Chapter 31

Signs of thirty one

Luuk watched as the massive earth creature smashed his army. It was not bad enough that the reavers were tearing his army to shreds every time he turned around now this thing shows up. It tore through his creatures as if they were not there. HE was not sure what killed it but it fell and was no more. It had destroyed nearly three hundred of his undead before it was finished though.

Luuk hoped that there wasn't any more of those things around. It had not only destroyed nearly a third of his remaining forces it had decimated the special unit that Adams had formed. The massive earth creature had completely destroyed half of that unit before they had retreated.

It had been almost a week since he had been ordered to immediately turn his forces to the north. The silent urge to make the change was so strong and so sudden Luuk had started issuing verbal orders before he calmed himself and got the legions moving north.

Almost immediately after that he started getting reports that the reavers were attacking the smaller forces that were moving in the area. The reavers would find smaller groups of undead and attack them. They used the cunning tactics that Luuk remembered reavers using on him. Luuk was not sure if there was one group of reavers or several. He started to gather in all the undead. He had nearly all the undead in one massive force when the reavers finally attacked.

They fled to the south form the massive force. Luuk snet a force of three hundred to deal with the reavers. He wanted to send more but even that number resulted in painful pangs from his master, displeased that three hundred undead were not heading north.

When the entire force was destroyed Luuk knew he had to fight the reavers or they would harry him all the way north. The reavers continued to attack his force. They destroyed his rear guard and then were seen far to the north of the main group.

Luuk slowed the legions and sent out several scout groups. It took him several hours but he found them. The scout groups were dispatched by the reavers but Luuk did not care he would soon bring the full force of his legions down on them.

When the reavers appeared ahead of them apparently ready for a final fight then this earth creature smashes into his force. Luuk was furious. He had eight hundred undead left and was determined to leave here with as many as he could. More importantly though, Luuk wanted those reavers dead. Even if it meant he walked north from this battle alone.

He knew that the reavers had started to use his own forces as deadly missiles. He had turned that back on the reavers to some success. The front lines were in complete disarray from the earthen creatures attack so Luuk sent out commands to repair the formations. Before that could be done the reavers were on the front line. The picked up the undead and flung them about. They used undead as clubs as well. The amount of damage they did was impressive.

The undead were being flung from side to side like leaves in the wind. The undead started to close in around the reavers, when the undead got close to the reavers, the reavers would retreat quickly and regroup. The undead had managed to drag down a couple of the reavers but the damage they were doing to the undead was tremendous. Luuk commanded the undead to retreat. The reavers continued to strike out at the fleeing undead, throwing the bodies of undead into the ranks. The reavers picked up bodies from the ground and fled to the north.

Luuk reformed the legions and got them moving after the reavers. The reavers lost only three but had destroyed another two hundred of the undead. Luuk wanted to make sure they crushed the reavers before they made another attack.

The reavers were not moving that fast so they would be able to overtake them fairly quickly. Luuk was thinking that the reavers were baiting him but he had to make sure to crush them while he had the chance. The reavers were strong but they were flesh and blood. They needed to eat, they needed to rest. They felt pain, they slowed down when they were wounded. If he pressed them they would tire, they would make a mistake and then he would have them.

Luuk got the undead marching north as fast as they could. As soon as the undead were within range the reavers turned and hurled the bodies they had been carrying. Again the impact of the hurled bodies case damage to the undead. Luuk grimaced as he mentally totaled all the damage.

The sounds of the conflict surprised Luuk. The undead were always silent. Other that the sound of the masses of undead moving over the land there was not a lot of sound. The reavers made plenty of sound they roared when they attacked. They made great huffing bellows as they launched the undead bodies high into the air. The smashing of the undead bodies into the earth made a distinctive noise that Luuk had heard just about enough.

Luuk watched as the reavers bunched into four tight groups. He knew what was coming but he also knew that there was not a lot he could do to prevent it. The reavers rushed forward towards the undead. When they got close to the front lines they launched four of their own into the undead ranks. They had done this during the last battle. The remaining reavers fled to the north abandoning their four comrades to a suicide mission.

The reavers crashed into the undead. Many of the undead were destroyed as the massive bodies slammed into them. The reavers that had been thrown scambled to their feet and started to carve into the undead formations. Luuk was furious the undead were falling to these monsters at a ridiculous rate. The reavers were doing massive damage but were slowly being dragged down. The final thrown reaver was dragged to the ground and killed.

Luuk knew the other reavers would be a thousand paces away by now. Luuk got the undead regrouped and moved off to the north at a slower pace. He understood that it would anger his master, but he was down to under seven hundred men. He wanted to go slow and ensure he had a force to lead to the north.

He sent out mental commands to any other undead force in the area. There was no response. They had already gathered all the undead that were available. Luuk had lost over half his troops in under two days. He could not remember the last time he had lost so many men in such a short time. He was hampered by what he could do as he had to keep his men moving towards the north.

Luuk was going to make this the last confrontation with the reavers. He got the undead into formation and marched them off to catch the reavers. The undead did not move as fast as the reavers did but they move constantly, relentlessly. They would catch the reavers and he would finish them. He had allowed the reavers to inflict serious damage to army. He would find them and destroy them.

The legion marched north and Luuk watched for signs of his enemy. His master called for more speed but Luuk resisted he wanted to make sure that when he reached the north his force would be intact.

They made good speed but they made sure that the reavers could not skirt by them and attack form the rear. The scouting groups were out to find the reavers. Luuk pushed his forces to find the enemy. Luuk wanted to see these monsters dead.