Whispers of a Dead Empire

Chapter 38

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Here is another chapter! We are getting close to the next arc, which focuses on the adventures dive into the domain! Let me know what you think! I also have a patreon for those who are interested :) Enjoy!

"At the moment, we are holding firm. The reinforcements, however, will be good for us. We could push out the ferals and take some time to recover." He pushed open the door, and the sound of fighting filled the room. The brute's occasional roaring would drown out the various moans and the sounds of swords clashing for a few brief moments.

I guess that was part of the old brood out there fighting the legion. I took a deep breath to calm myself; I had to keep a clear head in a situation like this. "Kharon, I want to lead the troops." No matter how much I tried to fight it, I was scared, but I needed to do this. If I was stuck here, I needed to strive to be the best version of myself that I could. It would be the only way I made it out of here alive.

"Mistress, I strongly suggest you stay out of it right now. Let us handle it." Kharon mashed his teeth together once more, refusing to relent.

I was touched by how much he cared truly. But I needed this. "Kharon. I have to do this. I need the experience, and I can't just sit here and be sheltered all the time. I need to get stronger once, and once the adventures arrive, it will be much harder for me to do stuff like this. Besides, Alessia here will keep me safe."

He clacked his teeth together in a way that sounded much like a defeated sigh. "Fine. You win this time. But stay here in this building. I don't want to see you get hurt by a stray weapon or by some fluke of fate. You can direct the undead through your map. There is a drawing tool in there that you will use to guide a mass amount of your mobs. However, you won't be able to control them individually."

"Thank you, Kharon." I stepped back further into the lobby and sat down on the floor. Kharon opened the door and slipped outside, leaving my bodyguard and me.

"Okay, Alessia, do your thing and stand guard. I'm going to practice leading the undead real quick." She walked over to the door and swung her pole-arm around as she watched the door. I stared at her for a moment before glancing down at my menu.

Alright, let's do this. I cracked my fingers and brought up my map, and zoomed in on the stronghold. Undead were rushing into the stronghold from the outer wall like a flood while the legion was attempting to keep them out. As I watched everything unfold, It was a bit like playing a game and gave me a sense of detachment. Was this how drone operators felt back on Earth?

I'd read stories about how a missile strike would kill dozens and always wondered how they did it. But I guess this was just about the same, though the dying stuff wasn't quite alive, to begin with. Oh, the struggle was real, but I know what had to be done.

I went through the map and saw the battle tool for the map, which, as Kharon said, was a drawing tool. A legend opened up on the bottom of the screen with a plethora of colors to choose from. Red was for attacking, Blue for defending, and yellow for general movements.

There was also some other stuff like flags for a rallying point, and a white flag for a general retreat, a crown for commander units, and a pair of shackles for a capture point. Overall, it wasn't anything too elaborate and nothing that was a game-changer. It only gave me the basics and expected me to figure out the rest. That wasn't very pleasant, but it would do, I suppose. Better here and now and not when threats were around that could harm me.

Now, what do I do? I have never had the privilege of leading troops in battle and didn't know much in the way of basic strategy. I stared at the screen blankly for a moment as I tried to come up with some plan, watching to see how the bosses moved around the undead.

The captain was a bit away from the front lines, directing those who had freshly taken swords and shields and trying to reinforce weak spots. A few spirits were on the sidelines, dancing through the undead, slowly chipping away the overall health of the attackers. The warrant officers were directly on the front line, engaging some of the undead who have also gained classes.

Wait, I had archers. Let me pull them back to safety and let them bombard the backline of the undead that had yet to push through the bottleneck! I quickly circled many of the legion's undead and brought them further back to pick up a bow and some arrows and organize behind the fighting. The zombies could only move slightly faster than a walking pace, which gave me a moment to figure out some other stuff.

I had a brute, which I would put on the front lines, that should tip the battle in our favor. Even if it was new and under-leveled, it was still a power player. If I could keep it alive, it could serve a vital purpose in the future once my domain opened up.

I had to say this was a bit of fun, though it was slightly confusing. I wanted to do more, but I didn't know what would work, and I didn't want to deplete my resources by respawning another legion of undead so that I would play safe for now. The line remained slightly even until the archers I designated rained down arrows onto the back lines.

The arrows went through some of the skeletons, inflicting no damage whatsoever. At the same time, some arrows pierced some eye sockets of some unlucky zombies. Slowly but surely, the front line pushed forward, cutting down swathes of the undead.

Tiny globs of darkness rushed forward from my lines, piercing the incorporeal flesh of some ghosts, causing them to wink out of existence, leaving behind small smoldering piles of glowing green ash that defied the wind. Seeing that my forces were winning, I quickly drew out paths for them to take. I pushed the front line forward and used some of the zombie runners to push out of the outpost, hit the flanks, and tie up a few undead.

But just as I was winning, a massive brute that was almost a full meter taller than mine came out from the depths of the forest. Its flesh was torn and bleeding from dozens of spots and muscles that were thicker than I was, bulged as it let out a thunderous roar. I wanted that. It would be such an asset to have under my control. Well, to be fair, it was under my control already, but I wanted everyone to get experience by trying to capture it.

I placed the shackle icon on the massive brute and watched once more. From what I've been seeing, the undead don't have moral issues and will fight until they can't any longer, which was both good and bad. It was good because it allowed me to use them to their maximum potential and the fact that I just had to sit here and wait for them to kill each other slowly.

The massive brute reached out and pulled a small tree out of the ground, and threw it. The tree spun through the air and over the short wall and landed in my line of archers. My lobby shook as the tree landed nearby, and dust rained around me in a small torrent. The massive creature let out another bone-shattering roar as the undead around fought with more fevour then before.

That fucking bastard got my archers! I needed them firing on the undead to help the forward infantry and help take down that beast. I quickly circled the archers' area and drew a path forward for them, at least those who survived, pushing them a bit closer to the front line.

I circled my brute and a portion of my undead, targeted the monster, and let the captain direct the rest. I mean, it was his job, after all. From the looks of it, he was doing it fantastically. He was directing all the warrant officers and shifting the lines as he needed to, far quicker than I could.

His Lieutenant was on the front lines fighting tooth and nail with everything he could get his boney hand on. Kharon wasn't kidding when he said he was a battle fiend. It was a bit terrifying to behold. The way he moved around with liquid grace, ending an undead life with a well-positioned fist or crushing a skeleton with ki-infused blows. Kharon stood a ways behind, watching the battle unfold, not quite doing anything, just watching and taking everything in as he usually does. What an odd skeleton he was. The battle slowly spilled outwards onto the ground outside of the stronghold and in our favor once more.

My brute slammed into the other and started throwing wild haymakers with everything it had. The other exchanged just as wild of blows as they tossed each other around like two children. Naturally, the brute that I spawned in was weaker than the other, so he was taking quite the beating. But with the arrival of his backup, he was slowly getting the upper hand. Swords cut into the monster's flesh, and arrows rained down on both of them. A few unlucky souls were crushed by the fighting that occurred as they tried to bring down the creature. My legion finally broke through the last of the undead and slowly surrounded the two fighting, which looked like it would take a while.

Well, that was exciting. I would wait for them to regroup and see what has to be repaired and what needed to be re-summoned and see what rewards this fight brought in for me. Hopefully, they were good.