Shadowbane

Lich, see that bird's corpse? Raise it too, and any other birds you find.

The Lich continued his sprint toward the city center without sending an affirmation back to me. There was no need after all, as I could already feel a tiny part of my soul enter the dead hawk. Unlike Human skeletons, the hawk's core and new black muscles only took a few seconds to form. Immediately after its muscles were formed it took flight high into the air. I swapped the main vision in front of me(the Lichs') for the Hawks.

"That's convenient... Did you do this in Xelba as well?" Shana asked as she looked at the aerial vision with me.

"No, it never even occurred to me until a moment ago when I saw the dead hawk. This is something I should have always been doing, even when I'm not besieging anything. The bird takes barely any of my strength too. The only downside is that the mana drain is a tad high when it flies, but this is obviously more than worth it... Look at how much more information we have now. From here on out I'm going to try and always have a summoned bird following me."

I watched as several things continued to unfold in the bird's vision. The Tengu was taking heavy fire, so he was weaving back and forth between multiple buildings while destroying one vehicle after another, except it was clear that all the bullets hitting him were taking a toll on him. The one we fought in Kellog had a ridiculously powerful barrier, but I've never seen this one use a barrier. So I can only assume he's designed for physical combat. Plus, I've only seen him cast that magic arrow spell... So he must be relying on enhancements, which means I have no way of knowing when he'll hit his limit... I'll need to send some reinforcements his way as soon as I can.

Viktor's soldiers were either falling back to the main city hub or wrapping around the Tengu. It's about an eighty-twenty split. With the Tengu using large buildings as cover, the soldiers have no choice but to circle around him. And the soldiers in the city hub are creating massive fortifications at almost lightning speed. They're placing buses and other vehicles in the way while evacuating everyone in the large(above ten floors) buildings to somewhere else.

Suddenly I felt a massive drain on my mana supply, and that's when I noticed the Lich had created another Lich. ... I was considering that, but I thought the drain might be too much. I'm not even going to give him any orders, I want to see if he is going to do the same thing I wanted to do.

I brought up the other Lichs' vision and placed it to the right of the Hawks while the first Lichs' remained to the left. I then watched as the Lichs split up and went in different directions. One to the left, heading in the Tengu's direction, with the other heading to the right side of the city. Yep, this is what I was considering doing, and the thing I was most worried about is also happening. The drain of having two Liches is massive, they're going to need to move fast.

Skeletons poured out of the first two apartment buildings I had assaulted a earlier near the defensive line.

The others are doing exactly what I asked of them. I can feel a lot of dormant skeletons waiting on the bottom floors of those apartments. I'll have them continue to spread out and create more buildings full of skeletons, and when we're finally ready, I'll have them all flood out and attack at the same time. I originally planned on having a steady stream of skeletons attacking the city, but with the Tengu here, I'm not all that worried about the new defensive position they're creating. Of course, if something happens to him that would be devastating. So Lich, if you would please...

The one moving to the left affirmed my request before it smashed through the front doors of another apartment building. By now the people living in the region realized that waiting in their homes for help wasn't going to do them any good. The ones with windows aiming at the city center could tell that no one was coming to save them, so they were all flooding down the stairs in a desperate attempt to get away. Whether they were told by their neighbors as they fled, or they had merely been inspired by the sound of everyone fleeing, the residents on the other side of the building also began to flee down the stairs and into the streets.

... Should I have them gunned down? I don't think they saw my skeletons collect all of their guns. The first barrier we crashed through is covered in blood, debris, and all sorts of other shit, so I feel like they wouldn't have noticed my skeletons carrying all of the guns into the nearby apartments.

"Shana, do you think they know that I took all of their guns?"

"Into the apartments? Unlikely."

Yeah... I'll just let the citizens flee then. I'm still killing at least twenty percent of them too. My skeletons are running into the packs of fleeing people, killing as many as they can before they're too close to the city center to keep chasing. And since there are civilians everywhere, the soldiers can't fire on them.

A loud explosion rang out, one that sounded like a cannon firing. Shana and I looked toward the Tengu at the same time, as whatever was just fired, had knocked him onto the ground. By the time we looked at him, he was already on one knee with an outstretched hand that just barely stopped his head from hitting the ground.

"Rei, look here!" Shana said, pointing toward the corner of a large wall on the other side of town. I looked closer with the Hawk's eyes and I could see four large cannons on top of the massive walls built on that side of the city. One of the cannons was smoking with a dozen or so people cleaning out the insides, while the other three were all being loaded up with an abnormally large cannonball.

"Well, shit... That's obviously not something we can ignore."

That part of the city is built completely different from the rest. I didn't see it until now, but there is a long wall going along that entire part of the city, blocking off the forest beyond it. They must have needed it to defend against something from the forest, and now those defenses are being used against us instead.

Both Liches were reaching the opposite ends of the city at the same time. I watched as they both pivoted one street up before turning back the other way and running toward the city center. This is obviously the best course of action, I need them to run through every single building, so a sweeping movement like this is what we need to do, but damnit, we also don't have time for this... Looks like my plan to build up and swarm isn't going to work. We need to move now.

"Get ready, Shana. I can't put it off anymore. Try to see if anything changes inside that building after I begin the attack." Plus, the drain from the amount of skeletons I've amassed is past the limits of what I'd call extreme. Even if they're dormant, I need to start using them now so I can either lose them or gain more souls.

Shana nodded and turned around to look at her clone's vision.

Attack.

With that simple command, skeletons began to swarm out of the buildings that they were hibernating inside. Soldiers saw that and immediately entered a firing position, but they quickly scattered when bullets began to rip through the defensive line. No one was dying, as they were not taking enough hits to get past their enhancements, but that only delayed some of the damage on our side. Hundreds of guns fired from the apartments ahead. I looked them over and could see soldiers in almost every single apartment aiming this way.

I didn't see them at all until now, so they must have been hiding inside the apartments... That's fine though, losing some of my units while advancing can only help me. The mana drain is holding steady between the newly forming units and the ones being killed. And soon, we'll have more souls again.

As the skeletons neared the city center I could see almost a dozen twisters descending from the pitch-black sky above. And here it comes... I was wondering when he'd unleash the Xerath onto me. However, unlike in Kellog where the obelisks formed in the sky and then crashed onto the ground, these were forming directly on the ground. Come to think of it, the ones I saw earlier in town were also forming on the ground. I can only assume they're dropped into hostile territory as a way of scaring the people they're invading. And it definitely worked from what I remember of Kellog.

"How come they're not forming behind your skeletons too?" Shana said as she looked over her shoulder.

"Hmm... We've never had an opportunity to try, but maybe they're worried we'll destroy them? For all we know, they might take an ungodly amount of mana to form, so any obelisks destroyed could be a massive blow to them. There is also the fact that anything inside of them could die too. Either way, once we breach the city I'll have no choice but to try and destroy them. Otherwise, you'll never be able to escape the city with the others. And speaking of which, has that sickly aura hit you yet? I'm worried they'll ping your other clone."

"It tried, but don't worry, now that I know to prepare for it, I can avoid it. I'll teach you the spell when this is all over." Shana replied.

"Can you cast it on others? You know, to prevent the obelisks from tracking Ishar and Markus."

Shana shook her head.

Still amazing that she can do that, and having that spell handy will be very useful going forward, but not being able to protect those two is a massive problem. Not that I didn't go into this battle expecting them to be tracked anyway. It's just... I'm really not sure how we're going to get them out of there unscathed without a full victory here, and I'll be shocked if I'm able to kill everyone including Viktor. One of the biggest problems is the soldiers streaming out of that large building at the city center. I'm going to assume the portals are in there, and that means he's called for reinforcements from god knows how many different places. The longer this draws out, the worse it becomes for all of us.

"Hehe, they're turning out to be very fine ninjas," Shana said from behind me.

?

I looked through the different parts of town until I finally realized why she said that. The ninjas were killing all of the men manning the walls near the forest. And one by one they were dumping some type of finely granulated substance all over the cannons. I could see the cannons slowly falling apart as different parts of them broke off and fell to the ground below. After they were done, the ninjas began to run back towards the Tengu's location but dozens of red lightning bolts shot out in their direction. As the ninjas engaged the Draugr I spotted three spider Xerath and one of the tall dark purple---. I'm going to need names for these things going forward...

"Shana, please give me names for the spider, tall dark purple Xerath, and the one with three long claws."

"Shoth, Ghorak, Geist...?"

Even she didn't seem sure of those names, but I did just put her on the spot.

"Thank you beautiful, I'm not good at naming things and I really just needed something for them going forward." I continued, "There are three Shoths and one Ghorak running straight for the gate leading to the forest. They're heading for the ninjas obviously."

"I can't look back, I'm doing something important right now. Can you tell me what else is happening?" Shana replied.

"The obelisks stopped firing Draugr at the Tengu as they quickly realized just how pointless that was. They were literally all dying in less than a few seconds. But now in their place, there are a dozen Ghoraks and probably thirty of the Geists coming at the Tengu from three different directions. Also, that Xerath who was bombarding Viseux from the sky just made its first appearance. It hasn't fired anything yet, but I can see it looking back and forth between my skeletons and the Tengu. Do you remember if there was a long delay between its attacks back then?"

"Sorry, no... I was too focused on surviving until I reached the chateau."

And there's no time to reproduce that memory in my soul realm right now. Maybe if I could slow time down in here like Cera and Alicia said they could...

The sound of gunfire and screaming erupted from a location I wasn't expecting. I looked through the vision of the skeleton still hiding in the cemetery. The men who killed my ether carriers had finally re-entered their vehicles a while ago, but now they were suddenly running out of the vehicles and shooting at one another.

"What the hell...?"

It looked to be a three versus fifteen battle. A battle I expected to be over rather quickly, and while two of them did die quite fast, it was the last man standing that truly shocked me. He tossed his gun to the side and dashed from one soldier to the next, killing them one after the other. Whether it was a quick snap of the neck, or he simply crushed their skulls, he was finishing off all of the other soldiers in a fast and sickly efficient manner.

It wasn't long before he was the only soldier left back there. For a moment he just stood there, not moving an inch, when suddenly his head vanished in an erratic manner that made it look like it was warping. And even more strange was how it was quickly replaced by three grey heads. One was laughing, another was crying, and the last one looked enraged. It only stayed like that for a few seconds before reverting back to the soldier's original head. He then turned around and ran over the hill behind the cemetery, disappearing from my skeleton's view soon after that.

... The faces were different, but I recognized him immediately when his true face appeared. That's the minor God of the Abyss that those two from earlier were talking about. I don't know whether he was masquerading as a soldier or took the body of one, but he fled the city, so he's someone else's problem now.

The Draugr engaging my skeletons aren't a true threat, but they are racking up a few casualties while being an all-around nuisance. The real problem though is the four Shoths and two Ghoraks that are moments away from finally reaching one part of my swarm. They're coming at the ones closest to my position, while the two Liches and any skeletons on both sides are only battling soldiers and Draugr. Draugr aside, all the soldiers pelting my forces from the city hub with sniper rifles is what's really been killing them.

It's not a huge deal, since I'm creating far more than they are killing, but it could matter a lot more depending on how many I lose to the six Xerath approaching my two hundred and twelve units assaulting the city center...

I ordered the skeletons firing at the soldiers to turn their fire onto the two Ghoraks. A hail of bullets began to smash into the Ghoraks and even the Shoths. The Shoths quickly ran behind the Ghoraks, using them as cover until they barreled through my forces. At which point the Shoths re-appeared and began to cut through one skeleton after another.

"I've unlocked their cell, Rei. Now we just need the bring down the obelisks and I can sneak them out of there." Shana said.

I looked back at her clone's vision and was shocked to see Ishar sitting there. "I thought you were busy hiding your clone or something! I can't believe you're already done with your part..."

Shana smiled and walked up next to me, peering at the battle taking place with the Xerath. "You're getting crushed."

"Yeah, but I'm using this to gather information. I'm losing a lot of units to friendly fire, but I need to see just how many bullets it takes to break through the natural enhancements on the big guys. Your 'Ghoraks'." I continued, "By the way, can you remember what Tyrell said? I think he said that his knights had to bleed out the spiders to kill them? Err, Shoths?"

"That's what he said. But that just means you need to damage them enough to kill them..."

Can't really argue with that... You're aiming for the same end result either way.

On the left side, my units had finally begun to reach the buildings near the Tengu. Half were running for the obelisk near that side of the city center, while the other half, much to my surprise, had found an armory. I didn't use weapons in Xelba so maybe Viktor just wasn't expecting it, or maybe the forces here failed to tell him. Either way, this is a huge boon for me.

The building the armory was housed in was suddenly engulfed in a bright golden explosion. In its wake, a large golden wall of energy spread out, which split my forces in half. The half who were cut off pivoted toward the Tengu, choosing to assist him instead of waiting for the Lich who was attempting to cast the feather spell on them. Seeing this, he canceled his spell and fled to another building just before two golden spheres of energy landed nearby.

As another golden wall appeared I saw the Tengu take a break from attacking the Xerath so he could fire off multiple purple magic arrows at the roof of the building he was near. Before the arrows ripped the roof to pieces I saw someone up there disappear. There has to be a reason he's able to do that so freely damnit. I can't kill him if I don't figure it out...

Viktor re-appeared on a building near the ninjas, but a few of them spotted him before he could even attack them. So his attack whiffed completely, but it forced the ninjas to drop down from the wall. They chose to drop outside instead of inside the city, so I completely lost sight of them as the four Xerath reached the forest gate. Red lightning bolts also continued to fire onto the wall; creating scores of more Draugr who all quickly jumped outside the city.

I was more concerned with something else though. I enhanced the vision of the hawk to the max. It was zoomed in so close I could practically see the sweat glands on Viktor. A few seconds later he disappeared again and I immediately brought up that memory on a nearby display. I played it forward at ten percent of normal speed until Viktor's body began to dissipate. I stopped it and zoomed in on something small I saw wafting off of him.

... Smoke?

I looked at the Draugr engaging my skeletons. It was much larger, but there were big puffs of smoke left behind and at their re-entry points every time they warped.

... Okay, this would explain some things, but at the same time, it also doesn't make any sense? He warped earlier when there weren't any obelisks present, and he warped away from me during the Xelba assault. Although... It was the first time I had ever seen him do that. Was there an obelisk formed nearby and I just didn't see it? Except the sky was normal back then, so... Shit. I need more information. The best way would be to kill someone close to him, like that guard in power armor, and steal their memories but there's no time for that. For now I'll continue with the plan to destroy the obelisks and pray it at least increases the delay between his warps. That's a wish and a half though.

A sound I had only heard once in my life echoed out. I looked up with the hawk and saw an unbelievably massive fireball descending toward the Tengu. He obviously saw it too but instead of fleeing he fired a round of magic arrows at it that promptly caused the fireball to explode. The area it exploded at was next to the roof Viktor was on earlier. Large chunks of the building shattered and flew toward the city center, outright killing large swaths of my units who were on the other side of Viktor's first golden barrier. They were currently engaged with several Ghoraks and Geists near an obelisk.

The Ghoraks were killed instantly, but the debris went straight through the Geists, leaving them unharmed. I need magic damage for them, but any spells I know are rudimentary in nature and most likely won't work... Lich?

The Lich on that side began to cast a spell I didn't recognize. And strangely enough, the way it was performed reminded me of ancient magic. Something I had only seen Demons use. When the spell had finished forming, a bright blue aura sprang up around twenty of the skeleton's arms and hands. Two things happened then. First, the mana drain from the spell hit me and it was half as bad as summoning a Lich. And the second thing was my surprise at how quickly the skeletons were dispatching the Geists.

The Lich sent something to me but it was hard to understand. I got the vague impression that he was trying to tell me that the spell was 'Untrained'. Is that why it costs so much to cast? I wouldn't even know how to train a Lich though...Plus, the drain from just having one alive is immense. The idea of keeping a single one alive enough to make it stronger is... Well, that's a dream inside of another dream. Maybe one day I can do that, but that's not possible right now.

My two hundred and twelve units fighting the six Xerath had dwindled to thirty-something, but the Ghoraks were finally dying. Once the bullets were able to pierce them, they dropped dead almost instantly. And the Shoths had apparently died a while ago, so now this side only had the soldiers to contend with. ... This is new. The base of the obelisk those six came from is turning red.

Despite all the ammo magazines I had retrieved from the vehicles, I had nearly depleted all of my reserves just fighting those six Xerath. I ordered the skeletons with guns to exit the buildings and regroup with the nearby force. The assault on the right side was finally ramping up to such a degree that most of the enemy's forces had no choice but to address it, giving both of my forces over here a quick respite.

The red lights near the base of the obelisk disappeared, and in its place the obelisk began to move backward toward the city's center. It was moving at a slow pace, but the fact that it was moving period was creepy enough. Why don't they pull it back into the sky like they did earlier?

On the right side of the city I could see the skeletons quickly plowing through the barricades. One of the buses that was turned sideways completely tipped over as they began to scale it. Since most of the soldiers were focused on that side, a hail of bullets was ripping into them, but the amount of forces I had on that side was well past a thousand, so they were barely stemming the tide.

It's like a stampede over there. That's what they get for completely ignoring that part of the city. That Lich had free reign to build a full force. They did summon two obelisks but it was too little too late. The Ghoraks may have killed a lot in return before dying, but again, it was a mere pittance compared to what had already been amassed over there.

Another familiar and still frightening sound echoed out again. I looked up and saw a massive fireball descending on the area where a large portion of my right-side forces were blasting past the barricade and attacking the soldiers. The Tengu fired off another set of magic arrows at it in response, and while he did prevent it from hitting the ground again, the explosion was still too close to the ground. I felt over four hundred of my skeletons vanish as the sounds of fifty or so soldiers being burned to a crisp played out through the panels. The screams they made sounded closer to pigs squealing which managed to disturb even me.

But my attention was quickly focused on something else. The Tengu fell to one knee behind the half-destroyed building he had been battling behind for most of the siege. I enhanced the Hawk's vision and saw that he was heavily bleeding from his ankles and legs.

Shit! The damage from those fucking Geists added up faster than I expected. Past the initial thirty who attacked him, there has been a steady stream of them pouring out of a building near the wall about four streets away from him. I don't know where they're coming from but I figured they had to stop coming out at some point. Except even now the fuckers are still exiting that building... Lich! With the forces we lost on the right side, we should have the leeway with our mana to kill them. So please, if you will.

The Lich began to cast the ancient spell from earlier, but he had barely begun casting when something smashed into the Tengu from behind, propelling him straight into the half-destroyed building. As the building collapsed on top of him, I looked in the direction of the blast, but I already had an idea of what I was going to find.

God damnit... Why did he have to appear now?! Did Viktor leave the portal unguarded...?

The Hawk's vision focused on a singular entity surrounded by a few dozen robed creatures I thought I wouldn't have to deal with again so soon. They all fanned out, heading for different parts of the city as the God of Casters charged up another spell. This one, just like the last, was aimed directly at the Tengu.