119 The beginning of the fall
The corrupted energy not only slowly seeped into the equipment, it also corrupted it from the outside. The metal began to blacken as the paladin leader tried his best to circulate mana through it to slow down the process.
A blade made of wood entered the slit of his helmet with a T-shaped opening and pierced his nose until the point came out of the back of his neck, killing while he was focused on his weapon. Emilia used the silent steps ability and killed him in one hit, making sure he didn’t scream to alert the other paladins approaching his position.
The paladins approached their position like moths drawn to the flame and Emilia used the sword aura dance in conjunction with the silent footsteps. Emilia moved between the paladins with grace, using nimble and precise movements to cut between the gaps in the armor.
Screaming sounds were heard, but that only accelerated the other paladins’ steps. They knew that the enemies had also heard their leader’s call and would attack him, so they activated their sensory abilities to the fullest and ran.
One or two paladins used abilities similar to Athos’ sensory field and detected the skeletons, but Athos and Caio noticed that their movements were different from the others and cast magic before they could warn the paladins of what was happening.
A stone thorn hit one in the groin and a black bolt hit the second, knocking them both to the ground and unable to move, albeit for different reasons. Athos broke both their necks and looked around, noticing that most of the paladins were on the ground, Treevor and Emilia made a massacre.
Athos wasted no more time and began to raise all the corpses as undead. The field of the dead proved useful once again, as Athos didn’t even need to use mana, just injecting his corrupted life force was enough.
He also transformed the priests, the field of the dead healing those cut in half.
“Finished?” Treevor asked as he looked at the edge of the field of the dead. Crusaders were surrounding the dome and shooting blades of aura across the surface. Crusaders were mana users who served the church but could not use magic or had any elemental affinity.
.....
They were desperate to rescue the paladins and priests, but the first to enter the dome had to run back and fell to the ground, unable to breathe.
...The idiot yelled “In the name of Eishin!” with all his might before entering, only to fill his lungs with toxic air and die almost instantly. The other crusaders, fanatical as they were, did not run to their useless death and tried to weaken the summit.
“Yes, you can go for the kill. We’re going for the siege weapons.” Athos replied and Treevor undid the field of the dead. Despite its incredible effect, it consumed a lot of mana to keep it active and compensate for all the energy expended by the Crusaders’ attacks.
The crusaders closest to the dome shouted Eishin’s name as they saw the darkness begin to dissipate, before Treevor leapt above the dome and landed in the middle of their formation, crushing the slower ones to swerve and knocking the rest off balance. Treevor also conjured dozens of dark stone spikes a second after falling to the ground, impaling the still-falling crusaders.
Treevor stood up immediately and whipped his left and right crusaders. The crusaders successfully blocked the whip using their shields, but not the subsequent attack. The whips released point-blank blades of aura that sliced through the shields along with the arms that held it.
Some crusaders used the arrest ability and purposely threw themselves at the whip, sacrificing an arm to successfully grip the whip. Other crusaders tried to use the breach to cut the whip, but it was unexpectedly tough.
The vines were flexible as rubber and hard as metal, so the crusaders’ swords could not cut through them all the way.
Treevor didn’t let the crusaders have their way and yanked his arm with all his might, flinging the crusaders attached to the whip into midair, before slamming them back to the ground in a bloody mess.
The crusaders lunged at Treevor as he raised the whip desperately trying to cut through the roots that formed his legs. They used the weapon break with all their might, causing deep cuts to the roots.
Treevor knelt on his right knee and the crusaders cheered and attacked even more violently. The whips moved like serpents without Treevor needing to swing them and cut the closest crusaders, but others replaced them. Cuts appeared all over his body and Skull’s mask smiled.
Small flower buds appeared on her legs before dark purple flowers grew and released their venom in gas form. The poison gas spread to all crusaders, corroding their skin on contact and entering their bodies through their noses and ears.
The crusaders jumped back and some fell to the ground as they screamed in pain. The vines and thin branches pierced the Crusaders’ bodies while they were on the ground, using the darkness to drain their vitality even faster and regenerate their wounds.
Treevor rose again, his body almost completely healed, and turned to the dead crusaders at his feet. He activated one of the few darkness enchantments on the corrupted willow and unleashed the undead raise en masse, turning the dead crusaders into skeletons and leading the way to the gate.
At the same time, Athos led the paladins and priests towards the siege weapons behind the walls. to the left of the gate. Foot soldiers tried to get in their way, but the paladins’ physical prowess was no laughing matter. Even without activating their weapons’ enchantments, their abilities were still more than enough to kill soldiers after three hits and their shields blocked most hits.
The enchantment of light ended up helping. The light element in the sword made it resistant to corruption and allowed them to fight without worry that their weapons would break at a critical moment.
The priests weren’t useful in physical combat, but they still had their spellcasting rings and Athos ordered one of them to spend all of his mana on a single powerful spell whenever the soldiers got too close.
Each spell released a burst of corrupted mana that killed at least a dozen soldiers, some spells nearly twenty if there were too many soldiers clustered in one place.
Athos mixed his presence with the environment and only lifted the corpses as they fell, also healing the paladins whenever an attack overcame their defense. When his mana started getting low, he would drain a nearby corpse instead of raising it like an undead. Unfortunately for him, his advance was halted before the siege weapons could reach.
The crusaders were the main force in front of the gates and the paladins stayed close behind them, defending the priests as they cast spells to weaken the undead. This also meant that there were soldiers on both sides and Athos was quickly surrounded.
The number of skeletons around Athos had grown to nearly 300, but the priests’ magical support was running low and the soldiers were desperately trying to stop them from reaching the siege weapons.
To make matters worse for Athos, most of the soldiers he killed were archers or light infantry, so they were wearing light equipment so as not to hinder movement. Without the proper equipment, a single blow to the skull could crush a skeleton’s head.
Athos ordered them to form a square formation, with all the paladins heading towards the walls and the priests in the centre, while the rest tried to prevent the soldiers from reaching their back. Every time a skeleton was destroyed it detonated its own core, generating an explosion of darkness and buying precious seconds for another skeleton to replace it.
The small army slowly approached the siege weapons firing at the undead army outside, but Athos could only grit his teeth and hope that his preparations against them had been enough. As they advanced, the soldiers slain by the paladins came within reach of Athos and he raised them to replenish their dwindling numbers.
“Stop them from advancing at all costs!” A platoon leader shouted and a group of elite soldiers stepped into the paladins’ path, blocking their path. Athos looked in the direction they had come and realized it was an elite unit near the gate, to replace the Crusaders in case they needed to retreat.
Unlike the skeletons he’s killed so far, all the soldiers were mana users, experienced fighters and armed with enchanted weapons, so they managed to stop the paladins’ march. The elite soldiers were cunning and didn’t face the paladins directly, the ones in front blocked their attacks while spearmen behind them pierced them, trying to find a loophole in weaknesses.
“The skull is the weak point! Aim for the skull!” A soldier suddenly screamed, accidentally hitting a skeleton soldier’s skull and seeing him collapse. The blast of darkness came soon after and engulfed him, but the soldiers nearby heard his last words screamed at the top of their lungs, the news quickly spreading through the rest of the army.
Soldiers took aim at the head and the number of skeletons destroyed increased to a level that Athos could not keep up with, but this came at a price for the soldiers themselves. The resulting explosions from so many skeletons generated a black fog that did not dissipate easily and made it difficult for the soldiers to fight back.
The battle became a stalemate, with the paladins unable to advance any further.
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