bone wall weren’t any of the dwarves, tigers, or scaled wolves, but rather the fox-kin that possessed the ability to teleport. They targeted the necromancers and skeletons that managed to survive the blast and quickly threw the already scrambled enemy forces into further confusion. 

Thanks to the fox-kins’ efforts the vanguard entered the battle unmolested and began to lay waste to all of the high priority targets in sight. Namely, the bone mechas that managed to survive the explosions and the enemy forces that were trying to dig themselves out of the cascades of rubble littered along the still crumbling wall.

Unicy pulled a packet of holy charged grenades out of Rama’s saddlebag, quickly removed the pins tied together by a string, and threw the whole thing onto the head of a bone mecha that had just managed to free itself from the rubble. 

She didn’t look back as the explosion went off, instead directing Rama to climb a nearby bone tower. 

When they reached the top she jumped off of Rama’s back and took her bow in hand. Time seemed to slow for Unicy as she notched an arrow back. Her pupils moved erratically as she scanned the battlefield for targets.

She quickly located a victim and unleashed an iron arrow towards a necromancer attempting to regain command. The arrow popped the necromancer's head like a balloon and scattered the miniscule amount of soldiers he had managed to gather.

“Next.”

... 

Down below Valkus had jumped off his mount and smashed into the hordes of undead with his spear while Joy remained mounted on Ricka as the tiger crushed the skulls of their enemies underfoot, allowing Joy to easily drill her lance through the undead around them.

The rest of the powerhouses followed after them, with Acar and Bishop working together to break the remaining two bone mechas to slowly create a foothold that would allow the infantry to slaughter all the undead before them without issue. 

“Guhahaha, now this is a party!” The brawler Zen laughed as he threw himself into the fray, smashing controller skeleton heads left and right with his fists. Several skeletons tried to shoot him, but Zen dodged like a monkey as the Champion, Quake, rushed out from behind him. Quake moved his clubs at a speed impossible to catch with the naked eye, deflecting bullets with ease as he crushed every skeleton in his path.

“Oh!? It’s as the King and commander said, just block where the barrel is pointing.” Quake mused as he continued his rampage. 

The rest of the vanguard helped bombard and clear the area as the earth mages resurfaced and began fortifying their positions, creating cover for the infantry and raised platforms for the magesso they could rain death down upon the pockets of skeleton resistance. While they built up a base in the back, the troops pressed forth and passed by Snorri, who began barking orders at them. She ordered both her units and those she had taken control over- which were the ones belonging to the Blood mage Vlad, the Spirit Charmer Helga, and the Mounted Archer Unicy- to support the rampaging infantry led by Urist.

Urist led the Wild Card Unit with overwhelming force and decimated any reforming ranks of undead, allowing those behind them to fight without worry. 

“FOR GLORY!”

Urist roared as he burnt the skeletons’ mana out of them.

“FOR OUR FUTURE!”

The men behind him chanted as they laid waste to the undead.

…

“—and that’s how the battle is progressing, Commander Ubel.”

Kist reported as he moved and removed pieces upon the map.

As little as ten minutes in and we’ve utterly crushed the nearest skeletons, necromancers, and bone mechas. All that’s left are about three thousand five hundred undead, multiple low tier necromancers, around six unaccounted for bone mechas, and the big boss himself. I’ve managed to reduce their army to a feasible degree, making their numbers four to one instead of the insurmountable odds we were facing before.

“Besides any potential unknowns popping up, for now I’ve done all I can. We’ll be proceeding with Plan A. Team M is to move forward while keeping out of sight, acting as a reserve force for the main army.” Ubel calmly ordered as he drank the rest of his tea.

“Relaying orders.”

Kist and the wind mages replied.

Time for the clima— well, well, well. Son of a bitch.

Ubel gazed out the window as he felt the explosion of mana outside.

***

“We’re proceeding with Plan A.”

Wind Mage Emu reported to Snorri, who immediately laced her voice with mana.

“Proceed with Plan A!”

Urist relinquished the vanguard position to Snorri and moved to take up the left flank while Snorri ordered the infantry to reform. 

The rest of the forces began to move without question. The hunter squads led by Valkus and Joy took off to the north and south respectively, tasked with the mission to scout for mechas and destroy any incoming undead. 

Unicy leapt down from her sniping position and handed any arrows those in the area had managed to gather in such a short time. She then took her unit’s remaining forces and moved to take up the infantry’s right flank as Snorri barked out orders and started to reform the group into a formation. Helga, who had remained by Snorri’s side during the battle, brought up the back of the group.

Bhisop had taken Vlad's mage unit and reinforced the defenses of the earth base together with Fist mage Ayil. The healers breathed a sigh of relief as they helped those wounded from the clash, glad for the extra protection. 

Sage led most of the teleporting fox-kin to scout ahead of the infantry, leaving a few behind to protect the support units.

The reformation took less than two minutes, which Snorri wasn’t happy about but could live with for now.

Well, I’m not surprised how slow they were with how little training we’ve had as a single, whole army. After we make it through this battle I’ll ask Urist to have them practice more. Snorri thought as she cracked her neck and fingers. 

“Now the real battle begins. Slaughter them all!”

Snorri commanded with the rising surge to do battle and a voice filled with bloodlust.

Those around and behind her shouted and cheered, ready to put their lives on the line once more.

 

Part 3 - Glory vs. Happiness

 

Meanwhile, on the castle’s inner wall, five bone mechas watched the outer wall with shock as a massive explosion took down their first line of defense.

“Those bugs! To think they would execute such a vile plan. Our brothers and sisters… We must avenge them!” A feminine voice hissed as she crushed the wall beneath her mecha’s hands. She tried to descend below, if only to save a few of her comrades, yet another mecha held her back.

“Sister Lexie I know how you feel but we’re under orders to wait on the wall until Brother Robert comes back from visiting Master Malous.”

“It is as Brother Gotao says. Please wait to unleash your anger until we are ordered to.”

The agitated Lexie threw off his hands with one of her own then motioned to the battlefield below.

“You want me to wait?! To let my anger smolder? When we all witnessed George, Welt, Carlos, June, and Sidney die a dog's death? I didn’t take you all to be mere puppets, needing to wait on orders to get your revenge. 

“We were all supposed to ascend together with Master Malous. But those bugs, those vermin down there pissed and shit on our dreams, on our brothers and sisters! Where is your honor, where is your anger, your will, your need to avenge our brethren!? Ritter? Gotao? Vatara? Keth? Will all of you merely stand for this slight, sitting here to await your precious orders!?”

“Hey.” A gruff voice filled with barely contained rage came from the largest mecha of the group.

“You know how I, Keth, like to go into battle, Lexie. First one in, last one out. And if you question my honor one more time, I’ll cut you down where you stand.”

“Is that a threat?”Lexie asked as she moved for one of the magnums strapped to her side.

“Depends. How far do you wanna go?” Keth growled as he reached for the greatsword strapped to his back.

“H-hey... l-let’s not fight among each o-other. W-we need to crush those i-insects.”

“Stay out of this Vatara or I’ll cut you down first.”

“Interfere and I’ll plant a bullet in your head, Vatara.”

As the two turned their bloodlust towards Vatara, Ritter and Gotao moved to protect her.

“Enough.”

Just as tensions were boiling over, Malous' right hand, Robert, appeared in a jet black bone mecha.

“Master Malous has informed me that as long as we hold out for thirty minutes, he will ascend. We shall fight to the death to gain enough time, with Kota being the final line of defense.”

“I-isn’t he s-still heavily wounded?” Vatara questioned, filled with suspicion.

“Kot- it is fine. He... it volunteered to give up its personality and become a... berserker puppet. Any that go into that chamber that isn’t one of our kind will get torn limb from limb.”

The moment his words registered, Lexie smashed a ledge on the bone wall and leapt down, heading towards the battlefield and stunning those she left behind.

Ritter moved forth and yelled down at her.

“Where are you going?! We weren't given orders!”

“To get revenge!” Lexie roared as she walked forward, not even sparing a glance back.

“Fucking idiot... Brother Robert, are you going to allow her to do as she pleases?!”

“We’ll be following her.” Robert declared.

“Huh? Wouldn’t it be better to set up defensively, using our mechas as cover for our soldiers instead of going on the offensive? After all it won’t be long until our master ascends.His power alone would be enough to clear out all the insects.” 

Ritter questioned as the others nodded off to the side, agreeing with his assessment. 

“We can’t stay on or behind our walls if they can pull a stunt like that again, unless you enjoy the thought of being a sitting target. The inner castle and lower chamber are protected against such vile use of mana, but if we’re forced to retreat there, the battle has already been lost. Even if we retreat to the castle and create a chokehold they’ll just use suicide bombers against us like they did a few nights ago.” Robert explained in a depressed tone.

“So we must go on the offensive. Ritter and I will follow Lexie’s lead. Vatara, you’ll go for the left flank, Gotao to the right. Keth, since you are the strongest of us you will be the second line of defense and stop any vermin trying to sneak past us to assassinate our king. The rest of the necromancers will be under your leadership.”

“Understood. I will not fail you, brothers and sisters. Stay alive so we can attain happiness together.”

“For happiness,” they chanted before descending from the wall.

…

“Reporting! Our earth mages say that even with our explosives they won’t be able to punch into the core of the castle. It seems to be made out of some sort of strange material our mages have never seen before. Also, the advance scouts have reported back. Five bone mechas are taking to the field, and one of them is black in color. Three are moving towards the vanguard in a spearhead formation while the other two mechas are each moving northeast and southeast respectively.”

“Figures. Another cup of tea.”

Ubel leaned back lazily as he ordered a nearby fox-kin child.

“R-right away Mister!”

“What are your orders, Commander?” Kist asked.

“The gods really don’t want us to win easily, those bastards. Send down the order, we'll be switching to plan B-2. And call off the suicide bombers, it’s better to hold them in reserve against the unaccounted for mechas. Plus who knows how many skeletons they have in reserve, it’s best to face them head on and crush them.”

“Understood, should we also inform them about what happened to Volt?”

“No,” Ubel shook his head. “We can’t distract them from the fight.”

“Alright.”

It can never be an easy win.

“Here’s your tea,  Mister Commander.”  the fox-kin said, holding the cup out to him in his small hands.

“Thank you.”

Ubel took the cup and stared into the steaming orange tinted water, swirling it around a bit in his hand.

Urist, I tried my best to scheme, to crawl and scrape our way to having an advantage. But all I’ve managed to do is make it a fair fight. How disgraceful. It’s up to you now to take it the rest of the way.

 

Part 4 - Dogfight

 

“Contact.”

Valkus stopped and dismounted, his spear held steadily within his hand, while the rest of his squad spread out along the bone buildings, some going in, others going up, and the rest taking up positions on the outside. Valkus’s forces only just managed to set up when a tall and limber bone mecha covered in thrusters appeared in the distance, accompanied by a horde of skeletons. 

As the skeleton troop rushed towards Valkus and his party,  Valkus studied the mecha approaching him at a high clip.

Oh? No swords, guns, or staves? This should be a fun fight.

The whole skeleton unit, including the mecha, were only armed with spears, yet they were also outfitted with heavy armor made out of bone and metal. However, Valkus noticed that beneath the armor was some form of black energy that came together to give these skeletons dark, pulsating muscles. 

Valkus smiled as he began walking forward, cracking his neck as silver energy started to gather around him.

…

On the other side of the battlefield, Joy and her team moved throughout buildings to dodge the bombardment of spells being rained down upon them by a floating bone mecha. Skeleton mages had even created a mana shield to keep the dwarven forces from damaging the mecha.

“Weak. Weak! Is this all you vermin have? Bleed and die for me!”

Unlike her previous meek attitude on the wall, Vatara’s switch seemed to have flipped as she watched the dwarfs run and dodge for their lives.

As her hunter squad ran around like headless chickens, Joy used her lance to block an energy beam. 

“Hey, hey now. Who do you think you are, calling me a vermin? Just for that, I, Joy the White Lance, will be claiming your head!”

With one eye half closed, Joy’s aura exploded forth, covering her body in white light.

“Prepare yourself.”

...

Urist's army marched forth, enveloped within his flames of war and preparing themselves for a heated conflict. There were no more tricks, no more plans, no more scheming. 

Now was the time to kill or be killed.

Before long the coalition would confront the undead army.

There were no words. No pauses. No compassion. 

Only blood lust filled roars and battlecries sounded as mana shifted with the rise of emotions and tore through the air in a fury.

The moment Urist’s coalition entered the skeleton gunner's effective range, Robert gave the order, “FIRE!” 

The front row of skeletons dropped to their knees, allowing the row behind them to join in and fire a  thick wall of over a thousand bullets into the dwarf’s frontlines.

“Earth wall! Wind wall! Water wall!” 

The mages worked in tandem, having learned their lessons from previous battles to combine their defensive magic. Some iron death balls were thrown off course, others slowed within the water, and those left were stopped in place by the wall of earth.

“Body experts Di, Don, Da and strength type fox-kin, would you kindly return their gifts? Mages, help them.” Snorri ordered as she moved her forces into position.

Di chuckled, “You heard the lady. Let’s show them what we can do!”

“OHHHHH!” The warriors roared as silver light gathered around their fists.

“Combine! Harden! Freeze! Swift! Enhance! ”

The mages first turned the remaining earth wall into a wall of mud before breaking it into massive dirt balls. The balls were then hardened and frosted over. Expending a fair amount of blood crystals, two blood mages strengthened the warriors standing behind the massive boulders.

The body experts’ aura exploded forth in unison as the three mechas charged at them. 

“PALM STYLE - HIGH IMPACT!”

Buffed by flames, spells, and blood, they infused Qi energy into their hands and sent the boulders flying at high speeds into the skeleton army, dismantling a good chunk of their forces into nothing more than crushed bones.

Lexie took the vanguard, charging right into the hail of boulders and using her giant battle axe to smash the frozen earth into dust as Robert and Ritter followed behind her. 

Lexie roared with cold determination, “YOU FUCKING VERMIN! I’m going to kill you all and avenge my family!”

Behind her Ritter, the Sword Mecha, began speaking in tongues as his two green staves lit up with green fire and coated his mecha in flames. 

The Black Mecha, Robert, followed after Lexie, stomping along in his enormous gorilla shaped mecha. Unlike the two mechas by his sides, Robert’s mecha held no weapons in its  massive hands, for they were weapons in and of themselves.

Snorri the Slayer laughed when she sighted the massive black mecha.

“Oh, I can’t pass up this challenge. Helga, you're in charge of our army! Go all out and play with that glowy one over there. This black one is… MINE!”

Hegla rolled her eyes as she gathered her mana. 

Meanwhile jagged black tears tore along Snorri’s body as she rushed out before the mages could begin crafting their fortifications, charging straight towards the lumbering death machine. 

When Urist saw her move out he sighed to himself.

Guess that leaves the pissed off battle axe wielding banshee for me. 

“Master Mo, we’re moving out. Bishop and the rest of the mages will give us cover. Uria, defend us from any ambushes.”

Master Mo, the Fisherman, gave a gin and patted Urist on his shoulder, “Let’s go, disciple.”

Bishop held out his hands and began to apply formations on the two, increasing their speed and attack. 

“Try not to get killed out there, King.” Bishop cautioned as he finished buffing the pair.

“Kick her ass!”

“W-what sis said!”

The sisters Aqua and Vesi chimed in, wishing them good luck as Urist and Mo moved towards Lexie.

Flames spread around her as Uria put her hands together.

“I pray for your safe return, Urist.”

Urist shot her a thumbs up as he rushed towards Lexie with Mo in tow.

His eyes were filled with conviction and Urist showed no fear as he neared the frenzied mecha.

“I AM URIST, KING OF THE DWARFS, FOX-KIN, AND RAT-KIN! I SHALL BE TAKING YOUR HEAD FOR MY PEOPLE, TO BRING LIGHT TO OUR FUTURE.”

“YOU VERMIN KILLED MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS! IF I DON’T FEED YOUR BLOOD TO THEIR SOULS AS REVENGE THEN I AM NO NORKIN!” 

“ORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

“AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

Urist and Lexie screamed at each other as they closed the distance, with Master Mo silently trailing behind Urist with unperturbed eyes. 

Green fire lit up along Lexie’s battleaxe as she drew it back to her side, shifted her weight, then unleashed a swing that brought about a blinding beam of light along with a storm of wind and bone chunks torn right off the floor. 

>SINS BEHEADER<

Urist met her wave of destruction head on by gathering a large fireball within his hand and chucking it into the beam’s path, not stopping for a moment. When the two forces were about to meet, Urist snapped his fingers.

>Bomb<

The ball of flame exploded, not only neutralizing Lexie’s move but also spreading sticky orange flame across the ground that quickly began expanding its territory.

Field set.

“DIE!”

Urist’s eyes widened for his explosive flames had not only blocked the beam but also his sight, leaving him unable to see that the enemy mecha had leapt into the air with a flip, intent on splitting him in half with her battle axe.

I was careless! I didn’t think they could move like that!

“Boost! Second Strike!” Mo’s calm voice rang out.

Wrapped within water and flames, Mo appeared in midair, smashing his spear into the mecha's battleaxe, halting it inches from Urist's face and forcing it off course.

Urist didn’t stay still however, for he saw one of the mecha’s hands lashing out towards Master Mo, who was still in the air. 

“BOOST! FIRST STRIKE!” Urist shouted.

Water mingled with flames as Urist sent his spear forth into the mecha’s hand, causing its forearm to splinter and break.

Urist was stunned but kept moving forth to open up space.

My spear has gotten strong enough to crush through their armor? Oh man, this is going to be way—

Urist stopped mid thought as he saw the bones covering the floor below the mecha crawl up and replace the hand he’d just broken.

Harder. Fuck.