Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 203: A Sudden Change In Plans

In the morning, Zane dispatched his scouts to look for traces of the Tier I Horde King where Maya had pointed in the direction of Fernley, Nevada. Fernley was a small town of roughly 25,000 people, or it had been prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse.

By now it, like most habited regions, had succumb to the plague of death, and was now inhabited by a horde of undead monsters. It did not take long for the scouts to report back to Zane, and when they did; it was indeed confirmed that there were traces of a Horde King in the area.

Because of this, Zane spent several hours discussing the attack plan with the girls. Since depositing his best troops into Gravestone's "Garrison" Feature. Zane had spent his free time going out and leveling up his new Horde.

After much effort, and significant gains in terms of resources. His Horde of 1,000 Undead was now more powerful than it had been in the past. Currently, his small army of 1,000 Undead consisted of an Entire Cohort of Skeletal Hoplites. Each of which was equipped with Level 10, uncommon quality gear, and was within the level range of 5-10.

In addition to these Skeletal Hoplites, there were also about 220 Tier III Undead Swordsmen, who were known as Ghoulish Ashigaru. Their appearance was exactly what they sounded like. Unlike the Tier I Undead, who Zane had long since evolved beyond the need for. These creatures did not appear like your run-of-the-mill zombies.

Nor did they appear like your average skeletons, which was common among the Tier II troops that Zane had access to. Instead, they appeared far more human, albeit monstrously so. However, unlike a ghoul you might encounter in a common role playing game, these Ghouls were dressed in the armor of the fabled foot soldiers from feudal japan.

More specifically, they wielded Katanas much in the same way Elena did and were a far more elite tier of infantry than the Skeletal Hoplites which Madison commanded. Because of this, in field battles, they were used to flanking and encircle the enemy.

But there were other ways they could effectively be used as well. For example, the Katana was just the secondary weapon which the Ghoulish Ashigaru used. They also had a sinister matchlock as its primary weapon. Making them very useful as skirmishing troops.

The plan was simple, it was basically the same as the previous one. Form ranks at the edge of town, and taunt the local undead into rushing in head on. After all, Zane was quite certain that the tactics which he had used to defeat the Previous Horde King were not transmitted to the others.

Of the Three Hundred remaining troops that were not accounted for among the Skeletal Hoplites, and the Ghoulish Ashigaru, there were 250 Skeletal Archers, and 50 Ghoulish Acolytes which were a type of spell caster that supported Olivia behind the front lines.

The initial plan was to do exactly what they had done the last time when the party engaged the Horde King, whose domain was the former town of Fallon. But after outlining this previously successful strategy, there was some disagreement with it.

In theory, it was a flawless plan, but few strategies that were planned in advance truly withstood the excitement of battle. And there were, of course, some major concerns about the front line breaking under the pressure of such an overwhelming amount of undead, even if they were merely Walkers.

In fact, it was Lily who first spoke of these flaws. Although she seemed a bit nervous to point them out, almost as if the idea of offending Zane was some form of taboo. Even still, she mustered her courage and spoke of her reservations regarding the tactics and strategies that Zane had so proudly boasted as infallible just moments before.

"I don't mean to sound like a downer, but are we sure we can use the same tactics as last time? Sure, they worked well against the previous horde, but the numbers of our enemies this time around will be nearly twice as large as those which we faced in Fallon, won't they?"

There was no denying this. The difference between 1,000 undead and 25,000 undead was simply too great. Even if the 25,000 enemies were unorganized and madly rushing at Zane's army. The fact of the matter was that they could simply overwhelm and encircle Zane's front lines by sheer volume of numbers.

Sure, the 1,000 troops in Zane's army were significantly more powerful than the Tier I Walkers they would mostly be fighting against. But there was a certain strength in numbers. If there had not been so, then how could the Undead so quickly take over the world, even if the majority of their ranks were these measly Walkers that Zane now felt he was entirely above?

But Zane was not an egomaniac. In fact, he was quite the pragmatist. And Lily had brought up a great point. In previous battles, they had not fought so many enemies at once. And there was still the horde king they had to be wary of.

Because of this, he was not wholly confident that the girls could hold the line with his army. Thus he agreed with Lily and immediately began devising a new strategy to win this battle with.

"You know something Lily, you might have a point…."

Though Lily had made a valid point, nobody would no better than Elena and Madison of whether or not it was true. And upon realizing this, Zane shifted his focus to the two women in question, where he was quick to ask them for their opinions on the matter.

"Hey Elena, Maddie, what do you think? Can you two hold the line? Or will you have a problem doing so?"

Madison might be an airhead by nature, but with the improvement in her stats, her intelligence had increased, or at the very least, her deductive reasoning had. And because of this, she was able to look at Elena and silently come to an agreement with the woman. One which Elena gave voice to on her behalf.

"Even with the support of the Skeletal Archers and the Ghoulish Acolytes, it would be difficult to do so. We would need to eliminate at least half of the enemy before they reached our front line if we wanted to completely encircle them like last time. To put it simply, with just the six of us, and your horde, it would be a difficult task...

And that is assuming the enemy Horde King doesn't get involved."

Zane was not the kind of man to dismiss his companions and their concerns. Since they had stated they were not confident in pulling off the same tactical maneuver this time around, he had no choice but to alter his plans. And if the task was too much for Madison and Elena to handle, then he would need to lessen their burden, and because of this, he was quick to come up with a counterproposal.

"Then I guess we have no choice…. Lily, you and I will lead the Skeletal Skirmishers into luring the undead out of their territory, where we will kill off small groups of a few hundred hostiles at a time. Once we have depleted the numbers of the enemy's horde to a sufficient degree, we will march on the town in full force. Do you think you can do that?"

Lily was astonished that Zane was asking her to go out with him on such a mission. Sure, she had more of a ranger archetype when it came to how she fought. Obviously Favoring the bow, medium armor, and speed rather than brute force. But was she really qualified to follow Zane into performing what was perhaps the most obvious battlefield tactic on the planet?

Then again, judging by the size of the horde they were facing, the only intelligent enemy should be the commander, in other words, the Horde King. Who might have their attention focused elsewhere, especially if Elena and the others showed their presence.

If she did follow Zane's plan of the feigned retreat, then the two of them could reasonably pull thousands of undead to a quick and certain death before the Horde King even realized what was happening to their army. With this in mind, Lily decided to follow Zane into such a brazen gamble.

"I think I can manage… Just promise me you won't leave me behind if things get hairy out there, alright?"

Zane smirked when he heard this, before making the girl a promise that would ultimately make her blush in embarrassment.

"I promise, even if I have to carry you out of the fire myself, that I will do so, or die trying!"

This was not a promise that should be made lightly, especially in a world like the one which they currently lived in. But Zane's word had proven time and again to be quite the valuable commodity, and if he of all people made such a promise, then surely he would fulfill it, right?

Because of this, the young woman, who appeared significantly younger than she actually was, flushed red in embarrassment and averted her gaze, an act that caused all the other women in the car to glare at her.

After all, among their entire party, the only one of them which was not currently romantically involved with Zane in some way was Lily, and the others were not so accepting of the idea of adding a fifth sister to their ranks. At least not for the time being.