By the time that they had reached the fortieth floor, another few days had passed. They had been in this dungeon for almost a week. However, the bonuses were undeniable, and Jonathan would happily spend another month here if he needed to.

When he stepped out onto a blasted plateau, the site of some ancient battlefield, he did not feel a sense of despair from the desolation around him. Rather, he felt excited at the prospect of gaining future power. All around them, wraiths and skeletons fought, mindlessly copying the movements of their original bodies. The battlefield was dozens of miles wide, and in the very center, there was a pillar of green light that suffused the entire battlefield in its glow.

The undead were secondary to this beam, as it seemed to be what was powering their undying forms. Jonathan and Edgar ascended into the air on pinions of wind, bypassing the monsters below. Although all of them were around level 175, the essence from killing them would hardly be worth it. There would be better rewards in the last ten floors.

As they floated over the battlefield, Jonathan peered towards the pillar of light. Within it, a strange figure stood, skeletally thin, and easily a dozen feet tall. An aura of magical power surrounded it, whispering of the power of undeath. The aura was a sickly black, and every now and again, bolts of power would race out and strike fallen undead, returning them to life. As the two men neared, Jonathan saw an emerald gaze suddenly lock onto them as the monster turned. Both of its eyes were a brilliant shade of green, and a massive crystal hung from its neck, surrounded by a force field.

“Shit,” Edgar cursed, in a manner that was rare for him. “It’s a lich. A Rank 2 undead.”

“What?” Jonathan asked as he studied the monster.

“Sapient undead are ranked in order of power by their race. Liches are still near the bottom, but a cut above the more basic forms. They keep their souls in an artifact called a phylactery, which gives them functional immortality until it is destroyed. They can be killed if their forms are utterly erased from existence, but that is easier said than done.”

“You’re going to have to tell me more about the ranks of undead when we finish up here,” Jonathan replied.

He charged up a Void cannon as they neared, sending it streaking down towards the lich’s necklace. The force field flared, and the attack bounced off. However, the force sent the monster back a step. The pillar of green light dimmed as the monster drew some of the power back into itself. Flames licked across its form, and energy began to condense around its hand.

“I know not who you intruders are, but you will fall all the same,” the monster said, in a strange, breathless voice.

A beam of corrupted energy shot out of its hand, the energy of Death mixed with the omnipresent elemental corruption that filled this dungeon. The energy blast seared past Jonathan’s head, bringing a sense of intense danger with it. This monster clearly focused on spellcasting, using its near invulnerability to shore up its physical body. The monster snapped its fingers, and sudden dull heat assaulted Jonathan’s muscles. They began to burn with pain as a strange force tried to pull them apart.

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Jonathan resisted easily enough, but it was still annoying. It looked like the creature had unavoidable attacks. Upon seeing that its spell had lacked the desired effect, the lich pursed its thin lips, and then sliced its hand down through the air. A wave of Death elemental energy suffused the air in front of it, condensing into a large portal. A skeletal claw reached out of the portal, and an undead drake pushed its way out. It was on the small side, about thirty feet long, but it pulsed with power.

“Rend them limb from limb, Ezykas,” the lich intoned.

The drake tumbled fully out of the portal, and set its glowing eyes upon Jonathan and Edgar. With a howl, it propelled itself into the air, the glow of an impending attack forming around its muzzle. The monster flapped its tattered wings, somehow gaining enough lift to soar up into the air. It reared its head back and then loosed the attack, sending a ball of concentrated Death energy towards Jonathan. He tapped Edgar’s shoulder, and the man let him plummet from the sky, landing on the ground.

Stamina raced to his legs, and he flitted across the field, towards the lich. The dragon whirled around, and chased him down, moving far faster than he had expected. The monster snapped at him with its jaws, and almost hit him. Jonathan knew that the monster was only an extension of its master however, and he ignored it. The lich sneered at him as he approached, and it raised both hands in supplication. A dark lightning bolt streaked down from the heavens, and into the monster’s hands. Rather than burning it, the lightning bolt turned into a crystalline staff that the monster slammed into the ground. Dark power churned around the tip of the staff, and an unearthly wailing noise could be heard coming from it. With a roar, the monster brought the staff down with both hands, and the ground cracked.

A line of darkness raced towards Jonathan, and a pestilent mist rose up from it. Jonathan rolled to the side as the earth split, and he kept running, power surging through his body. With the level of power that this monster was putting off, he would need to go all out. The power of Smite suffused his form, and he put on a turn of speed that shocked the lich. His fist slammed into the monster’s shield, knocking it backwards. He spared a glance behind him, wondering what Edgar was doing. It seemed that in the time that he had chased after the lich, the monster had called down a good portion of the warring undead armies upon Edgar’s head. The man was doing an excellent job at keeping them at bay, and Jonathan felt safe in his assault on the leader.

The lich snarled, and pointed the end of the staff at Jonathan. A bolt of dark lightning shot out of the tip, mirroring the origins of the weapon. Jonathan was too slow to dodge the attack, but he was fast enough to read the motions of the lich. As the bolt came out, he was already rolling. The attack streaked past, impacting the skeletal dragon that was behind him. Rather than hurting the summon however, it instead seemed to empower it, sending veins of power across the drake’s body. The monster roared in triumph, and threw itself towards Jonathan. He was struck between the drake and the lich, with no good options.