The battle was going roughly the same way it had been for the past thirty minutes. The only significant change was that the merchants guild’s team had pulled back into the hall. They were at just the right range that a replacement mage was able to attack out from between the front guards.

I knew I was dealing with a replacement because I saw at least twenty mages and clerics moving down the hallway when I checked in on them from my shade. They were coming for me, expecting an easy fight with the undead.

I rubbed my face, which unfortunately made me wince in pain yet again. “Renfry, they are coming up with a cleric. Expect them to cause you more damage. Irwin, we have mages moving down the hallway. I expect to see a good push of magical attacks coming from them shortly.”

I scratched my chin and had my throne set down in the middle of my line. “We need to take out their main defense quickly. My guess is if we can drop them, we can clear out the soft mages quickly.”

Renfry snorted. “We can hit them from back here with magic all day, but it doesn’t seem to be doing anything.”

I nodded. “You’re not wrong. We have been hitting those shields of theirs with magic for at least half an hour, but nothing has been happening. Suggestions?”

Irwin looked around. “I could move forward and take them out. You wouldn’t want to be nearby, but I could drop them all.”

I shook my head. “Not a good idea, you would be undefended as you moved into range, and afterward, you would be out of commission. We need you for healing.”

Renfry smiled as he pointed to a long spear. “I can break them with my active skill Charge and that.”

I shook my head. “Right behind the mage and guards are twenty clerics. What do you think will happen when you get close to them.”

Right as Renfry was nodding, my throne’s Shroud of Protection popped up. Then a magical fireball washed over the shield. The quiet girl screamed and then looked around at the rest of us, just watching the next attack fly at us.

I shook my head. “Well, it looks like they’ve seen us now. We’ll see how they deal with all of us shooting at once.”

It took me a moment, and then all of my ranged minions attacked. I had ice spikes, fireballs, lighting, and arrows flying at the tanks. Then, right before the magic got them, it splashed onto a magical dome. The arrows passed through the magical protection and hit the guard’s shields.

We kept up the assault for about two minutes. A minute in, the color of the magical dome changed as they swapped out who was creating it. In the swap, a few attacks made it through and splashed onto the shields of the tanks. There was now damage to their tower shields.

I had all of my forces stop shooting to start recharging. They could have kept up for a few moments, but it didn’t seem worth it. The damage wasn’t significant, and if we used up too much mana, we wouldn’t be able to keep them bottled up.

I reached out with my bond to check Blink. She was stealthing along about ten feet from the guards. I smiled when I saw her. She was just waiting for the right time to drop on top of the guards. If we could pull them out somehow, she would be able to attack from behind.

Seeing where Blink was made me ask. “Suggestions?”

Kasidy brought her lute around. “I have one.”

Before I could say anything else about where Blink was, she started to play. Then she stepped forward and began to sing.

We stumbled in the bar, not sure where we're at

Fumbled for our coin, dropped our hats

We ordered up a round, and downed it fast

Our heads are spinning, we hope it lasts

It only took me a moment to realize what she was doing. Her goal here was to break the line with Stagger Away. If she could send the front line away, we could advance and perhaps even take out several of the mages. I had my throne lifted as she needed protection to close with them.

It wasn’t what I wanted to ask because Blink had changed my ideas. However, I couldn’t leave Kasidy unsupported as she advanced. So we moved forward. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the new girl had stayed behind us. However, she moved forward with her hand resting on the throne.

We move forward at a slow walk. I hated her idea, but I knew that it was one of the best that we had. Her goal was aligned with what we had been doing, and she was too far forward for me to stop. So the hope was for her to break the physical shield wall then the hell dogs and other animal undead could do their thing. As soon as we hit the twenty-foot mark, the wall split.

The tank on the left turned and started to stagger away. The one on the right looked at him and then moved to the hall’s center. Which meant he was now not fully plugging the entrance.

I smiled as we kept forward, and I called out the undead beasts. I had left all but the hell dogs I had already sent out down in the wine cellar. I planned to use them on the advanced team if they had broken past my first choke point. But, since they hadn’t, it was time to bring them out to play.

The sole tank remaining at the hallway entrance set his shield as the undead bulls charged at him. I smiled wickedly as they hit his shield, expecting to see him stumble. However, it was the bull that was stopped cold. It wasn’t hurt, but the inertia wasn’t even transferred to the guard. He just lit up with an orange glow.

About a dozen hits later, the tank was glowing brightly, and as the undead kept trying to force their way past him, it looked like the guy had stopped all of the bulls in Pamplona. They were pushing forward with their feet and just sliding back, but they couldn’t push past him. So I sent them back around for another charge, hoping to see his stand end.

All fourteen of my zombie bulls charged him again. As the first two hit the space he held, I saw his foot slide just a little. His shield moved back, and then he stepped forward. As his right foot fell to the ground, he shouted, and a ten-foot radius caught fire and was thrown back. Many of my minions were tossed over twenty feet away with his explosion. As the flame calmed, I saw him stomp and reset his shield just in time to be hit by a charging bear.

The tank brought a large mace around and knocked my bear to the side. It was the first time I had seen either of the guards attack. Up to this point, they had just used their shields to hold the line. The bear got up and charged back into fight him hoping to maul the tank.

I sent my few standing bulls back to charge again. My hope was that the guard would be too busy with the bear to notice the bulls. However, my hopes and my zombie bear’s head were shattered. My bear was still moving around, which was good in and over itself, but it now couldn’t see where to go.

The guard shifted back, and I smiled. He was no longer centered, and his shield had been slightly damaged in his fight with the bear. I sent the charge command again, and the large animals piled in. I heard the guard screaming something as about a third of the beast zombies made it past. Then his screaming changed to pain as his shield snapped.

When the shield snapped, he dropped it and started to swing with his mace in both hands. It almost looked like he was using a mace like a baseball bat. I had seen him fight the bear and knew he could use the mace correctly. When the mace hit the first bull, I understood why he was using two hands.

The mace hit the charging bull on the side, slamming across the opening and into several hell dogs. Each time he hit something, his glowing mace seemed to change the movement momentum from forward to sideways.

I hit the guy in the face with one of my Dark bolts. The throne increased the power of my spell by 50%, which brought the total damage from the attack up to about 7.5 points. The trick, however, was that it also decreased his vision by about 1.5%, not much, but enough that he didn’t see the hell dog come in from the side when he knocked a buck into the wall.

The hell dog hit his blind side, took the tank down, and kept going. That was the end of the tank. He tried to get up but was knocked over by the Charge ability of Renfry as he slammed a lance into the man’s chest, pinning him to the ground. Then the bulls hit the unmoving target.

I smiled that we had broken the front door. Then, I reached to the back door to see how the boy lich was doing. I sighed at the sight before me. He had led his troops to the trap door, then through it, and set with his back to the lead team and his minions to the gate.

While he was killing the reinforcements as they came through the gate. He had left his back completely exposed to the guild members further down the hallway. The undead that I had sent with him weren’t being used, and it seemed as if he didn’t even know how to give them commands. I set my undead in a double line, had them link shields, and then started advancing down the tunnel.

I yelled out. “Alright, time to crush them!”

Kasidy waved and kept marching forward, singing. She was driving back many of the clerics, reducing the number of my minions being damaged by holy magic. However, my throne carriers had to slow down slightly because of the charging zombie beasts. As they did that, Kasidy passed just outside the area protected by the Shroud of Protection.

With a single flash, the merchants guild’s enforcer appeared and drove a pulsing black sword through Kasidy’s chest. The music stopped as she fell off the blade. The enforcer vanished back behind the other tank, who had just come to his senses.

* * *