Wayne's two main forces, Galthran and Isra, continued their clearing spree. As long as there was a living soul or an unclaimed creature dwelling on the map, it was destined to fall under their butcher's knives and join Wayne's army as the undead.
For players of the original Heroes of Might and Magic III who enjoyed playing the Necropolis faction, there was a certain level of pain involved: to constantly convert the undead, they had to fight every battle to the bitter end. Unlike players of other factions who might let weak neutral stacks flee to save time, a Necropolis player hunted down every last one.
Meanwhile, through tavern recruitment and prison rescues, Wayne had filled his roster with a maximum of eight heroes. Most of the others weren't Necropolis heroes but utility specialists—like Fare from Inferno with Logistics, or Corbac from Fortress with Pathfinding.
Logistics increased the number of movement points a hero had per turn, while Pathfinding was slightly less effective but reduced the movement penalties of different terrains. Together, they allowed for the maximum possible distance covered in a single turn.
Wayne had three goals for doing this. First, to expand his vision as much as possible. In Heroes III, there was only a "shroud of darkness" (unexplored areas) rather than a "fog of war" (re-shrouding explored areas). Once a map was explored, vision was permanent. These eyes across the map served as an early warning system against any incoming attackers.
Second, he was searching for vital mines, structures, and ownerless neutral towns to bolster his economy, which remained the core of his strategy.
Finally, he was looking for artifacts or the Black Market where they were sold.
Now that the Amulet of the Undertaker and the Vampire's Cowl were already equipped on Galthran, Wayne was convinced that the boots capable of completely changing the tide of war—the Dead Man's Boots—would soon be his.
Another week passed. With the "help" of 4,000 gold per day from Verdan's two towns (which only lacked the Cloud Temple for Archangels), Wayne cleared out every unit from his two Necropolis cities. He then used his Logistics logistics transport chain to ferry them to the front lines for his main force.
However, there was both good news and bad news.
The good news was that Wayne had spotted a Dragon Utopia. This structure was arguably the most significant neutral building in Heroes III. Mottled with shades of red and orange, conquering it would yield massive amounts of gold and artifacts guarded by dragons.
The bad news was that the Dragon Utopia was guarded by Green Dragons, Red Dragons, and their upgraded versions, Gold Dragons and Black Dragons. Aside from the fixed number of 8 Green Dragons, the numbers of the other three types increased based on the quality of the loot, categorized into four tiers.
The lowest tier featured only 1 Black Dragon and 2 Gold Dragons, while the highest tier boasted 5 Black Dragons and 6 Gold Dragons.
This alone wasn't the bad news. The real bad news was that Hudson's main force had appeared within his vision, and they were less than three days' travel from Wayne's capital city.
Wayne considered his options for a moment and decided to let Galthran proceed with the attack on the Dragon Utopia.
A thunderous dragon roar erupted from the building, so loud that Dughan and Verdan, standing nearby, could hear it even through the headphones.
Dughan: "What's going on? Where did that roar come from?"
Verdan: "That sound is so familiar..." He thought for a second and immediately tapped Wayne. "Miller, isn't that a dragon roar? What are you doing now? How could you possibly have a dragon?"
Since Wayne had turned off his monitor, they couldn't see his perspective.
Wayne gave them a brief explanation of what the Dragon Utopia did, but the two weren't satisfied with a few words. They strongly demanded that Wayne turn his screen back on so they could witness it, swearing they wouldn't tell a soul.
Wayne had no choice. He reminded himself that his primary role was still a net cafe owner; increasing customer interest and retention was the priority. So, he turned the monitor back on.
Verdan almost coughed up blood again. Galthran's Skeleton stack had reached 627 units!
Part of this came from Necromancy conversions, while the rest came from Wayne taking neutral monsters who were willing to join and running them through the Skeleton Transformer in his city, resurrecting them 1-for-1 as Skeletons.
As for Galthran's four primary stats, his Attack had reached 15, Knowledge was 12, and Spell Power was 9. Only his Defense was a bit low at 5.
Then the scene shifted—the guardian dragons of the Dragon Utopia swarmed out!
The sheer momentum drew the attention of not just Dughan and Verdan, but also the other players, who took off their goggles to watch.
8 Green Dragons, 6 Red Dragons, 3 Gold Dragons, and 2 Black Dragons. These dragons circled in the air before landing at the four corners of the battlefield, surrounding Wayne's Skeletons and Dread Knights.
The onlookers were stunned, especially the Westbrook Garrison quartet.
Dragons! Why dragons again? The Black Dragon from Monster Hunter had only recently vanished from their sight, and now, fire-breathing Black Dragons were descending from the sky again. And they looked... so similar, almost identical!
In the eyes of Jyssetta and the others who hadn't seen Wayne play Monster Hunter, it was equally shocking.
Azeroth had legends of the five ancient Dragonflights: the Red Dragons who guarded life, the Bronze Dragons who guarded time, the Green Dragons who guarded the Emerald Dream, the Blue Dragons who guarded magic, and the Black Dragons who guarded the earth. Here, all of them except for the Blue Dragons had appeared at once!
Jyssetta hadn't seen such a ridiculous and exaggerated scene even in the magical tomes of the Wizard's Sanctuary.
Since the Burning Legion and the Undead Scourge invaded this world, the Alliance nations—even once joining forces with the Horde at Mount Hyjal to stop Archimonde from corrupting the World Tree—had tried to drive the undead back to Northrend. But while they fought, those who had read the ancient texts couldn't help but wonder if the ancient protectors of the world would one day join the battle. Perhaps with their power, the world could be restored to peace sooner.
In their understanding, perhaps powerful demons could rival dragons, but the Undead Scourge shouldn't be able to pose any threat to these powerful beings that had guarded the world for over ten thousand years.
But in the next second, reality dealt them a heavy blow.
The Gold Dragons, the fastest and resembling Bronze Dragons, moved first, flying straight toward Wayne's Skeletons.
Three massive Gold Dragons, whose wings seemed capable of blowing Skeletons apart just by flapping, breathed out intense flames. Yet, they only killed 22 Skeletons. Wayne's total count dropped to 605—a result far below what many had expected.
Immediately after, the Skeletons counterattacked. These seemingly frail undead raised their rusted white swords and delivered a single slash to the Gold Dragons' heads.
With a cry of agony... all three giant dragons collapsed to the ground dead.
Verdan: "My god! That strong?!"
Hicks: "Why can Miller's Tier 1 units be this powerful?!"
Verdan: "Upgraded Tier 7 units are actually this fragile in front of non-upgraded Tier 1 units?!"
Tess: "The Boss is so mean. He only taught me a tiny bit... he's hiding so many secret techniques..."
Wayne saw them watching and thought since they were already looking, he might as well add a bit more deterrence:
"The numbers aren't quite there yet, but this is the legendary—Wind-Cutting Slash!"