The square exploded into chaos as I watched the blood spill from my mothers throat. She couldn’t resist the Royal Advisors command, even as she died in the grasp of the King of Etes. Each drop fell in slow motion as they tumbled down the front of her cloth prison uniform, staining it red. Her face was drawn in the same tight smile I remembered growing up.

I fell to my knees, unable to focus on anything except the sight of my mother. The pain was too intense, my mind couldn’t process what happened. There was shouting and fighting all around me, as if I was in the eye of a storm. I watched in silence as Van formed a desperate vanguard against the remaining Kingsworn.

I blinked and watched the Royal Advisor being healed by another of the converted Kingsworn, my spear tossed aside. Van was dragging me backwards by my cloak while Nadia, Marci and Rale fought off pursuers. Van had to stop and join in occasionally, Nadia was screaming at me but I couldn't hear anything. Emotions pouring through my bond were overwhelming and instead of processing them, I blocked them out.

I blinked again and watched Van crush a soldier's head into pulp and I started moving backwards again. Van and Marci were now a devastating one two combo. Nadia was showing off all of her prowess as the former stryker leader of Eter. Rale had always been known as a competent soldier and his reputation was earned.

Ice Bolts flew overhead as Mily clashed with the mages of the Kingsworn. Great swathes of fire burned fleeing soldiers. Furniture and stones of ruined buildings hurtled through the air as the battlefield became a death trap. Arrows dove out of the sky like screaming birds of vengeance. Pitri dashed in and out using his dagger to strike down distracted foes.

My left arm hung limply at my side, I stared at it and tried to move it. My health bar was down to one fourth and the poison icon was still blinking. I tried to grab a health potion but my bandolier was empty. It occurred to me that Van was in front of me fighting off the converted soldiers, I turned and saw a familiar face. Halev and his entire pack were forming a defensive perimeter around me as he dragged me backwards into the city.

I blinked again and watched Van standing on top of a massive Kingsworn soldier. He slammed his fist against his chest and roared to the rhythm. The pack of young apes that idolized Van pounded their chests and roared in concert. Devastating melee fighters one and all. Marci landed on the peak of Van’s helmet and gave the most fierce shriek of her young life while flaring her now six foot wingspan to its full length.

More citizens were around us now, fighting against the remaining soldiers of the first army and Kingsworn. It was as if the entire city had rallied to our side in opposition to the Royal Advisor. Shovels, rakes, planks of wood were among the weapons being used. Guerilla warfare was happening around the outskirts of the square.

It looked like we were winning, we would actually be able to fight our way out. I watched as the leg of the Kingsworn under Van began to twitch. After a moment its leg jerked upwards and he rolled out from under Van. I watched as previously dead bodies all over the square began to rise and return to the fight.

My mental fog cleared back into place after another fierce roar from Van. Emotions from Marci and Van slammed through the bond and rescued me from the mire I was in. I shoved all of my pain to the side and held up a hand to stop Halev. I got to my feet and surveyed the battlefield of the former parade square.

The Royal Advisor was in the distance marshaling his troops. It looked like he could only take a certain amount of people under his influence at a time but that number was growing collectively. The real horror was seeing Allain there with his arms raised high just like in my dream. He was controlling the dead and bringing them back to fight.

“We have to run! Every corpse becomes a weapon! If one of them kills they convert the victim to the damned!” I shouted out to anyone near.

“We are working towards the main city avenue, my rearguard forces were supposed to keep it clear. It's a fighting retreat all the way out of the city now. Etes is lost!” One of the men fighting with Nadia answered.

I bent down and picked up a spear from a dead soldier, it was flimsy and a poor replacement for mine. My health was still too low to fight on the frontline with my left arm hanging limply so I just cradled the spear in my elbow and watched. We retreated slowly in formation, the people around me were professionals through and through. The forest apes had cleared the area behind us already and were following the soldiers lead.

We made it to the wide avenue that marked the entrance to the parade square and found another group of soldiers holding a barricade. These were allies, their leader came running over towards our group. I stood and stared out over the square, so many dead. This was a loss of life that Etes may never recover from and it was only the beginning.

“Captain Haust sir!” The soldier said and saluted.

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“Report” The apparently named Captain Haust answered.

“The city is lost sir! We have reports of swarms of damned pouring out of warehouses, sewers and storage facilities all over the city. Our strongholds and fortifications are being overrun. We have begun the retreat out of the east gate.” The soldier reported quickly.

“Sound the general retreat. Every patrol and squad is to get out of the city by any means necessary. Move to the eternal forest with all haste and search out any survivors. We will reconvene when and if we can.” Captain Haust commanded.

“Yes sir!” The soldier replied and saluted.

He almost hesitated before running back to the barricade. A loud bell rang out three times, then silence, then three more times. I hadn’t learned those patterns in the academy, they were either new or reserved for the first army. The news of the city falling was slow to sink in after everything that had happened in the last few hours. If Etes fell, Eter was doomed against the Royal Advisor and Allain.

We continued our fighting retreat all the way down the central avenue. Before the framework even the quickest soldier would have taken hours to move that distance and still fight. Now we were crossing districts and neighborhoods in minutes. Our pursuers included the remaining Kingsworn as well as any soldiers that had already been converted or were converted during the minutes after the battle began anew.

The poison notification had finally disappeared and my health began to regenerate. It was moving slowly but I started to have feeling in my arm again. I asked around for any health potions but everyone was out. The safehouses that housed all of the stockpiled supplies were being abandoned too quickly against the combined forces of the Royal Advisor.

The damned began to appear in every alley way and street. They came in great tides of walking corpses. Friends and family to the still fighting soldiers provided an extra mental torture. Each corpse was easy to put down for the dedicated soldier but an even fight for the average citizen. Those without combat classes fell as often as they won.

My health was still regenerating too slowly to be of much use. I was halfway and I could finally move my arm again when we entered the last main throughway of the city towards the east gate. It was a widened street that fit three wagons abreast and let through large squares used as markets before it split off to smaller streets leading to each district. The gate was visible in the distance and the fighting was thick.

“Part of my army was designated to hold the gate. We have supplies and patrols strung out to the forest to protect a fighting retreat. I always knew taking the city back was a long odds.” Nadia said breathlessly beside me.

There was a horde of damned between us and the gate. They were waiting there in deadly silence as if commanded to intimidate us. My rough estimate was five hundred of the walking corpses. They must have been hidden in one of the warehouses lining the street. I had time to wonder how the Royal Advisor had hidden the smell of so many rotten bodies.

The group of us consisted of roughly thirty forest apes, a hundred or so trained soldiers and another two hundred citizens still alive. Van stood directly in front of me as if daring the damned to charge, Marci on his helmet. The forest apes gathered around him and created our vanguard. The professional soldiers formed the rest of a shoddy line followed by the injured and regular citizens.

There was fighting on the other side of the horde. The reserve force was still trying to keep the gate from closing. I asked Marci to fly up and give me a view of the other side of the street near the gate. If there was no risk of hurting our soldiers, bombs were back in play. I checked my inventory and still had four simple bombs. Not enough to clear the horde but enough for a tactical advantage.

Marci flew up high and I triggered See What I See to view the world from the falcons eyes. After the momentary disorientation I looked to see the same standoff happening between the gate and the horde. The forces holding the gate were skirmishing the horde from distance without much success. I watched one of their arrows deflect from a golden shield in mid air. Another group was approaching the gate from the outside but I couldn't make out any details. Ending the spell brought me back down to the ground.

“There are either Kingsworn mages hidden in the horde or Allain can control damned mages as well. I watched one summon a shield to deflect an arrow. We need to be careful, they have the numbers.” I said to Nadia quietly. Best to let her handle relaying the information to her men.

Marci sent me a few more images of even worse news. There were two more hordes converging on our location from each side. In a few minutes we would be boxed in and outnumbered four to one rather than two to one. I quickly relayed that information to Nadia as well and thought over my options.

Marci actually came up with the plan when she sent me a memory of dropping the poisoned flowers into the cookpots of the first army. She could hold all four of my bombs and drop them into the middle of the crowd. If we timed our advance we could catch them still reacting to the explosions. Against any normal army it would cause a rout, against this one I wasn’t sure.

I loaded the four bombs in her talons and filled Nadia in on the plan. Van let out a frustrated grunt that he didn’t get a bomb so I had to promise him one later. Nadia readied the group to charge the moment the first bomb impacted. Marci flew up and away and we waited with baited breath to wait for the fall of the tiny explosive.

As soon as the first one reached the level of the horde, I detonated it and quickly followed with the other three. We charged the horde with all of our numbers and the pressure from the front collapsed the horde inwards. The forest apes were especially effective in this type of combat as they were used to running on four limbs, much easier to maneuver over downed bodies. They cleared a wide avenue that funneled our forces inwards.

Spells and skills began to rain out from the mage capable damned that survived the explosions. Our progress slowed down and we got muddied up in the middle of the horde. We were quickly running out of time before the other hordes converged and knew there would be more fleeing citizens behind us. As our progress stalled the feeling of panic and doom was palpable amongst our forces. Even the forest apes couldn’t seem to make progress against the superior numbers.

Just when it all seemed to come crashing down a brilliant bright light washed across the horde. Everything one of the damned touched by light began to falter, they moved slower and took more damage. Our forest ape vanguard redoubled its efforts with the massive Van at the front. I heard shouting from the gate and realized, I knew that light and I knew that voice.