It was past three in the morning when Ethan finally had to accept that he’d done all he could to prepare. He was the least valuable to that effort, as every other team member seemed to have some power that suited itself for siege battles.

  Selina was placing her dozenth rune circle up on the wall, her many rune traps already placed across the bridge. Valanor was alternately creating more steel spears to shove into the ground, then pacing furiously as his mana returned. Savilar was still working with Cara on the maze Ethan had suggested.

  It had occurred to him that rather than simply make pits for the undead to fall into, they could actually raise the earth to make paths, like in tower defense games. Some of the undead might simply stomp through, but others would be led slowly through the maze, wasting time and filtering them into beneficial, and heavily trapped areas.

  Ethan was a bit excited by how that plan might play out, but still felt less valuable than the others during the preparation phase. He had three fire traps, and he was saving those for explosive arrows. That meant he spent the last nine hours mostly with the larger Familiars, dragging endless furniture out to the bridge, and beyond.

  But now he was truly unneeded, and Valanor had suggested he get some sleep. That wasn’t what Ethan was doing though. Instead, he was back down in the basement, which had been nearly emptied, trying to make sense of the odd deja vu he was feeling. Tomo had joined him, and they were slowly examining the odd stones.

  “The floor is made of the same,” Tomo reported.

  “How can you be so sure? They’re so filthy I can’t see any color at all.” Ethan was relying on his night vision rune this time, but he’d already gotten used to spotting the darker, scratched stones.

  “This is how,” Tomo said, then lowered himself and landed on the stone. He stomped his foot for emphasis.

  Ethan’s eyes widened. “You’re in your spectral form, and you can’t go through,” he realized. Spirit Familiars couldn’t go far from their Bonded, an irony given their relative freedom in the Astral. Still, they were able to pass through walls and solid objects in their spectral forms, which provided interesting possibilities.

  “The stone prevents me,” Tomo said. “It is magically created, and warded against spectral intruders.”

  Ethan shook his head, still walking around the circular room. “Something about this place bothers me, Tomo. It seems like the fort was built on something older, maybe the ruins of something else, but whatever it was had remarkable defenses. Why? What was this place?”

  “I do not know,” the demon answered, sounding similarly curious. Ethan continued searching, occasionally scratching at the fresh rune behind his right ear. They’d tested and confirmed that he could hear the two Dusk rank warriors, but all was quiet now as they continued preparing above.

  Ethan was readying to leave when he crossed over the center of the room and nearly stumbled on a crack in the stone. Surprised, he knelt down to examine the crack, finding that it spread out like a spider web across several blocks. He’d spent so long studying the walls he hadn’t noticed.

  He found a spot where two cracks met on adjoining stones, and moved his eye as close to it as he could. “I think there’s another floor down there,” he said quietly.

  “We have seen no stairs,” Tomo said, looking around. “Perhaps it was unsafe or unneeded, and so it was sealed off with later construction?”

  Ethan sighed. “I suppose we could guess all day, but it won’t really amount to much. I just can’t shake the feeling that there’s something strange about this place.”

  “Perhaps we can investigate another time,” Tomo suggested. As if to punctuate his point, Ethan’s rune suddenly transmitted Valanor’s deep voice right into his ear–though it was scratchy as if with static.

  “Ethan, get up here,” the knight said with urgency. “They’re early.”

  ***

  Ethan joined the others on the wall overlooking the bridge. They’d lit oil lamps and torches around the fort, not wanting to miss any invaders, and not concerned about giving away their ambush to the mindless undead. They’d also left torches burning on the other side of the ravine, but while they would reveal the enemy and mark certain targets, they also made night vision less effective.

  For that reason, the undead had gotten much closer than they should have without being seen. Their uniformly grey skin was nearly invisible in the cloudy night, but thankfully Selina had set a few simple alarms. The army–and it really did look like an army–was unmissable now though, as they slowly marched onto the killing fields the group had created.

  Ethan finally got his first real look at the attackers, and found the sight more eerie than he’d expected. The first thing that stood out was the strange silence. The monsters didn’t roar, or growl, or make any other kind of noise, they just plodded forward. It was like a slow moving gray flood, and Ethan saw dozens of different types of monsters, many of which he didn’t recognize.

  The smallest were mostly of the lupine and feline variety, stalking on all fours. The next size up was an assortment of reptiles and apes, all with their own monstrous quirks. Horns, additional limbs, spiked carapace. Finally the largest included some dragonkin, including something that had to be a thunder drake, and an even larger winged beast that may have been a Dusk rank.

  What caught Ethan’s eye, however, might have been a remnant of his former profession, as he immediately realized they weren’t rotting. They uniformly sported injuries that must have been enough to kill them–or at least weaken them to the point that the undead corruption took them–but they were far from falling apart. Rather than what Ethan expected from movies, they almost looked frozen in time at the moment of their deaths.

  At last the mass began filtering through the maze of corridors that Savilar had created with walls of Earth. There weren’t as many as Ethan would have liked, as their mana cost was relatively high; the team was lucky the tactic was even viable with the limited time they had. Still, he watched eagerly as the first group of fifty or so monsters slowly followed that path, until they found themselves boxed in at the edge of the cliff.

  “Do it,” Savilar commanded.

  “Firing Wind Blast, one of six,” Selina said, consulting with a rune-covered chart she’d made as she snapped her red fingers.

  There was nearly no sound as the trap went off, just a brief gust of wind before fifteen or so undead monsters were dropped hundreds of feet onto jagged rock. They didn’t even seem to react as they fell through the air–even the one that looked like a wolf with wings didn’t try to save itself.

  “First test successful,” Ethan said with a grin. The smile died as he looked back up to the pass, where more and more of the undead were approaching. Fifteen down, at least a thousand to go.

  Another group was arriving in the same spot, having been forced to take a slightly longer journey through the maze to get there. As soon as the undead were squished up next to the cliff, Savilar gave the command again.

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  “Wind Blast, two of six,” Selina said, and again, a group of undead monsters seemed to take a sudden flight.

  “Problem,” Valanor said, pointing. One of the largest monsters had pushed through to the front, looking like a gorilla with four arms–though it had a missing leg. It was easily twelve feet tall, and it began methodically smashing the earthen maze to bits, although many other mindless undead kept shuffling through the maze. “Must have been given a direct command from its leader,” Valanor added.

  “Take care of it, Cara,” Savilar said coldly.

  “Fire trap, one of three,” the Archer said, though she held her knocked bow out to Ethan. He quickly charged the arrowhead, which she smoothly fired into a pile of oil-drenched wooden furniture close to the ape. It exploded with the power of Flare, causing a small wall of fire to roar to life around the tall monster. Again, it didn’t visibly react, simply continuing its task until it finally burned away.

  Valanor nodded at the sight. “This is good,” he said, turning to look at the group. “Make yourselves proud,” he commanded, then leapt over the wall, landing lightly on the bridge below. His armor erupted to life around him, this time including the green helmet with dragon wings on the side, that Ethan had taken from the gigas. It boosted the man’s stamina and mana regeneration, but he normally resisted it because of the ostentatious appearance.

  The shield knight planted himself at the point of an inverted V of braced spears, and six feet of improvised wall. It would filter the monsters toward him, about a third of the way across the bridge. The distance meant that monsters that made it past him wouldn’t be immediately up the wall, but would instead meet Toby the Obsidian golem, Spruce the quillursi, and Gabriel, which was apparently the name of Sav’s Earth elemental.

  It was still some time before the undead should make it to the bridge, but Valanor always chose prudence, and stood like an impenetrable wall before the gap, shield braced. Savilar would join him soon, but for now remained up top, giving the occasional command.

  “Wind Blast, five of six,” Selina reported as another group fell off.

  “Fire trap, three of three,” Cara added, as flames and oil took on another of the larger undead sent to clear the field. That was the end though, for anything powerful enough to kill a significant monster. The rest of the oil had been used to light the area, or to help create larger, more intentional fires meant to slowly spread across groups of undead.

  Ethan kept charging arrows for Cara, then rapidly cycled in order to restore as much mana as possible before she held out three more. She made excellent use of the [Volatile Infusion], alternately setting traps alight, igniting vulnerable enemies, and even using the small concussion of force it made to herd the undead where she wanted them.

  They’d been at it for nearly forty-five minutes before the lumbering undead finally made it to the bridge. It was mostly the smaller, faster ones that had been less at risk of being knocked off the cliffs, or trapped by fire, and there was a sense of accomplishment radiating from the team. Watching the ragged, limping enemies finally dragging themselves toward Valanor made the group feel like they’d started the battle on the best possible footing.

  “I estimate between two hundred, and two hundred-fifty of them were destroyed by the traps or the fall,” Selina said.

  “That matches my count,” Cara confirmed. Ethan smiled, wanting the team to enjoy the moment, but he could see no end to the mass of undead now pushing forward unhindered toward Cath Bridge.

  “Steady everyone, the real battle is about to begin,” Savilar said, then leapt down to join Valanor and the Familiars. His words were well-timed, as obsidian warhammer crashed into undead flesh the moment the Rift Hunter’s feet hit the stone. He moved forward, joining Valanor at the gap.

  The shield knight intentionally positioned himself forward, giving room for the two to fight side by side. This allowed Savilar to make up for the knight’s weak offense, and slowly a pile of dead undead started to amass as the man’s maces went to work.

  Ethan’s worst horror movie fears had thankfully been put to bed. He’d initially worried that the magical undeath would cause the monsters to be nearly unkillable, or even require being virtually annihilated to stop, but Selina had disabused him of that notion. Apparently specific, intentional spells could sometimes create that kind of revenant, but the magic it took was extreme.

  The undead contagion that was at work here was far more subtle. The magic simply captured living creatures right at the edge of death, then held them there. The original minds no longer controlled the bodies, but the bodies themselves had to be fairly injured by necessity for the affliction to take hold. The only twist was that mortal wounds on a living creature were somewhat different on these undead.

  Ethan saw a gigas approaching, thankfully Dawn rank by its size, and even slower than it had been alive. It had clearly died by having its throat slashed by what looked like claws, but that obviously wasn’t bothering it anymore. To kill it now would require basic zombie logic, with a bit of anatomy thrown in.

  Savilar ran forward, jumping vertically into the air before slamming one of his maces into the giga’s head. It crumpled into a heap. Destroy the brain, Ethan thought, then grinned when a warhammer flew through the air over the falling gigas, striking another one so hard that the head was taken clean off, disappearing into the ranks of undead behind it. Or remove the head, Ethan thought with satisfaction.

  There was more though, which Cara was demonstrating with typical skill. She could fire far too many arrows for Ethan to charge, so she attacked continuously while giving him time to build mana. Her arrows were poorly suited for decapitation, but they routinely found the brain through eyes and ears, which worked perfectly well. She also occasionally attacked spines, proving they still relied on nervous systems, and leaving crippled undead to clog the bridge.

  This also drew attention to another challenge they’d anticipated–the bridge inevitably becoming clogged with the dead. To some extent this was what they wanted, as it slowed the enemy advance. However it also allowed the enemy to climb over barricades and attack Valanor from unfavorable angles. The bodies would slowly disappear over time, the magic holding them together returning to the Astral, but it wouldn’t be fast enough.

  This meant the group on the bridge was holding to a balance. The Dusk rank warriors advanced toward the far end of the bridge, leaving monster bodies as they went, then retreated more slowly. At the same time, Toby and Gabriel would move forward–both large enough to step over the spear-covered barricades–and hurl monsters off the sides.

  While this happened, Cara never stopped firing, keeping her focus on the undead that hadn’t yet reached the bridge. At the same time, Selina was in her element. She had set up a long line of Rune Circles along the wall, and they became active the moment she stepped into them. All were prepared with different spells for different occasions, and she was using them gleefully.

  She made the edges of the ravine slippery with grease. She weakened larger undead against bludgeoning attacks like those used by Val and Sav. She used something that made the monsters stick together awkwardly like glue, which resulted in more than a few sliding over the edge. The simple support spells had uniformly low mana costs, and Ethan swore he heard the Rune Mage cackling with delight at one point.

  They managed to hold like that for over two hours, until dawn’s rays slowly began to light up the battlefield. When they could truly see what they faced, Ethan’s hand tightened on the wall, and Cara’s bow stopped singing for the first time since it started. The undead were legion.

  They had marched over, or otherwise destroyed every trap and wall of earth on the opposite plateau, and were now a teeming mass of gray, the monsters all shoulder to shoulder. And they were still coming. The road that disappeared into the mountains was likewise a single, endless line of undead. A sense of hopelessness washed over the group, but was swallowed quickly by resolve.

  “Don’t look,” Valanor said in his ear. “I know what you’re seeing, and ignore it. This battle isn’t us against the horde, it’s us against those few they put right in front of us. Focus on your duties, and remember why we’re here. This is what Hunters do.”

  Ethan grinned, then passed along the words to Cara and Selina. While the Rune Mage seemed to take them to heart, Cara actually put her bow down. “What’s wrong?” Ethan said, not even considering that the Archer might be giving up.

  She pointed. “There, in the center of the plateau, that’s a Dusk rank gigas.” Ethan quickly looked where she was pointing, surprised the enormous creature hadn’t stood out before, but immediately realized why.

  The gigas was missing its legs, and appeared to have dragged itself into position. It wouldn’t be much of a threat in that condition but… “What the hell is it doing?” he asked. The answer came almost immediately as several smaller undead were hurled through the air. Ethan didn’t even have time to see what they were before they splatted unceremoniously against the cliff below him.

  More were in the air before he could even look back up, and one of these actually hit the fort wall. Ethan hastily turned to Cara and charged three more of her arrows. “See if you can blind that asshole or something,” he said, then turned and jumped into the fort’s inner yard.

  The undead were coming.