"Welcome back, Samael! Feel free to lend a hand," Dave raised his shield to block an axe, "There's enough demons for everyone to get their kill streak on."

"Very well, young draugr. But you WILL explain when we are done killing this demon scum."

Samael disappeared in a whirl of black shadows, leaving Dave and Dog fighting with their backs to each other against a dozen demons.

The demons surrounding Dave moved closer to him tightening the encirclement. Suddenly, they all stopped moving. The extending shadows under their feet were twisting, then silhouettes in the shape of a man rose from every shadow. These silhouettes were black as the abyss, but Dave could still see that they all had the outline of Samael. The shadows moved at the same time, grabbing the demons by the head and slitting their throats with a dagger in the other hand.

The bodies fell with a plop, all, headless. Dave was left staring with wide eyes. These were more than twenty demons all level 400 at the least.

A loud crashing sound woke Dave from his stupor. The ice the trolls created to block the gates was broken and the demons inside the Undead City boiled out like angry ants, heading to Dave.

Samael shadow clones all spoke at once, "Go! You'll only slow me down here!"

"Pull back!" Dave yelled to the boyz as he jumped onto the already moving Grumpy.

Dog leapt onto his basilisk and urged the beast to follow after the onyx basilisk. A demon ran up and tried to pull Dog off his mount, but the dullahan swept his bone club into the demon's face and kicked him away.

Two demons with swords and kite shields escaped the pull of Samael's copies. The draugr waved a hand and snapped his fingers in the same motion, two spectral skulls appeared and immediately exploded against the shields throwing the demons back into Samael's effigies.

The trolls followed after Dave, but a formation of demons chased them as they retreated from the battle. Red Mane shouted at the other trolls, he turned and struck downwards with his club. Ice spread over the ground from the impact of the club. The other trolls imitated Rad Mane and the expanding sheets of ice connected, covering a large area. The first three demons chasing them slipped and fell when they hit the ice. The demons behind them tripped over their sprawled bodies, falling on top in a dogpile.

Dave wasn't sure if the trolls had used some kind of mischief-skill on the ice that made the demons clumsier and accident prone, but it was a very Three Stooges slapstick scene.

With a roar, Samael's body expanded and twisted, transforming into a tornado of death shadows. A continuous wailing sound came from the twister, rising and falling like a haunted siren. The tornado vacuumed the demons up as it moved across their battle formations. Inside the funnel, the demons were torn apart and drained in seconds then expelled. The desiccated bits and pieces thrown out and away, making a grisly rainfall of mummified corpse parts.

The tornado's speed and buzzsaw wail increased, sucking demons up and ejecting body parts in every direction. Dave was in awe of Samael's display of power. It was frightening, he was like a destructive force of nature.

'Two more ranks and I can become an Abyssal Knight.'

They checked behind them for demons as they travelled away from the city, but did not find any following. To be on the safe side they picked a random direction to travel instead of going directly to Dave's settlement. The circuitous route took half an hour instead of the ten minutes going directly would have.

When they got to the unfinished settlement Dog looked around at the deserted buildings and directed a questioning grunt at Dave.

"Yeah, just you and me left. Let's wait for Samael." Dave said.

"I'm here," Samael's voice came as he materialized in shadow form beside Dog's basilisk.

"From what you said the only undead here are you, me, and the dullahan," Samael said.

"Yes. For now."

"Well then, young draugr. What's the situation?"

"We can revive the Legion by fully restoring the Death Heart. We do that by finishing the task I was given, reviving five ranks of Greater Undead."

"So, counting myself and the dullahan, we need three more," Samael said.

"Yes. The ranks we are missing are Death Knight, Doom Knight, and of course the King.

"But I can only bring back undead I was friends with before they died. And the ones that fit that criteria are Delvina, Matalan, Drahma and Du'Rhaza.".

Samael looked around as he considered the situation, "We can't get to Du'Rhaza or Delvina easily. Du'Rhaza died inside the city that is now full of demons. And the last I know, Delvina was at the Undead Frontier."

"So we it's Matalan and Drahma next."

"Drahma and Matalan fought with the Wendigos on the frontlines during the siege. I know where they were when the king fell."

"Okay, that makes things easier. We should go as soon as possible."

"We need to wait until your dullahan is ready to raise another undead."

Dave gave Samael a tour of his settlement while they waited for the cooldown on Dog's skill to expire. They explored the partially constructed buildings, visiting the barracks, the archery range and the mansion.

But it was the basilisk and their breeding grounds that Samael was most enthusiastic about. The ghoul asked a lot of questions about the creatures and their habits, many of which Dave didn't know the answers to.

Dog's skill was off cooldown when they finished the tour.

"It's time, Dog is set, we can go back to the city."

"Very well, follow me."

Samael transformed into a wisp of black smoke and coursed toward the Undead City. Dave gathered his units and followed after him. Samael wasn't moving fast, so Dave caught up to him in a few minutes.

When the city came into sight, Dave asked, "Was Matalan close to the gates when he died?"

"No, he was far away from the gates when he fell."

"That makes our mission easier," Dave pointed at the gates.

Lines of demons stood in formation in front of the city gate. A horn sounded, signaling them to march.

"No, we will still have to deal with them. I will hold them off. Continue with your mission, young draugr. Matalan died somewhere around here."

Samael moved off to intercept the advancing demons. Closing the distance, he transformed into a tornado of shadows and whirled into the advancing formation of demons.

Dave took the Death Heart out and raised it over his head, "Matalan of Ash, Death Knight!"

A beam of black light shot out and pointed at a patch of ground a few feet away from Dave.

"Dog, that's where Matalan is, do your stuff"

Dog dismounted and walking up to the mound he pushed his club into the earth all the way to the hilt. Dave joined him as the ground pushed up and an arm came through the dried earth.

Dave grabbed the searching hand and helped Matalan the rest of the way out.

The newly risen draugr stood there with unfocused pale green eyes. He wore the same armor as Dave, but the deep black of his armor was marred with gray-colored blemishes all over.

***

Your follower Dog (dullahan, undead captain) used [Raise Undead]!

Matalan of Ash, Death Knight rank undead has been revived from the dead!

Death Heart [Death Knight] revival condition has been met!

Remaining

Undead King 0/1

Doom Knight 0/1

***

"K'Shtiengbrah! I am in your debt."

"Just doing what I can to help, Matalan."

Samael was still ripping the demon army to shreds.

"We can't let Samael have all the fun."

"Aye! My sword craves demon blood."

"FOR THE LEGION!" Dave followed Samael, charging the demons at the gate..

Dog hopped back onto his basilisk and raced towards the battle. Grumpy came up to Dave, expecting him to ride into battle.

"Sorry Grumps, my weapons aren't long enough for cavalry work,."

The basilisk snorted, but seemed to understand. He stayed next to Dave as they ran toward the mayhem Samael was causing.

Samael changed to his ghoul form and started teleporting all over the battlefield to stab, eviscerate or slice the throats of individual enemies.

Dog's basilisk kept moving deeper into the thick of the enemy formation, goring demons and tossing the bodies to the side. While the dullahan swatted demons left and right from his mount.

Samael was too busy killing demons to bother with the loot. Dave on the other hand, didn't want to miss free loot. He ran through the battlefield, dodging attacks as he ninja looted everything in sight.

He got multiple notifications about the items he picked up.

***

Demon Horn X1

Demon glaive (Broken)

Demon wrist guard

Demon Stone (Rune)

…

***

He waved the notification away and continued looting.

"Ware!" Matalan suddenly appeared standing over Dave, tower shield blocking a demon's axe swing.

"Thanks, man!" Dave said.

"How many times have I told you to always keep your guard up," Matalan scolded.

Dave smiled ruefully then suddenly grabbed Matalan and yanked him forward, swinging his shield around. Dave's interposed shield shattered the javelin flying toward Matalan's head from behind him.

"Guess we're even now," Dave laughed. The two joined Samael.

Samael shredded the last of the demons at the city gates leaving only the ones inside the walls. The demons inside the city had closed the gates and prepared for a seige instead of sallying out.

Dave had leveled up twice during the hours of fighting. He checked his status screen.

Level

326

Class

Death's Apostle

Name

Death Stroke

Race

Undead(Human)

Health

452,400

Mana

6,600 +(290)

Stamina

∞

Rage/Focus

100

Intelligence

400 +(20)

Wisdom

450+(22.5)

Dexterity

400 (+20)

Agility

440 +(22)

Vitality

45240

Strength

600 +(30)

Magic Absorption

6000

Damage Nullification

9000

Immunity

30%

Prestige

1800

HP Regen

0.1%/sec +(0)

Mana Regen

1.1%/sec +(0)

Stamina Regen

∞

Rage/Focus

Regen

1/sec

Unassigned attribute points

232

Titles

I know it all!

Grand Strategist!

Pride of the Undead! (Currently disabled)

Shield Border!

Dave decided it was time to use the attribute points he'd been building up. He had a total of 232 unassigned attribute points, so he put 100 points into Strength without hesitation.

His Strength, Agility and Dexterity numbers worked for the melee skills and tactics he liked to use in a fight. And the Death Knight armor gave him huge bonuses in Vitality, so his HP pool was as big as any tank class with his level.

He still had 142 points to use and he added them all to Intelligence after a bit of thought. His reasoning was simple, when he fought he used a lot of non-melee skills, skills that depended on INT for their damage output or other effects.

"What are you doing Kis'Shtiengbrah? It's time. Revive Drahma," Samael reminded the draugr.

"Right, right! Let's go Dog."

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