Rise of the Supreme Necromancer-Chapter 72: The Unending Waves

Samuel noticed the approaching enemies as soon as Aleric did. He felt the mental warning of his master to not let the inquisitors surround him, and to use as many undead as necessary to wear these elite enemies out.

"To me, soldiers! We can’t take the wall until these four are dealt with! A spear formation, now!" Samuel shouted, raising his sword.

The undead around him moved. There were several dozen already, and they stopped pushing back the human soldiers so that they could raise their spears (or whatever other weapons they had) toward the approaching inquisitors.

Seeing them, in their helmets with the holy star symbol, filled Samuel with profound sadness.

’My former brothers in faith, even if I never saw much eye to eye with the Inquisition... Let Master Fenn bring them the true faith, so we rejoin in brotherhood again!’

With this, the inquisitors smashed into the uneven rows of undead soldiers. They knew that former Justicar Samuel, easily recognizable from his armor, was one of the most elite warriors of Aleric Fenn... And seeing him fighting on the side of the Light’s eternal enemies, the undead, filled them with righteous fury.

"For the Light! Purge the unholy!" shouted Irkan.

The next moment, an aura of Light appeared around him, singing the undead and pushing them aside. The skeletons had to push themselves just to get through him, while Irkan’s blessed blade slashed through one zombie after another.

The paladin’s strikes were so strong and precise that he barely noticed the armor some of them wore.

Karill and Farlan were covering Irkan’s flanks. Karill’s blessed flail smashed skulls of the undead, while his shield kept aside those who got too close. Farlan’s blessed daggers were less suitable for dealing with the undead, but the templar moved them with such speed that it looked like there was a silvery shield in front of him.

Maria covered the group’s back, keeping her mace and one of her lesser battle prayers on the ready.

The sight of this group would’ve made any mortal warrior hesitate... But the undead kept fighting even when they were killed by dozens. Still, the inquisitors went through them like a knife through butter.

Samuel met Irkan’s blow with his dwarven sword with a loud clang. Irkan’s aura burned Samuel’s body, but he was an undead of higher power than the undead slaves. It weakened him, but he could still fight only slightly worse than usual.

The eyes of two paladins, one former and one active, met. Then Samuel pushed back, trying to get a swing at Irkan.

Irkan parried and immediately counterattacked. This time, Samuel was too slow to blow, and the blow glanced off his pauldron, bending it slightly.

’He’s too fast for me!’

Even if Samuel was still alive and not slowed down by being undead and inside a Halo of Light spell, he’d be slower than Irkan.

"Cursed creature... Maria, cover our backs. Karill, Farlan—get around it! Our weapons might be blessed, but they won’t pierce this armor so easily," Irkan shouted to his team.

By this point, the area of the wall was almost clear of undead. Only scattered bodies, many missing heads or limbs, while others simply crushed, were lying around. Many of these bodies belonged to the city’s defenders.

It was easy for the inquisitors to surround Samuel. Maria led other defenders to throw the undead off the nearest ladders, while soldiers under her blessing kept the wall farther away.

More blows fell on Samuel, and he could only do his best to protect the gaps in his armor from Farlan’s daggers and Irkan’s sword.

But he wasn’t fighting alone, even now.

Below the wall, Aleric made full use of the inquisitors’ distraction. As quickly as he could, he drew a heptagram on the trampled soil and channeled all the magic he could gather.

In this battlefield, there was a lot of Dark magic. There were also a lot of bodies.

"Kaiva hitta orjaudat yls, nosni, loplmon tansuani ja tanssi svesisi, tapa, tapa, tuhoa..."

Aleric’s power reached up the wall, where hundreds of bodies were piled up already. Some of them belonged to defenders, some to the attackers, some were little but bones.

"Watch out!" Maria shouted, feeling Dark energy gathering around her.

The city’s defenders shouted as some corpses began moving right under their feet. Dozens of undead slaves began rising all around the inquisitors like a wave!

In a few seconds, it was the turn of the inquisitors to become surrounded again! Aleric spent all his mana to raise a hundred and fifty slaves, and even if some of them couldn’t hold a weapon, they were determined to drown the inquisitors in bodies.

And they could.

"Blasted things! Blasted necromancers!" Karill cursed, turning to the side to push a wave of undead with his shield. Nearby, his comrades were equally distracted.

Even Irkan’s aura only slowed the zombies, because Aleric forced them to attack no matter the cost.

Seeing this opportunity, Samuel counterattacked.

He lunged, stabbing Irkan under his arm, which was raised to swing at a nearby zombie. There, plate armor had a weak spot.

Irkan noticed the attack in time and turned slightly to protect himself. Samuel’s sword hit Irkan’s right arm.

An ordinary sword or even a blessed one would’ve slid right through, but dwarven still was much sharper and tougher than a human one, and Samuel’s blow was slower but stronger than a human’s.

His strike pierced through the plate, the mail beneath, and stopped only at the bone. Blood poured out.

Irkan staggered back, holding the sword in his left hand. His right arm grew too weak to raise, and he was rapidly losing blood. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Hold out, Irkan!" Maria shouted, smashing the skull of an approaching zombie.

She recited a prayer of healing despite the countless interruptions of the undead nearby. The Light magic stopped the blood, but it wasn’t enough to heal Irkan fully, not so quickly.

And Samuel wasn’t going to stop the attack.

The undead were winning.

He was going to bring the inquisitors down!