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Lich Lord, Chapter 149
🕑 Added 2023-12-08 16:59:06 +0000 UTC“What!?” I snapped. Even with my attention directed towards the top of the dungeon, I couldn’t quite sense it like I once did, so I looked at Kellnock.
“There is a large group of bound souls and mortals pouring into the entrance of the dungeon,” Kellnock spoke without inflection. “None of them are strong and none so far have shown the strength to push all the way to the bottom. Are theystupid?”
“Larry?” Maxwell asked.
“Unless someone else has come to town and wants to cause problems,” I grumbled. “You’re certain we are fine?”
“Yes, my lord, even if you were not here, this would only serve to power the dungeon.” The confidence in Kellnock’s voice assured me.
“Do you have their numbers?”
Kellnock got a distant look, then he refocused. “There appears to be just over a thousand of them.”
Now that worried me. A thousand players would be a bigger threat than Kellnock was acknowledging. Even if they were all killed, they would just keep resurrecting and coming back. It would wear the dungeon down over time. Livia would have to act. But how did they have so many members of their guild?
We were discussing plans when my sister, Jessica, came in with Raven. I hadn’t even noticed that Raven disappeared, so preoccupied had I gotten with this situation. “It’s good that you’re back,” Jess said. “Livia was worried.”
“What can you tell me?”
“As you can guess, it’s Larry and his guild that is organizing this, but there’s only about a hundred members of his guild here,” she explained. “The rest are mercenaries hired from the cities nearest the marsh.”
“That explains their levels that Kellnock reported,” Maxwell said. “ There were no high danger regions outside of the marsh, so the garrisons might be stronger but that’s about it. They will be strong, but not overly powerful.”
“That does change things.” The pit in my stomach closed and an idea sprung to life. “Kellnock, would you mind if we take the equipment they brought with them? my troops could use it.”
“Of course. I can tally it against the resources normally set aside for you. It is a good use of those.”
I grumbled a little at that, but didn’t argue.
***
“You know, this timing couldn’t be any better,” I said, sitting with Maxwell, his band that Kellnock had completed, and Raven.
“No one will actually buy the reason. No one who knows anything anyways.” Maxwell said, idly plucking at his guitar.
“It doesn’t really matter.” I shrugged, leaning back in my overly decorated chair made of bones, though it probably counted as a throne.
“I’m tired of waiting, how long is it going to take?” Raven demanded.
“Well, the last of their troops passed the pathway only a few minutes ago, I guess we’ll see the first players shortly,” I told her. We were on the harbor floor sitting out near where we had defended ourselves in the last invasion.
When the dungeon was invaded, the instances collapsed and Kellnock had pulled the troops off the upper floors ahead of the oncoming invaders. He also sealed off access to the micilium completely. Michael, the leader of the micilium, wasn’t sealed away, having fully embraced being a part of the dungeon and he wanted to fight.
“Are you worried about them sensing the trap?” Maxwell asked.
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “Any competent player would step onto this floor and immediately know this was a trap, but I really don’t know if competence is how I would best describe Larry.”
“Best not to underestimate our opponents just because you think they’re stupid,” Raven said. “Just because the prey might be stupid enough to walk off the cliff doesn’t mean you shouldn’t shove them.”
I was just about to respond when movement caught my eye. A group of players walked onto the harbor floor directly in front of us. So we watched them carefully, recognizing none of them, which meant they were either some of the guild brought in from outside the marsh or the mercenaries.
It didn’t take long before more and more players came out. This floor wasn’t set up in a labyrinthine-like manner like it had been last time, but they were still doing their job and checking all of the rooms.
“Good of you to join us, Larry and his band of douche bags,” I said when I saw his team. “I see you brought sacrifices for my dungeon. I appreciate your contribution to the cause.”
“You won’t be so tough once we beat the shit out of you,” Larry sneered, his team already moving forward around him, and other players surged in, including the mercenaries they hired. We were most definitely outnumbered. If I had my count correct, almost all the players were here and the remaining weren’t far behind.
“Stop,” the authoritative voice clamped down on the players, and Larry stopped in his tracks. “What have you gotten us into?” A man wearing flowing robes embroidered with red, blue, green, and white runes spoke. He had a full and thick beard. “We should’ve turned back when the floors started being empty.” He said, shaking his head.
“We can handle this,” Larry snarled.
“Our quest given by Olattee was to purge this place,” the man was growing annoyed, his voice bordering on anger. “You told me we could do it with what we had, that there was only one threat.”
“There is,” Larry protested. “This is all show, the only real threat is Kellnock who’s the boss.”
“You don’t know if that’s true.” My voice was mocking. “Since Kellnock took over, none of you have even gotten to the lower floors, and you thought you could come here and destroy my dungeon?” I could tell the leader was powerful, likely higher level than anyone else I had encountered outside of the priests.
“What!?” the man exclaimed.
“Mr. unknown elemental wizard man,” I snarked, “maybe have more reliable subordinates who aren’t such complete idiots.” I stood straight. “By the way, you are right, you should’ve turned back. I’m guessing you’re the leader of this little band that you got together. Why don’t I show you mine?” I released a flare of eldritch magic just for show just as I gave a mental command. “Raven, I want him alive,” I whispered to her. He would be difficult to subdue, but I believed it was doable for her.
The water rippled behind me and even as I heard the man starting to shout orders I spoke again. “One of the best things about having undead troops is them having no need to breathe.” Rising out of the water behind me, Abimelech strode. Kellnock had modified the harbor’s edge so there was a smooth ramp leading down most of the way out. My army had been waiting down there, hidden by the dark waters. “The only thing my army really lacks right now is a goal, and to be honest, equipment. But you and your sacrifices will serve wonderfully for equipping them.”
As I spoke, the Terhaim led line after line of bone guard unto the shore. The players charged. Their only hope was to get to me first, but they were too late. In any case, I’d taken some time beforehand to carve rituals into the ground.
Using rituals in combat could be difficult, but when you had the time to prepare it became a powerful tool with no downside. Chains of eldritch fire erupted from the ground, tangling and clasping onto the charging mishmash of melee combatants. Counter spells ripped across the field from priests and wizards in the invader’s army, but the ritual magic was powerful enough to withstand the magic, and the eldritch chains are hard to break.
I activated another prepared ritual when the elemental wizard started building a spell. Barriers flared into existence, all burning with eldritch power. They projected forward fields that would disrupt incoming spells, breaking apart the spells cohesion.
A fireball hammered towards the first of my barriers, but It broke apart just before it hit the barrier itself, the fire mana evaporating into the environment. More spells began to fall, then powerful barriers made of death energy filled the area around me and my emerging army. My two necromancers, charged up by the elemental zombies, released their prepared spells.
Flights of arrows flew out towards the mercenaries as they rushed forward. The bone archers had emerged, and Maxwell began a metal riff I did not recognize.
The ranged fighters of the invaders greatly outnumbered my own, but their attacks shattered futilely against the barrier, spells and arrows alike unable to find weakness. Turning aside, I realized just how under level of most of the fodder before me was.
“Abimelech, keep as many of the bound souls alive as possible, we need to make an example,” I ordered as she stepped up beside me. “Have Othniel work with Raven to take care of the elemental wizard.”
Right as the players reached my lines of bone guard, the life thieves floated onto the right flank as Kellnock rode in atop Chompy from where the army of invaders had just come. He’d brought the dungeon boss up with him and gathered all of the dungeon minions he could inside the micilium floor before sealing it off. When he detected the final invaders had passed by, and the fight was beginning, they’d opened the hidden entrance and flooded out.
The battle wasn’t a battle, it was a massacre. None of the players surrendered, but the mercenaries tried to. We didn’t let them.
By the end of it, fifty of the players had been subdued, all of them wounded, and we specifically made sure Larry and his team survived. Already, my bone guard were stripping the fallen mercenaries and players of gear. Kellnock got the bodies, but that was okay.
“Take them to the arena,” I ordered.
