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The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown

Book : Skelkor War

Chapter 6: Smashing Mratanga

Beta:


"So this is Mratanga?" Taana asked as she, Gaul and their command staff watched the projection of a holographic display that was playing a live video feed from one of their scouts. "Somehow it's not what I expected."

Surrounded by the dense Tugley Woods was a city that could only be considered as a scar on the surrounding lands. Behind a set of three concentric walls of first wood, then earth and finally stone were district upon district of lumber mills, smelters and other industry. All of which pumped pollution into its surroundings without care. It was clear that Mratanga had been founded solely to exploit the resources of the region to the point of exhaustion.

"What were you expecting? A wood elf city with its buildings seamlessly melding into its surroundings?" Gaul said with a scoff.

"No." Taana lied. "But whatever I was expecting it was certainly not this."

"Neither did I," Arche said loyally, earning her a grin. "Though for a different reason than Lady Taana's."

Taana's smile transformed into a pout at that.

"I agree." Kelart, Gaul's adjutant, said with a frown as she toggled the various feeds they were receiving from the scouts surveilling the city. "Where are the Dragons?"

Taana blinked and looked at the feeds more closely.

They're right. Where are the Dragons? Besides that bony plated Grey Dragon that's the city's governor there doesn't seem to be many Dragons in the city at all.

"For a city this size there should be at least two to three dozen Dragons-"

"Nineteen," Arche cut Lakyus off. "That's the number of Dragons that the intelligence we gained from our prisoners said should be here. Thirty nine if we count the Dragons that laired in the surrounding region."

"Thank you Arche." Lakyus said with an irritated nod to her childhood friend. "As I was saying, the city should have at least nineteen Dragons present, but we've counted only five so far."

"Are they planning an ambush?" Gaul asked ponderingly.

"If they are then we've seen no sign of it, my Lord." Arche told him. "Our scouts will keep looking but I doubt that's the case."

"Then what are you suggesting?" Kelart asked, her eyes narrowed. "That the Empress Dragon has abandoned the city and ordered its Dragons elsewhere."

"It would make sense." Lakyus said with a thoughtful look on her face. "Mratanga is cut off and faced with a foe that has already proven it has the strength to take a city of its size and capabilities. If I were in her place, I'd write it off too."

"And the only ones who could escape were the Dragons." Arche continued. "They could fly over the mountains but the slave soldiers would've had to march through the pass and our base camp to reach any other part of Skelkor."

Or risk the treacherous lesser mountain passes, which anything but a small force wouldn't survive.

"So they were left behind to die with those Dragons too stubborn to leave?" Gaul asked as he gestured to the display and the projected image of an Adult Green Dragon nesting in a grove of trees within the city's outermost ring of walls.

Now that he mentions it. Almost all the Dragons who remain are Adults. They are probably the ones who have too much attachment to their lairs here to leave.

"It would appear so, my Lord." Arche said with a nod.

Gaul chuckled at that and Taana smirked as what she imagined was the same thought crossed both their minds.

"Then we have quite the windfall on our hands." He said, voicing their thoughts. "Let's collect on it, shall we?"


Kemmicriam was an Ancient Gray Dragon. A feat only possible at his objectively young age of a hundred years by the virtue of being caught up in a temporal anomaly during the Spellplague that allowed him to live through centuries of subjective experience in days and at the end of which had deposited him here in Skelkor far from his old lair in what the humanoids called the Starwood. Whereupon he'd swiftly been confronted by the local Dragons and their leader the mysterious Dragon Empress, Gauwervyndhal. He honestly didn't know what to make of the enigmatic older Dragon, if that was what she was at all, but he did know that she was stronger than him. Far stronger. He'd thus grovelled to the best of his abilities and much to his relief was spared and even offered a post as governor of one of her cities.

It had required him killing his predecessor, who supposedly was incompetent, in mortal combat but that was not too difficult. The Green was a fellow Ancient and more skilled in magic but she was a complacent fool that underestimated Kemmicriam far too much and paid the price for it.

He'd thus gained much by his displacement to Skelkor. None of which he was willing to give up. Thus when Gauwervyndhal had declared Mratanga, his city, indefensible from the armies of these mysterious invaders and ordered it to be evacuated, he had requested permission to stay and at least attempt a defense. If half the reports that he'd received were accurate, he knew it was futile but he had to try. His pride allowed no less. Contrary to his expectations the Empress had agreed, citing that a suicidal delaying force would be beneficial.

It rankled to just be written off like that but he knew she wasn't wrong. Staying was suicide. And yet he did so nonetheless.

And as the first sounds of explosions ripped Mratanga's walls apart, Kemmicriam knew that death had come for him.

"Master!" The Dragonborn slave that was the captain of his guard said as he rushed into his pavilion, though not the one in his palace. That, he was sure, had already been reduced to rubble by the enemy's fearsome weapons. "The enemy are attacking."

He was stating the obvious. Everyone in the city could see the rain of the enemy's artillery as it fell upon their meager defenses. He did not fault the slave though, he was only doing his duty.

"Follow the plan." Kemmicriam told the slave. "Fall back to our strong points and await the enemy within the city itself."

If the enemy wanted to take the city, they would have to do so by prying it from his cold dead claws.


"They're not sortieing at all?" Lady Taana asked as they and their detachment sat in the woods behind Mratanga. The idea had been to attack the city from the rear while the main body of its defenders contended with their own main force attacking down the main road. As the defenders refused to give battle however and their forces just steamrolled into the city itself, the initial plan had gone out the window.

"I suppose they've learned the lessons from our previous victories." Arche told her with a shrug. "They would have to at some point."

"True." The Supreme One's Chosen said with a sigh. "Makes our job more difficult though."

"Taking a city by force is never easy."

"You're right there." Lady Taana said, straightening and getting serious. "How are they responding?"

"According to my Specters, they appear to be falling back to fortified locations."

"So it'll be tough for us to dig them out?" Lady Taana asked. "Let me guess they also packed them with living shields so we can't just blow them up with our artillery."

Arche just nodded.

"They want to make any attempt at storming the city costly don't they?

"With the forces they have at their disposal the only option they have is to bleed us as much as possible so we'll be weakened when we meet their next army."

"By needlessly spending the lives of thousands." Lady Taana said, her eyes glowing with arcing red lightning. "Despicable."

"It is war, my Lady."

Instead of replying, Lady Taana began issuing orders.

"Alright, the enemy has been sufficiently distracted. Begin our part of the operation."

"At once, my Lady." Arche said before quickly turning to signal to their men.

Within seconds the order had spread down the chain of command and by the time a minute had passed, hundreds of mounted troops surged out of the Tugley Woods and towards Mratanga.

"Chain Dragon Lightning!" Arche cast sending a curling lung dragon shaped bolt of lightning shooting through a dozen of the few defenders on the walls that she and her men were charging towards. Her spell only one of hundreds that decimated the already undermanned walls, blowing holes in it to allow them passage and killing its defenders.

Though these efforts were drops in the bucket to Lady Taana's. The Shadar-kai had drawn Zwing and from the back of her Soul Eater mount was loosing lightning arrows so fast that she could have been mistaken for a machine gun. These arrows conjured by the divine bow from thin air might not have been as powerful as one infused by one of its Mistress' spells but they were lethal all the same, and none that took a hit got up again.

With such deadly fire support, it was no surprise that their cavalry charge easily broke into the city itself and began adding even more chaos to the mayhem already engulfing it.

"Arche! Any clue where Kemmicriam is hiding?" Lady Taana shouted over the din of battle all around them, even as she absently sent an arrow through the eye of what appeared to be an Earth Genasi that had tried to rush their position.

"Sorry, but no. He's hidden himself well." Arche told her as she used Flame Strike to set the officer of a squad of nearby enemy pikemen alight, causing his men to lose heart and flee.

"Darn." Lady Taana said with a sigh whilst sending a whole unit of enemy skirmishers to the grave with a rain of arrows. "We'll just have to hunt him down then. Arche! Lead the way to the nearest enemy strong point!"

"Yes, my Lady." The Momon replied enthusiastically, as she mentally ordered her Soul Eater mount to trample over a group of fleeing, broken enemies as she galloped towards the nearest possible location where the city's governor might be hiding.


"Flying Swords!" Lakyus incanted, activating the special ability of the six swords that usually hovered behind her shoulders and causing them to shoot past her. They flew into the ranks of the cavalry that were trying to charge the armored column she was driving through Mratanga's streets, adding to the railgun fire and other anti-infantry weapons that were turning the foolish riders into piles of dead meat.

Behind her, the main guns of a squad of her Scropions boomed and Lakyus turned to see their mass driver rounds smash into the magical barrier of an Adult Red Dragon that was advancing towards them. They shattered the barrier, some enhanced variant of Mage Armor if she wasn't wrong, but it had served its purpose and none of them made contact with the huge flying lizard's flesh.

That seemed to give it a false sense of superiority for some reason as it wasted time chuckling instead of reapplying its spell. As such, it was promptly faced with the sustained fire from the entire armored column, a fate that soon replaced its laughter with agonized screams as it was shot to pieces.

"Arrogant idiot," Lakyus said with a dismissive snort. "Then again that seems par for the course for Dragons around these parts."

Felmidian Dragons might be pricks sometimes but at least they're mostly smart and powerful enough to back that attitude up. These guys? They're just complacent imbeciles.

"Have the Scorpions lob a few more rounds from their guns into it to be sure it's dead." Lakyus told the Elder Lich that served as her adjutant, gesturing to the fresh carcass of the Red Dragon.

"Yes, milady." The lesser undead said with a salute before hastily conveying her orders via radio to the tank crews.

Moments later, the corpse of the recently slain Red Dragon was subjected to a barrage of mass driver rounds that ripped large holes through its already thoroughly abused flesh. It did not respond in anyway however so Lakyus was fairly sure it was dead.

"Alright, radio Kelart and her necromancers that she's got a fresh corpse to raise." Lakyus ordered. "In the meantime we're moving on!"


Riding atop the back of the Zombie Dragon formerly known as Isendra the Ancient Black but which had recently been renamed ZD-1, Kelart looked down on the war ravaged city of Mratanga with satisfaction. The enemy was making a fight of it from various strong points scattered throughout the city but with the overwhelming firepower at their disposal their forces were making steady progress clearing them out.

"Have Second Squadron help out our forces in Sector E-3." Kelart told the Elder Lich manning the radio somewhere behind her. "Looks like they've smoked out a Dragon and are having some trouble."

"Yes milady." The lesser creature said in its croaky voice and Kelart watched as the dozen Zombie Wyrmlings and three Zombie Adult Dragons of Second Squadron dove down from the holding position they were maintaining over the city to assist their ground forces.

"Milady, word from Lady Lakyus." The Elder Lich said, pulling her away from the look of horror on the enemy Adult Green Dragon's face as it found itself confronted by Zombie versions of its brethren. Perhaps the sight gave it an inkling as to its fate. Whatever the case, the terror in the eyes of such a prideful creature was a sight that Kelart would savor for a long time.

"What did she say?"

"There is a new Dragon corpse to raise in Sector W-5."

"Dispatch the Third Squadron." Kelart said dismissively. "They're understrength anyway. A new addition to their ranks will help fix that."

"Yes milady." The Elder Lich said sycophantically as it relayed her orders.

Kelart ignored it in lieu of enjoying the view of a city being con- ahem. A city being liberated. Yes. That's right. They were liberators, not conquerors.

By the Bone Father, I better not forget that. Wouldn't want to hurt the morale of our living comrades now would we?


Codel Cudir was a Human slave, though that wasn't saying much. Everyone in Skelkor who wasn't a Dragon was a slave. That was not to say Codel's life was bad however. Buxom, with lustrous red hair and entrancing green eyes, she was beautiful. For a Human. And that had earned her a higher standard of living than most as her Dragon Masters bought and sold her to satisfy the lusts of the Human males among their property. It meant she had to spread her legs for whichever man, mostly Human but not always, that her Masters commanded her to but it also meant she didn't live in squalor or constantly worried about working hard enough to ensure she got her next meal. Instead, she was allowed luxuries such as regular washing, pretty clothes, and good meals.

Now though all that was on the verge of coming to an end as the invaders, their self-proclaimed liberators, marched into Mratanga and destroyed the only way of life that Codel had ever known.

She would have fled, as some of the more favored slaves had, with her current Master, the Adult Red Dragon Restrasz, when he and most of the other Dragons had been told to evacuate the city. But she'd been abandoned because of the babe growing inside her. Pregnant and showing it was decided that she could not make the trip through the mountains. And she'd only kept the pregnancy and not drank some moontea because the men she'd been assigned to had wanted to have their way with a pregnant woman!

She'd have killed the babe herself if the act of doing so as far along in her pregnancy as she was wouldn't have weakened her body such that making the sacrifice would make her just as unfit for the mountain trek.

The only consolation was that she wasn't the only one. All the pregnant pleasure slaves from Master Restrasz's estate were with her. A whole two thirds of the stable, it having been in the middle of breeding season, the time of the year where the Master ordered his female property to reproduce and add to his estate, when he'd fled.

Thus it was that Codel huddled in a mass of Humans, Halflings, Genasi and the odd more exotic female. All of them pregnant. The damned lucky Dragonborn having already laid their eggs had long since fled. All of them cowering in their master's nesting chamber, the place in his estate where he retreated should he feel the need for sleep. All whilst explosions tore through the streets outside, the sound of fighting echoed everywhere and soldiers prowled the streets.

"There are living inside. I can sense it." A croaky voice said from just outside the elaborate metal doors that were a combination of magic and artifice which separated the chamber from the rest of the estate. A device that one of the Dwarf girls had figured out how to operate.

A number of the girls cried out in alarm at the voice but were quickly shushed by the more sensible ones like Codel. The door was supposed to let sound in and not out but there was no reason to risk it!

"It is magically reinforced and beyond-" The voice continued before suddenly cutting off and changing tack entirely. "Breaching charges? I understand. Getting clear."

There was silence for a long tense moment as Codel and she was sure more than one of the other pleasure slaves tried to figure out what was going on.

The answer came a moment later as an explosion blasted a hole in the Master's fancy door and sent rumble flying everywhere. Girls screamed as they ducked under the dubious cover of the raised platform the Master liked to recline on when he used the room. It also filled the room with a cloud of dust and blinded Codel, but as it settled and her vision returned she almost wished she had truly lost her sight.

"Sir, we have civilians here!" A humanoid in strange full body armor, it wasn't plate, was the first thing she saw as it stepped through the hole in the door. It was soon followed by at least four, maybe five others.

Codel had lost count because stepping in after these soldiers was something that had her lose control of her bladder. Dressed in an old and luxurious robe was an animated body of rotting skin and bones. She didn't know much about undead but she was sure that was a Lich!

"Pleasure slaves it looks like." The Lich said in its croaky voice. "Look at them, they are barely dressed."

In most situations, Codel would have been offended by the critique. Yes, her robes exposed much of her flesh to leering eyes and she was not allowed to cover her breasts or her nethers, but it was comfortable! More comfortable than the scratchy linen clothes that the common slave women were given. Her clothes were even made from silk! In this situation however, Codel was too terrified to do anything more than shiver in terror.

She was so scared that if she hadn't already emptied her bladder, she'd have done so now. Especially, as more and more of the armored soldiers entered the room.

"They're all pregnant as well." The Elder Lich told the soldiers. "I'd wager they were abandoned as being too difficult to transport when the estate's owner fled the city just like the batch the other unit found locked in their pens in S-2."

"Bastards!" One of the soldiers cursed. She, her voice sounded female even if the armor hid any other signs, wasn't alone. All the soldiers showed some sign of displeasure.

"Alright everyone," the apparent leader of the soldiers said as he stepped forward. "My name is Captain Re Munetsk and me and my men are here to rescue you."

Codel didn't believe him. He was working with a Lich! Surely this Re Munetsk was nothing more than its pawn. She wouldn't believe it. She wouldn't.

And she didn't. Not as he and his men carefully guided her and the other pregnant pleasure slaves out of the Master's ruined estate and through the warzone to a safe place. Nor when they handed her new clothes which she wore only grudgingly. Not even when they fed her food that tasted better than anything she'd ever had.

She would never trust these conquerors who had destroyed her world of relative luxury and reduced her to a mere commoner.


"My Lord, we've found Kemmicriam." Gaul's comms operator informed him as was taking a break from commanding the taking of Mratanga to enjoy some of the tea Taana had shared with him from the stash she'd received from the Stonetalker of Wandering Stones.

"Have we now? Where is he?"

"Sector N-2. He was hiding in one of the city's granaries." The Elder Lich said in the slow, deliberate way they all talked.

"Who do we have engaging him?"

"A company of Lady Lakyus' armor in addition to several Death Knights and their Zombie Squires. Lady Kelart has already sent ZD-2 to engage."

Good. The Zombie of Kroradrassh will be able to hold him in place if nothing else.

"Scramble all nearby units. I want that thing dead ASAP."

"Yes, milord." The Elder Lich replied before it began barking into the microphone of the comms unit it manned, rallying all friendly units near to Kemmicriam's location to the engagement.

Gaul for his part simply walked to the command tent's central tactical display while taking a sip from his tea.

This is excellent. I hope Taana still has more of this blend, I'm sure the others will like to try some as well. He thought as he toggled the device's display and zoomed in on the situation in the part of Mratanga they'd dubbed Sector N-2.

It seemed that in addition to the initial units that had discovered the Gray Dragon and ZD-2, there were now at least another half dozen units of various types involved in the fight. All of which were unloading massive amounts of firepower at Kemmicriam.

He was however giving up as good as he got, lashing out with the bony spurs at his joints, its claws, the scythe-like tips of its forked tails, and its acid breath weapon.

It is just delaying the inevitable. Gaul thought with a sneer.

"How boring." The armored necromancer said as he continued to watch Kemmicriam's desperate struggle with dispassion. "I'd much rather be having tea with Taana than see this one-sided slaughter."

Not that it was truly as one-sided as all that. The fact was that Kemmicriam was putting up quite the fight. So ferocious was his defiance that Kelart had felt the need to bring her mount ZD-1 into the fight as well. And even Taana was only minutes away from joining the fight.

Despite all that though, Gaul had no doubts. The Gray Dragon's efforts were futile.

"Time to end its suffering." Gaul said as he put down his empty teacup where a Skeleton Mage immediately picked it up and moved to have it refilled.

Barely paying his minion's actions any mind, Gaul raised his right hand in a claw gesture and cast. "Grasp Heart!"

On the tactical display, Kemmicriam staggered and in Gualdoth's clawed right hand materialized a translucent copy of the Ancient Dragon's heart. One he proceeded to attempt to crush. Attempted because at the last minute, his spell was thwarted by his target's resistances.

"No matter," Gaul dismissed his failure with a shrug as he accepted the refilled teacup that the Skeleton Mage offered him.

And it really didn't. For on the holographic display, Gaul could see the handiwork of his spell. Even though it had failed, it had caused the Gray Dragon to stagger for a moment and in that moment it was blasted by the breath weapons of both ZD-1 and ZD-2, in addition to a spell arrow from the freshly arrived Taana. If not for Gaul's spell, the nimble Kemmicriam might have evaded them all, but because of it, he ended up being hit dead on.

Unable to survive such punishment, his body literally crumbled under the frost, acid and lightning that it was subjected to thus leaving nothing but a badly damaged corpse.

"I guess ZD-3 is going to be subpar." Gaul critiqued the corpse through the display. "Well, we'll just make do I suppose."

Taking a sip of his tea, he let out a sigh of pleasure.

"This is truly good tea."


"We only lost 18,000 of the city's slaves?" Taana asked, looking up from Arche's report in surprise. "I'd have thought a lot more than that considering how many got caught up in the street fighting."

"Most of those were slave soldiers and other collaborators." Arche informed her from across the conference table in Mratanga's central administrative building which they'd commandeered as their headquarters. "They were trying to fight back or restore order, we labelled them as enemy combatants and counted them separately."

Taana nodded in understanding. "So out of a city of about 200,000 slaves we lost only 9%? That's good, right?"

And that's even after extensive magical healing and resurrections. I'm honestly not sure if it's good or bad. Taana thought to herself, even as Arche provided her own assessment of the figure.

"It's a higher rate of loss than in our liberation of other cities but their defenders didn't use the local populace as living shields quite as extensively as Kemmicri- I mean, ZD-3 did."

"Gaul, what do you think?"

"I think it's fine." The armored Necromancer said with an unconcerned shrug. "It's within the acceptable range of losses Drau set for us, isn't it?"

"True." Taana allowed. "Still we should avoid such high numbers in the future. You know Drau won't like it if our ratio is consistently high."

"Fine. Fine." Gaul said sounding annoyed. "We'll be more careful in future battles. Happy?"

"Peachy." The Shadar-kai replied with a response that she'd learned form Neia.

The irritated growl that Gaul made in response was music to her ears.

"Lord Gauldoth, Lady Taana, may I ask where do we go from here?" Kelart asked for all three of the Momons of their senior staff it seemed as they all looked at them expectantly.

"Drau hasn't said yet so for now I guess we stay here and resupply."

"But get ready to move at any time." Gaul warned them. "It's only a matter of time before Drau orders us to rendezvous with the rest of our forces and attack Marangor."

"Shouldn't be too long from now." Taana agreed. "So don't too comfortable."

"We won't, my Lady." Lakyus assured her. "But since we're stuck here for the moment, should we try and raise some units from among the newly liberated locals? They wouldn't be up to our usual standards but they'll add to our numbers if nothing else."

"We don't need more cannon fodder." Kelart said with a dismissive sniff.

"Exactly, we have Skeletons for that."

"I agree with Gaul, Lakyus. But if you want your men to do something useful while we await further orders then I give you the authority to have them help train the local militia."

"Local militia?" Gaul said with a dismissive snort. "Those fools aren't good enough to even be considered that."

"Maybe not by our standards, Gaul." Taana told him with a roll of her eyes. "But they're good enough. Besides, letting the locals bear arms is more a tool to raise their morale and trust in us than actually expecting them to add to our military capability. Or did you forget what Drau said about the matter?"

"Morale? Trust?" Gaul scoffed. "This is why working with undead is so much easier. You don't have to deal with that kind of thing with most of them."

Taana just shrugged. "Well, the locals are not undead. So we just have to deal with what we've got."

Gaul just grunted in irritation and Taana just chuckled. He never changed.

"Alright, that's it for now I think." She told the three Momons. "So dismissed."

The three women offered them a salute and left the room.

"So how long do you think this war will last?" Taana asked, a short while after the three Momons had left.

"Not very long. Why?"

"I just miss adventuring you know?" Taana said wistfully. "I know what we're doing is important and leading armies is fun in its own way but I miss just the six of us blasting our way through a slaver settlement."

"We'll get back to that once we're done with Skelkor." Gaul reminded her. "Drau promised."

Taana nodded.

"I hope that's soon."

Gaul's whispered reply was too soft for her to really make out, but she thought it might have been something along the lines of "Me too" and that brought a bright smile to Taana's face.


Done!

As always I hoped everyone enjoyed the chapter.

Some of you might be wondering why I included that Codel scene. Well, it's to get across a few ideas. Firstly, it is to give a better idea of what slavery under Skelkor can be. Secondly, I wanted to show the consequences of the protagonists' close cooperation with undead particularly the distrust this engenders in others. Lastly, to show that not everyone is happy when they're liberated even if their lives are made objectively better.

So I have no idea if the casualties figures for the civilians are appropriate. I tried to do some research on some realistic estimates for losses when a city was sacked in the medieval period, but couldn't get anything. As such, I just winged it and gave a number. If it's too low then chalk it up to the Felmidian trained troops having excellent discipline and overwhelming strength. If it's too high than it's because of Kemmicriam's excessive use of living shields.

That's all to discuss this chapter. So till next time, bayartai!