Clementine had been caught by surprise. The elf she had fought turned out to be an alicorn.


    Masters of wind and nature, but talented in all elements. She had no hope of matching it in aerialbat, even with her advantage in strength. The natural affinity of a mythical creature was not so easily ovee.


    Yet, the alicorn had attempted to contest her not where its strengthy, but with daggers, in an eleven form. Not only did transforming weaken them, to then even ignore its strengths.


    Clementine had to admit; she felt underestimated. Especially since he had pushed close, as if trying to overwhelm her with his strength or skill. Neither of which he could best her in while transformed.


    Once the smell of his blood entered her nostrils, Clementine lost sight of her surroundings. It was so rich, so captivating. Instead of focusing on killing her target, she aimed for his blood.


    Yet, the tasty meals she expected eluded her as more blood filled the air. It drove her mad. A month of living of scant rations and now this. Her eyes turned red and all she could see was the alicorn in the sky.


    Dashing into the sky, Clementine attempted to reach her prey. Only to be mercilessly thrown back down to the earth. After the first two times, what weed her was not just ground, but spikes of hardened rock. Yet, she tore her body from the spike and flew again and again at Ceph in a mad rage.


    After the tenth plus time, Clementine finally faltered. As she pulled herself from the spikes impaling her entire body, she fell to the ground. Spikes, yet again, piercing her hands and legs.


    "Vampires sure are tough." Ceph mumbled, keeping his distance as he watched her struggling to stand.


    Her sanity seemed to be returning to her, which would make her a more difficult foe. While the idea of ending her life somewhat weighed on Ceph''s mind, he did not wish to give her a chance to hurt him or those on his side.


    With a sigh, Ceph prepared to end the vampire. Readying his killer move, he shot dozens of air bullets forth. "Incinerating bullets." He muttered, expecting the bullets to pierce Clementine and turn her into a puddle of gore.


    Instead, another vampire rushed over. Pulling her from the spikes and running into the horde of skeletons and zombies to take cover. Naturally, Ceph''s attack followed. But the lower undead were the perfect bullet sponges. While the explosions killed dozens, the vampires got away.


    "My bad, sorry about that Ceph." Evale said, arriving just as Ceph''s spell ended.


    She was clearly tired, and while her wounds did not appear life threatening, Ceph still threw a heal at her. Remembering as he did that he still had arge bleeding wound on his right side. Which he quickly closed with magic. It would take some time to repair the damage. Transforming while a sword was piercing him... it had certainly caused him a great deal of damage.


    "It''s no matter. We only need to push them back." Ceph replied, ignoring the pain he was in as he turned his focus to the remaining undead.


    Their assignment left Evale without a frontliner. As an archer, she had to keep her distance from her targets. Asking her to pin and kill a vampire equal to her TIer wasn''t realistic. Not when she couldn''t rely on her strongest arrows.


    Those created to kill the undead were effective, but vampires were among the undead they worked the least effective against. Like Zonthans, true vampires weren''t truly undead. Their lives were something of a mix of undeath and living.


    While such an enchanted arrow would severely wound the vampire, and indeed hers had, it would not kill it unless she pierced its heart or brain. As for her other arrows, their aftermath was too great to use in a melee.


    As Evale watched the vampires escape, even going so far as to kill the lower undead in their way, she could not help but think back to when her brother was still alive.<novelnext></novelnext>


    This problem was caused by her reliance on him. While a long time had passed, she had yet to fix her style. She still relied on someone covering for her.


    "Let''s help with the cleanup." Ceph said, bringing her out of her thoughts. "They seem to be organizing. Shouldn''t be long before they attack with the trebuchets again."


    —


    Seeing their charge stopped, and many of the deadliest undead fall likemon rabble, the lich was gripped with fear. It quickly sent orders to take the wall and only the wall. It hoped to use the kingdom''s defenses against it, to fling attacks past the wall into the army standing in its way.


    It thought this idea was brilliant. The idea of turning what had been a torn in its side for months against the very ones who had created it. It was positively masterful.


    Yet, even that joy did notst long. As the undead moved to upy the wall, its fragility was shown. Cannons opened fire, ripping through the wall with ease. Without the formation magic to strengthen it and the barrier to protect it, it was just some stacked stone and wood.


    Even normal cannonball could rip through it, not to mention magically enhanced ones that exploded upon contact—or a few seconds after. The results were thousands of dead skeletons and zombies, with a good amount of Unwilling and even some higher undead in the mix.


    A bloodbath that amounted to more losses than the entire past month of sieging.


    Seeing this, the lich finally thought it was about time to retreat. While there were still some strongmanders and captains under itsmand, it no longer had a clear numerical advantage.


    Knowing this, the kingdom suddenly moved. Having turtled for the past month, seeing their entire force taking charge was beyond the lich''s imagination. And among them, there seemed to be far morepetent fighters than before. Short ones.


    ''Wait, are those dwarves? d in ck... There—!'' Just as the dots connected, the lich tried to teleport away. s, its mana dissipated into nothing. Next, it tried to fly. While it managed, a force was slowing it.


    "Ah, another lich." Hrothgar mumbled. It had taken some time to finish their business at home in the Ganalin mountains. Luckily, they had arrived on time.


    Honestly, they had arrived five days ago, but Pros had asked them to wait. Wanting the soldiers to feel the victory well fought. While not everything had gone as nned, the oue was sure to be splendid once the dust settled.


    "Who are you!" The lich cried, shocked when it felt its connection to its phctery weakened. It finally noticed the magic barrier surrounding their entire army. "How did you?"


    "Yeah, I''m not going to exin anything to ya." Hrothgar said, bringing his axe to bear. The lich desperately summoned a sword, yet the impact sent it deep into the ground. "But I gotta say, that kid''s amazing. This spell is crazy effective."


    Far in the distance, Eldrian and Elizabeth were high in the magic tower of Pyknos fort. The forming spreading a magic spell through the tower across the entire battlefield, thetter a holy spell.


    Both were already sweating severely. The scale of their spells were simply too much for mere Tier 5''s to handle for longer than a few seconds. Eldrian''s load was especially heavy, seeing as Elizabeth was piggybacking on his spell.