Machronus had given up his calm air and began his own incantations. As soon as the first wave of the zombie horde reached ten strides away from him, a wall of whitish hands tore the earth before them. With a steel grip, the ice-cold fingers caught their legs, and the corpses fell to the ground.

Zamioculcas grumbled and ordered the left wing of his army to go forward and help the vanguard. The fight was raging barely a few meters from Machronus – fiddling with his long beard, the dark wizard decided his next spell.

As the second unit of living dead made launched its attack, Zamioculcas summoned a Lion’s Finger of Death and directed it at his enemy. The bolt of deadly magic went past the combatants and reached the edge of the woods, killing a target that the wizard did not see.

"The enemy is still alive, master," said Sentry's voice as her master twisted his neck to see if Machronus was still standing.

“I figured, you imbecile!” he replied curtly. “Otherwise his armies would have disappeared upon his death! What did my spell touch?”

“A spider.”

“A what !?”

Zamioculcas appeared to be on the verge of apoplexy, his enraged face as red as a beet.

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"It was a big one," the sentinel added, as if to reassure her master.

Before the wizard had the time to let out all the words that clogged his throat, a movement near the front came to his attention: as if to illustrate the words of his creation, a cloud of spider appeared over the line of zombies. The smallest was about the size of a human head, and the largest held the detached arm of one of the undead in his mandibles.

"Skeletons! Form the line!"

The order was instantly obeyed, and Zamioculcas found himself behind an impenetrable line bristling with shining halberds. Immediately, he began to flip through his volume to find the right spell. Overrun by the adrenaline, he found it and immediately shouted the name:

“Power Word: Kill, Mass!”

It was his favorite spell.

________________________________

The ardor of the fight had filled the once peaceful clearing with noise, though no war-cry was heard on the side of the undead.

Most of the spiders had been wiped out by the spell; however, they had given Machronus time to cremate Zamioculcas’ reinforcements with a spell of Zander the Great’s Supreme Brazier. The skeletons were finishing off the remaining spiders which had easily managed to pass over the zombies. None succeeded in passing over the disciplined and mortal ranks of halberds; however, the creatures of Machronus had earned him precious time.

When the last spider was finally put to the sword, the first rank of undead the old wizard had sent had been completely wiped out by the dreadful zombies of Machronus. Some were still hidden under the ground, but most were now out in the open.

"They may be sturdy," Zamioculcas growled, "but I have the strength of numbers.”