Inside The City

Osward

"It happened," I said as I felt my message spell breaking. I tried casting the spell again, but nothing happened.

"We are blind. It has suppressed, even shamanic communication," said Urag, seeing my efforts.

I nodded and didn't say anything further and moved toward the target.

I had marked the enemy with the Seeker's Mark and could sense his direction. He didn't try to remove the skill, which means, he is prepared for me.

General Stone was opposed to letting me fight him. I had to beg him to let me do it.

He didn't think, I could be able to deal with him and asked me to focus on containing him, instead of trying to kill him. Which will get me killed.

I wish I could say he is wrong about that.

We both may be a high-mages, but there is a difference in our abilities, not to mention, the levels, but I am still moving to fight him.

I need to fight him. It is the only thing I want to do since I escaped from Panar.

My heart pains when I looked at the state of the city, where I had spent years. It was never a prosperous city, but it was a lively one.

The people here were hardworking and good-natured.

Most of them have died.

The ones that had remained are now hiding in their houses, with their hearts filled with fear.

I could sense them with 'Detect Life,' I could also sense the undead that is hiding with them.

I wanted to barge into the house and kill the undead, but that would be a mistake. I had fought city battles before. The first one was a decade and a half ago when I was not even Lv. 10.

I was still in the academy and needed spells, but didn't have money to buy them.

So, I joined the army, like many poor students like me, during the vacation.

I had barely survived it and promised myself to never do it again, but did it the next year and the year after that.

It was the quickest way I could get the spells and the money I needed.

I pushed those thoughts away and moved with the battalion.

Soon, barely a mile had remained between us, and I could already see the large numbers of undead gathering.

"Form up!" commanded Asit and the battalion became disciplined as we moved toward the undead before finally reaching Nadir Square.

It is on the eastern side of the city, where most working class used to live.

It was the liveliest place, with all types of shops and businesses. Now everything is either destroyed or shuttered.

It felt painful to even look, but I kept looking, before turning to my target.

Koris Yegson.

The leader of Panar. He is the man who had led the horde to Panar and conquered it.

He had not just captured but also sent his undead to capture the people who were running away. Many of my friends and colleagues were captured in front of my eyes.

Asit and I were barely able to save our lives from him.

I looked at him as he looked at me.

He is a man, who looked to be in his early forties. Handsome in a rugged way and well-built like a warrior, despite being a mage.

He is a wearing grey mage robe with an emblem of Vris'alud on it.

Around him is the horde of undead. There are over five thousand undead behind him and a few thousand in streets and houses.

He has been prepared.

"It shouldn't take much to finish you all off," he said, in a casual tone, without any hint of worry.

"Don't be too confident," replied Urag. To which he smiled.

"Attack!" he ordered, and the horde moved toward us.

Not just the horde, but also the warriors and pillars. The division only has two Lv. 30, warriors, but the enemy has three.

Two are moving toward Urag while one is toward Asit. Yegson kept looking at me for a few seconds, before raising his staff at me.

A moment later, a barrage of spectral needles came toward me.

…

Orok Uram

"Kill!"

I roared with a Rallying Cry as I ran toward over two thousand undead with my company.

The rhythm bloomed in my heart, more loudly than in the last battle. Its intensity had reached the level of the first battle, I had fought.

It surprised me, but I didn't focus on it. There are too many enemies to get distracted.

They are everywhere, in this narrow street, on top of houses, and alleys, and I could see wanting to envelop us.

We didn't stop that. It is good for us.

Whoosh!

A few seconds passed, and I heard the familiar sound, and with it, came the stream of fire, that bloomed and covered over thirty undead immediately.

A moment later, the undead began to fall down, but not before we reached them.

I crashed through them. They are not harmful.

The fire isn't as hot as normal fire, but because of the light element in it. It is more harmful to the undead and kills them within a second.

That doesn't mean it won't be harmful to us, but Barb is careful.

She burned the undead in front of us because she knew me and others in front of her could handle it.

"Remember our strategy," I said to the company, before swinging my ax to the group of undead in front of me.

Most of the units in the army are designated to a specific area, but there are a few, like mine. Which are given complete freedom to operate anywhere we want.

I am the only one among the freedom units, who is below Lv. 30 to get this, get this responsibility.

I don't want to disappoint.

Khachac!

My ax cut through the undead and I moved forward, with my company.

We killed every undead that came our way. It didn't matter whether it was zombies or skeletons, it got cut and burned by us.

The replay was immediate. The spells rained down on us, but our mages reacted immediately.

Defensive shields came forward, to defend against them. We didn't move on the offense. I had asked the mages to use the spells only for defense.

They need to conserve their mana to last through the battle.

The undead kept moving at us, trying to push us in a certain direction. The enemy wanted to press us in the narrow space. Contain us before finishing off, but it didn't happen.

We are moving, not stopping even for a moment.

I have told my men to not stop. Killing undead is fine, but our actual target is those who are alive, warriors, pillars, and mages.

We will stop only for them.

My ax moved with every step, killing the undead as they came at me. I am not using any skill. These undead aren't powerful enough to make me use them.

I might have used them in the spells, targeting me, but my mages are stopping them.

Hun!

It didn't take long. The wild rhythm spiked in my heart and a moment later, a group of Bone Spears tore through the mage shields.

I grinned seeing them and stepped forward with Lion's Strength coursing through my veins and swung my ax.

…

Karsa

The undead had surrounded us from every side and it was horrifying.

So, much, it froze me in fear.

Maybe joining the army had been a bad idea.

It had made me abandon my tribe and made the relationship with my family complicated.

My tribe was opposed to me joining the army. They are opposed to any woman joining the army.

Some of the tribes are letting their women join it, but most are still opposing it.

I didn't have much of a choice; it was either that or marry.

It is my first battle, and I was quite excited till an hour ago, but now there is only a horror in my heart.

Rip!

Another attack hit me. I wasn't able to dodge it, due to being frozen on the spot.

"Focus soldier!" shouted a familiar woman. Next second, I saw Sergeant Dina, killing the group of undead coming at me, before moving away.

I felt relieved before shame filled me.

Everyone is fighting. There is not a single person, who is standing frozen like me.

I should be fighting. I have trained for it, but I am so overwhelmed in fear, that I couldn't even move, much less raise my sword to fight.

Seconds passed and undead kept coming at me, but killed before reaching me.

Till two of them came at me.

I looked around but found no one there to help me, everyone was busy with enemies.

I tried to open my mouth to scream for help, but whether it was in fear or shame, my mouth wouldn't open.

I watched skeleton and zombie come closer to me, till they were right in front of me.

Unlike me, they had no fear in their eyes and attacked immediately.

I tried to retreat but found my back hitting the wall of the house. In my panic, I pushed my hand forward, to save my face from the sword.

Clang! Rip!

The handguard had stopped the zombie's sword, but the skeleton's saber had cut through my waist.

The attack is deep and would have gone deeper. If I hadn't dodged it on time.

Gaaa!

The zombie screamed and attacked again, this time, I wouldn't be able to save myself.

I have to act, be a soldier, that I had sacrificed so much to become. If not, I will be killed in this attack and become another dead body, that might rise to become undead.

I don't want to suffer fate, after I had paid such a big prize

"Die you bastards!" I screamed with everything, I had and swung my sword toward the undead, channeling every bit of fear, I felt toward them.

Activating, Strong Strike. The only skill, I have got from my Soldier Class.

For a moment, everything was a blur, before I felt myself hitting something hard. It was the neck of the skeleton, my sword had cracked it, before started breaking through it.

I had used the sword wrong.

If I had used it right away; the way, I had been taught. I would have been able to cut through its neck smoothly.

Khat!

Finally, the sword came out from the other side.

Seeing the head of the skeleton flying. A smile couldn't help, but appear on my face.

I had done it; I had finally killed the undead.

I wanted to jump into a job, instead, I stumbled to my left to dodge the attack of the zombie.

Rip!

It gave me a cut on my art, but it's not deep. The armor saved my arm. If not for it, the zombie would have taken it whole; the attack was powerful enough to hack it apart.

Gaaa!

The zombie screamed and attacked again.

Once again, my heart was filled with fear, but this time, it didn't freeze me.