Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Alisart Cleavster remained upon the fortifications, watching over his own men, and that of Loimos, those three days and nights had gone by in a flash, putting aside an odd accident that had occurred on the first night, this was not enough to disturb his knights, and if the elite of his army held strong, then the shuddering soldiers would steel up their resolves as well, equipped with objects given by the other lords, coupled with the might of the south, the warking felt confident, with his sight, he searched for the one that commanded this small of army of undead.

The soldiers dressed in dark, a veil of chainmail upon their heads, the emblem of a tree upon the chest, and a dark circle on the back of their small cloaks, one had to admit, they were intimidating by simple virtue of their looks, equipping so many with the same, good-quality arms and armours was a feat perhaps more worrying than most, a war also decided on ressources, and from what Alisart could see, the pockets of the undeads were deep indeed. Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

Their front line was composed of soldiers carrying pavise shields forged from steel, these shields truly deserved the appellation of wall shield, they were not simply big rectangular shields, they were awfully wide and tall, requiring the soldiers to use both arms to hold them up, and also, they were specifically crafted to click with one another, sticking to one another, forming one, singular rampart that could move forward, however, the top corners were curved inwards, allowing for the soldiers carrying pikes behind to attack without issue.

No army on Belliste would have the resources to create a big enough forces of this sort, and even if they did, all that iron ore would be put to better use elsewhere than into a massive wall of shields, linking them together increased the weight each individual soldier had to carry, for livings soldiers, this would be quickly exhausted, but of course, their enemy knew no concept of stamina or tiredness, they just needed to gauge the ideal weight of a singular shield compared to the strength of the average shieldbearer, if they could carry it in combat, all was fine.

The lord was certain that this whole thing was nothing more than a taste for what was to come, this formation did not include much of the various sorts of warriors the undead had at their disposal, only the rank and file was present alongside a few black knights at the back, there to intervene presumably.

Although it seemed like the range of those mundane soldiers was rather wide, Cleavster's soldiers wielded spears, swords, daggers and bows and arrows, but really only used the spears and bows, the other two being side arms.

Even his knights wielded the same sort of weaponry, but Loimos's forces were disgustingly diverse in their choices of armaments, and even then, he had great numbers that held the same ones.

'Is that him?' he wondered, spotting a black knight with both hands resting upon the pommel of his greatsword, still in its sheath, his blade held straight in front of him, the undead standing like a guardian at the back of the troops, slightly over elevated, in appearance, there were no differences to be spotted between this one and the others, but Alisart could sense a totally different vibe to him, clearly, this had to be the so-called 'left hand of Loimos', an undead called Ourlst, to be trusted with handling this front, he had to be a monster in his own rights, but it seemed like he would not be joining the fight.

"If he moves in, I'll face him" Aramap spoke as he approached.

"That's probably what he is thinking about you too, but say Aramap, if there is a left hand, there is surely a right hand too, don't you think? Yet, those hands of Loimos seem to be the heads of the black knights and his soldiers, those other unique warriors roaming around, awaiting something that worries me the most" he struck the ground with his sheathed sword.

"I failed to get a good grasp of this Loimos's personality in our meeting, but he clearly inspires devotion, church folks, knights, soldiers, warriors, mages… He seems to be respected by all of them, is that not the mark of a great leader?" Alisart continued, his own push for physical strength in his territory had made for an environment that was not very conductive to magic to develop, his people both subconsciously, and consciously valuing the prowesses of the body much more, all aspired to be knights, not sorcerers.

Cleavster's strategy had worked out as he was the sole ruler of the south now, but his lack of magic casters would put him at a disadvantage the moment those of Loimos were brought into battle, in fact, they might just show up during this very one.

"But this Loimos is the only general of the vanguard, is he not?

He is subordinate to another, and perhaps there are other generals as well, but… The vanguard is a crucial position, he may be at the head of the greatest force of the undead, mmh" Aramap thought aloud, not certain just how important Loimos actually was, they basically knew nothing of the undead empire and its inner workings, according to Solast, they ruled over the continent of Viridis, but were the undead a single, united force?

What sort of rule was it? A monarchy? A theocracy? All they knew was that they were facing an undead threat of a great calibre.@@novelbin@@

As Alisart's first knight continued to think, the warking took out an enchanted longview, although one could see through the barrier, the miasma that permeated the air outside was another story, it blocked all light and thus all prying eyes.

One thing that was hard to hide from the knight king's senses were the presences of strong individuals, Loimos managed to escape this sense, but judging by the kind of presences within, the general had to be meeting with other distinguished undeads.

"Mmh, Aramap, this war is not one that we can win without taking risks, you must have realised, if we try to remain on our positions, we will be hoisted eventually without fail, we have to force the undeads to adapt to us, not the opposite, it might sounds ridiculous, but let them be forced to go at us full force, we will fight on our own terms, and if we lose, let us die on our own terms…" striking the ground stronger than before, crushing the longview in his palm.

"Very well my lord, we will do as you envision"