Army of the Damned

VOLUME 2 Chapter 5

After some time, Paul and the soldiers had reached deep within the former base of operations for the combined armies of the continent. There was nothing but death, no life, no nothing. If it's not ash, it's skeletons beneath them. Some are still steaming from the missiles they sent down. Curiously, he looks at the river where some Galleons were currently moored to one another and a wooden dock. Hoping to see any signs of life, he walked to it and could awfully feel an eerie silence to it, the missiles didn't hit it and seemed to still be in operational condition, it had Golden lining on its side and a beautiful statue of a woman on its front.

"This is definitely an important ship. Skeletons, I need one squad on me." He quietly puts down his radio and tightly grips his assault rifle.

The mindless soldiers obeyed and the nearest squad to him stopped sweeping and followed the General. They stack up on the wooden bridge that leads to the ship's main deck. With a gesture of his hand, the soldiers one by one with their guns up boarded the ship's deck.

All they could hear was the cracking of the ship's wooden structure and the splash of the river's water as it hit the hull. Not satisfied, he orders the skeletons to thoroughly check the ship. One of the soldiers opens a hatch that leads to the second deck and suddenly gets frozen.

"Skeletons! On me! I'll check the second floor underneath!"

He hangs his assault rifle up, aiming down the sights as he approaches the hatch. He peeks first and sees someone in blueish Knight armor. In the back of his head, he knows they've done enough. Instead of shooting through the wood with his M4A1, he shouts at the passengers.

"WHOEVER IS DOWN THERE, SURRENDER PEACEFULLY. WE MEAN NO HARM."

"OVER OUR DEAD BODY SKELETON! TELL THE DEMON LORDS WE'D RATHER DIE!"

Frustrated, he gestures to the squad leader of the skeletons to throw a flashbang to the second deck. The undead soldier swings his assault rifle to his hip and with two hands, grabs the flashbang on his kevlar vest and quickly throws it into the second floor.

*-BANG!-* The soldiers breach the second floor as fast as they could, the dazed passengers couldn't react as they entered. The Knight who was guarding the hatch simply stumbled down, confused about what was happening. He then looks inside and could see that it's full of wounded Elves and human Knights. As he was walking down, he suddenly felt a great danger behind him. Out of nowhere, Bahamut springs into life and flies out of his pocket and catches a bolt of ice.

"Damn it! I told you not to catch shots for me!" He immediately looks at his back and points his assault rifle as Bahamut shrugs off the ice by shaking its body. "Master, as you said. Just do, think later."

"MAKE WAY RIGHT NOW OR I'LL GUN YOU DOWN! HUG THE WALL!" He never knew he had this much bloodlust, his finger was itching on the trigger to press it and just get it over it. Anger has overtaken his soul and wanted to know who shot his beloved companion.

The large number of people that were blocking the path simply divides, after a second of looking, he notices that there's a lady behind a crate far in the back of the ships second deck. Screaming from the top of his lungs, he orders her.

"LADY! HANDS UP RIGHT NOW!"

"Interesting, a skeleton man that knows how to speak." The lady shows herself in front of the path made by the people.

Caught by her beauty, he shakes himself and calms down, though his adrenaline was still running through his soul and his trigger finger itching, he attempts to deescalate the situation. He lowers his assault rifle, and shows his palm. The woman looks around and notices that the skeleton soldiers still have their guns up, pointing at the wounded Mages and Knights.