The Army of Catarina was an inspiring sight. A mass of warriors in White heavy armor, more than capable of standing up to armies of the living. But their enemy was something else entirely.
Now, the Enemy was advancing on them, and within a day or two they would be baring down upon the Army of Catarina, or what remained of it at least. Catarina had fought them in battle after battle, but the Army of the Undead pushing against them was nearly unkillable. For every one they killed more would rise, or they would get back up and stab the enemy in the back as they turned to fight more.
It was becoming hopeless, and the normally cheerful and calm attitude of the Catarina Knights was replaced by one of sorrow and desperation. The Onion knights were the only thing keeping the thronging mass of the undead from swarming outwards and destroying the kingdom and her people, but they had been pushed to the breaking limit.
They could not keep this on for long, but the Kaiser, who sat on his throne while his warriors fought, had refused to ask for help from the Profaned Capital, the only nation with an army that could reach them in time to ward off their hated enemies.
Things could not look worse for Jovial Catarina.
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Yhorm stood at the head of his army, while they continued marching, upon a hill top looking down at the lands before him.
They were at the border to Catarina. Wilhelm stood at Yhorm's feet while Siegwald, in much lighter armor then his father stood to the side.
"We are at Catarina. Where is this army of the dead you speak of?" Yhorm said as he looked down at Wilhelm.
Wilhelm began to scan the Horizon until he spotted it. "There." he exclaimed pointing at a large black flame in the distance. It was larger than any forest fire Yhorm had seen.
The flame gave off no smoke as it devoured more and more land.
"The fire burst into being when the tombs had been uncovered, and is slowly spreading. The Army of the dead emerged from the fire and marched against Catarina, massacring everything they saw. The Knights met them on the battlefield and bought the people who lived in the area time to evacuate, but I fear that the Knights are coming close to being overwhelmed. That is why I abandoned ranks and went to ask for aide from you."
"Very well then Whilhelm. Where were the knights when you last saw them?" Yhorm asked.
"I will lead you to them." Wilhelm said as he began to walk ahead. Yhorm signaled his men to follow and they did so.
Siegwald gulped. This was going to be a hard time for everyone.
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The Knights of Catarina stood ready, a sea of white standing side by side, each wielding a Zweihander, pierce shields raised. At the front of the army stood Albert. Head of the Knightly Order and leader of the Catarina military. He stood on a small hill looking at the enemy he now faced. He wore no Helmet, allowing the world to see his face, devoid of the joy that so infected the Catarina knights.
A horde of Skeletons in varying amounts of dismemberment, stood against them. Wielding Scimitars and Falchions. They formed a massive unruly horde of Skeleton warriors. In the center of the Enemy army stood skeletons that stood taller than any member of the Knights, They took on a role of much more orderly soldiers, wielding massive two handed blades, shields, scimitars, and throwing daggers. Those were the real threats to the Catarina army as each one of them could take on three knights at once and still come out on top.
Before the Undead army stood a vanguard of Skeletons that were seemingly built into wheels. They always served as some form of Calvary for the Skeleton horde, as they would slam into Catarina's knights with the force of a charging lancer.
Any second now the Undead horde would charge.
Suddenly the sound of the Skeleton's hisses and moans, alongside the rattling they made whenever they moves, was drowned out by the sound of Marching feet, alongside the occasional sound of heavy stomping.
Albert turned to the sound to see an army of Knights, clad in brass armor and wielding greatshields and Halberds. At the front of the Army stood a Catarina Knight, and his son, but towering above all of them, stood a Giant figure.
Clad in chainmail armor, with a crown upon his head, stood Yhorm the Giant, wielding a Machete and greatshield.
The Knights of Catarina cheered, and Albert could not help but smile.
The Marching Profound knights took up ranks next to the Catarina Knights, with Yhorm at their head. They lowered their Halberds and Raised their shields in a kind of Phalanx shield wall.
Wilhelm and Siegwald walked up to Albert.
"For a Deserter, you sure do know how to make a flashy entrance." Albert said with a smile.
"I'm sorry my Friend, I just wanted to go and secure us some Drinking mates for our Victory toast!" Wilhelm said raising his sword.
Albert laughed at this before he turned to his men, who were now much more hopeful about the outcome of this battle.
"Now then men! Let us send this Skeleton bastards back to their graves!" Albert said raising his Zweihander into the air.
Yhorm heard the speech before looking down to his Lieutenant. "I want you to lead your men into battle and help the Catarina Knights as much as you can. I do not need you to stay back and defend the city this time. Fight side by side with the Knights."
The Lieutenant nodded.
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Albert was about to Order a Charge when Yhorm the Giant surged forwards, holding his shield in front of him. He crossed the battle field in but a few steps and jumped into the air before bringing his Machete down into the center of the Wheel skeleton horde, flinging them around like rag dolls.
Bones started to rain down in the field between the two armies.
Siegwald was quiet for a second. "Looks like the rumors were true." he said.
The Profaned army immediately sprang into action at that and charged, their halberds in front of them, intending to spear their enemies with them like lances.
Albert quickly turned. "Come on then Lads! You want the Army of the Profaned Capital to have all the fun? Let's get stuck in men! CHARGE!"
The Catarina Knights cheered their approval and charged quickly catching up to the Profaned knights.
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Yhorm was now wading through the enemy towards the central army of giant Skeletons who were similarly trying to wade through their skeleton allies to get into combat.
With each step of his massive leg's he smashed a dozen skeletons into dust. He had heard from Wilhelm that the hordes seemed unending, but nothing was infinitine, and if he kept doing his massive, crushing attacks into the tightly packed enemy army, he could easily defeat them.
He looked back to see the Catarina knights and the Profaned knights fighting side by side against the Skeleton army. The Profaned armies shield walls and Halberds keeping the Skeletons at a distance allowing them to strike them without to much harm to themselves while the Catarina knights large wide swinging attacks striking down half a dozen skeletons per swing.
Yhorm smiled to himself, before he felt soft tapping on his armor. He looked down to see Skeletons trying to wound him with their swords, but failing miserably.
With a slight chuckle he raised on of his feet into the air before stomping it down sending a large group of skeleton's flying. Another hail of bones rained down on the battlefield before he was suddenly hit in the face with a fire ball of black fire.
He screamed out in pain before stumbling back slightly.
This gave minor pause to the Profaned knight's who had never heard their lord in pain before.
Yhorm looked to see where it had come from. In the center of the Giant Skeleton lines was a circle of Skeletons, covered in black fire. He saw them pool their power into one massive black fire ball in the center of their circle.
The fireball raised into the air and was propelled towards Yhorm but he raised his shield this time and blocked it easily.
'How can these mindless creatures use Pyromancy anyway?'
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Yhorm's Lieutenant, Hadrian, found himself staring down a skeleton that held in it's hand some kind of urn.
When the Skeleton threw it he instinctively held up his shield. The Urn struck his shield and a mass of black flame and black bolts emerged. All of them struck his shield at once and the Iron Greatshield, emblazoned by the same image as the on Yhorm's shield was burned to crisp and all but the hilt melted.
Hadrian took a step back and threw the hilt at the skeleton that used the urn against him. The hilt struck the Skeleton in the face and the head was sent flying from the body.
This gave Hadrian a chance to charge forward and, with a mighty thrust, he stabbed the point on his Halberd clear through the creature's spine. The body colapsed to the ground before he jumped back.
These vermin while hard to successfully put down, they did not put up much of a fight.
Hadrian grabbed his halberd with two hands and looked to the side to see a skeleton sneaking up on Siegwald who, did not have the armor of his fellow Catarina knights.
Hadrian chaged forwards and bashed the skeleton in the head with the pommel of his halberd smashing it into fragments, then brought his halberd into the air and brought it down in an attempt to Bisect the creature.
His halberd got about halfway down his spin before it stopped and he ripped it out. He turned to see Wilhelm slice several skeletons in half from the waste down.
"I was never told that these beasts could use magic." Hadrian said blocking a strike from a Scimitar wielding skeleton.
"Trust me, this is the first time we have seen this as well." Albert said before doing a large upwards strike which sent a skeleton into the sky, who shattered upon hitting the ground.
"I have seen nothing like the Pyromancies they are casting." Wilhelm grunted as he picked up a skeleton by the skull and smashed it into the ground.
"Let us just hope that Yhorm can stop their ritual circle before those ones do any major damage. I would not want to see what one of their fireballs can do to our soldiers." Hadrian said before thrusting his Halberd tip into a skeleton's skull.
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Yhorm looked to the ring of Black Pyromancers. He needed to kill those things quickly and put an end to these black fires. He began to charge through the regular skeleton ranks, his machete to the side and then smashed it into the ground in a vertical slash. He had intentionally done it to clear a path through the larger skeletons.
He pulled himself up and prepared to destroy the pyromancers but he was stopped when they cast a spell which created large grasping tendrils of black fire which started to grab at him.
One grabbed him around the wrist and he felt pain and darkness shoot through his entire body.
He roared in defiance and, seeing as how he could not use his Machete hand, threw his great shield towards the ritual circle.
The great shield struck the ritual circle right in the center and cleaved several pyromancer skeletons clean in have. The ritual became unstable and the Tendrils started to dissipate before the ritual circle exploded.
The Skeleton army was seemingly shattered as bones began to rain down for the third time during the battle.
Yhorm was thrown back by the explosion and landed on his back near the front lines where the Profaned and Catarina knights were still fighting small left overs of the Skeletons.
However, the knights knew they had won and cheered, that was until they were interrupted by a blood curdling scream as well as rumbling as a massive black circle appeared where the ritual had once been.
Suddenly a massive skeletal arm emerged from the circle, then another both wearing 2 golden bracelets. That was when the head emerged. Wearing a crown, alongside a cape that was secured to the body by a mass of skulls, a skull emerged.
The Giant skeleton pulled himself up, standing upon two legs. The beast was a head of two taller then Yhorm at his full height.