After all, nothing I do out here will matter if the wall doesn't hold against the undead. When I reach the trench I find that the fires have died down almost completely and the undead have started moving again. However, all the undead that made it past the trench before it was fired have been destroyed.
That means that the plan up to this point has worked out exactly as I had hoped. The real test is going to come now that the trench isn't preventing more from advancing. There are still more than enough undead left to overwhelm the wall and get into the town.
In order to make things a little easier for those on the wall I start cutting my way along the trench. I can't possibly stop all of the undead but I can create gaps for the troops to catch their breath. I can also stop the undead from simply flooding straight to the wall.
What I really want to do is find the leader of the enemy army and put an end to all of this. Since I can't do that I will just thin the number of undead before going after death knights. Hopefully, if I kill the five remaining death knights then the leader will have to show himself to control the army.
If not then at least killing the death knights should stop the undead from using any kind of tactics. With that in mind I once again head towards the back of the army, cutting my way through the undead. As I move through the army I zigzag to kill as many of them as I can on my way.
When I reach the back of the army I see the five death knights spread out across the width of the army. Not wasting any time I turn to the one closest to me and charge at it. It barely has time to draw its sword before I reach it and cut its horse out from under it.
The death knight lands and takes a swing at me but I easily parry it and counter with my other sword. Using two swords makes it easy to get hits on the death knight, but it is still hard to get the killing blow. As it dodges back to avoid a hit I risk a quick glance around and see the other four are headed this way.
Fighting one death knight is hard enough, I am not looking forward to fighting five at once. Wanting to defeat this one before the others arrive I stop defending and let it get a hit in on my side. As its sword hits me I bring both of mine up and crush its skull between them.
Then I drop and roll to the side because I hear hoofbeats directly behind me. As soon as I stand up I have to dodge to the side as a second death knight tries to run me down. I didn't dodge quite far enough and the death knight manages to hit my shoulder with his sword.
I don't have time to pay attention to the wound because the first death knight is almost on top of me. Instead of dodging I swing both swords up and cut his horse's head off. That doesn't stop the horse's momentum though and it slams into me.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
By the time I get free of the horse's body and back to my feet the third death knight has joined in. Now I am facing one on foot and two mounted, the last one is still almost here as well. Ignoring the one on foot for now I dodge between the two mounted ones and focus on killing their horses.
I take several light hits in the process but manage to kill both skeletal horses. Just in time for the last death knight to arrive, rather than trying to get close I take its horse's head off with a wind slash. Now all four are on foot, which improves my odds by quite a bit.
The four of them quickly surround me and coordinate their attacks so I can't possibly dodge all of them. As my wounds continue to increase I realize that fighting the four of them at once is suicide. As I jump up and out of their encirclement I use sacred touch on myself.
As I land I turn and hit the four of them with a lightning wave but it barely slows them down. Deciding to take a risk I throw my swords at the second and third ones to slow them down for a second. As the first one reaches me it stabs me and in return I punch it in the head as hard as I can.
My gamble pays off, my punch turns its head into dust, but then the next two make me pay for it as their attacks land. I kick the one on my right backwards into the path of the third and throw a punch at the one on my left. Unfortunately, it manages to dodge my punch but it gives me the space to back up a couple of steps and use sacred touch again.
The three death knights spread out and approach me again, they are being more cautious now. Instead of waiting for them to come to me I charge straight at the one in the middle. It reacts by dodging to my right so I swerve and instead attack the left hand death knight.
This leaves two of them at my back but in exchange for letting them stab me in the back I manage to destroy the death knight in front of me. Now that there are only two left I am feeling a lot more confident as I turn to face them. The wounds hurt but thanks to my fortitude they don't slow me down or affect my movements.
They both hit me several times as I close in, but I ignore the damage in exchange for getting close enough to punch them. Considering my punches can shatter a boulder it isn't really a surprise that the death knights cannot handle them. As I stand there catching my breath I remove the pieces of my armor that are damaged beyond repair and discard them.
When I look around I am surprised to see that while the undead are moving slower they are still advancing. No matter how much I look around I can't spot the leader, yet the army still acts like it is being controlled. Once I have caught my breath and the worst of my wounds have closed up I retrieve my swords.
I also collect the swords of the death knights, which are identical to the one I am already using. It strikes me as odd that there are this many identical magic swords. Especially considering how rare magical items seem to be in this world.
However, now is not the time to stop and think about random things. Taking my swords I start cutting down undead as I head towards the town. When I get closer I can see fighting on top of the wall, the undead have made three ramps up to the top of the wall.
Although, it isn't accurate to call them ramps, in reality it is just bodies piled as high as the top of the wall. In fact all along the length of the wall bodies are piled up so half the wall isn't visible. If the fighting continues then soon the bodies will be piled up all along the wall.