Devourer

Chapter 159: Ancient Warfare

Count Uxtual looked numbly at the scene before him through a special set of binoculars. It was still the dead of night but thanks to a spell he could see through the darkness. A part of him wished he couldn’t, when the goddess returned he had dreams of Zarima rising again as the world’s preeminent power. When he saw the towering form of his goddess he felt Zarima was now unconquerable. But now he knew it was a naive delusion. Even then there was a sign, why would the invincible goddess hide for so long and why would she strike a deal with the Great Beast?

Well now as he watched the horror of the battle in the distance he knew why. He had heard the stories of course but words on a page could never do what he saw justice. The wide-open expanse of sand in front of him had been turned into a writhing mass of feral violence. The white monsters looked like something right out of a nightmare. Their curved cruel blades rending through the vanguard of undead. The Vampires were firing spells into the mass of white, he could see the monster’s bodies being blasted apart by their blood-red spells. However, the monsters pushed every onward carving into the mass of dead. The outermost line of zombies and ghouls simply crumpled under the weight of the hive.

Then in the middle of the undead formation, large creatures burst from the ground. These were massive quadrupeds covered with thick white armour. Each of them was the size of a building and their roars hurt his ears even from his position on the walls. They tower above everything else on the battlefield, a colossal engine of carnage brought to life to serve the murderous whims of its ancient creator. Its head had this large shield-like structure which protected it from frontal attacks.

The effectiveness of this shield of white armour was put on display as a vampiric spell struck in a blast of crackling red energy. The beast’s head was merely slightly knocked to the side but from what he could tell it took no significant damage. It let out another roar and charged right into the mass of dead.

From the sides of it’s wide neck protruded long curved blade made of some kind of bone. The claws reared back on some kind of joint as it charged. When the beasts began to plough through the formation the impact alone was enough to send bodies flying like ragdolls. Those scythe-like bone blades began slashing into the mass of dead with horrifying ferocity. Each swing leaves a trail of severed limbs, splattered blood, and broken bodies.

Then from the very holes these beasts emerged more of the lesser hive soldiers swarmed out. The Vampire’s front line started to look like there were large white cysts expanding out in the middle of the formation.

Count Uxtual grit his teeth when he realised a terrifying thought. This was what the Great Beast meant by the way of the old world. Wars were routinely fought like this, destructive, feral and quarter was never given nor expected.

Zarima would never take its place at the top of the world. In a world without the Great Beast that might be possible but now they were just chaff before the wind. If the Great Beast so desired it he could turn his beasts upon Zarima and turn every last Lizardkin into fuel for his army. He assumed the only reason he has not done so was because he still had some use for Zarima beyond just being food. Most likely this unknown utility was provided by the goddess.

She must have persuaded the Great Beast that it would be beneficial to tolerate the existence Zarima. She even managed to get them semi-autonomy. With each passing moment, Count Uxtual found his terror increasing for the Great Beast and the Empress that can so comfortably sit next to a creature like that. At the same time, he felt increasingly more grateful towards his goddess, the indomitable Mahaila the Swift, apprentice of a champion of the Old Gods.

His eyes focused on the Vampires as they seemed to widen their formation in the hopes of trying to encircle the force of monsters. However, judging by how the hive was perfectly willing to drop their troops into the middle of the enemy formation, Uxtual suspected that would just let the Hive attack in every direction simultaneously. When self-preservation wasn’t a factor then having more areas you can attack can only benefit you.

However, the dead continued to press forward it seemed like the Vampires were intending on burying the forces of the hive under the weight of their bodies. Then from the rear of the formation emerged these larger hive creatures. These had this snake-like tail and small insectoid legs on the side of the tail. The torso was vaguely humanoid with two large muscular front arms. The mouth was large and filled with serrated teeth. But the standout feature was the large purple crystals protruding from its back.

There were a few of them spread out across the formation, each area had one. It was then that Count Uxtual recognised them, they were a modified version of the higher castes of the Hive. These were the human equivalent of non-commissioned front-line officers. The Lizardkin called them Praetorians and every military commander knew that if one of these appeared the combat effectiveness of the front-line hive warriors would greatly increase. They were just a tool that allowed the hivemind to exert more fine control over their frontline forces. The lower castes that were under the command of a Praetorian would fight with greater control and with greater tactical acumen. It was like each of the lower castes gained decades of combat experience just by having a Praetorian command them.

It was moments like this that drove home why the Hives were created. They were never designed to be a sustainable species that was supposed to propagate. They were made to be living weapons, a snarling mass of teeth and claws designed to be unleashed on an opponent.

It was common knowledge that the ancient ancestors of the Orcs were mostly killed off by the Old Gods because they made a better weapon in the form of the hives.

Count Uxtual watched as the crystals on the Praetorians started to glow. Then they let out this roar as the crystals seemingly discharged this wave of ether. Count Uxtual felt his vision crackle with interference for a moment. Then he heard this bone-chilling roar as every creature let out this feral cry towards the dark sky.

He almost dropped the binoculars when he saw the sea of white surge against the forces of the dead. The forces front line of the Vampires seemingly crumpled like a piece of sheet metal as the hive slammed themselves into the zombies and ghoul with feral ferocity.

This went on for nearly an hour. The frontline of the Vampires flailed as they tried desperately to beat back the gnashing tide of white. However, under the supervision of the Praetorians, the Hive knew when to retreat for just a moment before surging forth again. Each time they did this they easily won back the momentum. It was like watching two great masses, one white and one black pushing against each other. However, the white was slowly but surely winning.

Count Uxtual realised that he was basically watching two sets of cannon fodder troops smash into each other. It was in their master’s minds, just trash killing trash. The real fight hasn’t even begun.

Then he spotted movement on the Vampire’s side, a large line of spells activated across the entire Vampiric line…

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Oh, it seems like the Vampires are finally done taking out the trash. The wave of spells slammed into my mass of common troops. Each was this ball of red crackling energy, no doubt some kind of Vampiric ritual war spell. The spell tore through my formation and the white bodies went flying everywhere. Alright fine, let’s amp it up. I ordered Nafas to unleash some of the harder hitters. I made a caste above the basic soldiers but below the Praetorians. They were called the Tribunes and they were these bipedal creatures with four arms. Two were tipped with large blades and the other pair were hands for digging and grappling.

They were on par with most of the best that the humans had to offer. When I pit them against the Wardens and Knight Enchanters they won a decent amount of times. I had almost a hundred thousand of these at my disposal in this battle alone so I ordered Nafas to use them. She popped them out in the middle of the Vampire’s central formation.

The Blood knights there instantly responded and although Nafas managed to take the pressure off her front line the Tribunes ended up in a bad position. The Blood Knights were capable warriors many with thousands of years of combat experience. The Tribunes had numbers on their side but the Blood Knights discipline and combat skill meant that any small breaches in the ground were soon contained.

Although this attack was less than effective it did buy some time and in the chaos her frontline of lower castes managed to cull the line of zombies and ghouls till they were combat ineffective. A costly manoeuvre but it still gained ground. Very typical of how Hives fight… yet it lacked a certain… creativity…

With the frontline gone, the Vampires were free to use their wide array of undead constructs. Some of these were towering creatures of dead flesh and bone, others looked to be this giant black metal coffin with arms and legs. These coffins appeared to be stuffed with corpses most likely the reanimated corpses provided the power source. These more elite units were soon ploughing through the hive formation. Nafas unburrowed more specialised troops, she sent out a group of engorged beetles called Gorgers and they spat streams of steaming acid at the constructs.

These were reasonably effective at destroying the constructs but they were themselves sniped out by the Blood Knights. The Gorgers then exploded in a spray of acid damaging surrounding troops. She sent the next wave of Feradons which were the latest version of the living battering rams I used. They clashed with the heavy front line of the Vampires. Amazingly the Vampires were doing rather well against them. But to be fair the Feradons were nothing but building-sized lumps of armour and muscle. They were crude weapons and their sole purpose was to absorb attacks. Which was incidentally exactly what they were doing.

She also unearthed groups of dogs that could fire spikes and lasers called Spike Hounds and Laz Hounds respectively. They used to be called Harrier Hounds but ever since they started to vary in specification I had to be more specific in naming them, or more precisely Cecilia helped me make it more specific.

The hounds were sent to the flanks to apply pressure. The Vampires in response sent out additional flyers which Nafas countered with flyers of her own and anti-air units called Sky Splitters. These were insectoid creatures with four legs arrayed in a cross formation to allow stability. Its upper half was designed like an anti-air cannon with four arms that could fire either spines or lasers depending on specification. As of now, I gave them two each so I can test both.

In a manner of moments, the entire sky lit up with lasers and glowing spines as the Sky Splitters started employing the Hive’s preferred strategy to achieve accuracy against aerial targets. Malegaros described the doctrine the best, “accuracy through volume.”

That was exactly what Nafas did, she saturated the sky with so much fire that the Vampire flyers couldn’t even get close to my army. The concentrated fire created a blanket over the Vampire’s formation, effectively grounding most of their flyers. The anti-air troops then turned their weapons on the ground troops.

This gave the Vampires a choice. They could either leave their flyers on the ground and lose ground troops or send the flyers into the sky to distract the anti-air units and get them cut to pieces in the process.

The battle wasn't an all-out fight, if it was I would have opened the fight with artillery and these anti-air units. But it was a test for both Nafas and the Vampires. It was the only true test that would fully assess their abilities, a test by trial and fire.

Nafas picked up the pace and continued to mount the pressure and then the Vampires started unleashing their really powerful stuff. More of the necromantic constructs joined the fray. These were armed with spell cannons and massive swords crackling with energy. Some of the constructs looked to be armed with heavy cannons strapped to their arms. Each of these constructs looked to be half metal and half dead flesh. Their bodies pulsed with necromantic energies as they strode forward, each towering over five metres tall.

The ones armed with the cannons pointed their weapons right at the mass of white before them and fired. From the cannons shot forth a red bolt of energy. When the bolt struck the mass of my hive soldiers, it unleashed a wave of red energy that turned everything in its path to ash. Even the Praetorians were instantly disintegrated.

Each shot carved deep gashes into my lines and it was clear that I needed to bring out the big guns. But I was satisfied by Nafas’s performance so far, it would do for now. Now I needed to see something for myself. I have an ancient at my disposal and I could tell he was quite confident in his command abilities. So I guess it was time for him to prove why he was so confident.

“Maligaros take over. Finish them, hold nothing back.” I said into the Hive mind and I got my reply instantly.

Acknowledged

I instantly felt Malegaros’s mind blanket the hive broods that were locked in the combat. The oppressive presence of his mind instantly caused all the lesser queens to submit.

He has done this before, and from what I can tell he was quite used to this.

I could practically feel the chains that were instantly fastened around each and every mind inside the broods. Malagaros’s control methods seemed older, more feral and brutal. It was clear he would brook no disobedience on any matters. For Nafas the control was understood and respected. For Malegaros he would remind you by crushing you into the floor.

I sensed all the hive soldiers below me shift in demeanour, the malice practically radiating off them in waves.

Then I heard Malegaros speak once more into the Hive mind

Assuming control, all units prepare for combat…

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