Fortifications Against the Undead.

The Queen stood a top the walkway crossing the metal gates of the first wall. The siege had gone on for days. Undead would come but the use of pitch and fire grenades would send them back into the city. But they were running low on these supplies. When they ran out the fight would become an unending melee against the undead that could only be destroyed by fire.

A fire wall of pitch keep the dead at bay for now. They could be seen skulking about inside the city behind the wall of fire.

The queen had her great sword, holing it upside down, leaning on it as a if it was a staff. Her use of magic over the past several days had left the queen exhausted and clearing the undead out so a firewall could be placed had taken its toll.

In the darkness of the night a sound could be heard in the far distance. The sounds of thousands of feet marching in unison. At first all that could be seen was two faint green lights in the fair distance. These lights soon got larger and larger and shapes began to form. Two massive pyramid structures moved towards the city. On lookers would slowly see that other shapes where beginning to form in front of these massive black monoliths.



Five neat blocks of Soldiers wearing armor of bright bronze, wielding pikes and swords of blazing green fire they marched as one, silent as the night. Each block contained over one thousand Guardians, all marching in perfect silence, not even the sound of moving armor could be heard. Yet the greatest surprise could be seen when they got within telescopic range. For everyone of these soldiers were dead. Flesh dried as a husk, with empty eye sockets and exposed teeth their armor to large for their now shrunken flesh. At the head of this undead army walked a being of immense size, floating across the land by means of ethereal energy he lead them all towards the city under siege. 

From the barricades a voice was heard in the heads of all the defenders. "I am Overlord Ralakor of Belrow. The nation of the dead. Long ago, we where forced to destroy the living. We shall not allow this to pass again. No more lives will be lost because of the evil use of the dead. No more innocent blood spilt."

The rear guard of the 3rd Legion quickly formed a defensive line against the approaching forces of Berlow. With their city having been taken by undead, the soldiers saw these new forces as more enemies and were readying for a fight they would surely loose. When the leader of their army spoke the forces of the 3rd made no reply. They would wait for the queen.

Thunder boomed overhead, the tower of Aeon itself had begun to glow a brilliant green, as though reacting to these newcomers. A beam of green light shot from the top of the tower into the clouds above the city and they turned dark, a hazy green weaving through them.

A force of Undead Aaedanians had formed inside the city. A genuine formation of soldiers. They had been waiting for the wall of fire to burn out and the time was now. 10 lines of 10 men shoulder to shoulder marched from the city to attack the walls. Not only that but high on the walls undead Aaedanians appeared and began to fire arrows at any soldier they could.

The undead had changed, grown more intelligent. They were now doing as the Aaedanians would in a siege against their city. Pelt their foes with arrows and send a force to crush them.

Perhaps to Nyx's surprise, the Land-Tillers would immediately rush to the defense of the undead forces commanded by Ralakor. It was an ironic twist of fate that the Land-Tiller's State had formed an alliance with these benevolent undead. The Land-Tillers would provide a distraction while the massive mechanical worm did its job.

The first to respond to the undead troop movements would be the wyvern corps. With their aerial view, they could see the undead beginning to march while also starting to position undead archers along the walls.

The initial volley might take out a few soldiers, but with the help of half the psionic corps, the wyvern corps' intelligence would be transmitted to the rest of the Land-Tillers, causing them to make a temporary retreat just to stay out of range of their shots, before pulling out their long bows and returning fire.

Most of the mounted archer corps could wield longbows with draw weights in excess of a hundred pounds, some even going as high as 150 pounds. Their accurate range was anywhere from 300 to 400 meters.

The wyvern corps themselves also had vastly superior reach due to their altitude and would help snipe the archers from above.

The other half of the psionic corps dedicated themselves to defensive spells to help sway the archer vs archer battle more to their side. Raynor himself would begin channeling healing and defensive spells to prevent loss of life this early in the battle.

The objective wasn't necessarily to kill the undead. Thanks to Ralakor's training and their own past experiences, the Land-Tillers knew that arrows wouldn't be able to kill the undead, but they could at least temporarily cripple them. Shots from 100 lb draw weight bows could penetrate steel armor if necessary, and could send a being made of nothing but bones flying back several meters, causing them to land right on their bare spines, should they connect. Strikes to the limbs could blow the limbs clean off. A good sternum or spine strike could cut an undead in half.

Meanwhile, the falcon corps were done charging their mana and were having their falcons place a large number of magical runes on the ground  and in the air behind their own forces as part of their fail safe strategy. The mounted mages and wyvern mages continued to gather power for the Land-Tiller's primary offensive while letting the archers, psionic corps, and Raynor do their work. The undead could expect a nasty surprise as soon as the walls collapsed.

The Earth titans started to lumber towards the front line, their casters dismounting them and remaining further back, while the Knights of the Harvest began to flank out towards the sides...

Birdie lurked quietly, firing her bow into the undead horde. She wasn't completely sure if she wanted to be here right now, but it wasn't as though she had a choice. Her country was in danger, and there were corpses walking around. That wasn't right. She stuck close to Ranger Praetor, Tania Alwhin, trusting her supervisor to make the decisions that wouldn't result in being devoured.

The storm brewing overhead was growing in size. Soon the city-state and all its territories would be covered by the foul weather.

The Aaedanian undead continued to fire their bows into the living's ranks. A ballistae fired at one of the wyvern rider of the Land-Tillers. Its bolt flying like a bullet through the air, screaming as it soared.

An undead mage graced the walls of the city and began chanting.

A force of knights in tight formation rushed from the city gates to crush any living with the fortifications inner wall. It would slam head on into a phalanx of the 3rd Legion.

Inside the city, unknown to the living and their allies, larger formations undead were forming. Eyes glowing bright and weapons ready. The undead was preparing for the City's invasion. Some intelligence was at work. The dead knew the living had the forces to enter the city.

All the while the Living Aaedanians and their allies attacks found little purchase save for those that immolated the undead.

Arrows would indeed stun the monsters, the metal and wood ripping through flesh and bone, but unless their heads were severed of they were set ablaze the undead would persevere through the attacks.

"Yes your eminence!" Raynor relayed the orders to the Psionic corps, who in turn relayed them to the rest of the forces.

Whatever archers could be spared, as well as the Knights of the Harvest on one of the flanks, immediately moved to intercept the knights threatening the Legion's left flank. They were followed by an earth titan who moved with great strides, causing the ground to shake with each step.

The remaining titans and the bulk of the Land-Tiller forces would spread out more thinly to cover the gate entrances.

As instructed, the wyverns would move to cover the friendly undead as they tried to enter the city. The mages and archers would carefully aim to not hit the friendly undead, but only the enemy undead. Of course the mages would use the fire magic they had been building up at the start of the battle.

The ballista bolt happened to fire at one of the wyvern mages, who had been charging her magic this whole time. Her built up fire spell would be enough to overwhelm the ballista bolt and continue on its path, setting the ballista on fire.

Fully charged, the mage corps began to move. Under the cover fire of the archer corps and even as they spread out, the mages began to unleash their spells that they had been charging since the beginning of the battle. The mages best at earth magic released clouds of an invisible gas up and over the walls. The mages best at wind magic would summon breezes to increase the oxygen levels and also help the clouds of gas travel further beyond the walls, into the ranks of undead which were preparing to take the walls down. And finally, most importantly, the mages who exceeded at fire magic would light the spark...

A rolling wave of brilliant blue flames, extending across the entire Land-Tiller battle line, would flow up and over the walls, incinerating any undead they came in contact with, and would continue to flow passed the wall and into the ranks of undead.

The falcon corps, done laying their runes, would start to cast spells to empower their falcons for more direct combat...

PS: I screwed up. After consulting a mod... my NPC count here is more like 8,000. But I'm gonna roll with it.

With the walls cleared, at least temporarily, the fortification's gates would open. Queen Nyx Mann would march forward, all of Aaedan's surviving might at her back, and the might of Berlow at theirs. He great sword glowed bright ready to unleash its lightning and clear their entry into the city.

As the Queen approached the west gate of the White City, she would raise her sword and order the phalanx that was holding against this newest wave of undead to, "MAKE WAY!" An order they understood well. They would quickly break their phalanx and escape the blow.

The undead in the gate were not as lucky. They were in a tunnel with no escape. The Nyx brought her blade down and blast of lightning erupted toward the undead with such ferocity that none were left in its wake.

"FORWARD MARCH!!" She commanded. And the Aaedanian's began to march into the city.