Blockade

Lich Savais

"We have made a grave mistake, not bringing the pre-level 30s," said Knight Bartram and sighed.

He is regretful, but he is also extremely angry. Seeing how, how he is fisting fingers, it felt like even iron would bend easily under such force.

If I had been in his place, I would have been angry too. I am angry. I was too part of the decision and like him, had been contained in pre-level 30s.

The only difference between us is that I was held back by three people. He had been held back by only one.

I had to give it to that elder-blood. He was able to hold back Knight Bartram, while many Lv. 30 died many times over in that time.

It is an incredible feat that solely couldn't be achieved with the power of the elder blood alone.

"It is not your fault. Knight Bartram, we all agreed with the decision to leave most pre-Lv. 30s in the conquered cities," I said to him. Though, I am going to throw all the blame for this on him, because there will be consequences.

I sent the message to the command and received their replies. They had only inquired about the battle but hadn't commented, which is not good, because it means they will take action once it is all over.

"It was a mistake on our part, which I will not make again. The city will be ours before dawn tomorrow and nothing, they do will stop that from happening," he stated and looked at the walls, which were being attacked by our undead.

"That, I have no doubt," I replied.

I am not saying it to agree with him. It will happen. The mistake we have made being ratified.

They have given us a surprise and in return we will give them the despair.

…

I stopped beside Stone, who was bathing in the dusky light of divine spells. 

The half-elf priestess seemed to have cast, Clean on him first as all the blood had vanished, making all his injuries visible.

Hun!

They are everywhere. There is not a single part of his body that hasn't been covered by them, but they are not as deep as I had expected.

"Elder bloods are truly an amazing thing. Most of the commanders' serious injuries have been healed on its own and while these cuts are dangerous, they are not life-threatening." 

"The healing potion he drank, and my spells would be enough to heal them," said Priestess Kelryc.

"Thank you," I said, and she smiled before her expression turned serious.

"Your injuries are not light, my lord. You should let me heal them," she said. "I took the potion; they will heal soon," I replied.

She opened her mouth to say something but closed it a moment later and turned to her assistant.

"Heather cast clean on, Lord Governor. Ravin, bandage him," she instructed. A few seconds later, all the grime vanished from my body and the man began to bandage me.

Get Ready would have cleaned the blood, but I don't think I have the power to use any skills. I am extremely tired, and if I close my eyes; I will fall asleep, but I don't want to sleep.

I turned to Stone, who had been sleeping, or rather fallen unconscious. He had used the elder blood power for three hours, highest than ever.

Even when Knight Schegan had pushed him to the extreme, he wasn't able to go above hours and thirty-two minutes, falling unconscious right after. This time, he had stayed active with it twice as long and there will be a cost.

It is regretful that we will need to forcefully wake him. It will be a few hours or a few minutes, depending on the undead.

He is important and the only person, who could handle Knight Bartram.

"How is the condition of Lt. Colonal Julian?" I asked. He was heavily injured, nearly at death's door, with his guts spilling out.

"The surgeons had done a wonderful job sewing him up. Now, Bishop is healing him and expects him to make a full recovery," she replied, and relief flooded into my heart.

I don't want to lose a man like him.

I nodded gratefully and walked out of the room, not before noticing the dented shield.

The clash was powerful enough that it had dented a Grade 3, triple enchanted shield. Thankfully, have a replacement, along with armor, which is in similar condition.

I walked out of the room and went to another one, where there were patients on every bed. Being treated by the healers and doctors, most of them sleeping.

Some who were not sleeping were made to sleep forcefully. Not only to rest but also to level up. Nearly all below Lv. 20 would level up and over 25% of Level 20's, given the intensity of the battle.

It will be harder for most mid-Level 20's and pre-Lv. 30s to level-up, up before the battle ends.

Most of the people are healing in the infirmaries near the wall. So, they could be called back at a moment's notice, but some had been sent to the establishment.

They are officers. We will need them well-rested and leveled.

I check on the other injured, before walking toward the wall. Each step is painful, with injuries; they are healing, but not fast enough.

They would have healed faster. If I had drank the pure healing potion with emotional essence, but I drank the regular one, which had a few drops of healing potion with emotional essence mixed in.

In exchange for emotional essence, I got a lot of potions of emotional essence from Ethan. 

They are the reason, why so many officers are alive. They could literally bring a person to life, and one could drink a lot of them without suffering a mana burn.

I felt the eyes on me as I walked the stairs. 

The soldiers are looking at me and there is a respect in their eyes, that was not there before. They had seen me fight like they did; bled like they did and had injuries to show, like they have.

I had earned their respect and it gave me more joy than the title Count had given me before running away.

I reached the wall, which was being continuedly attacked by the undead.

"Second load," shouted Colonel Cardin.

Immediately, oil mixed with crystals showered down from the pots before burning wildly and so hot, that some needed to take a step back to shield themselves from the fire, that covered the undead.

The undead begin to burn, but not all; many attacked while burning, but got hacked quickly by soldiers and thrown back off the wall.

Most of the people manning the wall had experience in fighting from the wall, but we have also mixed with some inexperienced people, like orcs, in between them as do not too many of such people.

"It seemed to be going well," I said, but to my surprise Colonel Cardin's, expressions turned bad.

"It is not, my lord. Look at the undead, all of them are common undead; there is no single abominable one mixed in it. The tide is also weak and sparse, nothing like the unending ones that we had heard so much about," he said, with a clear worry on his face.

Hearing that, I turned to the undead and looked at them carefully.

The undead are coming, but like he had said, there are no abominable zombies. It's not just that, even the mage attacks felt weak and there are no special undead or bone creations.

The Knight and Lich seemed to have disappeared. Forget spells or skills from them, even their shadows have disappeared.

Seeing that, a bad feeling couldn't help, but rise in my heart.

All the information said that when they came in line unending tide, with bone creations and abominable zombies, backed with the powerful spells of their mages and the assault of their powerhouses.

I am seeing none of that.

"Is the same on the other two gates?" I asked, to which he nodded.

"What can we do?" I asked. "Nothing, considering our objective is to fight them inside the city. If we do something, they might suspect something and we don't want that," he said while giving me a look.

There are only three people who know about the complete plan.

Stone, Caena, and me. We had hinted a few details to the important people, but not enough to guess what we would do. 

It is not like we don't trust them, but we need to keep the news the tight as possible. So, even if the information leaked, our enemies won't know what we are truly planning.

It is a real conundrum.

It is clear that our enemies were planning something, but we couldn't respond due to our plan. I wish that I could wake up Stone, but that isn't wise; I need him to be as rested as possible.

"My lord, you should rest. We will need you at your best when enemies launch their real attack," he said, and I nodded before walking out of the gate.

I am bone tired, but sleeping is the last thing I have on my mind. Though Colonel Cardin is right. I would need to sleep if I wanted to face the enemy at my best.

I walked down the gate and moved toward the small white building, which was well-guarded.

Click!

I reached it a minute later, and the guards bowed before opening the door for me and took me to the basement. Where Robin is with visibly tired Mage Ravill and a group of people.

"My lord," they greeted as I entered.

"Mage Ravill, you should sleep. We will be needing you soon," I said to the man. "I will, my lord. I only came here to see whether I could breach the curtain, but even with these tools, it is impossible," he said and sighed tiredly.

"No response?" I asked, to which they shook their heads.

"They have sealed the communication too effectively. Their anti-communications skills are powerful enough to block all the communications skills. They had even killed three of our monsters and injured two," replied Robins, looking at the monster scouts.

Robin is responsible for the intelligence and all the people sitting here have skills or spells related to that, but their efforts are turning futile in front of the undead's communication blockade.

They even have control over the skies. Hunting down any monsters or animals that tried to fly through the clouds.

They have created a complete intelligence blockade for us. We didn't know anything that was happening outside of the city. If we could breach it, we might have been able to tell what these bastards are planning.

The scouts from the merchant states are close, and they have designated dropping points. Where they would place the information, we only need to reach there to get it, but that is turning out to be an impossible job.

"I could send Charlie," said Eli. From the corner of the room, he is sitting alone with a little white sparrow in his lap.

Fang is also in the city, but he is with the girls. They need him more for emotional support than I need him in the battle.

"Your bird is too weak, Mr. Gest. Even with cloud surfing sparrow's abilities, they will discover it and shoot it down," said Robin, discarding the idea.

The undead are very good at discovering life-signatures and there are bone constructs patrolling the skies that will stop anything that tries to reach the other side.

"Inform me as soon as you receive any information," I said, before turning to the Mage. "And Mage Ravill, please take a rest," I added.

"I will, my lord," he said, but a second later, a hesitant smile appeared on his face, and he got up, seeing me still looking at him.

We both walked out of the room and used the tunnel to reach the protected resting place. 

There were already many people sleeping there, but it was not completely filled. There were three empty beds. Mage Ravill picked one, while I picked another, before laying on it.

I closed my eyes, and a few seconds later; I was in a deep sleep.