MLiW Chapter 08 (Patreon)

I buffed the group left to guard the entrance. Uther and Jaina would make sure no undead escaped while Arthas, all of his people, and I killed the undead inside. My shields were strong enough that any human that shifted into undead didn’t spread their plague to the knights. This was a fairly big city but even then it was only a tenth the size of a capital city. It meant the maximum number of people living here could reach about twenty thousand.

It was still a long process of yelling for them to flee the city while setting the buildings on fire. The few undead that turned before reaching us were swiftly taken out, after two hours of fighting the undead started to group up and the fighting changed. All humans who would change into undead already had and now it became a fight to save the remaining humans who were hiding from the undead.

We only killed about two thousand in fighting but we likely burned four times that number before the undead started to spread and fight back. Some of the civilians took up arms and attempted to help us but Arthas sent them away, they were too weak and would likely get in his troop's way. The casualties were minimal as my buffs reduced the damage each took dramatically.

It took them being overrun or the bigger undead that was now appearing to kill them in one strike for someone to die. Even now we had only lost ten men to the fighting but each was worth his weight in gold. The normal soldiers could reach level ten, the knights and rangers who followed could reach level twenty, and finally, the paladins in the group could reach level thirty. It took someone becoming a hero for their level cap to be increased to sixty.

I was technically a hero but my level had capped out at fourteen. The civilian levels capped out at three with the stronger members reaching four or five but there weren’t nearly enough to increase my level. Thousands of deaths and it dawned on me that this was an incredibly easy way to level and we should have brought more people to strengthen in this process. If I ever needed to raze a city to the ground again I’d make sure to cycle out the murderers to get the most out of it.

I had only killed evil people up until this point but I knew this was necessary. If we didn’t kill the civilians they could have been turned into undead and the twenty thousand undead would have spread through the region killing everyone else. The city would remain barren even after we killed everyone inside, the plague was so thick it was visible in the air now. Just living in the area would have a corrupting effect.

Arthas led like he was born for this, he was a natural leader and the orders he made were followed to the end with those still solely loyal to him. Our group was larger than if there was a schism in the ranks where they had to choose between supporting Uther or Arthas and we had some blowback when he ordered the death of the undead children of an orphanage that was completely effective. It was clear it needed to be done again.

The deep demonic voice that had taunted us slowly faded as he saw how effective we were at destroying his future army. I thought he left before we made it to the town square where we finally met him. The gigantic greyish-purple demon stood at the height of a building. I almost shit my pants at the sight of him as he stood there smug-faced as if us winning the fight and destroying his army was all part of his plan… Actually, it probably was now that I think about it.

The army began to spread out around the demon as he taunted Arthas. “Good to see you finally prince. I was expecting you sooner. All that work you put in killing your own people went a long way for furthering our plans after all.” Arthas immediately took the bait. “Then I’ll kill you and smash your plans to dust. Men, we charge!”

What a badass. With no concerns for his own safety, Arthas was the first to fight against the demon. Hi was easily twenty feet tall, and every blow swung rendering the thick armor the knights wore useless as he flayed flesh and bone. Every strike cleaving two or three to death. Arthas was the only one fighting on the front lines that could withstand the onslaught.

I did my best to heal the wounded but the wounds just didn’t want to heal. If I had time to fight against the corruption spreading through their body I could defeat it but the wounds were necrotizing before the holy magic sunk into their bodies. Everyone I would heal five would die. Even then we had the numbers to defeat the demon.

His magic began putting people to sleep in the dozens, at least that was more easily dealt with. At first, I dispelled it with my own magic but it was too slow and consumed too much of my own mana. I just started slapping the ranged awake when they were put to sleep. He would target one of the ranged and immediately kill them with an attack that targeted their minds. Somehow when I had them power word shielded the magic was less effective and they’d live through it.

The bugs spreading through our people were causing the worst damage to our back line as I called out. “Stay spread out so the swarm doesn’t eat us alive!” The call saved many lives but it was a gauntlet. We were clearly doing damage to him but every minute we saw the death of a dozen more of our own men against the demon. Every minute or so he’d pick up one of the knights who ran in and squeeze him to death, draining his blood into his mouth and healing himself.

We were not only fighting the demon but also the fear tactics he was employing to get our own men to break. Several had already run and I couldn’t blame them. If I were fighting on the front lines I’d have broke along with them. Finally, we hurt him enough for him to become intangible. He taunted Arthas once again. “Unfortunately for you, it won’t end here. Your journey has just begun, young prince.”

I took that time to interrupt him. Everyone just waited around talking and he was intangible but I think my magic could bypass that. I unleash avatar of light, flooding my being with holy energy as my weapon becomes its ethereal form of light. Arthas is just about to yell out as I see Mal’Ganis start to fade until my spear pierces him stopping his teleportation and removing his ethereal nature. Everyone looks on in stunned shock as I yell out. “Well… KILL HIM IDIOTS!”

A barrage of fresh attacks lands on the demon as Arthas takes advantage of his shock, pulling my weapon from the demon he cleaves up with it, possibly permanently injuring the demon going forward.