The two floating figures ca into view. Kai’s heart quickened.
Robed in tattered black, their skeletal faces were barely visible beneath deep hoods. Their presence radiated an oppressive aura that made the gravity feel heavier.
Death, magic, and malevolence.
Kai recognised them imdiately from Orlin’s books.
’Lesser Liches...’
His body scread at him to flee. The sheer amount of mana that swirled around those two entities made Orlin’s dinner from last night curdle in his stomach.
Even in his best condition, fighting one would be a gamble. But before he could even take a step backwards, a gurgling roar tore through the air. The sound of tal on stone reverberated through the street.
Kai barely had ti to twist his body before a colossal, armoured corpse swung a massive axe at him from behind.
Pain flared throughout his ribs as he barely dodged the blow. His attempt to roll out of the way had him skittering across the cracked pavent.
His attention had been on the liches. The weight of the mana over-saturated the area, and he overlooked his flank, paying the price for his foolishness.
’Stupid, stupid, stupid.’
The giant corpse stood like a fortress of rotting flesh and steel, its shield nearly three tis taller than Kai. Its armour, covering it from head to toe, with its helt open-faced, absorbed all light with its midnight black tint.
Its eyes, empty sockets glowing with eerie green light, locked onto him with unyielding focus. The liches, drawn by the noise, halted in midair, their half-rotten eyeballs shifting between Kai and the armoured undead.
A mont of tension stretched between them.
And chaos erupted.
The zombie warrior charged, bringing its axe down in a brutal overhead swing.
Kai rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding being split in two. The pavent below wasn’t so lucky, as the zombie cleaved a paver in half, sending dust and debris everywhere.
Before he could counterattack, the liches unleashed a volley of magic.
One hurling jagged shards of ice, the other launching a surge of shadow tendrils toward him.
’My own magic, hey?’
Kai raised a desperate barrier of shadows, but the combined assault shattered it instantly.
Ice sliced across his arm and shadow magic constricted his movent.
He grit his teeth, pushing through the pain. He couldn’t fight both threats at once—not in his condition, not without help.
For the first ti since swearing to fight alone, he broke his word.
"Tecton!"
With a surge of power, Kai’s shadow opened up and his most powerful undead servant burst from the darkness, his massive skeletal form adorned with shadow fortifications.
Without hesitation, Tecton barreled into the armoured corpse, grappling with it in a contest of brute strength. The sound of undead roaring and tal crashing against stone echoed through the ruins.
At the sa ti, Kai raised a hand. A pulse of magic rippled outward, and four arcane wolves materialised around him.
Naless for now, but deadly.
Kai pointed at the liches. Each of the wolves launched forward, two at each lich.
The Lesser Liches hissed as the wolves snapped at them, disrupting their spell-casting. Both of them floated backwards while trying to destroy their new enemies.
One lich summoned a wall of fire to ward off the beasts, while the other conjured shadow barriers to block their relentless attacks.
It gave Kai the opening he needed.
His hands glowed with gathering magic, the numbers in his mind flashing red. He was running lower on life essence than he’d like, but he couldn’t hesitate.
’Shade!’
While Shade used the shadows of the ruins to travel quickly to the liches, Kai raised a hand and a wall of fire engulfed both of the liches in an explosion of fla. Shade danced around, poking through the holes in the shadow barriers or the pillars of ice.
It only chipped away at their bones, but the liches beca less stable.
One lich screeched as the fire lted its tattered robes and scorched its skeletal form, but it retaliated imdiately, hurling a bolt of necrotic energy.
Kai barely deflected it by envisioning his Wither spell and expanding it to cover his hands.
He staggered.
Every spell he cast sent him closer to failure.
He could feel his reserves slipping. If he overstepped, he would drop into the negatives, and there would be no Vepice to save him.
Tecton, anwhile, held the armoured corpse at bay, grappling its shield and axe in a titanic struggle. The undead warrior snarled, breaking free for a mont and slamming Tecton with its shield, sending the construct skidding across the ground. But before it could press the advantage, Kai sent a concentrated spear of ice straight into its exposed ribs, montarily halting its movents.
The wolves kept the liches occupied, but Kai knew he needed to end this quickly. His vision blurred slightly and his body was nearing its limit. He clenched his fists, forcing his will into one final gambit.
With a flick of his wrist, he channeled the last of his strength into a multi-layered spell. A field of shadow magic erupted beneath the liches, locking them in place. Simultaneously, a powerful blast of compressed fla erupted above them. Fire t shadow, creating an explosion that ripped through the street, sending shards of burning stone flying.
When the smoke cleared, one lich was reduced to ash, its soul vanishing into the abyss.
The second, heavily damaged, attempted to retreat, but Kai wasn’t about to let it go.
Drawing on every last reserve, he pushed forward, channeling his will into his voice. "Enslavent."
The Lesser Lich shrieked as Kai’s necromantic power wrapped around its very essence, forcing it to submit. It writhed in agony, fighting the pull, but Kai had grown stronger. The lich’s resistance wavered, and then, with a final, shuddering breath, it fell silent.
It was his.
Kai staggered, barely able to stay on his feet. His body felt like it had been through hell and was covered in cuts, bruises, and burns.
All of it layered atop a bone-deep exhaustion that made every movent agonising.
Tecton, victorious, lood over the shattered remnants of the armoured corpse.
The four wolves, sensing the battle’s end, flickered before vanishing back into Kai’s shadow.
Kai checked his reserves.
[Life Essence: 501/5,500]
’Should be enough. Undead Enslavent!’
Kai, from a distance this ti, captured the control of the three enemies.
He let out a ragged breath, staring at the aftermath.
He had barely survived.
Barely.
"Orlin is going to be insufferable about this if I tell him."
"Tell about what, disciple?"
Kai gulped.
He’d boasted about leaving his army in the reserves up until this point.
All of that bravado. All of that bragging.
Down the drain.
Absolutely worthless.
Kai hung his head in sha as he listened to Orlin’s lecture about making boasts and making sure those boasts don’t end up empty. Together, they walked back to the mansion.
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