Chapter 410 Change of Plan
Dave's infernal dragons rained down hell from above. They spewed out fire through the battlefield, scorching the enemies into black skeletons. The flames gathered into a firestorm that roared through the whole area.
Still, 48 dragons, no matter how domineering, how powerful and how badass, they still were not enough to quell the lives of a couple hundred thousand enemy units.
Dave had to fold back.
"Guys, Let's leave!" Dave called, then summoned Tiny. "Everyone hop in!"
Dave was the first to jump on Tiny's back. The rest of the party quickly followed suit. Leaving the undead taking care of the enemies.
"Why not just use teleportation scrolls?" Jeffery asked as he dismounted from his Mecha and dissipated it.
"We can't use scrolls while we are considered to be in combat. We also can't use any scrolls here besides those of the Eastern cities and the Underworld," Dave answered.
The party rode on Tiny's back and the Grave Lord flew away amongst the chaos.
Dave looked back, he noticed that Drahma's rampage was far from over and that he alone was dealing with more than a hundred Elite Qin Soldiers. Valiant his efforts may be, yet Dave knew that the giant creature would eventually fall. He just hoped that the Giant could take down as many Qin Soldiers as possible before it happened.
Nevertheless, Dave's overall objective had been fulfilled. His campaign had dealt a heavy blow to the Qin Kingdom, revenge for daring to assault and belittle the hold of the Undead on the ancient city of Urburg.
Jeffery's plan, however, had been thwarted. He had hoped that Dave would at least manage to breach through the Qin Kingdom's walls, lessening the difficulty for the Devastators in their insidious attempt at controlling it
However, at the same time, a part of Jeffery was thankful for this outcome.
He did not like what Warlord had ordered him to do, but he had no way to deny his right as a Guild-Master from commanding his subordinate. Even if it meant becoming the enemy of the world's current most popular Undead. And now, Warlord would have to deal with the remaining Qin Army, while Dave would withdraw to plan something else.
By now, the contract binding Jeffery to Dave had come to an end. The Devastators awaited him to finally claim their part of the deal.
"Jeffery, status?" Warlord spoke in Jeffery's ears through voice-chat.
"Skelly failed in his Hail Mary attempt of taking over the East. He's currently withdrawing. We're being followed by wyverns, but his flying serpent is making distance as we speak." Jeffery replied in all professionalism.
"What about the teleportation device?" Warlord asked.
"I've planted it when no one was looking, but it's pretty close to the gates. If you guys want to use it, you'll have to use either overwhelming force or preferably Assassins and other stealth units."
"Good Job. What about his losses? How many did he lose?"
"I don't know the exact numbers, but Skelly has left them at the gate. Most likely, all of his minions will die there." Jeffery added.
"This is great news for us. We don't know for sure if he can recreate them, but even if he can, it should cost him quite a bit. At the very least it will slow down his response to the point that he won't be able to do anything while we take the East. "
"You're planning on taking the East while Skelly's forces are recovering?" Jeffery wondered.
"Yes, right now's the perfect time. The Qin Army is currently weakened more than ever. We'll make sure Skelly can't join in or be able to interfere when we are doing so. When can your Mecha Skill be available? We'll need you when raiding the East." Warlord asked.
"In another 68 hours in-game," Jeffery answered.
"Ok, once your Skill is available for use, get ready for the Mass Teleportation. We'll need all the power we can get," Warlord ordered him.
"Alright then," Jeffery replied.
The conversation had occurred away from the eyes of Dave's party. They had been occupied with shooting down the pesky wyverns. Once the skies were clear, Dave ordered his pet to come down. They had traveled enough to make a good distance and be able to teleport away from the East.
Dave started handing out scrolls to leave the area.
The rest of the party looked at Dave questioningly. They had all received the scrolls from Dave without much hitch or questioning… only Jeffery didn't get any.
"What about me?" Jeffery asked awkwardly.
"Tiny will take you back to Moria. Thanks for the help in the raid, but you gotta understand. We're helping each other due to business, not friendship. I can't just give you scrolls for the Underworld so early." Dave shrugged.
"Sigh… I understand. Anyway, it's been fun being part of Mr. Skeletal's adventuring party. Oh before I forget, once you're done, Warlord is waiting for you at Icathia. He mentioned that he'll be waiting for you to go there. You know, for the Underworld exploration and stuff." Jeffery said with a small smile on his face.
"Yeah, I remember. I'll be there in a jiffy." Dave nodded before turning to Tiny: "Take him to Moria!"
The Grave Lord didn't need Dave to tell him which way to take. He had already received his instructions not to take the route that went over Urburg.
Once Jeffery was far away, Lone asked, "What was that about?"
"What was what about?" Dave questioned back innocently.
"The scrolls. You could have easily given him one," Lone clarified.
"Yup I could've. But I don't trust him. I've watched the video about what his Mecha could do multiple times, so I can safely say: He was pulling his punches. I don't like that. He didn't contribute his all to the fight, and this makes me suspicious of him. In fact, I could have most likely broken through the gates of the capital." Dave stated.
"Huh? How so?" Lone asked.
"I still had some powerful Skills left to use. And did you all forget about a certain Kraken? I didn't even use [Blot The Sun] to its full power or most of my Lich-Class spells. I believe I could have sustained the spawning of undead enemies until our forces would have eventually overwhelmed the enemy. We might perhaps have tried to assassinate the King, except Jeffery's attitude gave me a lot to worry about. He could have used his Nuclear explosion skill to wipe out half of the tightly packed forces but he didn't. I don't like that." Dave explained.
"And why do you think he didn't use it?" Mercy asked.
"He works for the Devastators and I have beef with Warlord. I bet he must have asked him to use the Nuclear Skill against us if the opportunity presented itself. Also, while no one was looking, he seemed to have planted a device at the gates of the Qin Capital."
"How do you know that? You were in the middle of the battle?" Lone wondered.
"Dear, I have an army at my command. Even if I wasn't looking, it's impossible to hide one's movements from the prying eyes of a hundred thousand Undead," Dave replied with his draugr smile.
"What do you think he planted?" Mercy asked.
"I don't know, but whatever it is I left Bud there to monitor the situation. Whatever Jeffery had in mind, the Ghoul will notify me of as soon as possible." Dave replied.
"You're pretty suspicious," Flanker noted.
"If you want to think that way. I call it planning for the worst. I wouldn't want to give the Devastators the option to fish in murky waters. No matter what they are planning, I'll make sure to make it difficult for them." Dave replied.
"What will you be doing now?" Ralph asked.
"First off, Jeffery should be far enough away, so let's call back the rest of my Undead," Dave said and stomped his foot on the ground.
Almost immediately, thousands of shadows materialized around Dave and his party. They were the Undead that had been battling at the gates of the Qin Kingdom.
Most of the survivors were Captains with a few Death Knights in the mix. As for the Elite and regular Undead, none of them had survived the battle as none had shown up.
"Damn, I took some heavy losses, but at least some of them survived," Dave sighed.
He took a breath: "Alright, I'll head back to the Underworld to resupply and replenish my forces. You guys can go do your thing. I'll have to babysit a few Devastators and watch out for backstabs."
"Alright Davey, call me if you need anything" Lone smiled at her boyfriend.
"Anyone wanna go level up some bit? I know of a good Dungeon in the Southern Desert." Tess suggested.
"Yeah, let's group up. Skelly, we'll be going without you," Perfect teased.
"Yeah go ahead," Dave nodded to his friends and tore his teleportation scroll.
He soon reappeared in the Underworld, right at his estate. The workers had finished up the whole project and now looked like the estate of a rich nobleman. With a river running through it, a white-topped mountain full of Trolls, a forest encircling the whole area and a small area for the Basilisks to roam about.
Dave went to his barracks and initiated the revival of his Undead. The losses were great, and the cost he had to pay matched that.
Not too long ago Dave's CP points had numbered 5,000,000 thanks to the raid of the Pharaoh's Tomb. Yet after equipping his Undead and buying all of his Captains fully armored Dunlords. He had been down to less than 100,000.
But now as Dave was gazing at his CP points, he was surprised to notice that the number was currently more than four million points and was continuing to rise.
Before he could question what could be the reason for this continuous rise in CP, he noticed a small flashing window under the CP points.
Once he willed it into his screen, a stream of notification appeared in front of him.
***
Corrupted Dire Wolf level 120 has killed a villager level 20
+5 CP
Undead Boar Level 65 has killed wild hare level 5.
+1CP point.
Hollow Vanguard Level 250 has killed Town Guard level 220
+20 CP
…
***
"Oh, these must be from the Dungeon Outbreak, pretty neat. They're still accumulating points for me. Hmm, I should do this more often." Dave humored himself.
"Right, let's finish up."
He turned to the rest of the Respawners and began the process of reviving the rest of his Undead.
Now he would have to wait for it to finish. To not waste any time he teleported to the Undead Frontier.
"You took down the capital?" Dagla asked.
"You were right. I couldn't make it."
Dagla didn't seem surprised by Dave's claim, "There is no shame and not being able to overturn an unfavorable situation each and every time. At least now we know you're not some sort of freak. If you'd told me you broke through the gates of the Qin Capital with a mere hundred thousand, you'd make me question my ability as an Abyssal Knight."
Dave didn't want to ruin the old man's mood by telling him that if he actually had tried he might have made it.
"Yeah, well, I know that I still have a long way to go now. Unfortunately, that means all your hard work will have been in vain. I'm sorry you had to disable all those Gates, now the Qin Army will be able to reclaim the cities and regain control," Dave lamented.
"Oh, do not worry, young Draugr. Now, I have the codes for those Gates. If his Majesty ever orders the raid on the outer world, I'll be able to easily link those Gates to ours. And they'll never know what hit them." Dagla laughed eerily after his claim.
Dave gulped, almost feeling pity for the people of those cities. If the Undead truly wanted to take the Qin Kingdom, Dave had just given them the keys to many cities that they could raid at will.
"Okay, now for the reason I'm here. I'll be inviting some people over, but I don't trust them." Dave informed the Arch-Lich.
"Then why invite them in the first place?" Dagla asked.
"I required their help in raiding the East, and to pay them back I had to promise them the right of passage to the Underworld. However, I don't trust that they'll behave." Dave said.
"Hmm, invite them to the Pharaoh's Crypt. It is where I have all-seeing eyes. If they ever do anything uncanny, I'll be able to see and stop it. That way you can have your part of the bargain fulfilled without going back on your word."
Dave smiled, "Thank you Dagla, I can't thank you enough."
"No worries. For one who I trust to become the Prince of the Dead, it is the least I could do!"
"Hah, that's still too hard for the current me."
"Do not belittle yourself Kis'Shtiengbrah, you have come far. And I trust you can still go further. It is our duty in the Legion to support one another, because what is a Legion without comrades looking out for each other?" Dagla spoke some words of wisdom to Dave's ears.
"Yeah, we're Legion, we're one." Dave nodded and bade Dagla farewell.
"It's time to return to the lion's den." He whispered to himself and tore a teleportation scroll to the Devastator capital.