Chapter Seventy Four

The Eternal Horde Unleashed

JANUS

"They're coming!" Janus spun to Peggy and Tracy. "He just unleashed the Soulless!"

Tracy sighed. "Oh, bloody hell,"

"This was the plan. This was always the plan." Janus said with chills running down his spine, which didn't happen very often. He'd only just realised it too. "Kane's infantry was meant to be cannon fodder, exhausting us and our ammunition. The Eternal Horde was always the endgame."

A loud trumpet sounded far above them on the walls, and a fast-paced rhythm was beat out on the regimental drums.

"Converge to the centre!" Lieutenants and sergeants took up the command, repeating and echoing it all across the battlefield. "Close ranks! Fix bayonets!"

"We've got to get to the front of the line!" Peggy shouted as soldiers leapt out of the trenches and swarmed to fortify the centre of the field. "With our help they might be able to hold the line!"

"She's mad," Janus gritted his teeth as he swung himself out of the trench and dashed after Peggy.

"Well, she's one of yours, ain't she?" Tracy remarked as she paced alongside Janus.

He growled in frustration and pushed past a couple of Danish skirmishers in pursuit of Peggy who was making her way to the frontlines. How far could their newfound powers go? Would they hold up against these…monsters?

"The spell will hold!" Tracy assured him as though reading his thoughts. "As long as you both stay within range, it'll hold!"

"You psychic now too?"

"No, but any idiot can see you're worried about her!"

Well, Tracy's right, Janus mused dryly as he weaved between two Northuldra skirmishers, keeping his sights set on Peggy who was moving far quicker than she should've been able to.

"Close ranks!" Sergeants screamed all around him. "Close ranks, you bastards!"

The tension and fear in the air was palpable. The soldiers had no idea what was about to hit them, only that they had to fortify the centre of the line. They had no idea that Hans had unleashed the Eternal Horde.

"There!" Tracy shouted. "I see her!"

Sure enough, Peggy was up ahead at the very front of the line, already loading her rifle again. With her were a random mix of soldiers from the Arendellians, the Northuldra and the Danish. All order had broken in the mad scramble for the centre, and it fell to the commanders available to rally their odd combination of soldiers into something that resembled platoons and companies. The soldiers were formed in a combination of line and column, with four ranks presented to the enemy, and the rest in column formation to reinforce the flanks and to fill in the empty spaces of the lines whenever a gap presented itself.

Janus and Tracy pushed through the sea of soldiers who smelt strongly of sweat, grime and blackpowder, finally reaching Peggy. He grabbed her arm. "Next time, wait," he growled. "I don't want you getting separated from us."

Peggy jerked her arm away haughtily. "Then next time, keep up."

Janus struggled to find a suitable response as Tracy broke into a snigger beside him. Giving up, he slung the bow across his back.

"What are you doing?" Peggy asked.

"You wanted a chance to get up close and personal with the enemy," Janus unsheathed two long daggers from his leg holsters and brandished them in reverse grip. "Now's your chance."

"Now we're talking," Peggy slung her rifle and fished out a single knife with a wooden hilt.

"Only one? This isn't a simple dance."

"I don't need to compensate," Peggy said. "Do you?"

"Feisty," Tracy commented. "Definitely one of yours."

Janus sighed, dropping his knees slightly in a fighting stance and held his daggers at chest level. He set his face as he squinted through the smoke. They were coming. He could see the Soulless scrambling forward chaotically without any tactical sense, bearing their muskets with probably no inkling on how to use them.

A deep synchronised volley bellowed from behind him, a series of eight pounder balls catapulting through the air and arcing in a way that would send them only halfway across the distance between them and the Imperial Horde. And that was the point. The cannonballs crashed into droves of the undead creatures, wiping them away like a tidal wave would do to an army of ants. But many of them remained, continuing their mad charge towards Fort Steinfall.

"First rank kneel and present bayonets, second rank level!"

The tightly packed ranks of Coalition soldiers complied, the first rank dropping a knee into the deep snow and bringing up a wall of steel bristles while the second rank of soldiers brought their muskets and rifles to bear, a full line of weapons trained on the smoke obscuring their enemies. Behind, many more Coalition soldiers waited in reserve, some turning to reinforce their flanks.

"Steady," Janus told Peggy. "Powers or not, we don't want to get caught in the crossfire. Wait for the skirmishers to do their part, then when the enemy gets close enough for a melee, we move."

Peggy nodded, both eager and tense with anticipation. It was clear this was an entirely new experience for her, though the pressures of combat didn't seem to be affecting her.

"Get ready," Tracy warned, her hands sparkling purple in the early daylight. "I can sense them near."

Turning back to regard the smoke, Janus squinted as a bitter draught of cold wind blew falling snow into his masked face. And then through the haze of black powder and smoke that lingered heavily in the air, he saw the chilling green eyes of the Soulless first before they started sprinting out from behind the thick layer of musket smoke.

"Fire!" A unified volley crashed out deafeningly, musket balls and rifle shots cutting through swathes of the mindless creatures. Blood splattered everywhere but the Soulless didn't seem to notice, what with the rest spilling over the dead bodies of their fallen comrades.

Janus judged the distance. Sixty yards. Very soon the entire firefight would dissolve into a chaotic melee and hand-to-hand.

"Second rank kneel and load, third rank level! Fire!"

"These bastards aren't stopping!" Tracy shouted above the cracks of the firearms as she hurled two more surges of her black magic into the swarm of Soulless.

"Steady," Janus repeated, glancing sidelong at Peggy who was bouncing on the balls of her feet, ready to spring into action. Forty five yards.

"They're not slowing down!" Peggy adjusted her grip.

"Neither will we." Thirty yards.

The synchronised volley dissolved into random firing at will, musket and rifle cracks ringing out all across the battlefield in ragged order, and there wasn't a single second where there wasn't a weapon going off. Another battery of eight pounder balls whizzed through the air and smashed into the Soulless, sending many pinwheeling away with blood and limbs flying. Ten yards.

"Janus!" Peggy shouted.

"Now!" He shouted, springing forward with his newfound supernatural speed just as the Coalition soldiers around him yelled and broke into a melee charge a couple of steps behind him. All hell broke loose as both sides clashed, weapons flurrying and arms and legs tangled in an all out battle.

Janus made first contact, slashing one blade across the face of a Soulless and stabbing another through the throat within a fraction of a second. He kicked the latter free from his blade and brought his dagger round in a backhand swing, his own hand a blur as he killed yet another in a spray of blood. A bloodbath erupted wherever he went, striking and killing the soulless in the most efficient, brutal way he knew how. If these things were out for blood, he would feed them their own.

As he fought tirelessly with the supernatural strength imbued to him courtesy of Tracy's spell, he caught glimpses of Peggy in action a couple of paces away from him, separated by a couple of Coalition and Soulless tussling with one another. He found himself impressed as he watched her slice through countless enemies, moving lithely with an efficiency not unlike his own, but with even more grace and flexibility. She darted in and out of the tiny gaps between bodies, slashing and stabbing her way through fifteen - no, twenty of Hans' undead army in the span of less than half a minute. Her body language and fighting style were so similar to his own in so many ways, yet she moved with Elsa's grace.

Bringing himself back to the task at hand, he continued carving his way through the creatures, leaving a trail of mangled, bloodied bodies in his wake. There was no mistaking it. She could take care of herself. She was a combatant through and through, just like him.

"Never been this bonkers before, has it?" Tracy shouted beside him as she unleashed her own brand of mayhem, black magic consuming entire sections worth of enemies with a single attack. "And we've seen a bloody lot!"

"How long will this spell last?" He shouted in response.

"A couple of hours maybe?"

He didn't know if it was going to be enough, considering Hans' new players on the field. He and the others were doing fine right now, but soon the numbers game would catch up to them and the remainder of the Coalition's defenders. Before long, the Soulless would kill the skirmishers or force them to break, meaning that either way, the enemy would make it to Fort Steinfall and quite possibly kill hundreds or thousands who hadn't boarded the Highlander ships yet.

So no, they couldn't just keep fighting to outlast Hans' monsters. Anna or whoever else was calling the shots up there would have to come up with a better counterattack soon. Darting forward with superhuman speed, he tore through yet another soulless' heart with the quick stab and a sideward jerk of his dagger, spraying blood and flesh as he jolted forward to meet his next target. At least, before we're all killed.

ELSA

Summoning the abundant well of sorcery within her again, she channelled ice through her hands, massive shards spearing through the Soulless and sending them sprawling in the masses. Elsa winced for what might've been the hundredth time. She absolutely hated the brutality of it all. And it wasn't as though she hadn't seen war or combat before. She'd been in this game for far too long, but she'd never crossed the line and killed her enemies.

But this time her enemies weren't living soldiers like the light infantry that had come before. This massive horde of soulless creatures weren't truly alive, as Hansel and Gretel had pointed out truthfully, so killing them didn't really count. But still, she hated the fact that she was forced to unleash her sorcery so viciously. Well, there was that, or the alternative which was to be torn apart or trampled by the mindless beasts whose only goal seemed to be getting to Fort Steinfall's walls.

"Elsa! Look out!" Gretel screamed, jolting her out of her lamentations.

A Soulless was leaping through the air, hands stretched out towards her with a twisted snarl on its bloodied and grime-smeared face.

Elsa gasped, bringing up her guard as she timed her fall backwards. The creature collided with her but as she fell, she forced the creature over her head with all her might and twisted so that she landed with a knee in the snow, facing her assailant.

The Soulless that'd fallen among a couple of Arendellian skirmishers was already scrambling to its feet, snarling and growling as the skirmishers tried to spit it on their bayonets. It ignored the wounds in its side inflicted by the soldiers and sprung at her again, screaming horrifically.

Her hand shot out instinctively, freezing the creature whole in mid air and it fell harmlessly into the snow in a block of ice. A mere clench of her fist, and the frozen creature splintered into a hundred pieces mixed in with the snow and blackpowder.

"Is it just me or are you getting tired like the rest of us?" Hansel asked in between pulls of the trigger.

Elsa sighed and levered herself to her feet. "I'll like to see you keep going forever."

"Oh, me? Nah," Hansel said as the head of a Soulless exploded courtesy of a rifle shot at point blank range. "I'm not here for a long time. Just a good one."

"Funny how you think this is a good time," Melody remarked as she vaulted over the back of a fallen Soulless with lightning speed and kicked another in the throat with such strength that its head snapped back with a crunch. "Can't recall a time when we were in this tight a spot."

"And we've been in some pretty tight spots," Elsa pushed out another stream of ice that felled four more undead soldiers who were charging straight at Melody's flank. They could keep this up for as long as they could, but there was no telling how many of these monsters Hans had at his beck and call. Sooner or later, they might fall and close to a quarter of the Coalition would become martyrs on Christmas Day.

"Do you guys really talk this much during a fight?" Melody's friend Oliver was still armed with his bow and arrow, shooting down the soulless at close range. "I'd have thought the Warriors were more stoic."

"Yeah well, we're full of surprises." Melody spun and drove an elbow into the sternum of a soulless, hoisting it over her shoulder before hesitantly crushing its skull with her boot. By the looks of it she too was having an uneasy time using such lethal techniques, though she evidently always had them at her disposal.

Hearing the snarl of another Soulless, Elsa whirled like a cat and froze her would-be attacker, disintegrating it into tiny shards of ice with the clench of her fist. Stepping forward, she met a couple more of the creatures head on, impaling them from the ground up with a volley of stalagmites. Raising both palms, she levitated the stalagmites and the Soulless off the snow and spun them till they were parallel to the ground. Then with a grunt, Elsa forced the large icicles forward, stabbing at least two more through the chests with each of the stalagmites.

"No offence, but does Queen Anna have a better plan?" Gretel shouted over at her as she easily dispatched three undead soldiers with the rifle as a melee weapon. "We're not going to last too long like this."

"Hate to say it, but she's right," Hansel agreed. "I can probably go a couple more hours, but something tells me these damn bastards are going to force the Field Marshal up there to sound the retreat!"

"Either that, or these soldiers' discipline are going to break and they'll get routed!" Gretel said.

"We don't break that easily!" Oliver retorted. "You bounty hunters would've known that if you'd actually been involved in more skirmishes instead of lying on your asses!"

"No one offered us enough money for that, now did they?" Hansel shot back as he bashed in a Soulless' head.

"Shut up, both of you!" Melody warned, finishing off another two enemies while she was at it.

"She's right," Elsa's eyes swivelled about as she kept her hands at waist level. "There'll be plenty of time to argue later."

"Assuming we make it out of this," Oliver muttered as he turned back to shooting down more of the Soulless from his perch.

Elsa sighed as she threw out her hands and ice exploded into scores of the creatures, sending a good number of them flying backwards and allowing the Arendellian and Northuldra skirmishers in the immediate vicinity to fill in the gaps to maintain the line.

Slowly but surely, she could feel herself growing increasingly fatigued. They'd been at this since dawn and the sun was already up in the sky, though hidden by the gloomy clouds and the incessant fall of snow. She was able to draw strength from the cold in her surroundings, but sooner or later she would slip up and the creatures would be upon her. Worse, many of the Coalition soldiers on the battlefield might not make it out alive.

Fighting off as many as she could, Elsa watched in helplessness as Hans' undead army tore through countless more soldiers. Their overwhelming numbers pushed even her and her allies back again, and she found herself backpedaling slowly as the Soulless advanced, snarling and growling like beasts.

And then, foreign sorcery made its presence known from behind her. New volleys of magic were sent out all along the line, pushing the Soulless back yet again with such force that it earned the Coalition defenders a quick reprieve. Surprised, Elsa whirled to see a whole line of League sorcerers advancing to join the fray, spread out all along the length of the battlefield to assist the skirmishers in their deadly conflict. She spotted Vonco and a couple of other familiar faces as they made their way towards her position and moved to meet them in the clearing.

"Vonco! Cornelius!" She greeted them with genuine relief, nodding at the others who were with the two senior sorcerers.

"Good to see you too, boss," Vonco tipped an imaginary hat. "Glad to see you're back."

"This wasn't how I imagined my reunion with the League," Elsa let out a breathless chuckle, feeling incredibly glad to see her sorcerers again. "But what are you doing down here?"

"You have your sister to thank for that," Vonco shouted over the new blasts and explosions of sorcery blended in harmony with musketry and the rifle cracks. "She made the call to send more than half the League down to assist. Said we could do without as many countering the enemy artillery."

"The right call, I'm sure," Elsa said gladly. "We could really use the help down here."

"We figured. Looks pretty bad," Vonco agreed. "But with half the League down here, we might be able to end this on our terms."

"With any luck," Elsa pointed at the Soulless. "No need to hold back this time. We're not dealing with humans here."

"Zombies, then?" Vonco side-eyed the other sorcerers. "This ought to be fun," He raised a fist dramatically. "Come on, lads! Let's show these zombies what the League's made of!"

The sorcerers charged into the fray to join the rest who were already engaged in battle with the Soulless. The difference was quite stark and immediate. With the League's presence down here on the battlefield, the odds were beginning to tip in their favour as more and more of the Soulless were cut down, forced back by powerful magic or simply disintegrated. The Coalition soldiers around were also taking heart by this new development, cheering with renewed fire and pushing back against the enemy harder than before.

Revitalised with new hope, Elsa took a deep breath and sprinted back into the deep of the fighting, eyes searching for her friends. The Witch Hunter siblings were easy enough to spot, taking turns to level their long-barrelled rifles to their shoulders and scything down the soulless at close range while the other loaded behind cover. Oliver was somewhere out there past the smoke, joining the rest of the skirmishers in the all-out melee. As Elsa shot down two more of the undead soldiers with her ice, she spotted Melody a couple of yards away, still moving tirelessly to take down enemy after enemy with the speed and agility she always fought with, but now equipped with the physical enhancements courtesy of Tracy's spell which made her positively deadly.

"Hope you had a nice break," Melody remarked loudly to Elsa as she delivered a roundhouse kick to the side of a Soulless' skull, then in the same motion hooked her leg round the back of another Soulless' neck and dragged it to the ground. She finished with a quick strike of her elbow to the head, bashing it in with her supernatural strength. "The rest of us here could use one."

"What, you getting tired with all of those new powers?" Elsa quipped as she joined the Danish princess in battle, feeling a lot lighter and hopeful now that the League had arrived on the scene.

"Not yet," Melody smashed in a Soulless' nose and pivoted on the back of her heel quicker than lightning, using her momentum to land another roundhouse kick that snapped the ribs of a soulless trying to clobber her from behind.

Well, Melody's certainly doing very well with her new powers, Elsa mused to herself as she ducked beneath a wild lunge of a Soulless and spun to freeze the creature where it stood. As she threw volley after volley of her sorcery into scores of the creatures, Elsa spared a brief glance to her left. She could only hope that Janus and Peggy were having the same success with their new abilities. Everything within her was screaming for her to abandon her spot and rush over to make sure they hadn't been maimed by the Soulless yet. As for Tracy, well, she obviously could take care of herself without any issues.

"They're slowing!" Melody shouted to no one in particular. "Now's our chance! Push them back!"

The ones near enough who'd heard her took up her cry, echoing it till it rang out across the battlefield. Sure enough, the Soulless all around them were beginning to slow their attack, strangely allowing the Coalition soldiers and the sorcerers to catch their breath before forcing the Eternal Horde further away from the fortress, shooting or stabbing the creatures as they went, eliminating the stragglers from the midst of the defenders. It was like a godsend.

Elsa's attention was drawn to Hansel who was a couple of feet away from her.

"Get off me!" Hansel roared, tussling with a Soulless who was straddling him in the snow. The creature suddenly stopped trying to claw out his eyes and sat up as though listening intently to something.

Elsa shot a precise stream of ice which punched the Soulless off the Witch Hunter, allowing him to clamber to his feet. Hansel grabbed his long rifle which had fallen to the ground in the scuffle and bashed the Soulless' head in before it could recover from the blast of sorcery.

"Filthy sons of bitches," Hansel cursed as he kicked away the bloody corpse with malice, turning to Elsa. "Thanks."

"Any idea what's going on?" She asked, hoping for additional insight as to why the Soulless were suddenly behaving so strangely.

"Beats me," he said as he loaded his rifle again. "Looks like these bastards are cowards after all."

"Unlikely," she said grimly as she watched the Coalition soldiers backing the Soulless away from the fortress at bayonet point. "These things don't have a mind of their own. They're being controlled by…" she trailed off, realisation setting in. "Damn it, we're being baited!"

"What?"

"They're being controlled by Hans, which means he wants to lure us out into the field. But why?"

"He's planning some sort of ambush?"

"Precisely," Elsa sprinted into the mass of humanity and Soulless, leaving a very confused Hansel behind. She found Melody grappling with one of the creatures and called out to her. "Don't kill it!"

Melody grabbed its arm and twisted, kicking out its knee and forcing it to kneel. "What?"

"Don't kill it! Not yet." Elsa barged in, grabbing the Soulless by the collar out of Melody's hands. "I know you can hear me!" She screamed as she shook the creature. "Answer me, Hans!"

"Elsa! What are you doing?"

"I know you're controlling these monsters," Elsa ignored her friend, staring daggers into the green, empty eyes of the Soulless. "Now answer me! Why draw us out?"

The Soulless' eyes glowed a brighter green and the creature opened its mouth in a gasp as its body stiffened all of a sudden, as though a soul had just been rudely shoved into its body.

Elsa tightened her grip on its Exonian uniform, staring down at the Soulless. From the peripheral of her eye, she could see Melody watching in bewilderment.

"Excellent, my dear," the Soulless spoke in a voice unfamiliar to Elsa, but the calm, mocking tone behind it was all too recognisable. "It seems you've learnt something after all."

"Hans," she growled.

"Very right," the creature said pleasantly. "Though not in the flesh, unfortunately. I wish I could be there with you this instant so I can kill you myself."

Angrily, Elsa shook the Soulless. "Answer me!"

"Like I said, you are right. I do control these mindless beasts, though rather crude creations they are," the glowing light went out from behind the creatures eyes and it slumped against her body.

Disgusted, Elsa pushed it away, just as another barrelled into her side and dragged her to the ground, closing its grubby hands around her neck. This one's green eyes glowed now, and it laughed. "But they do have their uses, don't they, sweetheart?"

Melody grabbed the Soulless off Elsa and hurled it to the ground with her supernatural strength. She pinned it to the snow as Elsa leaned over it.

"Tell me why you're doing this!" Elsa snapped, grabbing its collar and shaking the Soulless like a rag doll. "Or I'll-"

"Kill this vessel?" Hans laughed using the Soulless' vocal cords. "For every Soulless you kill I can summon a hundred more in its place. You are just delaying the inevitable."

"Then why are you retreating?" Melody asked.

"Strategy, of course." The Soulless fixed its glowing eyes on Elsa. "You know me well enough to know I don't do anything without a reason."

"I know," Elsa snarled. "Why are you drawing us out? An ambush from the rear?"

"He can't," Melody said resolutely. "We have our backs to the wall. He can't get in from behind us."

"Oh, I can't?" The Soulless grinned. "Have you forgotten our old friends from the Crimson Order?"

"Shit," Elsa dropped the Soulless as the glow faded from its eyes. "The Mage Slayers. This was just another distraction to draw us away from Steinfall!"

Melody crunched her knee into the creature's skull. "He's going to deploy them behind our lines!"

"Going to? It's already done," Another glowing-eyed Soulless grabbed at Elsa and missed wildly as she pivoted on her heel and slammed both hands into it, freezing it over. "Your Warriors got lucky killing Carnivore, but you're still ten steps behind," it grinned as the glowing light faded from its eyes just as Elsa's sorcery encapsulated its entire being in a block of solid ice. "The Mage Slayers don't like that you killed one of their brothers, and they're going to pay dear Anna a visit."

"No. no. no," Elsa panicked as she spun on her heel and made a mad dash back for the fortress. Tapping into her sorcery, she froze the snow beneath her feet so that it became solid ice, making it easier for her to run across the snow-covered field.

Melody caught up to her with her supernatural speed. "Elsa! You'll need me for what's coming!"

"No, I can handle this! Hans is still controlling the Soulless and there's no telling when he'll give the order for them to press the attack again or when the Mage Slayers decide to show up here to mount a pincer movement. When that happens, the Coalition needs you on the ground to even the odds."

"But you can't go up against the Mage Slayers alone!" Melody protested as they continued sprinting, the Danish princess matching Elsa's breakneck pace.

"Deirdre's up there with the remaining sorcerers, and so is Eleanor. I won't be alone," Elsa stopped abruptly, clutching her friend by the shoulders. "Anna needs me, but the Coalition needs you. Go!" With that, she took off again, her feet barely touching the snow as she left Melody behind. Adrenaline pumped in her veins and her heart slammed in her chest as her mind focused on one thing: getting back in time to stop the assassins from killing her sister.