A Bored Lich

Several hot, searing pains stabbed through Doevm"s chest. The force of them knocked him against the wall. Little spurts of blood dripped from his torn skin and organs.

He instinctively formed a healing spell around himself. His flesh st.i.tched back together, but he could still feel the hot fragments of the metal bullets inside of his ribcage. The group of gunmen pointed their smoking guns parallel to the ground and poured some kind of gray sand-like powder into them.

Doevm had been expecting another a.s.sault like with archers or crossbowmen, who could continually fire off barrages of arrows and bolts, but the gunmen seemed to take much longer to reload. He finished his healing spells and sent his Undead forward.

The Banshee"s jaw unhinged as its mouth stretched open. Its eyes turned blood red as it prepared for a scream. Before it could yell, it rolled to the side, barely managing to move her head away from an arrow"s tip which had scratched against her cheek. One of the six members of the Resistance without a firearm stepped in front of the line of gunmen, another arrow already nocked to his long bow.

The Banshee shambled its uncoordinated body from side to side, trying to fit a scream in between the mult.i.tude of arrows. She didn"t even have time to leave her host body because, in the time it would take to do so, she would be riddled with arrows. If its host died, she would die. It was one of many weaknesses created from transforming a Ghost to a Banshee.

The gunmen turned their weapons perpendicular to the ground, took out pouches, and threw them inside the gun with a slight rattle.

The Guriant might have lost an arm, but it raised its other one and ran in. Another one of the six stepped forward, a woman with a ginormous hammer slung over her shoulder. Her black dress, leggings, mask, and the rest of her baggy clothes flapped as she pushed her way through the still-reloading line of gunmen.

The Guriant"s arm cracked as the hammer parried it away. The Undead didn"t seem to mind as it roared and swung again. After each strike, pieces of ash fell down and its body shrunk even more. The hammer-wielder"s feet sunk into the floor, which was unable to handle the pressure. The Guriant was pushed back as one of its legs flew into the wall.

The gunmen detached a thin metal rod from the bottom of the gun and rammed it several times down the hollow part, which Doevm a.s.sumed to be where the ammo was kept.

He couldn"t see any life essence coming out of the warriors, but he knew it was there, hiding beneath their baggy clothes. "Fools," he thought as he stretched his hands out. "I have just enough mana to deal with all of you. When fighting a Lich, you should never focus on its summons. Ghoul, bring the army down here!"

Magic circles appeared in front of the line of gunmen and the four men behind them. Before he could finish the spells however, a blade ran through his throat, and blood gushed out of the new thin red line. He was too surprised to even feel the pain.

He jumped away as a second dagger clinked off his armor, a half an inch of metal separating the weapon from his heart. In front of him stood a cloaked figure with two daggers, one dripping with his blood, and the other dripping with a green substance that eroded the floor.

Doevm used another bit of his dwindling mana supply to heal himself before dodging the dagger-wielder"s next attack. "I don"t have the time to form a spell!" Everywhere he retreated to, the man was there, slas.h.i.+ng at his vitals. His body slowed down against his will. It became heavy, almost leaning into the man"s attacks.

The Banshee, Guriant, and Doevm all neared the library"s wall. He could still hear the dull thuds of the Minotaurs trying to get through the wall behind them. He had no escape.

"Aim!" the man in strange clothing said. At once, all three attackers jumped back, and the gunmen raised their weapons. The black smoke had cleared. Their sights were set on his head. The rear of the guns clicked as a small metal piece flipped back.

"Fire!" The Guriant and Banshee jumped in front of Doevm. Another round fired off and both his Undead fell to the floor and faded away. "Captains, charge!" the man ordered. The archer, dagger-wielder, and hammer-wielder all jumped over the line of reloading gunmen.

"He"s testing me," Doevm thought. "Those two mages haven"t acted yet, and the leader hangs at the back. He knows I"m worn down. He"s saving as much resources as he can." He formed a barrier around himself which the daggers, hammer, and arrows clanged against. Large cracks ripped across the thick, transparent hunk of solidified mana.

Doevm"s mana supply dwindled down to dangerously low levels as he fed more mana to the barrier. He moved away, managing to dodge some of the attacks, but the large spherical barrier made him an easy target.

He glanced at the teleportation artifact at the other side of the room, still buried under rubble. Magic circles formed around it, and the chunks of ceiling and floor blew away. The floor under the artifact rose up at an angle, flinging it through the air.

"Mages," the leader said. The mages to his sides stepped forward and stretched their hands out. The artifact stopped in mid-air before it fell to the ground with a heavy thud. "He has earth, holy, and darkness magic. Take this one alive. He should be a good test subject after I am done a.s.similating this place."

Doevm coughed up blood as the three finally shattered his barrier. The second fear pill"s effects lessened by the second. His strength was already leaving him. He retreated only for his back to slam against the library"s magic-reinforced wall.

"Back!" The man said and the three jumped back. The gunmen raised their weapons. Doevm got ready to dodge, but nothing happened. The strange-clothed man in the back turned into a blur, heading straight towards Doevm, who turned himself into mist. Not a second later, the wall behind him was cut open, and the man halted just before it.

The man clicked his tongue. "You"re more of a pain in the a.s.s than that psychiatrist," he said before diving straight through Doevm. "And you"ve still got some tricks up your sleeves." He rubbed his chin. "Incorperal-type magic huh? That makes four types of magic, how many more do you have?"

"The fear pills are wearing off already!" Doevm thought. He took out another fear pill and solidified, unable to manage his mana anymore. The man raised his sword, aiming the blunt side of it at Doevm"s neck. "I"m too late!"

The ceiling burst open, and hundreds of hungry Undead rained down. Ghoul landed in front of Doevm, a bit of drool coming from its sharp teeth.

The man opened his mouth: "Fire!" Shots whizzed through the air. Hot grey metal pierced through the Undead"s cold pale skin. Many Ghouls collapsed, but there were plenty more, their red eyes unable to look away from the feast in front of them.

The library"s wall burst open and the Minotaurs charged in, crus.h.i.+ng anything in their path. Five breaks originated from the gunmen, who transformed into creatures and tangled them in hair. "Don"t let up," the leader said. "We will keep pus.h.i.+ng after this, all the way to the tenth floor. The mage opened the way for us. We just need to keep going!"

Doevm ate the third fear pill and ran through the crowd while Ghoul kept the leader busy. Of all the Undead he had summoned, Ghoul was the one which took the most mana, and a Ghoul at that level, would last at least for a minute. That gave Doevm plenty to make it to the teleportation artifact.

Arrows, bullets, blood, and guts flew through the air like heavy rain. He rolled out of the way of the hammer, which created a crater next to his leg, weaved through a combination of daggers, which only managed to hit his outside flesh, but just before he could make it to the artifact, an arrow shot through his calf.

He slid to the ground within mere inches from the artifact. He reached for it only for his hand to be stomped on. The archer held an arrow in front of his face, the bowstring already pulled back and ready to release. The hammer and dagger-wielders dragged the artifact away. "Don"t move."

"I won"t," Doevm coughed. "But you will." His soul condensed and shot into the archer. "Throw me at the artifact!" The archer threw his bow to the side as his eyes went into blank state.

Doevm"s connection with Ghoul broke as the strange-clothed man ran his sword through its skull: "This is an order. At all costs, do not let that mage escape! He knows soul magic!" The archer grabbed Doevm and threw him at the artifact. Spells and weapons sailed past him. "Mages, track where he teleports and follow him!" The mages ran in as fast as they could. Doevm touched the cool surface of the artifact and vanished from the room, using up the last bits of mana he possessed.

…

When Doevm opened his eyes after vanis.h.i.+ng, he discovered that wasn"t on the Black Market"s fifth floor anymore. He was out of the Underground, out of the Capital, out of the mountain, and out in the sky. He remained still for a moment, until gravity kicked in and his stomach sank along with the rest of his body back down towards the ground.

The Resistance"s two mages appeared a few seconds after him, at the same place he had appeared. They fell down just as Doevm did, down towards the thick layer of dark clouds blocking all vision of the ground.

"You psycho!" one of the mages yelled over the wind. "You don"t have mana left to save you. You"re completely out!"

"I know," Doevm said. "I figured that I might as well take you two with me." He extended his body and limbs out, and his fall slowed due to the increased air resistance. The mages, however, didn"t know of such a technique. They fell faster because their bodies stiffened and balled up, which allowed him to close the distance. He launched some throwing knives at them.

The mages looked at each other as the knives neared them, then vanished with a magic circle"s light. "I"m in the clear," Doevm thought to himself. "Well, that didn"t solve all my problems." He looked back down at the clouds. "I don"t have mana to save me. All I have is my life essence." He brought out what little life essence he had left and condensed it around his body, prioritizing his organs and bones.

He fell into the dark clouds, getting wet from the vapor. He heard a thud and his world went black as night. The air left his lungs. Something wet hit him. It was not water.

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