The lich lord moved faster than Kai thought was possible, dodging both arrow and mana bolt with preternatural movements.
Syl had retracted her projected form the moment she had successfully examined the floating black-ragged collection of bones, calling out to the team, “Lich lord! It’s not named; however, it is level twenty.”
“Are you giving us a choice? You want to kill it, don’t you?” He laughed, “You’re letting me know this isn’t going to be another rune bear fiasco.”
“Well, it's no arch lich or lich king, probably only recently awoken. just a standard lich who can command the undead, hence the lord part.” Syl informed them, “They’re typically weak for their level, usually relying on undead swarms to attack for a safe location. It's odd this one is attacking us itself.”
“I don’t think it’s here for us! Challenge stone for the win.” Kai joked as he avoided a putrid green ball of flame that lit up the mist as it came his way. “Okay, I'm happy to give this a go if you guys are. But how do we kill it?”
“Liches have some kind of container for their soul,” Alicia said as she fired off a succession of shots, each one different from the next as she tried to catch the lich off guard. “The lore specifies they are very protective of that item, either hiding it on their body or having it tucked away somewhere nearby.”
A barrier shot up in front of Kai just moments before a torrent of green flame was about to wash over him.
“This thing is focused on me; anyone got a way to exploit that?”
“Well, I was a little worried I would draw its attention; their attacks can damage the soul and-“
“You bravely ran away?”
“No~” Syl said, her audible pout clear through the party chat, “It was a tactical retreat; my projection would work as a conduit straight through to my soul. The lich could actually do some serious damage to me.”
“Syl…” Kai sighed as he dodged another green fire bolt; he was just happy the lich’s attacks were telegraphed with the way they lit up the mist as they travelled towards him. “Can this bag of bones attacks damage my soul through my body?”
“Yes…”
“Can they damage Alicia's soul?”
“Yes…”
“Then stop hiding and get your ass out here with the rest of the party and use your projections and its added mobility to help pin this fucker down while it is completely focused on me.”
“I hate to say it, Syl, but the pretty boy is right; I have not been able to hit it once since I took off its arm. However, besides being the only one to do significant damage to it, it has not once changed its focus from Kai to attack me.”
“Wait, you took off one of its arms? It’s not once come into my range. I’m just taking down the undead that get close and firing off the odd mana bolt at Syl’s marker,” he said, as he took down another two zombies. Being able to communicate mind to mind freeing him up to both fight and stay in contact with his party. “And you know I’m allowed to be right… Right?”
Thinking about how he was the target of choice, he contemplated storing his challenge stone. But as he took down a zombie kobold, he realised he was actually kind of glad it drew everything towards him, as it greatly simplified crowd control. There was also the increased essence draw to consider. However, he was still waiting to encounter a rare spawn.
“Yeah, these guys are all about undead control, crowd control and ranged attacks.” Syl said as an orange wisp popped into existence beside Kai. “And no, men on Alea are just meant to look pretty and help make babies, with no right to be right in sight. Just like a nineteen sixties housewife.”
He ignored her quip and focused on what she said about the lich, “So what you are saying is this floating Halloween decoration is a glass cannon, one good hit and it’s dead?”
“No, one good hit and then we have to find its phylactery,” Syl said as she flew straight for the lich, her orange form lighting up the mist in a burst of orange and yellow as she zipped about him. “Kai, come this way.”
“Will do,” Kai said as he took down another two zombie goblins that were busy ripping their way through the misty membrane that was failing to separate their dimensions in front of him.
So far he had been kiting the lich towards the spot Syl had picked out earlier, and he welcomed the change of plan, as everything he had tried so far seemed to have no effect on the damned thing.
His weariness was growing.
With all his dungeon items, his mana was of no concern. But it turned out, fighting on the move was a totally different thing from holding a single defensive position.
Without Alicia’s stamina regen converting his excess mana regeneration into the stamina he desperately needed and limber keeping his muscles and joints from betraying him, he doubted he would still be standing.
“Yeah, the moment you moved this way, the lich started backing up… It's changing its attack pattern, the way it’s moving…” Syl said, her orange glow lighting up the form of the lich as she circled it.
Kai felt his mana disappear as Syl made a dozen mana bolts appear just behind him.
“Get ready; I think I can pin it down with a stun and some barriers, but we will only have this one chance; this thing adapts quickly…”
Seeing that he was quickly closing the gap on the retreating lich, he called out to Alicia, “You got that focus spell handy?”
“Yes, but you are too far for me to- hold… Gift wants me to shoot you. Incoming.”
“Wait, what?!” Kai cried as he watched the outline that indicated where Alicia was off to his side turn to him and release a golden glow for it to streak straight through the mist towards him; he had to fight to resist his instinct to dodge. Not that it would have helped; the lich may be able to dodge Gifts arrows at level twenty, but he was only level six with a core full of essence waiting to level up to level seven, maybe eight if he was lucky. Not that having the extra stat points would help him.
To think he was about to die to his surprise fiancée.
The golden arrow hit him in the torso, centre mass, for an arrow shot through mist at a target she couldn't see; it was a perfect shot.
The arrow burst, enveloping him in a short-lived soft golden glow; his mind came into focus, and he entered the zone as the energy was absorbed into him.
“A bit more warning next time.”
“Just be glad it worked…”
“Both of you get ready, five, four…”
Kai heard the mana bolts hovering just over his shoulder crackle with mana as Syl started overloading them all at once.
He was just glad her control had grown by leaps and bounds, as there was no way he could have controlled so many overloaded bolts.
“Three…”
Kai switched to his two-handed hilt and created a spectral great sword, the blade vibrating silently in his hand as vaporous white flames of mana leaked from the spectral blade.
Wearing his new dragon scale gauntlets that somehow enhanced his mana control and flow while he himself was in a state of perfect flow, he could use far more mana than he would have ever dared to use without everything working together to enhance his base abilities.
He pushed an insane amount of mana into the blade as he prepared to pulse the energy through it and out into a supercharged infused strike.
“Two…”
He was ready, but not yet in range. and it was far too late to change his strategy and prepare mana bolts.
“Stunned…”
He swung the spectral blade in an overhead strike, pulsing his infused strike with as much mana as he dared and then some as he brought the blade down towards the lich.
“Barriered!”
Syl's crackling mana bolts were released all at once, curving subtly as they came in from the left and the right, creating a corridor for Kai to move in for his attack.
Several golden arrows came in from above and around from behind, Alicia and Gift showing that they had learnt to arc and curve their shots so that they could all impact at the same time.
The mana-formed spectral blade burst, shattering in his hand, all the energy ripping through the air as it was carried in the wake of his strike, amplifying his attack in an unexpected way.
Mana bolt, arcane arrow and infused strike all impacted the lich lord in quick succession just as it was breaking free from the five or six barriers holding it in place.
A netherworldly wail echoed through the mist.
The lich lord was torn to pieces by their combined assault, its robes flaring and burning away into green cinders as its bones turned to dust.
“Did anyone get a kill notification?” Syl called out.
“No.” “No.” Kai and Alicia replied.
“Well, we got its corporeal form; now we need to get its soul. I'm just hoping this will…”
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Kai turned to fight off the horde of undead they had neglected to take out the lich together, only to see the three closest zombies wander aimlessly.
The closest wandering right past him, showing him no signs of aggression at all.
He reached out to wave his hand in front of its slack-jawed face; it didn’t react.
Huh, “I guess we don’t have to worry about the undead for now. Any idea which way we go? I got all turned around in the fight.”
Syl appeared by his side. “I have markers put down that I didn’t share. They should lead us back to the area the lich came from. But we should hurry; this won't last long, and we won't be able to follow the tethers from whatever the lich did once these things start returning to their realm.”
The zombie Kai had let pass him by suddenly collapsed, falling to its knees, its body starting to rapidly decay all on its own.
“Shit, Alicia!” she called, “We don’t have much time.”
Alicia came in from the mist to tap Kai on the shoulder.
Kai immediately felt dull, slower than he liked, his mental acuity stripped away as Alicia removed the focus support spell from him.
He was glad he only had it active for what must have been no more than a minute or two, as the earth-shattering headache he had last time wasn’t something he wished to experience any time soon if he could avoid it.
“Come on, it’s this way. We need to get moving if we want to stand any chance of finding that guy’s phylactery, to kill it and get its essence and assessment points.”
Hearing Syl mention essence, he hesitated. “Should we level or-“
“No, move already!” Syl shouted as she turned and flew off into the fading mist.
Shooting Alicia a glance, they both followed.
By the time they reached the place Syl thought she first detected the lich, the mist had completely dissipated, taking all of the remaining undead back to the world they came from and any trace of the lich’s control with them.
Syl was zipping about an open field, the ground rough and broken with the signs of a recent attempt to prepare the burnt field for planting.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit…” was all he could hear from her as he slowed to a stop and checked his essence.
He had dipped below being able to gain a full level; he let out a frustrated sigh.
At least Syl’s level had overtaken his; it meant he should receive the greater share in the future; for now, he was content to let his remaining essence bleed over and heal Syl’s core.
Thinking about it, he probably should get an update on her core's health.
“What’s up?” Kai asked Syl as she flew past him.
She stopped and came back to him, an annoyed look on her face.
“We were too slow; the lich felt us coming. It shut everything down and went to sleep. It’s almost impossible to find the lich using my mana sense now.”
Hmm, Kai rubbed his chin and looked about the open field.
It didn’t look like a normal farmer's field; it looked like someone had taken a plough to a glade in the wake of a wildfire. Presumably to produce more food in the face of a looming famine.
“From what I have read about liches, they go to insane lengths to hide their souls, usually in a place full of death energy, as it will enrich them and allow them to grow stronger over time. So graveyards, tombs, crypts. Those are all the common places people look when hunting them,” Alicia said.
“This is where I first sensed it. And I'm certain this place was a focal point for whatever caused the mist. But I can't see anything but an empty field.”
Syl was right.
There was nothing here, but something bugged him.
It's just turned earth… Wait, do they also call it earth on Alea, or should it be turned Alea? That didn’t sound right. He guessed it depended on whether the planet Earth was named after the dirt or if the dirt was named after the planet.
Did it even matter?
His polyglot skill would translate things for him anyway.
He shook off the random thoughts and continued pulling on the thread that bugged him. Turned earth and a lot of stones? A lot of cut stones? tombstones…
“Alicia, you said they liked graveyards?”
Alicia and Syl turned to watch him as he walked over to one of the stones and started brushing off the dirt to reveal text he didn’t recognise but could still read.
“Something, something, of Trendull. Died of a broken heart in the four hundredth and fifty-first cycle of the second age… yup, this is a graveyard alright. Just a long-forgotten one by the looks of it. My guess is the villagers came here to farm the open land in an attempt to grow a surplus of food following the fires that came through.”
“They must have been so desperate they ignored the graves they turned over and kept ploughing.” Syl said as she looked about with fresh eyes.
“How long would it take for a graveyard to be buried like this?” Alicia said as she checked she wasn’t standing on something she should not be.
“Depend on local conditions, so it’s impossible to tell for us to tell with limited information. It’s likely the lich buried this place himself to help him hide. Though for the local villagers to desecrate the ground, it implies they either didn’t care for anyone interred here or they didn’t know this place was a graveyard.” Syl said.
“So, we are in the right area; we just need to find it.” Kai said, turning to Syl. “Remember us talking about robbing the village cemetery. Well, if you can’t use your mana sense like ground sonar, I suggest you phase into the ground and see what you can find.”
Syl gave him a wide-eyed, oops, look.
“You didn’t check underground with your mana sense, did you? Just got to the field. Didn’t find what you were looking for and immediately started to panic?”
Syl’s expression tightened with every one of his words, “In my defence, it was still a little misty when I got here, and yes, I expected to find something like a crypt or tomb, not a half-tilled farmer's field.”
“You know this is probably just the dungeon calibrated to make use of your unique abilities…” Alicia said.
“Yeah, the maze, the village, even the first time we entered this particular test, you were instrumental in getting us through it all. Even Alicia with Gift has done her part, killing enemies left, right and centre while she is also supporting me with her magic. I’m beginning to think I am just here to look pretty so you two exquisite women don’t feel bad for doing all the work.” Kai said, waving his spectral blade about and enjoying the way the mana came off in vaporous white flames; the blue blade itself crackled with the occasional pulse of purple light.
Syl sighed, smiled, and then gave him a hungry look, biting her lip in pent-up frustration as she moved to his side, “At least you are pretty.” She cooed in his ear.
“I- I didn’t mean it like that.” He stammered as he felt something rising; it wasn’t embarrassment.
Fighting back a carnal desire he was about to explain, he had just been joking, but Syl's look intensified the moment before she burst into cyan flames, taking on her cyan wisp form to dive into the dirt.
He turned to Alicia for backup, but she was hiding a smirk behind her hand, her soft chuckle like the sound of a bell telling him he stood no chance of bringing her to his defence.
Five minutes later, Syl popped back out of the ground towards the centre of the field and turned back into her full form.
They jogged over to find she was beaming.
“You enjoy swimming through the dirt.”
“Oh god no, the things I saw down there would give me nightmares if I hadn’t seen far worse in my time as… in my old job. This graveyard is ancient; I think there might be some ancient town buried around here somewhere. There were some valuable items, but nothing of use.” Syl said with a look of feigned horror before her face turned back to a beaming grin.
Alicia and Kai waited for her to fill them in.
Syl sighed, “You’re not going to ask?”
“I’ve learnt to wait to be told… waiting on my ability to read minds to awaken.” Kai teased.
“Fine, do you want the good news or the bad news?”
“Good news, please!” Alicia replied eagerly.
“I found the lich’s crypt; he stocked it full of treasure in an attempt to obscure where he hid his phylactery. Nasty stuff, items both cursed and trapped. Some of them were even set up to react badly to spatial magic.” She gave Alicia a pointed look. “You’ll want to be careful when you store any items of dubious origin in your personal ring. If I didn’t have my mana sense, I would have been none the wiser. Anyway, I was able to store everything but this one little gemstone hidden away in the corner under one of the floor slabs.”
He was starting to hope Kain was planning to teach him mana sense; so far it had been the most useful of all the skills they had learnt, and he could see it improving his mana control by leaps and bounds.
“And phylacteries cannot be looted?” Alicia asked.
Syl nodded, “Not when there is an unwilling soul locked inside.”
“So you found the lich. What is the bad news?”
“All my spells that could potentially destroy the damn thing are all cast through Kai as a proxy,” Syl closed her eyes as she took a moment, “Aaaand even with my limited ability to cast remotely from him, there is too much earth and stone for me to do anything while Kai is up here and it is buried down there.”
Kai clapped, “A-ha! It is earth!”
Both Syl and Alicia looked at him questioningly.
“Just figured out a little linguistic problem I ran into. At least I think I did… I’m a little lost on how Omniglot translates things.” He waved his hand, “Just ignore me. You were saying?”
“As I was saying, we need to dig, and by we,” Syl used mana conjuration to make two shovels in front of her, dropping them to the ground, she continued, “I mean you two. Unless either of you has a way to blow this thing up.”
He liked the idea of explosive archaeology more than using a shovel. “How deep are we talking?”
“About five or six meters…”
“And we don’t need to worry about destroying anything.”
“That’s actually the goal.”
“How big of a crater do you think a fully overloaded mana bolt will create if it's buried and set off remotely?”
Syl tapped her lips. “We could use a reinforced solid barrier to direct more of the energy downwards.”
Thrum-thim-chiim, “Gift is saying he wants to try something called an artillery strike?”
Kai grinned, “Oh, he gets to go first.”
An hour of explosive experimentation began.
In the end it was Gift and Alicia who destroyed the phylactery with a concentrated rain of explosive artillery on the crypt. She loosed an arrow straight up only for it to hit some golden spell circle and disappear; moments later, shots came whistling down from high above to beat the ground into submission with one explosion after another.
If the strike hadn’t been so awesome to watch, he would have called it cheating.
The moment Alicia got the notification of the kill and her own copy of the great monster slayer achievement, there was a twisting bright light, and the three of them found themselves back in the room with the arches.
The essence from destroying the level twenty soul is still pouring in, giving them all enough to level up again, and then some. Kai and Syl both went up two levels with the sudden influx, while Alicia went up one. Putting him at level eight, Syl at nine and Alicia at level ten.
He checked his status.
Status:
Name: Kai
Race: High-Human, High-Vei
Level: 8
Constitution: physically and mentally fatigued. Cursed items within domain ( contained - no risk )
Health: 99%
Stamina: 73%
Mana: Kai-0% / 69%-Syl
Physical Core: (50%)
Strength 35
Dexterity 35
Toughness 35
Vitality 35
Endurance 35
Mana Core: (50%)
Capacity 35
Control 35
Conversion 35
Absorption 35
Flow 35
Total Stat Points: 350
He couldn’t help but smile to himself. Just like Syl had recommended, both his cores and stats were perfectly balanced; his foundation was solid, but he had to admit seeing everything the same was quite boring. He thought about it and tweaked his personal system again.
Status:
Name: Kai
Race: High-Human, High-Vei
Level: 8
Constitution: physically and mentally fatigued. Cursed items within domain ( contained - no risk )
Health: 99%
Stamina: 73%
Mana: Kai-0% / 69%-Syl
Physical Core: (50%) [v]
Mana Core: (50%) [v]
Total Stat Points: 350
Yeah, he liked that; it told him all he really needed to know. If he ever came across anything that needed a particular stat, he could just expand it then.
He grinned, looked at the other two, and said, “Level eight, three hundred and fifty in perfect balance.”
“Level nine, three fifty-five, all balanced, only five ahead,” Syl sighed as she looked off to the side, “unless I get my physical projection soon or really start working on my mana core, I am going to fall behind.”
“I don’t think you should be complaining. I hit level ten with all that essence, and I was able to balance my cores but not my stats. I got some lumps to smooth out still, and I’m still behind at three hundred and six.” Alicia said, doing her best not to sound upset.
Syl looked between the two of them. “How about another girls night? I know I need to celebrate.”
“No surprise lingerie?” Kai said suspiciously.
Alicia actually looked a little disappointed, her dejected look hidden the moment she realised Kai was watching her.
Syl, seeing the same reaction, said, “Yeah, what Alicia said, lingerie is fun,” in mock seriousness.
“I said no such thing!”
“But you thought it…”
Kai let out a weary breath as he left to get out of his armour and have a long, hopefully quiet dip in the tub.
It wasn’t quiet. As a rather naked Syl joined him, he didn’t complain. The feeling of her projection relaxing beside him was nice, her company a perfect balm to a stressful day.
