War of the Races Ch. 22

Chapter 32- Army of the Dead

"Are you done fighting me," I growled down at Orsa.

She nodded adamantly yes.

"Good!" I continued as I pushed myself up and then offered a hand to help her stand as well.

As soon as she was on her feet her legs wobbled and she reached down and pressed both hands into her lower belly, or maybe, it could have been lower. She moaned as if in the throes of mating, and I cast a wary glare at her as I asked, "Are you going to be alright?"

"My... my body," She gasped lustily, "I feel so... sensitive... I can't... concentrate!"

"Then you had better stay here," I said just as Huxian yelled, "Virdy!"

Leaving Orsa where she stood I ran for the cave entrance. As soon as I topped the rise I saw what Huxian was frightened by. Surrounding us, all through the village, all the way to the walls, like a mass of black ants that cover the land beyond to the south and north was an army of blackened and diseased Orcs. Wolves. Bears. Rabbits. Wolverines. Beavers. Bees. Ants. Beetles. Moths. Butterflies. Harpies. Avian. el'dwea. el'dwea juk. el'dwea yulkon. Animals upon animals. Most of them were humanoid with flesh in various stages of decomposition. The el'dwea and the Insects were the only ones that were half-humanoid and half-animal.

The last I saw of an el'dwea was a small herd in Sequoia's grove beneath her tree. A male with his mates and their fawns. He stood at little over six feet tall with an alfari's upper torso. He had red hair matching the fur of his lower half. He had long alfari ears that drooped over his shoulders, and antlers that grew from his temples in a magnificent rack. The lower half of his body was that of a cervidae, or a deer. He had worn a heavy belt made from natural fibers made from tree bark and leaves, and he had brandished a long spear. A weapon capable of attack at some distance, and defending his entire body.

His mates, five females, one with golden, another with red, another with green, another with brown, and the last having white hair. They had all been smaller than the male, standing from five and half to six feet tall. They had been a pretty herd, and their children were happy and healthy.

It was so far removed from what I saw now. These el'dwea looked sallow, their eyes sunken into their heads, their bodies desiccated showing ribs and muscles appearing thin and sinewy. Mouths were peeled back in rictus snarls showing broken teeth that looked like they had been chewing on rocks. Behind the el'dwea, I saw their larger cousins. The males sported massive racks of antlers while the females stood only a few feet shorter with no racks save the shrunken, sagging sort of a different kind. All of them brandishing halberds, spears, or bows ready to do murder.

"El'dwea juk and el'dwea yulkon," Coella grimaced, "They are hard to kill!"

I watched them and I finally realized what animals they resembled. It was the antlers that gave them away. The el'dwea juk were half-humanoid and half-elk, and the el'dea yulkon were half-humanoid and half-moose. The males of both were massive. The el'dwea juk stood some seven to eight feet tall while the el'dwea yulkon stood ten to twelve feet tall.

The ants, beetles, moths, butterflies, and other insect species varied greatly from genus to genus. Most looked like Shahad, with a humanoid body with an insect abdomen that bobbed behind their buttocks, or what could be called such, like an overly swollen tail. None of them walked on feet or had hands, but rather, all of them had some form of hybridization with humanoid upper arms and legs with insect lower arms, legs, hands, and feet.

One and all, no matter if Animal or Insect, they all looked diseased, dying, or as if they should be dead.

"A vast host," Orsa gasped as she stumbled up still with her hands near her crotch.

"Are they really an army of the dead?" I asked.

"Some of them, yes," Orsa answered with a nod, "Something compels their bodies to move even after suffering wounds that should have killed them long ago. But, most of these in front of us are not dead yet. I called them such because once afflicted with whatever plagues them, they are as good as dead."

"So not actually dead... yet," I confirmed.

"Technically," Orsa answered.

"Good, then they can be killed," I growled, "Stay back. Don't let them touch you. Huxian, my love, Foxfire ball the shit out of them!"

"I have things I can do too!" Orsa moaned as if she were on the verge of an orgasm, "If I could only concentrate!"

"Shahad, Coella, protect Huxian and Orsa," I commanded.

"Yes my king," Shahad answered in a mental tone that I associated with determination.

Coella simply nodded.

Stepping forward I reached into myself. Falling into the void of my meditation I approached the dais that held a lectern holding the book I wanted. Flipping through the pages I found what I was looking for and held the contents of the page in my mind.

"I can feel... power... surging... inside me!" Orsa howled as her eyes started glowing bright yellow. Staggering up beside Huxian, with one hand still holding her crotch and her thighs clamped shut like she was trying not to urinate, she held her free hand out palm up like she was grabbing something. Growling, she lifted her hand like she was lifting a great weight. As she did, five large boulders lifted out of the ground.

With hand above head she closed it into a fist, and the five stones split into four. Each stone was the size of a man's head. She opened her hand again, her fingers and thumb splayed out like she was holding a bowl in her fingertips, and gave her hand a turn. With the turn of her hand twenty head sized stones started spinning, and as they spun chips of rock broke away as they spun faster and faster and shaped and sharpened to points. As each piece of stone broke away from the larger stones they too began spinning and sharpening.

The fur of my lion form receded as my body shrunk down to my normal alfari-form. Then I started changing again. My long golden hair grew thick and pointed like porcupine quills while my chestnut colored skin hardened into a chitin exoskeleton armor. My emerald green eyes sharpened as the scene before me split into a million tiny little hexagonal frames of the same scene, and then coalesced into one image a million times sharper as everything seemed to slow down until the nightmare horde I front of us seemed to shamble forewarn so slowly it seemed they were in molasses.

My ears changed into long antennae that bent back and then forward. I grew a spiky fur across my shoulders, and my torso elongated and thinned out until it seemed almost unnatural as a second thinner set of arms sprouted and grew from just below my primary arms to end in long scythe-like blades. A burning in my back preceded bee's wings growing from just below my shoulder blades. The hip flares of my pelvis jutted out severely, and my legs grew abnormally long as the lower halves changed into something akin to a bee's hind legs. Lastly a burning pain like a hot knife had been jammed up my rectum enveloped my ass before my tailbone wiggled free and elongated. Within seconds it stood out behind me like a short overly swollen tail with glowing golden stripes.

Throwing my arms and shoulders back I screeched a pheromone laden psionic roar that shook the ground and blasted the front line of the dead into ash.

"My King!" Shahad gasped in awe as she staggered backwards as her wings missed more than a few beats.

Wings flapping in a semi-transparent blur I charged at the army before me. Each of my fingers was a sharp talon, and in a blur flew like the wind, sliding and ripping my enemies apart.

Drawing deeper on my life-force, my hands, up my arms to my shoulders, and my second set of scythe bladed arms were enveloped in roiling Moonfire flame. Through the hordes in front of me and down the village streets, I flew as fast as I could and everywhere I went death, carnage, and white flame followed.

"By the Goddess's blessing," Coella gasped.

Huxian gaped but then closed her mouth and began throwing Foxfire balls into the front lines marching towards her. Orsa moaned loudly as an overwhelming scent of honey filled her senses and her thighs wobbled. She nearly lost all her concentration, but at the last second opened her raised hand, turned her palm down towards her enemies, and waved her hand towards them, sending nearly a hundred large and small rock missiles hurtling into the flanking line of mindlessly plagued beasts.

Coella's spear hummed as she spun it through the air and any creature that made it past Huxian's Foxfire or Orsa's Earthen Missiles were quickly cut to pieces. Shahad was a blur flying from side to side zipping about in seemingly random patterns. It almost looked like a dance, and wherever she went bodies felt to the ground dead.

There was a sudden roar from further inside the cave behind them, and then great bear men came storming out. They were armed and armored, from leather jerkins to full platemail, and every one had halberds, spears, great-axes, or swords. With reinforcements Huxian, Orsa, Coella, and Shahad moved down the hill into the village.

Huxian and Orsa set every carcass on fire that wasn't already enveloped in white flame. They fought all the way to the walls, and as I zipped back and forth throwing back the mighty horde, forty bear men managed to close the gates and bar them.

Bear men and women that were shaman. Worshippers of Gaia and listeners of the elemental forces. Gathered shields of spinning earth and stone and they hurled their power at the forces below the southern wall. The healers gathered spinning halos of water and moved through the village healing everyone who took hurts that weren't infected by the plague. Those that looked diseased, they gathered together and posted a guard around.

Huxian, Orsa, Shahad, and Coella went to the north wall. Coella's spear had long since been broken from wear and damage, and now she held a short recurve bow and loosed arrows, one after another into the force below the wall. Shahad hovered beside Huxian, and she watched her king. Huxian was tired, and could no longer stand but she gathered one flaming Foxfire ball after another and cast them as hard as she could into the black mass before her. Orsa wasn't in any better shape. She stood, but just barely. She had managed to pull her hand away from her crotch, and now gathered spheres of energy between her hands before releasing them to hurtle blinding bolts of lightning. The white hot electricity would strike and then it would leap, from one half dead Animal or Insect to another, fanning out in long chains that burned whatever it hit to cinders in an instant.

The fighting seemed to go on for hours. Huxian threw her last Foxfire ball and she collapsed. Orsa continued a little longer and then she too fell back, breathing hard, and unable to move a single muscle. Coella ran out of arrows as the nearly dead started tossing the bodies of the dead at the walls and started climbing up. Shahad screamed in frustration and called out to her King!

Fury burned in my chest, and I was lost in the heat of battle. I flew as fast as I could. I killed and I slaughtered. I optimized my attacks using the fewest movements possible. Charge. Attack. Parry. Charge. Decapitate. Over and over again, but no matter how hard I fought, no matter how many I killed, there was always more.

A scream from the north wall caught my attention. It was Shahad.

"My love! My King! We are being overrun!"

The sending was frantic. Rearing back I screamed. I roared. I howled my anger and contempt at the army of the dead around me!

Turning my head, I saw. Masses of dark or blackened bodies scrambling up in slow motion over a growing mountain of the dead. Dead by blue flames. Dead by massive holes punched through by rock missiles. Dead searing electricity that burned up or blew apart. Dead by spear, bow, and sword. Dead by tearing chiton claws or sharp chitin blade arms. And still, the diseased and rotting shambled on, climbing over up the mountain of their dead until they at last reached the top of the walls. With a thunderous scream I charged back to my women!

Huxian screamed as a large male bear climbed up and stood on the wall in front of her. She backed away, one arm and hand clutching her pregnant belly protectively as she held out the other and tried to summon a ball of Foxfire. Blue flames sparked feebly but refused to ignite. The bear swung his thick black arms down.

Coella jumped in front of Huxian and caught the bear's swipe with two long knives that cut deeply into the it's flesh but didn't seem to faze the Animal in the least. Black eyes glared at her as a black mouth roared in her face. With all her strength she pushed against that one arm.

"Run," Coella screamed.

It took only seconds, her parry, her resistance. Huxian scrambled backwards, but there was nowhere to go. She didn't have the stamina to run. She didn't have the life-force to shapeshift. In horror she watched the bear swipe his free hand under Coella's arms. Four massive claws ripped through her belly like paper. Coella gasped. Her belly bulged, and then her intestines fell out and hit the ground with a sickly splat. Coella's mouth worked silently, and then she crumpled.

On the other side of the wall Orsa gathered earth and rock around her body like a suit of armor and fought hand to hand. Throwing her assailants back.

Shahad was a dancing whirlwind of claws and blades. She no longer flew. She was dancing on her feet cutting to pieces three for everyone Orsa threw back.

A blur of white fire streaked through the gnashing mass of black leaving in its wake... death. The velocity of the blur was such that the living saw nothing; there were simply the flames that trailed behind. As for the diseased, they were simply dying as they raged across the land marching to orders they couldn't comprehend, and then there was nothing as bodies fell into halves. Heads rolled from shoulders. Movement stopped. The voice that commanded movement, demanded death and destruction was simply gone...

Huxian screamed in terror! She screamed as her belly seized and tightened down in premature labor! She raised her hands to ward off the blows that were surely coming. A loud buzzing "vroom" swooped in and suddenly tender hands were sliding under her knees and behind her back and she was being lifted off the ground.

Opening her eyes she cried out in relief at seeing Veridian's beautiful face. Even hardened and insect-like as it was. He reminded her of a much lighter chestnut colored version of Shahad.

Looking over his shoulder she watched as the bear fell to pieces. Head, arms, and legs from the body.

One second she was on the wall the next she was on the ground by the cave in the makeshift hospital.

I stood up to leave, but Huxian caught my arm and cried, "Coella! Coella is dying! Please save her!"

Leaving her there on a blanket I raced back to the wall for Coella.

As the dead fought at the wall to destroy every living thing, Huxian's belly tightened, and she screamed as new life was pushed out of her body to replace the dead. An old elder shaman came out of the cave just then and she saw Huxian's distress. Shuffling over she placed her hands on the sandy foxes fur and helped her settle down and give birth.

Reaching the wall I saw Coella laying on the ground motionless. She might still be alive, but if so, her breathing was shallow and most likely she was unconscious. Looking over at Shahad and Orsa it was easy to see that they would be overrun soon.

A beetle reared up in front of me and I cut it to pieces in seconds before kicking it's body down the mountain of carcasses.

I didn't know what to do. There were so many. Everyone... everything was going to die!

Looking up at the moon, and then down at the earth, I prayed, "Seline goddess of the moon! Gaia goddess of the earth! Help me defeat this enemy!"

Suddenly, I was reverting to my alfari-form. I hadn't done it of my own will, and I was at a loss. Then Quebracho was humming in my ear as a shadow of her in my mind licked my earlobe as she whispered, "Seline and Gaia have heard you. I'm sorry my dream lover, but I can't clothe you yet... you'll have to prance around naked for this... Mm... I sure love you bottom!"

Scrambling mentally, I reached inward for the void and found the lecterns holding books. In a frantic hurry I flipped through the pages of each book, searching for what was different. It was on my second search that I saw it!

Gathering life-force my eyes began to glow a verdant green as power caught up my long golden hair like wind whipping it above my head. Chestnut skin turned moonlight white. Golden hair darkened to midnight and stars and galaxies waxed-and-waned within. Verdant green eyes turn into black orbs filled with the white specks of distant stars.

Stretching out my arms white magic coiled around thumbs and fingers before stretching out and gathering in the palm of my hands. Large white balls of power spun and roiled just at the tips of my fingers, and then, bars of white light shot out burning and cutting through everything. Everything that was touched didn't simply burn. It wasn't simply cut through to fall in pieces to the ground. Every Animal or Insect that was diseased and dying hit by the bars of pure Moonfire popped leaving nothing but black ashy residue to fall to the ground.

Within seconds, nothing remained of the army of the dead at the north wall.

Orsa and Shahad collapsed with exhaustion.

Looking down at Coella, I hissed at the sight of her intestines on the ground in front of her. Shapeshifting into my arboreal form, I knelt down and felt for a pulse. It was weak, and growing weaker. Quickly I laid her on her back. Gathering her intestines, I pushed them back inside her torn body.

Her one good pink eye fluttered open. She looked up at me, but it also seemed like she looked through me. Death was quickly taking the light out of them. Weakly she whispered, "I'm... I'm sorry..."

Pollen fell all around us. Green grass and new vegetation quickly grew. Coella's wounds were slowly healing, but the damage was too severe. Too traumatic.

"No Coella! I am sorry! I will not let you go! I will not let you die," I hissed as tears fell from my eyes onto her breasts, "Quebracho! Please, grow something around us so that we have some privacy!"

"Of course," She whispered, her tone somber.

Vines quickly grew from the bracer on my left arm. It circled around us, and in seconds a hollow tree bark wall grew upward that obscured us from sight. Gently, I twitched Coella's loincloth aside and looked at her smooth pink sex. I wasn't really in the mood for this. I didn't want to make Coella mine like this. I had other daydream ideas of how it might happen. This wasn't one of them.

"I'm sorry," I whispered as I pushed my organ inside her and began thrusting as gently as I could.

I kissed her, letting my saliva dribble into her mouth hoping to heal her, or at least keep her alive long enough to seed her. The magic in my core prowled back and forth. It seemed different since some part of it had jumped into Orsa and not returned yet. My Magic felt weaker but not much so, as if what had jumped to Orsa was excess, or not yet mine. I had just received power and ability from Gaia, and something so transformative usually required days for my magic to digest and incorporate. What prowled writhing me now was mine, all mine, but also agitated. I tried to sooth it, but as my climax peaked it roared in defiance and leaped into Coella's belly!

I gasped in fear, but the magic didn't assault Coella's already weak and dying body. Instead, her intestines moved and righted themselves as the four massive lacerations stitched themselves back together without leaving a scar. Her heart started beating rapidly, and in a sudden gasp Coella woke up.