Chapter 17

Sol danced around the giant demon as it tried to kill him. The balls of death magic packed a punch but they were fairly slow and he avoided them. Sol wasn't trying to kill either of them, only distracting them long enough.

In the distance, he saw Mute's longsword glow brightly as it tore through the horde of demons. Tower had tens of them on his back but he didn't budge in the slightest, his high constitution tanking all the blows. Mute jumped on his thigh and boosted herself up to deal with them.

"You dumb demon!" The necromancer shouted, "Kill the others!"

The demon obeyed and tried to move forward but Sol sliced it's rotten ligaments in the back of its knee. This infuriated the lich and miasma poured from his hands healing the wound. The demon seemed to gain a buff and Sol panicked.

Sol jumped up onto it's thighs, using his daggers as ice picks. He began to stab his way up to it's chest and then onto it's neck. He stuck them in deep but the demon didn't stop and it was nearing his group.

Sol summoned a rope from his storage pouch and threw it over the demon's head which landed across its neck. Sol jumped off with as much strength as he could and pulled on the rope.

The demon veered to the side and crashed into the wall.

"Noooo!" The lich screamed.

Sol collided with the wall too and then was crushed against it. His health dropped into the red and Sol grabbed his dagger and stuck it into his heart. He revived a second later without the lich noticing and climbed back onto the demon.

"Just kill him!" The lich ordered.

Sol rolled on its shoulder as he dodged a clawed hand. He leapt towards its face and caught his dagger in it's mouth. He began to weigh himself down and caused a huge cut from the bottom of his mouth.

The Immortal put his feet against its face and pushed off. His ribs crushed as a giant hand grasped him. The demon opened it's bloody mouth and threw Sol down there. He prayed that he had given his team enough time.

Tower yanked an undead off his shoulder and chucked it in the air. Blue flame exploded around it turning the bones into dust.

Mute returned to Tower with bones in her wake, she was still injured but had bit through the pain.

The group turned to see Sol get caught by the demon. It opened its mouth and threw him down its throat.

"Right! Sol's given us enough time. Spike, try and suppress it's movement's as much as possible. Elora I want you to let loose right now, give it everything!"

Elora seemed to activate a buff on herself as an aura appeared around her. Blue flames swallowed her hands and her eyes turned the same colour. She floated a few inches off the ground and began to hover over to the giant demon.

"A person so eager to sacrifice themselves for their team. It is almost admirable." The necromancer said.

Elora raised her hands and bunsen burner like flames pulsed from her hands in rapid fire. The giant demon roared as the intense flames burned it's skin.

"Elora, Spike and Sharp. You three chip away at it. Don't push yourselves for some extra damage. Mute with me." Tower ordered.

Tower ran around the giant demon straight towards the necromancer. The lich started summoning balls of death magic in his hands and firing them. The leader charged forward with a hand to block the magic. Death magic caused no physical damage, rather it caused true damage. Tower's bottomless pool of health only tickled as the black balls bounced off him.

Tower brought his giant club down on the necromancer but found it only hit shadows. He turned around to see the lich who was readying a far more powerful spell. It was interrupted as Mute dashed above him. She brought her long sword down on his arm but found it only sucked a few metres deep.

She dashed away while clutching her side. The wound was still hurting her.

Tower buffed himself and ran towards the lich again. His club struck only black mist as the lich seemed to teleport away.

"You wanna play games!" Tower angrily shouted.

Mute could keep track of his movements but she couldn't do enough damage to severely injure him. She danced around him, chipping away at the dense bones that made up his body.

She tried to force the lich in one place but Tower was too slow to keep up and the skeleton man just teleported again.

Spike, Elora and Sharp were currently trying to kill the demon. Unlike the ogre, it couldn't heal but its skin was three times as hard to pierce. Sharp could tell that Elora's mana wouldn't last but she needed to give it her all. He fired arrows towards the demon's eyes but they only bounced off. Spike could only keep his distance and suppress it with his sound waves.

The demon's frontside was completely black from the burning but it barely seemed to slow him down. Elora's eyes turned back to their normal state and her body slumped to the ground.

"Shit!" Sharp screamed.

Spike increased the suppression as Sharp pulled her away from the fight. He slapped her face and she woke up fast.

"Stay, regenerate you mana," Sharp said as he held her down.

She nodded worryingly and stayed where she was.

"I'm gonna use it." Sharp shouted to Spike who was sweating furiously.

"Hurry up!" Spike pleaded, "I can't hold this long."

Sharp pressed a button on his bow and it doubled in size. Intricate sigils lined the inside of his bow. They flickered with lightning which he had a small affinity for.

He held the bow out in front of him and pushed it away with his foot while pulling the bow string with both hands.

"Sharp!" Spike screamed.

"Hold on!"

Sharp pulled back with all his strength and a mana arrow began to form. It was thick and started to spin within the bow. Lightning started to flick off from the sigils and was absorbed by the spinning arrow.

"Sharp! I can't hold it!" Spike screamed again. The bard collapsed to his knees in buckets of sweat and the soundwaves stopped suppressing the demon.

The demon charged forwards and kicked Spike into the wall, he flew hard into it and it knocked him clean out.

Sharp kept pulling harder and harder, each inch he pulled it back the arrow grew in size tremendously. He felt his muscles all tear as he held it for a moment, the arrow building up more speed and lightning.

"AHHHHHH!" Sharp screamed as he let it go.

Space seemed to distort as the arrow froze in time, the amount of magical power built up caused fluctuations in the air. It flew forward at the speed of a bullet and slammed dead centre in the demon's chest.

A shockwave pulsed around the cave causing the whole mountain to shake. The demon was sent into the cave wall and became embedded partially into it. It fell down a few seconds later with a 2 metre hole in it's chest. The arrow had completely passed through it.

Sharp's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he collapsed, he was caught by Elora who pressed a health potion to his mouth. His biceps and chest muscles had all torn and were blackened. Spike downed a stamina potion and weakly stumbled to them.

Tower collapsed from exhaustion, it was practically impossible to keep up with the lich. He had already taken a stamina potion and taking another would poison his body. Mute was not faring well, her stamina was higher than Tower's but even she had to take a stamina potion.

The lich fired a ball of black magic towards her. The wound on her ribs caused her to flinch and the ball hit her in the stomach. Her constitution was that of Sol's and she lost her health bar. She fell to the floor next to Tower, her small body was heavily affected by the death magic.

"Mute," Tower said, his voice weak and hoarse.

The lich hadn't shown any signs of mana deprivation and teleported over to the now dead demon. On the floor was Sol who had slithered out of it's slimy stomach from the hole and onto the cold hard floor.

"You will make excellent subjects!" The lich said with happiness.

"You bastard!" Elora screamed.

"Ohhh. Actually, I wonder what it will be like being killed by your own teammate." The lich said with complete pleasure, like a child playing with toys.

Miasma formed around his hands and he pumped Sol full with miasma. The man rose from the ground a few metres away, his body black and rotten.

"Kill the mage first." He said with a half skeletal smile.

"You made one mistake." Sol said.

He jammed his dagger into the neck of the necromancer and held him up in the air. His bones were strong so he pushed further and further. The lich tried to get away but it couldn't teleport both of them.

The lich turned his hands around a fired black death balla and miasma at Sol but he stood as strong as he could. Sol pushed further and further, he could feel it's spine bones becoming looser and looser.

"You fucked with my team." He whispered.

His dagger went a few more inches inside and it dislodged his head from his body. The head popped off and rolled to Elora's feet.

The headless body turned around and jammed its bony fingers into Solomon's chest. He felt its hand grip his heart and pulled it out from his body.

Sol fell down to one knee dead but then another grew one.

"Impossible!" The lich screamed.

"I'll bring this whole place down!" It screamed again.

"Get out of here!" Sol shouted to his group.

He grabbed the licht's body and threw it against the wall. He began to rapidly stab at it but the lich was far too strong. The headless necromancer brought out a magical device, it was how he was going to release the undead horde that was held back. Sol knocked it out the lich's hand and tackled it down to the ground.

"Get out of here now!" Sol screamed again.

Tower picked up Mute and ran over to Spike while Sol was wrestling with the headless lich.

Elora stole the head of the lich and managed to pick up Sharp. Tower ran over to them but glanced back to Sol.

"Go!" Sol shouted.

A nod from Tower was all that Sol needed, it gave him an extra sense of power he never thought he had. He head butted the lich's ribcage causing it to stagger but only for a moment.

With Mute and Spike on his shoulder and Elora with Sharp over hers, they started running for the exit.

The lich stuck one of it's bony fingers into Sol's throat; killing him and then pressing the button. Sol coughed and sputtered but he was helpless. The cave started rumbling then rocks started to fall from the ceiling.

Sol fell down dead but revived quickly. The lich pushed him down to the floor and started running towards the void crystal in the center.

Sol threw his dagger and it connected the lich's femur bone, it collapsed to the floor and began crawling. He didn't know what it was trying to do but it seemed like an escape route. He knew he was gonna stay down here while it died with him. Even if he died thousands of times over he wasn't to let the ghastly lich leave.

More and more rocks began to fall from the ceiling, some coming inches from him. He got up and sprinted towards the lich, it was slowly crawling closer and closer to the void crystal.

Sol noticed a rock falling which would block his way so he dived forward. He jumped over the lich while kicking it backwards. He didn't judge the counter force correctly and was sent barreling towards the glass cylinder. It cracked and Sol fell into the chamber.

"No!" A voice filled with magic screamed.

Sol looked back to see the lich's body oozing with miasma. It crawled over the rock and towards him. He looked up to see the void crystal hovering above him. It was teleporting backwards and forwards, like it was shifting in between dimensions.

The ceiling began to fall more, larger pieces broken off and crashed into the floor. Sol reached up and held his hand closer to the void crystal. He felt a strange connection to it, like a familiarity with magic.

The whole glass cylinder cracked as a rock crashed into it. Rock's fell on top of the void crystal and they disappeared or were cut in half.

"You'll die," The lich's headless body said through miasma.

Sol smiled, "I can't," he said as he grabbed the void crystal.