General Crendell stabs a man through the throat with his bayonet, and throws the corpse of the man off the wall. The counterattack on the wall goes well, cells hidden beneath houses near the walls used tunnels to break back into the towers, and now the ruined defenses serve as an infrastructural barrier preventing enemy reinforcements from showing up on time. Krenkov isn''t too far off either, currently leading a strike team to hit the less-defended artillery to keep them busy.


    Technically Crendell and all units under his control are exempt from order zero-five-zero, but as the general of a significant amount of forces within Malencia he can''t afford to lose this chance. The units that skirmished on the wall were all withdrawn underground, while units further back used carts in combat to feign a quick withdrawal deeper into the city. Defending must have been tough with a lot less liquidators to fill the gaps in the lower and middle districts, but knowing the sheer amount of esoteric forces gathered, he knows they would survive better than anyone.


    "Section 0-2! Form a line and hit the tango''s coming in from the southwest side, don''t let them link up!" Now with Faerune on the back foot, Crendell''s ruthlessness begins to show in destroying the enemies of Malencia. A demonic Devastator fights below, one that somehow managed to not get banished. It doesn''t have radio contact with Crendell''s forces, but had the exact same plan for dealing with the forces of Faerune. Positioned at one of the wall breaches, it slaughters anyone getting close to prevent escape, and now the walls themselves attack the forces within, turning the entire city into one big deathtrap.


    A volley of metal hits the enemy reinforcements, and seeing the supporting units get annihilated is even more demoralizing for the soldiers of the grand army than having to face the demonic devastator that is currently cleaving through them. They have plenty of monstrously strong forces in their army, but they all went deeper into the city, and if the liquidators themselves are already holding off the standing forces, it doesn''t bode well for what happened to their elites.


    The troops of the grand army back off from the breach, heading deeper into the city in an effort to escape the wall. They surmise correctly that escaping doesn''t put them out of range of the long arm of a liquidator. Just as they retreat in the wrong direction, a flash goes through the devastator, banishing the demon instantly as it''s cleaved in two. A young man in non-standard equipment rushes through the breach, running as fast as he can with sword in hand. Liquidators take aim on the runner, but Crendell signals to hold their fire.


    "No point in attacking, if he killed a devastator that quickly, he''s not something we can harm. Dimitri! Get some men down there to fill that breach, but if something like that shows up again, just let it pass. You should be able to disengage easily, as no one in their right minds would dare stay in the city any longer under order zero-five-zero, even I don''t know of all the weapons our dear lady has stashed away." He''s dead serious in that last part, Crendell firmly believes Esstrey is carrying a proverbial can of worms capable of annihilating a planet with her, perhaps even in the form of a literal can of worms. The only ones who know about her weapons would be the first to face them, and someone strong enough to overrun a devastator running like that has certainly seen something along those lines.


    Dimitri and some of his men fill the breach, with Crendell''s men taking up the walls besides him to provide covering fire. If the artillery went back online right now, they would be in real trouble, but he sent out a radio call to Esstrey informing her of Krenkov''s mission, and wouldn''t be surprised if Malencian surveillance suddenly finds itself in his area. Men and women of the Grand Army begin returning to the breach, finding that a huge demon no longer blocks the path. Something has them scared shitless, and desperate to escape Malencia at once. They charge through the gap, harried by bullets from above as they go. Dimitri''s unit comes from beneath the rubble on the other side, impaling many of the Grand Army trying to escape on their bayonets. A chaotic melee ensues where the liquidators have the overwhelming upper hand, they may not be more skilled in melee than their Faerune counterpart, but the existence of Crendell coupled with them being terrified makes Dimitri''s men fight as a unit, while the formerly proud troops of Faerune can barely afford to fight for their lives.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    As the troops of Faerune are cut down to the last, Crendell bears witness to the sight they all ran from. A combined force of about every force in Malencia approaches. Paladins of holy orders, adventurers, noblemen, liquidators. All united as they shamble in a manner Crendell knows all too well. The black snow that landed in Malencia not long ago, weaponized so quickly already as his more escoteric compatriots no doubt deployed it. He would curse them now as he faces the undead, but those undead cant cleave a Malencian devastator in half within a second, so he sends his begrudging blessing instead. He doesn''t need to tell his troops to fire at them at this moment, they have fought this enemy before.


    "Dimitri! Get up here quick! You don''t want to be down there!" Dimitri responds quickly to Crendell''s order, even when not having spotted the encroaching horde yet. His men crawl over the rubble back to the inner part of the city, and lock the tower door behind them as they ascend the tower to get on the walls.


    "Hold them here men! We can''t let Krenkov return only to find the fields around Malencia are trying to eat him like it''s Malencia''s western flank." Some men chuckle at the light humor, it wasn''t exceptionally funny, but the attempt of it during a time like this is plenty humorous. As for holding the horde there, it isn''t particularly difficult. Their mental capacity only goes so far to crudely hold weapons, but none of their weapons can break walls. The thick door to the tower also goes completely unignored as the horde entirely lacks object permanence.


    The only thing the soldiers really need to do is occasionally shoot at the undead, and while they have plenty of ammo to do it all day, its still rather pointless to do when most times they just get back up, black snow still stuck between their clothing and armor. Crendell thinks of contacting Krenkov to inform him, but instead tailors a distress beacon that specifies them as ''stuck and under siege''. No need to bother Krenkov when he''s no doubt having fun in the enemy rear.


    Just when Crendell feels some relief in the noises of groaning dead after a long day of work, a roaring noise shakes him back alert. A house collapses, and a humongous beast crawls through the dust right towards his position. His men take aim, awaiting orders to fire. Crendell isn''t familliar with the silhouette, and nothing arrives on radio except static. He gestures for his men to fire, but all he hears is the sound of metal deflecting his shots. Just as he orders his troops to go from fifty percent charge to a hundred, while using spare crystals to fuel up quickly, the silhouette escapes the dustcloud caused by the destruction of the house. A gleaming metal behemoth of adamantine, or perhaps covered in it. He can recognize the largest stockpile of adamantine in Faerune, perhaps the world, with ease as it being part of Esstrey''s personal retinue. He gestures for a ceasefire, and the landship crushes the undead clawing at them from the bottom of the wall underneath its mighty treads.


    The hatch pops open revealing a pissed dwarf looking up at the liquidators.


    "Ya better nat have scratched anythin'' ya can''t afford ''umie prick! Call for aid n shoot at yer cavalry, why dontcha!?" Dimitri begins a verbal fight with the dwarf, scolding him for improper radio protocol, while the dwarf hurls an impressive selection of profanities back at the man.


    Crendell for his part simply looks at the trail of destruction left behind, and how the corpses underneath the landship being turned into stains comparable to modern art. He sighs, being incredibly thankful right now that his allies eat people, can use them as fuel, or whatever it is they do. He''d feel terrible thinking about who he would have to assign to clean the streets right now.