The Lich System

Danger

Rena dreamt briefly, at first she had been peaceful. However moments only passed before something clawed at her from deep within. Twisting her dreams into nightmares of darkness, screams and the cold eyes of burning crimson blue fire.

She snapped awake, cold sweat running down her brow and a deep shiver of fear that didn't settle for a second. She often had these omens, dreams of one day occurrences, it could happen anytime, but the more vivid it became, the less time she had until it happened.. This dream.. It was.. Too vivid.

Huff* Huff* Huff*

She inhaled and exhaled air like a gasping fish, was that a vision? If so.. Was there time short? How long had it been since she's had visions? A few years at least, Lia craned her head slightly. Taking no notice of Rena's distress. She had been watching for maybe an hour or so. Yet that sound she heard so faintly grew closer ever so slightly. It was like jingling metal and boots against the cold stone floor. At first it was too muffled to make out, but the closer it got. The more suspicion she felt.

Rena too heard it after calming her nerves down a bit, well she felt it. The lightest of a tremor each step. Her senses were unusually quiet, but there was no doubt about it. A new enemy, definitely not the basic undead they faced. She grasped her blade, its edge rasping against the stone floor as she rose to her feet.

She didn't feel rested enough, nor ready for the fight to come. Only she had no choice, waking Dale up and whispering into his ear before any protest could be given. Dale paled at the prospect of something stronger.

 "but.. I don't have much in the tank."

Damnit with their wizard low and their archer on the brink of zero ammunition. She didn't know what to do. This very well could be their true last stand. Only Dale now felt the situation called for an emergency. 

Unfortunately before he could even announce that he had a return scroll. 8 Growling 9 foot Death knights entered the room. Eyes dilating, Dale scrambled against the stone to get as far against the wall as possible. "Death knights!!"

Death Knights were by no means normal undead, they were virtually impossible to create normally, one must be a.. Lich, to create such dead. It was only expected of Dale to almost screech in terror.. After all Death Knights had that name for a reason, like reapers in the night they are very strong undead. Scarily enough, not the strongest there is.. But still very strong and high up in the undead world.

Rena sharply inhaled, they looked like demons from the 9 hells. Black armor with a strange glow outlining it, runes humming along their armor and long black swords. Not to mention their fiery eyes. Eesh, their bad news!

Lia didn't waste time; she drew her bowstring back until she could no longer do so. Long then shaft of rich brown wood tipped with bronze and etched with strange symbols.

Narrowing her eyes a wisp of blue flashing from the depths of her vision, she fired her arrow. Its tip splitting the air before it with a high whine. First Death knight swiftly raised its sword to cut down the arrow, yet once the tip so much as touched the wicked blade a boom enveloped the Death knight's sword and its arm, blasting both clean off.

However not dead, just missing an arm. The Death knight growled with an otherworldly sound. Yet Lia wasn't done, she notched 3 more explosive tipped arrows releasing them in quick succession. 

Boom*

Boom*

Boom*

Each arrow containing an equivalent to a frag in terms of explosive yield enveloped 2 of the Death knights. With the first having already lost its arm. Thoom!

The first giant crashed into the tomb's stone floor. its body riddled in holes, the head clean blown off. Lia felt her heart jump in victory, but putting aside the thought of actually managing to kill higher undead. She focused on the second. She did fire 4 out of 11 explosive tips.. 7 left. But that was disheartening alone!

Seems the first knight took all the damage so its brother in arms could move on.

That much she could tell, as the debris had yet cleared a wicked blade flashed out, its edge glinting against the cold firelight. She felt her heart skip in danger and rolled left to avoid being hit. 

Clang!*

The sword struck the stone with sparks, however..

A sharp sting forced her to hiss, touching her face where the sword had nicked her! The knight drew blood. Just a scratch, but still. Her reflex was almost too slow. That wasn't good, assuming she the archer has some pretty high agility and reflex. Glancing up where her face had been. She didn't see an enemy, just a long 5 foot sword sticking out of the cracked stone wall.

Lia widened her eyes at the Death knight's strength, but quickly refocused on one important matter. Where was the enemy? She snapped her head straight. A tall black monster of metal and bone staring down at her with 2 more peering just behind it. No escape! 

She tried, but as said, she knew her outcome here. Dashing right to use the sword to perhaps stop them? Nope the 3rd death knight stepped past and in the way. grabbing the wicked sword and pushing the handle down. Stone wall next to her groaned, cracked and gave way to some debris as she almost lost her head. 2nd Death knight stepped behind her and booted her in the back before planting a first heavy boot on her back. effectively locking her down. Lia let out an "Ack!" she was stuck! like a mouse under the paw of an obedient lion waiting for its masters orders to kill.

Rena and Dale had their own worries, unable to glance at their friend, before they faced 4 Death knights. Dale couldn't help directly. He whispered to himself quickly, the scroll under his robe faintly glowing. He didn't have much and normally you would power them up before use. Unfortunately in his case he hadn't done so before entering. Thinking of this as some fun dungeon stroll. How wrong he was!

Death knights were not normal, their stature completely betrayed their abilities. Steps so quiet, strength to topple walls, intelligence, and even equipment to raze armies to the ground. 

Rena danced amongst the knights, her blade flashing to parrying blows and trying to force off the knights. Yet they were stronger and she was losing more ground every step back she had been forced to take. Her parries earned the indirect shock that such powerful enemies were capable of, she was basically on the defensive. The force behind those long wicked swords was no joke. 

Strangely they had plenty of opportunities to kill her. Perhaps they weren't all that smart. But that just didn't sit right with her, something was wrong. She didn't feel that this was a battle, no it was like they were herding her. Like some raging bull into a cage. She couldn't stop them, pushing even harder to escape this seemingly forming cage. Only lead to their sword becoming faster and the strength behind each blow doubling.

###

Duth entered much later than his knights. So when he entered it was chaos. One of the mortals was already restrained, the two others weren't. Only something was missing, there were only 7 knight's where was the 8th? 

He scanned the room ignoring for the moment a battle at hand. 

There, an abnormally sized coffin? No, just a death knight missing its head and its chest riddled. Not to mention a missing arm. 'What an annoyance! Already lost an undead, I probably can't recreate those yet!'

Although 3 mortals were great for harvesting so that's a win already! He momentarily bowed his head to the knight's corpse. You didn't die in vain my dear loyal soldier. Even still..

Killing intent spread across the room with a winters cold aura. All three of the mortals paused only momentarily to see an undead eldritch horror. A skeleton dressed in void black shadow that wisped, smoked and flowed off him. A crown rusted stood a tilt on his head and crimson blue fire raged in its eye sockets. Dale being the researcher inhaled in fear, they were done, so fucking done! He couldn't utter how much deep shit they were in. Liches were akin to stardust. You'd more than likely find a country of dragons than you would a lich. 

But just as they are mythic, they are also extremely powerful beings. Ranking even over dragons at this point. Only other mythic grades could even dare go toe to toe with these beings. Just like demigods long ago fought the liches, they were just as mythical of not greater in the regard of their power.

He heard the stories of their destructive nature and mastery of other death, and twisted life. Not to mention their harvest events.. Shuddering at the old text he read during his bookworm days in the academy.

Dale doubled his efforts on the scroll. already almost complete! Hoping not to draw the ever cold yet burning fire of the liches ire. 

Rena on the other hand couldn't pay enough attention. Hell her danger senses were off the charts and screaming at her to run. Right now she couldn't, locked in battle to keep the damn Death knights off Dale who whispered an excessively long string of words. She couldn't spare to listen, hoping instead that whatever he was doing would get them the hell out of here! Or even turn every undead here into cinders!

Duth's fiery eyes scanned across the mortals slowly. First was the archer. green and brown cloaked her well, but there was dark steel and varying plates of metal protecting vital places. Perhaps broken apart and spread across to handle damage and give at least some kind of agility. Must've been heavy. I wonder if they have magical properties. Moving over to the warrior's battling back 4 knight the best she could. He noticed the knights were just playing with their food, how strangely fun to watch this. Considering they don't need stamina. Sure the lady clad in chainmail and leather moved fast and danced in battle like a sword saint, unfortunately wasn't effective against the dead. She switched targets quickly to damage them over time. Not so much of a damage dealer. I wonder why she plays this style of combat? Perhaps this is just a party of 3? seems legit.

Not to forget the mage who probably caused those damn thundering explosions looked especially interesting. With life vision his aura was flaring and surrounded by what could be visible imitation of mana. Granted it was visible to him, the same can't be said for them. Whatever he was doing it wasn't a spell as far as Duth could tell. Throwing his glance at the wizard again. All he could really see was brownish green robes. That was really all. No wizard hat or what say you. No staff, that's good at least. Must be a lower leveled wizard?

As much fun as watching them fight had been, he grew impatient quickly. Demanding the Death knights to step up their game and disarm them. Saying so ended this game very swiftly. The knights stepped into the warriors blows and restrained her whilst ripping her weapons away. Whilst the wizard was approached by two Death knights that decided to leave Lia alone with one of the Death knights. Not that she could move. The boot was on the brink of crushing her spine and organs into paste. 

Bah, Duth felt excited he could finally use his harvest skill and take their life. Their demise will be the start of his cause! Now, I suppose the tastier subject would be the wizard. Seeing as he is really low. it might just be a tad salted and only good enough. Although I could allow him to build mana he keeps spending it on whatever item he is using. Considering the amount, it's best if I remove him first.