The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 214: A Decisive Battle.

Although Thufrat had a serious feeling that this lich was the same one that he and Ark had run into in the past, there was no real way for him to make sure unless it also recognised him. Although he wasn't very sure if his guess was correct, he still shared it with the others. If the lich was actually the same as the one they had run into in the past, then maybe this was a sign.

An old enemy showing up exactly where they had lost Ark's trail, what were the odds of that?

Once he shared the info with the others, their expressions became even more solemn, but their fighting spirit was also excited. Since they had pretty much confirmed that this lich had something to do with Ark's kidnapping. Now that they knew that they were fighting for Ark, they became more serious than they had been before.

Initially, they were more inclined to at least retreat before confronting this lich, but now, that was no longer an option. They had to fight the lich, and they had to defeat him.

The lich observed them for a bit before attacking once again. This time, he used a colossal amount of mana to summon a large gate that appeared from the ground. Through it, a horse came galloping with a knight on its back. The knight was a so-called death knight. A peculiar type of undead that Thufrat had only read about in books before.

The death knight was a valiant fighter, and one of the strongest pawns of death.

Clad in ink-black armour from head to toe, atop a skeleton horse, this undead was ready to do anything to defeat its opponents. The lich retreated a bit after summoning the death knight, presumably recovering its mana. The death knight was a hard enough opponent on its own, but there was no way they could just let the lich recover its mana while they were busy fighting it.

Since that was the case, they quickly decided who would hold off the death knight, and who would attack the lich. In the end, it was decided that Atar, Thufrat and the wood-elf would keep the death knight occupied whilst Ephine and Adam would try to finish off the lich. The reason for their divide was quite simple. Atar's attacks were purely physical, and he wouldn't be of much help against the lich.

His brute strength was more fitting for holding the death knight occupied.

The wood-elf was good at escaping with wind magic as well as restraining opponents with water magic, which is why she would also fight the death knight. Thufrat was adept in brute strength as well as earth magic, which also made him great at restraining opponents as well as defending.

Ephine on the other hand could use a plethora of different magic, including light magic, which was especially effective against the lich.

Adam was their strongest fighter overall. Although he didn't have an elemental affinity that was particularly useful against dark magic, his strength more than made up for it.

The lich seemed pretty amused by their tactics, and just silently waited for Ephine and Adam to attack him. Since they didn't know each other very well, it was hard for them to cooperate well, which was why they just made up a simple tactic beforehand. Their tactic was essentially just for Adam to suppress the lich whilst Ephine supported him, whilst also looking for an opportunity to finish it off.

Adam quickly burst into action, instantly flying towards the lich with his sword at hand. The lich just stretched a finger out, and a black arc of lightning instantly blasted towards him. The lightning was made out of mana, which meant that it wasn't as fast as natural lightning, but it still inherited its traits.

Adam used every ounce of strength in his body to barely deflect the lightning with his sword. The lightning would normally surge through the sword into his body, but his sword was a magical artefact, one that had been infused with his own mana.

This meant that the lightning had no way to go, and could only get passively destroyed by Adam's mana lying in wait. Although he nearly got struck by the lightning, he was merely delayed by a split-second before he resumed his charge towards the lich. The lich had managed to widen the gap between them in that split-second, however, and was starting to hurl spells at him at a shocking speed.

Since he would be slowed down too much if he chose to deflect all of the attacks, he only dodged and deflected one or two of them, whilst he let Ephine deal with the other ones. Since they both had excellent battle awareness, Ephine understood his intentions without any direct communication and used spells of different attributes to deal with the lich's attacks.

At this point, she kind of wished that she had Ark's erasure skill. That would be very helpful in dissolving attacks. But, alas, she didn't, and all she could do was use what she had at hand. Luckily for Ephine and Adam, the lich was truly low on mana, otherwise, this fight would've been next to impossible.

The only reason Ephine could dissolve the lich's attacks was that they only contained a paltry amount of mana. It was condensed beyond belief, and they still packed quite the punch, but it still made it a lot easier for Ephine to handle them. This continued on for a while, Adam managed to close in on the lich a few times, only to be repelled, whilst Ephine supported him from the backlines.

The fight wasn't going anywhere, and if they let the lich stall for time like this, who knew what would eventually happen. Whilst the two of them were busy fighting the lich, they could hear a deafening dragon's roar behind their backs.

Ephine wasn't too surprised, but both Adam and the lich were distracted for a second and looked back. What they saw was Thufrat, who had been desperately fighting against the death knight. Although they were only supposed to stall for time, he could see that the fight against the lich wasn't going too well, and he decided to go all-out, even if it took a considerable toll on him.

The bloodline that had been lying dormant in his body could finally show its might to the world. Maybe it was because he didn't use his bloodline often, but the dragon's roar that echoed across the battlefield was filled with excitement. Everyone present except for Ephine and Atar could feel their bloodlines trembling. The dragon was a paragon, only a select few could stand before it.

The reason Atar and Ephine didn't feel much was because of their connection to Ark's bloodline.

A mere dragon could never make an Overlord Elemental Wolf submit; they were named Overlord for a reason. Although both Ephine and Atar were still only elemental wolves, Ark was the one who had given them their names. They had an inexplicable connection to him. A dragon's bloodline wouldn't faze them. If there was a real dragon in front of them, that would be a completely different story.