Zolgrish ignored the pain from his skeletal limbs being constantly crushed and regenerated, focusing on the adamant forge.
‘Yozmogh and Dann’Kah are too close to the amplifier for me to open the control panel and shut it down. Dann’Kah’s obstinacy to keep it open means they needed me to activate it. Their control over my essence must be poor.’ He thought.
‘I don’t get why Luigi wants me to shut down the lab, but since he is likely to die, I might as well grant his last wish.’
The lich stomped his foot on the power line of the array fuelling the lab. Everything that didn’t have his own pseudo core went dark.
‘We’re back baby!’ Lith and Solus thought in unison as most of the interference from their surroundings disappeared, making Life Vision and mana sense useful again.
Lith had managed to survive up to that point only thanks to his multiple layered barrier. The wall of vines made up by the reverted ogres limited his movements and the trolls would strike at him with their enchanted tools whenever he tried to escape the encirclement.
Their staves emitted blue flames which reached thousands of degrees, capable of turning a man into charcoal with just one hit. Even when they missed, they made the air too hot to be breathable unless Lith cooled it down with water magic.
To make matters worse, up to that point Yozmogh had neutralized the spells Lith had conjured to defend himself with his wings. Not only did he almost cause Lith’s death multiple times, but also all of his eyes were brimming with stored energy.
‘I’ll deal with him later. First I need to get rid of the trolls.’ Lith thought as he Blinked right behind one of the reverted creatures. With Life Vision working again, the wall of vines no longer blocked his line of sight.
“Behind you.” Yozmogh warned them as the Ranger came out from his exit point. Lith had Solus keep an eye on him, he couldn’t afford any distraction in the task at hand.
His arms moved like snakes, striking at each troll multiple times. The trolls laughed at his wasted efforts and unleashed new jets of blue flames. With their thick skin and powerful muscles, that kind of attacks didn’t even tickle. On the contrary, they felt full of vigor.
Or so they thought before falling to their knees, writhing in agony.
Lith’s hits were weak because he knew brute strength and normal magic were pointless. Normal trolls’ regenerative abilities made them hard to kill, whereas those in front of him would resurrect in a matter of minutes.
Lith had to save his strength for and from Yozmogh. He couldn’t afford the Balor stealing any more of his mana, so the strikes were merely a vessel, each one imbued with a light spell.
Healing magic was the trolls’ bane, overloading their already too efficient metabolism that caused their perpetual hunger. Lith’s spells had pushed them to the brink of starvation. Their massive bodies shrunk like each passing second was a day spent fasting.
“Impressive.” Yozmogh gave him a nod of approval.
“Let’s see how you fight when even your eyes betray you.”
Yozmogh revealed that he was holding a small mirror in his left hand. He pointed it at the wall of living vines and then to himself, making them both disappear.
‘There was no dimensional door and I can still hear the ogre-dryads slithering on the floor. Is that invisibility?’ Lith asked.
‘It must be that mirror’s effect.’ Solus pondered.
‘My guess is that it uses gravity magic to bend the light. That must be how they hid themselves waiting for Zolgrish to activate the device.’
‘Thanks for the explanation, but how does that help?’
‘It doesn’t. The field it creates is so fine that not even mana sense can pinpoint them. I can only give you an approximate location.’ Solus said as Lith felt a living wave crushing against him.
The vines coiled around his body, turning visible once again. They tried to dig their way through his skin and orifices.
‘Gross! They didn’t even buy me a drink first.’ Lith activated his tier five spell, Setting Sun. It generated a globe made of darkness imbued flames around him that engulfed all of the dryads-ogres attacking him.
The two elements were fused together, allowing the dark energies to move at a speed that would otherwise be impossible. Setting Sun was a perfect offense and defense that would stay up until all of its mana was exhausted, but Lith didn’t plan to use it for long.
‘I thought you said that ogres’ vines are resistant to fire. Wouldn’t it have been better to use Ice Age, instead?’ Solus asked.
‘That’s exactly why I’m using it. Just like with the trolls, I don’t want to kill them, just to make them suffer. Otherwise they’ll just pop up again in an endless loop.’ Lith explained.
The darkness magic quickly sapped the ogres’ vitality, while the fire magic of Setting Sun inflicted them blinding pain but dealt little damage. The moment the vines writhed in agony off his body, Lith expanded the sphere of black flames outwards, revealing Yozmogh’s position.
As the Balor’s gravity sheath dissolved, Lith could see Yozmogh’s red and black wings brimming with power. He was trying to rob Lith of his spell but to no avail.
Over the years, Lith had fought opponents more powerful than he was many times. It had almost cost him his life, but at the same time, the experiences had given him the opportunity to learn from them.
He had devised Setting Sun after fighting Nalear, while Thrud Griffon and Manohar had taught him how to defeat an opponent capable of draining his mana. Just like the vortex generated by Thrud’s meat puppets, Yozmogh’s wings couldn’t affect a spell animated by its caster’s willpower.
Lith had understood the nature of the reverted Balor’s powers after he had literally stolen his thunder, but feigned ignorance to lull Yozmogh’s conceit.
“Such a powerful spell and no chant. You must be an Awakened!” Surprise and joy appeared on his face despite the black flames withering his skin.
Lith had no time to waste bantering. He focused Setting Sun on his fingertips, making it rotate faster and faster, until he released it against the Balor in the form of a giant spinning thorn.
Meanwhile, the battle between Zolgrish and Dann’Kah took an unexpected turn too.
“Hey, idiot. Do you know the origin of the term lich?” Zolgrish said. He grabbed one of the orc-elves who, in the heat of the battle, had fallen prey to the orc’s natural bloodlust and come within arm’s reach.
A simple touch was all Zolgrish needed to leech the vitality of an opponent, but this time that wasn’t his goal. The undead life force Dann’Kah had shared with his lieutenant recognized its only true master and returned to him.
“Thanks for the meal.” Each reverted orc contained only a small portion of Zolgrish’s power, but it was enough to tip the scale of the battle in his favor. The orc-elves attempted to escape, but the lich only needed one of the cantrips he kept at the ready to stop them.
Some even conjured world energy to commit suicide, yet it only backfired. They were closer to Zolgrish than to the amplifier, so the undead energy released upon their death ended up being siphoned by him.
