CHAPTER 16: BATTLE AGAINST THE LICH

Slash, Nemesis swung his sword at the skeleton, cutting its skull off. Then, turning around, he punched the head of another, breaking it from its body. "Fireball!" Scarlett screamed and hurled a large ball of fire at a pack of undead, destroying them completely. With high speed, Dual Blade moved from one skeleton to another, cutting and slashing with both swords in his hands. Kate and Aaron watched from behind, protected by Scarlett.

It's just as you think—they were both being carried by the trio. Guild leaders can't be weak; they need a particular level of strength. They need to be the few elites among the majority, so there won't be internal strife or people who believe they should be above the guild leaders. Of course, this doesn't mean Kate or Aaron were weak—far from that. It was just that their level was too low.

Calmly and swiftly, Nemesis dismantled the skeleton mobs with precision, dodging gracefully, not a single attack hitting him, earning admiration from everyone present except Scarlett, of course, who knew about her brother's ability. Nemesis decided to dodge and not act like the past him, who attacked directly without caring for defense. He decided to dodge even when necessary in order to hide his abilities for some reasons. First, it was to easily catch betrayers. If his supposed teammates or enemies realized no attack could hit him, they would hesitate to attack him, only striking when they were sure they could deal him damage. The second reason was for his fame and prestige. His guild members or the world might think he's some noob who just got lucky—a label he didn't need if he were to gain control of the world and ensure no one ever raised a head against him.

Aaron was grinning from ear to ear when he saw his leveling speed, which was off the charts. Apocalypse was special when it came to the party system. The players themselves decide how to share the experience gain; it could range from equal sharing to some people gaining the most experience, allowing for effective carrying.

Nemesis, who was level 30, along with Scarlett, accepted only 10% each as their allocation percentage, with Dual Blade taking 20% of it. Aaron and Kate both received 40% each.

The team fought their way through the horde of skeletons until they arrived at the boss room. Without saying any words, Nemesis opened the door, and they entered. "Welcome, lessers, to my domain. I am the immortal magician and great lich. Now, you shall entertain me," the boss monster said.

"Gross, that was cringe as hell," Aaron commented.

"How dare you!" The lich, facing Aaron, began its spell. "Isnnsiubmots hudidndgsyuson gsunsonfhdft, fire bomb!" Flames shot out of the lich's hand, well, the hand made up of only bones.

Dual Blade, running towards the flame bomb, swung his sword, cutting it in half and preventing it from causing harm to his party members—well, to Aaron and Kate.

"Water spear," Scarlett cast her spell, throwing tens of water spears towards the lich.

[Water spear: send a spear made of water to cause damage of 1.5X your intelligence points].

"Impudent, shield!" the lich called out, the water spear hitting the shield and losing its ability, leaving the lich unharmed.

Dual Blade, without giving the lich any breathing space, attacked with his skill: "Blade slash!" he called out before swinging both of his swords at the lich, destroying the shield and sending the bones flying.

[Blade slash: strike with the user's sword imbued with aura, causing damage of 2X your strength stats].

The lich hit the wall, feeling great anger for being humiliated.

"Great summon!" the lich commanded, finally getting serious.

[Great summon: Summon the dead whose soul has been captured after being slain by the user to fight for you].

Great summon was the strongest skill of the lich and the reason the dungeon hadn't been cleared by any player. First of all, it was a level 20 dungeon, and very few people had gotten to that mark. Secondly, the skill summoned a large number of skilled undead to fight for him.

"Wow, that's a lot of undead," Scarlett muttered. "A hundred normal skeletons, ten skeleton knights, and three duhalan. Well, time to get serious, guys. Shadow and Odin, you guys have leveled enough and should be able to take care of the normal mobs. Dual Blade, the ten skeleton knights are yours, and Scarlett, finish off the three duhalans. I'll be taking on the lich," Nemesis said, preparing for the fight and finally getting serious.

"Finally, I was getting tired of babysitting after so long," Aaron, whose moniker was the Trickster, said with a wide smile on his face.

"I agree," Kate, whose moniker was Shadow, affirmed.

"Observer," Odin muttered, before his eyes turned golden. He dashed into the skeleton horde, hitting their weak points with great precision and swiftly destroying them.

"Well, can't be overshadowed by him," Shadow muttered before slipping into the shadow beneath her feet and reappearing in the shadow of a skeleton. She sliced its neck with precise strength, destroying it before appearing in the shadow of another.

"Wow, what impressive talent," Scarlett muttered.

"Like yours is any less. Well, I'll have to hand it to Nemesis. He brought a group of monsters together," Dual Blade said before rushing to face his own enemies.

The talents of Shadow and Odin were both SSS rank, a knowledge Nemesis had known from the past, and he chose them because of their loyalty to humanity, fighting to their last breath with straightforward and honest natures—unlike the two-faced Kyle. The talent of Odin was called Observer.

[Observer: the player is able to inspect hidden secrets and knowledge about other players or objects. With the talent, the player can identify weaknesses of opponents, hidden traps and how to deactivate them, the value of things, and hidden knowledge about all beings. The greater the player's strength, the more secrets and details they can find.]

A very useful talent, when added to Odin's skills, made him the greatest thief to hide valuables from while also making him stronger to face. As for Shadow, her talent was Shadow Lord.

[Shadow Lord: the player is the lord of shadows and has absolute control over shadows.

Shadow jump: expending stamina, the user is able to jump from one shadow to another.

Shadow veil: the player can hide within shadows, unable to be seen by any beings except the extremely sensitive ones.

Shadow manipulation: the player can manipulate the shadow to do her bidding. Strength and imagination are the only limitations.]

It was a skill perfectly fitting for the cold assassin.

Odin and Shadow, utilizing their talent and plentiful skills—thanks to Scarlett's purchases—dismantled the hordes of skeletons without worries.

Dual Blade faced the skeleton knights, utilizing two swords. He attacked with brutal strength, overpowering the knights. "Earth split!" Dual Blade muttered before striking both of his swords into the ground, causing a vibration that split the ground, swallowing up a death knight. He attacked with brutality, gaining the upper hand as well. His talent was called Blade Amplifier.

[Blade Amplifier: having a blade increases the user's attack power by two. More blades cause an exponential increase in attack power.]

It enabled Dual Blade's attack power to increase, although Dual Blade wasn't too fond of his S-rank talent. His current multiplier was just 4 from using two blades. But Nemesis, of course, was aware and chose him instead because he knew of the great potential Dual Blade had. In his past life, after gaining the multiple hands ability, Dual Blade had been a menace—a force that greatly scared his enemies.

Scarlett, with the duhalans, was rather, well, one-sided. She launched skill after skill at them, her skill pool being essentially large—thanks to wealth, as expected. "Water spear, fire blast, wind cutter, meteor drop," the duhalans didn't even have the chance to react, being bombarded continuously by Scarlett, who drank potion after potion, emptying her mana or stamina.

Nemesis walked slowly toward the lich. "Hmph, you face me alone. Very well, I shall ensure you regret your decision," the lich said before hurling several spells at him, playing just like Scarlett. But Nemesis weaved through it all fluidly before appearing in front of the lich, cutting him with his sword. He then bent his upper body at an extremely odd angle backward, dodging an attack that was almost impossible to dodge at such close range.

"Impossible!" the lich said in disbelief before flying upward. Nemesis used his two hands as support and kicked the shin of the lich, sending him flying upward. The lich hit the wall at the side after receiving an almost instantaneous sword slash from Nemesis.

The spectators—of course, Scarlett, Odin, Shadow, and Dual Blade—watched in awe.

"How's he moving so fluidly?" Odin asked in disbelief, his Observer ability finally not showing any weakness. Since he had used it against enemies, the lich—which had few weaknesses before the clash with Nemesis—was now full of weaknesses the moment he started facing Nemesis.

"Wow," Scarlett muttered. She had tried to purchase skills for Nemesis, but he had declined, saying that he wasn't fond of skills and preferred to fight with his own fluid motion. Now, she realized that he wasn't just spouting nonsense.

Nemesis continued hitting the lich, like a beautiful dancer, connecting each move with perfect flow. The lich couldn't gain any upper hand, receiving attack after attack until he died, the grievance within him extremely great.