Chapter 533 Dungeon Lich
The Dungeon Lich turned and glared at us, the light in those empty, dark sockets where its eyes should be shining menacingly.
It waved its arms in the air and several skeletal arms popped out of the ground, its skeletal summons standing protectively in between us and the Lich.
The skeletons were also wielding a variety of weapons, though I suppose a good thing was the fact that they were not an organised team but just basically a mob of monsters.
The skeletal mob started shambling their way towards us where our lone leader stood facing against the horde with a determined stance.
Behind him was Eita and myself, acting as his support against the skeletons.
The first skeleton that reached him wielded a greataxe, the undead monster raising it above its head to try and smash it down on top of the swordsman.
Riklan nimbly sidestepped out of the way and avoided the sluggish strike, responding to the attack with a slash to the skeleton's head with his blade.
There was a loud 'crunch' as the force of the blow was enough to shatter a part of the skeleton's skull and dislodge the head from the spine, the rest of the skeleton crumbling into a pile of bones shortly after that.
The next skeleton was quick to take its place, this one wielding a sword and shield.
It tried to raise its shield in an attempt to bash the swordsman but Riklan attacked it first with a shoulder bash instead, sending the skeleton stumbling back clumsily and crashing into its comrades.
He then quickly ducked as a skeleton archer attempted to shoot him with an arrow, the projectile barely missing him by mere inches before another skeleton got into melee range.
This one was wielding a longsword and was trying to slice at Riklan with a slash from the side.
Riklan rotated his grip on his sword quickly and parried the blow away. Then, in a single smooth motion after the parry, he rammed the pommel of his sword into the skeleton's unprotected spine below its ribcage, shattering it into pieces and breaking the skeleton into half.
Hmm… Even though there's a lot of them, the skeletons seem to be quite stupid and brittle. I guess as long as we can keep away from getting hit by their weapons, we can smash them quite easily.
Now the mob was starting to congregate in front of him, forcing him to take a step back.
Just as three skeletons were about to descend upon him, an icicle shard flew out from Eita's hands and shattered the skull of the one on his right.
The projectile did not stop there as it continued its path to impale itself in the head of the skeleton archer, similarly destroying it as well.
Riklan then swung his sword with both hands in a wide arc, smashing both the skeletons in front of him in the head and leaving them as nothing but piles of bones.
Three skeletons were now five as the next wave came forward, two of them wielding a sword and shield while the other three were using greatswords.
Riklan managed to dodge out of the way when the three greatswords came down from above him but he was unfortunately not able to avoid the sword thrusts from the other two skeletons, their blades nicking him in the sides.
He barely paid attention to the wound as my magic was already working on him, closing said wounds almost as fast as he had received them.
His sword smashed against the head of one of the greatsword wielding skeletons but he had to retreat before he got skewered by another attempted stab.
Eita had completed her spell chant then, causing a large column of ice to materialise in the air above the skeletons and drop down heavily on top of their heads. The ice was large enough to crush the four remaining skeletons and even a few that were lining up behind them, giving Riklan a chance to catch his breath.
But despite all that, the Lich continued to summon more and the tide of skeletons not only remained unabated, it was even increasing by the minute.
I briefly considered helping Eita by launching my own attack magic as well but decided against doing that. I'll only step in if I have to and for now, things were still within what we planned.
The Lich tried to attack both Eita and I directly by flinging a ball of fire at us but Eita cancelled that spell out with an ice ball of her own.
It tried again, targeting me this time but Eita also intercepted that attack easily as though she had predicted such an attack pattern.
Riklan continued to stand against the tide of skeletons on his own but even I could see that he could not hold them back indefinitely as he was slowly losing ground. Even with Eita's magic clearing a few of them at a time to allow him to advance a step forward, he would still be forced to give up the ground he gained when more of the skeletons started attacking him.
This was also clearly putting a toll on Eita as she most definitely did not have an inexhaustible mana pool, the girl already needing to chug down a mana potion after the spells she had cast.
The Lich tried to attack us directly again but it was so focused on us that it did not spot Kaelin dashing out of the shadows to do a running leap at it from behind.
The rogue's swords flashed out, hitting the back of the Lich with a loud crash.
The monster stumbled forward but it was clear it was not defeated yet as the lights in its hollow eyes shone brighter with malevolent fury.
It raised its arm and created another ball of fire it intended to use to incinerate Kaelin with.
Unfortunately for it, Eita definitely did not waste that opportunity that presented itself by shooting an icicle that crashed into the Lich's ribcage, forcing it to cancel the spell.
With the Lich currently distracted, I took the chance to buff Riklan.
"I grant you strength through mystic force. Move the skies, the earth and the sea, nothing shall stop your awesome might! [Strength]!"
Riklan's body glowed for a moment and the swordsman let out a rare warcry when he swung his sword in front of him.
At least six skeletons were smashed away in an instant from that single swing.
Before the buff ran out, he charged forward and smashed his shoulder into another skeleton, the force enough to send it flying into the air and crash down in the throng of skeletons behind it.
Two skeletons had slashed at him with their swords, one of the blades bouncing off his armour harmlessly but the other managing to score a hit on his arm.
Riklan then swung his sword in a backswing, decimating another six skeletons including the two that stood in his path.
I switched off the buff and changed back to healing him, returning his body back to perfect health.
Kaelin attempted another sneak attack from the back at the Lich, his twin swords slashing out at the Lich's back.
Unfortunately, the Lich seemed to have grown a little smarter and intercepted his blow with a shield of earth that blocked his slashes.
It then shot a small fireball that exploded in Kaelin's abdomen, sending the poor rogue flying back.
Fortunately, I managed to get his heal off in time so most of the damage should already be reversed even while he was sent flying through the air.
He managed to recover enough to flip himself in midair and land on his feet, the front of his armour a little burnt but otherwise still fine.
I switched back to buffing Riklan again as Eita had to chug another mana potion, allowing him to cleave through another group of skeletons before he needed to retreat and let Eita bombard them with an AOE ice spell.
Kaelin slinked back into the shadows, attempting to find another chance to strike at the Lich from behind.
But surprisingly, Riklan shouted at me, "Aster! Buff me again!"
I did as he asked and his body glowed to show the successful activation of the spell.
He then further baffled Eita and I by leaping over the heads of the skeleton horde to land in front of the Lich, the monster having turned his back on us to look in the direction of where Kaelin had been.
The swordsman let out a roar and brought his sword down in an overhead slash, the Lich only managing to turn his head back halfway before the blade smashed down on top of it.
The floor boss let out a screech before the blade completely cut through its skull and even also its robes like it was made of paper.
There was a moment of silence before the boss monster fell down on the ground and the rest of its skeletal summons followed suit, leaving nothing but piles of bones that slowly disintegrated into dust.
Ermm… Well… I have to say… That was actually easier than I thought… I didn't think Riklan would rush in like that.
But hey, we won, so that's all that matters, right?
Now, dibs on the monster materials!
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶