"Surrender and serve me in life, or die and slave for me in death."

"We are in a dire situation. There is no escape. Fight for me while you are still alive, or do so once your folly killed you."

The crowd seemed hesitant, unsurprising considering those were mostly untrained civilians. However they didn't really have a choice.

Whether they liked it or not, the only reason behind their continued survival was the necromancer. It would be pitifully easy for him to leave them to die.

A figure pushed through the crowd and stood out before it.

"We're willing to do our part, until things calm down." Stated Ruby, and apparently no one dared to stand out with or against her.

"Well, that will do. I can't really bother to deal with all of you at once." Began Kieffner while looking at the civilians. "So I suppose this means that this little girl will be your representative."

"What ? I'm not a little... Who said anything about a representative ?"

"I did, and you will deal with it. If you don't like it, just find someone else instead, but don't bother me with your bickering."

Kieffner then noticed that something was wrong with the crowd. It looked... smaller. The girl in front of him said something, but the words didn't register to him. He was seeing through his minions, looking for the missing civilians, a wandering Grimm, a breach in his defenses. Anything that could explain this.

Then he saw it, or more accurately, heard it. A muffled scream coming from one abandoned building among so many others.

Before he realized it, Kieffner had already started moving towards the building. He did not notice an aghast Ruby, nor the whispering crowd. His focus was entirely aimed at his target.

In one move he instinctively tried to grab a weapon that wasn't there, and kicked open the rotting door. Behind it he found eight of the civilians, all gagged and attached to their chairs. In front of them stood a slightly limping Adam Taurus, along with four other faunus wearing the White Fang's uniform.

For a moment everyone stared at the necromancer in silence, before the latter broke it. "Adam, what the fuck are you doing ?"

"Well, we're judging these criminals." Adam stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I see. I don't believe I would be wrong to predict that most if not all of them will not make it out alive ?"

"You would indeed be right. The only thing left to decide is exactly how we will deliver their punishment. I hope this isn't a problem for you."

Kieffner remained quiet for a few moments, weighting his options. He could see the determination on Adam's face, this wasn't something he would back out from easily.

The captives were looking at him with a mix of hope and dread. He didn't know exactly what would happen to them without his intervention, but odds were it wouldn't be pretty.

Was he willing to oppose a powerful ally like Adam over a few unimportant humans ?

"Sure... If that's important to you, you can deal with those people like you see fit. Just don't do anything that would attract too many Grimms."

No, he was not.

Upon hearing those words the humans lost all hope, and a few even broke into tears. Meanwhile Adam's face morphed into a small, genuine smile.

"Thank you, my friend."

Kieffner was surprised by the sudden display of affection, and only replied with a polite nod. The faunus then turned back to his comrades, which the necromancer took as his cue to leave. He only catched one last sentence before closing the door.

"So... Do we have any rope ?"

Kieffner ignored this and instead turned his attention to sky, clouds were slowly gathering on the horizon. It was getting cold, a snowstorm would probably soon be upon them.

But braving the unruly weather, three bullheads appeared overhead. Each of them sporting the emblematic three red slashes of the White Fang.

Now used to this process, the necromancer watched the vehicles land with a blank stare. Out of the Bullhead came, of course, White Fang members, but also almost two dozen unarmed faunus.

Kieffner had expected them, it had been part of his deal with Adam after all. All the Bullheads were damaged, mostly from claw slashes apparently. Dried human blood mixed with red paint on their metallic shells. Salem's forces had not been kind with them, as expected.

"You're the one in charge here ?" Asked a massive White Fang faunus.

"Mmm... Yes I am. Adam told me of your arrival."

The faunus remained quiet, and Kieffner figured he had to do his role as a guest.

"While I my domain unfortunately lacks many amenities, giving each of you a place to stay will pose no difficulty. A few of my... men... will show you the way."

"That's good. But a many of us are hungry right now, so could you lend us some food ?"

Kieffner brain stopped at this. Months, he had prepared for months, and yet...

"Speaking of food... we have no food." He let out while trying not to look too desperate.

He couldn't believe it ! He had stockpiled enough dust to last them for a few months, yet something as unremarkable as food would destroy it all. The faunus said something, but Kieffner paid him no mind. He had to calm down. Take deep breaths. See the positive...

The White Fang members who came before always brought their rations with them, as did Roman. They shouldn't starve immediately. The civilians however, those would pose a problem.

He felt his minions getting noisy, trying to tell him something.

Then the realization hit him, there was no need for food. He hadn't prepared for this siege with humans in mind, so he simply had to remove this problematic factor. It would so quick, and they wouldn't need food ever again. They would be so much better as undeads... as his servants...

"Mother of god..."

This briefly pulled Kieffner out of his musing, as he glared at the faunus who just spoke. The latter was looking at something above him. The necromancer didn't have time to raise his glare, before a massive black column fell on the faunus, crushing him instantly.

The ensuing shockwave kicked Kieffner away, accidentally saving his life in the process as another such pillar landed where he had stood but a second before.

The necromancer's newfound position allowed him to finally witness what had just killed his ally. It was a massive Grimm, easily two stories tall. The dark pillars were in fact nothing else than two of its four thick legs. As if the size wasn't enough on it's own, the beast was also equipped with a pair of equally massive tusks.

The White Fang soldiers soon opened fire on the Grimm, which did little more than point it to a new target. Kieffner watched in stupor as the faunus got slaughtered one by one. Less mouths to feed, a part of his mind already concluded.

But what the hell were his minions doing ? A quick mental sweep told him all he needed to know. The absence of friendly signals told him quite accurately where the Grimms had broken through, and what path they had taken. More were still coming.

"Come on Kieffner ! Get your shit together, we've got a Goliath to kill !" Adam's familiar voice yelled behind him before pulling him up.

Adam readied his iconic katana, while Kieffner acquired a short sword from a downed Fang. Adam's comrades meanwhile simply stood back, apparently not so eager to enter the fray.

A few nearby skeleton tried their luck at killing the mammoth, again with no apparent effect. It wouldn't be a flashy enough death after all.

Adam took position on the right, while Kieffner took care of the left. The sword swinging duo then rushed forward, dodging ivory spikes swung at them. They both managed to reach the Goliath's legs, and where bullets failed, mere swords succeeded in cutting through the thick skin.

This was getting stupid, Kieffner thought. It was almost like the monster refused to even be injured by anyone that it didn't consider a worthy opponent.

The beast in question managed to take them by surprise by turning around with a ridiculous speed for its size. It used its momentum to try to knock away the necromancer. The latter had already begun to dodge, but this effort proved useless when Adam put himself between the them and blocked the attack with his sword.

The blade shortly glowed a blood red, before turning back to its usual color a second after. People here all had truly ridiculous weapons, thought Kieffner. At least they weren't haunted or something like that.

Kieffner quickly followed by slashing at one of the Goliath's leg, unbalancing it in the process. The side of its head that had been bashing against Adam's sword, simply slid off it as the beast fell to the ground.

The duo then leaped on the mammoth for the finishing strike, but were thrown away at the last second when a Beowolf appeared out of nowhere and brutally slammed into them.

However the Beowolf success was short lived, as a frustrated Adam soon pierced its skull with his sword. He then headed back to the Goliath, but it was already too late. The massive Grimm had been able to get back up in the short amount of time given to it by the Beowolf's sacrifice.

A few more smaller Grimms tried to join the fight, but were actually stopped by nearby undeads as well as whoever was left from the White Fang. Good to know that his minion weren't completely useless.

This intervention allowed the duo to focus on their current target. A target that seemed pretty fine all considered. Meanwhile Adam was getting low on aura, was out of breath, and had bruises everywhere. Kieffner was, well... already dead.

The Goliath decided to simply charge them, it had worked for the Beowolf after all. However the beast was moving slowly, and simply walking to the side was enough for Kieffner to get out of the way.

Adam meanwhile refused to move, and stood there while holding his sword's handle. The weapon in question was sheathed for some reason, but its red light could be seen glowing through the small space between the handle and the sheath.

Just as the charging Grimm was about to make contact with Adam, the latter in one movement pulled out his sword and swung it at the Goliath's head. A sickening crack echoed and one instant latter the beast was on the ground once again.

The Grimm had visibly been injured this time, and it was whimpering in pain on the cold asphalt. Meanwhile Adam stood proud, completely uninjured, the only trace of the shock in the form of a severed tusk laying on the ground.

This gave Kieffner an idea. This monster had proved to be effectively invulnerable to everything they could throw at it. Even Adam's most powerful move had only managed to break a single external bone.

By the logic things had been working under until now, there was reason to believe that only something incredibly flashy, powerful, and reckless could kill it once and for all.

With those thoughts in mind Kieffner covered the short distance between Adam and himself, crouched down, and recovered the severed tusk.

"Adam, I need a diversion !" The faunus nodded and engaged the beast once again.

Meanwhile Kieffner cautiously approached it from the side. He only had one shot at this. He had to hold the ivory pike against his chest to be able to move it with his only arm. He took a few seconds to properly aim this stupid weapon at his enemy, before launching himself through the small space between them.

The Goliath let out what seemed like a gasp of surprise as its own bone pierced his chest, effortlessly sneaking through its ribs. The beast's heart broke, literally, as it was stretched over the tusk like a bloody condom.

The once mighty Grimm slumped to its his side. This was a good death, a worthy death. A small, almost relieved sigh escaped his maw, and life finally left him.

"Well..." Gasped Adam "... This certainly was... poetic."

"Yeah, look like I didn't have a choice. Those guys don't appreciate the classics." Kieffner replied while pointing to the his abandoned sword laying on the street.

But Kieffner shook his head, this wasn't the time to slander this world, he had an invasion to fight back. Or at least that's what he thought until he checked on the situation through his undeads.

This Goliath had apparently been the only one of his kind, and all other Grimms had been dispatched with minimal losses. Going through the network's memory, he noticed that it was only because of the Goliath that that attack had broken through his defenses in the first place.

But this attack demonstrated a few weaknesses in his defenses, weaknesses that he could hardly afford in this situation.

"Adam, are you free right now ? I would need your help with something."

Adam looked back at his comrades, and let out a sigh of disappointment, before addressing to them.

"Do just as planned. I trust you will know what to do without me ?"

About half of them nodded back affirmatively, which was apparently enough for Adam as he turned back to the necromancer. The latter gestured the faunus to follow him, and while walking he began to speak.

"There are a few problems I need your help with, one of them being related to the breach."

Adam looked at him with curiosity, and Kieffner decided to go on.

"I believe you have some military experience ?" He asked as they reached a particularly tall building.

"I guess you could say that..." Muttered Adam, his stare losing itself on the horizon by the end.

They entered an elevator, and it began to move without them pressing any switch. Unknown to Adam, and mostly everyone really, most of the machinery behind this elevator had long since been destroyed. It only moved now thanks to the efforts of around a dozen skeletons manually pulling the metallic cables in the basement.

"That's good, because I don't." Bluntly stated Kieffner as the elevator stopped and they entered a wide room whose walls were all made of glass. The only notable furnitures in it were a few chairs around a massive table, on which rested a map.

"I scavenged this from a ruin a few blocks away. It's a layout of Mountain Glenn and it's surroundings, as it was before its fall. "

Adam approached the table on took in the map's content. It was fairly well detailed for something civilian, but he could already tell that some areas where obsolete and basically useless. A razed building here, a collapsed street there... Many things had changed.

However what catched his attention were a bunch small coins scattered around the map. Some were in pile, other dispersed around an area. Almost all of them were inside the city.

"Each represents ten soldiers, with almost five thousands of the latter in total." Kieffner said to Adam's silent question.

"But it's already outdated by almost a day." Grumbled the necromancer while starting to reposition his pieces. In the meantime a lone skeleton approached them.

"That's how most of them look like, equipment and all." Said the Kieffner without turning his eyes away from the map.

The undead's equipment was bare bone to say the least. He didn't wear an helmet or armor, or any clothes at all. His only weapon was a rustic rifle, about half of which was made out of wood. The rifle's bolt could be seen protruding from the side. Beside that the soldier only had a spare magazine and a knife that could apparently be used as a bayonet.

This gave a lot of food for thought for Adam. He took the rifle in his hands and examined it for a moment. There was nothing special about it, but at least it seemed to be of acceptable quality. The barrel was even rifled, though the rifling wasn't perfect.

So long range but relatively slow reload rate. A knife or a bayonet wouldn't be of much use against Grimms, but it was still better than nothing. At least those soldiers wouldn't panic and give up fighting the moment Grimms reached them.

Adam then used this knowledge to examine the map and troops positions on it. The coins formed a dense circle around the city's old town hall. A few were scattered beyond this perimeter, probably as scouts.

"They're too concentrated." Concluded Adam.

"They're positioned on the walls or at other easily defensible positions." Explained Kieffner.

"Not exactly. Those positions would be perfect if you had machine guns or explosives. However they don't give you the field of fire necessary to effectively use your range." Said Adam while his interlocutor looked at him with curiosity.

"The Grimms before, with the Goliath, they managed to pierce your line at one place, and it was enough for them to reach us." Adam continued.

"I will admit Grimms don't act in such an organized manner usually. But this is far from an usual situation is it ?"

"My point is that you're putting all of your eggs in the same basket. Even if it was a strong basket, it's still one basket."

Kieffner nodded at this, he was starting to understand.

"I know this might sound counter intuitive, but you need to stretch your forces. Or spread them out if you prefer."

"But won't this guarantee that the first troops to make contact always find themselves outnumbered ? I can't afford the sustain this kind of losses on a regular basis." Kieffner pointed.

"That's where you're wrong. You're not supposed to have you guys be standing out in the open. Build small defenses, trenches, ditches, things like that. They won't stop the Grimms, but they should buy your troops enough time to retreat to another position, where another squad will be waiting for them, and then you just have to repeat the process. Just avoid putting your men in tall buildings, where they won't be able to flee."

Adam looked at the map, and then walked towards the windows. He looked at the city below, or more precisely he looked at the black mass slowly growing outside the city.

"You have space, use it. Don't leave her time to organize her forces. Attack everytime and everywhere your enemy is weak. But don't stray to far, advance little by little. One leap at a time, advance a little and then fortify. You bite and you hold. And maybe think about producing some shovels."

Kieffner was already reorganizing his coins on the table before he spoke.

"It seems you really do have experience." Joked the necromancer, but his face soon became somber.

"The horde back in Vale, it will be here within the week. I don't think she's gonna attack through the tunnel. It's too narrow, she wouldn't be able to use all her forces."

Adam walked back to his friend's side. The chessboard had changed, the pieces were now more evenly spread all thorough the city, and even a little beyond it in some places.

Kieffner let out a tired sigh. There were so many problems, so many unknown factors, so many things to deal with.

"I... I just hope this will be enough."

Adam put a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll go through this, don't worry. We still have time, reinforcement are still underway."

"Yes, but there are other problems. Food for one."

"Ah yes, so what's your secret plan ?" Adam asked completely seriously.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Kieffner couldn't stop a small laugh from escaping his lips.

"There is no secret plan."

"What ?"

"I simply forgot, like a dumbass. Oh god we're fucked." He was still grinning, like a dumbass.

"Is this some kind of joke ?"

"No, I'm afraid it's all to real. We're all gonna die." At least the others would, he didn't need to eat anymore, but they didn't need to know that.

Adam collapsed on a chair, holding his head in his hands.

"Shit shit shit shit... This is somehow even worse new than the Grimm horde."

"You know..." Began Kieffner "... I can always just turn everyone into undeads ?"

"Ha ha, how funny." Was Adam's dry reply.

"But that shouldn't be necessary. My men have some food with them, and hopefully those who will come next will bring some food too. I should notify them about that. We can always raid Vale, if you're willing to take the risk. In the meantime we will have to ration everyone, hard."

"Will that even be enough ?" Asked Kieffner.

"You would be surprised by how much people can abstain from eating." Adam stated with a grim smile. "And they won't even have to fight, lucky ones."

"We will still need to find some long term solution. I'm afraid this land is cursed, in no small part thanks to me. Nothing good grows on it, and what get birthed on it is even worse. Unless you like two headed rats of course." Explained Kieffner.

"Yes, I've seen the soil here. Winter is coming, so you wouldn't get anything to grow either way. But have you tried mushrooms ? They might be useful once it's getting warm again."

"That... might actually work. The underground network is mostly untouched, I might find a use to it like that. Yes, I will put some skeletons to this task."

"Glad to know that I could help."

"Yes, now there's only one thing left, the humans. These refugees aren't exactly useful to m... us right now. And we can't even make them work because of the lack of food !"

"As long as they don't pose a problem, we can just let them do their thing. They do have a few Huntsmen though..."

Kieffner arched an eyebrow at this. "I expected you to be more... dismissive of them."

"Oh don't get me wrong, if food gets rare they will be the first to lose access to it. If foods gets too rare... well they do have some fat on them..."

"You're sure you don't want to become an undead ?"

"No thanks, I would like to keep my fabulous hair if possible."

"Eh... Well can't say I didn't ask. Just keep in mind to ask me before doing anything to my humans."

"Mmh... Sure. By the way, how are you arming your army ?"

"Oh, well I have ten thousands more undeads doing civilian work. Most of them are in underground factories, making guns and munitions. The others are clearing rubbles, building fortifications, or transporting material."

"Ten thousands ? That's pretty good..." Muttered Adam. "Is that all you have ?"

"Currently, yes. By my estimates there are still around forty thousand corpses left in this city and its surroundings. But there's no point in raising them at the moment, there's isn't any worthwhile work for them to do." Answered Kieffner.

"As time goes on however, more and more guns will keep coming out of the factories. Eventually I will be able to arm everyone." He continued.

"While I would like to say that time is on our side because of this, the reality is that we will probably run out of dust and food long before all those potential soldiers become effective."

"So we need to somehow win quickly, or at least get some breathing room." Intervened Adam.

"Do you have a plan ?" He asked.

"That's... why we're here."

"What do you mean there's no food ?!" Exclaimed a certain blonde Huntress. She was currently surrounded by her team minus Blake. The other Huntsmen stood slightly back, while the civilians remained huddled together in the background.

"I meant exactly what I said." Adam hissed between his teeth.

"Our food reserves are critically low, we have to ration everyone. This means no food today." He continued while trying his best to remain calm. Those spoiled humans were unbearable !

"But those people haven't eaten for almost two days !" Said a revolted Ruby while gesturing towards the civilians. Most were sleeping inside the warehouse they were currently in. Few were moving around. A baby could be heard crying inside it's mother's arms.

"Pff, they will survive, or maybe they won't. There's nothing we can do to help them. If we let everyone eat now, everyone will be dead in a week."

"But that's not right !" Yelled Ruby.

Adam facepalmed and let out a sigh.

"Whatever, I can't bother to argue with you kids." Said Adam, and he then proceed to leave the building.

However the so called kids ran after him, but stopped right when they left the doorframe.

The street before them was the same as always, except for one little detail. On four lampposts on each side of the road a rope was attached. And at the end of those ropes hanged eight men. Before them hanged the corpses of eight people they had seen alive that morning.

"It seems you still do not understand one simple thing... " Began Adam.

"You aren't in charge here."

Hello everyone.

About this chapter, you might have noticed that it's shorter than the last ones. I fear that it's an issue with pacing, I didn't manage to find anything more to put in it that wouldn't be better in the next chapter.

The small bit with Adam and the White Fang isn't really important. It's mainly there to show that there's something else going on than the MC's story. Like I already answered to a comment, I believe Adam and the White Fang deserve their own story, which I may or may not write at some point.

For those who wanted more Warhammer content, while I've failed to find a spell that would fit in this point of time, I've started developing something interesting. Let's just say the cold and hunger aren't just there for dramatic effect.

Also don't take the weird thing with the Goliath seriously. It was just me poking fun at logic behind most fights in fiction. It's really difficult to write an engaging clash without flashy moves and super humans, especially when there's so few things I can take as example.

Like usual, please leave a comment, and if you're feeling especially generous you can also subscribe and favorite this fic.

Farewell, and until next time.