Chapter 45
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"Attack! They are coming!" Bells and shouts were rung across the fort. We came to the wall at once, but there were only several zombies who drowsily walked to the wall.
"That's an attack?" Lily asked.
"The guards are told to ring the bell at the first sign of undead. Watch out. This might be just an advance force." Lhorne said. He teamed u with several archers and drew his bow.
Several more black shapes were seen, and the main army arrived. Vargmuths were preparing to charge at the wall. As we began to pour our arrows into them, they began to fire back a moment later.
"AARGHH!" one of our troops was hit on the shoulder.
"It's the rumored black arrows! Be careful!"
Chaos ensued as more soldiers moaned in pain due to the black arrows. Lily asked me to prepare the spell, but they were a little bit too far away for our magic to be effective.
"Whoa, those archers are moving while firing!" I muttered while looking at the battlefield. Lily was told to duck by Joseph to avoid getting hit by black arrows. Lhorne retaliated by hitting them square in the head. His army also started to hit those archers, but they were clearly missing.
"Archers! Three seconds at the minimum!" Lhorne shouted. He then drew his bow again and shot through another head of undead archers.
"3 seconds? That's more than three times longer!" Joseph muttered. He then drew his bow and aimed for three seconds. As he released his arrow, it hit another enemy in its body. The enemy was not down and kept moving while retaliating against us.
The rain of arrows visibly lessened as archers under Lhorne took their time to aim at the moving black spot on the field. A roar then came through the wall as it now trembled by something smacking it. Five Vargmuths were racing to climb the wall.
"Okay, Lily, that's our cue. Onward to the left side!" I told Lily. Lily arrived at the same time as those gorillas finished climbing. With a practiced motion, she drew her blade and cut off its limb and its head while playing with it like a fiddle. The undeath disappeared, leaving neither exp nor feystones. We have been killing hundreds of these undead, but we haven't got any level-ups. These undead keeps evolving, but we are not. What a bad match!
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Unfortunately, Lily was the only one who was having such an easy time with the vargmuths. Others were desperately stabbing them with pikes or trying to slash at their torso, only to be met with a kick or a sweeping punch. The soldiers could take it down by themselves, but I decided to help them by lighting a fire on vargmuth's head with fireballs.
As the sun sets, the undead was wiped out, and only moans of pain were left.
"Any casualties?" Lily asked.
"None from our company but thirty people were sent to the clinic because of those archers. Rhander was included. He got shot in his left arm." Lhorne reported back.
"What about others?" Lily asked.
"None so far. But there were several critically wounded at the clinic when I visited it."
"This is a disaster…." Joseph mourned. "That army was half the usual, but we had twice the wounded."
"Um… anything I can help with?" Lily asked while looking at dejected Joseph.
"No. You could do nothing now except fill our used feystones." Joseph said.
"Alright. Where are the feystones? Bring it to my bed, okay?"
"Sure. I will ask Lala about our company's feystones." Joseph replied. "But I think you deserve some rest as well. It is thanks to you that we are receiving fewer casualties than expected. Those vargmuth combined with archers are really dangerous."
"Yeah, as we were busy with those archers, those vargmuths took the gap and climbed the walls unimpeded," Lhorne said. "We can't ignore those archers either."
"Lhorne, let's sleep. It is none of our business. I shall follow what the command says tomorrow. See you! I am exhausted today! You should rest too, Lily. We have had one heck of a day today."
As the night went on, Lily strolled around the wall like usual with my tail inserted inside a bag. My mana was low, but Lily wanted to help the fort a little more. She looked at the deserted wall as fewer guards were on it than usual. As she waved to the soldiers, she was met with a respective salute.
"Don't you want to rest, Lily?"
"I am not tired."
"Alright." as the silence continued, Lily stared at the clear sky from the wall. The sky grew darker and muddy in the direction of the undeath zone. But we still appreciate it here. Only a few minutes of staring at the sky bored her, and she decided to follow Lhorne's suggestion and slept on the female barrack pointed out by Lhorne.
While I did not sleep, I could still feel exhaustion building up. About two hours after I lulled Lily to sleep, I stopped all work and lay my tail on her hand, which was met immediately with a hug,
"We are going to return?" Lily said in shock.
"Yes. The directive that Miss Edelweiss received only lasted until today." Joseph said while directing several tailfolk maids to clean up Edelweiss' room
"But…"
"The command also didn't prolong it, and thus, we would return tomorrow.".
"" The wounded…"
"Lord Edelweiss will finish healing them all this evening."
"Are you sure that this fort would survive without us?"
"That if for the command to decide…. I do have some confidence in their abilities."
"Don't worry about us, Lord Lily. I heard from my pal back home that they would bring several canons. Moreover, a stationary shield would be able to deflect those black arrows. You can leave it to us."
"Lord Lily, please don't worry. Shall we require your help in the future, we would definitely ask for it." Rhegar said as he bid a mandatory farewell to us.
"Okay…"
Our days in the fort came to an abrupt end.