Necropalypse: The River of Souls

Through his Link, Herst was transmitting the information on the army to the group and kept them abreast on the details of the approach. Any sign of any sickness not to be seen nor heard.

The ornithopter stopped at a safe distance from the charging horde of undead. It hovered a meter or two above the ground.
The empress unsheated her long black sword. "Alright. Try to keep this nice and quick. The longer we take the more dangerous it gets. Reaver stay in the ornithopter and cover us. Jazmine, keep the Ornithopter steady out of the undeads range. Herst, do whatever you can to help, I don't know what your abilities are in this form. Cevea and Riaden you're with me, stay at a distance untill Mioki's music takes effect. Once it does we draw out the leader so I can use my magic to seperate him from the others. Then we can deal with him first. By then Mioki's second song should have taken effect. If it works it will temporarily make them vulnerable. Meaning they won't get back up once they're down despite the whole broken river of souls thing. Ready? Move out."

She jumped out, Hersts soul link still on her necklace. Riaden and Cevea followed. The Dwarf pulled out a hammer that was amost as big as herself. Riaden grabbed a bunch of daggers, sparks surrounding him.
The undead boss roared and the undead charged forward ahead of him.


Meanwhile Mioki grabbed the microphone. "For Mioki's first song we will go with 'Not so fast you undead bastards!'. And a one, a two a one two GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
Mioki started playing her guitar and Reganya followed. Mioki's music sounded good as it built up slowly, Ren had no idea what she was doing but she was trying.

Rol started hitting the drums, the hi-hat in quarter notes, the snare on every fourth beat and the base drum on the second beat.

Basically:
HHHH
-B----      
------S

"Woo music."

The land sunk into a slight crater in which the stumbling dead began to fall onto each other, as the Earth's movements disrupted their shamble. Carnal pleasure in tormenting his prey flowed from the Link as Herst caused the earth under the undead army's feet to sunk in order to stall them. 

Then the real magic flowed.

The ground began forming as a looming figure seemingly rose from the earth. A dragon-like beast arose and when it's mouth was formed, despite the fact it was still rising, it opened it's maw to blast the undead with a breath of sand, as if a sandstorm was flawing their flesh off their bones. Limbs, blasted from the force of the sand breath, flew away. Once the breath stopped, the Dirt Dragon hardened to stone, as did the sand that made it's breath to trap any undead and their limbs.

This was enough to buy the others time to gain ground on the army.


All I can do within my current form against an army without friendly fire, I'll maintain the link so you can all coordinate with each other just by thought. Sadly, I can not bring out my gear with Undead ending properties, so the best I can do is trap them. Allow me to clear your minds, for all I shall do now is support. 

And with that, Herst soothed their minds and calmed them, allowing all to focus on their tasks, each knowing what the other was doing.

In the background Mioki's music could be heard. Reaver shot at the undead with a large gun up from inside the ornthopter, sniping any undead that got too close. Riaden flashed across the battle ground throwing electrified daggers around into the undead's faces.
Cevae slammed her hammer against the ground creating shockwaves that toppled over any undead stunned by the daggers.
Valkyria moved in slashing at the undead and avoiding their attacks. Mioki's song had already started to take effect and the undead's movements slowed down. At first not much but after half a minute they seemed to be 50% slower. Allowing the Empress and the others to dodge them with more ease.
The Empress telepathically commanded Riaden and Cervae to stand aside as she plunged her sword nto the earth below her. Two walls of shadows errupted from the ground and ushed away the undead. Clearing a path to the Boss. He charged forward.


Meanwhile Mioki's first song had finished. "Now for the next song, Mioki will sing one of her favorites. 'Zombies should not break their damned curfew!'." The rythm sped up and Ren tried her best to keep up with it.
*Insert random Lyrics.*
The song caused the undead's trapped souls who heard the music to be vulnerable to physical attacks. Making them able to die despite the unusual circumstances. Luckily Doomy did not hear it.

Rol also tried his best to keep up with the rhythm but basically continued the same beat he was doing prior but louder.

"What am I even doing?"

Valkyria ordered Riaden and Cervea to regroup and help her take out the boss. Reaver picked off any stray undead that made it past the shadow wall. The Boss tried to slam its hand into Riaden but the assassin was too fast.
Cervea slams her hammer down on the undead creatures hand. Shattering the bones in it and rendering it useless. The boss staggers back allowing Val to use shadows to bind the creature to the ground.


Meanwhile Mioki ends her second song. "Mioki can take it from here. You two can join the batte if you want. Mioki just needed some help with setting up the effects. Thank you!!" She keeps jamming on her guitar.

Reganya nods. "Hmm, how are we gonna get over there though?" She thinks for a while before looking at the AFK Archon. "That dude can fly, right?"


On the ground below (a bit away from the castle but still in sight. Should have mentioned the distance earlier.) Riaden is about to behead the creature but it breaks free and Riaden is smacked back, falling on his ass. One of the undead manages to sneak up on Cevea and tries to bite her. She smashes it's face in with her hammer before it can. But two more  attack her after climbing over the shadow wall. Reaver can't keep up with the overwhelming amount of Undead because he's struggling to reload his gun.
The Undead boss charges towards Val. She readies her sword to defend herself.'Shit"


Reganya has possessed Archon whie he is AFK. "Okay, so how do the wings come out.." Suddenly two pairs of green angel wings burst out of Archon's back."Ah, found it. I'll carry you Rol."

"Yeah, let's go..." The bounty hunter waved at Mioki before heading to the Ren possessed Archon. "Yeah.. How about you test out flying first and then you pick me up."


Rol scratched his head. "Oh right." He slammed his fist into his other opened hand as he just recalled something. "I left Cole with Val."


Speaking of which.


'oh shit.' Cole said, suddenly making a sound after being quiet for like 7 pages a day. Currently the shadow thing was on the Empress' shoulder in by far his smallest form. His goal was originally to be a bodyguard or something for Rol's #WCW. But the assassins that were targeting her were apparently eliminated by Herst (right?). So when he wasn't called back by the bounty hunter, he decided to take a break. 'Although.. looks like the break is over now.'

The small shadow thing jumped form his place on Val's shoulder growing roughly to the same height as Rol. Cole had access to a limited amount of self manipulation but that was limited to limb growth (to the extent he was at now) and simple manipulation of his arms, (spear arm from his intro chapter and a bracer like thing) without Rol around he was essentially a glorified stick figure, only 3D and a little more dangerous. 'well. this is never fun.'

The ground around the undead trembles as pillars of earth raise from under the teams feet and lift them out of trouble for a bit as they catch their breath, Herst temporary in control of their bodies as he deftly get them to retreat and cause the pillars to collapse, only to reform into sharp shards that barrage the undead.

While this happens, the Sand Dragon Animates itself and breaths another blast of Sand Breath to keep the undead back.

I can't keep doing that without mental and soul displacement issues for all involved, so I can only do that once more just in case, but kindly don't get too close into the fray. Besides, the stone that contains the limbs and other undead will soften soon. I didn't set a too long nor too short duration on the effect. 



but for now, half of them shall be buried to give you less to deal with at once. Use this moment wisely, please.

Herst communicated in a annoyed droll. It seems he finds this display boring.

Regarchon nodded and attempted flapping Archon's wings. She managed to lift his body off the ground for a while before falling a few inches. It took her a moment to stabilize in the air."Well this is gonna take some getting used to. Doomy's flight is easier to control. Whoever designed angel wings didn't do a very good job."
 She then used Archon to fly a round around the castle to make sure she got thehang of it. She then returned to Rol. "Okay, I should be able to carry you there now."


--


"We need a better strategy. This thing is stronger than expected. And my shadow walls won't hold much longer. Any suggestions?"
Reaver responded by yelling. "Less' jus' blow the fuckers up!!"
"We don't have anything powerful enough for that. And even if we did it'd probably damage the castle too." Jazmine said telepathically.

"If we get rid of the big guy we could trick and lure the others to a safe distance I bet." Cevea added.
"We still don't have anything to blow them all up with. And if we get too far out of range then Mioki's songs will not affect them anymore."

Just then Regarchon came flying in and dropped off Rol.
"Glad you could make it."

A bunch of undead had crawled over the wall and joined up with the big one.

Herst's Link shattered when his body woke up. Despite the soul still in the Link, Herst's attention is focused on his body, a side effect of the Soul Link.

"Well... either I wait 10 minutes before I relink or get my ass out there... If I can walk..."

Herst's groggy body slowly shambled towards the exit from the castle and began to make his way back to the fighting. To make things easier on himself, he was traveling between shadows in his mock teleportation to avoid knocking things over and speed up the travel time.

"I'm gonna need a strong coffee after this..."

"Heheh. Deathy's easier you say?" The bounty hunter laughed, not really thinking of the possibility of being dropped as a consequence of his double entendre. 

Rol remained quiet as they approached the battlefield, mostly thinking of what exactly he'd do. As Ren dropped Rol off, he saluted as Val greeted him. "Hiya. Oh look there's Cole. Woo it's a party." 

"What's the plan?" Regarchon asked.
"We're still trying to figure that out. We were thinking we should seperate the big guy and take him out first. And then blow up the rest of them all at once. But we don't have any idea on how to do either of those."
"I guess I could try to possess the  big guy and order the others to retreat?"
"Would that even work?" The dwarf asks while throwing her hammer into the face of an undead that got too close.

Reganya shrugs.
"We don't have anything strong enough to blow them all up though."
"Well If I remember correctly Herst should still have a mana core copy."
"..Like the one you used to blow up a pyramid?"
"You what?.."
"Yes."
"Speaking of Herst.. He stopped talking. You still there?"

They waited for an answer while Reaver shot the incoming undead.
"Guess not. Maybe he fell asleep. He did sound a bit bored."
Riaden threw several knives at the undead stunning them for a few seconds.
"Rol, If I give you a mass of shadows to work with can you tie down the big undead? I'm not so good at precision shadow manipulation. I'm better at producing shadows. Then Reganya can jump in and attempt to command the other undead to retreat. Meanwhile Riaden can go and retrieve the mana core that Herst still has."
The empress said, not knowing herst was awake and heading to them already.

"Yeah, I can manage. I'm not that in to bondage, but for the fate of the world..." Rol placed his hand on top of his chest dramatically. "I'll do my best."

He drew Pew and Pew and got Cole to appear at his side. "Les go."

Valkyria holds her hands in front of her and starts chanting in what sounds like ancient demonic. Cevae jumps forward and throws her hammer, it spins through the air before smashing in the face of an undead. The dwarf leaps over the undead and retrieves her hammer before bringing it down on another zombie, cracking its skull.
A ball of darkness gathers in front of the empress her hands. She casts it down on the ground and the orb splashes outward turning into streams of darkness that whirl around Valkyria as her chanting becomes louder.
Regarchon flies up and draws Archon's Dracolich bone bow. And an energy arrow is fired from it. Unfortunatly it misses as Ren is not used to the weapon.
"Damn it."

Val gathers the streams of darkness and they turn into a blob of shadows. She moves the large blob in front of her and ceases chanting. "Done, your turn Rol."
An undead leapt at the empress but its head exploded after Reaver shot it.
Reganya had also gotten the hang of the bow somewhat and was shooting at the undead.
The giant boss roared as some of the undead broke through the shadow walls.


Meanwhile Riaden had already reached the castle and asked a guard where Herst room was. The assassin then went straight to the room, missing Herst who left through another door. Riaden found an empty room and figured he got the wrong room so he began searching the other rooms.

The Rol (yeah, that's right, mixing the two nouns I use the most woo, edgy) shoot at random undeath, whilst waiting for Val to prepare the shadow mass.

"Is she chanting Demon? That is both scary and attractive. Not sure why it's attractive but it is."

He nodded at Val and tried to trap the Large Undead in the shadow mass, which he had manipulated into a net of sorts.

The big undead was too slow to dodge the net and became constricted in it. It roared and struggled to break free but unlike the previous shadow bonds the net didn't break or tear.
Cevea continued her rampage, smacking her hammer against an undead to her right before swinging around and throwing it again. This time sending two undead flying from the impact.


"Now Ren!"

Regarchon was flying over the battlefield sniping undead with Archons energy arrows. She nodded when she heard the command. Reganya then leapt out of Archon, somersaulting through the air before diving head first into the huge undead.
Archon himself was still AFK so he plummeted towards the ground.
"Someone catch him!"

Reaver's bullets took down any undead that advanced too far. The shadow walls that Val had set up shattered as the rest of the undead broke through. Cevea Slammed her hammer down on the ground, the ground split apart and columns of rock shot up to hold back the advancing horde of undead.
Then the Big undead roars and the horde suddenly stops moving. It roars again and the undead turn around and march away.


"..It worked."
---

Meanwhile riaden was barging down doors in the castle looking for Herst. All of them were empty except one. Two servant girls were having a pillow fight on a bed. The two girls went silent and looked at the confused assassin. He then slowly backed out of the room and closed the door. The assassin shook his head and figured he wasn't going to find anything so he headed back to report. Herst was likely already close to the others at this point without anyone realizing it.

"Woo. Victory. Kinda. Where's Riaden?" Rol asked, his fist pumped in the air.

Herst magically appeared using his mock teleportation. Instead of using shadows, he created a wind tunnel that propelled him forwards. However, he did have blood on his black robes, as it dripped off his hands.


"Sorry for being late. I went off in the wrong direction somehow and come upon the enemy commander's camp... Had to fight my way out and I think I may have lost one of my more fuller coin purses..." He sighs at this part.

"Anyway, what did I miss and what now?"

"I sent Riaden to get the bombs from Herst.. Who is now standing next to us.. Oh boy. Welcome back to the corpereal population Herst." The Empress couldn't decide if she should laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation or sigh at it.


"Commander? I thought these were wild undead.. I'm not sure if that's better or worse. Either way we managed to get reganya to assume control and tell the undead horde to retreat. Now we just make them stand still and plant one of those mana bombs you guys used before, preferably a smaller one. And then we deal with the big guy once the bomb explodes and Reganya has safely left him. I had heard you had the mana core on you so we're gonna need it."


"She then turned to Rol. You can release the big undead guy now. "
She then turned to the undead giant and shouted. "Ren tell the horde to freeze in place now!"

The undead giant roared and the horde ceased all movement.
Cevea walked over to Archon who had smacked face first against the ground and was still AFK. She poked him with a Stick.

Herst hands over the Mana Core.

"No, wrong army. I am talking about the prior army that attacked and still at large."

"The generals army? But we.." The Empress slowly became increasingly confused. "They survived? Then the barrier.." Her expression shifted to one of mixed relief and worrying. "Then I didn't condemn them to undeath.. or.. If they know what I did then.. fuck."
She took a deep breath and calmed herself. "I'll have to worry about that later this comes first."

She handed the mana core to Rol." You can hook this up with a few explosives right? Don't use too many. Half of what you used last time should be enough."
Just then Riaden came running back. "We have a problem I couldn't find the guy."
"It's okay he's already here. Seems you two somehow just missed each other."
Riaden looks at Herst. "Oh."


"Once Rol has the explosives ready Riaden can drop them in the middle of the Horde and then we move out of the blast radius. Until then we should come up with a plan to quickly deal with the big guy once Reganya releases control."

Cevea was still poking Archon with a stick. "I think he's dead."

Herst merely shrugs and bows low. 

"Forgive me, i paid no attention to who had attacked me. I may have even gone way to far and stumbled on something I wasn't meant to. I am not yet used to teleportation, even if I use mockeries of it by manipulating what is around me to appear elsewhere. I also forgot to consider the fact my body has been separated from my soul and thus not exercised before I attempted to return.  I am not all powerful nor all knowing... Yet."

The last was whispered, but the rest before it was phrased and delivered as an apology.

"Yeah, I can manage." The bounty hunter took the mana core from Val, curtsying in a sarcastic manner, then turned towards Herst once he had finished his apology. "Got anymore copies of my bewms?" He asked the ??? "I've still got a few of my own, but not a whole lot." He had figured borrowing any of Herst's remaining copies then letting him copy more later would be more efficient both time and energywise. 

Rol fiddled with the two carefully, well carefully for him. He almost dropped the mana core three times, almost. Upon completing the ragtag mana bomb he responded to Cevea's statement that she made minutes earlier. "Nah he's just elsewhere."

"Oh, ...that's a relief. And sad too.. Because it means the general and his men really are dead. I wonder who attacked you though. Either way you're here on time. That is all that matters."


"Umm could someone carry him to the Ornithopter? We don't want him laying where he could get hurt."
"Got ya." The Dwarf swung Archons arm over her shoulder and dragged him towards the hovering ornithopter.


"Once the bomb is done you can hand it to Riaden. He'll plant it and then we can get out of here. ...Rol, you forgot to let the big guy out of your net. I guess I could do it too since you're making the bomb."

Val walked closer to the big guy and waved her hand once she got close. The shadows lost their net shape and turned into a dark puddle. The Big guy stretched and started walking out of the eventual blast radius. It seemed like Reganya was unable to speak if  her host couldn't either.