Tales of the Trio: Unbroken

Chapter Twenty One

     Due to the undead's attack, the orcs forced them to spend the next few days focusing on setting up a more solid defense. They were being brought spare metal to forge onto the walls and such for more durability, though it's still unclear where the majority of the metals go, word has it that it gets handed out to the more stabilized prisoner sections for proper smelting and then moved up to the front of the cave for probably weapons and armor, who knows what else. The trio have been getting lots of beatings too mainly from Maximus standing up for prisoners he had grown to like who are getting beat on just for the orcs entertainment and the other two standing with Maximus, or from Lela's mouth and then the other two trying to stand up for her, usually the orcs would kill slaves for that but for reasons unknown to the trio the orcs never attempt to kill them just beat them, perhaps it's because they can keep taking the beatings rather than break like most prisoners. Other than all that's bad happening, things have been going rather well, it could always be worse. Their prisoner buddies are mostly just captured citizens from raided towns and seems to be that way for the entirety of all the prisoners. Wesley and Marek were moved elsewhere, since they are just prisoners they weren't given a reason to why they were moved and just had to accept it. Occasionally undead would be seen outside the perimeter but then would leave, it kept everyone more on edge than usual.

     The trio are currently hard at work applying metal to the walls, Maximus was saying "If we apply you to the walls instead, they won't come anywhere near it." Dominic shot an angry glance at Maximus "Maybe I should melt you into the metal, perhaps they won't be able to break through since it'll have that thick head of yours." Maximus laughed and said "your head would be better for that job." Dominic shook his head "Then your ugly face would be better off keeping the undead away." Lela chimed in saying "Aw you're both such a cute couple." The nearby prisoners laughed with her as Dominic and Maximus once again had a argument about never ever being with the other one and Lela viewed the rest as "blah blah blah" but still humorous for her, after a little while of their argument she cut them off saying "Perhaps we should invite the undead over and listen to you two love birds argue and they'll sit here listening for so long they'll either forget they're here to kill us or they'll decompose into dust." Dominic more bothered by the thought of being with Maximus of all people looked at her and showed her a spark of fire in the center of his eyes, in return she just smiled sweetly and innocently at him yet Dominic knew she was daring him to try something so she could have fun. If they weren't currently prisoners and in a cave he probably would've accepted. Behind them came two shouting prisoners sprinting towards them, it looks like they'll finally get to have some fun even if it's against rotten smelling undead.

     The orcs had lined up on the wall with crossbows while the prisoners had to stand outside the wall to meet the attackers. If things went south the plan was to fall back inside the wall and barricade the door shut before to many died or got injured, shooting undead as they try to break through, once they did they had to kill them as they funneled in. Down the pathway deeper into the cave a group of undead came running out of the darkness followed by a bigger group of slow moving undead. By the time the group dispatched the group of runners the slow group was closing in so they approached the undead and began fighting them rather than wait and defend with less ground to lose. They were easily killing the undead just as they had done before especially since they were working together and communicating with each other, however they were still slowly losing ground due to the numbers of the undead, as they were nearing the wall being forced into a tighter group, Dominic let out a laugh and said "Maximus you smell worse than them." Maximus who was fighting a rather aggressive undead replied with "Screw you, I'm like a fluffy animal." Then continued to focus on the fighting and working with those around him. They were forced back inside the walls and barricaded the door as planned, the orcs were thinning down the undead as they mindlessly pounded on the walls. The prisoners rushed back out once it was clear to engage the rest of the undead outside. Just in time to see two groups of armored undead marching towards them, Dominic used his magic to push one of the groups of undead a few feet back so they didn't have to fight so many undead all at once even if it was for just a few seconds. They fought hard, the undead still being easy to fight just their armor made it a bit slower to bring them down which wouldn't be an issue if the undead didn't have so many of them to flank. They got pushed back to the inside of the wall again, re barricading the door. The group of prisoners only having some minor injuries just as planned though a few were injured pretty bad. While they were waiting for the orcs to either thin the numbers again or the undead to break through they heard what sounded like flapping wings? They backed up and Dominic swore to himself with a few other prisoners. They saw a whole group of bats flying towards them, if that's what they are, they look like bats but were big enough to carry a hand sized rock in each claw. They flew overhead, dropping the rocks on the heads of the orcs on the wall, either injuring, knocking out, killing or simply sending the orcs into a rage, which it was easy to notice that the raging orcs were horrible shots. The door started to break open so one of the prisoners quickly unlocked it so the undead could come through without breaking the door down that way when they repress the undead they can close and barricade the door again rather than it being broke and leaving them exposed. The undead swarmed inside but were met with swords, but they kept pushing without a care, using the armored slain undead as shields to push their way in or simply trampling over the corpses. There was just so many of them, prisoners were starting to die left and right, the orcs have already been killed since they were unable to retreat. The prisoners continued falling back through their camp as the undead kept coming. They had a moment to sigh with relief when more orcs and more prisoners from the next camp arrived to help. Despite the help they were still heavily outnumbered but eventually they finished off the undead with a rather large number of casualties. They went back to the wall to make sure it was safe but when they reached the gates and looked beyond the front door at what they saw approaching...

     They saw a row of undead larger than ogres made from the bones and flesh of many different humanoids, on top of that they could see between the small gaps that more undead followed behind them. All the prisoners besides the trio were panicking, some of them began to run but the orcs shot a few with their crossbows, then one said "You fight or die like them." Lela muttered "You'll die next." One of the orcs snarled at her but she ignored him and walked outside towards the oncoming undead followed by Maximus and Dominic, Lela said without looking at Dominic "Can you put holes in the ground? Turn it to mush? So they can be slowed? To give us a better chance" Dominic thought to himself before answering "I can try making it mush but definitely holes." He began to make the holes but once he started a row of undead armed with crossbows stepped ahead of the big undead and began to fire at the trio, Maximus moved ahead of them to cover with his shield as they slowly backed inside the walls closing the door and barricading it again with what they had left, Dominic moved a few big rocks behind the door to help further reinforce it. They moved on top of the walls to watch the undead, they could see the big undead were stepping over the holes, they also saw undead with large shields placing them down over the holes so they could just walk over them, Dominic started shooting fireballs at the large undead but he stopped when he saw them explode mid air causing a ripple of purple  from the slow moving barrier ahead of the undead, both him and Maximus swore to themselves. Lela asked "Any idea how to quickly kill these guys?" Maximus laughed and said "They're already dead, that's why they are called undead." Lela thought about hitting him or pushing him off the wall but changed her mind and instead walked down to the orcs, Maximus and Dominic close behind confused on what's going on in her head. Lela just straight up killed the orcs closest to her without giving any indication, before the orcs could turn to react Maximus and Dominic killed them. Dominic shook his head "What exactly did that solve?" Lela smiled "I was upset now I'm happy and ready to fight undead." The other prisoners who stayed only because the orcs would kill them had now ran off. One of the prisoners said "Great now we have less help, but I don't mean to alarm anyone else but our death is here." He pointed back to the wall and the large undead were starting to pound on the walls. Maximus asked "How long do you think we have?" Lela smirked and said "Long enough to turn you into an undead." Maximus replied sarcastically "ha ha ha very funny. Alright everyone let's group together and kill them like before." A prisoner said "What's keeping us from abandoning this post and being ready at the next checkpoint?" Lela was about to answer but Maximus cut her off and said "We need to take down as many as we can. That'll mean less to deal with later." That same prisoner who clearly didn't seem pleased with the answer was about to say more but at that moment the walls came crashing down and the undead came flooding in.