"Iohann was Gwendolyn's antithesis in many ways. Where she was subtle and prefers to scheme her way through situations, he favors a show of overwhelming force. Where she focused on the aspects of the soul, he was as "traditional" as necromancers come, focusing on large hordes of disposable undead as a show of force.

When he raised Cainte, it was with copious amounts of violence, and his rule was one based on fear, yet for what it's worth he tried to do his people right while he lived.

Where he utterly failed was in choosing and establishing a successor, and his nation fell into civil war over who gets to rule next when he passed of old age. His subsequent successors inherited his rule of fear and terror, but lacked his kinder soul. They were also ambitious, and ambitions often caused people to bite off more than they can chew.

When one of the later kings of Cainte aimed his ambition my way, I just took that opportunity to wipe their ilk off the face of this world, and then took their people under my wing. While he did fail in his endeavors, I hope that the fact that his people now lived happy would console Iohann wherever he is now." - Nec Aarin, The Bone Lord.

"Forward, march!" Bellowed the commander of the Ptolodeccan heavy infantrymen. They had heard the warning shouts of revenants from the frontlines, which signaled that the Antemeian side had sent in their trump card into the battle.

Until that moment they had remained on guard, in case the revenants were aimed at their necromancers in an assassination attempt, but apparently it was an unneeded precaution, as the situation on the frontlines had turned disadvantegous for the Antemeian side to the point that they had to send in their trump cards already.

While barely a third of the skeleton horde remained, they had taken their toll on the zombie horde, maintaining a hefty kill ratio all this time. The abominations sent to crush their formations were handily intercepted by the Death Guards, though now that they were occupied and took losses due to revenants interfering, some started to slip behind them and did damage to the skeleton lines.

As the infantry advanced, so did the mage cadres. For the necromancers it was to maintain close distance to their controlled undead. For the rest, they opened fire on the abominations within their range, the constructs' tall figure making them an easy target, and alleviated the pressure on the skeleton lines.

Said skeleton line parted to the sides in neat order, the center of the line where they used to hold the ground now occupied by three thousand Vitalican militiamen, flanked by two thousand heavy infantrymen on each of their sides, but with a gap between their formations.

The reason for the gap soon presented itself, as the Templars split into two groups, and charged through those gaps into the melee, while from the flanks of the zombie horde the Wings of Night and the mounted death knights did the same.

The simultaneous charge of four cavalry detachments cut deep furrows through the zombie horde, thousands of zombies put down for good in their wake, and for a moment, it appeared as if the battle would be finished without much complications.

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"Lord Ascendant, sir, they have sent their infantry forward, as well as their cavalry," reported a young aspirant's apprentice necromancer who looked at the situation with a spyglass from atop the wall.

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"And guarding their mages?"

"I count a detachment of around fifty heavy infantry near people I suspect to be their commanders," replied the apprentice. "Their mage cadres are in the middle of the heavy infantry formations, roughly two thousand each around them."

"They're cautious…" muttered Gallus Beragonys as he pondered the situation unfolding at hand. He then turned to his assistant and gave his command. "It'll have to do, I guess. Dahlia, inform our guests to enact the decapitation plan now."

"As you will, Lord Ascendant!" Replied the assistant as she made her way down the wall towards a compound nearby.

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"This is a bit too easy…" Kestera said in doubt to Clovis next to her. At the moment she, Clovis, Mimia, and Éirynn, technically the commanding group of their army since everyone else was busy fighting at the front, trailed behind the infantry formations, with just fifty heavy infantrymen remaining behind as their guards just in case.

"He supposedly overwhelmed the Vitalican defenders with numbers and treachery," replied Clovis from his mount next to Kestera. "Perhaps he isn't that talented in straightforward and open battles like this?"

"I doubt it, Clovis," Mimia replied, calling Clovis by name since they were both disciples of the Bone Lord, and thus equal in status. She and Éirynn walked to the other side of Kestera's horse as their mount was busy fighting in the frontlines. "The feedback I received from Haon, Trí, and Ceathair indicates that there's only around half of the revenants an ascendant supposedly has with them. I smell a plot somewhere."

"Where would they be though? Revenants aren't like Junoran soul puppets. They can't use magic and burrow through the soil for ambushes- Shit!" Clovis cursed.

As if his words had tempted fate, the soil bulged and burst apart from four places around their location, from each of which revenants poured out, at least thirty if not more in number. Worse was the four cloaked figures that also appeared from within those holes, with weapons in their hands that raced towards them with menace.

Somehow the Antemeians had gotten access to Junoran soul puppets, and necromancers specialized in the soul manipulation needed to control them, probably survivors of Junora's fall decades ago.

Their fifty guards locked shields, and did their best to defend their charges, while other infantrymen ahead were warned of the situation by the shouts and turned back to give aid, but they were still a distance away, and fifty guards were far from enough to stop thirty revenants and four soul puppets on top.

Ten of the revenants circled around or leapt over the guards while the rest kept them engaged, and together with the soul puppets they went for Kestera's little group in the center.

Kestera and Clovis had dismounted by then, as being mounted does not help in close quarters against revenants, and pulled out weapons. Fortunately for them, the Bone Lord had insisted that every mage under his banner would take lessons with his weapons instructors, instead of relying entirely on their magic when push comes to shove.

That odd insistence had saved the lives of many of them, and had since become a tradition, as even Mimia and Éirynn drew weapons.

Clovis was tall and muscular, and his orcish heritage often made him a bit like a savage playing at being a mage. That impression only amplified when he pulled out a heavy two-handed mace with a round head nearly the size of a watermelon, and literally smashed the first revenant to reach them. The revenant was tossed aside violently, its arms shattered into uselessness.

Kestera didn't have his brute force, but she had over a century more of experience and training, and she deftly handled a revenant with the double bladed sword in her hand, dismembering its limbs before she chopped off its head.

Mimia and Éirynn were less skilled by far, but Mimia never sent Dó away. The bone construct flickered in and out of sight as its limbs and tail skewered revenants, or bit one in half with its maw. The vast majority of the revenants were handled by its lonesome.

Two of the soul puppets had engaged Kestera and Clovis, but were held back by the two. They were visibly frustrated at the ambush not proceeding as planned, as by now more infantrymen had started to trickle back from the frontlines and started dealing with the remaining revenants.

Mimia and Éirynn had together stalled a third soul puppet, if only barely, long enough for Dó to whip its tail over and skewer the puppet, carrying it away towards where it dealt with a half dozen revenant single handedly.

Éirynn had just started to breathe a sigh of relief of the situation falling back under control, when she looked around and did a quick count. She quickly realized the anomaly as she did so. There were only three of the four soul puppets accounted for.

She found out where the fourth was when Mimia yelled her name in panic and shoved her aside roughly, and Éirynn saw the ground bursting behind where she had stood a moment ago, a soul puppet charging out.

She fell on her side as she saw the puppet's wicked blade, gleaming with a dark liquid that covered its surface, plunge into Mimia's body.