Necromancer

"Watch out Will!" Nisha shouted as the Elder Lich cast a fireball at him.

Will narrowly diverted from a zombie only to see a fireball careening toward him. The Elder Lich laughed manically watching Will struggle.

However, after fighting against Elder Thaddeus for four years, Will had practiced for this movement.

He blocked a purple fireball spell and cast the largest [meteor].

The meteor ripped metal from the chamber and turned into a hot metal ball of fire.

When the meteor landed, it killed almost all the zombies.

"I'm impressed," said the Elder Lich.

"Shall we begin our next round?" the Dark Priest asked before he cast [Dragon's breath] and a purple stream of fire shoot at him.

Will was a beat too slow blocking the spell, the fire smashed onto his chest catapulting him at the tunnel wall.

"Argh, Will groaned. His head slammed again t the wall. For a second his mind went blank, only to get a searing headache a second later.

'Do I have a concussion,' Will wondered, circulating his mana.

"Oh dear, I meant to hold myself back. Are you still able to fight? I don't want my fun to end so soon?" asked the undead necromancer.

"I'm fine," Will said standing up.

"I enjoy your despair the most. Fight now only to die later," the Elder Lich chuckled.

"Will are you alright?" asked Nisha.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. But let's manage our mana. This is going to be a long fight," Will said slicing more zombies with his sword.

"For hours on Will, Nisha, and Rocky fought. Besides dealing with the Elder Lich antics, the first few rounds of zombies were pushovers, where he only needed to use body enhancement magic.

Will fell into a trance. The battle experience Elder Thaddeus and from the academy battles and duels had honed his muscle memory.

However, with each round in victory, the next round became more challenging.

New rounds brought more powerful Elven zombies, archers, swordsmen, spearmen, healers, mages, and other zombies with specific class specializations.

"Nisha, how are you doing?" Will asked.

"Tired, you?" Nisha asked.

"Same here," Will said.

Just as Will said that a bolt of purple fire burst lifted Will off his feet and opened a large laceration on his left arm.

"Argh," Will groaned in pain for a second time.

"Why is your flame spell purple?" Will asked the Elder Lich.

"Necromancer cast Hellfire," the Dark Priest said.

"Good to know," Will said looking up at the cave's ceiling in pain.

Above his head he says, large stalactites protruding down from the ceiling.

Will pointed rock-like icicles and cast [erosion]. Soon, thousands of stalactites came crashing down to massacre the zombies one after another.

None of the zombies stood a chance. Even the zombies rising from the bottom of the floor were killed.

"I am impressed," the necromancer chuckled.

Will looked around. The fallen stalactites pierced the zombies. It looked like a vicious beast and bit, chewed, and spit out the undead Elven warriors.

Their Elven corpses were everywhere, some were missing limbs, there were others with missing heads, and several were obliterated.

"How about we take a short break? Won't that make it more fun watching me die in the next round?" Will asked diplomatically.

Will had lost count of the hours, they spent in battle.

"Fine take a few minutes, what do I care…I have an eternity," the necromancer laughed at his bland joke.

While they sat, Will cast [Earth Gathering Array] and [Mantel Array].

"You keep surprising me, but no protection arrays," said the Elder Lich disintegrating the mantel array.

After a half an hour's break, they resumed fighting.

Finally, only three Elvish zombies remained. They wore decorated uniforms. There was little doubt, that these must have been the commanders. It was gradual but it slowly dawned on Will. These zombies were special, he could tell had the mana of mages, but they all wore swords.

Looking at Will's face in a stupor, Elder Lich said, "Judging by your face, you must have realized these knights also Terramancer Spellswords...wait, don't tell me? Did you honestly think you were the only Spellsword you insignificant, puny human?" The Elder Lich began laughing maniacally.

That was the second time Will was called, puny that day. Or, yesterday? Will didn't know, but he knew this Elder Lich would end up dead like the Goblin Chief.

Nisha attacked the zombie in the middle. She danced and weaved the warrior's sword, and returned spell for spell.

Rocky parried the zombie knight's sword strike, only wounded with magic, that would have killed a human. With the earth-gathering array active, Rocky borrowed mana from Will.

As long as Rocky had mana he was indestructible. The golem's unbreakable strength met the Knight's undying magic.

Where Nisha was agile and dexterous, Rocky was a brute fore tank. Rock returned as many heavy strikes as he received.

Meanwhile, Will's opponent harassed him by conjuring earth spell after spell. Imagine fighting an undead version of yourself.

The zombie Elven Knight, casts [quick sand] and [rock spike].

Never had Will been forced to dodge his spells. While Terramancers were common, he was the strongest in class. That meant, the other Terramancers had already been defeated by other mages.

Now, he was getting beat up by another Earth Elemental mage.

Nisha and Rocky were doing better than him. They were winning, but it was a near thing.

Will threw his right hand out and unleashed a barrage of [Arrowheads]. Thankfully, a few of the bolts landed hard, knocking the zombie knight off-kilter. Within a few seconds, Will followed up with [Entangle].

The zombie knight seemed confused by the vine wrapping around its body.

Just as Will was planning to kill it, a bolt of Hellfire destroyed the fine. Now, Will was back to square one.

Will looked at Nisha. The black shadow leopard was riddled with cuts. Half of her right ear was chopped off.

Yet, the zombie Elven Knight looked worse. It was bruised, bloody, and beaten. The knight's moves were lethargic and it sounded like it was wheezing.

Nisha had roped the dope into expending all his mana. It was a dangerous gamble, but she pulled it off. Will knew she'd finish off the knight soon enough when she sent a powerhouse hind kick to the knight's chest, doubling the knight over in pain.

The Will looked over to Rocky. His enormous Daodao sword shaped like a cleaver whipped through the air with amazing speed, slamming into the zombie knight's shoulder, cleanly cutting through the clavicle. The knight's left arm fell to the floor.

The creature looked at its missing arm for only a second before it lunged at Rocky. Sickly blood frothed from the zombie's mouth as he plunged his sword into Rocky's heart.

Will felt Rocky borrow more mana to heal himself. With the sword stuck in Rocky's stone body, the zombie knight and Rocky began a melee.

Seeing that everyone was fine, Will reached deep into his mana whirlpool and released a guttural yell.

Will conjured an [Iron Lance] and rammed his knight against the cave's wall.

Then Will swung his sword, with every ounce of strength he could muster, and slammed deep across the Zombies' head.

The knight's eyes rolled back into its head, as its body convulsed and slouched against the lance.

After Will killed his zombie, he went to help Nisha.

The zombie detected Will's presence and sent a sword strike at Will's approaching head. Will ducked the sloppy attack and darted forward, thrusting his sword into the knight's exposed throat.

"Quick let's help Rocky," Will told Nisha.

As Will rushed over to help Rocky, he was forced to first sidestep Rocky's incoming blow.

Will twirled to dodge Rocky's mighty cleaver and then sliced the last knight's kneecap.

Without the support of its legs, the knight unintentionally knelt on the ground. Only for Nisha to appear in a flash, and dig her formidable claws into the zombie's eyes, dragging it to the ground and killing it. After the last zombie was dead, Nisha gave a ferocious roar.

"Well done, well done, indeed. I can't remember the last time I had such fine entertainment. Shall we begin the final match?" the Elder Lich said casting a Master-ranked spell [Dark Cyclone].

A purple hellfire cyclone tore its way through the throne room directly toward Will's party.

The tornado picked up the up and through them against the cave was like flies.

Will coughed up blood. He was positive he had internal bleeding. Will survey the damage Nisha was unconscious. One of her rib bones was exposed. Poor Rocky now sat as a pile of rubble.

The impact of the Dark Cyclone destroyed parts of the cave's wall and ceiling.

The hundreds of zombies earlier were now scattered ash that looked like kernels of sand.

Will tried to stand, only to drop back down to the ground. His right leg was broken. Even worse his lacerated left arm burned.

"I shall not accept this fate!" Will yelled. He was tired of being helpless. He was tired of playing the victim.

Will grabbed the wall and stood defiantly. He looked at the Necromancer, the Elder Lich, the Dark Priest and said, "It's time for you to die!"

Will stirred his mana whirlpool, pushing himself to the limit. Flooding his body with mana to the extreme. Will could feel his blood vessels bulge with mana ready to burst.

Will's visible bones, cuts, and bruises healed.

Not giving him time to fully heal the Elder Lich cast [Dark Flame] a bolt of hellfire shot out like lightning towards Will's heart.

Will cast [modeling], and created a large room shield like his angelic door guardians.

The hellfire dealt devastating damage to the shield, but Will was fine. Will continued to heal himself. Will's willpower surged. Will saw the Elder Lich looked worried for the first time.

Will picked up his sword, tightened his grip, and began to walk to the Elder Lich.

Will shouted [Earthquake]. A giant crevice appeared splitting the room in half. It cracked the throne.

The Elder Lich briefly looked to the vase on the chair in fright. Seeing that the vase was safe. He relaxed.

"You almost had me worried. To celebrate that accomplishment, I'll trap your soul and turn your body into one of my undead knights," the Elder Lich said graciously.

"Ha-ha," Will began to laugh.

"I find your egoism annoying. I'll tell you the truth. I did not use my full power since I set foot in your dungeon. Congratulation's creature, you shall be the first to observe and die by my full prowess," Will said before disappearing.