Going for the legs was not exactly the noblest of tactics. But when you are down, with a death knight looming over you and cursed to rise again in a few minutes. It was time to reevaluate the idea of fair play. I struck out and launched a barrage of kinetic strikes at his right leg.

  Attacking the joint in between his armour, probably his ankle. The attacks pulverised the undead flesh and wiped away whatever was keeping him together. Probably removed a tendon or something. Big giant undead wobbled a bit but kept himself balanced. So I blasted the other leg, and he came tumbling down soon after.

  "Coward!" he screamed, and it was kind of true.

  Cowardice could be an apt description, but I prefer to call it strategic. Hopefully, he will appreciate my ingenuity in the next life. Victory gave a nice burst of motivation and strength. Climbing to my feet, I pounced on the downed enemy. Raining kinetic strikes like a thunderstorm that had just tried meth.

  He tried to cut my head off with a swing of his massive greatsword. I blasted it back with a thought, ignoring the sudden rank up of my skill. It seemed mid-battle is the best place for skills to level. Feeling my control over the skill increase, I began bombarding him with one blast after the other.

  Head, arms, chest and anything that seemed vital for an undead. No idea where my sword went, but it didn't matter. Caught in a frenzy, I left dents in his armour, pulverised his limbs and caved in his skull. I wasn't even punching anymore or performing a palm strike.

  Wave after wave of dense force and power unleashed as I weaponised every part of my body. The prompt that heralded his destruction came shortly after. And I was exhausted, my stamina down to single digits, and my body racked with pain. Thankfully, however, the stinging sensation in my arm was gone.

  The good thing about curses, they go away if you kill the caster. At least I had hoped all the while I beat that death knight to death. Well, destruction and immobilisation to be more apt. Suddenly and without warning, I didn't get to savour my victory.

  Totally forgot about the chaos around me and the now pissed off Lich. Barely noticed the fireball he sent my way before I leapt out of range. Crashing into a nearby wall, something that was becoming all too common, I got to my feet to make ready for the next attack.

  Finally, scanning the area, I assessed the pandemonium. Yep, still absolute chaos, except the Lich had dealt with most of his traitorous cohorts and was now eyeing me hard. Well, he didn't have eyeballs, so not entirely accurate. I spared a glance at my companions. Jeremy was hiding down the corridor, and Marius had recruited another ghost.

  Another spectre with a bow, launching ethereal arrows at every undead within range. While he stood back, belting out a few tunes here and there, causing more and more chaos amongst the enemy ranks. He truly was a menace to any necromancer; his songs alone would tear apart any upstart death lord's army.

  Not wanting to get roasted, I sped towards my ally. A few ghouls got torched along the way as I hid behind them as the fireballs rained. The Lich seemed quite upset that he had missed, although he had omitted his lost soldiers. Only a few words of vengeance for killing his precious death knight.

  Well, since that guy was the only one capable of speaking, it made sense for him to be angry. I mean, I would be too if someone killed my friend, subordinate or servant. The investment alone of time and energy to raise and maintain that dude must have been costly.

  "Are you well, my friend?" Marius asked, his eyes still locked on the angry Lich, still sitting like a baller.

  "I'm good, just a little banged up." I lied. Everything hurt.

  Hopefully, I had time for my resilience attribute to heal up any damage and regenerate my stamina. But alas, time ran out the moment I had that thought. Because of course it did, there are no breaks in this hellhole.

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  The Lich, the skeletal dude in his stereotypical black robe and staff, got his bony ass up from his chair. And then immediately pointed at me, not Marius. Which I thought was a dick move. I mean, I killed his death knight, but Marius caused a civil war amongst his crew.

  A fireball sprouted from the tip of his finger, and I realised he wasn't pointing. Well, he was, but not to single me out. Well, technically yes, to single me out. My thoughts went away as I ducked the fireball, feeling the heat cast over my head. Hopefully, Jeremy wasn't behind me. I checked, and he wasn't there. The little bastard probably bounced the moment dick-less started throwing around fire.

  "I don't have any ranged attacks, can you spell song him or have that ghost archer shoot him?" I frantically asked.

  "I have sung many songs for him; he is a terrible audience." He replied.

  "Does that mean he didn't like your songs, or they didn't work?"

  "The Lich is immune to my charms." He admitted.

  "Alright, bow and arrow it is. Keep those songs going; need his forces to be in disarray."

  He nodded, and soon our ghostly archer was loosing arrows left and right, yet all of them hit the Lich. Naturally, the wizard bastard had a cool and shiny mana shield to block all the arrows. Well, that was fine as long as he was distracting the Lich and not flinging fire everywhere.

  Stamina had returned well enough, and soon I transitioned into a dead sprint. Passing by crazed ghouls and spirits trying to tear each other apart. A few tried to claw me on the way, but I deftly dodged them without issue. Reaching the Lich in record time, the bastard threw another fireball.

  I dodged it luckily; they weren't homing missiles, but it was still scary as shit watching them come at you. Attacking from the right, I didn't want to impede the arrows. They were pelting his barrier one after the other. The noticeable cracks across the glasslike protection revealed it wasn't infallible.

  My Aetherblade, which I reclaimed shortly after killing the death knight, came upon the Lich like the sword of Damocles. I mean, not exactly, but you get the gist. Using a kinetic strike from my feet — yes, I just learned how to do that. I propelled into the air and struck down with my blade.

  Slicing cleanly through the barrier, getting stuck halfway as the mana pushed against the invading force. Still, the tip of the blade went straight into the Liches skull. Bet he didn't see that coming. But every moment the blade was stuck in the shield, its mana reserves were depleting.

  Not wanting it to lose its juice, I jumped back, landing like a pro. Now facing the Lich, one on one, I was ready to kick his ass. Then he started to monologue. Very talkative, these undead. You would figure it would be a corpse of few words.

  "You think any of this matters?!" the Lich yelled, gesturing to the surrounding room. "I can replace them all except for the death knight; his replacement will take a while."

  "And let me guess, we are the replacements?" I cut in with all the sarcasm possible.

  "I was getting to that, you impatient cur! By the blood gods, can't a lich have his monologue without being interrupted?"

  "So you admit it's a monologue?"

  "Well yes, it is one perk of being an undead lord. It gets so dull being trapped in here. Lord Calverus, the selfish leech, took the last invaders for his coliseum. So that makes you two mine to play with!"

  "Sorry, Skeletor, you are not my type." I grinned as if I had just told the best joke.

  "That is not for you to decide, mortal!" He proclaimed like a king to a peasant.

  Boney finger rose to poke my eyes out; instead, he cast a spell. Which I should have expected him to do, but it was close range. Dodging to the side, I struck his barrier with a full-force kinetic strike. Breaking through with a single hit. His defensive spell was crap, probably focused on raising the dead and burning his enemies.

  I tried to stab the bastard through the tear in the barrier. Sadly missed as he disappeared through a fold in space. Did he just teleport out of here? Yes, he did, the slippery bastard.

  "Behind you!" Marius called out as the sound of an arrow whizzed past.

  Quickly turning around, I found Skeletor trying to jump me. An arrow, which stuck out of his hand, attracted his attention. You would think arrows would be rubbish against skeletons. Being piercing weapons, this one was a spectral arrow. The crazy magic undead crap literally manifested ethereal flesh around the wound and punctured that.

  "Does that thing attack your soul?" I mused aloud.

  Somehow the Lich grunted before ripping out the arrow from transparent flesh. No blood emerged from the wound, and soon the flesh vanished, leaving only bone. The Lich turned to me, waving the arrow in my face as if I had offended a schoolteacher.

  "No, you primitive, spectral arrows harm the spirit, not the soul." He corrected just like a teacher.

  "What's the difference?"

  "Such primitive magic can not harm the soul! But it can harm the spirit, the force that animates your body." The Lich explained, using the arrow as a pointer. "Why am I explaining this to you?!"

  Realising he was educating his enemy, he turned away from being a professor and went straight murder. This is going to take a while; I can see it now.

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