The sun was slowly rising into the sky, marking a new day had begun. However, the city that had turned quickly into a scene from hell during the early hours of night, still raged on with no signs of stopping in sight.

Inside of the large dome shaped barrier a cacophony of growls and screams welcomed the new day. A mixture of decapitated bodies along with torn bodies littered almost every street and side alley of the inclosed portion of the city.

Down one of the streets deeper in the heart of the infest area came the sound of explosions reverberating in the air. Mixed with the noise was the soft hum that the air made when split.

"Kalit get those people to the barrier!" Yelled Brom while he sidestepped a claw that was aiming for his head.

His sword flashed and the air hummed again bringing with it another undead's head that added to the pile of corpses at his feet.

Brom let out a haggard breath as he watched Kalit and the survivors escape to the edge of the barrier. From his right another burst of explosion rang out which caused a shower of body parts to rain over the street.

"Six hundred and thirty-three!" Shouted Zorin as the fifteen undead he had smacked with earth magic exploded around him.

With a grunt, he killed another six in the span of a moment before flashing Brom a huge grin. "I think you will be losing this bet brother."

Brom shook his head as he killed another group of undead before responding to his muscle brained brother. "Dumbass I have already said ten times I am not going to compete with you, this is not the time for games Zorin."

"Ha just admit defeat and I will drop the matter altogether, don't try to play me as a fool. We both know you have not stopped keeping track of your kills."

Earthen spikes sprung up from the ground and pierced another ten undead which caused Brom to groan as he watched his friend grin at him foolishly.

In return Brom swung his blade while barking a short incantion, his sword ripped the air apart which caused a few undead around him to split in two. However, before his blade completed its arc, a gush of intense heat sprouted from the tip of his sword. The flames morphed into the shape of a dragon before flying after a group of undead that was closing in on their position. Giant flaming teeth of the fire dragon greeted the undead beings and without warning the jaws opened before slamming shut around the group.

The fire dragon burned for a bit longer after eating its fill bringing a lull to the non stop battle. After the mana that created it ran out, so to did the flames. In the fire dragons wake all that was left was a pile of ash as testament to its power.

That was another twenty five undead under Brom's belt which was why he had no way to refute the statement. Of course he did not plan to play the game out loud which would only prove Zorin's words to be right. Instead he kept the number to himself, it was not that he was trying to play the game or anything of the sorts. Instead it had just become a habit that stuck with him over the years. Back when he was full of piss and vinegar and cocky beyond measure he had always made a competition out of killing his enemies. Zorin was always his toughest competitor, but this was seriously not the time for those types of games. This was their city that was in danger and their families that would be affected. Brom had no desire to play any game, all he cared about was wiping out this damn never-ending horde and saving as many people as he could.

Though if he was to tell this prideful bastard that he already reached the mid-eight hundred in kills he knew he would only ignite the fire under Zorin's ass.

Ignoring the fool of a brother Brom continued to move through the horde killing all in his path while he searched for survivors.

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From the graveyard, the old man's body began to light up with all sorts of magical symbols. They glowed with a dull green light that reflected off the fog eerily. Mana converged on the glowing dead body and like a piece of tinder the mana ignited and spark energy invoked an ancient spell.

All around the body shadows from every direction converged toward the dead man's body. Each shadow slithered and wormed their way into the corpse. With a sudden jerk, the body now stood ominously in the shadows.

"Harani sen fearli leacex no..." A grinding voice echoed from the man's mouth. The spell called forth more shadows from the night though this time they did not reach toward the man. Instead, they began to merge themselves together infront him. The shadows created a circular spinning vortex with pulsating runes around the edge of the vortex.

"Tap, tap, tap."

Footsteps rang out from the void of the portal bringing with them a sense of dread. As they grew louder a multitude of hooded figures appeared from the vortex. At the head of the hooded figures stood a being a bit taller than the rest, around his cloaked body floated a dense foul fog that caused the other figures to stand a few steps away. With the last of the hooded figures through the portal the one surrounded in the miasma croaked out a single command.

"Initate the second plan!"

Without further discussion, the rest of the hood figures departed into the shadows of the city.

The last remaining figure looked toward the shadow puppet and a soft sigh escaped his mouth.

"You have done a great job so far my old friend, the master would be pleased." The hooded figure spoke softly to the shadow puppet that was the old man.

Raising his arms toward the shadow puppet, a pair of spotted and wrinkled hands emerged from the darkned void of his cloak. The hands that were stained red for some unholy reason trembled slightly while mana flowed through them. Between his palms a ball of condensed blood red mana formed, and from his hood the soft mumbling of an ancient spell echoed in the night.

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The mana twisted and contorted, transforming and shaping itself based off the man's command before all that was left was pulsating obsene object. The hooded figure had no clue as to the orgin of this item or even its name, but even for a man like himself who had commited atrocious and unspeakable acts, this thing not only caused his stomach to turn but his heart to stutter and his body to sweat.

Repulsed by the object the hooded figure placed the item inside of the puppet with haste. The final preperations were complete as the object rooted itself deep inside of the puppet.

The shadow puppet's eyes flashed red before the he disappeared into the shadows.

"Finally!" Hissed the man before he left to do his masters bidding.

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The sun caused the blood shot eyes of Eziek to tear up as he squinted through the blinding light of a new day. Though the world greeted a new day, the portion of the city trapped in side his barrier was devoid of sunlight. Normally when dealing with necromancers, if they could not defeat you by dawn then the battle would be won. However, the black fog was a new strategy that annoyed Eziek to no end. He had hoped to let down the barrier once the sun rose and pass out from exhaustion. Unfortunatly the necromancers had some how created this black fog that lingered inside of his barrier. He thought at first that the sun light would still effect the undead even with the barrier filled with the fog but in the end his prediction was proven wrong.

Still convinced that the battle was over as soon as the light of day reached the horde. Eziek opened the top of the barrier for a moment to allow the fog to disperse. This had a opposite effect that only increased the bags under his eyes and the grimace on his face. Instead of dispersing and allowing the light to end the battle. The fog though it did spread out pass the barrier a bit, in the end it did not dissapate nor did it allow light to pass throug.

"Stupid fucking necros and their putrid stench!" Grumbled Eziek to himself after closing the lid of the barrier once more.

A deep sigh escaped his chapped lips while he rubbed his eyes in hopes of revigorating them. It was fruitless effort but that did not stop him from constantly trying. Of course he was not the only one rubbing their eyes or stretching their tired muscles. Those that returned with survivors sported similar darkened eyes as himself, though all of them also always came back a bit more haggard then the last.

Some would come back with torn clothes and others would have ugly wouds that would accompany their drawn faces. Thankfully during the night a group of apprentice magus and warriors showed up with food supplies and other useful items. One such item was the mana stone that Eziek had just pulled from his storage ring, it was the fifth stone he had gone through in the last few hours. As he placed the stone before him where the last had sat another deep sigh escaped his lips, which was becoming a recurring trend for the elderly mage.

Regardless how he felt about the situation in the end this was unavoidable. Normally he would never waste mana stones in such a way. However, relying on the excess mana from the stones was the only thing that allowed him to continue to hold the barrier in place.

Of course he wished someone else could take his place, but that was just wishful thinking. Though there were other magus close to his level of power, none though had actually achieved the level he had. There were those who were close enough in power and also could make a type of barrier just like him. Nevertheless they were more suited in other areas, which left him as the sole person who stood in the way of the advancment of the horde.

With the new stone in place he felt his tired bones revitalize even if only for a bit. This would still be enough to keep him going for a few more hours at most. After that he could only pray to the gods that the horde would be dealt with, otherwise without his barrier the city may surely fall.

Eziek let out another sigh as he watched a new group of survivors escape his barrier with a few injured. Thankfully none of the mages or warriors had died or were seriously injured. That in of itself was the only silver lining in this whole event. For the most part undead were fairly easy to kill and those inside were more than powerful enough to handle the unslaught they were presented with. Which gave the weaker ones who would farry the surviors out of the barrier the protection to do so. Of course they would sometimes still have to fight, but as stated before undead were easy to kill. The only real threat that came from the undead was when there were to many for one magus or warrior to deal with. Outside of that scenerio the only other danger was from higher level undead. That was though an unlikely event since to have a higer level undead the caster would have to give up having a larger horde in exchange. Even if the necromancer was relying on a mana stone he would still only be able to maintain a horde of around fifty while also controlling a higher level undead.

What confused the old magus was that the last report from inside said that there had been well over ten thousand undead that had been raised. This was counting those already killed but even so that number was unfathomable, the most he had ever scene a group of mages raise was little less than five thousand and that was with around hundred necromancers at the time. They probably could had summoned a bit more but they had also chose to have a few elite undead spread among the horde. Eziek was sweating as he thought about the report while his throat clenched and unclenched constantly, he could not recall the last time he felt this way. Even when he faced a group of wyvern he had felt much calmer, recalling that fight caused him to sigh again as he wished he was there instead of in this hopless battle.

Shaken from his thoughts a bit of blood dripped from his lips, he had suddenly felt his barrier being attacked. This was not the first time but it was the cause of his growing headache. About three hours ago he had felt the first of the many soon to come attacks on his barrier. They were spread in every direction but overall they did little harm other than exhaust his supply of mana at a faster rate. Thankfully he had help on the inside that could take care of the disturbance fast enough so as to not cause him to much trouble.

Eziek wave over one of the runners to his side, "Go and tell Jial to take care of the... "

Blood splashed on the young man while listening to his new directions. His eyes widened as he watched the old master turn deathly pale while his viens began to bulge.

"Inquistor! What happ..." The boy was interuppeted by the sound of glass breaking. His head swirled away from the injured magus to the barrier where the sound had come from. However, the barrier that had stood firm for hours now was dissapating while it shattered.

Eziek could feel himself lose conciouness as his eyes started to roll back to look at his brain. He was about to tell were the new disturbance was located when another attack struck the opposite side of his barrier. The issue was not that multiple attacks had happened since that was common during this battle. Instead the problem was that the attack was much stronger than any of the other attacks combined. To add insult to injury it had happened just as he had diverted more of his already depleting mana to the first location. This caused a massive backlash to happen when his barrier broke, unfortunatly that meant this could be the last time he closed his eyes in this world.

"Quick! Flee!" Huffed Eziek to the boy who had froze from the sight of the barriar breaking.

Eziek though was greeted with darkness as he passed out before the boy could respond.