Chapter 190 When Do goes got to go.
"Follow me Kis'Shtiengbrah," Samael said as he guided his dunlord toward the rogue division.
The king sat astride a skeletal horse at the head of the division. Instead of hair, the horse's mane was made of flickering red and yellow flames and a long curved spike grew from its forehead.
"Come Childe, attend me." The king said. His mount pawed at the ground and fire blazed from its hooves.
Dave urged his dunlord next to the king and looked toward the high walls of the Black Bone Palace. The top of the wall was crenelated and movement was visible in the dozen towers that rose at intervals along the wall. Undead walked up and stationed themselves on the tower. Casters and archers had their aims ready and were preparing for the fight.
Dave looked up at the walls of black bone towering over the desert sands and wondered why none of the undead divisions had siege weapons with them.
The king raised his black sword and shouted: "Bring down the gate!"
Dave's mouth dropped open, the king couldn't be ordering a charge at the gates. It would be a complete massacre!
In response to the king's orders, Arch-Lich Dagla whirled his scepter, evoking a moving circle of glyphs in front of himself. A burst of highly concentrated magic blasted from the spell formation and into the gate, disintegrating the barrier into a burning cloud of dust.
But the Black Skull Order was not to be so easily toppled. Sand exploded from in front of the castle walls as freight-train sized rock-serpents erupted from under the ground and undulated sinuously toward the undead formations, their rock-like skin hissing across the sands.
Dave inspected one of them,
***
Níðhöggr
Level: 600
Tier: Mythic
Danger Level: ☠☠☠☠
Damage: 300,000-350,000
HP:2,500,000
MA: 150,000
DN: 150,000
Skills:
[Sand Storm] summons a desert storm to ward against all non-magical projectiles, the storm reduces incoming magical damage by 20%
[Quicksand] Converts the area around it to quicksand, reducing movement speed. If a target is sucked down into the quicksand the target will be executed.
[Sand Burial] sends a wave of sand at a target doing 200%.
Bestiary:
The Níðhöggr is a parasite that feeds off the roots of the world. These creatures evolve into their most powerful form a true world serpent, the Jurmongand.
***
"This could be problematic," Dave muttered.
"Ha! Did you really believe the legion only has undead soldiers in its ranks?" Samael said.
"Dagla, Call them," the king said. He didn't seem to consider the Níðhöggr as a threat. Dagla grinned in delight when he heard the king's command.
"Kis'shtingbrah, you are about to witness the reason our legion is feared, and why the Ash-King has never gathered enough courage to attack us."
A loud, high-pitched squealing started, seeming to come from everywhere at once. The sound was jarring, worse than the tooth-drill sound of fingernails scraping across a blackboard. Dave felt like spikes were being shoved into his ears and a headache started throbbing in his temples.
A void in space was torn open and a hand the size of a bulldozer reached through the opening and clutched the edges from the other side. Long claws of discolored bone flexed out from the decaying flesh of the mangy fur-covered paw.
The creature that pulled itself through the hole in space was easily as tall as the palace walls. But it was emaciated, scabrous skin with patchy fur stretched tight over stick-thin limbs. The bones of its rib cage and spine were completely exposed and it had no discernible internal organs. Antlers grew from its decaying wolfshead, the sharp tines spreading up and out like grasping fingers. A stench blew across the divisions of undead, the noxious scents of battlefields and slaughtering houses combined.
The creature howled another nails-on-chalkboard scream, pulling the spatial rip open even wider to allow more of its kind step through the gaps.
Dave inspected one.
***
Wendigo
Level: 660
Tier: Mythic
Danger Level: Legion Bound
Damage: 300,000-350,000
HP:3,000,000
MA: 200,000
DN: 200,000
Skills:
[Beast Roar] Reduces the target's armor by 20% and causes a Fear effect. Attacks made by the wendigo after [Beast Roar] do double the amount of damage.
[Voracity] the wendigo consumes the heart or other vital organ of a creature it has slain and regains 10% of its max HP.
[Rupture] the wendigo uses its massive paw to bludgeon the target then rakes through through the flesh with its bone claws. Does 100% of base damage as flat Damage. If a target is below 20% HP and is under the Fear effect from [Beast Roar], [Rupture] executes the target instantly.
Bestiary:
A wendigo is created from the twisted soul of an unrepentant cannibal that has been cursed to eternal torment and everlasting hunger. After dying the cannibal's cursed spirit perverts and deforms its own body into a hideous flesh-craving monster of never-ending-hunger.
Wendigos are pure malicious carnage.
***
The two groups of monsters charged at each other and met with a ground shaking collision that turned into knots of coiling snakes and howling wendigos rolling across the sands as they fought for supremacy. One Níðhöggr wrapped itself around the chest of a cannibal revenant, the wendigo raised its wolfhead and loosed an ear-piercing shriek that elicited a shudder from the snake and gave the wendigo an opening to slam a massive hand down on it. Claws pierced through the rock-like skin and left long trenches across the snake and dragged down, carving long and deep wounds on it. The snake flopped around and squirmed in pain. Another wendigo came over, it howled as it latched it's claws on the snake's head and smashed it down on the ground. It pounded the snake with its stronger arm until cracks spread through it.
The battle devolved into single combat, the wendigos started biting the snakes, jaws crushing right through their stone-armored skin, blood gushing everywhere. The wendigos, having tasted the snakes' blood, went into a frenzy, craving more. Their strength and speed increased exponentially.
As if the wendigos frenzying was a signal, the king rose up in his stirrups pointed his sword and yelled the order: "Charge! Take the gates!"
The rogue undead rushed past the clashing titans toward the gateless portal.
In response hundreds of hostile undead emerged from the gatehouse. Most of them were equipped with Death Knight armor, similar to the Legion's, but with a black skull painted on their chest.
The undead clashed and engaged in full battle at the gate of the Black Bone Palace.
Dave fidgeted, he was itching to join the fight.
Even though the king's eyes were locked on the battle with the focused intent of a veteran commander, he noticed the unrest in the draugr next to him.
"Childe, wait for the right time. The Order will have many cards to play before this day is done."
The king turned to Samael, "Their ground forces are engaged. Go, find Our daughter and return her to Us."
The Doom Knight nodded and disappeared.
"You are sending Samael alone?"
"Do not for Samael. He can care of himself, We sent him alone because he is the fastest in the legion and the most stealthy. He will save Our daughter without the Order even realizing she has been taken away from them."
Just as the battle at the gates of the Black Bone Palace heated up, a titanic figure rushed through the combatants swatting undead away like paper cutouts, friend and enemy alike. It was of the giant's race!