Chapter 90: Chapter 78 – Battle of La Fiachna (Part 2)

"At first, I watched with keen interest as my students raised their own dominions. They were so driven, and when they occasionally visited, they were so proud of their achievement. It was endearing, truly.

 

They did things in a harsher way than I did, having less leeway and power to fall back to, but their intentions were good in the end. It is just a pity, that as with most mortal institutions, the intentions of the founder often become lost in the future generations.

 

Gwendolyn was a bright, energetic girl. Her family originated from the then progenitor of what is now the Elmaiya Empire to the west, this was before the days of even the first empire. Like most goblins, her tribe was a conquered people, treated as possessions of their betters, and her ancestors were among the few who successfully escaped.

 

She had went to the northeast, went to make her own land, where she wished for there to be no more slavery, where everyone, regardless of race, could live free and happy. Her means of subjugating the local bandit leaders of the area were insidious, as she would kill a leader, possess their corpse, and use them to make the bandits fight and kill each other, only for her to swoop in later.

 

As she had always been fascinated with the study of the soul and immortality, it had not surprised me that she found a way to reach a pseudo immortality, by possessing and sharing bodies with her successors, who were then dubbed the Spirit Servants.

 

The first two generations went well, but I noticed changes that were unlike her from the third generation, and by the fifth, I was certain that she had lost control over the amalgamation of souls she had chosen to become a part of.

 

When I snuffed out the Spirit Servant for good decades ago, it was with hope that she had either passed on long ago, or if not, that at least I had finally ended her misery at long last." - Nec Aarin, The Bone Lord.

"REVENANTS!" Came a warning cry from further afield as Aideen was working on finishing her fifth abomination so far. She had just extracted her weapon's blade from where it was lodged on the sinuous abomination's thick spine when she spied a blurry figure moving fast from the corner of her eyes.

 

Despite the warnings - her own shouted into the mix - the younger Death Guards who were fighting off the zombies in the perimeter failed to react in time. Two heads were separated from their bodies before they could reach, and only at the third did the revenant fail to score a kill, as its claws were blocked by the shaft of an axe.

 

When it was stopped for that brief moment, everyone saw the sight of the revenant in question. A tall, gaunt humanlike figure, with lanky limbs filled with corded muscles. Its skin gives off a leathery impression, and it moves like a predator stalking prey.

 

Aideen - as well as everyone else in the expedition - had been briefed about them, as they had rarely encountered these undead before. Where abominations were given to aspirants to control, revenants were solely used by ascendants, who took to the fields far more rarely. The last time Vitalicans had ever fought one was during their rebellion.

 

They were deadlier creatures compared to abominations despite their smaller size, and since an ascendant can focus on controlling just a few of these highly capable combatants, they were far more finely controlled than is usual for Antemeian undead.

 

Only a moment later, the young Death Guard who had blocked the fatal blow from earlier was sent reeling back, her hands clutching the intestines spilling out from her torn abdomen, the revenant's claws having torn right through her chainmail with ease.

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Three older Death Guards who were closer fortunately engaged the revenant, thus saving the young one from certain death, and gave Aideen time to come to her side, where she hastily patched up the injured woman. She had just stood up what another revenant flashed into sight from within the horde, and claws headed straight for her.

 

Her black adamant staff clashed with the claw and batted it away before it landed, yet it wasn't with ease, as the necromantically reinforced structure of the revenant meant it was stronger and faster than her. A quick glance around saw that all the other Death Guards with her were engaged, the older ones fighting off two other revenants, while the younger ones holding the zombies and giving the rest some room to work with.

 

That left Aideen on her own with the revenant in front of her, with the barely conscious woman she just healed behind her.

 

Aideen twisted her staff into three sections before the revenant landed its next blow, and had the blades on both sides of the staff set, as she whirled it around and made the revenant pull its arms back, since she'd have chopped them off otherwise.

 

It became more tentative and thoughtful in its assaults, indicative that the necromancer controlling it must have paid extra attention her way for some reason, so after a minute or so of inconclusive skirmish, she baited the revenant, left an opening that would have normally allowed it to land a fatal wound.

 

Rather unsurprisingly, it jumped at the bait, either uncaring that it was being baited since it was just an expendable undead anyway, or certain that it would kill her before she could react.

 

Probably both, as the revenant had plunged its clawed hand deep into her chest, and pulled it out with a bloody heart in its grip. She could swear that the leathery face of the revenant made a smug face at her as it made a show of crushing her heart in its hand in front of her eyes.

 

Too bad for the revenant - and the necromancer behind it - that she had no longer needed it for a long time now, and its smug look vanished when her whirling blades caught its head right where the jaw was joined, and the upper part of its head fell off, leaving just the lower jaw attached to its neck as it slowly toppled backwards.

 

Aideen quickly sealed the wound - if only to stop the Death Guards from worrying over her and potentially cost themselves their own lives in the process - as she headed towards the revenants still being engaged by the Death Guards.

 

From behind, she could hear the sound of the Ptolodeccan battle anthem, which they sung at the top of their voice as they advanced, as well as the hooves of onrushing cavalry. The battle was apparently about to escalate.

 

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