Daughter of Death - A Necromantic LitRPG

“Who was the fool that ordered that retreat!?” Alberich cast a scrutinising glare across the breadth of his men, “A second more, and Lieze Sokalar’s guts would have been wrapped around my warhammer!”

“Alberich…” Mime placed a hand on his shoulder, “What’s done is done. We need to prepare for our final defence. The Order isn’t going to give us time to bicker.”

The king’s fearsome expression stowed itself with a tired sigh.

“Have every ballistae in the chamber trained on the bridge.” He said, “We’ll knock every last thrall into the magma if that’s what it will take. Those of you with injuries, grab yourselves some potions from the fortress and be ready to fight in the next five minutes.”

As the soldiers dispersed, the two Scions were left staring towards the distant cave mouth leading out from the Royal Delve, anticipating a wave of thralls to burst through at any moment.

“We underestimated them.” Alberich said, “This I will admit. But we’ll have our day yet, Mime. You and I are going to slaughter every last one of those corpses if it’s the last thing we do.”

“We can’t allow any more losses.” Mime shook his head, “There’s almost nothing left to rebuild. If we can’t defend those stationed in the fortress, these mountains will have no future. We can’t count on the Elves to contest this threat, Alberich - it needs to end here, or the Order’s dire future may very well come to pass.”

“You understand, then. I wouldn’t expect anything less of you.” Alberich slammed the head of his hammer against the charred ground, “Yes… if things had turned out differently - if I was never responsible for organising our defence, then maybe…”

“Don’t finish that thought!” Mime placed a cautionary hand on his shoulder, “Brother… there can be no other king but you! This is how it was always meant to be! You can’t muster your strength against the Order with this self-defeating attitude!”

“You’re right. You’re very right, Mime.” He stiffened his expression and sighed, “The Violet Sages revealed a terrible truth to me. I can’t help but believe that a tragedy must come to pass if we’re to seize victory from the jaws of this Dragon. Mime - no matter how fearsome this battle becomes, you mustn’t die! If one of us must perish, then let it be me!”

“Neither of us will die this day!” Mime raised his voice to mask the uncertainty in his tome, “Not while we fight together! Not while we have fire and steel at our backs! Show me the confidence with which you demand respect from your countrymen! Show me the slayer of the Amber Dragon!”

Something like a chuckle escaped from Alberich’s throat, “Mime… you are too kind for your own good.”

“Save your compliments for when Lieze Sokalar is dead and our bellies are full of ale.” He said, “They will be on us like a tide of rotting flesh. Have you enchanted the ballistae?”

“Please. They haven’t lost their edge in months.” Alberich waved his hand, “You just focus on keeping those thralls on the other side of this bridge. We’ll funnel their numbers into manageable groups and fight well into the dead hours of the early morning if fate permits.”

“It’s time.” Lieze stood up, “Baccharum?”

“Oh…” The Elf grasped his head in both hands, “I’ve had some headaches in my time, but a strike to the chin from the Dwarven monarch’s enchanted hammer takes the cake.”

With the checkpoint cleared, Lieze was wrapping up the final preparations for her long-awaited conquest of the Dwarven Mountains. While Marché and Roland recouped some of their losses with the cadavers of fallen warriors, she considered the best strategy for assailing the magma chamber’s suspended hold.

“We don’t have any other choice besides sending thralls over the natural bridge leading up to the fortress.” She began, “With that said, we can send Bonecrawlers along the underside to flank whatever defenders prevent us from passing, but I doubt that will be enough to overwhelm the siege weapons.”

“...There we go.” Drayya tapped her finger against Baccharum’s bald head once she was done looping a bandage from his chin to his scalp, “Not the cleanest job I’ve ever done, but considering I specialise in ending lives rather than saving them, I’d say it’s the best I could do given the circumstances.”

“You can’t send any Deathguards over that bridge.” Baccharum ignored the girl’s taunting and addressed Lieze, “The shelves surrounding the chamber are packed with ballistae, to say nothing of the ones atop the fortress. They’ll pick out and kill any necromancers they see. Not to mention the bubbling pool of magma awaiting anyone who happens to lose their balance.”

“I’ll handle them.” Lieze folded her arms, “Just be ready to move in once I give the signal. Alberich and Mime are your priorities. I imagine they’ll be guarding the bridge out of desperation.”

“They’re invincible.” Baccharum shook his head, “Alberich moreso, but Mime’s restorative spells allow him to fight endlessly. Not to mention the holy enchantments they’ve been using to carve through our numbers. Together, they make quite a team.”

“The Scions are powerful, but while the likes of Alistair and Helmach could afford to adopt more offensive strategies, Alberich and Mime are forced to use their magic pre-emptively or defensively.” Lieze replied, “Place your trust in me. I know how to defeat them.”

She turned to Drayya, “Can you use the Void Beast to infiltrate the fortress once we’ve begun the attack? I want to thin the defenders and prevent any errant factors from interrupting the battle.”

“You want me to put Fudge’s life on the line like that!?” Drayya widened her eyes and blinked rapidly, “Hasn’t she done enough already!?”

“Drayya…”

“Hehe…” She smirked, “Don’t worry, I’ll send her in. She’s not much use tucked away in the rear, anyway. But what are you going to do?”

“You’ll see.” Lieze replied, “-And you’ll hear the commotion, too, so be prepared to charge as soon as it happens. Keep yourselves far away from Alberich and Mime until we have them on the back foot - then we can focus on how to kill them.”

With all that needed to be said out of the way, she departed for the gated cavern leading towards the magma chamber, peeking around corners and masking her footsteps to avoid any tragic run-ins with lingering soldiers on her way to the roiling throat of the mountain. When she spotted the rays of light pouring in from the exit, she allowed her eyes to adjust, scanning the sight of Alberich’s fortress for the enormous ballistae trained on her position.

Remaining out of sight, she kneeled down and closed her eyes, focusing on the lingering presence of her thralls. Behind her, a radiating tide of necromantic energy blotted out Lieze’s perception. It was difficult to focus on anything else, but even so, she deepened her concentration and sought one bond in particular. In the far-off skies, a pair of wings reacted to her call, fluttering obediently towards the volcano’s blistered vent.

Alberich, who stood upon the precarious stone bridge leading towards his fortress, raised his head as a shadow overtook his own. He squinted his eyes as the glaring sunlight, encircled by the shrinking cusp of the volcano’s crater and trapped in perpetual midday, was eclipsed by the silhouette of some unearthly beast hovering over the mountain.

“What in the name of…” He muttered, “Am I seeing things?”

Then, like a terror from the heavens, the beast came plummeting down. Alberich sprinted out of the way a second before the Manticore crashed onto the bridge. With a single leap, it cleared the gap dividing the fortress from the caverns. Lieze ran into the light and scrambled to mount the beast before the ballistae could take aim, holding on for dear life when the Manticore took off yet again.

“It’s that damn monster…” Alberich gritted his teeth, “No matter… Lieze Sokalar will learn the hard way that even those who dominate the skies cannot contend with the might of the Dwarves!”

Bolts were loosed from every direction, each of them empowered with magical might. The Manticore disappeared into choking columns of smoke rising from the magma, forcing Lieze to curl up on the beast’s back to avoid choking. She could hear the air being torn around her, and the fearsome shunts of ballistae bolts crashing into the chamber’s walls.

Soldiers stationed within one of the fortified shelves made way as the Manticore descended into their domain, splintering the scaffolds erected to support siege weapons with its weight. The so-called ‘shelves’ were interconnected caverns overlooking the fortress, each of them acting as a miniature outpost to rain fire upon attackers from unreachable positions. This, Lieze theorised, was the Dwarves’ final and most desperate defensive strategy.

The Manticore made short work of its defenders, tearing soldiers apart with little more than inconsequential swipes of its paws. The cavern’s low ceiling provided cover from the remaining shelves, allowing the beast to wreak havoc as it pleased.

Mastery over the air would allow Lieze to dismantle each and every shelf before taking the fight to the fortress. Once the spirit of the Dwarves had been shattered, she could turn her attention to Alberich and Mime, who were otherwise incapable of doing anything else but observing the end of their nation in horror.

Screams echoed across the wide chamber. Barrels of blast powder tucked away within the shelves filled the air with smoke and embers as standing torches were knocked into the flecks of explosive powder dusting their lids. No matter how fearlessly they lashed out, no weapon could penetrate the Manticore’s peeling flesh reinforced by Lieze’s necromantic abilities.

When the Manticore took off into the magma chamber once again, even the enchanted ballistae awaiting its emergence couldn’t follow the beast’s chaotic movements. Lieze swallowed down something that worked its way up from her stomach as her world twisted and contorted. Between the columns of smoke, she could spot the first of her thralls working their way into the magma chamber, progressively drawing fire as the horde’s presence overshadowed her own.

Alberich, having freshly enchanted his weapon, was more than eager to rush headlong into battle. With two Dwarves against an army of undead, one would think that Lieze’s victory was only a matter of time, but the duo’s sheer resilience as as result of their status as Scions, as well as their relative strength compared to the average thrall, made her worrisome of the losses that would be necessary.

“Hah! No lifeless husk can quell the fury of my soul!” With an overhead swing, one Gravewalker was no more, its head reduced to a bloody pulp, “There is no other path for me than one stained by the blood of my enemies! Come, Mime! Crush, decapitate, disembowel - surrender your mind to the fight and push this army of darkness back to the cursed land from whence it came!”

Land, destroy, take flight - Lieze could feel her consciousness wavering as the Manticore descended upon each elevated outpost, sowed untold destruction among its defenders, and launched back into the air without a second thought. With every ballistae destroyed, her army surged with activity, shambling to overwhelm the two warriors who would name themselves the heroes of Dwarvenkind.

Quest ‘Extermination’ Complete!

Reward - 12,000xp

Level Up!

You are now level [54]

HP + 0 MP + 55

MIND + 1

Finally, when every shelf was accounted for, Lieze commanded the Manticore to land behind Alberich and Mime. With their defences dismantled, their soldiers butchered, and their escape route cut off, she had succeeded in isolating the biggest thorn in her side since the beginning of the siege.

“We’re surrounded…” Mime cast a glance over his shoulder, “Is this the end?”

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

“Wasn’t it you who said that neither of us will die this day?” Alberich asked, “We can still fight - no - we must! For the sake of all those who will one day return to these mountains, we will eradicate the Order here and now!”