Chapter 6: The Storm

Unnatural mist had surrounded the castle, Christoff had been aware slightly of what had been happening. Some undead have made their way to the Castle, but they had seemed rather organized which perplexed him. The mist made it so he could not see a single thing, though he didn't need to see what was going on to know how bad it had been.

The ground shook as a ball of fire hit the wall, magic had been used and only magic. Any ground forces the opposing force had possessed had not advanced.

For one hour a hail of unprecedented magic had been fired off, seemingly acting as if it were shelling the area. Suddenly it came to an end, as if a switch had been flicked off.

Christoff had flipped a switch of his own, he removed a magic item that he had gotten from a dungeon which acted as a noise suppression system. He never thought it would come in handy, until it did. Even with the item, he still felt deaf, almost as if his ear drums had been blown out. But, he could hear himself moving. Hearing the scrape of his plate armor against a wall as he was hugging it, moving to open a door.

Nate was also outside, with a few others.

"Look alive." He said. The dust caked helmets of everyone present had watched him

As he heard others talking, he assumed everyone could hear him and repeated again

"Look alive, we all know what is coming next."

Christoff pushed some rubble out of his way as he made his way down a narrow defile to the front of the casemate. Of course not a modern casemate, but it is the best way to describe how this had been set up. His mind had still been adjusting after the hour of constant bombardment. His magic item had generated white noise that could withstand extremely loud noises so the stillness that he now found himself in he had found to be unnatural.

It had been impossible to maintain any vigil on the outwork due to the magic users that had been present. The constant bombardments had been too intense. The Lich had focused all of its wrath on the entirety of the outworks that had been there.

The casualties had been pretty high especially with their limited numbers, they had lost 5 of the original 50 with another 3 wounded. Bringing the combat ready forces down to only 42 soldiers.

Christoff, the former Mithril Adventurer and Royal Army Soldier had recognised this was only the prelude to what was going to happen.

He stepped onto the silence of the first wall, brown dust had filled the air making it seem like the section of wall he was standing on was the only piece of this world left. He already expected the worst, but what he saw was no match to what he witnessed.

The front edge and parapet of the bulwark looked as though it had been gnawed away by a ravenous giant: ashlar blocks split and bitten through, the parapet entirely blown out in many places, Most of the wall turrets, the ballistas and their only catapult had been a pile of debris.

'Assemble." He called out to those who were standing and they all began to clamber around him."Nate, get the survivors back into position."

"Will do."

"How exactly do we hold this?" Glenys had asked, he white hair peppered with dust. She raised an eyebrow at the man

"I doubt we do." replied Christoff.

"Agreed." Said The baroness as she moved along the shattered wall to join them, Christoff threw the Baroness a quick nod and the others did the same. Her men joined her. "No ceremony this time." Satarine said to her men and she was right, they had no time to waste.

She stood beside Christoff, gazing out into the eerie haze of dust. Christoff noted how stiffly the woman had been moving. The wounds she sustained had been present, but regardless she shrugged it off and was not even close to being healed.

"Sudden cessation." Christoff had remarked "Do they think we are broken?"

"They aren't far from the truth." Glenys had muttered.

"From what we have gathered, he works on percentages." Replied Satarine. "One hour of shelling, whatever amount of damage inflicted and the mana expended. They get us on our knees and then round two begins."

They called him "he" but they were referring to the Lich that had been with this contingent of undead. This Lich had appeared to be the instrument of execution while the Sorcerer King had been off doing whatever he does best.

"He knows then that we are softened then?" Christoff asked

"He knows it for a fact, Christoff." Satarine had stated "The wall is in shambles and the outworks are completely ruined. Now it is a game of waiting to see what he pushes up, and decide what to do from there."

Non Viable, is what Satarine thought this wall was. Even staying here and trying to defend this castle in the slightest was considered to be non viable. With the few remaining ballistas, they could carve a hole in some of the forces that stood beyond but to what extent would that work? If they had Death Knight's with them, nothing they do would matter.

"If we pull out of the castle entirely, we are exposing ourselves to an even more harsh counter attack.: Christoff said, tugging slightly on the red scarf wrapped around his helmet.

"I am aware, Christoff." said Satarine "This wall and even our outworks are completely hammered."

This Castle had formerly been used by the Royal Army just days prior, back when the Royal Army was still a thing. This Castle was never a bastion however, it was clearly just meant as an outpost that could hold out on its own. It was part of an outer ring of castles, the initial circle of defense as one tried to approach the capital. Sure, the new occupants did what they could to fortify it but none of them had the experience to fully do so , so the improvements were rudimentary at best.

Christoff had understood why they were being attacked. Every situation he had run in his mind or talked over with Nate had ended with this place being attacked. With the Kingdom gone, these pockets of resistance were the only things keeping the Sorcerer King from completely ruling over the land and they likely wanted them gone.

They were debating whether the next attack would come from the sky in the form of some monstrosity they had never seen before. But that was unlikely.

"The next attack will likely come from the ground again." Christoff said.

Any time they spent retreating had been dwindled now, orders rang out across the wall as people were manning the remaining ballista turrets or picking up bows just to be able to attack the hostile forces at range.

Assault lines were approaching through the dust, hundreds of infantry. Most were skeletons but some still had rotting flesh on their bodies.

The first wave came first, charging.

"Line up." Satarine had commanded. She had been essentially given command over the defense due to her experience, she knew better than Christoff or Nate when it came to siege defense.

The sounds of shields clattering as they found a home in what was left on the parapets to add to the defense had echoed. Arrows had been loaded into the bows. The Ballista crews loaded a bolt, traversing to where it had needed to go. Any support they would have was non-existent, this was it.

Christoff raised his telescope, being able to see the charging horde in a zoom. Undead from all walks of life and battles gone by coming towards them, some were like Trolls. The Trolls had spittle flying from their large, braying mouths. More undead, they appeared to be villagers from one of the many villages that had been massacred. Among them were Red Skeleton Warriors, moving more slowly and advancing inexorably. Even if these creatures did speak, he had no wish to hear them.

"Hold or withdraw, Satarine?" He asked There was still time or so he hoped to be able to make it out of this place.

"I am sick of this eerie silence, I think we will stay and send these undead back to their resting places." Satarine had replied

"Target!" Satarine had shouted. All along the walls, the sound of bows being drawn could be heard.

"What do you think, Christoff Thirty to one?"

"How admirably foolish to even give odds that high." He spoke under a sigh. "If I were to indulge in that, it would be in the negatives."

"Always a cheery fellow." Satarine replied, picking up her crossbow and aiming it at a mass of undead.

"That is all I have been told anymore." Christoff replied.

"Thirty Meters out." Satarine had said

Christoff had raised his glaive into the air once again and said [Thunderbolt] Shortly after, a streak of lightning crashed through the sky and hit the ground where a striding Troll had once been.

"For Ramposa!" Nate had called out

"And the Glory of Re-Estize!" Most of the defenders cried back, even Christoff had found himself indulging in it.

The undead kept getting closer and closer, eventually Satarine had commanded everyone to engage.

"Fire!"

The arrows rang out, one after another from the top of the wall and from the slits inside of the wall where the weaker of the group had gathered. The first impacts had been scored, almost every hit had been a killshot. The front of the charging tide had crumpled. Bodies broke mid-strike and toppled over, tripped over others. The undead warriors were falling, all had looked as it was going well. They continued to fall as the volleys continued to come down on them. The charging line hinged in on itself at its midsection, flank elements outstripping the pinched center.

Christoff had barked instructions, and his own flank units had cast wide. Broadening the fields of fire to destroy the outrunners. The Ballista turrets had begun to chatter to his left and right, unleashing their massive arrow into the charging horde. More undead rows buckled, with mud being kicked up into the air from the force of the arrow.

Arrow fire was coming back at them. Loose and wild, fired as if it was on the run. But it was heavy, almost as if it were being buffed by a unit down there. Arrows hammered at the wall faces, parapet lines and the shields. Then a few more accurate shots, shots from a second group of archers.

Some of the defenders had snapped back from the wall, heads were being blown off and chests blown out. Christoff raised his glaive again and cast his spell before, taking cover feeling his shield buckle under the fire they were receiving. Though the front ranks were mangled, the undead were still coming out of the dust. There were more of them than they could have imagined.

The undead had reached the walls, pouring between the shattered stone piers and cratered revements. A dazzling storm of crossfire had ripped between the rampart and the ground. At the command of Christoff, the defenders that were still alive had moved to defensive pairs. It was ironic almost, the only time he had shown a glimpse of his former self was when they were enwrapped with combat.

The defensive pairs consisted of one firing arrows down the wall and the other covering him with a shield the best he could, while also firing down into the mass when the situation had allowed him to do so. Bodies began to pile up at the foot of the wall, along with skeletons coming apart as if it were a movie.

Finally, the charge had broken or so it seemed. The Undead had fallen back, but it appeared as if they were staggering and disarrayed almost like they had a hard time comprehending the order the Lich had given them.

"At Least we have persuaded them from their stupidity." Christoff stated, letting out a deep breath. He looked at how many arrows remained and he did not have many left at all.

"No." Satarine had managed "That was a feint."

Three Death knights had strutted into view, emerging from the dust clouds. The retreating infantry had flooded around their crooked bodies. They were moving fast, behind the three another one had shown up in the middle. Though they are only about 7 feet tall, they appeared to the men and towering behemoths coming in through the dust.

It indeed was a feint. Throwing infantry at the wall to keep the soldiers in position, preventing them from falling back and then run the Death Knights in to burn them where they stood. That is how you wore down defenses, through bait and switch tactics that this Lich had just employed.

"A bad call from me." Satarine admitted

"Could of been wor-"

"Yes, it was." Satarine had snapped. She turned towards Christoff and said

"You and your party go and get out of here, prepare to retreat. We will hold the line, there is little use we can do now. E Nauru."

"E-Nauru? Why would I care about a damned coastal city?" Christoff questioned

"Because from what I heard of the guards, it still stands. Now go there if you want a chance at living. Get out of here!." Satarine snapped again.

Christoff had gathered up Nate, who in turn got Glenys and they had left while Satarine had been barking orders to her men on the wall. The advancing undead was a daunting sights, as they always had been. Even if that had been a Royal Army member at one point she stood shoulder to shoulder with, there would have been no way of knowing.

Any resemblance of a uniform had been gone, save for the black plate armor it wore. Feral crests and crudely daubed sigils covered the breast plate.

The Death knights looked sick and in a sense they were. The Death knights had stalked their ways to the wall in an unhurried calm, even as arrows bounced off of their armor. At first, they attempted to rush ahead but skittishly stayed back as if they were trying to keep a formation going.

As the Death Knights had reached the wall, a second volley of magic had been unleashed. Devastation ripped across the walls and even after. Death Knights toppled walls while Magic Casters did the rest. Entire sections of the wall collapsed, collapsing in an avalanche of masonry and dust. The bodies of the defenders who stayed back were tossed into the air.

"Hurry!" Christoff shouted to Glenys and Nate as a blast took him off his feet with grit and fame swirling around him for a moment.

As it passed, a strong arm pulled him to his feet. Nate had somehow avoided the blast.

"No, not here." He said, looking at Christoff's now cracked helmet.

Warhorns had boomed as they finally made it to the entrance to the underground, luckily there was a passage. Hopefully it had not been blocked off. The ground above them shook, causing dust and little pieces of rock to fall from the roof. Christoff had likened that debris to their hopes, falling down effortlessly from a greater whole.

"Once we were a part of a greater whole." He murmured to himself

"Hm?" Glenys looked towards him, as she heard him say something. But Christoff ignored her, his silence was the only answer she received from him. Letting out a deep breath she said

"Figured as much."

"This Detritus." Christoff said with a sigh, the ground had still been shaking and the torches somehow still were lit down below. "That Coastal City, I doubt it had survived." He regretted his honesty at once, for Nate gave a dismissive grunt, and Christoff felt himself suddenly at risk of being drawn into a conversation.

"This detritus is what we fight for," said Nate. The man had gestured with his gauntleted hand, forcing his plates to clank

"Those men and women," Nate continued. "They are what we fight for."

Christoff snorted, the sound wet and ugly. "I fight for the King."

Christoff was already back to his recently established normal self.

"We fight for the King's dream." Nate replied at once. "For the Kingdom of Re-Estize."

"Semantics. Without the King, His dream could never be realized. He alone can bring it to pass. No other." Christoff said

"Then you are both right," Glenys Replied, already sick of the arguing. .

You are deluded as well a crippled, thought Christoff in regards to Glenys, but opted to stay silent, Adding onto what he was going to say to Nate instead.

"It seems to me, Nate," he ventured, "that too many of the soldiers and even nobles thought like you and decided they were fighting for the Kingdom rather than the King. Perhaps if more of you thought that you were fighting for the king, we would not stand where we stand today, preparing for the end of all we know."

Nate fell blessedly silent.

Glenys finally focused on the man for the first time, taking in all matters of appearance. Her voice was calm as she spoke to Christoff. "Your war is over, Christoff. Win or lose, Ainz has damned us all. New world will share in his ignorance until the last man or woman draws the species' last breath. The Sorcerer King will forever be a cancer in the heart of all of this world. The Kingdom may have not yet fallen, Christoff. It will fall. The shining path is lost to us. Now we rage against the dying of the light."

They did not know the kingdom had officially fallen, that revelation would come soon.

"It cannot be this way." Christoff had stepped forward towards her, with his teeth clenched "It can not."

Glenys tilted her head "No? What then do you intend to do, Christoff? How will you, with your spear and your fury and your loyalty pull fate itself from its repeating path?"

"We will kill the Sorcerer King." Christoff stared at the elf, who clearly had enough of him, illuminated in the flickering flames of the torches that were around them.. "And after the war, we can begin anew. We can purge the undead. The people can rebuild all that was lost, even if it takes centuries. We will strike the Sorcerer King down and–"

"There is no reason to face the Sorcerer King, that is a death sentence waiting to happen." She spoke distracted once more by the thundering sounds from above. "But there will come another to take his place. I see that now. It is the way of things. The enemy will never abate. Another will come, one who will doubtless learn from his errors of faith and judgment"'

"Who, then Elf?"

Glenys shook her head. "There is no way to know. And for now it is meaningless. But remember it well – we are not the only ones learning from this conflict. Our enemies grow wiser, as well"'

Christoff had refused to concede. 'You are an adventurer. We will conquer any who come against us. After the war, we will rebuild under the guidance of the king."'

Glenys stared at him. He spoke a question that wasn't a question, one that brooked no answer.

"And what if the king is gone, Christoff?."

The warrior had no answer. Thunder peeled above them, shaking the cavern and jarring loose a rattling hail of falling pebble-dust.

"Well? What comes next?"

Glenys turned away, walking into the darkness of the cavern while the storm hammered the dead castle so far above.

"I don't know, but E-Nauru seems as if it would be a good start."

These words had hit Christoff hard, as it was essentially saying all hope was lost. Christoff had grown bitter over the years, surviving the Katze Plains massacre the first time and now seeing all this carnage unfold. This is his way of coping with what was happening and as a result he turned into this, he had a reality check though there is no telling if it will last.

The elves' words cut through him like butter, but he could already feel his same mentality coming back. The bitter man who is an empty shell and the man who was inflicted with a curse while adventuring.

"I curse you and your descendants to fall into madness."

Those words rang through Christoff's head at times, he had no idea when he would begin his fall to madness nor what to expect. The scary reality is that he may not even realize that he is falling to madness until it has overcome him completely. That could happen on either the eve of battle or something more traumatic, he truly did not know,

The trio ventured further into the cavern, silence fell upon them and on the surface. It was unlikely that they would be followed, seeing as the castle had been reduced to rubble. One more reminder that no one should cross the Sorcerer Kingdom.

"Hopefully this ends soon, I have always hated caverns." Nate stated.

"As do I, I never liked how damp they are, not to mention the insects that dwell within them." Glenys said.

Christoff bit his lip, he in a sense had just got put in his place and here they are bickering over such trivial things. Pathetic, truly pathetic.

"Spiders? Nate asked, humor in his voice "In that case, we probably crossed over quite a few of them."

"Eek!" The woman shrieked "Don't say that!."

Nate Laughed and so did Glenys, their laughter echoed throughout the cavern. They danced across the walls, as if they were forcing their way into the ears of Christoff.

Christoff managed to remain silent.

Finally they had managed to exit the cavern, when they made it back to the surface the sun was out once again. The sun was a hammer and it felt as if the surface of the ground had been an anvil. The wind was slow whipping across the land, the sky had been clear of clouds offering no shadows. Even the landscape looked as if it would offer no shade.

They managed to find shade about half a mile away, in the woods. It had gotten cooler. Nate had pulled out a map and pointed where he thought the group was.

"We are half a day away from The Coastal City."

Glenys nodded and Christoff stared at the map with an emotionless expression.

"Christoff, is there something troubling you?" Nate had asked

"Silence is also an answer, perhaps you have been blinded in that regard." He stated.

Glenys shook her head, she tried to get him to stop being rude. There was only so much that she could handle but in a sense she had gotten through to him. Perhaps there was hope after all for him to stop.

"Right." Nate replied, letting out a sigh "So, before we approach the city what do you want to do?" He asked looking towards Christoff

What to do? That was a dumb question, even these two should of been able to figure that out. Granted, they were hungry and sleep deprived at this point but the answer had been so obvious in Christoff's mind.

"I say we get something to eat and maybe get some sl-" Glenys said but was soon interrupted

"I do not remember him asking you, you have lasted the past two days without being properly fed or not receiving the adequate amount of sleep. You can last a few more hours.." Christoff spat "We do not need you acting like a hog feasting upon a corpse with our limited rations as it stands."

Glenys remained silent, her mouth had practically hung open from the wave of insults he threw her way. Usually when she or her friends were insulted, she would say something back as she did prior in the cavern but now the words had seemed to escape her.

"We obviously need to get eyes on the city." He stated "Once we get eyes on the situation, we can move from there. The story will go that we are a roving band of adventurers, if there are undead present with the living as it is in E-Rantel then we are from another nation."

His gaze shifts towards Glenys, who is still quite stunned at the words that came out of his mouth. The true shocker is the next words that come from his mouth.

"She will be a great asset if the latter is the case, if we keep the helmets on we can claim to be adventurers from Argland." Christoff finished, clearly still only seeing the woman as an object. This was part of his problem as a member of the Warrior Troop and a former Mithril Adventurer.

Christoff was hardly able to understand what it was to feel "Normal' As said before, he had spent a lot of time watching people he considered brothers dying.

Nate remained silent, he had no idea what to even say. His mouth was moving but words could not come out.

Christoff spoke once more, breaking the uncomfortable silence

"If there are no objections, then we are leaving."

EDITOR'S NOTE: I feel like I should explain a little bit about Christoff before he goes down as the number one hated character on FFN because he is quite literally an asshole.

Imagine a soldier who has been through a lot, essentially being purged of emotion? If anything he comes across as practical and sees the bigger picture. His attitude towards Glenys and Nate is natural given that Nate has different views and most people who thought like him has turned on them and taken half their friends with them while they abandoned the kingdom or turn coated

As for his reaction to the children running to them suddenly a few chapters back, that's an instinctive reaction likely from the constant war he had been entrapped in. No doubt he has been fighting undead and other horrors that would be coming in various forms and sizes. To him something the size of a child is still potentially a threat.

Another thing to consider is his professions and how many people would live and die in his lifetime? Countless. He has seen over 400 thousand of his comrades die, even more if you wish to add on the other deaths. He has likely become desensitized to the plight of regular warriors as they are often fleeting and fragile.

Could be argued that he's a bit of an asshole but he's a great warrior and tactician that's been through literally hell on earth in a battle with terrors beyond our imagining. The same can also be said about Nate and Glenys but another thing to keep in mind about those two, they are not cursed. Christoff's curse will be explained in the near future.

Don't worry though, character development is incoming for him.