Chapter 61 - The Darkness

(note, I have final chapter numbers so this will become Chapter 59, but I'm going to keep up with the existing structure i have here)

Even with Fenris expecting the attack, he didn’t expect it this quickly.  The passage was full of debris and everyone expected it to take several minutes at least to carve through it.  Then the debris exploded and the undead were rushing towards them.  

Lorrain and Nick brought in both flanks of the defense as the forces of the Dark Overlord set foot in the courtyard for the first time and Fenris realized he was going to go down in the history books today as the general that let that happen regardless of anything else. 

“Dalton, Zorlando, let's show these bastards the difference between a job and an adventurer,” stated the cyberwarden as he lowered his shield and charged, with every Dashing Dandy and dozens of adventurers behind him.  

They slammed into the front of the undead formation and pushed it back.  Every creature in Jersey was here, trying to consume everything living and Fenris refused to give them an inch.  A massive undead swung his equally massive club at Fenris, but he deflected it easily with Jim’s Shield before taking the champion’s leg.  

He didn’t even stop to finish the wounded creature off.  Behind him, he felt two dandies pin and decapitate the unholy abomination even as Fenris deflected a spell with his shield before flinging it at an undead trying to devour Lorraine’s arm.  

Without the shield, he realized he was vulnerable but it bounced three times before flying back to Fenris and he continued pushing forward.  Sir Dalton took the moment to push past Fenris, carving into the undead with more fury than Fenris had ever seen from the knight.  While it helped that he had Excalibur 2, if the big knight wasn’t careful he was going to get overwhelmed.

Despite everything they were getting pushed back.  Pace by grueling pace they were losing the courtyard.  Fenris needed to find the center of the undead formation and break it soon or they were going to smash through his army.  A task made more difficult by the exhaustion and growing sense of terror in the adventurers.  

Zorlando was being strategic, pushing forward with the dandies in carefully calculated violence.  The level of coordination was even greater than normal, something he needed to counteract the zombies but it left him exposed, relying on Ashe for protection.  She didn’t let anything get near him though, and every undead that advanced went down with a burning hole in their chest.

Then two strings of explosions went off in the middle of the undead’s lines as Hansa and Margwal began firing their rockets from portable launchers in the rear wall.  The undead were getting shredded faster than they could enter into the courtyard.  For a brief moment the Army of Windfall rallied and started pushing back the horde of undead.  

Then Margwal’s dragon launcher exploded.  She dove away before she got caught in the blast but Hansa wasn’t quite as lucky and when her’s went up a moment later, her bright red hair was ablaze.  A dozen dandies fell as a blast of wind so sharp it scoured the wall behind them cleaved them in twain.  

Triblade stepped into the courtyard, as two of his blades flew back to the legendary sword and locked back in place.  For an instant the battlefield was quiet as Triblade found his target.

“I feel sorry for whoever that poor bastard is,” said Fenris.

“For feck's sake, boss, this isn’t the time,” said Zorlando.  Everyone was staring at him.  

Oh.

Groaning, Fenris popped his neck, even though it couldn’t pop anymore, readied his shield and yelled, “For the Forest!”

His charge skill was nothing impressive, just a forward rush with his shield directly into the undead Triblade.  The undead even seemed amused as Fenris charged, gathering speed until each step seemed to propel him forward in a shockwave of energy.

Triblade’s amusement stopped when the shield hit.  

While Fenris expected the shockwave to be of little concern to the undead, the impact of the shield into the legendary sword sent the undead flying backwards.  Nearby undead exploded from the outward wave of pressure, and Fenris prepared for a follow up attack.  Two blades tore out of the sword and went flying off to converge on Fenris, but in that moment he pressed forward slashing with his own sword and driving the undead leader back.  

Of course, the problem became immediately apparent.  Fenris was good with his sword, nearly at Sir Dalton’s level.  He’d trained extensively and had many situations where he’d needed it before.  None of that mattered against the Triblade.  

Triblade was far faster, more skilled, and infinitely more experienced. Within three beats Fenris was back on his heels and the next strike was going to take his head except the legendary triblade smacked into Excalibur.  

Dalton switched to a one handed grip on the big sword and pulled something else out of his sheath.  The second blade looked like some sort of engineering tool and a series of chains spun up as he held it.  

Spotting the other two swords inbound, Fenris flung his shield and knocked them aside before grabbing it again and moving to assist Dalton.  Even with his new swords Dalton was quickly finding himself overmatched as Fenris began striking with his own burning blade.  

All around them the undead horde moved to strike at the army.  Groups of adventures fought with undead champions and everyone faced armageddon every second but they held.  Maybe by the tips of their fingers, but they held and slowly drove the evil back.

“Enough,” bellowed a voice and Fenris looked at the end of the passage.  On the other side of the wall the Dark Overlord smiled wickedly at him, holding two dark scythes in his hands.  So great was his power that Fenris could see him like an afterimage even with the undead between them.  “Now I will show you true power!”

The wicked sorcery, the dark overlord lifted every bit of the damn wall that Fenris could see through the passage, and possibly every bit of it that had fallen during the entire battle searching for something.  The other side of the passage became dark so all you could see was fallen Grebthar holding up a massive chunk of the dense wall using his power.  The debris lifted over his head and began to rotate while he crushed the rock down smaller and smaller.  

Fenris wasn’t sure how much mass the shield could handle, but that super dense rock was going to be difficult no matter what.  In that heartbeat, he knew that the Dark Overlord was going to continue with his spell until that rock was capable of breaching his shield, and it wouldn’t be long.  Fenris was going to need a miracle.  

Or something furrier.  Badgelor landed on the Dark Overlord in a spray of rock.  The mighty war badger glanced at Fernis dismissively and started tearing into the undead reinforcements.  

The boulder started to lift slowly from the crater when Jim landed, cracking the rock that landed on the Dark Overlord in half like some sort of legend.  The Mayor stared right at Fenris.

“I know I can count on you.  Do your best while I defeat the Dark Overlord,” stated Jim.  He turned and tossed the top half of the boulder into position, blocking the passage.