Inside a large room with walls and curtains gilded with patterns of dragons, a girl looking no more than ten years old sits in a throne. She held a cup of wine in one hand and messaged her temples with the other.
"How many did we lose, Prime Minister?"
A man in his 40's stood to the side, holding a bottle of wine.
"Less than half made it out. The first border city was surrounded before anyone could leave. Now reinforcements can't get in and civilians can't get out. I can only imagine what could be happening inside the city right now. Scouts say they could see the sky in its direction being lit up by fire at night."
Queen Draudillon resumed drinking, not saying a word.
"No one was prepared for the beastmen to do something like this. The border city was meant to be a safe heaven, not a slaughter pit. The towns nearby were not much better. They assumed only the frontier villages would be targeted. They evacuated with nothing, only because traveling merchants who were on their way to the city ran back with the beastmen hot on their tails."
"How could this happen? I thought we had the support of the Slane Theocracy. There are also those adventurers."
"It is because of our over-dependence on the Slane Theocracy, that we failed to develop an efficient early warning system and evacuation plan. Those retired scripture members are good at what they do. But when an entire army rolls over the border, not just raiding parties, they turned tail and run. It goes without saying that adventurers cannot stop an army either. They engaged the beastmen here and there, using hit-and-run tactics, buying time for civilians to escape, or entering skirmishes while our army moved into position. The best performing team was Crystal Tear. They actually drove the beastmen back in some places, saving many lives."
"You don't have to praise that team so much in front of me." Draudillon groaned.
"They may be the best hope our kingdom has at the moment. Their team leader, Cerebrate, is a skilled warrior rivaling Gazef. As long as you act like a cute innocent child, he will throw himself and his team at the beastmen. He doesn't even need a big monetary reward."
"Speaking of rewards," says Draudillon trying to get rid of the goosebumps on her skin. "Have you sent the message to the Slane Theocracy? I want to get some real help this time. We have to open the kingdom's coffers, while there is still a kingdom left."
"Yes, my queen. A sizeable amount of reward has been included in the letter. It all depends on whom they send, and how fast they send them. I'm sure they are concerned with the amount of human casualties growing each day."
"Don't make me laugh, Prime Minister." Draudillon says with a wave. "They only care about spreading their influence. If they really cared about human lives, they would have stationed a military force on the border with the beastmen. Only their Gods matter to them. The retire scripture members talk about them with more respect than the actual monarch who pays for their comfortable lives here."
"They have always been in reverence of their Gods. I'm sure they meant no disrespect toward-"
"Save it, Prime Minister! I have seen the looks in their eyes. To them, I'm no better than a feral animal. I'm not sure which is worse. Their looks of contempt, or Cerebrate's lecherous gaze. But I must not be thinking about these trivial things right now when my people are being eaten. Have the appreciation letters sent to the frontlines. I need to take some time to clear my mind." Queen Draudillon got up to leave.
"At once, my queen. Also, did you write them with the childish handwriting I asked you to?"
"Yes. I can't believe there are so many lolicons in the army as well."
"That's not the case. The soldiers will fight harder if they read the words of a…"
The Queen was already gone.
"Fall back! Fall back and regroup! Get help from the garrison! Get the adventurers too! The city is at risk!"
Ariel hovered high above in the night sky. She observed with her advanced senses as the graveyard guards are overwhelmed. Skeletons climbed on top of one another to get over the walls. A giant undead monster made of countless bones smashed its fat arms at the defenders. Some unlucky guards who misjudged the reach and speed of the attacks got smashed into bloody pulps, then got absorbed into the monster.
"It's more entertaining than the zombie movies." Said Ariel to herself.
This is the first time she has seen war or something like it in real life. When you are not in danger, and no one you care about is among the ones being killed, one can relax and enjoy the show, at least for her. There is something intoxicating about violence. Modern humans still seek it out, whether it is from actions movies, or professional fighting sports.
'Yes, let the blood flow. Don't you have families back in the city you have to protect? Fight harder. Show me what you can do as your weak mortal selves.'
The gates finally broke down from the sheer number of invaders pushing and smashing against them. Skeletons stepped on their own to flood into the streets through the breach. They lumbered around, seeking the nearest life force to snuff out. It was a total route for the guards. They ran away from the lost cause like death was on their tails, which it is.
'If there are some guards still competent enough to get help from the adventurer's guild, that would mean more people witnessing my deeds. The garrison will definitely come. They are mostly on this side of the city to guard it against the Empire.' Ariel flew to follow the bulk of the undead force, searching for an audience.
"What is happening? Is the city under attack?" Gazef stepped out of the barracks while putting on his gear. Soldiers are running around donning armor and grabbing weapons in the outer ring section of E-Rantel.
"No sir. I mean yes sir…. It's not the Empire, it's the undead, sir!"
"The what?"
"They are coming from the graveyard. Thousands of them! Guards came here requesting help. They are going to overrun the city!"
Gazef looked around and grabbed a mace and shield. Then he mounted a horse and rallied the men to follow him.
"Has the adventurer's guild been notified? We need every fighting man and woman available."
"They should have been, sir. But it might take a while for them to come. The guild is on the north side of the city, and it is nighttime." A guard ran beside Gazef. He was one of the graveyard guards who came running. He was holding a spear he grabbed from the armory. His own weapon abandoned when he ran away.
"May the King protect me, I cannot lose these men, not again."
"What was that sir?"
"Nothing! Pick up the pace, double time! We must intercept the horde before they swarm the population centers!"
In the city, chaos spread. The city bell was already rung, but the civilians went back inside when they didn't see a great inferno engulfing the buildings. It would not be normal for the Empire to attack E-Rantel. They always fought the Kingdom at the same place, at the same time every year. The invaders would also be unable to see at night to coordinate their troops and calibrate siege engines. Only when the sounds of fighting and screaming got close, did people sense something was really wrong. By then, death was at their doorsteps. People fought desperately in the dark. Not many can afford magical lantern or be bothered to light a torch. They dropped or threw their candles when they were startled by skulls materializing out of darkness with the clacking sounds of bones.
"AHH! Help me! Somebody please help-rrrrr"
Many defenseless were slaughtered. Some barred their doors with furniture, only delaying their deaths. The undead can sense life anywhere. Bony fingers clawed and tore flesh. Jaws pulled apart tendons. Limbs were broken, necks strangled, intestines dug out. Some houses caught on fire in the chaos, illuminating the gory scene. People ran toward the nearest gate, trying to get to the merchant district. Most of them were laborers and craftsmen, some with families living in the outer section of E-Rantel.
"Civilians move this way! We can't distract them for long!"
Several teams of adventurers arrived and began engaging the undead immediately. They had good teamwork, killing weak skeletons left and right, but there are too many enemies. If they are not careful, they could be surrounded. They were fighting a retreating battle, rescuing anyone alive they could on the way.
"Help! Here! I can't move, my leg."
"Get him up! We are leaving this place! Get to the gates before they close. We Don't want to be here all alone."
"Here, let me help. [Heal]." The man's half-torn leg grew whole in a dim green light.
"Where are your teammates? We should not leave anyone behind!"
"I don't have a team."
A small girl in a cloak turned and ran towards the undead horde then stopped.
"What are you-"
"[Turn Undead]!" A bright white light engulfed a large clump of skeletons, turning them into ashes. The ones just outside of the kill zone turned around and fled, running into their own kind behind them.
"[Turn Undead]! [Turn Undead]! [Turn Undead]!"
The skeletons were like refuse before a vacuum cleaner. Many adventurers nearby were wondering how someone can use [Turn Undead] this many times in one day. A large clearing covered with ashes formed around the living. More skeletons are advancing from a distance.
"You all should get to the gate. I still need to do something."
The girl flew up into the air and held up her hands palms up. On one hand, holy energy rose like a ball of glowing fog. On the other hand, a normal flame rose. Both started to deform and stretch toward the middle, swirling around each other slowly like they were stars caught by a black hole. Then they spun quickly in a spiral, and a white flame shot out towards the undead horde, vaporizing a wide streak of them. The undead near the edges of the destruction caught on white fire, spreading it among their comrades. Strangely, the fire did not catch on the nearby buildings.
This was Ariel's priest job class and fire elemental job class working in tandem. By combining holy and fire elements, she created [Holy Fire]. They are not hotter than regular fire magic, but does both fire and holy damage against undead without resistance. In addition, because of Ariel's high karma value in her character build, undead and evil-aligned targets take even more damage than that.
Ariel continues to shoot out streams of holy fire from either hand, sweeping the undead horde left and right. The spell left streaks of white fire for a while, preventing skeletons from advancing. Some of them got pushed into the walls of fire by the advancing skeletons in the back. Ariel shifted her position, cleaning skeletons street by street. The damage was so sudden that the skeletons burst into chunks before disintegrating into dust. For very large concentrations of undead, Ariel shot holy fireballs that blew up in huge waves of purifying flame. She moved quicker now, saturation bombing the undead horde. The smoke and clouds in the sky got lit up by long bursts of white light, making the ground below looking like it was daytime.
"What is that? Is it raining fire?"
A feminine-looking teenage boy holding a staff asked his partners.
"Who knows? But it sure saved us. We are all about to collapse, and you are out of mana, right?" Says a thin blonde man armed with a sword. His longbow abandoned a while ago after running out of arrows. Ninya looked away towards the fighting in the distance again. "I wonder what tier of magic that is." 'And could I do that one day?'
A small silhouette could be seen in the sky every time it lit up. People watched from time to time as they pushed back the undead. Lizzie followed behind some of the adventurers, helping them in the fight with her magic and aiding the wounded using her medical knowledge. As the fighting died down in the distance, a figure dropped from the sky, decelerating just before hitting the ground, and landed on her feet.
"Hey, Lizzie! Did you find Nfirea?" Ariel removed her hood.
"You are… Ariel? No, not yet. All the adventurers are helping to defend the city for now. I decided to help instead of searching on my own. Nfirea could be somewhere inside the city. I don't want the undead to get in. How is Nemu? What are you doing here?"
"Nemu is probably asleep in my room. I was fighting the undead from above. I sensed a great force of evil from this direction when you left, kinda like smelling burnt air before you see a forest fire." The latter part is true. Ariel really did sense a lot of undead. She figured this must be where the graveyard is, towards the direction of Katze Plains so the dead could be buried quickly after every war.
"That was you? You really are a talented magic caster, if what Nemu claims is true."
"Thanks for the compliment. But I must be going now. More of them are heading this way." Ariel cast [Fly] and headed towards the graveyard again.
'I'm getting really far from the onlookers. How would they see me fight? All they can see from that distance is skeletons getting firebombed.'
"[Summon: Holy Pegasus]."
A pure white horse with a white pointy horn on its head, rose out of a nova of white light, spreading its white wings as it completed its entry into this world. It emitted a holy aura, lighting up the immediate area around it and protecting nearby allies against negative auras. Ariel mounted the creature, stroking its neck, feeling the smooth silky hair.
'There. This should allow people to see me better. I also don't have to use [Fly] anymore.'
In the distance, Gazef and the Re-Estize soldiers was cleaning up the undead in a different part of the garrison district. They see something bright in the sky, blowing up the undead coming out of the graveyard.
'Is that holy beast summoned by the Slane Theocracy? No, can't be them. This would be another opportunity to take me out. If they are here, they should know I'm still alive. Wait, someone is riding on it.'
Ariel mentally ordered the summon to get closer to the graveyard. The beast obeyed, flapping its large wings in a majestic way. Its hooves kicking, running in the air, making a busy galloping sound.
'Wait, why are you doing that? You have wings, just use those! Stop running in the air and making that sound! This is so cringy. What am I, some fucking magical girl?' Ariel only summoned this creature once in-game, to look at its stats. This is the first time she rode it.
The soldiers and adventurers on the ground rose their weapons into the air. They gave their heartfelt cheers for the savior of their city. If not for her, they all would have died, and the civilians behind the second wall would've been next.
'STOP CHEERING! This is so embarrassing. At least I'm not a guy. That would have been so much worse. Can't you go any faster? I hope you don't fart rainbows too.'
The flow of undead from the graveyard slowed to a trickle. Ariel could feel their presence diminishing, but there is something else coming. Something bigger, more powerful in the air.
A skeletal dragon howled, charging at the priestess. She sharply dived, then zipped up behind her target as it passed overhead. She halted her mount, turned her upper body and fired off a flame missile at the skeletal dragon. It was also imbued with holy element. Unlike a fireball, which does more area damage, a flame missile is faster and deals more individual damage. It blew up in the skeletal dragon's back side, destroying its tail. The skeletal dragon flopped around a little, then dropped to the ground.
'So you can't fly properly without your tail, eh? How do creatures with wings and no tail fly anyway? They wouldn't be able to steer.'
The skeleton dragon was healed by a ray of negative energy. It got back into the air, as another one burst through the ground behind Ariel. The people on the ground felt sweat in their palms. Two skeleton dragons would be a tough fight, even for someone who managed to damage one somehow. They felt they were about to see the demise of someone rivaling the heroes of legends, before they learn her name.
Ariel moved swiftly in the air, dodging attacks from the two giant monsters, who could only be seen clearly when they came into the range of the Pegasus's holy aura. It was like looking at two legendary monsters trying to bring down an angel in the air. After a few bouts, Ariel gained altitude and got further from the skeletal dragons. They were struggling to reach her height.
'At least it doesn't make that galloping sound when it's zipping around. This world knows about [Magic Arrow], but do they know [Magic Missile]?"
She rose both palms up beside her. Yellow magic circle with white magic ring appeared above each hand. Golden missiles surrounded by white light shot out in arcs like flares toward the sky, then changed directions to home in on the skeletal dragons. They blew up all over the skeletal dragons in bursts of blinding holy light, turning their targets into useless bone shards and then ashes. Ariel flew down towards the main structure of the graveyard, firing off a few holy fire beams, clearing the landing zone. She dismounted, leaving the Pegasus to guard the entrance.
Inside, she found Nfirea in an almost see-through ritual outfit. Khajiit and Clementine escaped. She wasn't worried. A tracker spell was placed on them both when she first encountered them. It was a useful spell when she was hunting and farming monsters in the game.
'Am I attracted to males now that I'm a girl?'
Ariel could really see everything as she got closer. Nfirea doesn't have a muscular body. He would not be considered physically attractive in a warrior society. But he does have a face that might be popular with girls in the modern world. Ariel put her hands on Nfirea's face, feeling his gentle jawlines and soft skin.
'Yes, I wouldn't mind being close to someone looking like this. I was sometimes impressed by the physique of some male porn actors in a totally non-homo way, but I wasn't sure if I wanted someone like them to be close to me and touching me after I turned into a girl.'
She pressed her hands on Nfirea's face more firmly, looked at his near-naked body once more. Then with a sudden movement, Ariel snapped his neck.