“What is that?!” Quart worriedly voiced to the group. His eyes never leaving the eerie light as it drew nearer.

Before Ruby could answer, a robed, hooded figure wielding a gnarled wooden staff stepped into view. Its skeletal hands and feet protruded from the tattered robe as it ominously took a step forward. Rings covering the bony fingers glinted in the dim light as a spectral green glow surrounded the figure. Behind him, an army of undead rats waited patiently for a command.

Lita, who was closest, slowly backed away. She took up position in front of the group, her eyes carried a trace of fear. To her credit, she stood ready as she brought her shield in front of her. Her movements broke through the paralyzing alarm her group felt. They fell into their normal formation, their eyes never leaving the robed figure who merely stood there after walking into view.

“A Lich,” Ruby stated, terror creeping into her voice. The rest of the party’s faces blanched. They had studied about Liches in class, but never thought they’d ever meet one outside of Kosany lands.

“Why is it just standing there?” Whispered Rygic. Rapid thoughts on how to deal with such a foe ran through his mind as he tried his best to stay calm.

“Yes, why indeed?” asked the Lich, humor evident in its voice. It was clearly enjoying the looks of fear on the party’s faces. “It is so nice for the Academy to send five fresh students down into the sewers. I think I’ll enjoy myself and take my time today.” The Lich pointed its bony finger towards the group. As one, the undead vermin behind the Lich surged towards the party.

Unable to pull her potion launcher out in time, Lita braced for the oncoming horde. A light shimmering of blue mana extended over her as she quickly cast Arcane Armor. Several of the rats fell before reaching her, thanks to Rygic, Quart, and Ruby’s magical range attacks. Dreck stood just off the right of Lita, watching the Lich for any sudden movements. When it became apparent the Lich would rather have its minions deal with the group, Dreck waded into melee range, dispatching those that tried to attack Lita from the side. Although this was far more vermin than they had faced before, the group was able to quickly dispatch them with practiced ease as their previous experiences with slaying the rats had helped to solidify their teamwork.

“Again,” stated the Lich, its voice tinged with continued amusement. Rather than pointing, it raised both of its hands, palms up. The deceased rats began to twitch with movement as if brought back from the dead. Severed body parts that were scattered around the area began to move toward their original owners and started to reattach themselves. One by one, the undead rats stood back up.

“Quick, shoot the Lich!” Rygic hastily called out. He hoped that doing so would stop the vermin from further repairing themselves. From Rygic’s wand, light blue mana shot straight at the Lich. Bolts of water and death mana immediately followed behind.

An eerie laughter rang out when their range attacks seemingly did nothing as they struck the green spectral mana shield surrounding the Lich. “Is that the best the Academy students can do these days?” it taunted.

Before anyone could argue back, the horde of rats attacked the party once more. This time, Lita tossed a vial of flame oil into the center of the biggest group near the Lich. Orange flames hungrily roared outwards. Those rats that were fully engulfed lay motionless as their bodies slowly turned to dust. Unfortunately, the shield surrounding the Lich blocked the fire from reaching any closer.

“Very good... again!” cackled the Lich. It snapped its bony fingers. Replacements for those rats that were too burned up scurried from the dark tunnel into the room.

“It's going to just keep raising or summoning more rats. If we are going to have a chance to stop it, we need to go all out,” stated Dreck.

“What concerns me is why the Lich is merely standing there instead of actively engaging us in combat… why just the rats?” Rygic asked.

“The Lich does seem to be taking its time…” added Quart.

“Either we are not worth the effort or it's relishing our struggles. Regardless, unless we do something different, this will not end well,” remarked Ruby. The others nodded along with her statement.

“Right. Once more! Don’t hold anything back.” asserted Rygic. Though internally he was starting to feel frustrated as he felt like he wasn’t doing enough. He nodded to Lita to start.

Lita pulled out a different vial, one that looked like swirling water with little crackles of lightning. Although pressed for time, she carefully poured its contents over her sword, which hungrily absorbed the potion. Little flickers of lightning began to swirl all around the blade. With a nod to Rygic, she turned and pushed off from her boots, increasing her speed as she activated several speed runes engraved upon them. Though not as fast as Dreck, she was much faster than the rest of the group. The aggressive approach of charging seemed to have caught the Lich off guard as it was late to instruct the rats to attack. Lita’s sword, empowered by shock oil, swung at the motionless rats sending electric arcs through their bodies as she sliced through them.

Dreck sprang into action the moment Lita charged. While dashing after Lita, he crossed his arms over his chest while whispering Sangi, triggering the spell Shade Twins. On each side of him, a shadowy twin appeared. Dreck’s twins ran to back up Lita, while Dreck sprinted towards the Lich. Seeing Dreck approach, an amused chuckle emerged from under the Lich’s hood. Stopping just before the Lich’s glowing spectral green mana shield, Dreck activated Swift blades. His shadow mana-covered blades madly swiped at the shield in an attempt to bring it down.

Ruby pointed towards Lita and whispered, “Looks like it's time to introduce you two, my friends.” From under her cloak, two ethereal creatures materialized, taking the form of cats. Unlike the otherworldly green of the Lich’s mana, these spirit familiars emitted a soft aqua glow. As they leapt off her shoulders, the cats rapidly grew, reaching the size of the famed feline predators that prowled the surrounding hills. Enhanced by Ruby’s mana, their midnight-black claws gleamed with dangerous potency. She called out to the two cats, “Gill, Gulie, please protect Lita!” Turning towards the Lich, Ruby pointed her staff straight at it and whispered, “Satsukosen.” A tight midnight beam of death mana fired straight at the Lich’s mana shield. The impact caused little, tiny ripples in the shield but little else. It did, however, stop the Lich from chuckling for a moment.

“Not bad, little Death Mage, not bad,” responded the intrigued Lich. “Still, not enough,” it cackled. Unphased, Ruby continued to channel her Death Ray spell.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Quart glanced in the direction of the Lich and then towards the group of undead rats Lita was tanking, unsure of which he should prioritize. He knew he needed to save some mana for healing, but the group seemed to desperately need more offensive power. Afraid of waiting too long, he finally decided to use a single area-of-effect spell then save his mana to keep his party alive. Raising his staff in the direction just past Lita, Quart uttered “Hariken.” Tiny storm clouds started to form in the area Quart had indicated. Flashes of lightning began to strike randomly at the rats below, while droplets of water trickled down from the clouds above. As the water made contact with a rat, it sizzled as though it were acid. A few droplets landed on Lita who recoiled for a moment, thinking she would get the same results. Much to her surprise and relief, however, the raindrops seemed to offer healing, soothing her instead. Satisfied, Quart kept an eye over his party members, ready to trigger a healing spell as needed.

Rygic looked on, envious of his friends and party members. He could only shake his head in wonder as he watched the storm clouds from Quart’s spell. Seeing them underground seemed so out of place. He’d often ask his instructors about such oddities. Instructor Podaton merely smirked and said, “It's magic.” He was beginning to feel a little frustrated as most of the damage he was dealing came from his wand. Although his wand damage was effective as a range attack, it seemed to pale in comparison to his party’s. The wand in his hand began to feel warm as if responding to his frustration. Thinking something was wrong, he stopped firing to take a closer look at it. Feelings of impatience seemed to emanate from its surface. A fuzzy image of a scroll, much like the one from the spell Status, formed in his mind. “Santae,” he quickly murmured. The scroll representing Rygic’s status appeared in his mind’s eye. Hastily scanning it, his eyes went immediately to his level. “Level five? When did I reach level five? Well, we have been killing a lot of rats,” he reasoned. “If I reached level five...” he quickly searched for the section listing out his spells. His eyes zeroed in on his newly listed Aether spell, Echo. The spell description stated: Copy the spell being cast by another caster. Recasting the spell will override the current one. Spell strength and ability to cast are limited to mana available. Note: you may permanently copy one spell for every five levels. “Finally!” Rygic thought to himself.

“Eko” muttered Rygic as he looked directly at the Lich who seemed to be half-heartily firing a mana beam of its own at Ruby. Half believing the spell would trigger, he was relieved when it cast. The wand in his hand gave off a different feeling. One that felt almost like disbelief, as if to say “Really? You chose THAT one’s spells to copy?”

The instant Rygic chose the Lich as his target, its hooded head jerked in his direction. “Aether Magic... Echo Mage,” it angrily hissed as it pointed its index finger towards him. A beam much like Ruby’s death beam, resembling green fire shot from its calcified finger towards Rygic.

Rygic took a glancing hit as he dodged out of the way. The copied spell that appeared in his mind’s eye indicated that the Lich had cast Chaos Beam at him. “Two can play that game,” Rygic thought, as he in turn pointed towards the Lich only to have nothing happen. In his haste, he failed to notice that Kosany spells were not castable and listed in red. The wand in his hand seemed to mock him. Rygic quickly looked around to see if he could copy a usable spell from one of his group members. His eyes landed on the barrier preventing them from escaping. “Eko,” he softly muttered. Knowledge of how to cast the spell filled his mind.

While the Lich was distracted, Lita and her group of shade twins and spirit cats had managed to totally annihilate the undead vermin. The Lich hazarded a glanced over to see how his minions were doing, only to find them utterly decimated, beyond the point of revival. It quickly began to summon additional ones to replace those he lost. Just before a fresh group of undead rats ran into view, Rygic pointed in the direction the previous vermin had emerged and cast Barrier. The undead rats ran right into Rygic’s barrier which simmered a light blue, rather than the purple and black of the Lich’s. Almost immediately, Rygic could feel his mana begin to drain as the rats continuously smacked the barrier. It appeared Barrier was one of those spells that required mana upkeep as long as it was active.

Roaring and visibly angry, the Lich was no longer in a playful mood. It cast back its hood, revealing its skeletal face, glowing purple flames in its eye sockets. The Lich immediately targeted the source of its frustration, Rygic. Lifting both hands, twin Chaos Beams unleashed from both index fingers directly at Rygic. His arcane armor shone brilliantly as the beams struck him. Seeing the Lich’s attention divided, his party members began to focus all their attacks on the mana shield surrounding the Lich. The view of Rygic struggling to keep his arcane armor from collapsing returned the Lich’s mirth as it cackled loudly. Without even looking, it lazily batted its left hand towards Lita and Dreck who were sprinting towards it, sending them flying back. Raising its hand back to point at Rygic, the Lich resumed using both hands to bring him down.

Seeing Rygic’s arcane armor was rapidly weakening against the onslaught, Lita triggered her rune-empowered boots and dashed towards him. She stopped just short of the beams and thrust out her shield, cutting off one of them from hitting Rygic. The relief on Rygic’s face was immediate, though he still showed some signs of strain.

Ruby started to move towards Rygic when Quart placed his arm in front of her. “No, I’ll help him. You try to take down the Lich’s shield. You are the one with the most potent spells right now,” he urged.

Quart sprinted towards his friend, stopping just short of the remaining chaos beam hitting Rygic. Lifting his staff, he focused most of his mana powering his arcane armor into the tip before walking in front of the dark purple and black mana beam. Almost immediately the color of aqua blue light flared against the Chaos beam. He could hear Rygic whisper his thanks in a strained voice.

Taking one last look at Quart’s sprinting to save his friend, Ruby silently promised them she would bring the Lich’s shield down one way or another. “Desuboru,” she whispered as midnight death mana began to pool in her hand as she reached back. Giving all her focus to creating a much smaller, condensed ball of death mana, she flung it towards the Lich. The spell collided with the Lich’s mana shield, Death mana fighting against Chaos as it hungrily grew large enough to encompass all of the Lich’s mana shield. From inside the swirling ball of Death mana, the Lich screamed in rage. As the spell dissipated, so too did the Lich’s mana shield. Ruby slumped to her knees. Building up so much mana for Death Ball had sapped her strength.

“NOW!” yelled Rygic.

“Obakeho” incanted Dreck who disappeared and reappeared right behind the Lich. He plugged his twin jeweled daggers into the unprotected back of the Lich who screamed with pain. His Shade Twins and Ruby’s spirit familiars engaged the Lich from the front. Suddenly on the defensive, without a mana shield protecting the Lich, it tried to keep itself out of melee range and stopped firing its chaos beams. With the Lich distracted, Rygic and Quart began firing their ranged weapons. Lita dashed forward and immediately began tanking the Lich, just as one of the shade twins vanished due to absorbing too much damage. Unable to flee, it wasn’t long before the party slew the Lich. Its skeletal body convulsed and contorted as it garbled a terrifying scream before turning to ash, the remnants of its dark magic dissipating into the void.

As the Lich disintegrated, the party failed to notice that his barrier had vanished. Skoshi ran into the room looking both surprised and proud at the student mages.

“Skoshi!” exclaimed Rygic. “We could have used you a few minutes ago,” he wearily chucked.

“Honestly, well done!” congratulated Skoshi. “I am afraid I can’t stay long. Rest here. I need to find its Phylactery to truly finish the Lich off. Take these.” He quickly handed out a few minor mana and health potions to the party. He then stopped at each student, offering praise and a brief inspection of their overall health before leaving to find the Phylactery.