The announcement of the dark army’s movements was disseminated to the public and the emergency conscription order along with the evacuation orders were given not too long after. A large majority of the citizens, particularly the children, elderly, and women who couldn’t fight were evacuated from the city. Everyone else was required to help defend the city or at least contribute to the defense, even if they couldn’t do it by fighting.
Most of the able-bodied refugees from Melu’er decided to help out with the city’s defenses even though they all had experienced first-hand just how dreadful the dark army was, a few of the mercenaries didn’t want to throw away their lives, so they left. The city lord didn’t force them to stay, but he didn’t let them leave for free either. The city lord had allowed them to stay in the city and receive emergency shelter and rations for the entire time they stayed there, so he forced them to pay him back with whatever they had on them.
The mercenaries who wanted to leave had to relinquish their weapons and armor as well as a few personal items before being allowed to leave. They were naturally discontented with it, but what could they do when the city’s army was looming over them? The city lord didn’t force them to stay, but he was going to force them to pay for leaving. It was a pretty devious tactic that forced most of the mercenaries to stay because they couldn’t afford the payment.
If they couldn’t pay, they could either stay or try to oppose the city lord, which would only land them in jail. Maria thought that it was a pretty fun solution, but at least it worked. Besides, the city lord wasn’t planning to have his people fight to the death. He only needed to block the dark army’s advance until the citizens that had evacuated were at a safe distance away from the city.
Once that was accomplished, the city lord would order everyone to make a full retreat and, after laying bare his plans to everyone he conscripted, more people decided to stay behind because they weren’t just throwing away their lives but using them to try and help their loved ones escape. They might die, but it was better than the dark army killing everyone.
Rio didn’t return to the refugee camp. He was taken in by Richard and was inducted as one of the scout team’s members. Even though a few people were still a bit discontent with him, they didn’t object to Richard’s decision. He was a skillful young lad and they had to acknowledge that part of him.
Also, after a few of them listened to their captain’s reprimanding, they realized that their previous thoughts about Rio were wrong and he really wasn’t to be blamed for their fallen companions’ death. Unfortunately, Richard’s team along with Rio could only rest up for a few hours before they had to be deployed to the walls because the dark army was sighted a few kilometers away by one of the teams that were sent out for reconnaissance.
“Damn, they sure got here fast,” Richard said as he got ready to leave the barracks he was staying in along with the rest of his team members.
The vice-captain came over to him and replied to his grumbling, “They’re undead, Captain. They don’t have any stamina, so they can move nonstop without the worry of getting tired from the march.”
“Enough talk. The city lord has summoned us to a meeting. Let’s go, Kurt.”
“I’m still extremely exhausted, but what can we do? Duty calls.”
Maria watched on in silence as Captain Richard and Vice-captain Kurt exchanged words before leaving. The rest of the team was still resting and seeing that there was nothing to do, Maria decided to leave the barracks and explore the castle. She had received a few gold coins as a reward earlier and wanted to use them to buy a better set of armor for herself.
If she was hit by an attack later in the war and came out completely unscathed, she wouldn’t be able to explain to anyone why she wasn’t affected by them at all. Even the strongest of her undead, Calen and Morte, wouldn’t be able to scratch her, let alone hurt her, so it would definitely look abnormal. At least with better armor on, things could still be attributed to the armor’s defense and Rio’s luck that he didn’t get hurt by an attack.
While she was out getting better armor in the city, Maria saw the ordinary citizens evacuating from the city. Seeing that so many people were evacuating en masse like this, she suddenly had a great idea.
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‘I’ll herd all of the people into a single area then have my minions sweep them up. It should make completing my objective much easier this way.’
Maria attached some of her shadow puppets that were hidden inside of her shadow to a few of the evacuating citizens. Now she could tell where these people were at any time on her minimap since they’d be moving with her puppet.
The evacuation was still ongoing but Maria's army of shadows and undead could already be seen on the horizon from the city’s walls. Her army wasn’t so merciful as to let these people evacuate the city without doing anything. They’d definitely chase after them, so if the evacuation didn’t speed up, the evacuating citizens would still be caught up in the battle.
“Well, too bad for them. I didn’t expect the city lord to evacuate the people or announce the dark army’s arrival. He’s a pretty nice guy but what he did was so unnecessary…they’re still going to die in the end.”
Maria felt a little pity for these people even though she shouldn’t, so she decided to have her army that was coming here march just a little bit slower. Also, she wanted to coincide the start of the battle with the zombification of the dying refugees, so she still needed a few hours.
“Hehehe, that will definitely be fun to watch!”
When she returned to the barracks an hour later, Richard and Kurt had returned as well and they were just about to start debriefing the rest of the team.
“Oh, good timing, Rio. We were just about to start the debriefing. Sit down and we’ll start.”
Maria nodded and sat down on a chair before Richard began explaining to the team their battle plan. It was pretty simple with no complicated operations. They were to just hold down the fort for as long as they could. If the dark army’s forces so much as breached the walls or gate, then everyone was required to make a full retreat. There was no use trying to keep hold of the city once the enemy forces broke through their greatest defenses.
The city lord had also pulled out all stops for this battle and all of the city’s siege weapons and anything that could be used to defend the city were taken out and transported to the city’s walls.
“Alright, that’s sums just about all that I need to tell you guys. We’ve survived fighting against these monsters before, so let’s continue doing that today,” Richard said to everyone after finishing the debriefing.
“We’ve been assigned to the east wall, so get yourselves ready. We’re moving out in 10 minutes.”
“Yes sir.”
“Yes, Captain.”
They left for their stations after 10 minutes and just waited for the dark army to arrive. A few hours later, Calen and Morte arrived along with their army of shadow puppets and undead minions. Morte was leading the entire army as he was the Skeleton King, while Calen and the Black Orc were following behind him.
Even though Maria’s army had arrived, they didn’t begin attacking. Maria had given Morte free reign over the army, so she wasn’t the one directing how and when they were attacking, so it puzzled her why Morte hadn’t begun the assault and decided to just stare at the city wall for a few hours.
The humans defending the city were all poised and ready for battle but the dark army in front of them was sitting just outside of the range of their long-ranged siege weapons. Maria could see that Morte also had a few siege weapons set up already at the back of the army but he was still clearly out of range.
The excruciating wait continued for 3 hours until, finally, Morte raised his skeletal arm and ordered his army to start attacking. The siege weapons were moved to the front of the army and they began firing large boulders at the city.
“They’ve started their attack! Everyone, brace yourselves!” Commander William roared as he alerted his soldiers.
Richard, who was in charge of the eastern wall, quickly perked up when he heard the sound of the enemy’s trebuchets firing and he too alerted his men.
“Eyes up, everyone! The enemy is attacking!”
The first few boulders struck the northern walls where Commander William was defending. The dark army’s forces split into 3 groups, one for the north, east, and west walls respectively. Only the southern wall wasn't being attacked because Morte didn’t see a need to spread his forces too thin to surround the entire city. He purposefully left the southern wall completely free because he felt that there were undead there.
What he was feeling were the dying refugees that had been moved from the west wall to the south wall. Their zombification was nearly complete and they would soon cause chaos within the city. Morte turned to look at Calen and the Lifestealer only grunted at him before he began to sneak his way across the battlefield, heading towards the southern wall.
Maria noticed Calen’s intention and she smiled in delight underneath her helmet. In order to cover Calen’s movements, Morte ordered his army to start marching towards the walls. He was going to employ the same tactics as when they took over Melu’er City the previous time. His army was undying and they could immediately be raised, so he didn’t see any problem just tanking the large projectiles coming their way.
In order to make it more interesting, Morte and the Black Orc took center stage and blocked or destroyed a few of the large, burning projectiles that were heading their way. This feat shocked many of the humans defending the walls, but William rallied their morale and told the siege weapon operators not to stop firing. These monsters were able to take down the more advanced city of Melu’er, so this much was expected.
Even though he was a complete prick towards Richard, William was still a good commander. He knew how to lead his troops and he made sure that their spirit didn’t fall from their enemy’s overwhelming display of strength.
“Keep firing! We have to hold them off for as long as possible! Prepare the hot oil and torches! Don’t let them climb up the walls!”