Dead Nerds Society: What Do You Mean My Guild Was Also Isekaid?-Chapter 69: Battle of Drakenhof (1)

The Eclipse Hall is eerily quiet. Only the constant footsteps of messengers coming and going echo in the background like raindrops.

Aelindra is standing in front of the table with the miniature model of the city, watching the officers update the positions of the pieces that represented combat forces with a frown in her face.

"Your Majesty, the citizens of the houses near the outer walls have been successfully evacuated."

"Good. Begin the evacuation of the second sector."

She sighs, then goes to her chair and sits.

((I feel so powerless here... But at least I still can keep the citizens safe.))

:::

Wilhelm, captain of the guard. He was at the top of the Eastern city gate, organizing defense there.

"The city is fully surrounded... where’s that troublesome player when we need him?"

He participated in the mess that happened when Jules first came to this world and had built up a friendship with him, but he wasn’t aware that ’that troublesome player’ wasn’t in the city.

"Fire!"

The officer next to him shouts, and the crossbow platoon shoots towards the approaching horde.

The bolts that hit the undead don’t do much.

Most of the army is composed of skeletons. The bolts break through the bone and keep flying, making the damage too small to matter.

And even the zombies and ghouls don’t feel pain, bleed, or have functioning internal organs. Which means that the punctures created by the bolts don’t do much harm to them.

Wilhelm turns to the platoon of mages, who are just pouring from the staircase.

"You’re finally here. We need your power right now."

The older man, who looks like he is the platoon leader, salutes him.

"I’m sorry. We came as soon as the message arrived. How are things?"

"The silver lining is that the enemies haven’t reached the walls yet, but..."

Wilhelm gestures vaguely towards the outside of the city, and the platoon go to the battlements and look in that direction. Every one of them gasped immediately.

"So many... I see. In formation, everyone! Let’s burn them to ashes!!!"

On the ground there are more undead than the eye can count. They look like a big mess, but the trained eye can see that they are actually well organized.

The platoon leader gulps and organizes his team. After a few moments, fireballs are arching through the sky towards the incoming army.

To everyone’s dismay, the fireballs burst and then dimmed, dealing little actual damage.

"What the hell? Prepare another round, begin the chanting!"

:::

At the Northern city gate, Lady Thalen, Oracle of the Cycle and leader of the Church of Ephemerys, arrives with a small platoon of priests.

The robed figures, carrying moon-pale lanterns and chanting in a language most people around them can’t recognize, are received with hopeful eyes by the knights.

The captain of the knights walks hurriedly to her.

"Lady Thalen. The enemies are getting too close to the walls, and ranged attacks aren’t doing much damage, so we’re launching a ground attack on the field. Are your troops coming with us?"

"Yes, captain. You can count on us."

((They will see that the goddess is not as useless as they think.))

The captain integrates them with the rest of the battalion quickly, and soon the gates open, letting them out.

They don’t need to walk long before encountering the enemy. The knights fought valiantly in the front lines, while the priests kept chanting the incantation for ’turn undead’ behind them.

Each coordinated ’turn undead’ pulse rolls outwards like a silver shockwave, sending hundreds of undead staggering back, breaking their ranks.

But, at some point, they reorganized in a new formation. And then, the ’turn undead’ became less and less efficient. The undead just freeze for a bit after being hit by the spell, but then keep pressing forward.

"Lady Thalen, what is happening?"

"This is no army, captain. They are working like a body. There is someone behind this, working as their mind."

:::

Martin had just arrived at the top of the walls and is looking at the sizeable horde below.

He strengthens the fastening on his Shadow Cloak, a diamond gear that grants him the highest Stealth technique and also maxes out his Stealth stat.

((This is bad... Not even in the game we had a siege like this.))

He jumps from the top of the walls and hits the ground running. His right hand holds a huge flail that would normally be used only as a two-handed weapon, while on the left he carries a mace.

He runs through the undead ranks, smashing around, reducing the enemies to crumbs.

((What is that? A relay???))

A black and dark red crystal floats over a mat of pulsing, entwined runes. He recognizes it immediately.

((It’s a relay we used in the game to coordinate NPC armies... but it’s totally corrupted. I need to destroy it right now.))

:::

"Your Majesty, the North wall was stabilized by the priests."

"Good. Thank you."

Aelindra had been making an effort to appear composed and calm, while inside she is screaming.

((The other gates aren’t doing so well. The way the undead wait and reposition themselves and the way they have been reacting to our tactics. It’s all too smart. Mindless creatures like the undead wouldn’t be capable of doing that.))

"Send messages to all areas. The undead aren’t behaving like normal necromancer armies. They are coordinated, and it’s probable that it is Muvetheret who is behind it. Act as if the enemy is a smart general and not mindless undeads."

"Understood, Your Majesty."

The officers quickly send messengers to all positions.

After the messengers leave, Aelindra sighs and mutters.

"We might need to retreat to the inner walls."

:::

"Those guys are too big! How can we destroy them? My boys are all out of mana already!"

The leader of the mage platoon is shouting at Wilhelm at the top of the Eastern gate. They had also received reinforcements of the priests and had also gone down to melee combat.

But they were pushed back inside the gates. And now, hill giant zombies were battering the gate.

The mages of the platoon were barely standing, as their bodies showed the signs of mana exhaustion. The priests were holding a bit more, but the hill giant zombies weren’t even flinching from it.

"Let’s retreat. Everyone, retreat to the inner gate!"

Wilhelm barks the order and immediately begins to organize their retreat, letting the exhausted and injured go first, while he stays with the rest to buy them time to flee.

Right after the retreating soldiers disappear from sight, the gate breaks open and two hill giant zombies enter, carrying clubs as large as tree trunks in their hands.

"Alright, everyone! Let’s stall those damned guys!"

:::

"Your Majesty, all outer districts have been successfully evacuated."

"And the gates?"

"Southern and Eastern have been breached. The North and West are still holding, but won’t hold for long."

"Tell them to also retreat before their retreat way is cut off. I don’t want any unnecessary deaths."

The officer lowers his head.

"Understood, Your Majesty."

Aelindra keeps staring at him as he leaves, then takes out a scroll from her inventory.

"I never thought I would have to actually use this."

"What is that, Your Majesty?"

Another officer was close enough to hear her muttering.

"Oh. It’s one of the treasures left by the First King. It creates a magical barrier that spans the whole of the old city. But after I cast it, nobody will be able to enter. That’s why I need them to retreat."

The officer’s face lit up a bit when hearing that information.

"Oh... that’s awesome."

"Not really. It’s good, but the only thing it can do is buy us time. It won’t get rid of the enemies."

"I see..."

:::

Far to the east, Wilhelm Trauenhof fought in a battered diamond formation, pushing his soldiers backward with the discipline of a man who refused to die until the very last of his troops escaped.

To the north, Lady Thalen’s clergy glowed like a river of starlight, their chants rolling outward in waves that cracked open undead bones and sent ghouls staggering.

And to the south...

Aelindra narrowed her eyes at the tokens that represented the southern troops. The pattern was strange there. The undead surged, then paused, then rearranged in unnatural arcs.

Studying it felt like watching the gears of a divine machine turn.

"We’re being herded. Pressed into the city’s heart. Well, it doesn’t seem that they know about the shield..."

Her mother was still far north, performing a ritual that would decide far more than this battle.

And Aelindra could feel her life energy weakening.

"Muvetheret is pushing her. If she falls, we’re all doomed."

Her gaze hardened. She flicked her hand over the miniature model, visualizing how the pieces were about to move.

"Mother, come soon. Without you, we won’t be able to handle all this."

:::

"It’s worse than I feared."

Martin grimaced, seeing the last gate break apart and the horde of undead flow through.

Every time he destroyed a relay, the undead around would lose their formation and start acting erratically, the way one would expect undead to act. But it wasn’t long before a new relay appeared and they reorganized.

He and the army had been playing a game of whack-a-mole all this time. His enchanted boots made no sound as he ran and jumped around, but he wasn’t able to be in more than one place at the same time.

Suddenly, a faint pulse of necrotic light flickered. He looked at that direction and shuddered.

A group of high-level undead had appeared suddenly. They were doing a circular formation around a wide, dark crystal covered in arrays of chains.

"No... no, no, no. Fuck."

He recognized that shard.

It was a soul. A player’s soul. And it was being drained and corrupted.

"So that’s how he’s getting enough power to summon this whole attack. He’s siphoning the players’ magical energy. Cecilia, whatever you are doing, finish it quickly. Only your powers would be able to deal with this."