Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Gold Digger Fan Fiction ❯ Golden Oportunity ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 11 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Notes - As with Prime Attitude II I'm breaking a longer chapter down into several parts and releasing them as seperate chapters. In this particular chapter I've taken the time to help expand on the Paladins, the Undead Army, the Edge Guard, and a bit of Ranma and Sheila. The first scene below was originally going to be a rather elaberate Omake, but after a working on it for a while I decided to put it in after spending three weeks working on it.

Web Site: http://shi_hanna.tripod.com/

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Golden Opportunity

Chapter 10

Cory D. Rose

ertle2@msn.com

(c) 2003

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Whenever an undead army of any kind attacked a city, two things stood out among peoples memories. The first was that most of the army tended to be made up of things people would rather not think about too often, like the remains of old uncle Sweenback and his gang. That meant that there was a good chance that Clem would have meet up with his brother Hoss anyway, who had died the week before in a freak accident with a jar of oil, missing his pants, and a horse's hoof to the temple. This of course was something the family really didn't want to talk about very much and had gone to great lengths to hide the fact that there had ever been a brother named Hoss in the first place. So when said undead brother kicked down the door and moaned at his family they reacted like they always had to the strange and unusual in a city of wizards. They took out their tools, an axe and a shovel and attacked their deceased family member with the full intention of making sure he never had a chance to get near another horse. For the good of the family. Of course.

"It's Hoss! Kill the &%$# for ruining our horses!" Clem yelled.

"But Clem, we used to play together when we were..." Hoss started to plead, but got hit in the head with a shovel from his mother.

"Quiet boy!" She yelled. "And put some &%$#ing pants on!"

"But Ma!"

The other thing that stood out in peoples memories was the fact that if you actually had to fight one of the undead creatures, one on one was the best way to do it because the things were actually only dangerous in large groups or if you were incredibly stupid. Most undead were actually kind of easy to take down, as long as it was one of the brainless types anyway. A good hit with an axe and a skeleton was nothing but shattered bones clattering upon the ground at your feet and most of the zombies were highly flammable for some reason, no one had yet connected the idea of methane and decomposition yet since science was forbidden on Jade. City folk and fire just didn't mix very well and undead bodies staggering around in circles while on fire, lit up by people throwing burning logs at the things from the comfort of their homes, was just strange. So axes and swords were encouraged by the Mage Council to keep the casualties down to a minimum.

"AGHAAAAAAAA!!!" Lanna screamed as she walked into the front room and saw her zombified brother with no pants on. "YOU DISGUSTING PIG!"

"Uh...hi sis?" Hoss tried.

He backed up as step as Lanna grabbed the shovel she had just gotten from her mother and slowly advanced on him with every intention of caving his skull in. He barely noticed as his clothing started on fire from the log that had been shoved down his throat.

This was why, the recently deceased Hoss, having had a bit of the wood from the cooking fire shoved down his throat by his Pa, which was currently still on fire. On top of that, his loving siblings, a brother and a sister were taking turns beating him into a second death with an axe and a shovel. Hoss's body was staggering around enough to set other houses on fire as he was hit across the face with a shovel and slammed into the occasional house. What little brains he had left came to the conclusion that his after life really sucked. Then his mother had to go and hit him over the head with a frying pan and his sister Lanna, the one that had been especially nice to him that one night in late November when he'd been out in the barn 'tending' to his favorite horse. Had just slammed a rather large shovel right into his crotch with the edge. Then his vicious brother proved his brotherly love by using the axe to remove all his limbs while his sister removed his head with a couple of awkward swings with the shovel. The snarl on her face was a beautiful thing to see, it highlighted her freckles and other things that one shouldn't see.

"Sis?" Hoss asked as his head rolled away from his body after one last clumsy swing of the shovel; why did he suddenly feel so free of guilt and anger?

"Excuse me miss are there any other undead around here or is that the...?"

Lanna screamed, twisted around and hit the source of the voice over the head with her shovel and watched in shock as Tirga of the Edge Guard collapsed to the ground. "Oh my!"

"Ungh." Tirga said eloquently.

"Are you alright?" Lanna asked with a hint of worry as she stepped over to him and noted all the dark fur and rock hard muscles hidden beneath his clothing.

"What you got there sis?" Clem asked as he hefted his axe in the air above Hoss' body in case he needed to use it again. Most of Hoss' body seemed to have been consumed by the fire and it was kicked outside easily enough to let the rest of it burn to ash on its own. Undead were supposed to be able to live through even that so they would have just wait until the fire died down. Though his head had been cut off before the fire could reach it and it looked like it was quite comfortable as it rolled back and forth on the floor.

"That there be Tirga of the Edge Guard, you should have seen him walking around the city at least once over the last few years, boy." Their mother said as she tossed a bowl of water from the kitchen on the small fire that had started on her porch and kicked a couple of severed fingers into the small bonfire Hoss' body was turning into a few yards away. She waved to the neighbors that were peaking fearfully from behind the curtains on the window that faced their house. The quickly vanished and she used the broom to sweep the severed head out the door and set it rolling towards the fire, though Hoss had something to say about that.

"But Ma..." Hoss tried to plead, but she didn't seem to hear him as she raised the broom like a golf club and lobbed the severed head into the burning pile.

"The one that always has a different girl on his arm?" Clem asked as he stared down at the weretirger that had his sister so infatuated.

Their ma nodded as she looked around and considered tossing the horses on the flaming pile as well, they just hadn't been same since Hoss died a few weeks ago. They just didn't have the energy they used to.

"Uh...what hit me?" Tirga muttered as he started to sit up as Lanna raised her shovel high.

Clang, clang!

"What'd you go and that fore Lanna?" Clem asked.

"I owed him one for that time he dumped me right in the middle of a date to go and flirt with a stripper." Lanna said with a sniff at her suddenly selective memory and stalked off with the shovel on her shoulder. Maybe she could find another zombie to take down, she needed to have a word or two with her grandfather anyway and he had only died a couple years ago.

"What's with her, ma?"

"I have no idea."

Pa just pretended he was one with the wall and decided that he might not want to draw to much attention to himself for a little while.

"Ungh!" Tirga muttered as he started to come around again.

And Hoss, well he just burned and dreamed of Bolt with a silly little grin on his face, she was his favorite mare.

"What happened to you?" Thropan asked as he came around the side of the house with Lanna close behind, her shovel was broken at the handle, but she had a satisfied grin on her face that suggested that she had found what she was looking for.

"Ungh." Tigra muttered as he tried to wake up a bit more.

"Better be careful around this one Tirga, she has a mean over swing." Thropan said with a grin. Then shook his head a little and helped his friend to his feet when he started to come around and ignored the large bruise forming on Tirga’s forehead.

The last twenty four hours had been pretty rough on Tirga, he'd been beaten up by Sheila, fought his way through a few hundred undead, been traumatized by a cute red head with a transgender curse, and now his friend was giving the girl at his side pointers on how to swing a shovel effectively enough to knock anyone out. He just couldn't seem to get a break. Tirga wasn't going to be able to live this one down for a very long time, all he had to do was mention that Ashaton guys name and the poor weretiger would start to shudder as the nightmare would come back to him. He briefly wondered if Tirga would develop a phobia to weird girls now, then shook his head and reminded himself that Tirga found the love of his life every few days. In a week he wouldn't even remember this. The guy had been following the girl around earlier when they both witnessed her use water to change from female to male. Tirga's lust had turned to and upset stomach and stupefied shock.

"Come on stud, you can't just lay here and sleep. We have a job to do." He said as he helped Tirga to his feet.

"Unmina....uuuy." Tirga muttered.

"Un huh, sure you are." Thropan said with a grin and turned to family as they watched. "You wouldn't have seen Onoli around here would you?"

"No, other than these annoying Undead, you're the first Edge Guard I've seen a couple of weeks."

He nodded. "Thanks, keep up the good work."

Pa smiles. "No problem."

As Thropan leaves with Tirga he hears the mother asking if they should do something about the horse, but turned the corner and headed down another street without hearing the answer. Sometimes he thought he would never understand the people that lived in this city, usually they were pretty normal in a greedy kind of way, but every now and then something like this would happen and just leave him confused. In the last couple of hours the whole city had been over run with thousands of undead skeletons and zombies being led by Undead Knights on horses. The only reason they hadn't overwhelmed the whole city already was the magical defences that had sprung up out of nowhere and even those were only working long enough to allow the paladin's from the base palace to set up magical road blocks in the street. Every torch in the city was an ever burning torch. They all seemed to have a Protection from Evil spell cast on it that activated when an undead got near one. If a Skeleton got to close to one, they would either explode or stumble off in a confused daze, making them easy targets.

The Zombies couldn't get near one either, but they weren't destroyed by them, and that left the Undead Knights. They weren't by their very nature’s evil beings, that was just what they had been raised to do by Rook. If they could have had any say in the matter they would have chosen to stay dead. Instead they were enslaved to the one that raised them in the first place and since most of them tended to be warriors that had died on the field of battle, they tended to be more neutral than evil. They fought and died for many different reasons, but when it came right down to it they weren't good, nor were they evil, they were just mindless tools. So they were able to get to the torches and disrupt the spell for a few seconds just by pulling it from the wall, enough that the rest of the undead could get through the streets without being harmed.

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Nali's clinic was famous throughout the region as the best place to take the injured for a quick recovery. She didn't mind this to much because it kept her bills paid, but there were times when she really, really hated to be bothered by everyone and their grandmother. She never complained about it though, that would have been unprofessional and she had a reputation to protect. Today was a bit different though, she had been treating several injured from an early morning bar fight and had used up about half the beds in her clinic. Most of them had been sent home, except for a couple with broken legs, when near sundown people had started staggering into her clinic with sword wounds and arrows sticking out of them and learned that the whole city was being attacked by an undead army. Within the hour she had been so overwhelmed that she had been forced to contact three other part time clinics on the other side of town about more supplies.

She had only gotten a tiny amount though since they had been over loaded with wounded patients themselves. That was when she found out about all the undead swarming into the city and attacking every living thing that moved. By the end of the first hour everybody was talking about the Undead Knights, laughing skeletons, and even zombies. She even heard a rumor that one of the Edge Guard had already been killed in the very first fight, but didn't have much time to worry about it or even care who it was. Every time she had a patient well enough to leave the clinic it seemed like two more would appear to take his place. She was so busy that she'd been forced to ask that all her assistants come in to help her, even setting up bed rolls out in the grass behind the building.

So she was quite swamped with almost two dozen patients, running around the room like a mad woman yelling orders to one of her assistants when Dr. Diggers and the others teleported into her clinic with a burst of white light that drew everyone's attention. All talk stopped as people realized that a member of the Council of Mages had brought in one of the Edge Guard. Dr. Diggers ignored everyone as he levitated Gar off the ground and over to one of the few empty beds, emptied less than ten minutes before, and deposited Sheila's brother upon it as gently as he could. He kept his face calm, but inside he was wondering why there were so many people in the clinic at a time like this. It had only been an hour or so since his meeting with the council and everything had been quite normal when he left. Normally Nali would only have two to three patients at a time and even then it was usually something one of her potions could cure pretty quickly. This many people suggested something else was gong on and he needed to find out what it was before he did anything else. Nodding to Nali, he motioned for the rest of them to head out to the lobby for a few minutes while Nali took a quick break and came over to talk to him. She told her assistant that she needed to talk to Dr. Diggers for a few seconds and that she would be right back to get him fixed up as quick as she could.

"Dr. Diggers why are there so many injured people?" Sheila asked the instant they had a bit more privacy.

"I don't know, but I plan to find out as soon as I can. The council should know what's going on."

Dr. Diggers and Julia took moved over to the side of the room to talk to Nali, but after a few seconds he made a gesture with his hand and him and Julia flashed out of the room in burst of light. Nali didn't waste any time running across the room to start making people drink potions again. She had quite a bit on hand, but if people didn't stop coming in she was going to run out. She didn't even have time to yell at Ranma and Sheila for standing around doing nothing while she had patients to take care of. So she left them there by themselves with the other patient she had recently released after a quick examination.

"So what do we do now?" Ranma asked as he glanced around the small room and noticed a guy nearly passed out in one of the chairs, a huge sword sitting between his legs for easy access if it was needed.

"I'm not sure, but I think we have to get to the Compound to meet up with the others."

The guy with the sword looked up and waved at them to catch their attention. "It won't do you any good; the Edge Guard Compound is gone."

Sheila turned to get a better look at the guy and instantly recognized him as the guy that had saved her the day before. "Ashaton? I didn't expect to see you again."

"Heh, I was on my way into town this morning when all hell broke loose a couple hours ago and ended up helping a number of people by bringing them here. I never want to see a skeleton again." Ashaton said as he thought about Raphiel and how he had vanished.

"What's going on then?"

"As far as I can tell, an army of undead monsters has invaded Seer's Hamlet. Though so far it's been mostly skeletons and zombies led by Undead Knights, I've never seen so many used at once."

"Undead?!" Sheila yelled and instantly thought about all those undead animals they had just recently ditched just before they ran into her brother.

Ashaton nodded with a tired sigh as he sat forward and grasped the handle of his over sized sword as he looked at them. "I've been pretty busy since they showed up, I'd be out there right now, but Nali wanted me to take a little break while I had the time."

"How many undead have you seen so far?" Sheila asked with a glance at Ranma.

"Several hundred or so. Mostly skeletons and tons of zombies, though there has been a rumor of a Ghoul roaming the city eating people that he's killed. The blasted zombies are all over the place and from peoples reactions they were all from a local graveyard. You’re lucky you were able to teleport into the clinic or you would've had to fight your way here like I did."

"What about the other Edge Guard members?"

"I don't know. I haven't been able to find any of them because of the attack. I do know that Raphiel has vanished or been killed though." Ashaton said sadly.

"WHAT?!" Sheila yelled in shock.

"BE QUIET!!" Nali screamed from the other room and one of the assistants glared at them as she walked over and shut the doors that blocked the front room off from the rest of the clinic. Sheila glared back as she tried to come to terms that her friend might be dead.

"Who's Raphiel?" Ranma asked; thinking of this cartoon he had once saw with bunch of guys dressed up in turtle outfits and performing a number of cheesy martial arts moves.

"He's the newest member of the Edge Guard, a Golem shaped like a Werecheetah and has just recently returned form his basic training at the main training ground inside the Retreat." Sheila explained. "Ashaton, what makes you think he's dead?"

He was silent for a few seconds before he decided what he needed to tell them. "I was near the Compound when a number of Undead Knights and a human woman stormed it. I'll bet they knew that no one was there, but they quickly took all the buildings and started to hunt Raphiel down. I think he was fighting back because the woman wasn't too pleased with some to the things the Undead Knights seemed to be telling her. I came along when I sensed them and tried to help out as best I could, we did pretty good considering how inexperienced your newest member is in a fight, but boy can he run. The two of us fought the Undead Knights for a while and managed to take down several of them as we fought our way across the compound, but that woman was more dangerous than I thought and she managed to knock me out and take Raphiel when he had his guard down."

"Then what happened?"

"When I woke up Raphiel was gone." Ashaton said with a sigh. "I couldn't find a body either, so I'm not sure what happened to him."

Sheila slumped a little, this kind of thing was expected in her line of work, but it was always a blow to see someone you had just met get beaten by the other side. "Did you see his body anywhere?"

"No, it was as if he had never existed."

"Nothing at all, even a small piece of him?" Sheila tried again.

"Why? What does that matter?"

"Raphiel is a Golem, one of the most realistic ones ever created in this age. As such if even a small piece of him survived it would be possible to bring him back from the dead, but if they took his body or kidnapped him there isn't anything we can do right now."

Ashaton cocked his head to the side a little and reached into one of his cloak pockets. "I did find this nearby when I woke up, but didn't really think all that much about it at the time and up until recently, with all these undead wandering around I had forgotten about it." He held up the small puzzle piece.

Taking the piece Sheila held it up and nodded. "This is just like the last time he was destroyed by his creator that first time. All that survived was this small piece of him. It's like a piece of his soul or something and he can be revived with it, though we don't have Array around like we used to, so I'm not sure what we can do this time around. All we really have to do is have another body made for him. Raphiel was given to us to train for whatever we needed; I figure we can do so again." Sheila wondered for a brief second if they would actually be able to contact Array again, and then decided that it would have to wait until later. Losing Raphiel would be a loss for the whole team, but he was gone and they had a tough job to take care of before things got any worse.

Ranma leaned forward and took a close look at the object in Sheila's hand. "That little thing can be turned into a living breathing person?"

She nodded. "Raphiel has a strange history; he was created to force Britanny to marry someone other than Stripe."

"I take it that the plan didn't work?" Ranma asked as he tried to recall if Britanny had ever mentioned anything about her marriage or a rival, but came up with nothing.

"Nope, the girl that created him in the first place dissolved him when he wouldn't obey her orders. He should have been completely destroyed, but for some reason this piece of him survived and he was brought back by a criminal named Array. The Council of Mages speculated that Raphiel may have been made too complete and that this thing may actually contain his soul, something no other golem has ever had."

Ashaton snorted. "I truly doubt that, golems are just machines, but I do know that Raphiel was very life like. Much more than some of the golems I've encountered over the years."

"I see..." Ranma mumbled, lost at sea and with no way to figure out what they were talking about. Then he did what he father had always told him to do, smile and keep silent, and pretend to know what was going on. He nodded knowingly and figured he could always try and figure it out later.

"That reminds me, what are we going to do about all these undead wandering around the swamp, even the city? They have to be the reason there are so many people in here and wounds from certain types of undead don't heal right."

Ranma blinked out of his confusion and gave her a funny look. "They don't?"

"No, undead are created with powerful magic and that magic sometimes messes with a persons ability to heal, especially us werecats." Sheila explained.

Nali was wiping her hand on a rag as she opened the clinic doors and came out into the lobby for a small break and to see if any more patients had shown up. "You guys may as well go home if you don't need to see me, I'm full up and helping some of the guys to live through the night is going to take all my attention."

"What about Gar?" Sheila asked.

"He's taken quite a beating, but he should live, but that compulsion spell that was cast on him will take several days to wear off completely, it would be best to just let him sleep."

"Ranma I told you not to hurt my brother!" Sheila said as she turned on Ranma and glared when she remembered just who it was that beat up her brother.

"Like I had a choice in the matter." Ranma growled back.

"Gar will be fine, but he needs rest more than anything right now so that the counter spell can work properly."

Nali said and shooed all of them outside. "Now get going, I have patients to take care of."

Sheila nodded as they exited the building and turned to Ranma. "Where do we go from here? The Compound is gone so I have no place to stay."

Suddenly there is low pitched, but annoying sound in the air that has Ranma and Ashaton looking around in confusion. "What the heck?"

"That is the general alert tone, it means that the whole city is under attack and the citizens need to be on guard and help out the city militia as best they can. About time too, they should have sounded that some time ago." Nali muttered darkly.

"I have to go and find Onoli; with the alert on the whole team needs to be assembled as quickly as possible." Sheila said as she tried to come up with the best way to do just that and started walking down the street looking for any of her friends. "Ranma you can come with me or help out here, but I have to go and meet everyone."

"Like I'll just leave you to go into danger by yourself." Ranma snapped as he followed after her.

Nali watched them head down the street and turn a corner before turning to Ashaton. "I see the hot water worked."

Ashaton laughed nervously and nodded. "Um...yeah, thanks again for your help."

"Still want me to see why you changed into a werecheetah like that? Considering what you really are..." Nali started to say.

"No, I already had a pretty good guess why and if what that girl just said was true, then Raphiel is probably the reason I changed the way I did."

"Then get out, with the alert on I have to prepare for more injured and your health, so in the way."

He nodded with an innocent face. "Alright, I need to go and help out as well, thanks for giving a place to rest up for a couple of hours."

"No problem." Nali said as she stalked back inside the clinic and shut the door.

With a nod Ashaton carefully swung his large sword up over his head and slid it through the strap that he used to hold in place. He tended to slice through the straps upon occasion, but pulling the thing out of a sheath was a giant pain in the ass. Two straps worked just as well and allowed him enough freedom of movement to yank the thing out quickly if he needed to. He glanced around and noticed for the first time that the streets were deserted for as far as he could see. After a few seconds he decided to head in the opposite direction as Raphiel's friends. Now that the girl had that puzzle piece, he still had problems believing that they would bring the guy back to life with it; there was a chance he could get back to finding what he came here for in the first place.

The Phoenix Gate. Several magical sources had pointed him towards this city and if he had to fight his way through the city just to find the thing, he was prepared to do just that. It was his only way home. He pulled out the list of places he had planned to check out before all this happened and saw that he was quite close one of the places at the top of the list. Though he took a second to scratch a line through the first item on the list, he hadn't senses the Phoenix Gate energy anywhere inside of Nali's Clinic. Now he had to head off to the next location a few blocks away, through a slavering horde of undead monsters, and fond a store that sold magical items. He carefully memorized the cross streets and flipped the paper over and checked the map he'd bought a few days before of Seer's Hamlet. It wasn't the best map, bit it showed him everything he needed to know, all he had to do was mark down the general area and he could find his way there.

"Now all I have to hope for is that I find the thing before anyone else has a chance to use it."

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In the light of the setting sun Goldwave slipped out of his small lair inside the main entrance to the base palace and out onto the large branch and looked out over the to the mountains in the distance. The ancient gold dragon spread his wings and dropped off the large branch that stretched out for close to ten miles from the trunk of the great tree and let his wings cut into the wind for several seconds before he twisted them and let his magic flow out along his body and allowing his large bulk to lighten enough to allow him to fly. With a massive flexing of his wings he levelled out about a hundred feet above the ground and rose into the sky. Within minutes he was cruising just below the clouds with lazy sweeps of his wings, letting his magic keep him as light as a bird in flight with its hollow bones. He looked down at the ground below to see where he was and saw that he was just a few miles from the dragon's preserve.

Centuries before when they had made up the treaty with the humans his ancestors had taken steps to make sure that there was a place for all dragons to rest and hunt for dinner. Goldwave didn't really care that a lot of dragons thought this was a bit of a raw deal, he was old, and he didn't really care about what any of the younger dragons thought any more. He had spent his youth doing the same thing and eventually grown out of it as he learned more and more about the humans and how they reacted to things. He was thankful to have a place to go where he could get a quick meal without having to hunt it down. Sure he had to actually capture one of the animals in the preserve, but at least they were usually in the same place and there was usually quite a selection to choose from. With a lazy twist he spotted the area he wanted and focused down on a couple of large bulls standing out in a pasture that marked the boundary to the preserve.

Stomach grumbling, Goldwave marked out one of the bulls and moved to dive on him from hundreds of feet up in the air. Then he caught something out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a horrifying sight as a Dracolich dove out of the clouds above him. As a dragon he was immune to most types of fear, being an ancient dragon took care of pretty much everything else, but a Dracolich isn't like a normal dragon. They are the reanimated bones of a dead dragon with decomposing skin and an undead glow that could literally frighten the living to death with its mere presence. It turned its skeletal head toward him and snarled; its teeth gnashing against the wind as little flecks of skin seemed to slowly strip off its skull. Its eye sockets were glowing with undead life, sending a greenish white glow into the night air. Goldwave wasn't surprised, nothing surprised him anymore and he had met a Dracolich a couple times in the last twenty thousand years.

One thing he did know how ever was that he wasn't as strong as he had been in his prime. His magic was a lot stronger, but his body wasn't up to the challenge that a Dracolich would prove to be, then the worst thing that could happen, did. Goldwave's head snapped to look in the other direction and spotted a second Dracolich, this one was just an evil looking as the other one and it seemed to be getting ready to attack. With a determined roar Goldwave knew his chances of surviving this had just dropped even lower, it would take all his cunning and skill to make it out of this. He didn't care who had sent them, only that he would have to fight them with everything he had. Luckily he knew some of the weaknesses a Dracolich had to exploit. With a flap of his wings he rolled in mid air, unsheathed his claws and landed on top of the first Dracolich's back and buried them in as far as they would go. Inhaled at the same time and used his breath weapon to engulf the thing's head for a second or two before spreading his wings and raising high into the air above them using the sudden infusion of thermal energy from his breath weapon to gain some much needed altitude.

He laughed as the second Dracolich collided with the first one in an attempt to get him with a surprise attack. Undead of this type have no brains, literally, and are usually controlled by the mage that resurrected them. He wondered briefly if these two were being controlled by the same Mage then decided that even if they were this fight would take far too long. He would have to take some chances if he wanted to live to see another day. A true undead dragon wouldn't have wasted their time in an attempt to intimidate him; they would have strafed him from above and hit him in the stomach and wings with their breath weapon before flying off and vanishing into the clouds. Being undead they would pretty much unstoppable with normal aerial moves as well and no matter how much he damaged their wings and body they just wouldn't stop until they were totally destroyed. He had just reduced the first one by almost half by snapping its wing bones like he had and burning its head into a fine char, but one look over his shoulder was enough to confirm that even when it was on fire the thing just wouldn't stop coming.

Growling in anger Goldwave adjusted his eyes enough to see the ground below him a little better while using his magic senses to keep an eye on the two Draloliches after him. With a mighty flap of his wings he rose up higher into the air, spun around and focused in on his enemy with narrowed eyes full of rage. The Draloliches rose toward him with some kind of smoke trailing from their undead mouths, but Goldwave didn't care. His bones creaked as he performed a delicate pitch and roll maneuver at over ten thousand feet in the air and lit up the sky with his flame, vaporizing nearby clouds as it fired out of his mouth with an ear shattering roar that can even be heard all the way back at Seer's Hamlet. Dodging as best they can the two Draloliches just barely get out of the way as Goldwave folded his wings and dove right through the hole he had just created and headed for the ground like a stone, his great bulk as streamlined as it can be.

His enemy was quick to follow, but not quick enough as Goldwave waited until he was just a few hundred feet above the ground to unfurl his wings and angle them just right. His teeth are showing as he watches the undead things follow after him and wondered if they have any semblance of a dragon still left in them or if they are truly just puppets. His wings finally cut into the wind enough for him to alter his decent into a glide as he missed running into the ground by only fifty feet. His senses tell him that the undead things are too far behind him to have fallen for the trick as they suddenly change course without the use of their wings. These two were far more than Goldwave had suspected and he started to grin a little more. This fight was going to be more than he figured; these were true Draloliches, not the phoney types that were just animated skeletons most commonly used.

His speed was such that when he passed over a farm house he had to have blown all the windows out. He ignored it completely as he spotted what he was heading for in the distance. If he was to survive he would have to use all the trickery in his arsenal and what he had in mind might not work against a true Dracolich, but he would have to try, he would not die without taking one of them with him at least. His senses flared as he felt a build up of magical power above him and twitched to the side, almost hopping in mid air, as two beams of black energy passed through where his wings had been just barely a half second before. They flew down and slammed into the ground without and explosion. Instead from where they had a circle of forest and grass seemed to just dry up and die in the blink of an eye for almost a hundred feed in either direction. He had never seen a Death breath weapon before and knew that if he was hit with one he was as good as dead.

Pumping more of his magical energies through his body he increased his speed as much as he could. He could feel the drain on his energy supplies dwindling with every second that passed, but he didn't slow down as his eyes were finally able to make out the cliff face he was looking for. It was over eight hundred feed high and had been around for centuries. About a third of the way down one side was a large gorge or crevice that had formed over an even longer length of time. As a small dragon he had used the gorge as a play ground and knew it better than the backs of his wings. It had twists and turns that could take a normal dragon by surprise if they weren't careful and he'd once had the pattern down so perfectly that he could fly it blind. It had been a couple hundred years, but he still remembered his mental map and some of the places he'd once tricked other dragons into during the course of the run.

He had never done such a thing with a Dracolich though and he wasn't sure if his plan would work or not, but he had ever intention of going through with it and with a little luck he would survive this attack. A glance behind him was enough to let him know that the pair of undead things were catching up with him as they used magic to just propel themselves forward at speeds that would have normally ripped the scales from their bodies. Goldwave ignored it for now and knew he would make the gorge a few seconds before they caught up with him and he could use that to his advantage. He poured on a bit more magic and increased his speed and make sure his pursuers had to waste that little bit more magic to keep up with him. He grinned, his long white teeth almost gleaming, as he blew past a small isolated farm stead and used a back to send a hurricane of dry hay into the air to distract the pair.

For a brief second they weren't quite as focused on him as they had been and he whispered a word to a spell he liked to use occasionally, either as a joke or in dangerous situations. Seconds later an ethereal smoke like substance started to form on his wings as he flew through the air and left a trail of sparkles trailing behind him. The problem with being a dragon was that each age category tended to be of similar power and strength so one had to out think their opponents. He used is this particular spell to gage his enemies ability to think and see how they reacted. Though these were undead beasts most Draloliches, no matter what kind of life they had been before the change, were usually thinking creatures and if they could do more than dodge and fire their breath weapon they would know for sure what kind of creatures he was dealing with.

Soaring out over a small valley Goldwave started a mental countdown, as he neared the gorge and knew he was only a minute from reaching the beginning of a race that could very well mean his life. A roar off to the side caused him to fold one wing up just a notch and he deftly dodged another ball of black energy and saw out of the corner of his eye as it blew a large swath of death into the plants and trees below. He grinned as he noticed that the things had started to ignore the sparkles coming off his wings and were letting them cascade around their undead bodies.

"STARLIGHT FLARE!" Goldwave suddenly bellowed and gave the spell a mental shove.

Goldwave's wings exploded into a blinding white light that flashed across the sky and traveled back down his flight path with a trail of sparkles. They left his wings in a wave of piercing light that caught the two undead monsters by surprise as it washed over them and lit them up like a pair of mini flying suns. It also moved across the sky rest of the sky in a matter of seconds and lit up the whole valley around them as if the sun was still raining light down upon the world. Goldwave crowed in triumph as the Draloliches were forced to change course and go spinning wildly out of control. If it worked like he hoped they would be too pissed off to think straight and he would have them. Now all he had to do was conserve his magic and fly like a hatchling through a gorge that had once been his playground.

He suddenly realized he had made a slight miscalculation and was in deep trouble, he had nearly tripled in size over the years and he just knew as he entered the gorge that he wasn't as maneuverable as he had been all those years before. Cursing loudly for making such a hatchling like mistake. He would have be overly careful and hope his larger bulk wouldn't cause too many problems. That of course was why he suddenly had a flash back to when he had used to sit on the edges of these very cliffs and insult the larger dragons for trying to take on the gorge and failing due to their size. He sighed to himself and cursed a little more, arrogance, all dragons had it in abundance and now it looked like he would either eat a bit of crow or prove his younger self wrong by conquering the gorge with a skill that the older dragons had rarely ever shown. It was a challenge for his very survival and he was all for it, who wanted to die at his age?

Roaring in rage, the two Draloliches burst out of the wave of light he had engulfed them in a few seconds before. They rose into the sky and looked around till they spotted him and dove at him, using gravity to angle their bodies down at him to gain more speed. Goldwave figured he was thirty seconds from the mouth of the gorge and let his starlight flare spell go, in an instant the darkness of night washed over the valley once more and allowed him to cast a spell to help him see the gorge better. Out of the corners of his eyes he watched the decent of the two Draloliches and figured they just might fall for his next trick, they normally weren't this stupid. He really didn't want to fight these things either, but his life was on the line after all so he wouldn't worry about the damage he was about to cause. He opened his mouth just as he passed the front edge of the gorge and fired out a sudden blast of fire. It slammed into a tall pillar of stone that was used by the dragons to watch the trace through the gorge. It, along with several others, dotted various locations along its length.

The blast of fire melted the stone like warm butter as he flashed by and seconds later there was a loud grinding sound as the pillar came down, shattering into several large boulders as it fell. The first Dracolich passes through right on his tail and close enough to dodge the raining pile of stone. The second Dracolich on the other hand got slammed by a thousand tons of falling stone and is literally ground into fine piles of bone powder as it crashed to the ground with a scream of rage as its body is crushed and its magic failed to protect it. Goldwave new that there was a possibility that someone would dig the thing out and reanimate it, but he figured it wouldn't happen any time soon. He just had one more to go and he could head back to the base palace and inform the council of the attack.

Moving at speeds that only an adult dragon could achieve though their stronger magic control, Goldwave weaved through the first of the crags and obstacles of the course. He didn't have time to think about the past as he moved back and forth. Behind him he could just sense that the Dracolich was following him easily and in some cases just ignoring the course completely. Then Goldwave groaned as he suddenly realized another flaw in his plan, one that he hadn't even considered when he chose this place to fight. The upcoming fight would be interesting if the thing actually followed the rules of the game, but what were the chances of that?

Diving deeper into the gorge proved to be a good idea as it pulled the Dracolich after him. There was also a large river near the bottom of the gorge that had been used by the dragons for the years as place to bath and have a place to relax without having to worry about being attacked by other dragons. There were places along the long river that were like neutral ground, places that had rules that were punishable by death, no matter how old the dragon was that broke it. Of course they were rarely enforced and had proven to be quite a bit of leverage over more than one dragon over the years. Goldwave gritted his teeth as he dove down and skimmed along the surface of the water and threw up a wake behind him as his long tail dragged in the water.

His mind created and discarded over a dozen plans in a matter of seconds as he tried to think of the best way to kill the final Dracolich. Catching that one with the rock had been a bit of luck and pure cunning rolled into one. It would not fall for the same tactic that had gotten its partner, so he had to come up with something else. Quickly, or he was one dead dragon no matter how he looked at it. He flexed his wings and moved to the side as the thing started to spew its deadly breath weapon down upon him. Arching his back Goldwave launched himself high into the sky with a mighty flap of his wings, his eyes keeping an eye on the thing mass of bone and dried out flesh that was attacking him. Inhaling a massive amount of air he twisted in mid air as he passed by the Dracolich and fired out a wave of return fire. Letting off a silent scream the thing was engulfed in flames and blown over a hundred feed into the wall of the gorge.

Goldwave arched back around for another blast of fire as the thing slid down the wall and fell in the river with a massive splash. It wasn't enough to put out a fire created by Goldwave; he had gained the ability to make sure it burned continuously until it destroyed its target. Still burning, the Dracolich turned its flaming skull towards him and opened its mouth and fired out a blast of black fire that seemed to merge with the fire and increase its power considerably. All the water in ten feet of the Dracolich instantly vaporized the beam of black death fire out of the things mouth and rose into the air. Goldwave bellowed loudly and folded his wings to his back and rolled to the side to desperately evade the attack. It flashed by and even as it missed him by a couple of feet he could feel it trying to leach the live out of his body. Behind him a good portion of the cliff face shattered under the force of the impact. For a second he could only gape at the amount of destruction as five hundred tons of solid stone hit the water with enough force to hear the strike clear over in Seer's Hamlet.

Then the water seemed to swell just as he opened his wings to gain a little more altitude and a twenty foot high wave of water traveled by him to slam into the Dracolich still standing at in the water at the edge of the water. The thing was picked up and slammed against the rocks with enough force to shatter several of its bones. As Goldwave flew higher and higher he could see the ripple effect the falling rock had created and several more large waves slammed into the Dracolich and finished it off within a couple of minutes. Smaller and smaller waves pulled what was left of the body, parts of it still on fire, apart and let it drift upon the waters. The sight warmed his heart a little; those things were just a total mockery of a true dragon, no matter how strong they were.

"Take that spawn of evil!" Goldwave growled out with a toothy grin.

He flipped a wing to make his way out of the gorge when a shadow passed over him and he looked up just in time to be hit by a wave of black energy mixed with red lightning. It washed over his body and melted the scales off his hide and turned his flesh to liquid in an instant. He rained down the sides of the gorge in a giant flaming ball of liquid fire that lit up the night sky for several seconds. High up top the edge of the nearby gorge an impossibly huge brownish white Dracolich covered in lichen and literally nothing but skin and bone. This thing is nearly five times as big as the other two and its breath weapon seemed to fill the whole gorge for several seconds as it filled the entire are in black fire and killing every living thing it touches instantly. Eventually the black energy flowed to a stop and the thing closes its gaping maw, it sits up a little and admires its handy work before lifting its head and letting off a roar that can be heard for miles. It slowly rises into the sky and made its way towards the destination far in the distance where the tiny threads of smoke can be seen rising from the outer edges of Seer's Hamlet. With a few beats of it's bony wings it quickly climbs to about a thousand feet and takes it's place at the head of nearly a dozen flanks of smaller Dracolich's as they converge on him and they continue on their way to the city in the distance where the real battle is going on.

Standing on the neck ridge of the mammoth undead dragon is a figure in black Darth Vader like armor. There is a huge sword strapped to his back and he barely seems to notice what the dragons is doing as he watches the sky around them. As they rise into the sky one can see hundreds of thousands of skeletons marching in formation after formation on the ground far below them as G'nolga leads the main portion of the army to battle. They converge and cover the whole valley in a matter of minutes as they run along at impossible speeds leaving death and destruction behind in their wake. Laughing evilly, Rook holds a gauntleted fist high and sends out a wave of red energy that seems to give more power to the undead monsters as they move, making them faster and more agile than they had been, and they are soon cutting down everything in their path. His laughter can be heard for miles as the mighty Dracolich army heralds the coming of the newest leader of the world!

**********

Sgt. Loval of the Seer's Hamlet Paladin Army was not in a good mood as he commanded his troops to defend the town against the undead army. They had come out of nowhere and he couldn't figure out just how that had happened. The mage council had ways to predict things like this and even had plans in place in case it actually did happen, but they needed a bit of forewarning. Something they hadn't been given this time and it was placing them at a major disadvantage. In less than an hour the undead had swarmed throughout the city and simply overwhelmed the inhabitants by sheer numbers. The council had also been informed of the attack and he figured it was just pure luck that they had been here today for a meeting. Otherwise things would have been much, much worse than there were already.

That was why he was here with his men setting up a road block in the middle of the street. The skeletons had come through this part of town earlier in the day and left burning buildings and destruction in their wake. What Sgt. Loval hated the most was that when someone died they were instantly revived as a zombie and added to the Army that was attacking him. He had reports of people farmers from outside the Hamlet participating in the attack as zombies. It was enough to make him sick. Not that he had time to really care at the moment as his men finished setting up the road block. A series of wooden, magically strengthened, four foot barbed structures that were designed to stop an attacking army from advancing easily. They were light weight and easy to move into position with a horse. When they were in place they touched it and said a magic word that would make the things weigh a couple of tons each.

"Sergeant?" Asked a familiar voice.

He looked to the side and snapped to attention as he recognized Dr. Diggers and his wife. "Sir!"

"How goes the battle? Have you received any information from the council yet?" Dr. Diggers asked.

Sgt. Loval shook his head as he relaxed a little. "No sir, we have been struggling to get the defences set up around the city. We're lucky that the people are as skilled as they are, they are making the difference in this fight and buying us the time we need to get things set up to throw the undead things out of the city."

"Any idea how they got through the dimensional barriers?"

"No sir, though there have been rumors about a traitor letting them in. Though I have no proof of that."

Dr. Diggers rubbed his chin in thought.

"How many dead so far?" Julia asked.

"I don't know, ma'am. When one of our side dies they get right back up and start attacking their friends as a zombie."

"That's impossible!" Dr. Diggers snapped. "It takes days to prepare a body to be turned into a zombie."

Nodding, Sgt Loval agreed. "I know sir, but I've seen it several times so far as we fought our way through the city to get here."

"What kind of magic can do that?" Julia wondered. She wasn't all that knowledgeable about magic, but she knew enough to know that making a Zombie or any kind of undead took a couple of days per body at least. That's why undead armies were so uncommon in the first place; the power that went into making one was just enormous. "Theo?"

"I'm not to sure, if my father was running around I could understand it, but he's been quiet ever since I cut him off from his magic within the undead realm." Dr. Diggers explained. "I might know what could do this, but that cursed thing has been lost for over a thousand years. Even my father wasn't able to get his hands on it after he died a he looked for close to twenty years."

"Sir?" Asked the confused Paladin, though it would be just like the Council to withhold information that might be vital to the fight.

"I need to get back to the base palace at the base of the Great Tree." Dr. Diggers said suddenly. "We need to get to the Council and see if we can get this sorted out before too many people die."

"Then lets head over there, it's just a few streets away." Julia said, though she covered up her sudden apprehension. Something about the base palace was making her danger sense tingle a little, something both good and bad.

"Sir, the teleport blocker spells have been up for about half an hour now." Sgt. Loval explained as he interrupted their thoughts. "You will have to take the stairs if you want to get to the top."

Theo frowned and nodded even as his wife smirked. "I had suspected as much."

"Time for a bit of a workout, husband." Julia said.

He nodded. "Maybe, Let's go and see if we can find a faster way to get up those stairs."

"What did you have in mind?" Julia asked as they walked off and let the paladin's get back to work fortifying the rest of the street.

"There are only ten of us on the council and most of them should still be there if we hurry."

"Alright, but lets be careful as well." Julia said, her danger sense was still giving her bad feelings and she wasn't sure where the attack would come from. She rested her hand on the hilt of her sword and wondered just what the rest of the day would bring. Hundreds had died that day the Undead invaded that town in the Earth Realm. This whole situation was in a whole different class and it could very well mean the death of Seer's Hamlet itself as well as one of the main entrances to The Retreat.

**********

The base palace at the base of the great tree had never seen anything like this before in the history of Seer's Hamlet. Those that were on hand to witness G'nolga and about a thousand undead skeletons, five hundred zombies, and ten undead knights make their way through the streets were scared out of their minds at the sheer size of the army being used to secure the city. As quickly as they arrived they had the small base palace surrounded by wall after wall of undead creatures. The central location of the Great Tree and the Small base palace at the base made surrounding it quite easy. The original idea had been to keep buildings far enough away that the paladin's could see anything heading for the base palace, but with an army this big that concept just didn't work and placed them at disadvantage.

This was the second line of defence for the city and was where most of the city's Paladin army was housed when they weren't doing anything else. At any one time during the week there were anywhere from 200 paladins at a minimum to over a thousand stationed at the building to guard the staircase that circled the tree that rose up from the back of the building and towered over the while city. At the moment there were only a hundred paladin's inside the building with the rest of them deployed around the city to help hold off this very army. Because they hadn't had any forewarning of the invasion they'd been caught off guard. The building had instantly thrown up a powerful shield of magic to keep the undead beasts out, but it only had a limited effectiveness. Normally there would have been a member of the council on hand to help beef up the shield in a crisis situation, but something had gone wrong and he hadn't shown up so the shield was running at low power.

Good enough to keep out normal humans, but and undead army of this size would quickly whittle down the power of the shield and everyone knew it. Paladins rushed through the corridors to take up their assigned defensive positions as quickly as they could. As protectors for a city set up by wizards they all had access to some of the best magical weapons that could be mass produced in a short time by the council itself. Every bit of the armor that covered their bodies was magical in some way. It could survive magical impacts of lethal force, it increased their physical abilities by almost ten and made each and ever member of the paladin army incredibly dangerous. Against the small force of undead they wouldn't have even blinked an eye as they pulled their swords. An undead army of thousands on the other hand placed them at a disadvantage that even their magic couldn't overcome. The sheer number of them could overwhelm any paladin and they knew just by looking out any of the windows that things were very, very bad.

Not like it would stop them though, Paladins were the elite of the elite when it came to soldiers. They had to have at least five years of experience with any army in the world before they could even join and that was just enough to allow them the chance to join. They also had to have a good reputation just to make it past that little hump in the road. So they knew how to defend themselves and so long as the shield held they would have a chance. After that the large entrance door to the base palace was secured with heavy wood and iron bars that would keep the undead busy for at least half an hour or so as they used a ram to knock it down. After that they had the advantage of a building that had been designed to keep a siege like this busy in a small maze of corridors that lead to the back of the building where the Stair Room was located.

The Captain General or CG for short stood at the center of the room as the main door to the base palace was secured by five of his men. They all strained as they used all their strength to lift the huge bare up to rungs on either side of the door. He had always marvelled at the design of the door and recalled that one of the council had used a bit of knowledge from Earth to set them up. Once the bar was in place its weight would bare down on it with such force that nothing short of obliterating the door itself would be able to get through. With one final loud grunt his men relaxed and turned to him for further orders. .

"Alright men, get to your posts, those things will be attacking the shield at any moment and we don't think it will last more than a few minutes. Be sure to have your weapons ready to decimate the enemy. They will not get past this building even if we have to use the last resort to stop them. Private, you will stay here and help me out." A private among the Paladins has the military experience of a Master Sergeant, so Private was kind of misleading. As with all Paladins he wore the full body red armor, helm, shield, and various magical items including a long sword and the magic of the armor itself. The CG on the other hand had a shoulder cape edged in gold, a large axe on his back, and a special gauntlet that only those of his rank or above could have

"Yes Sir!"

He pointed at two others before they left the room. "You two, I want you to set up some protection on the Stone."

They saluted by banging their left fist against the right side of their breast plate and hurried to fulfill the order. The CG nodded, they were all working like they were supposed to, but he was a bit worried that his lack of man power would mean the end of them. A hundred men against over a thousand undead were horrible odds and even if they managed to trap the things inside the base palace and had time to activate the Last Resort plan there was a good chance most of them would be dead here pretty soon. He turned as one of the other paladins ran into the room and made his way over.

"Sir! The Army is beginning to make their move." The guy said between breaths.

"Then it seems we got the preparations done just in time, lets get to work, and we have ten of most important men on Jade to protect at all costs." The CG said with a nod.

Outside the base palace hundreds of skeletons grunted and groaned as they pulled on long ropes connected to a couple of large catapults. Dressed in loin cloths for some reason they were all just a bit different, with missing bones or wearing a helm here and there as they worked to get the huge things into position around the four corners of the base palace. They ignored the glistening dome of energy that was surrounding the place as they knew that it wouldn't be there for long. Helping to keep the whole group in order were a pair of Undead Knights upon horses commanding each squad of skeletons. They were silent, but they some how managed to get their point across when the skeletons didn't work fast enough. Usually by shattering the trouble makers into smaller pieces and letting the giant wheel of the catapults crush these into powder, there was no returning from that.

Behind the catapults were several hundred skeletal infantrymen with various kind so of armor. These were broken up into large groups of fifty or so and had an Undead Knight commanding each one of them. At that moment they were all kneeling on the ground and keeping absolutely still, though there was a hint of energy in their eye sockets that testified to just how combat ready they truly were. Each of the Undead Knights watched each other's groups to make sure they didn't have any deserters or trouble makers. Skeletons were notoriously stupid so they had to be careful how large groups of them were used in any given situation. Commanding them to 'attack' used up all their mental abilities, especially the old ones that had forgotten how to talk. Behind these were a larger group of zombies outfitted with bows and shields to give covering fire to the skeletons. They were also the replacement troops for when the skeletons were all destroyed. These stood at attention with their bows at the ready, but with out holding an arrow set to fire.

Wandering through all this was G'nolga as she dispassionately checked the things over and made sure they were ready to do as she commanded. As the only living person there she stood out quite a bit with her long dwarven looks, rock hard muscles, and bald head. She was wearing a bit of light armor detailed with various designs to make her stand out as the commander. She had her tri-staff strapped across her back and sword at her side as well as several other hidden weapons that she always carried with her. Over all she didn't care for the thing and had discarded the other bits and pieces of it along the way here through the grass lands outside the city. There wasn't anyone around to complain anyway and she had a job to complete. She turned to the tall Undead Knight that was walking along beside her as silent as death.

"You're sure everyone is in position?"

It nodded.

G'nolga nodded as well and turned her empty and nearly lifeless eyes on the base palace as its shield glistened in the late afternoon sun. This was just the first of three steps she would have to accomplish before the day was out. Rook had given her orders to have the base palace, the Great Tree, and the town in order before he arrived later that night. With an army that even at that moment was still pouring into the city there was little chance of failure and she had no intentions of failing now. With the final creak of a wheel as one of the catapults was loaded with a large stone, she raised her left arm into the air and an aura of anticipation filled the air as thousands of skeletons watched her every move. All around her the Undead Knights that commanded each of the smaller groups raised their swords high.

Inside the base palace word spread like fire that the attack was about to begin and the paladins pulled their swords out and prepared to fight for their lives. The CG narrowed his eyes and hoped the shield would hold against the horde in front of him, but he didn't really put much hope into it. Everyone else just prepared as best they could and knew that at the end of the day that most of them would be dead, but they would make the enemy pay heavily for their lives before they went down. They just kept reminding themselves that undead were easy to take down, skeletons shattered and zombies burned. Then there was an eerie silence as all eyes turned on the one living being among the undead army as her arm raised high with its fist close.

"ATTACK!" G'nolga yelled at the top of her lungs and dropped her gauntleted arm.

The undead knights dropped their swords at the same time and pointed them at the base palace. They stood still as the skeletons rose out of their kneeling positions and surged toward the glistening barrier of light yelling at the top of their magically enhanced lungs. Behind them the archer zombies moved forward at slower pace, waiting for the skeletons to do their jobs. Herded forward by the Undead Knights, the skeletons were soon pounding on the barrier with the full magical force that only the undead could achieve. With thousands pounding on the thing all at once it quickly started to show the effect of those blows. Inside the base palace the paladins resigned themselves to the unlucky chance that the field just might hold out against the force, but there wasn't a mage there to help maintain its strength and it was running on stored energy that wouldn't last for more than few minutes.

Paladins on the roof of the base palace steeled themselves as they manned their own smaller version of the siege catapults below. These were able to fire balls of flaming pitch several hundred yards and were aimed right at the zombies in the back of the army. The things were highly flammable so there was a chance that they could get hundreds of the things with just a few shots from the catapults. They were also preparing themselves for when the base palace's magical barrier went down and things started to get bloody. Waves of rainbow like colors started to form within the dome as it used the last of its energy against the constant onslaught of the skeletons as they tirelessly pounded and pounded on the barrier. Orders were sent to each of the stations that they were to fire the instant the barrier went down in the hopes that they would catch the attackers by surprise with such a sudden attack.

Most understood that it wouldn't really do much, if any good, but they had to do something to protect the stairs and keep the council safe from all harm. Then one of the Paladins pointed to the top of the dome where a hole was forming as it collapsed from the top down. Both sides watched as the dome fell a few seconds later and moved at almost the same time to truly engage each other. The paladins lit the catapults and sent a dozen balls of fire flying into the sky to rain down on the zombies even as the skeletons ran forward with ladders and several teams of carrying a large battering ram. The Siege engines were also fired and huge one ton stones rose up into the sky and fell down upon the base palace with and earth shattering implosions of stone as whole walls collapsed under the sheer mass of the things.

From every window in the base palace something was fire at the attacking army and the skeletons were annihilated under the combined might of lightning, fire, and bolts of explosive magic. Some of them even screamed as they were blown to pieces, but no one really had time to think about it in the heat of battle. For every skeleton that was destroyed though, two more would take its place among the growing number of enemies. From behind the zombies who were still functional were formed into a large group by several of the Undead Knights, at G'nolga's order, and they raised their bows at an angle and fired. Row after row sent a wave of barbed death high into the sky nearly two dozen times. While on the roof the catapults were rearmed as arrows rained down on the paladins. Several lucky shots got through the thick armor and killed or injured several of them. Two took direct hits through the small eye holes in their helms and died instantly.

Down on the ground G'nolga looked up at the roof and grinned evilly as she finally sensed what she had been waiting for. It wouldn't be long now, all she had to do was keep the pressure up and the building would fall like a deck of cards. She turned to Undead Knight that never left her side. "Keep the pressure on, we are just within grasp of a major victory and the stairs will be ours to with as we please."

It nodded and raised it's sword to send a silent command to the other Undead Knights and within minutes the whole army was attacking the base palace. She wasn't worried about losses either, it wasn't like they would run out any time soon. Rook had been planning this for years and had taken into account everything he could think of, even outside interference from other cities. So she watched dispassionately as volley after volley of magical power was thrown from the windows of the base palace as the paladins used the magic stored in their armor to its fullest extent. She lost four to ten skeletons with every blast, but she ignored that as the zombies moved forward and gave a nod for the second phase to begin. Zombies were known to be fire hazards so armies that used them tended to make as much of them fire proof as possible with magic. About a third of her army was fire proofed and these were the most dangerous members of her force. Ex-bandits that the Edge Guard had recently been killing off, which was why Rook had hired them to harass the locals in the first place, though getting them the fire proofing had proven to be quite a hassle. He got to keep the money he owed them and got even more cannon fodder for his army, a win-win situation as far as he was concerned.

"Keep the siege catapults firing on those same four positions, the walls should come down fairly quickly and they aren't as magically hardened as the front gate is. We can use all four breaches to invade the base palace." G'nolga said as she noticed that the large catapults were nearly ready to fire again.

The Undead Knight nodded and seconds later the huge machines fired again and G'nolga grinned. The base palace would be hers within the hour, there was no doubt about it now that the whole plan was coming together like a well oiled machine. She cocked her head to the side and glanced up at the roof again and nodded as she finished counting to sixty. Now it would truly begin and those inside would learn just how strong this army truly was. As at that moment two soldiers with arrows through their heads suddenly sat up and orders filled their undead minds as the Undead Knights forced their will upon them to stand up and attack everything that lived.

All around them the other paladins failed to notice what had happened as they struggled to hold off the ladders and the zombies that were climbing them as quickly as they could be thrown off. So the first thing they knew that anything was wrong was when they caught a bit of movement out of the corner of their eyes just as a sword was thrust through one's back and out his chest and wrenched out. The zombie paladins then turned on their next targets with the calculated precision of a machine and moved to kill them as well. For a frozen moment everything seemed to stop as the paladins realized what was happening and they hesitated. That was all that was needed for a wave of zombies to top the base palace walls and swarm them from all directions. Within seconds the roof of the base palace was quiet as two dozen more zombies in red magical armor suddenly joined the ranks of the Undead Army.

**********

To Be Continued...

End Notes - BWhahahahaha HAHAHAHAH

The Edge Guard: http://www.monmouth.com/~roxikat/edgeguard.htm

Sheila is Gar’s sister. She has a rare werecat birth defect where her human form has her strength and speed instead of her hybrid form. She’s an adult in a teenager’s hybrid form. She chooses her hybrid form in combat usually because her human form lacks the healing and jagwere dexterity. Also, she’s accepted more as ‘one of the guys’ when she’s small, not as a gorgeous damsel to be put on a pedestal to court. Despite her insisted maturity, she uses words like pow and kapowie. Most of her elemental attacks are based around them. She’s infatuated with Tirga, but refuses to let him know.

Race: Jagwere

Class: swashbuckler/ fighter

Weapon: Ice Fang, scimitar

Special Ability: The fastest healer in hybrid form.

Gar is second in command of the Northern Edge Guard. A dark and brooding warrior since Brittany Diggers spurned his affections after he tried to defeat her lover Stripe in hand-to-hand combat. Since he was trained by the famous armsmaster, Julia Diggers, the fight was nearly his. Gar refuses to let go for reasons of his own. But Julia taught him first and foremost to have patience without hesitance.

Race: Jagwere

Class: Martial artist/ fighter

Weapon: Thunder Edge, partisan (spear)

Special Ability: During a solar eclipse, Gar can focus his power to perform the Lunar Rave, increasing his strength, speed, and size.

Tirga is a hedonistic, vain womanizer, who relies on his charm to get out of most scrapes. But behind his fun-loving demeanour, Tigra is a cautious, secretive person. Often uses disguises to blend into his surroundings when tracking his quarry.

Race: Were-tiger

Class: Rogue/Tracker/Tactician

Weapon: Fire Claw, morning star mace

Special Ability: His powers of vanity allow him to grow his hair to any length or style to aid in his disguises.

Onoli is the leader of the Northern Edge Guard, and their strongest and wisest member. Raised in bushido schools of thought, Onoli lets little disturb his tranquility. Well-versed in the laws of the Retreat, he makes an eloquent public speaker at the Council.

Race: Were-lion

Class: Samurai

Weapons: Seraphim and Necro, swords of Light and Dark soul energy. The Jasper - Rain

Thropan is a mechanical artifact expert as well as a mechanical and magical engineer. He rebuilt and modified the standard issue Edge Guard elemental weapons and gear with his own experimental designs including the device that lets them gate around. With science and technology outlawed on Jade, Thropan toes the line with all his technological experiments using magic for power.

Race: Were-panther

Class: Magical engineer/ martial artist

Weapon: Earth Flail, dragon’s claw (bladed nunchaku)

Special Ability: Master of the School of Xiao Pai Long