“You're the guild master??”

“You’re the guild master!”

They both said in surprise.

“You got me! Anyways for you two, sorry you got roped into this, but we kind of need all the help we can get at the moment.”

“So for the reward…”

“Straight to the point, eh?”

“Can you help us find someone?”

Aqua picked up right away what he was doing.

“With your authority and connections, I’m sure it wouldn't be any trouble.”

“Look, if this goes well, come to my office after and I’ll see what I can-”

“-Army spotted! Roughly 3km east!”

A lookout on the city walls shouted out at them. It was nearly time.

“Sorry, I gotta go, little busy with this whole guild master thing going on.”

He waved at them and jogged off.

“Now we just have to make a good impression from this battle and we’re golden.”

“Easier said than done…”

“We got this, after all your training in the forest, we’re set.”

One by one the skeletons rose from the horizon until there were hundreds, thousands. Compared to the adventurers and guards they were clearly outnumbered. Scattered throughout the disorganised army were different types of skeletons, a few mages, paladins, and some soldiers seemed to have new equipment on, presumably from a fallen adventurer.

“Can we… even win against that?”

“Of course we can Aqua. We have to think about this strategically. With most magic summons, if the summoner dies, so do they. It still applies in this case.”

“So if we kill the lich king, they all disappear?”

Ray nodded.

“It would just be cleaned up at that point.”

“We don’t even know where it is though, and that's not even the hard part…”

“From experience these guys hide in the back, and disguise themselves as a normal skeleton.”

“Then how would we… wait… from experience?”

“You said you were good at magic detection, right?”

“I did say that but-”

“No, I know you’re amazing at it.”

“I’ve never done anything like this though.”

“There’s always a first, what was all that training in the forest for? You're fine, I guarantee you can do this.”

“Okay, what’s the plan?”

“We act as a separate unit from the rest and go around the army to the back. Fighting that many is suicide anyway. We have to find the lich king, and kill the lich king. Simple.”

“How would we kill one anyway?”

“Pray for a sneak attack.”

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“And if they see us?”

“We don’t have the luxury to think about that.”

As the bell from the watchtower rang, the makeshift army ran out. They ran off behind the adventurer army and darted for a nearby patch of trees. From there they now had to wait for the perfect opportunity.

“When their attention is focused, that's our moment.”

“Got it, I’ll try to pinpoint the rough location in the meantime.”

She closed her eyes and focused while Ray looked out.

“There’s a strong magic aura near the back on the other side.”

“Is that them?”

“I think so.”

“We only have one shot at this, follow my movements as closely as possible.”

“Yes.”

“NOW!”

They both rushed into the army of skeletons, Ray slashing one after another while sprinting, making a way by tearing through the hordes.

“Which way?”

“Left… Straight…”

“Is that…”

“In a black robe, on the right! That’s it!”

“I’m gonna finish this in one blow!”

The platinum sword swung at the lich king when it turned at the last second and held its hand out. As the sword tore through the wrist an explosion of dark magic came out and blew back the sword, cracking it in the process.

“Ray! The sword!”

Ray ignored the first blow missing and went for a second, then third. Both of which were repelled with magic. It seemed to be an even fight between Ray and the lich king, but the weapon couldn’t keep up with the force. He jumped back to Aqua for a second.

“I should've known I needed something enchanted for a rank A monster.”

“That sword can’t take another few hits!”

“So much for reselling this.”

The skeletons from before were now reforming around them. Aqua shot-

“Water bolt!”

-after-

“Water bolt!”

-while covering Ray, but she couldn’t stop an army by herself.

“What do we do now?”

“We… can’t.”

He inhaled and raised his hand up to the sky.

“Light bolt!”

Seemingly with no target he shot a bolt of light straight up.

“A… flare?”

“We just need to last until someone comes.”

There was an invisible countdown until help came. Ray tried to slash the lich king again to stop a larger spell from coming out. Aqua was backing up as she was losing ground. They were now back to back.

“Not over until it's over, right?”

“Yeah, let's take as many as we can out now, we can at least try to save the city.”

“I can only use this once. I beseech you! Save us! Kraken!”

While Ray lunged forward a tentacle of water came out and slammed the surrounding skeletons to the side, but it wasn't enough to keep the enemies from reaching him. Ray threw the platinum sword like a javelin at the head of the lich king. Aqua fell onto her knees from exhaustion. With one hand it prepared an attack to finish them off, with the other it shattered the sword into pieces. One of the pieces flew into the eye of the lich king, which made it recoil, temporarily blinding it, but it was too late, with its other hand a spell was about to be released. They braced for impact.

“HYA!”

A slicing sound was heard in the direction of the lich king. There, a man stood with a spear, the head off of the lich king was on the floor. The skeletons all around them fell to the ground and turned to dust. The man was wearing red full plate armour. He then raised his helmet off of his head..

“Nice one finding the lich king guys! I was searching for it by myself too. I didn’t think It would be hiding.”

Ray and Aqua looked at eachother and started laughing.

“We weren’t expecting the guild master to come save us… Especially with that timing.”

“Alright, alright, thanks for saving us.”

“No, thank you guys for saving the city. You gave me the perfect opportunity to attack, it’s all on you guys. Oh! That reminds me, I still don’t even know your names! I’m Sal, the guild master. What are yours?”

“I’m Ray, a traveller.”

“I’m Aqua, the same, nice to meet you.”

“Everyone! Our heroes Ray and Aqua found the lich king out of the entire army, saving us all!”

The adventurers and guards alike started to cheer, calling out to both of them. A genuine smile was on Ray’s face.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile like that.”

“It’s been a while since I felt like this. What can I say?”

“Feels good, doesn't it?”

“I could get used to it.”