The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 494: Ormsed Sect

Dominic took a knee and carefully aimed at one of the stronger mages fighting a Duskblade Sect Elder, then fired. The mana bullet shattered barriers and punched a large hole in the middle of his chest, but the mage didn’t immediately drop.

That wasn’t right.

But it made perfect sense once he remembered that the King of Shersdonia was a Necromancer Lord.

The next round got an [Arcane Blast] added to it, with Dominic desperately hoping that it would be effective, instead of simply damaging the body, but leaving the mage in the fight.

The Duskblade Sect was having good luck defeating them with spells, so there had to be something that worked, other than holy magic.

If he were one of the Royal Paladins, a bunch of undead mages wouldn’t be much of a threat. Every skill that they specialized in was anathema to the undead.

This one didn’t have a barrier up when the bullet hit, and the [Arcane Blast] seemed to sap the energy from his body, as vitality flowed into Dominic. As the mage’s power faded, his body turned to dust, leaving no doubt that the technique was effective.

The number of mages in the Ormsted Sect was low, and against the Duskblade Sect, who specialized in assassinations and bodyguard missions, they were hopelessly outmatched.

Which left the question of why?

Why had they come on the attack today?

Then Dominic saw the truth. In the back of the battle, atop a hill where the next wave of reinforcements were coming through a portal, he caught a glimpse of the Commanders.

Nobles from Dagos as expected, but looking gaunt and half starved.

They were not attacking out of some grand plan, but out of desperation. The war had depleted the food supplies, the sieges of their cities had been just as effective as the monster sieges they had initiated in Dagos and Skiple.

And now, they were hoping for a single major victory.

Or perhaps they were simply hoping to raid the area for supplies and bring them back home?

They had to be basically out of money by now. Feeding armies was expensive, many magical rituals required expensive materials, and all trade had been cut off with their home cities.

Even with the support of Shersdonia, they would still be struggling to keep up the battle.

Not that the lands of the Necromancer King were in particularly bad shape, but they were not wealthy enough to support the large cities of northern Dagos for any considerable amount of time.

One of the Dagos Nobles dropped, hit by a bullet from the Regiment’s sharpshooters, and the others ducked behind cover as the soldiers were sent through the portal.

Given enough bodies, they could surely take out fifty Mountain Trolls, even if Dominic had given them shields and full armour.

But those bodies were struggling to make it to the front lines now, and the men of the Regiment had a system to keep up the assault. They had made more mortar creation magitech orbs while they were away, and they were working in groups of five, with four shooting and one creating munitions for the reload.

Then, when he got mana depleted, they would switch.

Backed up by riflemen, that gave them a steady stream of artillery to shell the Dagos position, and soon they would have the invaders pushed right back through the portals they had come from.

Dominic continued to fire up into the mages, smoothly eliminating them with spell enhanced rifle rounds.

But the ease was disconcerting.

Why had they sent all these mages, knowing that there was a powerful Sect here to counter them, and that there were thousands of troops in the city?

Even if they didn’t know that the Natural Sons had returned, there were the forces which had been sent to guard the Royals and Emissaries from Axbridge and Mitfield.

They wouldn’t stand by as the area was invaded, and the presence of the Ormsted Sect was nearly definitive proof that Shersdonia was involved in the Dagos rebellion.

It would be a huge political issue for them if the news spread, and no King would cause himself problems with such an ill-conceived plan.

Plus, there was no upside for him. Wavemates did not border Shersdonia, it didn’t have natural resources that Shersdonia did not, and it didn’t have a large population if the Necromancer King was looking to form an undead army.

If that was the goal, then sending his mages to one of the major sieges would have been a far superior plan.

They could have stocked up with monsters and dead soldiers to form a massive army of undead.

But they hadn’t.

Dominic’s mind wandered as he picked targets. He was missing something about this situation that was guaranteed to be critical information, but he simply couldn’t fathom what it could be.

Perhaps it was in the history books within the Manor?

They had survived the battle, and there might be some knowledge of the Necromancer King in there. It had only been a decade, and he was an older man already. If he had extended his life with dark magic, there should be quite a bit of history between him and the Dragon King recorded.

Then, the airships arrived, raining explosive cannonballs on the battlefield, and the Dagos Army completely broke.

Those who could surrender threw down their weapons, while many of the others tried to run back through the portals, only to have them shut in their faces, leaving them stranded and at the mercy of Wistover’s forces.

With what they had been told about the region, and what they had seen here today in battle, that did not give them any confidence that they would be granted mercy.

Dave had done his job very well.

"Gentlemen, gather the prisoners. I believe that we have a trial coming, and it wouldn’t do to have all of the guest of honour dead before we begin." Dominic instructed.

Behind him, Alexis laughed.

He really was too good at poorly phrasing things in a way that would reinforce his reputation for brutality.

However, that was not her major concern.

After the battle, Dominic was radiating power, thanks to all the vitality that he had absorbed from the soldiers and mages he had dropped with Arcane Blast.

That much was normal for him, but today the power was off. Something about the undead mages was different, and the power in his body was much higher than normal. Almost as if a bit of the undead was clinging to him, or trying to corrupt his power before it was integrated.

She needed to get Commander Wilkes or a Priest over here to Cleanse him.