A Bored Lich

Chapter 152 - Final Push

The Knights, with their energy reinvigorated, threw themselves with more of a crazed frenzy than the Creatures which they fought. Gunfire was absent, as the gunmen had run out of ammo. They drew their swords and joined the last stand. Even the apprentices were running out of steam. Their bodies were covered in their own sweat and thick layers of the Creature's black blood.

Doevm stepped out of the dragon's open chest wound with his spear, covered in guts and blood, pointed at his three approaching opponents. His knuckles were turning white from tightening his grip so much. 'Embrace the rage but do not be enslaved to it,' he thought.

The archer fired another arrow, which Doevm caught by pulling it into his spatial ring. "Try something new next time," he hissed through his clenched teeth. 'Now,' he thought as the three majors drew closer. 'I can't engage all three at once. I'll just temporarily disable one and eliminate the rest. The archer is only an annoyance, so that means I can just focus on the hammer-wielder or rogue first…but I think the rogue is long overdue.'

He increased his pace from a walk to a sprint as blue life essence flew from his limbs. The boiling hate brought back his suppressed strength. First came the rogue with his poisoned daggers. Doevm, however, put his spear back into his spatial ring right before the two clashed. When the daggers flashed to his throat, he stretched out his hands and let them sink right through his palms. The poison seeped into the sharp pains. Pain came with the same dulled sensation but compared to what he had just gone through, it was nothing.

The rogue, who usually had an uninterrupted flow of strikes, halted as Doevm tightened his grip. 'Poison works by spreading throughout the body by entering through the blood flow, or at least this one should. All I need to do is stop my blood flow and it can't spread.' Doevm smirked. The rogue squirmed under his increasingly tight grip until his hands broke. Blue life essence moved from his legs to hands. He focused on his blood vessels, shrinking them to block up the flow of blood and thus containing the poison. The poison tore holes in his hands but stopped just short of his wrists. Then he moved his hands towards the rogue's eyes.

'I figured out how to counter poison, but did you?' Doevm thought as he widened his blood vessels. The blood which had been backed up, flooded out of the wound. Doevm flicked it into the rogue's open eyes along with his own daggers. The rogue fell back, holding his face with muffled screams. Doevm wrapped his leg in life essence before driving it into the rogue's groin for good measure. 'One down.'

An enormous shadow spread around Doevm, who rolled to the side as a massive hammer slammed into the ground, forming a crater. 'Roll,' a voice said. Doevm rolled again as an arrow flew right past him. 'Humans and their tricks. The archer is beginning to time his shots with my movements.' he clicked his tongue.

The hammer-wielder pulled her weapon out of the ground and reeled back for another swing. 'And you,' Doevm thought. 'You've been pissing me off almost as much as the rogue. You, who hurt my Guriant. You, who barely know how to swing that thing. You, who I could swear is wearing a cocky smile under that mask.' Doevm grabbed another arrow as he dove from another blow, and another, and another.

He rolled and dove through the flurry of blows and streaking arrows. 'I've always faced against stronger opponents, and the best solution, is to divert their strength away from me. I don't think I can divert the path of that hammer, but I know that it takes effort to put her weapon into motion…So if I…' Doevm grabbed another arrow and stuck it into his spatial ring. "I swear, that archer is getting it the worse."

The hammer descended again, but his time, Doevm jumped to the right and over it. He balled up his fist as he reeled back. He condensed blue life essence around his arm and hand, turned his body, putting all his forward momentum, then punched the back of the hammer's head. The floor gave way, letting the hammer completely sink into the ground. The hammer-wielder groaned, pulled up on the handle so hard that the floor under her cracked. The ground, however, wouldn't release it.

Doevm ran along the hammer's handle and grip. 'Since you don't even know how to swing your weapon, I doubt you can hold your own without it. People with those kinds of weapon are always overly confident.' She took a fighting stance.

Right before Doevm got into range, he ducked under another arrow. The hammer-wielder took advantage of the opening and swung. 'Just like I thought, weak,' Doevm thought as he caught the fist, swiveled his body, and used the momentum to drive his elbow through her's with a sickening crack.

Bone shot out of her arm. She screamed as she fell to a knee and cried bloody murder. 'How disgusting,' Doevm thought as he grabbed the back of her masked head and slammed her face-first into the cracked floor.

'Ear.' Doevm's hand flew in front of his ear and another arrow flew into his spatial ring. "Archer," Doevm said as he pulled out all of the arrows the archer had fired at him. The tips dripped the same poison that covered the rogue's daggers. 'He is likely too scared to think,' he thought as the archer drew closer while still firing off shots. He couldn't see below the black mask, but he could tell just by the archer's shaking hands and some missed shots that he was panicking.

He put on a smile as wide as Maker's. While the archer could only see the edges of his lips from under the front piece of his helmet, he wanted the archer to etch this expression into his memory.

"Thank you for the arrows," Doevm said as he jammed all of them into the hammer-wielder's spinal cord, severing it with a crack. The girl groaned again, her limbs flailing about like she had never known the meaning of pain until now. Using a bit of life essence, Doevm pushed the arrows further, nailing her to the ground. 'She'll heal this, away won't she. But by doing so, she'll circulate blood by doing it and spread the poison faster. I know she won't die, but that will at least keep her down for a while.'

He glanced back at the rogue, who was still recovering and wiping at his eyes. 'I'll finish you off in a bit.' He turned back to the archer, who was pushing his way through the crowd away from the fight.

Doevm drew three throwing knives. Life essence condensed around his arms and hands. He launched them over the heads of knights and creatures before they sunk into the archer's back and legs. He tripped and skid on the ground. Something flew out from under his hood, landing a few feet away from him. He reached for the object, flinching when a shadow spread out from him. Doevm landed on the archer's arm with a sickening thud and several cracks. 'What was so valuable?' Doevm thought as he picked up the object, finding it to be a pair of glasses.

"That's mine, give it back!" The archer cried as he reached for it with his one working arm. Doevm grabbed the arm and twisted. It came out of its socket with a pop followed by another screech of the archer. Doevm cocked his head to the side. 'He's not suffering enough.'

"Your wish is my command," Doevm said, still wearing Maker's smile as he slammed the glasses into the archer's face. The glass shattered as it pierced into his eyes. The archer screamed like the other two and cried tears of blood.

Doevm stood over the archer and took a breath. The rage washed away as he went back into his internal library and set the book, "Lich's Malice" down. 'Lich, Human, hybrid, what am I?' He looked down at his hands, blood still coming from the holes in them. 'Maybe, I have made a mistake by becoming human. I knew I couldn't control the species I reincarnated into, but two opposites really can't mix. Should I turn myself into another living being? No, that would give me an advantage over Arthur's reincarnation. I want a fair fight, a real fight. I just…feel like everything became so difficult. Maker, she did this to me. She knew what would happen. She made my life hell, and I will continue to live through hell as long as she draws breath. It's like a curse.' He closed his eyes and took a breath as he inspected his soul.

'My soul is fine. I repaired the crack, but I can feel both the Lich and the Human pulling at me, fighting for control. They might be remnants, but I doubt they'll ever go away.' He looked around his soul, finding that an anomaly had appeared. He reached forward and broke it between his fingers with a bit of soul mana. 'Nice try Maker, but you can't watch me anymore. I won't be a show for you.' He opened his eyes in reality.

Then, Doevm's hair stood on end. There was no voice this time, but a simple feeling of existential dread. He turned his head to the side. "No!" He took a step back. Most of the knights were looking where he was.

The Creatures turned their entire bodies towards the right side of the room. They cocked their heads to the side as if hearing a command before collectively taking a knee and bowing their heads. Even the apprentices couldn't help but look over. The mages stopped the illusion spell and bowed.

All eyes were drawn to it, the glass-like crystal in the Resistance leader's hands. He stepped over the half of mithril wall that was still standing. It was as big as Doevm's old house, but the Resistance leader held it up like it was nothing. "This battle," he said, his words echoing through the silence that had overtaken everyone. "Is our victory!"

Doevm, who was still standing on the archer, felt his unconscious body slip from under him. He whipped around to see the rogue picking the glass out of the archer's eyes and pulling the arrows out of the hammer-wielder's back. Doevm turned and drew his dagger, but hesitated.

"Why?" he asked. "Why didn't you kill me instead of saving the hammer-wielder's life and helping the archer? I know your kind, how assassins operate." His question was answered without words. The poison had eaten away at the rogue's mask, exposing his face, which healed under a layer of blue life essence. It was a face that Doevm recognized. He was one of Thomas's friends' faces, Dag.

While Doevm had never met him, he had seen Dag just outside of the medical wing and had seen him talking to Thomas at the stands. Dag let his daggers clatter to the ground as he hurriedly pulled the rest of the arrows out of the hammer-wielder's back and giving her, what Doevm assumed, an antidote.

"Because they're my friends," Dag said before pulling them away towards the teleportation artifact and vanishing.

Doevm turned his attention back to the Resistance leader and cursed.