Precedent picture: The Lich (https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/the-lich/2867885/?p) I heard this musics, while writing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cx2hg… (the first and the 2 last tracks are the more appropriate with the texte I think) __________________________________________ Things stood still for few seconds. Then, from a hand gesture the Lich threw the heavy book stand in stone on Minalva, with his other hand he pointed his staff on Delphine, throwing lightnings on her. Minalva dodged the stand by jumping on the right and shot a salvo of arrows on the Lich, who were deflected by the left hand of the creature, who produced some kind of immaterial shield. The magical arrows went to stick into walls and the ground, then disappeared few seconds later. In the same time, Marina leaped between Delphine and the lightings and intercepted them with her magical shield. Delphine counter-attacked by launching a trait of piercing light on the dark mage, who dodged it with a surprising speed. Then things stopped again. This first assault was made only to gauge each other. The real fight was going to start now and it was clear to the girls that it won't be an easy one. Marina started the second assault. Rushing to and striking the undead, vertically with her sword. He blocked her with his staff, then using her momentum, he deflected and sent her right on Delphine, who avoided Marina by jumping on the left. Not loosing time after her dodging, Delphine threw a sheaf of flames on the creature. The Lich counter-attacked with a frozen blast. The two attacks canceling each others. Meanwhile Minalva took advantage of the distractions that was her friends to circle behind the dark mage and attacked him. But the Lich haven't forgot her. Facing Minalva at the last second, he deviated once again her arrows. Then Marina rushed on him once more, but the undead took her by surprise by not blocking nor dodging, but by attacking her directly with the blunt side of his staff. She blocked the attack with her shield. She was ready to counter-attack, when the Lich swirled its staff and tryed to spear her with the pike on the summit of its weapon. Marina avoided it only from few centimeters, jumping back. It's the moment that choose Delphine to attack again. The room was not large and the girls couldn't attack all at once. At least not without risking to hurting each other. This time Delphine tried a lightning attack. But the Lich blocked it with a protective spell. Minalva who were still circling around the room, grabed the unique chair of the place and tossed it on the mage. This attack, the Lich didn't saw it coming. The chair broke on him. he grunted and loosed its balance for a second. He barely had time to react at what was coming next. A new shoot of arrows were coming right at him. The mage made a hand movement and had the arrow deflected once again. Except one, that came through his right arm. Minalva smilled for this first succes, but she loosed it quickly. The lich looked in rage to have been wounded. His eyes glowed more and he released a powerful salvo of lightnings, hitting everything in the room, destroying bottles, flasks and books and making the piles of skulls in the corners spread all over the room. Delphine and Minalva were unable to avoid the lightnings and were hited, stunning them. But Marina, protected by her magical armor and shield, resisted and attemped to strik the necromancer with her sword. The undead creature, not being able to deviated it, blocked the swing with his staff and resisted for a moment. But Marina was a lot stronger physically than the lich. Her blade was slowly but surely approaching his chest and face. Like he did with the book stand, the Lich throw the bookshelf on Marina with an invisible force. The furniture was pretty big and Marina didn't had the time the avoid it. Even if she rose her guard and absorbed the hit with her shield, the shock was hard and the weight of the furniture not negligeable. She felled under it and was now out of the fight too, for a moment. The Lich took support on its staff. If he had a breathe, he would have had to catch it back. He still had the advantage in the battle. But fighting the three girls at the same time was harder than what he thought, above all, because he was not in possession of all his means. He looked at Minalva and Delphine and saw they were already regaining their capacities and will be soon able to counter attack. So he choose to change the situation. With a sepulchral voice, he started to pronouced an incantation in a forgotten language. Lights started to glow in the empty orbits of the skulls, scattered on the ground. Delphine was still too affected by the precedent attack to act, but she knew it was vital to not let him finish his spell. Marina was still stucked under the heavy oak bookshelf and couldn't do anything. With pain Delphine yelled. "MINALVA, DO SOMETHING!" Minalva tried to raised her bow, but her arms went down. She was too, unable to act. The dark litany of the Lich continued and, emerging from the ground, ethereal skeletics members appeared under the skulls. Slowly crawling and raising, a dozen of skeletons stood now in front of the heroines. To all misfortune there is good. The time that took to the skeletons to raise, also served to give the time to Delphine and Minalva to stand up and be prepared. In the meantime Marina, managed to get away from under the furniture too. The time stood still once again. Then, the Lich, his eyes extremely glowing, started to elevated from the ground, floating in the air. The undead mage screamed an indescribable sound. Like if it was an order, the skeletons stared to marched on the girls. Marina was first in the melee and cut through the first skeleton in her way, from the clavicle to its hips. The bony creature collapsed, but not for long. It's ethereal bones sticking together, it rose again just after. Marina, not aware of that was attacking another creature, when the first skeleton seized her from the back. She had being surprised, but she reacted quickly, punching it with her elbow in the skull, making it releasing her. Minalva tried to shot in the head of one of the skeletons, it was the only worth area to shoot, but the Lich deflected it. She tried again and the same happened. It was so frustrating to have none of her attacks hitting. Delphine thought she could try to dispel the creatures, but she quickly throw away this idea, she'll never find the time nor the concentration necessary to do it. Magic, in general was not very effective against skeletons, so she decided to attack directly at them, using her staff as a blunt weapon and using magic only to repel them. But not being a warrior, these attacks weren't very effective. Minalva, not being armed in a way that she could fight against the skeletons in close combat, tried to stay focused on the lich. Throwing arrows continuously on it, to prevent it to cast another spells. Surrounded, Marina was fighting like a lioness. The skeletons were not very strong nor quick, but their number and the narrow place made them difficult to battle. With the knob of her sword, she crushed the skull of one of the summoned creature. This one compaired to the others didn't rose, but in the heat of the fight, Marina didn't noticed it. It's Delphine who did it. "I'm so stupid! Why I didn't realized that right away, she thought, then she yelled to Marina. The skulls! Destoy their skulls!" But screaming that to her friend distracted her long enough to allow a skeleton to attack her. Striking to her face, the etherial creature made hard cutes on her face and neck. "Delphine!" screamed Marina. With rage, she gave a headbutt so strong to a skeletons, that it's skull shattered. Jockeying to join Delphine, she knocked back the skeleton attacking her friend with a shield attack. Protecting her friend she said to her friend. "Go focusing with Minalva on this flying bastard! I deal with the skeletons!" - But... - No but! I'm trained for that kind of things, you not! Go! Delphine nodded and not losing time she retreated and attacked the Lich directly, throwing a trait of flame at him. The lich counter-attacked like earlier with a frozen blast. Delphine and the Lich exchanged magical attacks. Dodging, blocking, dispelling, the attacks of the other. Mivalva was in awe in front of this mages battle and the skills they both showed. Minalva had stop to launch arrows on the dark mage, it was useless. He was continuing to deflect them all. If she did not use physical arrows, she didn't had an unlimited number of them either. Each arrows she created drained a little more of her magical energy and she could felt now that it was harder every time to create a new one. She decided to step back and to observe, to find the right moment to attack. Marina was still fighting against the skeletons. All alone it was not an easy task. She had lost her helmet, pulled off by the skeletons and had the face covered with more of less profound scratches. But she crushed and broke their skulls, one after another. Soon, they should be all defeated. The fight against the two mages was still raging. The Lich had launch a dark ray on the wizard woman. Delphine responded instantly and from her own staff, another ray, white this one, came out. The two beams collided in the middle of their course. They was made of pure magical energy. The two rays stayed even for a short moment, but quickly, the black beam started to repulse the one of Delphine. The two rays were coming closer and closer to her. She knew that if she was hit by the combination of the two energies she'll probably won't survive. The Lich knew it too and he was jubilating. But the Lich made a mistake. For few seconds, focused on his attack, he forget Minalva. It was the moment she was waiting and she had an idea of what she wanted to do. She strained her bow and throw one unique arrow. The ethereal trait sank into the gem on the left leg of the undead, breaking it, then through its calf. The undead shouted and throwed an object on Minalva with his mind, while staying focused on his attack on Delphine. Minalva dodged the object and cursed in elvish. Her attack seemed to have done nothing. The beam was still approaching dangerously Delphine. But if it wasn't noticeable to Minalva, Delphine felt right away that the magical energy of the Lich ray was dropping. Technically gems do not raise a magician's power, but it allows its user to use it with more efficiency. Better is the quality or the number of gems they have, better wizards they are. "MINA! The other gems! Continue!" she yelled. Minalva nodded quickly and throwed another salvo of arrows. Most of them were deflected, but being mostly focused on the attack on Delphine, two passed the immaterial shield of the creature and reached their goals. One destroyed the gem on the right leg of the Lich and the other cracked the one on his abdomen, diminishing its efficiency. Delphine felt once again the force of the spell diminish. She focused on her attack. The magical beam took the opposite direction with an amazing speed and hited the lich. A deflagration happened and sent him violently against the wall behind, ending to shattered the crack gemstone on his abdomen and even breaking the over one on his chest. Marina still fighting the summoned creatures, gave a rapid look at what just happened and return to her fight, only two skeletons were still here. Minalva and Delphine approached carefully of the lich body. It's eyes had lost their glowing effect. Was it dead? It was unlikely. Even if the girls had been vigilant while getting close, that had not been enough. The Lich rose his head and lauched a psychic attack on the two girls. Minalva, who was on the side, managed to stay up. But Delphine took the psychic wave with full force. Although, she could had managed to stay up too, if she didn't tripped on the book that was before on the stand. She felt on the back. It opened an oportunity to the Lich that jumped on her, showing once again an incredible speed and plunged the spike of his staff in Delphine's chest, near her right shoulder, making her drop her staff. Delphine scearmed in pain, while the dark wizard let a satisfied grunt go. Marina, who had defeated the last skeleton, saw that horrifying scene. She ran and striked with all her remaining rage, cutting the right arm of the Lich. His dark blood being spilling all around and screaming, the creature launched Marina violently against a wall, once again, just with a look. Knocking her head she lost consciousness. The dark mage kneeled, clearly suffering and losing a lot of its putrid blood. Using her last magical strengths and also in rage for what happened to her friends, Minalva threw three arrows at him, that plunged in his chest and neck. This last effort let her drainned, and she had to hold against a wall, barely standing. But the Lich was still alive. With blood dripping from his mouth and wounds, he said, full of hatred. "You will all pay for this!" He started to incanted. But Delphine managed to take her staff with her left hand and pointed it in the direction of the undead's head. "Oh no, we won't!" she said, clenching her teeth because of the pain. Then, she released a powerful discharge of energy, illuminating the room. When the light disappeared, the corpes of the lich felt on the ground. His helmet was all what remained of his head. Delphine smiled and felled at her turn on the ground. Minalva rushed as fast as she could to her friend, followed by Marina who regained consciousness, because of the flash of Delphine's last attack. Holding Delphine in her arms, Minalva looked at Marina, extremely worried. "Her wound is deep. She loose her blood quickly. What can we do?" her voice was trembling, as she felt the blood of her friend, leaking on her. Marina looked left and right. There was some undamaged bottles and flasks by the battle, but there was no way to know for what they were good for. And even so, it had belong to a lich, so the chances that one of these could help their friend was very thin. They were helpless. When they heard the very weak voice of Delphine asked. "Help me to approach my staff to my wound." Her two friends obeyed. Delphine was barely conscious. The staff near the injury, they saw the lips of their friend moving, but not hearing what she was saying. Her staff began to glow with a soft light. Slowly, the blood stopped to flow and the wound sealed itself. Then, Delphine collapsed, completely inert. Marina and Minalva froze, not daring to even move. Finaly Marina tried to ask. "I... Is she... - I... I don't know. responded Minalva, the eyes full of tears. Minutes had passed, that felt like an eternity. The two was not knowing what to do. When, all of a soudden Delphine's face started to regain colors and she opened slowly her eyes. She managed to seat, helped by her friends, who were still in chock and expectant. She looked at them and simply smiled and said: "Hi." The two women breathed a sigh a relief and hugged Delphine. "Easy! Easy! she said, with a weak, but joyful voice. My wound is just barely close. It's the most I have been able to do, in the state I was." Her friends gave her some space. Minalva was crying her eyes out. "Will you be all right ? asked Marina, who was containing her tears. - Hoping we don't have to fight again during the journey back, I think it will be alright." Saying that, the girls thought to Romatzo. They left him fighting alone against Ulharrl, a Superior Demon, and they had no idea of the issue of the battle. They looked eachother and one of them said. "I think we should go." Marina and Minalva helped Delphine to stand. They looked one last time to the lich corpes and where ready to leave, when Delphine said, pointing at the lich staff. "We shouldn't let this here." Minalva approached it, the cuted arm of the lich was still holding it. She bent to pick it up, when Delphine yelled. "No! Don't touch it. Who knows what kind of dark energy is link to the staff." Then she said almost for herself. "I wanted to keep my last magical strengths, for a healing spell, in case off... But I'll have to use them to seal its power." Helped by Marina she approached it. Using some secret words, she sealed all the Lich's staff powers. Once it was done, she nodded at Minalva, indicating she could grab it. Minalva detached the arm from it and throwed it with discuss. "When can go, now." said Delphine. Helping each other to walk, they exited the room. __________________________________________ First, thank you for watching and reading. ;) The picture is not really faithful of what happens in the story. It's more a compact image of what's going on in it. For the story, whew, was it long to write. I think it's the longest I have done for now. But it couldn't be otherwise, after all, they were fighting the last boss, so the battle had to be hard and epic. And I hope you think it was. In all modesty, I'm pretty satisfied with it. :) I'm even more satified with the text than with the picture. There is several things that I'm really not happy of in the image (like the lightning effect). I think I'll modified it in the future. The idea to put ethereal skeletons came while I was doing the picture. I thought the scene looked too empty and seeing these skulls in the backgroung gave me this idea. Sometime, I don't put an uppercase to "lich". It's not a mistake from me, it's just that I talk of it like a lich in general and not like THE lich, if it makes sense. Next picture, you'll know the fate, good or tragic, of Romatzo