Undead city-Altraud

It was a special day for the undead community—a duel celebration marking both their birth and the newborn ceremony. All the undead of the city gathered near the outer city wall, eagerly awaiting for the City chief's speech to begin. Arya stood around a corner and watched the crowd as they cheered in excitement upon spotting Arthur atop the City Wall.

Arthur loudly cleared his nonexistent throat to calm the excited crowd and opened his mouth, “I know you fools want me to give some grand speech, but this time you're not getting any.” The entire crowd booed at that statement, but Arthur just ignored it.

“Last year, most of the newborns were from the dark forest, so this time they're going to be from the northern valley. The valley is 25 km long, so a total of 25 teams are going to enter it and search 1 km each. If you face any problems during the search then just ask Kyouka for help, she will be standing just outside the valley. Let's make sure to catch all the newborns and bring them back to the city. The nets and cages are available at the outer wall gate; collect them as you leave the city. The teams going into the Valley are also displayed on the City Wall. As for those whose names aren't mentioned, you guys need to stay back and make preparations for the ceremony, like attaching crystals to the magic circle, bringing food and medicines from the inner city, and all those tasks. Am I clear?” Arthur asked after finishing his instructions, and the crowd nodded their heads.

“Alright, disperse!” With that, the crowd scattered, and the newborn ceremony began.

Arya approached the outer wall and found a large group of undead scrambling to check the names of the participants for the mission. As she was about to join them, her eyes caught sight of Ervin waving at her. He had a piece of paper in his hand with a few names written on it.

Curious, she approached him and read the contents of the letter:

Maya,

Ervin,

Arya,

And Peter.

Collect the cage and the nets needed for the mission at the exit of the Outer City Wall before leaving>

"Let's go, Maya and Peter already collected the equipment for us and are on their way toward the Valley," Ervin informed her, guiding her outside the gates.

As they exited the city, Arya felt a cold breeze brush past her. She didn't know why, but the whole atmosphere felt ominous to her as if something bad was going to happen to them.

Shaking away that unnecessary thought, she glanced at the imposing outer city wall to regain some of her confidence and walked toward the northern valley.

Along the way, she noticed several areas of uneven ground. It looked as though someone or something had dug there for some reason. Again, she felt that something wasn't right. She tried to shake off the feeling, but the ominous sensation lingered in her mind, refusing to leave.

“Did you guys dig the ground outside the city in the past few days?” she asked Ervin, pointing at the uneven ground. However, Ervin just shook his head; they hadn't done anything like that. Curious, they both approached the area and that's when all hell broke loose. A large undead snake jumped out from the ground and caught Ervin with its sharp tail.

At the same time as its appearance, a loud horn sound resonated throughout the open fields, signalling the start of the war.

50 humans each wearing grey-coloured leather clothes and welding large blunt weapons rushed out from the many underground tunnels. They ambushed the many unsuspecting undead heading towards the valley. Caught by surprise and wholly unprepared the undead couldn't put up much of a resistance and a well-aimed hit on their heads knocked them unconscious.

The humans then took out small wands from their clothes and used on the unconscious undead, turning them from enemies into slaves.

However, Arya didn't have time to care about any of those. She bit her thumb to draw blood and used to form a huge war hammer. She smashed the snake's skull with the hammer but, to her surprise, the snake just wobbled a little, not suffering any major damage.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The attack however did succeed in loosening the snake's grip on Ervin, allowing Arya to pull him to safety. Finally free, Ervin stared at the snake in disbelief.

“Noodles!? It's you, right? Thank god! I…I thought I lost you.” He stepped towards the snake, his arms wide open as if welcoming the snake to hug him. However, the snake had no such intentions; it whipped its tail towards Ervin, planning to break his skull, but Arya held his arm and dragged him away from the snake.

“Let me go! I want to talk with him; he is a friend,” Ervin screamed, trying to free his arms and approach the snake again, but before he could, Arya hit his head with a blood hammer and knocked him unconscious.

While the situation was already serious enough, it became a lot more complicated with the arrival of a group of five humans. They surrounded her, blocking her escape path.

“Stop resisting; we don't want to kill a kid,” one of the members of the group, a black-haired, brown-skinned human, pointed his wand at her, but Arya ignored his warning and turned the blood hammer into wings. Alarmed by her sudden action, the humans cast the spell on her, but Arya had a very high tolerance for poison; the spell didn't affect her.

She flapped the blood wings and flew towards the city, carrying the unconscious Ervin on her shoulders. They were the only two that managed to escape from that battlefield.

*******************************

Undead city-Altraud

The undead, unaware of what was happening outside the city, joyously prepared everything necessary for the ceremony to commence. But it all came crashing down with a loud boom. The outer wall gates shattered, allowing a single orange-haired human to enter the city.

“Knock…knock,” Blaze said as he strolled into the city, a manic grin on his face. Taking in a huge breath, he used his special affinity skill, . A ball of orange flames rushed out from his mouth towards an Undead deer who was bringing food for the others to eat. The deer jumped away just in time to avoid the flames, but the food in its mouth fell into the flames and turned to ash.

That was just the start as he used the skill again and again, decimating the graves around him until Arthur managed to step in and use to change the direction of the flames. Arthur used a skill of his own called to drain the human's health and weaken him, while he was doing that, Paul and Anne protected the undead and guided them into the inner city.

After some time had passed, only 4 undead and a human were left in the Outer city. Arthur, Paul, Anne, and the city blacksmith Jack cornered Blaze from all sides yet the manic smile on his face only grew larger.

“Are you here alone? I don't want a war to start so please leave,” Arthur pleaded, believing that Blaze had no support from other humans and hence came to the city alone but he was wrong. “War has already begun, I am here to stall for time and let the humans capture all the undead outside the city.” He revealed, shocking the undead in the process.

They all attacked together, trying to take him down. Jack, the blacksmith, swung his large war hammer, aiming to crack his skull, but instead of dodging, Blaze punched the hammer while using his second special affinity skill, . As his fist touched the hammer, it exploded. The recoil sent the human back a few steps, but the blacksmith suffered much more damage; his hammer shattered, and he crashed against a nearby grave, unconscious.

“One down,” Blaze announced while escaping a sneak attack from Anne. He opened his mouth and hurled balls of flames at her shadowy body, and to Anne's shock, the flames burned her. The damage was not much, and she could still fight, but the fact that his flames could harm her shadowy body alarmed her, forcing her to retreat.

As she backed away, Paul slashed his stomach with the help of a scythe. Blaze used on the ground to propel himself away from the attack, but Paul still managed to connect the hit, opening a shallow wound on his stomach. Before he could even celebrate, a ball of flame rushed towards Paul, forcing him to use to protect himself. Using that opportunity, Blaze rushed in and used on Anne. Arthur used to protect her from that hit, but a second took her out. She was still alive but too hurt to help the others in the battle.

“Two down,” Blaze announced again, his grin growing wider by the second. Arthur couldn't bear to see them hurt any longer. “Paul, take them into the inner city and heal them; I will take care of this guy,” he ordered.

Paul wanted to protest. The human's objective was to stall for time; if they retreated now, it might lead to dire consequences. Yet, looking at the struggling Anne and unconscious Jack, he knew that healing them took priority. He nodded and took them towards the inner city. Blaze didn't stop him; he had no intention of killing any undead other than Arthur. After all, humans needed a few strong undead slaves to take care of those pesky vampires.

With Paul gone, Blaze and Arthur stopped holding back and tore into each other with their special skills. They both used and on the ground to propel themselves and punched each other. A few of Arthur's bones cracked, but just a quick use of brought them back to normal. Blaze didn't have such nifty healing skills, and thus injuries accumulated on his body.

They both punched and kicked each other, sending huge shockwaves all over the ground. The ground cracked, and the underground chambers collapsed. The entire shape of the outer city crumbled under their brutal assault, but in the end, after 10 minutes of constant struggle, the battle ended. Arthur was almost unharmed due to the constant use of the skill, but Blaze's body was battered and bruised.

“Tch, still not strong enough, huh? You sure are a monster, pops. Let's meet again,” Blaze said while coughing blood and then used on the ground to run away.