135: Obstacles, Part Ten

Obstacles, Part Ten

Standing before the locked door, Erin waited as Neve held up the four keys.

The System accepted each one, with the items fading into dust one by one until a message read: 

{Keys: 4/4}

And, the barrier keeping the pair from entering the building disappeared as well. 

Neve and Erin didn't say anything to each other. There was nothing left to say. There was just a boss to kill. 

[Here goes nothing.]

Neve brought her sword back out and opened the doors. 

As soon as she did, the smell of dust and stagnant air hit her nostrils. 

Immediately, it became clear what this place was. The coffins stacked on top of each other on the sides, some carved into the stone, gave it away. It was a mausoleum. 

[Yeah, the odds of this boss being undead too are looking pretty good.] 

Stairs at the back led deeper into the crypt. Erin went ahead while Neve checked the corners, ensuring she hadn't missed any items or hidden enemies. 

They went down the set of stairs and found more coffins waiting for them, along with one singular figure in the back. 

It looked like a thin, sickly man wearing a black hood, holding up a staff. 

  Level 63

MP: 600/600

As Neve and Erin approached, the stairs they took to get there were blocked off. The tip of the man's staff began to glow red. 

He aimed it just a step in front of himself, on the ground. 

Four level 58 skeletons appeared. 

MP: 900/1000

[Is the boss a lich?] 

Each one held a different weapon. One was an archer, one was a swordsman, one used an ax, and another carried a warhammer. Blue beads in their eye sockets burned brightly, as a red aura surrounded them. 

Something came to Neve's mind, then. 

[Wait, did the buff go to the skeletons too? Probably, right? Fuck.] 

It didn't matter. As long as she could land {Holy Beckons} on these enemies, they would fall like any others, regardless of their levels. 

[... Why bother taking the minions down first?] Neve thought. [Maybe, I can finish this right now.] 

And so, she went for the boss. 

Erin understood her intentions and moved ahead of her, looking to distract the four skeletons while Neve aimed her spell at the man in the black hood. 

MP: 1050/1100

A white run appeared beneath the boss. It had taken a moment, as Neve's hands simply wouldn't remain steady for some reason, but once the spell was out, Neve waited.

The spell, however, did no damage to the man. 

Neve's eyes widened. 

Immediately, she thought of two reasons why this could be the case, as Erin struggled to keep the skeletons at bay. 

The first was that, maybe, there was an item they needed in order to damage this opponent. She quickly rejected that notion, however, as she turned around and saw that the path leading into this crypt was closed, whereas, on the 3rd Floor, where this had been the case, it had been left open. 

The second possibility complicated things but seemed more likely. 

[This isn't a lich,] Neve thought, gritting her teeth. [It's a necromancer. This guy isn't undead!] 

"Erin, change of plans," Neve called out to her summon. "{Holy Beckons} doesn't work on that mage. Leave the skeletons to me and take that guy out!" 

"Understood!" 

Immediately, Erin pulled her attention away from the summoned foes and instead charged at the necromancer, while Neve began aiming her spells at the skeletons around it. 

MP: 850/1100

Because their eyes were still following the lamia, it was easy to land the runes. And yet, what Neve saw when the spells appeared was a little disheartening. 

The runes manifested and the usual divine flames burned the skeletons, but they didn't go down. Instead, they instantly turned toward Neve and ran at her, looking like the spells had only served to make them angrier. 

[So, the buff DID go to the skeletons!? Fuck, fuck!] 

Neve's follow-up cope was that maybe, just maybe, even though these skeletons were a lot tougher than she'd anticipated, all they had to do was cut down the necromancer and the fight would be over, as his summons would disappear. 

However, the next unfortunate fact showed in the way Erin struggled to even get close to him. 

He dodged out of the way of her claw strikes easily, moving from one spot in the crypt to another with the grace of an experienced ballerina. 

[Oh,] Neve thought, as the skeletons ran at her. [This is bad.]

The "gimmick" of the fight made itself clear as she too tried to dodge away from the enemy summons' attacks, running off to the side. 

[The skeletons are probably buffed so much that it'll take multiple casts of {Holy Beckons} per skeleton to kill them. At the same time, if my guess is right, since the boss has an Arcane of 100, that necromancer's attributes are probably divided between only two stats. Arcane and Speed,] she theorized. [The "test" here is to see if we can either catch him before the skeletons kill me or kill enough skeletons to where he runs out of mana and all we have to do is wait till he's tired since his Endurance is probably pretty low.] 

Both options seemed difficult. 

Neve slid to a halt as an ax landed in front of her. The skeleton holding it quickly pulled its hands back and Neve was forced to roll forward to avoid its next attack, ending up in a crouched position in front of the warhammer-wielder. This skeleton swung its weapon like a baseball bat and Neve ducked so hard her jaw hit the floor. 

Scurrying forward, she kept avoiding attacks while at the same time trying to create a plan in her head. 

[If we go for the first option, since there's four skeletons there's a pretty big chance I'll get cut down before we catch the motherfucker. If we go for the second option, I'll run out of mana before he does.]

Unless...

[{Holy Beckons} is a strong spell, but it isn't my only option.] 

With five casts of {Holy Beckons} already, Neve was halfway done charging her sword, Sayran's Holy Blade. 

[If I can activate it, it'll remain activated until the end of this fight. I'll be able to deal damage without having to use up any mana!] 

Having decided on that, the battle was split into two sides. 

On one half of the crypt, Erin was trying her hardest to catch the necromancer only for the man to bounce from one wall to another. On the other, Neve proceeded to cast {Holy Beckons} five more times in a row.

She spread her spells out hitting only a couple of them more than once. 

MP: 600/1100

One, and only one, of the skeletons died, reduced to ashes by the barrage of spells. The others were still standing, albeit heavily damaged. 

Neve's blade was activated. The necromancer saw this happen and instantly got another skeleton out to take the previous one's place. 

MP: 875/1000

[So, it takes about 3 {Holy Beckons} to take down 1 of these skeletons. Okay. How many hits with my sword does that equal?] 

She was about to find out. 

Strafing to the left got the skeletons to line up in front of her. It wouldn't be an extended fight but, with her activated sword and 29 Speed, Neve felt she could potentially land two or three blows. 

The ax-wielding skeleton jogged toward her at a brisk, calm pace. Neve waited and waited until the skeleton raised its weapon over her head. 

She sidestepped the falling swing and bashed its head with her sword. Like sparks off metal, divine fire briefly flashed from its skull. Naturally, it wasn't enough. 

Neve swung again, and again, and again. 

She got three more swings in before the other skeletons caught up. 

And, it was on the fourth that this skeleton died. 

The necromancer had another one out before Neve could even process that she'd killed the ax-user, but some information was gained. 

[3 casts of {Holy Beckons}, 4 solid hits with my sword. That's how much it takes to kill these things.] 

Erin disappeared soon after she made that discovery. 

The necromancer stopped and instantly raised his staff, casting a spell that saw three ghostly skulls appear over his head. The skulls were launched at Neve and the healer ran off in hopes of avoiding them. 

Sprinting across the crypt, she resummoned Erin. 

MP: 300/1100

[I only have the mana to summon Erin one more time... Agh, I wish I did some more damage. I don't think I have the damage to carry out the idea I had. I'm not gonna be able to get his mana low enough before I'm left on my own. Shit!] 

Neve fixed her eyes on the necromancer. 

[... Change of plans, again. We have to take him down ASAP.] 

She didn't like it, but with her damage output being lessened so intensely by the buff she provided to these skeletons, she felt like the highest chances she had winning would be in trying to end this fight in one quick sequence. 

[I've been putting all of my points into Speed. Let's hope it ends up coming through for me here.] 

She crossed from her half of the boss arena to Erin's. 

Again, seeing her approach, Erin was able to accurately guess Neve's intentions. Enough to make Neve wonder when exactly they'd started to work this well together. 

She instantly activated {The Lamia's Hunt}, understanding that she'd need as much Speed as possible to pull this off. 

The necromancer jumped away from her, backflipping through the air, and landing a step in front of Neve. 

She cast {Iceball} twice on him. 

The spells landed, as the necromancer hadn't seen her coming. As soon as the blocks of ice crashed into his body, though, he leaped away from Neve, moving right back to where he had been. 

[Two ice spells. I'm probably not gonna land any others, so I hope that's enough to slow him down at least a little!] 

Neve ran at him, with the skeletons catching up behind her. 

Erin ran after him as well, her claws extended by her side. 

Without the option to run forward or back, the necromancer took the third option and jumped straight up into the air, where it grabbed onto what looked like a hanging candelabra. 

This would have been enough to end Neve's efforts, but the necromancer hadn't taken something into account. Erin wasn't human. 

Erin pushed herself up, stretching her body through her tail so that she could reach up far higher than any normal human would be able to. 

As the skeletons reached Neve, Erin pulled the necromancer down by his legs. 

"Aergh!" The necromancer cried out as Erin slammed him on top of the incoming skeletons. 

"Take him down, now!" Neve yelled out. 

Erin used one of her Dragon techniques to do the job. 

Activating {Dragon's Divine Breath}, a river of flames poured over the man's body. 

He screamed, a sound that nearly tore Neve's eardrums. But it didn't last long. 

His Endurance was, as Neve predicted, quite low. So, the instant they actually got damage in on him, he was done. 

It was harder than Neve had thought it would be, going into this fight, but still, they pulled through rather quickly. 

Neve breathed a sigh of relief as the skeletons collapsed. 

[Oh, thank goodness. We managed to-]

From the coffins, souls began to appear. They siphoned into the man's corpse, and his eyes began to glow blue in the same way as the corpses. 

{Boss: Lich King Izaldri}

Neve's eyes widened. 

[Second phase!] 

But, she was having none of it. 

"ERIN, USE THAT ABILITY AGAIN!" 

She did as Neve asked, covering him in flames. At the same time, Neve cast {Holy Beckons} under the opponent. 

One, two, three, four times in a row, stacking white runes on top of each other as the boss's new body materialized. 

The boss was being damaged heavily but could do nothing to defend himself, as he was still transitioning between phases. 

[Fuck this. I have 3, maybe 4 more floors to get through. You're dying NOW!] 

As she ran out of mana, before the boss had fully transformed, Neve ran up and held her sword in a reverse grip, aiming it at the man's head. 

"AAGH!" 

She cried out as she slammed the tip down on his head. 

His skull shattered. 

"AAAEEEERRRGH!" The lich gave an unnatural scream. 

Neve backed off just before his body exploded. 

She waited.  1

Pieces of the necromancer-turned-lich king could be seen all throughout the crypt. 

An EXP message appeared. 

It was done. 

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