Chapter 132 First generals 02
I dodged another sword from one of the skeleton minions as my axe cut through him like butter. I had already lost track of how many zombies and skeletons I killed as I watched from the sidelines as my wives handled the real threats. Roka was clearing the army with me while Cherry was waiting for an opportunity to launch a spell. I waited for a chance to strike while whittling down their numbers and keeping the bulk of the fodder focused on me.
Delilah blocked a blow from the drider (half-spider) woman, her spear flung at the speed of an arrow, hitting with the weight of a hammer, and then returned to the drider's hand right after. Olivia stepped out from behind Delilah and launched two of her throwing hammers, one from each hand, at the drider. The drider moved back, avoiding before flinging her spear again. This time, Delilah caught it before planting her feet and pulling, turning the battle into a tug of war, and giving Sarah a chance to close the distance, finally without needing to dodge the weapon.
Both Tems and Silk were in a battle I could barely keep track of with the dullahan, who was using her head as a flail. The time it took for Delilah to pin down the drider's weapon, a dozen attacks were launched, blocked, deflected, parried, or absorbed by the three women, all moving around the battlefield, causing plenty of casualties to the surrounding troops in the process.
How do you deal with a ghost? I didn’t know myself, but while it looked like we couldn’t do anything to her, she also couldn’t do anything to us. Millicent and Sophia fought monsters around the ghost as the ghost flew through them, only slowing them down slightly by floating through them. Whatever she was doing hadn’t had any effect, but at the same time, no attack could land.
The only reason it wasn’t a complete route and we didn’t wipe them out immediately was the gigantic number of normal troops. None were strong on their own, but the sheer number of bodies slowed down our progress against every general as all of them were constantly being reinforced with said troops. Sarah made it to the drider, swinging at her and causing her to move sideways away from her.
In one swift movement, Sarah flung her hammer like a professional athlete, catching the drider off guard and staggering her giant spider's bottom half. I swung my axe recklessly, taking down all the troops nearby as I quickly knelt down and placed both hands on the ground. The next moment, a spike the size of a human slammed into the side of the drider; the only reason she wasn’t killed outright was because of her extreme toughness and vitality. It caused a massive wound, as the Drider had been on the back foot the entire confrontation so far.
The main fight was finally ramping down. The dullahan was strong and extremely hard to kill, but her mount wasn’t. The horse-like abomination took plenty of damage and was now on its last legs. Once again, the only reason it wasn’t dead was because of its extreme undead resilience. A large portion of it was split in half, but the body reformed, spraying blood as several hands appeared out of the cut and grasped at each other to hold the creature together.
Sophia found that while she was channelling healing through her hands, she could make the ghost feel pain. It was the first time since we fought that the smile dropped from her face as she was finally scared that Sophia could hurt her. If she could, that meant I could as well. Healing from a distance was difficult, especially since everyone was constantly moving. It wasn’t a static battle like the fight with the bandits.
I looked at all the fights going on, wondering which would be the best to help as the drider cried out in pain. Cherry finally lined up her fireball, striking the drider in the back and making her fall forward, which finally put her human half in range of Sarah and Olivia, who took advantage of it. Both landing blows, Sarah smashed her head in while Olivia dug the back of her hammer into her, one in her heart, the other right beside it.
The spider half still fought; both parts had their own functioning brain, but without the top half for dealing damage, it was nothing more than a big bug. The ghost began to scream as Millicent finally began working with Sophia to block her escape. She pulled a white substance out of a pouch before flinging it in the ghost's direction, which caused her to cry out in pain. Only after looking more closely did I realize it was just common rock salt she was using.
My eyes then moved to the loud crashing sound as I caught the death rattle of the horse-like creature. It was tearing itself apart, forming several smaller creatures as the main body had dozens of deep cuts all over it, some of the smaller creatures running, some fighting, but most were writhing in place. The hands, eyes, teeth, bones, and feet of the smaller creatures the original was comprised of were not good enough to do anything but just exist.
The real flaw of the dullahan was shown from there as she could still fight, but not nearly as fast as before. The two creatures worked together well, but now that she had lost her speed, she was accumulating damage far faster than before. It dawned on me now that I had barely done anything. I fought far weaker troops while trying to find a spot to jump in, and before I could, the fights were wrapping up.
It felt… Too easy. Sure, we were much stronger, but the undead were so powerful that they took over an entire region of the continent we were on. The dungeons blocked off the route, the east built a wall to block off their encroachment, and the mountain range had dragons; those were the only reasons the undead didn’t overwhelm all the living things on this continent.
So, why were they pushing through now, and why were they so weak compared to the disaster they should have been? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t see the full picture yet; that was obvious. With one last hammer blow, the spider half of the drider dies, its legs kicking out as its brain stem fires off signals, making it twitch. Just at about the same time, the ghost discorporated.
I remembered more information as the fight dragged on. Ghosts were rare, but still around long enough for people to deal with them, and I knew that until we took care of their unfinished business or destroyed their remains, it would eventually reform. Silk parried the dullahan’s head with her shield just as Tems finally cut through her surprisingly durable hair.
I wasn’t sure how she could function, flinging her head around. Did Dullahans have a radar or something? Either way, with her main weapon gone, she pulled out a sword and tried to fight back, but without the incredible range of her head mace, both girls could now land far more blows before retreating. Blows landed, but the dullahan was insanely durable.
Most of her body was armoured, and the blows that did land struck skin almost as tough as steel. But with the other generals dead, and only normal troops left, more of my wives could help. A metal-dissolving potion later, and hammer blows being more effective, all that was left of the strong fighter was a naked, headless corpse.