Milo had to think about this one, under the intense gaze of a somewhat angry, murderous swordswoman.
'What did David use to say? Ah yes…'
"Don't worry Milo, women are very easy to calm down!"
This statement was such a lie that Milo almost cracked up laughing right here and there, although it was not very funny that this was the one thing that came up in his mind in this situation.
"My left" he answered, and just as he had expected, his right arm was cleanly sliced right off, letting himself fall backward, Milo grabbed his disembodied limb as it came down, rolling backward.
She was coming for the other one as well, he heaved as sigh of relief as both he and Three had their attention taken upward, a small, stormy-looking circle was spinning slowly above them, a rain of swords falling from above, the swords all aimed at the swordswoman, falling endlessly at and around her, rising up dust from the ground as Milo carrying his own with his teeth, grabbed Griar and took off with the noble on his shoulder.
Multiple others of similar spells went off in the vicinity, seemingly targeting random spots, tearing the forest apart.
"Oh gods… I had never used magic while bleeding out, this crap sucks…" Griar felt lightheaded, yet, he was smiling, he felt like he had just had a breakthrough!
"To think, all was needed was to be severely wounded and come close to dying, did you see that immaculate swordsmanship? Lord, I am feeling inspired!" he grew silent as he passed out.
Milo could not respond on account of having to use his mouth to hold his still twitching arm.
He was not too worried, on account that Rosemary could regrow a lost limb even if it had been lost a while ago, so reattaching one was child's play, he looked over his shoulder, half-expecting for the madwoman to appear out of nowhere, but unknowingly, his earlier strike had dealt much more damage than he had assumed.
Emerging out of the woods, Milo almost slid right off a steep slope, engrossed in the sight beyond the outermost barrier of life, the undeads had brought out concerning troops.
None knew even the first thing about the capabilities of King Nitok, and that of the title of undead king, skeletal remains of truly enormous giants, calling these giants was not descriptive enough, giants of today were dwarfs compared to the being that were peeking over the mountains, worn out and cracked, they still held incomparable might for certain even then.
But even those titans were not as concerning as the darkness, the fortress and majority of the landscape outside Tamaris was flooded in true darkness, even in broad daylight, the brightness of the sun could not pierce through, swallowed by the dark.
This abnormal darkness seemed to move around as well, it was impossible to see the weapons and constructions of the undead any longer, they were hidden behind this impenetrable veil.
Milo knew it, a fight would break out soon enough, the unknown of what might be happening was much more terrifying than seeing the undeads gearing up by the day.
He did not stop to gawk for too long, quickly making his way over to his fiery teacher, who healed the two of them right up before asking anything, Milo was able of finding her quickly solely because teleport gates had been set up in between the royal palace and close-by to the edges of the barrier in case an emergency occurred, these gates could take countless soldiers through in just a few minutes.
Although the journey back to this point was something that Milo considered quick, it had still taken thirty minutes of him running at his fastest, and just as he had feared, the movements of the undeads required for all attention to be put on them, Alizée was free to escape to another area.
Rosemary didn't have any time to criticise the poor ideas of her students, anyways, other people were there to pull their ears anyways.
'These kids I swear-'
"Here he is" she focused.
"He always shows up exactly on time, huh?" Syklon scowled, Loimos walked out of the unceasing darkness, looking exactly the same as last time, having gotten over his short meeting with an unfriendly tree.
"They know what we are expecting" Pierre-Ornée stepped forward, followed only by Bough this time.
The copper knights walked up to the undead, no fear of what was hidden in the darkness behind.
This time, there was no need to prompt the undead, he addressed them the instant they stopped advancing.
"We are well aware that you have ways outside of here and past the mountains, King Nitok thus offers you a deal, your period of grace will be extended, but in exchange, you shall not intervene as we enter in conflict with Starkefolten, do you accept?" he did not offer any clarification as to what was entailed by period of grace, how long it would be and what was going to happen in the optic that they refused or broke the agreement.
It was rather clear that no questions were allowed, only a yes, or a no.
"Yeah sure, we will be good boys" Bough took the lead, chuckling like a haunted doll.
Loimos stepped back into the darkness, disappearing completely from both view and senses.
Pierre-Ornée looked at his colleague as they stepped back into the barrier.
"We are definitely not going to allow any other surviving nation to fall , Starkefolten and Millipolo are our last remaining allies, the other kingdoms are being rebuilt by the undead" the halbardier shook his head, he counted their numbers in his head.
Him, Bough, Syklon and Rosemary made up the only ones that could contend with the strongest of the dead on their own, perhaps also The Death Dealer, but the assassins of the Fin-Limier were not exactly allies he could trust with anything.
Ohrn, the elder always following Storm Of Blade around.
Then, there were the elemental champions of Starkefolten and later arrived three champions that Pierre-Ornée was not very familiar with, then there were multiple students that had great potential, the disciples of Syklon that could perhaps do something, the otherworlders...
Archbishops and paladins of Millipolo, that sounded like quite a lot of powerful forces on top of well-trained and greatly equipped armies, but the undeads were countless, and had enormously powerful monsters that might be capable of damages beyond their imagination.
'Of course, we also have this thing in stock… But still, we are in dire need of actual heroes, as it stands, can we even hope of landing a scratch on their king?'
They would fight even without.
End Of Volume 2 : Messenger Of The Apocalypse
Start Of Volume 3 : Of Death, Of Life