Carly, Ice Queen of the Burning Sands (A) Lvl 7, and Stephen, Void Sage (A) Lvl 7
Carly dove away from the angry Lich’s energy attack, barely clearing the blast radius as Stephen simply activated [Lightspeed Step] and blinked away. Immediately after the attack, the poisonous mists that they had been traversing coalesced into thick billowing barriers. Stephen cursed under his breath as he realized what was happening and Carly grimaced as their route back to their team closed to her left.
Before the pair could acknowledge each other, the sound of steel and bone slamming into the ground in front of them drew their attention. She quickly analyzed the creature that stood before her; Death Knight Lich, Lvl 15 (A).
The Death Knight looked on at the pair of young mages, glowing green orbs where it’s eyes should be pulsed malevolence. It’s skeletal jaw worked up and down as a clacking hiss gurgled up from its non-existent throat. In one hand was a soot black, wide-bladed longsword that appeared to have been ravaged by the passage of time. In the other a burnished round copper shield held in a similar state of age and disrepair. It’s armor was a mixture of pitted steel and decaying threadbare leather. A black cloak of corruption magic hung across the entirety of the monster, the edges of which radiated a subtle green light.
It released a rattling, hissing roar that came out as more of a hoarse whisper, while beating the flat of it’s fragile looking blade against the front of it’s decrepit shield. The sound that reverberated across their personal field of battle turned out to be the opening salvo in a series of magical attacks that staggered Stephen as he began to charge up an attack.
“Fucking piece-”, Stephen muttered as the Lich burst forward with a puff of dirt and poison smoke.
The Lich struck empty air as Stephen blinked away from the monster’s mad charge. It spun it’s head instantly to where he had appeared several feet behind Carly who abandoned her own attack to throw up a wall of ice as the undead creature shifted its weight and began to charge towards her.
Stephen grabbed her shoulder from behind and she experienced whiplash for the first time, as to her perception, she was instantly relocated a brief instant before the Lich smashed bodily through her barrier. Shards of ice scattered away from the shattered barrier. The Lich hissed it’s displeasure at the pair of elusive young mages.
“We can’t stop moving!”, Stephen barked in her ear. Carly nodded wordlessly and gathered her magic around her to take flight; Let’s see him catch me in the air!
The evil being cocked it’s skeletal head in irritation. With a series of clicks and hisses, black energy began to swirl around the monster’s feet. Carly found herself morbidly focused on the swirling tendrils of magic that began to spiral out from where the being stood, chattering. She realized too late the purpose of the black spiral as they lashed out from the ground and wrapped around her ankles.
Before Stephen or she could act, Carly found herself yanked violently back to the ground. She slammed across the ground flat on her back, the wind escaping her lungs leaving her stunned and breathless.Through watery eyes Carly gasped as the Lich landed above her with sword raised high over its head. She tried to swear as the sword began to descend in slow motion, but she’d yet to return the oxygen to her lungs.
As she began to mentally recite her first ever prayer to any Gods that may be listening, a beam of black energy slammed into the Lich’s boney sternum. It tumbled backwards several feet as Stephen released another beam attempting to pin down their enemy. A blast of intricately manipulated gravity slammed into Carly’s stunned form that shoved her roughly away from the now rampaging Lich.
Carly groaned as her breath returned and the System imposed period of stun wore off. She rolled to her hands and knees with a groan, eyeing the battle between Stephen and the Lich. “Mother fuck… shit!”
Stephen deflected a hasty sword lunge with a ball of gravity focused energy, then shifted to throwing another [Void Beam] that shot wide over the Lich’s shoulder. “You back in the fight!?” He yelled at Carly’s still prone form.
She smacked the ground with the flat of her palms in frustration, adding more cracks in the asphalt where she’d impacted it. “Yeah!” She yelled back as she rose to her knees with both hands pressed out in front of her. A fist sized ball of ice quickly formed, then elongated into a teardrop shaped spike. Hot orange flames formed around the body of the spike that radiated intense heat. She released the dual element spell with a final word, “[Burning Ice]”.
The bolt of conflicting elements streaked forward like a laser to smash into the side of the Lich. It exploded on contact and shoved the undead monster forcibly backwards. It reared it’s grim visage in rage, then released a blast wave of dark magic, stealing her momentary victory as she was once again lifted into the air and thrown backwards several dozen meters into the city.
She gasped when her body passed through the mist barrier that denoted their current field of battle. Something tickled at her mind and shot a chill through her already near freezing body. She shivered involuntarily as she felt icy eldritch claws briefly reaching for her soul, then sighed in relief as she burst through the other side of the misty barrier. Somehow she managed to land on her feet coming to a skidding stop in the street. To her right, Stephen’s emergence from the barrier was much less graceful as he slammed through a couple buildings.
Carly coughed up a glob of blood that she spat sideways into the street as Stephen used his magic to noisily free himself from the remains of the building he had collapsed after he landed in it. He stumbled out onto the street, barely shoving a splintered door out of his way, he looked at her briefly before the sight of the Lich calmly walking through the soul sucking mist caught their attention.
As the Lich stepped into the open, the mist clung to it’s boney frame. It took a few more steps forward and rolled it’s shoulders, then cracked its neck as the mist formed into a transparent facsimile of flesh, revealing who the man had been in life. Carly watched as the face that formed over the undead's skull was rapidly contorted through various stages of hate, fury, and agony. As soon as the Lich’s face formed, another contorted face rolled across its forehead and down its left cheek to lock a pair of misshapen eyes on Stephen. Then the original face folded into the new side face, thus resulting in the main face staring at Stephen while a new side face stared back at Carly.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
“What the actual fuck!?” She exclaimed at the twisted, morbid sight before her.
“That’s….. Interesting.” Stephen mumbled then launched another [Void Beam] at the Lich. It raised its shield, deftly deflecting the exotic energy into the air at an angle. Then it rode the momentum of the impact towards Carly with sword held high.
“Fuck you! [Frost Wave]!” She yelled as she unleashed a concentrated wave of dense ice in front of her that caught the Lich mid-leap. The undead creature stumbled backwards in frustration and attempted to summon the previous black tendril attack that had slammed her into the ground.
“None of that! [Void Beam]!” The dark energy of his mainstay attack lashed out, striking the Lich in the hip. The phantasmal “skin” that wrapped around its body evaporated under the assault of the exotic energies. It fell on its face in a heap of armor and bone. For just a moment the duo held their breaths in hopes that it had been enough to defeat their opponent.
Of course the Lich began to stir on the ground, Carly didn’t give it a chance to stand, “[Ice Burst]!” A ball of ice shot out from her extended fingers to explode above the Lich. The fragments battered its back, tearing phantom flesh from very real bones, but doing little more. It again attempted to stand and Carly shifted tactics.
“My attacks just annoy it, I’ll switch to control, you hit it with everything you’ve got!” She barked at Stephen who nodded in acknowledgement.
Immediately she cast [Black Ice] under where it was trying to catch its feet. The Lich suddenly found the ground it had fallen on was now covered in a slick patch of ice that its spectral hands and feet could find no purchase on.
Stephen followed her distraction with a [Particle Wave]. The highly volatile energy wave caught the Lich as it had managed to sit upright on its knees while comically pinwheeling backwards. Exposed and unable to defend itself, everything above the hips was instantly vaporized. It’s sword and shield clattered to the ground noisily in the suddenly quiet street. Then the hips toppled forward as the phantasmal energy, no longer bound to a physical body, dissipated.
The pair released a breath they hadn’t realized they were holding as life left the Lich they had been fighting and barely holding their own against only a few moments before. A loud snap pulled their attention to the dark brooding form of the keep that towered above them. Swirls of sickly green energy danced and twisted in the air above them in a mesmerizing display of aerial acrobatics.
“Ah, fuck.” Carly muttered as the energy in the air quickly snaked in their direction.
“Shit, these are Lich’s. We can destroy their bodies, but if we don’t destroy their soul…” Stephen left the thought hanging in the air as the energy slammed into the remains of the Lich at their feet.
Carly finished while slowly walking backwards, “They just keep coming back!”
Albert, Dustland Hunter, and Keeg, Paladin of Mork the Avenger
Albert and Keeg had found themselves similarly separated from the group and facing the Lich that carried a massive two-handed claymore of burnished black steel, pitted from ages of neglect and abuse. Heavy plate armor of similar construction, infused with green pulsing runes protected it’s assumedly fragile body. Similarly green glowing eyes peered out from behind the visor of a full face helmet like which you would see in a fantasy video game.
The opening attack had targeted Albert, only to be rebuffed as the dark elf paladin, Keeg, interposed himself between the madly charging Lich and the old hunter that was scrambling for cover. He activated [Brace!] just as the massive black sword struck his shield. Metal against metal rang out in the dark night as the Lich recoiled in shock.
Albert, being the expert hunter and Vietnam Veteran that he was, didn’t give the monstrous Lich time to recover. The large fifty caliber Barrett barked out death as a pair of controlled rounds smashed into the thick armor plate that sat on the Lich’s head. The helmet actually spun around several times at the impact, but somehow, the rounds failed to penetrate.
The Lich stumbled with a glare for Albert as Keeg pressed his own attack, leading with a well timed [Shield Bash] that further staggered the enraged undead monster. Being a veteran of fighting undead himself, particularly skeletal undead such as this Lich, he focused on blunt or holy infused attacks. Shifting his stance so his shield became the weapon and his sword became the tool with which he would deflect his opponent's attacks. They settled into a rhythm of attacking and counter attacking, while Albert layed down suppressive fire, along with the occasional pummeling from the fifty cal.
Several times the Lich attempted some dark magic to suppress the duo. Every time Keeg was ready with a [Counter Spell]. Every time the Lich would attempt to scream in impotent rage. If the Lich had known it would face what amounted to a “hard counter”, it may have chosen today to take a much needed vacation.
Keeg could tell the Lich was just about beaten, though he knew beating it’s physical body was only the first part of this fight, and he relayed as much to Albert, “Albert, it is about beaten, though we must find it’s Phylactery!”
Albert fired a burst from Karl’s AK that punched small holes in the Lich’s armor, causing little damage, though creating a solid distraction for Keeg to duck in and cast [Holy Surge] as his shield made contact with the undead being’s armored breastplate. “It’s what!?”
Keeg didn’t respond immediately, seeing that the last casting of Holy Surge had weakened the bonds that held the creature in front of him together, he decided now was the time to finish the current fight. “[Heaven’s Descent]!” He shouted with sword raised high in the air. A flash of brilliant holy energy dropped through the thick cloud cover from above and bathed the Lich in holy fire.
The Lich seized up momentarily as Keeg’s diety’s holy fury cascaded through the connections that kept the unholy creature functioning. A second later those connections were severed one by one, as individual bones began falling to the ground like grim rain drops. The green light of undeath left the skull as the heavy plate helmet carried it to crash and roll across the street at their feet.
Albert walked up with the AK held against his shoulder and studied the scene in front of him, “So, phylacter-what?”
Keeg looked at the older man with a grim smile, “His phylactery, good Albert. It’s where this abomination keeps his soul. If we don’t destroy it, he will just keep coming back!”
Albert grunted at that declaration as he eyed the swirling energy above them that seemed to be searching for something. Keeg added as he began stepping towards the massive keep in front of them, “His body should remain inaccessible for at least a day. We should see about purifying his soul now.” Holy energy cascaded off the Paladin in anticipation. This was the kind of fight he was made for.