Afternoon would inevitably fade into dusk and the dead wolf was still waiting at the border of the woods. No one had gone out during the day because of the wolf attack and no one was willing to leave the compound with the corpse waiting.

  It was twice as large as the other wolves, a prime specimine if it was still alive. Whether it still maintained the abilities of it's living kin was unknown since the threat was powerful enough. There would probably be an attack during the night, or in the morning after everyone was unable to sleep. If they wanted to deal with the wolf there was probably an ambush waiting for them as well.

  "Quite the circumstance." Taramo pondered with Austalir and Ben. "We'll need to spring the trap if we're to have hope of dealing with them."

  "It would be better to set up our own defenses." Austalir suggested, "The wands you made would help entrap them and the most defensible place is inside the cathedral. The entryway could be made into a killing field."

  "But we're not all combatants." Ben added, "We need to make sure that they remain safe. It would be better to face the enemy where the women and children won't be in as much risk. If we"

  "Austalir how quickly can you fly?"

  "Within twenty seconds."

  "Are you able to operate your devices and keep enough reserve mana to get back to the abbey?"

  "I think so. Are we going to be the ones fighting outside?"

  "Not quite. We'll need to get the entrapment wands out and set but We'll be fighting near the abbey. Outside the wall-" Taramo assured Ben, "we will draw them in then retreat to the roof. As long as the once-bandits and almost-mercenaries are able to defend the wall and fall back inside of the abbey we'll stay tantalizing enough to keep most of the aggression."

  Ariwyn was with the wolf outside keeping it in a fugue state. If it was released it would return under the dominator's influence and return to attack. If they tried to remove the needles that carried the domination spell it would almost certainly be the death of the animal and others. They would have to deal with the dominator and then remove the needles if they found a schema. Taramo was certain he could get it done on at most the second try and it would be better to try, if they had to, after dealing with someone going after small settlements. Their defeat, or death, would make it far easier.

  The spell didn't have a 'kill switch' which made sense to Taramo. Deceiving a kill switch was relatively easy and if sufficient effort was put into making the kill switch activator unable to be faked then the odds were that it wouldn't work in the first place.

  It is also an admission of weakness to believe that they could die. Most times it was prideful and in Taramo's case that was true. The odds his golems and other creations survived to today, Ariwyn aside, was highly unlikely. They were dangerously effective and known, though some of them would be smart enough to find another master.

  The others were discussing exact troop positions inside the abbey's courtyard to defend the wall while using a stick and some rocks to draw the design in the earth and 'move the troops'.

  "What do you think, archmage." Ben asked. His design was to have most of the troops clustered on the long wall with one force on the exposed corner. "This will make sure that the troops have the best view and if we put the carts along here-" a line was drawn splitting the courtyard at the cathedral wall "we'll be able to fall back here and use our archers to draw the attention of the attackers."

  "Archers will be of little use," Taramo began, "Though it would be the best use of your resources they would be better on the bell tower to call out positions. Instead on the corners of the courtyard" The little butterfly wisps followed Taramo's silent command and landed on the three corners, "These ones can keep watch here. They are at less risk and they can disorient undead to give the soldiers time to fall back. Hand to hand combat with the undead is best done with magic imbued weapons and we don't have the time to make theirs into it. I will deal with the undead if they get that far but they shouldn't."

  "So we sit back and let you fight?" Ben seemed a bit offended at the implications there.

  "Necromancers tend to overexert their forces when they think that success is close. Fighting non-mages is the best scenario for Necromancers since they will grow their army with the dead. If we start giving up people it will make winning harder. If he's not here in person then it might be safer since your dead won't come back against you, but I don't think that's something any of us want to test."

  "So what's the best use of us?"

  "Immobilizing the dead if you can. They'll probably have the living wolves which should be good for your archers to deal with. Anywhere I'm focusing on will be dealt with easily so they will try to spread my attention to slip enemies through. Keep your eyes open and have some people in the abbey in case anything else gets through. Ariwyn will be with them so she'll be able to warn me if you can't kill it."

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  "You expect them to get into the abbey?"

  "No. But you don't plan for everything to go right."

  ---

  The first attack was made once the sun was a finger from kissing the horizon. Under the watchful eye of Taramo Austalir was able to get all the wands deployed across the field. The dead wolf was attentive to them but took no action needing Taramo's intervention. Since the wands were a known quantity it was probably easier to let them be set and used.

  Taramo started with an approach to the wolf. The flames in its eyes were smoldering and the thing fled when he telegraphed gathering mana for a lance of lightning. Electricity was quite effective against undead made with glyphs since the burning could smudge them and ruin the efficacy. It didn't dive into the earth immediately but was hit with the bolt before disappearing into the ground of the clearing. Mostly unaffected.

  There were other more effective methods of keeping a body working though that relied on making their essence, their soul, be tied to the body. It was also more mana-effective, though unnecessary when they could be fed from a ley line. Either the wolf was made with glyphs designed to absorb electricity or it had been animated through the soul. It showed no signs of having a lightning rod incorporated into the body.

  Taramo pushed on the ground, sending a pulse of mana that returned with the location of six entities that were there. Having the wolf to test on made finding them easier. He walked back to the nearest wand and checked there again, finding that the six followed somewhat though five of them didn't get close to the wand. Expected behavior, the undead weren't ones to improvise.

  All of the wands activated and sent out their tendril. Five of the six fled and the dead wolf was pulled up. It didn't react and even allowed itself to be removed, sliding out of the earth like a greased carrot. It didn't take any actions while outside the earth, as if it were really dead. Then there was a flash of mana from inside the wood and a dozen arrows smacked into the shield that he kept up regularly.

  A dispelling spell followed and ripped through the shield, though the arrows had given up their momentum so they didn't fall. More than wolves.

  Taramo left the wolf tangled in the wand's spell and started walking back towards the abbey. Either the necromancer was here himself or he had allies. Either was a less than optimal situation.

  Fifty skeletons in various forms of decay shambled from the border of the woods, half of them being armed with longbows and the rest holding wooden clubs laced with scrap iron. Their armor, where it existed, was simple and made with bronze, a gold and silver alloy. Iron was more effective for a purely mundane set of armor but copper alloys could be better suited to some enchantment. One alloy of mostly silver was quite effective in destroying the undead, though the armor looked more like something the dead wore before being raised.

  The dangerous ones were the three robed figures in the back. They weren't doing anything at the moment so he could only hope to destroy them with trickery.

  "That's a lot of skeletons." Taramo had gotten close enough to throw himself onto the roof where Austalir was waiting with a pale look on his face. The tentacles with the wands were present and three faced the horde. The last faced further back at the robed ones.

  "It is." The skeletons started marching, carefully circling around the wands that were driven into the ground. Those orders would require something intelligent to be in charge, which meant he'd get an edge if he could quickly change the battlefield. Overcharging the wands should be enough.

  "How much of the abbey could you shield?" Taramo continued after a thought.

  "All of it." Austalir grabbed two wands from a quiver and had them changed out. The blast would only be kinetic so Austalir's work should be enough.

  "You've got the space wrecker and the lightning storm?" Some genuine curiosity on Taramo's part.

  "I don't have the lightning storm. I didn't show you this one. Immobilization. I'll show you when we have time." Austalir had a small grin which meant the show was probably something worth seeing.

  "Don't use them yet. I'll burn a lot of my mana to deal with most of this. If we're in deep trouble this will be a feint. You take over if that happens." Austalir went white at the implication of their enemy using this as a trick.

  "You think so?" Austalir asked as Taramo sent out the thinnest filament to the furthest wand from the approaching enemy. One of the robed ones was keeping to the woods edge. Good to have one survive to interrogate.

  From a distance the spells on the wands were intricate and a bit beautiful. But they were meant to be disposable.

  "I don't plan to lose. Get the shields up." The wand that was tampered with flared to the un-light that was mana and the unraveling spells whipped out, tearing the dirt and bisecting a boulder in the clearing. If it was the only one that had gone off then the opposing army would have been unaffected.

  "There's another reason why people don't like to make spells paired." Taramo idly remarked as all the wands ripped their spells apart. "Being connected makes their problems much larger in scale."

  "But you wouldn't make that kind of mistake."

  "I didn't. The flaws were on purpose."

  The armor of the approaching army was able to absorb some of the wild spells though the enchantments they received were oftentimes more deadly than simply ribboning the skeleton. One instantly heated beyond liquifying temperature and sublimed into a gas.

  "It's a good thing you have the shields." Taramo complimented Austalir, "I couldn't do this so close to us without them.

  "You don't have tools?"

  "I did. They're stolen many thousands of years ago. My one other one was spent killing the priest. I don't trust him to stay dead so it's still in his body."

  "I'll have to get you some more. My workshops have the best tools and materials."

  "That's very generous of you. Thank you." Austalir reddened like a boy offering chocolate to a girl. Or was that one of the mages burning up in a blood red fire?

  "I'll need to get one of the mages." Taramo readied to leap, "We need someone to interrogate. Keep your eyes on the other side too."

  As Taramo flung himself over the ruin of the field he could have sworn he heard someone slap their face.

  He wouldn't say anything about it.