Anfey had been in Mormatch more than two weeks, but no new mercenaries arrived after that. Alice theorized that it was getting too dangerous to travel and the Transverse Mountains had been lost to necromancers. This left Moramatch surrounded by enemies.
Immediately after Alice told him her theory, Blavi hurried in and told them about the presence of creatures of death around the town.
The mages in Moramatch would regularly use Eye of the Sky to patrol the area surrounding the town. If a lone zombie wandered too close to the city, the mages might miss it. However, they would not miss large hordes of zombies.
Anfey arrived at the mage tower and was soon joined by Alice and Suzanna. Christian and Elizabeth were chatting with intently. Christian turned and waved at Anfey as he approached. "Come here and look at this," Christian said.
Next to Christian were a few mages scanning the area with Eye of the Sky. One of the Eyes was following a few strange zombies. Normally, a zombie’s body should be rotting and falling apart. These zombies, however, looked strong and complete. If it weren’t for the strange copper shade of their skin, they could be mistaken as living humans. The zombies were huddled together as if they were discussing something. It was widely known that zombies did not have the ability to talk. Zombies communicated with each other with basic telepathy, not spoken words. This defied the rules of nature.
"How many are there?" Anfey asked.
"About three thousand," Christian said.
As soon as enemy combatants were discovered, the mages could band together and discover how many enemies there were and their location. This was one of the benefits of having a group of mages. Of course, even Eye of the Sky could not discover everything about their enemies.
"They’re talking?" Suzanna asked incredulously.
"Yes," Christian said with a deep frown. "It seems like these zombies are more… evolved, in a sense." He turned and glanced at the Eye of the Sky and shook his head. "This is not good. Not good at all. We could win the wars past because of the necromancers’ arrogance and the zombies’ inability to communicate. If the zombies are now intelligent… this war just got a lot more difficult."
"My lords, look!" Elizabeth suddenly called.
The zombies seemed to have reached an agreement and split up. In Eye of the Sky, a group of around three hundred zombies were moving slowly towards Moramatch.
A battle was inevitable. Anfey and Alice turned and glanced at each other. The two of them were both very analytical. They knew themselves and their limits very well. Anfey could coordinate small-scale fights, but a battle against three hundred zombies was beyond his power. Alice, on the other hand, knew nothing about coordinating battles. There was only one person here that could command an army.
"Kumaraghosha, what do you think we should do?" Anfey asked.
Kumaraghosha frowned and looked at the Eye of the Sky. Suddenly, the zombies started running towards Moramatch. Soon, those in the city could hear the clamor of the zombies.
Christian used a levitation spell and headed towards the mage tower.
"Wait!" Kumaraghosha called hurriedly.
"What is it?"
"Wait. Don’t reveal how powerful we are yet," Kumaraghosha said. "Get some mages and stop them with magic."
"What? Why?"
"Those zombies are just testing us," Kumaraghosha said. "If we reveal too much, it would be disadvantageous."
"But if we let the zombies…"
"This is war, my lord," Kumaraghosha said coolly. "Casualties are unavoidable. Listen to me, or you will increase your casualties tenfold!"
Christian sighed and nodded.
"Who are the people camping out there?" Kumaraghosha asked.
"Shinbella’s."
"Then we are set," Kumaraghosha said. "They would last the longest against the zombies."
One of the mages called out in terror. The zombies had already reached the first barrier. Shinbella appeared in the Eye of the Sky. She stood on top of the barrier and waved her lance, ordering her men to attack. Normally, Shinbella and her men could hold off zombies for days like this. However, the zombies suddenly increased their speed and, even though they were slowed by the magic raining down on them, reached the barrier in no time.
The barrier was about five feet wide and was made of heavy logs and very durable. The zombies did not know how to use fire magic, and it was thought that it would take longer for them to break through the barrier. The zombies lunged at the barrier, clawing at the wood with their sharp nails. They opened their mouths and squirted dark pus onto the barrier.
The Eye of the Sky was vertically above the battle, but it wasn’t hard figuring out what the zombies were doing.
A zombie had broken through the barrier and appeared on the other side. It opened its mouth and screeched. Shinbella jumped off the barrier and sliced through the zombie with her sword.
More zombies began streaming through the hole to get beyond the barrier. Another group of around four hundred zombies headed in that direction as backup to the first group. Shinbella fought valiantly but could not hold off the zombies and was forced to retreat with her men.
Anfey glanced at Kumaraghosha, who shook his head. Blavi frowned and turned to Suzanna, "He doesn’t have a vendetta against Shinbella, does he?"
"I don’t think so," Suzanna whispered back.
More and more zombies broke through the barrier. Christian led the mages in engaging the zombies with magic, but there were too many zombies and too few mages. Shinbella was forced to retreat into the town.
"Are you sure about this?" Alice asked.
"There are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of zombies in Transverse Mountains, my lady," Kumaraghosha said. "This is only the first step. It’s less of a battle and more a skirmish, really. It’s only going to get harder from here."
"You just said that Shinbella can last a long time against these things," Alice said, not convinced.
"No one told me that those zombies can use magic."
"We’ve seen those things before," Blavi whispered. "They are the leaders of normal zombies. If we kill these things, the other zombies would be a lot easier to kill."
"They are not the leaders," Kumaraghosha said. "The ones that were talking are the leaders. We need to assess how intelligent these things are before we can fight them."
"So this is your assessment?" Alice asked, frowning. She needed to know because she did not want to see anyone questioning Kumaraghosha’s abilities.
"I’m sure they have follow up plans," Kumaraghosha said. He suddenly stopped, his eyes wide. More zombies appeared in the Eye of the Sky, marching towards Moramatch. According to the mages, there were three thousand zombies. This should be all of them.
"Search the surrounding areas," Kumaraghosha said. "See if any zombies are hiding nearby."
Blavi nodded. He turned and barked an order at the mages.
There were about forty mages left on the tower. All of them released the Eye of the Sky and saw that there were no other zombies except for the ones heading towards them.
"I overestimated them," Kumaraghosha said, visibly relaxing. "They don’t even have a plan."
"Does that mean we can engage?"
Kumaraghosha hesitated for a moment, then nodded.