Chapter 39: War
*Tum...Tum...Tum. Tum...Tum...Tum.*
In triplets spears struck the ground, swords bashed against shields, feet pounded against the cobblestone. Most dead could not speak, but they could make the earth quake to demoralize the enemy. Three thousand skeletons, Draugr, and even several vampires stood half a mile away from the first defensive arch of Solitude and used the sound of their strikes to beat the drums of war.
Potema sat on a stone throne on a raised stone encirclement over a hundred feet behind her front line with a skull-tipped staff and some very thin dark garments fit for a ghost. She did not look like she would be joining her army in battle.
But one man would not be dissuaded. Ten feet in front of the first arch stood a man wrapped in brilliant silvery-white armor, whose red cape fluttered with the wind beside him and whose blue orbed staff stood in his grasp.
With a flourish of his staff, three Flame Atronachs appeared directly above the arch behind him and a specialized ward became an orb that protected it. The Atronachs were then reshaped into men with taiko drum-shaped orbs connected via a flaming ring behind their backs while they floated in a crossed leg position with angry faces. They took the form of Raijin, and the drums would serve to rotate like gun barrels and fire spells continually. The ward around them was a one-way ward, nothing goes in and fire comes out.
This was only his back defense measure. As for the front? What better to fight against death than life?
[Seed of the Morrow Tree Purchased - 4490 RP Left]
Yuri knelt down and pressed his hand in the earth and it trembled after a momentary pause. Thump, thump, thump. Branches escaped the ground in droves for 50 feet in front of him before they seemingly bent back down and tried to drag themselves out. The entire stone road was flipped over and the dirt underneath was made bare as more and more of the spawn escaped it.
These were not Spriggans. When Yuri knelt down he placed the seed into the ground and propelled its growth by borrowing lifeforce from the ground and feeding it mana. The tree's root was digging almost a hundred feet down and was thirty feet wide, he split the wood spawn from it and fused them with powers of Life magic. In essence, they were really strong Spriggans...
The seed was only 10 RP, Yuri bought it because he couldn't make wood from nothing or from a fusion of water and earth like Hashirama. It came from a very durable tree if that was any better.
Before long, Yuri had a three hundred tree division of man-shaped soldiers of twisted wood and glowing green light under the cracks in their skin. Most were bald and nose-less, their fingertips ended in barbs and their feet were more like roots that moved the legs above them like octopi.
Potema frowned and gave the signal for her forward troop to charge. A line of ten draugr deathlords led a smattering of over two hundred skeletons and other draugr behind them. The sound of hundreds of feet made the ground tremble and the hisses and growls of the draugr were beginning to be audible from the distance Potema parked herself at.
Yuri rose above his mini army and gave the signal to fire for his Atronachs.
Pumpumpumpumpumpumpumpumpum
In a succession of rapid-fire, a hail of fireballs streaked across the road with smoking trails and landed in the middle of the advancing dead. Booms sent bones flying with a cluttering sound, Draugr caught fire and still ran forward. One of the Deathlords was hit directly in the face and went down before the Atronach who hit it started focusing fire and killed it.
By the time they reached Yuri's Wood Division, half of them had been shaved off. Yuri smiled delightfully. The first engagement was a good omen.
The Woods moved forward when the Dead were in range and clashed. Each Deathlord needed the attention of two Woods but the army behind the Deathlords couldn't get past. More woods had covered the flanks and were firing wooden darts and using their Lifeforce coated claws to rend into the rest of the Dead.
Before long the Deathlords were viciously dismantled and overwhelmed before the dam broke and the clash was in full force. The more durable Woods were tearing the Deads apart and pushing them back. In minutes the clash was over and the Woods had only suffered one loss before retreating.
Yuri had made the spawn camp for the Woods into a bright grove filled with greenery and bordered by thorny branches. He used the wooden barricades Solitude was using to build a jagged wooden wall in front of the first door.
'My plan went down the gutter so quickly, since when did mages get so skilled? Or is this one the outlier?' Potema thought to herself before giving the command to start total war.
Her new front line was made of Vampires to target the woods with Life Drain, if it even worked. Potema wasn't sure. The rest of her now 2800 strong army slowly marched from the roads they had dominated and the front line was charging full speed.
Yuri didn't care for vampires. Nasty creatures, really. He raised his staff and brought a new spear-shaped sun in mid-day.
The vampires in the front lines abruptly halted and looked up with jaws hanging open. A flaming orange pillar twenty feet long was brought to life above him and Yuri brought it down with a swing. Faster than they could react, the spear reached them and created a long molten gash, the flames and lava sprayed in a wave behind the blast and took out everything behind the vampires for thirty more feet. Potema clutched the arm of her throne. She couldn't do anything like that, but she had Shadow Magic and the fool was wasting his mana.
2500 creatures still marched, the Woods marched too. Continually being made from the grove at the front, they were joining the march now a quarter-mile out and pressing the line. The drums of his Raijin still beat, sending fireballs into the crowd of black and grey on the other side without rest and helping the Woods charge forward.
Tullius and his Legate were spectating from the top of the final wall connected to the main entrance.
"Why isn't he bringing out that giant, General?"
"Perhaps to conserve energy and fight more efficiently, or maybe to get Potema to reveal all her cards. Tell the archers to prepare and shoot anything that gets close to the Arch."
Yuri felt a light press on his mind as if asking to communicate. He looked at Potema who was staring at him and gave him a nod. Yuri frowned and accepted.
'Such a young and gifted mage, I do hope they are treating you well, Mr.?'
'Trying to negotiate from a place of power, are we Wolf Queen?' Yuri asked what wasn't really a question.
'Haha, a position I intend to keep. I'm sure the men behind you planned to give you a hero's title and some coin, maybe some land if you manage this. But you will most certainly die since you face me. It would be such a waste to let your power be stifled by lesser men. Join me! With magic, we shall remake the Empire and conquer the rest of Tamriel! I can make you a king!'
'Observe for a couple of hours and see for yourself if I need you to make myself a king'
'My offer still stands till Solitude falls into my hands. Don't be too late, mage'
Yuri cut the connection and summoned more Raijin. 15 of them, to be precise. They were scattered across the edges of the road ahead and facing forward, burying the dead in flames and explosions. The Raijin moved ahead aggressively, clearing the way for the Woods to pick off the rest and suppress successfully.
Potema wasn't happy. She thought Yuri was wasting mana, but she still can't conquer a city without an army. She directed her mages, Vampires and a single Lich who stood beside her began casting spells at the barriers of the Raijin. The nearest few Raijin were buffeted with spells but when the smoke cleared they remained unharmed and relentless. Potema had enough. She stood from her throne and let shadows swirl around her till she directed a stream of black smoke to one barrier. The smoke struck the barrier and it cracked, then it swirled around it and clutched it before the barrier shattered and Yuri felt his atronach disappear.
Yuri raised his brow at the amateurish display.
'You think Shadow will be your saving grace? You don't know anything' Yuri telepathically sneered to her.
Yuri conjured a white longbow with swirly ornate carving in his left, while a powerful-looking arrow with a broad tip appeared in his right before he drew it to the Lich she managed to get.
Potema looked at Yuri and widened her eyes, 'what the hell is that?!'
He aimed for only a second before releasing a beam that traveled too fast for the eye crossed the distance and destroyed the upper half of her lich. She couldn't react even when she saw it coming.
[Record of Alviraz Obtained - 250 RP]
'That could've been me, is he TOYING with me?!' She panicked.
'I am an undead myself, I can't let a man like that live. What is that magic and how far spread is it? Either way, he needs to die'
Potema floated herself above the two armies and charged a ward in her left hand to defend against that spell while an Ice spell appeared in her right.
Yuri didn't let the atronachs target her, he merely smirked at her audacity. Couldn't she see the safest place for her was behind her army? He wanted to whittle it down before finally reaching her, but he may have shown too much power. He floated towards her as well.
Potema launched the ice spell, a whirling blizzard contained in an orb careened towards him but he merely used his staff's domain to disperse it into mana and consume it.
"The Staff of Magnus!"
"Bingo. Give me your best shot, Wolf"
Potema gritted her teeth and kept up her ward while giving up the basic spells. Shadow magic started shrouding her whole form and swirling around her. She raised her hand and sent a whip to Yuri's direction. It crossed the domain without issue, but Yuri raised a dense Light shield that disintegrated the whip upon contact.
Yuri put the staff away and cracked his neck.
"I'm up for a challenge"
Potema's mana count felt like half of his, which was an incredible feat in this world, to be honest. She must be a custom Lich of some kind. But it wasn't enough.
Yuri contained his organs into purple spell orbs and sent them to his inventory before he fused the rest of his body with Light and sent his armor with it. His cape stayed on while his sculpted body turned golden and the light concealed his bits. His hair raised and swirled up, his eyes grew foggy blue while he activated the ESP Tenth Eye spell and lost none of his vision.
Potema's dread grew instinctive and blared at her to escape. She knew she couldn't do that, so she upped the ante and tried to do what he was doing.
Shadow magic grew more tightly around her and was eating at her flesh, but she felt nothing. She knew she was growing more powerful, however, by letting the Shadow fuse with her. Eventually, it covered her clothes and all her skin up to her neck, tendrils even snaking up to her eyes.
She grinned slightly and sent more whips to Yuri who merely slapped it away each time. Yuri threw a dozen arrows and she blocked with a cape of black, Potema slashed with a sharp-edged whip and Yuri dodged easily. Yuri appeared behind her and set his hand on her shoulder before pressing down and sending her hurtling toward the ground.
The soldiers had forgotten their orders. They wouldn't need them. Tullius and everyone present below him stared agape at a battle between mages that changed their worldview.
The Woods around her scattered and continued pressing forward. Potema opened her eyes and saw Yuri was creating a guillotine of Light that spanned 30 feet across and gleamed an intimidating edge.
"The Queen is dead, long live the queen!" He shouted before throwing his hand down and waiting while the blade dropped at tremendous speed.
Potema flinched and raised her hands before spewing black smoke like a geyser to combat the falling edge. It slowed but it didn't stop, she got up and leaped out of the way before it slammed into the ground.
Yuri snapped his fingers in mock disappointment before shrugging. "Oh well, again!"
Potema was gasping when she looked up again and saw the Sword of Damocles. 50 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 3 feet thick, a brilliant sword hung ready to cleave her. The bystanders had begun to think they were dreaming.
"DAMN YOOOOOOOUUUUU" Potema shrieked and let the Shadow consume her as much as she could afford.
But give Shadow an inch and it takes a yard.
The black climbed past her neck and swallowed her head while spreading beyond her in an inky black pool. Her form exaggerated itself and grew in a messy amalgamation, up and out in odd bumps. The black ink started gaining more territory and swallowing Woods while climbing up the road to the first gate. The sky darkened in the area the ink took over and the Dead started winning over the Woods, even with the help of the Raijin.
'It's trying to accomplish the goal of the caster before going berserk. Climb up to me and into the city. Not that I'll let that happen.'
Yuri erected a light screen before the ink touched the grove, but the ink quickly tried climbing it or going around it without being burned. The shit was dense.
Yuri was still in the air and the monstrosity was only ten feet away. Yuri raised the giant sword he hadn't used yet and took a swing at what he thought was its waist. The sword plunged into the side of it and sunk almost halfway in before stopping from the thick sludge.
'It's feeding from the conflict behind it, I need more power'
Yuri made a super-dense and huge Light ax above him and swung down while Potema raised her right hand and tried to grab at Yuri. Yuri's ax sunk into the beasts shoulder and Yuri teleported behind her to continue.
'Alright, fine. I'll use the giant'
But the Shadow magic had already gone past his light screen while he was distracted and burned through the grove.
'Shit, how's that for a hero. Time to finish this.'
Yuri pulled out his staff again and raised it, preparing a finishing move. His calming and charismatic voice projected for the whole city to hear.
"Let there be Light to cure this blighted land"
Above his head, a star was born and empowered by all the Shadow it was brought to kill and all the mana and intent Yuri could muster. A hundred feet in diameter a furious white orb exploded and forced back all the darkness that had taken the sky. The ink slowed down while its surface sizzled, the Dead shielded their nonexistent eyes and fled backward while the Woods and Raijin looked up and saw their master. The Raijin grew bright yellow flames instead of orange and the Woods changed from green to gold underneath, they looked at their foe before gaining new life and charging with a newfound fury. The wails of both sides grew louder.
The soldiers who were forced to fall back in fear looked back up and somehow saw Yuri in full clarity holding Aetherius in his staff. They looked up and saw hope. The beast wailed loudly in pain, it would have shaken the eardrums of the whole city were it not for Yuri's star. It turned around and tried to slowly thrash at him, but Yuri brought down his staff just a bit quicker. The noise of the beast was drowned out with an all-consuming silence, the brightness overtook the vision of all present, all senses were enraptured with a white blare. Yet no one felt a burn in their eyes or felt the need to close them, they didn't notice how bright it should've been and merely waited for their vision to clear. Some of them for reasons they didn't understand let tears leak out, others wept openly.
When the white peeled back, there was no beast. There was no black ink taking the walls, no shadow encroaching on the territory. The skeletons, the draugr, the vampires, the thralls, they were dust. Yuri had turned off notifications after he hit those vampires, but he gained about 2,400 RP from the few enemies who still had souls. Wait...
[Lightbringer Skill Created - 5,000 RP]
'Huh? Later, Later'
Yuri looked behind him and dispersed the Raijin and the Woods, letting them sink back into the earth and nurture it. He then turned back and found that the crowd of defenders had already begun looking at him with eyes of worship.
'I've never been looked at like that before... It feels strange. I'm a dork, don't look at me like that'
Such were the thoughts behind the perfect poker face as he glided to the furthest wall and descended to meet the General.
{Next Chapter: Lightbringer}
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Reddsaint
Reddsaint Heeeey,
First large scale conflict. I think I could improve but I'm ready for a next chance. Should I use Yuri more or add more detail to the battle tactics and smaller members next time? Let me know! Details and implications of the skill among other things in the next chapter.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone