Warhammer Fanfic: Starting with a Core Cabin

Under the holographic projection, a blue planet appeared before everyone's eyes. To them, this scene was so fantastical, it was almost unimaginable.

"Ah..."

Alisa's mother covered her mouth with both hands, staring wide-eyed at the planet in front of her in astonishment. Cardo and the elf scout were equally stunned. Surprisingly, Alisa appeared relatively calm—after all, she already knew Duanmu Huai had abilities similar to those of a mage, so being able to pull off something like this wasn't that surprising. Instead, she curiously leaned in, studying the holographic projection in front of Duanmu Huai.

"Sir Knight, what is this?"

"This is a map of the world."

"Eh? We live on a ball? Then where exactly do we live??"

Hearing Alisa's question, Duanmu Huai quickly reached out and tapped on the projection. The image zoomed in swiftly, revealing Silver City and its surrounding region.

"Wahh, this is Silver City? So this is what it looks like?!"

At this moment, the others also crowded around, their eyes filled with curiosity as they stared at the holographic projection. The sight was simply too surreal—they had never seen anything like it before.

"Ah, there's our castle! And the guards patrolling on the walls! You can see everything so clearly, even though it's night…"

Alisa looked like she had just gotten a brand-new toy, eagerly leaning in and looking around. Then she pointed with curiosity at the edge of the map.

"Eh? What are those dense black shadows over there?"

"Hm? Let me take a look..."

At her question, Duanmu Huai finally noticed that in the lower-left corner of the map outside Silver City, there was a mass of moving shadows. He reached out and tapped that area. The image zoomed in again—and immediately, everyone saw a large swarm of Skaven and corrupted cultists hastening toward Silver City…

"Enemy attack!"

Almost at the same moment, the alarm bell outside began to ring, signaling danger.

After everything that had happened in recent days, there weren't many people left in Silver City. Aside from the old veterans still following Captain Cardo, the rest of the residents had already fled to seek refuge elsewhere. The castle's servants had also been dismissed.

Right now, the entire Silver City had fewer than a hundred people left, while the Skaven army on the other side numbered at least several hundred, if not thousands. There was simply no way they could hold them off.

Fortunately, everyone had already planned to flee. At this moment, they quickly gathered their belongings and boarded the carriages in a flurry.

"Sir Knight, what about you?"

Alisa looked at Duanmu Huai and asked nervously. It wasn't surprising that she was worried—after all, Duanmu Huai's armor alone probably weighed dozens of tons. Riding a horse would crush it under him, and getting into a carriage? That was even more unthinkable—the moment he got on, the carriage would collapse.

"I'll stay behind to cover the retreat, and make sure those bastards don't follow you or cause trouble."

Duanmu Huai gave his answer without hesitation, then turned to look at Olgis.

"Olgis, you go with them. Make sure to protect them well."

"...…"

Hearing Duanmu Huai's command, Olgis didn't respond—she only gave a small nod.

"I'll take the madam and the young miss to the banks of the Kuroki River. I have a hidden base there that shouldn't be discovered."

The elven scout was already seated in the carriage by now, and she spoke to Duanmu Huai from within.

"I've marked the location for you on the map. With that strange thing of yours, it should be easy to find."

"Got it. You go on ahead—same for Knight Cardo."

"Alright. You be careful too."

After exchanging a few brief words, the elf scout let out a sharp cry, and the carriage sped off under the escort of Knight Cardo and his soldiers. Duanmu Huai gave the departing group one last glance before withdrawing his gaze and returning to the castle.

By now, it was late at night.

The once bright moonlight was now hidden behind clouds that had appeared who knows when, plunging the entire city into darkness. Standing on the castle balcony, aside from the flickering torches mounted along the walls, nothing else could be seen. Duanmu Huai stood there silently, staring at the land below, equally shrouded in pitch black—until one by one, bright red life signs appeared in his field of vision.

They had finally arrived.

Gazing at the Skaven and corrupted cultists slowly advancing toward Silver City, Duanmu Huai's eyes turned icy cold. He stood up and extended his hand. A card appeared between his fingers—then vanished without a trace.

A moment later, an eerie Western-style mansion, glowing with a faint bluish light, began to appear behind Duanmu Huai like an illusion, wavering between presence and absence. Then, with a flick of his right hand, he gently pressed downward.

In an instant, nearly a hundred puppets silently emerged, lining up like soldiers. Then, they raised their weapons and charged toward the enemy like panthers in the night.

At that very moment, the army of Skaven and Corrupted Cultists had also broken through the city gates and re-entered the city.

The dead silence of the city clearly threw these filthy creatures—who never bathed—off guard. They had come yearning for another glorious ritual to spread the "love" of the God of Filth to the masses. But the city before them, which resembled more a graveyard than a battlefield, was clearly not the lively festival scene they were expecting. Just as the invaders looked at each other in confusion, unsure what to do next, countless puppet soldiers fell upon them from the sky, crashing into the ranks of the Corrupted Cultists and Skaven.

The sudden appearance of the puppet army startled the enemy, but at the same time, it gave them a clear target. The blades wielded by the puppets were deadly, but just as previously mentioned, physical attacks posed little threat to the Corrupted Cultists, whose bloated bodies were filled with viruses and rotting flesh. With only 1 point of defense, the puppets were no match for the Skaven and the cultists. Almost as soon as they charged in, they were smashed to pieces. Aside from causing a slight ripple in the enemy ranks, their actions seemed to have no real effect.

However, this was only the beginning.

As the puppets were being shattered into fragments, the eerie Western-style mansion behind Duanmu Huai, glowing with spirit fire, began to stir. Suddenly, its doors and windows flung open as if haunted! An invisible chill burst forth, sweeping through Duanmu Huai's body and rushing forward like a storm.

At that moment, the Skaven and the Corrupted Cultists noticed that something had changed.

While they were busy smashing the mysterious puppets, ghostly figures in white robes began to emerge—undead wraiths radiating an aura of deathly cold. They opened their mouths and let out a chilling wail of death that made every living creature tremble. Then, like starving wolves, the wraiths pounced on the army of filth.

This was the power of the card [Haunted Manor] that Duanmu Huai had obtained from the soul fragments!

[Haunted Manor (Bronze)][Cost: 1][Effect: Whenever one of your followers (excluding Wraiths) is destroyed, summon a Wraith onto the battlefield.]

From above, the erupting wraith army resembled a spiraling, blooming white lotus—beautiful yet deadly. But to the Skaven and the Corrupted Cultists, these manifestations of pure death were their worst nightmare. They began to scatter in panic, for the diseases and toxins they carried were meaningless to the wraiths. Worse, they couldn't even touch the wraiths' incorporeal forms. Every strike from the wraiths dimmed their soul-fire a little more.

Though the wraiths weren't particularly powerful in terms of raw damage, their strength lay in being spirits—immune to physical attacks. Only elemental or magical damage could hurt them. Unfortunately, the followers of the God of Filth had no such capabilities. One by one, the cultists and Skaven fell to the touch of the undead. Their bodies turned cold and stiff, their hearts stopped beating, and even the viruses within them withered and vanished under the breath of death.

This was exactly why Duanmu Huai chose the undead deck: no life could withstand death. Not even viruses, parasites, or bacteria were exceptions. All life's flames would be extinguished in the wailing of the wraiths.

The only pity was that, as proven by the painful experiences of countless players, this strategy only worked up to mid-level demons. Greater demons and the Chaos Evil Gods themselves were completely immune to undead magic and effects. Many high-resistance species were also unaffected. Against those, the only option was brute force—and even then, killing them was nearly impossible.

Of course, if there really existed a divine artifact capable of killing everything, it might work… but unfortunately, no such card or item existed in the game.

Still, for Duanmu Huai, this was enough.

Watching the enemy fall into chaos amid the wraiths, Duanmu Huai nodded in satisfaction, then turned and walked away—after all, there was no point in staying here any longer.

No one's going to comment on this…?

(End of Chapter)