“Are you sure?” Aranis questioned as he and the rest made their way over to him.

“Yeah,” Liam said with some frustration laced in his voice. “Look here.”

Liam pointed to the hieroglyph showing the cloaked figure glowing with colors of hazy grey and black. Outside of the temple showed dead bodies everywhere with the same color wrapped around their bodies.

The next picture showed the dead bodies were now skeletons, zombies, and mummies. The Throne room had the Pharoah now in his Mummy Lord form with the other EFMs in their new forms.

“These pictures show the figure transforming the dead citizens of the Askith Nation into Undead creatures,” Liam stated. “And unless there is a different class that can do that, then we are dealing with a damn Necromancer.”

“What is it with Necromancers?” Jude commented, sounding a bit irritated as well.

Inyis looked at the pictures Liam had pointed out before turning to the last couple ones.

“What about these ones?” Inyis questioned.

Liam turned to look at them.

The next picture went back to the room the hooded figure was in with some sort of drawn out circle on the ground. Colors of black, hazy grey, and sickly green looked to be going towards the circle.

The last one had the cloaked figure standing in a position with a leg back and leaning back with their hands out, looking almost afraid. However, Liam couldn’t see what the figure was afraid of because that section of the picture was destroyed. It was almost like something didn’t want them to see or know what had happened.

“It looks like the figure was trying to summon something,” someone stated.

Liam turned to see it was the Elf wearing the dark red robe with blue patterns spread throughout the clothing.

“What makes you say that?” Liam asked, curious about what he said.

“That circle drawn out there. It’s a Summoning Ritual Circle meant to summon beings. If we are dealing with a Necromancer then it could be demons or some sort of high level Undead creature,” the Elf informed.

Liam looked at the picture again. After thinking it over, he nodded agreeing with the man.

“If the figure was trying to summon something, then what did it summon?” Mica questioned.

“Thanks to whoever did this, we don’t know,” Liam stated as he stared at the destroyed section of the picture. He really hated not having all the information.

“So, we’re going to fight a Necromancer either before or after the summoning ritual?” Aranis asked.

“Or during,” Liam added. “With how things have been who knows.”

“Well, instead of trying to figure it out let’s just get in there and kill it,” Jude stated. “If it’s a Necromancer, then maybe with all of us here we’ll be able to take care of it quickly.”

“Or we’ll just walk into a mass horde of Undead already summoned by the Boss,” Liam countered.

Jude shrugged. “More exp for us to get then.”

Liam shook his head. “Alright fine, but before we go diving in to what is probably a sea of creatures we need to figure some things out.”

“Like what?” Jude questioned, feeling impatient.

“Are we doing this as a single group or are we doing this as four different groups?” Liam asked.

Before anyone could say anything, Jude firmly stated, “Four.”

The others stared at him.

“I swear you can be insufferable,” Inyis commented.

“We don’t know each other, nor do we know how each group fights,” Jude continued, ignoring Inyis’ comment. “Instead of trying to create some unstable synergy its better we split into four groups and just fight like how we normally do.”

“That’s actually…sound logic,” Inyis stated with a cautious stare at Jude.

“What happens if something happens that needs someone to organize everyone,” Aranis asked.

Jude hiked a thumb at Liam as he stated, “Then leave it to that guy. I have seen how he was able to move his team in an arena fight and could tell he has a knack for strategy. He probably has better eyes than us anyways and can tell us what we need to know or do.”

Everyone turned to look at Liam.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Liam swore under his breath feeling irritated at Jude. “I’m going to put this out here, I am no leader. I can help by pointing shit out whenever I see something, but I cannot lead. However, if there are others in different groups willing to help me out by relaying information as well as pointing out stuff I miss then I’ll take point. However, I need to know if anyone else has something called Perception of the Control Tower?”

“I have it,” Inyis said as she looked at Liam with a surprised expression.

“I have it as well,” Mica stated as she raised her hand.

“Me too,” the male elf wearing the dark red robe said.

“What’s your name?” Liam asked, mentally kicking himself for not asking earlier.

“Rezath,” he answered.

“I’ll call you Rez since it’s easier to pronounce,” Liam stated. “Are you alright with that?”

Rez shrugged looking like he didn’t care.

“Alright,” Liam started back up. “I’ll need you guys to call out when heals are needed, debuffs need to be taken off or if anyone needs any buffs. Everyone will take care of their groups during the most part of the fight, however, if someone can’t do it and needs assistance from another group we will need to communicate that. How does that sound?”

Everyone nodded agreeing with the idea.

“Alright, there’s a few other things we will need to go over before we start this fight. So, let’s get it out of the way,” Liam stated as they jumped into a strategy meeting.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liam and the others spent the next half an hour coming up with a strategy for how to approach the boss fight.

First they assigned roles to certain members. Those roles were buffers, healers, main tank, off tanks, Control Towers, etc. Most of the roles were easy to understand like buffers, healers, main tank, and off tanks. The Control Tower had several functions in this raid type atmosphere.

The Control Tower kept an eye on the party’s health, mana, and stamina. They called out for buffs when they were about to drop, debuffs or damage over time spells that needed cleansed, and for those that had some sort of crowd control, used those spells. They weren’t limited to just that though, they would also attack or heal when needed. However, their main job was to keep an eye out for changes in the battle and new mobs joining the fray.

Since there was one person in each group who had the Perception of The Control Tower skill, they tried to experiment with it to see if they could add people from the other groups to their list. However, it didn’t work. They weren’t sure if the skill needed to be at a higher level or if it was even possible, but they tried anyways.

After going over that they decided how they were going to approach this fight.

Since they were going to stay with their respected groups, they figured they would spread out as much as they could, but still be within reach in case one group needed a healer or buffer.

If the room was full of monsters then they would try and fight their way towards the main boss. Depending on how many mobs were running around, they would focus the mobs first if there were a lot of them. If there wasn’t a lot then they would send the main tank, the Goliath male wearing the plate armor by the name of Bernard, would make his way to the main boss to get his aggro.

Along with Bernard, they would send an attacker type from each group to try and whittle the boss’ health down while the others finished the mobs before joining in. Those first string attackers would be Josh, the Tiefling from Aranis’ group, Avery from Liam’s, Leo, the Lion-folk from Inyis’ group, and Jude. They would switch people around as best as they could depending on the situation.

“So, what do we do if the situation isn’t what we expect it to be?” Jude questioned.

“We improvise,” Liam said with a shrug. “Not much we can do without any information.”

Jude nodded, accepting his response. “Are we ready to go now?”

Liam was hesitant to answer. He wanted to bring out his Shadow Hands, especially since now he could have two, but wasn’t sure if he should with this crowd. He didn’t know if any of them knew Shadow magic since they were as new as he was to this world, but he was still cautious. On the other hand, he knew he would probably need to use everything he had at his disposal, including his Lunar magic.

After debating it over a few times in his mind, he decided to be safe than sorry.

“Not yet, let me get ready,” Liam said as he activated his Mana Sight.

He started to channel his mana and was about to start chanting his Shadow Orb spell so he could control the Shadow Mana, but stopped as he noticed something different about the mana channeling around him.

Mixed in with the violet color of his Arcane Mana, Liam noticed clumps of raven black and purplish-yellow colors swimming about.

Interesting. Liam thought as he stared at them.

He decided to try an experiment. He focused on the Raven-black colors that were swimming around within the violet mana encasing his body. As he focused on trying to pull on that mana, he noticed all of the raven black mana pushed through and cover his hands and forearms.

Liam grew a smile as he saw his experiment succeed.

This will be so much faster than having to do that half chant. Saves time and doesn’t require a waste of mana. Liam thought as he focused on the spell he needed for the fight.

Two Shadow hands appeared floating above both of his shoulders.

Everyone’s, except for Liam’s group, eyes widened as they saw the two smoky raven black hands appear.

“What the hell?!” Liam heard someone shout.

“What are those?!” another questioned.

Jude grinned as he stared at Liam. He then looked at Aranis and commented, “See, not to be underestimated.”

Aranis, who snapped out of being surprised, looked back at Jude and said, “I guess so. He is full of surprises.”

Liam pulled out two Black Widow Matriarch Throwing daggers and handed them to the two Shadow Hands.

After he did this he decided to test something out. Instead of moving his hands to move the two Shadow Hands, he tried to move them with his will. He failed at first, but after four more tries he was able to have them move on their own.

What he had to do was connect the Shadow Mana that covered his hands and forearms and just allow the connection to move around freely, like a puppet with strings.

He did notice that this drained the Shadow Mana slowly. It was negligible, but he figured after a while it would fully drain. For now, he cut the connection off to save the mana. Another thing he noticed was the range increased a bit since leveling this up to ten. However, if he moved the hands out as far as he could they were less responsive with this new method.

“What are those?” Inyis and Mica asked with much curiosity.

“This is an ability called Shadow Hands,” Liam stated. “I won’t go into much details about them because it’ll take a while, but they are very handy for holding small items like daggers to help with attacks.”

“Fair enough,” Inyis said. She then quietly muttered as she stared at Liam without him hearing, “Shadow magic huh? I guess it could have uses like this.”

“Are we ready now?” Jude asked again, feeling a bit antsy.

“Unless anyone else needs to prepare,” Liam said as he looked around. “Then I think we are ready.”

“About time,” Jude said as he made his way to the door.

Everyone followed close behind with the other three leaders standing by him.

They stared at the giant menacing looking lion’s head. The mouth was closed, but its teeth were baring. On the forehead of the stone creature was a violet eight pointed star with a weird oval shape in the middle of it.

In a half circle above the door were seven dimmed crystals. There were no handles or levers around the door showing no indication of how to open it.

As they stared Jude looked to the others and asked, “So…how do we open this door?”

“I’m not sure,” Inyis replied as she studied the stone door piece.

“Maybe we have to push it?” Aranis suggested.

Jude shrugged as he placed his hands on the lion’s head and got ready to push with all he had.

However, right as he touched the door ornament, one of the crystals lit up.

Liam watched as a line ran from the crystal to the violet eight pointed star. He then watched as the shape slightly opened.

Jude removed his hand from the door, deactivating the crystal and closed the shape.

“Hm,” Liam muttered as he placed a hand on it and watched the same thing happen again.

While keeping his hand on the door, Liam looked at Avery and said, “Place a hand on here, I want to test something out.”

Avery nodded as she place a hand on it.

Nothing happened.

Avery frowned as she took her hand away.

He had Mercer and Blair do it as well but still there was no change.

He then turned to Jude and said, “Put your hand back on it.”

Jude nodded as he placed his hand back on it.

A second crystal lit up creating another line to run towards the symbol on the lion’s head. The shape opened a little more. It was now a third open.

Liam saw a dot form in the middle of the open section of the oval shape, but at the same time he wasn’t sure if it was a dot.

“Ok,” Liam said as he believed he figured it out and took his hand off of the door.

He turned to the others and said, “I think it only activates when one member from each group places a hand on it.”

“I think you’re right,” Inyis agreed as she looked at him. “Should it be us leaders who do it?”

Liam shrugged, “I don’t think it matters, but for morale, it might be good.”

Aranis nodded as he and Inyis walked up to the door and stood on Liam’s right.

Liam looked at them and then at Jude who was on his left. “You all ready to do this?”

“Hell yeah,” Jude grinned.

Aranis nodded with a stoic look as Inyis shrugged, looking like she could care less.

“Alright then without further ado, let’s get this show on the road,” Liam said as they all placed a hand on the door.

Liam watched as four crystals instantly lit up. Lines ran from the crystals towards the violet eight pointed star symbol. The weird shape in the middle of the star slowly opened up. It stopped at the three quarters mark.

Liam stared at what he thought was a dot, but then realized he was thoroughly wrong. It wasn’t a dot, but an eye.

It further made it true as the iris and pupil moved to stare at them all.

Liam wasn’t sure, but it felt like the eyes was judging each and every one of them. He then watched as it lingered on the ones who placed a hand on the door. It squinted for five seconds before sending the energy from the lines down into the lion’s head.

Liam and the other three quickly removed their hands away from the door as the lion’s mouth opened and let out a proud loud roar.

After that, a line ran down the middle of the door and the lion’s head. After the line fully formed, the two newly formed doors slowly swung towards them revealing the contents of the room.

Liam’s eyes widened as he stared at the room, fully infested with Undead monsters, awaiting them.

“Holy shit,” Liam muttered as he dragged the word out.