Bregane had not actually known what happened, the last thing he remembered was that he and the others had been caught out inside an ice tornado of sorts. That very quickly knocked out most of them, the next thing he knew he woke up with an explosive headache beating the sides of his head.
He had quickly gotten his bearings on where he was and found himself to be inside an icey prison unable to summon any strength or magic. Something had to be blocking them from regaining or using any strength.
He had quickly checked on his allies that were with him still and instantly realized that Tere and Samuel were both missing. He grew worried but held on to a bit of hope, perhaps they had evaded capture and gone to call for reinforcements.
Wherever the hells they were, it was damned cold. He made sure to wake up the others, although they suffered the same condition he was in they were at least awake and alive. "Oh my, awake already, I guess that is to be expected of a mage agent!" The strangers voice spoke to him.
Bregane instantly turned around to the voice, the huge doors opened and much to everyones surprise a big ice dragon walked inside at the same time as the hooded stranger.
"Who are you? Where are we?" Bregane quickly shouted at him and grabbed the ice bars of the prison and felt that they were zapping his strength away on touch. But he didn't let go right away, instead he kept staring at the stranger angrily.
"Who I am and where we are is of no importance, but I am glad to have captured the rare ones. Letting a human and high elf go has no meaning to me." He laughed at the group. Bregane was filled with relief hearing those words. But that relief was replaced with worry once the figure added.
"Unless they were killed by the horde of ice golems I sent, probably they are dead already!" The figure started cackling a chill laughter devoid of any emotion.
Thats when Bregane saw it, a sudden slip of clothing. What Bregane saw made his stomach churn and swallow a gulp. "A fucking lich!" He whispered to the rest of the group and they all instantly grew worried.
Liches were some of the most unpredictable and dangerous creatures to exist. Together they would have a chance under normal conditions. But he seemed to have an army and a dragon at his disposal and they were all in an ice prison with no way out.
Bregane did spot all their weapons and belongings closer to a wall not far from the cell though, thats when he noticed the cell next to their own. It was filled with children, he pointed it out to Bomfjeord who quickly walked up to the edge and started whispering to the children.
Many of whom gathered and said his name, these had to be the missing children that had been reported. Bregane had no idea how long they had been knocked out so he had no plan at the moment, but his mind tried to work as fast as it could under these conditions.
While everyone else mostly huddled together and sat in silence, each thinking of their own ideas or plans on how they might get out. A lich was a sly and cunning undead foe, ones that could easily kill strong mages and warriors.
Only a few minutes passed before there were some sudden quakes that felt far off in the distance. The lich had been occupied by his lab that was in the same big room along with a huge treasure horde where the dragon lay.
"What now? Is it those damn ice golems again?" The lich angrily spoke obviously annoyed at the sudden noise. The noises went down only to reappear a few moments later, the lich then quickly got up from his work and walked into the middle of the big hall.
If a lich could smirk, which was hard when one was just a walking skeleton. Then it would probably be smiling, "It seems like we got visitors!" The lich said and the dragon quickly opened its eyes and started sighing.
Thats when suddenly Tere'he appeared inside the room, fazing in from the outside. Which filled all of them with both dread and happiness. Tere was strong, but a lich was most definitely stronger. There was also no sight of Samuel.
They then had a short conversation that was due interrupted by a lot of quakes that made a lot of dust and snow and ice fall or shake. Those last ones could be felt a lot closer. The lich scraped his teeth against eachother and ordered the dragon away, clearly annoyed.
Perhaps they had been out long enough for those to be the reinforcements and any moment now the room would be flooded with mages and warriors. But that moment never came.
Instead Tere prepared her spells as the lich summoned a staff with the snap of a finger. "Be careful! He's a Lich!" Bregane shouted to Tere who nodded and got into a combat stance.
"Thanks honey! Get ready!" Tere held her arms in an x with her hands pointed outwards. The lich quickly aimed his staff and casted one of it's stored spells a beam of green sickly energy came flooding.
Thats when Tere turned her hands around and created a short dimensional warp, the entire spell went inside and exited in another direction creating a loud boom. "Hah! I guess this might be a bit of fun after all!" The lich laughed.
Meanwhile Bregane had quickly motioned for all of them to get down the moment he saw Tere's stance, Sarmah understood it as well and everyone quickly got on the ground. The magic energy suddenly dispersed in another direction and part of their cell was blown open.
Sonya and Erica looked at eachother and nodded with a smile, some scholars and books hinted strongly to the fact that Liches could be very arrogant, although one should never underestimate one, arrogance was a slow and insidious killer.
The lich had not even noticed that he had blown part of the prison cell open and the group quickly started to crawl outside and sneak alongside the wall while Tere'he was stalling him out.
The lich made a circle with his staff which created a mirror of green energy that started shooting out large bullet sized necrotic projectiles. Tere quickly started running in the opposite direction of where the prison cells were located.
She casted 'Ice Wall' and a large wall conjured along the path she was running, acting as a shield it blocked many of the projectiles but not all of them as it was quickly demolished. But Tere also casted 'Bolg Shield' the basic protection of any spellcaster, together the two spells saved her from any damage.
She hoped to buy enough time for the group to get all their equipment and take out the lich together. She kept running towards the treasure horde and took out a small wand. 'Infiro Infinite' She shouted her spell out loud and with the wands help a small seal appeared in front of it and several rays of fire kept shooting out seemingly endless.
The lich casted his own powerful 'Bolg Shield' which blocked almost all of the fire, while the few rays of fire that did reach him barely hurt him at all. He looked quite unfazed over the whole thing. The lich raised two fingers and Tere quickly casted a Bolg Shield at max strength under her feet.
The huge ice spike that errupted pierced through her shield but not before removing most of its momentum, although it did send her flying upwards and the spike did grace her shoulder causing a minor amount of bleeding.
She used 'Light Feather' to not instantly fall all the way back down, instead she hovered down. But she was horrified to see the Lich was casting a powerfull spell, but just as the spell was about to take place and shoot out it fizzled out and got negated.
"Taste counter spell you bastard!" Erica shouted from across the hall. While a bolt of lightning shot out from next to her that hit the Lich straight on and sent it tumbling along the ground before it instantly hovered up into the air, losing most of the robes that covered it. Now one could fully see its face and some of the torso at least.
Heavy thuds were heard as Sarmah charged forward with her sword in hand. Instantly bearing down upon the lich with a high jump and aerial strike. The lich blocked her greatsword with his staff, surprisingly enough the staff was sturdy and didn't break, but it did send the lich flying a few meters backwards towards the ground where a Shadow pool was waiting.
Out of the shadow pool jumped Bregane with his scythe and he slashed the lich from behind, just barely breaking the magical shield of the lich. Meanwhile Bomfjeord and Erethi had done their best to try and break open the other cell with all the children inside it.
Tere'he didn't miss her opening either and casted a 'Maximum Volt' an orb of lightning that hit the Lich straight on, whom howled in pain before ripping the lightning off its body.
"Annoying pests!" The lich angrily shouted and twirled his staff before smacking it into the ground that caused several shockwaves of pure energy to errupt from him. Showcasing some of his real strength.
They were most definitely weaker than him, but they had the advantage of numbers. Almost as if realizing what they were thinking the lich shouted. "Brizzra get back here this instant! It's time to kill some annoying flies."
Instantly upon his command the ceiling collapsed and the dragon entered the room. Tere'he almost recoiled in horror, hopefully Samuel had ran away like he promised to do if things got too rough. But what she and the lich and everyone else saw next for that matter shocked them.
Especially the Lich was shocked all the way to his core being, his dragon lay on it's back having crashed through the many floors by being pummeled down.
His dragon lay lifeless and dead with blood running from several wounds, the entire left side was almost detatched from the rest of the body. The smoke and mist quickly cleared and there stood Samuel drenched in blood splatter.
"How?" The lich asked out loud in surprise.
How had one person that looked so young slain an adult dragon alone. A feat that required many talented people at the same time and even then not all of those people usually walked away alive.