For the next minute or so we hammer away at the shield surrounding Tearyl with ice and lightning. Before long it is riddled with cracks and Timbre comes to assist us. With no minions we are able to go to town on the lich while I continue to take shots from it and interrupt whatever curses I can. Then there is a cracking sound. The magical barrier we have been hammering on up until now flashes brighter right before the sound came, and the next thing I know is that I’m spinning through the air to land on the cold stone floor of the hall. Apparently the shield self destructed when it fell. Worried for my party members I get up quickly, a second Cripple spell making me ache as I do so. Timbre is up already, if she was even knocked down in the first place, and the other two are slowly making their way to standing again.
Looks like everyone took about 10 percent damage from the blast. I don’t even want to know what it would have been like if we all didn’t have a Mana Barrier to blunt the damage. Looking back to the boss I can see it has its hand raised like it did in the beginning, but this time it is the opposite arm. Before Timbre can get in position to strike again the lich drops its arm and raises skeletons from the opposite corner. As Timbre runs at the boss she diverts to intercept the minions that are forming while I cast lightning at Tearyl. Now that there is no barrier between us my spell lands and takes off a few percent of its HP.
Unfortunately I can’t continue because there are twice as many minions as last time. Luckily Timbre is so quick she is able to land an attack on one of the bow wielding skeletons before it’s prepared. Its skull explodes from the powerful hammer blow and the minion moves no more. That just leaves two casters and one archer for Azzaria, Thia and I to handle. By the time we have dispatched them a few minutes have passed and Timbre is having trouble with so many enemies to contend with. The whole time I’m being assaulted by Tearyl’s spells, taking curses and my Mana Barrier absorbing death spells. I had to renew my Mana Barrier once and it isn’t looking good now. Timbre killed another skeleton during this time but has taken a few hits herself.
I make a snap decision and yell out. “Azzaria. Support Timbre. Heal her and try to help whittle down the number of skeletons.” I can already see a green glow coming from her direction even before I finish. That leaves me and Thia to face off against Tearyl. We resume our magical assault on the lich, and this time we can actually cause damage to him directly not just his magical shielding. Still, he either has a large amount of HP or his resistances are making sure this doesn’t end quickly. We also aren’t able to interrupt him as he casts any more, taking our lightning spells like he doesn’t feel it. After raising more minions he holds his hands in front of him facing one another. In between them forms a ball of pure black, not the purple of death magic he used before. The ball of inky blackness is so dark it seems like it’s swallowing any light around it, and the boss keeps feeding it mana as I feel it getting increasingly dense.
After face tanking our spells, his is now at the size of a softball and extremely concentrated. Looking up from his work he snaps his jaw at me once with apparent glee and pushes the ball of absolute darkness at me. Seeing what is coming I try to dive out of the way but even with Haste I am only partly successful. Mid flight a beam of pure black strikes me. The newly cast Mana Barrier holds out for maybe half a second before shattering. Agony. Pure agony is the only word I can use to describe the feeling. Like every nerve in the lower half of my body just burst into flames, but refuses to die and just keeps firing off pain signals to my overloaded brain. It’s so intense that I can’t even scream as everything in me locks up from the shock.
Then my momentum takes me out of the beam’s path and I collapse on the floor. The first thing that happens is that my strained lungs suck in a gasp of breath only to release it as fast as possible in a tortured scream I didn’t even know I could make. The next thing I know my vision goes green for a moment and relief floods my nervous system. My mind clears and I remember what I was doing a moment earlier. I stand back up to the tortured screams of the muscles in my legs, but I push through it with a growl. Back on my feet I can see that our foe is focusing on another one of those darkness spells, but now there are only two skeletons keeping Timbre occupied. Making a split second decision I take a second to add extra mana to my Lightning spell then point at one of Timbre’s opponents. The bolt strikes the weakened skeleton right in the exposed spine before exploding.
With only the one skeleton left my furry companion lashes out with her hammer and dispatches it with a powerful overhead strike the skeleton wasn’t able to block. Then we can all focus back on the lich. Damn thing is starting to get on my nerves and I can still feel the lingering pain from his spell after Azzaria’s healing. Timbre runs to engage the dungeon boss once again and Azzaria hits me with another heal that gets me above seventy five percent HP once more. Even with my unusually high resistance and the barrier blunting the hit, my health dropped to almost fifty percent of max from that spell. I can tell from the feel of it that the spell the boss is powering up will fire before Timbre can get to him. Good. “Don’t get in the way of the spell!” I shout out for everyone. Thankfully they don’t argue and just trust that I have a plan to handle it. I do. Sort of. I immediately down one of the new strong mana potions we picked up, restoring 500 MP and nearly bringing me back to full. I will need the regeneration of the same over thirty seconds for what I have planned.
When the next beam of pure dark agony is released I have called up my staff’s Mana Shield ability to meet it. It takes a constant input of mana so it doesn’t shatter on contact, but my mana dips noticeably. After a second I am able to angle the shield so it takes less damage and deflects the blast to my left. The force of it also pushes me to the right and out of the way. The beam must have lasted for three or four seconds but in a fixed direction. Then Timbre is there to inflict damage. Her first hit takes him in the shoulder and there is a snap of bone while the boss’s health dips below fifty percent.
Without warning a black shockwave expands out of the lich. This one knocks us all back farther than the first one when the shield broke. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to cause much damage. It’s not just one hand that the lich raises this time. Both hands go up with the tell tale purple haze of death magic surrounding them. He turns around and points both hands at the enormous throne he was sitting on before. The thing is ten feet tall and five feet wide, composed completely of bones. With Tearyl’s gesture it explodes in a hail of individual pieces, but the bones that made up the throne never touch the ground. All of them whip through the air toward the boss. All of them start snapping into place around him and in only a few seconds he is sequestered away in a ten foot tall bone golem.
“Fucking bone mech suit” I can’t help but blurt out with trepidation and awe. Maybe this is a better deal though. He has to be pretty heavy now. With an idea I quickly form the design for a spell in my mind before pushing it to the palm of my outstretched hand. Flooding it with mana I focus on a spot on the floor between me and the transformed boss. When it turns to me and a head composed of multiple skulls all roaring out a challenge catches sight of me it steps forward. I release my spell and another step makes the skeletal appendage sink into my quicksand trap. Unable to stop its momentum quickly the giant skeleton stumbles forward trapping its other leg in the quicksand too.
With the boss trapped and struggling to free itself we are free to attack it from range. Feathers and lightning are flying from Thia as fast as she can cast them and Azzaria is firing arrows as fast as she can draw and fire her bow. I start alternating between Ice Lance and Lightning bolt. Our attacks are blasting bones off the construct but I can tell it isn’t doing any damage to the lich inside. After a moment of struggling the boss gives up on trying to free itself from my spell. We are all grouped up so when it lifts its head and roars we are all hit with the skill that sends a shockwave our direction. Thankfully we are far enough away that it doesn’t knock us down, it just forces all of us to take a couple steps back.
We resu
me our assault on the construct once again, but this time it isn’t as one sided. Raising its arm in our direction there is a purple glow that seems to emanate from the chest area below the bones. Then the bones of the arm start to break off and shoot in our direction. Everyone has Mana Barrier but we try to avoid them as much as possible. After a few seconds of dodging, the ground around us is littered with spears of bone. We all took a few glancing hits to our barriers but they are still holding. The arm that was firing the bones is all used up and there is no arm left. Then it lifts the other arm and the purple glow is visible again before the same thing happens. We dodge some more and get in a couple of shots ourselves, before the arm is gone.
Now that the arms are gone you might think that the boss is vulnerable, but I had my doubts. A moment later my suspicions where proved right when the glow returned. It didn’t go away after a second though, it just kept getting brighter. “Everyone behind Timbre!” I shout out. We all rush to her as I call out “Use Shield Wall!” Her extra large shield appears in front of her with the silvery shimmer of a skill just in time to take the explosion of bones radiating out from the dungeon boss. With the defense of Timbre’s skill we all get through the explosion without injury.
Revealed is the lich once again and he is already casting. Before we can do anything about it he has released a wave of purple magic that hits all of us. I don’t feel anything at first but there is a little icon that looks like a grave stone next to my HP bar. Focusing on it gives me the information. We have all been afflicted with something called Touch of the Grave, which lowers our dark and death type magic resistance as well as causing damage over time for two minutes. It’s only one damage per second now but it’s stackable.
I fire off a water whip which soaks the robes of the lich and then use Lightning Bolt. In the drenched stated that the robes are in we are doing a little more damage with lightning and Timbre has closed with Tearyl. Before she can swing though, the lich fires a purple flaming skull my way. The attack shatters my barrier because it was too fast for me to dodge and I still get hit with some of the damage from it, taking a fifth of my HP. Raising her hammer high now that she is close, Timbre brings it down and across in a diagonal toward the boss’s shoulder. We’re all stunned for a moment as the skeleton that is our foe raises his fist in an impossibly quick movement to block the shaft of the hammer on his forearm.
As we are all frozen in shock by the unexpected turn of events the lich takes advantage. Bringing the other boney hand up in a fist he punches Timbre in the shield. There is a flash of black inky magic and Timbre is flying backward. She lands twenty feet away and rolls into a heap. I quickly check her health bar in my vision and breath a sigh of relief when I see it’s still half full. She slowly starts to stir and I turn back to Tearyl. Seeing the boss is down to twenty percent I understand that it still took some damage even blocking Timbre’s hammer. “Finish this. Everything you got!” No one says anything but the response is an instant flurry of spells and glowing arrows pounding the lich.
The boss’s HP is falling fast but he is casting another spell, building dark magic in his hands. He is still facing Timbre though and she isn’t in any shape to avoid it while she struggles to right herself. Charging a Lightning Bolt for as long as I dare I release it and a line of electricity as thick as my wrist briefly connects me and the undead boss. That gets his attention as his health drops below five percent. Turning to me he fires a beam of pure black at me that is too fast and too large to avoid. I raise my hand and reflexively activate the Mana Shield from my staff, now a bracelet. It blazes into existence in an instant and takes a direct hit from the beam of black magic. There is an immediate dip in my MP and I have to concentrate just to maintain the shield, lest the attack overpowers it.
Unable to do anything besides concentrate on defending myself I hunker down behind the shield. As the seconds tick by the magical onslaught doesn’t let up. My head is pounding from the rapid drop in mana. My headache at an all new high, I can’t see what my mana is at because my vision is too blurry. Knowing that any second I will be dead as I run out of mana and the shield drops I don’t notice when the attack stops. Through the ringing in my ears I begin to hear something “Vol, can you hear me. VOL! Drop the shield. You can stop now.” Then there is something shaking my shoulder. Finally noticing the lack of Dark magic assaulting me I release my staff’s active skill.
Looking around and trying to understand what is happening I can see all three girls looking at me with concern. I try to stand up from the crouching position that I don’t remember taking to allay their fears, but I stumble to the side as a bout of dizziness hits me. Azzaria is there to help me stay upright though. “I’ll … be okay. Just need a moment to recover. What happened?” I look at the pile of bones and cloth that I assume was the lich and then back to the girls.
Azzaria leads me over to the steps that lead up the dais with the others hanging close by. I take a seat while she tells me what I missed. “That spell just kept going. I though it had killed you because none of us could see you through it, but the lich kept firing on that one spot. Thia and I were doing as much as we could but it wasn’t fast enough. Lucky for you Timbre was able to get up while the boss focused on you and then crush its skull.” Hearing that I nod to Timbre in thanks, which she returns with a warm smile.
Chapter 8
After a moment to compose my thoughts once again I address everyone. “Let’s heal up and then have a look around here to see if you can find anything that is hidden. I saw there was a door behind where the throne is. Take a look but don’t enter until we are all ready. I will loot the boss in a minute when I’ve had a moment to recover more.” With that everyone heads out to explore the extremely large hall we are in. As they search they call out when they find something. They find some more coins as well as a few bars of shiny black metal that is called shadesilver. The name kind of makes sense since it resembles silver that is cloaked in dark shadows. I already had some in the vault back in the keep so I plan to add this to it.
Behind the door was another room like the entrance chamber from when we first entered the dungeon. Finally I can get up on my own and steady enough to make my way over to the fallen dungeon boss. Kneeling there I can see the skeleton has already dispersed back into the dungeon. What I thought was the body of the lich before is actually a cloak. Underneath it are two books, one with a pitch black cover and the other with a dark purple cover. They both have glyphs on the covers that I recognize on sight. Spell books. Unfortunately they are obviously for dark magic and death magic, which I have neither of. Not yet. There are also two rings left behind. Thanking the first time bonus for all the extra loot, I Identify everything.
Cloak of the Grave Digger: A black cloak of heavy material that was designed to protect the wearer from the elements at night in a graveyard. Item class: Rare. Durability: 50/50. Armor +10. +5 VIT. Reduced effect of weather for the wearer.
Spell Book: Bone Armor: Creates a protective armor around the user from bones. Increases the caster’s defense. Class: Any. Death type magic unlocked.
Spell Book: Shadow Beam: Release a concentrated beam of shadows that causes damage to anything it comes in contact with. Class: Mage only. Dark type magic level 10+.
Gold Ring of Health: Simple ring made of gold and enchanted with a medium strength health enchantment. Item class: Rare. Durability: 25/25. +100 HP.
Gold Ring of Mana: Simple ring made of gold and enchanted with a medium strength mana enchantment. Item class: Rare. Durability: 25/25. +100 MP.
I tell the girls about what we have and we talk about what to do with it all. I end up taking the two rings and switching them with the weaker versions I was wearing. Timbre then gets the minor health ring and Thia gets the minor mana ring. Azzaria declined and said she has her own rings for that. I never noticed before but she is wearing a couple plain silver bands. Timbre also gets the cloak for its protection and VIT bonus. After we distribute the loot, I place the Dark magic spell book
into my storage, but when I reach for the other one Timbre grabs my hand.
When I turn a questioning look her way she answers. “Can I have that.” She looks so hopeful and innocent at that moment I almost hand it over right then, but I want to know why. It isn’t really something that is very useful for me, even if I could use it now, so it isn’t something I necessarily want. Timbre has never been one to really care too much regarding anything that wasn’t useful to her, so I’m curious about her interest.
After a moment of consideration I hand her the book, but I still ask about her motivations. “Here you go Timbre, you can have it. Why do you want it though? As far as I can tell you can’t use it.” At this she fidgets a little and I start to feel bad about making her uncomfortable. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
She stills her body and then looks me in the eye. “No. I want to tell you. It’s just very personal for those like me to tell anyone about their growth. What you call a talent tree. When I gain another level I should be able to pick a magical affinity. It will depend on my resonance and the kinds of magic that I have come into contact with. Since we have entered here I have been able to feel something all around us. I think that I will have a good affinity for Death magic.”
A Mage Rising: (The Chronicles of Herst 2: A LitRPG Saga) Page 17
