New Quest Received! ‘Repeller’ - Defend the northern district from an imminent attack Reward - 3,000xp

Efficiency. Apathy. Ruthlessness.

These were the qualities sought by Sokalar for his legion of Deathguards - an elite collection of the Order’s finest necromancers to aid him in his dark crusade. Lieze was once a Deathguard herself, but her position was purely ceremonial. She was granted the position to maintain the illusion that Sokalar’s bloodline was gifted with a natural affinity for necromancy - a ploy that very few of his associates fell for.

Lieze never thought she’d one day be on the receiving end of the Order’s wrath. But the possibility was no longer laughable. She was powerful. Powerful enough to fend off any of her father’s strategies.

In the hour that followed Lieze’s return, she, Drayya, and Marché began to organise their thralls into easily-commanded groups. Briarknights were made the lieutenants of especially powerful hordes, while weaker or more defensively-oriented legions were left in the hands of Marché’s cultists.

“The arcade has entrances in each cardinal location…” Lieze overlooked the preparations from a walkway, “The western district has yet to be occupied, and it wouldn’t be reasonable to attack from the north entrance. The Deathguards will be approaching from either the south or the east…”

Her train of thought seemed rational enough, but it was worthwhile to consider that Ignas Sokalar was her enemy - a man renowned for his strategic prowess.

“That’s right… if we split our forces between the south and the east, we’ll be open to a surprise attack from the north. It isn’t impossible to sneak around to the arcade’s northern entrance - it would just take more time…”

Sokalar loved his ambushes. He also despised having his strategies countered. In that way, he was strangely predictable. Lieze had learned his habits through decades of living under the man’s heel. She understood his stagnated way of thinking.

“...The north?” Drayya didn’t seem too pleased by her suggestion, “You’ve gone mad. Don’t you think we’d notice three Deathguards’ worth of thralls trying to give us the slip?”

“We don’t have the manpower to protect every entrance.” Lieze replied, “The only thing we can say for certain is that they won’t be approaching from the west, since the district is still under Alistair’s control. But if they keep to the city walls and loop themselves around to the northern gate, we won’t notice them doing it.”

“So what?” Drayya shrugged, “The arcade’s not too big. You say we can’t defend every entrance, but it wouldn’t take long to fortify one of them if we spread our thralls out. We’d just lose a little ground.”

“It’s not territory I’m worried about.” She said, “If we know where they’re coming from, we can plan an ambush of our own. Catching them unawares will shift the battle in our favour.”

“-And if we get it wrong, they’ll catch us with our skirts down.” Drayya sighed, “I know you’re not going to budge on this, so just tell us where to set up.”

She was acting surprisingly cooperative for once. The chat they’d shared in the cemetery seemed to have done the girl some good.

“Set yourself up beyond the northern entrance. I’ll trust you with the specifics.” Lieze nodded, “How are we doing in terms of manpower?”

“Marché tells me we’ve got around 350 thralls in total. Maybe more, maybe less.” Drayya answered.

“That’s not as many as we had a few days ago.” She frowned.

“No - not for the reasons you’d think, however.” Drayya said, “On your command, we’ve been adding most of our weaker thralls to the Rot Behemoths, or just syphoning them for blood. Or, to put it simply, we’ve prioritised quality over quantity.”

“I see… there’s nothing to worry about, then.”

Even so - losing the cemetery was frustrating. The city was being bled dry of fresh corpses by the Order, forcing Lieze’s cult to ration whatever thralls they had. In the coming days, Sokalar would most likely recoup his losses by gathering thralls from Tonberg’s neighbouring cities. It was only a matter of time before the difference in manpower would be too great for Lieze to overcome.

“Another problem for another time…” She thought, “Let’s focus on the present for now.”

She had made her decision - the Deathguards would attack from the north. Sokalar’s influence would have promoted outside-of-the-box thinking, making it more likely that such a strategy would be attempted.

Tonberg’s labyrinthine alleyways were just about the only constant in Lieze’s new life. She’d come to adore their applications. The alleys were so numerous in number that hiding a force of over 300 thralls proved to be a much simpler task than one would anticipate. Within a half-hour, her ambush was set, and all that remained was to pray that it would pay off.

An hour passed in anticipatory silence. The sun vanished over the horizon. Drayya levitated herself onto the rooftops for a better view, surveying the walls for any signs of activity. Then, when she was just about to give up the ghost, a silhouette hovering through the streets caught her attention - the shrouded form of a floating necromancer.

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“They’re coming…” With practised elegance, she leaped down from the rooftop and used her [Levitation] to break the fall, “Lieze!”

“Oh.” The girl turned her head, “I was just starting to think my father was bluffing.”

“I can’t get a headcount when it’s this dark, but I just saw one of them poking their head over the rooftops.” Drayya reported, “They’re circling around, just like you said. Not bad at all.”

“How many thralls do you think they’ll have in total?”

“Who’s to say?” She shrugged, “A couple hundred? Probably more? The Order has corpses to spare.”

“Not for long.” Lieze paused, “Make sure everyone is prepared. Don’t reveal yourselves until I make the first strike.”

She felt remarkably unaffected by the reality of facing down her former peers. She’d spent her childhood being tormented by those with more talent - Drayya included. She had no love for the Order’s ranks beyond Lüngen. Their deaths would serve as stepping stones for her ambition.

The Deathguards continued to round the castle walls until they were approaching the arcade from the north. As expected of Sokalar’s personal guard, they treated the lack of any combatants as a sign to proceed with great care, understanding full-well the possibility of an ambush.

Lieze had planned for that, however. As the Deathguards converged on the arcade, she and Drayya fanned their forces out to avoid detection, looping around in a crescent trajectory to place themselves behind the attacking army.

When the horde came to a stop at the arcade entrance, Lieze made her move. She kept herself safe behind a Briarknight and its subordinate thralls while emerging onto the main road, followed shortly by the rest of the cult.

“Oi! Behind us!” A voice screamed from the enemy horde, “It’s an ambush!”

Attacking from behind had been the correct decision. The Deathguards had front-loaded their army with the most powerful thralls, leaving nothing but weak Gravewalkers at the rear. The Helmach-Briarknight launched forward with incredible speed, drawing first blood as its greatsword cleaved straight through a group of 3 Gravewalkers.

“Fools!” A female Deathguard - presumably the leader of the excursion - was quick to react, “Retreat into the arcade! They’ve given up their defensive position!”

The horde couldn’t simply flip around. Its most powerful thralls were located at the rear, and the difference in power between its Gravewalkers and Lieze’s attacking force meant there was no choice but to retreat.

Drayya pushed through her own thralls to reach Lieze. Her brow was furrowed.

“You didn’t consider the fact that they might just retreat into the arcade!?” She yelled, “The battle’s been flipped on its head! Now we’re the ones attacking and they’re the ones defending!”

“What’s wrong with that?” Lieze asked, “It works in our favour.”

“E-Eh?” She blinked, “Explain.”

“Normally, you’d be correct. A castle is easier to defend than attack.” She said, “-But the arcade isn’t a castle. It has four entry points from each cardinal direction and no vantage points to place ranged defenders. In the case of an exceptionally large army, it simply acts as a chokepoint.”

“-For both sides.” Drayya finished.

“Yes, but that also works in our favour.” Lieze replied, “The Deathguards can no longer take advantage of their superior numbers - to surround us, for instance. Not only that, but our army is blessed with Dark Casters, which will allow us to bombard their back lines from afar.”

“Hm…” Drayya stepped aside to make way for the horde of thralls moving towards the battlefield, “-And they can’t move their back line out of the way because there’s no space in the arcade. The only option would be to break the army in half and escape through another entrance, but it would take too long for them to flank us… and they also can’t retreat as a single group, because we’d just chase them down. They would need to sacrifice a portion of their forces.”

“Either way, we have the advantage.” Lieze concluded, “Now - enough talk. It’s time for bloodshed.”

She would have loved to make use of her [Summon Supreme Golem] Favour, but she wasted all three uses of her Heavenly Favours escaping from the Artificial Scions that morning. Until dawn, she would need to rely on her wits and thralls to survive.

A torrent of violence was unleashed at the entrance to the arcade. Thralls on both sides, who had long lost their ability to fear, threw themselves into the fray with reckless abandon. Blood soaked the polished floor as vicious growls and the tearing of metal against flesh filled the midnight air.

All the while, [Blood Magic] was being put to use by both Lieze’s cult and the Deathguards. Crimson javelins mixed with the [Magic Missiles] and [Fire Bolts] of the Dark Casters to create a storm of brilliant colours. It was impossible to aim with any sort of accuracy in the chaos, but it didn’t matter. As long as the projectiles hit something, they were worthwhile.

“Is that Lieze!?” One of the Deathguards exclaimed, “But Master Sokalar killed her!”

“Don’t be fooled! It’s just one of Drayya’s illusions!” Another replied, “We need to move our most powerful thralls to the front lines! Those Briarknights are tearing into our Gravewalkers!”

“No! Sacrifice the Gravewalkers and retreat! If we’re quick, we can perform a pincer attack!”

“Shit… this arcade is a trap! We’re getting boxed in!”

Chaos. Conflict. Lack of authority.

Lieze could only hear so much of it over the chorus of tearing flesh, but it was obvious that the Deathguards were struggling to reach a decision. The more time they wasted, the less likely victory became, and that realisation only caused more panic to spread through their ranks.

“...Damn it!” The leader of the army cursed under her breath, “Leave the Gravewalkers! We have to retreat! This battle can’t be won!”

“You’re joking!” One of her subordinates shouted, “Master Sokalar will kill us!”

“If you want to die here, then be my guest! We’ll be in even more trouble if we lose all of these thralls!” She said, “Escape to the south! Head into the eastern district!”

After some hesitation, the other Deathguards gave in to her demands. Their army split like an open wound, separating Gravewalkers from more powerful thralls. As Lieze’s undead carved into their numbers, the rear began to retreat through the arcade, covering their escape with volleys of [Blood Spikes] until they were safely out of sight, making a left turn to reach the eastern district.

“They’re just leaving!” Drayya groaned, “We need to chase them down!”

“No.” Lieze shook her head, “This is our victory. There’s no need to do anything risky.”

Without the threat of Flesh Elementals and Rot Behemoths, there was no need for Lieze to exercise any caution. Within the new few minutes, the enemy Gravewalkers were torn asunder, leaving the arcade floor positively soaked with blood.

“Take the Briarknights around and kill any stragglers!” Lieze ordered, “Keep an eye out for any dead Deathguards! I want to know how much damage we’ve done to Sokalar’s army!”

Quest ‘Repeller’ Complete! Reward - 3,000xp