Chapter 30: Natural Disaster of the Undead (Part 1) Three tall and solid walls surround the fortress city of Elandir.
According to ancient Chinese military terminology, this is a triple "barbican city".
There is also a more understandable name: "city within a city", which means building another ring of walls inside the city to strengthen its defensive role.
Elandir, which has a triple wall, not only spared no effort to build two more complete cities in the city, but also deliberately avoided the gates of the inner city and the openings of the outer city walls in each circle, allowing those who managed to attack with great difficulty.
Enemies who entered the outer city wall had to go through some circuitous trek before they could find the gate of the second layer of city wall.
A city with this kind of structure is undoubtedly the nightmare in the hearts of all attackers.
Think about it, after going through all kinds of hardships and finally breaking through a city wall, what appears in front of you is another wall that is even bigger than the previous one.
There are also taller and thicker city walls.
Such a huge contrast is enough to make any elite soldier despair.
During the siege, such a shock even occurred twice.
However, the enemies that the fortress city of Elandir needs to defend against are not only from the enemy forces outside the city, but also exist within the city walls.
Between the outermost layer of Elandir and the middle layer of city walls, there is a large special area surrounded by high walls and watchtowers, like a prison.
Different from the solid fortress in the inner city, although the stone walls and watchtowers surrounding this area are equally strong, the defense direction is not outward, but aimed inward.
A very strange design, not to protect against external enemies, but to protect the people inside.
It feels like a prison, a prisoner of war camp or a concentration camp.
But this is actually the public cemetery of the fortress city of Elandir.
There are similar cemeteries in other towns in the kingdom, but they are not as vast as the fortress city of Elandir, which is prone to wars.
The reason why human civilization in this world builds cemeteries as heavily guarded as prisons or concentration camps is to prevent the emergence of the undead.
In other words, to prevent the dead from climbing out of the grave again and disrupting the world of the living.
Although there is still no relatively accurate theory about the cause of the undead.
But people at least already know that unclean things are often born in the dying place of the living.
Among them, those who died unexpectedly and had no one to care about them, that is, those who were filled with resentment when they died, were most likely to be reincarnated as undead creatures.
The evidence is that undead wandering around battlefields and ruins often appear.
Not only that, the undead have another problem.
That is, although there will only be some weak skeleton soldiers at first, if left unchecked, they will easily evolve into stronger undead monsters, such as lichs, bone dragons, and vampires, thus bringing huge consequences to the human civilization world. disaster.
For example, on the Katz Plains on the outskirts of the fortress city, the kingdom and the empire have been fighting for years.
In addition to fighting each other, they have to regularly organize joint sweep teams to clean up the undead that appear due to the war.
Otherwise, once the undead craze breaks out, which side will be affected?
It's all a nightmare.
Therefore, as an important border fortress town with frequent wars and located on the edge of the famous Katz Plains, the area most affected by the undead, the probability of undead appearing in Elandir is much higher than in other places.
In order to avoid turning the dead into the undead, municipal authorities had to spend huge sums of money to build prison-style cemeteries.
Adventurers and guards must also be arranged to patrol the cemetery every night to eliminate the newly born weak undead as soon as possible to avoid causing catastrophe.
There is a wall around the cemetery in the fortress city of Elandir.
This wall is the boundary between the dead and the living.
Although the four-meter-high wall is not as high as the city wall, it is enough for people to walk on it.
The steel gate is also quite strong and solid and cannot be easily broken through.
There are watchtowers on the left and right of the gate, and patrols are stationed day and night, taking turns monitoring the cemetery below.
In other words, the security at night is often tighter than during the day.
Inside the cemetery, a lamp holder with permanent light magic was installed, making it quite bright even at night.
But after all, there are still many dark places, especially in those places blocked by tombstones, where the view is even worse.
All of this is so tight that it feels like a huge enemy, and it is entirely to guard against the undead that may be born in the cemetery at any time.
For the residents of the fortress city of Elandir, the Bahas Empire army invading from the east only comes once or twice a year.
As for the tide of monsters coming out of the forest to attack the city, it only exists in the legends of the old people.
But in order to bury these dead people who had awakened against the laws of life and death back into the earth, the battle with the undead in the city cemetery was going on almost every night.
This may seem a bit stupid, but the problem is that if corpses are thrown into the wild at will, then more powerful undead monsters may be born.
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Perhaps, as time goes by, humans in this world will take the trouble to gradually give up burials completely and replace them with burials.
To cremate the body into ashes.
But at least in this current era, the guards and adventurers of the fortress city of Elandir still have to fight the undead night after night.
Under the dim magic light, a guard holding a spear looked absently at the cemetery, yawned and said to his companions who were watching together: "It's been extraordinarily peaceful tonight.
Nothing has appeared yet."
"Yes, there were five skeletons in the last shift.
It seems that the number of undead creatures has decreased a lot in the past two days."
"Well, the souls of the recent batch of deceased people have probably all been summoned back by the gods.
If so, they would be very lucky."
Several other guards on night watch were also attracted by this topic and joined in the discussion one after another, pouring bitter words on each other: "If it's just skeletons and zombies, even if there are more, we can still handle it.
But spears are really not suitable for dealing with skeletons.
It’s a bit troublesome to get up.”
"I think the most difficult thing is the ghost.
It's just a shadow.
It's useless to attack it with a sword.
You can't even hide in a bunker to prevent it."
"Tch, it's obvious that you guys are too stingy and reluctant to buy magic items to restrain the undead, so you are frightened by ghosts with little attack power.
The most terrifying undead creature is probably the bone worm, the kind that has hundreds or thousands of them.
The giant centipede formed by skeletons looks like a room when it stands upright.
I have only encountered such a tall kid once in my life.
At that time, I was so scared that I didn’t dare to move.
If it weren’t for several Mithril-level and Orichalcum-level adventurers who were on alert nearby and came to the rescue, I would have died long ago.
"A gray-haired veteran took a sip of strong wine from the copper pot and muttered.
"Well, speaking of which, defeating monsters is the responsibility of adventurers.
Why do we need to top up the tank?"
Another young soldier sighed and complained unhappily, "We have already paid so much tax to the superiors, and the city hall still wants us to take risks to fight the undead by ourselves without even a copper coin allowance.
This is Life is really hard.”
As mentioned before, the Kingdom of Riestije does not have a regular national army, even the fortress city of Yelandir located on the border is no exception.
Then the question becomes, once there is a real war, who should be sent to defend the city?
The correct answer is to rely on mercenaries and militia, plus a small number of local nobles' personal guards.
As for adventurers, theoretically speaking, adventurers cannot participate in intra-human struggles, at least not in wars between countries.
Otherwise, once the adventurers have a position, how can they set up branches in various countries and become an international organization?
As an alternative to the regular army, the mayor of the fortress city of Elandir used tax money to recruit a group of mercenaries as an elite core force during wartime.
However, limited by financial resources, although the martial arts of this mercenary group is good, their number is pitifully small, far from enough to perform the most basic daily duties.
Therefore, in addition to paying taxes, the citizens of the city of Elandir must also perform military service for the king.
The city hall will regularly select a group of young adults, who, in addition to earning money to support their families, must also serve as unpaid militiamen with officially provided weapons and protective gear, performing life-threatening voluntary labor to maintain the city's safety. operation.
Of course, the militiamen are also divided into three, six or nine levels.
The best positions are naturally guarding the city gates and municipal official residences.
Not only do they look more respectable, but they often have some money to make.
The most unlucky part is guarding the cemetery.
Not only do they have little to gain, but they also have to fight the undead day and night.
Moreover, to be honest, they are just a group of civilians armed with weapons.
Their experience and quality are different from those of experienced adventurers.
Totally incomparable.
Therefore, the casualty rate of the militiamen remained high, and no wonder they were so complaining because they were not reimbursed for medical expenses.
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The reason why all adventurers cannot be used to guard the cemetery is mainly due to the consideration of saving money: the militia is recruited for free, and there is no need to pay.
However, no matter how resentful these local militiamen are, they have to bite the bullet and continue to fight the undead without any slack.
Otherwise, once an undead outbreak occurs, the first ones to suffer will be their relatives and friends living in the city. and family "There is no way, we must catch all these undead creatures while they are still weak, in order to prevent them from becoming those hopelessly powerful monsters."
The veteran sighed, "But thinking about it this way, there are no undead now, but it makes people...
It feels a little bad.”
"Why?"
someone asked.
"Well, I just wonder if our surveillance missed something."
"Old man, you are thinking too much.
The probability of undead creatures appearing in normal times should not be so high.
I heard that the undead would often appear only after burying the bodies of those who died in the war with the empire.
When there is no war, probably That’s how it is now.”
A middle-aged militiaman said carelessly, while other militiamen nodded to each other and agreed with this statement.
Except for Elandir, a city that often needs to bury war dead, although corpses are also buried in other places, the undead do not appear so frequently.
Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case.
The next moment, they heard a faint rustling noise coming from the direction of the cemetery, as well as the smell of digging dirt.
If it were on earth, everyone's first reaction would definitely be tomb robbers.
But in this fantasy world where undead creatures frequently appear, and in urban public cemeteries where the undead frequently appear, most of the local militiamen understand what this means.
There may be undead spirits emerging from the cemetery tonight.
They exchanged glances with each other and were about to pick up their weapons when someone suddenly exclaimed: "Hey, look over there."
A guard pointed toward the cemetery.
Everyone turned to look and saw two patrols running towards the gate under the illumination of the magic lights.
Both of them were panting, their sweaty hair stuck to their foreheads, and their wide-open eyes were bloodshot.
The sight in front of them made the guards guarding the cemetery gate feel bad.
The militiamen patrolling the cemetery were at least operating in groups of ten.
Why are there only two people appearing now?
And looking at them throwing away their weapons and running with all their strength, they are definitely running away.
"Hurry, open the door quickly, open the door quickly" Seeing the two men shouting desperately in front of the door, the guards hurried down the stairs and opened the door.
Unable to wait for the door to be fully opened, the two patrols crawled in from the cemetery.
Then, before the doorman could ask for details, he gasped and shouted: "Hurry, close the door quickly."
Facing the pale and lost expressions of these two men, all the night watch militiamen were horrified.
They worked together to close the door again and put the bolt on the door.
Then he turned back to them and asked: "What happened?
What happened to others?"
Hearing this question, the patrolman who raised his head showed a horrified expression: "Been eaten by undead creatures."
This answer surprised everyone.
Although they had to fight the undead every few days here, they were no longer the kind of rookie cowards who would pee their pants in fear when they saw a skeleton soldier, but eight people died in one go.
Personally, it still surprised them.
How many monsters have appeared here?
Immediately afterwards, they trembled and heard the sound of thousands of horses galloping, and saw a large putrid ocean composed of undead creatures.
With the help of torches and magic lights, countless swaying undead creatures can be vaguely seen, like dark clouds, carrying a strong rancid smell, constantly approaching the gate from the depths of the cemetery.
There are a staggering number of them, including not only "regular" zombies and skeletons, but also some rare and powerful undead, such as ghouls, corpse monsters, bone worms, etc.
Any one of them can kill a large group of people in an instant And where the light doesn't shine, there are also countless shadows, constantly moving in the darkness.
After seeing the huge number of opponents, all the humans present couldn't help but take a breath of cold air with a rancid smell.
“What’s going on with this quantity?”
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"It seems that there are definitely more than one or two hundred, there should be thousands or even tens of thousands of them."
The pungent putrid smell and blood-curdling roars were carried by the evening wind, making the militiamen feel cold from the soles of their feet to the bottom of their hearts.
Immediately afterwards, hundreds of undead creatures slammed into the walls and gates, causing many people to scream in despair.
It's over, it's all over now To put it bluntly, these people are just ordinary people who have picked up weapons after all.
How can they have the confidence to wipe out so many undead creatures?
In the end, it was their captain who woke up first and started to give orders: "Sing the alarm, you two run to the city gate and ask for help.
The remaining people follow me on the wall, and together we use spears to push these undead back."
Forget, behind the city wall is our family.”
Immediately, amidst the rapid ringing of the bell, the militia captain held a long gun and rushed up to the wall.
He stabbed the zombies and skeletons crowded under the wall with all his strength.
Every shot spattered turbidity.
The stench of blood and corruption.
However, after just a few shots, the brave captain let out a shrill scream and the spear in his hand fell to the ground.
"Wow, help, someone, please help me."
The militiamen who followed the captain up the wall were shocked to see a smooth pink intestine flying out from the body of a zombie under the wall and wrapping around the captain's neck.
Before anyone else could reach out to help, the smelly intestine pulled hard with astonishing force.
The captain, who was still struggling, was pulled off the wall and fell into the undead creatures under the wall.
Next, with a few short screams, the brave captain was eaten alive by the ghouls and devoured everything.
Then, before these frightened militiamen had time to react, with the sound of "swish" wind, pink ribbon-like objects suddenly shot out from the abdomen of the undead creatures under the wall, like the retractable long tongue of a frog.
Generally and accurately, they pounced on the necks and limbs of the militiamen who were not protected by armor.
Those militiamen who were unfortunate enough to be recruited, even if they were not directly "teared off their corpses" and turned into prey, covered their wounds and screamed and fell down.
After a while, many alienated blood vessels full of blood sprang out from their bodies.
It seems that he was infected by some evil toxin.
At this time, another group of militiamen and several adventurers heard the bell and came to the rescue with spears and swords.
When they saw the militiamen guarding the gate wailing and falling to the ground with injuries, they rushed over one after another, thinking that Reach out for help.
Unexpectedly, just as they got close to the injured, the blood vessels on their bodies started to move like small snakes or tentacles, and they instantly entangled the rescuers who came from behind, making them unable to move for a while.
"Oh no, cut them off!"
Seeing such a terrifying scene, an experienced adventurer was suddenly startled and shouted quickly.
However, what answered him was a sinister and deep voice from across the wall: “It’s too late to explode” The next moment, the militiamen who were infected with the evil toxin swelled up instantly, and then exploded with a loud "pop".
In an instant, they turned into strange purple poisonous blood, splattering in the night, and falling on everyone's clothes and armor. , and suddenly it was like being burned by strong acid, and green smoke came out.
And those who were splashed on the exposed skin of their heads, faces, necks and wrists were rolling on the ground in pain.
In the blink of an eye, half of the reinforcements that had gathered from all over after hearing the alarm bells were wiped out, and the remaining people were also trembling with fear.
They all trembled and did not dare to approach the wall anymore, and just walked away aimlessly.
Throwing stones from a distance, or shooting arrows randomly in the direction of the cemetery.
At the same time, the skeletons and zombies crowded under the wall gradually piled up into a "bone ladder" under the trampling of each other.
Several zombies began to stagger on the carrion of their companions and appeared unguarded.
Immediately after the cemetery wall, with a loud "bang", the steel gate of the cemetery was also pushed down by the huge group of corpses.
The mighty wave of undead took the opportunity to pour out in large numbers, showing its ferocious fangs to the living.
At this point, the weak militiamen and adventurers were finally defeated by despair, and turned around and fled, howling like ghosts.
"If you can't stand it anymore, you have to let Orichalcum-level and Mithril-level adventurers come."
"I think even adamantine-level adventurers are useless.
This city is doomed.
Open the city gate outside and escape."
"The outdoors may not be safe at night, so let's go to the inner city first."
"But it's midnight now, can you still get in?
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The city gate should be closed and locked at night."
"Even at night, there are still people going in and out.
I know there is a small door on the west side that is still open."
In the darkness, the fleeing adventurers and defeated soldiers trampled each other, and finally escaped from the cemetery that had turned into an ogre cave.
However, the enemies lurking in the dark obviously did not intend to let these prey escape easily.
With waves of ominous rumblings and violent tremors as if the earth was shaking, large cracks opened on both sides and in the center of the street. , countless pairs of withered black hands with almost only skeletons left slowly stretched out from the cracks, then slapped the ground hard, pulling out the entire body, instantly blocking the way of the escapees.
Next, this long street, crowded with thousands of refugees, quickly turned into a horrific flesh and blood mill.
Skeletons and zombies slowly poured in from all directions, quickly blocking the escape path of the remaining humans.
There was also a ferocious-looking undead monster, jumping back and forth between the house and the wall, constantly shooting out strips of pink intestines from its abdomen, knocking down and killing the dying people one by one.
Puffs of blood mist exploded under the night, accompanied by heart-rending screams, which made people's faces change.
The militiamen and adventurers guarding the city wall were looking down at the killing field at their feet with trepidation, not even daring to take a breath.
On that day, mankind finally recalled the terror brought by the undead and the humiliation of being wantonly slaughtered by aliens.
However, relying on the barrier of two tall city walls, it should be possible to restrict these undead creatures outside the residential area and inside the outer wall.
In such a small area, they cannot harm ordinary civilians in the city.
Some people don't I thought so without any luck.
Then, an even more terrible tragedy happened I saw a small door in the second layer of the city wall.
I don’t know why it suddenly burst and collapsed at this time.
Then, before the defenders had time to react, there was a white bone worm, a giant undead monster also known as a skeleton centipede.
With a pungent rotten smell, it flew in through the open door at an alarming speed, knocked away the adventurers who rushed to the door to fight, and broke into the residential area within the second city wall in one breath.
Following this bone worm was a vast expanse of black undead creatures.
The magnificent fortress city of Elandir has been completely engulfed by the undead craze oshow7: