It took Andrew three days to set up the gate. They had to put walls around their compound, which was growing large by the day, at least internally. The outside walls had been set up to a distance that would house a small warehouse. Once everything was on the level, they were going to shift goods from the Academy Warehouse down here to sell.
On the fourth day, Valerie asked the chief to accompany them on an expedition.
She accepted, which is how Anthony headed back to the promontory.
They exited the gate on the outside of the mansion which housed Andrew’s workshop. Instantly, she was on guard.
“Why is it so cold here?” She said.
“We’ve traveled nearly eight hundred span. This is the mild winter of the North,” Valerie said.
“This is the mild winter?”
“I’m from a part of the country that is much further north than this. This is mild.”
Valerie took her down to the side of the promontory where they could see Bob slowly working through another wave of zombies. They hadn’t worked it out that way, but the pile of Dwarven zombie bodies next to the Tower Defense made was a very specific site. Normally, they were going to bury the dwarves and turn them into mulch for the Goat Lord. They had held off on that for a day or two and just so they could give an impression of how large of a problem this was going to be.
“You really constructed all these earthen walls just to kill these zombies? This is miraculous.”
“This is the work of a chosen. They can leverage things to change the tide of battle,” Valerie said, eyeing Anthony.
They stood there for a bit. The icy winds went past them and the largest lizard folk chief shivered. Her personal guard of four lizard folk looked displeased, and we’re hiding their discomfort badly.
Anthony wanted to lead her down there, but he had let Valerie know it was her show. She was going to be the one to seal the deal.
“We can head down if you want to inspect,” Valerie said.
The chief put a hand on Anthony’s shoulder.
“You are one of the chosen.”
“I am yes. This is my task. Whether we have your help, we must reclaim this continent. Without your help, it will just take longer,” Anthony said.
Her hand lingered there as if she was testing his resolve. She had an iron grip that he was unaccustomed to.
“Show me what goes on down there.”
They took her step by step down the earthen walls through the maze, showing her where bodies of undead doors had just piled up. There were so many bodies that it was going to take days to clear them out. And that was before they went thanks to the work of power of harvesting the useful cards. Bob’s summon could only do so much in a day.
Once they got down from the high point, it was much easier to see the flow of dwarves coming out. Having worked through all the easy pickings, Bob was now trying to lure out zombies that remained inside of houses.
Stella and Sophie were taking turns opening doors on the roads that were directly next to the Eastern Gate. Then once they were open, which they could do about four at a time. They ran back to the gate. If there was a zombie inside of this house is on the first floor or able to get down to their first floor, they would hear the girls running and follow them. If there were no zombies, then the house would be marked.
Only once had they opened four doors and had zero zombies come out.
Bob called that a miracle. Anthony agreed, based on how much work they were putting in.
“So they go house to house?”
“They go house to house and every time they clear out a house they mark it with chalk. If they don’t know about the second floor, they’ll leave the door open. Once they’ve cleared a house, they chalk out the front door and close it up. We’ve got several hundred houses left to go through.”
For a while, they just observed the goings on of Bob and the scouts. The fighting had gotten so specific that Bob had a little pop-up tower he had made up with Sophie’s help right outside of the Eastern Gate. The tower itself was about four dwarves high and held multiple rope ladders. If the girls brought back over four zombies, then they would climb back until Bob dispatched them.
They were saving their magic when over ten showed up.
By this time, most of the easy ones had already been dealt with. They established a three-block radius inside the city, opening every single house and destroying any zombies that were inside.
“Allow me,” the chief said, pulling out her spear. Sophie and Stella were returning from the gate with ten zombies in tow.
She ran to the gate, getting ahead of Anthony and Valerie. Anthony shrugged and broke into a jog. Valerie broke into a cold sweat and sprinted.
Anthony waved down a surprised-looking Bob. He gave the hand talk for back off. Bob applied affirmatively, but kept his crossbow at the ready.
And Sophie ran past the chief, luring their clutch of dwarf zombies ever closer. As fast as they were running out of the city, the chief ran in the opposite direction, joining the battle.
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Her spear flashed red as it struck again and again into the zombies in front of her. Her four guards flanked her on every side, carefully taking a shot now and then when one would evade their Chief’s attack.
Anthony stopped behind them where Sophie and Stella had climbed up. Then they all watched as Sophie and Stella quickly killed the zombies.
“That was too easy,” the chief said. “Bring more.”
Stella and Stephanie looked at each other, then clicked one fist to their chest and ran back into the City. It took them five minutes to bring back nearly a hundred zombies. Anthony stood next to her as her grin got wider than it had any right to.
Slowly, the light of understanding grew upon Anthony. If she was just using them for cheap gains in her combat skills, then that was probably not a partner that they wanted long term. He was going to have to talk to Valerie about this. He would not shy away from conflicts, but he didn’t want to just fight. And if that was all she wanted, then they were going to have a long, hard talk about expectations and expectation management.
There were potentially millions of undead dwarves that had to be killed and turned into something that wasn’t a threat. And this is before considering all the elves, orcs and humans. They hadn’t even seen any undead elves or humans yet because they were just trying to get a foothold where they could build up a counter-attack. There were three entire kingdoms where they had done nothing. They had only just passed over the orcish lands. And only just that, though, they skirted the orchish and human kingdoms that bordered the Great River.
This would not end soon. This is more like a generational project, like building up a hospital system instead of setting up a clinic somewhere. It would take a lot of money to build one. Anthony didn’t have any money here. All he had was some skills and some friends.
But that was all that he needed.
If the tribes want to sign up? He would take them. He would take every single person. Lizard or dinosaur that wanted to fight. He didn’t care. He just needed warm bodies or even cold-blooded bodies to take care of this threat.
The chief to be that way with her. This is the second to drink something this year for all day. The only things that she wore were her spear, a very understated robe of office, and a small pack. By this time he had expected her to quit but she was just going to getting into it.
Here a long time ago when the hospital assistant they work for as a nurse and asked him to talk to somebody else just to sell that they were a charitable organization. His role was to escort them to some charity Gala, although thought that it was important in the long schema things he did he had to dress up and play dog Pony show for somebody else. He didn’t mind doing that with his family, but when it would have been so much easier to have a functioning healthcare system. But every year, until he was ready to go on his own, he was called up to be that person who showed off what was going on. After all. It wasn’t often that you met a man that was delivering babies unless they were a doctor.
He had been a special case for the labor and delivery department.
He felt the vibes. After all the hard work that they’d put through to get the even to think of a sharing a table with someone else?
Instead of him being the show pony, the fight against the undead was the show.
She was here to rack up some kills so she could get back to her friends later. If this is what it took? He would grin and bear it. After all, they still need to kill most of the zombies of this place for Bob to get a special quest done. How do you expect the negotiation is to extend to this kind of fighting? He hadn’t. But if this chief was the key to unlocking them, the other 13 tribes? He could only hope that it would be this easy. She still hadn’t said yes yet, but by the look on her face as he walked around to heal the four of them from all the scrapes of the zombies we’re giving them, she was it.
She was in, and he knew it. She knew he knew it because he saw that bloodlust.
A zombie tore off the arm of one of her guards, savagely renting it and then beginning to eat it. They were nearly overrun when Bob fired a crossbow bolt and Stella froze a line of zombies.
Anthony rushed over to regrow the lizard folks arm, before leading her away. Sophie took her spot, backed up by Valerie.
“Ah! The negotiator has joined us!” the chie’ chief roared. “This pleases me.”
Valerie looked like a child again. And Anthony really wanted her to step back. She had been practicing with the spear, but it have been secondary to her learning to lead everybody around her. Just like nobody expected, the healer to be deep in combat. Anthony, I never expected the adjutant to fight every battle.
“I tell you what, young dwarf, you have given me the thrill of a lifetime. We have a deal. But first I need to see that you can fight these zombies as well.”
Anthony was afraid of this. He had so many reservations but it really was Valerie’s fight to win. If anything happened, he could heal her, but he didn’t know it would happen to himself-he didn’t want to see her get hurt.
At the same time?
He couldn’t stop her. Not only that, he needed her to land this.
“You are on,” Valerie said.
“Scouts? Another wave please,” the chief said as she finished the last of the group.
Stella and Sophie looked up at the Tower. Bob raised an arm, showing a southern neighborhood. They ran off.
The chief looked over her injured guard. She knelt, examining the regrown arm.
“With this healing, many of my people will be saved from a deadly blow. Thank you, chosen.”
“It was nothing I would do for anybody,” he said.
The muscle bound female lizard looked up to him.
“But you did it for my people.”
He smiled.
“And I would do it again.”
She turned, whooping.
“Let us see what you can do, Valerie of the Irumian Kingdom!”
Valerie tightened her grip on her spear. Anthony came up to her side.
“You got this,” he said.
“I know!”
Wave after wave of zombies hit them as Sophie and Stella worked further and further into neighborhoods. Before long, it was going to get dark if they kept it up.
Valerie was a bloody sweaty mess. Most of the blood was not hers and most of the sweat was. However, she did not want to call in the end of the day before the chief did. Anthony respected her for that. It was tough to keep on fighting past what you thought was your limit, but she had kept it up.
He was proud of her.
“Chief, the darkness will be falling very soon,” he said. “Your guards looked exceedingly tired. Perhaps we can continue this fight tomorrow?”
“Hold!” Bob said, alerting the whole group.
Instantly the tired mess of fighters resumed their stances.
“Huh? That’s weird.”
“What is weird? Is weird good or bad?” The chief asked, trying to speak to the man on the tower.
A glowing card materialized in front of Bob.
Anthony gasped.
“What is the meaning of this?” The chief said.
“Pack it in guys,” Anthony said. “The city is clear now.”
“Pardon?” the chief said.
A bright purple flare went up over the city. That had Bob’s handiwork. He was calling the scouts back. Anthony wasn’t sure about the color, but given the time of day, he was just happy that it glowed.
“Card skill. He knows if there are any zombies within a range. If he can’t detect them, then we can’t either,” Anthony waved the ranger down.
“Bob!” Valerie yelled. “No zombies? Is this true?”
“None. I have to walk through the interior, but this skill-Mork-has never been wrong.”
They waited for Bob to descend. Behind them, the scouts arrived.
“What’s this them?” Stella said, running back. “Too dark for the chief?”
“No,” Valerie said.
Bob reached the ground. He raised his hands in supplication, as his body glowed, lighting up the twilight. A wave of pure, holy light washed out of him as a wave, enveloping all of them. The ground was as clear as day and a feeling of serenity passed through Anthony.
“It’s over,” Bob said, embracing Stella. “We got them all.”
Anthony smiled at first Valerie, then Sophie came in to hug him.
It felt amazing.