[Ouroboros' End]
As the main force of the undead set in motion, the first ones to emerge from the darkness were the flying creatures that soared above the massive horde. Quickly climbing to the chorus of thousands of wing beats every moment, the mixture of numerous different beasts, some winged humanoids, and even the odd legendary creature or dragon quickly broke past the shadow of the wall.
Unlike the zombies, their advance was swift. Like a tidal wave, the swarm of creatures surged forward once they broke through into the light. Catching the defenders not only unprepared but also with their attention wholly focused on the zombies, they barely met any resistance as the weaker creatures among their ranks led the charge and dove onto the wall. Thousands upon thousands of creatures barely larger than a human cam washing over the battlements and fell upon the defenders, with the occasional spell that was fired their way simply disappearing amid the swarm's sheer size.
With it, pure chaos erupted among the defenders. Thousands of men and women, ranging from manaless soldiers all the way to fourth rank mages and aura users, suddenly found the unassailable wall they were relying on had become useless. Soldiers were plucked off the battlement by undead birds before they could so much as raise their weapons, causing formations to shatter before the first winged humanoids even landed.
Consisting overwhelmingly of reanimated beastmen, these undead hadn't joined the other zombies in the seemingly unending horde below only due to the utility their flight offered. Aside from this, they weren't any different from the other zombies Melidra had raised from the corpses of manaless humanoids. Like any zombie, they retained quite a few of the physical and magical traits they had when alive. But as they were largely created from those that died natural deaths on the peninsula she came from and now rules in all but name, much of the swarm didn't even possess the strength of a healthy adult, making this trait more of a liability than an asset.
This fact didn't escape the defenders for long. Though the initial shock of the assault managed to tear through them almost everywhere the swarm attacked, few of these successes had been against coordinated resistance. Fleeing men were easy picking, even for weaker-than-normal zombies after all.
However, once the first few manaless men successfully fought off an attacker with surprising ease, this started to change. While the fact that the mana users tore through the swarm with ease was expected, these were the same common people that nine out of ten soldiers were, yet they surprisingly managed to fend off a magical foe. And as the realization spread that this wasn't the typical kind of magical fight where they couldn't contribute individually, a second wind started to blow through the smuggler's army atop the wall.
Rallying around the pockets of resistance that the initial assault failed to break, the soldiers charged the undead that had the mistake of landing on the battlement. Swords tore through undead flesh, and shield bashes sent zombies tumbling backward, turning their numbers against them as crippled but still living zombies flailed around and obstructed the advance of their kin. Meanwhile, the hordes' crude swings rarely found their marks, with soldiers finding it surprisingly easy to dodge or parry the weak swings when they saw them coming.
Still, it wasn't a bloodless affair for the smugglers. For each defender, five or six zombies stood atop the battlements, with more still circling above. And though at most one in ten open strikes struck, zombies were resilient, and the living weren't always careful in ensuring their foe was truly destroyed. Regularly, what the soldiers assumed to be dead zombies suddenly lashed out just as the first row of the formation stepped over them, biting, scratching, and swinging whatever weapons they could find at the legs of the advancing soldiers.
For minutes, this struggle persisted across the wall. Slowly but surely, it whittled down the smuggler's numbers, stretching their ranks thin between the losses and the retaking of more and more of the battlements. Any commander who were to see this would see that this was an unsustainable state of affairs and would have put a stop to the advance. Already, half of the men who had defended the battlements were either dead or had already risen again and joined the ranks of the undead. The remaining half were fighting without rest, draining stamina and mana reserves just to deal with zombies even while they could see the stronger undead hovered a small distance away, conserving their strength as they wasted theirs.
Suddenly, a massive arachnid leg easily the size of a tree trunk slammed over the edge of the battlements. Having completely forgotten about the portion of the army approaching on the ground, the defenders froze even as the creature's second leg slammed down amid their formation. Piercing straight through the chest of one defender, the massive spider lifted its body over the edge of the battlements, arriving in the middle of the smuggler's formation and letting out a screech.
At the sight, the lone mana user could only curse. Selis was merely a second-rank aura user, impressive in the eyes of the manaless portion of the army but not even worth enough to the smuggler group's leadership to be given a higher rank purely due to his strength. He was still paid better, and the manaless soldiers didn't dare ignore it when he gave them an order, but he wasn't as important as his higher rank colleagues, who were still hiding on the floors inside the wall and whom he was cursing right now.
He knew that if they didn't start showing up soon, the fates of him and every other living creature currently standing atop this section of the wall were sealed. Why they hadn't yet was already a mystery to him. The ritual spell had been quite a while ago, so it couldn't be because they still needed to recover from it. And in either case, once the undead conquered the battlements, they could turn the wall into the grave of everyone inside it by flooding the tight corridors with magic, so it wasn't as if they could afford to ignore what happened up top.
Gnashing his teeth as the new development caused these thoughts to once again come to the forefront of his mind, Selis sighed in frustration over the situation before turning his attention toward the undead spider. Rousing his aura, he raised his sword and stepped past the row of terrified manaless soldiers that were slowly backing away from the creature.
Sensing his mana, the creature raised itself further over the edge. Only keeping the rear of its body and two legs hanging over the ledge of the wall, the spider raised two of its legs and kept them poised to strike at Selis.
For a few tense seconds, he watched these legs hover just at the edge of his vision. A single well-placed strike from them could end the fight in an instant, making him hesitate with every step he took to close the distance.
Still, no matter how much he crept forward, the undead creature didn't pounce. Soon, he was within ten meters of it, close enough that its limbs could reach him without the creature having to pounce to close the gap. Despite this, no attack came, making Selis pause briefly before he steeled his resolve and slightly bent his knees.
With a push of his legs, he then jumped forward. Reaching back with his sword for a wide swing, he dashed toward the undead's head and struck. To his surprise, the undead spider didn't move, allowing his swing to hit its target and his blade to sink into the creature's head. Despite this, Selis grimaced. Though he had struck his target, even while clad in aura, his sword barely sank a few centimeters into the spider's head and failed to reach any critical organ.
Before he could pull back his blade, the creature's jaw opened with a his. Watching with wide eyes as the two fangs first twitched and then were thrust toward him, Selis didn't hesitate to let go of is weapon and jump back.
To his misfortune, even this wasn't fast enough. Having strayed too close to the maw of the beast, he barely managed to avoid the first fangs' approach when he felt the second one impact his torso on the left. Briefly feeling a glimmer of hope as his breastplate stopped the thrust, this was shattered a moment later when he felt the fang slide downward and find a weak point near his hips. Somehow, the fang managed to shift the metal armor covering his legs just enough to pierce through, leaving a shallow wound across the outside of his thigh.
And though Selis was lucky that the spider didn't manage to catch hold of him, he felt that this was only a small consolation. Already, he could sense a foreign substance through the aura that flowed through that area, making him acutely aware that a venom of some kind had entered his bloodstream.
Coming to a stop as his back slammed into the opposite side of the battlements, Selis raised his arms and readied himself for a follow-up strike from the creature, but that never came. Hesitantly lowering his arms back down, he eyed the undead spider cautiously as it slightly backed off again and returned to its original position.
Unsure what to think of that, he chose to push that development to the back of his mind and take care of his immediate problems first. Searching his vicinity, his eyes locked onto the first soldier he spotted.
"You there, I need your sword." He stated, holding out a hand toward the soldier in question.
"Mine? But I need-we aren't supposed to-" Surprised by the sudden order, the soldiers in question stuttered out an attempt at a refusal.
"You think you can fight that thing?" Selis snapped, not daring to take his eyes off the spider even as he spoke, "No? Thought so. Now give me a sword and just search yourself a new one among the corpses."
Nodding fearfully at the sharp tone, the soldier quickly threw his weapon toward Selis and ran. And not a moment too soon, because just after Selis caught the sword and probed how well it channeled his aura, the spider finally moved.
Slowly lifting itself over the edge of the battlement, the undead creature pushed itself fully onto the top of the wall. Forced to dodge to the side as its front legs descended close to where he stood in the process, Selis briefly lost sight of his foe. When he then spun around to face it again, he was met with the spider's face staring back at him. Unconsciously backing away a step as he realized that its body alone was enough to fill almost the entire width of the wall, with its legs disappearing over the edges on both sides, and likely digging into the wall to hold the creature up.
However, the greater shock came only a moment later when he saw the spiderweb that flowed out from its backside and then disappeared over the edge of the wall where the creature had climbed up. The brief confusion about its purpose was quickly replaced by worry as a skeletal hand reached over the battlements a moment later. Realizing far too late what the spider's purpose for waiting had been, Selis could then only watch as the first three skeletons dragged themselves onto the wall.
With the clattering of armored boots hitting stone, all three undead landed next to the spider. From head to toe, they were clad in full plate armor made from some kind of black metal. In addition to this, two were armed with a heavy shield in their left and a short-sword in their right hand, while the third wielded a massive glaive almost twice as large as itself.
Swallowing heavily as the three skeletons set into motion toward him, Selis already felt reluctant to face them before the next wave appeared a second later. Of the four skeletons that arrived, three were armored in the same black plate as the previous group and bore different weapons. The fourth was meanwhile clad only in a simple black robe with a hood that covered its entire body. Still, it didn't take a genius to figure out that it was a mage, a realization that increased Selis' worries manifold.
With this second wave, Selis abandoned all idea of facing them directly. Slowly backing away, he watched nervously as more and more skeletons climbed onto the wall. However, even as he kept retreating for what felt like an eternity, the skeletons kept pace, their ranks slowly following him meter by meter.
Suddenly, Selis felt something collide with his back. Immediately, panic shot through him as he realized that he had been too focused on the foes before him and neglected to search behind himself with his mana sense. As such, the reaction to spin around was more instinct than anything else, causing his weapon to already start slashing as he saw that what he had bumped into was one of his manaless colleagues.
Barely stopping his swing in time, he breathed a sigh of relief and was about to snap the man out of his stupor when he spotted the cause of it in the distance. There, the towering figure of a five to six-meter-tall skeleton tore through the ranks of his colleagues. Each swing of the even for its size massive greatsword tore through two or three rows of panicking soldiers. Even the stone of the wall couldn't stop the weapon, with scrapes cutting gashes into the floor and glancing hits cutting off corners of the battlement.
However, before Selis could process more, he suddenly saw the soldier before him stiffen and sink to the ground. Almost jumping in shock, his eyes widened when he saw blood slowly seeping out of a hole in the man's torso and pooling beneath the corpse.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw one of the mages there walking with one arm outstretched. More concerning, he saw how much closer the approaching skeletons had come in the second he was distracted. Between this and the massive undead tearing through his colleague on the other side, he didn't know what to do.
In the moment of hesitation that followed, the decision was made for him. Up above, one of the undead dragons moved. When it did, a shadow fell over the wall, causing Selis to look up. Seeing the dragon's form diving toward the wall, he had to suppress the urge to close its eyes as the creature opened its maw and bathed the battlements in fire.
Immediately, the wall about two hundred meters ahead of Selis turned into an inferno. As the dragon then spread its wings and transitioned into level flight, it started sweeping its flaming breath over the soldiers that were surrounding the massive skeleton. Consequently, the flames were also rapidly getting closer to Selis himself. And though he'd love to see them incinerate the massive undead, he wasn't willing to bet his life on the fact that the dragon would stop before it reached him.
As such, he was only left with the third direction. Turning toward the side of the battlements facing away from the approaching undead army, he swallowed heavily. Though with the heat of the flames reminding him of the impeding danger, he quickly overcame his hesitation and jumped.
Still catching the edge of the battlements with his fingers, he held on with all his might as his body swung around and crashed into the side of the wall. Though it left him groaning and out of breath, he forced himself to rotate so that his back rested against the stone and raised his other arm.
Taking a deep breath before going past the point of no return, he didn't hesitate any longer and let go before he could rethink his actions. Simultaneously, he mobilized his mana into the arm pointing away from the wall. Drawing on everything he knew about mages and praying for it to work, he attempted to unleash the mana in a burst of raw magical energy.
The first try failed.
Remaining collected throughout this, Selis took a breath and tried again.
The second try also failed.
Still having the stone wall within reach of his arm, he knew that he still had some time before the return impact would become too bad. As such, he tried again.
The third try also failed.
By then, almost a meter of space had opened up between his back and the wall. Still not too bad, but enough for his next try to be made with some urgency.
The fourth try also failed.
This time, Selis started to panic. For now, he still had the chance to reach behind himself and try to pierce his sword into the wall. It would likely break his arm by now, but it would stop the impact on the ground. Still, he decided against it. He wasn't confident that the blade would endure even the first time, not to mention the question of how he was supposed to get down the rest of the way.
Thus, this left him on the fifth try.
Gathering his mana, he once more guided it through the mana channels in his arms and toward his palm. However, unlike the last four times, it didn't lose its form as it left his body. Instead, it remained as one cohesive mass that burst forth from his palm.
Selis only had a moment to celebrate this before his back already struck the wall. Pushing through the disorienting impact, he ignored the scraping of his armor against the stone and focused on maintaining the constant expulsion of mana from his palm. Second after second, he felt himself slowing down more and more, though simultaneously his mana reserves dwindled more and more.
Keeping his eyes on his hand to not lose focus, Selis started to get nervous as he felt his reserves dip beneath a tenth of his capacity. Glancing downward and seeing that there were still around thirty meters left, he pushed it all out in one last effort. Simultaneously, he also flooded his legs with aura, gritting his teeth and pushing on even as his mana channels felt like they were burning from channelling more aura than they could handle. With this, he braced himself for the impact.
When Selis then struck the ground, the impact knocked the air out of his lungs. Sinking to his knees almost immediately upon catching the landing with his feet, he felt as if everything was spinning around as he dropped onto his back.
However, he was alive. His body hurt worse than anything he had ever felt, but he was alive. As the realization of this slowly set in, a smile crept onto his lips. Still seeing the dragon fire raging above and the creature's massive form glide through the air, he felt victorious. Slowly, this feeling turned into laughter. This only grew stronger as he then felt the symbol of a first rank mage form on his heart, showing that even mana itself acknowledged the correctness of his technique.
Like this, Selis' laughing form kept lying in a crater of his own making, even as above the battle for the wall still raged on.