The Pain spell flew at the justicar, only for him to deflect it with his blessed sword and then cut through a wight in the same swing.
Aleric grew surer than before that trying to attack the justicar head-on was a fool's errand. His Pain spells could go through regular armor, but not through the paladin's defenses.
At this point, he saw the justicar raise his left hand toward Aleric.
He recognized the movement—the templar was about to shoot him with a ray of Light. But the action forced the justicar to let his guard down—just for a moment.
Aleric shot his own Pain spell first!
Abandoning his magic, the justicar deflected this spell, too; then he smashed a glowed fist through the skull of a wight that tried to stab a knife into his armpit.
Justicar Esvan shook the bone dust off his hand and held tighter to his sword, realizing the futility of trying to shoot the necromancer from the distance. With a curse, he sliced through one more wight and kept pushing toward the stairs.
At this moment, Aleric saw a vulnerability in the templars.
They were advancing rapidly toward him by pushing through the wights. Since wights actually knew how to dodge blows, often a wight was not destroyed by a blow, but simply forced to let the templars pass.
But they continued to attack relentlessly, and with each second, more of them were gathering on the templars' heels. Soon, someone was going to be grabbed, slashed, stabbed, and killed!
The justicar, ideally. His death would demolish the battle spirit of the entire army!
Aleric made a step up the staircase. It was the only one he could afford without becoming a target for archers on the other side.
He glanced over the battlefield. The horses! Aleric ordered them to circle the wights as fast as they could and try to intercept the templars. They alone could not be enough, but Aleric had a spell fit for the situation and just enough mana to use it.
"Nouse jallen kulkemaan maklan palle ja…" Aleric chanted rapidly, wishing that the spell was any shorter. This was just the fifth of its length.
Any mistake in the chant, and he would have to start over. And there was barely enough time to read the spell once! This spell was Aleric's best chance.
His heart was catching in his chest at the thought of the price he could pay if he failed.
Below him, the justicar's sword cut through three wights in a single blow. With a victorious cry, he made two more steps toward the stairs.
Aleric clenched the Spine Staff and refused to hesitate.
Hesitation meant death, and Aleric was going to live!
"…tule palvjakseni ikuielisesti. Ole katteni jatke, nielevain tottinen olet…"
The justicar was a step away from the stairs when the first of Aleric's horses finally ran up to him! Its massive body even overwhelmed his already waning aura as the horse tried to kick the justicar with its hooves.
He blocked the horse's kicks with his sword, but it was enough. His aura, having extinguished its magic, gradually went out.
Three more horses were right behind the first. They were much tougher meat shields than deadly, but fragile wight skeletons.
Justicar Esvan realized that, too—and that he was right holding his one-use magic item for a moment like this.
"Hold on, men! We are close!" he shouted, reaching for a small bag on his belt and pulling out a bejeweled silver star. "Light, banish the evil!"
A blast of Light came from the star, burning and destroying nearby undead. The force of it was powerful enough to make even zombie horses fall with burns on their sides and struggle to get up.
However, seven more horses were trotting toward the templars.
"The path is open—but more enemies come. Cover me!" the justicar ordered.
The templars moved their ranks to meet the undead wave coming at them, while Justicar Esvan dashed toward the stairs. But by the time he set foot on them, Aleric finished his spell.
"…Sielusi on minun ottstaeeni ja haluini tulee sinun!"
Justicar Esvan paused as he sensed Aleric's magic flow above and past the justicar—to the wall on top of the gate. He turned to look there, trying to understand what the necromancer was doing.
There, the inanimate zombie archers were lying. Aleric didn't even have to work to raise one—a bit of his Dark magic remained in it despite the Light spell the zombie was hit with.
The undead slave took its bow and stood up. But instead of aiming at the soldiers outside—those who were right now trying to destroy the wights defending the gates—it turned to look inside the courtyard.
Realizing Aleric's ploy, Justicar Esvan relaxed. These archers couldn't harm him before, and they couldn't harm him now.
He turned toward Aleric; a second later, an enchanted arrow bounced off his helmet, only an inch away from his eye.
"This isn't even a lucky shot—because I'm still alive. You are pathetic, necromancer!" Esvan spat out, rushing up the stairs.
The battle around, filled with clangs of metal and howls of battle-hungry wights, was so loud that Aleric didn't hear these words at all.
Above on the wall, the zombie archer made another shot; it landed nowhere near the justicar. Aleric braced for an attack.
A moment later, a Light-imbued blade swung toward him like holy judgment, so fast Aleric couldn't track it with his eyes.
Aleric barely blocked the blow with the Spine Staff—more thanks to luck than skill—but its force still almost blew him off his feet.
Justicar Esvan pushed forward harder, trying to cut through Aleric's weapon. His eyes widened in shock when he realized that the grotesque staff wasn't breaking even under his blessed blade. It had to be a very powerful artifact.
But Aleric himself wasn't even nearly as strong! His hands shook from the effort of holding against the justicar's strength.
'I have to hold on. I must hold on. Just… another second! Another shot! Then… I will survive!'
Because, despite what the justicar thought... He was never the zombie archer's target at all!