Each swing of his weapon left trails of dark energy that lingered in the air like afterimages, and where that energy touched the undead, they simply... ceased.

Not destroyed, not banished, but unmade on a fundamental level.

He boosted his stamina by drinking potions and making himself push his limits.

"Stay close!" he called to the others, his voice muffled by his helm but carrying clearly through the din of battle.

"They're trying to separate us!"

Taeryn acknowledged with a grunt, his spear work becoming increasingly desperate as he found himself facing not just mindless zombies but the reanimated forms of soldiers he had known and fought alongside.

The young spearman's face was a mask of grim determination, but his eyes betrayed the horror he felt at being forced to strike down men who had been his brothers-in-arms mere hours before.

Rena, for her part, had begun constructing larger, more complex attacks. Her hands moved in intricate patterns as she summoned her Origin energy, calling upon a large attack span.

Origin energy swirled around her in visible streams of violet and silver light, coalescing into barriers and weapons and tools of destruction that held back the advancing tide of corruption.

The battle raged with increasing intensity, dragon-fire and deadly ice painting the sky in brilliant, terrible colors, while below, the clash of steel and spell created a symphony of destruction that could be heard for miles in every direction.

It was in this moment of desperate combat that a new complication arose.

Atop the fortress walls, a messenger—a young soldier whose face was pale with exhaustion and terror—burst through the gathered officers surrounding General Kaider.

The boy's armor was scorched, and his left arm hung at an unnatural angle, clear evidence that he had fought his way through enemy lines to deliver his report.

"General!" the messenger gasped, falling to one knee in exhaustion. "From the town... urgent news!"

Kaider's weathered face went pale as he helped the young man to his feet. "Speak, lad. What news from town?"

"The orcs, sir," the messenger replied, his voice breaking with exhaustion and fear.

"They've... they've reached the town. The town streets are overrun, and they're pushing toward the central market. The militia... the militia can't hold them, sir. They're being slaughtered."

The words hit the assembled officers like a physical blow.

The town holds a population of mostly hundreds, consisting of craftsmen, merchants, and other workers who aid the fortress—people who can't fight.

Those civilians who had trusted in the fortress's protection were now caught in the path of the Orc Lord's flanking maneuver.

"Impossible," muttered Captain Tholy, one of Kaider's most trusted subordinates.

"The hill passes are treacherous even for mountain goats. No army could move through them quickly enough to—"

"They did it, sir," the messenger interrupted, his voice hollow with the weight of witnessed horror. "Somehow, they did it. The Orc Lord... he led them through the Torubreak Pass. They lost hundreds to the rockslides and crevasses, but enough got through. More than enough."

General Kaider felt the world tilt beneath his feet.

The Torubreak Pass was considered impassable by any significant military force—a maze of narrow ledges, unstable scree, and vertical drops that had claimed the lives of countless adventurers over the years. The fact that the Orc Lord had been willing to sacrifice a substantial portion of his forces to navigate it spoke to a tactical cunning that no one had credited the brutish creature with possessing.

Worse still, it meant that the fortress was now caught between two forces. The undead army pressed against their southern defenses while the orc horde ravaged the town they were sworn to protect. And with every man and woman in the fortress committed to holding the pass, there was no reserve force to send to the town's aid.

"Sir," Captain Tholy said quietly, his voice heavy with the implications, "we can't spare a single sword. If we weaken the line here, the Lich King will break through, and then both the fortress and the town will fall."

"And next…"

He didn't need to say further. If they break the line here, then they have a free pass into the empire, and the consequences would be dire.

Neither Kaider nor the empire anticipated the legions' attack this time.

"But if we do nothing," another officer added, "everyone in town dies. That's several hundred souls, General. Men, women, children..."

Kaider closed his eyes, feeling the weight of the impossible choice settling on his shoulders like a mantle of lead.

Below, the battle raged on, dragon-fire painting the walls in shifting patterns of light and shadow while the sounds of combat rose like the chorus of some hellish opera.

The old general opened his eyes and looked out over the battlefield, where Morgana and her companions fought with desperate courage against odds that seemed to grow worse with every passing moment.

Above, Swefarna and the bone dragon tore at each other with savage fury, their conflict sending shockwaves through the air that rattled the fortress stones.

In the distance, smoke began to rise from the direction of the town—dark columns against the crimson sky that spoke of buildings set ablaze and lives being snuffed out like candle flames in a hurricane.

General Kaider had spent forty years in service to the crown and had fought in a dozen wars and countless smaller conflicts. He had made hard choices before and had sacrificed the few to save the many more times than he cared to remember.

But never had the choice been so stark, so absolute in its terrible clarity.

Hold the fortress and let the town burn, or save the town and watch the kingdom's southern border collapse into chaos.

Either way, thousands would die.

And there was nothing—absolutely nothing—he could do to save them all.

And the situation had come to such a dire point that he knew his decision would haunt him for the rest of his days, no matter what.

He gave the order to remain in the fortress.

"This fortress is our last line. There's no retreat, no mercy. Die on these stones if you must — but take ten of them with you!"

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