The southern wall was an impressive construct to put together so neatly, but it was a rather simple, a wall that stretched from one side to another, set close to the shore, the elevation quickly heightened, making it so the side were flanked by steep falls, perhaps even easier to defend than the walls themselves, Ourlst had considered climbing them, but eventually discarded it, he did not have access to stealthy squads after all, such an approach would be noticed much too early to be successful, instead, he had first attempted to slowly wear the livings out.
Realising that it would not work out as he had first imagined, he instead used this routine he had installed to launch a more frontal assault, but even then, he decided to rely on some trickery, the two gates closest to the west and east from the breach were beset by other undeads granted the title of champion of the vanguard.
The majority of Alisart Cleavster's troops were at the breach, including the king himself, as well as his most trusted knight, naturally, this breach was a serious hazard by itself, especially since the left hand had gathered a powerful force that constantly threatened to force their way through, furthermore, he brought out the siege weaponry and mages as well, Loimosfire, miasma and putrescence rained down from the sky en masse, accompanied by physical projectiles and all sorts of more typical spells, constantly harassing the soldiers, forcing them to be on their toes, robbing them of sleep.
The amount of soldiers that mysteriously passed during the nights also increased, the first of them had occurred during peacetime, it had been successfully swept under the rug, but as more deaths one occurred, distrust also grew amidst the southern ranks, this bred for discourse and lesser cohesion.
Alisart could feel it, he was being outmanoeuvred, yet, the undeads had not broken their promises, nor were there any good reasons for some of his men to do this.
'Unless…' he grabbed Aramap's shoulder.
"Aramap, do you think some of us could have been seduced?"
"My lord? What do you mean by this?"
The warking waved in the direction of the undeads.
"Could some of our soldiers have felt the allure of death and decided to betray us?" he elaborated, Aramap wanted to deny immediately, he had not gotten wind of any such beliefs growing amidst his ranks, but he had to admit that it was not implausible, many believed that they only fought for honour, to not bow their heads to another.
In this way, some instead defecting to the enemy was not impossible, especially the soldiers who were not as iron-willed as the knights, Aramap himself had found himself wondering if undeath was really that bad, especially after clashing blades with Ourlst, he had to respect the strength demonstrated, even more so after that release of power.
In the end, neither of them had gone completely all out in their fight, they had kept reserves.
"It pains me to say so, my lord, but although you are probably right, it is not fit of your stature to doubt your loyal subjects" the first knight said, his king only sighing at this clear critique.
"That is true, however, even if the undeads said that they wouldn't target civilians, it should come to reason that all with be made undeads once the war is over, vows will become meaningless"
"Even though they promised to spare your life, would you just take that chance? Or would you rather fight in spite of it?" Loimos had indeed said that crowned heads and their most loyal servants would be kept alive, but of course, such an agreement could not happen if said livings refused to lay down their weapons.
Both men remained silent for a few moments, the air only permeated by the constant firing of projectiles, both sides constantly exchanging all sorts of them, the camp had suffered much damage, reduced to ash in a large capacity.
"...My lord, they will certainly try to flank us, what shall we do?"
"What else? We have two options, stand our grounds or I could go and ask for a reprieve, I am certain that Ourlst would agree, but not move any of his troops away anyways, he'll just order them to stand still for a while…"
"Then, we will stand our ground" Aramap responded.
"Yes, and if we are defeated, even if disgraceful, we will retreat and be forced to use plan B" Alisart spoke of this secondary plan with disdain, he had come up with it himself, but it was no less awful to his ideals.
Just as this discussion occurred, the easternmost gate was approached by a small congress of undeads, the few troops stationed there reacted quickly, arrows lodged themselves into the flesh of the beast spearheading this attack, a large bull with branch-like horns, blazing with Loimosfire, thick with skin everywhere but the head, where the skull was bare.
Quickly picking up speed, seemingly only getting faster every time an arrow struck it, all attention was naturally on the beast, positioning its head, the bull was going to ram itself right up against the gate, whether it would hold or not, the defenders could not know ahead of time.
Its charge was getting awfully swift however.
"Go get something to throw in its path-" one archer shouted, wishing to break the momentum and not take any chance, only to stop as his throat was constricted, pulled off the ramparts, dragged through the air straight to the undead knight bearing an armour of hands.
Swinging his executioner's sword, cleaving the archer in two, with his right hand carrying his blade, the other was directed at any soldiers that tried to do anything other than just shoot meaningless arrows, getting a hold of them in spite of being nowhere close to them, a certain translucent energy surrounding his hand.
His movements and actions reached the livings everytime, be it grasping, punching or whatever else, the soldiers only stopping showing themselves when he backhanded one's head, tilting the man's neck a whole one hundred and eighty degrees.
Unobstructed, the great bull reached the gate, earning a sound of surprise from the undead knight, rather than blasting right through as imagined, it had only managed to force it open, the beast finding its momentum dispersed, falling to the ground and dragging its mass across for several meters even then.
"To resist so well to a bull of Loimos's charge, are we sure their best point is not woodworking?" a rank and file carrying a simple club commented.
"Keep your derogatory remarks to yourself, don't mock an undefeated enemy without reason, furthermore, this one is not yet of that kind" the grasping knight responded flatly.
"My reason was to be funny though, am I not funny, Erestel?"
"Let's just say that you are better as a soldier than a comedian, now let's go, there is still a fair amount of soldiers and knights to be slain here" Erestel, and a small amount of other undeads marched in, the bull raising up to its feet, immediately charging right through the opening it had made.