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It was another boring night aiding the Kingdom patrolling the border of the capital. There are various guards tasked with guarding the wall that surrounds the capital incase of an invasion. However, the Kingdom has not been invaded in decades and the Harth Kingdom backed out of their war preparations then ended up sending a peace diplomat. I glanced outside from the wall to see nothing but darkness and various spots illuminated by the moon. You could see little travelers and merchants trying to get in and out of the Kingdom and nothing more. I signed at how boring my job had become. It has a decent wage but I would prefer patrolling the streets, catching criminals, getting promoted. I breathed out a large amount of air and walked around the wall till I reached another person on patrol. One of my good friends, Frank.

"Did ya get the promotion?" He asked me hinting at the capture of some spies yesterday when they were trying to climb up the wall. 

"Fuck off" I responded back to him. The credit of the capture was given to the head guard who assigns the various patrols. Even heard that the got promoted. Me? I got nothing except a pat on the back and a "Good Job!"

"Don't feel too down now, it would have been the same for anyone else. We both at the bottom nothin' much we can complain bout" Frank tried to console me. 

"Yea yea. I am over it" I responded back.

"Yea that's the spirit! Up for a drink once we ge--" He suddenly stopped halfway through and his ears perked up. 

"Something wrong, Fra-" Before I could finish he put his finger on my lips and said "Shhh, listen you hear that?" I focused my ears and I could make out a faint chattering noise. It was coming from all directions. Our eyes widened and we made it to the front of the walls and looked across. We both tried to focus on where the noise was coming from but it was rather faint and due to the clouds blocking the moon we could not see anything.

"What you think that was? Some beast hoard?" I asked Frank as we both were trying to spot something. I looked around and could see other patrols going near the wall to check. They heard it too.

"No... beasts don't make that kind of noise. We should be hearing some howls if the beasts were coming" He said with a serious look on his face. 

The sounds got louder and louder. The noises were beginning to enter the capital itself now. You could see the whole city slowly begin to light up one by one as were woken up by the noise.

The noise were getting closer and closer to the capital walls and yet we could not see a thing. The tension was high in the air, Frank who was beside with was breathing heavily and sweating. I could see the other guards gripping on to the edge of the walls trying to see what was making all the noise. One guard decided to chuck his lantern out into the midnight darkness. We all were watching it fall into the ground and it did. We were horrified. Some guards screamed, some ran to alert the others, some stood there staring. 

"Yo..Frank... you are seeing that too right..right?" I asked Frank while smacking his arm without looking away from the sight. He was simply staring at it with wide eyes "Undead..the undead.." He was a lost cause..he was simply mumbling the same thing over and over under his breath. 

Some guard managed to ring the bell that resounded in the whole city, allowing everyone to hear it. The city lit up once more and began to panic. I once again peered out the city walls at the spot where the lantern was. There were skeletons, ghouls...not just that of humans but of beasts that resided in the forest nearby. The undead got closer and closer to the wall and began to claw at it. Due to their fingers being bones you would only hear a loud scratching noise. The undead began to run into the wall and slowly began piling on top of each other. 

I grasped onto Frank's arm and dragged him away from the mess while he was still busy mumbling under his breath. The entire city was on high alert with various guards being dispatched. 

The army was getting ready to fight off the invaders though I was not sure if we would be able to. Luckily, the undead were not intelligent and the most they were doing were clawing at the wall. I made it down from the wall and placed Frank in someplace safe so he can regain his composure. 

"Guards! Report to city's north entrance!" I heard various yellings requesting all guards to rendezvous at the north point. I ran as quickly as I could towards the northern entrance. When I got there, there were already a lot of guards, even some adventurers were there. The Adventurer's guild is an independent entity that stays clear of any politics or wars between Kingdoms but they are required to assist in case of crisis. We were told to wait by the higher ups until more soldiers came. Soon the Royal Guards, Royal Magicians and various mercenaries groups came to assist. 

"There are undead out there. We are unclear of why or how but what we know is that they are attacking and we need to repel them. So men lets return those fuckers to where they came from!" The leader of the attack spoke loudly as he wielded his sword up. Soon after everyone followed bellowing various lines of insult towards the undead. The gate slowly opened and we were met with various assortments of undead. All the way from beasts to ghouls.

"ATTACK!" everyone screamed as they pulled out their swords and charged outward. The magicians began to use their magic, pushing the undead back. 

The undead had no sense of direction or intelligence. The ones with vocal chords merely growled while the rest simply lunged at anything living. I charged forward along with the temporary battalion in assistance. I was not a great sword fighter but could hold my own against these undead. We pushed the undead back as much as we could but there seemed to be too many of them. Take one down and three more takes its place. If it was simply human skeletons it would have been easier but there those of goblins, giant beasts, even rats. 

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Vareth's POV

The city plunged into chaos with various people claiming to see the undead. Some theories. Some conspiracies. For me? Just profit. The attack could not have come at a better time, though I lost Clyde's support in my family. The undead may provide enough injured soldiers and populace that will come seek my family's aid, strengthening the favours and power of my family.  The King made a royal proclamation stating that every family had to send soldiers and support to aid against the siege or be labeled as traitors to the Kingdom. 

No one knows why this attack has happened. There have been no confirmed sightings of undead rising before, though there were a few legends of armies of undead coming back in vengeance but those legends sprouted from other continents and have no proof of actually happening. 

I began to gear up in my best uniform to join the battle upfront. Everybody loves a war hero, imagine the rallying support I could get when people find out that I fought in the front lines. The bards would sing my tales, the painters would draw my heroic figure and the Kingdom will be further under my thumb.

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I placed the sword of my grandfather from his adventurer's days into my hilt, wore the uniform with a bright insignia of the Rose family and left the building with our family's best fighters and healers in tow. 

We made our way to the northern entrance to witness a standstill between the two opposing sides. The Kingdom's half seemed to be winning in terms of fighting ability but they could only old off so many undead. Now that my healers are there, they would be able to take care of any wounded soldiers allowing them to return to the battlefield.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Prince of Rhieg, Jarvis Rhieg. Young lad about the age of 17, handsome, strong mage but a coward through and through. Outside of the knowledge he was been fed since he was a child he would not be able to hurt a goblin. Wonder why he is in the front lines. Perhaps the King wants him to render some merits before ascending to the throne.  I scoffed at the thought of this child wielding an entire Kingdom. It would be far better in the hands of my family. Due to the deal my Grandfather made with the Royal Family we cannot perform outright treacherous acts against the Kingdom but that only applied until his grandchild's reign his over, the current King. As soon as the current King dies, our family will perform our counter attack to take back the Kingdom into more proper hands. 

I made my way to him while directing my forces to aid those in battle. 

"Young Prince, here to assist with the siege?" I shouted at him from afar.

He was spooked a bit by my voice as he nearly fell off the lege he was looking from. "Yes. My father directed me here to assume control of the situation" He responded with composure in his voice but even a fool would be able to sense the hint of fear in them. The only control this could get is if someone tied up all the undead and gave it to him in a silver patter.

I simply nodded at him and walked off. Looks like my guess was correct. I needed to make sure this kid does not end up doing anything too great otherwise the takeover will be much harder. 

I watched off the edge to witness the massive hoard of undead storming in. I estimated nearly 50,000 in number compared to the 20,000 forces we had. The undead forces were quickly dwindling down from the relentless attack of mages and swordsmen. Luckily, the undead were slow and behaved like a drunkard or else we would have a massacres on my hands. I choose an edge that would allow everyone to see me and casted various spells ranging from [Mid Fire] and [Mid Ice]. Though our family focuses on healing we have gotten our hands into various spells either through favours or threats.

It was going really well as many people stared at awe at the Rose family's generosity and power. But suddenly, the undead stopped moving. They did not fall down, they just stood where they were staring. The soldiers were confused but they continued to hack through the now still moving undead. 

"They are not moving attack now!" Seems like the undead could only move for a certain period of time before they stop. This was much easier than I expected it to be. I went off the edge and went out the north entrance to aid with the killing of the unmoving undead. Since it had no threat to my life, mind as well render some merits. The Prince must have had the same thought as he suddenly managed to muster of courage to fight back. We managed to dwindle down the enemy hoard to 25,000 undead while we only lost about 2000 men. 

Though the good times did not last as the eyes of the undead began glowing a bright blue colour which alarmed all the fighters. A large vortex of pitch black light mixed with blue rose from the corner of my eye. Shit. That can't be a good sign. Suddenly, I was slashed at by a skeleton at an alarming pace, far faster than before. I deflected the skeleton's sword with my own and quickly swung my sword. The sharpness and the tip of edge is useless against skeletons but if you use the flat side it does wonders. It caused its head to fly off into their and I kept swinging until all of its limbs were down on the ground. I could see the various parts squrming around trying to reach back to its main body but before it could I grabbed it and chucked it as far as I could. I signed for relief and I began to back off. The battle turned completely one sided now, the undead were much faster than before and almost rivaled our army in terms of skill. This was very very bad. If they push back too much, we will be doomed. 

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Get it off me!!"

"Watch o--"

You could hear the screamings of the guards who were being picked off one by one by the hoard.

I ran back to the northern entrance in fear of my life. Why does it matter if I run? My life is too precious to be lost here. I looked at the area the vortex of light is coming from. That was the cause of this. If only that light did not show up. I could be parading through the streets adorned in medals if not for that damned thing! The Prince was not faring too well either, he ran too except he was scratched and clawed in various locations. The robe he wore was completely torn, he had a pale face and looked like a beggar who had not gotten the chance to eat anything good for months.

The undead kept pushing more and more until the front lines were completely shattered. They quickly closed the front gates but we could still hear the loud clawing and slashing. We were in luck that siege weapons were not reanimated or else it would be much worse. We only had 10,000 force remaning and they were all staioned behind the gate as no captain was brave enough to issue an order for an assault. You could see the sense of dread in the eyes of survivors and even the adventures who never had to face such things before. 

The clawing grew stronger and stronger at the gate till we begin to see cracks in it. The soldiers brave enough wielding their swords to strike at anything that may come through. The weaker ones stood here with hands on their knees and some even began praying to the Gods that have forsaken us. 

The gateway suddenly banged and a massive skeletal arm came through it, blowing everyone back from the impact. The arm was massive unlike any monster or human. The arm was very crude as if a child glued various sticks together to make one. The arm began to pull back to strike back once more but the second blow never came. There was nothing but a looming silence descending upon everyone here. 

"Is..is it gone?" I heard the Prince whisper out. One of the braver guards peered through the hole and slowly turned around. All eyes were on him expecting looks in them. 

"They all stopped moving" He said out loud. This caused us to feel more fear as the last time they stopped moving they grew stronger..

"I don't think it's like the last time..all the bones of the skeletons fell to the ground, the ghouls have also collapsed" He continued.

Taking the chance, I bellowed out "Charge forward! We need to dwindle down their numbers should they rise again! Break the skeletons! Burn the ghouls!"

The army seemed to gain courage at my words and strode forward striking back at the undead with hateful vengeance in their eyes.

I looked up to see that the vortex of light was also gone. This should be the end of it...