Encircled II

Cardin

"Should we begin, Colonel?" asked the Hewett. Seeing undead moving to attack the encircled army.

"Orders Major, we haven't received them yet," I replied to the man beside me.

We could only begin after receiving an order from Commander Stone.

Till then, we will continue with this normal barrage of cannons.

"There are too many undead in there, Colonel. The army would be swallowed by them in a minute," said the blond man with a clear fear in his eyes.

"They won't be, Major," I replied.

The man had never fought the undead before.

He is a veteran of many battles and a brave man. He was my junior, and we had fought in many battles together; he was there where I got afflicted with that skill.

He had come four months ago. An excellent officer with amazing skills.

They are going to help a lot when we begin.

…

Orok Uram

The undead came toward us in the tide. There was nothing but the undead.

I had fought with them twice. Despite that, my heart couldn't help, but shake seeing them coming toward me.

The Rhythm Of Wild begins to sing through my body as the earth shakes with the feet of the undead.

It didn't sing as loudly as it used to be in the forest, but I will take any advantage I have when fighting against the enemy, that could bury us with sheer numbers.

Boom Boom Boom!

I gripped my ax tightly and readied myself to face them when I felt as if the sky were ripped apart.

Cannons mounted on the skeleton beasts breathed fire and fist-sized balls came out of them, shooting toward us at blurring speed, holding incredible power.

I know very well what it could do to me.

They had trained us for it. Showed us, the damage it could do to us if we were caught in its blasts.

I have a very good defensive skill, but it didn't help in elevating the fear of the cannons.

Despite the danger, I only glanced at them. I am keeping my eye on them, but not focused on them.

My focus is locked on the undead and the powerhouses hidden deep in them. As for the cannonballs, it's not my responsibility, unless it comes really close to me.

The undead were less than five meters away from us when the mages acted.

Bang Bang Bang!

Their shields appeared in front of the cannonballs. Stopping them.

It made me feel relieved, but I quickly focused on the undead in front of me.

There are a lot of them, half a million.

We could not kill them all and it's not a plan either. The undead had surrounded us as such, that we couldn't use the targeted strategy, we had used last time.

If we tried. They will swallow us.

They have enough numbers and a powerhouse this time. They could stop any group, no matter how big it is.

We wouldn't be able to move much deeper into the undead before they swallowed it. Fighting from here isn't much better either; they will tire us out, before swallowing us.

I really hope, Commander Stone has a plan. I came to love the city; I don't want to lose, the life, I had built here.

The first time, in my life. I have a friend. People talk to me.

"I am breathing," said the woman beside me and a moment later.

The plum of fire released from her mouth.

It went straight at the undead, before spreading. Covering over twenty undead.

The fire burned brightly as it had covered the undead. It is burning them as if the undead are dried parjis leaves that burn brightly by even a touch of spark.

She shouldn't have done that.

Now those fire-covered undead are coming at us. They will cause more damage to us, than we have caused to them.

I turned to her to admonish. I had been told she was important, but she was under my command.

She shouldn't have done that. It puts others' lives in danger.

I had just opened my mouth when the zombies and skeletons covered in fire fell on the ground one after another.

The fire had also quickly disappeared.

"The fire has the light element," she replied to the question, I had in my mind.

I only nodded and turned to the undead.

They had arrived, and they were everywhere. 

Rippp!

I exhaled and moved forward with my men and swung my ax. Cutting through six undead in a single swing, before swinging it again and killing the other five, which had taken their place.

My men did the same. They cut through the undead, including the woman.

Though she had released another breath of fire, through the gaps among the undead.

Burning the undead, that were behind.

I have been ordered to look after her. Protect, if she is in danger. I didn't like it, like how I didn't like the command, that had been given to me.

I am used to fighting alone.

I have been promoted to the captain and with it given the command of the company.

I had never fought together with people. Never got a chance because of the curse.

Condition as they are calling it here. The healers here compared it to the limp that some are born with, not a curse that I heard all my life.

My family had been banished the day, I was born.

My mother, left me, that same week. It was my father who raised me. I wish he had brought me here to the cities, but the man didn't know anything about the cities.

He never left the forest. He was born there and died there.

I would have to suffer the same fate. If not for getting caught as the bandit.

I was no bandit, but I decided to follow behind them.

I was in need of a weapon. The one, I had been broken with my fight with the Blacktooth Tiger.

I followed behind him, to catch any runaway and snatch their weapon. I had been doing that for years.

Once I was lucky and able to get an enchanted weapon. I had used it till its enchantments wore off.

That battle had been bad. I saw the bandits getting ambushed by the humans.

They came at me too, and I had fought them off and nearly escaped before a woman appeared in front of me like a chilly wind.

Her sword broke through my defensive skill and froze me.

I thought I was dead, but when I opened my eyes. I found myself in a cell with orcs around me trying to maintain as much distance from me as possible.

Rip Rip Rip!

I tore through another group of undead and then another. I didn't use any skills, nor do I need to. These undead aren't worth it, not even the skills of the soldier class.

I killed the undead while keeping my eyes on my company. It is doing well.

It had been three months since I had got the command of them. All of them are humans. Not a single orc wants to work under the cursed like me.

I heard shamans were against my promotions. The Commander and the Lord had gone through it.

Not all people in my company were mine. Twenty-one new people were added yesterday, including the woman.

Thankfully, they didn't have a problem working under the orc. A few had, the two lieutenants especially, both of them mid-level twenties, like me.

Their problem wasn't about my race or the curse, but about being on the same level as me.

I had defeated them in a minute.

We sparred hundreds of times since then and they had never lasted over five minutes.

Hun!

I cleared my thoughts as Rhythm of Wild spiked. I looked and saw the group of undead, different from what I had fought before

They are a group of skeletons and zombies. They are bigger and feel more powerful, than the common undead.

"Careful," I said to my men.

They gave me the space, and I stepped forward, clearing the common undead, till there were only uncommon ones around me.

There are about fifty of them.

Raaaa!

I let them move toward me, before leaping toward them. They sensed me as they let out the strange noise.

I didn't care, I moved as Rhythm of Wild sang in me, and swung my ax, flashing with the power of the enchantment.

I am not using my skills, but I am using the enchantment on my ax. I could have done without them, but the enchantment would make it easier.

Help me conserve my strength for the powerful enemies.

I felt their attack through the Rhythm of Wild and saw there was no place for me to dodge.

So, I made the space.

I kicked the dead undead I had decapitated and stepped into their place before swinging my ax toward those who attacked me.

The same thing happened, and I moved into the place of the dead undead and killed them.

It's quite easy, compared to foes I had fought before.

Freyis wolf pack is the most dangerous. They aren't the most powerful of the monsters, I had fought, but they are the most difficult to deal with.

In nearly every fight with them, I had come out worse.

They are fast and have an impeccable teamwork. Their claws, sharp as these enchanted blades, could tear through the flesh like soft clay.

The uncommon undead, on the other hand. May attack with the same physical power, but they are slow.

They had moves and some finesse in them, but I had found monsters used them with more intelligence than them.

Rippp Rippp Rippp!

Finally, I crushed through the last of the undead and moved back to my company.

"Not even a single injury; you are really a monster captain," said the blue mustache man. "Focus, captain, we are in the battle," I replied as I killed another group of undead.

They are everywhere, endless. Supported by the mages and the cannons, that are ringing non-stop.

Our mages are defending, but they couldn't defend against all. I saw the damage, that cannonball did; it killed a group of humans and orcs along with undead.

They do not care about the undead; all they care about killing us.

Hun!

A minute passed and another. We kept killing the undead when the Rhythm Of Wild changed.

Immediately, I saw the powerhouses emerging from the undead. Lv. 30+, pre-Lv. 30 and more.

Warriors, mages, necromancers with special undead around.

"Fuck!" cursed Captain Donil, seeing them.

The large number of the undead aren't as scary as these powerhouses. There are a lot of them and the most dangerous of them all is the old man with the grey crystal staff.

He moved toward the Commander Stone, followed by two men.

One, I had recognized. He was the commander of the last horde.

Now, he is following behind the old man.

Commander Stone moved toward him. He too, had two people behind him. One is a Paladin Carr, and the other is Garzong.

I quickly looked away, when the song spiked again and saw five people coming toward me.

I opened my mouth to give the orders when I had received the message.

'Fuck!' I cursed and turned to the enemy.

All pre-level thirty, from what I could guess, with two mages.

"Lieutenant Donal, you will handle the black armored man." Lieutenant Azika, you will deal with the old man,"

"Lieutenant Hasid. You will fight the mage with the fiery crystal," I gave the commands.

I could see the relief in Mage's eyes at command. He only needs to fight one mage.

"Commander, what about the Necromancer and Warrior?" Hasid asked, already guessing what I was planning to do.

"Leave them to me," I said and moved toward the enemy. I have no choice, but to engage with necromancer and the warrior beside it.

The message states, I won't be getting extra mage to deal with the necromancer.

I will have to deal with them with forces, I have.