Eternal Frost attack avoided the Flesh Golem and other undead, but the spiders were unlikely to be excluded. The ice was spreading threatening to inflict the spiders with Frozen.
“Use your potions, quick!” He followed his own advice and quaffed the chilly liquid in three gulps.
The white frosty mist washed over him,“Alright.” The attack was negated.
To some extent at least, the hall in its entirety was covered in a thin layer of ice. The undead caster glared hate towards him and the spiders, it moved one of its hands urging the Flesh Golem to attack.
“Watch out for other spells.” He warned the spiders.
The Flesh Golem was the first one to reach the spiders, it swung its many arms towards them. Some spiders jumped, others blocked with their shield. The flesh golem radiated a thick dark aura, it was likely Terror. It was a formidable foe, but still, it was outnumbered. He trusted his spiders' ability to deal with it.
The real enemy here was that mysterious undead caster, mysterious because it wasn’t exactly ‘Lich’ but someone higher on the hierarchy.
“Concentrate on the Flesh Golem, don’t let it attack me. I’ll go and keep the ‘Lich?’ busy.”
Yes, they had to take the caster first or else it would just keep raising the undead and withering the spiders’ stamina down.
Speaking of which. “Summon Skeleton, Army.” The undead cast a summoning spell and then another to empower it.
The army part sounded scary, but in the end, only fifty or so icy skeletons manifested out of the shiny circle on the ground. He sprinted forwards towards the not-quite-Lich and its skeletons. He wasn’t running alone, few of the spiders were offering assistance.
He swung the Devouring Spear shattering the skeletal skull into many ice fragments. The spiders weren’t idle, they used their Fiery Axes to make quick work out of skeletons.
[You have defeated Ice Skeleton, Fighting +50exp], yup those were just petty summons.
More skeletons were already being summoned. Was this undead trying to drown him in trash mobs? He won’t allow that. He stored the spear back into his inventory and grabbed for the FlameThrower gun attached to his side.
“Did you forget I have this?” He returned the smirk to the undead caster. “Spew Flame.”
The fire roared burning the skeletons as quickly as they were being summoned. However, for some reason, it failed to melt the ice covering the floor.
“Grgh-rrr.” The ‘Lich?’ growled something inhuman. “Shadow Spear, Multicast, Barrage.”
A magical circle floated right behind its back, purple orbs of light manifested out of thin air. One, two, three and then more. The orbs grew in size and one after the other they spewed Dark infused magical spears. The projectiles flew aiming at him and the spiders.
“Quick, we have to kill it.” He urged the spiders to push forwards.
The barrage of Dark elemental attacks began hitting the spiders. Some of them were powerful enough to shatter their IceWalker Shields and damage the armour. As for him, his plate armour had Spell Deflect, so it helped but only a little. It failed to activate most of the time managing to damage even his Reinforced +3 armour.
Finally, he was close, close enough to use his ranged weapon.
“Eat that!” He pressed the trigger unleashing the spray of hell.
The undead caster turned translucent and the flames just passed through it.
“This is bullshit!” It had similar abilities to the wraiths, so it was possible it had physical resistance too. “Way too OP.”
So they would have to use magic to weaken it first. Well, he was a mage too, but he was a Dark mage so his attacks would be rendered useless. “
“The scrolls!” Yeah, that was the solution, but too bad he wasted most of them to deal with the wraiths. “I curse you Lich!”
The only way to deal with it now was to use enchanted weapons. But judging by what happened with the wraiths, for the ‘Lich?’ one or two hits wouldn’t be enough. This being a Boss monster meant that he would need to land thousands upon thousands of hits before it fell. Luckily he wasn’t here alone… The spiders had finished dealing with the Flesh Golem and were now rushing to his aid.
“Ha-ha-ha.” The undead caster cackled unthreatened. “Greater Mend.”
The chunks and bits of the Flesh Golem pulled together making it whole again. It stood there back in action as if nothing had happened.
If It could do that… he was very lucky he didn’t allow the ‘Lich?’ time to construct more of these improved Flesh Golems. The threatened spiders turned back to deal with the ‘resurrected’ undead.
The spiders attacking the undead caster with him didn’t idle either. They were already swinging their axes at its half-incorporeal form. It didn’t seem to be bothered by it at all. He fired the last of his remaining scrolls at the ‘Lich?’, those too did negligible damage.
Shadow Spears were witling at everyone’s armour, and the Frost Resistance Potion wouldn’t last forever.
“Are we outmatched?” Was running away the only option?
The undead kept cackling as if enjoying their struggles. It had big bony body but even with that, it managed to dodge and float away from most of the axe swings. It danced like that for a few moments, making the spiders, and then it began using its bone sword.
Oh boy! It had almost slashed a spider in half. The offensive power was just too much. Bad turned to worse: the pages in the blackened tome began tuning by themselves. “Grasp Heart.” The undead spoke and one of the spiders collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Yeah, the spiders had only limited resistance to Dark Magic, higher spells of that order passed through their natural defences. Worst of all, another page turned, “Rise Dead!” The ‘Lich?’ bellowed in an unmasked glee. A spider rose from its dead state and turned against its friends.
The ‘Lich?’ was only playing with them the entire time, it was more powerful than it pretended to be, and that mask of deception was finally taken off. The King of Spiders should run, he must flee, but it would mean he would need to sacrifice his spiders here. An extreme act of selfishness.
He hated to see the spider die, he hated to see it rise and fight its comrades – such acts were unforgivable. He couldn’t allow the ‘Lich?’ to get its hands on his precious spiders and their souls. So he did a very stupid thing, he grabbed the Devouring Spear and launched himself towards the undead caster.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The spiders were spurred by the King’s Aura and attacked the ‘Lich?’ with increased ferocity. The undead caster couldn't dodge all of the blows, and there were many from all sides, to achieve that spiders put their life at risk. The axes connected with the incorporeal form disrupting it further and further. The ‘Lich?’, of course, retaliated it swung its bone sword cleaving spiders like ripe wheat and it kept casting Grasp Heart.
The sprinting form of King of Spiders was hit with the atrocious spell, “Urgh!” He felt his heart contract violently.
[Your race: Monster King – negated the effects of Grasp Heart], he was only meters away from the ‘Lich?’.
It might have been his imagination but the undead caster seemed wary of his weapon, all this time it was distancing itself from the King of Spiders. The incorporeal form of the ‘Lich?’ was disrupted by the relentless spiders and it was forced back to its physical state, just in time for the Devouring Spear to pierce its body. The spear tip pierced the mass of skulls and sunk deeply into the blackened flesh.
“Ragh!” the ‘Lich?’ roared in anger.
The spear tip glowed bright red, [Soul Steal] was activated, it was sapping the life force of the ‘Lich?’.
“Mortal!” It cursed and swung its bone sword.
“[Bastion]”, it hit his armour pushing him to the side, but even then he kept the spear in place.
“Ragh!” The ‘Lich?’ roared in surprised displeasure.
“Keep it busy, keep the spear in place.” He didn’t ask, he begged his spiders.
The axes kept swinging and with a spear in its body the ‘Lich?’ couldn’t shift to its incorporeal state. It swung again at the King of Spiders, but [Bastion] saved him. He had only one more use of that, but the ‘Lich?’ didn’t’ know that and instead, it channelled its rage back to the spiders who were binding it in place.
“Keep the spear wedged in!” He repeated.
The spiders helped him to retain a firm grasp on the shaft and prevented the undead caster to pull it out. However, the spiders were dying left and right. More and more of the spiders were turning against their friends.
The Flesh Golem fell for what? – a third or fourth time, but this time the ‘Lich?’ was too busy to mend it back. Spiders rushed to reinforce their comrades, and just in time. With the thinning numbers, he was forced to use the last of [Bastion] to deflect the killing blow.
“Just a bit more…” By this point, he was just encouraging himself.
Most of the spiders were already dead, and soon the undead will outnumber them.
“Die!” The ‘Lich?’ screeched in anger, at least there was no mocking glee in its voice anymore.
Was it finally afraid?
It was unclear if the undead were capable of such emotions, but he, the King of Spiders, he was trembling in his shoes. The victory was uncertain, and death was just around the corner.
A bone sword descended from above him trying to split him in half. He was out of [Bastion] uses, if he didn’t dodge he would die, but if he wanted to dodge he would need to let the spear go. He resigned to his fate.
A spider jumped taking the blow, the bone sword cleaved right through it and even hit his shoulder. Surprisingly the armour held, but his shoulder was in pain, likely shattered.
The ‘Lich’ raised its sword for another swing, a definite and complete killing blow this time, but all of a sudden the bony appendage went limp.
“No!” It shouted collapsing to its skeletal legs.
The Bone Golem's body the ‘Lich?’ soul inhabited began to crumble and turn to ash.
“We… We did it…”
The magic holding the construct in place disappeared. Some bones scattered to the floor, others turned to ash. The dim hateful glow in the dominant skull was no more. The risen undead spiders collapsed to the ground, now finally and truly dead.
[You have defeated Great Bone Golem, Fighting +25000exp]
He crushed the crowned skull behind his boot and spat on the fragments. This was a victory but at what cost… only ten of his spiders remained.
In the pile of bones, there was that bone sword glowing darkly and begging to be picked up. Was this his reward? He deposited it in his inventory.
[Gravelord Sword: Legendary. Killing Blow, Unstoppable Cleave, Death Aura, Terror +5]
And there was another item in the shape of a tattered and blackened leather tome.
[True Dark Tome: Legendary] – it didn’t collaborate on the contents of the tome, but he already had an idea.
This was quite something but even then this seemed hardly worthy of the trouble. And…
“Something doesn’t add up.”
He was sure he was fighting a lich-type being, but the message told him it was just a Bone Golem he defeated. And the spear should have absorbed the soul, or at least attempted to, but there was no such message.
He looked around more carefully, and indeed there was something odd. A shadow was sneaking away through the melting frost, if not for the white frost he would have failed to notice it. The shadow vaguely resembled the dark and tattered cloak the Bone Golem was cloaked in.
“Got you, Lich!” He pointed the spear tip threateningly at the shadow.
“Wait…” It spoke directly to his mind. “I can grant you…”
He didn’t care and just pushed the spear tip to the shadowy ground. The shadow trembled and shrivelled into nothing. Was he tempted to listen to this crafty and devious undead? – Not even for a second, such deals never ended well. And this was revenge for his fallen spider friends.
“You have defeated Gravelord, Fighting +25000exp”
[Congratulations! You have reached Fighting lvl .3]
[Requirements have been met. Hidden perk unlocked.]
[Perk Undying obtained.]
It sounded interesting, but to truly test the ability of the perk he would need to attempt to die. Nah, he won’t be doing that just yet.
And there was another message.
[Soul Steal – completed], [Error], [Soul Well has claimed the soul].
“Yup, the bastard yet still ‘lives’,” Or suffers eternally, hopefully trapped in the well. “Suits it right.”
However, there was another unpleasant message, [Warning: Gravelord Sword disintegrated into Nothing].
Go figure, no Gravelord no Gravelord Sword, the two were likely somehow connected. Oh well, whatever…
He looked at the survivors.
“Let's look for the Soul Well, it should be hidden somewhere.”
But before that, they went all the way out of the catacombs to retrieve the spiders who guarded the entrance. On their way, there was another ice wall. And they found the guards a bit worn out, it seems there was another attack at some point but they did their job and defended the entrance.
The spider guards eyed the rugged friends, yeah, it was hard to break the hard news. Many spiders died.
“We Understand.” One of them chirped.
“Did we win?” Other asked.
“We won.” He said simply but apologetically.
“Then They Died. Doing Their Duty.”
“It’s an. Honor.”
He wasn’t going to argue with them. “Let's go back in the catacombs, there’s more loot to be found.”
There wasn’t much of interest around, neither in the castle nor the catacombs, but there were a few materials to gather. One of the useful things was the undead weapons, which were made out of some sort of enchanted metal and radiated Dark affinity; He should be able to smelt those down later. Also, there were multitudes of Wither Bone – a crafting ingredient harvested from the defeated undead.
They looked long and hard for the Soul Well, and they found it hidden under one of the walls in the catacombs. It was a round rock absorbing all light making it pitch black, it even dimmed the room it was inside as if it ate the light itself.
Upon touching the Soul Well he got a message that True Dark Tome was activated. It allowed him to interact with the well.
Inside he could see a multitude of souls, each sorted by race and affinity.
[Soul Well: 8420/10000], the most powerful souls were at the top.
[Great Undead (Gravelord) – Dark] x1, [Frost Giant – Ice] x25, [Obsidian Spider – Dark], […]
Oh! His spiders were “Obsidian Spiders”– that was nice to know, also apparently they were quite powerful. After that, there were many souls of humans and other lesser creatures.
Considering the item, it was very powerful. Its presence allowed it to trap and recycle souls indefinitely. A must-have for any necromancer. So, was he going to destroy this artefact grade item and set all the innocent souls free? No! He was not.
“I’ll reincarnate my spiders.” And the rest, humans and creatures alike… he will find a use for them eventually.
If not, he’ll just trade them (the spares) to the Ancestral Tree, they must be worth more than centipede souls, right. Right? Hopefully…
“The menace is dealt with. Let's head home.” He didn’t want to stay in this accursed place any minute longer.
The spiders gathered a few things here and there and they headed back bringing only Pyrrhic Victory home, but a victory never less.
Unbeknown to him, he now possessed a highly coveted tome and an artefact thought to be impossible.