The rather sudden appearance of Piotr had left the Sultanate troops and civilians rather surprised and, of course, confused. After all, it was widely believed that only vampires were smart or intact enough to speak, yet here this being made mostly of seemingly frozen meat and a few exposed bones, was speaking to them. Yes, it was clearly a zombie of some kind, yet conventional wisdom dictated that there was not a snowball’s chance in hell that a zombie could do anything other than groan, moan, and occasionally screech if the stars aligned themselves just so.

“What… are you?” Asked the General, whose name is still, and would continue to be completely unnecessary to the advancement of the plot in any way, shape, or form.

Piotr’s one good eye scanned the assortment of soldiers, aides, and civilian tagalongs. Although, to be completely honest, both of his eyes were scanning the foe before him, it was just that one of them was replaced with an ethereal flame, which did not lend itself well to showing where its gaze fell at any given moment.

“I am Piotr, and I am the appointed ruler of the Ruskian Unified State.”

The thick Russian accent that Piotr spoke in did not lend itself well to being understood by the Sultanate’s men, yet due to the power of the ungodly amount of magic power that was used to raise him, the General and the rest of the mortals understood him well enough.

“What twisted abomination of a nation is that to be ruled by such a hideous mockery of life such as yourself?” one of the aides yelled, causing Piotr’s focus to shift onto the man in question.

A single sigh escaped Piotr’s mouth and less than a second later the offending aide had completely frozen over as though he had been stuck outside in a blizzard with a temperature of minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit for several days while still holding a specific pose. This shocked the rest of the mortals, and Piotr’s remaining eyelid narrowed around his one physical eye.

“I assumed you would rather talk than fight a battle you cannot win, yet if you are going to be so rude to the one who holds your life in his hands you should at least expect some kind of retaliation, da?”

Nearly the entire collection of mortals gulped as one, and Piotr took this as a sign that his usage of intimidation had achieved his desired objective. However, while he did not want to hurt the soldiers and civilians before him, he would ultimately be forced to bring the hammer down, as it seemed that his action had unintended side effects.

“Damn monster… You would toy with us, living or dead, wouldn’t you?!”

“Nyet. My orders are to remove you from this place. If you are removed while keeping your lives, then that is-.”

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“Do not lie! We may be few in number, but our conviction and strength exceed yours by immeasurable margins! We will not accept defeat at your hands, not while living and not while dead! Prepare for battle and let us show you that the living will not go quietly into that endless night!”

Once again, Piotr sighed and let his body slump for a bit in a bit of begrudging disappointment and cynicism before straightening up and walking off towards the innumerably massive horde of undead and undead-associated critters.

“Well, I tried to let you off the hook. Now you and yours will have no one to blame for what comes next other than yourselves.”

…

The remaining members of the Sultanate army formed up, but its structural integrity was already compromised. Having lost most of its number in the deadly hike through the hellish blizzard, the survivors were already tired, hungry, thirsty, and as cold as the left ass cheek of the demon trapped in the final circle of Hell itself. This meant that they were ill prepared to deal with what Piotr had to level against them, let alone any army of mortals of similar size.

Of course, the morale shock of seeing potentially hundreds of thousands of Zombies, Skeletons, Dire Wolves and Fel Bats blocking them from the assumed safety that lay beyond the mass of undead was another mark against the Sultanate’s new model army. All the faith in the world would not have been enough for these men to deny the reality of their situation, or perhaps it would, but that would be a point of debate that no one cared to go into. Nevertheless, the clerics did a decent job of keeping as many peoples’ moods up as they possibly could, but all the prayers and blessings they dispensed couldn’t keep the haunting sense of doom and gloom from seeping in to the hearts, minds, and souls of both civilian and military personnel alike.

…

At last, the time for battle arrived, much to the annoyance of Piotr, who had watched the people before him stall for time with all manner of inane rituals and empty words, all while he had repeatedly shouted across the field that he was more than willing to avoid fighting if it meant that the troops from Arbiana would just fuck off and leave Darksol in peace. The surviving mortal troops gathered up and began to slowly advance across the open ground, which gave Piotr a bit to think about. What possible motive would they have for the formation that they were using? The foe before him had split up its number into groups numbering roughly 300 strong each, and each of said groups were slowly advancing across the frozen land and gradually moving further and further apart, opening gaps in their formations that would be easily exploitable.

It took a while for Piotr to realize that whatever strategy was behind such a move was obviously heavily flawed and not, in fact, some kind of trap, at which point he decided to give these people exactly what their dumbass strategy and tactics were begging for, and had his undead advance, taking full advantage of both his side’s numerical and tactical superiority.

It did not need to be said, but the resulting battle was a one-sided massacre as formations of Fel Bats and Dire Wolves flanked the idiotic formations of the Sultanate and hit them from the sides and rear until the main force arrived and drowned the mortal men in a sea of frigid undead bodies. Piotr could only hope that things were going as well on other fronts before releasing the control he had applied to his aura and drowned the world in a blizzard unlike any other that the area he was standing in had ever experienced before.