By the time the elves and the tree-men realized what had happened it was far too late to do anything about it. The goodest (undead) bois retreated as quickly as they had come, detangling themselves from the brawl with enough ease that you might think that their formations were controlled by the AI in a Total War game. It was immediately after this, though, when the spell wore off and an impossible amount of fatigue hit the Arcfirans like a half dozen freight trains running on full steam ahead.

Immediately, everyone fell to the ground and could barely muster up enough energy to keep themselves from falling unconscious and then dying of their current condition. The sheer strain that they felt, coupled with the impact of all of their wounds finally coming to the fore was enough to lay them all out, which left them wide open for a final coup de grace.

However, regardless of whether you would consider it to be merciful or merciless, Darksol’s forces left them alone to deal with their agony. Besides, it wasn’t like they could go anywhere, nor was it like they could do much of anything right now. It was, in their eyes, more fitting of a blow to their arrogant pride if they were ‘pitied’ and left to lick their wounds rather than simply being finished off.

As a result, those elves and plant-people out there in that minuscule peninsula lay in extreme pain as the sun rose, with some accepting the calming embrace of sleep and, by proxy, the embrace of death. That was not to say that they would remain dead for very long afterwards. To add further insult to injury, those of flesh and blood who succumbed to their condition only stayed down for a few minutes before rising to their feet and shambling off towards the Darksolian lines.

For the naïve amongst you, that isn’t to say that they woke up and decided to surrender. No, they had risen from the grave as one of the most demeaning types of undead; a Zombie. Weak, slow, and nothing more than a meat shield at the best of times, this was just another bit of damage to the now-vulnerable pride of the Elves and their floral overlords. And, as you might imagine, the boys on the ground over in the Darksolian camp were loving it. And, when their fallen brothers in arms that had held the peninsula to their deaths finally rose not as regular, dumb Zombies but instead as fully sentient and utterly unique undead, the mood in the Darksolian camp only reached new heights.

As for the elves and the plantoids? Well, they were both horrified and mortified at the sight of the formerly mortal soldiers of Darksol’s army just getting back up after their bodies pieced themselves back together. As they lay there, they expected that these risen monsters would turn and feast upon them. This, however, wasn’t the case. Even among the undead, those that ate sentient flesh while they themselves were sentient were few and far between, and besides, there were so many more types of meat out there that tasted far better and could be more easily acquired and cooked without breaching the law.

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Now, House Moreau was permitted to munch on people, but even then, there were laws that they had to follow. Kain, for instance, did not want his people up in arms that their spouses or children were snatched up off the street and treated like snacks for the House Moreau vampires, so he had a special punishment for certain types of criminals that let House Moreau fulfill their more bestial impulses but without harming the good people of Darksol. House Moreau was a wild card, but so too were the various other cannibals out there who now had an outlet for their hunger but also needed to play by the rules.

But back to the matter at hand.

These newly risen undead were not of the mind to munch of elven brains. No, they were much more inclined to mock their murderers for a good few minutes before walking off to join their comrades, which only further bruised the elves’ egos. When the newly minted undead walked off, the sheer level of humiliation and anguish over their fate caused even more elves and even a few tree-men to willing pass into unconsciousness and, soon after, into death and then undeath.

This almost caused a cascading chain reaction, but apparently, there were more than enough elves and tree-people who held on to their conscious minds for long enough for a pseudo divine intervention to occur. It seemed that the Great Tree was none-too-pleased by what had just gone down and may have even taken the mockery of his subjects/ slaves a bit personally. A wave of powerful druidically magic restored the vitality and stamina of those who yet remained, and they quickly rose and took down those of their own who had turned into the risen dead and were nearby.

To the Darksolians, this was an unexpected surprise, but a welcome one. After all, they were more like Kain than even their own rulers had expected, and as such were itching for a fight. It just wasn’t sporting nor enjoyable to cut them down when they were broken and beaten and helpless, but this revitalized force was a challenge, and it was something they were salivating over. Not literally, though. They were war-hungry, but not that mindlessly violent, after all.

But in the end, they had their orders, and those orders were to hold the line and starve the enemy into submission before delivering a final death blow. This was their mission, and they accepted it gladly, knowing fully that there was a not-so-small chance that they would be hit from both front and back simultaneously.

Therefore, they did what their particular section of the Army was known for and dug in as fast and as potently as possible. After all, they were here to draw all the attention possible, all so that the other attacks could go off without a hitch. The more attention that was on them, the less that was directed elsewhere. Besides, some of them had girlfriends that were about to hit Arcfira from the south, and if they could keep the majority of the aggro away from them, they would be able to show their sexy snake/ fish/ arthropod/ cephalopod lady friends that they were most certainly good material.

Poor bastards. Despite all the word about it, none of them realized that if they did get to move in with their gal pals, that they would be nothing more than public property, and not bound only to the object of their heart’s desires. Or maybe they were counting on that. Either way, they had no god damned idea what they were actually wanting.

But hey, at least they were showing how strong their genes were, right?