“..Great War Chief Gunda Guza!”

Great War Chief Gunda Guza.

He was an Orc mage, the right-hand-man and second-in-command to the Orc General Baraben, who was deployed to protect the then Orc controlled Siwanasi Forest.

And he was a man that had lost his life on this very soil, during the final siege of Siwanasi.

“Huh.. well, looks like he’s the only Lich around. We just need to beat him and the whole thing will be over, right? No problem, just leave it to me!”

Liches were undead that had a natural talent in all death related magics.

And Gunda Guza, in his life, was one of the most magically talented Orcs.

Calendula and Thunder Sonia, who had fought him directly once upon a time, knew that he had more than enough qualifications to be a fearsome opponent, even in undeath.

He was strong enough to be a General.

Incidentally, no one outside of the Orcs knew that the reason behind the disrespect Orc Mages were subject to was due to their 30-year long stint of virginity.

Sure, this was balanced out by the fact that they had sacrificed their precious, virile youth for the benefit of their country, but even that didn’t erase the stain of virginity.

“..”

As Thunder Sonia was about to charge towards Gunda Guza, the latter stopped casting his curses, and turned towards her.

His blood red eyes lit up as he muttered her name.

“Elven Archmage Thunder Sonia..heh..”

“Hmm?”

He smiled.

And it wasn’t just him.

All the surrounding Orcish undead, zombies and skeletons alike, began to smile as they unnaturally turned their rotten faces towards her.

“Gehehe, hurhgehe, hUrhewhehehehEeeeE!!.. Well, well, well, looks like..you’ve seen.. through my decoys..”

His voice bubbled like a clogged drain; his throat still stuffed with moist dirt.

As if a thousand souls tried to escape a bottomless swamp.

“Hmph, as if anybody would fall for your schemes!”

Thunder Sonia looked back towards her compatriots.

Aconite and Calendula nodded at her, telling her to keep going.

The truth was that they didn’t see through much at all. It was a coin flip that ended up being successful through sheer luck.

Not that they would tell anybody, of course. Trap or no trap, if the commander-in-chief gave out his orders, everyone should follow.

A demoralized army was its own worst enemy, after all.

Of course, were they not in battle, that would be another story.

“Time to pay your dues, Gunda Guza. This time, I’ll send you to the literal underworld!”

“GehehwaRgh, huhe, hyehihihi, stupid, StUuUPID, STUUUUPID THUNDER SONIA!!”

“Huh? Who’s the stupid one here? Do you even have a brain left after being maggot feed for so long?”

Her words were brash and arrogant, but she remained on guard, reminding herself that there might still be other cards the Lich could play.

Turning around, she asked the pair behind her, “Hey, do you guys see anything weird?”. Unfortunately, they both seemed to be busy fending off their own share of undead, and didn’t hear her.

She turned back towards the Lich.

“GeheHwahehe, you thought you could win if you saw though my little bait, didn’t you?”

“I could win even if I did fall for your dumb plan! Who do you think I am?! I am Thunder Sonia, Archmage and Hero of the Elves!”

“FoOooOol!”

Gunda Guza stabbed the earth with the bottom of his staff.

“What are you..”

Sonia wondered if he had begun some strange eldritch ritual, but she didn’t sense anything being cast.

However, her skin suddenly started to tingle.

An oppressive aura permeated the air, and it was getting stronger and stronger.

Something large and incredibly powerful was coming.

She began to shiver as she tightened her grip on her staff.

“OH, HO, HO, HO, HOOOOO!”

A booming, baritone voice rang through the zombie infested forest.

The only sound among an the now eerily quiet undead horde.

Trees fell as the voice’s owner slowly approached Thunder Sonia.

“THUNDERRRR SOOONIIAAAAA!!!”

His grimy voice bellowed out from his rotten vocal cords.

As a couple of trees fell, a humongous Orc Zombie made its appearance.

Its body was too big, even considering Orcish standards.

It stood at nearly three meters tall.

The zombie’s corpse was rotten behind recognition, but it still moved with a vigor that made it hard to believe it had ever died.

It wore a sturdy steel plate armor, adorned with forged metal spikes.

In its right hand, it held a gigantic steel war hammer, more suited for to the much larger Ogres than Orcs.

All of these characteristics were familiar to the Elf Hero.

“..Clan Chief, General Baraben..!”

It was the reanimated corpse of the great General that had, once upon a time, united all the Orc clans of Siwanasi Forest.

He was in charge of the last Orc stronghold’s final line of defense and had fallen three years ago at the hand of the Elves.

Known for his courage and determination, he was a warrior among warriors who was admired by all Orcs, no matter their clan affiliation.

Some even considered him the second most accomplished Orc ever, losing only to the King himself.

“ORAAAAAHHHH! I will finally kill you and avenge my defeat!”

The giant howled.

Its voice reverberated through the forest, shaking the earth and rustling the trees.

The undead reacted to this, their movements getting quicker, and the glow in their eyes shining brighter.

“Goo, geee, hakaragheeeeEeEE! This is the end, Thunder Sonia!”

“Huh? You think having a single zombie that’s a little bigger than the rest is going to change things? How stupid are you?!”

Sonia shouted as the waved her staff.

“Thunder Strike!!”

.

This was the Archmage’s specialty – chantless, near instantaneous lightning magic that was just as powerful if not more than a regularly cast spell.

Twelve electric spears materialized out of thin air and darted straight at General Baraben at tremendous speeds.

A loud bang echoed as they landed, the explosion dying the surroundings a in pure white.

Seconds later, the aftershocks swept through the air, the shockwaves blowing through the area.

Static filled the atmosphere as Sonia’s hair gently floated.

“How’s that, huh?”

Zombies were mainly vulnerable to fire.

But that didn’t mean that they were particularly strong against lightning.

With magic as strong as Sonia’s, even zombie dragons that stood over 20 meters tall could be reduced to charcoal in mere seconds.

Her lightning spells were the strongest on the continent.

“ORAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

“Wha..?!”

The Elf Hero deftly evaded the hammer that struck at her from behind the dust.

It struck nothing but air, wedging itself in the ground where she once stood and creating a small crater in the dirt.

“How..?”

Questioned Sonia as she looked at the spot where she shot her lightning.

The zombified Baraben slowly made his way out of the smoke, with nary a scratch on him.

Naturally, Gunda Guza was also unharmed.

“Gehe, hehe, hyARrHAHEHEhehe.. you won’t be able to even bruise this Lich body with your weak magic.”

Liches had high magic resistance.

Not only that, but Gunda Guza, a veteran mage himself, had mastered countless high level magic defense spells that specialized in blocking Elven magic.

It was no wonder that Sonia’s Thunder Strike would not finish him in a single blow.

Of course, General Baraben would also have the same wards cast on him.

In addition to that, there was his armor – it was adorned with red and yellow patterns, meticulously painted on.

“Tch, magic resistant paint?”

“Guhuhuhuhu, gyehehARgHehehe!”

Gunda Guza laughed.

That armor had been decorated with the magic resistant paint that had originally been developed by the Dwarves.

The paint’s color corresponded with the element it defended against.

Red for fire, yellow for lightning, blue for cold and green for earth.

The manufacturing methods were kept highly secret and was only known to the Dwarves themselves.

The finished product, however, was openly distributed to their allies.

When they first introduced the paint, the Alliance quickly gained the upper hand during the war.

It became so prominent in fact, that Nazar, the Human Prince, was famed for his blue-red-yellow tricolor armor with which he sent many a Daemonic Knights to their deaths.historical

It remained however, that paint was just that – paint.

Once it was produced, anybody could use it.

Somewhere along the line, the paint was stolen by the Federation and used by Orcs and Daemons alike.

From that point on, this magic resistant paint became standard issue for both sides of the conflict.

“Hrrgh..”

Thunder Sonia groaned.

Zombies already had strong resistances towards cold and earth attributes in the first place.

Combined with the fire and lightning resistances of the armor..

“Okay.. this might be tougher than expected..”

Cold sweat began to drip down the Elf Hero’s forehead.