Isu said nothing in response. Instead, she simply gave him a casual shrug. It was a deliciously dismissive gesture that had me chuckling.
“You have nothing to say, fiend?” the commander roared. “So be it. Just as the rising of the sun, the great sphere of Light that feeds all life in the Lord’s blessed land, banishes the shadows of the night, we will purify the world from the stain of your corruption and evil with the force of our arms. Soldiers of Light, prepare for battle!”
A cheer rose up from the ranks of the Crusader infantry, and the commander galloped around to their rear. The square of soldiers locked their shields together in a wall and started to advance slowly. Seen from up above, it was almost like I was looking down at a game of chess, even the fiercest fighters looking like toys.
Isu knew what to do. Without a word, she commanded Fang to charge. My big lizard loved a good fight, so he didn’t need much encouragement to thunder across the dusty ground toward the infantry square. The rest of my party and my undead troops charged in an almost equally furious run.
Once the bulk of my force had entered the valley, the Crusader Commander reached for a golden horn on his hip and blasted out a trumpet signal. In response, his hidden cavalry charged from behind the massive boulders, intending to trap my army.
Now it was time for my newest deity, Anna-Lucielle, to do her part. She had borrowed Rollar’s helm, a magical item forged by the God of Beasts that allowed the wearer to communicate with animals. The animals in question were the Crusader cavalry’s horses.
Instead of pouring out from behind the boulders behind my army, the horses turned around. The surprised yells, kicks, and whips of their riders made no difference. The steeds raced around the rim of the valley and emerged at the rear of the Crusader army. At first, I thought Anna-Lucielle’s magic had failed, but then the magnificent animals started throwing their riders off. The soldiers screamed as their steeds kicked them and trampled them. The mayhem left the whole Crusader force trapped between my army, a wall of rabid horses, and the rocky walls of the valley.
It was time to begin the slaughter.
I lined up the crossbow enchanted by the Tree God’s power and loosed the first bolt. The projectile flew true and pierced an infantryman’s skull like a skewer into a ripe cherry tomato. His body shuddered, and then roots sprang from the wound and smothered his whole body even as he thrashed.
I sent a mental command to all of my zombie archers and crossbowmen on the rocky outcrops of the cliffs above the battlefield. My undead soldiers started pouring arrows and crossbow bolts into the trapped Crusader force, who were like stuck pigs. Grave Oath buzzed madly in its scabbard on my hip, multiple souls won per second as the projectiles did their deadly work.
The Crusaders were falling like flies, and by the time my forces crashed into theirs, half of their troops had already been killed. As I continued to pick off the soldiers with rapid-fire shots from my bow, I resurrected every one of the Church of Light soldiers I killed. The newly created zombies wreaked havoc in the midst of the packed throng of enemy soldiers.
“Keep the Crusader Commander alive!” I hoped my people would hear my words over the screams of dying men and the clang of steel on steel. “Kill the rest of the fuckers, but keep him alive!”
I looped my crossbow over the harness at my side and had Talon pick me up. She snatched me in her talons carefully and flew high above the battlefield before she swooped down and dropped me in the thick of the fighting. I whirled my kusarigama around me, smashing troops with the chain end while I channeled the combined strength of my zombies and skeletons. Enemy soldiers flew up and over the heads of their peers only to be smashed against the valley walls like insects. Sometimes, I would switch over to the blade end, the black steel sharper than any other weapon in Prand. It sliced through bodies as if bone, steel, and flesh were nothing more than straw. More and more souls flowed through Grave Oath, and I could feel my power growing. When all this was done, I’d need to visit the gray sentinel on the black plane to acquire a new skill or two.
I caught sight of the Crusader Commander, surrounded by a groaning, pressing mass of zombie troops I’d resurrected from Rodrick’s army. To the blustery buffoon’s credit, he was fighting well, whirling his golden longsword around him in a storm of fury, lopping zombie heads off left, right, and center.
“Corrupt servants of Death!” he yelled as he swung his golden sword in vicious arcs and hacked zombies in half with every precise but powerful stroke. “I fear neither evil nor darkness. The Lord of Light’s holy hand guides my every stroke!”
“Then your skull is obviously emptier than a eunuch’s underpants!” I yelled back as I commanded the zombies around him to open up a space so that he and I could fight one-on-one.
“Aha,” he said, pushing up his visor to get a better look at me. “So the slimy toad of the shadows comes to fight me himself. Who then was in your armor? One of your foul fiends raised from the earth?”
“Actually, she was. . . “ I paused to think. What was Isu to me? My girlfriend? My wife? My slave? “One of many goddesses I’ve bent to my will,” I finally said.
Hell, she might not be a goddess anymore, but this bastard didn’t need to
