Arrows flew through the air, piercing heads and limbs.

Magic illuminated the night. Spells of fire, lightning, and ice were raining down on the furious horde that crashed against the walls.

Undead, abominations crawled out of the Crypt. Damned creatures said to be containing souls filled with only pain and hatred for the living.

The City’s Watch stood in formation above the walls, using crossbows to shoot bolts after bolts to the ravening tide of monsters.

Mages stood together preparing large area spells. Some stronger Mages stood alone, throwing large fireballs and conjuring gigantic chunks of ice that crushed large numbers of undead.

These monsters were apparently mindless, but they were fearless and relentless in their attacks. And the stronger undead possessed a semblance of intelligence, being capable of more complex attacks and independent movement.

Skeletons, zombies, and ghouls. Spearmen, archers, and swordsmen. Creatures of foul blood and rotten flesh.

There were too many to easily get rid of them.

The first wave had been eliminated easily. A large wall of fire had been cast by some Mages and the Undead had walked straight to it, catching fire and burning until they collapsed.

But there weren’t enough Mages to cover the entirety of the City with flames. Barricades of ice and stone could be raised, but the area they could cover was limited.

The undead reached the wall, and senselessly stroke the solid rock, achieving nothing except becoming targets of the crossbow bolts. But they started to pile one above the other, making ramps out of themselves without paying any heed to the attacks raining on them.

Explosions blasted them away, the magic wards of Klata City’s wall unleashed destruction on the invading horde. The fire spread among the undead, rapidly making them fall as the heat made them collapse.

Watch Captain Selveor Goreas controlled the City defenses and coordinated the guardsmen with the teams of Adventurers efficiently.

His attacks were precise, choosing large groups of undead as targets. His orders were obeyed without delay by everyone, which enabled a sturdy line of defense and the different teams didn’t hinder each other.

But the undead attacked en masse. Hundreds of arrows were shot at the defenders every couple of seconds. The undead didn’t fear any damage, they didn’t feel any pain. They kept marching forward, running and attacking without taking a rest while the Watch and the Adventurers were forced to take cover and raise defensive spells.

Many were wounded already, despite the advantage of a high ground position in the walls. But the undead didn’t have a plan, they didn’t seem to have a leader, and thus they were disorganized.

The living could hold the wall.

“Over there! Western corner, there are undead piling up!”

One of the guardsmen shouted and pointed to a place near the corner of the Southern Wall. A group of undead was clawing at the wall and at each other, rapidly creating a ladder with their bodies.

The Captain of the City’s Watch used one of the wards to form a giant pillar of flames that enveloped the undead.

They burned fast but didn’t stop trying to form the ladder. Hundreds of monsters together, they stomped each other in their haste to climb the walls.

The pile grew larger and larger with every second. It was a burning ladder of undead, rising smoke and spreading a pungent odor around.

“Stop them!! Knock them down!”

An archer adventurer yelled as he loosened three arrows at the same time towards the rising ladder of undead. His arrows shone midair and turned into 15 arrows, they pierced the heads of different monsters and exploded.

A group of Mages stepped forwards and raised their staves and wands.

“[Rock Spear]”

“[Icicle Storm]”

“[Wind Blast]”

“[Force Arrows]”

“[Wind Scythe]”

Multiple spells fell together on the undead, tearing them apart and pushing them to the ground, where they were crushed by either spells or the weight of other undead.

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“Some are trying to break the gates!  Blast them apart!”

One of the guards noticed a large agglomeration of undead hammering the gates and shouted for Mages.

“Wait! Use Ice spells better! That way the ice will block the gates!”

A senior guardsman spoke. The Mages agreed with his idea.

“Alright, let's go! [Icicle Storm]!”

“[Ice Wall]”

“[Giant Whirlpool]”

“[Freezing Gales]”

With the collaboration of Water-type and Ice-type Spells, many undead were pushed back and restrained, while another layer of protection was added to the city gates.

“Damn, where are all these things coming from?”

“Some Necromancer? A horde so big doesn’t come out of nowhere.”

Some adventurers discussed as they shot arrows to the Undead beneath them.

“Look where they are coming from. The Dungeon is in that direction, if the undead inside the Crypt got out…”

“Can’t be, the Crypt has restrictions in it. The monsters in there can’t get out so easily.”

“Then where the fuck are all these skeletons and zombies coming from?”

“How the fuck would I know? Do I look like a Seer to you?”

“All of you shut up and kill more of these bastards!”

Despite the situation of combat against a huge number of enemies, since they had the vantage point and a fortified position over the walls out of the reach of the horde of undead, the fighters were starting to relax. 

Adventurers and Watch members continued striking from afar. As the minutes passed, they started bantering. The danger was manageable, so long as they didn’t let their guards down they could safely deal with all these mindless undead.

Watch Captain Selveor noticed the number of undead had finally started to significantly decrease. Once they had stopped coming out of the forest the situation had improved.

The undead were no longer piling up in ramps or ladders, and were now more evenly spread out along the wall. The task of eliminating them had become easier, even a bit dull, but the few people who dared to be careless had paid for it receiving nasty injuries.

Fortunately, no one had died yet, and if he could help it, no one would.

“Alright people, listen up! We are going to get rid of these damned creatures, we can’t let them get away, if they reach towns and villages it will be a bloodshed. We’ll crush them here now.”

There were shouts of agreement and acknowledgement, many of the Mages were resting after having spent huge amounts of Mana from all those successive spells.  

Now the main fighting forces were the crossbows and bows. The archers had really made an impression tonight, doing most of the job together with the Mages.

The Captain of the Watch turned around and saw one of the senior guards approaching. A Human woman in her mid-thirties, she had black hair tied on a simple ponytail and dark brown eyes.

Her face was tense and resolute, she was one of the fiercest melee fighters Selveor had ever met.

“Something happened, Cordelia?”

Selveor asked. Cordelia had been tasked with overseeing the other walls, in case the undead decided to turn around and attack other points. Ultimately they had focused most of their forces to the South Wall.

“Captain, give me command of 30 guards to investigate the cause of the undead attack.”

She spoke straight to the point. Selveor frowned.

“Why? Going out now means taking unnecessary risk. It’s still dark and there could be more undead lurking around.”

Selveor didn’t say no immediately. He liked to consider the options, to hear the arguments of his fellow guards to take the best decision. Cordelia shook her head.

“The fight is as good as over, we need to set out as soon as the number of undead decreases to a manageable amount that melee fighters can take care of. If we wait any longer, the culprit might escape, or the clues could get harder to follow. All witnesses have confirmed that all the undead came from a single direction.”

She pointed with her spear towards the forest, in the same direction Selveor and Sarai had first spotted the foremost line of marching undead.

“The Dungeon’s Crypt. That’s where we must go and investigate, the sooner the better.”

“That sounds like a job for adventurers, not for us in the City Watch.”

The Captain pointed out. The task of entering Dungeons was first and foremost an Adventurer’s business, as was the task of hunting down monsters in the wild.

“But the Adventurers are tired, while most of the Watch didn’t have to fight. Most of it was Mages and archers, only our crossbowmen got to fight tonight. I can take a platoon of spearmen with me, maybe some Mages that aren’t too tired and some crossbows.”

Her request was reasonable, but Selveor didn’t want to send anyone out into the forest. However, if she could go with a capable group and investigate, they might be able to find something, maybe the cause of this event. It was dangerous, but such was the life of a guard.

“Alright, but take 50 guardsmen with you, and any Adventurer that wants to join, especially Mages and Scouts. Follow back on the trail of the undead and retreat if you find any danger, have the Mages ready to send a distress signal in case of emergency. Understand?”

Cordelia smiled upon hearing her Captain’s agreement.

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

“I’m serious, Corie. At the minimal sign of danger, I want all of you back here. It’s too risky to fight in the forest at night.”

Cordelia’s brow creased at hearing her old nickname.

“Come on, old man. You know I hate that nickname.”

“I do, but for some reason, you only truly listen to me when I call you that. I’d much prefer to not let you go and wait until dawn, but you might find something valuable to explain this situation. So, will you be careful and retreat at the first sign of danger?”

“I will. Now can you stop being grumpy? You are gonna get wrinkles before me.”

“Stop giving me lip and get moving before I change my mind, Corie.”

Cordelia ran off and started to shout orders and gathering people. Many adventurers were eager to go with her platoon, especially those that didn’t have much chance of fighting tonight.

Selveor looked back down at the last batches of undead. It could have been worse, if a Necromancer had been there to guide them and direct them with real strategy, such a vast horde could have breached the walls and cause damage inside the city before being eliminated.

Instead, the undead had attacked a single wall, and besides the occasional attempt at piling on top of each other, it had been quite safe.

Was this just a test? Some powerful Necromancer giving an order and watching his undead blindly obey it without any care for success?

He didn’t have any answer yet, maybe Cordelia’s group would find something useful.

Selveor turned his back to the forest and walked down the stairs that went to the barracks, heading to his office.

There were many reports to make, the cities around the area would be in quite the unrest for some time. He would add a commentary urging the troops to move as soon as possible to handle the Goblins.

Really, as he had feared earlier that night, troubles never came alone. Not in his line of work.