Joshua gazed at his legs and noticed the sturdy muddy enveloping them. The Lich had cast an earth spell without him realizing it. Casting a spell that quickly only proved Lich's prowess in magic.
"Didn't expect that, human?" The Lich smiled, or at least it seemed. Its face was ugly, and the absence of teeth made everything look gross. Not that it was something Joshua cared about anyway.
Without thinking, flames erupted from Joshuas legs, exploding and sending all of the mud away. What followed quickly after was a greatsword hitting the undead corpse of the lich.
It flew a few meters away, crashing at the stone door that Joshua wanted to open. Nothing happened to it, as was expected, but the Lich felt the attack, losing some of its health points.
[Critical Hit]
[-126 HP]
The Lich recovered off it in seconds, gazing fiercely at Joshua. A human took him by surprise, and that was something that hurt his pride.
Joshua had a mocking face and said. "You are a durable bastard, aren't you?" The human had the audacity of making fun of him.
It was not a favorable place to fight. Joshua had no covers near him, so avoiding a spell would be difficult. He sighed internally for having a night-vision, or else he would have perished a long time ago. The thought of fighting with a torch in hand was something awful.
The Lich's next movement was bound to be troublesome. He waved its scepter once again, and three magical symbols appeared above the ground. A type of dark energy came out of it, and not only that but a skeleton. Three of them to be precise, one for each magical symbol carved on the ground.
"Damn it. He is evoking skeletons," Joshua sighed. Fighting against an enemy 5 levels higher was already tough, but now he had the aid of three skeletons.
Joshua scouted them and noticed that they were the same ones he faced before finding the Lich. That was good. They weren't particularly strong skeletons, to begin with. Dodging their attacks would stress Joshua a little more, but it was not as if their attacks could pose a threat to him.
The three skeletons rushed at Joshua, wielding curved swords. They had the same attack pattern and the same stiffness in their movements. Joshua could only laugh. There was no way these weak skeletons could even reach him, so he was sure that the Lich's intention was just to gain time to cast his spells at him.
A good tactic. It was a pity for them that Joshua had a greatsword. Joshua used his Fire Manipulation skill, making his sword light up with fire. A move he always wanted to try flashed across his mind, and he decided to give it a shot.
Joshua moved his right leg a step further and bent his body. If someone saw only his silhouette, may confuse him with a wolf, preparing to leap and tear its victims apart. Spinning his body 360 degrees so that all of the three skeletons had a taste of his fire sword.
It was a total success. Huge damage numbers popped up, and all of the skeletons died instantly. Based on Joshuas knowledge about this world, that was clearly a special attack invented by him. For that reason, the destructive power behind it far surpassed his normal attacks.
Joshua was sure of it, as a tirednesses filled his body after the attack. It was clear that it was not an attack that he could perform multiple times in a row, or else his body would not handle it.
But, it was still a success. He only tried that because if it worked, then he could hit all of the enemies rushing at him. Joshua never expected to one-shot them.
The look on the Lich's face was priceless. He had never expected a human to set his own sword on flames, neither spin around and kill all of his skeletons. He did not remember the humans as being as powerful as that. The thought of being scammed crossed his mind.
"Perhaps this human is not level 5 at all and is just manipulating the information I can see. That's the only explanation." The Lich firmly believed in that, or else the contrary would be that he lacked the skills to face someone five levels weaker than him.
The thought of actually losing the fight was scary. At first, the Lich only saw Joshua as a dumb human trying to fight something way out of his capabilities. But now, maybe that human was not as dumb as he thought.
For a moment he wondered if he should open up the stone door and hide there, but he was certain that the human would not allow him. Joshua did not want to wait for the Lich to cast more spells and rushed toward it once again.
"Wait, wait." The Lich yelled.
"I know how to open the door. There are a lot of secrets inside of it. Hell, do you know that the Demon Lord is coming back?
Joshua stopped. He was sure that the Lich was only saying bullshit to beg for its life, but as soon as the words Demon Lord came out, he stopped. Joshua was one of the heroes that were supposed to fight the Demon Lord. Not that he would do that, but still, he was curious about the origins of that being.
"Are you speaking the truth?" Joshua said in a serious tone.
The Lich threw his scepter at Joshua, as a gesture of peace.
"I am, I am. Look, keep my scepter. Without it, I can't even cast spells. Even though I'm sure you can kick my skeleton ass anyway…" The Lich said helplessly.
"Why does the Lich sound as if I'm the actual bad guy here?" Joshua wondered.
"I can tell you everything, but first let's head inside. I promise you it's safe."
Joshua did not trust it completely, but still, his curiosity took the best of him.
"If things go ugly I can turn into an unstoppable giant and destroy this place anyway," Joshua observed how the Lich took out a sort of key from his robes, opening the stone door.
With that thought in mind, Joshua and the Lich walked inside the room.