The First Legendary Beast Master

The Orcs were just about to leave when portals began to open in the distance, encircling both them and Karl's group.

Totem after Totem stepped through the portals, then a flood of undead followed them onto the battlefield.

Karl smiled at the Chieftain. "It looks like you get your fight after all."

"The Gods smile upon those who ask politely." The Orc agreed.

Karl had no doubt that the Orcish Chieftain had done exactly that when he got in contact with his deity. It was likely the very first thing that he asked for, followed by a request for information about the Orcs quest.

A Totem Ranked bone dragon stepped onto the grass and roared, shaking the air with its fury.

"Looks like I have my first target. Pick the one that you want, but you should know that the Chaos Badger is definitely going after the Necromancers." Karl informed his eager ally.

"In that case, I will take the Unholy Paladin. He looks like a worthy opponent. Do you have strong enough barriers to protect your ladies? The undead are looking quite intently at them."

Karl nodded. "I have a setup for them. Fight your heart out, my people can hold their own."

As if to prove his point, Tian layered a Totem Ranked earth barrier over everyone, including the Chieftain. It gave Ophelia and Cara the same sort of stone fur that Tian protected himself with, while the others gained a simple metallic sheen of liquid metal barrier.

It mostly made them look wet, but Nachtia looked particularly majestic with metallic black scales.

Karl took two steps away from the group, then activated [Avatar]. The mighty form of a Totem Ranked World Dragon filled the space between his group and the Orcs, and the undead began to charge.

"The Beast Man really lives up to his name. To think that he fights as a dragon. Very impressive." The Chieftain laughed, then charged into the undead to find his target.

Karl left his bodyguards, summoned as Dire Bears to blend in with Ophelia, and flapped his wings to charge the Bone Dragon.

His first blow shattered a portion of the Bone Dragon's skull bone, as [Brutal Pugilist] buffed the damage that Karl did with a [Disintegration] coated claw.

Going after the enemy's weakest resistance was far more cruel of a technique than even the massive amount of bonus damage that the skill did.

The two massive dragons lashed out at each other, and Karl's tail sent dozens of smaller undead flying as he twirled to keep the Bone Dragon from getting at his flank.

The Orcs cheered and laughed as four Totem Ranked battles began at nearly the same time.

Rae, Cara, the Chieftain and Karl had all picked targets, and the other Totems were on their way to try to restrain the rampaging dragon.

Karl got a grip on the Bone Dragon's sternum and twisted, flipping the undead dragon over his body and slamming it into the ground.

The cloud of dust and debris shaded the battlefield, while the shockwave of the Totem Ranked skills threw entire hordes of Zombies off their feet. The creatures weren't intelligent enough to brace themselves against the impact, they just let themselves be toppled, then got up again.

Opal and Tian teamed up to create an army of Dwarven illusions with stone shields and hammers. The illusions couldn't take much damage, but the weapons could. So, they could face off against the undead hordes as a shield wall, and the others could fight over and around them.

The Illusions moved into place to stop the first rush of wights toward the Orcs, then took a knee as the undead collided with them at a run.

The Orcs leapt over the shield wall to tear into the undead horde as it piled up and ground to a halt. Then, the second rank attacked over the illusionary Dwarves, and allowed them to push forward and regain their original position.

That let the first group of Orcs retreat to heal, while another group advanced past the shield wall.

Keeping all these barriers and items intact was the hardest that Tian had ever worked in his short life, but brother Thor was keeping his Eternal Lightning barrier up on most of their team, including the Orcs.

If Thor could do that much as an Overlord, a few dozen physical items shouldn't be impossible for him, Tian decided.

Claws screeched on scale and bone as Karl and the Bone Dragon grappled with each other. Three Totem Ranked undead warriors had come to join the fight, leaving the Lich Lord and the Necromancers on the far side of the battle, far outside Karl's target priority.

They were learning fast, Cara decided as she snuck up on a Necromancer.

But they hadn't noticed when she tore apart the first one, as they couldn't see over the taller forms of their swarm of undead.

They had at least had the decency to keep powerful summoned protectors near themselves, but the badger had a plan for that. All she had to do was sneak up, nullify the barrier, then Void Blast and claw the squishy living caster apart before his friends could react.

Rinse and repeat for the others.

But the Undead knew that she existed, and when she tore the first one apart, she was immediately besieged with Totem Rank unholy attacks that forced her on the defensive.

She couldn't even finish off the Necromancer in one smooth strike, as she planned. She had to dive and weave through the Undead army until she could get a chance to take down his barriers again and leap on him to deal with him using pure physical fury, as all her power output was being used to keep herself alive.

Cara celebrated her victory and retreated when the Necromancer gurgled his last breath.

But the victory was short-lived, as only a second later, a pale shape darted out of the crowd and wrapped around him, then the Necromancer was back on his feet, looking groggy, but alive.

[Consumption] was necromantic magic that transferred life from summoned or controlled Undead back to the Necromancer, an emergency survival spell, and it had triggered when he temporarily died, like a mobile first aid kit.

These Undead really were getting annoying. But maybe Sister Rae was having better luck.