Fear the Lich

Mateo found that the longer he fought against the Martial Artist, the more annoyed he became. Fredrick, in preparation to fight against the Dullahan, was trained to face someone capable of utilizing both magic and weapons. Every swing of Mateo’s blade was parried by the flat of his opponent’s hand, and every casting of magic was skillfully dodged.

The biggest hassle was the fact that Fredrick kept trying to either grapple or throw him. Multiple times he had to recreate his sword after getting disarmed. Fredrick’s Weapon Arts were less about utilizing the strength of his weapon than redirecting the might of his opponent. Multiple times Mateo would have an attack land but the might behind it would vanish only to be hit with an empowered palm strike.

However, that didn’t mean that Fredrick was not without struggle either. Mateo eventually found it better to focus more on messing with his classmates' footing rather than using his magic offensively.

He disrupted his opponent either by shifting the ground beneath his feet or by snagging his legs as he moved. The result of his efforts was leaving several nasty-looking gashes across the Martial Artist's body. While Mateo may have had the advantage when it came to damaging his opponent, he was also the one who had the most serious expenditure of mana and stamina.

He knew he had to quickly finish this fight before he became too exhausted to continue. The next moment he switched up his tactics again and released an offensive spell upon Fredrick. Of all the spells he had cast, this was the most monumental in size as several tendrils of earth shot up from around the Martial Artist and tried to spear him while blocking off all avenues of retreat.

Fredrick then proceeded to dodge the attacks with minimal movement, while those he couldn’t he would redirect into other tendrils. Seeing this Mateo couldn’t help but smile as Fredrick had reacted exactly as he had hoped he would. While Fredrick was completely focused upon the tendrils that were trying to impale him, the ground underneath his feet suddenly caved in.

With a yelp, he found himself falling into the hollow earth below him where the walls were too smooth for him to grab onto. The next scene played out with the earth tendrils that had previously been furiously attacking Fredrick proceeded to fill in the hole and seal it shut.

Looking at his handy work, Mateo knew that he had successfully incapacitated his opponent for the moment. The purpose of Mateo’s previous attack had been to redirect the earth beneath the martial artist to create a hollow pit to trap Fredrick in, where the walls and ceiling were reinforced with his magic.

While the trap may not have caused any real harm, it would suffice until the end of the battle.

Mateo took this moment to observe the fight between the Lich and the two party leaders. While Gerard and Jessica did hold the advantage against undead opponents, neither was a match against the Demon General. Instead, it appeared that the Lich was only playing around with the two. However, even still the Lich was wary of letting the Oath Keeper score a hit against him.

To Mateo’s surprise he saw a golden scar visible on the palm of the Demon General’s hand. Was that Gerard’s doing? In fact what Mateo didn’t know was that the attack was something the Lich had purposely taken when testing the might of the strongest Hero. The result had even surprised the Lich, he had not expected Gerard to actually leave any visible damage upon his skeletal body.

While it may appear that the Lich was just toying around with the duo, he was seriously contemplating whether or not he should end the young man before he could reach his full potential and become a serious threat. However, he frowned as he was reminded about the role that had already been attributed to this particular Hero.

The Lich had decided, if he could not vanquish him, he would leave a bit of insurance for himself. Finally, the Demon General stopped holding back and revealed his true terror. Gerard found his blade, surrounded by holy light, completely stopped by the newest barrier the Lich had conjured between them.

The next moment several spectral hands grabbed him by his arms, shoulders, and the back of his head. He found himself faceplanted into the ground as several hands kept holding him down, with the one on the back of his head making him look up at the Lich.

Gerard glared up at the Lich but the Undead could see hints of fear hidden away.

“Do not worry boy, for your end has not yet arrived.”

The Lich smirked as she saw the fear being replaced, first by relief, then by shame.

“However, the same does not apply to that little companion of yours.”

With a sudden raise of his skeletal hand, the Lich stopped in mid air a beam of light that had been heading his way. The source of the attack had unsurprisingly been the only priestess among the party leaders, Jessica.

“Let go of him!”

The Lich sported a playful smirk as he swatted away several more beams of light with his own spectral energy. The next moment he released several waves of necrotic purple and green energy at the priestess.

The attacks had not been straight on the target but instead slightly off so as to knock her around. The entire time Gerard was forced to watch her struggling figure being sent flying over and over. No matter how the Oath Keeper tried to struggle, both by constantly releasing Divine Power and trying to physically break away from the hands, he was left helpless against their unbudging grasp.

Witnessing this scene Mateo could partly comprehend the Lich’s intentions. He had already been informed that Gerard would not die here; instead, it appeared that the Lich intended to leave a deep-seated seed of trauma and helplessness. What this let Mateo comprehend though was that the Lich was wary of this classmate of his.

As for witnessing the abuse that Jessica was being put through, Mateo felt no pity for her. The moment he resigned himself to this fate of his, he was willing to go to whatever means necessary to save his Country. If anything, these classmates could only blame themselves for not just giving up on this world and simply returning to their own.

Their greed and hatred for Mateo’s own country was the cause of their undoing. Seeing how the Lich had no intention to immediately slay the priestess until he had thoroughly broken Gerard’s Will, he shifted his focus over towards the combined force of the undead and demons as they fought against the other parties.

Seeing how the party leaders put up a fight against two Knight Captain-level combatants allowed him to recognize the talent and capability of himself and his classmates. Even the party members that hadn’t reached the intermediate level were still able to clash against several of those at the knight level.

There were even those who combined their strength and fought equally against either a Demon Lieutenant or a Death Knight. Mateo knew that it wasn’t because they were weak, just looking over at the Knight Captains and Archwizards struggling against the Intermediate-Level Undead let him know they were equal in strength to their human counterparts.

While Mateo was busy debating whether or not to participate in this and try to slay another one of his classmates, he was suddenly left struggling to breathe as an overwhelming, oppressive force pressed down upon him. It wasn’t just him though as all the fighting came to a halt with all the demons panicking.

Even the Lich seemed to have lost his cool as his head snapped into a certain direction. Seeing that his time was up he hurriedly turned back to the broken priestess that looked as if she was a step away from death's door. He stopped playing around and released a much deadlier spell this time to finish off Jessica. However, he was dumbfounded to find that his spell was blocked by a golden barrier surrounding her body.

At first the Lich thought that he had been too late and the threatening presence had arrived, but seeing the divine barrier he quickly dismissed it. Instead his head snapped over towards the still bound Oathkeeper. The Lich was shocked to see that blood was flowing out from all of his orifices as a bright light was released from his eyes.

The Demon General was dumbfounded to see that Gerard was currently casting a barrier upon Jessica, one that came at the cost of his own vitality. While the Lich knew a few more attacks would shatter the barrier, doing so would kill Gerard. The Lich felt rage bubble inside him at this defiance, but he also felt shocked at the willpower that this hero exhibited.

The Lich stared into Gerard’s eyes then sneered and raised his hand, pointed in the direction where the other parties were currently in.

“Know that their deaths are because of you.”

All of a sudden all of the undead below the rank of Death Knights charged at the Heroes with reckless abandon, caring not about their own safety. While most of them had been destroyed, several of them were able to grab onto several of the Heroes. Gerard witnessed this and could already predict how the scene would play out.

“No! Stop!”

Gerard screamed as he helplessly reached out towards his classmates. Ghastly energy started to radiate from the skeletons as the next moment they exploded while still attached to their unsuspecting targets.