Nade had just shat his pants.

GRUARGGGGGGHHHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH screamed the man-spider flesh monstrosity, just outside a hastily erected AUM barrier. Nade was surrounded by the corpses of his fellow men at arms. To say that Nade was taking it well would be an outright lie as he was on the ground babbling incoherently.

SMACK " Get a hold of yourself soldier!!" his Captain yelled inches away from his face. The hit to the head shut Nade up, more out of shock than anything else. He had almost ended up like the corpses at his feet until miraculously the barrier came back on at the last second. The Verrack's scythe-like feet inches from his face. Nade was silent. Stumbling over the dismembered bodies he made his way up and stuttered " Whadowe do Captain?"

" Adrastea willing the shields will hold, for some time at least" Turning to his men he yelled " Gather up the dead, get their tags. Their families need to know" Gritting his teeth, Captain Xandr spat out " When I get my hands on you spider cock suckers, I will cut those limbs off and shove them up your asses, all eight of them".

Turning back to Nade, Xandr's expression softened " You're off-combat kid, help with clearing out the fallen". Xandr left to muster up what remained of the company to fighting shape.

Nade stood silently blocking out the screams of the Verrack, the cries of his injured fellows, and the explosions in the distance. He then proceeded to pick up the nearest body and carry it away from the barrier.

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The Verrack split into two. The top half sliding off, spilling black intestines and blood. Zeva and her Talons were doing what they were supposed to before the Wraiths had struck, which had gotten her thinking.

The army was trapped on the Nithrel plains, a sea of short grass providing little to no cover against flanking enemies. Flecked with small hills and boulders on one side and the sea on the other. They had been snuck up on during the night. Despite not seeing anything for many days and leagues.

The enemy seemed to be 10,000 strong or thereabouts. But the element of surprise along with their monstrous disposition had left almost 20,000 of their own dead or out of commission.

An enemy that had suddenly appeared out of thin air, the barrier failing at the exact wrong moment. The Verrack weren't even native to the Nithrel. The army was a country away from the Desolation that the Verra'ck were native to. How had anybody managed to transport so many of these abominations into civilized lands, with neither hide nor hair of them ever being reported. ANGHU'L infestations were on first priority to be wiped out. They were literally called the flesh plague for the reason that they could bolster their numbers from the dead. Forbidden curse-work privy only to the Corpse Raisers beyond the Bulwark of Desolation"

"Traitors" seethed Zeva. " Powerful space magic was at play here. It seemed like the cultists, her Xeral had recently rooted out had tendrils deeper than anyone realized".

A gut-wrenching feeling shook her from her bloody reverie and she looked back in horror, cracks spiderwebbing across clear air it looked like. Beautiful fractals tracing their way into the sky, looking as if a Celestial had created a tapestry of AUM. Everyone's breath catching for a single moment. Until the vision of lines shattered.

The barrier was down.

And Nade had just pissed himself.