An old cabin sat deep inside of a dark forest covered by a canopy. It appeared to be abandoned and slowly withering away, with many pieces of it falling to the damp and dim forest floor.

Inside sat a cloaked figure, whose posture and size seemed to portray a young man. What he sat on was a simple stool he had stolen the night before from a tavern in a nearby town. Many feared his instability and power, so they all stayed clear and allowed him to do as he wished as long as it didn’t harm the village’s inhabitants. 

He sighed heavily as he stood up. Before he could even make a move, a large axe penetrated his already damaged front door. Similarly relentless hits followed until the door was torn down. 

“It was open,” the cloaked figure spoke to the brave soul who had decided to destroy a part of his home. 

The man passed the threshold, and the cloaked figure gazed upon his visage. He seemed deprived of sleep and every other necessity of the human body. His eyes were dark and sunken in, his body frail and seemingly malnourished, yet he wielded his great axe with ease. 

“I’ve come for your miserly life, Lich,” the warrior announced. 

“Have you now? Well you will certainly face an excruciating death after you fix my door.” 

Reaching inside his cloak, The Lich took out a human skull. This skull was adorned with black sigils all around it and a ruby gem embedded into its temple. 

Before The Lich could release its horrid magic, the warrior leaped towards it, bringing his axe down on the creature. With a single fluid movement, The Lich turned its body, completely dodging the attack. What came next was a flurry of swings, which The Lich continued to dodge with little trouble. 

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“You reek of enhancements, how many of those have you subjected your body to?” The Lich asked, side stepping a swing and returning with a punch directly to the gut. 

As a user of magic, the warrior had doubted its physical strength, yet the punch had sent him hurtling back through the door. 

As The Lich stepped to the outside to meet the warrior, it pulled down its hood, revealing its abhorred appearance. It was lifelessly pale with bits of skin missing that revealed bone underneath, especially near its jaw which was almost completely void of any skin. Its eyes appeared to be nonexistent, and instead was replaced with deep pits of darkness. 

“I need you alive to repair my door, so I’ll be a little lenient with your punishment.” 

The Lich’s eyes lit up with a murky green fire that illuminated the empty sockets of his eyes. Similarly, the sockets of the skull that he still held in his hand lit up with a similar flame as it levitated from his hands to float beside him. 

The warrior was barely able to stand back up from the hit due to his frail body. He had suffered quite a few injuries, mainly broken ribs and a dislocated arm. Nonetheless, he brought up his axe to block the upcoming attack. 

The Lich brought up its hand, but for some odd reason, it seemed impossible to focus on. It was as if it both existed and didn’t at the same time, like an optical illusion that couldn’t be seen unless from an angle. 

The skull beside it reacted and faced the warrior. The murky flame progressively became brighter and brighter, but before The Lich produced any attacks, the skull suddenly became void of any light and dropped to the floor. At the same time, the eye sockets of The Lich also settled down and returned to normal. Suddenly, it dropped to its knees and began exclaiming:

“No! No! Please! Not right now!” 

It clutched the sides of its barely skinned head with its semi-existent hands. The warrior, slightly taken aback, didn’t hesitate to take the chance to attack. With his mighty axe, he sliced the miserly creature to pieces. After he was done repeatedly chopping at The Lich, all that remained was a pile of flesh and bone, but with the lack of blood, it seemed almost fake. 

The warrior heaved heavy breaths whilst stumbling away, satisfied that he purged the world of such a hideously evil existence. 

The skull The Lich used sat beside his pile of flesh and bone, unmoving and unfeeling, yet still stared at him with what some would call contempt.