The knights and Lenamare’s demon were now over the Citadel and coming in towards the Army of the Night. Exador glanced back to the Storm Lords to see them scrambling to get to their various commands, screaming at their generals and underlings.
“This is not good,” Ramses said. “There must be well over three thousand demonics. If you ask me, all of those orc demons appear to be major or greater demons, at a minimum. We outnumber them by less than a factor of a hundred! This is definitely not good!”
“I’m not sure how this could get any worse,” Exador said, shaking his head in dismay. He noted they were now alone in the command center.
“Oh, crap,” Ramses said, staring in a different direction slightly to the north of the Citadel. A very large, feather-winged woman was rising into the air above the northern army.
“What is she?” Exador said.
“If I were to guess, and it’s only a guess, but I think that’s the Prophetess of Krinna upon Nysegard,” Ramses said.
Exador sighed. “I should not have said that, about things getting worse.”
“Yeah,” Ramses said. “Because I am seeing what I think are several other avatars emerging from the Citadel and they do not appear to be lacking for mana in any way whatsoever. They seem to have found a way around the beacons. All Holy Hell is about to break loose.”
“I hope the Storm Lords know what they are doing, because I really do not want to have to get my hands dirty here,” Exador said, his shoulders slumping.
Ramses chuckled. “Have I thanked you enough for the amulet?”
As planned, Talarius and War Arrow dove towards the bulk of the heavy infantry, while each D’Orc, demon and D’Warg regiment peeled off to their assigned targets. Stainsberry and Mufasa were splitting off a bit, but would be staying nearby.
Are you ready? Talarius asked Ruiden as he drew the sword.
I think so. This will be only the second time I’ve ever done this, Ruiden said.
On the count of three, once you tell me you are ready, Talarius said.
A few seconds later Ruiden said, Ready.
Talarius raised the sword high and began spinning it in a circle above his head. One… two… THREE! he mentally shouted at his sword as he released it into the air towards the troops below.
Ruiden spun through the air far more graciously and on-target than any normal, well-balanced sword thrown in such a manner would have flown. As it reached a point approximately halfway between Talarius and the army below, a sudden massive CRACK sounded, followed by rumbling thunder as lightning arced from the sky and struck the sword.
As hoped and planned, Ruiden the sword golem was spinning through the air. As he flew, Ruiden reshaped himself into the spinning glaive formation he had used successfully against Exador. Moments later Ruiden hit the armed forces, a spinning wheel of carnage.
Talarius winced to see so many zombie parts flying through the air. He had to hold his breath as the stench from the already decomposing corpses rose from the ground, mixed with the putrid smell of zombie blood, spilled organs and other unpleasant corpse fluids.
Talarius nudged War Arrow, directing her to pull up. He twisted in his seat to reach for his Bow of Heaven that was secured to the rear of his saddle. He was very glad Iskerus had brought all of his equipment. Talarius moved the bow into position while murmuring the words of the activation ritual.
It was rather difficult to concentrate on the ritual due to the very screechy, albeit motivating, music coming from the Doomboxes. Tizzy, in his nasal and often raspy voice, was apparently the lead singer, screeching about his enemies being “thunderstruck.” He had no idea where the demon came up with such things.
Fortunately, he was able to get the bow active. The Bow of Heaven did not fire normal arrows; rather, it used Holy Lightning Arrows that were a reflection of his faith and his will. His will was certainly there; he only hoped his faith was still strong enough to launch the arrows.
Using his visor’s targeting mechanism, he drew on an important-looking vampire below and off to the right. It was a tricky target because the vampire was using its cloak to shield itself from the atunlight coming through the portal. He pulled back on the string, the magical arrow forming in position. Closer… almost… there! Talarius thought as he got a clean line of shot on the vampire’s chest and released the arrow.
The arrow sped towards its target and struck true. The vampire screamed and exploded exactly as Talarius had hoped. One vampire down; only what, sixty-thousand more to go? Talarius thought to himself.
Stainsberry shook his head in amazement as Ruiden, the glaive golem, began his devastating assault on the army below them. That sword had to be one of the most devastating weapons he had ever seen. Intelligent, autonomous and nearly indestructible. What more could one ask for in war?
He turned his attention from the golem to his first target, one of the lich commanders on dragonback. Typically, it would be these liches controlling and directing the zombies. If you eliminated the commanders, the zombies would meander rather aimlessly. They were still dangerous, of course, but given their hunger and incredibly short attention spans — due to rotting brains — they were not a large military threat.
For this sort of work, Stainsberry brought forth his Staff of Blue Lightning. Liches were typically immune to electrical attacks. However, Blue Lighting, the Lightning of the Gods, was a different story; it was effective against pretty much every known threat in the multiverse. He had even used it against a Knight of Chaos once. It had saved his life.
“Ghairm mi a-nis an dealanaich de na diathan! Le mo bòidean a 'mhòid-cheartais, faodaidh cumhachd gorm fras dealanaich!” Stainsberry shouted as he pointed the end of his staff at his target.
The increasingly less-dark night air was split by a blinding flash of blue-colored lightning arcing from the end of his staff to the lich. As the bolt finished its arc, the lich and its dragon were outlined in small blue arcs of electricity coruscating across the two. As the arcs subsided and the rictus of the lich and dragon was released, the two quickly began plummeting out of the sky, trailing a large cloud of smoke from the lich’s charred clothes and flesh. It wasn’t easy to char the flesh of an icy-subzero lich, but Blue Lightning could do it.
“The Storm Lords are attempting to bring their clouds between the portal and their followers, as we expected,” Karth Death Cheater, the newest D’Orc, observed.
“You two get to work. I will ensure that no one interferes,” Eldebra told her husband and son.
They had, naturally, anticipated exactly this move and so the Death Cheaters had set themselves up on one of the Citadel’s tallest towers, along with a wide variety of shamanic components and tools. Shamanism was particularly good at manipulating the weather, given their rapport with the Katsina, the Spirits of the Air. For someone who could befriend the Katsina, controlling the weather was far simpler, and more effective, than the wizardry used by the Storm Lords.
Karth and Valg began beating their drums even as their feet moved in time with the rhythm in the complicated dance pattern necessary to interact with the Katsina.
Teragdor and Rasmeth were once more on the battlements, moving up and down the wall as they ensured that all the troops were protected by the most powerful blessings and protection rituals available to an apostle. It was not glamorous, but the strength of their rituals was ensuring very low casualties.