Esstrey smashes another of the afflicted into the ground, breaking plenty of bones in the process. She can certainly not harm them in the process, but doing so is difficult when there are many of them around. Krenkov''s men aren''t as nice as Esstrey when it comes to that department, they know that if they get holes torn in their coats they will join the mass of afflicted. However, as many problems the rain caused, Esstrey knows that overcoming this will strengthen Malencia. Sure enough, the rain begins to slowly subside.
Esstrey holds her claw up, relishing the last bit of moisture invigorating her skin. Just as she''s thinking about getting herself a mobile shower to permanently feel like this something other than a drop of blood falls on her claw. A small and black flake, as if someone started painting snow black. The particles have completely replaced the rain, and the cheers of the subsiding rain get replaced with the realization that this nightmare hasn''t ended yet.
One of the people on the ground begins to shudder violently, before slowly getting back up. Esstrey loads up her crossbow, she was... is certain that that person is dead. A trait maybe? Perhaps an aftereffect of the blood rain? She loads her crossbow, things are never so nice to be that simple.
*CA-CHUNK*
The ''bolt'' crashes through the woman Esstrey shot, piercing the lower abdomen and pinning her to the floor. Despite missing the lower part of her spine, the woman still tries to scrabble off her pinned position and rip apart the one who put her there. Other bodies begin to shudder violently as well, and notably none of the living ones shudder. Necromancy.
"Zombies! Clear them out!" At Esstrey''s order, the men begin to fire everything they have now that their target is finally not human for once.
<hr>
It was supposed to be a simple information run, drop by some acquaintances and head back to the keep. Instead, Jake is now surrounded by the dead, weren''t necromancers on their side? What the hell was Kreif doing? Jake fires a javelin made of shadows behind him, and blasts the head of a zombie clean off. Despite the momentary euphoria of getting a clean kill, Jake''s celebration is cut off by five more taking its place. Deciding to live for another day, he runs to a nearby alley, trying to cross into an area less populated. Hearing shouts up ahead means that there are people there, living ones.
Arriving at the scene, Jake sees a group of liquidators trying their hardest to defend a group of barely conscious wounded from a veritable horde. His arrival at the scene is like cavalry running down the enemy, as the magic of the heir of Malencia cuts through flesh and bone with ease. As the frontal assault of the horde lessens, the men begin to fan out to cover the flanks, one doesn''t need to see the faces behind their masks to know that they are filled with desperation, fear and determination.
Unfortunately, it is all for naught, the noise their battle made attracted the rampaging people that were killed nearby by this very squad. This time the horde comes from all sides, the scream of one of the men acts as a signal for retreat. One of the liquidators was grabbed from behind while facing the ones in front, and quickly gets dragged to the ground and eaten alive. One of the wounded being defended had died due to poor treatment, and had joined the opposing side as a result. Some of the zombies that were previously taken down begin to shudder violently as well, turning their position from a stable defensive circle to a situation where everyone is surrounded and alone.
In better news, the sergeant of the group is still alive, and a rallying call is made for the soldiers to head to Jake. They don''t know he''s the heir, but a mage is their best weapon in this scenario. More men fall trying to reach him, a singular walking corpse being enough to seriously slow someone down, and a second one can drag down those of lesser caution. As the men abandon their position in an attempt to survive, the wounded civilians injured as a result of the blood rain are left completely undefended.
The survivors are forced to watch from a more defensible alley as their colleagues and the ones they defended are swarmed by the devouring swarm. They don''t seem to care much for houses with properly closed windows and doors, even if Jake is certain there are still people in there. If it''s this bad in one of the better parts of the lower district, how bad is it in the slums?The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Salvation from the gruesome display comes in a stream of fire falling out of the sky engulfing the street, a group of winged demons indicating that the paranormal division hasn''t betrayed Malencia just yet. Despite the fire, the zombies don''t scream in pain, and only begin falling to the ground once their very bones get blackened. One of the demons lands, and gives a piece of paper to the sergeant. After reading it, he nods and gestures for his men to follow him, but stops Jake.
"Thanks for the help mage, but we need to help some people trapped in a nearby building surrounded by the fucks. If we involve magic, the chance of collateral is too high, and we have relied on the help of a civilian enough so far." Jake thinks of coming with anyway, but refrains from speaking up. His informant is still at the location deep within the lower district near the slums.
Running through alleys and dodging the larger groups is surprisingly easy for Jake on his own, magic makes little noise compared to the guns of the liquidators, and he hasn''t been falling back on his lessons. The political influence the paranormal division holds over Malencia is terrifying in his eyes, and now they have practically committed a coup. As Jake runs through Malencia he comes across an odd sight, a group of undead soldiers shambling like the zombies around, in the middle is a necromancer judging by how he''s dressed, along with some liquidators. All of them dead, with the undead soldiers barely being damaged. The flakes falling from the sky must have hijacked the undead troops from the necromancer''s control, turning the military escort in a killbox.
He had experienced something similar not too long ago with the wounded camp, individually the zombies are pathetic, and in a group only amount to a mild threat, but in a combat zone the dead are everywhere. Jake''s staring at the undead is interrupted by a wretched snarling noise coming from nearby. A dog runs full force at Jake, and is instantly blasted by dark magic. Looking in the direction of where the dog came from, Jake sees... a kennel. More zombie-dogs stalk the area, and some have taken note of him. He looks around in panic, for anyone to help or routes to escape, only to notice as a nearby aerial squadron of demons seems to be getting harassed by undead birds.
Running from the kennel is a hasty affair that doesn''t go unnoticed, the former patrol notices Jake, and begin to shamble after him. Half snarled barks and biting noises are right behind his heels, as some of the dogs have already begun catching up. As he fires more blasts of magic on his pursuers he has to stop, the short moment he stops proves fatal as another group of zombies cuts off his escape route. The loud snarls of so many alerted dead attracting even more. Jake is forced to run into yet another dangerous alley, sure enough this time he gambled poorly, it''s a dead end.
Out of breath, out of mana, so dies the heir of Malencia. At the hands of his own people and soldiers, eaten alive. As should be the fate of those who collude with forces beyond their understanding.
*THUD* *CRUNCH*
Were it not for a singular figure standing between him and the approaching horde right now, a towering figure that came out of nowhere looking down on the zombies like ants, a silhouette that seems to inspire fear in even the zombies if only for a moment. Covered in head-to-fin in blood, she wields her crossbow backwards. A zombie lunges as high as it can for her, impressively just barely reaching the bottom of her armor. It gets clubbed with the rear end of the massive metallic crossbow for its efforts, and down it goes. The horde tries to use its mass to drag down the mermaid, but her slippery scales completely prevent it from finding purchase, and their teeth aren''t strong enough to go through her scales.
Every time Esstrey raises her crossbow, it comes down on the skull of a zombie, every time a zombie gets close it gets grabbed at the head by her claw and gets crushed. Esstrey isn''t even using her magic for combat, she just occasionally re-applies the blood covering her by draining the zombies of theirs and dumping it over herself.
*CRUNCH* *KRRK*
*CRUNCH*
*CRUNCH*
*CRUNCH* *KRRK*
With an emotionless efficiency the horde begins to reduce in numbers, the armored plating of the undead soldiers fail to change the titan''s approach for dispatching them, and the undead dogs get swept aside when being faster than their target is useless when the target wasn''t planning on moving anyway. As the noise of snarling dead begins to die down, Esstrey turns to the exhausted Jake.
"I didn''t know you were that charismatic Jake, you accumulated quite the following. I would recommend next time you don''t run into danger like this, it''s not good for your heart to do stuff like this on a constant basis." She doesn''t even bother to wipe the blood off her visor, and simply floats off toward sector D7.