A/N: I am honestly worried people missed the chapter I uploaded on Monday, so just mentioning it... I uploaded a chapter on Monday :P

~Chapter 33~

Every third building was damaged or in ruins as the undead warriors of Warmaker's Sanctuary kicked in doors or tore at walls to get at people hiding in their homes. The inhabitants of Sepermeru were no meek lambs waiting to be slaughtered, though. Almost every single one of them had been sent here as a slave and forced to comb the ruins for magical artifacts on behalf of the king of Stygia. They were tough as nail men and women who had fought plenty of monstrosities just to survive, as every single expedition would end with someone wounded or worse.

And even that paled when compared to the bands of roaming cannibals, slavers, and stranger things that stalked the sands looking to enslave, rape, kill or eat whoever they could. As such, the relic hunters of Sepermeru had not taken kindly to a horde of merely human-sized undead attacking their town and were even now resisting as best they could, though in a sadly unorganized manner. And that was all the difference because the undead are clearly a military force.

Skeletons wearing ancient, ash-tinted armors lead groups of ten or so warriors each, their gestures and wordless commands seemingly perfectly audible and followed by the monstrosities under their command, which was leading to massive casualties as they flanked, surrounded, and snuffed out the brave but individualistic defenders. The relic hunters may have had the strength, courage, and terrain advantage, but a the end of the day, they were individuals against an army.

Not Conan, though. The Cimmerian was a lion, and no matter how the silent legionnaires tried to play the wolf, Conan simply smashed through their shields before moving to a better position, the hard-earned experience of a life full of violence fully applied as the giant of a man dealing with entire groups of monsters at the time.

Unless you took into account their archers, that is.

Under the orders of their lieutenants, the undead kept trying to corner or lure Conan into the open so that their archers could pepper him with arrows. The barbarian, however, proved too experienced a combatant for that, continually smashing through their encircling ranks and taking every chance to move under awnings or flipping tables with a kick before going into alleys for extra cover. As such, he had picked up quite a trail of undead warriors as their officers grew increasingly frustrated with the wild man's cunning.

"Come and shatter, dickless filth!" - the barbarian roared in laughter as he smashed the Axe of the Lion on the nearest foe, placing so much power in the swing that the undead thing's guard made no difference as its now dented shield was shoved into its body like a hammer's blow, pulverizing its bones and breaking its spine, finally laying it to rest.

If only there weren't three dozen more trying to claim his head.

Yet even with Conan literally pulling the lion's share of the enemy after him, the town defenders were struggling, and enough bodies to fill a barn lay torn and bleeding on the streets as the silent legion continued its relentless advance, a solid shield wall at the front, supported by pikemen and archers that easily tore down the brave defenders whenever they tried to rush their lines.

Shirou Emiya ran into the town of the relic hunters, and once again witnessed hell. Aware of but unable to deviate his attention towards the torn bodies laying at the gate, he scanned the main street and found himself staring at a scene worse than that of any horror movie as groups of undead tore buildings and executed the wounded and the defenseless with the cold precision of trained soldiers.

There was nothing of the swarming or shambling he'd grown to expect from such a force, and if it wasn't for the fact some of the undead were missing armor pieces as a result of the defender's actions revealing the meatless bones beneath, he'd have thought he was witnessing an invasion by flesh and blood warriors. No, an slaughter.

He catapulted himself, lines of bright blue prana creating an afterimage that perfectly described his jump as he fell on top of a skeletal officer. His married blades, already in his hands before he reached the zenith of his jump, easily cut relieved the monster from its extended right arm and smashed unto the back of its heavy plate with so much strength to launch its wearer into the back of its own troops, breaking bones and crippling a number of legionaries during Shirou's opening move.

As one, the group turned towards him. The archers were right in front of him, trapped between him and their peers, and Shirou lost no time in beheading one that was too slow to pull back. There was no time to hesitate, and no reason to. These were not men, or even living creatures, so Shirou forcefully pushed down his doubts as he sunk into the machine-like mentality he needed to annihilate them. Thankfully, their officer had smashed into their ranks with enough force to take down another archer and two pikemen. Sadly, that still left Shirou facing three swordsmen, one pikeman, and the remaining archer on his own, and these were not the clumsy or delicate type of undead he had faced at random in the desert, confused or mindless remains moving through the magic of the bracelets. No, this was the Silent Legion, the eternal, deathless elite of the Giant Kings, and they had him within striking range.

"...!" - the remaining pikemen thrust its longspear, then pulled back, knowing its sword-and-shield peers would make room for him to retreat, missing Shirou by a wide margin, but forcing him away from the nearby alley.

The swordsmen moved in as one, rushing forth and creating a wall of steel between Shirou and the remaining archer and pikemen, with the archer immediately retreating to climb unto a low house, seeking the high ground to fire at Shirou over the heads of its peers.

The sound of clacking mandibles almost sounded like laughter as the heavily armored undead moved on him. Shirou found that any swing was met with a wall of steel, and the pikeman was ready to punish any attempt to disengage. It was thus fortunate that he wasn't alone, as Rin's finn shot tore the archer's head right off its torso before it could open fire on Shirou, quickly reversing the situation as now it was the skeletons who needed to get past Shirou in order to get at his ranged support.

To their credit, they tried. The shield-bearing swordsmen(1) tried to box in Shirou while their pikemen charged at Rin, but giving the magus a clean shot proved to be a terrible idea as she proceeded to blow a hole in the side of a melon into its chest plate, breaking its charge and causing it to stagger, and an immobile target was a finished target, as more shots quickly disassembled the thing, leaving Rin free to finally save a cornered Shirou.

As one swordsman thrust, another swung, and the last blocked, creating the impression of a well-oiled six-armed machine coming at him, but freed from the pressure of the pikemen and the archer, Shirou sliced a wrist clean off, pummeled a shield out of the way, and kicked the last standing skeleton to the ground before dashing backward, having realized that Rin had the right idea.

"Trace, on."

The black bow appeared in his hands, creaking as Shirou pulled on its string, loading it with a nameless sword made into a straight, solid arrow, then sung upon release, its projectile nailing a swordsman to the wall behind it, then quickly followed by more as Shirou accurately and viciously dismantled the legionaries.

"I can't believe you had so much trouble with mere skeletons... is what I'd like to say, but these aren't mere constructs." - said Rin as she reached him.

"I noticed. One at a time, I'd still win in a couple of moments, but..." - he didn't need to explain further, as already another group poured out from a house and organized before charging at them.

Rin reinforced her arm, drew from the bracelet a crystal the size of her head and threw it at them. It shattered into prana-charged shards over them, each shard promptly detonating and leaving a crater on the street. Now every legionnaire that wasn't already engaged in a fight began heading for them.

"Alright." - Rin reached into the bracelet to draw another prana bomb crystal.- "They may be smart and strong, but they're still on a heavy plate. Don't let them get to you."

"Got it."

Thus began a game of cat and mouse as the undead legionaries chased after them while their archers did their best to turn them into pincushions. Rin had just taken out another squad that had the poor idea of chasing her into a small home just for her to leave behind a prana bomb after jumping out a window when a pikeman successfully impaled her through the hip and into the ground.

She was about to shower the thing with a spray of Gandr shots when Razma smashed its head off its shoulders with a solid whack of her one-handed mace.- "Well shit, can you heal that, or should I put you out of your misery?" - the Shemite princess asked, not without kindness in her tone.

"It'll take a minute... just... pull it off first...!" - replied the ravenette

"You don't have a minute."(2) - the princess pulled the spear out of the ground and out of Rin, then threw the ancient weapon at an approaching swordsman, who deflected it with almost contemptuous ease.

"Shirou!" - Rin called out as loud as she could, and the redhead showed up scarcely three seconds later, decapitating the skeleton from behind.- "Guard the alley!"

Shirou saw Rin bloody and hurt, and asked nothing. Instead, he immediately did as she said, struggling to keep a ten-man(3) squad out of the alley, parrying, deflecting, and slashing in a frenzy, green glowing lines stretching from his eyes over the rest of his face and head as he reinforced his eyes and his brain to extremes in order to keep up with the onslaught of ever-coming attacks.

Razma barely had time to regret tossing the spear aside, pick it up and try to support him from behind when a battle cry filled the air and the skeletons packed at the entrance of the alley were crushed under the weight of a large stone oven, thrown at them from the side by the blue-eyed Cimmerian.

"What took you so long?" - Razma looks at Conan, who looks no worse for wear, with barely a few slashes on his chest and left thigh.

"I couldn't find something the right size and weight. These things know how to fight, but their bones are old and crack with ease once you smash them hard enough." - the giant smiles a wolfish grin.

"I am fairly sure anyone would snap if you hit them with that." - Shirou deadpans as he sees the shattered stove, its pieces, and the skeletons mixed all over the place after pulverizing the group of monsters. Somehow, the fact it was a stove just felt like a personal offense.- "Couldn't find a kitchen sink to throw instead?"

"Not heavy enough." - the barbarian shrugged.- "Not large enough, either."

"That doesn't matters. What about the rest of the town?" - Razma interrupts them, with Shirou taking the chance to check on Rin and handing her a healing potion.

"I only have two. Did not expect to need them at all, it was a 'just in case' thing." - he apologizes as he hands her one.

"Yes well, not like either of us expected a bad zombie movie to hit the town." - she sighs and reaches for his hand, standing up and drinking the potion. Her wounds knit themselves closed at amazing speed, though the hole in her armor remains, of course.

"The stygian guards finally got off their butts and are fighting back now. They moved to intercept when those black-armored skeletons broke into the temple district."

"Hmm... are you taking the chance to evacuate your people?" - Rin looks at Razma while stretching to make sure she healed right.

"If we knew these things wouldn't chase us, but we don't. Therefore we are taking shelter in the town and helping to defend it." - the Shemita princess replies with a bitter expression.

"We need to take the battle to them anyway." - Conan interrupts, then rises an eyebrow when everyone looks at him.- "Undead things don't tire. I have no interest in going out into the Darfari lands while having to worry about an undead horde chasing after us as well. We need to take them out."

"They're coming from the ruins on the western plateau." - explains Shirou.- "It was an important ironwork for the Giant Kings, and should still be full of these guys. These are just the vanguard."

Both young women grunt while Conan lets out a loud guffaw.

"Hah! Well then, let's go tear the place down! Your swords, your witch, my princess, and my axe should make short work of them in closed spaces! ...will need a good shield too, though. Give me a minute." - the Cimmerian casually walks over to the shattered skeletons and picks up a large, brand-new tower shield.- "Portable cover is always a must when dealing with archers." - he explains.

Both Rin and Razma look like they have plenty to object to but don't know where to begin. On the one hand, the blue-eyed barbarian just casually referred to them ad if they belonged to the men in their group, but neither Razma nor Rin can find it in themselves to say 'I am not your anything' to their partner. As a slightly conflicted look passes between them, they both sigh and just go with the flow.

"I am not really a sword and shield type, but I can ape it well enough." - says Shirou as he dismissed the married blades and finally decides on one.

"Trace, on." - As Shirou focuses, a beautiful long sword with two small oval openings down the middle of the blade comes into being.- "Hrunting will make up for my lack of skill by aiming for the most optimal path." - he explains.- "Speaking of swords..." - he looks at Conan's axe.- "What happened to yours?"

The man shrugs, his mountain-like muscles rolling under his skin as he does so.- "I'll use whatever is at hand. If we are asking this sort of thing, what's with the Darfari rags?" - he gestures at Shirou's... everything.

"It's complicated, but basically it's a different armor made to look this way through magic." - Shirou explains.- "Wanted to scare the piss out some pirates."

"So long as it'll actually protect you." - says Conan as he looks over to Razma and Rin.- "Are you two alright as is? Shouldn't you at least pick a shield as well? We killed enough of these things. There's plenty of gear just laying around."

The girls concede that it is a sensible idea, and they each pick something. Razma keeps her javelin but both she and Rin pick a shield.

Without delay, they start walking out of town through the main street, picking on both stragglers and fresh skeletons as they appear.

~O~

"Before I throw this spear at you, who are you and what do you want?" - Mei looks down at a heavily armed quintet that is standing in front of the outpost, somehow having made it past its bounded fields suggesting to turn around and leave.

"...I am Huan, high servant of Teth-Amon, and hunter of sorcerers! We found magical wards around this base, and thus believe its owner to be a slave of the dark arts! If that is so, then summon your master, that we may engage him in battle!"

"I am Mei, and I have no master but know that the lady witch that owns this place is a friend, and while she is gone, it is I who defends her home! Now leave, or should I introduce you to my spear!?"

"Now!" - Huan cries out, and two of his companions that had hidden behind illusions hurl fine metal mesh nets the redhead on the wall.

~O~

With the situation in the city finally coming under control, Shirou and company head towards the ironworks entrance, running into yet another squad of Silent Legionaries along the way.

"Everyone get ready..." - Conan whispers as he leans against a boulder, ready to push it over the cliff's edge and unto the incoming group on skeletons at the feet of the plateau.

His companions nod in agreement, and as soon as the boulder is over the edge, Rin and Shirou stand up to begin raining spells and swords at the 'survivors'.

The boulder lands on the back of the squadron, and with a surprisingly dull sound, turns the armored figures of their leader, the archers and a pikeman into a mix of flattened metal and pulverized bone. The rest of the skeletons turn to look at the edge of the cliff above them, and immediately begin to climb towards the figures there.

A hail of Gandr and swords greet the slowly-climbing monsters, cracking or blowing off their heads.

"That was quick. Shame they aren't all as obliging." - comments Razma as she peers down the cliff.

"We are lucky they're still sending patrols, but I can't imagine that'll last forever. At some point, we'll start seeing larger groups, and that's when the town will die." - says Rin as she looks over her shoulder at the town behind them, where the guards are still finishing off the last remaining skeletons.

"That's why we are going to take them down before that happens, Rin." - Shirou smiles at her, and she can't help but to flush a little bit.

"I know that, you don't need to tell me! Sheesh..."

"They sure are cute, uh?" - Razma whispers to Conan

"That they are. Let's go."

Their group climbs down the plateau, and hurry towards the ironworks, finding an unexpected sight.

One of the Giant Kings, wearing a full plate and carrying a massive sword. So tall that Conan's head barely reaches halfway up its thigh, which makes its two-handed sword something Berserker Herakles would have trouble wielding.

Shirou grimaces at the sight of the sword. A perfect copy appears within his soul, and its information flows into Shirou's mind as if it had always been there. A nameless sword, it is made of a material found only in the meteorites that regularly fall to earth in the northernmost edge of these lands, which is then mixed with Black Ice into an impossible alloy that immediately elevates any weapon made with it to the same level of power as a D-ranked noble phantasm.

Mix that with a true giant's strength, plus the weight and inertia of such an absurdly large weapon, and Shirou can easily understand how such a weapon has had such an easy time cleaving through men as if they were made of smoke.

Its owner is dead, yet retains all of its intelligence and more importantly, its malice towards man. The moment it sees the group, he calls out in an alien tongue, the bracelet translating the giant's curses and challenges, though Conan doesn't seem to mind not knowing what was said, as the enormous man simply charges at the visible enemy.

"Come, slaves! My sword needs polish, and your blood will do the work!"

Razma, Rin and Shirou all feel a mild headache as the bracelet translates the giant's three words into a whole phrase.

This is none of Conan's business though, the barbarian already dodging under the giant's king powerful swing to try and cleave at its groin, finding it surprisingly well armored and solid, his axe almost bouncing out of his hand as the giant laughs two words and kicks the cimmerian, launching him back almost five meters towards the group.

"Not the first to try that, human!"

Rin's Finn Shot slams against the side of the giant's head and causes a dent so deep on it that it is a miracle the creature is still standing. As the giant looks at her, a copy of its massive sword falls from above, forcing it to its knees while impaling its body unto the sont floor. To everyone's horror, the creature is still moving, though the lack of blood is a major clue to understanding the truth of the creature.

With its status as an undead revealed, Shirou quickly fired Scriptural Weapons at it, the former Giant King quaking and howling in a single long cry as its body withers and finally turns to dust.

"What are those?" - Conan looks at Shirou for a moment, before walking over and picking a Black Key.- "The balance is camel crap. These aren't meant to be actually wielded, are they?"

"Most people throw them, but they were indeed meant to be wielded in the beginning." - explains Shirou.

"Uh. Well, why weren't you using these before?"

"Would it be simple to understand if I said they're tiring to make? I'd rather not shower every single skeleton with those."

"Fair enough. Keep them for special things, then."

With Shirou nodding at his words, Conan looks at the massive Star Metal sword and sighs. Even his prodigious strength won't be enough to make the thing usable, so he has no issue when Shirou stores it in his bracelet, saying that he'll melt it down to make something else.

The barbarian picks up a few black keys and tries throwing them until he's comfortable with the action then secures them to his belt. With that, the group moves into the ancient forge.

~O~

Mei grunts as the overlapping nets fly at her from left and right. With nowhere to dodge, she jumps from the wall and tries to impale Huan with the Blood Drinker spear, succeeding in shoving the weapon through the man's mouth up to the end of the shaft and dislocating her right shoulder on the landing. In a moment, the rest of the witch hunters are on her, beating her with long truncheons of solid steel .

Bones snap and crunch as they beat her down. As she tries to roll to the side and raise, they kick her down and smack her on the head with as much force as they can, stopping only when she's laying still on the now blood-soaked sand.

"Very well, let's say what our master wants with her. Even a corpse would be fine." - the man readies some rope and ties Mei's ankles together before they take off, dragging her body away.

~O~

As soon as they entered the ironworks through the barely ajar stone door and were able to look at it from the other side, they realized the door is actually two ridiculously large slabs of stone that worked like perfect cogs. If it wasn't at least somewhat open, they would never have gained access without some very heavy tools and quite a while of time.

The entrance is the topmost platform at the end of a massive set of stairs that go deep into the dark beneath. Sadly but understandably, the steps are giant-king sized, and as such extremely uncomfortable to walk on, and closer to trying to use the seats of an ancient coliseum as a flight of stairs.

The walls are smooth and curved upwards. They may have had complicated carvings once, but they've been eroded smoothly by the passage of time or, more likely, a rebellious hand. Truly, the roof at the bottom of the stairs is so high that the torch's light cannot reach it, making it feel as if they were walking in the open night.

Sadly, they haven't walked more than a dozen meters into the place when beyond another set of stone arcs, they see the fluorescent form of a giant king's wraith, the specter greeting them with a three-word howl.

"I have tasted death, mortals. Let me share it with you!" - honestly at this point, Rin is starting to believe they inject different levels of prana into their words to add nuance and meaning, as there's simply no way to pack that much meaning on such a short chain of sounds.

Conan says nothing, and simply hurls a couple of Black Keys at the wraith, watching in satisfaction as it howls and slows down. Before it reaches them, the men of the group have turned the thing into a pincushion, its spectral flesh rotting and falling before their very eyes as its star metal hammer hits the stone floor.

'Worldbreaker' - Shirou notices as he studies the hammer, a simple, low-end noble phantasm that ignores the enemy's armor, striking through it by swinging through an alternate dimension where the armor does not exist, yet still reaching the enemy's flesh.(4)

"Well, these are great." - comments Conan as he recovers the Black Keys.- "At least against unarmored dead things."

"The hammer is magical, how about you take it?" - offers Shirou

"Why wouldn't you keep it f- oh right."

Shirou smiles, and Conan nods as he takes the hammer and tests its weight. It was a one-handed weapon for the giant king's wraith, but its a hefty two-handed weapon in a human's hands. In fact, if Conan wasn't as ridiculously strong as he is, it would be completely impractical to use.

"Well... off to a great start." - Razma struts over to the boys and encourages them forth.

And then they're surrounded by wraiths.

~O~

In-game, Worldbreaker is a legendary weapon with 100% armor penetration, or as its single-line description explains 'it ignores the enemy's armor.'

Also, there's a potion you can rub on weapons to make them poison and weaken undead called Spectral Coating, but while Shirou has been dabbling in alchemy to make healing potions, why would he bother with that when he can just trace Black Keys on demand? …yeah he will from now on for his allies' weapons.

Server stats! Isle oh Siptah map, so you'd need Conan Exiles & Isle of Siptah. Right now its at 51% discount so its really cheap to get.

Server Name: Server for Maglad

IP: IP:

Server Password: conannowwithmagic

1- swordskeleton just sounds wrong.

2- This actually made me worried about being anachronistic, so I checked, and turns out the division of the hour into 60 minutes and of the minute into 60 seconds comes from the Babylonians, who used a sexagesimal (counting in 60s) system for mathematics and astronomy. They derived their number system from the Sumerians who were using it as early as 3500 BC, so I'd say there's a good chance these people would know what a minute is. That's right, it's Gilgamesh' fault, you mongrels.

3- Ten-skeleton just sounds wrong, I tell you!