A Rattling Monster

Chapter 101: The End of the Slums?

Currently, I am facing a huge problem. I need to kill a lot of people, and for that, I need a big army of undead. But my zombies can even approach my current location, or they will be killed. My spirits are stuck in the outer part of the city, meaning the information I gather thanks to them is near none. Oslo has gone blind past the second wall and my magicians are running low on mana because they have to stay under the magic shield. Good news? My Chosen literally don't care about anything, and since I am partially the Hero of Aria, I don't care either. Because, apparently, if my undead and myself were not affiliated to Aria, we wouldn't even have breached the first wall. I mean, that's what Oslo said.

(And I repeat it, it is the reason why this city was spared by the ratmen. They focused on the dwarves, the Tomb Kings, the elves and all the other races, but not the city of the humans. Because, Aria is still in charge, so they can destroy her Hero when he is away, they can ambush her army when she is inside a forest, but they can't directly threaten the capital. Because of what you experiment right now, only when the god is truly weak can a foreign attack succeed. But if you manage to get rid of all the allies of the humans, you can just patiently wait, harass a little each day, and in a few years, do enough damage to crush the rest of the kingdom. And like I said, she is a newly god, otherwise, the humans would have better technologies.)

Yes, that's weird, the dwarves clearly possess some explosives, and the ratmen have managed to create some machine gun fuelled with monster cores. But except for the vials of cures and some basic chemistry, there is no electricity, no steam fuelled machines.

(Yes, that's because it is her second world if I remember. Can be wrong, but not more than five I think. Me for example, I have the knowledge of the creation of nuclear weapons, but there is nothing useful on Forslo, except tons of magic gems. So that means, I will try to develop my planet in a magical way. Aria doesn't have that, so she can only rely on her believers to make some progress, like trade with the dwarves to increase her intelligence. That's what everyone does, you can be sure that to create something, you ask either a dwarf if you want it rock solid, or a goblin if you want to do a maximum of damage. But in this planet, I don't remember have heard a great goblin empire. A shame, truly, because just some gold and you can buy whatever you want.)

Well, I don't really have gold on me, but at least I know that I won't have to fear anything lethal, like a sniper rifle, capable of killing me without me seeing it.

(You have to watch out for the ratmen rifles, they are deadly.)

Yes, but I am talking about the humans, they are stupid and just relying on magic. Well, not that stupid since I am stuck here, without being able to do anything. But they still haven't opened the doors, and let the criminals and maniacs enter the city?

(Nope, so that's the good point.)

Ok, so let's do a little bit of cleaning. I march once again toward the second wall, without a messenger or bandit interruption. And the closer I get, the more humans I see on the wall. All the colors are reunited, you have the standard iron that every guard is wearing. You have the white robes of the priests, with some gold and silver on it. Next, the numerous cloak of the magicians, they are in all the color possible, red, blue, green and the rest is present too. The brown color of the crossbows pointed at me and my army of course. But I don't see any shiny armors or something that can make someone blind. So, the knights are not on the walls, where are they?

(Ehhh, let me, no? Wait, here? No? There was a squadron of knights near the gate right before, where are, damn smoke and damn mist. The power of Aria is intensified; I can't even see the stairs leading to the ramparts. But, be wary of them, at worst they are already out and I lost them.)

So, the only force capable of killing me is gone missing? Thank you, God of Losing track of my enemies. But if you say that the power of Aria is stronger, that means they are near us. I walk past the house that was blocking my sight of the gate and I finally see a group of desperate bandits knocking on the gate. They are shouting for help, that they let them in. Unfortunately, humanity has lost today, and only survival is important. At one point, one of them see us and shout at everyone to turn around.

Facing us is at least five hundred people. And still wearing the standard uniform of the guards. I don't know what happened to them, but this time they are not running. Not because I have closed all the streets around them, I can't, otherwise, I would be targeted by the magicians. But maybe they understand that no matter where they run, I will find them. They know that zombies are roaming around, and I have spread my mindless warriors near every gate of the first wall. So the exit is closed, if they don't fight here, they will fight at the next gate.

At least a quarter of the group runs away, in all the directions, truly too scared to fight. That behavior provokes the ire of the remaining outlaws, and some even directly attack the fleeing men. Now, the smell of blood can be felt in the air, meaning that a fight is close. This time, not like when I taunted them, they will attack me in the open.

I carefully spread my Chosen in front of me and the magicians, but remain at more than five hundred meters from the wall. I don't know the range of some of the higher spells, but that should be enough for my skeletons to react and cast more magic shields if necessary. As for my warriors, their armors and speed are enough to resist and dodge anything that is thrown at them. I spread all my false shadows around me, and I am not in the middle. That would be a stupid move, create some illusions, but stay in the middle, where it is the most protected location. Because that's where someone would try his luck.

We stay like that for what, one minute I think. I can't get close, and I don't want to spend some mana. But seeing no movements, I have to do something. I throw an orb of plague, since it will not melt the precious blood in their veins, and at the same time, it is still an attack. They are baffled by the transparent orb flying toward them, that explodes on the head of a sturdy man. He barely is stunned by that, and even if nothing comes out of my spell, I know that it is working.

But the criminals think it was failed, they are even laughing about it. Cursing me, mocking me, saying that I am an incompetent magician, that my spells can't even stun one of them. Even if they know that the capital is protected by a lot of blessings, they can't be that stupid, to think that it can totally cancel a spell? Because I watch the priests on the ramparts getting alarmed by my action, but they are still too far to save those stupid humans.

After waiting for a dozen minutes, I see the first victim. A feeble woman, wearing colorful clothes, probably not the regular fighter that they were hoping. I can see her grunt, throw up a dark blood, meaning that my plague, without the intervention of the priests, is still deadly. At this sight, the previous smiles on their pitiful faces are gone, replaced by sheer terror. They understand what I did, it only took them far too much time.

Everyone, understanding that only the priests can save them, charges at me. Killing me means the door is open, means the priests can get reached. Actually, I think that even if they kill me, they will still die, without the door getting opened. But that's my opinion. My Chosen are a wall of steel and bones, not letting anyone goes through. Countless bodies are laying around them, with more and more coming. At the same time, I absorb all the blood and keep creating new skeleton magicians. That allows my skeleton warriors to crush the empty shell of the human body, turning it into ashes. That way, they are obstructed by a mountain of corpses, and that allows the bandits to still come easily in range of their axes.

When everyone is cut into pieces or dying to my plague in the back, silence reign once more.