Chương 286: AF Chapter 285 – Operation Desert Freedom

Fighting people want to fight, especially when coming off an enormously successful military campaign that had succeeded in shattering two of our greatest enemies of the Fall. Going after the third was basically a given, especially since we'd already proven we could handle massive numbers of undead if needed. The spawns of the dry, sandy, and desolate areas of Osteth were basically contested between virindi and undead spawns, with occasional shreth or reedshark spawns around to spice things up.

Virindi Dolls and Minions alternated with undead of all levels and types, and seemed to edge out the virindi's spawns in terms of power and lethality. It didn't much matter to the Fellowship squads that started hunting them all down and vivifying their spawn locations. Taking the surface towns took one day each, and they scheduled the assaults for my down time so I could contribute if required.

The stories of how I could rip through undead had definitely made the rounds, and me being on oversight in case of surprises really gave the soldiers confidence that anything they ran into could be handled. I didn't actually do much fighting, because I didn't need to. The undead in charge of these places weren't all that powerful, and were still overconfident as to what we could do versus them, the immortal undead things that couldn't die.

Hmmm, must not have spread word of what vivus was doing to them to the rank and file… and the upper ranks must have been confident that they could handle anything and so hadn't tried devoting overwhelming force to stopping it.

Qalaba'r, the southernmost city and the guardian of the main route to the southern landbridge, was also the first city target of the clearing teams, while the squads basically spread out across the desert and wiped them clean of the Summons, replacing them with black and yellow spikes as they spread out across the miles. Briggs and Kris ran into no problems clearing Q-bar, and vivified every undead inside it.

I kept myself busy Healing others from War Magic to the face, and the warriors chewed through them with Undead-Slaying Undead Bane Firephased Weapons of various sorts, putting those Artificer Infusing Levels to use. From there, it was north to the lightly-defended town of Khayyaban, skipping Xarabydun to clear the valley village of Al-Arqas, once considered the prettiest of the Gharu'n settlements.

Then it was on to the more colonization-friendly town of Yaraq, which had the best farmland in the rather arid lands here, being right on the Inner Sea and benefiting from coastal humidity. From there to Uziz, the most eastern of the towns, situated in the hills that formed the eastern demarcation between desert and merely plains… and also held the last of the very important Olthoi Matron Dungeons for training our people.

With the southern desert firmly in our grip, and the undead already knowing we could clear out the northern cities, we went after Xarabydun.

Bolts of fire and acid exploded off the walls. They weren't powerful, but nobody wanted to run out into them without good reason. The undead were making a fight of it, actually putting some real effort into not dying, including Healing themselves and one another, using proper tactics instead of suicide rushes, taking cover, and so forth. Unfortunately, they were still arrogant and moved stiffly and slowly, clearly not used to such energetic styles of combat, as opposed to the charge-and-die scenarios.

The Fellowships really missed them acting so stupid, but it was only a matter of time. Happily for me, Detect Undead at V didn't care too much about corners and walls that weren't too thick, and so I could pick out the undead down the hallway without having to poke my head around the corner. Seeking Shards could turn corners, too. Without revealing myself, a volley of Shards lit up around my arm, took off, turned right ninety degrees and zipped right on down the corridor.

One breath later, the soldiers here were charging around the corner as the Revenants or whatever down there were blasted off their feet. That rather interrupted their defense, along with the fact they were on fire and their torsos were blasted open by hungry vivus feasting as they died. They didn't manage to get to their feet before the soldiers were on them, cutting and hacking at arms so there was no Casting, then finishing them off with practiced teamwork and ruthlessness.

It was the first time any of us had heard the undead begging, staring at the unwhite fire that was going to cut their eternity short. Every single one of them was undead by the sacrifice of another living being whose soul was burned to provide them with their unlife, literally born of murder. True Death was administered to all of them.

I looked around as I brought up another flight of Shards and sent them out down an adjoining tunnel, two right turns and coming up into the backside of another line of undead taking cover behind columns and pillars. The impacts sent the undead flying and let the shielded men waiting for their chance to charge out with great speed and fall upon them. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

For some reason the undead thought the shops and central ring of the city was an important area to defend, so we had to dig them out of the caves, cubbyholes, and connecting hallways that made the place a maze to anyone not familiar with the place. Or, you know, with a Markspace Map filled in by some of the former Xara natives eager to contribute, said Map being revised and updated in real time with the changes the undead had done.

They still hadn't bothered to make proper defenses after all these years, perhaps foolishly thinking that circular tunnels and many rooms would be enough to give them the advantage against any attackers. When those attackers came up from the bottom instead of the top, including out of their very own escape tunnels, while blocking off the surface access entirely, well, that hadn't worked out too well for them.

There was a sharp crack ringing through the stone, followed by the air a few seconds later, and I knew a wall had just been introduced to Endure and fallen down in shock and awe. Whatever undead were on the other side of it probably had, too. I felt a draw on the manafield from Incantor-level magic, glanced at the Map, and noted Kris had ghosted into that area and probably just aced whoever was in charge.

They seemed to have a core of powerful Casters with them, because I felt three different Incantor-level draws, which meant powerful enough that they had a chance of damaging her. Of course, being able to damage her was not the same as being able to hit, given the way she was juking, sliding, and rotating through the area at speed.

One eruption of War magic after another failed to find her, while she was darting through the center of the area with three painted undead in the Indigo range of post-200 all trying to land spells on her instead of coming to blows with her. The team in reserve behind her was caught up on another line of guards as I ran swiftly towards them. I wasn't a master lightfooter, but I wasn't slow, and soon enough the audience chamber leading into the private chambers and research chambers of the undead was ahead of me.

The undead were crouched behind stone couches and loosing either arrows in Acidphase or more magic at the attackers, especially Harms or Drains which could strike right through the pillars and columns they were taking cover behind. I came right up the middle with Seeking Shards, and the undead could only brace to see them coming before they were blasted off their feet, back against the wall, and to the floor with a prismatic blast of force and fury.

Kris' team surged out from cover, charging with speed and fury, and was on top of the undead before they could get back to their feet and back to Casting or shooting. The undead were incredibly strong and decently armored, but the flaming Weapons coming in at them didn't particularly care at this point. Kris had come in through their own escape route with speed and silence, taking out the guards and alarms in her way with Ruby Strikes and Spell Cuts respectively with little problem.

I Knocked open the door in front of me, breaking the magical Seal on it and sliding it open, to the astonishment of the leader of the undead guards and its two lieutenants, who I drove three more Darts into as I passed their Burning asses by and pressed in towards their masters. A forking for their private quarters, sliding right and left, around to what was probably a Summoning chamber of some sort from which the detonations and massive mana draw was happening.

Ah, there was an altar in the middle of the place, and a undead in important red robes was slumped over it, missing his head and Burning nicely atop it. The braziers all around it were lit and ready to go, stinking of things harvested from the dead not long ago, and the Circle on the floor was actually glowing and ready to bring in something.

Unfortunately, there was the primary Caster Burning vivic over there and really messing up the mana draw of the Circle, and there was a Null radiating Interdiction and cutting through the Circle repeatedly as she bounced around like a pinball, coming in and carving up two of the blue-robed undead trying to Cast at her and being punished for it.

She'd seen me coming, and her course just so happened to take her to the back of the chamber as I entered, turning their heads to follow her and Quaver's deadly trail of Lost Light. My Chained Shardrays were a full volley, thousands of points of damage smashing into them and launching them tail over teakettle right for her as zigzagging sets of six Chains bounced between them and fed them all of the damage. They crashed to the ground basically right at Kris' feet…

all of which triggered a whole bunch of Attacks of Opportunity. Rolling through her Hedged Thorns Stance, Wolf takes Rat because prone, Sword beats Fist because not armed, and Touch of the Wasp because my Shards hit them, as well as Mage Slayer when they desperately tried to Cast at the madwoman surrounded by dazzling Holy lights in their midst.

All the AoO's went off before her Flurry went off, surrounding her in a whirl of Lost Light that carved into those undead, and the most wounded one didn't make it through the five of them. The Cleave and full Flurry that followed blew four more attacks through the one that was the least wounded, and relieved that one of its head. The Cleave off that one's demise turned into three finishing blows from her Flurry, and she took off its head as smoothly as the other two.

The Echoing Shards that came up I drove down into the magical Circle beneath us. Multiple energies blasted through the whole carved formation of the thing, but the only one that was important was the vivus that rode the wave and happily devoured all the arcane energies at work here, effectively snuffing the thing instantly before it could rupture or go wild and probably bring something seriously wrong into this place.

"Good morning to you! So much more fun than Pyramid work, right?" Kris grinned, Quaver flicking out and batting three skulls very suitable for undead Baneskulls in my direction. Zeks nabbed them in midair and deposited them in my Masspack deftly.

"Kara is lovely this time of year," I replied calmly, turning to look back to where her team had finished off the guards and was coming this way. A flicker of thought from her turned them back around and rushing off to another finishing fight. She'd been planning to use them to bum rush the three undead from behind, pin them, and just Ruby Strike Death Attack them while they were pinned, rather than chew through all that Health Qi. Me showing up had nicely accelerated matters for her.

"Well, you did get that one in Freehold done fast," she admitted.

"Didn't that give the Freeholders a fright, waking up to find a two-hundred foot Pyramid looming over the town like that, and you calling out the Salute to Aru to everyone on the whole island!" That was true. Pyramid Power was just a nice thing to use. And since I was the maker, attuning it to the Jumps was effortless, so they still functioned. Master Oswald, on the other hand, was going to need permission from me to Blink past the Shoreward like he had…