Chapter 302 - Army of the Undead part 14

The attack came from the north and south simultaneously. They overran the defenses we had positioned at the mountain passes and converged on Penthos in nearly incomprehensible numbers. We were lucky that Zenzele had pierced their psychic camouflage in time to rally our troops, for if she had not, I am certain there wouldn't have been a mortal left breathing in Penthos by daybreak. As it was, all of my generals managed to bring in their divisions and encircle the village as the mortals from the surrounding settlements came streaming in. All but Goro. Goro's unit was positioned further from Asharoth than some of the others, and they were caught by the howling horde that poured through the north pass as they raced back to us.

I did not witness Goro fall with my own eyes, but Zenzele perceived it. We were organizing our inner perimeter when she felt him die. She faltered when it happened, and let out a furious howl, her lips peeled back from her fangs. "Goro has fallen!" she cried. "They caught him by the northern pass and ripped him apart!"

I paused to look in that direction, but his unit was too far away, the night too dark, for me to see.

I was surprised by the agony that stabbed into my heart at his destruction. Of all Zenzele's lieutenants, Bhorg was the only one I had developed a strong emotional attachment to. I had never felt particularly close to Goro. He was too much of a loner, always lighting off on his own, always setting himself apart from us. But I felt his loss tremendously. He had been a loyal companion for a little over two decades. So far as I knew, he was also the last of his kind, the last pureblood Neanderthal, and I had always admired their race. Three of my mortal children were half Neanderthal.

"There's nothing we can do," I said, and Zenzele nodded, putting aside her dismay. She wiped a bloody tear from her cheek and continued with her duties.

Bhorg came running. "They are nearly upon us!" he shouted, brandishing his monstrous stone hammer. He was grinning. His powerful frame thrummed with excitement as he faced the coming storm.

Our troops were positioned around the mortal settlement in a series of concentric circles, just as we had planned it. The strongest blood drinkers manned the outer perimeter, spearmen and archers positioned behind them. Behind the archers awaited our finest mortal warriors, and finally, in the innermost circle, the Abuellas and mortal non-combatants… and us, the Eternals, the last defense of our mortal allies. There were gaps, I saw, due mostly to the absence of Goro's troops, but I was surprised we had formed up so proficiently, and with so little advance warning. It was a testament to Zenzele's training.

"Stand fast!" I shouted as the footfalls of the approaching vampire horde made the earth tremble. My ears throbbed with the din of their combined yowling. "Remember what it is you fight for!"

And then they were upon us, and the natural flow of time seemed fractured by the violence that ensued.

In numbers we were only slightly outmatched. If Goro and his men had not fallen, we probably would have been evenly matched, blood drinker for blood drinker. Despite their vast numbers, the God King's army was not quite able to overrun our front lines, and outer perimeter arrested the horde's forward momentum. They did not fall back, but they could not batter their way through our lines either.

"Archers!" Zenzele screeched, as some of the enemy blood drinkers attempted to leap over our front lines.

Arrows and lances whistled overhead.

The zephyr of hurtling projectiles felled any enemy blood drinker foolish enough to take to the air, and those who made it through the whistling torrent of arrows and spears landed amidst our most powerful blood drinkers.

"Back to oblivion!" Bhorg roared, crushing them two and three at a time with his hammer.

Most remained on the ground, however, and their shields protected them from our archers. Some of them managed to wend their way through the gaps in our lines. They raced forward at full speed, intent on killing as many mortals as possible.

I sprang forward to meet them, striking out at them as Zenzele had trained me, aiming my blows at their necks, their spines, wrenching their limbs from their sockets and flinging their bodies into the river of arrows still wailing overhead.

Zenzele fought at my side, her attacks impossibly fast, unerringly lethal. Her eyes blazed. Her white fangs ripped and snapped. Vehnfear circled us, snarling and biting our foes. The immortal wolf leapt upon a blood drinker who tried to run me through with a spear and ripped the warrior's head from his shoulders. He looked at me with a grin, tail wagging, then loped after another.

There were casualties on our side, too. A great many casualties. I saw Petra, one of Hammon's tribesmen, trying to defend himself from two of Khronos's warriors. I raced to the young man's aid, but was not fast enough to save him. His assailants laid hands on him and pulled him apart. All I could do was avenge him.

I saw Usus and Eris fighting back to back. The two had been lovers for many years, the hermaphrodite and the desert warrior. Usus fell to an enemy's weapon, a type of bladed staff I had never seen before. The weapon cleaved the man in two, and Eris, screaming in outrage, struck his attacker so hard the immortal all but exploded from the waist up, like a rotten melon.

I raced to them. Eris, kneeling over Usus's broken body, was trying to heal him with the living blood.

"Don't die," the Eternal sobbed, opening his veins for his lover. "Please, Usus, I don't want to live without you!"

Usus gulped and flailed, but he was no Eternal. The life was fading from his ashen face.

"Here, drink," I cried, and I tore open my wrist with my fangs and thrust it to his lips. "Put his body back together, Eris," I commanded through gritted teeth. "He will not heal if his body is laying apart."

My blood, so much older and more potent than the blood of the hermaphrodite, quickened Usus. His injuries began to mend. I turned the two of them over to a passing abuella. "Return to the battle when you can," I said to Eris, and the young Eternal nodded gratefully.

"Thank you, Father," he said, helping the abuella lift and carry Usus from the battleground.

I spotted Palifver then, Zenzele's old lover, among the combatants. He met my gaze and rushed toward me, fingers hooked into claws, fangs bared. We collided together like stags.

"You are defeated!" he exclaimed.

"Fool!" I hissed. "You know I cannot die! You have thrown your life away!"

I pulled him into my embrace and sank my teeth into his neck.