Chapter 12

Nothing much changed for the pair after their talk, apart from becoming bolder and more intimate. Each eager to leave the place so that they could explore their bond further. Mel realised, as Shades had known, that any distractions in a place like that was dangerous, and getting rid of the growing tension between them was essential if they wanted to make it out of there alive.

Their journey continued for what felt like days. Weeks. Most of that time was spent walking through winding corridors and tunnels to get from one challenge to the next. Most of the challenges involved undead monsters of some sort. Usually, they didn’t have to destroy all of them, just get through them to whatever they were guarding.

Other times, it was a puzzle they had to complete, or a key they had to retrieve to be able to reach the next stage, typically before they were overrun by whatever was protecting the entrance or exit, key, or answer to their puzzle. In every instance, Shades only received Dayle at the end of the challenge.

Soon enough, they arrived at another set of large double doors. However, these ones were different than those before. About half of each door was decorated by two huge, carved skulls. They had floating green flames in their hollow eye sockets with black, jagged markings on their heads and gleaming golden teeth decorating their clenched jaws.

“That’s different,” noted Shades.

A sleepy Mel, riding on Shades’ back, lazily opened her ruby eyes and gazed at the strangely decorated entrance.

She sighed forlornly, not wanting to leave her comfortable perch, but knowing that the sooner they did this, the sooner they could leave.

“Need an energy drink,” she mumbled in his ear.

“Go ahead,” he answered, “don’t take too long this time.”

The last time she wanted a pick-me-up, they sat for almost an hour, with Mel leaning against his chest, sitting on his lap, as she sipped from his arm draped over her shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah,” came another mumbled reply.

Shades had built up a resistance against the allure of her venom over the course of their travels and could easily throw off the euphoric feelings her bite induced… if he wanted to. He understood her feelings of boredom over the dull monotone passages. He felt the same, but as the only self-acclaimed responsible one of the pair, he needed to ensure their progress.

She bit into the side of his neck and took a few mouthfuls. They instinctively held each other tighter, Shades unintentionally groping her rear-end which, in turn, just made her more forceful in her feeding.

Chuckling, he eased her off his neck and back, much to her moaning protests. They smiled to each other before they turned back to the doors.

Mel a step behind him, he walked up the doors and grabbed the handles. Pushing them slowly open, the ancient things groaned and creaked. They opened up into another enormous chamber. After a thorough first inspection, they saw it was a throne room.

Tall, white, marble pillars lined an obsidian walkway, stretching to reach the stone ceiling thirty feet high. The black path ran to the back of the room, stopping short of several marble steps that led to a jade throne. Shades marvelled at the pristine condition the place was in. All the previous rooms were always filled with bone, dust or rubble.

Sitting on the throne, in regal robes, was a skeleton Shades and Mel had never come across before. It carried a staff with a brightly glowing, emerald jewel on its tip in one hand and a dark skull with sickly purple markings covering it with black smoke seeping out of its empty eye sockets, underneath the other.

As they slowly approached it, they finally found the only creature in this place that had a level.

Lich King

LVL 120

Shades drew in a deep breath. It was the highest enemy they’d found so far and, he assumed, was the final creature of the dungeon.

‘Lich. They’re magical aren’t they?’ He remembered that liches were always the magical undead.

“Stay behind me Mel,” he said, throwing a slightly concerned glance at Mel, “we’ve never gone against a magical creature before.”

The lich, that had remained immobile until then, turned its head to them, the green fire in its eyes flaring up.

“Soo… you have finally… arrived,” it said in the same deep, tired, decayed voice that warned them the first time.

“So it was you,” Shades remarked, “you tried to warn us that first day.”

“Indeeed… however, the resilience you have shown in besting my creations was… surprising.”

It was the first undead they’d found that could speak. Shades realised that its jaw didn’t move like he imagined it would. Its voice didn’t come from everywhere at once anymore either.

“Your creations?” He asked.

The lich didn’t answer, instead it raising its staff an inch off the ground before striking it down three times.

Barely a second passed before three hands burst from the ground in front of the steps, and out climbed three ten-foot tall armoured skeletons, baring wickedly sharp longswords and tall shields. Shades didn’t see any names appear above them.

‘So that’s why none of the other things had levels.’ Shades had thought they were just part of the dungeon. If they were all creations of this Lich King then it was a lot more powerful than it looked.

‘Then again, if all it can do is summon hordes of undead then this could actually be easier than I thought.’

The armoured warriors didn’t waste any time and immediately charged the pair. In seconds, they arrived, deadly blades swinging.

Shades and Mel both dodged to the side, splitting the three up, two going for Shades, the other charging at Mel.

The two after Shades swung their swords high and low, causing Shades to jump and flip in-between the gap, twisting in mid-air. Landing in a crouch, he went low, forming claws on his right hand and cutting through that skeleton’s leg at the knee, between its two leg armour pieces. Twisting to his left in the same motion, he aimed for that one’s leg but it barely managed to move it out of Shades’ path, still taking three deep marks in its shin plating.

It brought its shield over, aiming for Shade’s head with its iron-studded edge. He kicked off with his other foot, flipping upside down perpendicular to the ground. With his momentum, he twisted and flipped his legs. Forming a spike at his heel, he pierced the warrior’s helmet along with its skull, extinguishing its green, flaming eyes. It crumbled under Shades’ weight and he rolled forward as he rode it to the ground, hearing a clang behind him. Turning, he saw the first enemy had tried attacking him from behind, but with its heavy armour it fell over with just one leg.

He quickly finished it off and looked over to see how Mel was doing. She had finished her fight as well. They met up back in the middle of the chamber. Shades looked up at the lich, wondering if that was it. He figured they’d have to fight the boss’s minions before he stepped down personally.

Its eyes burned brighter as it looked at them for a moment. A couple seconds passed before it struck the ground again, but only once, with its staff.

This time only one warrior rose from the ground. It was bigger than the previous three by a few feet and wore more elaborate plate armour with more areas covered. It still had a longsword and shield.

This one didn’t wait either and charged down the obsidian pathway.

‘It’s faster,’ Shades noticed, as it reached them in much less time.

Once in front of them, it swung its sword horizontally. Mel ducked under it as Shades jumped over. Shades aimed for its head again, but couldn’t twist in mid-air as it swung its shield in the same motion of its swinging sword, almost mimicking the move Shades used previously. It slammed into Shades, sending him flying across the ground. He flipped and landed on his feet and hands, using his clawed fingers to slow his slide across the ground.

Mel had taken advantage of the opening as it focussed on Shades and slid between its feet, cutting long grooves in its shin plating but couldn’t penetrate deep enough to sever the bone, her claws simply too short. She just sighed and doubled the length of her claws, not knowing why she didn’t do it in the first place. She barely noticed its armour being a lot harder than the previous one.

It turned, swinging diagonally with its sword as well and she skipped back, avoiding it by inches.

Shades now shot across the gap between them as the skeleton’s back was turned and formed a foot-long blade at the end of his fingertips. It was just getting ready to swing at Mel again when Shades flew past its neck, severing it between the helmet and shoulder armour. It froze before crumbling into a pile of bones as well.

The lich barely waited before striking the ground once again.

The ground that had repaired itself after the armoured skeleton dug itself out of it, cracked open once more, but this time it wasn’t a heavily armoured warrior that clambered out. This time a being only a couple feet taller than Shades pull itself out, wearing thin armour strips across its entire body. It had a mask that covered its face. Instead of a sword and shield, this one had two long, thin blades.

It didn’t charge in blindly either, but seemed to stare at them for a few seconds. It snapped its jaw once it seemed to make a decision and dashed across to the pair. They barely had a moment’s notice before it was upon them, twisting in a circle and slicing horizontally with its blades, forcing them to each dodge in opposite directions.

It directed its focus to Shades and dashed to him, not giving him any breathing room. Slicing and stabbing, it was a whirlwind of steel and Shades just barely managed to stay ahead of it, out of its reach, getting a feel for its speed. Mel stayed out of it for now, observing from the fringes until Shades wanted her to step in. Shades was saving his powers until he needed them, handling his foes with his natural speed and agility, testing to see how far he could go.

Finally having enough, he saw an opening as it slashed diagonally with both blades. Twisting his body under it instead of stepping away from it, he snapped his hand out from his spin and severed the thing’s wrists with another foot-long energy blade extending from his fingertips. That didn’t stop it, but Shades quickly took off its head.

‘Is that the challenge?’ He wondered, ‘He summons someone stronger after every battle? Wonder what will happen if I shake things up a bit…’

As Shades walked closer to Mel, he suddenly spun and launched a dagger at the lich.

It hit its skull dead centre and bounced off, leaving barely a scratch.

‘Woops.’

The flames in the lich’s eye sockets burned brighter and a rumble was heard throughout the throne room.

“It didn’t seem to like that,” Mel commented.

The lich finally stood, the emerald gem on its staff shined brighter and brighter. It raised the skull in its hand slightly and the lines covering it glowed brighter as well. After only a few seconds, it started striking the ground again and again. After the first hit, a crack appeared on the ground in front of its throne. Each hit thereafter made the crack wider and wider until undead monsters of every variety started climbing out of it. Fairly soon, hundreds of bone creatures and decaying beasts and behemoths stood between them. Things that looked like hundreds of skeletons were stitched together, large undead ogres, more types of armours warriors. Shades thought he even saw a zombie or two here and there. Only a few seconds later, the lich raised its staff and the throne trembled. At its command, the creatures charged forward, still pouring out of the great crack in the floor.

Mel formed her claws, each of them now a foot long, while Shades did the same. They both had smiles on their faces at the carnage that was about to happen.

With a shout, they jumped into the melee, shadows of destruction, leaving only piles of bone and dust in their wake.