Chapter 60 - The Reformation

“That explains what he was doing,” I said, surveying the reformed undead army.  Both sides had been patching themselves up, it was just that the undead did such a better job of it.  

“What are those,” asked Shart as a massive twenty foot tall undead stomped towards the collapsed passage.  

“Amalgams,” said Badgelor.  “When Charles couldn’t fix a body, he’d just match it up with several more and call it a day.”

“Recycling, what ultimately ends the world,” I said, glancing down at Julia.  “That thing is bothering me, end it.”

She looked at the massive undead for a second and grabbed Lance.  They both had magical weapons that negated most of the range issues and SueLeeta wasn’t wasting arrows on something like that.  

A glowing disk flashed out towards the amalgam and I could see it distort as the undead attempted to counterspell it.  There were fewer of those than when we started and I half wondered if Charles was going to get involved when the disk shattered.  

“That went a bit easier than I expected,” I said as the fragments of the disk peppered the undead.  One fragment struck so hard it exploded out the back in a geyser of plasma.  Lance chuckled evilly.  

“Clever, he bonded his plasma to the radiant energy in Julia’s spell but kept it separate, that made finding the plasma tricky so they botched their counterspell.”

“Will wonders never cease,” I said as the massive undead fell to the ground with an explosive thud.  Parts that should have remained on the body went flying in all directions and the creature was still.

Then six more amalgams stood up and started marching towards the fortress.  

“I smell him,” said Badgelor as we continued surveying the field.  After that first shot both sides were back to full on bombardments as projectiles of all stripes covered the distance in an eyeblink.  Several arrows hit my personal barrier, but given the height advantage they didn’t do much.  

The only spell that hit me lacked sufficient power to do much more than slightly ruffle Badgelor’s fur.  

“Where is he?” I asked as Julia worked on the second amalgam.  Twinkle was positing his people to block access to the wall when the undead came, but the elves were most effective at short range.  “Why don’t the elves use bows or something?”

“I think Diddle does,” said Badgelor.  “He was always a strange one though.”

“He actually uses a bow, gross,” said Shart.

“Why gross, elves use bows on Earth,” I said.

“I thought there weren’t any elves on Earth,” said Shart.

“No, there are, most of them work at the north pole making presents for the kiddies though,” said Badgelor.  

“Like slave labor,” asked Shart.

“No, they work in Santa’s workshop,” I said.  

“And the cookie tree,” said Badgelor.

“They make vanilla wafers,” I said.

“Or sit on shelves, watching you,” said Badgelor.

“Just at Christmas time,” I said.  

“None of those sound like they are archers,” said Shart.  “And the ones on shelves sound creepy.”

“Creepy for you?” asked Badgelor.

“Yeah,” said Shart.  “I’m going to d-mail Bruce to use that in Jersey.”

“Vicious,” said Badgelor, nodding his approval.  

“They use bows in the movies,” I began.

“In your fiction they are archers,” said Shart.  “Please tell me that’s not part of that stupid ring movie.”

“Everyone knows powerful mind control magic requires an amulet,” said Badgelor.  

“They are archers in more movies than that,” I said.

“Wow, you actually have elves working as bakers or in light industry like normal people, but because of some fictional stereotype you expect them to all be archers?”

“I expected better of you,” said Badgelor, shaking his head.  

“I hate this place,” I grumbled.  

“Obviously, there are undead everywhere,” said Shart.

“We could really use some more archers,” said Badgelor.

The second amalgam collapsed as a disk bisected it in the same moment as the third exploded in a spray of gore.  The remaining three continued marching towards the wall, but it was obvious they were not going to make it at the current rate of sustained fire.

Which meant they were a distraction.

I scanned the field, spotting undead moving in perfectly coordinated patterns.  They were so perfect that anyone not moving in such a coordinated fashion would be visible unless that person was the one controlling the entire unit.  

Behind the amalgams, came a rushing wave of undead.  They jogged over the field efficiently and nearly perfectly.  There were rocks, and other debris that caused some small sections to move slightly out of alignment.  

I ignored those, instead watching the feet of the head of the column.  Nothing there, they were all perfect except as I watched the entire host of the undead’s foot picked up slightly almost as one.  If one of them had been avoiding a rock, I would have seen that.  If all of them did it then…

“Charles,” I said pointing to the rank just behind the front.

He was ‘hidden’ in the mass of undead moving towards the gate.  He had all the undead slaved to his movements, and the only reason they differed was if they had to for something obstructing them in the field.  However, when Charles ran into something personally that effect was transmitted across the entire army.

It would have been virtually impossible to see except I had a Master Perception skill and a firm understanding of what I’d do if I was an asshole.  

I designated him a primary target, a new ability with Great General, and in one glorious instant we let loose on the bastard.

I fired a bio-plasma bolt the same moment as Badgelor blasted him with a destructive gaze.  That might not have done anything, but there was an old expression: You and what army?

A plasma blast and a dozen golden disks and rods slammed into the front of the undead horde, followed by arrows, dragons and every other bit of explosive you could imagine.  Diddle actually flung out one of Hansa’s catapult fired artillery shells.

For a second I thought we got him in the least climactic way possible.  

“Illusion,” someone yelled and I spotted it a moment too late.

I picked out Charles, but Charles was fifteen logs in front of where I thought he was.  That put him out of the area of effect for our spells, but also much closer to the gate.  Thankfully, I was almost ready for round two when debris blocking the passage started to glow.  

“That isn’t good,” I muttered as the rocks flew out of the passage forming up into a wall over the undead formation.  Arrows and spells blasted into the magically lifted stone harmlessly.  

“He’s infused a barrier into the stone making them much more durable than normal,” said Shart as I started flexing my Counterspell skill against the stones.  I managed to deactivate one rock easily enough, but the surrounding stone supported it even as more blocks started tearing themselves out of the wall.  

The undead were well enough shielded under the wall that nothing we were doing was going to make much of a difference.  

“If they get through the passage, we will be cut off up here,” said Julia as she flung down another massive saw blade against the mass.  It shattered into fragments of light as it impacted.  

“Well, it was too good to last,” I said, signaling Badgelor.

“Charles must be stopped, no matter the cost,” replied my optimal badger.  

We hopped off the edge towards Grabthar’s wall.